Chapter 180 Late McClain
There will be no Christmas tea today because there is a feast at the dance. At seven o'clock, the sky darkened and it was not easy to aim, so the others gave up the snowball fight and returned to the common room together. The Fat Lady sat in a frame with her friend Violet downstairs, both very drunk, with several empty boxes of bonbons thrown at the bottom of her portrait.
"Fantasy Light should be "Fairyland Light", the fat lady was drunk and said the wrong password., Yes, it is!" She listened to their password, giggling, and turned forward to let them in up.
Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean and Neville all looked embarrassed as they changed into their robes in the upstairs dormitory, but none of them were as depressed as Ron, who stood in the corner of the long mirror He looked at himself in front of him, with a terrified expression on his face. There was no getting around the fact that his gown was like a skirt. Desperate to add a little manliness to the gown, he cast a cutting spell on the folds and lace. It worked, at least the lace was gone, but he didn't do his job very well, and when the boys started downstairs, his collar and cuffs were still frayed, which was discouraging.
"I really don't understand how you two got the most beautiful girl in the whole class." Dean muttered under his breath. "Opposites attract," Ron replied sullenly, pulling the thread out of his cuff. The common room looked weird, the people inside were no longer in blue black robes, but in colorful dress robes. Parvati was waiting for Harry at the bottom of the stairs. She looked very pretty indeed, in a garish pink gown, her jet-black hair braided with gold ribbons, and gold bracelets gleaming on her wrists. Harry was relieved to see that she wasn't giggling.
"You're—well—beautiful," he said awkwardly.
"Thank you," she said. "Padma meets you in the hall," she said to Ron again.
"Okay," said Ron, looking around. "Where's Hermione?"
Parvati shrugged. "Let's go down, shall we, Harry?"
"Okay," said Harry, wishing he could stay in the common room. Harry came across Fred on his way out of the portrait hole, and Fred winked mischievously at him.
The foyer was also full of students, all circling back and forth, waiting for eight o'clock, when the doors of the auditorium would open.
Some people want to meet their dance partners from other colleges, so they squeeze sideways through the crowd, looking for each other's figure. Parvati found her sister Padma and led her to meet Harry and Ron.
"Hello," said Padma, who was as pretty as her sister, in a bright green gown. She didn't seem too interested in Ron as her partner, though. Her dark eyes looked up and down Ron, lingering on the fuzzy collar and cuffs of his gown.
"Hello," said Ron, but instead of looking at her, he looked around the crowd. "Oh, shit..."
He bent his knees slightly and hid behind Harry as Fleur Delacour approached. She was stunningly beautiful in her silver-gray satin gown, and by her side was Roger Davies, captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. When they were far away, Ron straightened up again and looked over the crowd into the distance.
"Why didn't you see Hermione?" he said again.
A group of Slytherins came up the steps from their underground common room. In the lead was Malfoy, in a black velvet robe with a high collar that Harry thought looked like a vicar. Pansy Parkinson, clad in a frilly pale pink gown, hung tightly on Malfoy's arm. Crabbe and Goyle were both green like two mossy boulders, and Harry was satisfied that neither of them could find a partner.
The oaken front door was opened, and everyone turned to see Durmstrang's student walking in with Professor Karkaroff. Krum walked first, with a pretty girl in a blue robe whom Harry didn't recognize at his side. Over their heads, Harry saw that a lawn in front of the castle had been turned into a grotto, and that it was dotted with fairy lights - which meant that there were hundreds of living fairies, sitting or sitting on magically conjured fairies. Among rose bushes, or fluttering over statues that appear to be Santa Claus and his reindeer.
At this time, Professor McGonagall's voice sounded: "Warriors, please come here!"