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𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐀 awoke very suddenly on Christmas Day. Wondering what had caused her abrupt return to consciousness, she opened his eyes, and saw something with very large, round, blue eyes staring back at him in the darkness, so close they were almost nose to nose.

"Winky!" Marina yelled, scrambling away from the elf so fast she almost fell out of bed. "Don't do that!"
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"Winky is sorry, Miss!" squeaked Winky anxiously, jumping backward with her long fingers over her mouth. "Winks is only wanting to wish Marina Weasley 'Merry Christmas' and bring her a present, sir! Dobby suggested that Winky should bring her a gift! Every since she has been so kind to us house-elves!"

"It's alright." Marina smiled pushing her hair off her face.

Marina pulled back the curtains around her four-poster. Her yell had awoken Lavender, Hermione, and Pavarti. All of them were peering through the gaps in their own hangings, heavy-eyed and tousle-haired.

"Are you alright Marina?" Lavender asked sleepily.

"Yeah, it's just Winky," Marina muttered. "Go back to sleep."

"Hey... presents!" said Pavarti, spotting the large pile at the foot of her bed.

Lavender, Hermione, and Pavarti decided that now they were awake they might as well get down to some present-opening too. Marina turned back to Dobby, who was now standing nervously next to her bed, still looking worried that she had upset Marina.

"Can Winky give Marina Weasley her present?" She squeaked tentatively.

"Sure," said Marina. "I've got something for you too."

Marina handed Winky a flower crown Ginny made her a few years ago.

"Winky is very happy Miss!" she said.

"Winky must go now, Miss, we is already making Christmas dinner in the kitchens!" said Winky, and she hurried out of the dormitory, waving good- bye to Pavarti and the others as he passed.

Marina then looked at Hermione. "Granger, you changed your teeth!"

"You have! It looks gorgeous!" smiled Lavender.

"It's does!" gushed Pavarti.

Hermione had always had quite large front teeth, even before Malfoy's jinx. Now they were normal sized.

Hermione smiled. "Thanks. Ronald noticed as well. He said they looked...nice."

Marina couldn't help but gag at Hermione's blushing.

Marina's other presents were much more satisfactory than Winky's.

Hermione had given Marina a book called Quidditch Teams of Britain and Ireland; Ron, a bulging bag of Dungbombs; Fred and George; a perfume to make yourself appear sick; Arthur, a new book about Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them; and Hagrid, a vast box of sweets including all Marina's favorites: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, and Fizzing Whizbees.

There was also, of course, Molly's usual package, including a new sweater (red, with a large white MW on it), and a large quantity of homemade mince pies. And fortunately, a letter from Molly. Marina opened the letter and read it;

To my little knighting in shining armor,

Your Merlin's way of saying "I thought
you could use a lifetime friend."

Love,
Mum

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"𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐁𝐎𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐒!" screamed Pavarti.

Marina, Hermione, and her two friends were pampering themselves in their dormitory, with only a measly fourth minutes till the Yule Ball started. And currently, Hermione was applying bottles of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion, Lavender was trying to choose between red and pink lipstick, and Marina was trying to tighten Pavarti's dress.

"Blimey Pav, just hold still!" Marina said as she made a tie on Pavarti's dress strings. Who was wear a long sleeveless pink dress.

"Marina you should get your dress on now." Hermione said handing Marina her dress.

"Thanks. By the way, you look stunning!" gushed Marina. Hermione was wearing a pale magenta dress with her hair in a bun.

"So do you! Lavender you look nice as well!" smiled Hermione. Lavender was wearing a grey dress with puffy sleeves.

As Marina slid on her red Ruby dress, she couldnt help but feel like a princess as she stood in her black heels. As she walked out of the bathroom to show everyone, they all gasped.

"Marina Delizia Weasley!" gasped Lavender. "Your beautiful!"

"Breathtaking!" squealed Hermione and Pavarti.

"Oh stop it you three! Let's go now." Marina sarcastically said. The three girls (without Hermione, since she needed to reapply another bottle of hair potion) then walked to the great hall to meet up with their dates. While Marina stood by herself in the crowd.

"Marina? What happened to you?" shrieked Ron.

"It's called looking hot Ronald. Try it some time." scoffed Marina.

Suddenly the oak front doors opened, and everyone turned to look as the Durm- strang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by Hermione. Over their heads she saw that an area of lawn right in front of the castle had been transformed into a sort of grotto full of fairy lights – meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there, and fluttering over the statues of what seemed to be Father Christmas and his reindeer.

Everyone seemed very surprised at Hermione's appearance.

Once everyone else was settled in the Hall, Professor McGonagall told the champions and their partners to get in line in pairs and to follow her. They did so, and everyone in the Great Hall applauded as they entered and started walking up toward a large round table at the top of the Hall, where the judges were sitting.

The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.

Marina stood next to Ron and Lavender (who was attending with Seamus) as everyone watched the champions dance with their partners. Harry, who Marina hadn't even looked at yet, looked quite handsome when she noticed him. He was wearing blacks robes with his usual messy hair. She also found him amusing when he kept on tripping up during his dance with Pavarti.

"Someone's blushing." Lavender cooed as Marina looked at Harry. Ron shrugged, not understanding the meaning of what Lavender had said. 

"Oh piss off." Marina mumbled. Was she really blushing?

Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff wore an expression remarkably like Ron's as he watched Krum and Hermione draw nearer.

Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. But Mr. Crouch, was not there. The fifth seat at the table was occupied by Percy.

As Marina sat at her assigned table with Neville, Hermione, Krum, and Ginny. Marina then noticed the small menu in front of her glittering gold plate. Since there were no waiters of house elves, she assumed the only option.

"Lamb chops!" shouted Marina.

And lamb chops appeared. Getting the idea, the rest of the table placed their orders with their plates too.

"Vell, ve have a castle also, not as big as this, nor as comfortable, I am thinking," Krum was telling Hermione. "Ve have just four floors, and the fires are lit only for magical purposes. But ve have grounds larger even than these – though in vinter, ve have very little daylight, so ve are not enjoying them. But in summer ve are flying every day, over the lakes and the mountains–"

"Now, now, Viktor!" said Karkaroff with a laugh that didn't reach his cold eyes, "don't go giving away anything else, now, or your charming friend will know exactly where to find us!"

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling. "Igor, all this secrecy... one would almost think you didn't want visitors."

"Well, Dumbledore," said Karkaroff, displaying his yellowing teeth to their fullest extent, "we are all protective of our private
domains, are we not? Do we not jealously guard the halls of learning that have been entrusted to us? Are we not right to be proud that we alone know our school's secrets, and right to protect them?"

"Oh I would never dream of assuming I know all Hogwarts' secrets, Igor," said Dumbledore amicably. "Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a really rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it. Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning. Or it may only appear at the quarter moon – or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder."

Marina and Ginny snorted into their plate of goulash.

"Full bladder!" Ginny laughed.

Meanwhile Fleur Delacour was criticizing the Hogwarts decorations to Roger Davies.

"Zis is nothing," she said dismissively, looking around at the sparkling walls of the Great Hall. "At ze Palace of Beauxbatons, we 'ave ice sculp- tures all around ze dining chamber at Chreestmas. Zey do not melt, of course... zey are like 'uge statues of diamond, glittering around ze place. And ze food is seemply superb. And we 'ave choirs of wood nymphs, 'oo serenade us as we eat. We 'ave none of zis ugly armor in ze 'alls, and eef a poltergeist ever entaired into Beauxbatons, 'e would be expelled like zat. " She slapped her hand onto the table impatiently.

Roger Davies was watching her talk with a very dazed look on his face, and he kept missing his mouth with his fork. Marina had the impression that Davies was too busy staring at Fleur to take in a word she was saying.

"Absolutely right," he said quickly, slapping his own hand down on the table in imitation of Fleur. "Like that. Yeah."

When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to dance.

Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall.

"Are you sure you want to stay here alone? The Weird Sisters are playing." Ginny asked as she and Neville stood up to dance.

"I'm fine, I got my butter beer." Marina smiled. Ginny nodded and walked away with Neville. Suddenly, Professor McGonagall approached her.

"Miss.Weasley, why are you sitting here alone and not dancing?" McGonagall asked.

"Boys are pigs. They just go out with because they way you look. Although the dessert table is waiting for a dance." Marina winked.

"Well if the male gender is your first option to dance with, so let it be. I will not let a student of mine be alone tonight. I hope you know how to waltz Weasley." McGonagall said.

Marina stood up as she and the professor walked onto the dance floor. And started to waltz.

"I must say Miss.Weasley, your quite the dancer." McGongall said as Marina spun her around.

"My parents dance all the time. I guess I can check off dancing with a teacher off my bucket list." Marina joked.

After a few minutes, Dumbledunce asked Minerva to have a dance. After she and Ginny had gotten an autograph from the Weird Sisters, she stood near the dessert table sipping on her cherry punch watching everyone dance to a goth rock song. Then looked to Pavarti and Harry, who were sitting at their table looking bored. Marina waved to Pavarti, who smiled and mouthed, wanna dance? Harry's really bad at it.

Marina shook her head no as Pavarti then started to dance with a handsome Beauxbatons boy. Harry then looked over to her, which he hadn't all night, and looked shocked then turned a bright shade of red. Making Marina try to hide her smile. Marina walked over to his table and sat down in Pavarti's seat.

"You look nice." breathed Harry.

"You don't look like a troll I guess." Marina smiled. "Boring isn't it?"

"Very. I'm not the best dancer."

"That's obvious."

Harry and Marina then started to chat for the next thirty minutes about Quidditch, Ron, the tournament, and Snape. And to be honest, whenever Marina and Harry had their chats once in a while, it felt like Marina was talking to her other half, like she didn't hate him. But...she did. She hated Harry Potter. Not matter how easy and fun he was to talk to.

"I say we get out of here. Have our own fun!" said Marina rebelliously as they two stood with their shoes in their hands in corridor.

"Alright then." laughed Harry as they raced each other up to the Gryffindor tower and into the common room.

Marina then ran up to her dorm, grabbed her tape player, and walked back to Harry. Harry looked at all her Muggle tapes and chose one. Marina slid the tape inside the player, and started to dance to an Mariah Carey tape, who Harry didn't know much about, but chose anyway.

Oh yeah, I'll tell you somethin'
I think you'll understand
When I say that somethin'
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

And let's just say...Marina couldn't help but not want this moment to end (Although it did, about an hour later). She couldn't help but like dancing with Harold. This horrid experience at dancing made it more amusing.