"Ron, how can you talk like that?"
Ron's shocking words made Ginny's cheeks red with shame, and she glared at Ron fiercely.
However, when Ginny turned her gaze to Harry, her eyes became shy and gentle again.
"Harry, ignore him, let's go quickly." She held Harry's arm tightly and whispered to him, "Ron might ask some weird questions in a while!"
Harry now felt a little ashamed to face his good brother, so he nodded obediently and let Ginny pull him out of the common room and walk towards the auditorium.
"Hey! Wait, you haven't explained to me what happened between you!" Ron shouted at them anxiously.
However, at this moment, his dance partner, Eloise Midgen, also came out of the girls' dormitory.
Ron had to temporarily suppress his surprise and turned his gaze to Midgen.
“You… well, you look… beautiful today.” He said unnaturally, and subconsciously glanced at the raw edges of his robe’s cuffs and collar, hoping that his hard-earned dance partner would not notice it.
"Thank you." Midgen smiled and glanced at Ron's robes, and said with high emotional intelligence, "You are dressed very well today, and you have a unique personality."
"Oh, thank you." Ron's expression became more normal. "Then... shall we go down?"
Midgen nodded and took Ron's arm openly.
The entrance courtyard in front of the auditorium was crowded with students milling around, waiting for eight o'clock, when the auditorium doors would open to the students punctually.
The atmosphere today was particularly lively. Dancers were paired off, whispering in each other's ears. Some young wizards wanted to meet dance partners from other academies, so they leaned sideways in the crowd, looking for each other.
Harry and Ginny had already found a relatively empty corner in the corridor, and Ginny was still holding Harry's arm tightly.
At this moment, Ginny was talking enthusiastically with Rolf and Luna whom she met in the hallway—
"Luna, you have a really good taste!" Ginny praised her good friend Luna, "This dress is so beautiful!"
"Thank you, Ginny, your skirt is very nice too." Luna blinked her big, lively eyes and praised as well.
Harry glanced at Luna's dress and exchanged a glance with Rolf who was standing next to Luna. Both of them had strange expressions, and it was obvious that they did not agree with Ginny's praise.
Luna was wearing a dress with silver sequins. If you only looked at the dress, there was nothing special about it. It was just an ordinary gray gown with pleated lace.
But the silver sequins on the skirt were from nowhere, and were forcibly stuck to the skirt with a sticking spell. They were extremely reflective - even though there were not many light sources in the yard, they almost blinded Harry's eyes...
The two girls soon got together and started chatting with smiles on their faces.
Harry and Rolf stood silently beside them, seemingly looking out at the black lake covered with snow on its ice surface, but actually they were whispering to each other.
"Rolf, didn't you try to persuade Luna?" Harry asked Rolf in a low voice, "What are those crooked sequins on her skirt? Is it her own idea?"
"Those sequins are actually the molted shells of shining ground beetles..." Rolf said listlessly, "I collected them when I went on an expedition to the Forbidden Forest with Luna some time ago. It happened to be the peak period for beetle molting. She seemed to like them very much..."
"So... you're actually responsible for those crooked sequins?" Harry looked at Rolf sympathetically.
"Yeah, but it's actually not bad." Rolf said, "Do you think I didn't persuade Luna? I have successfully persuaded her to take off the airship Lee on her ears and the butter beer cork hanging around her neck."
"Oh, by the way, you may not know what a blimp is - it's actually an orange-red fruit that looks like a radish. It's hung upside down on the bush before being picked... Luna said Mr. Lovegood believes that blimps can improve the ability to accept abnormal things."
"Compared to Luna, I think I might need a pendant of Airship Lee right now." Harry swallowed and said in a low voice, "I feel that Luna and Ginny's aesthetics are beyond my understanding."
"Who says she isn't?" Rolf sighed, and then he smiled indulgently, "But if it weren't for this weird aesthetic and quirky personality, she wouldn't be Luna anymore."
"That's true." Harry smiled knowingly.
Just then, a group of Slytherins came up the steps from their common room in the basement.
Walking in front was Draco Malfoy, who was wearing a black velvet high-collared robe. With his light blond hair, pale face, and disdainful expression that showed he didn't like anyone, he actually looked quite handsome.
But in Harry's disgusted eyes, he looked like a parish priest.
Malfoy's good friend and loyal fangirl, Pansy Parkinson, was wearing a frilly light pink robe and she was holding Malfoy's arm tightly.
Behind them walked Crabbe and Goyle, both dressed in green, like two mossy rocks, and Harry was satisfied to see that neither of the two large men had found a partner.
"She's dressed up nicely today... Oh, so she found a poor guy from the Wesley family as her dance partner." Malfoy walked up to Harry, tilted his chin and said in a sharp tone, "I guess she must have spent all the savings of the Wesley family on this dress-"
"You're right, aren't you, the champion of Hogwarts, Potter?"
"Watch your mouth, Malfoy!" Harry responded angrily, taking a few steps forward.
He had almost become immune to Malfoy's foul mouth, but when the target of his foul mouth was Ginny, he couldn't help but want to protect her.
"Am I wrong? How can pure-blood scum like the Weisley family afford such a robe?" Malfoy glanced at Ginny mockingly and said, "And the one next to her, did she just pick up a piece of clothes from the garbage dump?"
This sentence offended three people at the same time, including Harry, Rolf and Ginny, but not Luna, the person involved.
When Harry and Rolf were trying to think of a way to teach this cocky guy a lesson, Luna spoke before them.
"Hello, Malfoy." Luna said in a vague voice, "You seem to be very inferior..."
"I have low self-esteem?" Malfoy laughed loudly, as if he had heard the funniest joke. "Pansy, Crabbe, Goyle, tell me, is there something wrong with her brain? I am from the Malfoy family..."
"It has nothing to do with the family." Luna's expression was serious, and there was an inexplicable persuasiveness in her words that easily interrupted Malfoy.
"You seem to have nothing but money... You only have followers, no real friends, no girls you really like, and your Quidditch skills are nothing compared to the hostile Harry..."
"I understand you, Malfoy."
At the end of her speech, a look of deep pity appeared on Luna's face, and her words were full of sympathy.
"You're talking nonsense!" Pansy Parkinson couldn't help herself and refuted loudly, "How could Draco not have a girl he likes!"
However, Luna didn't seem to answer her thoughts, but looked at her with more pity.
Harry, Rolf and Ginny all looked at Luna in disbelief, stunned by her beauty.
They had never thought that Luna, who seemed dazed and crazy on weekdays, could be so accurate and ruthless in her attacks. It was obvious that Malfoy on the opposite side was speechless.
What is even more admirable is that it seems that Luna did not say those words to offend anyone, but that this is what she really thought in her heart.
Malfoy gritted his teeth for a long time, but he couldn't find anything wrong with Luna's words.
He really didn't like Pansy Parkinson, even though they had known each other since childhood; Crabbe and Goyle were not his real friends, they were just followers and bodyguards his father found for him; as for Quidditch, although he didn't want to admit it, he was indeed not as good as Harry, who led the Gryffindor team to win the Quidditch Cup twice.
Is it possible that the only thing worth boasting about him is his pure-blood origin
Malfoy took a deep breath unwillingly.
He raised his head, looked at Luna hatefully, and decided to ignore this strange girl and turn his attention to his old rival, Harry.
"Potter, where is your Mudblood friend?" Malfoy asked with his chin raised and a disdainful expression on his face again.
He decided to use his own strengths to attack the opponent's weaknesses, starting with bloodline.
"If I'm not mistaken, she must be unable to find a dance partner and is too embarrassed to attend the Christmas ball?" He laughed disdainfully, "No one would be willing to find a mudblood as a dance partner!"
"You're talking nonsense, Hermione has a dance partner!" Ginny retorted loudly.
"Really?" Malfoy sneered. "I'd like to see which idiot is so self-destructive that he would actually ask her to dance with him."
Harry was somewhat speechless.
Even though the ball was about to begin, he had no idea who Hermione had found her dance partner for, so he had no way of refutating Malfoy.
Malfoy looked at Harry, a look of anticipation appeared on his face, and the corners of his mouth raised smugly.
Just when Malfoy thought he had finally turned the tables, the oak door of the Great Hall opened.
The creaking sound of a door opening attracted the attention of everyone present.
Everyone turned to see the students of Durmstrang walk in with their headmaster, Karkaroff.
Victor Krum walked in front, and next to him was a beautiful girl in a blue robe that Harry didn't recognize. For some reason, this beautiful girl always gave Harry a familiar feeling.
Over the heads of the Durmstrang students, the little wizards saw that the door of the auditorium was decorated with golden light, with twinkling fairy lights inside.
"It's really a big deal. Your professors must have invited at least 500 living fairies from somewhere." Rolf, the future magical zoologist, explained promptly.
Harry looked over and saw fairies sitting on magical rose bushes or flapping their wings on statues that looked like Santa Claus and his reindeer.
At this time, Professor McGonagall's voice rang out:
"Warriors, please come over here!"
Ginny adjusted her dress nervously, a reserved smile on her face.
She and Harry said "see you later" to Rolf and Luna beside them, looked at Malfoy with a sullen face with a proud look, and then walked forward to Professor McGonagall.
The chattering crowd cooperated and made way for the two of them to pass.
Approaching Professor McGonagall, Harry saw that she was wearing a red tartan gown with a wreath of thistles adorning the brim of her hat.
Professor McGonagall asked the warriors and their dance partners to wait at the door and let other students enter the hall first. After all the students were seated, the warriors lined up and walked into the hall to start their performance.
Fleur Delacour and Roger Davies stood nearest the door.
Harry knew Davis, he was the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and this time it might be because the students of Beauxbatons were close to Ravenclaw, so he got the opportunity to become Fleur's dance partner.
Davis seemed unable to believe his good luck, and he couldn't take his eyes off Fleur from beginning to end;
John Kowalski's dance partner was a girl from Yin Fa Mo Ni, and he seemed too lazy to make any new friends;
As Harry had expected, Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang had indeed become dance partners, and they both stood beside Harry and smiled at him and Ginny in a friendly manner;
Harry smiled back at them, then looked away, finally looking at the focus of the crowd, the big star Krum.
Suddenly, he opened his mouth in surprise—
The beautiful girl standing next to Krum turned out to be Hermione!
But she looked nothing like Hermione. She seemed to have used some magic to manipulate her hair, making it no longer messy but smooth and shiny, and tied it into an elegant bun at the back of her head.
She was wearing a long dress of flowing lilac-blue fabric, and she looked different somehow—perhaps simply because she had removed the two dozen or so thick books she usually carried around with her.
Hermione also had a smile on her face, and although she looked a little nervous, it was countless times prettier than her usual appearance.
Harry couldn't understand why he and Ron had never noticed before that their good friend Hermione could have such a pretty side.
The next moment, Harry stopped thinking about it because he saw Malfoy and Parkinson walking past them.
The expression on Malfoy's face was unprecedentedly shocked and gloomy. Obviously, he also recognized the girl standing next to Krum. She was the Mudblood he looked down upon.
He glared at Hermione, moving his lips again and again, but couldn't find the words to insult her.
…
…