Love Was Truly Helpless

Time flew by once again.

Snowflakes swirled outside the windows, beating against the frozen panes.

Christmas was just around the corner.

Hagrid had single-handedly brought in the twelve holiday trees that appeared in the Great Hall every year;

the staircase railings were wound with holly and tinsel, everlasting candles gleamed inside the helmets of the suits of armor on guard, and huge bunches of mistletoe hung at intervals along the corridors.

Whenever students walked through the corridors, clusters of girls would always gather beneath the mistletoe, causing traffic jams.

Fortunately, Harry and the others could always find less crowded routes. Going around those bottlenecks was not too difficult for them.

Detours like that used to make Ron jealous rather than happy, but now he simply laughed out loud.

Though Harry thought this giggling new Ron was far better than the gloomy, combative Ron from a few weeks ago, the change had come at a steep price.

First, Harry had to see Lavender Brown all the time. The girl seemed to regard every moment she was not kissing Ron as a waste;

second, Harry had once again become the friend of two people who seemed determined never to speak to each other again.

Ron still bore scars on his hands and arms from Hermione's little yellow bird attack, and he spoke in a defensive, resentful tone.

"She's got nothing to complain about," he told Harry. "She kissed Krum, and then found out someone wanted to kiss me too. It's a free country. I didn't do anything wrong."

Harry did not answer, pretending to be absorbed in The Fifth Element: Exploration, which he had to finish before Charms the next morning.

Though he had decided to remain friends with both of them, he kept his mouth shut most of the time now.