The days passed.
The students had not been told, but all of them knew, that Alice and Felix had been sent to the Ministry of Magic's Department of Magical Maladies for treatment. In the case of Alice Minsky, her therapy was the counselling and gentle interrogation by the Ministry's representative from the German wizarding communities.
No one at the Ministry, aside from Arthur Weasley, wanted to hear anything about a possible return of Voldemort, and to this end the respective committees threw their energy at pursuing the rumors about a Grindelwald Society.
Cedric had managed to talk his father into letting him try out for the open beater position. This helped him with his depression over Alice's absence. There was no lack of girls hoping to take Alice's place, but poor Cedric seemed unconscious of their flirtatious overtures.
Even Giselle thought to put her best foot forward. She felt a thrill of hopefulness every time Cedric whacked a bludger at her during practice sessions.
The only cloud marring Giselle's otherwise sunny disposition was the undeniable feeling that the dementors were becoming more than just a distant presence. Especially at night, with the strict curfew keeping everyone indoors, there came that feeling of an approaching darkness. Auntie, who was not normally one to gossip, occasionally mentioned to her niece that Harry Potter was involved in some way with the to-do about the fugitive Sirius Black, and that Albus seemed to be giving him a free hand.
But Giselle tried to put all this aside. She had developed a keen interest in the astrological aspects of her Astronomy class. She couldn't say why, except that it was something she overheard Draco mentioning to his Slytherin girlfriend, something about a very rare and terribly significant conjunction of planets that had occurred on his birthday. It made him smug to talk about it.
Then there was Bea's enthusiasm for Herbology that was beginning to rub off on Giselle. And so the weeks passed. The Pre-Christmas Quidditch tournament was won by Gryffindor, to the heartbreaking disappointment of Deidre.
Giselle spent the Christmas recess at Auntie's vacation cottage in Ottery St. Catchpole. She found herself attracted all of a sudden to Charlie Weasley when Arthur and Molly brought the whole brood over to Auntie's for Christmas Eve. But, really, Charlie was too much her senior. Not good at all to pine for someone beyond one's reach, she thought.
But then, why not? Santa could make anything happen.
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