yule ball

go big or go home

Draco had lay awake all night, not able to get the image of Potter and his stupid smile out of his head. When he entered the Great Hall the next morning, he and Potter, instead of glaring, gave each other knowing looks.

The owls came to give the news a couple of minutes later. Draco had a knot in his stomach. He hadn't expected to be nervous.

A swarm of owls began dropping packages to the expecting students. So many owls, in fact, that it was hard to see the dozen or so owls that broke away from the group at first. Draco mustered all his concentration and flicked his wand, and the owls did a perfectly synchronized swoop right in front of Harry Potter. They dropped pieces of paper, which, when Draco muttered under his breath, turned into paper airplanes, which unfolded to reveal green script that read in loopy letters, "Yule Ball?"

The entire hall was swooning now, looking around for the girl with the perfect spellmanship. Quite a few eyes landed on Hermione.

"Yes!" Harry said in a perfect imitation of joy, so happy that Draco himself almost believed it.

Now it was his turn. Draco stood up and strode across the Great Hall. There were murmurs of confusion running through the crowd.

He reached Harry, and he could feel the eyes of the entire school on them. It was too late to turn back now.

He lunged towards Harry, and the entire school erupted as he hugged Harry, He decided to stick with the "Go big or go home" mentality and he lifted Harry off the ground, spinning him around.

When they let go of their embrace, both of their expression flickered with knowledge, like they had an inside joke and were flaunting it to the school. Which Draco supposed they did.

Harry pulled Draco out of the Hall, and when they turned the corner they could still hear the entire school in shock. Harry's smile was wild, and Draco thought of a picture of James his father had shown him in contempt. Even though Lucius' point with showing him James was to make him understand how foolish he was, Draco couldn't help but be jealous of James' carelessness, his untamed hair and bright eyes, as if he was laughing at life.

That was what Harry looked like now. Thrilled. Draco loved it.

"We did it!" Harry beamed. "But the spin? Was that too much?"

"No, did you hear them?" Draco smiled slightly as he pointed to the Great Hall, where he was sure no one had recovered.

It felt odd to smile with Harry, but Draco couldn't deny that when he was talking to Harry, their past didn't matter. He enjoyed talking with Harry more than Crabbe and Goyle, maybe even more than Blaise. They acted like old friends reunited, and Harry had coaxed more than one smile out of him over the past day.

"What do we do now?" Harry's smile dimmed.

Draco had to admit that he hadn't thought about that. "We go back to our tables and pretend nothing happened." He decided.

"Okay."

When they entered the Great Hall again, every head in the school turned to them. Draco held his head high and walked back to his table, ignoring the buzz that surrounded him. He slipped back into his seat, picked up a fork and knife, and proceeded eat his breakfast.

His friends seemed too stunned to talk, but Pansy leaned over, whispering, "Good job, Draco."