Snakes and Sanguine

Year 4: The Yule Ball

CW: Blood

A/N: If you wanna get the full experience play what is above until Shira Weasley's perspective, then search up "Masquerade Suite by Khachaturian" on youtube or any music streaming app and play that. :))

Delancey Cedar

I tried to focus on the upcoming ball throughout the week like everyone else. I tried to think about how I would wear my hair, what my dress would look like, what beauty charms to use? But no matter how hard I tried, I could not help but let my eyes wander to the corners of rooms and ends of empty corridors, expecting something or someone to be there watching, waiting.

I stayed close to my friends and if they noticed my sudden clinging they opted not to say anything. I never walked to classes alone, never sat alone in the dormitory or the library, never bunked off my classes, and never spent my free time alone.

On the positive side to it all, I was spending a lot more time with James and the rumors of our split ceased, to Cupid's dismay.

In the few days before the Yule Ball, owls were flying all throughout the. castle, not bothering to wait until breakfast to drop off dresses, suits, and traditional robes. Filch had been in a particular awful mood as he had to clean owl pellets and droppings off the corridor floors and in the courtyard.

When my dress arrived I was in complete awe. Annabeth and Sasha had urged me to try it on one late night as Cupid was keeping us all awake with her obnoxiously throaty snores.

The inky black sleeveless dress fell down to my ankles. It was decorated in sparkles and appeared as glittering stars against a midnight sky.

"Oh Delancey, you're going to look amazing. You'll be the highlight, I swear it." Annabeth gushed, smoothing out the ripples with her soft hands.

Though, a few hours before the ball, when everyone began to do their hair and makeup and began to drape themselves in their elaborate suits, dresses and robes, I felt as though I looked far below average. I hoped that the quality of the dress would compensate for my lack of lavishness.

Annabeth's golden hair was tied into a braided crown, small yet radiant flowers weaved through the plaits. She looked as though she had stepped out of a painting of some greek goddess. She wore a sky blue dress, layered with tulle and appeared as though she was the epitome of daytime and beauty. As though, like the princesses in fairytales, could summon birds and forest creatures with a simple song.

If Annabeth was the epitome of daytime, Sasha resembled the clearest of starry nights. Emblazoned in her deep blue dress, were patterns of silver stars and crescent moons. The sleeves fell just below her shoulders, making way for the sapphires that decorated her neck.

Although it was difficult to admit but even more difficult to deny, Cupid looked as incredible as one could get. Her silken red dress fell just above her knees, hugging at her waist. One would think that the red of her hair would contrast with the vermillion dress but all it did was compliment it, the way the leaves of a tree compliment their bark. Her blue eyes rested inside a rim of dark makeup and her lips shimmered with gloss. She was Calypso.

I, on the other hand, did not appear like a fairytale princess or a starry night or the seductresses from greek myth. I felt as though I were seven years old again, draping myself in my mother's silks and makeup, hoping that one day I could be half as beautiful. She would find me on the cold stone floor of her bathroom, lines of red lipstick across my face. She would pick me by my waist, spin me around in the air, and tell me that I was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Her smile was radiant then. Over the years, that smile dimmed and so did her love. Until ultimately, I no longer meant what I used to, and she disappeared.