Confined | d. malfoy

One | The Blackwells

He refrained from rolling his eyes and upsetting his mother as he turned to face Veralee. "Would you... like to dance?" His voice sounded as if the words refused to leave his lips, even though his mum had gone over how he would ask her over twenty times before they arrived at the ball. Vera's mother had done the same as to how she would accept his offer when it happened.

It was just expected of them.

It was very important to both the Malfoys and Blackwells to create scenes like this in social settings that would be observed by other pureblooded families. Keeping their social image and reputation clean and civil meant more than any kind of rivalry between them.

Vera quickly glanced up at her mother who faked a smile and widened her eyes, urging her daughter to respond.

"I would love to," Veralee faked her own smile as well and slipped her hand into Draco's extended one.

He led them to a less crowded area in the corner of the room. People of all ages danced around them, laughing and chatting with each other. Draco stopped once they were standing where he wanted them and turned so that his body was facing hers.

"You have to touch me in order to dance with me, Blackwell," He gave a suggestive raise of his eyebrows- specifically noticing how her hand was no longer holding his, but it was lightly hovering, their fingertips brushing occasionally.

"You'd love that, wouldn't-" Her sentence was cut short as the boy grabbed her by the hand for real this time and used his grip to pull her close. His free hand came to her waist and her entire body tensed up at the feeling of him touching her as her throat went dry.

"See... it's not that hard..." His expression added to the amount of fake smiles that had been given that evening as he watched her calmly place her hand on his shoulder, trying to act as normal as possible.

The pair reluctantly fell in line with the music, feeling as if they had no choice but to abide by their parents' rules and be civil with one another while they were in public. As soon as the school year started and they went to Hogwarts, they could go back to screaming and arguing with each other whenever they'd like.

"I'm pretty sure our mothers are staring at us right now."

"You think?" Vera replied with a sarcastic comment, rolling her eyes and looking away from the boy in front of her. Instead, she focused her attention on the ceiling of the ballroom. A giant crystal chandelier hung from the middle of the ceiling and the lights reflected off of the delicately cut glass and cast patterns onto the walls.

It truly was a beautiful mansion, but it was hard to focus on the aspects and little details of it with everything going on.

"Your brother's looking too..."

This time when the boy spoke, Veralee turned quickly to look where Draco's gaze was fixed.

A tall, red-haired boy stood at the opposite side of the room, sipping from a champagne glass as he watched his younger sister dancing with Draco, who just happened to be one of his friends.

Just because Vera and Draco hated each other didn't mean that Lucas had to hate him too. They had much in common when Lucas was still in school, such as quidditch and years of memories from growing up with each other.