Never • The Lost Daughter | A Draco Malfoy Love Story

Chapter 27 - Dancing

I highly recommend listening to the song before or after the dancing scene...💙

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So when I heard that the whole school was going to the Yule Ball with a date, I almost decided that I wouldn't go and pushed the blue dress Dumbledore had given me in the back of my truck and placed only the fine hair jewel on my bed-side table; a tribute to the woman who gave birth to me, but not a token of hope that I might go to that stupid Ball.

And why did I come up with these depressing thoughts? The answer was quite simple. The only boy with which I wanted to go to the Yule Ball was Draco. And since our relationship was secret, he was not an option whatsoever.

The issue was heavily undiscussed up at the Astronomy Tower. Both Draco and I avoided bringing it up; there was no practical reason why we would discuss something this impossible. However, the aura of disappointment was hovering between us. Although none of us said a word, there was a silent agreement to put these thoughts behind us.

Maybe someone else would ask me for the Ball. I didn't want any of the others.

The Yule Ball was simply not the right place for us to be. If we went alone we would be miserable, watching everyone dance as we caught glimpses of each other. If we went with someone else, not only would we be robbing ourselves from some truly fun time, we would also possibly give a false idea to a boy or girl that knew nothing about us.

Draco's thoughts were the same. And we didn't need to say it with words. Some things were better hidden behind silence.

Draco turned red in the face and fumed when he saw a Durmstang boy approached me a few days after the Yule Ball was announced. He was a dark and handsome boy, tall and fit as most of them were. He was the student that had sat beside me the first night of the students' arrival, the one that Draco had given the stink eye for even existing next to me during the feast. The boy bowed his head and held out his hand for me to take it. 

The courtyard was watching us now, the ears of three schools had turned to the Yule Ball proposal as most of the times it occurred with a grand gesture in a busy corridor.

In a moment of clumsiness, foolishness, I closed my book and allowed him to take my hand and touch the fingers lightly with his lips. Far behind him, I saw Draco, climbed on a tree cooly, watching from afar and eating a green apple to soothe his need to intervene.

"Miss Anna, krasiva An," he said quickly, the foreign words adding to his appeal. "It would be a honor to go to the Dance with you."

"I don't even know your name, gospodin," I said as sweet as I could. Despite my obvious distaste, he seemed surprised and thrilled that I had spoken a word in his tongue - one of the only ones I remembered from my distant Russian descent (my mother was one-quarter Russian). It wasn't Bulgarian, but I knew that that the word for 'sir' in the family of the Slavic languages was pretty much the same.

"I Sergei, krasiva dama," he said thickly and proudly.

"I am afraid that I will not be here for Christmas, Sergei," I said kindly. "I will have to be in London."

Sergei looked around discreetly, only to see all the students at a close radius looking. A few girls were giggling.

"Oh, but you must stay," he made one last effort with a step towards me.

"I'm very sorry, Sergei..." I dropped my eyes on the ground

Sergei bowed his head once more without a word, then lowered his head and turned around to leave, hands tied behind his back and gaze on the ground. The courtyard soon returned to its usual activities, although some were staring at me with wide-open eyes for daring to turn down a handsome Durmstrang boy. They were all the rage in Hogwarts nowadays.