O, CURSED CHILD. ﹙ harry potter ﹚

XXXIII ; task one and a half

            "but that does NOT mean," professor mcgonagall went on, "that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from hogwarts students. i will be most seriously displeased if a gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way."

            the bell rang, and there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders.

            professor mcgonagall called above the noise, "potter — a word, if you please."

            ron, elara, and hermione left harry to either be chewed out by mcgonagall for something, or receive terrible news. they couldn't decide which one was worse. when harry had informed them that it was imperative to find a ball date because of tradition, elara and ron specifically, decided that that was much, much worse.

           elara had never known so many people to put their names down to stay at hogwarts for christmas; she had once, of course, because she'd finally made friends, but she was in the minority before now.

           she had already turned down a boy from durmstrang who looked like he fought dogs in his spare time, and a rather brave first-year that had practically screamed his invitation. while the ball was exciting, all the girls in fourth-year and above had become obsessed with the upcoming event, and elara found it quite annoying. instead of paying attention, they discussed nails colors and often ranked boys from cutest to ugliest.

            "why do they have to move in packs?" harry asked elara as a dozen or so girls walked past her, harry, and ron, sniggering and staring at harry. "how're you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"

            "you don't. you gotta work up the courage, and deal with the consequences," said elara, shrugging.

             "you're great help," grumbled harry.

             "got any idea who you're going to try, harry?" asked ron, staring across the courtyard at where fleur and the other veela-girl, who's name elara still didn't know, were chatting.

             elara looked over at harry, who was already staring quite intensely at her. he turned a brilliant shade of red and looked away. ron snickered.

            "listen, you're not going to have any trouble. you're a champion. you've just beaten a hungarian horntail. i bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."

            "that's real nice, ron," snipped elara, annoyed at how he was talking about girls as if they were trophies.

            "you must've been asked already," said ron, ignoring her.

            "well, i have -- "

            " -- and you said no, right?" harry had stopped and interrupted elara. he looked terrified for some particular reason.

            "of course i did, there's someone i have in mind," said elara with great nonchalance that harry looked as if he might faint from excitement for some odd reason.

            "they better get a move on and ask you then," ron said loudly, avoiding harry's eye. "because, i know of at least eight more guys that want to ask you."

            "says who?"

            "girls love gossip. seriously, it's like air to you people."

            ron, to elara's amazement, turned out to be right. a beauxbatons boy, who was very attractive, had practically cornered elara and insisted she go with him until another girl from beauxbatons had to drag elara away from him all while apologizing profusely. a really nice third year, who seemed really nervous to ask her, almost made elara consider accepting. but in the end, she let him down as easily as she could, and promised to find someone for him to go with. finally, for that day, the same durmstrang boy asked again, but instead of being polite, she spoke spanish she had learned from her muggle primary school days until he went away.