The Years of Blue [2]

Chapter 50: The Yule Ball- #1

"Not that I am surprised," I mused, eyeing the group, "but I would have thought to expect more from them."

"In what way?" Hermione questioned curiously, as an eager grin slowly appeared on her lips. I shrugged, toying at a smile.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe a ferret tie would have looked a bit more dashing on Draco. Or Crabbe and Goyle could have tried to hold hands instead of go stag. Gay rights are all the rage right now." My humor only rose by the minute until Hermione caught sight of Viktor entering the room and stood up stiff.

"Calm down," I cooed, as I tried to bite down the annoyance trailing in me at being the last one waiting for my date. We were less than five minutes before 8 when the ball was to begin and I wanted to take part in as many of the dances as possible. I couldn't do that if Jasper wasn't here.

"I know, I know," She repeated before walking toward the stairs. "It's just nerves. It'll be fine. He's nice," She reassured more to herself than to me.

I stopped her before she could reach the stairs and placed my hands gently on her shoulders and readjusted them, releasing the tension. "Shoulders back, chin up," I said as I walked around her while she corrected herself appropriately. "And don't forget to smile," I said more as a joke but Hermione took it to heart and gave me a mixed expression of nerves and excitement. I gave her a thumbs up before stepping back from the stairwell to let her pass.

The moment she left my side, that hint of annoyance bloomed into full out anger. Where was Jasper? I would never have pegged him to be late to anything. What if he was ditching? I took another glance from the side wall and decided that maybe he could be standing underneath the wall passing. I could just be missing him.

Following my own advice, I took a slow breath, dropped my shoulders and rose my chin a fraction before starting toward the stairs. My gaze was angled toward the group of students milling under the archway in search of my date. No Jasper.

Abruptly I stopped in the middle of the stairs, radiating annoyance as I looked around the room. I wanted my Cinderella moment, was that too much to ask for? Why did he have to ruin it by not showing up?

But unknown to Ava, she was having a Cinderella moment, to an extent.

She had managed to walk down that half flight of stairs spewing a rage that only the passions of a teenage girl could possess and that would to most, illustrate a rather ugly, spoiled air. But to Ava, it made her look regal and was so magnetic to the eyes of others that within the first few steps of her entrance she had managed to catch the attention of Nott, entering with a girl nowhere in comparison to Ava. Suffice it to say, Ava's entrance made Nott internally curse himself for being too forward at the library and missing his chance to have her on his arm. Even if his motives were anything but moral.

Across the hall, Blaise almost bumped into a few clueless Durmstrang students after catching sight of our darling Ava Fountaine. A moment of awe followed by one of revoltion at his first reaction occurred almost simultaneously. He had never taken an interest in the American before. He had always thought of her to be too much trouble for her worth. Even if that "worth" had made him lose his cool for a moment there.