Draco was getting ready for the charity ball. Blaise was with him, lounging on one of his armchairs.
"So what's Charlene like? She suitable for marriage?"
Draco frowned. Ever since he had started going out with Charlene, Blaise had managed to ask after every single date whether she was suitable for marriage. What had gotten into him?
"I don't know. She's nice and all, but there's something weird, I don't know. I guess it's alright." He shrugged.
"I thought you two would be perfect for one another. Being Purebloods and all."
Draco glanced sharply at Blaise. Something was going on; Blaise seemed nervous and anxious, somehow. "It doesn't mean we're soul mates. She just happened to be a sane woman that I was willing to go out with."
"It's not just a few dates anymore, you know. It's been nearly a month."
"That's exactly my point. I don't know whether I want to marry her, because I don't know her well enough."
"You haven't even kissed her yet. You usually do that on the second date. She's beautiful, Pureblooded, mildly interesting, rich, and smart, from what I heard. When have you ever wanted more?"
He remembered the conversation that he and Ginny had the first day he met with her.
"She has to be beautiful."
"Well then, there are a lot of beautiful women in England."
Was he just looking for a beautiful and sane woman? Did he want something more now?
"Draco?"
"Huh?" Wow, that was intelligent.
"You just looked like Neville Longbottom in front of Snape for a second there."
"What?" Draco wasn't paying attention to what Blaise was saying.
"Never mind."
Draco went to pick up Charlene at her flat again. He stared at the doorknob with its diamonds, now wondering, who on earth has diamonds in their doorknobs? When the door opened and Charlene came out. She was wearing a long evening gown that made her look quite the seductress, but Draco barely glanced at it. What he did notice were the many diamonds hanging from her neck, ears, and wrists.
"Hello Draco." She purred.
"Charlene." He kissed her on the cheek in greeting.
"Let's go."
They arrived at a lavish manor not unlike his mother's manor. It was situated in the middle of the countryside, with plenty of land surrounding it. Most Purebloods had homes that displayed such wealth, so it was nothing new or surprising to Draco.
When they walked up the steps to the front door, he saw a young woman that reminded him of someone. She turned around and caught sight of Charlene. Charlene obviously knew the woman because she let go of Draco's arm to hug the woman.
Charlene introduced her. "Gabrielle, this is Draco Malfoy. Draco darling, this is Gabrielle Delacour. This is my cousin, the hostess of this ball."
"Pleased to meet you." Draco said automatically. Then he recognized her surname and realized who she was. "You're not related to Fleur, are you? She was the Triwizard Champion during my fourth year."
Gabrielle beamed, flipping her silvery hair over own shoulder. "Yes, she iz my older seester."
"How is she? Still with that Bill, was it?" Charlene asked. Knowing that the two were going to chatter for quite some while about some more girl nonsense, he looked at the entrance hall. It was beautifully decorated with little fairies flying here and there among some colourful bubbles. Draco didn't have a clue why anyone would decorate with fairies, but the effect was stunning.
Beside him, Gabrielle was saying, "She'll be here tonight. Zere will be a time to see her. But you two should enjoy the ball. Refreshments are off to the left, and the dance floor is to your right. I'll talk to you two later!" She smiled and waved them off, turning to greet more guests.
"Oh, there are my parents, I'll introduce you!"
Draco felt an odd mixture of anxiety and annoyance as Charlene took his hand and dragged him off to who knows where.
_._._._._._._
"Fleur, for the last time would you stop bugging me? I don't want to go!"
"Ginny, " Fleur said reproachfully. "Zis will be fun! I 'aven't spent enough time with my seester-in-law."
Ginny could remember the time when they had gone to France 'to spend quality time with my seester-in-law' or the time when she insisted on taking Ginny shopping at some expensive boutique. She was sure that was enough bonding time with Fleur to last for the next five years. Fleur was less egotistical since she married Bill, but she was still as exuberant as always.
She was looking through her wardrobe, muttering to herself, "Where 'as that lovely black dress gone? I'm sure it iz 'ere somewhere."
Ginny sighed and sat down in a chair, thinking of ways to persuade Fleur that she didn't want to go to some high class charity ball when Bill walked in.
"Gin, why don't you just go? You're breaking Fleur's heart by refusing." He looked tenderly at his wife, who was currently on her tiptoes, searching for the dress.
"Because I don't need or want to go. I've visited St. Agnes already." She flat out ignored Bill's second statement.
"It's not the same."
Ginny tried to change the topic. "I could babysit for you. I mean, who's going to take care of him for you?" She pleaded, pointing at the four year old clutching Bill's pants. Bill chuckled.
"Ron and Hermione. C'mon Gin. Just go with us."
"I have no desire to be the third wheel."
"We're not going on a date."
"It's the same thing, practically."
Their debate was interrupted by Fleur coming out of the closet with the aforementioned dress in hand. "'ere it iz. See Ginny? It iz beautiful, no?"
She had to admit that the black evening gown was a work of art, no doubt one of Fleur's, only she could pick something so...tasteful. "Yes, it is."
Fleur beamed. "Well, you may wear it tonight!" She then took Bill's hand and scooping up her son in her arms, said gleefully to Ginny, "I'll do your hair and makeup after I get Bill's outfit!"
Ginny sighed. This is the last time I'm having dinner with Bill, she thought. There was no arguing with this woman.
_._._._._._._
Draco was standing in front of Charlene's parents, who were so stiff he expected them to have iron rods up their backs.
"Mother, Father, this is Draco Malfoy, the man I'm currently dating."
"Draco, is it? Pleasure to meet you. How long have you been dating?" Charlene's mother said.
"A month, ma'am"
"Am I correct in saying that your mother is Narcissa Malfoy, maiden name Black?" That was Charlene's father.
"Yes, sir." He seemed impressed that he was being called sir.
"Nice to know she's been teaching manners to her child. The generation now is so rude. Very refreshing to meet someone with propriety." he said.
Gods these people were so boring. Even my mother is more interesting. Draco shifted his feet slightly. "Thank you, sir. I'll pass along your compliments to her."
Charlene's mother butted in, "But she's a widow now, isn't she? Lucius died in the War, poor dear."
Draco gritted his teeth. "Actually, my mother was better off without him."
Charlene and her parents looked frightened at his tone. Charlene said, "Oh."
Her mother tried to smooth things over. "Of course she is." It didn't work. The tension was still there.
Charlene said, "Draco, let's go dance." She took his arm and led him away, mouthing back to her parents, "I'll talk to you later."
Turning back to Draco, she comforted, "I'm sorry about that. She just didn't know –"
Draco regained control of his temper. "It's alright; I just don't like talking about my father." She nodded, wisely not saying anything more.
They reached the dance floor. The music playing was couldn't be any more different from the music at Shock. It was like a different world here. It was classical and soft, more proper for waltzing or slow dancing to. Charlene hooked her arms around Draco's neck in such a way that he felt slightly claustrophobic. She didn't like to dance any sort of formal dance, so she and Draco just swayed back and forth, slow dancing.
Charlene was talking about something that Draco really wasn't interested in. Funny that he found her to be boring now. In fact, this whole ball thing was boring. It was too proper, too slow, too ... fake. There was no life here, only a polite exchanging of hellos and goodbyes, of 'how's your family' and 'they're doing well, thank you', of utter indifference to the fact that there may be better things to life than being egotistic and comparing how much money you have. Could he stay in that sort of life?
"Draco dear," Charlene was saying, "I see some of my clients over there. You don't mind if I go and talk to them right?"
"No, of course not." Just go.
She kissed his cheek. Draco turned to leave the dance floor. He needed to get out of this building and clear his head. Wandering around, he found an archway that, once he looked through it, led to a rose garden. He walked outside, breathing in the sweet scent and felt the cool night breeze ruffle hair. He was walking down the paved walk when he caught sight of a vision that seemed to blend into the darkness. The only thing he could clearly see was that auburn hair.
Nope, definitely not going to clear my head right now.
_._._._._._
Ginny had tried to make Fleur understand that she didn't want to go to this 'stuck up charity ball'. Fleur simply shrugged off the insult and started putting mascara on Ginny's eyelashes.
Then Ginny had been too preoccupied with fighting off Fleur with the massive amounts of makeup that Fleur wanted to use on her face to complain about going. But that was one battle she had won. Ginny walked out the door with only some mascara and lipstick, her hair down. She couldn't deny that Fleur's dress looked good on her though.
Once she walked through the elaborate front doors of the mansion, she felt out of place. She was a Pureblood, but she didn't have a place in the lives of these high society people. She brushed of Fleur's nagging to dance 'wiz one of 'ose dashing young men 'ere' and walked around, looking for a place she could stay and be undisturbed.
So she found the rose garden. It was spectacular, really. One of the bad things about living in a flat was that she couldn't have a garden. These roses were some of the most beautiful ones she had ever seen.
She said aloud to herself, "I wonder if Gabrielle would mind if I picked some of these." Ginny wasn't very close to Gabrielle, but Gabrielle was a nice girl.
Ginny could hear a rustling sound that was not made by a non-existent wind. She turned around to face a bewildered Draco.
He looked at her, almost unbelieving. He regained his senses. "Ginevra. What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question." Her voice was calm, cool, and collected. Inwardly, she was thinking how Draco could look dressed down and dressed up at the same time.
His hair was slicked back like it used to be in their Hogwarts days, which was a surprise, but it wasn't a fault to his appearance. It was just different since he always left his hair un-styled every time she saw him. He was all in black, with a button down shirt and pants that seemed to emphasize how long and lean those legs were. He looked like the height of sophistication, standing there with moonlight glinting off his hair.
"I came with Charlene."
"Oh." Ginny couldn't think of anything more to say.
"Her cousin is hosting this blasted thing."
Ginny gave a twinkling laugh. "So I suppose you don't want to be here?"
"Yeah. So why are you here?"
"Fleur made me come. Practically stuffed me into this dress and plastered makeup on my face."
Well, you look absolutely beautiful. Draco shook his head. I'm glad I didn't say that aloud.
"Fleur? Isn't that –"
"My sister-in-law. Bill's wife."
Draco was floored. What a small world this is. "Charlene was talking about her. She' Fleur's and Gabrielle's cousin."
"Really? So why are you here?"
"What do you mean?"
"Shouldn't you be by her side, deciding if she's sane?"
He laughed for the first time that evening. "I'm past that stage, now I'm deciding whether she's interesting enough." he said frankly.
Ginny's stomach lurched. Was Draco seriously considering Charlene for a wife? "So is she?" she said instead, trying to brush away a feeling she couldn't quite name.
He shrugged and looked at his feet. "I don't know." He raised his eyes to look at Ginny. For some reason, he could wrench his gaze away from hers.
They stood there for a while, looking at each other, before Draco said, "Um, I think I should go back."
Ginny shook her head. "Yeah, you should." She tried to smile.
Draco walked a few steps, and then turned back to Ginny. She looked so ethereal there, part of the night, her auburn hair the brightest thing he saw. He looked at the roses. He grasped a pink one and, ignoring the thorns that cut his fingertips so they bled, snapped it off the branch.
He walked toward Ginny, who suddenly couldn't breathe. All she could see was Draco with that pink rose in his hand, illuminated by moonlight, walking toward her. It felt...right. How was that possible?
She could barely make out what Draco had said to her. "I know you like roses." He turned to leave.
As he walked through the archway, he looked over his shoulder one last time that night at the figure that was fading out amongst the swallowing darkness.
What will this come to?
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