"Who Harry and Ron are goign with?" Josephine questioned.
"Calì and Padma Patil." Hermione shortly answered.
"Oh, I didn't expect it-"
"Enough talking, Jo." Hermione let her wrist go after they rushed to her bedroom, "We have to hurry, we're late."
"You're making me anxious." Josephine said as her hand grabbed a chair.
"God, how on earth can you be so calm?" Hermione asked, panicked, as she slipped on the wood.
"Because I'm not going to the ball with the boy all the girls drool over." She coldly stated. For her, Viktor Krum was everything but hot.
"Yeah, right." Hermione breathed in deeply in order to chill.
"Calm down, it won't be so terrible." Josephine chuckled as she took the products for makeup.
"Make me pretty, please." She closed her eyes to let her friend apply mascara eyelashes.
"Your natural face do the 99% of the job, Hermione."
"You're so sweet, Jo." Hermione shyly smiled, "Where Theodore is going to wait for you?"
"At the entrance of the great hall, where I suppose also Viktor will wait for you."
"Did you find the dress?" She asked, recollecting that her friend had no idea of what to wear.
"Oh, yes." Josephine muttered with satisfaction as she nodded.
"Knowing you, you're going to astonish everybody."
"Pff, maybe."
__
"So, is he there?" The Gryffindor asked as her hands tortured her own arms due to anxiety.
"Yes, he's pacing back and forth with Teddy." Josephine replied as she looked out from the top of the stairs, which led to the entrance.
"Oh God, do I really have to do it?" Her hand scratched her forehead.
"If you prefer, you can take off and land right before him." She joked, causing Hermione to laugh as she fixed the gown of her dress and the her curly hair, "Come on, I'll go down after you, you're not alone." She slightly patted her bottom.
"Won't you go down the stairs with me?"
Josephine tenderly smiled, "This is your night, not mine."
Hermione nodded and walked towards the stairs, but before she looked out, turned again, "Jo, I love you and you look fantastic."
"These are your last words?" She mocked, "I love you too, and you look even more fantastic."
Hermione took a deep breath, and finally decided to go down the stairs before Viktor's careful eyes as she approached, and he softly kissed her hand when she got to him. Josephine followed her immediately after, smiling at that scene.
Theodore's body totally froze as soon as he saw her.
He stared at his best friend as she walked towards him with a big smile on her face, but he couldn't move. He stood still where he was - his mouth wide open and his eyes peering over her like they never did before.
"Good evening, Mr Nott." She said politely, "We're elegant tonight." She stated as her eyes studied him from head to toe. The tux was perfect around his body, his curly hair were tidy and his shoes polished. He was perfect.
"Good evening to you, Miss Blake." Theodore observed her too, and couldn't help but wonder how gorgeous she was. He always found her pretty, even in the worst conditions, but he'd never seen her like this and didn't know whether he was able to take his eyes off her. He just wanted to look at her for the whole night.
"Shall we?" Josephine reached her arm out for him to take it.
"As you wish." He gently smiled as they went arm in arm to enter the hall. It was full of students and food and drinks. Snow fell from the ceiling and everybody was happy. In the middle there was the dance floor where the four champions were going to start the dancing.
"Theodore-" They spotted Blaise from afar, who was accompained by Daphne Greengrass' sister, Astoria. She was right next to him, talking to Pansy who held Draco by his arm.
"Jo-" Blaise said her name, causing Draco's head to snap to see her marching towards them, hand in hand with Theodore as he led the way.
Usually, Josephine let her wavy and black hair running long her spine or she pinned her two front locks with a clip at the back of her head, but tonight she looked different.
It was the first time Draco saw the straightest hair he had never seen sweetly flowing down to her belly. She wasn't wearing earrings, only a silver necklace that barely touched her clearly visible collarbones and her usual rings.
Hermione was right by saying that she would astonish everyone with her dress - Josephine was the only one wearing a black elegant jumpsuit. The other girls were wearing long or short gowns, but she was the only one wearing pants. The jumpsuit had straps and was tight on the top while the pants were flared, they were so long that seemed to touch the floor.
The fact that the top were tight let Josephine's waist to show her hourglass body. Objectively, her body wasn't the greatest, but Draco had observed all the girls in the room and none of them could amaze him so much.
They were all the same - same dresses, same colors and same makeup. He found them boring, and had been waiting for seeing how Josephine was going to be dressed. As always, she managed to meet his expectations...even more.
If Draco hadn't seen her wearing that dress tonight, he would have never thought she had those shapes. He took it back - Josephine perfectly knew what elegance was, and it suited her divinely.
"Salazar, Jo, you look gorgeus." Pansy smiled, euphorically.
"You are." Josephine peeked at her pink dress, and kissed her cheeck.
"You could wear makeup, at least tonight. Please, let's go to the restroom and let me do it for you-" She begged.
"Why should I wear makeup when I feel okay like this?" She shrugged before her attention drew to Blaise's date, "Astoria, you're stunning." A gentle smile.
"Oh, thanks, you too." The girl awkwardly answered.
"Excuse me, I don't exist?" As his usual, Blaise needed to complain.
Josephine peered over him from head to toe, "You look decent." She drily claimed.
"How mean..." Blaise chuckled before his arms embraced her body, "Wait...this dress suits only heels, a miracle happened or you're willingly wearing them?"
Josephine huffed and her eyes rolled as her fingers grabbed tha fabric of her pants to slighlt lift them up, showing that she was wearing a pair of black sneakers, instead of heels.
Maybe she wasn't the most elegant person in the world, but we could work with it - Draco rolled his eyes.
"Now I recognize you." Blaise nodded.
"Yeah, we should've expected it from you." Pansy laughed.
Josephine smiled at her before her attention landed on Draco, whose eyes never took off her. She approached, causign his sight to rest on her pure face, "Good evening, Don."
Draco brushed his suit off, "I'm not dressed as a priest tonight."
Not at all. Josephine had already seen him wearing an elegant suit, but now he had on a tux even more elegant, which suited him even better. His blond strands tenderly stroke his forehead and his hair were perfectly neat by hair gel. He was wearing his beloved rings and gold cufflinks. Under his black blazer, a white shirt embraced his body with a bow tie of the same color.
She didn't know how on earth she could think this, but he looked very good. Very beautiful.
"No, it could go worse, actually." Her hands raised to fix his bent bow tie. Draco stared at them as they put it straight, and followed the movement of her head, looking into her eyes. He thought she looked really lovely before realized he would probably regret for thinking it.
They stood seconds in silence looking at each other before they heard the school orchestra, that started playing to welcome the four champions. Josephine looked away and saw the doors of the hall opening, "Teddy, let's go watch Hermione and Harry." She grabbed his hand and eagerly dragged him to watch their entrance.
"Shall we, Draky?" Pansy held onto his arm.
"Okay." He harshly rolled his eyes as they marched along with Blaise and Astoria.
The four champions with thei dates were greeted by a huge applause as they walked towards the dance floor to begin the dance. After tension was released, students and professors started joining them.
"Teddy, let's rock out!" Josephine yelled with enthusiasm, drawing him to the dance floor.
"You want to dance?" Pansy asked Draco, whose eyes didn't leave Josephine alone, and he nodded, taking her arm. He took her not so far from Theodore and Josephine, "Draco, take my waist." Pansy whispered, frowning because of his strange behaviour. His sight turned to her and did as she demanded. The brunet placed her hand on his shoulder while the other one held his hand, and started dancing. "Draco, everything's alright?" She questioned, noticing that he was looking elsewhere instead of looking at her.
Draco's head snapped, "Yes, of course. You wanted to dance, didn't you?" He coldly spoke as if he didn't care.
"Yes, but-"
"Let's dance, then." He cut her off before he turned to observe Josephine again, who was laughing and having fun with Theodore.
Draco admired her hair fastly swaying and her pants lifting a few inches, showing her sneakers when she jumped, the freckles on her face which she was no longer embarassed about and her big and joyful smile.
Pansy followed Draco's eyes to see what he was staring at, but when her sight landed on Josephine she looked down with disappointment, "Do you want to ask Jo to dance later?"
Draco scoffed, "Don't be silly, Parkinson. I'll go take a drink." He broke their physical contact.
"If I forget to tell you, you look awesome." Theodore muttered, his lips got close to kiss the top of her head.
"And you're wonderful." Josephine cupped his face to kiss his cheeck, instead.
He chuckled and smiled, "Anyway, if you had accepted Adrian's invite, I would've not complain."
"I'd never do that, I promised you I would go with you."
"I know, and you've been lovely. I'm just saying that Adrian was hoping...that's all." He confessed, his displeased tone.
"I get it." She slowly nodded, "Well, I'm sorry."
"Maybe you could go say hi to him. He's been looking at you for a while." His head pointed to behind her back, encouraging her to do the same.
Josephine turned around and saw Adrian. His elbow rested on the high table next to him as his hand was holding a glass. One of his friends was lively talking to him, but he seemed to not be listening to him. As soon as he realized that Josephine was looking right at him, his back awkwardly straightened up and slightly smiled. He waved both Josephine and Theodore.
She smiled back before she turned to Theodore again, "Let's go." She mumbled as they marched over the boy.
Adrian saw them approaching to him and took his elbow off the table, "Hello Adrian." Theodore said, patting his shoulder.
"Theodore." A nod fell from his head before his gaze lied on the girl next to him, "Josephine." He gently smiled.
Josephine smiled back, awkwardly, "Adrian."
"He's my friend, Marcus Flint." He introduced the who was speaking to him earlier, "Marcus, she's Josephine Blake." They shook their hands and silence took over them.
Theodore spotted how Adrian's eyes never left his best friend alone and his unconscious smile while they did so, "Erm, Marcus-" He broke the silence, "Would you mind joining me to take a drink?" His eyes told him they should leave them alone. Marcus nodded and Theodore winked at her as they walked away.
"So..." Josephine whispered as her fingers intertwined.
"So..." Adrian repeated, perceiving her nervousness. She was so cute.
"Are you having a good time?" It was the first question she came up.
"Not quite...After you rejected my invite I didn't know who to ask, so I accepted the invite of a Beauxbatons girl, but she's pretty boring." His head tilted towards her as she was seating on a chair not too far. Her arms crossed as she was speaking to a girl.
"Ask her to dance."
"I did it, but she said she doesn't like dancing."
Josephine frowned, her confused features, "So she asked you to go to the ball to not dance?"
Adrian shrugged, "I should've come on my own."
"About your invite, I want to apologize." She muttered with a little sorry smile and big eyes.
"That's okay." He shook his head as the corners of his mouth drew. They stood quite staring at each other for a while until Adrian took a step closer to her, "Listen, I know this is not appropriate since you're here with Theodore, but would you like to-" That's when he was abruptly cut off by someone.
__
A few minutes earlier...
"Are you having fun?" Astoria came up beside Draco after she spotted him alone next to the alcohol table.
"Yes, can't you see it?" He ironically answered, his bored voice.
The girl looked around, "Where's Pansy?"
"I don't know and I can't care less." Draco stated. When he had gone to take a drink, he had never come back to her. He also lost sight of Josephine.
"Why you don't care? She's your date."
"Just because I owned someone a favour." He merely spatted.
Astoria slowly nodded and her doe-eyed rested on Draco who, instead, hadn't even look at her since she came up beside him. He could feel her eyes on himself, so his head turned to face her, "What?" He snarled, bothered.
"I hoped you would ask me to be your date." She confessed as her lips tenderly smiled.
The boy scoffed, "Why?" He questioned, curiously. His teeth bited his lower lip.
"Because you're beautiful." She took another step towards him.
Draco was two years above Astoria and, differently from Daphne, she had long dark hair and hazel eyes. She was pretty and pureblood, but Draco wasn't particularly interested in her. In response, he chuckled and looked away, "Go back to Zabini, Greengrass."
Astoria shrugged, "I don't know where he's, in fact I wanted to ask you to dance."
"Listen, I don't-" Draco was cut off by spotting Josephine talking to Adrian accross the room, "Excuse me-" He growled, leaving Astoria completely alone in order to perilously march over them.
No chance, Pucey - He angrily thought.
He feared this could happen, but still hoped that Josephine was smarter. Adrian was accustomed to have all the girls of the school at his feet, and no one before Josephine had ever rejected one of his invites. Adrian was aware of being captivating, and took advantage of this quality to use girls - Draco knew it very well because he did the same thing, but Pucey couldn't do it to Josephine. Quickly, he rushed to her as he reflected about what to say to take her away.
"Would you like to-"
"Jòsephine." Draco sneaked in their conversation.
The two spinned around, "Draco-" Josephine smiled, a pinch of surprise in her voice.
"Malfoy..." Evidently annoyed, Adrian politely nodded, but Draco ignored him. He was solely focused on her.
"You need something?" Josephine asked.
"Yes." Draco stated, but panick overwhelmed him. His hands started sweating and his breath hastened. What could he come up with? The more he stared at her gentle smile, the more he got overwhelmed by the need of saying something, anything.
"Do you want to dance with me?"