Ron and I were sitting in the common room with the two of us as Harry had gone to bed and Hermione had to finish an assignment. Chantry had told me she would be with Andon, so she wasn't there either.
'I hate dances,' said Ron. 'Have you ever been to a dance before?'
'Weddings. I have attended loads of those. Big family, you see.'
I nodded. 'Want to see her face next friday,' said Ron. I didn't understand what he was talking about. 'Who?'
'Hermione ofcourse!'
'And why is that?'
'Because nobody's asked her ofcourse.'
I hadn't see that one coming. 'And why do you think that?'
'Yeah. If she doesn't want to tell who she's going with...'
'That doesn't mean anything. I mean, I won't tell you either.'
'Because you think we would make fun of you, probably.' I hit his arm. Sometimes he was such an asshole.
'No, because I think you would be angry or you wouldn't understand or something like that. Because of your stupid reaction.'
He sniffed as he looked up at me. 'You can't know that, as you're not telling me.'
I shrugged. 'I'll leave it unknown then.'
'No, come on Dora. Who are you going with?'
'I'm not telling you that.'
---
Finally the day of the ball had arrived. I just hoped it would be alright, as I always felt uncomfortable at parties or anything like that.
Hermione, Chantry and I were in our dormitory, preparing for the ball. Chantry held her dark blue dress in front of her and looked at us. 'What do you think?' she asked.
'It's beautiful,' Hermione said. Chantry turned to face me. 'Yeah. Beautiful,' I said, whilst I was searching for my dress in my trunk. I had finally found it: a normal black dress with short sleeves, it came up to my knees.
I put on my dress and then my shoes. 'Wow, Dora. It's pretty!' Chantry said as she walked over to me with her brush in her hand.
In half an hour we were all ready and we went down to the common room and then to the Entrance Hall. Everywhere we saw girls in long dresses and boys in dress-robes. There was already music coming from the Great Hall, as the students were entering. My eyes searched the room for Draco, and I cought him gazing at me. I smiled at him as I walked towards him. Hermione had seen Krum and had joined him, and Chantry's date wasn't there yet. She was looking at Draco and me, with wide eyes.
'Hi Calli. You look stunning tonight,' Draco greeted me. 'You too,' I answered. He grinned as we entered the Great Hall.
Never in my whole life I had seen something as beautiful as this. The room was decorated with ice crystals, garlands, christmas trees, snowflakes and a lot more.
After the champions had entered, it was time to dance. Draco pulled me towards the dance-floor, I sighed. 'No, I can't dance,' I said, but he only grinned. 'Oh, you can. And if it goes completely wrong, you're only embarrassed for the whole school,' he stated.
'Sounds great!'
After a few dances, Draco went somewhere and I walked towards Hermione, Harry and Ron, as Seamus took my arm. I stopped and turned around. 'Hey! Would you like to dance?'
I looked around, but Draco was nowhere to be seen.
'Yeah, okay!'
He smiled and pulled me towards the dancefloor. We danced a pretty long time, and it was the first time I actually enjoyed dancing. Dancing with Seamus was just fun.
After a while, we left the dancefloor. Seamus went to get us some drinks and I walked towards Hermione, Harry and Ron.
Harry and Ron were sitting aside and Hermione seemed to have had great time so far.
Ron muttered something to them as I approached. 'Hi!' I said, smiling.
'There you are! What the hell were you thinking?'
I frowned. 'What?'
'What the bloody hell were you thinking when you said yes to Malfoy?!' Ron snapped at me. Why was he overreacting like that? Draco was a friend and my cousin. Can't we hang around together then?
'What's that suppose to mean?' I snapped back at him, crossing my arms. He stood up. 'Well, you're a Gryffindor. And he's a filty Slytherin! You're dancing with our enemy!'
'Your enemy!' I said with a small chuckle, raising my eyebrows. 'He's not your enemy, nor mine!'
'Ha! How do you know he's not my enemy?'
'Oh, I don't know! Maybe you should look a bit further. Maybe the Death Eaters are your enemy, or Lord Voldemort!' Everybody around us looked up when I called his name, except for Harry.
'That's right! Your vicious father is my enemy indeed! You're unbelievable! Defending that bloody creep! You're nothing better than him!'
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. 'Oh yeah? How do you know that, you've never actually met him.'
'Really?! You think I would like to meet such a violent idiot! One should be happy he's in Azkaban soon.'
Something inside me snapped. 'How dare you insult my father like that?' I said calmly.
'He deserves it! Why do you think they're searching for him?'
'I never said that what he does is right. I just want you to understand he's my dad.'
'How can I understand that?'
'Ron-' Hermione muttered, trying to stop him from going any further.
'Well, your family's related to all those Death Eaters too. You might have thought about that?'
'Well, they are not my dad!'
'Why the hell does that matter? You should look at the person itself, not at their family. You shouldn't judge people on their friends or family!'
'Really? Again? Don't you have something better to say?'
'Ron, I'm just trying to make you understand.'
'Well, don't try! Because nobody will ever understand!'
I felt really sad and hurt. I really thought he was my friend. He had been friendly to me for months, but the moment he found out about my dad, our friendship was torn apart. And why? Just because he was too stupid to understand.
I told myself I didn't need to care about that, but my heart did so anyway.
'You've gone too far now Ron,' I muttered, as I turned around and left the Great Hall, tears dripping down my face. I didn't want to cry, but I couldn't help it. It was just too much. I lost my friends and soon I was going to lose my dad.
I went outside for a bit of fresh air and sat down on a bench. It was cold outside and it was snowing, but I liked the winter and snow, so I didn't mind.
I couldn't believe it. I had just let Ron Weasley destroy something that would've been an amazing evening.
***
Seamus (Yes, we're changing!)
With two drinks in my hand, I turned around and searched for Dora, but I didn't catch sight of her jet black hair, so I went to Harry, Hermione and Ron.
As I approached, I noted Hermione and Ron were arguing. The conversation fell silent as I arrived. The three of them were gazing at me. Harry was the first to say something. 'Dora? She's outside,' he said, pointing at the door. 'You haven't been arguing with her?' I asked as I saw Rons face.
'Actually I did,' he sneered at me. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. 'Really? Now with all that going on with her father? She might not show it, but it is bothering her!'
'And she tells that to you?' Ron snapped back at me, raising his eyebrows.
'Yes, she does. You supposed to notice if there's something bothering your friend.'
I turned around and wanted to set off, as Ron said something. 'Yeah, go comfort her, loverboy.'
'Ron!' I heard Hermione say. I didn't answer, but set off.
In the Entrance Hall, I searched for her everywhere, but I didn't see her anywhere, so I went outside. After a few minutes, I saw her: she was sitting on a bench, in open air. Her hair was full of snowflakes and she looked very cold.
Dora's POV
I looked up as I heard someone sit down beside me. 'God, you look hypothermic,' Seamus said with a worried look. 'I'm not hypothermic.'
'Really? You're sitting in the damn snow. Come inside, please,' he said. I heard worry in his voice.
'I like snow,' I said as only answer. 'You're cold.'
'I don't care at the moment. I came here to have a nicer time than up there. Please don't spoil it.'
He grinned. 'That's not my intention. I just want to be here for you.' I nodded.
We sat there for a few minutes, not saying anything.
'Do you want to go for a walk?' I suggested. 'Now?'
'Yeah. Should be fun.' I smiled. He stood up, took off his jacket and put it around my shoulders. 'Thanks.' He stretched out his hand and I took it.
*~*~*~*~*
This was the Yule Ball! I actually think I ruined it completely, I was looking forward to write the Yule Ball-part, but when I was finally doing it, I just wanted to skip it really, but as it's so important and immense, I couldn't.
Loran