I blinked in surprise as Dumbledore said it. We were silent for a moment. The silence was't awkward or comfortable but it did feel as though everything had frozen. Dumbledore's blue eyes searched my face, though no emotion was on it, my face was frozen blank.
Finally, I spoke, "If I just created that spell, I don't know how. Won't it be more difficult to creat a spell now..."
"You seem to have mastered your powers," Dumbledore said with a smile. "The teachers told me you've been doing much better in classes after the first task."
"I have?" I blinked, I wasn't working any harder. In fact, I've been very distracted lately, ever since Ced and I became a couple. "I haven't noticed."
"Yes, you seem very distracted lately," Dumbledore's beard twitched. I felt my face warm up, did the other teachers mention how much they caught Ced and I snogging in abandoned corridors? "So tell me, Nixie. When was the last time you spent time with your friends?"
I bit my lip guiltily, then I got mad at myself for feeling so guilty. "Why does that matter?"
"Just a mere question," Dumbedore didn't seem abashed at my harsh tone, on the contrary, he seemed amused. I didnt like it.
"Are we done?" I said, my eyes burned red and I glanced around the room, making sure he didn't see. "I'm meeting Cedric later."
"Of course," Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and studied me. "Have fun."
"Yeah... alright," I got to my feet and swept out of the room without a second glance back.
I slammed the door behind me, blinked the red out of my eyes and ran down the spiral staircase.
"Cedric?" I called. I was back in the abandoned corridor, but I didn't see my Ced. "Ced?"
I checked every nook and cranny, searching for Cedric, but he wasn't there. Only when the bell ring did I realise that Cedric left because class was starting... and I was going to be late.
I rushed down th many stairs and ran across the entrance hall, then ran up one set of stairs and to the Transfiguration classroom.
"Ah, Nixie, right on time," McGonagall said, looking up from her papers. "Take a seat."
I blushed and nodded. I took a seat right next to Danielle Johnson, who I have forgotten.
"Hi, I suppose you're going to blank me out too?" I asked payfully, secretly hoping that it wasn't true.
"No," Dani whispered as McGonagall started her lesson. "I'm sorry I haven't talked to you. It's just that Fred and George don't like Cedric and I didn't want to start a fight with them."
"Is that the same reason why everyone else is ignoring me?" I asked, glancing at Harry, Ron, and Hermione who were sitting in the back.
Dani's eyes fickered over to the three. "No. Harry is busy worrying about the second task, Hermione is busy worrying about Harry, and Ron is just pleased that Harry is talking to him again... Ron misses you though."
"Really?" I raised one eyebrow.
Dani grinned at me and shook her head. "Yeah, he really... well, I promise I wouldn't tell you."
"Tell me what-"
"Mm mm," Dani shook her head then frowned. "I'm sorry we never spoke before this... I guess we've both been distracted with boys."
"There's no doubt about that," I smiled, Cedric's face popped in my mind, his crooked smile as breath taking as ever.
Dani smirked at the look in my eyes and turned back to the front, where McGonagall was telling Harry and Ron off for playing with a fake wand from Fred and George.
"Potter! Weasley! Will you pay attention?" She sounded very irritated at the moment.
I looked at my watch and was surprised to find out that it was the end of the lesson; I didn't even do any work; the guinea fowl I had to change into a guinea pig was locked away in a cage with Neville's, who had feathers; I glanced at the blackboard and hurriedy wrote down the homework.
The bell was due to ring at any moment.
Harry and Ron looked up, their expressions bewildered.
"Now that Potter and Weasley have been kind enough to act their age," said Professor McGonagall, with an angry look at the pair of them as the head of Harry's haddock drooped and fell silently to the floor. "I have something to say to you all. The Yule Ball is approaching - a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be open only to fourth years and above - although you may invite a younger student if you wish -"
Lavender Brown let out an annoying ittle giggle that Dani and I cringed to. Padma Patil nudged her but she looked as though she were fighting a giggle herself. They both looked around at Harry, Professor McGonagall ignored them, which I thought was hilarious, as she had just told off Harry and Ron.
"Dress robes will be worn," Professor McGonagall continued, "and the ball will start at eight o'clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then -"
Professor McGonagall stared around, her eyes flying over each student deliberately.
"The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to - er - let our hair down," she said disapprovingly, I fought a smile.
Lavender let out a river of giggles, and she tried unsucessfully to stifle it by putting her hand over her mouth. I then felt guilty about laughing because I just realized that Lavender and I found the same thing funny: Professor McGonagall, with her hair in a tight bun, looked as though she had never let her hair down in any sense.
"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, "Mr. and Ms. Potter - a word, if you please."
I was worried that she seen Dani and I talking, but then I realised that she would have called up Dani also; this just made me curious.. Professor McGonagall waited until the rest of the class had gone, and then said, "Mr. and Ms. Potter, the champions and their partners -"
"What partners?" said Harry, his face was priceless, he was blushing like a maniac.
Professor McGonagall stared at him for a moment, as if to see if he was joking or not. She looked shocked that he was actually confused.
"Your partners for the Yule Ball, Potter," she said coldly. "Your dance partners."
A smile slowly spread on my face as I imagined Cedric and I slow dancing to a song... then snogging afterwards...
"Dance partners?" Harry's embarrassed voice broke into my reverie. "I don't dance," he said quickly.
"Oh yes, you do," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "That's what I'm telling you. Traditionally, the champions and their partners open the ball."
I then frowned, remembering the dress Mrs. Weasley got me, I imagined myself dancing in that dreaful outfit, accompinied by Cedric in his handsome suit with that beautiful smile on his face.
"I'm not dancing," Harry said, mercifully breaking me out of that reverie.
"It is traditional," said Professor McGonagall firmly. "You are a Hogwarts champion, and you will do what is expected of you as a representative of the school. So make sure you get yourself a partner, Potter."
"But-I don't-"
"You heard me, Potter," said Professor McGonagall in a very final sort of way.
Finding a partner would be easy, I already had my Cedric, but making the dress look charming would be very difficult. My brain quickly made a list of the only girls who had any sense of stile and my mind landed on only two people; Bonnie and Dani. Lavender dressed well but she was way too girly for my taste, and I would rather have another go with the American Majesta then ask for her help.
I sprinted out of the classroom and was shocked to see Dani leaning against the wall on the other side of the corridor with a smirk on her face.
"Why did you wait?" I asked, surprised.
Her smirk widened. "I seen that dress, Nixie, we both know it needs some work."
The past couple of days Dani had helped me sort out my dress, and I was shocked to see how beautiful it was now that we put some work into it.
Cedric was very antsy, he wanted to see the dress, and I wanted so bad to show him; but it was fun to make him curious.
Lots of girls came up to Dani and I one evening, and it had to be the funniest thing ever.
"Hey Nixie, hi Danielle," Hannah Abbot said, coming to me with about all of the girls in fourth year.
"Hi Hannah," I smiled, surprised. She was a sweet girl and we spoke sometimes in Herbology but we never spoke outside of class. "Nice to see you."
"Nice to see you too," she beamed. Then she glanced at her friends, who grinned evilly. She opened her mouth, blushed, then closed it again. She glanced at her friends for help. "I'm sorry, girls, I can't say this out loud."
"Fine," said Bonnie, who I haven't seen until she spoke. "Nixie, Dani, will you join our group?"
"What?" Dani snorted, obviously getting the situation even though I didn't. "You girls are forming a group? Come on, haven't the boys suffered enough?"
"No," Parvati smiled. "I want a brave and confident guy asking me out, not a wimp..."
"Oh," I said, finally getting the gist of this thing. "Sure, we'll join."
"'Kay," Dani shrugged, moving over to give the girls more room to sit.
"Yes!" The girls sueled and sat down next to us, whispering excitedly about the ball and throwing flirty glances at boys around the Great Hall (most of the glances landed on my brother).
"So, I think we all know who Nixie is going to the dance with," Parvati giggled.
"Really?" I said, pretending to be surprised. "Who?"
"Dont play stupid with us, missy," Susan Bones said, a supirior smirk on her face. "Everyone knows you and Cedric Diggory are an official item."
I blushed with pleasure. "Yeah, well, he hasn't asked me yet."
"He's probably wandering a good way to ask you," Bonnie said reasuringly. "but he better hurry, alot of guys are looking your way this very second, and I think he has some tough competition."
"Cedric having competition?" I almost laughed. "Yeah right, he is the cutest guy in the school."
The girls raised their eyebrows and glanced at eachother, before turning back to me. It was odd to see them all do it at the exact same time.
"I knew there was something differant about you after you made it around that dragon," Susan said.
"I noticed it too," Hannah agreed, a little grin on her face. "I thought it was the after shock from the dragon but now..."
"What are you talking about!" I interupted.
"Nixie... Are you in love with Cedric Diggory?" Dani said, straght foreward like usual.
"What? No. No!" I said, having no idea why I was denying it. It just felt weird admitting it to the girls, when I haven't een built up the courage to say it to Cedric yet. "No its just a... a... thing."
"Oh, Nixie, Nixie, Nixie..." Mandy Brocklehurst shook her head in amusement. "Even I noticed how happy you are, and we never even spoke to eachother. You are glowing right now, even when you're irritated."
I couldn't deny the fact that I was happier then I ever was since my parents died.
"Okay... but I'm not in love with him," I said, feeling sick. "Can we just... talk about something else?"
"Okay." they said, smiling. They started talking about the hottest kids in Hogwarts, which included the most obvious: Cedric, Fred, George, Lee, Dean, Blaise, and Terry. It also included the most shocking: Harry, Seamus, and Malfoy.
"Malfoy," Parvati giggled to Bonnie. "So he is your boyfriend."
Bonnie glanced at me nervously, as though expecting me to yell at her. "Of course not. I just think he's hot."
They opened their mouth to say something but stopped and their eyes widened, staring right behind me. I turned and was shocked to see Morag McDougal. I never really noticed how fanciable he looked.
"Hi, Nixie," he said with a winning smile. "I wanted to ask you something."
"Which is?" I asked, knowing the question already.
"Will you go to the Yule Ball with me." It sounded more like a demand, and that made his fanciable scale go way down, it probably hit rock bottom.
"No." I said, then turned to the girls, who looked at me as though I were crazy. I guess I was, Morag was huge and I didn't even bother to spare his feelings.
"Excuse me?" his tone indicated that he wasn't going to take 'no' for an answer, so I tried a differant approach. I turned around and looked him in the eye.
"I don't want to go with you, Morag," I said firmly, then added in a sickly sweet tone. "I'm sorry."
"You're saying no?" he said, as though he didn't believe me. "Seriously?"
"Yes," I said, nodding. "Seriously."
Morag seemed confused for a moment, then he grinned. 'You're playing hard to get, arent you?"
"No, I really don't want to go to the Yule Ball with you," I said. "I said no, now go."
Morag stared at me for a moment, before leaving.
"Pushy," I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "And way too over confident."
"Well, he has a reason to be," Susan laughed, she looked as though she had been fighting laughter the whole time. "But we all knew you were going to say no, your body language said so."
I raised my eyebrows.
"The second he asked you your whole body turned in the direction of Cedric," said Mandy. Her Ravenclaw brain was showing. "You were unconsciously wishing that Cedric Diggory was the one asking you to go to the Yule Ball, not Morag McGougal."
"Yeah..." I said, a little freaked out but I kept quiet.
After that it was very interesting to see all the wimpy boys who were too scared to ask one of us girls out in front of the others. Three differant boys were brave enough to ask me out, the others smiled shyly at me and scampered off.
I died of laughter when I figured out that Harry was one of the boys too scared to ask a girl out in front of her friends.
One time the girls and I were walking past Harry and Ron, who were looking scandalized at the fact that we were still in pacts. The girls sniggered and stared at Harry, but I found it awkward and turned away, winking at Terry Boot.
"That is it! I want to ask him," said Meredith Scowling. She glanced at my brother, flicking her curly hair behind her shoulder. "You think he'll go out with a third-year?"
"Sure," Dani said, though she didn't sound convinced. "Go ahead."
Meredith was already running towards Harry, but he said no so quickly I doubted he thought it over. Meredith didn't even come back to the group, she was so hurt that she ran back to her room.
A curly-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl to whom Harry had never spoken in his life asked him to go to the ball with her the very next day. Harry was so taken aback he said no before he'd even stopped to consider the matter. The girls and I didnt find this funny, but Dean, Seamus, and Ron certaibly did because they guffawed down the whole corridor.
The more the days past, the more unnerved I got. Why wasn't Cedric asking me to the Yule Ball yet? Did he just think that we were going because we were a couple? I thought so too but it would be nice to be asked.
The last week of term became increasingly boisterous as it progressed. Rumours about the Yule Ball were flying everywhere, though I didn't believe half of them - for instance, that Dumbledore had bought eight hundred barrels of mulled mead from Madam Rosmerta. It seemed to be fact, however, that he had booked the Weird Sisters. Exactly who or what the Weird Sisters were I didn't know, never having had access to a wizard's wireless, but I deduced from the wild excitement of those who had grown up listening to the WWN (Wizarding Wireless Network) that they were a very famous musical group.
Some of the teachers, like little Professor Flitwick, gave up trying to teach us much when our minds were so clearly elsewhere; he allowed us to play games in his lesson on Wednesday, and spent most of it talking to me about the perfect Summoning Charm I had used during the first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Other teachers were not so generous. Nothing would ever deflect Professor Binns, for example, from plowing on through his notes on goblin rebellions - as Binns hadn't let his own death stand in the way of continuing to teach, we supposed a small thing like Christmas wasn't going to put him off. It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as boring as Percy's cauldron-bottom report.
Professors McGonagall and Moody kept us working until the very last second of our classes too, and Snape, of course, would no sooner let us play games in class than adopt Harry (Dani and I made that joke one lesson... it sounded funnier back then). Staring nastily around at us all, he informed us that he would be testing us on poison antidotes during the last lesson of the term.
"He's insane," Dani muttered to me as we left the castle. "He obviously has no social life."
"No, no he doesn't," I said distractedly.
Dani followed my line of sight and smiled. "Well, I'll be in the common room if you need me."
I patted her arm and skipped over to Cedric, who was looking at me with the same expression he always had when we started to go out. He looked at me as though I were the only girl alive, like I meant the world to him. I felt the same way about him, and that's what made my heart warm.
"Hi,Ced," I said, giving him a peck on the lips and wrapping my arms around his neck. The crowd was thinning, making me more comfortable.
"Hi Nix," Cedric pulled me closer and I blushed a little when two girls walked by us giggling like mad. "How was your day."
"I've broken a few hearts," I said, then when he raised on eyebrow, I answered. "Boys asked me to the Yule Ball."
"Will they just give it a break?" He muttered, annoyed. I was pretty sure I wasn't supposed to hear that so I kept silent.
There was no more people in the corridor anymore, and it was getting pretty late, so the light was totally dim. An electric current zapped between the two of us and it didn't take long before our lips met gently.
A few lovely moments later, I signed happily and I pulled away slightly. I pressed my lips once more against his. Smiling up at him, I untangled my fingers from his hair and grabbed his his hand instead.
"You haven't told me how your day was," I breathed, my heart pounding against his chest.
"It was a long, long day," Cedric signed, pressing his forehead against mine. "The professors didn't make it any better, droning on about nothing... all that kept me through it was knowing I was going to see you later on."
"That was incredibley cliche... but sweet," I said truthfully.
"Sweet enough to get another kiss?" Cedric said hopefully.
I pecked him on the lips and smriked. "Aren't you going to ask me something?" I asked, hoping he would ask me to the Yule Ball.
"No," Cedric's eyebrows furrowed, he was so cute when he was confused. "Why?"
"No reason..." I said with a fake smile. "So, what color are you wearing to the Yule Ball, I want us to match. I'm actually hoping that you'll wear green, it makes your eyes pop."
Cedric raised his eyebrows, boys never understood. "Wait! I never even asked you to the Yule Ball."
"Well, if it means so much to you, ask me," I said, fighting a smile.
"Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" Cedric asked with his famous crooked grin.
"What? No!" I said, pushing him away from me, which wasn't very successful because he was all strong, so all that happened was that I pushed myself back.
"What?" Cedric caught me before I fell.
"You made a big deal about asking me," I said, my nose in the air. "The least you can do is be more romantic about it?"
Cedric grinned at me and took out his wand. He did a silent spell and a beautiful red rose. He nelt down on one knee and looked me in the eyes.
"Will you, Nixie Mary Potter, accompany me to the Yule Ball?" he asked seriously.
I smiled at him. "Aw, of course I will, Ced."
His hand cupped my cheek and he smiled at me. I loved how his eyes were a light grey, how they shined when he looked at me, and how easily I could get lost in them and forget all my worries.
"I love you," I was shocked when I heard those words slip through my lips so confidently and truthfully.
His eyes widened the same time mine did. I suddenly felt self conscious and embarrassed, what if he didn't say it back? Or worse? What if he said it back but didn't really mean it?
I was spared from hearing his next words because footsteps were running our way.
Cedric's eyes flicked over my shoulder, still shocked. I peeked behind me and seen Dani, her eyes rimmed with red and her cheeks had tears streaming down.
"Dani? What's wrong?" I asked wearily.
"Oh." Her blue eyes flickered between Cedric and I. "Am I interupting?
"No." I said, too embarrassed to look at Cedric again. "I was just about to head back."
Cedric's hand brushed against my own and I heard his footsteps echo down the corridor before they slowly disappeared.
"Are you okay, Dani?" I asked, moving towards her and engulfing her in a hug. "What happened?"
"It's Fred," she sniffled. She was taller then me, so it almost felt as though she were comforting me. "I heard him... he practically shouted it across the whole common room."
"What are you talking about?"
"Fred... asked Angelina to the Yule Ball."
I shook my head. "Dani, don't you think that you should just... you know... move on?"
"Move on..." Dani whispered, her voice was broken in so many ways it hurt me. "Nixie, don't you think I tried?"
I honestly didn't think she ever thought of moving along, but I didn't say it.
"Do you think I like hurting so much?" she went on. She held me at arm lenghth and leaned against the wall. More tears streamed down her face as she slid down and put ran her fingers through her black hair. "Every time he smiles at her, it hurts me; every time he laughes at her jokes, even when it wasn't very funny, it hurts... Nixie, I'm just so tired of getting hurt."
My eyes were starting to burn with tears I refused to let flow.
"But every time he smiles at me, every time he laughs at my jokes, I fall in love with him all over again. I hate how weak I am, but I can't stop it. I know I'll get hurt, but I still follow him. I still pretend that everythings fine even though I feel like breaking down inside..." Dani choked on her tears. "I'm sorry for blubbering all of this to you, but I have no one else..."
I rushed over to her and hugged her. "Don't apologize, Dani. You shouldn't keep all of this bottled up inside."
Dani opened her mouth to speak but all that came was a pained wail.
I searched her heartbroken expression and felt bad for her, but I couldn't stop the voice in the back of my mind that was glad that that expression never appeared on my features.