NINE
THE YULE BALL
THE YULE BALL WAS tonight and Valentina would be lying to herself if she said she wasn't excited. She had finished getting ready and was quite proud of her appearance. Her tight, strapless black dress clung nicely down her body leaving a small trail at the end, just hiding her black heels. Her long, dark hair was swept over to one side, showing off her elegant curls. Her makeup complimented her features with a dark smokey eye on her eyelid, winged eyeliner and a dark red lipstick completing her look. Valentina felt good.
"Shit," Valentina said to herself when she noticed that she was ten minutes late and hurried out the door.
By the time she arrived, she could see everyone lining up with their dates, about to head into the hall. Valentina feared she might have been too late as she stood at the top of the stairs, looking for Cedric until she noticed the handsome boy standing with the other champions smiling at her. Breathing a sigh of relief, she gave a little smirk before gracefully walking down the steps, feeling a lot of staring eyes on her along with many whispers.
"Glad you could make it," Cedric smiled at her, offering Valentina his arm as she approached him.
"Sorry," she said, wrapping her arm around his, "I hope I'm not too late."
"Just in time," said Cedric as Professor McGonagall lead the group of champions and their dates into the Great Hall towards a large round table at the top of the Hall where the judges were sitting while everyone clapped for them.
The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each sitting about a dozen people.
As Valentina sat down next to Cedric she took it as an opportunity to observe the people around her. She noticed Harry Potter and his date Parvati Patil looking rather uncomfortable, Fleur Delacour was complaining to her date Roger Davies about Hogwarts, and then there was Hermione Granger teaching Viktor how to pronounce her name.
"You look beautiful tonight," said Cedric leaning in closely to Valentina.
Valentina smiled, "You don't look so bad yourself, Pretty Boy."
Cedric faked a gasp, "oh merlin, did the Valentina Lestrange just give me a compliment?"
"Shut up," Valentina grumbled, lightly punching his arm.
"I'm only kidding, bumper girl," Cedric smiled.
The pair continued to speak to each other while they ate their food, continuously laughing and enjoying each other's company until Dumbledore stood up and asked everyone to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clean, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.
As the Weird Sisters trooped onto the stage and set up for their performance, Cedric led Valentina into the brightly lit dance floor, along with the other champions and their partners. As the music began Cedric placed one hand around Valentina's waist and placing his other in Valentina's while she put her other hand on his shoulder. Valentina was surprised by how good of a dancer Cedric was and how easily they flowed together. For who knew how long, they danced and danced, taking in each other's company and not taking notice of the watchful eyes and everyone joining in. Valentina didn't realise how long they had been dancing until Cedric offered to get them drinks, to which Valentina agreed and waited for him to return.
"You seem to be having a good time," said Fred Weasley, appearing beside Valentina the moment Cedric walked away.
"How nice of you to observe, Weasley," said Valentina bluntly, before moving through the crowd.
"Have you told him what you are?" Fred asked, pushing through people to follow the dark-haired beauty.
"Told him that I'm what, Weasley?" Valentina questioned, keeping her back from him as she continued to move.
"You—you know..." Fred raised his eyebrows at her leaning closely.
Valentina stopped and turned to face him. "Fred," she addressed him by his first name, taking the redhead back by surprise. "You showed me the dragons which were cool and all but that was it. Just looking at dragons. It doesn't make us friends or anything remotely close to it so back off from my life, what I wish to tell everyone is my business, not yours."
"I didn't mean it like that," said Fred. "It's just you two have been getting close, and you haven't exactly even confirmed that you are one with me—"
"Is that what you want to hear, Weasley?" Valentina cut him off. "You want to hear that I'm a metamorphmagus? If that's all it takes for you to back off from me, then fine, I am one, but don't think I won't hesitate to remove your balls if I so much as hear a whisper about it from you or anyone else. Now, for the last time, leave me alone."
Once again, Valentina walked away from the redhead, leaving him in shock. He was taken aback for a couple of seconds before smiling realising that Valentina had finally told him the truth. He knew that if she really disliked him, she wouldn't have shared that secret with him, especially when he had given up on asking about it ages ago, however, she did share it and in some way, he gained a little bit of her trust. This thought made him happy as he knew he was finally one step forward into wherever they were going.
Meanwhile, Valentina searched for Cedric before finally finding him near the drinks table. After talking and drinking for a couple minutes, they found themselves dancing in the crowd again before deciding to take a walk outside. They strolled out into the courtyard, hand in hand, sharing stories of their past.
"When I was going to school in Japan during the second half of my second year I always found myself in trouble," Valentina laughed, reminiscing.
"I can't imagine you being that troublesome," Cedric remarked sarcastically, smiling down at her.
"Well, I did get expelled from five different schools all across the world," she stated. "Anyway, well, about three days into school I accidentally transfigured a deer into a stapler, except it still had a tail..."
Cedric chuckled, "How does someone accidentally transfigure a deer into a stapler?"
"Well," began Valentina, "I couldn't speak much Japanese and I didn't have time to prepare because of the quick change in schools, but there was one boy in my class who could translate for me. His name was Jimmy."
Cedric laughed even louder, "Jimmy?"
"Yes, well, at least that's what he told me his name was," said Valentina before continuing her story. "Jimmy thought he was being funny and told me during our transfiguration class that we were meant to go catch one of the native deer that roamed the school and to transfigure it into a stapler but it still had to have the tail. It turned out really we were meant to transfigure mice into paperclips, and, well, I ended up with three months worth of detentions."
"Why didn't you tell them that, Jimmy told you to do it?" Cedric asked.
"I couldn't speak any Japanese to tell them," Valentina laughed. "Don't worry though. Once I learned the language I got back at him. He was a funny kid."
"Atta girl," said Cedric. "So, you must be pretty talented to speak English and Japanese."
"Yeah, I suppose," Valentina shrugged nonchalantly. "I can also speak French, Bulgarian and Portuguese."
"Why do you know so many?" Cedric asked.
"They were the languages most of the students spoke at my previous schools. They were quite easy to pick up when everyone else was speaking it every day," said Valentina.
"Right," said Cedric, trying to wrap his head around about how talented this girl was.
They came to a stop, looking out into their surroundings and taking in the moment. Cedric looked down at Valentina to see her shivering slightly from the cold.
"Here, take this," Cedric said, taking off his jacket and offering it to her.
"Oh no, I'm fine," Valentina rejected.
"Val, it won't hurt you. Just take it," Cedric said, holding it out in front of her.
"Ok," Valentina took the jacket from him, placing it on herself and began to quickly feel warm again.
They stood in silence for a couple of moments before Valentina broke it.
"I had a dream about you the other night," she looked up at him.
He raised his eyebrows, "Really? What was it about?"
"It was kind of silly now that I think about it," she began. "We were swimming in the Black Lake together, except I was in my school uniform for who knows what bloody reason but you were in your swimming trunks. Then, we swam to the bank, you wrapped me in a towel. Dumbledore was there with the rest of the students and judges and they announced you in first place for the tournament. Then..."
"Then-then what?" Cedric questioned. He was standing right in front of her, holding her hands.
"It's stupid really," she looked away in embarrassment.
"No," Cedric reassured her. "You can tell me."
"Ok," she agreed. "We kissed."
Cedric smiled. "Was it anything like this?"
Before Valentina knew it his lips were on hers. At first she was too shocked to react but quickly responded as her lips molded into his. The kiss was soft and gentle, yet she felt electricity course through her veins and as if her world was on fire. One of Cedric's hands moved to her waist while the other came up to the side of her face. Valentina, unsure of what to do moved her hands over his shoulders and around his neck.
She couldn't believe it. Cedric was kissing her. Her first kiss.
Before she knew it, after a few moments the kiss was over and she was pulled into reality.
"Just like that," she whispered, foreheads touching.
"We should probably head back inside," said Cedric after a couple moments.
"Yeah," Valentina agreed, taking his hand and walking back inside.
They mingled and danced for a little longer until noticing that the event was beginning to wind down and everyone was heading for bed.
When entering the entrance hall, ready to say goodbye to each other, Cedric noticed Harry climbing the staircase and quickly wanted to talk to him.
"Sorry, I'll be right back," Cedric excused himself from Valentina and chased after Harry.
Valentina waited a couple of minutes, watching the two converse in conversation. Cedric finally walked away from a very confused Harry and returned to her.
"I had a good night," Cedric grinned.
"Me too," said Valentina. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Cedric said before pulling Valentina into another quick kiss. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," Valentina bid her farewell before walking away from the grey-eyed boy.
She was sure of one thing. This was one of the best nights she had ever experienced, and not even a Weasley could wipe off the grin on her face.