THE GREAT HALL WAS ready and set for the ball. Many of the students were ready to start and the professors were arranging the last details. Professor McGonagall was getting anxious about Hermione and Wendy's tardiness, frantically asking each student that arrived for the two girls. Fortunately, they appeared just before she could start to literally move the castle's grounds to find them.
The two, elegantly arrived without minding the time, "finally, girls!" She greeted them, "come here you two— in line!"
Hermione walked over to stand beside Victor Krum who greeted her with a small bow, making the girl giggle. Wendy noticed Michael with an arm offered to Fleur Delacour in his elegant robes. White to match the silver dress of his partner and a long silver sash around his neck that fell until his knees; on that sash he wished for Wendy to knit the names of their parents—Vincent and Juliette—the detail that Wendy loved the most. The names were breaded in silver and white beads.
Michael greeted her, "you look like garbage."
"I guess it's in our DNA," she laughed, then looked at Harry with neat black robes on and Cho Chang by his side, "hey Harry, looking great."
His cheeks flushed lightly, "Thanks, Wendy," he said with a smile and looked over at Cho Chang again.
Cedric was waiting for her, standing just behind of Michael. His face unreadable and he didn't seem to be talking soon, he just looked at her.
"I'm so sorry I'm late," she apologized, "there was some—"
"It's alright," he said finally with a soft smile, "if I knew you would come looking like an angel, I would have waited all night."
Wendy, at this point, totally forgot about the second mission she had on course. Cedric was being an absolute charm. She grabbed his arm, and took a deep breath in. She was so anxious to do something wrong while around Cedric, he was so perfect while she could have slipped on her shoes anytime soon. But she came prepared and because of that, she made sure her dress softly touched the floor but not more, too scared to trip on her own hem.
The music started playing and the four champions and their partners walked in, where everyone was already waiting for them. Wendy did her best to focus on her walk, while the other three girls looked so at ease in their shoes.
Only then she realised she was in a line with Harry Potter, the boy who lived, Hermione Granger, the brightest witch of her age, Cho Chang, the wittiest girl she knew, her brother, the literal saviour throughout her life, Viktor Krum, a professional athlete adored by thousands, and by her side, the golden boy, Cedric Diggory. To walk among such amazing people, she felt so little.
Cedric gently got Wendy's hand and brought his other hand on her waist. At the contact Wendy felt her breath leave her body. The two never got so physically close as she was right then with Cedric. Barely even held hands during their first date. All that was such an exciting and terrifying new experience and for some reason Wendy knew she could handle fighting better than dancing.
"Don't let me fall," she asked almost desperately.
He smiled at her reassuringly, "Never."
Then the music started again, a waltz started playing and Cedric took over. He directed the girl, holding her close and caressing her hand. The jump was near and Wendy got ready for it; helping him she pushed herself up, making the boy laugh.
"I'm so sorry," she said laughing, "I'm horrible at this."
"At least now, there's proof you're real," he said stepping up to the music, "if you were also good at dancing I might begin to think you're some perfect magical creature."
Wendy saw the boy and the people that were dancing around her just in the same way. But she never thought of herself as anything even near to that. Many characters in books are just as flawed as people in real life, that what brings them so close to the reader, and most of the time, those flaws were the exact reason why the readers loved them. She wondered if her flaws made the reader of her story fall for her too.
"I'm far from perfect," she took three steps.
"Good," he span her around, "I am too."
"Wendy!" Hermione called for the girl, "The Weird Sisters are gonna be playing later tonight!"
Wendy never really heard the famous band playing in real life, but the hype was so overwhelming that she just had to go along with it. But at that moment, her feet were killing her and decided to rest for a while.
"Seems like the Queen is down," Draco said from behind her.
The girl chuckled at her new nickname and turned to look at him, "Queen?"
He shrugged his shoulders, "princess is too simple for you."
"The twins call me princess," she said.
"They're simple people."
Wendy preferred not to say anything, she still didn't like that part of Draco and tried her best to find ways to deal with it. She's proud to say that Draco didn't search for fights against the Gryffindors anymore, but the snide comments were still hard to get rid off.
"Wanna dance?"
"I thought you were tired," he said.
"I promised you a dance," she offered her hand.
The boy smirked and helped her up, "won't Diggory mind I'm stealing his date?"
"Diggory," she mocked him, "is a very understanding person, unlike other people."
They walked towards the crowd of couples dancing, "am I other people?"
Wendy simply smiled mockingly at him, refusing to answer and when they reached the edge of the dancing floor, he pulled her close and gently put his hand at the little of her back. Her breath was short and, for the second time that night, she found herself close to a boy she never even dared to touch.
Their chests were almost touching. Her breath tickled his neck and he forced himself to hold it all in. He was not gonna let this chance go just because he was a little ticklish. Her hand in his, and unlike Cedric his touch was light, almost scared to touch her, but the hand behind her back pushed her so close it was almost like he didn't want her to get far even for an inch.
Draco's steps were smoother too, almost natural. She thought of the big mansion she stayed over for the summer and wondered if there was a ballroom for the big events his parents would host. His body flowed towards the center of the dance floor, and in seconds they were dancing among the other students.
Most people continued dancing, but it was inevitable for them to catch some unwanted eyes. Mostly Slytherins and Gryffindors were the ones studying the two. Draco's loyal friends whispered to each other and Parkinson was not even trying to hide her glare. Harry, who has been dancing with Cho Chang the whole night, couldn't ignore his best friend dancing with Malfoy.
Although he was not in favour for it, he couldn't stop them and cause unneeded drama. He united with Ron and Hermione, hoping to find some sort of support of his unease.
"This is wrong, isn't it?" He said.
Ron nodded in agreement, not find in him the force to say anything bad, for she had helped him with his new more elegant robes.
Hermione, though, she did have something to say, "leave her be, I'm sure she knows what's she's doing."
"What if he's trying to manipulate her?" Harry offered, "to know about Sirius or something."
Hermione's mind did touch that thought, but she knew that Wendy was smart enough to know wrong and right, and she stood by her, "we gotta trust her."
Harry looked again at the two. Wendy was smiling with delight and Draco, Harry never saw him with an expression so gentle, a little colour on the pale of his cheeks; and his lips, in a smirk that didn't have to do with anything malicious. Just happiness.
notes:
the whole yule ball was supposed to be in one chapter only, but it became around 9000 words and i thought it would have been too long to read. So i made reasonable shorter chapters. Hope you like them!
I am working on Draco's character development, but it's hard to keep him the way he is (the way we have learned to love him) and change him for the better too. I kind of put a whole thing about it in this chapter, talking about the flaws of fictional characters.
I hope you will start thinking about yourself like that too. Someone somewhere will love your flaws, or maybe there already is someone. Don't hide. You're a Wendy too, may be feeling insecure around amazing people, but you are quite amazing yourself!
Stay safe everyone!