The dinner 'party' Professor Slughorn held for his 'slug club' was exceptionally boring. I could notice a pattern of the people that attended this dinner, extremely smart or talented in something, or their parents are well known. Cormac was most likely invited to the party because his parents are both from the ministry. Blaise Zabini was also invited, his mom was rich and famous but for the wrong reasons. All of her 7 husbands died and she ended up with a ton of money.
During the whole dinner, I didn't speak much. I didn't look up either knowing Cormac would be staring at me. For dessert, we were served ice cream, it was really sweet with all the syrup, just the way I liked it.
"So tell me Cormac, did you see anything of your uncle Tiberius these days?" Professor Slughorn asked.
"Yes sir, in fact, he's meant to go hunting with the minister of magic over the holidays,"
"Well, be sure to give them both my best. What about your uncle Belby? Those of you who don't know Marcus' uncle invented the wolfsbane potion, is he working on anything new?"
"I dunno, him and my dad don't get on. He says my dad's potions are rubbish. His only potion that my dad likes is the one with alcohol anyway" Belby replied shoving his face with the ice cream. From right beside him, Blaise was judging every single movement he made though not saying anything. (A/N) Rewatched this scene over and over again and couldn't figure out the hell he was saying lol.
"What about you Miss Granger, what exactly does your family do in the muggle world?"
"My parents are dentists," Hermione said making everyone look at her confused. "...They tend to people's teeth"
"Fascinating, and is that considered a dangerous profession?"
"No, although, one boy did bite my father once. He needed 10 stitches," Hermione said laughing a little. Everyone once again stopped eating and looked at her confused, Blaise and I had the same exact look on our face. The door opened and Ginny came in with red eyes drawing the attention from Hermione to her.
"Ah, Miss Weasley, come in, come in" Professor Slughorn greeted.
"Look at her eyes, they've been fighting again, her and Dean," Hermione leaned in to whisper to me.
"Sorry, I'm not usually late," She said sitting down at her seat. Her eyes were puffy and swollen, she was definitely crying for hours before coming here.
"No matter, just in time for dessert. That is if Belby has left you any," Professor Slughorn said breaking into laughter that no one joined in on except for Harry.
"Oh and I'll be expecting all of you to attend my Christmas Party just before the holidays? A date will be required," Professor Slughorn said. Once again, we all stopped to look up at him.
"Have I not told you all? Well, now you know!" He said laughing.
"I'll be delighted sir," I spoke out smiling a bit.
"Excellent!"
The rest of the dinner party went by extremely boring. He continued to ask us about our families, except Blaise, Harry, and I because of our not-so-happy family history. I didn't really mind that since Professor Slughorn wasn't exactly the most interesting person to have a conversation in.
"Alright, I think everyone's done with dessert. You all should get going before curfew," Professor Slughorn said getting up out of his seat holding the door open as we all stood up to leave.
"You two go ahead, I have a... Question for Professor Slughorn. I'll meet you guys back in the common room," He said staying back. Hermione and I eyed each other before following the rest of the students and leaving.
"I'm gonna wait for Harry," I said as Professor Slughorn closed the door.
"Okay, see you in the common room," Hermione replied before heading off to the common room.
I leaned against the wall crossing my arms closing my eyes to relax. There was a lot to think about, why Draco is suddenly trying to kill Dumbledore, who he meant by 'they'. Most importantly, what the right thing to do right now was. If I were to tell Dumbledore, obviously, according to Draco at least, I'd be putting a lot of people in danger. If I were to not tell Dumbledore, he would continue to attempt to kill Dumbledore. Who knows, maybe he might succeed.
What would happen if he succeeds? The death eaters will easily be able to get to us and the greatest threat to Voldemort will be gone. It's either I put hundreds of Hogwarts students in danger or just my loved ones. But Dumbledore would keep them safe, right?
"Hey," I opened my eyes jumping a little to see Cormac standing in front of me.
"Hi," I said standing up straight.
"I'm not sure we met properly yet, I'm Cormac Mclaggen," He said putting out his hand.
"Evelyn Clermont," I replied shaking his hand.
"What're you doing out here?"
"Waiting for... Someone"
"I see, the party was totally boring right?"
"It was manageable,"
"You're part veela?"
"Mhm," I nodded. I tried to keep my responses as short as possible. He wasn't someone I would want to have a long talk with.
"Fascinating, would you mind if I took you to the Christmas Party? You know, we could get to know each other,"
"No thank you," I said smiling. He looked at me furrowing his eyebrows laughing a little when the door opened and Harry came out.
"Harry," I called out smiling widely at him. He eyed Cormac and I before smiling back, grabbing my hand.
"Come on, let's go back to the common room," He said pulling me with him. From behind us, Cormac was furrowing his eyebrows at me, dumbfounded. I laughed a little looking away continuing to walk along the empty corridors.
"What did he want?" Harry asked.
"He asked me to go to the Christmas Party with him,"
"And did you say yes?"
"Of course not, I'm actually waiting for someone to ask me," I said making Harry smile as we stepped up the moving stairs.
"Brilliant, because I was going to ask you if you wanted to go with me?"
"Of course," I said. We stopped just in front of the painting of the fat lady who seemed to be sleeping. No one was in the corridors or on the moving stairs, it was just us two.
"I wish I could've asked you to the Yule Ball. Have I told you you looked stunning?"
"Maybe a little too late,"
"You look stunning every day though," He said making my face heat up a little. He pulled me closer putting a strand of my hair behind my ear looking into my eyes. I could get lost in his eyes any day in any situation. With no words, he cupped my cheeks with one of his hands pulling me in for a kiss.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders as he wrapped one of his arms around my waist pulling me even closer. What had started out as a gentle kiss became more passionate. He didn't break the kiss unless we were both gasping for air. A realization had hit me, this was the third time kissing yet we were still friends.
I pulled away slightly laughing, keeping my arms wrapped around his shoulders as he looked at me slightly confused.
"We need to stop doing that," I said laughing quietly.
"Why?"
"We're just friends aren't we?"
"I'd be more than happy to be more than that, to be able to call you my girlfriend,"
"I would be too"
"In that case, would you give me the honor to?"
"Of course Harry," I said with a wide smile leaning back in to continue the kiss.