~Fred's POV~
"It does not take ten bloody hours to get ready for a ball," Elodie said over her morning glass of pumpkin juice.
All the girls had barley nibbled their breakfast before they decided to go up and begin getting ready for the ball tonight. In true Elodie Potter fashion she was helping herself to a proper breakfast. Mum was right, this girl could eat and eat and forever remain skinny.
We hadn't spoken much since the day I'd asked Angelina to the ball. I wasn't planning on it, but the way Cedric asked her right in front of me had set me off. I knew Georgie fancied Angie, but I just wanted to do something to upset Elodie the way I had been. A plan which backfired, since I'd only hurt my own brother in the process. I didn't want him to think I was trying to ruin his chances with her, I told them both it was strictly just as friends, and if he really wanted to, I would take Alicia if he asked.
And then Ron had to go and stick the knife in further by commenting. Everyone but Elodie knew that George and I both fancied her. Hell, I think everyone fancies her at some point. But for Ron to make a comment on her making someone a last resort. She'd never intended to, I knew that. But I also couldn't help but feel it at times. Part of me almost wanted to be Cedric, just so she could look at me the way she did him.
"Don't worry, you don't need ten hours," I told her as I took a bite of my toast. She gave me a smile. "Are you ready to dance the night away with Golden boy?" I asked in a friendly manner.
"I am actually, neither of us have ever gone to a ball before, so it'll be nice," She told me. "And you? Ready to dance the night away with your brother's lady?" She asked me with her eyebrow raised. "Freddie, why would you do that?"
"I know, it was stupid and careless. I just— I didn't think about who I was actually hurting," I told her looking down at my plate.
"Why would you take a date as a way to spite someone? That's terrible," She said.
"Cause the date I wanted to take already had someone," I told her cryptically. Come on, she had to figure it out.
"Jealousy isn't the way to make someone want to be with you. It's how you push them further away," she told me.
"I'll have to remember that one," I told her.
"I feel like I can never stay mad at you. Will you save me a dance tonight?" She asked me with a smile, to which I returned and nodded. "I'll see you tonight then," She said and walked out of the great hall.
I thought about it. Had I driven her away all these years when I was just trying to get her out of my mind? There had been a number of times where I would bet my life that she felt something towards me too. I pinched the bridge of my nose and looked up to see Cedric a little too close to Cho Chang for my liking. Last I'd heard, she was dating one of his best mates, yet here they were, looking too cozy. I got up to leave as well, only I really didn't need ten hours to get ready, and I wanted to do more intel on what I had just seen.
I needed Georgie's help for this one. After about 20 minutes of convincing George that I wasn't just seeing what I wanted to see, and another several hours of sneaking around, we had found a few things. The first, Cedric and Elodie had decided to be on a break once again, since before the first challenge a surprise to me, but not to George who apparently knew, but that was a conversation for later. The second, Cedric had been telling his inner circle that he was planning to ask to be together again and give her a promise ring within the next week. And the last piece of information, that we only learned as we waited outside the great hall before the ball, was that he had been flirting around with Cho Chang since last term.
It wasn't information that was for my ears. I heard the little miss herself discussing it with some of her Ravenclaw friends before she walked over to her own date. Diggory's best mate no less. I heard it from the source herself, and this time I had George and Lee with me as witnesses.
"She needs to know," I said instantly. Lee nodded at me, knowing it was the right thing to do.
"Not tonight," George said, catching Lee and me by surprise.
"Come again?" I asked thinking he must be joking.
"Not tonight mate," He told us sternly. "Look, any minute now, she's going to walk down those stairs, dressed like a fairytale and expect to have the night of her life. If you tell her now, it'll spoil that. At least let her have tonight with her friends. He's a git, and he doesn't deserve her, but not tonight."
"Who's a git?" Cedric said walking up to us as part of the plan to meet the girls.
George and I looked at each other. More like he was warning me to stand down and just hold it in for one more night. I looked over his shoulder to see the girls coming down the stairs and stopping for a fraction of a second to find us. She was beautiful, radiant, as always, and she deserved better. Better than him, hell, better than me, better than anyone would ever be able to give her. But above everything, she most certainly deserved to be treated better than to be guilted into loving him while he was having his cake someplace else.
"You," I said before I looked at him. "And she deserves better."
"Sorry?" Cedric said, playing his part.
"You are going to make sure she has a good night tonight, and you're going to stay away from Chang. Or I'll tell Elodie myself," I said and watched a wave of unease take over him.
"I think you're confused Weasley," he said in a tense voice.
"Ease up mate, we both know I could go over and tell her now, and she'd never speak to you again. But then again, you don't know her as well as you think you do," I told him before going over to greet the girls.
~Elodie's POV~
I had decided to wear makeup. I wasn't completely useless at the task; I'd just never been a fan. I'd have to constantly remember to not touch my face, and then when I inevitably did, I'd ruin all the work I'd done. Katie told me to keep it simple, just lipstick and eye makeup, to which she talked me through until she eventually took over to give my eyes a wing. The way I looked made me wish I had the patience to do this every day. All the girls got dressed to which I followed their lead. I was in love with my dress, a beautiful spaghetti strap rose gold underlay with ivory color tulle on top, accent glitter leaves and pearls scattered, but not all the way to the bottom. Minerva was right, I'd never looked more like my mother than I did in this moment, dressed in colors to emphasize my hair and eyes.
I was rather excited. As far as parties went, we'd thrown a fair amount of absolute ragers in the Gryffindor common room, but I'd never gone to a ball. It all seemed so formal, so proper. Like something you only read about in stories of princes and princesses, old money, and high society. I wondered if my parents or Sirius ever attended an event like this. My father was from old money, and the Black family was both high society and old money.
The plan was to meet the boys in the great hall, George promised that he'd make sure Fred would be on his best behavior. We had started grading down and I realized how much I loved the flow of my dress but hated my shoes. My plan would be to kick them off directly after the first dance. I caught sight of the boys before they saw me. Fred and George looked absolutely handsome with their skinny ties and colored vests. It was about time they got haircuts, but it suited them well. Cedric on the other hand wore a classic black set of dress robes with a bow tie. As always, he looked handsome, and any girl would be lucky to have him, but tonight, he was mine.
Something's not right...
It was true, something about the way they were all huddled up talking didn't seem like they were getting along too well. It seemed tense. My first thought was that someone may have said something to someone and now the whole night was going to be awkward, but I pulled myself away from that thought.
"What do you suppose that's about?" I asked the girls.
"Don't know, let's go find out," Angelina said and wiggled her eyebrows at me.
We walked down the stairs behind Alicia and Katie and caught the boy's attention right away. For a moment they didn't look happy, but they changed their attitudes right away, as if they had a secret. Cedric eyed me up and down before taking my hand and placing a gentle kiss on my knuckles.
"Is it too much?" I asked him.
"You're perfect," He told me coolly. I reached up to straighten his bowtie and smooth out his lapel. Now he was perfect too.
"Ladies," He said, greeting the girls and pulled me away, but not before shooting a look at Fred. We went to speak with Fleur and her date Roger Davies, a Ravenclaw in Cedric's year. I knew of him because of quidditch, but I hadn't spoken with him much.
"Your dress is lovely," I told her and smiled at her warmly.
"Thank you, yours is lovely as well," She said through a thick French accent. "Are you ready to dance?" She asked me.
I let out a breath and puffed my cheeks slightly. "No, but I think if I mess up, I can just stand on his feet and let him take over," I said.
Minerva ushered all the students in so only the champions and their dates remained outside. Hermione looked beautiful as always, and she had a huge grin on her face as she stood beside Viktor. Harry and Parvati looked a bit like the odd couple out. Mostly with Harry being so nervous, but Parvati beamed as always, like the popular girl she was.
We walked in hand in hand and separated from the other couples once we reached the front of the great hall, where everyone seemed to form a circle around us.
"Smile," Cedric told me. "I promise, you won't look silly," He whispered in my ear as he placed his hand on my waist.
The music began and we started waltzing all over the dance floor. Switching sides of hands raised, and even doing a lift. That part scared me a bit, I thought the fabric of my dress would have made his hand slip, but Cedric grabbed my waist firmly, not letting me fall. After a moment Minerva and Dumbledore joined and eventually, so did everyone else.
They had gotten the Weird Sisters to be the band for the night. Ginny ran over to me right away, Neville in tow as soon as they were announced. It was an acquired taste for music, but we loved them, nonetheless. There were still a few minutes before they would come on, so we went to grab our group a table. The boys grabbed drinks and we sat for a while enjoying a night of being done up. It would be nice to do something like this for the rest of our lives, every so often, meet somewhere, really dressed up.
When the boys returned Lee reached into his pocket and pulled out a concealed flask. It got to Cedric and he skipped his cup, but poured a generous amount into mine.
"I have to keep it light, but you go on and have fun," Cedric told me, handing me a full glass.
"Not too much, I don't want to be stumbling past McGonagall," I told him.
As we all chatted between our table and the next one over Draco and a few of his friends walked by. He caught my eye and shot me a smile that I thought only I had noticed, but I was wrong. Angelina tapped my thigh to signal she noticed it too.
"Well, well, well, Potter. Don't you clean up nicely," He told me in an attempt to sound cool.
"I like to think I do well on a daily basis, Draco," I told him.
"I'm sure if you asked people would gladly start throwing jewels at your feet. Especially in that getup, I bet a pretty dress like that set you back more than a few galleons," Draco said a bit more rudely as I sipped on my drink.
"Well I've never taken an interest in jewels, and I have more money than I know what to do with. Would you like to borrow some? Take out a loan? Perhaps purchase some manners that mum, and dad forgot to get to?" I told him charmingly, making the rest of my table start snickering.
He scoffed, not taking my remark lightly. "As if I'd ever take anything for you or your brother. You half-breads probably need all the money mummy and daddy left behind," he said and swiftly walked away.
I felt my smile fall, and Cedric made a move as if he were going to stand, but I quickly put a hand on his shoulder holding him down. "Not tonight, let it go," I told him and smiled at him.
"I'd say you won that round," Alicia told me with a smile.
I slipped off my shoes and excused myself to the washroom with Angelina. Outside the great hall there were already girls crying and miserable. I felt bad for them, but there wasn't much that could be said or done from a stranger to help. The washroom was empty, so we didn't have to wait to grab a stall. I asked Angelina to go into the big stall with me so she could unzip my dress for me to adjust my undergarments.
"So, tell me, do you think after the ball, tonight, you and Diggory might finally put your bed to good use?" Angelina asked me.
"Hmm, no." I told her honestly. I hated that I was lying to everyone by keeping my real feelings a secret. "To be honest..."
"He does! He looks gorgeous, and she does too, gosh is it wrong that I hate her?" A girl said.
"You and I both know that she looks rather stupid," Another voice said.
"How do you mean?" the first one replied. Angelina put a finger to her lips, wanting to know who they were talking about.
"She's here, all loved up with the boy that's been flirting up to you for the last two years. Come on she's either thick or blind," The second voice said. I shot Ang a look as if to say 'Oh my god! Who?' but all we could do was wait.
"Yeah but he flirts with everyone, and he didn't ask me to come with him now did he?" the first girl pointed out.
"Please, he's probably with her because he felt sorry for her. Look, after he wins the tournament, he'll realize he deserves better than the little Potter is putting out," the second voice said.
I looked at Angie and we were both confused, yet we both knew exactly what they were saying. Who, they were talking about. I thought about it further and realized that the only person it made sense was that it was Cho who was speaking, but he said they were just friends. She's the only girl I'd ever had a worry about, what did they mean he flirts with everyone? I turned so Ang could zip me up and then she lowered her head to make sure the coast was clear to exit.
"So, Cedric likes to flirt around?" She asked me.
"I feel like I can't really be too made about it to be honest," I told her.
"Because of Fred and George?" she asked me. "I don't have to be a seer to see the way you look at them."
I looked up at her in disbelief. Was it noticeable? Would she hate me? My feelings for George were minuscule compared to my feelings for Fred. "Because of me. George is my best friend, and Fred is..."
"You know, you don't have to be with Cedric if you don't want to anymore. He's a big boy Elodie, he'll survive," She told me.
"Come on, let's get back out there," I told her.
She agreed. I'm sure she would still tell our friends what we heard at some point, but I just wanted to get through tonight in one piece. We walked out of the washroom and began making our way back to our table. Before we actually reached it, we were being pulled away to the dance floor for the Weird Sisters.
It was a musty, hot, humid mess, but it was enough to distract me from what was going on. I didn't mind for a moment, because I had Ginny and the twins who were as big of a fan as I was. The surprising part was that we even got Neville into the groove of them. One of the Durmstrang students had the bright idea to lift Professor Flitwick and have him crowd surf. He looked absolutely terrified at first, but after a moment he looked like a real Rockstar. After about an hour the band took a break, and the orchestra went on again for a few slow songs. Cedric, who had been behind me the entire time, kept a hand on my lower back as he began to walk away but I stopped when Fred spoke to me.
"What do you say potter? Have a dance with your best mate?" Fred asked me.
"Absolutely," I told him with a huge smile on my face.
"Good cause I need a break after that," Alicia said as she pushed George toward Angelina with a wink.
"You don't mind, do you Diggory?" Fred said smugly. He and Cedric exchanged a look for a moment, I still didn't understand what was going on there. I doubt Angie would have said anything during the songs, but I couldn't guarantee it.
"No, not at all," He told Fred before placing a kiss on my temple. "I'll go get you a drink," He said and left the dance floor.
Fred placed a hand on my waist and then intertwined our fingers on the other. We swayed back and forth and after a moment I rested my head on his chest. I loved inhaling his air. The way he always smelled so sweet. He must have appreciated it too; I could feel him take in a whiff of my hair, and his heart beating through his thick dress robes.
"Hey Elodie?" He asked me.
"Yeah Freddie?" I asked back.
"I like this, us not fighting. Dangerously close to each other, in our own little world," He said softly. He'd noticed it too.
"How much have you had to drink Freddie?" I told him, speaking into his chest.
"Not nearly enough. If I had asked you to come with me, would you have said yes?" He asked.
"Yeah, I would have," I said. And suddenly his actions with Angelina seemed appallingly clear to me. "Is that why you made a mess of things? Cause you actually wanted to be with me?" I asked him.
He didn't say anything, he just stopped swaying. He pulled away and smiled at me, for a moment I thought he was going to lean in and kiss me. The thought scared me, Cedric and I were still together for all intents and purposes. The same reason I couldn't kiss him was the same reason I was still with Cedric. I was more scared of losing Fred than I was Cedric. And if he were never mine, I could never lose him. I knew that it was wrong for me to feel this way about Fred, especially while I was with Cedric. But the more I found myself feeling this way, I knew it was wrong for met to stay with Cedric. There had to be a special place in Hell for someone like me.
Him...
"Your date's waiting for you love," He told me and walked me back to our table.
We went back to the table for a few minutes. Cedric had gotten me some icy water which felt perfect as it rehydrated my dry throat. He swung an arm over my chair and leaned in close to me. Angie had appeared to have let it go, but I knew if I didn't give her an explanation tonight, I'd only get more grief for it. But at this point, I felt like I didn't want to care anymore.
"I feel like we have a lot to talk about," I told him in a flat voice.
"How do you mean?" He asked, confused.
"Before in the washroom, Angelina and I overheard Cho," I said and waited for his reaction, but was met by a stiff silence. I looked down at my hands, wrapped around the cup resting in my lap. "What happened there?" I asked.
He lifted my chin to look at him. "I would never do anything to hurt you, or my chances with you. Maybe I flirted a bit here and there when I needed help with an assignment, but I've never acted on it," he explained.
"Didn't you though?" I asked, not sure what to expect.
"She was my first, at the start of last term, but that was when you weren't speaking to me. It was a one time thing, and that's it. Other than that, just flirting," he told me.
"Were there others?" I asked.
"None that took it as serious as her," He said to me. I looked away and caught sight of Cho looking at me. If I weren't selfish, I'd let her have him. Maybe she'd be better for him than I was. "I want us to be together again Tulip. To start making plans for the future, so whatever you want me to do to fix things, say the word and I'll do it," He said and placed a dainty ring with two hands on her finger under the table so no one could see.
I leaned my head on his shoulder and just thought about it for a moment. Thought about what his plan would be, what mine wouldn't be. I closed my eyes and tried to picture a happy life with him. I tried to force a happy vision to come through, but all I could see was my head resting on a wall, trying to breath. Why couldn't I breathe? Would I be willing to be breathless, and not breathlessly in love?