"Hey Harry! NO! Don't fall asleep you prat! We gotta search for dates! It's tomorrow! Wake UP!"
With a start, Harry Potter woke from his slumber, looking for all the world the happiest boy alive. If what he held in his hands was really to be true, then he had nothing to worry about and the key to happiness would literally be in his hands. "Calm down you idiot" Harry laughed to Ron who was hyper ventilating, and Neville who was tearing his hair out. "It's just a ball, and besides it's tomorrow! you always say Ron, why do today what you can put off 'till tomorrow". Ron slumped with his face in his hands, then shot up, madly gesticulating at the portrait hole "I know what to do guys! Neville, come with me, the two of us are gonna get dates and if Mr Lazy over there won't come with then it will just be us and he'll be the laughing stock!" Grinning, Neville and Ron raced from the room.
Harry fell backwards on his four poster. It was not widely known at Hogwarts that he had cultivated a blossoming and ironclad friendship with Daphne Greengrass. In fact the notion of such a friendship would, until recently, have been impossible given the way that the two interacted, and the strict house lines between their respective groups. Yet it would have taken the subtlest of matchmakers to see that it was a changing relationship exhibited by them that was slowly creeping through, he reflected, smiling. The whole friendship had started at the beginning of this year, Harry's fourth. After a tense greeting between the two of them, conversations had started taking place every second day near the old charms corridor. They had sat there every second day and talked, revealing their secrets to one another, as if they had nothing to hide. With each meeting the bond had grown stronger between them and both parties reciprocated the feeling that a connection had been made and then nurtured.
The student body had been, to put it simply, tolerant of him since his name was taken from the goblet. Not outright hostile, the student body as a whole, even Malfoy which shocked everybody, were simply impassive, distancing themselves from it all and watching the proceedings unfold around them. Daphne had been Harry's guide to the tournament and Harry had been happy to listen and have a good friend. Though Daphne and Harry reasoned with each other that their friendship was an extremely good thing for the both of them, Daphne had had the idea that they should keep their relationship secret until the aftermath of the impending storm had blown over, and they would have a chance to explain. Yet this event would be taking place far closer than the two of them had thought.
In some harebrained scheme, reflected Daphne, Harry bloody Potter, her secret friend had somehow managed to kill off all chances of a quiet relationship between them. As he left the room, she spun round and touched her fingers to her cheeks as if to quell the raging blush that had taken place there. Had that just happened? Had he done it? Had Harry Potter just asked HER, Daphne Greengrass, to that! Smiling at his Gryffindor bravery, she breathed out slowly, sat down and closed her eyes. She'd think about it, and mail him her decision in the coming day. There wasn't really a decision to make when she got down to it. One look at those eyes and she was captured.
Harry walked down to the Gryffindor table the next morning and opened the envelope that he knew would be from Daphne. Dodging Ron and Neville's attempts to prise it from his grip, Harry's mind did a mental spin. "My God", he thought, his mind reeling from the shock of it all."She said Yes!". That night,Harry made his way down to the Great Hall with some degree of trepidation. He knew that after tonight, his life at Hogwarts would be altered beyond all hope of repair. The night of the Yule Ball.. he thought solemnly. The fact that it was here made him anxious, and he hadn't even faced the first Triwizard Task yet. Looking at his friends Ron and Neville, he laughed and walked with them into the open doors. As they waited outside the doors, Ron and Neville were greeted by their dates. It was then that Harry began to smile. True to form, Ron was glossing about, but Neville was blushing and trying to make small talk with his date. For now at least, all was well.
"Hey Potter! where's your date? I heard that the Champions have to dance to open the ball! there's no way you can Weasel out of this one, you have to fess up that you don't have a date". Harry, smirking, turned round to see Draco Malfoy, clutching Parkinson's arm as though it were a priceless artifact lost to mankind and his alone. "In all seriousness though Potter" he whispered conspiratorially, yet loud enough for the whole Hall to hear "Tell me you've got a date". Still smiling, Harry turned to the foot of the stairs and said "Trust me, it's all covered".smirking, with some of his old traits returning, Draco called out to the Hall "Well let's see if Potter's invited dear old Eloise Midgen to the Ball!". There were anxious titters of laughter from the nervous ball goers.
Laughter, not mocking yet melodious like a windchime, rang clear through the antechamber of the school. Heads turned to see the Ice Queen of Slytherin, one Daphne Greengrass gracefully descend the stairs. Mood melting into a smooth, suave façade , Draco walked over with Pansy "Why hello there Greengrass" he chirped "You've just arrived to see precious Potter finally be put in his place". Daphne grinned. "Well, i think there's only one place for precious Harry Potter" she purred, walking sultrily up to the Boy Who Lived. "And that's clearly... and quite obviously... In my heart." Closing the gap between the two of them, she kissed him. Breaking apart, the wolf whistles and catcalls that had started crescendoed and the two, grinning, faced the students. Under intense scrutiny, the two blushed, but did not falter in their dance. It was as if the two were made of water and their movements flowed together in perfect harmony.
Draco was floored, as were next to nigh on all of Harry's friends, save Hermione, who was beaming next to Viktor Krum, who, dancing slowly, shared her sentiment. After the opening dance had concluded, Daphne turned to the Hall at large and, addressing them, called out, "Well don't just stand there everybody! We've got a ball to dance!". As one, the student body gracefully surged through the doors and into the luxurious Hall, forming a dancing ring around the champions and their dates. As a slow waltz began, Daphne and Harry slowly spun, and it was clear that they were the star couple of Hogwarts from the moment they were announced. "Did you imagine" came the beautiful voice "That after a month of hardship, meeting in secret, even the Goblet fiasco-" she broke off, thoughtful. "That I'd be with you?" Harry finished. "Well.." she whispered "Yes" affirmed Harry. "I'd known it since the day i finally saw you for who you were" Tears glistening, she grinned.
Melting into each other's arms, it was clear that from that day on, the challenges and arduous trials that would be thrown at them would be faced together. As the ball's fireworks signaled its end, and the Hogwarts students cheered, the feelings of the two students totally different from one another, yet the same, matched. It was love. Love, the power that old twinkle eyes sitting at the high table always preached about, had finally conquered.