"What?"
She leaned ahead, resting her elbows on the table, and repeated herself, "I said, take me to the ball with you. You need to go with someone! You don't have much time left to ask anyone considering it's tomorrow."
Jon stared at her, his mouth hanging open. The Yule Ball had been far more trouble than he had anticipated. Since the ball had been declared he was used to finding hordes of girls around every corner, giggling up at him. He had no courage whatsoever to ask anyone, and neither did he have anyone in mind. But none of that explained why Sansa Stark wanted to go to the ball with him.
He surreptitiously turned to look at her brother sitting next to him, but Robb just shrugged, and continued eating his toast.
Jon cleared his throat before answering. "I can't dance." He wasn't lying. He would just disappoint Sansa.
"You do realize that the champions and their partners open the ball?"
"Yeah, I know." He said, staring gloomily at his bowl of Cheeri Owls which now looked soggy and sad.
"Please Jon, I can't go to the ball otherwise! Anyone below fifth year needs to be invited by someone in the higher classes. This is my only chance. And I won't be terrible. I promise! I have the perfect dress robes, too." Sansa said, taking his hand, her blue eyes looking at him beseechingly.
Jon gulped. This was so awkward. He had been planning on swallowing a couple of nosebleed nougats and missing the ball. But he was the Hogwarts Champion and in Gryffindor House. He could at least brave a stupid Christmas dance. He was about to answer when Arya interrupted their conversation.
"But I saw you turning down the Beauxbatons champion. In the entrance hall about a week back. Why didn't you just go with him?"
"Arya," Sansa said, turning to her sister, and giving her a withering look, "I could hardly have said yes. It would have been like fraternizing with the enemy. I must show my support for the Hogwarts Champion!"
"But that's not what you said when I tricked him into eating the canary creams! I remember you say we had to be friendly with them because the whole point of the tournament was to foster greater understanding between foreign wizards. Besides, he is not the only one who asked you, is he? I heard that the Ravenclaw seeker -"
"Well, I don't want Sansa to go with any of them so there is no need to argue this," Robb said sharply. "Jon, you can go with her, that way you won't suffer extreme mortification tomorrow when you show up without a date. Because there is no way McGonagall is gonna fall for the nosebleed nougat thing. Plus I won't have to keep an eye on Sansa, so everyone is happy."
Sansa squealed and beamed up at them. "So it's settled then! Now on to business, what colour are your dress robes, Jon? Because we have to make sure they don't clash with mine."
Jon looked at her in shock. This was not gonna end well. "I don't know."
"What?"
"I haven't checked it yet."
"Come on, we have to do that right away! How can you be so lax? This is only the most important event of the year," she said, sliding out and already moving towards the staircase.
Jon glared at Robb and Arya who were trying to control their laughter before abandoning his breakfast and following her to the Gryffindor Tower. The Fat Lady was in full blown festive mood already, a box of chocolate liquors on her lap, and some sparkly rubbish wrapped around her head which she kept straightening in a very obvious attempt to show it off. "Password, please" she chimed, drunkenly.
"Fairy Lights," Sansa said. "I love your new tinsel hairband, it's very pretty."
"Oh thank you, dear!" The Fat Lady simpered before adding to Jon, "This one always flatters me, what a lovely girl. That's why I keep her midnight expeditions a secret." She said proudly, before swinging forward to admit them.
Sansa blushed deeply and avoided his eyes, but before Jon could ask her what that was about, she entered his dormitory, and sat on the edge of his bed, examining her nails with the utmost concentration. Jon was taken aback seeing Sansa Stark on his bed. Her hair was pretty and shiny, and Jon, momentarily distracted by it, almost forgot what she was doing here in the first place. That is, till Sansa raised her head, and gave him a blank look saying "Jon, what are you doing? The dress robes. We need to check the dress robes. I haven't got all the time in the world here."
Feeling extremely stupid, he made his way to his trunk, and pulled out the package he had received at the beginning of the term. He carried it over to Sansa and handed it to her.
"Let's see what we have got here. Where did you order it from, anyway?" she said, carefully opening the brown package.
Jon could feel a blush creep up his neck. He had ordered the cheapest dress robes from a second hand shop. It's not like he could afford anything else. Robb's father would have been more than willing to lend him some coins, but Jon didn't consider dress robes important enough to resort to accumulating more debt towards the Starks. But now that he was to take Sansa to the ball, he had to look presentable. Hoping the robes were decent enough he moved over to glance at them.
Sansa took them out carefully and stood up holding the robes over Jon, a bemused expression on her face. Jon stared down at the dress robes in horror. They were red, bright red and frilly and disgusting. He was just about to go kill himself, when Robb entered.
"Wait, are those yours or Sansa's dress robes?" he said, staring incredulously at the mass of red.
That was enough to break Sansa. She dropped his robes to the floor, and sat back down on his bed, doubling over in laughter.
"I understand if you don't wish to go with me anymore," he said softly. For something he hadn't even wanted to do till an hour back, he suddenly found himself disappointed.
"Oh stop it! You won't scare me away that easily. This is fixable," she stood up briskly and picked up the dress robes. "Robb, give me your dress robes, please."
Robb threw a similar looking package over to Sansa. "I haven't checked them either. Mom bought them for me."
"These look nothing like mine." Jon said bitterly as Sansa took out navy blue robes which looked similar to their school robes, except the material seemed more expensive and the cut more polished. Jon wished Robb and Sansa would both leave, so he could mope in peace. He thought he had been past the stage of feeling jealous of Robb when the goblet didn't spit out Robb's name, the clear favorite, Gryffindor prefect and Quidditch Captain, but his own. Could the stupid Yule Ball be more difficult than the second task itself?
But Sansa just hushed him, and got to work. She whispered Diffindo pointing her wand at the frills around the neck and sleeves. The ugly lace fell off, and soon she was muttering Reparo under her breath, the split stiches neatly joining back into themselves. "See, it's not so bad anymore. What colour should I change it to…" she asked, smiling up at him.
"Um, black."
Sansa wrinkled her nose at that but didn't argue, and after a color change charm his dress robes lay midnight black.
"Er, they look a lot like your school robes now," she said, eyeing it critically.
"It's perfect," Jon said. And it was. Non-descript. That's all he wanted.
"Well, it's certainly better than before," Robb said, as he got up to leave the dorm. "I am heading over to meet Hagrid. You guys coming?"
"We'll be there in a while. You go ahead," Sansa said, before Jon could reply with the affirmative.
"So," she said, looking up at him, a small smile playing on her face, "do you wanna practice dancing?"
"Is that how hopeless you think I am at dancing?" Jon asked her teasing.
She bit her lower lip before turning away, "Well, don't say I didn't offer."
Thanks for reading. Finally remembered to cross-post this here from tumblr and Ao3. Leave a review. Xx