A/N: This is a three-part work set in the same universe as my other fic "Just a Stupid Love potion."

I hope you guys all enjoy it :)

Laura Hollis was eagerly awaiting the Yule Ball. And at the same time, dreading it.

Yes, Laura Hollis was a Hufflepuff conflicted, both joy and fear warring within her in spiralling storm, and she hated it, hated it because she has never dealt well with inner turmoil.

Hogwarts was having a Yule Ball in honour of the Tournament currently taking place and as a fourth year, Laura was eligible to attend with a partner of her choosing.

And the problem remained of which partner she would choose to accompany her. Or whether she would have a partner at all.

Of course, she wanted to ask Carmilla, but the problem was that she just didn't know what she was to the Slytherin, and it worried her.

Ever since the love potion debacle, they'd definitely moved on to 'more than friends,' but Laura now wanted something solid, something real, something she could hold onto.

The two had been keeping their 'relationship' under wraps, Laura fearing disapproval from Perry and Danny.

(She could hear Danny's outraged "really Laura? Carmilla?" and Perry's "Really honey? Is she safe?" echoing in her thoughts, and she hated how insecure she could be.)

And the stupid thing was that she didn't even have a proper, concrete relationship to be hiding. For all she knew it was just a fling.

They'd done more kissing than talking over the past few weeks and whilst Laura thought that there was nothing more magical than making out with Carmilla Karnstein- they really did need to talk.

So absorbed was Laura in her monologue about the pros and cons of asking Carmilla to go to the dance with her, that she forgot to watch where she was going and promptly bumped right into the object of her affections.

"Really cutie?" Carmilla drawled, grasping Laura's arms and steadying her so she didn't fall. "Do you ever look where you're going? Or did you just need an excuse to touch me?" At this, she raised an annoyingly perfect brow.

Laura glared back, and then realising that she could not trust herself to speak to Carmilla right now without blurting something along the lines of "wanagoballwithme?" she backed away hastily.

Carmilla looked concerned- and then hastily wiped the expression from her face.

The two of them looked at each other for a while in mutual confusion, before a burly Ravenclaw boy brushed past both of them rudely and coughed out: "Get a room."

Carmilla and Laura jumped, and realising that they were in the middle of a crowded hallway, the two of them hastened to find an empty corridor (preferably one without three-headed dogs or manticores. Laura's had some bad experiences with Hogwarts hallways.)

Carmilla turned back to Laura once they were alone, something heavy in her eyes. And of course, seeing the look on the Slytherin's face, Laura began to panic, her brain short-circuiting.

Oh God she's going to kiss me in a corridor, wannagoballwithme, ahh she's so pretty- her eyes are like melted chocolate and I really love chocolate and wannagoballwithe….

Laura was so overwhelmed that her brain decided to blurt out the very thing she was hoping to avoid saying.

"Wannagoballwithme?"

Carmilla was completely nonplussed and looked around for hidden Slytherins, waiting to jump out and start teasing her mercilessly, because surely this was some sort of elaborate prank? And then she realised, that in all likelihood it was just Laura being Laura.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that, cupcake? Was that your imitation of an ape?"

Laura clenched her jaw and articulates slowly.

"Do you want to go to the ball with me?"

It's probably the angriest invitation to a dance anyone had ever been given, but Laura didn't care because oh Lord Carmilla was actually smiling at her, smiling, so she surely must have done something right!

But Carmilla still didn't reply, just kept smiling at the tiny Hufflepuff.

(Carmilla Karnstein, smiling?!)

And so of course Laura began to panic.

"Um…but I mean if you don't want something as official as this, I mean we don't have to like go together, umm we can just go as friends? But I mean I'm cool with whatever because-"

"Cupcake." Carmilla murmured in an exasperated, long-suffering tone.

Laura jumped and squeaked, because she had not noticed how close Carmilla had gotten to her.

"Of course I want to go to the ball with you."

"Um, whoa, okay…" Whilst Laura had spent a lot of time envisioning scenarios as to how Carmilla would react to the invitation, being with her alone in a corridor whilst the dark-haired girl smiled at her, had not been one of them.

(No, it had been more along the lines of Carmilla dumping her and never speaking to her again because she was becoming "too clingy.")

But then her stupid mouth decided to make the situation worst and she began to stammer out.

"B-but I mean, this doesn't need to mean anything, I mean we don't need to be 'girlfriends' after the Ball or anything, I mean I just think that-"

Carmilla interrupted again, and it was a sign of how much Laura liked Carmilla that she didn't explode at her. (She hated being interrupted when she's on a tirade. Though to be fair, the way that she was rambling today, she was grateful to be interrupted, lest she embarrass herself further.)

"Cutie. I thought we were already girlfriends? Didn't I make that pretty clear the other day, when my mouth was-"

"-so you actually like like me."

Laura was shocked. She knew she could be oblivious sometimes, but everything she knew, or thought she knew about the mystery that was Carmilla Karnstein had told her the sad truth- that she was just another notch on the Slytherin's belt.

Never had she been so happy to be proven wrong.

"Laura. My tongue has been in your mouth. Yes- I like you." Carmilla rolled her eyes heavenward.

"So you weren't just…

(Laura lowered her voice and waggled her eyebrows in a somewhat successful imitation of Carmilla as she spoke.)

"…getting it on with the naïve, provincial girl because 'that's just the way the world works?"

Carmilla was unimpressed to say the least.

"I don't sound anything like that, cutie."

"You kind of do."

"No. I really don't." Carmilla pouted at Laura, and she looked so adorable, yes the scary Slytherin looked adorable and so Laura closed the distance between them and leant up slightly to press her lips against Carmilla's.

(It was meant to be a chaste kiss, but the Slytherin can just be so irresistible that the two ended up losing themselves in each other, Carmilla threading her hands in Laura's hair and biting softly on her lip, Laura smiling like an idiot as they kiss, and kiss again, unable to stop, caught in a mutual addiction of affection.)

"So you'll go to the dance, then?" Laura used an iron will to pull away from the kiss. She had to ask again, just in case she somehow misheard the first time.

"Yes cutie, I'll go to the Ball with you."

Laura allowed herself to hope then, because she was going to the Ball with her (now) official girlfriend.

And she'd get to see Carmilla wearing a dress.

Yes, Laura Hollis had been a Hufflepuff conflicted. But Carmilla seemed to have a remarkable way of resolving Laura's conflicts.

And so now, Laura Hollis can hardly wait to attend the Yule Ball.

She knew that it would be a night to remember.