Dominique was slowly growing impatient as she waited at the bottom of the spiral staircase that led to the Gryffindor boys' dorm. She was agitated enough wearing this stupid dress, but now Lysander was taking forever.

"Lysander Scamander! If you don't get your butt down here in the next thirty seconds, I will personally come up there and drag you down here, even if you are wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts!" She yelled up at him.

Lysander came sliding down the stair rail with his usual calm coolness.

"Oh, but you'd like that, wouldn't you?" He grinned at her, then looked her up and down, "What's the occasion, Beautiful? You never wear dresses."

"You know what the occasion is, Lysander." Dominique was almost ready to give up and just walk back up the girls' staircase and sleep away what was bound to be an awful night.

"Oh, right. I do. I just love to hear you say it." Lysander gave her another grin.

"That's it. I'm going to my room and changing out of this monstrosity and going to bed." Dominique turned on her heel to leave, but Lysander caught her shoulder.

"Hey now, don't be like that Domi. Tonight is supposed to be a fun night for us."

"I'm only going with you because I feel bad that you're never going to get a girlfriend, Scamander."

"If you're trying to get a rise out of me, it's not going to work. Because both of us know that you're going to be my girlfriend sooner or later." Dominique was tempted to wipe that sexy little smirk clean off Lysander's face, but they'd been through this too many times already. Dominique was curious to know if she tweaked the situation a little, would it end differently? Every time they would do this, work their way up to a harmless little date, then Lysander would say or do something that would piss her off and she'd smack him and spend the rest of the night in her room. So she refrained from slapping him, because she was sick of the ever-rewinding relationship.

"Oh, shut up and let's go." Dominique grumbled.

"As you wish." Lysander said, "And you really do look beautiful tonight."

Dominique could hardly believe that he had given her a sincere compliment, but the look in his gray eyes told all. Lysander was actually not mocking her for once.

She smiled at him.

"Ah, there we go. That completes to outfit." Lysander smiled back.

The couple headed down the large moving staircase into the Great Hall. The entire room was decorated in ice and red and green. An orchestra had just begun playing the first number of the evening.

Dominique stared in wonder at all the decorations and the fancy clothes everyone had on. She was soon snapped out of her reverie by Lysander placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Would you like to dance?" He said quietly into her ear.

Dominique nodded, forcing down a shiver of pleasure at his breath on her neck. He put a hand on her waist and grabbed her hand.

They danced formally like the other couples, slowly getting closer as the songs went on. By the time the last song was announced, Dominique had her head rested on Lysander's chest and he had pulled her so close to him that it seemed he would never let go.

When the song ended, Dominique realized that they had been dancing the whole night. They had barely said a word to each other, simply danced, but Dominique felt as though they had said everything that needed to be said. And she didn't regret not slapping him when he had the chance.

They finally left the Great Hall, again not speaking until they reached the now deserted common room.

"I had fun tonight." Dominique said quietly, looking away.

"So did I." Lysander said in the same soft voice he had used when he had asked her to dance.

And without another word, he kissed her softly and went up the stairs to the boy's dorm.

And the next day found Dominique waiting agitatedly at the foot of the stairs once again, this time anxious to see Lysander Scamander.