Chapter 7: The Yule Ball

Harry shifted and swept his hand through his hair for the umpteenth time that hour. It was impossible to explain exactly why the dance was so important to him, but he saw it as a chance to prove himself to Daphne. He knew that if he'd said that she'd reject the notion, but Harry felt he needed to prove that he would do right by her, at least as much as he could. Ron rolled his eyes as he continued to try and make his dress robes at least somewhat presentable.

"I will never believe dad actually used to wear these things, even without the lace," he said picking at the frills.

Harry shrugged.

"Forget wizard fashion, I don't even know anything about muggle clothes."

"Well, I guess you know how it feels to be stuck with some second-hand stuff."

"At least yours are somewhat close to your size," said Harry, thinking of Dudley's far too large clothes.

"Well, no worries about how you look tonight, mate," said Ron, smiling at him. "I'm sure Daphne will think you look great!"

Harry smiled at him and then paused.

"Ron," he said seriously. "I know we never really talked in depth about it, but… thanks for not judging her."

"Harry, I had sometime to think after… after the start of this year. I may not like what you and Hermione try to make me do, but when you both agree on something… it's usually right."

Harry laughed at him, but couldn't deny he had a point. Hermione may tend to go off on certain areas, like S.P.E.W. and he was often a bit too hot-headed, but Hermione and he balanced out quite nicely. It was one of the reasons he always knew she'd be part of his life, and he was glad Daphne wasn't a jealous type of woman. She'd merely accepted that he and Hermione had a history, and thus they were close.

Hermione was a friend he'd always been able to rely on, and she was one of the first people who cared about him. That counted for a lot. Still though, he was happy he and Daphne were getting closer now. He was starting to share his thoughts and ideas with her in a way he couldn't even do with Hermione, and she always listened to his ideas, even if they were stupid.

"So," said Harry, more as a distraction than anything. "Who'd you end up getting to go with you?"

"Oh. Well, you and Hermione set a bit of a streak by going outside of the house for your dates, so I figured I'd continue the tradition. I asked Lisa Turpin to the ball."

"Good for you, mate."

"My date's also not in Gryffindor," said Neville nervously. "I was planning on asking Ginny, but I sort of… got asked first."

"No kidding?" asked Ron, although not rudely. "So who's eye did you catch then?"

"Sorry," said Neville softly. "She said if I told you that she would… She said she'd… she told me not to tell you."

Harry looked to Ron, confused. The redhead merely shrugged and reexamined himself in the mirror. After the better part of an hour, they head downstairs and out of the common room.

Harry kept glancing around, looking for Daphne, but he didn't see her. He kept looking around as they reached the entrance hall and saw Fleur with Roger Davis, the captain of the Ravenclaw quidditch team. Harry briefly wondered if he was a relative of Tracey's, but before now he'd rather forgotten about the man. Soon Cedric moved towards them with Cho arm-in-arm with him.

This sent a weird lurch through him that he didn't know how to classify. It wasn't jealously or longing, and it wasn't the same as when his heart used to do summersaults from just looking at her. It more like his heart was so conditioned to react to her that it had prepared to thud harder, only to realize that she no longer held the same effect over him.

Can that really be just because I'm with Daphne now? he wondered. And what would that mean about me?

Cedric spotted Harry at once and moved for him, smiling and waving softly. This also gave Harry a small bit of pause. Despite the fact that they were competing against each other (however much he might not want to) Cedric had been nothing but open and even helpful to him. It made Harry respect Cedric all the more and brought memories of the Hufflepuff attempting to call off their quidditch match because Harry had fallen off his broom.

He decided whatever else Cedric might be, he was a damn decent man.

"How you doing there, Harry?" he asked, shaking Harry's hand.

"I'm good Cedric! Honestly a bit nervous. How are you both doing?"

"Oh this is rather lovely," said Cho, smiling up at Cedric. "I've been looking forward to this for weeks."

"Honestly, this is wayeasier than fighting a dragon," said Cedric, winking at Harry. "I'll take a dance any day."

"I agree. This tournament can have rather confusing riddles. Still, at least this next one shouldn't be so bad."

He did his best to wink back at Cedric, though he was sure the gesture was a lot less impressive coming for him.

At that moment he spotted Daphne coming up from the dungeons and he swore his brain short-circuited for a moment. She wore a long, emerald-green dress. Her hair was silky and almost shone in the light, as if she'd put several miniscule diamonds in it. She moved towards him gracefully and Harry felt his legs shake as she wrapped her arms around his left arm.

This close, he could clearly smell her perfume, and it reminded him of lilacs.

"C-Cedric and Cho," he said, trying to get his tongue to behave. "This is my date, Daphne Greengrass. Daphne, this is Cedric Diggory and Cho Chang."

Daphne curtsied to them and smiled at them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," she said softly.

"Well Harry, I do have to give you compliments on your choice of a companion tonight," said Cedric, smiling. "How long have you two known each other."

"Since the tournament started," said Harry. "Still, she's become my best friend during that time. If it wasn't for her I'd have been cooked alive by that horntail."

Cedric laughed good-naturedly, and excused himself to meet up with some other Hufflepuffs. Harry immediately turned to Daphne.

"You look… wow," he said, unable to find more appropriate words.

Daphne did her pleased nod, and smiled at him.

"High praise, I should think. I have to admit, you clean up even better than I'd expected."

Harry nervously smiled at tried in vain to flatten his hair again. To his surprise, she raised one of her hands and caught his, slowly lowering it to his side. He looked down and noticed that her nails were painted Gryffindor gold.

"Is… did you do that for me?" he asked quietly.

She flashed a sly smile at him.

"I'm rather pleased you noticed, Harry. Now come on, and don't fuss so much over your hair. I like it as it is."

That made him go slightly red in the face. He still wasn't used to anyone saying that they liked any part of him. Sure, once he'd entered the wizarding world, he'd received praise, but it wasn't really the same thing as approval or love. While he'd never expressly shared any part of his life with the Dursleys with Daphne, he had the suspicion she had worked out that he wasn't cared for while he was with them. She seemed to have taken it as a personal mission to be sure to tell him that she approved of him in some way at least once a day. It always made him feel warm inside, as if maybe she really did like him… at least a bit.

"Champions over here please," called professor McGonagall.

Harry lined up with Daphne behind Krum and enjoyed the feeling of Daphne's arm in his while his eyes glanced over to see who Krum had come with. He felt a moment of shock and saw that it was Hermione. She'd clearly put a lot of effort in for the dance as well, with straighter hair and wearing a periwinkle blue dress. She was also smiling, rather nervously it was true, but she looked every part a champion's date.

"Hi Daphne! Hi Harry!" she whispered as they looked at her.

Harry looked back at her and nodded while Daphne smiled and dipped her head as well.

The doors fell open as the music strung up at once. Harry did his best to swing in as he assumed the position that he'd been practicing for the past month. While he made sure to smile, he was actually counting carefully in his head in order to keep in time with the music. Dahpne was far more elegant and she was able to save what missteps he took. Luckily after the first dance was finished, neither he, nor his partner had sore feet.

"Very well done Harry," she whispered to him. "I shall have to thank Hermione for teaching you to dance."

Harry grinned at her. He hadn't told Daphne that he was practicing, but it didn't surprise him that she would have worked it out. Still, she had missed one thing.

"Hermione and Tracey, actually."

"I'm rather surprised my dorm-mate kept even that secret. She normally loves to divulge information. Still, I'm glad she did, and I'm proud of you Harry, and not just for the dancing. You've really come along these past few months. I was a bit worried when I first met you that you might just give in to all the pressure."

"Well I'm sure you were a huge help, after all."

As they passed Malfoy he stood up, and straighten his black velvet robes before reaching out to his partner. Harry felt a momentary shock at seeing no one other than Astoria take his hand and begin to join in the dance.

"That would explain a lot," said Daphne, trying to hide the disgust in her face.

Harry growled towards the blonde boy before a thought crossed his mind and he looked at Daphne, concerned for her.

"I hope Malfoy and me fighting isn't hurting your relationship with your sister?"

"No, Harry. Her relationship with Malfoy disturbs me as much as it does you. I honestly can't say what it is that she sees in that bigot."

Harry smiled and leaned towards her ear, whispering, "Well, you did say he made a rather magnificent ferret. Perhaps your sister merely wants a pet."

Daphne giggled at that and looked at him, nodding again.

"I believe I shall have to keep that jab in mind next time she gets too rowdy."

They continued the dance and eventually he found his rhythm with Daphne as the floor filled with couples. Harry found that, to his surprise, he was really enjoying dancing once the attention had faded off them. This was actually rather wonderful, being close to her without his body reacting. She often touched him, but his instinct was always to pull away out of reaction to avoid being hit. She never said anything about it, but he was sure that his stiff movements had hurt her feelings.

He often wished he weren't the way he was. He wished he could express how much he liked the feeling of Daphne's hand in his, or the way her head felt resting on his shoulder, or how her hair often smelled of fresh strawberries, but his behavior had been beaten into him over the course of ten years, and it was not so easily unmade.

They passed by Dumbledore mentioning to Karkaroff that he'd happened upon a disappearing room that morning and Harry shook his head slightly at his headmaster's carefree attitude. He never did quite understand how the old wizard always seemed completely unfazed by anything, but it occurred to him that the headmaster likely didn't let his inner thoughts out so easily, something that Harry couldn't begrudge him for.

Eventually the couple sat down next to Hermione and Krum, who were talking very animatedly.

"Harry Potter," he said in a very thick accent when Harry sat down. "It is good to meet you properly. I 'ear you fly very vell."

Harry felt himself go slightly red in the face.

"You too," he said, nervously. "I'm a decent enough seeker. Not as good as you are, I should think. This is my date, Daphne Greengrass."

"Pleasure," she said, shaking the Bulgarian's hand.

"Greengrass?" Krum asked, surprised. "I 'ave vorked with your father. Cyrus is a good man, but I vas not aware he had children."

They spent the next few minutes happily eating their food and chatting and for the first time since the tournament began Harry truly felt a speck of bonding was happening between two different schools.