Chapter 7: Belinda's POV: Court Yard

Then next few days were chaos with guys asking girls left and right, but lucky for me I had a boyfriend. When my friends and I were hanging out in the court yard Harry and Weasley came up to us. "Hello Harry," I said smiling at him, then I looked at Weasley and frowned, "Weasley."

He glared at me but Harry elbowed him in the stomach. "Hello Belle. We were wondering if any of you had dates for the Yule Ball yet?" asked Harry. I looked at the girls who were with me and remembered that every single 4th year Slytherin girl had a date.

"Sorry Harry we all have dates." But as I said that I saw Flora Nott, Theo's younger sister, and Astoria came forward. Flora had short curly light brown hair, pale skin, light blue eyes and freckles across her button nose. I had almost forgotten that two third years were within the group.

"We don't have dates." they said in unison. Weasley looked very confused.

"You're the only girls without dates?" he asked. They nodded.

"Yeah so which one of us goes with who?" asked Flora.

"Well Nott, do you want to go with me?" asked Weasley.

"Okay and call me Flora." she said.

"Call me Ron." he replied.

"I guess it's you and me, Potter." said Astoria flipping her long brown hair behind her.

"I guess so, and call me Harry." he said.

"Then call me Astoria." she responded.

"Come on Belle we have to meet the guys remember." Pansy said though I could tell she just wanted to leave. Unlike me the other 4th year girls didn't have a soft spot for Harry. They still hated him…..a lot.

"Yeah, we've got to go. See you later Harry, Weasley." I yelled over my shoulder as we walked away.

"Astoria, Flora come on." yelled Daphne, and the two came running up behind us.

Later that day Draco and I were hanging out by the lake. We soon saw Victor Krum come marching by with a pack of girls following after him. I also noticed that Krum looked at Hermione, who was down the way with Harry and Weasley. I had a feeling that he liked her, a lot.

"Hey Draco did you see that?" I asked.

"What are you talking about, see what?" he responded.

"The way Krum was looking Granger." I said. Around Draco I always used her last name since he still didn't like her. Though freakishly he was getting used to me being around Harry.

"What does it matter that he looked at her?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Never mind it's a girl thing I guess." I responded. Later we had Potions with Snape, and Theo and Blaise kept complaining about the dress robes they were wearing for the ball. Isn't that supposed to be a girl thing? I also over heard a conversation being held at the Gryffindor table.

Weasley was talking to Hermione, and telling her it would have been okay if he and Harry had went alone to the Ball but for her to go by herself was just sad, and lets just say she was ticked off. First, being the goody two shoes student she was, she gave her work to Snape. Then she walked back to her table and told them someone had already asked her. And she had said yes.

Belinda's POV: That Night of The Yule Ball: Slytherin Girls Dorm

Pansy, Daphne, Millicent, and I were getting ready for the best night of our live. The Yule Ball. I, being one of the champions, had to get ready first so the girls helped me a little to much. "Ow! Watch it, I'm alive you know!" I said as Pansy combed my hair.

"Sorry if you would just stay still." she replied. "Okay. I'm done now." I rose from the chair and looked in the long mirror to see what my friends had done. My hair was in long layers and styled in big loose waves and a side part. Daphne and Millie who had done my make up before hand, had done a wonderful job.

My eyes had black eyeliner on the lid and light green eye shadow. My lips were even a perfect shade of pale pink. I was wearing a long kelly green charmeuse dress with black liquid beading accenting the single strap and empire waist, it had a shirred bust line with a keyhole slit. Daphne came up behind me in her pale blue dress.

"Okay Belle stop looking at yourself your Beast is waiting for you." she said giggling as she made a reference to the muggle movie. I smiled and turned around to face them.

"I'm going. I'm going." I said as I began walking out, but I stopped remembering something. "Where's Astoria?"

"She's already with Potter. Now go!" she replied and I left the room. I walked down the stairs to see Draco waiting for me. He turned around and saw me.

"Wow! Belle you look beautiful." he said putting his hands on my waist.

"You don't look to bad yourself, Draco." I responded. "Come on we can't be late. We have to open the dance remember." And we walked out of the common room hand and hand. When we arrived I saw all the other couples standing by the doorway. Harry happened to be looking our way and smiled. I smiled back and lead Draco over to him. "Hello Harry. Hey Astoria." I said. Astoria smiled ad waved.

"Hello Belle. Hello Malfoy." Harry said. Draco responded with a quick nod. No matter how hard I try these two will never become friends, or even acquaintances. Soon enough we heard our queue and we lined up, first it was Fleur and her date, then Cedric and Cho, then Viktor and Hermione, then me and Draco, and lastly Harry and Astoria. We walked into the room and saw the whole student body including the Beuxbaton and Durmstrang students, and all the teacher watching.

"Merlin this a bit awkward." I whispered. Draco chuckled. When we made to the dance floor the music started and we began to dance. I laughed as Draco picked me up and twirled me around like the other couples. " Wow Draco you are really good at this."

"Why wouldn't I be?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Well you weren't to eager to take the lessons I know that." I responded.

"That's because I already knew how to dance, Belle." he said.

"Oh." I whispered. "I forgot about that." He chuckled and giggled along with him. Soon the dance was over and we walked over to the refreshment table. I sighed.

"What's wrong?" Draco asked as he handed me a cup of punch.

"Nothing its just I'm not exactly looking forward to the next task." I said looking down.

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Cause I still haven't figured out what that stupid egg is saying or singing or whatever." I went over to sit down and Draco sat next to me.

"You'll figure it out soon enough. Potter still hasn't figured it so at least your still ahead of him." Draco said trying to cheer me up. He succeed because I began to laugh. But I stopped as soon as I heard someone yelling, a familiar someone. I looked over to the doorway where it was coming from and saw Hermione yelling at Harry and Ron, more towards the latter than the former. When they walked up the stairs towards their common room she began to cry while she sat on the stairs.

"Oh no." I whispered, and I quickly got up and walked over to her. "Hermione?" She looked up at me and rolled her eyes.

"What? What do you want? Do you want to make fun of me for crying? Or what about the way I look or my blood status?" she said. I shook my head and sat down next to her.

"Hermione, I'm not here to make fun of you. I want to know what's wrong so I can help." I responded.

"Why would you want to help me?" she asked.

"I know you've seen the way I treat Harry now that were both in this tournament. I'm going to treat you that way too. Cause I'm not going to let something as silly as blood status get in the way of becoming good friends with someone who has something in common with me. I was wrong that day in Flourish and Blotts I shouldn't have acted that way. And now that I see what Harry can do and how truly nice he is, I realized that it doesn't matter where you come from, or how much money you have, or the way you look. It matters the way you treat other people and yourself, with respect. So I'm sorry for what happened that day. I truly am. Now can you please tell me what's wrong?" Hermione nodded, and as she told me what happened I realized something.

I had never actually pored my heart out to someone other than Draco or my mother. And even then I never really reveled much. And just now I gave a really great speech that I didn't even know could give, to a girl I made fun of just months ago. All my life I was almost as shallow as a kiddy pool, and as mean as a Hungarian Horntail. But this competition had changed me. And I liked it. When Hermione finished her story I looked at her curiously.

"So your telling me that Ron is mad at you for fraternizing with the enemy?" She nodded. "Wasn't he the one who tried to ask Fleur Delecour to the ball?" She nodded again. "You know what Hermione don't listen to him. He's an idiot and doesn't know what he's talking about. For one thing he's a boy and They don't always get things right, and another thing is, that Weasley has the emotional rage of a teaspoon." Hermione laughed as she wiped away her tears. "Not even that really. So are you going to be okay now?"

She sighed, and nodded again. "Yeah I'm going to be okay. Thank you Belle." she said. I hugged her just for the heck of it and she hugged me back.

"Your very welcome." I responded. I looked at my watch and noticed it was getting late. "Well I'm going to find Draco and hit the hay. See you tomorrow, Mione."

"See you tomorrow Belle." she responded. I smiled, rose from where I was sitting on the stairs and walked away. I looked around the room and I didn't have to look for very long because Draco was standing by the door way.

"So you want to head back?" he asked. I nodded and we walked back towards the Slytherin dungeons. It was comfortable silence as we walked, but Draco broke it. "I heard what you said to Granger back there." I stopped walking and turned to him.

"You did?" I asked. He nodded.

"Yeah I did." he responded. "And I liked it." I raised my eyebrows.

"You did?" I asked. He nodded again and laughed.

"Yes, yes I did and can you please say more than just, you did." he said. I nodded this time, and we continued walking. "But yeah I did hear and I did like it. I'm planning on trying to follow that philosophy of yours."

"Really?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes I am. Now don't expect me to start talking to the golden trio or anything. I'm just going to be a little nicer to them and others." he said. I smiled and laid my head on his shoulders.

"Thank you Draco." I said, and closed my eyes. Draco kissed my forehead, ad he picked me up bridal style, knowing I was falling asleep.

"Your welcome, Belle." he whispered, and the next thing I knew I was asleep.