Authors Note: So, my updates have been pretty slow on this story, but I am trying – no promises – to get back into writing it. I was looking at a bunch of my favorite authors today, wondering why most of them didn't have updates, and then had this thought occur to me: some people like my stories, too, and I haven't updated them. So to the people who are interested in Carina, this is for you, because I hate being hypocritical.
Oh, and I apologize if it's kind of rambling, I'm in a kind of rambling mood today. So, I'd ask for reviews, but since I'm so shy that I never leave reviews, I won't. However, any would be greatly appreciated – they're kind of thing that makes me keep writing when the story feels dead to me. They bring it back to life, ya know? Right, I'm going to shut up now because, well, I need to shut up… End Authors Note
Chapter Nine: The Yule Ball
December 11th 1994
Successfully escaping the great hall and its hordes of teenage boys who were looking to be the date of one of the tri-wizard champions, Carina breathed deeply in relief.
"That bad, are they?" Cedric asked cheerfully.
"Worse," Carina answered honestly. "Will you go to the ball with me?"
Cedric blinked.
Carina felt the need (for some odd reason, she wasn't sure, herself) to explain, "I decided I'd asked the first guy that I saw that I liked. You win. So, will you?" There were butterflies in her stomach. But she did not have a crush on Cedric. She did not, she did not, she did not!
Oh, she so had a crush on Cedric…
"As friends or as a date?" he asked.
Carina blushed and managed to say, half asking, "Whichever works for you?"
Cedric smirked, "A date it is, then. I can't wait."
He walked away, the smirk still on his face.
Carina stared after him in astonishment. He'd made her all… floaty. She was completely lost floating in the clouds and the knowledge that Cedric liked her back! She had a date with Cedric Diggory!
Oh my god I've got a date with Cedric Diggory, Carina realized, her jaw dropping. Well damn.
"What's up, Carina?" Hermione asked cheerfully wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
Carina's eyes narrowed. "Who asked you?"
Hermione's lips curled into a secretive but excited smile. "Ryan."
"Ryan Tonks? My cousin, Ryan?" Carina asked incredulously. "The boy has some intelligence after all," she marveled. "You said yes, I take it?"
Hermione nodded, beaming.
"Guess who I'm going with?" Carina was about two seconds away from giggling, which was more than a little disturbing in her mind. Giggling was… so not who she was. But Cedric and this floating feeling that he'd caused were making it impossible to really give a damn that she was acting very teenage-girl-ish.
"Who?" Hermione asked excitedly.
"Cedric! It's as a date, not just as friends!" Carina whispered excitedly.
"Oh, that's wonderful, Carina!" Hermione gushed. "Want to go dress robes shopping next Hogsmeade weekend?"
"Hell yes," Carina answered, smiling widely. Both girls did not stop grinning until Carina realized that this date involved dancing. At which point the slightly over dramatic 'what am I going to do?!' fit started.
With Cedric On the Quidditch Pitch
Carina had to admit she'd been surprised when Cedric had asked her to join him on the Quidditch pitch for a picnic – surprised but pleased. He really did like her. She couldn't get over it. And she knew him well enough to know that it had nothing to do with the damned scar on her forehead. He really liked her, for some unknown reason. "What's your favorite color?" she asked, suddenly feeling the urge to know more about the boy she was crushing on so badly.
Cedric grinned, "Probably red. You?"
"Blue and purple tie," Carina shrugged. "What's your all-time favorite book?"
Cedric wrinkled his nose but answered, "Promise to never tell?"
"Swear on my life," Carina said solemnly.
"Staying Awake, History Can Be Interesting, by Alastor Moody," Cedric said in rush.
Carina beamed, "That's one of my favorites, too! I love his books, and he's pretty cool in person, too."
Cedric chuckled, "Is there a book that isn't one of your favorites?" he teased lightly.
Carina considered this seriously. "Every single book that Gilderoy Lockhart every wrote," she answered honestly. "And A History Of Magic, but I'd probably like that if it weren't for Binns."
Cedric wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Carina beamed at him. "What's your favorite food?" he asked her with a grin.
"Watermelon," Carina answered promptly. "You?"
"Fried chicken," Cedric grinned. "Your turn."
"What's your favorite drink?"
"Pumpkin Juice," Cedric said, grinning as he awaited the explosion.
"YOU LIKE WHAT?!"
Cedric laughed. "Relax, Fireball. You have a love affair with your precious coffee, which I happen to find repulsive," he teased.
Carina rolled her eyes and laughed herself. "All right, that was a bit of an overreaction."
Cedric tickled her sides and asked, "A bit?"
"Only a bit," Carina confirmed through her giggles.
Finishing Getting Ready For The Ball
"James is going to be murderous if he sees you wearing that," Hermione grinned.
"So it's as good as I thought it was?" Carina replied innocently.
Hermione giggled. "Cedric will drool."
"And my dear sweet cousin will be all over you in that dress," Carina grinned. "We look good," she hooked her arm through Hermione's as they stared in the dorm room mirror. "Hey, Ella?"
Elladora looked up and her jaw dropped. "Jesus, what are you two trying to do, kill all the boys in the school?"
"Tempting thought," Hermione remarked. "Think it'll work on Weasley?"
Carina snorted, "I wish."
"What were you wanting?" Ella prompted after a moment of silence. She was the only one in their dorm who didn't have a date for the dance, and she only didn't have a date because she'd slapped the first (and only) boy who'd worked up the guts to ask her.
Luna was going to the dance with Dean Thomas, solely because she wanted to go and he was the only boy to ask her. She didn't like him, as he liked to tease her, but she'd made that clear. Dean was taking her as a favor, and she was going with him as a favor… they were even. Actually, Luna wasn't aware that Carina and Hermione had done a fair bit of threatening upon finding out that Ron had been intending to ask and prank Luna by standing her up, and as a result Dean had been curious about why the girls were so overprotective of their younger roommate. So he was genuinely interested.
"Will you take a picture of all four of us, and then of me and Hermione?" Carina asked, holding out her camera.
"I ought to charge for this," Ella said mockingly as she took the pictures. "Now go have a good time, but promise not to give me the icky details."
"Four-year-old," Hermione teased.
"Whatever, ditz," Ella smirked.
"I cannot believe you!" Hermione said, wide-eyed. "Just because I have a date, I'm a ditz?!"
Ella snickered, "Gotcha."
Hermione glared at her.
Meeting Cedric
"You look amazing," Cedric breathed when he saw her.
Carina smiled, "You're looking pretty good yourself," she said approvingly.
"No, but I mean, you're… damn," Cedric managed.
Carina's smile widened, and then fell. "So, I should warn you that I'm really, catastrophically bad at dancing."
"Would it be horrible of me to take it as a good thing, because I hate dancing?" Cedric asked seriously.
Carina beamed, "Not at all! In fact, it's really a relief. Means we only have to dance the one dance, and even if that is going to be bad, it could be worse."
Cedric chuckled, "The lack of negativity is making you glow."
"Don't expect it to happen often," Carina mock warned him.
"I wont," Cedric promised. "Ready to dance?"
"As I'll ever be," Carina answered shakily, as she, Cedric and the other three champions and their dates – Angelina and Fred Weasley, Viktor Krum and Cho Chang, and Fleur Delacour with Roger Davies – started the opening dance.
Not too long later, it was over, and Carina and Cedric found a corner to hide in, exchanging observations and jokes about their classmates. They spent most of the dance staying there, out of sight, mainly for Carina's sake.
He walked her back to the Ravenclaw common room slowly. When they got there, he asked, rather awkwardly, "Would you, uh, like to go on another date sometime?"
"I'd love to," she beamed at him.
He kissed her, hesitantly at first, and then the kisses got harder and more passionate, until a throat cleared and they jumped apart to see Professor Flitwick, looking like he was rather amused and trying to hide it. "Five points from each Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Such public displays of affection are frowned upon in schools, Mr. Diggory, Miss Black," he commented, and then walked away.
Blushing brightly, Carina mumbled a goodnight.
"Wait," Cedric said quickly, and then blurted, "Would you be my girlfriend?"
"Gladly," Carina beamed and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before darting into her common room. She fell asleep with a dazed smile on her lips that night.
