As much as he would have wished to stay the whole night sequestered in the corner with his godfather there was no escaping Draco or the other bothersome people that seemed intent on bothering him at the ball. It had been about quarter to six when Nathair arrived and dinner wasn't to be served until six thirty which gave plenty of time for people to bother him until dinner, not that that would save him. Dinner itself gave the people who he would be sitting near a chance to bother him, not to mention desert and the dancing and cocktails which were to take place for a fews hours afterwards.
Thankfully Draco seemed to sweep him away as soon as he was released from his greeting duties and then kept them moving around that no one they didn't want to talk too had a chance to catch them before they were moving on again though it seemed the Minister was determined to speak with them both and kept popping up at every turn. He had been at the first task and of course the night the goblet picked the champions and he always was talking to Dumbledore who was constantly trying to manipulate the leader, not that that was hard to do, the man wasn't all that smart in the simplest of situations. In fact to call him smart was like trying to say that a muggle house plant was a chess champion, absolutely impossible. As such both men wanted to know more about Nathair as neither of them couldn't get anything out of anyone about Nathair, mostly because no one knew anything about him and if they did they didn't talk, they knew what was good for them and kept shut.
As they continued to move around they soon found themselves close to Lucius though they weren't facing him directly. He was standing close to a handful of people that had an air of officalness to them and were speaking seriously to the older blond. They seemed to be asking Lucius about his work and what he was doing to stop some bill or law that Dumbledore was supporting and trying to push through the system as fast as he possibly could, not that Lucius was letting him.
"Come on, we all know you only have three votes for the Malfoy seat, but you have been voting with twenty four. So who are you voting for?" Asked an older witch in deep purple robes.
"It has to be more than one person with all them votes. There's no way one person has that many votes all to themselves," stated a portly man in a snide voice who was wearing dark grey striped robes with deep red lining.
"All I can say is that yes it is just one person I am voting for. They are the last eligible person of more than one wizarding family and as such have accumulated twenty one votes to their person. Unfortunately they are underage and unable to use their votes themselves and have personally chosen me to act as their proxy and do as I see fit with said votes. Fortunately for me they have similar views as myself and it is rather easy to vote in their stead without them being unhappy with me," said Lucius with a tone in his voice that said he had said all he was willing to and that they better be satisfied with what he had told them because they weren't going to be getting anymore out of him.
That was all Nathair could hear before Draco had spotted the Minister again and was dragging him away to the safety of their friends who had just shown up. They had come with their parents to the ball and would help to keep Nathair away from anyone it would be risky to speak too. Thankfully Nathair and Draco's friends didn't have to detiere people for too long as dinner was announced soon after they joined them. Everyone moved to the side of the room, once everyone was out of the way dozens of circular tables with chairs and covered with tablet cloths, diner wear and place settings, each with a name written on thick card denoting who was to sit where. With the tables now in the room there was only a forth of the room's floor free, which was obviously meant to be the dance floor, which would allow for the tables to stay where they were after diner so that those who didn't wish to dance could still have somewhere to sit so they didn't have to stand as before diner when there were no chairs in the room. As luck would have it Draco and Nathaitr were seated at the table next to their parents and at the same table as their friends so at least until the meal was over they would be free of the unwanted attention of certain guests.
Once over half of the guest's had finished their desserts the quintet of musicians that had been hired to play, started playing music and soon after did people begin to get up and start to dance. This then unfortunately, gave the Minister the chance he had been fighting for. As Pansy and Theo, then Blaise and Millicent got up to dance, then Draco left to dance with his mother and before Nathair could cosy up to someone who would help him dodge and avoid people he didn't wish to speak to he was accosted. Suddenly as Nathair made to stand up his arm was latched in a tight grip and he found himself held fast in his seat with the Minister talking the vacant seat next to him, his sweaty hand holding onto Nathair'a arm as if he would vanish if he loosened his grip in anyway.
"Young man you are hard to talk to aren't you?" Fudge asked what seemed to be a rhetorical question, though he acted like he was expecting an answer by the silence that hung in the air between them.
"I wouldn't know," Nathair replied and had to stifle a laugh as he saw his sarcastic comment go right over the rude man's head and a confused look took over his face.
"I've been hearing many things about you my boy," Fudge said as he tried to appear charming when in reality he fell very short of his goal and was simply nauseating to listen to not to mention be near to. The man was also sweating profusely and was almost always sweaty and that did nothing to help him be charming.
"Oh," Nathair huffed, not even needing to pretend to be uninterested in what the man had to say as he tried to get his arm free without looking like he was struggling with the man, choosing discretion over attention.
"Yes," he said as he smiled and made Nathair smother a gag in disgust. Nathair was only prepared to let this interaction go so far and Fudge was greatly pushing his limits, and so soon after letching his hands on Nathair. "My great friend Dumbledore, who you know doubt have spoken to since you transferred to Hogwarts this year. You have us wondering where you have been going to school and why you haven't been going to Hogwarts all these years. It's the best magical school anyone could go to, you know."
"I have been taught by tutors in more classes and areas of magic than Hogwarts has offered for years. It's only now that we are staying in one place that I was able to join my cousin Draco at Hogwarts, though I doubt I will be staying more than just this year. My father has many obligations that require his constant attention and look to be taking us away at the end of the school year," said Nathair as he spun the false information he had been waiting to let slip back to Dumbledore.
"That would be a terrible idea young man. Hogwarts is the best place a young person like yourself can learn magic, your father should know this and know that it would be most unwise to deny you your proper education."
Nathair could stand a lot of things but anyone disrespecting his father to him in any way, let alone such an obvious way, was not something Nathair could ignore. But ignore it he must, unless the wizarding world was to lose it's Minister suddenly and unexpectedly. Sending out a small burst of his magic like an SOS signal Nathair didn't have to wait long before his father appeared hovering over him.
"I would most greatly appreciate it if you would remove your hand from my son Minister," said Tom in a voice that was just about chilling in it's coldness and left no room for arguing and caused Fudge to drop Nathair's arm as if it was on fire and hastily stood up.
"Who are you?" The Minister asked as he jumped up from the seat and released Nathair's arm in shock at being told what to do.
"I am Mister Thomson, Nathair is my son and I will not have you manhandling my son in any way," said Tom, his eyes as warm as ice and voice just as cold.
"Of course Mister Thomson," said Fudge trying to placate the irate Dark Lord who was only not cursing the man because they were in a room with hundreds of people on both sides of the war, if he wasn't the Minister, he wouldn't have been the Minister for much longer. Thankfully Dumbledore hadn't shown up to the ball and therefore couldn't interfere. "I was just trying to speak to your son, he obviously doesn't know the importance of getting a full and proper education. Well it can only be expected as he hasn't attended Hogwarts until now, a very grave injustice. I'm sure you will agree with me that he should finish out his education at the finest institution of magical learning in the world."
"My son's education has been more than adequate, until this year at Hogwarts and I doubt he will be returning for the next year. We will be returning to the prior educational tutors who were teaching him before I allowed him to join his cousin Draco Malfoy for this year. Not that any of this is of your concern or business," said Tom as he thought of how down hill Hogwarts had gone since Dumbledore and other like minded people had been in power and had begun to separate magic learning and got rid of class after class that was deemed inappropriate, which meant any class that was actually worth learning was gone first.
Nathair was thanking the gods for his father and took this chance to back away slowly and escape before the Minister could recover and bring his attention back to Nathair. As soon as he was far enough away he all but ran through the crowd that had gathered at an acceptable distance away from his father and the Minister but still close enough that they could watch the show. He then took and stayed close to his godfather knowing that most people left him alone, and those that didn't know better would be put off by the potion master's glare. Nathair stayed glued to Severus the rest of the night until it was an acceptable time to sneak out and return home. At least he knew the dark Yule ball that was to take place the following night would be more enjoyable.
While it was formal, it wasn't as formal as the public Yule ball, and as everyone was on the same side and so they didn't have to wear the masks they were forced to wear on a daily basis to protect themselves. All in all the night was full of fun and they allowed themselves to let their hair down as it were. In the past the balls have been known to get rowdy and more than once guests have had to, or chose to, pay for or replace what they broke in their excitement.