19
The Yule Ball…
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Harry was staring right ahead at Fleur's back as he stood behind her outside the great hall. The Yule Ball was about to start any moment now and he, along with his fellow champions, were going to do the opening dance with their fellow partners.
He gulped as he tried to calm his racing heart. He was nervous, very, very nervous as he felt a bead of sweat trickle from the side of his temple down to his chin when Luna held his hand a bit firmly. "It will be fine," she whispered trying to convince him that he won't mess this up but Harry wasn't too sure about that.
It was then that McGonagall arrived and told them all to be ready as the ball was about to start. She came up to Harry and looked at his nervous, sweaty face. "Are you alright?" she asked. Harry pressed his lips and nodded.
"Don't worry professor, I will look after him," Luna said. McGonagall looked from her to Harry before the corner of her lips twirled upwards a little. Harry was pretty sure that his house head had found it amusing. She wished him luck, as the doors to the great hall opened and sound of cheering and clapping fell on Harry's ears which it only made him more nervous.
The champions – along with their respective partners – walked into the great hall elegantly. They had been told last night how they were to make an entrance. They took their positions in the centre of the hall just as everyone quieted down and slow music began to play. Harry and Luna started to dance and he let her take the lead. At first he was a bit wobbly but she helped him by holding his right hand in hers tightly so he wouldn't fall.
Soon Harry got a hold of it and Luna smiled seeing the look of confidence coming on his face. After dancing for a few minutes the music came to an end and everyone clapped for the champions. They stopped dancing as Dumbledore walked up to the podium and greeted everyone.
"Good evening to all who came to cherish this moment with your loved ones," he said. "Let's make sure that all of us enjoy this evening."
Everyone clapped as once again slow music began to play and this time everyone started to dance. Harry took that moment to have a little break. He was thankful that Luna agreed to it too otherwise he would've kept thinking that he wasn't letting her dance just because he didn't want to. They sat at one of the empty tables that were put at one end of the hall when Neville came up to them.
"You did great," he said.
"Hey, Neville," Harry said looking at his friend. Since he couldn't find a dance partner Neville had instead taken up the task of serving refreshments during the ball, like a few other students who shared his position of not having a date for that evening. Unlike them though, Neville was perfectly happy with the arrangement. According to him it was a lot better than being rejected by a girl. "How are you doing?" Harry asked.
"It's better than I had hoped for," Neville said. "At least I got away from making a fool of myself. But you did great though. You and Luna look lovely together," he said looking from Harry to Luna.
"Thank you, Neville," Luna said as she took a sip from her goblet of butter beer. Neville then excused himself as he saw more people sit down at the tables and headed over to them.
"I thought you said you didn't know how to dance, Harry," Luna said, "but you quickly caught up to it in a few minutes."
"I, uh actually had practiced once before today evening," he said. "I didn't know if I would be able to dance but it seems I got lucky."
"Well, for a first timer you did very well," she said. "Who taught you?"
"Who taught me?" Harry said slowly as he looked towards the dancing students and spotted Daphne in the crowd, dancing with her sister. She was wearing a beautiful white gown. Harry was mesmerized by how beautiful she looked in that dress as she danced with Astoria who was wearing a similar-looking dress but of a light grey color. The two looked like twins but it wasn't surprising considering how similar the Greengrass sisters looked.
"Why are you looking at Daphne?" Luna asked causing Harry to come out of his thoughts.
"Who? I wasn't!" he said abruptly when he saw Viktor and Hermione dancing together. Cedric had told him how he had seen the two grow close to each other in the last month. Viktor had even told him once that he liked watching her study in the library and all. Both Cedric and Harry thought it sounded a bit creepy but Cho thought it was cute, maybe because it was Viktor and not some normal guy.
However, for an international Quidditch star like Krum Harry found it a little hard to believe that he had really fell for someone like Hermione who, as Harry knew, was someone who wasn't interested in things like having a relationship. Besides, Viktor could get any girl he wanted so why Hermione? Harry even wondered if the Bulgarian seeker was probably using her but then he shoved that thought aside as he couldn't think of how Hermione could be used by him. After her betrayal Harry wanted nothing to do with her. Hermione was a smart girl who would know if Viktor was using her.
His focus then shifted to Ron who had come with Padma Patil. She didn't look impressed, maybe because of how odd they both looked amongst the rest of the students simply because of Ron's attire. He was wearing a robe from the medieval periods, it seemed. It was old and its colors had faded away. Not to mention it was definitely a size larger than Ron. The red head hadn't even bothered to fix the fitting which could've been done easily with a single spell.
One could easily tell that Ron didn't look happy either. It seemed he and Padma had been bickering with each other as Harry saw her walk away from Ron. He actually felt a little bad for the red head but then looked away from his former best friend. He glanced at the rest of the students who were dancing. They were all definitely enjoying themselves when he saw Draco and Theodore Nott, both looking at Daphne. She seemed to be unaware of it. Harry didn't like it when he saw them staring at her like that. He was always in conflict with Draco and things between Daphne and Theo hadn't been going well from what he had heard, even though she hadn't told him anything.
A few minutes later the music came to an end and the students all decided to take a small break as most of them settled down for refreshments and some light snack. Harry wanted to tell Daphne about the two Slytherins but he couldn't risk doing so publicly with so many people around when she looked at him and their eyes met for a moment.
Memories from that night in the room of requirement came back as Harry remembered the two of them dancing together. It was a week ago and after that the two hadn't talked or even met once. Things had ended awkwardly between them. He couldn't gather up the courage to talk to her after what had happened. Harry thought that maybe she was angry with him with the way she'd abruptly left that night. Seeing that Daphne hadn't tried to talk to him or contact him only seemed to confirm his theory.
"You like her, don't you?"
He looked at Luna as he heard her say those words. "What?" he blurted out.
"Daphne. You like her," she said. "The nargles are all around you. They can sense it when someone feels deep emotions for another person."
Harry could only look at her as he was at a loss of words. He didn't know what to make of Luna so he focused on his own feelings instead. Was he feeling attracted towards Daphne, Harry thought as he pondered over it a little. It definitely felt a bit like it a week ago when the two were dancing in the room of requirement. The way they hugged each other while dancing and the way she smelled…he was sure he would've lost it and had done something regrettable had she not moved away from him that time. Harry closed his eyes as he tried to shove those thoughts aside. What was he thinking? He felt confused. All of this was new to him.
But even if he liked her Daphne wouldn't think of someone like him in that way, Harry thought. She was the ice princess. None of the boys from Slytherin were worth her time or attention and they all came from wealthy and renowned families. Not to mention Slytherin had the most number of good looking boys if Harry was to believe the rumors, not that he'd paid any attention to it. What chance could he have compared to them? Besides, he shouldn't even be thinking about anything like that in the first place. Daphne was only helping him with the tasks and once this tournament was over the two of them would probably go back to being strangers. However, Harry hoped that he could still talk to her even after the tournament was over. He felt like he could tell her anything even though he hadn't. He had never felt like that with anyone else, not even with his former friends.
He had thought about it before when he had first showed Daphne the secret chamber. He wouldn't have shown that place to anyone else. He hadn't even shown it to Hermione or Ron back when he was friends with them. While Ron had gone down the secret chamber's entrance with him he had never been inside the main chamber. Harry thought that it was because it never came up in a conversation which is why he never showed them the secret chamber. It really felt weird how they never talked about it or him protecting Sirius from over a hundred dementors last year.
As he thought about it he wondered how he had so casually put aside those moments from his life like they didn't matter to him when he had almost died while experiencing all of them. Was it because he longed for a normal life? Harry wondered if that would be possible now with the prophecy foretelling the fated clash between him and Voldemort. He knew that unless one of them was truly gone the other could not have a normal life. For Voldemort it probably meant reigning over the world, but for Harry, he wanted a normal and peaceful life more than anything else.
'Will it be asking for too much if I want to spend my life with Daphne?' Harry wondered.
He came out of his thoughts thinking why he would think something like that. His stomach felt funny as he once again thought of dancing with Daphne in the room of requirement.
As that image came to his mind Harry's eyes looked for her in the crowd of students but he couldn't find her. More students had joined the dance floor so maybe she was somewhere in the crowd, Harry thought when he spotted Ron and Hermione arguing in the corner. He couldn't hear them. They probably had a privacy ward around them. Hermione looked on the verge of tears while Ron just stood with a confused expression as if he wanted to get away from her.
Harry looked away from them. It wasn't anything new – them quarrelling. Even when he was friends with them they would often argue over simple and sometimes even stupid things. Back then Harry would serve as a mediator between them, trying to make sure that they stopped fighting. He was happy that he wasn't doing it anymore. They weren't his responsibility and he no longer wanted to do anything with them.
Thinking about them…about their betrayal made Harry feel annoyed so he looked at Luna and asked if she wanted to dance. She nodded and the two headed over to the dancing area and joined the other students.
As the two danced around Harry once again looked for Daphne when he spotted Tracey in the distance talking to Neville. She looked tensed and worried as Harry wondered what had happened. He stopped and excused himself before walking up to the two.
"Is something wrong?" Harry asked as they looked at him.
"I can't find Daphne," Tracey said in a shaky voice. "I…I saw her leave with Theo a few minutes ago. I went after her but I couldn't find her. I looked everywhere I could but…"
"Hey, hey, hey, it's alright," Harry said trying to calm her down. She looked different as if she knew that Daphne was in some sort of trouble. "Don't worry. I'll find her," Harry said before he looked at Neville. "Look after her?" he said. Neville nodded as he helped Tracey sit down while Harry left the hall.
He knew that the quickest way to look for Daphne was to find her location on the marauder's map, which is why he was running down the corridor, towards the Gryffindor tower. However, because of the ball night the castle was extra crowded tonight with students from both Durmstrang and Beauxbatons also being present in their full strength.
Running or even walking through the crowd was going to delay him as Harry realized he wouldn't be able to reach his dorm anytime soon. So he could think of only one thing that would work in this situation and called for Dobby.
The house elf popped beside him and Harry asked him to take him to his dorm. Dobby nodded without asking any questions and apparated Harry over to the place. He quickly took out the map from his trunk, activated it and started looking for Daphne. He flipped through the many folds, his eyes going through the names as his heartbeat increased with each name that wasn't Daphne's. He looked again and again when he suddenly saw Theo's name on the map. It showed him in the southern tower of the castle. The place was not allowed to be visited by any student as it contained – according to the professors and the rules – several cursed items and other dangerous things. It was also the shortest tower in the entire castle with a few rooms which were all kept locked. Harry knew that because he had been to the place adventuring during his first year after he had gotten his invisibility cloak.
He was confused when he only saw Theo's name on the map and not Daphne's. Tracey had told him that the two had left together so where was she? As he sat there thinking he saw Draco heading towards the southern tower as well. Harry narrowed his eyes as he got the feeling that something was not right as he remembered the two Slytherins eyeing Daphne a while ago in the great hall. Harry also remembered that the map showed the names of only those people who were awake or conscious. It was Remus who had told him about it when Harry had asked him why the map barely showed any names during the night.
Fearing something bad might've happened he looked at Dobby. The house elf knew already what he had to do as he apparated Harry over to the southern tower. Harry had his invisibility cloak, the marauder's map and his wand as he covered himself with the cloak and applied silencing charms on his legs so his presence wouldn't be known easily.
He then opened the map and began heading to where Theo was. As he neared the place he could hear Theo's voice. Harry stopped by the pillar. The map showed Theo to be only a few steps away from him inside an abandoned classroom. Harry put the map in his pocket and removed the cloak as well before he carefully walked up to the classroom. The door was slightly ajar so he peaked inside. There wasn't much light in there but he could still see something – a shadowy figure – most likely of Theo. The boy seemed to be saying something but Harry couldn't understand it. It was too low for him to hear.
"Huh, Greengrass?!" suddenly the Slytherin shouted in anger. Harry almost jumped from his sudden outburst as he gripped his wand tightly. "You think you can just play around without thinking of the consequences?"
'Consequences?' Harry wondered what Theo was talking about. He also noticed that he hadn't heard Daphne's voice as of yet. Could it be that something had happened to her when he heard a loud bang inside the classroom. Theo had kicked a desk. The furniture was old and rickety so it suffered damage. Harry knew of Theo's reputation. He tried to look harder but it was hard to make out anything because of lack of light when he saw a figure lying on the floor beside Theo.
"It's alright, though. I know what to do," Theo said as he aimed his wand at the lying figure. "I'll just carve it on you…that you are my property. That'll show you what it means to take these things lightly. You hear me, Greengrass?" he shouted as the tip of his wand began glow a faint yellow. However, before he could fire the spell at her Theo was hit by a spell and the wand flew out of his hand and fell all the way over to the other end of the room. He was thrown off of his feet before landing on a couple of desks, breaking through them and hitting the floor.
The loud crashing sound echoed throughout the entire corridor but luckily no one came to this side of the castle so no one would've heard the noise. Harry walked inside the classroom and slowly headed over to Daphne when he saw a spell coming his way. He dodged it at the last moment as the spell connected with the wall, creating a fist-sized hole in it. It was an exploding hex – an offensive spell of dark nature.
He looked over to where the spell had come from and saw Theo standing up as he aimed his wand at Harry. Harry was confused. He knew he had hit Theo at point blank range with the disarming hex. There was no way he could've gotten his wand from the other end of the classroom unless…unless he had a spare.
"Crap," Harry swore as he dived at the last second before Theo's spell could hit him. Another explosion echoed inside the classroom as Harry struggled to find his footing.
"Who are you?" Theo screamed. It seemed he hadn't seen Harry's face yet because of how dark it was in there for which Harry was thankful. If he could keep his identity hidden then it would mean Theo wouldn't know that it was him.
'He's really mental!' Harry thought before he fired a petrifying curse at Theo. The boy dodged it effortlessly before firing a series of exploding hexes in Harry's direction. Harry was glad for the lack of proper lighting inside the room otherwise Theo's spells would've hit him a long time ago.
He dodged those incoming spells but he couldn't escape the impact of their explosions as he hit the wall before landing on a couple of desks. He tasted blood in his mouth. He didn't know where else he was injured. Not to mention, his attire wasn't making it easy for him to move around quickly.
Harry looked around. Most of the classroom was on fire now and in that light he could finally see the face of the lying person. It was indeed Daphne. She was unconscious and she had a bruised eye and a rather nasty cut on her lip. Her gown was also torn from various places and it didn't look like it had happened as an accident. Her exposed waist and left thigh told a different story. Seeing her like that made Harry's blood boil. How dare Theo do this to her?
"Potter? Is that you?" Theo said. Finally he could see Harry's face with all the fire around them. "Did you attack me?" his tone was that of confusion but the very next moment he fired a slicing hex. Harry raised a shield, dissipating Theo's spell like it was nothing. The Slytherin was definitely surprised when he saw Harry's shield. It almost looked opaque which spoke of how strong that shield was. "How did you do that?" Theo asked. There wasn't a hint of anger in his voice. He sounded genuinely curious and also confused but then again he had also tried to attack Harry with a slicing hex a second ago. This boy was really unpredictable and borderline psychopathic.
As for Harry, he was enraged as he slowly stepped towards Theo. He could see nothing other than the Slytherin in front of him as he raised his wand and prepared to fire an exploding hex of his own when suddenly Harry felt heat. Before he could realize he had been hit by a ball of fire from behind. It burnt through his clothes and charred his back as Harry screamed in agony, falling down on his stomach.
"The first lesson in dueling is to always mind your surroundings," Theo said as he grinned. "So, what is it? You fell for this skank, eh, Potter? You know neither of our houses would take kindly to this."
Harry groaned. He tried to get up as he saw Theo approach him. The Slytherin kicked the wand out of his hand before stepping on Harry's burnt back. Harry screamed through the agonizing pain. He saw Daphne lying a few feet away from him. He closed his eyes, thinking of the night of them dancing together. Remembering that moment always calmed his thoughts as it did the same this time, too.
As Harry opened his eyes he saw Daphne move a little before she groaned softly. His eyes widened. "Daphne? Daphne, wake up!" He whispered when he felt Theo step on his back again. The searing pain shot throughout his body for the second time as Harry let out a guttural cry.
Daphne heard the scream and slowly opened her eyes. She felt the heat and the crackling sound of fire as she remembered where she was. She quickly sat up and looked straight into Harry's eyes as they locked their gazes for a few seconds. Seeing him in that condition made her heart skip. What was he doing there she thought when she saw Theo stepping on Harry's burnt back, rubbing his shoe deep into Harry's wound.
She went for her wand but then realized she didn't have it. Theo had taken it away when he had tried to attack her a while ago. With no arsenal she stood up on her shaky legs and tackled her fellow housemate with everything she had. Theo lost balance and fell down with Daphne on top of him. He grunted in anger, turned around and grabbed her by the throat.
"You just don't know when to quit, huh, you bitch?" he said before he slapped her hard on the face.
Her face felt like it was on fire from Theo's slap as her injured lip began to bleed again. Theo chuckled. "Now, where were we?" he said as he focused his attention on Harry who, taking advantage of the small opportunity, grabbed Theo's leg and pulled it hard. The Slytherin fell down and Harry climbed on top of him before showering his face with angry punches.
"Harry, stop it!" Daphne screamed. He stopped at once as his enraged eyes looked at Theo's now bloodied face. His nose was broken along with three of his front teeth. Harry exhaled shakily as he got off of Theo before he looked at Daphne when the Slytherin pushed him hard. Harry fell on his back as Theo stood up, kicking Harry hard in the face. He then pointed his wand at Harry when a red spell hit Theo square in the chest, knocking him out instantly.
Both Harry and Daphne looked at the entrance of the classroom and were shocked to see Draco.
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Thanks for reading…