Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but I wish I did.
~*~
The next week went a little faster for the four, as there had only been one other Potions class. The class that they had all been waiting for had finally arrived on the Thursday. That class was Defense Against the Dark Arts. They were all wondering how this Professor Willowburn would be as a teacher. Harry, Hermione, Ron, Alexis, and the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors, along with the fifth years from Ravenclaw, walked into the bright classroom. There was an iron chandelier that hung from the ceiling, giving additional light to the room with its many candles. There were windows that were stain glassed with many colours. On the podium at the front of the class stood the teacher. He had dark red hair and wore silver framed glasses. He was tall, lanky, and pale. He wore deep green robes that shimmered in the light. It appeared as though he was in his early thirties. He was busy arranging the papers on his desk and had not appeared to have noticed the students walk in. They all took a seat and quietly waited for him to start speaking. After a minute and a couple of students clearing their throats, he finally looked up and scanned the students looking at him. He took a breath, straitened up, and started speaking.
"Welcome to Defense Against the Dark Arts, grade 5. My name is Professor Willowburn and I will be your teacher for this year, and hopefully next year too. I know that last year you were learning about curses and that some of you have even learned to block one of the Unforgivables. This year, we will be learning more about other curses that you didn't go over last year. You will be learning how to block them and how to use them on an enemy. Some of these curses can be quite dangerous, so if I see any of you using them on any of your piers, you will be punished. Before we start off with the cursing," and he smiled weakly at this, "I want to know how much you remember from last year, so I'm going to give you a small test. You have the whole class to write it. You may begin as soon as I hand it to you." The whole class groaned as he handed them their papers. They groaned even more when they counted the number of pages of this 'small' test. It was 14 pages long, double sided. Most of the students had to stay after the bell in order to complete it, including Harry and Ron. Alexis and Hermione walked out of the classroom after they handed their tests in.
"I guess that's what they get for not studying enough during the summer," laughed Hermione. "In your old school, did you learn about the Unforgivables last year?"
"Yes we did, but we never learned how to block any of them. I thought nobody was allowed to use the curses, so how was it that you could learn to block any of them? Wouldn't your teacher have gone to Azkaban for using any of them on you?"
"About that," Hermione started saying slowly, "our teacher last year was not your regular kind of teacher." Alexis gave her a puzzled look. "He was an escapee from Azkaban and was disguised as the teacher we were really suppose to have last year by using Polyjuice Potions to keep from being recognized. Even though he wasn't really a teacher, he did teach us a lot of useful information last year." Hermione had a thoughtful look on her face. "I think that he was probably a better teacher than the one we were suppose to have." They walked to the library to do some research. Unfortunately, on their way there, they came across Draco. Crabbe and Goyle weren't there with him though. He was leaning against the stone wall watching them come towards him.
"Well, if it isn't Granger and the New Girl, Alexis I believe it is right? I'm glad you two came along, as I was getting rather bored," he said smoothly. He grinned one of his malicious grins and walked towards them. Hermione just rolled her eyes.
"Get lost Malfoy, we don't need to see your ugly face with its stupid sneer right now," said Hermione with impatience. Malfoy, whose pride was in his looks, stopped grinning and developed an angry look on his face.
"Mudbloods should watch what they say to the purebloods or else they may find themselves in a spot of trouble." He spun on his heal and walked quickly away.
"I'd love to get him in a spot of trouble," she said through her teeth with fury, fists clenched.
"You shouldn't let him get to you like that, that's what he wants," said Alexis soothingly. Hermione looked at her, a bit amazed. After all the encounters with Draco that she had had since she arrived at Hogwarts a couple of days before, she hadn't even flinched at any of the things he had said to her. 'She must have a great deal of patience,' thought Hermione. They continued to the library and started their homework. Harry and Ron joined them soon after. Ron was complaining about how could they have known to study about the curses they had done last year.
"Well," started Hermione in her know-it-all voice, "maybe you should have paid more attention last year. You know that we are suppose to know those curses for a reason, not just so that we can forget them right after we stop learning about them."
"I did have other things to do during the summer than just sit around studying all the time!" exclaimed Ron with some nasty looks from Madam Pince, the school librarian. She walked over to where they were seated and said,
"A library is no place to socialize. If you want to talk, go somewhere else and stop disturbing the students who are actually trying to study," she scolded. Ron murmured an apology and remained quiet for a long duration. After they finished their homework, it was time for supper. They walked into the great hall and took a seat. Before their supper appeared, they could see Professor Dumbledore waiting for all the students to have a seat so he could speak. When the crowd was silently looking at him, he started speaking.
"All the teachers and I have been talking about this matter for the past couple days, and for the first time in over a decade, we have decided to have a Welcome Back ball to try and raise everyone's spirits." There were a bunch of 'whoops' and 'hollers' of joy from the crowd. Dumbledore waited until they were silent again before he continued. "This ball will be for the fourth years and up only." There was some 'boos' from the younger portion of the crowd. "The ball will be held next Friday. It will start at eight in the evening and end at eleven. I hope you all have brought your dress robes. For the younger students, you will be allowed to have small house parties while the dance is going on, just so that it's fair." Everyone was now happy at this announcement. Dumbledore raised one of his hands and waved it in the shape of an arch, making food appear on the tables. Tonight's special was another new dish. Tortellini and grilled chicken breasts in a sauce that contained Caesar dressing and lemon juice was the dish served. It was definitely much easier to eat than the spaghetti they had had on their second night back at Hogwarts. Everyone thought it was delicious.
After they finished eating, the four went back to the common room to talk about the ball.
"The first ball we attended at Hogwarts was the ball for the Tri-Wizard tournament last year. It was also the only ball we've had since. It's usually held in the great hall. All the chairs and tables are moved to the side of the room so that there is room to dance. Last year, the Weird Sisters played, I wonder who is going to perform this time? Anyways, last year there was a garden that you could go and sit on benches, and the hedges were high enough so that you could have partial privacy. It was quite beautiful." Hermione continued to put in great detail the other nice things about the ball the year before. Harry and Ron were becoming bored of all the details from the Yule ball.
"Last year's ball was boring, you only had fun because you went with Viktor Krum. Oh, and by the way, how is old Vicky?" said Ron grinning. Hermione blushed.
"I hardly saw him over the summer and I didn't just have fun because he was there!" she exclaimed while her face grew even more red. She calmed herself down and turned away from Ron and Harry, who were doubled over with laughter, with an exasperated "Boys!" while shaking her head. She turned and went back to talking to Alexis. "So what are you going to wear to the ball?" she asked.
"I don't really remember which one of my two dress robes I packed, so I'll just show it to you when we go to bed. What about you, what are you wearing?"
"I think that I'll just wear the same thing I wore last year. It was a periwinkle-blue robe that was such a soft material. And I had my hair up and smoothed back with this special hair gel. Besides," she said quietly, "I used up my money that I had saved during the summer to buy some new books and I'm saving the money I have now for Christmas." Alexis smiled and asked,
"So who are you going to go with this year?" Hermione gave a thoughtful look.
"Hmmm… I'm not sure. I guess I'll just go with whoever asks me first. What about you?" Harry and Ron moved in closer to hear her answer.
"Well, I don't really know that many guys in the school, so…" she thought for a moment and Harry and Ron moved even closer, hoping she might say one of them, "I guess I'll just go with…" There was a crashing sound from right outside the doorway to the common room. The four of them ran and moved the portrait so it opened and went through it. It was just Neville, who had dropped all of his homework.
"Jeeze Neville, we thought something bad had happened out here," said Harry as they all bent down to help Neville pick up his dropped things.
"Sorry," said with an innocent smile, "I guess I was just carrying too much for me to hold. Thanks for the help." They helped him carry his things to a table. Now other Gryffindor students started coming in through the portrait hole. The room had gotten quite loud. All the older students were talking about the ball, while the younger ones were discussing what they were going to do for the house party. Lavender and Parvati came over, bubbling with excitement.
"Guess what!" squealed Parvati. "Guess who just asked me and Lavender to the ball!"
"Who asked you to the ball?" said Hermione with as little enthusiasm as possible. Parvati and Lavender squealed together.
"Logan Bysanter asked me and Michael Hawkson asked Lavender!" Logan and Michael were sixth years in Hufflepuff, who obviously had a strange taste in females, in Hermione's opinion.
"Wow… We're just so happy for you…" said Harry, who had gone to the ball last year with Parvati, and Ron had went with her sister, Padma. Parvati and Lavender ran away excitedly to go decide what they were going to wear to the ball.
All throughout the week preceding the ball, Ron and Harry had been wondering whom Alexis was going to go to the ball with. They would of asked her to go themselves, but they figured she already had someone to go with. The day of the ball had finally come. Harry had asked Lisa Turpin, a girl from Ravenclaw in his year. Ron had yet to find anyone who wanted to go to the dance with him and was quite miserable about it too. They found out that Hermione was going with Terry Boot, a boy from Ravenclaw who was the same age as her. When the day of the ball had finally came, and all the classes for the day were over with, Ron and Harry finally decided to ask Alexis whom she was going with. They had both noticed that she had seemed a little sad that week; they figured she was going with somebody she didn't really like, but didn't want to back out of it. They found her when she was walking back from the library at about half past six that evening. They walked up to her smiling, and she smiled back weakly at them.
"Hey you guys," she said quietly. "I'm going to go start getting ready for the dance. Want to join me?"
"Sure," said Harry and Ron in unison.
"Have you found a date for the ball yet Ron?" she asked while staring at her feet.
"No, not yet. I don't think there are any girls left who aren't disfigured in some way, and I'm not up to asking any of them to the ball," he replied quietly, also looking at his feet. Harry noticed that Alexis seemed a little more upset at the last comment Ron had made.
"So Alexis, who are you going to the dance with?" asked Harry enthusiastically. Alexis looked up at him; she had tears in her eyes.
"I'm not going with anybody. I thought you knew that already. Nobody even tried to ask me… I guess they didn't want to go to a ball with someone who was disfigured like me." A single tear streamed down her face and she looked away from Ron and Harry, and she started running away from them. They just stood there looking amazed.
"I didn't know she wasn't going with anyone. I wonder why nobody asked her?" said Ron. He was clearly shocked.
"I guess nobody asked her for the same reason neither of us asked her, they already figured she was going with someone else. We better go after her, come on." They ran in the direction they saw her go. She was headed towards the Gryffindor tower. She had already made it to the common room. They just saw her as she ran up the stairway going to the girl's dormitory. They ran into Hermione, who was looking towards the direction Krystal had ran, and she was about to go after her when Harry and Ron ran up to her.
"What's wrong with Krystal? She just ran through here crying. I don't think I've seen her look so sad. Was it something you two did? Well, spit it out!" Ron looked at the floor with guilt on his face. Harry started explaining to Hermione what had happened.
"Well, of course she didn't have anyone to go with, I told you that last night when you two were playing chess and Alexis had gone to the library because she had forgotten something there! How you have been so mean Ron? She thought you already knew that she wasn't going and she wanted you to ask her!" Hermione slapped her hand to her mouth. "Oops, I wasn't supposed to say that. Shit!" Ron was looking quite surprised for two reasons. One because Alexis actually wanted to go to the ball with him, and second because he had never heard Hermione swear before. Well, there was always a first time for everything.
"Hermione, will you do me a favor?" asked Ron.
"Sure, I guess, what is it?" she said quietly.
"Could you please get Alexis so that I can talk to her? There's something I want to ask her." She nodded and went up the steps to the dorm room. She walked into the room with the number five on it. Alexis was sitting on her bed. She wasn't crying anymore though, she just looked miserable. She looked up at Hermione when she came in and gave a small smile.
"Hey Hermione, are you going to get your dress robe now?" she asked quietly. Her voice was also trembling a bit.
"I wasn't going to do that for about twenty more minutes. I came up here to tell you that Ron wants to talk to you."
"Alright… Is he in the common room?"
"Yes, he's down there waiting for you." Alexis got up and walked with Hermione down the stairs. They reached the door leading into the common room and Alexis paused, took a deep breath, and opened the door. There was no one else in the common room, as most people were still downstairs eating supper. There was only Harry and Ron. They walked down the stairs that led to the ground part of the common room. Hermione walked over to the portrait hole and Harry followed. Now it was just Ron and Alexis.
"I'm sorry about what I said before Alexis." He was staring at the floor, obviously ashamed about the comment he had made. She was also starting at the floor.
"You don't have to apologize Ron, you didn't know, it wasn't your fault."
"You know, I did want to ask you to the dance, but I really thought you were going with someone else. But now that I know you aren't, I was wondering if you would like to be my date to the ball?" She looked up at him and smiled warmly.
"I'd love to go with you." He returned her smile when she said that. Alexis looked at her watch and saw that it was almost seven. People should be coming back here to get ready about now.
About a half an hour later, mostly every guy in Gryffindor was in the common room. The girls were upstairs in their dorms putting on make up or the final touches on their robes. Hermione walked down the stairs with Alexis and looked even more stunning in her robe than she did the year before, except now, she filled it out a bit more in the right places. Her hair was also done up the same way it had been before too. It was up in a bun and smoothed with hair gel. Her make up was light, a little bit of light pink lipstick and some light blue eye shadow. Along side her was Alexis in a medium dark blue dress with silver hemming. The dress went down to just below her ankles. The sleeves were long and had a hook that wrapped around her middle finger on each hand. The dress was a v-neck. The material gathered at the back of her dress around her waist and tied at the back. The colour of the dress accentuated her eyes. Her hair was worn so that only the top half was up, the rest of her blonde hair fell to the middle of her back. She had a silver choker around her neck. She wore lip-gloss and silver eye shadow. Some of the guys in Gryffindor had wished that they had asked Hermione or Alexis to the ball at the moment. When they got to the main part of the common room, Alexis gave a small wave to Hermione as she went to meet her date for the ball. Alexis walked over to where Harry and Ron were standing. Harry was wearing a robe that looked much like the school uniforms, except that it was the colour green. It did accentuate his eyes though. Ron, on the other hand, was wearing a maroon coloured robe that looked like it used to have something sewn onto the collar and cuffs, but had been ripped off. Ron had only stopped tugging at the robe when Alexis had come down the stairs.
"Wow!" was all they could say. Alexis smiled.
"I take it you like my robe?" They both nodded and Alexis blushed slightly.
"Well, I have to go get Lisa, so I'll see you two at the ball." He left the room with a quick wave. Ron and Alexis decided to start making their way down to the great hall, but they walked there slowly to kill time.
As they were walking, neither of them were talking. Both seemed to be too nervous to say anything. Alexis finally decided to ask something that had almost slipped her mind.
"How well do you dance, Ron?" He looked surprised at her. He had forgotten that you were suppose to dance at a ball, and then blushed as red as his hair when he told her that he had never really danced before. She smiled understandingly. "Then I guess I'll just have to teach you then. The slow dances are the easiest, so we will just dance during them. How does that sound?"
"It sounds alright, I guess. But if I trod on your feet, you can't blame me, deal?"
"Deal," she said laughing. There was a crowd in front of the doors to the great hall. Nobody had been let in yet. They stood there looking for Harry and Hermione. They spotted them near the door on the left side with their dates, so they pushed their way through the crowd to get to them. They started talking about who they thought would be playing the music that night. Hermione was standing next to a boy who was only a little taller than her. He had dark blonde hair and light blue eyes. 'That must be Terry Boot,' thought Alexis. She looked over to Harry. Standing next to him was a girl with sleek black hair and dark eyes. 'She looks a little like a girl I saw who was in her sixth year,' thought Alexis. At exactly eight, the doors finally opened. All the students who were standing outside the doors poured into the room and quickly went to find good seats. On the platform where the teachers usually ate, there was musical equipment set up. There were a couple of different instruments there. There was a piano, a guitar, an ocarina, a harp, and a violin. As the students found seats, Dumbledore walked onto the platform and began to speak.
"Welcome to Hogwarts' Welcome-Back-Ball. I hope you all to be on your best behavior while still enjoying yourselves. There are refreshments over there," he pointed to a large table in a corner of the large room, "and seats for everyone to sit down on. The music for tonight will be performed by the group Wizards of the World. And just for fun, if you are asked to dance by anyone, you aren't allowed to say no. Have a wonderful time everyone!" He shook the hands of the five wizards who walked on stage before he walked off. All of the wizards were wearing different coloured robes. The five colours were red, blue, green, orange, and yellow. The one clad in red went and picked up the violin, blue went to the piano, green went to the ocarina, orange went to the harp, and lastly yellow went to the guitar. The first song they played was fast and catchy. It was called "Your Love is Like A Bludger." Hermione and Terry went off to dance, while Harry, Ron, Alexis, and Lisa stayed and just enjoyed the music. Considering the music was played by classical instruments, it didn't sound like it. When the song finally ended, a slow song began. Ron had been partially dreading this moment, but the Gryffindor bravery was with him that night, so he asked Alexis for a dance. He took her hand in his and led her to a spot on the dance floor.
"I don't know where to put my hands," he whispered blushing. She took his left hand and put it on her waist, and held his right hand with her left while putting her right hand on his shoulder. The song being played was called "You've Put Me Under Your Spell." As Ron Alexis moved to the rhythm, Alexis listened to the lyrics being sung.
You've put me under your spell,
There's just nothing I can do.
If I try and get away,
You just pull me back to you.
I can't live like this forever,
You know that someday you'll have to let me go.
For now I might as well stay,
Because for some reason, I still love you so.
I know you don't love me too,
I'm just a game to you.
You've broke my heart so many ways,
That's turned black and blue.
Why you're doing this,
Is still a mystery to me.
But this spell of yours I'm under,
Will be over soon and I'll be set free.
You've put me under your spell,
There's just nothing I can do.
If I try and get away,
You just pull me back to you.
By the end of the song, Alexis had put her head lightly on Ron's shoulder, and he had done likewise. Both of them had their eyes closed and were just swaying to the music. Ron, as he had warned her, had stepped on her feet, but only twice. As the music of that song faded and a new and faster song started, they looked at each other and smiled. They both walked back to their table hand in hand, and sat down. They started talking about the decorations around the room. The room was dimly lit. The ceiling was a dark blue colour with hundreds of shining stars. There were flower wreathes around white pillars right beside different places of the walls. The colours of the flowers were light colours such as lavender, pink, and blue. There was also a doorway leading to a garden. They could see some of the garden was lit by lanterns hung from the hedges. Harry and Lisa returned soon after they had sat down. They had brought a couple bottles of butterbeer with them and shared them with the two. There were a couple more fast songs before the band stopped playing to take a small break. Hermione and Terry came back and sat down, exhausted from dancing. The six of them talked about how nice the evening was going, which was almost perfect, had Draco and Co. not decided to come and talk to them.
"Well hello there Potty and friends. I hope you aren't enjoying your evening. Hey Weasley, isn't that the same rag you wore last year?" Behind him, Crabbe and Goyle grunted with laughter. Ron was starting to get out of his seat to attack Draco, but Alexis put a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down Ron, he wants you to be angry with him," she whispered to him. Ron leaned back into his seat, face red with fury.
"Well, well, well, it seems that Potter couldn't keep his girlfriend and now she's with his best friend." If looks could kill, Draco would have been dead times four from the looks Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Alexis gave him. They heard the music start back up again. It was a slow song. "Relax," he said smoothly, "I only came here to ask for a dance from Alexis." Alexis glared at him while the others had shocked looks on their faces. No one had expected that from him!
"I'm not going to dance with you," she said flatly. From behind Draco came a voice.
"Yes you are Miss Silverstone. You heard Professor Dumbledore, you're not allowed to refuse a dance," said the voice slickly. It was Snape and he was had a malicious look on his face. He continued, "Unless of course you want me to have to take points away from your house." She just glared at him before she stood up and walked towards Draco. She gave an apologetic look at Ron and he gave her a sympathetic smile in return, but he was still furious with Draco and Snape.
"I'm glad you saw things my way," said Draco grinning. He took her hand and led her to the floor. He put his hand firmly on her waist and they started swaying to the music. Alexis tried to look anywhere but at him. She could see other couples that were dancing look her way as she danced with him. The song seemed to go on forever. Draco kept looking her up and down as they danced, and that made her uncomfortable. The song had finally ended and she moved to get away, but his hand was still firmly on her waist.
"I danced with you, now let me go," she said annoyed.
"I know, but I just want to stay with you a little longer, please?" he had a pleading look on his face. She figured it wasn't very often that he begged for things since he could have almost anything he wanted because of the wealth of his father. But just because he tried to make himself look pathetic didn't mean that she was going to go along with it. She swiftly took his hand off her waist and quickly walked back to her friends' table. She could hear him cursing behind her. When she got there, Harry, Ron, and Lisa were laughing about something.
"What's so funny?" she asked.
"Snape's own excuse for you to dance with Malfoy backfired on him. Madam Hooch asked him to dance before he could get away, so he was stuck dancing with her," laughed Harry. Alexis laughed too as she sat in her seat next to Ron. She told them about Draco's feeble attempt to make her dance some more with him and they laughed some more. There was one more song before the end of the dance and it was a slow song. Ron and Alexis went and danced to the song, which was called "Faster Than The Wind."
When you're around,
My heart beats fast like it was hit with a jolt.
It moves faster than the wind,
Faster than a Firebolt.
No one can ever compare to you,
You are one of a kind.
You smell like flowers in a meadow,
And taste sweeter than honey from a hive.
You move like a cat,
With grace and speed.
But you act like a kitten,
All kindness and no greed.
As you sing your song,
Your voice heals my soul and gives me a start.
As I listen to your words,
They just melt my heart.
When you're around,
My heart beats fast like it was hit with a jolt.
It moves faster than the wind,
Faster than a Firebolt.
And then the music just died away. Everyone started clapping for the group as they bowed onstage. Everyone walked out of the great hall and to his or her respective houses. Harry left to walk Lisa back to her common room and Terry offered to walk Hermione back to hers. The Gryffindors reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, walked in, and said goodnight to one another.
"Goodnight Ron," said Alexis as she gave him a light kiss on the cheek before walking with Hermione up to their dorm. Ron smiled to himself as he sat down to wait for Harry. Ron grinned when Harry returned ten minutes later when he saw that Harry had some lipstick on his lips that appeared to be the same colour that Lisa Turpin had been wearing that evening.
~*~
Well, there was the second chapter. As you can tell, I changed the name of the entire story because I didn't like it. It took me only a day to write this story. I started at about 4 pm and I'm finishing it now at 2:30 am. Please read and review and if you have time, check out my other story. Oh! And the lyrics of the songs sung by the group were made up by me, that's why they are so bad. Hope you like this chapter, I'll start writing the next chapter when I feel inspired. Until next time, buh bye!