Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Harry Potter, as J K Rowling already owns it.

The Christmas Ball

Ryua was sitting in the back of the Charms classroom, trying to convince her textbook to change colors in proper succession when Professor Flitwick called for their attention. Willingly dropping her pitiful excuse of a rainbow charm, Ryua tucked her wand into her robes and gave her undivided attention. "Now, I've been lucky enough to be the teacher in charge of you this block..." he trailed off, smiling at the snorts of laughter coming from the Slytherin fourth years. "And as such, I have an announcement about this Christmas break.

"The schools have decided that we will be hosting a Christmas ball. The school champions will be opening the dance, to the music of the Weird Sisters," he was forced to stop again due to the wild cheers erupting from the class. "Oh, dear, I don't think I was supposed to say that...Dumbledore wanted it to be a surprise..." he squeaked, and was cut off again by laughter.

"Anyway, this will take place during the Christmas Holidays, so if you want to attend, you'll have to stay here, which, if I may say, is probably a good thing to raise your marks..." Groans cut him off this time. "Yes, well if you all paid attention during class, you wouldn't have so much homework, you know. You will need to find a partner to go with... yes, a dance partner. If you cannot find someone, you may go on your own, but it is recommended that you find a partner. So, please finish your scroll on Rainbow Charms, just 500 words, not too big, and I'll see you next class!" he said as the students got up to leave for lunch.

"Excellent! This means we get to stay here this Christmas!" Ryua said to Draco, one row ahead of her.

"Yeah, except it also means we have to dance..."

"Oh, come off it. You like dancing almost as much as I do."

"Nooo..." Draco said as he pushed Crabbe along in front of him.

"It'll make you one of the most popular guys at the dance. Neither Potter or Krum can dance, I'm sure. Girls will be lining up to dance. We love dancing."

"Really?" Draco looked suddenly much more cheerful at that. "Uh, I mean, I'll have to think about it..." Ryua snickered.

One of the more cheerful things in the Malfoy Manor was the dancing lessons. As nobility, even though it wasn't nearly so important today, Lucius and Narcissa both believed that the children should act their rank. The only enjoyable part of that was learning the dances. They both knew square dances, waltzes, salsas, archaic circle dances, jigs... just about any partner or group dance ever designed, to a certain degree. Mother had taught Ryua some solo dances too, although Father was never told about those. He'd probably have told her it was not proper for a lady to dance on her own, and forbidden it, after a healthy punishment, of course. Ryua and Draco had been each other's partners for most of it, mostly because they'd been the same size. And being twins, they knew exactly the other's movements, style... in other words, they were excellent partners. I'll have to drag him off his chair once or twice...

Ryua had been expecting Blaise to follow her. It was a given, considering their... connection. He was being less irritating lately, something she was very grateful for, since he seemed to like following her around. "Hey, Ryua, are you staying for the dance?"

"Yes..."

"Are you going with anyone yet?"

"Blaise, we were just told about it three minutes ago, no one's had a chance to ask me."

"Oh, good." The expression of relief on his face was comical. "So, would you go with me, then?"

"Well... I... if I go with you, you have to promise to keep your distance. I don't want you doing anything creepy."

"Don't grope the date. Gotcha. So, will you go with me?" Ryua smiled, hesitantly.

"Well, I guess. Sure."

"Great!" Blaise whisked off to go egg Draco on. He appeared to be teetering on the verge of asking Pansy, and completely refused to when Blaise showed up over his shoulder. With an odd, unfamiliar sensation in her stomach, Ryua walked off to lunch. Hopefully, some food would make her feel more normal.

Not everyone appeared to have so much ease in finding a date. Two weeks later, Harry and Ron were still looking for dates. While guiding them through a shrinking potion one day (Hermionie was over at Neville's cauldron), Ryua asked, "Why don't you just ask some girl you know? It should be fairly easy, half the people in the school are female."

"It's not that easy... All the girls we know have been taken already." Ron said.

"Really? How many have you asked?" At their complete lack of response, she said, "Yeah, I thought as much."

"As if you could do better!"

"Of course I could." Harry frowned. "Well, are you going with anyone yet?"

"Yes. It only took me three minutes from the time Flitwick told us."

"Oh..." he seemed somewhat abashed, Ryua thought, probably because she'd just shut down his defense.

"So, ask someone. The worst that can happen is she'll say no, right? And anyway, you're Harry Potter. Everyone'll be wanting to go with you."

"Well, where does that leave me?" Ron asked, wearing his best sad-puppy-dog look. "Oh, you're not all that bad yourself, Ron. You're tall, sweet, and you have red hair and freckles. If you just acted with a bit more confidence, you might see a difference."

"Yeah, confidence would help. He hasn't even been able to ask Hermionie, or you, and you're our friends."

"Hey, it's not like you've done any better!"

"Is there something you'd like to say to the rest to the class, Mr. Weasley?" Professor Snape's voice cut across the classroom, effectively ending the conversation.

The day of the ball arrived, to the great excitement of everyone in the castle. No one was doing homework. And in the girl's half of the Slytherin dorms, there was nonstop chatter. "Where in Salazar's name did you get that dress, Ryua?"

"If there's one thing mother takes care of, it's making sure we're well dressed." Ryua smiled, holding up her dress robes. Although she'd always wanted a backless dress, Ryua knew it wasn't exactly the best style for her. So, she compromised. The fabric gathered up around her neck in a halter-top, hugging her body down to the hips and flaring out, leaving the back open. The back of the dress was like an attached cape, flowing down from the collar, and twisting around just covering her scars to fall over her left hip, leaving one shoulder and a section just below the cape on her back bare. The entire dress was black, in flat light. However, when it moved, the entire thing lit up with glitter like a star-filled night. After a few charms from Pansy to convince her hair up into a twisted fall of silver-gold, she was ready.

Blaise was already in the common room, dressed in black robes, next to Draco, also in black. He really should have let mother get him the dark blue, it's so much less boring. "Ready to go?" "Of course, my dear." Blaise proffered his arm. After suppressing a shudder at being called 'dear', Ryua slipped her fingers onto his elbow and together they walked up to the Great Hall.

Harry, with Parvati, Krum with Hermionie (What? When did that happen?), Diggory with the Ravenclaw Seeker, and Fleur with Davies were just opening the doors, to show a very decorated Hall with the Weird Sisters set up in one corner. Harry looks rather uncomfortable, Ryua thought, as Parvati steered him around the floor for the opening dance. After the first dance, Blaise pulled her up on the floor, and he actually managed to pull off a fairly decent waltz, he didn't even try to pull her too close. He wandered off to find some punch, just as the Weird Sister One announced Ryua's favorite song.

With a wicked twinkle in her eye, Ryua dashed over to Draco's chair. "Come on." She said, pulling at his arm.

"Oh, no, I'm quite comfortable here."

"What? Scared? Don't think you can keep up with me?"

Promising Pansy he'd be back in a moment, Draco stood up, following Ryua out onto the floor. "You'd better remember how to do this."

"Of course. You'd better save your breath." The twins had learned a dance to this song, a dueling dance. It was a strange combination of flamenco, waltz, and the fantastic throws from ice-skating, and could be performed with flames, spells, daggers... but any of those would get them expelled, so they were just going to do the dance on its own. As the opening chords started up, they moved into the first steps. Like many dances, it started much slower, picking up as the music went on. Ryua loved dancing with her brother. They were just so well matched, allowing them to embellish a little. Other couples were also starting the dance, and the flash of competition in Draco's eyes was matched by Ryua's. At the first of the tosses, Ryua managed two spins, and the people clustered around them moved back a bit. Ryua heard one girl shriek and hit the floor as her partner dropped her. She wouldn't be the last. As the music sped up, so did the dance. The footwork alone caused two more couples to trip and fall, and three more fell on the next two spins. Setting up for the finale was difficult for most people, just because they were so out of breath by this time. Although the Malfoys were as out of breath as everyone else, they never had troubles understanding each other. Ryua moved back a few steps, just touching Draco's fingertips with her own, and rushed in. With the added momentum of her run, Draco could toss her very high. High enough, in fact, that several girls shrieked. Ryua concentrated as she flew up, whipping her arms out and sending multicolored sparks flying in a flat circle, causing some Hufflepuffs she vaguely recognized to duck and screech. She couldn't really blame them, she'd designed it so it resembled a fiery, magical saw blade. Ryua pulled her arms in at the last possible second, cutting off the spray of fireworks, neatly landing back in Draco's arms just above the floor. He smoothly pulled her up, to a round of cheering from the Great Hall. Breathing hard, she bowed low to her brother, at exactly the same moment he did. Grinning, she spun away to find Blaise. She could really use a drink now.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Blaise's voice was both stunned and approving.

"At home. Is that punch, I'm dying of thirst."

"I bet, that looks like hard work. Hey," he said as he handed her a glass, "Why don't we go outside, it's lots cooler there."

"Good idea." Ryua sipped at her punch as they walked outside. "Wow. Flitwick did a great job, didn't he? This looks great." The garden was truly beautiful, and the fairies near enough to hear them giggled and blushed at her words.

"Yeah..." Blaise's voice sounded odd, odd enough that Ryua turned to look at him.

"What's wrong? Punch too sour-hey!" For a split second, Ryua thought she'd been fouled by a quidditch player. Blaise had practically tackled her, sending her reeling into a rosebush, with him pressing down on her. She opened her mouth to protest, only to have the shock of his tongue getting shoved in. So, she did what seemed natural.

She bit down. Hard. Until she tasted blood, and felt him pulling away, yelling, and she let go. Ryua spit a mouthful of blood down onto his robes and said, "I believe I said keep your distance, Zabini. I meant keep your distance." He was making incoherent moaning sounds, blood spreading in a pool from his mouth on the ground. She knelt next to him, holding her robes out of the pool. "Listen to me very carefully, you disgusting, worm-eaten, offspring of a rat and a camel. If you ever touch me again, I will kill you. And if I'm in a bad mood, I'll curse you so badly, kill you so slowly, that you will feel an eternity of pain, and be begging me with every scrap of your soul to give you death." She rose, and drained the last of her punch to clean her mouth of the taste of him. With a carefully calculated toss, she smashed the glass inches from his face, enjoying the way he flinched away from the shards.

Suddenly feeling much better than she had in months, she walked back in to the Great Hall. Father's not going to be pleased with me. Oddly enough, she wasn't even really worried about that. Her adrenaline was high, she still could taste a hint of blood (which somehow didn't disgust her as it probably should), and she wasn't going to have to talk to Zabini again for a very long time (Especially if I really bit his tongue off...). Life was looking good.

Author's note: People have been giving me advice on this chapter for ages, and asking questions about it, and giving opinions on Blaise. Obviously, I couldn't respond without giving it all away, so just realize I didn't forget you all. I've been so excited about writing this chapter... it's so much fun to be bloodthirsty. And I'm sorry if the dance is rather confusing. I have an idea of it in my head, but it's really hard to describe.