A/N: Thank you to all of my lovely reviewers! I want to dedicate this chapter to my new found beta reader Ally. She does wonders with my sad writing, thank you Ally. On with the story... ermm, chapter. Lol
Chapter 20
Valentines Day Ball, Part II
Harry was at the punch table chatting about nothing in particular
with Ron and Hermione when she
stepped in. He set down his drink
and left the conversation to go back to Ginny. When Harry was about
five feet away from her he took a sudden step back. She stood there
seeming to make everything beautiful just with her presence. Her face
and body seemed to glow with such a brilliance that he was amazed all
the boys weren't staring at her.
Her gown fanned out from her feet in all directions, and it sparkled brilliantly like the moon lit lake looked on this wonderful starry night. When she smiled at him her smile was as bright as she seemed to be. It glowed eloquently and gave her the essence of a goddess. Her hair was pinned securely in the back letting only a few spare ringlets fall from her temples. This look seemed to make her face seem longer and thinner than she already was. Her jewelry gave the look even more sparkle and Harry swore he had to be staring at the love of his life or there was something very wrong with his mind.
Harry finally snapped back into reality after he felt a bit of drool on his chin. He gave her a gentle smile trying to act as if he wasn't staring at all, though his look of dismay did not disappear as well as he wanted it to. Harry realized this when Ginny began to giggle uncontrollably as he took his sleeve and wiped his chin. He cleared his throat and shook his head a bit to get all the naughty thoughts from his mind, then proceeded towards her now controlled self.
"Hey," Ginny said with a high blush in her soft cheeks. Looking down and her feet that seemed to sparkle in the dimmed light like they were covered in diamonds.
"Hi," Harry began clearing his throat again, getting all the frogs out. " Y-you look beautiful Ginny."
The pink brightened even more in her cheeks and a girly grin reached up to her eyes. Looking up her brown eyes told him she loved him and his compliment, "Thanks, you look quite handsome tonight too, Mr. Potter."
Harry felt so many crazy butterflies in his stomach, making feel as if he was going to retch due to nerves. He hadn't felt like this since his first date, and he actually had a good reason to be nervous. He and Ginny had been out many times before, why was this any different? It was driving him off his rocker that he was afraid that if one word was not properly annunciated she would walk out on him.
Harry stuck his arm out clumsily and smiled widely at her. Trying to act like he wasn't nervous one bit and the sweat collecting at his brow was just out of the heat around them, he smiled a goofy smile. "Would you care for some punch my lady?"
Ginny laughed and took his arm warmly. She loved it when Harry tried to be smooth and debonair. "That would be immensely wonderful, my knight. Such a gentleman you have grown to be Harry, my training has taught you well..."She giggled when she saw bright red splotches in his cheeks and neck.
"No this is all one hundred percent Potter original, thank you very much. Though I do enjoy thinking you as a teacher." He grinned as she slapped him playfully on the arm.
Harry and Ginny started back to where the punch was and were so rudely stopped by a nasty little ferret that was looking at them with his usual smirk. Blonde hair sticking to his head as if he put cement in it, he stood there with his ugly pug-faced date on his arm. Her nose turned up at them as she displayed buckteeth in a sneer.
"Well bless my eyes, it couldn't be Saint Potter and Weaselette, could it? I thought even a brainless arrogant git with an ugly scar on his head would have dropped the likes of her." Malfoy gestured his hand at Ginny, "Poor little thing, even her dress looks like it has been sewn by her mother. I don't know how you sleep in that dreadful, dirty, dusty, nasty shack of yours Weasley."
The sound of Harry's knuckles cracking as his fists clenched was a sound heard in most of the hall. Draco and his frumpy date, Pansy, looked at both of them with utter disgust in their eyes. Harry wanted to jump him right there for the sheer fact of insulting his girlfriend again was getting old and just plain demeaning.
His emerald green eyes seemed to begin to become more vibrant as the spark of anger started to roar inside of him. His teeth began to clench and unclench as he tried to speak clearly. "You know, Malfoy, you remind me of a helpless stray dog. Once it is fed some scraps it always comes back, hoping they will get a little more. You are really no different, seeing you have not a brain in your head to realize you've already been punished once this year. See, you came back, hoping some scraps of punishment were still waiting for your ugly arse. And look what I have for you,"
Harry stopped just so he could capture the humiliation covering the nasty smirk on Draco's face. A priceless moment had just entered his heart and he wasn't going to let it slip away. He continued on with the pleasure of being Head Boy. "You know, you were just dumb enough to walk into a lovely trap. You let your own smart tongue lead you to ultimate disappointment and distress from your fellow house mates. You have lost twenty-five points for calling this ravishing Head Girl 'Weaselette' and another loss of fifteen for calling your Head Boy a 'brainless arrogant git'. Now, if you have any dignity left in that pasty little body of yours, you'd leave."He gave a big shiny fake smile and stared at Pansy who went red in the face and slowly uncoiled her arm from Draco's. A few loud coughs behind him indicated that Ron was trying desperately to stifle a most wanted laugh.
Malfoy opened and closed his mouth a few times before straightening up and putting his smirk back on his face. Trying to act as proud, arrogant, and heartless as he usually did, he stormed off. Though a quick glare was given pointedly at Harry. Pansy waited a few minutes before finally, and almost sneakily, ran off after her poor Drakie Poo.
As the last of the pink dress was around the corner, Harry
felt a soft hand on his shoulder. The hand was shaking slightly as he
turned around to see Ginny basically holding herself up from falling
to the ground in laughter. Ron and Hermione were equally at fault as
their faces were a bright red and glistening tears gathered in their
eyelashes.
"Brilliance... utter
brilliance. That ferret prat deserved every word, and you only could
have thrown a punch at his smirking face to make that any better
mate!" Ron said, ears and cheeks splattered with red coloring from
the heat and laughter.
"That... was... oh
Harry! I'm so glad you let him take it where the sun don't
shine..."Hermione said, holding her sides during her random vicious
fits of giggles. Her hair became a bit wilder as she was on her knees
in laughter and the humidity in the room rose.
"Perfect. I don't think I could be any prouder of you and that wicked speech you just gave." Ginny said now joining, once again, with Hermione in a giggling fiasco.
Harry finally got his own turn to laugh with hysterics. The look on that ugly prat's face was the most funny thing he had ever seen in his life. It even beat the one time George put ever-stronger jelly cement in Hermione's face cream and cats from all the houses made their way to lick from her face in the common room. It came off two weeks later and she still smelled of marmalade.
They all calmed down a bit later and broke up from each other. Harry took his date's hand and led her to a much quieter corner of the hall. No one was over there and Harry finally thought he could spend a bit of alone time with Ginny while they were here.
When they took their seat on a random red couch, the fast beat music came to a slow and then to a final stop. A murmur of people could be heard until they all fell in silence, searching around the room to see if anyone was moving to turn it back on. Headmaster Dumbledore stood up and eventually broke the uncomfortable silence.
"Welcome to the enticing, enthralling, exhilarating, exciting, enormous, Valentine's Ball." As his voice boomed the odd choice of wording, a uproar of applause filled the hall. Dying down, he continued, "You should all have enough knowledge in your small minds to know that this ball wouldn't have even been existent if it weren't for two loyal leaders. Those two people should join me on the stage after I say their names; Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley."
Ginny rolled her eyes causing Harry to hold in another fit of laughter. They took each others hands once more and headed up to the stage with staff members and the band waiting patiently.
"Two trouble-making, hurting, great
achievers made this ball possible. Both seem to be punishment prone
and one has just spent two agonizing weeks in the hospital wing. With
keeping their grades to a high average and pulling this extravagant
ball together, I think they should receive a hearty round of
applause." Once again applause erupted from the students along with
whistles and catcalls.
"I do hope you all have a ravishing
evening tonight. If anyone has a song request, please inform me or
Professor McGonagall. We would be more than happy to see that it
happens. Now, let the ball continue!"
Slow music faded back onto the floor and couples went out and retired to their old positions of dancing. Harry and Ginny were about to go back to their serene corner when he stopped her and held out his arm stiffly.
"Care
for a dance, love?" He said, bending at the waist in a quarterly
bow.
A smile and a stifled giggle was just reassurance as she
looked into his eyes. "More than anything in the world."
They zig-zagged in and out of students to look for a comfortable place to dance. They finally found a quite spacious area towards the end of the room and came together to get comfortable. Finally taking their first dance, they smiled sheepishly at one another.
She wrapped her slender arms around his neck and played with the soft raven hair at the base of his neck. Harry put his hands delicately about her thin waist and shook slightly with nerves. No reason to be nervous, but boy... was he ever!
Noticing he was a bit shaky, Ginny moved in closer to him. His hand trembled on her back and his eyes quickly started to dart in all directions, not daring to look straight into the soft chocolate brown. Thinking he was probably just a bit cold, she moved in until their bodies seemed to meld together; a perfect fit. Resting her head against his hard chest, she could feel his heart beating like a hummingbird. Harry stiffened as she let herself melt into him but soon relaxed and set his chin atop her fiery red curls.
Moving gracefully and peacefully, they danced in comfort together. They were both in another world with one another that had no other students in it. It seemed so still and motionless that they seemed to be floating. With no memory that there was anyone else on the dance floor, they stared into each others eyes. Soon enough, they were jolted back into reality as a faster song came on. A waltz was being played and Harry new it was time to change positions.
He took one of her hands from his neck and wrapped his own around it. Placing his other hand at the small of her back, she rested her free hand on his shoulder. They began their steps and soon were dancing the waltz with ease and pleasure. A quick dip and Ginny was giggling as she was raised back up into position.
Harry maneuvered through the room with quite a talent, that soon people stopped and watched the perfect couple. Neither knew the others were watching because emerald eyes were lost in chocolate. Other couples backed off the floor until it was completely vacant, except the two unknowing people in the center. They continued to float along the floor to the music, no thought to the prying eyes. The song slowed and Harry dipped her one final time, giving her a warm smile. Bringing her back to him close, Ginny could feel the trembling had ceased.
Before they could get lost in their own world once again, a single person began to clap. Soon, the whole student body and staff was cheering and whistling for the two waltzers. Roughly three hundred people made sure the two knew they were meant to be.
With a sly smirk on his lips, he looked towards his dance partner. Taking her hand and raising it as if she had just won a wrestling match, they took a bow. A polite subtle laughter erupted from the onlookers and soon Harry and Ginny joined in.
When they stood up everything went back to normal. All of them started talking loudly and music began to play once again.
"Do you want to have a seat for awhile? I'm a little worn down," Harry asked, taking Ginny's hand into his own.
"Yeah, me too. You're a wonderful dancer Harry! I never knew you could do that, why didn't you tell me about it before?" She asked curiously as Harry led her to a comfortable seat.
With a mocking tone he replied, "Well, you never asked!"
Sitting down along side him she simply giggled and rolled her eyes. "You Harry Potter, are a minx."
Their eyes connected and, once again, the world around them melted into unnoticed puddles at their feet. Forgetting that they were surrounded by teachers and other students, Harry raised his hand and caressed her silk-like cheek. Ginny leaned in, longing the sensation brought when Harry's lips connected with her own.
Soft lips touched soft lips and a sudden explosion went off. Not the wanted explosion of emotions but an actual cursed explosion.
A/N: Please review, many hours of work were put into this chapter by Ally and I. Hope you enjoyed it!
Lissy
