Twas the night before Christmas and the Malfoys were ready for an extremely gallant Christmas Eve Ball.
Malfoy Manor was bedecked with tasteful decorations, holly and mistletoe, and the servers were busy setting up and preparing to carry around champagne and appetizers to the guests.
Everyone who was anyone in the British Magical Community was invited, however the older generation of Weasleys and Potters never quite managed to make it - Hermione flatly refused to go back to the Manor, no matter how different it and its grounds looked, and Harry and Ron were never too interested in mingling with the elite party guests hosted by the Malfoys.
Even Sam was grateful he had managed to avoid attending for so many years while away in India.
As Corey rather hilariously put it, "It's an utter wank-fest, I love it."
Corey had never missed a Malfoy Manor Christmas Eve Ball since he and Sam became friends, he thought it was the best entertainment he got all year.
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This year, Sam had invited all of his friends but only a few had taken up his offer; Corey (of course), Al (out of pity), Rose (in an attempt to get in Astoria's good books), Lily (because she was at the peak of a crush on a co-worker from the Search and Rescue), Alice (to accompany Lily) and Jen and Fred (so they could make fun of everyone else attending).
As he helped set a few tables up, Sam's breath caught in his throat as Rose entered the ballroom in stunning wine-coloured dress robes, layered with lace.
The sleeves were wide, in usual witchy style, and her lipstick was matched perfectly to the colour of her robes.
As Rose made her way over to him, Sam tried and failed to say something coherent.
"I know, I look amazing," Rose smirked, revelling in her ability to render Sam speechless. "Victoire had these made for me all the way from Paris for my birthday, because apparently my old blue velvet ones 'didn't fit me anymore'."
She rolled her eyes disbelievingly, she found the complaints about the state of her wardrobe incredibly droll.
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Gaining access to words again, Sam grabbed Rose's hand lightly, "I haven't seen you dressed up in a really long time. Not since…"
He let his voice trail off, leaving the rest of the sentence unspoken.
'Not since the Victory Day Ball, 7 years ago.'
He took a deep breath in to calm himself, trying not to ruin the moment with bad memories, "You look wonderful."
She leaned up and placed a kiss gently on his lips, then she grinned voraciously, "You don't look so bad yourself Malfoy."
She rubbed her hands along the front of his plain black dress robes and the thick material of his white collared shirt, tweaking his bow tie cheekily.
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They were snapped out of their reverie when Astoria's voice called out across the ballroom, "Sam have you finished setting up those tables, the servers want to lay out the champagne fountain."
Astoria had just entered the room from the kitchen wearing elegant black dress robes with swirling velvet patterns that moved across her body. Enchanted, obviously.
"Yes mother, it's all ready for them."
Astoria took a pause to look at Rose fully for a moment, "Rose dear, welcome. So glad you could come." Her words were reasonably polite but her tone was icy and verging on sarcastic.
Stumbling over her words, which was very unlike Rose, she managed to get out "Yes, umm, thank you, uhh."
Astoria swept away before she could say much else.
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"Ugh! Merlin she makes me nervous."
Sam rubbed Rose's shoulders in an attempt to soothe her, "I'm sorry she's not the warmest person, but she is trying."
"Yeah, I think Aaliyah made the right choice in sitting this one out. I can only imagine how that would have gone down."
Sam grimaced, "Yeah. Thanks for coming early by the way, I didn't just want to stand around alone doing nothing as my parents' fancy guests arrive."
They laughed as they settled into a corner of the ballroom to wait for the festivities to begin, and the arrival of their friends.
.
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"Rose Weasley you scrub up good!"
Jen practically crowed from across the hall. She then ran over to Rose and Sam's little corner and threw her arms around Rose vigorously.
"I am so glad I came tonight, just for the privilege of showering you in compliments!"
Rose grinned, "It's insane right? I won't ever have to buy dress robes again, Victoire has me set for life."
Jen had shown up in creamy peach dress robes with an off the shoulder cut, with ruffles that flowed over her tanned skin, her long dark hair falling over her exposed shoulders in beautiful waves.
She'd even gone to the effort of outlining her dark brown almond-shaped eyes with eyeliner that tapered off in perfect wings.
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"Also, uhhh, speaking of looking good, you look fantastic! Fred won't be able to take his eyes off y-"
"Fred nothing, this isn't for Fred. I did it to avoid Astoria's wrath! Merlin she's graceful. I look like a baby giraffe learning to walk next to her. And Fred is just a friend." She brushed Rose off quickly and casually. A little too quickly and casually...
Rose tried to interject but Jen shushed her, "Bup-bup-bup shhh. We are friends. It's hard to believe, even for me, but we have to work together every day so I used my charm. He's even forgiven me for that time I beat him with a tome and made antlers grow out of his fro and tentacles from his limbs - although to be fair, the forgiveness only occurred after the 3rd time he'd pranked me at work in front of the entire office. But still."
Sam snorted, "I am definitely going to ask him what those pranks were."
At which point he also quickly dodged a snappy Aguamenti charm from Jen.
"Okay, okay we get it, you're just friends and I'm not to ask about the pranks," Sam chuckled out.
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"What pranks?" Corey had sauntered up behind them in impeccably fitting dress robes of classic black and white.
He also quickly dodged a jet of water from Jen and piped down very quickly, although he knew exactly which pranks anyway.
Word had travelled fast from the WWW offices and Corey was all smirks and knowing winks at what he was sure was Fred's attempt at flirting.
"Are you all ready for the small-talk you're likely to be affronted with this evening? What work are you doing; how are you parents; do you have any opinion on the progress of Hermione Granger's Review of Magical Policy; is James Potter really dating a muggle; what do you think of the food; yadda yadda yadda!"
Corey was a veteran at Ministry gatherings and knew all about the conversations that went with them, but Sam hadn't had to put up with this stuff for quite some time.
.
Sam chuckled, "Merlin, I forgot what it was like hanging around the Weasleys and Potters in the public spotlight. Can't say I miss it."
"Oh please," Jen shot back, "You bloody love it and you always have. Don't you remember how you were the talk of the town when you and Al did that little stunt on your first night at Hogwarts? A Slytherin sitting at the Gryffindor table!"
"That doesn't mean I want my love-life all over the tabloids, Rose we should have talked about this earlier, are we public or whatever?"
"This is why I live in Puddletown, and yet, you made fun of me-"
Corey snickered at Sam's panic-stricken face but still intervened to help his friend out, "Just answer the question Rosie, or Sam's going to have a heart-attack."
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Rose sighed dramatically, "Of course we're public Sam, why wouldn't we be? And if any reporters get a whiff of it and decide to run a story we will hole up in Puddletown and ignore everything. Who even reads the Daily Prophet anymore? That's so 1997."
Rose was right, after the war a plurality of Witching media was distributed to counteract the monopoly the ministry had over the press - and most of the newspapers were not invested in the Weasleys and their love lives anymore.
As the group milled around stealing appetizers and butter beer from the servers, Fred Weasley walked in with Lily, Al(ice) and Al(bus). Fred was dressed in blue dress robes that swept grandly to the ground, his hair braided back from it's usual afro, Lucy was sporting thin, shimmering dress robes in green and aqua (probably more suited to summer, she was already shivering), Alice was draped in deep purple robes with a high collar, tight sleeves and a wide flowing skirt, and Al, the most scruffy of anyone in the hall, had thrown on some velvet black robes that obviously hadn't been ironed.
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Whatever Jen said, Fred could not take his eyes off her and he walked slyly over to her, trying to be casual, yet clearly with intention.
"Hey Jen, ready to poke fun at literally everyone in attendance?"
"Well seeing as that's the only reason I came, I'm quite prepared. Oh oh, do you want to play that game where you pick a group of people and voice-over what you think they're talking about?"
"Definitely, I was also thinking of contributing to a few wardrobe malfunctions, nothing too risqué but enough to get a few laughs."
"You read my mind."
.
They continued their plotting, much to the snickering delight of the rest of the group making secret eyes at each other. When Jen and Fred wandered off as more guests filled the hall with buzzing conversation, Corey started taking galleons on the bets as to how soon they would officially get together.
"I'm down for 5 galleons, on one month," Lily pledged.
"Lil, stop betting on your cousin's love life!" Alice giggled.
Al scoffed, "But this is the Potter way! Lil, they're way too thick to get there that quick, I'll put down 6 galleons, on three months."
Having taken ten years themselves, Rose and Sam were not inclined to partake in the betting - Rose could practically hear the guffaws and 'bit rich coming from you two innit's, so they ignored the rest of them.
Rose was secretly planning a subtle revenge-attack she'd been wanting to execute for months.
When the bets had all been placed, Rose planted the first seed.
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"Folks, it's a little boring at the ball thus far, does anyone want to play a game of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Truth or Dare?" Rose summoned the game and alluringly gestured to the small box.
"Sure, why not," Al agreed. He'd never really enjoyed the ball and anything WWW was bound to spice things up.
Soon enough, Lily, Corey, Alice, Albus, Sam and Rose had retreated to a quiet table in the back corner, sitting around sipping champagne and nibbling appetizers that Sam had stolen directly from the kitchen.
More and more people were filtering in through the floor-to-ceiling doors, so the group went relatively unnoticed. A band of playerless instruments had started to float gentle jazz through the air of the hall.
Innocently, Rose lifted the enchanted deck of cards and as each person grabbed one, it glowed with a white blue light for a brief moment - binding each player to the consequences of refusing their challenge.
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"Left of the dealer goes first, Alice, you're up."
Alice's lips squirmed nervously, "Truth, I guess."
Lily giggled, "Oh truths are always so easy. Do you fancy anyone in this circle?"
"No." Alice immediately responded, but she blushed excessively as her card turned red, indicating that she had failed the challenge.
"Liar!" Lily squealed in delight, "Who is it?!"
Alice simply flipped over the card and groaned as her body was overtaken by the enchantment. She proceeded to hop around the table doing the Chicken Dance on one foot for one circumference, until she finally heaved back down into her chair.
"Well that was humiliating-"
Lily cut her off, "Oh we are having a long talk after this Alice Longbottom!"
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Rose smiled, almost knowingly, "Your turn Lily. What will it be? Truth or dare?"
Lily shrugged, "Dare, of course. It's always more fun."
"Oh Lily, you make this almost too easy. I dare you to ask your crush from Search and Rescue to a dance - and according to the card I just gave you, if you refuse to do it, you're going to strip naked and run around the entire hall. Screaming."
Lily gasped in horror, feeling as though her stomach had dropped through her body all the way into the ground.
This dare was too familiar, where was it from?
"Wait, you figured out it was me - who told you?" Lily managed to say, mouth still agape in shock.
It has finally clicked, this was the exact same dare from the Victory Night Ball, during Rose and Sam's 7th year at Hogwarts.
.
"Sam let it slip in quarantine that you were the one who dared him to dance with me, and for your information that ended in a very traumatic memory charm and 7 years of estrangement between us."
Sam nudged Rose. "Obviously that wasn't your fault, Lily," Sam offered, apologetically.
"Yes yes, we were both dolts - But I have been waiting months to act on this information and you my dear, have been served!" Rose giggled with glee as she saw Lily's eyes darting back and forth between Rose and Jem Cattermole, who was innocently sipping from a glass of champagne, completely unaware of the drama that was about to unfold.
The memory of that night flooded back to Lily as she sputtered, trying to think of how to get herself out of this. She had always enjoyed Truth or Dare far too much for her own good!
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"Rose, Rose, be reasonable, there's not even any music playing that you can dance to!" The panic was starting to set in and Lily could feel her hands start to shake from nerves as adrenaline rushed through her body.
"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that, I have you covered for music," and with a wave of her wand Rose sent a spell whispering through the hall, that reached the band of instruments playing themselves.
Suddenly, instead of quiet background music, the gentle jazz became more upbeat and while the guests looked around slightly curiously, Lily got up and walked immediately over to Jem.
She could see the WWW Truth or Dare card starting to glow and she could not bear the embarrassment of taking off any clothes in public.
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"Hi Jem, how are you doing? This music's nice hey, would you like to dance?" She speedily uttered, trying to quell her panic and still her shaking hands.
Jem smiled, "Yeah I'm good, umm sure."
"Great," Lily breathed, thanking Merlin that she didn't have to explain the Truth or Dare situation, like she would have had to if he had said no.
She swiftly popped her arms on his shoulders and they started to sway to the smooth jazz. Jem added in a few twirls, nothing fancy thankfully, and as they looked around a few more people were joining them.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief, forgetting for a moment that Jem didn't know anything about the anxiety of her pounding chest.
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"Lily, are you quite all right?"
Lily tried to laugh it off, but seeing Jem this close up was only adding to her nervousness - why did he have to be so fit?
"It's nothing, it's just… My friends made me ask you because we're, oh you're going to think this is so silly and immature-"
"What is it?"
"We're playing a game of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Truth or Dare and they dared me to ask you to dance - it's a whole thing because…"
"Because what?"
Lily looked down at their feet, but Jem wasn't having a bar of it. He gave Lily a twirl and pulled her back in close so that their cheeks were touching. She made a small gasp, which she knew he heard and she almost stopped breathing altogether from their proximity.
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"Lily…" He whispered into her ear, she smiled, stopping herself from giggling.
"I fancy you okay Jem, and everybody knows so you may as well know too-"
She was cut off by the tender kiss he placed on her lips briefly, before spinning her around again.
And nothing more needed to be said, really.
Which didn't stop the back table erupting into cheers and whoops - Lily rolled her eyes but deep down, she was incredibly grateful for their meddling.