Characters: Alana Jordan, Andre Egwu, Charlie Weasley

Genre: Friendship/Slight Romance

Alana and Andre enjoy the Celestial Ball

The Celestial Ball was in full swing. And Alana was feeling like she was amongst the stars on her dress.

She, Andre, and her friends had been doing the muggle expression of rug cutting for the past hour. She was surprised to see how well of a dancer Ben was, despite his nerves earlier that day. The entire room seemed to be enjoying themselves. Even Merula was getting down with Barnaby, of all people. And Alana could have sworn she seen Ismelda being twirled by a Slytherin boy.

And then, the music started to slow down. Almost instantly, the room felt awkward. Everyone began to look nervous as the music was clearly calling for a slow dance.

Alana rubbed her slightly dampened palms against her starry sky dress. She felt her cheeks tingle as she tried to look anywhere but Andre's direction. True, Andre had agreed to be her date, even saying that he was too nervous to ask her himself and he had always wanted to, but slow dancing hadn't came up in the conversation.

"Alana?" said Andre, holding out his hand with more confidence than the nervous Gryffindor had. "I know you're not going to leave me swaying by myself, are you?"

Alana looked up at the slightly taller male through her eyelashes. She glanced over at his hand, then back at his smiling face. She grinned as she shook her head slowly, and placed her hand in his.

Andre led Alana towards the middle of the dance floor. The two chuckled awkwardly as they tried to figure out where to place their hands. They held their hands up slightly and began to sway to the music, feeling a bit off.

"This feels so barmy," said Andre.

"Barmy?"

"Not saying dancing with you is...I mean it is but...not to say that you're barmy, but-"

Alana laughed at Andre stumbling over his words. "I get what you're saying, Dre. It feels barmy to me too. Probably because we aren't used to it. And it doesn't seem like we are doing it right. Look at Rowan and Billingsley."

The pair looked over and seen that Rowan and Billingsley were close. Rowan had one hand on Billingsley's shoulder, while one of his hands were on her waist, in a bit of a waltz.

"Wow," grinned Andre. "Ol Billingsley and Rowan, huh? Who knew. "

"And she didn't want to come," laughed Alana. "Hope she knows I'm never going to let her live this down."

Andre smiled. The two went back to feeling a bit sheepish, not knowing what to do with their hands once again. Finally, Alana settled her hands delicately on Andre's shoulders, while Andre nervously placed his on Alana's sides. The two began to sway back and forth again, this time feeling a bit more comfortable.

Alana looked down at their feet, despite them not moving them at all. She felt like an idiot. She was the one who had asked Andre to be her date. Why was she acting so strangely? As if Andre was someone to fear?

She looked up at Andre and met his eyes. Had he been trying to look at her face the whole time? She blushed as she looked at his bright smile, that seemed to be just for her. The nerves she had disappeared. She moved her hands towards the back of his neck, locking them together. He in turn got a tighter grip on her waist, moving his hands to the small of her back. They began to move more rhythmically to the music, a song to which they had never heard before. It almost sounded futuristic.

We were just kids when we fell in love,

Not knowing what it was,

I will not give you up this time..

Darling, just kiss me slow,

Your heart is all I own,

And in your eyes, you're holding mine..

They began to have small talk as the music made them both feel as if they were the only ones in the room. Alana was trying to concentrate on the conversation, while sorting out her thoughts. The last time she was this close to Andre, was when he had spontaneously hugged her and twirled her around when she had given back his very much not broken broom back in their 4th year. The same feeling she had gotten then, had been multiplied by 1,000 at this very moment.

As the next slow song came on (another futuristic sounding song, this time about a man admiring a woman, saying nobody was interested world but he and her), the two began to waltz. Both Alana and Andre had been taught since they were young about waltzing, one of the somewhat boring aspects of being brought up in a pureblood wizard home, although, along with the song, it was actually fun. Andre lifted Alana in the air, spun her out and then back to him, and twirled her around a few times. Alana didn't know if she felt dizzy from the twirling, or dizzy from the apparent moment that was beginning to build up.

Andre spun her out, and then back to him, dipping her as the song was ending. The two locked eyes, seemingly stuck in the dip as they felt themselves drawn even more to each other.

The moment ended as a big boom sounded, and the music picked up again. Andre brought Alana back up, the two of them laughing to quell their nerves. Then they walked back over to their seats to rest.

The rest of the night went by wonderfully. The group of friends came together and danced to some of the more upbeat songs, and there were even a few more slow dances in between.

Soon, it was time for the night to end. Andre and Alana walked out of the Great Hall arm and arm, laughing and gossiping about everything that had went on. Andre offered to walk Alana to Gryffindor Tower, since it just a few corridors down from Ravenclaw's.

As they stopped in front of the Fat Lady portrait, the nervous awkward feeling that Alana first felt before their first slow dance washed over her again. Once again, she felt like an idiot. She had just spent the past few hours with the bloke. Why should this moment feel any different? Was she a Gryffindor or not?

"I had a very lovely time with you, Andre." she pushed out anxiously. "You were a very great date."

Andre laughed. "You were too, Curse-Breaker. I didn't know you could dance like that. Who knew you had time to learn how to dance between searching for cursed vaults?"

Alana laughed as she moved her hand to lightly smack his shoulder. Andre, with his superb chaser skills, swiftly caught it, and in an act of chivalry, kissed the back of her palm, silencing Alana's laugh promptly.

And then, it happened.

Andre, still holding onto Alana's hand, gently pulled her closer to him, and at the same time, leaned in. Their lips met. Alana's eyes grew wide as her mind raced to process what was happening. She quickly moved her lips to kiss him back.

His lips tasted like the cream buns that they had for dessert, and felt just as soft. She moved her hand from his and placed it on his shoulder, as her right foot involuntarily popped up and backwards. She could have stayed like this all night, however, the kiss ended rather quickly, with the two of them blushing.

"Goodnight, Curse-Breaker," said Andre, turning and walking away.

"Night," whispered Alana, watching Andre walk down the long corridor, turning the corner at the end of it.

When she had seen that he was definitely gone, she let out a small squeak and spun around happily. He had kissed her. Andre Egwu, Quidditch King of Ravenclaw, fashion god, the bloke that she had been crushing on since the beginning of third year, had actually kissed her.

She quickly composed herself, said the password to the Fat Lady, and walked into the portrait hole, her face beginning to hurt with the smile plastered on her face.

The first face she saw was Charlie Weasley's. He was sitting on the sofa in front of the fire, his foot propped a stack of pillows on the table, as he had sprained his ankle during a very nasty landing in flying class, and could not come to the ball.

"Oi Lonnie! You look like you had a fun night," said Charlie, forcing himself to be cheerful. He had really wanted to attend the ball. He had even thought of asking Alana, but his injury just wouldn't allow it, and Madam Pomfrey only had potions to help with the pain of sprangs, not heal them.

"Charlie! How is the ankle?" asked Alana as she sat down beside him on the sofa.

"Feeling much better," lied Charlie. "How was the ball? I've seen Ben. Said he danced with some Hufflepuff girl."

"Yes he did, and Rowan was waltzing with Billingsley all night," said Alana. "And would you believe that Merula and Barnaby got a slow dance in? Tonks and Tulip were dancing too, only Tonks kept stepping on Tulip's toes."

"Brilliant," laughed Charlie.

"It was a very lovely night," said Alana. "I even scored a date. It was Andre!"

Charlie's face fell. "Andre was your date?"

Alana, oblivious to Charlie's changing mood, began to go on about the night. How fun dancing with Andre was, how he had been a perfect gentleman to her, and how he had walked her back to the tower. The more she went on about her night, the more tighter the knot in Charlie's stomach tightened.

"He even kissed me goodnight," finished Alana, blushing.

Charlie almost jumped up. "He...he kissed you?"

"Yeah," said Alana, even more oblivious to Charlie's now growing feelings of hurt and rage. "It was lovely. I didn't even expect it. What a wonderful night."

"Sounded wonderful," said Charlie, almost spitting the words out.

Alana caught the slight disdain in Charlie's voice that time. "Oh I'm sorry, Charlie," she said, placing her hand on his propped leg. "I shouldn't have been going on and on about my night when you didn't have any fun being stuck up here."

Charlie sighed and placed his hand on top of hers. "It's alright, Lonnie. I'm glad you had fun. And you...you look really beautiful."

Alana felt her cheeks tingle with blush. "You're just saying that," she said shyly, not knowing why she suddenly felt timid. She moved her hand out from under his, got up, and headed towards the girls staircase.

"Alana!" Charlie called after her. Alana paused and turned around, her face feeling as if it were on fire.

"I meant that," said Charlie. "You look perfect tonight."

'Just like the song,' Alana thought.

"Thanks, Charlie," said Alana. "I wish you would have been able to come. Then you would have looked perfect too."

Charlie smiled as he sat her Alana disappear up the stairs. He sighed in disappointment. It seemed like Alana and Andre were getting closer and closer. As their friend, he knew he should have been happy for them. He had known that Alana had fancied Andre for a long time. He and Rowan had discussed it many times. But he didn't believe that it would get this far.

And how he didnt know if he should fight, or sit back and let it happen.