So, I realize that I am a horrible writer and horrible about keeping up with updates, and I blame school and my job for that . Thank you to everyone that has read my story and reviews it! It's encouraging and it helps me better this story. Even though I have the next 5 chapters written up, I will be making changes on them based on your feedback, so please don't stop leaving reviews, and I will try to be somewhat consistent with updates. Again, I deep apologize for the wait!

"Matt better appreciate this." Bella mumbled as she put the finishing touch on Ely's hair. Ely rolled her eyes while Lily giggled.

"How many times do I have to tell you Bella? Matt and I are purely platonic with each other. We are like siblings to each other, nothing more." Ely sighed and Bella rolled her eyes. Lily snickered, but said nothing.

Bella and Lily watched as Ely walked out of the common room, wishing her good luck. With her wand tucked into a pocket in her dress, she walked halfway to the Great Hall before Matthew caught with her. He stopped dead in his tracks as he took a moment to absorb her appearance. The dress made it appear as though she was gliding rather than walking, her hair picked up for the most part except for the usual bangs that covered up her scar. Bella had done well on her make-up, keeping it natural while drawing attention to her eyes, giving her gray eyes a darker look to them than usual, a tad bit of rose on her lips, with just a shade of blush.

Most of Slytherin gave Ely death stares, but everyone else had simply ignored her. The ones that didn't know she was going looked surprised, but other than that things were going great. After Narcissa had practically disowned Andromeda publicly for showing up with Ted, Andromeda had come to sit with Ely and Matt with a few other Ravenclaws. The other Ravenclaws were skeptical, but once they realized that Andromeda appeared to be nothing like her sisters they paid no mind to her.

"Hello Ely." Andromeda greeted, giving Ely a hug and giving a quick greeting to Matthew as well. She turned to her date, "Ely, this is Ted Tonks."

"Pleasure to meet you Ely. Dromeda has told me great things about you." He bowed to her and she smiled.

After dinner had been over with, all four of them had gone off to the dance floor. Ely, remembering what she had learned from her Aunt, wowed a few of the students when she started dancing with Matt. Some were in awe of the effortlessness Ely seemed to have, and she had a certain grace about her that she could have passed off for nobility. She was having the time of her life, and for a while forgot about everything that she knew and acted her age.

Lucius quickly took notice of Ely, and took advantage of the chaos when the ballroom dancing had started. Ely tried to resist, but Lucius was stronger.

"Why do you insist of fighting with me Elanora? To degrade yourself to being friends with mudbloods and those outside of Slytherin is laughable."

In the shock that he had the nerve to say such a thing, she whipped her head to glare hard at him, the hair in front of her face shifting behind her, giving him a clear view of the scar on her face and shoulder.

"Pure bloods have done nothing but cause me pain and less. Hate has taken everything away from me, and almost cost me my life." She shook him off and trained her wand at him. "I am a half blood, and proud of it because it means I'm not like you. Be your own man Lucius, and stop hating on people you don't even take the time to understand." She slapped him, "And next time you insult my friends, my hand won't be what will hit you."

She turned and left those around her stunned. Narcissa almost went after her in wild anger, but Lucius grabbed her by the forearm and dragged her away. Ely almost immediately found Matt and he hugged her.

Andromeda and Ted found them sitting at the table, Andromeda giving her a comforting hug.

"It was about bloody time someone got Lucius off his high horse." Andromeda commented and Ted and Matthew chuckled. "Now if only you could do that to my mother…"

"I don't think she would take lightly to a slap in the face." Ely added and Andromeda shrugged.

"Still, to think of the possibilities…"

Their night went fairly calmer after that. Matt had convinced Ely to participate in a couple of other dances, which she obliged but not with the air she originally had before. She had come to know some of the other Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws because of Ted and Matt, Ely almost giving a couple of the Hufflepuffs a death stare. Once the night was done, Matt and Ted walked Ely and Dromeda at the dungeons.

They quickly said farewells, Matt and Ely exchanging a hug, Ely giving him a kiss on the cheek while Ted and Dromeda had a quick kiss. Ted was grinning ear to ear while Dromeda blushed. The boys left as soon as the girls were out of their sight.

Dromeda and Ely were whispering excitedly to each other as they walked into the common room. They would trail off when other Slytherins would walk into the room, both of their wands drawn and ready, but for the most part they were ignored. Just as Dromeda was wishing Ely goodnight, Severus walked into the common room.

Ely immediately looked towards the fireplace away to avoid looking at him. She heard him take a few steps towards her, but then paused.

"How was the dance?" He asked awkwardly, hoping Ely would turn around to look at him, but she didn't move a muscle.

Ely didn't feel a strain in her throat as he asked this, so she guessed the Unbreakable Vow didn't apply when he started the conversation.

"Fine." She answered shortly and with a bit of a bite to it. She was still mad at herself and him, so she couldn't understand why she was talking to him.

She heard him sigh, but had no idea what he was doing. She finally heard his footsteps walk away from her, and then they paused.

"You look nice today." He said in earnest, and he waited to see if she would respond.

"Thank you Severus." She said this a bit calmer than she had first answered, to which he took as a good sign. Feeling satisfied with himself for the night, he turned and walked to the boy's dorm.

Ely looked away from the fireplace to where Severus had been standing. She was left baffled as to why he had even bothered to ask her how her night had been, seeing as she felt he didn't give a damn about her. What was even more confusing, was that he had complimented her on how she was dressed. Others had given her compliments on how she was dressed, but it hadn't given her the tingly feeling in her stomach like those four words had coming from Severus' mouth.

"This is going to be a lot harder than I thought." Ely mumbled to herself before getting off the couch and heading towards the girls' dorm, where Bella was probably waiting for details.