The night of the Yule Ball was amazing. The entire Great Hall was decorated in winter scenes of snow and ice. It looked like something out of a fae induced dream. Yet for all of the ice and snow it was wonderfully warm and comfortable.
But as beautiful as all of that was, it did not compare to the look on Draco's face when he watched me descending the stairs.
Mother had found the perfect emerald green dress. It had long lace sleeves, a deep v neckline showing off my cleavage, I may not be as large as Daphne, but in this, my breasts looked amazing. It was form clinging and made me look like I had a perfect hour glass figure. The Dress maker said there was no magic that it was all me, but I have a hard time believing I look like this. It was almost entirely backless.
I was not going to be allowed ballet flats this time. Oh no, I was in a pair of strappy silver heels but Mother showed me a spell to make them comfortable to walk and dance in.
Daddy nearly had a heart attack when he saw my dress, so that was a good sign it was perfect.
My hair was done up in a high style and Mommy had loaned me a beautiful diamond tiara from her own collection. A simple diamond bracelet and drop diamond pendant necklace completed my look.
When Draco saw me I knew it was perfect. He looked like he had never seen me before. His eyes were all soft and sparkling. I almost looked behind me to see who he was looking at. He had certainly never looked at me that way.
Taking my arm to lead me in to the hall he leaned down to whisper in my ear "You are without a doubt the most beautiful girl here."
I blushed squeezed his arm. "If you are screwing with me" I whispered back "I will hex you so badly your grandchildren will feel it."
Laughing down at me he said "There's my girl."
And winked he at me. My stomach turned over and my heart skipped a beat.
Draco was very attentive all night. The whole evening was perfect. Pansy was in a right snit because Draco refused to so much as speak to her, he was so angry she had almost ruined our night. I decided not to tell him just now that it was his assumption that he did not need to ask me to go with him that almost ruined it.
I mean, it was almost perfect these people still could not dance, it was wither all ball room dancing or bouncing up and down to the music of some group called Weird Sisters. What was weird is there were no women in the band at all!
I did try to liven it up once but Theo and I got told off for salsa dancing, apparently it was considered lewd, a word I was definitely going to have to look up because clearly it meant anything fun and not boring.
As we made our way towards the stage the band was just getting ready to take a break. I was surprised I knew one of the band members. The cellist, or at least I thought I did. His long black hair, his black top hat and that trench coat he was wearing. There couldn't be two of them could there?
I dragged Draco forward towards them. He laughed "Hey, you can't just go up and talk to them, for Merlin's sake! They are the Weird Sisters. They are not going to want anything…"
Ignoring him I looked up as soon as I got close enough and called out "Mert!? Merton Graves is that really you!?" I couldn't believe it, Michael's cousin, and I guess mine by proxy, was in this weird band?
He looked down at me confused for a moment. "Merty it's me, Cassie Taylor, I can't have changed that much!"
"Little Cassandra Taylor!? Hey guys, it is my cousin Cassandra!" awww, he did think of me as his cousin!
Draco looked slightly dumbfounded as Merton hopped off the stage to hug me. "Easy Merty, do you know how long it takes to get my hair like this? My mother would kill you!"
Laughing he hugged me again "Little Cassie. I can't believe it, Aunt Karen told me you had moved to somewhere in Eurpoe, but I figured they would ship you to Beauxbatons, or wait… did they? I forgot those girls are here too."
"No, I go to Hogwarts, this is my date Draco Malfoy." The two shook hands.
"It is so good to see you, I haven't seen you since, when was it? The Ambassador's Ball just before we moved here." I really did like Merton, he was so fun and silly. But the cellist in a wizard rock band?
"How on earth did you end up playing your cello in a rock band, Merty? Isn't your father having fits? His dad was super conservative. And very political.
"Well, lovey, e would be if we weren't so popular." Merton smiled at me.
"Well… popular in Europe…." I grinned.
"You cheeky witch, we are popular in a lot of places." He motioned the rest of his band forward and introduced me around.
"Well, we need to get back to playing Cassie, you enjoy yourself!" he winked at me and waggled his eyebrows.
"You are incorrigible Merton Graves." I laughed.
When we left I could tell that a lot of the other students had stopped to watch me greet their band with hugs and a nice long chat. I shrugged, not really very interesting to me. In America, the Weird Sisters just weren't that popular.
"I cannot believe your cousin is Merton Graves." Theo came up laughing, he had been close enough to hear us chatting I suppose.
"You could have come over, I would have introduced you, it is just Merty." I said smiling fondly back towards the stage where Merty waved at me.
"Merty, she calls Merton Graves 'Merty' it is just too much." I think Theo might have been a bit star struck.
"Alright, Theo, get back to your date and let me get back to mine." Draco said with a frown.
"Rude!" laughed Theo but went back to Tracey who was gesturing wildly towards us.
I rolled my eyes. "I guess they are kind of a big deal here, huh?"
Draco looked down at me and laughed "Yes Cassie, they are 'kind of a big deal'. Come on, let's dance."
The next song was a slow one. Draco pulled my arms around his neck and wrapped his arms around my waist. I rested my head on his chest while we danced.
I could feel his heart beating hard. Had I done that or was it all the dancing? I would like to believe it was me.
It was definitely him making my heart race when he traced circles along my bare back.
When the dance was over we went to grab drinks at the punch bowl and were unfortunate enough to find ourselves close to the Weasley twins.
One of them looked down at me and said "Cassandra Taylor, right?"
Draco pulled his arm around my waist tighter.
"Yes, that's right" I leaned in to Draco, my experiences with Gryffindors and Weasleys in particular had not been pleasant so far and I did not want these two ruining my evening.
"So it turns out" the other said "that we got off on the wrong foot with you."
"It was thoughtless and careless of us not to even notice we knocked you down." It was odd the way they switched back and forth.
"We hope you can forgive us for being so over active when we were younger." The first one who had spoken finished.
Draco snarled. I patted his arm "It is OK, Draco, it isn't like they were the Weasley who accused me of… inappropriate behavior with you."
"You mean he called you a slut." Draco was still glaring at them.
They actually seemed shocked by this, but again, I knew they were just overactive and thoughtless at times, not actually mean.
"Of course I forgive you, all water under the bridge." I smiled and shook the hand they offered.
"And don't worry, we will make certain our youngest brother never bothers you again." I nodded and they went on their way.
"I don't trust them" Draco said "and I don't like the way the one was looking at you."
"Come on let's go get some fresh air." I suggested, wanting to put this behind us.
Draco took me out to the north balcony because the constellation he was named for could be clearly seen. He brought out a pair of binoculars that told the name of the stars in the Draco constellation ending with Thuban, whose name meant Head of the Serpent, which was the northern pole star from 3492 BCE to 1793 BCE when it moved further north than Theta Bootis.
"Beautiful isn't it?" I sighed turning to hand him back his binoculars. He had a look in his eyes I had never seen before. It turned my insides to goo.
"I agree." He whispered. There was something in the way he looked at me that made my heart skip a beat and my pulse race.
He leaned in just slightly towards me. Or maybe I leaned in to him. My head tipped back and his lips brushed mine. It was a feather brush of a touch, so tentative, the pressure so light, I wasn't sure I had felt it at all. Before I knew what I was doing I turned fully towards him leaning in to his chest. I looked in to his eyes. I knew without a doubt I could never just be his friend again. It was all or nothing. I ran my hand along his jaw and rested my thumb over the pulse at the hollow of his throat. He sucked in a breath and pulled back, putting less than a fingers width between us. His eyes uncertain, stumbling, searched mine.
I could feel the blood heating my cheeks. My heart beat his name in to my chest. Just as I was coming back to my senses something changed in his gaze, as though he had fought some war with himself and both won and lost. Then just as soon as my senses returned they were completely swept away again. Because Draco gathered my hair in one hand, and wrapped his other arm around my waist gathering all of me and claimed her lips with such determination and heat my world went up in flames and all I could do was clutch his robes as my only lifeline to reality.