The walls of the Hall had all been covered in sparkling silver frost, with hundreds of garlands of mistletoe and ivy crossing the starry black ceiling. The House tables had vanished; instead, there were about a hundred smaller, lantern-lit ones, each seating about a dozen people.
Oliver went with Stephen and Skylar with his partner, Lisa Turpin, over to a table. They were joined by Neville and Ginny, Lavender and Seamus, Ron and Padma Patil, and Dean with his partner who Skylar didn't know the name of.
When everyone had seated, the Champions and their partners walked in procession towards the top table where the judges were sitting. Harry looked rather like Parvati was pulling him along, who seemed to be rather enjoying herself as she beamed at everyone. Skylar clapped along with everyone else before she noticed Ron's expression, he was watching Hermione with his eyes narrowed. She shared a look with Ginny who rolled her eyes.
Dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table, but Karkaroff wore an expression remarkably like Ron's as he watched Krum and Hermione draw nearer. Ludo Bagman, tonight in robes of bright purple with large yellow stars, was clapping as enthusiastically as any of the students; and Madame Maxime, who had changed her usual uniform of black satin for a flowing gown of lavender silk, was applauding them politely. But Mr. Crouch was not there. The fifth seat at the table was occupied by Percy Weasley, who was wearing brand new Navy-blue robes and a smug expression.
With everyone seated the feast was to begin, but the glittering golden plates were empty and a menu sat before each of them. Professor Dumbledore was first to order after looking carefully at his menu. There were no waiters but the teachers were all informed as to how the ordering system was to work. Professor Dumbledore looked down at his plate and spoke to it very clearly, ordering pork chops.
The teachers followed, as well as the head table and the rest of the parties got the gist to follow suit. Everyone was saying their requests to their plates before the gold was covered in charming foods of glorious stature. Padma has resigned herself for the moment to talk to Lisa Turpin, Skylar spoke to Ginny quite happily and Ron hacked at his food in a mood, constantly glancing up at the champions table and at Hermione, who was in constant conversation with Viktor Krum.
"What is wrong with you?" Skylar asked him with a sigh.
"Nothing." He said and she watched him before he turned to her again. "Did you know she was coming with Krum?"
"Yes."
He grumbled under his breath.
"You can't complain, you asked her as a literal last resort. Now stop being a downer, it's just a dance."
When all the food had been consumed, Dumbledore stood up and asked the students to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clear, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.
The Weird Sisters now trooped up onto the stage to wildly enthusiastic applause; they were all extremely hairy and dressed in black robes that had been artfully ripped and torn. They picked up their instruments as the lanterns on all the other tables had gone out. The other champions and their partners were standing up as Harry was being nudged by Parvati, clearly having forgotten he had to dance first.
Harry tripped over his dress robes as he stood up. The Weird Sisters struck up a slow, mournful tune as the champions all walked onto the brightly lit dance floor. Skylar scolded Seamus and Dean as they were waving at Harry and sniggering as Parvati seized his hands, placed one around her waist, and was holding the other tightly in hers.
The crowd watched as the champions danced, Parvati was clearly leading Harry but it was elegant anyway. Many of the other couples joined as one of the teachers showed it was alright to do so. Ginny and Neville were happy to take the stage, though Ginny was wincing as Neville stood on her feet.
Dumbledore was waltzing with Madame Maxime. He was so dwarfed by her that the top of his pointed hat barely tickled her chin; however, she moved very gracefully for a woman so large. Mad-Eye Moody was doing an extremely ungainly two-step with Professor Sinistra, who was nervously avoiding his wooden leg.
"Shall we go too?" Stephen asked.
"I'd love to." Skylar grinned and he took her hand before leading her onto the floor. Stephen led her as they moved to the tune along with the crowd around them, Skylar highly enjoyed it, almost as much as she did watching those around them. Fred and Angelina were dancing so exuberantly that people around them were backing away in fear of injury. They danced around the crowd to the song before the last quavering note from the bagpipe sounded and it came to an end. The Weird Sisters stopped playing, applause filled the hall once more and everyone stopped. It was only a moment before the Weird Sisters struck up a new song, which was much faster.
Skylar and Stephen danced to the next one, grinning as they moved around the floor. Several people joined them before moving on to see others.
When the song finished they both broke from the crowd, panting slightly as Skylar fanned her face.
"Shall we pause for a moment?" Stephen offered.
"I think so." She agreed and they stepped away from the dancing people. There were a few people sitting at a table and Skylar recognised them as Ron, Harry, Hermione and Padma. She led the way over to them, but it was only as they got closer that they realised the atmosphere was not friendly.
"You — you're —" Ron was obviously casting around for words strong enough to describe Hermione's crime, "fraternising with the enemy, that's what you're doing!"
Skylar raised an eyebrow as Hermione's mouth fell open. Were they arguing?
"Don't be so stupid!" Hermione said after a moment. "The enemy! Honestly — who was the one who was all excited when they saw him arrive? Who was the one who wanted his autograph? Who's got a model of him up in their dormitory?"
Ron chose to ignore this. "I s'pose he asked you to come with him while you were both in the library?"
"Yes, he did," said Hermione, the pink patches on her cheeks glowing more brightly. "So what?"
"What is going on?" Skylar asked, but both of them ignored her and Harry looked awkward at being stuck between them.
"What happened — trying to get him to join spew, were you?"
"No, I wasn't! If you really want to know, he — he said he'd been coming up to the library every day to try and talk to me, but he hadn't been able to pluck up the courage!"
Hermione said this very quickly, and blushed so deeply that she was the same colour as Parvati's robes.
"Yeah, well — that's his story," said Ron nastily.
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Obvious, isn't it? He's Karkaroff's student, isn't he? He knows who you hang around with… He's just trying to get closer to Harry — get inside information on him — or get near enough to jinx him —"
Hermione looked as though Ron had slapped her. When she spoke, her voice quivered. "For your information, he hasn't asked me one single thing about Harry, not one —"
Ron changed tack at the speed of light.
"Then he's hoping you'll help him find out what his egg means! I suppose you've been putting your heads together during those cozy little library sessions —"
"I'd never help him work out that egg!" said Hermione, looking outraged. "Never. How could you say something like that — I want Harry to win the tournament, Harry knows that, don't you, Harry?"
"You've got a funny way of showing it," sneered Ron.
Stephen looked at Skylar awkwardly as she seemed gobsmacked by what they'd walked into.
"This whole tournament's supposed to be about getting to know foreign wizards and making friends with them!" said Hermione hotly.
"No it isn't!" shouted Ron. "It's about winning!"
People were starting to stare at them.
"Ron," said Harry quietly, "I haven't got a problem with Hermione coming with Krum —"
But Ron ignored Harry too.
"Why don't you go and find Vicky, he'll be wondering where you are," said Ron.
"Don't call him Vicky!" Hermione jumped to her feet and stormed off across the dance floor, disappearing into the crowd. Ron watched her go with a mixture of anger and satisfaction on his face.
"What just happened…?" Stephen muttered.
Skylar shook her head as she had watched Hermione leave.
"Are you going to ask me to dance at all?" Padma asked him.
"No," said Ron, still glaring after Hermione.
"Fine," snapped Padma, and she got up and went to join Parvati and a Beauxbatons boy, who conjured up one of his friends to join them so fast it was like he'd used a summoning charm.
"Vare is Herm-own-ninny?" said a voice.
Krum had just arrived at their table clutching two butterbeers.
"No idea," said Ron mulishly, looking up at him. "Lost her, have you?"
Krum was looking surly again. "Veil, if you see her, tell her I haff drinks," he said, and he slouched off.
There was silence for a moment and Stephen felt awkward. "I'll go get us a drink." He said and Skylar nodded. When he'd gone she turned to Ron.
"Are you an idiot?" Skylar asked him. "Serious? Accusing her of betrayal? How low can you get? You can't get mad because she agreed to go with someone and didn't wait around for you to take her."
Ron seemed to ignore her before someone else joined them.
"Made friends with Viktor Krum, have you, Ron?" Percy had bustled over, rubbing his hands together and looking extremely pompous. "Excellent! That's the whole point, you know — international magical cooperation!"
Percy now took Padma's vacated seat. The top table was now empty; Professor Dumbledore was dancing with Professor Sprout, Ludo Bagman with Professor McGonagall; Madame Maxime and Hagrid were cutting a wide path around the dance floor as they waltzed through the students, and Karkaroff was nowhere to be seen. When the next song ended, everybody applauded once more, and Ludo Bagman kissed Professor McGonagall's hand and made his way back through the crowds, at which point Fred and George accosted him.
"What do they think they're doing, annoying senior Ministry members?" Percy hissed, watching Fred and George suspiciously. "No respect…"
Ludo Bagman shook off Fred and George fairly quickly, however, and, spotting Harry, waved and came over to their table.
"I hope my brothers weren't bothering you, Mr. Bagman?" said Percy at once.
"What? Oh not at all, not at all!" said Bagman. "No, they were just telling me a bit more about those fake wands of theirs. Wondering if I could advise them on the marketing. I've promised to put them in touch with a couple of contacts of mine at Zonko's Joke Shop…"
Skylar raised an eyebrow, that was a full on lie.
Percy didn't look happy about this at all and it seemed highly likely that he would be off writing to Mrs. Weasley as soon as possible.
Bagman opened his mouth to ask Harry something, but Percy diverted him.
"How do you feel the tournament's going, Mr. Bagman? Our department's quite satisfied — the hitch with the Goblet of Fire" — he glanced at Harry — "was a little unfortunate, of course, but it seems to have gone very smoothly since, don't you think?"
"Oh yes," Bagman said cheerfully, "it's all been enormous fun. How's old Barty doing? Shame he couldn't come."
"Oh I'm sure Mr. Crouch will be up and about in no time," said Percy importantly, "but in the meantime, I'm more than willing to take up the slack. Of course, it's not all attending balls" — he laughed airily — "oh no, I've had to deal with all sorts of things that have cropped up in his absence — you heard Ali Bashir was caught smuggling a consignment of flying carpets into the country? And then we've been trying to persuade the Transylvanians to sign the International Ban on Duelling. I've got a meeting with their Head of Magical Cooperation in the new year —"
Stephen came back and Skylar was highly grateful as she took a drink of butterbeer from him and instantly nudged him away. Ron and Harry also got up and left quickly, vanishing from the room.
Skylar and Stephen danced to a few more songs before Nick came and stole his sister to dance with him. The Weasley twins did as well and Skylar even stole Hermione to have a dance with, along with Ginny, the three girls carving their own place.
Harry and Ron reappeared at some point, huddling in the corner in conversation and as the night went on, Skylar moved over to them, interrupting.
"You haven't danced since the beginning and you haven't danced at all." She said, turning from Harry to Ron. "One of you is going to dance with me before the night ends." She said matter-of-factly.
"What about Stephen?" Harry wondered
"What about him?" She shrugged. "I'm allowed to dance with others, I've been doing it all night." She smiled. "So?"
Ron seemed adamant, even with Skylar saying he owed her because of his better dress robes. Eventually Harry agreed and he found it hard to feel worried about such a task when she beamed at him like that. She took his hand in hers and led him to the crowd, vanishing within it, leaving Ron to glare at Hermione and Viktor still together. Harry found himself having fun with Skylar but as the last song for the night began, Stephen came over and asked if he could have the final dance. Being her date, Harry couldn't refuse and Skylar agreed happily, so he left the two to head back over to his corner with Ron.
When the Weird Sisters finished playing at midnight, everyone gave them a last, loud round of applause and started to wend their way into the entrance hall. Many people were expressing the wish that the ball could have gone on longer.
Harry and Ron had vanished from their corner and were not in the Entrance Hall, and must have already gone to the common room.
"That was fantastic." Skylar beamed. Her cheeks were red from all the dancing as she and Stephen moved out of the hall and up the Marble Staircase together.
"Thank you for going with me." Stephen grinned. "You really do look beautiful."
"Thank you for inviting me." She returned.
They paused at the crossroads for their two dormitories and Stephen seemed nervous. Skylar smiled at him, about to wish him goodnight before he leaned in and kissed her. She was caught off guard slightly before he pulled away with a grin and said goodnight before moving off towards the Ravenclaw common room.
Skylar was still for a minute before she smiled a little giddishly and moved for the Gryffindor tower.
The Fat Lady's portrait was closing behind someone as she entered the corridor and she called out to have it held open as she hurried forwards. Harry was the one to turn and do so as she grinned.
"Thanks."
Harry nodded, and he looked at her before clearing his throat. "You look beautiful by the way."
"Thank you." She smiled before entering the common room, Harry behind her. Her stomach was fluttering with butterflies. The scene that greeted them however was not calm, and the atmosphere changed instantly, as Hermione and Ron were having a blazing row. Standing ten feet apart, they were bellowing at each other, each scarlet in the face.
"Well, if you don't like it, you know what the solution is, don't you?" yelled Hermione; her hair was coming down out of its elegant bun now, and her face was screwed up in anger.
"Oh yeah?" Ron yelled back. "What's that?"
"Next time there's a ball, ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort!"
Ron mouthed soundlessly like a goldfish out of water as Hermione turned on her heel and stormed up the girls' staircase to bed. Ron turned to look at Harry.
"Well," he sputtered, looking thunderstruck, "well — that just proves — completely missed the point —"
"You're the one missing the point!" Skylar returned before she headed off after Hermione quickly.