3 Weeks Later - The Evening of the Hogwarts Ball

"I don't think I'm going to go." Lacey said when Ginny entered her apartment in the early evening. The brunette was sitting on her shabby sofa in pjs, her legs tucked under her and a glass of cheap muggle wine in her hand.

"Fuck ..." was the first thing out of Ginny's mouth at the sight of her best friend. She was already dressed and done up for the evening in a shimmering silvery dress she had been waiting to wear for weeks. She hadn't planned on stopping by Lacey's before the Ball, but Fred had shown up with Ron and Luna at Grimmauld twenty minutes prior without his new girlfriend.

Ginny was thankful her new fiancé had offered all of their friends libations ahead of the ball (as his excuse to get a little drunk before being in such a public forum again), or she wouldn't have known Lacey was flaking. Fred had relayed that Lacey said she would meet him there. But Ginny knew better than to believe that.

As the red-head eyed the woman on the couch, it was clear just how much of a lie she had told Fred, "Get up, come on, you are going!"

"Gin, I don't want to." Lacey was firm on it. Something had been nagging at her all day. All week, even, "It just doesn't feel right."

"For an hour?" Ginny didn't want to seem desperate, but she had been assured from Draco that Lucius was going to be there and she knew that had taken considerable effort. She wanted to hold up her end of the deal.

"I don't think so..."

Ginny left the living room for Lacey's cramped bedroom and opened the closet. When they had all spent a few days putting the apartment back together, Ginny had made sure to pack up Lacey's new wardrobe, the stuff she had bought for Lucius, and stuff it into the far back corner. As she searched for the box and grabbed it, she immediately saw it hadn't been opened yet, and wondered if Lacey had even noticed it.

"Aha !"

"Gin, what are you doing?" Lacey had made her way to her bedroom doorframe, her hands on her hips, as she watched Ginny rifle through clothes and hold up a black dress she didn't recognize.

"Put this on." Ginny tossed it to her and then dove back into the box.

"Where did I get this? Is this yours?" Lacey turned over the silky, slinky dress in her hands, utterly confused.

"No, it is very much yours. And you are going to put it on and be my date to this ball. Sod Sirius and Fred, it's always been us girls anywya and you come first. I want you to be there with me." Ginny stood back up, a pair of tall heels in her hand and her best puppy-dog pout on her face.

Lacey considered it alongside the annoying feeling in her stomach telling her to just avoid the night altogether. She was completely conflicted. "If I go, will you a

answer one question of my choosing about these last two years at the end of the night?"

"I've been upfront with you about everything." Ginny swallowed hard, meeting her friends' eyes and knowing how much of a lie that was. She had been honest about next to nothing.

"Will you?"

"Fine then, one question...at the end of the night." Ginny promised. At that, Lacey started stripping off her pjs and both girls fell into an easy rhythm with one another that reminded Lacey of all the times they would get ready together for girls nights right after graduating from Hogwarts. Ginny charmed Lacey's heels for comfort and stability and helped with her hair, and Lacey applied some lipstick and a few swipes of mascara, admiring herself in her mirror once the dress was on.

"I wore this out somewhere?" Lacey wondered aloud, turning to the side and eyeing the slit that ran up her thigh. She was oddly impressed.

"Yes, to rave reviews, now come on!" Ginny laughed, grabbed Lacey's hand, and they were off.

~o0o~

"Thirty more minutes and then I'm leaving." Lucius swore into his glass of firewhiskey as he watched Headmistress McGonagall and Filius Flitwick dance inelegantly a few feet away from him. As it was, Lucius hated that he was standing so close to the revelry of the ball he didn't want to be at, but his son had insisted.

"Father..." Draco warned, his eyes fixed at the entrance to the Great Hall that had been transfigured to twice its normal size for the occasion. Ginny was late. He had seen Black and all of the other Weasleys and Granger parade in, but Ginny and Lacey were nowhere to be found. She had promised.

"I've come as you asked because for some reason I've gone soft, but I've had quite enough of this." Lucius gestured, frustrated, at the dance floor. There were too many happy, smiling people and all he wanted to do was sulk in his study with more booze than was acceptable to consume in a public setting.

"Lucius!"

The elder Malfoy nearly lost control of his glass as he felt something small pummel into him. When he caught his bearings, his stomach flipped uncomfortably as he looked down at the little witch who was hugging him.

"Aislinn..." Lucius tried to say her name without much feeling, but as Lacey's younger sister stepped away and fixed her hair, he was drawn in by her infectious smile. It was hard to not be happy to see her, as, not too long ago, he supposed she would have become his sister-in-law.

"It is SO good to see you! And you too, Draco," she finally acknowledged the younger blonde as an afterthought, "We weren't going to come, but I wanted to see Ginny and the Weasleys and my brother was suddenly interested and..."

"Take a breath, Miss Delaney," Lucius suggested as the young woman rambled in her excitement.

"And you are here!" She grinned. She was well aware that her sister still didn't remember her relationship with Lucius and was threatened by Ginny to keep quiet about it, but she didn't have to like their current holding pattern.

"So I am. Against my will." Lucius looked scathingly at his son.

"And you look very handsome," Aislinn said with more pride than anything, "Look, I know I'm not supposed to talk about her, but..."

"Draco, let's go." Lucius suddenly cut Aislinn off when he heard a burst of excited voices coming from the entrance to the hall. His eyes followed the noise and saw that Ginny Weasley had arrived and standing next to her was Lacey, " You lied."

"Truly, I was told she wasn't coming." Draco feigned innocence, but his father's eyes narrowed on him. Lucius hated feeling cornered, and he rarely ever panicked, but his steel blue eyes were currently darting around the Great Hall looking for an escape and coming up short.

"Oh!" Aislinn had caught on and was smiling as she watched her older sister embrace some of the Weasleys a few meters away, and then was caught in a hug and conversation with Fred, "I'll get her to come over here!"

"Miss Delaney, if you could please not ..." Lucius didn't want to yell at the girl, but he was seriously considering it in lieu of having to come face to face with the woman he spent the entirety of his days missing.

"I think that is a wonderful idea," Draco smirked, "Lacey!" He raised his voice, and alongside Aislinn's gangly wave, it finally caught the brunette's attention.

Lucius' mouth became so dry that it hurt for him to swallow as Lacey broke away from her friends and new boyfriend and started to walk straight towards them.

She looked incredible, and it wasn't lost on him that she was wearing the exact same dress as when he had first met her at the Ministry Ball. However, now she looked even better, if that were possible. Unlike that first night, where she was a radiant vision if not overly done-up, now she was the Lacey he had completely fallen for. Her cheeks were naturally flushed and her hair was just a bit out of place, as it always seemed to be. Lucius just wished she had a smile on her face instead of her current look of confusion.

~o0o~

Lacey's head hurt. She had only been at the Hogwarts Ball all of ten minutes and she felt as if she was developing a migraine. Everything felt overwhelming and too loud and so damn familiar, as if she was experiencing an extended bout of what her Dad called deja-vu.

Despite her reluctance to go in the first place, the promise of getting some answers from Ginny felt like a worthwhile reward for a few hours in the company of friends. And Fred looked so handsome in his best dress robes as he greeted her with a kiss.

But then she had seen the bizarre tableau of her sister, Draco, and his father standing not far away, with the younger members of the trio calling her over. Lacey wasn't aware Aislinn was going to the ball, and more than that, it struck her that seeing the three of them together felt wholly unsurprising.

Beyond her new friendship with Draco, Lacey tried to recall if her sister had mentioned anything about the Malfoys other than seeing them at St. Mungo's. Because Aislinn certainly looked comfortable in their presence in a way Lacey just couldn't comprehend.

"You look lovely, Lacey." Draco greeted her when she joined the group, kissing her on the cheek. His gesture gave Lacey a split second to catch a shared look between her sister and Mr. Malfoy that puzzled her.

Draco she could understand. Could accept. But Lucius. That she couldn't fathom.

"Thank you. It's..." Lacey found herself looking up at the elder Malfoy at a momentary loss for words. He certainly looked well-put together, if not a bit tired, and he cut a dashing figure compared to most of the room, "Nice to see you again. Mr. Malfoy."

When Lucius only briefly nodded at her, she turned to her sister, "Ais - I didn't know you were coming?"

The red-head linked her arm through Lacey's almost immediately, leaning on her with the type of affection known only to sisters, "Colin wanted to. It was super last minute."

"Uh huh."

" Ask her." Aislinn whispered to the two men standing awkwardly with them, who both looked as if they'd rather be repotting Mandrakes. Lacey watched her sister's lips move over the question in near silence.

"Ais, what are you saying?" Lacey eyed the young woman who was now staring determinedly at Lucius.

"My, Miss Delaney, are you quite alright?" Lucius finally spoke in Lacey's presence, directing the question to her mini-me.

"Of course I'm alright. Ask her." Aislinn repeated, this time clear as day.

"Ask me what?" Lacey raised an eyebrow at the two blondes, wanting an answer.

After an excruciatingly long moment, in which Lacey noted a staring contest between Aislinn and Mr. Malfoy seemed to be taking place, the older wizard finally stepped towards Lacey, "Would you dance with me?"

The question left Lacey momentarily floundering for an answer, but knowing she was at risk of embarrassing herself, she opted to offer him her hand as a placeholder for words. She then found herself being led out onto the spacious dance floor, looking back over her shoulder at Draco and trying to discern the oddly pleased look on his face.

And then the migraine that had been threatening to take over her senses seemed to momentarily flare when Lacey turned her head back to her dance partner as he began to lead her in a simple waltz across the floor with dozens of other couples. Being in Lucius Malfoy's presence was having a bizarre effect on her.

Something felt very wrong and yet not wrong at all. It was the strangest sensation.

"Why was my sister forcing you to ask me to dance?" Lacey asked after getting her bearings. Normally she hated being led in a dance, but had to admit Lucius was doing an incredible job and she didn't have enough mental capacity to do more than follow him with all that was on her mind.

"I'm sure she just wanted to interrupt the tension. I can't blame her."

"I don't believe you. You've spoken to my sister before, that's clear."

"Once. At St. Mungo's when I visited you with Draco. For Draco." Lucius amended his statement, but Lacey still didn't buy it. He was being cagey, which she supposed she expected from someone like him. But everyone was being cagey, and she was sick of it. She wanted answers.

"You know me too. I don't know how, but it's more than just my friendship with your son..." Lacey desperately tried to work it out as they danced. His large hand felt so pleasantly warm on her waist. She thought that touching him would feel so cold, but it was the opposite.

She felt as if she were burning up.

"I don't know what you are talking about... Merlin, girl, watch yourself ..." he gently chided her when she accidentally stepped on his shoes and she offered him a small, apologetic grimace. For a split-second she saw a soft smile pass over his face, but then it was gone and replaced by the haughty mask he usually wore. What was he trying to hide?

"No. You do. Please, tell me. You were in my hospital room and you grabbed my hand and I still don't know why you looked so upset?" Lacey pushed on. She hadn't spoken to him since that day and had been so curious as to his reaction to her. It had made no sense.

"I was merely saddened to see you injured considering I know the two women who did this to you." He told her and she fell silent as they continued to dance. Even though she was struggling to keep up with his pace, the steps felt familiar. His touch felt almost comforting. She winced as she felt a flash of pain right behind her left eye.

"For someone that claimed this was your best dance, you are doing terribly..."

Lacey sucked in a deep breath, desperately trying to cling to the glimmer of a memory that had shot through her. Of her and Lucius, dancing, almost exactly like this. Words she didn't remember him saying reverberated around her head. She looked up at him once more.

"We've danced together before, haven't we?" She asked and she noticed that he purposely turned his head away from her, focused on the others around them, " Haven't we, Mr. Malfoy?"

The music slowed and changed and around them, couples were switching partners and moving on and off the dance floor, with the pair of them caught in the tide of people. Lucius ended their dance, but kept his hand on her waist.

"Yes, Lacey, we have." He searched her eyes for something, "Do you remember?"

Lacey closed her eyes, still bothered by the pounding in her head, and desperately ransacked every compartment of her brain for a memory. When she had learned Occlumency, Professor Snape had taught her how to compartmentalize every thought, to file each away for safekeeping in an order than made sense to only her so that she could easily block others from drawing upon what she didn't want them to see.

After a few second, she found the memory, or was it now a memory of a memory? Of them dancing and him insulting her footwork on a similarly crowded dance floor. She let herself fall deeper into the memory and try and conjure the feelings behind it.

Annoyance. Anger.

Attraction?

"Excuse me, Mr. Malfoy. I'm suddenly not feeling well." Lacey said as she pulled away from him, her eyes already set on her exit as she heard her blood pumping in her ears and the sounds of the party around them fading away.

She didn't look back as she walked away. She didn't stop to think about what she had just seen when she passed by her brother and Hermione Granger mid-kiss, nor did she stop when Fred called after her. All Lacey wanted was to be alone. To think. To understand. To try and remember.