Welcome back to another chapter of The Heir and The Champions, in which we attend a ball. We find a few things out about our other champions, and have, well, a ball!
But first, Sirius flirts with danger
On with the show!
Zoë Nightshade.
Zoë was frowning as she looks into the vanity mirror and brushed her hair, she was preparing for the ridiculous ball that was happening in less than a few hours, and with a dress hand-picked by her lady, she knew she could do nothing less than floor any and all other females with her looks; even if she must look Girly Zoë decides that her looks should make even Aphrodite jealous. And as vain as the thought was, she was a Nymph and technically divine so her natural beauty was going to be shown tonight.
Zoë's hair was down as she was running a brush she had found in the vanity through her hair when she heard a knock at the door, she frowned at the sound. Her hosts were nothing but kind and respectful to her, Sirius had explained to her that the door to the room would be keyed to her so only she could open it or give permission for the door to open unless he himself overridden it(Which he swore to Hestia he wouldn't do unless it was an emergency she was calling for help over) and had respected her privacy. Remus was nothing but polite to her, and often they would speak at length over a cup of tea about the different creatures they had both encountered in their travels, both learning a lot from each other. Harry was Harry, and would often come to bother her to talk or spar when he had gotten bored, but would always knock and check if she was decent before bursting into the room like the rude little heathen he was.
Zoë, still in her pajamas and fresh from the shower, turns in her seat and looks at the door with a raised brow and frowns, "Come in," she calls out before the door opens and in sweeps the lord of the house.
Zoë had never seen Sirius dressed in robes, he was normally in jeans, a t-shirt with some band on the front, boots, and a leather jacket much like Harry's before it got a paint job. But now he looked to be a Wizard Lord he was so often called by others, he was dressed in dark blue and black silks that mirrored the night sky with a robe that had twinkling stars that formed the different constellations that trailed on the ground that Zoë was now considering stealing from him at some point in time, his hair was brushed back and tied into a short ponytail with a clean shave. His head was lifted in the air, giving him an important and dismissive look in his gray eyes as his hands were folded behind his back.
"Lady Nightshade," Sirius says, his tone carefully crafted to sound uninterested and commanding all at once, "It has come to my attention that you are allowed a plus one at the Yule Ball this evening, and it would be one of my life greatest honors if you allo-" was as far as the lord of the house of black got before Zoë cuts him off.
"No," She says before turning back to the mirror and continuing to brush her hair, and with that, the thin veneer of some "Respectable" wizard lord crumples like a house of cards.
"Oh come on, you didn't even let me finish," Sirius wines and Zoë rolls her eyes.
"There is no way in Hades I will be bringing anyone with me, Sirius, not you, not anyone," Zoë says giving her hair a few last strokes before turning back to the man, "Now, do get out of my room, I need to change," she says flatly to the man who looks at her like a sad puppy.
"Okay, Traditional approach failed," Sirius says, holding up his hands, "How about a deal then?" he asks.
"Sirius, I'm not going to the ball because I want to, I'm going to the ball because I was ordered to, not to mention I'm the lieutenant of the Hunters of Artemis, and if you've forgotten, we don't date," she tells him as she turns in her seat to glare.
"Yeah, I know that, but you're my only way into the ball," He tells Zoë, "Trust me if I had another way in I would go with that," Sirius says, wringing his hands nervously.
"Why do you want to go to some silly ball anyway?" Zoë asks with confusion on her face until Sirius reaches into his robe and pulls out a camera.
"Why do you think?" he says waving the camera around, "So I can take embarrassing photos of Harry to tell people about for years to come," he says with a mischievous smile, "And bonus, if you bring me with you, I'll scare away anyone looking to dance with you," Sirius says while wiggling his eyebrows.
Zoë freezes, her eyes narrowing at Sirius with her lips pressed in a thin line, "You will print doubles and give me the second set," she tells him as Sirius' face lights up with a smile before stepping forward and sticking out his hand.
"Deal," he says as Zoë takes his hand and shakes it.
"Now, get out of my room, I need to change," Zoë says with a smirk.
Harry Potter
"I look like an idiot," Harry thought to himself as he looked into the mirror while dressed in his dress robes. He honestly thought he looked like a conductor for an orchestra and he hated it, no disrespect to Ms. Weasley, but it probably wasn't the best idea to let her get him the dress robes. Harry frowns before pulling off the robe and tossing it onto the bed before looking back into the mirror, "This looks fine," he thinks to himself, a button-up white dress shirt with a black bowtie, vest, and slacks with a pair of shiny uncomfortable dress shoes, but Harry still frowns, it was still missing something. So, Harry put on his Jacket and smiled, "Perfect!" he thinks to himself before thinking of the white of the button-up was a little too clashing. So he pulls off his jacket and unbuttons his right sleeve to pull out his wand, but stops as he sees the white grain of the willow wand he always had on him, running his thumb over it. He and Zoë had immediately left to go to Ollivanders after he had gotten the horn of the Golden Hind.
"Yes, Mister Potter, I do believe that this will work," the wandmaker had told Harry before replacing the old core of a Phoenix feather with that of the Horn, "But there is no telling if or when they will ever bond, it is one of the great mysteries of my craft, of what makes a wood and core bond," Ollivander had warned him, but Harry didn't care.
The wand of his mother, the core from Artemis, and the horn of a stag, like his father, could become. Harry could now carry a piece of all three of them with him, he had his working wand, he didn't want another, he just wanted something of those three with him.
Harry sighs before pulling out his Holly wand and tapping his shirt, "Colovaria," he murmurs as he envisions the fabric another color and watches in the mirror as his button-up changes from white to soft steel gray to match his jacket with a smile before watching in confusion as his bowtie becomes stripped with silver and green like the colors of Slytherin House. "That wasn't me," Harry thinks to himself before trying to change his bowtie back to black to no avail. Looking back in the mirror, he decides to keep it, it makes his eyes pop out more anyway. So, with that, he slips on his Jacket and leaves the room, he wouldn't notice the red lipstick writing on the mirror until early the next morning.
"Here's hoping you had a fun night! xoxoxo" with a large heart drawn just beneath it.
Harry descends the stairs to the ground floor and walks into the sitting room to find Moony sitting by the fireplace with a book and a cup of tea. The man looks up from his tome with a smile, eyeing Harry's Jacket with amusement, "It is a shame that James and Lily can't see you like this Harry, you would have made them both cry with tears of pride at how you look," the scarred man says with a smile, making Harry blush.
"Ah, T-thanks," Harry says awkwardly, "Where's Sirius and Zoë?" Harry asks, wondering why his godfather wasn't seeing him off.
Lupin smirks at him, "Oh, I'm sure you'll see Sirius later, as for Lady Nightshade, she went on ahead without you, something about needing to be with the other heads of the school," he says with an amused shake of his head, "Are ready to go, Harry?" Rumes asks, and as Harry nods, the man stands up and walks over to the mantle to pull down a large snuff box full of floo powder before offering it to Harry, "Remember, speak clearly, Headmaster's office, Hogwarts, your expected," he tells Harry before the boy sighs and grabs a pinch of the lime green powder, he hated magical travel.
Harry Potter, just outside of the Great Hall.
Harry was leaning against the wall just outside the Great Hall and by the Grand Staircase waiting for his date to come up from the dungeons, he was also keeping an eye out for anyone he knew. The only person he saw so far was Malfoy, and he already had seen enough of him today when he and his mom showed up for dinner at Grimmauld Place earlier in the day, which had made it an…awkward experience to say the least.
Harry stops in the middle of raising his hand to shake Narcissa Malfoy's hand before taking a step back with a wary look, his other hand slipping into his pocket to grab Serpent-Hunter, causing Narcissa to raise an eyebrow and Zoë to tense beside him.
"Do you always wear the same perfume?" Harry asks as his eyes narrow at the woman.
Harry knew the scent rolling off Ms. Malfoy, it was the same scent of Lucius' mysterious savior at the Quidditch World Cup, mask your face all you like, change your voice, but if you didn't change your scent Harry was going to find you once you're close enough. But that had led to an awkward dinner, and throwing in Andromeda, Ted, and Dora it only got more awkward, Apparently, Narcissa had come over to talk to Sirius about some investments she had made with the Black Family Fortune when she was the only Black that wasn't in prison or disowned. From how Sirius was talking about it, they weren't underhanded or nefarious just business loans and funding a few independent researchers, they were all for old pureblood families, but nothing they were doing was bad in any way so Sirius was letting it go, and was in talks with Narcissa on how they wanted to proceed with it all.
Harry sees Theodore emerge from the dungeon first, dressed in fancy-looking robes of black and brown with what look like tree roots crisscrossing the hems before crawling up to his shoulders, they noticed each other at the same time with both nodding their heads before Nott pauses for a moment and heading over to him.
"Good evening Harry, and a happy Yule Time to you," Theodore says, folding his arms behind his back, "Do you mind if I wait with you?" he asks, and Harry shrugs.
"Sure, if you want," Harry answers, before tacking on a "Happy Christmas" to it as an afterthought, Theodore nods before eyeing his jacket and shaking his head with an amused smirk.
Neither of them says a word more to the other as they wait, the Great Hall filling up with more and more people, and Harry winces at the thought of being stuck in there for the majority of the night, he could already feel the headache building. The next person that Harry sees is Ron, arm and arm with Lavender Brown who apparently helped him with changing up his hand-me-down dress robes to something that didn't clash with his hair, he had stopped by long enough to say hello before being dragged off by Lavender to the Great Hall. After Ron was the guy Theodore was with on the Hogwarts Express, Blaze or something like that, who was arm and arm with a set of twins and the BIGGEST smirk on his face.
Both Harry and Theodore watched him go, Blaise nodded his head when he saw them, "I'm sorry, but is he taking both of them to the ball?" Harry asks, shocked and a bit impressed.
"Oh, yes," Theodore says with his smirk and a shake of his head, "And he hasn't shut up about it all week," he says before another voice speaks up.
"I mean, to be fair, if I bagged both of the Carrow twins at the same time, I wouldn't shut up about it either," the voice of Tracey Davis says as both Theodore and Harry turn to look at her, "Like, what's better than one fit bird? Another copy of her, right?" She says with a big goofy grin, she was wearing a short muggle style brown dress that stopped just below the knee with black tree roots crawling up it, like an inverse of Theodore's dress robes, and the same black and white checkered beanie on her head.
Theodore immediately stands up straighter when he sees Tracey and fights against trailing his eyes down her dress, "Ah, Miss Davis, are you ready for our date?" he asks, his wispy voice cracking in a few places as Tracey looks at him with another grin.
"Theo, we've known each other for the last four years and I've snogged you stupid after you asked me to the ball, I think you can call me Tracey by now," she says, causing the boy with mismatched eyes to blush.
"Right! Ah, sorry Tracey," Theodore says before he offers Tracey his arm, which she takes before turning to Harry.
"The princess will be up soon, she was almost done when I left after freaking out about her hair for half the day," Tracey says with a fond smirk before turning back to Theodore, "Now come my blushing boy toy, we have a dance floor to tear up!" she says as she points to the great hall, dragging Theodore behind her.
Harry chuckles and goes back to leaning against the wall watching more and more students flood the hall, he spots Angelina with one of the twins, Neville escorting Ginny, Cho, and Cedric together heading to the Great Hall, and then finally, Daphne emerged from the Dungeon, and Harry had to do a double take when he saw her. She was in a flowing red dress that hugged her body tightly showing off her curves to the point where Harry could feel his cheeks burn with a blush before hearing the Hunt growl with an animalistic want that he quickly and brutally squashed. The dress itself had one side slashed up the side to allow a better range of movement while walking, the front covered up most with a modest V-neck that stopped short, one her right shoulder seemed to be a golden silk cloth charmed to look like a roaring lion face as an almost see-through white cape sprinkled with gold floated behind her. Daphne's hair, which she would normally wear either down her back or in a simple braid, was now done up in curls and loops that made it look like a crown as she walked over to him with a growing smile, her feet covered in simple golden flats.
"Well, it seems my sense of style is appreciated by the look on your face," Daphne says, her smile never leaving her own as she walks up to him.
"I, um, y-you, ah, g-good, I mean, ah, um, wow," Harry is able to stutter out as Daphne giggles.
"Eloquent, Mister Potter," Daphne says with a grin before reaching up and adjusting Harry's now tie, "But I believe we should start making our way to the Great Hall, don't you think?" she says before looping her arm around Harry's own as they walk towards the Great Hall, Harry frowns at the increasing volume, and privately thinks to himself about how long the night was gonna be.
"Mister Potter, there you are-" the stern voice of Professor McGonagall says, before stopping with a sigh, Harry turns to look at her as her face crumples into something between surprise and anger, "Why is it that I don't find myself more surprised to find you in your jacket, and disappointed in myself I find it surprising at all?" she asks, glaring at Harry's jacket while Harry just shrugs, before panic shots through him as McGonagall draws and levels her wand at him.
Her face twists in concentration before she twists her wand and nods to herself, looking down, Harry sees his jacket in a bit better repair than it has been in years with a glossy finish to it, "Don't worry Mister Potter, it's just a temporary charm, it should be gone by morning, now, come along you two, the others are already waiting," McGonagall says before turning on her heel and walking over to the far corner of the hall before he feels Daphne dragging him after the Professor.
The other champions were already there with Angelina and one of the Twins leading the lineup, behind them were Fleur and Cho Chang, why Cho was with Fleur, Harry hadn't a clue because he thought the Ravenclaw Seeker was going with Cedric. After them, it was Krum and…and…
"Hermione?!" Harry says shocked as the rest of the champions and their dates all turned to look at Harry's outburst, if it wasn't for her scent Harry wouldn't have noticed her at all, for the bushy hair bookworm had somehow tamed her hair in something straight and elegant that was tied and twisted on itself, dressed in a Periwinkle dress she turns to him with a mischievous smile as McGonagall tells them to wait there as she goes and checks if everyone was ready.
"Hey Harry, Daphne, surprise?" she says with a laugh as Harry slowly turns his head to Krum before narrowing his eyes, he was going to have words with the Durmstrang champion before the end of the night.
"And here I was thinking I landed the best date for the ball," Daphne says, returning the smile before turning to Harry who was glaring at the back of Krum's head, "Hmm, no, I still think I got the best one," she says before kissing Harry on the cheek drawing his attention back to her.
"What?" Harry asks, confused and blushing before hearing the high laugh Fleur coming near the front, he turns to look past Hermione and sees the half-fae looking over her shoulder at Harry, her smile wide and sharp, she was dressed in what looked to be a classical French Musketeer outfit of whites, powder blue and trimmed with gold, she had replaced her sword with what looked like a satchel of some kind.
"Lookeng sharp lit-tell harry, a shame yur not as sharp as yur drez, non?" Fleur says with a grin as she eyes Harry and Daphne up and down as if she was considering something, but before Harry could snap back at her, Daphne beats him to it.
"Hey, harlot, how about you keep your mouth shut and focus on doing what you do best with it instead of opening it, because I can still smell Cedric on your breath," Daphne tells Fleur with a glare as one-half of the Weasley twins throws his head back and barks out a laugh as Angelina snorts, Hermione blushes but looks to trying not to laugh, Krum looking like he was biting the inside of his cheek as Fleur just gaps at Daphne as Cho looks like she wants to be anywhere but where she was.
Fleur's smile turns gleefully vicious, "Oh, you're aré quik un and feeestay, ai can see why 'e likes you, do tell me if you cullair zat beast een 'im befaire la second task maibe we can 'ave zat bloody time wiv hair een between," she says before turning to Harry "'mm, lit-téll Harry?"
Harry just grinds his teeth and reminds himself he's in public so he couldn't kill the Half-Fae a few feet away, but thankfully before anyone could say another thing, McGonagall comes back and starts to lead them into the Great Hall, sending the couples in one set as a time as The Headmaster announces them as they walk in.
"Representing Hogwarts, Miss Angelina Johnson with her date, Mister Fred Weasley!" Dumbledore says to the thunderous Applause of the school, and the sound echoes down the hall, causing Harry to close his eyes and bite his cheek at the sound.
"Representing Beauxbatons Academy, Ridire-Earradh Fleur Delacour and her date, Miss Cho Chang!" more applause sounded off from the Beauxbatons and Ravenclaws in attendance, Harry starts to clench and unclench his hands.
"Representing Durmstrang Institute, Mister Victor Krum and his date, Miss Hermione Granger!" The applause breaks out once more as the couple walks in, and Harry's stomach is in knots.
"Is it too late to run?" He thinks to himself, but as he tries to step away, he's stopped by Daphne's death grip on his arm, "Yup, way too late now," he thinks to himself.
"And last, but never least, Representing the Hunters of Artemis, Mister Harry Potter, and his date, Miss Daphne Greengrass!" The applause was like drums in Harry's head as he and Daphne walked into the great hall, with everyone looking at him with either smiles or glares. All Harry wanted to do was go back to the common room in the tower and stay there for the rest of the night. But with Daphne by his side he walked stiffly and quickly to the tables looking at the floor so he didn't have to see all the people as the pounding headache he was coming finally bloomed behind his eyes.
Daphne leads him over to the tables quickly, and he takes a seat without looking up until he hears a familiar voice, "All right there, Harry?" ask him, Harry's head snaps up to see Sirius smiling next to him.
"Sirius?" Harry asks, sounding baffled, "How did you get invited to the ball?" he asks both shocked and relieved.
"Well, if you must know, I worked my charm on the Lieutenant here," Sirius says with a smirk while gesturing to Zoë with a smirk who was sitting next to him at one of the many round tables set up in the Great Hall, Zoë turns to glare at him, and Sirius quickly adds, "And that worked just as well as you think it would have, so I turned to my better nature as Padfoot and begged like a dog at a table for scraps," he says with a forced smile at Zoë, who snorts at his response.
Harry looks around at the surrounding tables, it seemed like each school has gotten its own, he could see Madame Maxime with Fleur, Cho, Cedric, and Gabriella(Who smiles and waved at him, Harry awkwardly returns the gesture still not sure how he felt about the tiny half-fae), Krum and Hermione were sitting with Delphini(who looked like she wanted to be ANYWHERE but there) and some Slytherin bloke who was giving Hermione a funny look as he was trying to talk to Krum who was ignoring him for the most part, and finally, Kakaroff who was outright glaring at Hermione(Harry thinks of how fast he could jump the table and kill the headmaster if the need arrives), Angelina and Fred was sitting with the Headmaster, Bagman, and Crouch who was glaring at Sirius(and once again murder entered Harry's mind), but it was just Him, Sirius, Zoë, and Daphne sitting at their own table.
Soon enough Dumbledore demonstrated how to order food, both Harry and Zoë ordered the steak and baked potato as rare as they could, and Daphne looked on a bit weirded out by how bloody the two ate it, as Sirius just shook his head with a smile and dug into his pork chops.
Before long the meal ended and Dumbledore stood up and walked over to a small stage set up where the high table once stood before pointing his wand at his throat, "Ladies and Gentleman, may I have your attention for a moment please," he says before pausing for a moment till all eyes were gathered on him, "Thank you kindly, in a few moments we will be moving on to the dance itself, I would like to kindly ask you all to stand so I may make room for the dance floor, but with that said, we will be opening the night with the traditional Champion Waltz, but do not fear, for as the night progresses it will become modern and shall we say Hip?" he says with a chuckle.
"But before that, please allow me to introduce tonight's entertainment," Dumbledore says with a pause, just before a grin appears on his face, "The Weird Sisters!" and with that, eight men with artfully ripped black robes appeared on stage in a burst of multicolor smoke to the cheers of the crowd. Then with a flick of his wand, the Headmaster cleared the dance floor as the band set up, The Champions moved onto it, Daphne dragging Harry along, he sighs before standing in position and putting his hand on Daphne's waist(The Hunt growling with want in his head and clasping her hand just before the slow Waltz begins to play and all four Champions and their dates begin to dance.
Slowly, pair by pair, other couples begin to join them, first The Headmaster and McGonagall, then Theodore and Tracey, Hagrid and Madame Maxine, Delphini and the Slytherin guy(She looked to be stepping on his feet purposely, smiling the whole time), out the corner of his eyes he was able to see Kakaroff try and approach Zoë, who was dressed to kill in a pure white toga that had a silver lining and what looked to be real diamonds in the pattern of stars on it, and offered her his hand. But before Zoë could say a thing, Sirius accepted it and pulled the shocked Headmaster onto the dance floor leading him in a forced waltz with a grin before Kakaroff pushed the cackling Sirius off of him and stormed away. Sirius walks back over to Zoë with a grin, as the Hunter just shakes her head with a smile.
Soon enough, the Waltz died down to the cheer of the crowd, as the lead singer approaches the magic mic stand, "Thank you, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, me and the boys can't tell you how happy and honored we are to be here tonight playing for you all, and to be back in Hogwarts," the young looking man says, pausing so the students of the school could cheer for a moment before raising his hand to calm everyone down, "Now the next song is gonna before all the couples in the house tonight, and for that, we invited a personal friend of the group to come help with the next song, please everyone, put your hands together for Ana Weyward!" the man says as the doors to the Great Hall open once more.
"Do you mind?" Daphne asks, causing Harry to look down at her, "One more dance before we take a seat?" she asks him, and Harry shrugs as he gets back into the waltz's stance before Daphne chuckles, "No, Harry, this is gonna be a slow dance, like this," she says as she steps closer wrapping both Harry's arms around her hips, before looping hers around his neck. As the slow jazzy tone kicks up, he and Daphne begin to sway to and fro, a smile tugging at both their lips as Harry looks into her purple eyes, and it felt like the Great Hall fell away as they danced.
"I put a spell on you,~" a woman's deep voice begins to sing,
"And now you're mine, ~" it was rich and lovely, like melted chocolate or velvet sheets,
"You can't stop the things we do, I ain't lyin'" it was almost hypnotic to Harry as he swayed and smile with only Daphne in his eyes,
"It's been two thousand years, Right down to the day, ~" and it sounded very, very, familiar to Harry, "Now the witches are back, and there's hell to pay,~" Harry finally breaks eye contact with Daphne and looks up at the stage, and his blood freezes in his veins at who he sees.
"And Now! You're!" She had longer hair this time that fell down and around her shoulders in black curls, and a red dress that hugged her curves and spilled across the floor like a pool of blood with a deep V-neck that showed off a little too much by school standards. But it did show off the tattoos she had, spider webs and strings up one arm, swords, wands, cups, and pentacles down another.
Vivid and burning Emerald green eyes bore right into Harry's, as Anand stood on the stage singing for all the schools to hear her, "Mine!" She says low and slow before the music slowly starts to pick up as she smiles right at Harry.
Remus Lupin, 12 Grimmauld Place.
Remus sighs as he close's the thick tome that once belonged to Amaranthus Black before rubbing his eyes, he had been reading for the last six hours straight and was due for a break. He was looking for something that he didn't know he needed, he was looking for a way to contact Cernunnos, the King of the Wild Hunt. Ever since Lady Nightshade had told him away to remove his curse he was going through the Black Family Library with increasing fervor looking for something he had no idea he was looking for.
Remus sighs before placing the book aside and standing, intent on making himself another cuppa and resting his eyes for a bit, and makes his way toward the kitchen when he is stopped by a sound.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The sound of wood knocking on wood.
Remus' brow furs in confusion, he wasn't expecting anyone nor did Sirius say anyone was coming by, so with old habits, Lupin's wand slips into his hand as he walks slowly to the front door.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
Someone wraps on the door again before Remus unlatches the front and opens it, his eyes narrowing at the sight in front of him. For in the soft glow of the street lamps light that reflects off the fresh snow on the ground was the form of a hunched-over old man with a long gray beard dressed in a cloak and hood leaning on a walking stick, the man looks up at Remus with a single eye of the deepest dark blue for the other one was covered in an eye patch.
"Excuse me, young man," he says to Remus, "But would you permit an old wandering vagrant to warm his ancient bones by your fire for a while?" The old man says with a smile.
Chapter Done!
I had originally planned for one big chapter but in the end, decided to break it down into multiple chapters.
Before anyone says anything, I didn't originally plan for Anand to be at the Yule Ball but with the weird sisters showing up it just felt right to put one of the triple goddesses' in the chapter, she's not there to cause trouble or anything of the like, let's just say she showed up at an opportune time to ruin another goddess' fun.
Harry didn't spill the beans about Narcissa because he didn't see the point in it, though Zoë caught on that something was up however.
And why yes, that wand is going to be important later on, why do you ask?
But in the next chapter, we get to have our sit down with all the champions and learn a few fun things about them.
Until then,
Kingsaxcul, Out!
