The next few days were spent in the company of Tracey and Daphne, planning our upcoming ball on Saturday. It was rather sooner than we had thought, but it was proving to be somewhat of a success already. We decided to spread the news by word of mouth only, and to our surprise, we found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of Slytherins the following days asking us questions about the dresscode.
"Dress as formally as you can. We shall provide the masks," we would tell them. It was mostly girls showing their enthusiasm for the ball, but we told ourselves that a ball full of girls would probably be more fun anyway.
We had even reached a point where we'd forget the original point of the ball: to encourage Wyatt and Pansy to dance together and fall in love (without any potion-bribing on my part, this time).
And so, with great anticipation from us and many of our fellow Slytherins, the Winter Farewell Masquerade Ball arrived. Some very kind sixth year students agreed to cast a silencing charm around the common room so that Snape would not hear us celebrating. Other older students even offered to lead some of their own activities during the ball. Evidently, we said yes to all of those offers.
I was in the middle of setting up decorations around the fireplace, when a certain blonde prick came by, surely to berate me — although, oddly enough, my encounters with Malfoy these past few weeks had been nothing short of civilized and somewhat friendly, so perhaps he hadn't come to annoy me. Though I did not forget the last time he came to taunt me.
"What is all of this?" he asked, rather puzzled. Daphne was handing out the masks to students while Tracey was out in the kitchens to get food.
"We're hosting a ball," I said as if it were super obvious, which it was.
"A ball?"
"Yes, a ball. Is that a problem?"
"Why in Salazar's name would you do that?" He was as disgusted as he was confused.
"Because it's fun. Don't you like dancing?"
"Not particularly, no," he scoffed. I rolled my eyes.
"Well, then, you're welcomed not to show up," I said with a shrug. With one last wave of my wand, I hung the last ice garland above the fireplace. I stood back and admired my work.
"No, I'll be there," he said, as if offended that I'd even suggest otherwise.
"Lovely," I deadpanned. "Make sure to pick up a mask on your way out. It's a masquerade ball. We begin after supper, though we are bringing food refreshments, so really you could skip supper."
Malfoy grunted a low, "hmmf," before swaggering off to Daphne. I shook my head at him from afar, though he likely couldn't see me. For some reason, I hadn't considered the possibility of him attending our ball, despite him being in Slytherin and all Slytherins being invited.
At last, our ball begun. Gradually, at least. A lot of boys were allergic to attending, it seemed, which shouldn't have come as a surprise, but it did. There were lots of girls attending, as in, all of the girls in Slytherin house were there.
Most people weren't wearing terribly fancy attires as none of us had access to our wardrobe at home, but it was still amazing to see how formal and chic Slytherins could dress on such short notice. It was a breath of fresh air when compared to how we typically dressed at every other function.
Daphne, having been more shrewd than Tracey and I, actually came prepared in the clothing department. She had, apparently during the winter break, packed a varied selection of gowns in case we actually went through with the ball. I felt quite inadequately dressed in my simple black long-sleeved dress next to Daphne's magnificient silk dress, but it was simply the most formal item of clothing I could find in my luggage. Tracey, on the other hand, was fortunate enough to fit into one of the extra gowns Daphne had packed. The two stood out like diamonds, and I could only applaud them for it.
No one cared for the attires as much as they cared for the masks, however. Some very clever seventh year students offered their wands to enchant all the masks so that we could not take them off until the clock striked midnight. Of course, it became rather obvious who you were speaking to once you heard their voice, but it was still very much entertaining to look around the common room and not have much of a clue as to who was who.
Classical music played, and dancing ensued. I spent the first quarter of eight O'clock by the snacks table, eating whatever I wanted. Daphne was off dancing with Tracey, while more and more students joined. The masks were distributed before the ball, so it really was difficult to tell who was who unless you spoke to them directly, and even then, sometimes it was hard to tell when it came to acquaintances.
"Maeve!" someone said to my right. Apart from his voice, his bright red hair protuding from the top of his mask made his identity quite obvious.
"Isaiah?" I tried. His mask, as did all the others, covered the top half of his face, revealing only his lips, chin, and eyes. He nodded enthusiastically at my guess. "How did you know it was me?"
"Your hair," he said.
"Oh. Right. We both have rather unique hair in this school," I said, realizing I wouldn't be as anonymous as I thought I would be. Not many people in this school, nevermind in Slytherin, shared my hair texture and style.
"Amirah's here," he said. I blinked, looking behind him. The bastard had somehow sneaked our Ravenclaw friend into this Slytherin party.
"Hi," she said.
"Clever," I said. No one would know any better seeing as we could barely tell who was who any way. "But isn't it dangerous for her to return to her common room at midnight, what with Sirius Black out there and all?"
"Don't worry about it. I've got it all figured out with Wyatt," Isaiah said. Perking an eyebrow up (which he couldn't even see under my mask, but you know, I did it unconsciously), I wondered how these two would manage to sneak Amirah out with the prefects guarding the common room entrance after they took attendance, unless—
"Is she going to sleep in here?" I queried.
"Er — Oh, no, no, er, don't worry, Maeve — Let's, erm — just focus on what a great ball this is. You and your friends did a fantastic job. Rather impressive for third-year students." I knew he was just trying to change the subject, but I figured his business with Amirah was none of mine.
"We had a lot of help from older students," I admitted. "But thank you for giving me so much credit."
"Seems like everyone is having a lot of fun," Amirah piped up as all three of us looked over at all the Slytherins swaying, dancing and chatting all over.
"Well, good. The fun's only just begun," I said. When they both looked at me (I could only assume they had inquisitive looks under those masks with that silence gaze of theirs), I elaborated, "Some older students came up with some fun activities for the night. Even I don't know what they are yet."
"Attention to all!" As if on cue, a female student called for everyone's attention. Students quieted down and looked up at the girl who was now standing on a coffee table by the fireplace. "We have a very exciting activity for you all."
Another female student stepped onto the coffee table to elevate herself. "It's a match-making activity!" she added enthusiastically.
"Now, please, don't be a bore, make two lines over here. Girls here and boys there."
"What if you're a girl who likes girls?" Amirah whispered to Isaiah and I. Before Isaiah or I could ask if she meant herself, we were being separated and pushed around by students rushing over to the lines.
After a little bit of chaos and confusion, the two lines were made. In an unexpected turn of events, the boys' line was just as long as the girls' line. I supposed they just liked to join parties fashionably late? Or perhaps the older students had went knocking door to door and bribed all the missing boys to join the party for their match-making activity to work better. I did sense a lack of enthusiasm coming from the boys' side, so that must've been what happened.
"Now, we shall randomly pair you up with someone, and you will have to dance and get to know each other very well because you will be partners for the next activities!"
The expressions of excitement from the girls' side drowned out the groans of annoyance from the boys' side. Why did it have to be gendered anyway? I'd much rather be paired with a girl if that was how the boys felt about participating. The last thing I wanted was to be paired up with somebody who did not even want to be here.
When it was finally my turn, one of the older students guided me to another male student only a few inches taller than me. His platinum blonde hair was slicked back, and upon approaching him, I realized he had grey eyes under his mask. His lips curved upwards upon noticing me.
"Oh," I said, immediately realizing who it was.
"Disappointed?" he asked rather smugly.
"That's one way to put it," I replied, only semi-serious.
Draco Malfoy scoffed, approaching me even more. He grabbed my wrists, and I panicked.
I briskly pulled away, and hissed, "What are you doing?" my eyes wide from confusion. I was thankful he couldn't see my flushed cheeks under my mask.
"We're supposed to dance. Look at every other pair," he said, pointing around us as if it were painfully obvious. And sure enough, it was painfully obvious. As soon as people got paired up, they'd begin dancing to the music playing.
"I—" Amidst my panic, Malfoy grabbed my wrists again, placing them on his shoulders. He placed his hands around my waist, and my stomach churned uncomfortable as my meal threatened to push out of my mouth, but not in the same way that it did when I had to dance with Flint. This felt different. While Flint made me feel digusted and sick, Malfoy made me feel... nervous.
"Well? I can't be the only one dancing," he urged, moving his body around me. I was standing still, trying to process what was happening.
"Yeah," was all I managed to say before I followed his steps and danced with him.
Oh, God. I was dancing with Malfoy.
I couldn't look at him as we danced. We were too close for comfort. I could even smell his cologne — why the hell was he wearing cologne anyway? And it smelled of green apples? Odd choice of cologne. Or maybe he simply ate so many green apples the scent permanently got attached to him.
Merlin, I could not be thinking about what Malfoy smelled like right now. I could not be dancing with him right now. I—
"OW!" he yelped ubruptly, and I yanked my hands away from him. "That was my foot!"
I just stared at him blankly, not knowing what to say. I wanted to say I was sorry, but my throat was tight and nothing was coming out. His gaze softened.
"It's okay, Blackwood. Just be careful," he said, approaching me again. I took a step back.
"I'm thirsty," I declared. Even with a mask on, I could tell he didn't believe me. "I am. I'm going to drink something, now."
He didn't stop me. My heart raced as I rushed past him and reached the refreshments table. Without much thought, I grabbed a cup and served myself some fresh punch. I was gulping the drink down when someone approached me at the table.
"You okay there, Blackwood?" he asked. I was relieved to see that it wasn't Malfoy. His voice was a lot different, and I pleasantly recognized him through the mask as—
"James!" I said, peering behind me to see if Malfoy was staring, and sure enough, he was. He stood at the middle of the dancefloor, arms crossed as he waited for me. I tried not to gulp too loudly.
"Everything okay?" James asked.
"Yes — do you have a partner?" I found myself asking without thinking.
"Er — I do—"
"Mind switching with mine?" I asked immediately. James blinked.
"What's wrong? Did something happen with your partner?"
I wanted to lie. My first instinct was to lie, but I knew I shouldn't. Lying to James only complicated things, and it was entirely unnecessary.
"Get ready, everyone!" A voice called. We all hushed as we recognized it to be the voice of one of the older female students from earlier. "Our first task will begin soon!"
A buzz of anticipation washed through the room as everyone whispered to each other. Even the previously unenthusiastic boys were intrigued now.
"I better get back to Amirah," James said.
"You're paired up with Amirah?" I asked, realizing I did not want Malfoy to pair up with her, nor did I want James to pair up with Malfoy, either.
"Yeah, did you still want to switch partners?"
"No, it's all good. Have fun," I said quickly before we had to part ways. The leaders of the activity were gathering at the front, and students were crowding around them to hear instructions.
"There you are," Malfoy huffed when I begrudgingly returned to him.
"Our first task, in remembrance of winter, will be a snowflake creation contest! In your pairs you have to come up with the most creative way to conjure up snowflakes! You will have five minutes before you must present your act. Those who fail to conjure a snowflake will be disqualified from the contest. And I promise you, you will want to stick around for the final prize! And before you ask, yes, it is a surprise."
Immediately, the Slytherins buzzed with newfound excitement as they got back into their pairs. I thought the contest was rather unfair as, obviously, older students would know how to conjure snowflakes while us younger students mostly did not.
"Please tell me you know how to conjure a snowflake," I said to Malfoy. He smirked without a beat.
"Of course I do," he said, crossing his arms smugly at me.
"Great. A little demonstration would be nice," I said, waving my hand at him to urge him to launch his spell.
He kept his arms crossed at me and shook his head. "No. I don't think that would be necessary. You shall see in a few minutes time with everyone else."
I frowned, although he could not see it very well with my mask covering half my face. "Oh, come on. At least, tell me what the spell is."
"No," he said simply after careful consideration. It was as if keeping this information from me gave him such a great amount of joy that he refused let go of it. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him.
"Fine, be mysterious, or whatever."
He snickered. "You're so dramatic, Blackwood. Honestly, you should consider theatre."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny, Malfoy," I said sarcastically. "And have you ever considered shutting the hell up?"
He broke into laughter. "Oh, I have. But I would much rather torment you. Much more enjoyable."
I refused to give him the satisfaction of an answer, so instead I turned my gaze over to the other pairs. Most students seemed to know how to conjure snowflakes. There were a few students practicing at the moment, while others were standing by idly like Malfoy and I, perhaps being confident in their skills, or being clueless as to how to cast snowflakes, nevermind one.
"Looking for Lancaster?" Malfoy shot. I lazily returned my gaze to him.
"No. I'm just looking to see how the other pairs are doing," I told him. He looked at me like he didn't believe me so I added, "My life does not revolve around James Lancaster, Malfoy."
"Oh, I'm sure you think that," Malfoy replied bitterly.
I paused. He eyed me dubiously.
"You fancy me," I said wildly, in utter realization. "Merlin, Daphne was right. You do fancy me. Why else would you care so much about my friendship with James?"
"What are you even yapping about, Blackwood?"
"You like me. You fancy me," I repeated boldly.
"You are so full of yourself, Blackwood," Malfoy scoffed, affronted. "Why in Salazar's name would I fancy you?"
Whatever derisive explanation Malfoy had for me, he did not get to speak it as the leaders called for everyone's attention, again.
"Gather 'round! Gather 'round!" They called. With haste, everyone quieted down and gathered around to listen to the next instructions. "Let's go one by one, starting with this team here. Show us what you've prepared."
That was Daphne's team! She was paired up with a brown-haired boy I didn't recognize — with the mask on, at least. Their demonstration went rather quickly as neither of them knew how to conjure a snowflake. Visibly disappointed, the activity leaders went on to the next group.
The next few groups did in fact succeed in conjuring snowflakes. One group conjured a single snowflake, which meant they technically were not disqualified, but the leaders were definitely not impressed.
At last, it was Malfoy and I's turn. I crossed my arms and looked at Malfoy expectantly, seeing as he was the one who knew the spell. Sure, I could try to recreate what the other teams did based on the words of encantation, but I highly doubted that I could do it successfully on the first try.
Malfoy flashed me a cocky smirk before pulling out his wand and pointing it at me. I barely had time to react before he cast the spell, conjuring a gush of wind made of snowflakes, pushing me off my feet.
A few people laughed as I landed unceremoniously on my bottom and then on my elbows, frowning at the blonde git in front of me. Malfoy crossed his arms and smirked over me. Rolling my eyes, I got on my feet and sweeped the snowflakes off my sleeves.
"Okay, well that was... something," one of the leaders said after clearing her throat awkwardly. "Anyway, onto the next pair."
While most Slytherins turned their attention to the next group, I focused mine on the idiot who was grinning arrogantly at me.
"What the bloody hell was that for?!" I hissed at him, nudging him in the rib as we both looked over to the next groups presenting their snowflakes.
"What? I thought you liked pranks," he said innocently.
"You're a prick. You know that, right?"
"Only to you," he replied smugly. I rolled my eyes dramatically at him as I always seemed to do when he was around.
"Fuck off, Malfoy," I said.
He snickered. It took all of my willpower not to punch him square in the face — not wanting to ruin the mask being my only reason to not strike him.
"Language, Blackwood," he said as if it mattered.
"You know, Malfoy, if all you want to do is torment me, you could at least wait until after the dance. I'm trying to enjoy myself here."
"So am I. It just so happens that seeing you suffer is quite enjoyable."
"Well, I suppose I feel the same about you," I said as-matter-of-factly.
"All the more fun."
I tried to hold myself back from laughing, not wanting him to think that I thought he was funny, but I failed and ended up snorting instead. I wanted to cover myself by saying something witty, but I didn't even get to think about what to say before the leaders announced the next activity.
"For this next activity, you really have to know your partner. We will give you five minutes to prepare as much as you can for this a true-or-false activity. We will ask you true-or-false questions about your partner and you both must cast the same colour to indicate your answer. A red light means false and a green light means true. The spells are lumos rubra for red and lumos viridis for green."
Malfoy raised his eyebrows at me curiously as if to say he was intrigued by this activity. I wanted to ignored him, but I couldn't help but return the raised eyebrows with a shrug. This activity was intriguing. Despite not technically being friends with Malfoy anymore, we did grow up together, so I would be surprised if I missed many of those questions — unless he was the one being tested about me. In that case, we would see if he ever payed attention to me.
"During those five minutes, choose which partner the true-or-false questions will be about. Have fun preparing!"
Immediately the Slytherin common room rumbled with excitement and anticipation as pairs fired questions at each other in rapid motion, hoping to learn everything that was important about them.
"We could just agree to always answer false and win that way," I pointed out to Malfoy. It wouldn't have surprised me if other pairs had thought of this. "Or do true-true-false-false in a loop so it doesn't look suspicious."
"Didn't take you for a cheater, Blackwood," Malfoy drawled. "But then again, you did cheat your way into the quidditch team — speaking of which, what happened to that? You stopped showing up to practice ages ago."
"Frankly, I was trying to avoid you," I said, surprising myself with my honesty. Malfoy huffed a laugh of disbelief.
"And what happened to that? You're not exactly avoiding me anymore, are you?" he asked. There was something hopeful in his tone, but I tried not to think about that too much because it made me feel weird and like I was cruel for ever avoiding him.
"Well, I tried to switch partners with someone else earlier," I confessed nonchalantly. Malfoy laughed.
"You're so terrified of me. I rather think you're the one who fancies me," he said, a touch of arrogance to his tone. I knew he was only saying this because I accused him of fancying me earlier. There was no way he genuinely believed that I liked him that way.
"More like I despise you," I correctly snidely.
"You despise me? Really?" he asked, as if he did not quite believe it. The truth was, I did not quite believe it myself, either.
"Perhaps," I said simply.
"What the does that even mean?" he queried.
"It means," I said, stalling for time because I did not know what to tell him. "That... I... don't know."
Shame! How could I have not come up with something better.
He smirked. "You're obsessed with me."
"That's so lame, Malfoy. Just because I accused you of liking me doesn't mean it makes you clever to accuse me too."
"I'm not trying to be clever. I'm just pointing out the obvious," he said with an innocent shrug. I feigned a smile.
"I don't fancy you, Malfoy."
"Yet you don't despise me," he countered.
"That doesn't mean I like you, either."
"People usually love me or hate me. There's rarely ever an in-between, Blackwood. Besides, you're better off not despising me. I would just keep making your life miserable if you do."
"That's messed up, Malfoy."
"Indeed."
"You're doing on purpose, aren't you? You want me to think that if I'm not your friend, I'm your enemy."
"Precisely."
"You're childish," I said.
"You're boring," he replied with a fake yawn.
"You're mental," I countered.
"You fancy me—"
"No, you do—"
"Time's up! Gather around, everyone!" At last, the leaders called for the second activity to start.
All I could feel was a ball in my throat as my conversation with Malfoy kept replaying in my head. What was that? He was being somewhat nice to me, despite that spell he cast at me, which was odd because just a few weeks ago, he was taunting me about rumours regarding James' father.
And what was going on with me? Why was I unable to tell him that I really did despise him? My feelings were a vortex of confusion, and I wasn't in the right state of mind to dissect them.
"We shall begin the true-or-false activity imminently. Get ready!"
I wasn't ready.