Chapter 171: Yule Ball: The Start (1/2)
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The link is also in the synopsis.
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The Ravenclaw common room looked strange, full of people wearing different colors instead of the usual mass of black. School robes could only be customized so much; as such, party robes and dresses showed each student's unique charm.
Terry Boot looked Eddie from top-down and spoke in an unconvinced tone, ”I still can't work out how you got one of the best-looking girls in the year.”
Eddie put his hands into the pant pockets and answered suavely, ”Animal magnetism.”
Marcus, who was talking to Michael Corner, turned and scoffed, ”More like a bashful request.”
Marcus felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to see his lovely date standing behind him. Luna Lovegood looked very pretty indeed, in robes of shocking yellow, with her blonde plait braided with white flowers, white ribbons wrapped prettily around her hands, and silver satin gloves gracing her hands. She was glowing.
”You look pretty.”
”Thank you. You are looking pretty as well.”
Marcus reached into his robes and pulled out a wrist corsage with three white roses and numerous faux-pearls. ”This is for you. I thought it would look good with your dress.”
Luna presented her wrist. Marcus understood it immediately and gently clipped it around her wrist.
The girl looked at her wrist for seconds, raised it near her face to take in the scent of roses preserved with a special potion to keep the freshness and enhance the fragrance. She looked up at Marcus with a smile in her dreamy eyes.
”Thank you, it's beautiful.”
”I think it's you who makes it look even more beautiful.”
By the side, Eddie, Terry, and Michael stared at the scene between the two.
Eddie clicked his tongue and commented, ”Normally, he doesn't speak much but now look, he's spouting flowers out of his mouth.”
”Did you bring something like that?” asked Terry.
Michael shook his head, ”He's making us look bad.”
Marcus and Luna joined the boys, with Luna asking, ”I don't see Quinn, where's he?”
Eddie pointed towards a corner of the common room. Everyone looked towards the corner to see Quinn surrounded by a horde of Ravenclaw girls, all giggling while Quinn smiled all the way while talking with them.
”What's he doing there?” inquired Luna.
”Don't know; they were suddenly all over him,” replied Eddie shrugging.
Eventually, the crowd of giggling girls dissipated, with Quinn waving them all off while making his towards them.
”Luna! Now, don't you look pretty,” said Quinn with a beaming smile on his face. He looked at the guys and nodded, ”Looking good, fellas, ready to party hard?”
”Do you have an after-party planned?” asked Michael.
Quinn shook his head, ”No, I was a bit too busy to organize an after-party, but I can get you inside the Weasley twin's after-party; you'll just have to pay a reasonable token entry fee.”
”Why don't we know about this party? How do you know that?”
”It's a very exclusive thing; they don't want just anyone to come in, but if you take my name, they'll let you in. It will be even better if you guys take your dates with you; a better gender ratio always helps.”
Quinn's name held weight in the Weasley twins' world. He had a long history of cooperation with them, plus he was their future angel investor for their business.
”We should get going,” said Quinn, checking his pocket watch, looking pretty happy about using it.
The entrance hall was packed with students, too, all milling around waiting for eight o'clock when the doors to the Great Hall would be thrown open. Those people who were meeting partners from different Houses were edging through the crowd, trying to find one another.
Tracey arrived the same time they did and called out to Eddie when in earshot. The slightly nervous boy turned to be stunned out of his mind as Tracey Davis, his date, walked towards him in a dress of royal blue and turquoise; she had tied her hair in a messy bun with an ornate glass hair stick.
”Hi,” she said.
”H-Hi,” that was all Eddie could get out.
Quinn leaned to mutter into Marcus' ear, ”It's so entertaining to see him like this. He's usually all attack; I knew he'd be weak to attacks.”
”I don't think Tracey has done anything, though I see what attack you're talking about.”
”I know, imagine if she did go on attack,” cackled Quinn, ”if Tracey wanted, she could have him wrapped around her finger by the end of the day.”
A group of Slytherins came up the steps from the dungeons. Malfoy was in front; he was wearing dress robes of black velvet with a high collar, which made him look like a vicar in Quinn's opinion. Pansy Parkinson, in very frilly robes of pale pink, was clutching Malfoy's arm. Crabbe and Goyle were both wearing green; they resembled moss-colored boulders, and neither of them, Quinn wasn't surprised to see, had managed to find a partner.
Next came the group of Gryffindors with Harry Potter and his date in the lead.
”Holy moly! Is that Hermione Granger,” gawked Eddie as he saw the pretty girl dressed in periwinkle robes.
”You can say that again,” said Tracey in agreement, ”it's like she's another person. What happened to her? What kind of magic is that.”
”Meh, spoke Quinn, ”it's a simple work of change of clothes and hairdo with some glamor charms accentuating everything. Hermione Granger was always pretty; she simply needed a little makeover to show that. Even without all of what we're seeing and some minute changes, she would attract eyes.”
The Ravenclaw group looked at Quinn with varying gazes and expressions.
Quinn stared back at them. ”What? You know me, look at me, I like to dress well. I know that kind of stuff.”
”What about her then?” asked Terry Boot, his eyes stuck one person in the Gryffindor group.
Walking just behind her brother and best friend was Ivy Potter. The Potter princess was dressed in a flowing red dress long enough to float just above the ground. Her usually straight hair was lightly styled into waves, flowing down her back and brilliant green earrings matching her eyes.
Everything from her dress, hair, looks, the way she held herself looked like a fire goddess.
”Yeah, I see it now. Why so many people asked her out,” spoke Michael Corner.
”She's very pretty,” spoke Luna; it was also the first thing ever she had said to Ivy Potter when she delivered Quinn's letter to Hermione Granger.
While everyone was looking at Ivy Potter, Eddie was looking somewhere else; redheads weren't his types. But what he was seeing was totally in his range. He raised his hands and reached around to find Quinn's shoulder and then face.
”What are you doing, man?!” asked Quinn, swatting the offending hand away.
”Look what you missed.”
”What?”
Quinn looked to where Eddie was looking and stilled as his eyes caught what Eddie was seeing.
The oak front doors were opened. Outside, he saw an area of lawn right in castle's front had been transformed into a sort of grotto full of fairy lights — meaning hundreds of actual living fairies were sitting in the rosebushes that had been conjured there and fluttering over the statues of what seemed to be Father Christmas and his reindeer.
Everyone turned to look as the Durmstrang students entered with Professor Karkaroff. Krum was at the front of the party, accompanied by his date in shimmering midnight black robes.
”You're totally missing out, mate; a Veela as a date better be worth it.”
It was Daphne. Be it her blonde hair, blue eyes, or her black dress, everything was what you would call perfect, in tune with each other, creating a sort of harmony that would be absolutely stunning if put into words.
A lot of girls gazed at Daphne in unflattering disbelief. When the doors to the Great Hall opened, Krum's fan club stalked past, throwing Daphne looks of most profound loathing. Pansy Parkinson gaped at her as she walked by with Malfoy, and even he didn't seem to be able to find an insult to throw at her.
Tracey turned her gaze to Quinn and stared at his face. ”Yeah, this is what I imagined. He is making the exact expression I thought he would make. Well, he's missing the dropped jaw.”
”Oh yeah, no, he did just fine,” Eddie spoke up, ”it was a fair trade— yup, he left a diamond mine, in return, he got a platinum lode.”
Once again, the crowd in the entrance hall buzzed with activity.
It was as if an angel had descended down on Hogwarts.
The Beauxbatons students were all very handsome and beautiful, but she stood on another level even among those people.
Fleur Delacour's every step seemed to light up the Hall. She was dressed in a simple silver-gray satin dress; despite that, if asked, anyone in the school, they would, with high certainty, crown Fleur as the prettiest girl in the school today — by dressing in such a simple dress, it was as if Fleur was saying that she didn't have to dress up, she could do it — effortlessly.
”Alright, people, time for me to go join my date,” said Quinn with magic fixing his clothes, ”I'll see you inside in a bit; until then, I hope you enjoy your evening.”
”Look at him,” smirked Eddie, ”rearing to go to his date; he's a dawg.”