「011. honey's waltz」

TWAS THE night before christmas, and honey jordan looked like a ghost with a facemask on her face perched by the mirror, braiding extensions into her hair. (apologies it didn't rhyme- but honey's a bit manic right now).

she wore a ratty old weird-sister t-shirt (because, even if she wouldn't admit it, the fact the weird-sisters were performing tomorrow made her absolutely ecstatic). her arms burned from being held up to braid, and her neck felt a bit stiff- but the yule ball was a ball- by definition they had to look nice, or at least feel nice. doing her hair was both torture and a treat- and honey knew the outcome outweighed the strife of the process.

the girls around her were hurrying around too as they were viciously fighting for turns in the shower, which honey got first due to her vindictive nature and fantastic arguing skills (which means: she grabbed her towel, clothes, and walked in and shut the door and proceeded to have a shower because god knows how long her hair would take). vi had just walked out of the shower, towel around her hair as she flopped onto her bed and charmed one of freya's muggle facemasks her mum had sent her (which freya then generously shared out between the lot of them) and placed it on her face, squealing.

"why is it so cold?" shrieked vi.

"don't be such a baby, vi." honey replied, "they're so lovely."

"it smells like cucumber," mumbled vi.

"it says on the packet it's scented like that," freya pointed out, sitting cross-legged as she painted her nails.

"tomorrows christmas," hannah said matter-of-factly. "i can't wait for the music. the weird sisters!"

"i wo'mber b'ow m'nuch bumble'vore bad to bribe'em to p'ay here," honey mused as she began on another braid, comb in mouth- muffling her words slightly.

"honey, love. you're going to have to take the comb out of your mouth."

"hol'g it for m'ay!"

"what-?"

"hol'g it for m- thank you!" honey announced, nodding in thanks to vi who'd trotted over to take it out of her mouth and hold it for her. "i said- i wonder how much dumbledore had to bribe them to play here."

"probably half the schools funding," snorted vi. the two of them looked into the mirror together, "you're so good at braiding."

"my mum taught me," mumbled honey, gripping her hair a bit too tight. she frowned, but continued to braid, "it doesn't matter- she only taught me the basics. i learnt the rest from my nan."

"it still looks fantastic," nodded vi before she went back to flopping on her bed. "tomorrow's christmas."

"hannah said that already."

"right, but i'm repeating it."

"tomorrow's going to be such a mess, it'll be fantastic," snorted honey, "i bet you so many things will go wrong." she hummed a bit, "i am going with harry- by the way. i asked him." honey cut the flutter of excitement quickly as she turned around, nearly falling off the chair she was perched awkwardly on as she turned around, still braiding her hair, "shut up! anyways- knowing him, he'll stick to the sides of the ball room and then i'll be able to commit grand theft larceny of all of the food and drinks."

"you won't be at the sides for the whole of the ball," noted hannah, "you'll be dancing, of course."

"only with you lot- and that's going to be after the seventh years have drunk their stolen stashes of firewhiskey."

"well, you're going to have to open the dance, aren't you?"

honey froze, arms stiff, "no i am not- where did you hear that?"

"professor sprout forgot to tell us," freya explained, "or- she only explained to cedric. but i heard from cho chang- cedric's date- that every champion has to open the ball with a waltz."

"a waltz?" she hissed, "no- you're joking..." she looked around for the box where her dress was, "i haven't even tried on my dress yet! what if i can't dance in my dress?"

"you'll be able to- your cousin wouldn't have bought you a dress you can't dance in, would she?"

"suppose not..." muttered honey, finishing the last of her braids. she charmed a few bottles of hair products over and massaged them into her scalp. "what do i do, then? i can hardly waltz!"

"it's really not that hard," hannah replied, "my grandma- she taught me." she shot a grin at honey, "i'll teach you."

"i'm going to die of embarrassment," she muttered, absaloutely pained, "i can't do this- why did i ask him?"

"stop fussing," hannah replied, standing up, "you'll be fine- you know. here- i'll lead."

"you're shorter than me," she muttered.

"harry will want to lead," piped in vi, "it fulfilles lad's complexes."

"that's stupid," she snapped before sighing, "fine- i guess it's less pressure if we do it this way?"

"you'll want to practise with him before the ball too," added hannah as she walked towards honey. "you won't be coordinated otherwise."

"why the hell do you know all of this?"

"pureblood things," hannah and vi chimed.

"well, i'm half-blood," hannah added, "but... my nanna always wanted me to learn all the pureblood dances. now..." she grabbed honey's left arm and placed it on the left side of her shoulders. "you put your hand there, i put my hand here-" she placed her hand on the back of honey's waist. "and then we hold both our hands here-" she gripped honey's right hand. "now- if you stamp on my toes, i will teach you this incorrectly."

"you're a menace."

"now you will step back with your right," hannah replied, completely ignoring honey's insult as the brunette stepped forwards. honey, unsure if hannah's threat was real or not, stepped back with her right foot. "the waltz in the time of three- so if it helps, you can literally say: one, two, three, one, two, three and continue with that."

"this is totally helpful," muttered honey. "now what?"

"now you move your left foot sideways to your left whilst i do the same with my right."

"so you move your foot to the right?" honey asked as she moved hers to the left.

hannah nodded, "yes- now... you bring your right foot to your left whilst i do mine in the opposite way." honey did the steps slowly and rigidly (it was quite annoying to see hannah be able to do this was ease, actually) and "then you step forward with your left foot. and i step back with my right- and then go forward sideways with the right... then bring your left back to your right! see- we're doing it!"

"this is actual torture," muttered honey.

"now we'll do it again," hannah said, resiliently ignoring honey's complaints. "back with your right.. left foot slides to the left..."

hannah eventually trailed off because they were shakily beginning to do a proper waltz (and, at some point- freya and vi began a terrible tone-deaf rendition of some sort of waltz). the two of them moved back and forward, with honey clutching hannah's shoulder like it was the edge of cliff and she was hellbent determined not to fall.

by the end of it, honey was feeling a bit dizzy from all the turns (and the fact hannah had thrown in a twirl that she'd not been expecting) and dizzily sat back onto her bed.

"that was horrendous."

"this is just the basic stuff- box step, you'll be fine as long as you remember that. all pureblood children and most half-blood children know the waltz a bit. if you're stuck, you can always ask ron or something when you practise with harry."

"ron will have a fucking field day."

the morning of christmas day was honey going on a mission to deliver all her presents to her friends like a very tardy santa clause (minus the beard and add better hair).

she'd risen to presents at the bottom of her beed from hannah, vi and freya, and proceeded to climb out from her bed and grab the presents she'd hidden from hannah's prying eyes, bringing them out and grinning.

"merry christmas you lot."

"merry christmas!" they chorused back as the four of them proceeded to open their presents.

hannah's presents were the first to be opened. she'd gotten each of the girls something unique, gifting vi a astronomy book which, if you pressed on a certain part of the spine- would open up to be an accurate charmed version of the solar system where you were able to tap on each paper-made planet causing the spherical paper to unfold into information about the planet.

for freya, she bought dancing shoes that changed the patterns along the shoe depending on the dance you were doing along with glittering pearl earrings (which freya had squealed with delight at before trying the whole ensemble on and then promising to wear the earrings to the ball) and for honey-

"that is a lot of chocolate," vi assessed. "are you fuling her addiction?"

"perhaps," shrugged hannah as honey dug through to find a teddybear of a bee that was... moving. "that's herbert-"

"herbert?"

"i found a plushie bee, and charmed it. well, cedric helped a bit because i forced him to, but now it acts like a normal bee! it can even fly!"

herbert flew about thirty centimetres into the air before dropping down onto honey's bed, crawling over her lap. a bee, in hindsight, shouldn't have been this cute. but- it was quite cartoony, and very round shapes with brown blobs as legs and a smiley face instead of insect eyes.

"well, he can fly a bit." shrugged hannah, "but herbert's lovely, really."

"bless him," vi cooed as the plushie-bee herbert zoomed over to vi, landing at the edge of her bed, blinking. "he's quite cute, isn't he? like a little guard-dog."

"my presents next!" declared freya forcefully.

by the end of the gift-giving with her roomates, honey had enough chocolate to construct a life like model of peeves and a plushie-bee by the name of herbert who could not eat chocolate, but seemed to have a deep fascination for it (he'd coveted a bar for himself and was currently using it as a pillow) along with a few books about magical creatures (courtesy of vi) along with pointe shoes courtesy of freya that actually where her skin tone ("just in case you decide to pick it up again. i'll learn it just so we can do it together").

honey was now determined to find her cousins, brother and her friends in gryffindor and give them their presents (which is exactly what she did).

she went around hogwarts with a large bag of presents, walking around the grounds and climbing staircases.

she went to the beauxbaton carriage first- knocking on the door and waiting patiently.

a girl with ginger hair opened the door, took one look at honey still in her pyjamas, turned the other way and yelled, "YOUR ENGLISH IS HERE!"

"tell her to come in!"

"come. follow me," the girl said, turning back to honey and opening the door wider.

honey remembered when her cousins called the inside of their carriage something similar to a castle. now, looking at it, they might have been playing it down a bit because the inside was massive. honey could barely concentrate on the pretty ginger girl in front of her, leading her to her cousin, because the whole place was decorated with icicles and so much... blue.

now, at least, honey understood fleur's obsession with blue properly. icicles glittered with silver hung from the ceiling, trees with silver and periwinkle baubles dangled gracefully as cats and owls roamed the place- presumably pets of the beauxbaton students. it was almost like everything was twinkling- the airy and cloud-like inside of the carriage was almost fantastical.

"does beauxbaton look like this?" she asked the ginger girl.

the girl laughed, "this? no." oh. "this is very bad- beauxbaton is better. we rushed with decor."

honey didn't say anymore- because she just felt embarrassed about hogwarts.

after a few more scenic trips through cloud-like rooms and an actual indoor field of wildflowers, honey arrived at a door open slightly so she could hear the giggles and laughter of what she assumed were her cousins and their friends before they spoke in french to each other.

"your english!" called the ginger girl, opening it a bit more. "she's here!"

"fitz!"

"honey!"

"joyeux noël!" chorused the remaining people.

she lugged her bag of presents into the room and set it down before she was engulfed in a hug by fitz, who then let go a few seconds later and placed his hands on her shoulder before shaking her, "your hair! it looks amazing!"

"i did it last night," she grinned happily. then, she put her hands on her hips, "is it true you're going with george weasley to the ball?"

"i am," nodded fitz.

"any specific reasons?"

"not to be disclosed yet."

"hmph", she replied, "i'll take it."

then, she squatted down to take out the presents she'd wrapped. "now- i have presents for you all!" she rummaged before she picked up one, "fleur- that's for you!"

"me? a present?" fleur said, a bit alarmed, "why is it big? we only got you something simple- gabrielle and i."

"open it," she grinned.

"alright then," muttered fleur, taking the present before she carefully unfolded the wrapping (honey found out she was one of those people who did not know the joy of ripping the wrapping paper away from a present) before she gasped. "mon dieu!"

"d'you like it?"

"well- goodness..." she looked up at honey, holding up a bouquet of flowers, "des fleurs, really?"

"charmed them so they're everlasting." honey explained, "and they're the colour you're always raving about- blue." she rummaged through the bag again and then picked up another present, "and for you, gabrielle."

fleur frowned, "english." she sniffed, "it is lovely, though. i appreciate the chocolate."

gift-giving continued in that fashion, with gabrielle so absorbed in 'the tales of the beedle and the bard' which honey had gifted her, she'd forgotten to say thank you. she too had gotten a generous amount of chocolate as well. finally, she handed the last two presents to her cousins. for fitz, she'd bought a set of muggle art supplies (his latest fascination was in fact painting- he was getting good at still life, actually) as well as a small sketchbook bound with leather. for maeve, she'd bought her a necklace with a dainty blue pendant at the centre along with a few sugar quills and honeydukes chocolate.

after she'd received her own gifts (jewelerry, books, chocolate and much more) she'd bid her goodbyes and said her thanks- stomping off to the castle again, determined to give her final remaining presents to their owners.

gift-giving to the gryffindors ended up with harry and her practising the waltz and honey being so glad camera's did not work at hogwarts.

she'd walked into the gryffindor common room with ease and plopped her bag of dwindling presents down in front of the fire where harry, hermione and ron where.

"happy christmas," she said simply before she moved to shove her present to her brother into lee's hands. he looked a bit confused, but handed her present to her as well.

the two of them tore open their presents together, before faces of excitement broke out. in honey's hands where two books- one of them being a very limited edition book. one which read: the book of dragons with old yellowed pages, bound in a blood-red cover, a golden ensignia of a dragon on the front. the other was more of a joke gift- but it made her hug her brother tightly. the emerald green cover that read histories greatest seers (and their greatest mess ups!) dropped on a nearby table to hug her brother.

"thank you! thank you!"

"how the hell do you keep getting rare bits of fucking sheet music?"

"i have a talent," she grinned, "now- i'm going to go play santa to that lot. i'll see you soon- at the ball, perhaps. where you will introduce me to your girlfriend!"

"no promises!"

"whatever you say!" she called back before she walked over to hermione, ron and harry and then gestured to the bag- "go wild."

whilst hermione and ron broke out into their gifts, honey sat down next to harry and began to blab as he opened his.

"see- that was meant to be your birthday present. but then, i forgot- which is shit, yes. and then i was going to send it- but i thought pygmallion wouldn't be able to carry it. then the world up happened and-"

harry held up the leather jacket- the green trimmings on the inside peeking through.

"a jacket?"

"i just though- i dunno, i thought you might like it." she replied, a bit embarrassed, "i mean-" she gestured to her presents from them to her.

hermione had knitted her a scarf and hat (she was actually improving a lot) and ron had gotten her bundles of chocolate and an old yellowed paged book on caring for magically sea-creatures ("uncle fabian used to have a morbid obsession for hippocampi, so...") whilst harry had in fact bought her a book on the goblin wars written by a goblin (she might not be as nerdy as hermione- but the fact he'd found something so rare was actually flattering and mind numbingly cool).

"it's not as great as your presents, but i thought- you said you didn't have a jacket that you liked, because your stupid aunt and uncle are shit. and- i got it from a charity shop,which sounds like i put in no effort, but i thought it would be nice and i-"

"can we hug? can we do that?" harry asked.

"er- sure?" she replied, "i also came here because we've got to practice- oof!"

it was an odd experience, actually. one she hadn't fully expected.

harry actually hugged quite tighty. he smelt nice as well. sort of like cinnamon and vanilla (which oddly worked) and she didn't even care that his hair was sort of in her face because it was quite soft and he was quite warm with what ron had called his 'weasley jumper' with a large 'H' on it. he squeezed tightly, releasing her from his comfy yet death-grip hug and grinned.

"i love the jacket."

"i can bloody see that," she said simply- cheeks feeling a bit hot. "jesus, do you strangle your friends- or should i say victims- when you hug them?"

"sometimes," he replied back with a big grin on his face. "what was it you said about practice?"

"oh- yeah." honey picked up her usual demeanour as she punched his shoulder gently, "why didn't you tell me we had to open the bloody dance?"

"i thought you knew!"

"clearly not!" she replied, "i learnt last night!"

"learnt what?"

"how to waltz, idiot!" she raised an eyebrow, "do you even know how to waltz?"

"a bit, yeah."

"he doesn't," piped in ron, grinning down as his chudley cannon's book.

"fuck sake, harry. you have to make things difficult!"

(ron ended up having to excuse himself because the sight of honey and harry waltzing was apparently too hilarious for him. hermione stayed, but honey wasn't a fool- she could see her laughing).

the honey staring back at her looked like she had her life together.

the honey staring back at her from the mirror also looked like a toned down princess, fit for a ball (which was great- because she had to be at one in twenty minutes). she had her hair braided, stray pieces at the end curled with baby hairs gelled and swirling.

a long rust coloured dress sweeped down to the floor- so you could only get a slight peak at the shoes which were the exact same colour- looking to be made out of the same satin-like material as well. it wasn't exactly slim fitting, but it wasn't so voluminous that it looked like it was trying to eat honey alive. there were no straps- just short sleeves that puffed a bit, elegant but comfortable (as she could in fact lift her arms quite a lot) with a neckline that made a little u-shape with the only thing holding up being honey's pure spite and determination.

but the main breathtaking thing about the dress (the dress her cousin's family had sent over) was the golden fabric that wrapped around the bodice and made a train in the back. it was slightly transparent, so you could still see the gorgeous rust colour of her bodice, but be able to see the delicate golden stitches and embroidery of small bumblebees which, from a distance, looking simply like fallen stars that had graced themselves onto the fabric.

that, along with the golden eyeshadow that she dusted in the corner of her eyes along with the gold earrings, pearled necklace with a gold pendant (and the fact the train could in fact be tied into a bow at the back- which meant she could thankfully dance in it) made honey feel... pretty.

maybe a bit more than pretty, maybe honey felt giggly too.

she knew for certain, though, that she was quite possibly excited for the yule ball- feeling like it was making all (well, most) of her troubles slip away.

"look at you!" grinned vi, nodding towards her dress. "all dolled up!"

"i could say the same for you," honey noted, "you look lovely."

she really did, you know. with a lavish and dark purple dress, silver stars dangling from her ears and silver eyelids with gems lining up with her eyeliner- she looked straight from the cosmos above. that, paired with her silky hair made violet parker look absolutely fantastic.

"oh shut up-" her cheeks went red with embarrassment, "i've to go meet giles anyways, save your compliments 'til after you've seen me dance- i wonder if they'll be around by then."

"nonsense," honey replied.

"giles, hm? give him a kiss from us?" drawled freya, hannah and honey snorting with pure amusement.

"shove off, freya." vi yelled as she walked out of the dorm.

"never!" replied the ginger-haired girl, her curls taimed and placed into an elegant bun at the top of her head, clad in a periwinkle blazer and matching wide-legged trousers, she looked flawless, really. the bustier-sort of top underneath being the same colour as the rest, with the only other aspect of colour being the golden rings and earrings she wore along with a thin gold chain around her neck.

"going blue, are we?"

"hannah insisted we match," sighed freya, "i'd initially gotten a green one- i had to charm it to be this colour. if it starts going a bit turquoise, tell me will you? hannah's lovely- we know that- but she'll throw a fit if our clothes don't match."

"vicious colour coordinator," nodded honey, "i appreciate the art. don't worry- i'll tell you if anything happens."

"i'll make her dance," freya stubbornly began, "because she's going to be all mopey because the person she wanted to go with got asked by ron weasley."

honey's eyes went wide, "she wanted to go with padma?"

"the two are close friends, aren't they? hannah's been pining, i think."

"jesus christ," muttered honey, "that's brilliant- isn't it?"

"terribly," replied freya in the same sarcastic tone.

"i'm ready!"

"finally!" chorused honey and freya.

"you do know i have to meet harry in less than five minutes, right?" honey whined, "i told him to be outside fifteen minutes 'til the ball- i'll look like a idiot if i'm late to the time i set."

"alright, no need to get your knickers in a twist," hannah replied, blowing a piece of hair out of her face. she spun around a bit, "lovely isn't it?" she grinned over at freya, "we're matching!"

they were indeed. hannah's dress was a bit puffier than honey's, and swept the floor like hannah was a princess the golden necklace and earrings making her look angelic in some way with her hair down half-up and half-down, curled to perfection with blue dapped across her eyelids. then, hannah did the most hannah thing and stuck out her legs form under her dress.

"it's so puffy that i don't even need to wear heels!" she pointed down at the blue flats she was wearing, "fantastic!"

"we can talk about how fantastic it is later," honey assessed, "let's just get going."

she arrived on time, thankfully. which in itself was a bit of a miracle, but she wasn't one to question her good luck or else it might fly back in her face (which it often did).

seeing harry was a bit like being star-struck, making her cheeks flush just a bit and her jaw drop a bit (it was fine- his jaw was dropped too).

he wore a long dark emerald green shirt of sorts with a high collar and a few golden buttons all done up, gold embroidered into it with swirling and intricate patterns that honey could've goggled at for days, there seemed to be swirling patterns that looked like leaves, others that looked so small and detailed honey couldn't quite make out what it was.

he wore trousers of that seemed to look like they were made out of real gold- complementing the golden train of her dress well. the colours made his brown skin glow and his eyes bright. there was also a sort of side cape that was an even darker green than the main embroidered long shirt that would have hidden his left arm had it not been for the fact he was nervously ruffling his hair which he'd attempted to gell (and then failed to gell).

"you look-" the two of them said together.

"you look nice," honey rushed out, feeling so nervous all of a sudden.

"you, er- look nice, also." harry replied stiffly, before coughing. he looked at freya and hannah (who looked a bit too amused for honey's liking), "you guys do too-"

"we'll meet you at the doors, honey." hannah simply replied, "and thank you harry- you look lovely as well."

"gorgeous, one might say," muttered honey. she seemed to have collected herself again as she tilted her head, "we're not matching colours- but the gold's in both. hannah will live with it."

"i will." she said, before her two friends waved and walked off.

"it's called a kurta," he explained as he stiffly held out his arm, and she looped her own with his. "the patil twins- parvati and padma- they helped. there's this place in hogsmeade- they got their lehengas there- it's apparently one of the best desi clothing shops in scotland. their parents suggested we go there."

"you look lovely," she repeated.

"you- you do too." he said, staring at the golden train "you'll be able to dance in this? if not- totally understandable, i mean we can just skip that-"

"i can tie it up, harry. into a bow. we're not missing the opening dance," she replied with a grin.

"right," he replied. "suppose you're too crafty to let me get away with that."

"we'll be fine," she said- not really believing it herself (but she had the confidence to pretend she did), "it's only a dance, after all. can't be that bad, can it?"

honey spoke a tad too bit soon, because not even ten minutes later and she was starting to worry as professor mcgonagall called over the champions and their partners.

honey had glanced around a bit (harry had told her to look out for the patil twins' lehengas. which, indeed, look spectacular. with padma in a fantastic azure lehenga herself with blue bangles at her wrists and a large ornamental nose-piercing with her hair in loose curls. parvati, on the other hand, had been dressed in a pretty pink lehenga with a bright smile and hair done half-up and half down and large gold earrings with speckles of pink there as well, looking quite happy next to lavender brown as the two chatted happily) before coming face to face with all of the other champions and their dates.

"honey!" her cousin, maeve, grinned, "the dress, do you like it?"

"it's fantastic!" nodded honey, glanding at what her cousin was wearing. "you look amazing too!"

maeve grinned. she looked like something straight out of a movie with a champagne coloured that was long and elegant, pearls along her neck and ears with her hair crafted into a top bun, two small strands of her hair curled to frame her face. the girl next to her, honey recognised at a second glance. lynn ong- sporting a navy dress that complimented the champagne, with her dyed blonde hair down, matching with pearl earrings and a necklace as well.

"so this is who you're taking to the ball?" honey said, glancing at lynn.

"as friends," confirmed lynn. "she's rather fun- your cousin. i thought she'd be a raging powerhouse like yourself."

"my reputation precedes me, i guess." mumbled honey, eyeing maeve who had a little smile on her red lips. "step on my cousins toes at any given opportunity. she deserves it- and it's funny when she trips."

"you're despicable."

"i know," she said, shrugging as she replied.

"harry! honey!" came a voice.

"hermione?" honey called, turning around only for a big grin to form on her face, "look at you! circe's bloody tits! hermione, you look gorgeous!"

"no need to be so blunt, honey," mumbled harry before he added, "you do look wonderful- hermione."

it wasn't a lie. hermione was dressed in blue- looking like it was made of water with the liquid smooth fabric running down to the floor- her hair braided with gold pieces (with, as honey soon noticed, the necklace she'd gotten for hermione for christmas was on her neck) with blue eyelids and a nervous smile on her face. honey had never seen hermione's hair braided, and had wondered how long it had taken her (she'd only seen hermione in the morning, after all). she looked wonderful, really. like a water nymph- graceful but with the essence of a fierce girl who fought for the rights of magical beings.

hermione looked away, a bit embarrassed, as she began to quickly introduce victor krum to them all. he waved and nodded, shaking both their hands.

"victor is apparently interested in the rights of elves too!" grinned hermione, "obviously- we couldn't wear the badge tonight, but he's got one now as well!"

"good cause," nodded victor krum, "interesting to learn about. bulgaria is very behind- would be good to see this in my country."

"these are the intellectual conversations, hermione?" grinned honey, "god- do the two of you act like little nerdy friends together?" she grinned up at harry (since when had he gotten tall?) "isn't that gruesome?"

"don't tease her," harry reprimanded teasingly, "this is her cinderella moment."

"cinder-ella moment?" krum questioned, looking down at hermione in a confused manner.

"it's a muggle princess who get's her rags transformed into a dress." informed hermione, "it's quite an interesting fairytale. i will try send you a copy of muggle fairytale's in a books, then?"

"i think we have a similar tale of that in bulgaria. i will, in return, send bulgaria's stories too. you might find the stone wedding interesting- it is an embellished retelling from a muggle, based on real wizarding events." victor krum replied.

"really? tell me about it- is there any-"

honey and harry took that as their cue to leave and let hermione and krum to 'geek-out' (as fitz called it).

the most nerve-wracking thing was lining up and walking into the great hall, everybody applauding them as they did so. the thing that came afterwards was less nerve-wracking, mainly because it was just honey staring at the decorations all around the great hall.

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.

harry, beside her, seemed to be concentrating on not tripping over his feet whilst honey was trying to make sure she did in fact look like she had her life together.

dumbledore smiled happily as the champions approached the top table (he was, in fact, not dressed as a turkey. which thoroughly disappointed honey), but karkaroff wore an expression that reminded honey of a soured grape. 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 was glamorously styled in a lavish lavender, was applauding politely.

but mr. crouch, honey suddenly realised, was not there. the fifth seat at the table was occupied by percy weasley (who honey knew from the constant blabbers of fred and george weasley).

when the champions and their partners reached the table, percy drew out the empty chair beside him, staring pointedly at harry.

harry glanced at honey, and she simply shrugged.

(she blocked out most of what percy said out of pure need for survival. she was mostly interested in ogling at the weird sisters at the table adjacent).

soon, it was time for the first dance- and honey wondered why'd they had made them eat before doing the dance because she was sure she would hurl the gorgeous food up out of nerves.

she stood up along with all the other champions and lined up with the rest of the champions as the sisters struck up a slow tune. at least there were six other people dancing- because honey was quite sure she'd be mortally embarrassed if it were just here and harry dancing- especially with the lights pitched on them all.

her held one of her hands (his palms not sweating like they were earlier) and for the first time- they did it correctly. their practice had been abysmal, and she'd stepped on his toes (and vice versa). but they swept across the dance floor now, almost as graceful as the other champions. it wasn't as terrible as she'd hoped (or perhaps thought) and she did manage to smile a few times- the two of them in tandem with the other as a comfortable silence fell across them.

it was nice, actually.

quite nice.

she found herself enjoying it a bit- especially when others struck up onto the dancefloor too, telling her it was finally not just champions-only.

looking around, she spotted a few familiar faces. she saw freya and hannah dancing together- with hannah looking just a bit forlorn (there was a reason why, of course. padma and ron were dancing right in front of her) as well as emmery and kai- with kai dressed in a muggle suite with a sage green tie, the same colour as emmery's dress- her red hair in a bun- with parts framing the front of her face as she wore slightly sheer gloves, cementing herself as a princess for the night as well. the two of them were smiling, little rosy blushes on their cheeks.

honey looked around a bit more- scanning the crowd. george and fitz were at the side, talking to each other, both moving their hands wildly. she caught the eyes of maeve, who smiled at her before going back to whispering to lynn about something.

she could not, however, find her brother- nor his date.

then harry twirled her around- and she sort of forgot about everything when she glanced at him again.

honey remembered what she'd said last night- about how so many things might go wrong. for once, she was wrong.

honey had never made an accidental prophecy before- or maybe she had. the point was- she did not mean to actually predict that things would go wrong

the universe just had to spite her like that.

so many things went wrong in one night that honey wondered what she had done to make everything turn into a mess. blushing faces, moody teenagers, crying eyes and kissed lips- it was actually a big mess.

if she were to think about specifically when things went wrong- she'd assume it would be after freya had an allergic reaction to the platter food.

she'd started coughing- because apparently, freya o'brien was in fact allergic to peanuts, and had not bothered to tell anyone (because she had not known- how does one go about their life without even eating something that has peanut in it?). she'd started to cough- quite badly, and within a minute or so, she'd rushed to the hospital wing with professor sprout trailing after her to make sure she got there.

then, of course- there was what happened after honey and hannah had danced- which was after harry had joined ron to try and push away the ginger-haired boys sour little mood he was in.

the two of them- along with emmery and kai, had gathered amongst themselves to dance (mostly because hannah had been sulking over some beauxbaton boy dancing with padma).

"come on- hannah, dance with me!" honey pleaded.

"you only learnt yesterday."

"from you- so won't this be fantastic?"

that was probably the only good thing about the evening. the only good thing that happening in that evening, whilst ron and harry sat beside each other (and- as honey distantly recalled, hermione had too before she stormed off), was the two of them dancing.

honey had taken time to think about the fact the hufflepuff girls were her friends- it took a long time and a lot of thinking- but hannah was there, she was a good friend. albeit, they didn't often hang out together a lot (probably because they lived with each other for most of the year), but they were good friends now.

honey appreciated the little dance they had (even if it was full of her and hannah stepping on each others toes). it was nice, and she quite liked it.

the thing that seemed to cause all of that to crash and fall was after a while of dancing, they had finally stopped and padma patil had walked up to them with a grin on her face. hannah had looked a bit stiff at that moment, and honey's feet were hurting badly from all the movement.

"hannah," padma grinned, "you look lovely!"

"thanks, you... do too!"

"have you seen harry?" she said as she looked at hannah whilst grinning, gesturing over to harry, ron and hermione who were talking heatedly, "oh- well... ok, i don't know what's going on there- but we helped harry pick out his outfit for the ball."

"it's really nice," added honey.

"definitely, my sister and i have good taste."

there was a moment of silence that followed before padma awkwardly looked at hannah again, "want to dance, hannah? we haven't talked all night! there was this beauxbaton boy who's our age and-"

"i mean-"

"i need to go look for emmery," honey cut in, smiling encouragingly at hannah, "go have some fun without me, hannah."

"alright then," mumbled the hufflepuff, taking padma's hand as the two were swept onto the dancefloor.

the next thing honey knew, she was stumbling into the corridor only to find emmery in some sort of shock.

"emmery? what's wrong?"

"i-" she looked a furious sort of red, "i was with kai- and we were we almost- and then....i just saw your brother snogging my sister." she stared up at honey, "since when was salem lee's girlfriend?"

(suddenly things made a bit more sense).

(suddenly that time in the summer when salem had been expecting somebody had made sense).

(we almost- you almost what? kissed? dear merlin, what had she meant to say-?)

"i did not expect that." was all honey could mutter.

she didn't know exactly what she was feeling. mad? angry? those were the same things. no-

confused.

honey had waltzed herself right into confusion. and, well, that was certainly a way to end the fucking ball, wasn't it?

rosie speaks!

it's that time again where i hate my writing
but it's fine because i'm going to annoy my
grievances and stuff !! wooo !!! slay.

yall who thought lee was dating emmery
make me worry but it's ok. salem becomes
quite important in the future but i wont
reveal too much lol :)) anyways time for me
to scream a bit about how much i hate my
writing.

love you all <3

word count: 6,829 words