Year Four, Chapter Twenty Five
Holly's surprise at Ron's date - and his own surprise to see Holly and Ginny going to the ball together - was nothing next to their surprise when Hermione entered the Hall. Holly had seen her with her sleek hair and periwinkle-blue dress robes in their dorm, of course, but the candlelight of the Entrance Hall cast them in an even more impressive light.
Ron and Ginny had never seen Hermione so dressed up, and it took Ron a moment to work out who Hermione was. She'd done something to her teeth, Holly now realised, and then she cast her gaze on who Hermione was with.
"She's - she's with Viktor Krum?" Ron sputtered, incredulously. Holly's eyes went wide with surprise - she had not expected Hermione to be here as a date to one of the champions. But here she was, walking into the Entrance Hall arm in arm with the international Quidditch star and Triwizard Champion.
"I think Hermione might need to watch her back. Half the girls in Hogwarts were angling to go with Krum," Ginny said.
"I suppose he's handsome enough, but he looks a bit dour," Luna said in her sing-song voice.
"Champions, champions - over here!" McGonagall said, her voice cutting through the bustle and noise of the Entrance Hall.
"I guess we better go," Holly said to Ginny, and she nodded back. They made their way through the crowd, and Holly saw the other champions for the first time that night. Cedric was with Cho, and that didn't seem nearly so bad now. Rodger Davies, a stunned-looking Ravenclaw, was Fleur's date.
"Good, you're all here on time. Please wait here, by the doors - you'll enter when the other students have sat down," Professor McGonagall said. She was wearing dress robes made from red tartan and had a wreathe of thistles on her hat.
Holly and the rest of the champions lined up a little awkwardly just to the side of the doors, and the horde of students began to pile into the Hall. Holly felt a little out of place standing next to the radiant Fleur, but she tried not to let that bother her.
Then, after all the students had entered, the champions were called forth. McGonagall had them form a line in pairs, and then they walked slowly into a very changed Great Hall. Gone were the long House tables - instead, there were hundreds of smaller, circular tables. Each was lit by a floating lantern, and the light from the tiny fires caused the numerous ice decorations to glitter like crystal.
Everyone applauded as the champions entered, but then Holly heard a few boos as she and Ginny walked into the room. She kept her gaze locked straight ahead, and whoever had made them as quickly shushed.
The champions and their dates joined the staff up at the top tables, along with Ludo Bagman and Mrs Hull. Bagman wore eye-searingly yellow dress robes, whilst Mrs Hull wore a set of plain black dress robes that looked rather out of fashion... as far as Holly knew anything about Wizarding fashion.
Holly and Ginny ended up sitting between Bagman and Cedric, and with only a brief glance Holly knew Ginny felt as out of place up here as she did. They were both much younger than anyone else at the table save Hermione, and both of them were a fair bit shorter than her.
"Excellent performance in the first task, my dear. Just excellent - the way you sent that dragon flying backwards. Come with a friend, have you? A wise-" Bagman began, but Holly cut him off.
"Ginny's not here as my friend, Mr Bagman," Holly said. Her voice was polite, but both she and Bagman could understand the firmness that measured tone held.
"Right, right. Say, lass, you're the reserve seeker for Gryffindor, aren't you? Not too surprising then..." Bagman said but seemed to think better of continuing.
Instead of the usual platters piled high with food, there were instead small menus by every plate. Holly picked up hers and scanned through a list of eclectic offerings. For the main course, there was everything from roast duck to goulash (though why anyone would want to eat goulash whilst wearing expensive dress robes on a date was beyond Holly). The options for starters were even more bizarre, including wizarding dishes that Holly had never heard of.
She and Ginny had great fun looking through the menus, trying not to giggle at one another. As Holly ordered her food from the House Elves below, as she assumed the system worked, she was surprised to see not a goblet of pumpkin juice appear next to her food, but rather a goblet of wine.
"You got wine too, huh?" Ginny whispered to Holly in a low voice. Holly supposed it made sense - the champions were all supposed to be of age.
"I'm gonna try it and hope no one notices," Holly whispered back, and she tried the wine. It was both sweet and bitter, but it burned much less than the only other 'real' alcohol she'd tried, firewhiskey.
No one did seem to notice, perhaps because Ludo Bagman then spilled goulash over himself loudly. The brown-red soup stained his bright yellow robes rather noticeably, and he spent a good minute taking a napkin to them before getting out his wand.
"How's the wine, Holly?" Cedric said very casually, and Holly nearly spat duck all over her plate.
"It - it's not bad," Holly said, her voice a little squeaky.
"Do you think Ron and Luna are having a good time?" Ginny asked Holly.
"Judging by how they tore through... whatever that is, I think they're at least enjoying the food," Holly said. The Elves had gone all out for the Ball, making dozens of masterful dishes from half of Europe that could be ordered at will by the witches and wizards in the Great hall.
"You've never seen a roast Prowler Piglet before?" Ginny asked, curious.
"No, and after seeing one cooked and eaten, I'd really rather not meet a live one," Holly said. In her opinion, roast meat should not include so many teeth.
The conversation at the top table was eclectic, to say the least. Holly overheard conversations about the secret protections of Durmstrang, Viktor Krum learning to say Hermione's name, and a secret bathroom that would only appear to those truly in need.
Eventually, everyone had finished their food and Dumbledore stood up. As he did so, all the plates, goblets, and cutlery vanished into thin air.
"If you would all stand and welcome our musical guests for the evening, the Weird Sisters," Dumbledore said, and then he waved his wand. The tables seemed to lift into the air in a complicated dance, until they and the chairs were all neatly lined up along the sides of the Hall. There was now also a stage with an assortment of instruments on it.
Several extremely hair wizards, dressed all in black, artfully-shredded robes emerged onto the small stage. They took up their instruments, and Holly was so transfixed by their bizarre appearance that she momentarily forgot that she was at a dance. Then she saw the rest of the champions heading out onto the dance floor.
Ginny led her there, hand in hand, and they managed well enough for the champion's first dance. Both of them had only basic instruction in this kind of formal dancing, but their natural agility allowed them to do well enough not to embarrass themselves. The music was restrained - classical and formal - until that first dance ended.
"This dancing's not so bad," Holly said.
"Maybe you're catching the excess happiness from most of my childhood fantasies being fulfilled at once," Ginny mumbled.
Cedric and Cho were the picture of grace, outshining even Fleur with their coordinated dancing. After a few minutes, the Weird Sisters switched to something a little faster, and the rest of the school swarmed the dance floor.
Holly and Ginny, now no longer the centre of attention, danced for some time. They quickly abandoned their half-taught formal dancing for the wild energy only a crowd of teenagers really has. The Weird Sisters too began to pick up the pace, playing all their popular hits but occasionally mixing in a bizarre waltz interlude. Holly was fairly certain that wasn't how these things were supposed to happen, but then they were a wizarding band. Who knew what odd notions they had?
They made their way off the dance floor during one of the waltz periods, managing to slip away from the crowd. They found Ron and Hermione arguing about something, whilst Luna was dancing with Neville. She managed to expertly evade his clumsy steps and Holly laughed fondly.
"And what's so wrong with Viktor?" Hermione said.
"He's from Durmstrang!" Ron replied.
"So? He's been nothing but lovely to me so far,"
"They're bad news. No muggleborn students, dark arts classes..."
"Let's get some air, yeah?" Ginny said, and Holly indeed. They left Ron and Hermione to their argument as Hagrid and Madame Maxime began to cut a wide swathe through the dance floor. Holly smiled seeing her friend enjoying himself on what must be a very rare occasion. Fred and George were accosting Ludo bagman, and the Ministry official began to look rather worried.
Holly and Ginny walked out through the Entrance Hall, and they saw that the grounds seemed to have been covered in a maze of rosebushes, stone benches, and fairy lights. A light dusting of snow added to the ambience, and they set off down one of the paths hand in hand. They managed to avoid the older students - mostly by sound - and found somewhere relatively secluded.
She sat down next to Ginny, and they both looked up at the star-filled sky without saying anything for a few moments.
"I'm - I'm having a really good time, holly. Are we more... is this more than tonight?" Ginny asked hesitantly. Neither of them had discussed it in those terms, but the question hung over them, unsaid and yet still evident.
"I don't - I don't know," Holly said, and she knew it was not what she wanted to say at once. Her heart was beating rapidly, and it screamed at her a different answer. Ginny looked hurt for a moment, and then Holly acted. It was completely on the spur of the moment, and it was barely the product of conscious thought.
She kissed Ginny softly on the lips. It was little more than a chaste kiss, and a clumsy one at that, but it was enough. Part of Holly was screaming at her that this was shameful, or wrong, but she knew that was the part of her that still lived in the cupboard under the stairs. She understood, now, what the older students were on about.
"I'd - I'd like it to be more than tonight," Holly said. She felt like she was stumbling about in the dark, but that was what felt right to her. Her cheeks were bright red, but her smile was wider than she could ever remember.
"So would I," Ginny said, and she leant her head against Holly's shoulder. "I don't really know much about, you know, having a girlfriend," Ginny continued.
"Neither do I. It can't be that hard, though," Holly said.
"I think I'll kiss you next. That way we're nice and even," Ginny said, as they stood back up and made their way back towards the Great Hall. It seemed that they had picked the perfect time to leave the rose garden because Snape and Karkaroff were wandering up and down it blasting couples out of bushes. They were arguing about something, too, but Holly was in far too good a mood to pay much attention to that. Or to what Hagrid was saying to Madame Maxime, for that matter.
The rest of the night passed in a swirl of euphoria for Holly. She drank something that was probably firewhiskey, danced with Luna, Cedric, and Cho all one after the other, and then danced to the last song - a slow, romantic number - with Ginny. She still wasn't a great dancer, but she had fun anyway.
As all good things do, the Yule Ball ended. Holly staggered up to her dorm room, tired from all the dancing, and as she collapsed straight into her bed she had the biggest grin on her face she could ever remember.
