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In the midst of a bloodthirsty war of which all wizards were neck-and-neck over supremacy and blood statuses, playing dressing up for a ball seemed quite the superfluous notion. James found it ridiculous, but he still couldn't stop himself from growing sickeningly anxious the day of.
It was an attempt at grandeur, the ball. Came every year. Between O.W.L.s in fifth year and N.E.W.T.s in seventh, its main purpose was to serve as a sort of distraction, a way to excite the lull that sixth-year students were laden with as they spent an entire year dreading their seventh. That, and the Apparation lessons that came all throughout April.
Gwen had done swimmingly at the lessons, of course; which came as no surprise to anyone but her. She had been expecting to be a horrible mess at Apparating, to make a fool of herself in front of all her classmates. But she was among the first five students to get it done successfully, along with Lily, Emmeline, Walker, and Severus. And just after Gwen had Apparated away from her assigned spot next to Sirius, he had splinched his elbow, and blood would have ended up all over Gwen's shoes had she not made it away in just the nick of time. (James, however, had sprung into action and acted as quite the dramatic medic.)
With the lessons out of the way now, though, all the bustling and chatter of the year came to a boiling point, as it was finally—at long last—time for the ball. The suspence had been killing James, really.
The moment Gwen had asked him to the ball, it felt as though James's heart had stopped beating. And when he saw her in her gown for the first time, it felt as though the entire world had stopped spinning.
She nearly knocked him off his feet, when he saw her. It was, to put it simply, the most beguiling ballgown to possibly ever have graced the halls of Hogwarts—and putting Gwen inside of it only added fuel to the effervescent flame. It was James's favorite colour on her (which he didn't know what colour it truly was, just called it blue), satin, and fit her like a button. She looked like a true princess, the kind from all those Muggle fairytales, he decided as she graced the steps leading down to the Great Hall, bottom lip tugged between her teeth as she focused on not tripping down the stairs. James found himself smiling, unable to hide his wonder, unable to hinder his pride.
Gwen had finally allowed for them to debut—as a pair. Not buried beneath the insolent lies they'd been feeding the school for months, by then, that they were merely friends and that Gwen would never feel that way about James and that he'd never had a fancy for her in the first place.
Now, they were going to enter the ball together, and there would be no more need for lying. James could show off the girl he loved at last.
The first words she said to him were in true Gwen fashion: "Jackie tried to jinx my shoes so they wouldn't hurt but it didn't work and they're killing me."
James grinned, as he offered her his arm. "If it makes you feel any better, this coat is too tight around my shoulders."
