SMILE » n. longbottom

xii

"THE YULE BALL, PART ONE"

"This dress makes me look like a librarian," Alana Wallace stared at the mirror that hung on one of her dormitory walls, and she anxiously tried to tame her stray hairs.

The girl that she had previously conversed with long before the Yule Ball was announced  — after the selection of the Triwizard Tournament, was named Erise Wenbrell. Erise wore a bright pink gown that hung off her shoulders to reveal her abnormally pale skin. "No, you look rather sophisticated, and besides ... its not the dress that counts, its the memories."

"Erise, I believe that you're the greatest optimistic I ever know," Alana scoffed sarcastically as she began to fiddle with the hem of her skirt.

Erise laughed at what Alana had just claimed, but Erise, too, told Alana, "And you're the most severe pessimistic that I'll ever come to know."

"You can bet all your fortunes on that," Alana nodded in complete agreement, as she began to tidy up the cords that hung out of her oxygen tank. She headed for the dormitory door, and suggested to the other Hufflepuff witch, "I'll be leaving now, Erise. Perhaps you should too, it seems rather late."

"I suppose so, Alana," Erise nodded as her cat hopped up to her bed and began to play with a loose string that came from Erise's bedsheets, until Erise hissed at the cat, "Piss off, Buttercup!"

Alana walked from Hogwarts' kitchens to the entrance of the Great Hall. She'd never wanted to attend a dance even before she was diagnosed with the lung disease. The Hufflepuff witch had regrettably thought of calling her attendance off. But she knew that once she'd be back in the Wallace household "manor", Alana would have to share every little detail — as her mother would presumably suggest.

She walked until she found the moving staircases, and Alana then walked to the last staircase that she would walk onto now. The Hufflepuff witch overlooked the students that hung at the entrance to the Great Hall, where the Yule Ball were to take place.

She, too, felt the need to stray from the Great Hall, away from where others were — where she wouldn't be seen in the dress that her mother had sent. Alana knew how Draco Malfoy had chosen her, since it was Pansy Parkinson who had urged the Malfoy boy to, as Pansy had been hinting at being asked to the Yule Ball. And the Slytherin girl was known to be irritable towards others.

The Hufflepuff witch turned back towards the staircases, patiently waiting for the stairs to aline to the kitchens. But as she set her foot onto the first step up the moving staircase, a voice called behind her, "Leaving so soon, now are we, Wallace?"

Alana knew this was Draco Malfoy, "It was my highest interest and consideration, Malfoy." She turned around and saw that no minions stood by his side, and he wore possibly the most classiest suit that a young wizard could wear.

"Right then, Wallace ... allow me in escorting you to the Great Hall," Draco Malfoy rolled his eyes and hung his arm out as though he expected Alana to take it. But to his surprise, the Hufflepuff did not accept his gracious favor, instead Alana swiftly walked past him, and towards the open doorway of the Great Hall.

As students filed into the Great Hall, many large circular tables were set by the windows. An empty space in the middle of the hall called for the entry of the Triwizard Tournament champions' arrival. And anyone without that title quickly squeezed through the spaces to the sides before the champions arrived through the doors. Then the Great Hall's doors creaked open, and trumpets played valiantly as the arrival of the champions commenced.

First there came the Beauxbatons' chamption: Fleur Delacour with Roger Davies, a Year Six Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, as her date. Then secondly came Viktor Krum, Durmstrang's champion of the tournament, who surprisingly chose the witty Gryffindor witch, Hermione Granger, as his date. Cedric Diggory, Hufflepuff's Quidditch Captain, and Hogwarts' firstly chosen champion. came third with the Ravenclaw Cho Chang as his date to the Yule Ball. Not so far behind the couple there was the boy-who-lived, young Harry Potter, the unexpected champion, alongside Parvati Patil, a Gryffindor in the same grade as him.

As Harry Potter presumably came into view of a certain Hufflepuff's witch's date: Draco Malfoy. He began with an irrational scoff that resulted in a disgusted feature, "Look at that git Potter. Look at his smug face! He definitely cheated in the first task, I tell you that, Wallace."

Alana hummed softly at this, and stared to where the champions of the Triwizard Tournament began to step into formation. Once the music began, the four couples began to dance to the rhythm, resulting in the inspired dances of nearby couples, including Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall.

Also many other couples, which were unnecessary at the moment to the Alana Wallace. The Hufflepuff stared at a certain couple that began to dance: Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley.