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NINE
THE YULE BALL
THE YULE BALL WAS tonight and Valentina would be lying to herself if she said she wasn't excited. She had finished getting ready and was quite proud of her appearance. Her tight, strapless black dress clung nicely down her body leaving a small trail at the end, just hiding her black heels. Her long, dark hair was swept over to one side, showing off her elegant curls. Her makeup complimented her features with a dark smokey eye on her eyelid, winged eyeliner and a dark red lipstick completing her look. Valentina felt good.
"Shit," Valentina said to herself when she noticed that she was ten minutes late and hurried out the door.
By the time she arrived, she could see everyone lining up with their dates, about to head into the hall. Valentina feared she might have been too late as she stood at the top of the stairs, looking for Cedric until she noticed the handsome boy standing with the other champions smiling at her. Breathing a sigh of relief, she gave a little smirk before gracefully walking down the steps, feeling a lot of staring eyes on her along with many whispers.
"Glad you could make it," Cedric smiled at her, offering Valentina his arm as she approached him.
"Sorry," she said, wrapping her arm around his, "I hope I'm not too late."
"Just in time," said Cedric as Professor McGonagall lead the group of champions and their dates into the Great Hall towards a large round table at the top of the Hall where the judges were sitting while everyone clapped for them.
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 sitting about a dozen people.
As Valentina sat down next to Cedric she took it as an opportunity to observe the people around her. She noticed Harry Potter and his date Parvati Patil looking rather uncomfortable, Fleur Delacour was complaining to her date Roger Davies about Hogwarts, and then there was Hermione Granger teaching Viktor how to pronounce her name.
"You look beautiful tonight," said Cedric leaning in closely to Valentina.
Valentina smiled, "You don't look so bad yourself, Pretty Boy."
Cedric faked a gasp, "oh merlin, did the Valentina Lestrange just give me a compliment?"
"Shut up," Valentina grumbled, lightly punching his arm.
"I'm only kidding, bumper girl," Cedric smiled.
The pair continued to speak to each other while they ate their food, continuously laughing and enjoying each other's company until Dumbledore stood up and asked everyone to do the same. Then, with a wave of his wand, all the tables zoomed back along the walls leaving the floor clean, and then he conjured a raised platform into existence along the right wall. A set of drums, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and some bagpipes were set upon it.
