•Memories• ||D.M.||

32. Rock Step

"Sorry, but I'm not socializing with that moron until he apologizes!" I ranted as I carefully did my mascara.
Donna chuckled as she zipped up Chloe's dress.
"Well, this year we're gonna have to dance, so you're bound to run into him."
"He's a Gryffindor, honestly why are you surprised?" Pansy said as she put her heels on.
"I swear, school houses shouldn't be this serious!" I groaned. "Jason Webber may be one of my best friends, but he can sure be an inconvenient pest!"
"Has poor Malfoy been hearing about this the whole week?!" Chloe asked, concerned.
"Girls! We're off in 10!"
"Thank you, mum!" Chloe called down the stairs and quickly grabbed her curler, making her shiny black bob perfectly bouncy.
"Move, (Y/n)!" Donna argued as I was pushed away from the mirror, and laughed as I fell back into Chloe's bean bag.
"Someone help me up! These heels are impossible!" I cried out, lying on the floor in my dress like a sexy seal.
"You're impossible.." Chloe shook her head as she hoisted me to my feet. "Do you have your sleepover bag?" She asked, and I grabbed my bag, the one that I had enchanted with undetectable extension at the beginning of this year, after watching Hermionie do it with ease.
I grabbed the jade colored handbag. "All set." I tucked it away in the bodice of my dress. "Thanks for having me, even if your parents were a bit-"
"Oh, Miss Gray-Dean dear.. it was lovely to have such an important and influential young girl at our humble home." Chloe's mother praised.
I blinked at Chloe, who suppressed her laughter.
"It was my pleasure.. thank you for getting us such an amazing way to travel home." I nodded, and the woman stood doting for a bit too long before scurrying off.
"Home?" Donna asked suspiciously. "Is that really how you see the manor?"
I thought for a moment. "I think it's more my room." I dismissed.
"Is it not the people that make it home?" Donna said dismissively as she tapped her long nails on Chloe's dresser.
"Well, Mr. Malfoy has barely said a word to me this whole time, Narcissa has been replenishing me with all of the love I lacked growing up, that's for sure." I joked, and the girls all eyed me suspiciously.
"Is that all?" Chloe asked.
"I guess!" I shrugged.
The girls had varying expressions of the phrase, 'fucking liar'
---
I felt like bloody royalty as I was helped out of the carriage by the footman.
When the rest of the girls were out, we giggled and twirled our way up the stairs.
My dress, which I had bought with Christina, and matched with, a simple off white short prom style, and I felt like a goddamn pearl.
"The older kids are finally to old for the hideout. No worrying about Jason Webber, or that truffula looking shy boy." Pansy relieved.
I chuckled as the doors were opened, and the bright warm glow drew us inside.
Unlike my friends, I was immediately swarmed.
People were requesting that I endorse their products, or that I meet their sons, who are either 10 years too young or old.
"Miss, if you are here alone, then I'm sure that my son would love to accompany you this-"
"Oh dear god, mum!" The boy practically gaged into his glass.
"I'm not gonna be the Circus Peanut's date!" Marcus declared and I chuckled, while his mother turned white and almost fell.
"As charming as ever, captain." I gave him a joking bow before casually walking off.
I had argued, but the hideout was indeed in my room this year, and I'd assume that it'd be easier to sneak off this year, but there was a sea of boys far too old to be asking me to dance.
I safely made it away from the party and into the quiet hall, where the sound was muffled.
I had successfully declined all of the advances, eyeing the stairs when a swift movement blocked me, and I was face to face with a smaller framed, but obviously older boy.
"Hello, Miss Gray-Dean." The boy said.
I was already slightly agitated. "Who are you?"
"I'm Nathaniel Greene, don't remember me?"
The name instantly clicked.
"You slammed Christina into a wall our first year!"
He let out a low chuckle. "You do remember me!"
I took a step back. "Do you need something?"
"You're aware that I would be graduating this year if it weren't for that pink haired sissy beating me around?" He ignored, his voice rising. "Your cousin, in fact!"
"So you're taking it out on me, I presume?" I began to step closer to the wall, putting distance between him and I.
"Why are you running away girly? I don't give you an answer!" He asked.
"Back up or I swear I'll make it so your nose meets the inside of your skull."
"Now what does that mean, Princess?" He mocked.
"It means that I'll break your face in like a new pair of heels."
"Oh, I'd like to see you-"
The door to the hall opened.
I eyed the boy with a pleading look, and he looked between the two of us.
"Hello, Malfoy." Nathaniel Greene greeted. "I was just asking (Y/n) here for a dance." He gave a smile.
Draco stood there, analyzing for a second too long.
"Right.." he held the door as Nathaniel held his hand out to me.
My heart sank.
Draco saw the hesitation as I grabbed Nathaniel's outstretched hand.
Nathaniel led me through the door and back into the ballroom, surrounded by the eyes of nosy mothers.
I gulped as we awaited the last song's end, and when it finally came...
I was pulled into the middle of the floor, and I gasped loudly at the sudden jerk.
Only, it wasn't Nathaniel.
"Draco!" I gasped as he gave a snarky smile at Nathaniel, spinning with me to the upbeat tune.
"Sorry, may I have this dance?" He asked, chuckling as people gathered, in the dance position.
"Why'd you-" I began.
The dance called for a step towards your partner.
He took a step towards me.
"I'm not letting you dance with a dropout! My mother would rather everyone in this room drop dead."
The next move was to hold out your right arm, and place it against your partner's, stepping around each other in a circle.
We did so.
"I see." I said with a grim expression, wondering what could have happened if he weren't so worried about reputation.
The dance called for a switch of arms.
He leaned his head towards mine. "He's also an absolute creep." He whispered.
The beat picked up, and then it switched to hand in hand position.
We followed the dance.
"So you let me suffer through the end of the last song as he squeezed my hand?"
Rock on your heel, step with your foot.
He furrowed his brows and held my hand up to his eye level, examining it. "What a bloody pig.." he let out a breath. "I don't know if confronting the unstable 17 year old in a secluded area would end well for you or I." He admitted.
A spin, and then into closer dance position, his hand on my waist and mine on his shoulder.
We did just that.
"Fair, but how do you know he wasn't going to gut you once you pulled this stunt?"
Back and forth, rock, step.
"Look around, (Y/n). Half of these people don't have a penny to their names, yet they're dressed head to toe in diamonds."
As the music became more alive, there was a moment where you'd cross arms with a different person, but circle back to your partner.
"It's because of name status, all of it is." He spun me around, free to the music. "Status will make or break someone, and he doesn't have enough to risk."
I nodded along as he stepped wrong, throwing us off for a moment, and we both laughed it off as we completed the harder steps, growing more tired but smiling more by the second.
"I'll never risk getting in a fight, even if he's half my height. Call me a coward if you must, but why use your hands when you can use-" the music stopped, and we faced each other.
"When you can use your brain." I finished, breathing heavily as the people around us separated from their partners.
It took him a moment.
"Y-Yes, exactly." He huffed. "Should we go meet with the others before Mr. Greene decides to try and snatch you away again?"
I laughed a bit.
"We should."