Backfire • Cedric Diggory [✓]

• FIFTEEN •

The outside of the castle glowed beautifully in the evening as the freezing winter wind began to burst in gusts through the air. Holland could do nothing but sigh in nervousness, hands toying with her straightened hair again. She had been staring out the window hopelessly, watching the snow fall and staring at the Durmstrang ship that stood still on the frozen lake. She had been nothing but excited for the ball, scribbling all sorts of amazing ideas on what else to add onto her ensemble. But now that it was in their midst, she found herself apprehensive, all feelings of joy and excitement nowhere to be found. Her friend Pansy eyed her from the other side of the room, shaking her head at the sight of her distraught friend. Pansy too toyed with her hair, smiling in satisfactory at how she looked. The girl had her hair up in a bun, twirling in her pink, frilly dress. She loved how she looked, and was hoping that Draco would, too.

    "Oh, leave it, Holly." Pansy scolds, having walked from her side of the room and was now behind her friend. "You're beautiful." She says seriously, holding Holland's hands in hers. "That Weasel is one lucky slime to even have a girl like you breathe the same air as him." She says, her eyes landing on the silver necklace Holland hand on and delicately held its pendant in fascination. "It's gorgeous," She says, staring at her shiny trinket.

    "Thank you," Holland says simply, still not able to trust her voice or even her body as fear had taken over her entire body. What she was so afraid of, nobody knew. Maybe it was because she had been dreaming of this night, already filling up her head with so many fantasies of what could happen. What if she got so excited for nothing? 

Holland looked at herself once more in the reflection, sighing as she'd checked for any possible malfunctions she needed to fix before finally leaving to meet George. Hugging Holland's body perfectly was an emerald green off-shoulder, silk dress. The color giving off the impression that Holland was one to be pathetically prideful of her house, but she couldn't care less, she fell in love with it the minute she'd laid her eyes on it. Just when Holland expressed sallowness and desperation as she didn't know what her plan was for the ball, Teagan had dropped a plain black box wrapped in silver ribbon, a tag saying 'You'll look nothing but gorgeous in this! Love, Tonks' sticking out of the ribbon. Alongside the beautiful dress was a letter Nymphadora had written, expressing how she had finally become an auror and had wanted to give Holland a little something to celebrate. Holland clutched the letter to her chest, feeling nothing but happiness for her dear friend.

So there Holland was, in her beautiful green gown, hair enchanted to last an entire night staying sleek and straight,— still nervous and staring out the door, refusing to leave her dormitory whilst Pansy was already down their with her foot tapping in impatience. Pansy was used to dragging her friend out of their dorm, but this night, she figured her friend needed to get her act together.

    "I'm going to slap you. Get out of there right now, Avery!" Pansy shrieks from the common room, waiting for Holland. As much as Holland wished that Draco and Pansy had an adorable and sweet moment when he'd ask her to the ball, they didn't. Fred asking Angelina would be the sweetest thing compared to how Draco did. Draco simply told Pansy the color of dress robes he'd be wearing, he didn't even ask the girl. Holland with shaking limbs walked down from their dorm to the common room, being met with the sight of the two bickering. But upon closer inspection, it looked a lot more like Draco was telling off Pansy.

    "Yeah? If you're so confident, I'm sure you could spare me from a dance and go by your—" Draco had been so intent on yelling at Pansy, he'd come to a pause once he'd seen Holland. "Wow, so girls can clean up. Pansy, I don't—" Holland cuts him off before the two begin to bicker for another hour.

    "Ah! Stop! Please, it's Christmas, no fights. Be a gentleman, Malfoy." Holland scolds, not wanting to spend a special night trying to reconcile her friends.