la chiave del tuo cuore {cedric diggory}

♛ THE YULE BALL PART 1 ♛

Today was the day. The whole school had been waiting in anticipation for this day to come. For the first time, every student in Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang had stayed in school over the holidays. Now, it was finally time.

At exactly five o'clock on the evening of the twenty-fourth of December, Blanca burst into her shared dormitory with Aurora. In her arms she held stacks of beauty products. Hairspray, anti-frizz spray, and not to mention all kinds of makeup products. There was foundation, bronzer, highlighter, concealer, blusher and a variety of different shades of lipsticks and numerous eyeshadow palettes. It was safe to say the girls were pulling out all the stops tonight.

Laid out on Aurora's bed was the exquisite ballgown she had received in the post only a week prior. It had come as quite a surprise, but Aurora was grateful.

She had been sitting at the Gryffindor table as usual, talking to her friends and munching on her breakfast cereal, when suddenly, a large tawny had flown into the Great Hall, catching everyone's attention.

It had landed gracefully on the table right in front of Aurora. She handed the bird a couple of knuts before turning to the large box that the owl had somehow managed to fly in with. All her friends watched her in curiosity as she picked up the letter that was sellotaped to the parcel. On the front, the word 'Aurora' was scrawled across the paper in very familiar messy writing. Aurora's eyes had widened as soon as she realised who's handwriting it was. Sharing a look with Dante, she had eagerly torn open the envelope and unfolded the yellowing piece of parchment inside. The letter read:

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒ ⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Aurora,

I have heard that there is to be a Ball at Hogwarts soon. It may interest you to know that your mother had a great interest in those kind of things. Something I am sure you have inherited. Now, you may already have a dress, but just in case you don't, I have sent your mother's favourite ballgown. She always did look lovely in red. I am sure Luci would have wanted you to have it.

I also heard that you are attending this Ball with the son of Yuri Grigorovitch. He is an old friend of my father's. Slimy git if you ask me, but I have been told that Ilya is quite the gentleman. I won't reveal who gave me this information, but I am sure you can guess.

Aurora had at that point sent a fierce glare in the direction of her brother and cousin, who had cowered behind Dante's Transfiguration textbook.

I know you are almost an adult now, but you are still my daughter. I was not there to protect you and your brother when you were children, but I sure as hell will be now that I can. Just let me know if I need to knock anyone's teeth in (I am referring to Cedric Diggory) I am going to be honest, I thought he would be the one to ask you to the Ball. Are you two still oblivious to each other's feelings? I'm telling you Aurora, that boy is in love with you. He looks at you the same way I used to look at Luci. Cedric seems to make you happy, so I'm holding out for you two to stop being dense and get together already.

I hope you like the dress. I love you.

Dad

⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒ ⭒☆━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━☆⭒

Aurora couldn't stop the smile from spreading across her face. Her father really was the best. Even though he had essentially called her stupid. Maybe she was. If Sirius thought Cedric had feelings for her, then maybe it was true. Aurora had felt a warm feeling in her chest, but it was quickly replaced by anger. If Cedric had feelings for her, why was he going to the Ball with Cho Chang? And why had he been avoiding her these last couple of weeks?