la chiave del tuo cuore {cedric diggory}

♛ THE YULE BALL PART 2 ♛

"Miss Black!"

Aurora and Ilya had barely made it five metres towards the Great Hall when they were stopped by an accented voice calling them.The two teenagers whirled around to face a rather flustered looking Professor McGonagall making her way hurriedly towards them.

"Miss Black!" she said again as she stood close enough to the pair to be heard over the loud chatter filling the corridor. McGonagall looked at Ilya expectantly, and he quickly understood, beginning to introduce himself.

"Ilya Grigorovitch." he smiled at the professor. McGonagall's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she quickly composed herself.

"Yes. Miss Black, Mr Grigorovitch. I am sure you are aware that it is a tradition for the Tri-Wizard Champions to begin the first dance?" she asked absentmindedly, as if she had repeated this question a thousand times already over the night. Aurora sent her a sweet smile.

"Of course, Professor." she replied enthusiastically. McGonagall simply muttered something along the lines of, 'Yes, yes, very good' before she quickly hurried off, presumably to shout at some poor, unsuspecting student for one reason or another. Aurora chuckled and turned to face Ilya. The boy had a slightly panicked look on his face. She frowned.

"Ilya? Are you okay?" she asked, concerned. At the sound of her voice, the Durmstrang boy immediately snapped out of his trance.

"Yes, yes. Don't worry, it's nothing." he reassured with a small smile. Aurora couldn't help but grin back. She looped her arm through Ilya's and looked up at the boy.

"Come on. Let's go in." she said, before excitedly tugging him by the arm into the Great Hall, making the boy laugh loudly. As the two entered the room, Aurora let out a loud gasp. Whoever had decorated the hall had really outdone themselves. The high ceiling was strung with sparkling white lights which hung down low enough so that anyone could reach up and touch them. At the back of the hall were three Christmas trees. The one in the middle was almost as tall as the ceiling while the two on the outside were much smaller. The pine branches were covered in a generous dusting of snow. The normally dull grey gargoyle statues were no longer stone, but made out of carved ice. The light from the hanging decorations passed through it, sending fractals of rainbow light dancing around the room. It really was beautiful.

As Ilya and Aurora gazed around the hall in amazement, they were interrupted once again by a voice calling them. Whirling around, the two noticed McGonagall waving them over to where her and the other champions were standing just outside the entrance to the hall, away from everyone else. With one last look at the transformed Great Hall, Aurora made her way towards the group, still clutching onto Ilya's arm.

As the two got closer, they spotted a few familiar faces. Closest to them was Viktor Krum. He was wearing his formal Durmstrang attire, the same as Ilya's. It was a red dress shirt with fur trimmings from an animal that was probably native to Bulgaria. He also wore a pair of smart black pants and shiny shoes. Next to him, of course, stood Hermione. She was beaming at Aurora, who chuckled to herself. She looked ecstatic. The Italian girl's eyes then flitted to her cousin. Blanca was holding hands with Adam, who looked very handsome in his traditional black dress robes. The couple kept stealing glances at each other and smiling giddily. Aurora's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets as Adam planted a soft kiss to her cheek, making Blanca blush profusely. Noticing Aurora's shocked expression, she sent her a look that said, 'I'll tell you later'. Aurora didn't know if she could wait till later.

Next to Blanca and Adam stood Harry and his date. The pretty girl was beaming around at everyone excitedly, whereas Harry stared down at his feet as if they were the most interesting things in the world. Aurora inwardly rolled her eyes. Leave it to Harry to be too awkward to make conversation with his own date. With a disapproving shake of the head in her Godbrother's direction, Aurora turned to look at the next couple. She smiled as she met the gaze of Fleur Delacour, who had her arm interlinked with a handsome dark haired boy's. He looked very familiar. Aurora vaguely remembered her adoptive sister mentioning something about the Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain... Roger Davies? Yes, that was his name. Roger was also wearing traditional black dress robes, like most of the boys were. He was gazing at Fleur like she was a piece of meat. Aurora met his eyes and gave the boy a warning glare. She hated it when people treated Fleur liked nothing more than a pretty object. She was so much more.