by your side. [ d. malfoy ]

➵ | thirty- six, dates

"A GIFT?"

thana stared at the box in disbelief. she felt draco's eyes on her but chose to ignore him and gently opened the box. it revealed a note,

dear thana,

the yule ball is coming up. i trust you and hope you will make the right choices. see this as a congratulation gift, told you you could do it.

love,

father.

"did your dad do this?" theo asked as he held the slytherin green dress up. thana sighed, clearly annoyed by her fathers behavior. why was he acting like such a dad all of the sudden? he never felt the need to come and get her from that stupid muggle house but now that she was involved in a deadly tournament he cared? "uh thana?" theo asked again, noticing how she had zoned out. "oh yeah sorry. yes he send me this but i'm not gonna wear it, it's a beautiful dress but i don't want anything that he gave me." theo nodded and as an attempt of changing the subject he pointed at ron, who had also gotten a package. and it was hideous. "i'm not wearing that, it's ghastly." thana laughed loudly at gennys comment and theo had to pat her back to stop her from choking on her food. after hermione announced that whatever ron got was really for him everyone else bursted out in laughter too. thana accidentally made eye contact with fred and without realizing it her smile grew even bigger.

•••

next up was the dance class and thana was everything but ready. with everything that had been going on she hadn't even thought about the yule ball and now everything seemed to be about it. the girls were all seated together and so were the boys. thana made sure not to look at any of them and decided to just start a conversation with the girl next to her. the first thing she noticed about her was how beautiful she was and thana sighed dramatically. "the yule ball. ew. worrying about getting a date and what to wear is the last thing i'd wanna do right now but i guess i'll have to." she complained to the girl. "thana, slytherin." she said and waited for the girl to introduce herself too. "paige, hufflepuff." thana just nodded, not wanting filch to get mad at them for talking during this oh so important class.

she noticed how fred and george were trying to say whatever mcgonagall said really fast and chuckled softly as her eyes met with fred's, again. ron got picked to dance with the professor and of course all the boys found this extremely amusing. thana just leaned back and listened to paige when she started speaking again. "if you had to pick someone to take as your date for the yule ball, who would it be?" thana shook her head, she really had no idea. "i don't know. theo maybe. but that would be just as friends, we'd probably just laugh at other people all night but i'm assuming you meant romantically so then i guess i'll just go alone. how about you?" the girl beside her took some time to look around before answering. "i mean draco got pretty hot. yeah i'd definitely pick draco."

thana hated to admit it but when she said that she felt jealous. but the girl was really nice and she was trying not to be the person her father wanted her to be so she smiled and leaned in a bit, "ask him. go for it. what's the worst that could happen? he'd say no? that would be his loss anyways."

she meant it. even if she wanted to go with draco, which she didn't, he wouldn't wanna go with her. her eyes went to fred again and she watched as he and his brother playfully danced until harry called for them. "everyone find yourself a partner and practice please."

thana nodded and pushed paige into dracos direction and smiled proudly when the two began dancing. "may i have this dance miss champion?" fred asked as he held his hand out for her. she chuckled and let him grab her by her waist as she stood a little bit closer to him. and as she danced with the weasley boy she didn't think ahout draco, who was still dancing with paige or about her father. she laughed at some of his jokes and when the class was over she hugged him goodbye.

•••

thana was sitting with the golden trio and her new friend. she tried to convince draco and theo to join them but they just shook their heads and sat at the complete opposite side of the room. harry and ron were complaining about not having dates yet and it seemed to annoy hermione. paige was flirting with draco and fred and george had just thrown harry a piece of paper. both him and ron read it and asked the twins who they were going with. even though thana had already been staring at fred he still thought it was necessary to throw some paper at her to get her attention. "do you wanna go," he did the dance moves again as he mouthed the words, "to the ball with me." thana smiled and before she could answer paige tapped her shoulder, "guess what?" thana turned around to face the girl, "chicken butt." both paige and ron chuckled but it was fred who laughed so loud that snape had to hit him with a book to make him shut up again. "draco just asked me to the ball! and i said yes!" thana smiled and hugged the girl back. "but more about that later, fred's staring at you and it's kinda obvious that he has a crush on you, go ask him."

thana nodded enthusiastically and mouthed "yes", causing fred to blush and high five his brother. he then winked at ron and harry. "i have to go now but i'll see you at the ball yeah?" thana nodded again and waved the hufflepuff goodbye. her eyes met with dracos and she stood up, joining him and theo. "so draco has a date, i don't care if blaise has a date, i have a date. how about you theo? found yourself a lucky girl or guy yet?" before theo could answer draco frowned, "you have a date? who?"

she sighed, "fred. now back to you theo, we wanna know everything."

AUTHORSNOTE.
um yep i'm alive and updating hey!!! this sucks but i just ajd to put my bae in😏😏😏 anyways yes fred is also my baby but dw the yule ball is gonna be frama k lol bye this ones for paige love u bye bye