Chương 44: ITW,H - Chapter 44 - (2) Ministry Ball

(Word Count: 1, 538) After having warned Sirius to be cautious around Madam Zabini, Harry spent the next few hours with his friends. Though they didn't spend all of the time near the refreshments. Instead, they went and found one of the more quiet corners of the Ministry building. The Ministry had sectioned off a portion of the building to dedicate towards this ball, so guests could find some private rooms to talk privately to make deals or plans, or to just get away from the noise of the main event.

Arcturus was in one of these rooms somewhere, talking to his old friends. They talked about how their winter break was so far, but because it had only been like two days since they last saw each other, that topic didn't last very long. When Harry had mentioned he had dragged Draco through muggle London, everyone became very interested in experiencing it for themselves.' Right, I had forgotten that I'm the only one here that knows anything about muggles,' Harry thought wryly.

"Well, why don't we plan a day for all of us to get together to explore London together? I'm sure Sirius wouldn't mind chaperoning us, if your parents are uncomfortable with us being all alone," Harry suggested. Blaise shook his head, "No, that wouldn't work. My mother would never allow me." Daphne frowned as well, "I don't know if my parents would like this either." Surprisingly, Neville said the same thing.

"Gran would be furious." Susan just shrugged, "My Aunt's too busy to care either way."

"I think my parents would be fine with it as long as I was with a group," Hannah said.

"Hmm," Harry hummed thoughtfully.

"Then why don't we phrase it like you're coming over to my place, or 'The Black's'. Blaise, if your mother's still hesitant, I could invite Draco to come along as well, he might like to come with us to visit again."

"Really? Why?" Blaise asked. Harry grinned, "Because I got him some video games that he may get hooked on. Who knows, by the time we have this outing, he may be ready to buy the next game in the series already." None of them seemed to understand what he was getting at by that, since they had no concept of a video game.

"Well, I'll show you what I mean later. Maybe I'll bring my gameboy to school when we head back, and I can show you then," Harry said.

"Either way, there's a good chance of Draco wanting to join in on this, so your mother should be more accepting of you coming over."

"When would be a good time to do this? I don't know if it's possible this winter break," Daphne asked.

"It would have to be some time during the summer," Susan said. Harry nodded to himself internally. For a moment, Harry felt like a delinquent, tempting the good kids to disobey their parents and do something wrong, like sneaking out to a party that had too much alcohol. Only… he was only tempting them to learn more about the non-magical world. So in this case, convincing them to disobey their parents was a good thing. Just then, there was a knock on the door to their room.

"Yes?" Harry asked. The door cracked open and a face peeked in. It was Draco. When he saw everyone, he opened the door all the way.

"Ah, good. I found you all. Daphne, our mothers sent me to inform you and your friends that the dancing will begin soon. We should make our way back to the ballroom." This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. With that, their conversation came to a close, and everyone made their way out of the room.

"Ah, Potter. I need to speak to you for a moment," Draco stopped him.

"Yeah?" When they were alone, Draco pulled out a small bag of money, and handed it to him.

"Here. For the… you know. So now I don't owe you anything, we're even."

"Yup. We're all even," Harry accepted the money with a grin.

"Soooo? Have you been able to play it at all?" Draco huffed, trying to act uninterested, "It took me a while to figure out how to use the thing. The instruction manual turned out to be useful. But… it's at least not as boring as I thought it would be."

"Which game did you try first?" Harry asked eagerly.

"The final fantasy game. It seemed to deal with magic, so I thought it might be the most interesting," Draco admitted.

"I didn't have a lot of time though, so I didn't get very far. Enough of this, we need to get back before the dance starts." The two of them headed back to the ballroom. Harry saw Sirius and Arcturus, so he went over.

"Hey, Harry!" Sirius called as he approached.

"Have fun with your friends?" Harry nodded.

"We made some tentative plans to get together some time in the summer, but nothing too concrete yet."

"Sooo? Which of the pretty ladies will you be dancing with first? Have you asked anyone yet?" Sirius teased with a grin. Harry rolled his eyes, "Yes, I'll be dancing with Susan Bones first." Honestly, if he was expected to dance with most, if not all, of the girls his age, then why should he stress out over asking them to dance? If dancing was optional, then it would have other implications to worry over. Sirius rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Susan Bones, huh? I remember her mother. She was a real beauty. Her father, Edgar, was a good friend of mine too. Actually, now that I think of it…" Sirius trailed off, looking across the room to where Amelia Bones was talking to the Minister. She seemed to be upset over something.

"I think I'll go ask Amelia for a dance. Wish me luck, Harry!" Sirius clapped him on the shoulder and strode towards Amelia with purpose. Harry watched him go, shaking his head wryly.

"Harry!" Susan came over and grabbed his hand.

"You promised me a dance, remember? Come on! The music's about to start!" Harry hurried along with her so he wasn't dragged behind her, and they made their way towards the center of the floor. Many other pairs were doing the same as the band changed from the gentle melodious tunes meant for background noise for the talking, to one meant to accompany a waltz. Harry took Susan's hand in his left and placed a hand on her waist, elbows up, and gently began leading Susan in a slow waltz.

He looked into her eyes with a smile. Since they were 11, they were very similar in height. If anything, Susan was slightly taller by less than an inch.

"You dance pretty well. Did your aunt teach you?" Harry asked. Susan blushed at the eye contact and looked away, "N-no. She was usually too busy, so I would go over to Hannah's house to learn together with her under some tutors, or Lady Abbot."

"I see. That explains why you two are so close. You practically grew up together."

"Yeah. She's like a sister to me," Susan said fondly. She quickly got over the embarrassment and was now looking back at him confidently.

"That's why I really appreciate what you and Neville said before. About how you would help her out if she needed it. She was really nervous about this dance."

"Speaking of," Harry trailed off in thought as he glanced around the dance floor.

"Neville and Hannah should be here somewhere." He spotted Sirius dancing nearby with Madam Bones.' So she agreed to the dance,' not that there were any romantic connotations to dancing with someone here. Daphne was dancing with Draco. Both were stiff and formal. Blaise was dancing with Pansy Parkinson. Huh. He actually hadn't noticed her until just now. He wrote her down on the mental list of people he would have to dance with tonight.

He saw Neville and Hannah dancing towards the edge of the dance floor, both of their faces crimson red.

Neither of them were very social, so dancing with someone they may or may not have a crush on was, while exhilarating, absolutely mortifying. Especially since it was so public.

"There they are. Look at them blush, they're so cute," Harry shared a teasing grin with Susan.

"Awww! They're adorable! Hehehe, don't tell anyone, but Hannah has a crush on him," Susan whispered. He rolled his eyes, "I think it's pretty obvious they have a crush on each other. Though we shouldn't push them. They'll figure it out on their own eventually." Susan faltered briefly in her steps, before catching herself and resuming their dance.

"Merlin! Is that Aunty dancing with Lord Black? Er, I mean, your godfather?" Harry looked back over to Sirius. They had moved closer so now the two pairs of dancers were nearly adjacent. Harry led them closer.

"Aunty!" Susan whispered over in horror, "Since when did you dance?"

"Oh, shush, Susan. I've always danced at these balls," Madam Bones glanced over to them with a smirk. Sirius spun them away, shooting his own smirk and a wink at Harry. Susan seemed to struggle with the conflicting images of her aunt together.