"Don't believe that nonsense about me ordering the dragon around. I just pointed out that one of the eggs wasn't real and asked if I could take it." Those who hadn't heard the story laughed, surprised that it worked out as well for him as it did.
"Attention please!" Professor McGonagall called as she walked in the room. She briefly looked at the couples and Harry could see the brief flash of surprise when she saw Daphne at his side. "Now that you are all here we can begin. You will all exit that door which will take you out into the Great Hall. Since this afternoon it has been enlarged and decorated to fit our purposes. Once you are all on the dance floor the music will start and the first dance will begin. When you finish you will be directed to a table at the front of the room where you will all sit together, joined by a few others. Any questions? No? Very well, line up. Ms Delacour, you will be first. Then Mr Diggory, followed by Mr Krum, and finally Mr Potter with Ms Greengrass. Good luck everyone, and do try to have a good time." Professor McGonagall then left out the door she had previously pointed to, leaving it open for the champions and their dates to walk out of. They could all hear the murmuring from the crowd of students that were waiting on the other side of the door, and each felt a little bit nervous though they tried not to show it. As asked, Fleur Delacour and her date walked out first. The awaiting crowd immediately burst into applause which continued as Cedric and Cho linked arms and walked out the door.
"Are you ready for this?" Harry quietly asked Daphne, offering her his arm as he had seen the others do. As he did, Krum and Hermione had entered the Great Hall and loud gasps could be heard in the applause as people realized that the pretty girl in the blue dress was the Gryffindor bookworm.
"Let's go." Daphne said in response as they headed towards the exit. Once into the Great Hall Harry first noticed that it did indeed look a lot bigger than normal. The long tables that were normally there had been removed and replaced with dozens of circular tables that could fit about twelve people each. A dance floor had been erected in front of the stage, and the other three couples were already there waiting on them. Initially, the crowd continued to cheer as Harry and Daphne made their way to the stage. Then people began to notice who Harry's date was and the applause began to lessen as the students began to talk amongst themselves in an excited fashion. By the time they reached the dance floor the clapping had died off completely, and for the most part the talking had stopped as well as people openly stared at the couple.
Harry put an arm around Daphne preparing for the dance to begin and leaned in to whisper to her: "They're speechless. I told you that you looked good." Daphne chuckled at his compliment and made sure they were both in place for the dance. The music began softly, but as the couples began to move it seemed to swell and the tempo increased. Every eye was on the dancing champions, though most were on Harry Potter and his Slytherin date. He could sometimes hear parts of their conversations, most of which referenced articles from the Daily Prophet or the accusation that all Slytherins were evil. The most amusing ones came from the female population who were quite obviously jealous of Daphne. Harry attempted to block out the distractions and focus on what he was doing, desperate not to step on Daphne's toes or make a similar public mistake. So far he was doing a good job, at least he thought so.
Minutes later the dance ended and the crowd began to applaud again. Daphne leaned towards Harry and told him did excellent before they walked over to the table that McGonagall had discussed. Seated there were the other champions and their dates, Professor Dumbledore, Madame Maxine, Igor Karkaroff, and strangely Percy Weasley. Percy motioned for Harry to take a seat next to him but Harry acted like he didn't notice and sat at the other end of the table with Daphne on one side and Hermione on the other. Menus were presented to them and Harry was surprised to see that all he had to do to order was to call out the name of the food and it would appear in front of him. He ordered and was pleased to see his food appear in front of him just as he wanted it to.
During dinner the conversations around the table stayed on what seemed to be safe topics. Percy was apparently here representing Barty Crouch, his boss, who had been feeling ill. Harry noticed that Percy had turned into a blatant brown noser and decided to ignore him for the rest of the evening, glad that he had not taken the seat next to him. Daphne was sitting next to Cho Chang, and the two girls seemed to be getting along nicely. Slytherin and Ravenclaw thankfully did not suffer from the rivalry that Slytherin and Gryffindor did. Harry turned towards Dumbledore and noticed the old professor was looking at him and Daphne with an amused look on his face.
"Harry, I am glad to see that you are doing your part to promote friendship between the houses. As you may have been aware, Gryffindors and Slytherins have not always been the best of friends." Dumbledore said, drastically understating the feud between the two houses. Curious about what the Headmaster thought, Harry was watching him for any sign that he disapproved of his decision to take Daphne to the Yule Ball but could not find any.
"Thank you sir, I'm quite happy with how it turned out." Harry said, now noticing that Daphne had been listening to his talk with Dumbledore. She smiled at him and then looked towards Dumbledore, wondering if he would say anything to her, but instead the Professor turned to face Madam Maxine and began to chat with her.
The dance floor began to fill with couples who had finished their meals. Noticing that Daphne had stopped eating, Harry asked her if she would like to dance. Daphne smiled and agreed and they walked hand in hand to begin dancing. The other couples seemed to automatically back away from them and make room, not that Harry minded. Harry's nervousness from the first dance had vanished now that they were not one of only four couples dancing. The current song was quite a bit slower, and Harry instinctually pulled her closer. He was pleased to see her smile when he did. For that moment Harry didn't care what anyone in the world said or thought because there was nowhere he would rather be. Unfortunately, their moment was about to be disturbed.
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