Slytherin

DISCLAIMER: Sadly, I do not own any of the characters of Harry Potter. I do, in fact, own Paige and the other characters that you don’t recognize. I made up most of this cuz this is, as you all know, a fanfiction and I can do whatever I please because I control it! Muwahahaha! Boy this is a long disclaimer…

Professor Snape dragged us all into an empty classroom in the dungeons one day, and separated the boys and girls onto either side of the room.

The room had been cleaned out, with chairs pushed up against each side of the wall. The center of the room was completely bear, except for a table which held a very large, old-fashioned record player. No one had a clue about what was going on.

Before anyone could begin to question him about what was happening, he began to explain.

“There is going to be a dance at Hogwarts on Christmas day,” he started monotonously, getting right to the point. He continued over the squeals of girls in the room. “I will need to teach you each to ballroom dance. Everyone partner up. Professor Sinestra and I will exemplify proper dancing etiquette.”

But no one was paying any attention to them: they were all trying to grab a partner. I cast my eyes over in Draco’s direction, but he already had a crowd of girls around him. It appeared as if he was drowning in a sea of girls; I could barely see the top of his shiny, blond head.

I chuckled to myself and grabbed a random boy, making sure that he was somewhat decent.

“Paige?” Paul Jolkins exclaimed, his face incredulous. “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Yeah, fancy that, eh?” I answered, smiling. He held out his left hand and I took it, placing my left on his shoulder. I felt his free arm wrap around my back.

“Got a date to the ball yet?” he asked, a smirk playing on his lips. He knew just as well as everyone else that Draco was the only one I would be allowed to go with.

“I’ve had my eye on something,” I said with a shrug. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, making his way through the crowd with Pansy in his arms. “Something blond, possessive, and a little wimpy.”

Paul looked up at his bangs, and sighed when he saw the color.

“So that’s not me then,” he said in fake disappointment. “If you ever want something brunette, possessive, and a little beefy, let me know.”

I laughed at him, and took pleasure in the jealous look Draco was sending us.

Before we could finish our conversation, I felt my arm being pulled back and my body colliding with the Prince.

“We are going together.” Were the first words out of his mouth. I could not help but snort. He never will change, will he?

“Oh we are, are we?” I asked raising an eyebrow. “I don’t ever remember you asking me. Must’ve missed it.”

“Oh please,” he returned, rolling his eyes. “Everyone knows that we are going together, so no one else will ask you.”

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. “You’re probably right. Why are you so damn intimidating?”

“Part of my charm, babe.”

I smiled when he called me babe. I must’ve looked like a love-struck teenager because…well I was. I probably had some dumbass smile displayed across my face as Draco brought my lips closer to his. But who wouldn’t?

“Malfoy, Hollands,” Snape’s voice rudely chimed in. Both of our heads pulled away quickly. I was embarrassed while Draco looked cocky. “Please refrain from any public display of affection. Thank you.”

“Kind of wish Potter was here right now,” Draco said as Snape trudged away, surprising me.

“You do?” I inquired, raising my eyebrows in surprise. “You want to dance with him instead of me?”

“No that’s not what I meant,” he answered, rolling his eyes. “If Potter were here, Snape would’ve let us get away with anything.”

“You do have a point,” I said, nodding my head in agreement. “But that’s ok. We still have the common room where we shouldn’t have any teacher-like interruptions.”

He smirked at this, and I could tell that he wanted to lean in again, but knew better.

********

The next few days came rather fast, and everyone was rather thankful for it. No one wanted to wait for the Yule Ball, including myself. But I knew that I needed to begin making plans for a dress, shoes, a hair style, etc.

I needed to get to work straight away. My plan was that I would shove a dress robe magazine into my Transfiguration book during class and…probably get caught by McGonagle. So the truth was I had no plan. I guess it will have to wait until after classes have ended for the day. Thank goodness it was Friday.

I made my way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As soon as I walked in, half of the Gryffindor table waved me over, stopping me in my tracks. They were all grouped together, listening to something.

I curiously walked over to them, to see what all the commotion about.

“What’s going-”

They all shushed me before I could finish. The cluster included the Weasley twins, Ron, Harry, Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, and a couple of others that I did not recognize. I noticed Hermione was sitting at the far end of the table, glaring at the crowd occasionally. I also noticed that there was an absence of Neville.

The twins brought me into the middle of the group and thrust some sort of fake ear into my ear, and I tried to cry out in disgust, only to be silenced once more. Through the grotesque ear, I heard Neville’s voice.

“I…I wanted…to…” he muttered shyly, his quiet voice shaking. His voice echoed in the ear.

“I wa-wa-wa-wanted t-t-t-t-to,” Draco mocked him, followed by a snickering voices. “Spit it out, Longbottom. I don’t want to waste anymore of my life on you.”

There was silence for a few brief moments, and I took this opportunity to stand up and look around. I followed the flesh-colored cord that was connected to the ear all the way to the Slytherin table. Neville was standing directly in front of Draco, looking even more nervous than he sounded. He looked around, as if he was about to chicken out, when he saw me. The rest of the table sat back down in their chairs, trying to act casual. Some whistled, while some stuffed their faces with food. But not me. I gave him a curious look and tilted my head to the side. He pursed his lips and turned around to face Draco once more. And suddenly, Neville belted out what he wanted to say.

“I wanted your permission to ask Paige to the Yule Ball.”

He had never sounded so confident in his life.

Everyone in the group heard this outburst, and all eyes were then on me. But I wasn’t paying any attention to them; I was running away from the table to the two of them, for I knew that this was not going to end well. Draco was going to curse him, or hex him, or worse. I had to stop this before anything bad happens to my Neville.

“Paige, wait!” the twins called out in unison, each grabbing one of my arms and earning themselves strange looks from the staff table.

“Draco’s going to hurt Neville!” I cried out, trying to pry myself from their grips. “I have to help him!”

“I think he’s going to be alright,” the one on the right told me. They both dragged me back to the ear, and tried to continue to listen, but the conversation had already ended.

“What happened?” I asked the group worriedly. They all looked at me, eyes wide. “What did Draco say?”

“He said…” Harry began, quietly, as if in shock. “He said ok.”

“To be specific, he said ‘Do whatever you want, I don’t care. She’s not mine,’” Ron elaborated, scratching the back of his head.

“Wait, he gave Neville permission?” I asked, my jaw dropping.

“Inadvertently, yes,” Harry answered when no one else would. “Looks like you’ve got yourself a date.”

He gave me a friendly smile.

“Here he comes!” Seamus informed the table, and sure enough, when I turned around, there was Neville, as awestruck as the rest of us.

He stopped right in front of me, and everyone went along doing their business, staying close in the vicinity in order to her what was going to happen next. Neville was looking at the ground when I called his name out.

“Neville?”

He looked at me, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion, for a brief second. Then, he pulled me into a deep embrace. He wrapped his one arm around my head and the other around my waist.

“Neville?” I asked again, baffled. “What’s going on?”

“Draco,” he began, his voice muffled through my hair. “He’s, he’s letting me take you to the Yule Ball. He said it was ok.”

He pulled away and smiled at me, completely overjoyed. I turned to look at Draco, to see what his expression was, but his back was turned to me. A lot of Slytherins were giving him strange looks.

“Isn’t that great, Paige?” Neville asked, forcing me to look at him. When I didn’t say anything, his smile faltered a bit. “Will you go with me?”

I blinked.

“I…I…” I stuttered, not knowing what to say.

I loved Neville, he knew that, but…I wanted to go with Draco.

“I need…I need to go sit down,” I told him, the words coming out rushed.

I ran away, all the way to the Slytherin table and sat myself next to Draco. I didn’t look back. I knew that Neville’s face would express hurt. I ran anyways.

“Why did you do that?” I demanded as soon as I had taken my seat. “I thought that we were going together?”

Draco said nothing for a second. He just sat there, nibbling on a piece of toast. Finally, he looked up at me and spoke.

“This is how I am proving myself to you,” he answered quietly, standing up. “I am letting you go, just for one night.”

And then he just walked away. I sat there, completely dumbfounded at what had just happened. I looked towards the Gryffindor table, and saw that Neville was nowhere in sight. I began rubbing my eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted. I had lost my appetite, so I got up to leave. As soon as I had left, a voice called out to me.

“Paige!” Neville’s sweet voice rang out. But he did not sound very happy. He sounded upset. “Why didn’t you answer me?”

“Neville, I don’t know,” I told him honestly. “Everything took me by surprise. I mean, you asked Draco for permission to take me to the Yule Ball, and he said yes. You’ve got to give me some time to get over that shock.”

“Have you had enough time yet?”

I sighed, and braced myself for what I was about to tell him.

“I want to go with Draco,” I told him truthfully and honestly. “I was supposed to. He’s my dream date.”

Neville pulled his lips in tight, and brushed his hands through his hair.

“I knew it,” he began, angry. “I just knew it. Do you have any idea what I went through? How much courage I had to get up just to confront Draco?”

“I know, you were so brave!” I told him, trying to grab his hand, but he pulled away, looking at me as if I were some wild animal. “I was impressed.”

“You are the most selfish girl I have ever met!” he yelled at me, turning around in circles. He reminded me of a chicken running around with its head cut off.

“Me? Selfish?” I demanded, myself starting to grow angry. “How many times have I stood up for you? Huh? How many times have I helped you? Defended you?”

“You did that all just to get Malfoy’s attention,” he growled at me, and I took a step back. “You were rebelling against the Slytherins. Helping me was your way of getting back at them. But now that they all like you and you’re popular, and you’re the bloody Slytherin princess, all you care about is staying with them. Being a Slytherin.”

“What do you expect me to do?” I asked him, crossing my arms. I noticed that there was a small crowd gathering at the entrance of the Great Hall. “I’m in Slytherin. I have to act like a Slytherin.”

“No you don’t. You want to. All you care about is being liked. And to get liked, according to you, you have to be a complete and total jerk.” At this point, he was breathing heavily. I had never seen him so upset before. “Don’t you care about being a good person?”

I went to say something, to respond to his comment, but I knew that he was right. I was a terrible person. What had happened to me? This was not what I wanted.

“Neville…” I began, but did not know how to continue. I bit my lip, and felt the tears start to well up in my eyes.

“Don’t ever talk to me again,” he told me quietly, and walked away to the Grand Staircase.

I didn’t go after him.