HOGWARTS GRAND OPENING BALL
Date: Saturday, 26 August
Time: 6:00 p.m. to Midnight
Place: Hogwarts Great Hall and Grounds
Characters Involved: Everyone! Don't forget to add your character's tag if you join the thread!
Rating: Hopefully not more than PG-13 - this is a public location, folks! Take your libidos 'home' for higher-rated stuff please! *grin*
( But first, before the dancing could begin, the Headmistress would address the crowd. )
Time: 6:00 p.m. to Midnight
Place: Hogwarts Great Hall and Grounds
Characters Involved: Everyone! Don't forget to add your character's tag if you join the thread!
Rating: Hopefully not more than PG-13 - this is a public location, folks! Take your libidos 'home' for higher-rated stuff please! *grin*
( But first, before the dancing could begin, the Headmistress would address the crowd. )
Leave it to McGonagall to come up with a way to revamp the entire running of the school instead of just the physical building. Harry smirked and nodded slightly as she finished speaking, keeping his own thoughts on the changes to himself.
What would the Sorting Hat said to me as a fifth year? Would I be wearing green right now if I had spent a year under Snape's supervision? Harry glanced down, running a hand over the red of his tie before his gaze settled on the man standing next to him. How much could have been different?
Harry shook the thought from his mind as McGonagall stepped down from her podium and nodded to the DJ. He didn't hesitate to start the applause as palms came together, sharp and loud. Harry knew first hand the damage house rivalries could do and how deeply they buried themselves into your thinking. He made no excuse for himself, his thoughts, his biases or kidded himself that he'd be able to unhinge them after so many years, not completely anyhow. But that didn't mean it had to be like that forever...not now.
Good on you, Headmistress...good on you.
Harry settled a hand on Draco's shoulder and leaned in close to his ear to be heard over the din of the crowd.
"Just think, we could have shared a dorm room for four years..." He chuckled lightly before nodding in the direction of one of the tables lining The Great Hall. "Come on, let's go get a drink."
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It was only with the help of Draco's implacable Malfoy Mask and Harry by his side that Draco managed to avoid having a freak-out of epic proportions. Merlin . . . he hated this place.
As if things couldn't get any worse, McGonagall had to open up her mouth and start making speeches and declarations about changing the very face of Hogwarts. Draco was sure most everyone else thought this to be a grand idea, eliminating the Sorting during first year. It was going to do things like encourage friendship and harmony. Draco thought it was utterly ridiculous.
Honestly, what was there to Hogwarts without Houses? You had no family, no identity without them. And that was, of course, forgetting the fact that House rivalries started long before you yanked a hat over your ears and had it shout out your home for the next seven years. Draco had been a Slytherin before he was born, he'd been told he would be a Slytherin before he knew what one was. He'd been raised knowing that Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors were below him. Putting off the Sorting a few years wouldn't change that.
It wasn't as if McGonagall could go to the homes of her students and make sure they were raised with equality in mind, after all.
Draco's lip curled at the very idea of no House rivalries and no Sorting and felt a level of disdain for the entire thing that made his stomach churn slightly. Silly. This was so very silly.
Harry's hand on Draco's shoulder caused Draco to jump and relax slightly, and his comment was enough to make Draco smirk warmly and forget about how much he hated the idea of what McGonagall had planned.
"I really would've smothered you in your sleep, then," Draco shot back, nodding to Harry to indicate that a drink sounded like a grand idea.
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"Maybe...but you would have had to get to me first, Malfoy. And who's to say we wouldn't have been the best of mates?" Harry was in the process of bringing his glass to his lips when his own sudden laugh stopped it. "Ok, so I don't even believe that."
Harry leaned back against the table, drink finally making it to his mouth. It was barely into the evening and it seemed like everything was turning on its head already...in true Hogwasrts fashion. Harry wasn't sure he really wanted to think about the pros and the cons of the changes, they were out of his realm of logic or judgment. In any case, if he knew McGonagall, it wasn't up for discussion. And from the look on Draco's face, he wasn't up for discussing it either.
"You up for a friendly wager, Ferret?" Harry smirked, determined to make the evening as enjoyable as possible, despite where they were and the function. It was their...first date? And life just got more complicated by the moment.
"I'm betting...in the spirit of the the new Hogwarts...I can dance with more Slytherins than you can Gryffindors. And the winner...well, the winner gets to decide what he wins when we get home tonight. Up for the challenge?"
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Harry's sigh and subsequent comments drew Draco's attention away from the dance floor and he allowed himself a snort before sipping the drink. He and Harry best mates? Not bloody likely. They would never have gotten along as boys. There was just too much between them for it to ever have worked that way.
Besides which, Draco valued his own skin a bit too much to join Harry on his never-ending, life-threatening, harrowing adventures.
It was a funny thought, though, growing up with Harry outside of House prejudices. Would they have gotten on any better? Probably not. What Draco and Harry felt for one another always had transcended Gryffindor and Slytherin. It was personal. Harry still would've rejected Draco's hand the same way Draco still wouldn't have been able to properly impress him in Madam Malkin's. Just, instead of a good deal of floors, towers and rooms separating them, they would've shared dorms and classes. Which might have made things a good deal more dangerous.
Although . . . Draco glanced sideways at Harry and fought the urge to bite his lip. If they had grown up together that way maybe things would have been different. How they would have been different Draco didn't know and he didn't want to think about it. But he knew something would have changed. It was frightening to think it might have changed for the better.
"A wager?" Draco repeated, listening intently to the terms and straightening with a leer. "I'm always up for a challenge," he drawled, already casting his eyes about the room in search of a suitable candidate for his first dance. "I'm in."
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He settled his drink in the palm of his other hand, fingers curling up from the bottom of the glass as he offered the other to Draco.
"It's settled then. We'll meet back here in..let's say, an hour to check in and keep a running tally. Agreed?" He waited for Draco to take his hand ina firm shake before they went their separate ways to battle out the dance floor.
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