#192: You shall go to the ball.
Prompt: #192
Title: You shall go to the ball.
Pairing: Jongdae/Liyin
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3580
Summary: Jongdae just wants to ask that pretty 7th year Ravenclaw to the Yule ball. Why must it be so hard?!
“He's looking in this direction again,” Luna whispered as she nudged Liyin in the side with an elbow, jostling Liyin's writing arm.
Liyin squeaked in surprise as the nib of her quill scratched messily across her almost complete Charms homework, and she pulled a face at her friend. With a quiet huff of exasperation, she reached for her wand and with an elegant wave, undid the mistake.
"Oh, nevermind," Luna giggled, "he tripped on a bench." With her hand covering her mouth, she giggled again, harder this time so that the mismatched earrings dangling from her piercings jingled merrily in the otherwise quiet Great Hall. "He's so silly. You didn't even look at him but he still managed to trip himself up."
"Who're you even talking about?" Liyin asked.
"Who else but him," Luna answered, tilting the feathered end of her quill towards the next table over, where the Slytherins were gathered. "You know, your secret admirer."
Liyin's eyes followed the shaft of her friend's quill and her gaze landed on a cute looking Asian boy in green and silver uniform attempting to tug the hem of his cloak free from where it had snagged on the wooden bench. Beside him, two boys were laughing at their friend's misfortune, making no move to even help him.
"Oh," she breathed out softly, "him."
"Yeah," Luna said, "him; Jongdae Kim, I think is his name. He's a Fifth year Slytherin, by the looks of those books under his arms." She paused to look down at her essay and to put her quill to parchment before continuing her train of thought. "He looks at you a lot you know; whenever he gets a chance to, he'll look for you."
Liyin made a quiet noise of agreement, bobbing her head in a small nod before turning her attention away from the commotion near the entrance. "So everyone has told me," she murmured, "but I don't understand why."
The soft scratch of Luna's quill paused and when Liyin turned to find out why, she found her friend staring at her.
"What is it?" she asked, confused because while she'd seen this face on her friend many times before, it had never been directed at her.
"How can you not understand?" Luna voiced in wonderment. "It's so obvious!"
Liyin made a skeptical face. "How is it obvious if I don't get it?"
Luna continued to make a bewildered expression at Liyin but their next period was going to begin soon so instead, she nudged the other girl to pack up so they could get going.
"Will you stop?" Jongdae hissed, slamming his fist none too gently into the taller boy's upper arm with each word.
Chanyeol was still laughing his loud, obnoxious laugh, even after he, Jongdae and Baekhyun had made it in and out of the Slytherin dungeons to dump their bags and collect their brooms - and beater bats, in the case of Jongdae and Baekhyun - and were halfway across the school grounds to the Quidditch pitch. Baekhyun, whilst still looking thoroughly amused by everything, had long stopped laughing at Jongdae's misfortunes; it was the only reason why he had escaped the other's physical abuse.
"I still can't believe you tripped on the bench, though," Chanyeol said, "the bench. She wasn't even turning to look in our direction - she was just turning to look at her friend in the opposite direction - but you still tripped up."
No sooner had those words left his mouth, he was laughing again, his whole body shuddering with his guffaws. He almost let go of the broom he was carrying over his shoulder and Jongdae had to forcefully shove the taller boy away from him so that the other's broom wouldn't accidently hit him on the head.
"Woah there," Chanyeol mock protested, "be careful! You know I can't afford to be injured before the big match on Saturday~ The captain'll have your head! I'm the best Keeper we have, and you know it."
"Yeah, well, watch yourself too," Jongdae huffed, swerving around Baekhyun to put the other between himself and Chanyeol. "If you drop your broom, I'll get a concussion and we'll be down a beater for Saturday's match. Baek's good but he can't keep up with the bludgers all by himself - no offense, mate."
"Well, it's not my fault you're so short~" Chanyeol sing-songed teasingly.
"Yah!" Jongdae yelled, and Chanyeol barked out a laughter before running the last stretch to the Quidditch pitch with Jongdae hot on his heels.
The Great Hall was buzzing with excited chatter when Jongdae entered the next morning for breakfast.
"What's going on?" he asked Baekhyun as he slid into the empty space on the bench beside the other. "What's got everyone so worked up?"
Baekhyun, his face still cloudy with sleep, shrugged, grunting noncommittally as he glared at the spread of food in front of him. Opposite him, Chanyeol chuckled as he buttered a toast before sliding it onto Baekhyun's plate.
"Thanks," Baekhyun muttered, poking the crust with a finger.
"You're very welcome," Chanyeol said whilst buttering another piece of toast for himself. "And to answer your question," he added as he began chewing on his breakfast, "there was an announcement earlier: we're hosting a Yule ball this year."
Jongdae promptly choked on the scrambled eggs he had just put in his mouth. (Baekhyun, unfortunately, wasn't awake enough to pat his back and help dislodge the food going down the wrong windpipe, the arsehole.)
"Are you serious?" he managed to gasp out when he somehow managed to save himself.
"Unless this is Peeves' idea of a joke."
"I'm pretty sure it's not," Baekhyun muttered, his voice still laced with sleep but his eyes looking more awake now that he had food in his system. "I mean, the announcement is right there for everyone to see," he said, gesturing towards the entrance hall of the castle. "And I don't think Professor McGonagall is cruel like that."
"A Yule ball, huh?" Jongdae mused, turning the thought over and over in his mind.
If he were being perfectly honest with himself, the announcement couldn't have come at a more perfect time. They were only one month into the school year but he already felt that he was running out of time; after all, Liyin was already in her Seventh and final year at Hogwarts and if he didn't hurry, he knew he'd miss his chance.
He could still remember the first time he had caught sight of Liyin clearly, as though it had happened only yesterday. It had been on a lazy weekend afternoon, and in agitation, he had wandered by some secluded classrooms tucked away in a corner of the Castle when he heard her sing. Instantly, he had fallen in love with her voice, its rich quality a soothing balm on his unsettled heart that day.
From that day on, he tried looking for any and every opportunity to talk to her, to tell her how much he loved listening to her sing; but every time he managed to catch her by herself, he would be overcome with a bout of shyness and he would back out, choosing instead to smile politely at her, maybe hold the door open, before hurrying on his way again. Instead of declaring himself, he settled for seeking her out with his eyes, the mere sight of her enough to make him feel at peace.
But now he was in Fifth year and Liyin in her Seventh. In a blink of an eye, it would be May and exam season, and after that...
He shuddered, forcefully pushing the thought of Liyin graduating out of his mind. He didn't want to think about that, not yet.
He was suddenly brought back to attention when he blinked and Chanyeol was leaning over the table and grinning - almost leering - right in his face.
"You're going to ask her, aren't you?" It was less of a question than a statement. Jongdae didn't even have a chance to respond before Chanyeol's grin was widening, his expression truly turning into a leer, as he pulled back to sit down. "So, lover boy," he teased, "what's your plan?"
"Flowers," Baekhyun suggested, his words slightly muffled by a second piece of toast. "She looks like a flowers type of person."
There was a rustle as Luna slid into the seat beside Liyin in the library, a loud thump resounding through their section as her bag hit the floor beside its owner's chair.
"Hey Liyin," she greeted. "What're you up to?"
"Charms," answered the addressed girl, her eyes still trained on the words forming under her quill.
"Ever so diligent," Luna laughed. She peered over her friend's shoulder to see how much the other had written. "Professor Flitwick only handed out the assignments yesterday and it's due next week but you're already nearly done with it."
"That's just like our Liyin," a girl on Liyin's other side pointed out.
Luna hummed in agreement as she leant over the arms of the chair to pull out her own books and parchments. "By the way," she began conversationally, arranging her things on the table, "are you going to the ball, Liyin?"
More than a week had passed since the announcement of the Yule Ball had been put up but it was all that anyone talked about these days.
Liyin, though, had more important things to be focusing on - her N.E.W.T. exams, for one, because they were coming up and she absolutely had to get Outstanding grades for all of her classes - and so she pursed her lips, pointedly ignoring her best friend in favour on working on her homework.
"Of course she is," the girl on Liyin's other side exclaimed, leaning round to grin widely at Luna. "I think your question should really be: has lover boy made his move yet?"
Both girls dissolved into muffled giggles on either side of Liyin and she nudged them to remind them of where they were.
"I want to go of course," she said, putting her quill aside. She blew softly across the parchment, waving her hand over the words to speed up the drying process, then rolled up her completed homework. "And no, 'lover boy' has not 'made his move' yet."
"Would you say yes if he asks, though?" Luna asked, curious eyes peering at her friend. She and Liyin's other friends had spent a lot of time teasing her about Jongdae's crush on her, but except for little snippets of information provided by Liyin herself, they knew very little about how Liyin felt about Jongdae. "You should; he looks like a good kid."
Liyin shook her head as she packed up her books. "I'm heading back to the dorms," she announced instead. "I'm knackered."
"Well…?" Baekhyun began one evening, when the three of them had retreated to the Slytherin Common Room after dinner. He was towering over Jongdae, who was curled up in one of the armchairs closest to the fireplace, his hands on his hips and face pulled into a mock menacing expression.
("You look more comical than interrogative, Baek," Chanyeol pointed out quietly from the side.
"Hush," Baekhyun snapped back, his tone a little irritated.)
"Well… what?" Jongdae asked blankly, blinking up at his best friend in confusion.
Baekhyun clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes exasperatedly, as though he were dealing with a wayward child. "Have you asked her yet?"
"N-no," he stuttered, tongue tripping over his words.
At that, Baekhyun's expression turned into a frown and he leaned in close, squinting his eyes at his fellow beater. "It's been weeks, Jongdae," he hissed.
"Two and a half, actually," Chanyeol corrected. "He still has plenty of time. Don't scare him so much."
"Have you seen Liyin, though?" Baekhyun poked a bony finger into Jongdae's chest, aiming for the soft flesh between the rungs of his ribs. "She may not be my type, but she's gorgeous. If you don't act soon someone else is going to ask her and she'll accept, and then you'll be left a moody, whiny mess." He crouched down so he could meet Jongdae eye-to-eye. "I may be your best friend, Jongdae, but I'm not that sympathetic a person."
"You say that..." Jongdae murmured, letting his voice trail off because no matter how much Baekhyun claimed he wouldn't go that extra mile for his friends, they all knew he'd do one better: he'd go to the ends of the Earth and back.
Baekhyun punched Jongdae in the arm, but it was a punch that lacked ferocity.
It wasn't that Jongdae didn't want to ask the pretty 7th year Ravenclaw he'd been pining after since who-knows-when to go to the Yule ball with him - he just didn't know how. Sure, Baekhyun had joked about getting her flowers - and he hadn't discounted the idea because Liyin did look like a flowers kind of girl - but what would he say as he presented the flowers to her?
"Don't think too much about it," Chanyeol advised, when Jongdae poured his worries out in a particularly strong moment of panic.
"But I can't not think about it," Jongdae whined, dramatically flopping over onto the sofa. "In fact, I can't stop thinking about it."
Chanyeol clicked his tongue as he turned to eye his friend apprehensively. "Honestly," he said, "you're working yourself up over nothing. Just go up to her and ask. I'm pretty sure she knows who you are by now; what with the way you keep making a fool of yourself, I'd be surprised if you weren't the butt of her friends' jokes."
"You're not helping," Jongdae moaned, pulling a face at the taller boy. "How do I even 'just go up to her'? She's a goddess. I can't just-!" In frustration, Jongdae threw his hands up with a huff.
Once he had deflated back onto the plush cushions of the sofa, Chanyeol put down the book he had been reading.
"Look," he said, his voice carrying a tone of finality, "don't think about it too hard. When you find the chance, just go up to her and ask her. You'll know when it's time."
The chance Chanyeol spoke of turned up on a dreary November noontime, after a particularly grueling Potions lesson.
"Dude," Jongdae groaned when they finally - finally - slumped down on their usual bench in the Great Hall, "too much."
"I can feel my head splitting open," Baekhyun cried, his head lolling sideways onto Chanyeol's chest. "Brain. Breaking. Ow."
"How long until Christmas break?" Chanyeol moaned.
"Too long."
Baekhyun whined, high pitched and frustrated.
They lay there in a heap as the Hall filled up with hungry students around them. Eventually, their empty stomachs won over their exhaustion and they pushed themselves up to eat.
"Speaking of Christmas, Jongdae," Baekhyun began, after a moment, "the Yule ball."
"What about it?"
"You have, like, a month," Baekhyun pointed out, jabbing a chicken leg in the air as he emphasised the last word. "If you don't ask her in the next 24 hours, I'm going to ask her and I'm not going to let you have a dance with her, best friend or not."
"You wouldn't," Jongdae gasped, horrified at the idea. He stared at his best friend incredulously, not at all believing the words that passed the older boy's lips.
"You have 24 hours," Baekhyun warned.
For the first time since the beginning of their friendship, Jongdae felt a shiver of fear ripple up his spine. Not even when they were 5 and he had accidently crashed into Baekhyun on his toy broom in the Byun's gardens, causing the boy to raise the biggest ruckus with their parents, had he felt this scared.
"Look," Chanyeol suddenly cut in, jamming his large elbow into Jongdae's rib.
Jongdae spluttered, dropping the sandwich he had been eating, and turned to glare at his giant of a friend.
"No, seriously," said giant continued, pointing a finger towards the Ravenclaw table, "someone's talking to your girl. He looks nervous."
"Maybe he's going to ask her to he his date," Baekhyun mused. "At least someone's got the balls."
Jongdae growled as Chanyeol laughed.
"That's the spirit," the taller boy sniggered. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, he looks dejected so if he had asked her to the ball, she's rejected him. Now's your chance!"
Before Jongdae could protest, Baekhyun forcibly ejected him from the bench, pushing him up and away from them.
"You're not allowed back until you've asked her to the ball."
"How would you know if I've asked her or not?" Jongdae asked, but Baekhyun had resolutely turned back to his food.
Liyin's friends were giggling uncontrollably when Jongdae approached her. When Luna looked up and saw him, though, she gently nudged the girl beside her and they stopped abruptly, choosing instead to look up at him in awe.
"Um…" he began nervously, "Liyin?"
The girl looked up in surprise. "Oh," she breathed.
"C-can…" He swallowed. When he looked down, he found that he had unconsciously started playing with his fingers, locking and unlocking them around each other.
"Are you okay?" she asked kindly, one of her hands reaching out to cover his.
For a split second, his brain malfunctioned, feeling only the warmth of her palm over the back of his hand and seeing only the way she gazed up at him unassumingly. When she tilted her head slightly, her expression turning curious, he felt something cave within him and the words gushed out.
"Willyougototheballwithem?"
There was silence for a split second as Liyin blinked at him, uncomprehending.
And then someone snorted from beside her and Jongdae looked away, wishing for the floor to swallow him whole.
"Ignore them," Liyin said reassuringly, pointedly nudging her friends. "Could you say that again? I didn't quite catch what you said."
Jongdae pursed his lips, shaking his head.
"Oh," she breathed, and when he looked, she had turned her face away, her expression so crestfallen he scrambled to think of a way to lift the frown into a smile again. Because she looked prettiest when she smiled.
"It- it was nothing important!" he stuttered hastily. "I---"
"You don't have to explain yourself. I just wanted to make sure I heard what you wanted me to hear."
He inhaled sharply, not sure what she meant by those words. "What…" He paused, gathering strength, in case she hadn't heard him right and he would have to ask again. "What did you think I said?"
When she turned to face him again, there was a small but radiant smile on his face.
"Yes," she said resolutely.
"Yes?"
"Yes, I'll go to the ball with you."
He wondered if it was too soon to kiss her.
"There," Baekhyun said when Jongdae eventually returned to the Slytherin table, melting bonelessly onto the bench, "that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Jongdae didn't respond. He was still too high on the fact that Liyin - the Goddess, girl of his dreams - had said yes to going to the ball with him.
At 7 o'clock sharp on the night of the Yule ball, Jongdae waited at the foot of the Grand Staircase in his best dress robes, fingers playing the with hem of his sleeves. When he looked up, he saw Chanyeol and Baekhyun grinning encouragingly at him from just inside the entrance of the decorated Great Hall. He made a shooing gesture with his hands, frowning at his best friends.
From behind him, a soft cough sounded, and he whirled around.
It was Luna, dressed in a dress made up of a mish-mash of contrasting brightly coloured fabrics. She giggled at the crestfallen expression on his face when he realised she wasn't who he was waiting for.
"She'll be done in a moment," she answered preemptively, "but you should keep looking in this direction so you don't miss her."
And then she wandered away, towards the other end of the Staircase, where her date awaited her. He watched after her, the edges of his lips curling in amusement, recalling the moment two weeks ago when she had cornered him after his class and all but threatened him to take care of her friend.
"I definitely will," he had assured her. "I really, really like Liyin and I would never do anything to consciously hurt her."
"Good," she had smiled. Before she had left, she had given him a hint on what she would be wearing. "A light, peachy colour would do, I suppose."
He shook his head, clearing the memories away, and turned to look up the Grand Staircase.
Liyin had arrived, draped from shoulder to toe, in a simple but elegant pastel pink gown.
He couldn't take his eyes off her as she glided down the stairs, the skirt of the dress trailing behind her in a short train. A hand gripped the wooden bannister and he caught sight of a sparkling bracelet adorned around her wrist - the same bracelet he had gifted her a week before.
"Ready?" she asked when she reached him.
"More than ready," he assured her.
He held out an arm to her and she wrapped her hands around it, allowing him to guide her into the Great Hall.
Author's Note: To the prompter, all I can say is thank you for such a great prompt, and I hope I've done it some form of justice. To my Twitter people, thank you for putting up with my yelling and whining through all this, and for holding my hand. Hugs and kisses and batches of cookies all round. To everyone else, enjoy!
Title: You shall go to the ball.
Pairing: Jongdae/Liyin
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 3580
Summary: Jongdae just wants to ask that pretty 7th year Ravenclaw to the Yule ball. Why must it be so hard?!
“He's looking in this direction again,” Luna whispered as she nudged Liyin in the side with an elbow, jostling Liyin's writing arm.
Liyin squeaked in surprise as the nib of her quill scratched messily across her almost complete Charms homework, and she pulled a face at her friend. With a quiet huff of exasperation, she reached for her wand and with an elegant wave, undid the mistake.
"Oh, nevermind," Luna giggled, "he tripped on a bench." With her hand covering her mouth, she giggled again, harder this time so that the mismatched earrings dangling from her piercings jingled merrily in the otherwise quiet Great Hall. "He's so silly. You didn't even look at him but he still managed to trip himself up."
"Who're you even talking about?" Liyin asked.
"Who else but him," Luna answered, tilting the feathered end of her quill towards the next table over, where the Slytherins were gathered. "You know, your secret admirer."
Liyin's eyes followed the shaft of her friend's quill and her gaze landed on a cute looking Asian boy in green and silver uniform attempting to tug the hem of his cloak free from where it had snagged on the wooden bench. Beside him, two boys were laughing at their friend's misfortune, making no move to even help him.
"Oh," she breathed out softly, "him."
"Yeah," Luna said, "him; Jongdae Kim, I think is his name. He's a Fifth year Slytherin, by the looks of those books under his arms." She paused to look down at her essay and to put her quill to parchment before continuing her train of thought. "He looks at you a lot you know; whenever he gets a chance to, he'll look for you."
Liyin made a quiet noise of agreement, bobbing her head in a small nod before turning her attention away from the commotion near the entrance. "So everyone has told me," she murmured, "but I don't understand why."
The soft scratch of Luna's quill paused and when Liyin turned to find out why, she found her friend staring at her.
"What is it?" she asked, confused because while she'd seen this face on her friend many times before, it had never been directed at her.
"How can you not understand?" Luna voiced in wonderment. "It's so obvious!"
Liyin made a skeptical face. "How is it obvious if I don't get it?"
Luna continued to make a bewildered expression at Liyin but their next period was going to begin soon so instead, she nudged the other girl to pack up so they could get going.
"Will you stop?" Jongdae hissed, slamming his fist none too gently into the taller boy's upper arm with each word.
Chanyeol was still laughing his loud, obnoxious laugh, even after he, Jongdae and Baekhyun had made it in and out of the Slytherin dungeons to dump their bags and collect their brooms - and beater bats, in the case of Jongdae and Baekhyun - and were halfway across the school grounds to the Quidditch pitch. Baekhyun, whilst still looking thoroughly amused by everything, had long stopped laughing at Jongdae's misfortunes; it was the only reason why he had escaped the other's physical abuse.
"I still can't believe you tripped on the bench, though," Chanyeol said, "the bench. She wasn't even turning to look in our direction - she was just turning to look at her friend in the opposite direction - but you still tripped up."
No sooner had those words left his mouth, he was laughing again, his whole body shuddering with his guffaws. He almost let go of the broom he was carrying over his shoulder and Jongdae had to forcefully shove the taller boy away from him so that the other's broom wouldn't accidently hit him on the head.
"Woah there," Chanyeol mock protested, "be careful! You know I can't afford to be injured before the big match on Saturday~ The captain'll have your head! I'm the best Keeper we have, and you know it."
"Yeah, well, watch yourself too," Jongdae huffed, swerving around Baekhyun to put the other between himself and Chanyeol. "If you drop your broom, I'll get a concussion and we'll be down a beater for Saturday's match. Baek's good but he can't keep up with the bludgers all by himself - no offense, mate."
"Well, it's not my fault you're so short~" Chanyeol sing-songed teasingly.
"Yah!" Jongdae yelled, and Chanyeol barked out a laughter before running the last stretch to the Quidditch pitch with Jongdae hot on his heels.
The Great Hall was buzzing with excited chatter when Jongdae entered the next morning for breakfast.
"What's going on?" he asked Baekhyun as he slid into the empty space on the bench beside the other. "What's got everyone so worked up?"
Baekhyun, his face still cloudy with sleep, shrugged, grunting noncommittally as he glared at the spread of food in front of him. Opposite him, Chanyeol chuckled as he buttered a toast before sliding it onto Baekhyun's plate.
"Thanks," Baekhyun muttered, poking the crust with a finger.
"You're very welcome," Chanyeol said whilst buttering another piece of toast for himself. "And to answer your question," he added as he began chewing on his breakfast, "there was an announcement earlier: we're hosting a Yule ball this year."
Jongdae promptly choked on the scrambled eggs he had just put in his mouth. (Baekhyun, unfortunately, wasn't awake enough to pat his back and help dislodge the food going down the wrong windpipe, the arsehole.)
"Are you serious?" he managed to gasp out when he somehow managed to save himself.
"Unless this is Peeves' idea of a joke."
"I'm pretty sure it's not," Baekhyun muttered, his voice still laced with sleep but his eyes looking more awake now that he had food in his system. "I mean, the announcement is right there for everyone to see," he said, gesturing towards the entrance hall of the castle. "And I don't think Professor McGonagall is cruel like that."
"A Yule ball, huh?" Jongdae mused, turning the thought over and over in his mind.
If he were being perfectly honest with himself, the announcement couldn't have come at a more perfect time. They were only one month into the school year but he already felt that he was running out of time; after all, Liyin was already in her Seventh and final year at Hogwarts and if he didn't hurry, he knew he'd miss his chance.
He could still remember the first time he had caught sight of Liyin clearly, as though it had happened only yesterday. It had been on a lazy weekend afternoon, and in agitation, he had wandered by some secluded classrooms tucked away in a corner of the Castle when he heard her sing. Instantly, he had fallen in love with her voice, its rich quality a soothing balm on his unsettled heart that day.
From that day on, he tried looking for any and every opportunity to talk to her, to tell her how much he loved listening to her sing; but every time he managed to catch her by herself, he would be overcome with a bout of shyness and he would back out, choosing instead to smile politely at her, maybe hold the door open, before hurrying on his way again. Instead of declaring himself, he settled for seeking her out with his eyes, the mere sight of her enough to make him feel at peace.
But now he was in Fifth year and Liyin in her Seventh. In a blink of an eye, it would be May and exam season, and after that...
He shuddered, forcefully pushing the thought of Liyin graduating out of his mind. He didn't want to think about that, not yet.
He was suddenly brought back to attention when he blinked and Chanyeol was leaning over the table and grinning - almost leering - right in his face.
"You're going to ask her, aren't you?" It was less of a question than a statement. Jongdae didn't even have a chance to respond before Chanyeol's grin was widening, his expression truly turning into a leer, as he pulled back to sit down. "So, lover boy," he teased, "what's your plan?"
"Flowers," Baekhyun suggested, his words slightly muffled by a second piece of toast. "She looks like a flowers type of person."
There was a rustle as Luna slid into the seat beside Liyin in the library, a loud thump resounding through their section as her bag hit the floor beside its owner's chair.
"Hey Liyin," she greeted. "What're you up to?"
"Charms," answered the addressed girl, her eyes still trained on the words forming under her quill.
"Ever so diligent," Luna laughed. She peered over her friend's shoulder to see how much the other had written. "Professor Flitwick only handed out the assignments yesterday and it's due next week but you're already nearly done with it."
"That's just like our Liyin," a girl on Liyin's other side pointed out.
Luna hummed in agreement as she leant over the arms of the chair to pull out her own books and parchments. "By the way," she began conversationally, arranging her things on the table, "are you going to the ball, Liyin?"
More than a week had passed since the announcement of the Yule Ball had been put up but it was all that anyone talked about these days.
Liyin, though, had more important things to be focusing on - her N.E.W.T. exams, for one, because they were coming up and she absolutely had to get Outstanding grades for all of her classes - and so she pursed her lips, pointedly ignoring her best friend in favour on working on her homework.
"Of course she is," the girl on Liyin's other side exclaimed, leaning round to grin widely at Luna. "I think your question should really be: has lover boy made his move yet?"
Both girls dissolved into muffled giggles on either side of Liyin and she nudged them to remind them of where they were.
"I want to go of course," she said, putting her quill aside. She blew softly across the parchment, waving her hand over the words to speed up the drying process, then rolled up her completed homework. "And no, 'lover boy' has not 'made his move' yet."
"Would you say yes if he asks, though?" Luna asked, curious eyes peering at her friend. She and Liyin's other friends had spent a lot of time teasing her about Jongdae's crush on her, but except for little snippets of information provided by Liyin herself, they knew very little about how Liyin felt about Jongdae. "You should; he looks like a good kid."
Liyin shook her head as she packed up her books. "I'm heading back to the dorms," she announced instead. "I'm knackered."
"Well…?" Baekhyun began one evening, when the three of them had retreated to the Slytherin Common Room after dinner. He was towering over Jongdae, who was curled up in one of the armchairs closest to the fireplace, his hands on his hips and face pulled into a mock menacing expression.
("You look more comical than interrogative, Baek," Chanyeol pointed out quietly from the side.
"Hush," Baekhyun snapped back, his tone a little irritated.)
"Well… what?" Jongdae asked blankly, blinking up at his best friend in confusion.
Baekhyun clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes exasperatedly, as though he were dealing with a wayward child. "Have you asked her yet?"
"N-no," he stuttered, tongue tripping over his words.
At that, Baekhyun's expression turned into a frown and he leaned in close, squinting his eyes at his fellow beater. "It's been weeks, Jongdae," he hissed.
"Two and a half, actually," Chanyeol corrected. "He still has plenty of time. Don't scare him so much."
"Have you seen Liyin, though?" Baekhyun poked a bony finger into Jongdae's chest, aiming for the soft flesh between the rungs of his ribs. "She may not be my type, but she's gorgeous. If you don't act soon someone else is going to ask her and she'll accept, and then you'll be left a moody, whiny mess." He crouched down so he could meet Jongdae eye-to-eye. "I may be your best friend, Jongdae, but I'm not that sympathetic a person."
"You say that..." Jongdae murmured, letting his voice trail off because no matter how much Baekhyun claimed he wouldn't go that extra mile for his friends, they all knew he'd do one better: he'd go to the ends of the Earth and back.
Baekhyun punched Jongdae in the arm, but it was a punch that lacked ferocity.
It wasn't that Jongdae didn't want to ask the pretty 7th year Ravenclaw he'd been pining after since who-knows-when to go to the Yule ball with him - he just didn't know how. Sure, Baekhyun had joked about getting her flowers - and he hadn't discounted the idea because Liyin did look like a flowers kind of girl - but what would he say as he presented the flowers to her?
"Don't think too much about it," Chanyeol advised, when Jongdae poured his worries out in a particularly strong moment of panic.
"But I can't not think about it," Jongdae whined, dramatically flopping over onto the sofa. "In fact, I can't stop thinking about it."
Chanyeol clicked his tongue as he turned to eye his friend apprehensively. "Honestly," he said, "you're working yourself up over nothing. Just go up to her and ask. I'm pretty sure she knows who you are by now; what with the way you keep making a fool of yourself, I'd be surprised if you weren't the butt of her friends' jokes."
"You're not helping," Jongdae moaned, pulling a face at the taller boy. "How do I even 'just go up to her'? She's a goddess. I can't just-!" In frustration, Jongdae threw his hands up with a huff.
Once he had deflated back onto the plush cushions of the sofa, Chanyeol put down the book he had been reading.
"Look," he said, his voice carrying a tone of finality, "don't think about it too hard. When you find the chance, just go up to her and ask her. You'll know when it's time."
The chance Chanyeol spoke of turned up on a dreary November noontime, after a particularly grueling Potions lesson.
"Dude," Jongdae groaned when they finally - finally - slumped down on their usual bench in the Great Hall, "too much."
"I can feel my head splitting open," Baekhyun cried, his head lolling sideways onto Chanyeol's chest. "Brain. Breaking. Ow."
"How long until Christmas break?" Chanyeol moaned.
"Too long."
Baekhyun whined, high pitched and frustrated.
They lay there in a heap as the Hall filled up with hungry students around them. Eventually, their empty stomachs won over their exhaustion and they pushed themselves up to eat.
"Speaking of Christmas, Jongdae," Baekhyun began, after a moment, "the Yule ball."
"What about it?"
"You have, like, a month," Baekhyun pointed out, jabbing a chicken leg in the air as he emphasised the last word. "If you don't ask her in the next 24 hours, I'm going to ask her and I'm not going to let you have a dance with her, best friend or not."
"You wouldn't," Jongdae gasped, horrified at the idea. He stared at his best friend incredulously, not at all believing the words that passed the older boy's lips.
"You have 24 hours," Baekhyun warned.
For the first time since the beginning of their friendship, Jongdae felt a shiver of fear ripple up his spine. Not even when they were 5 and he had accidently crashed into Baekhyun on his toy broom in the Byun's gardens, causing the boy to raise the biggest ruckus with their parents, had he felt this scared.
"Look," Chanyeol suddenly cut in, jamming his large elbow into Jongdae's rib.
Jongdae spluttered, dropping the sandwich he had been eating, and turned to glare at his giant of a friend.
"No, seriously," said giant continued, pointing a finger towards the Ravenclaw table, "someone's talking to your girl. He looks nervous."
"Maybe he's going to ask her to he his date," Baekhyun mused. "At least someone's got the balls."
Jongdae growled as Chanyeol laughed.
"That's the spirit," the taller boy sniggered. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, he looks dejected so if he had asked her to the ball, she's rejected him. Now's your chance!"
Before Jongdae could protest, Baekhyun forcibly ejected him from the bench, pushing him up and away from them.
"You're not allowed back until you've asked her to the ball."
"How would you know if I've asked her or not?" Jongdae asked, but Baekhyun had resolutely turned back to his food.
Liyin's friends were giggling uncontrollably when Jongdae approached her. When Luna looked up and saw him, though, she gently nudged the girl beside her and they stopped abruptly, choosing instead to look up at him in awe.
"Um…" he began nervously, "Liyin?"
The girl looked up in surprise. "Oh," she breathed.
"C-can…" He swallowed. When he looked down, he found that he had unconsciously started playing with his fingers, locking and unlocking them around each other.
"Are you okay?" she asked kindly, one of her hands reaching out to cover his.
For a split second, his brain malfunctioned, feeling only the warmth of her palm over the back of his hand and seeing only the way she gazed up at him unassumingly. When she tilted her head slightly, her expression turning curious, he felt something cave within him and the words gushed out.
"Willyougototheballwithem?"
There was silence for a split second as Liyin blinked at him, uncomprehending.
And then someone snorted from beside her and Jongdae looked away, wishing for the floor to swallow him whole.
"Ignore them," Liyin said reassuringly, pointedly nudging her friends. "Could you say that again? I didn't quite catch what you said."
Jongdae pursed his lips, shaking his head.
"Oh," she breathed, and when he looked, she had turned her face away, her expression so crestfallen he scrambled to think of a way to lift the frown into a smile again. Because she looked prettiest when she smiled.
"It- it was nothing important!" he stuttered hastily. "I---"
"You don't have to explain yourself. I just wanted to make sure I heard what you wanted me to hear."
He inhaled sharply, not sure what she meant by those words. "What…" He paused, gathering strength, in case she hadn't heard him right and he would have to ask again. "What did you think I said?"
When she turned to face him again, there was a small but radiant smile on his face.
"Yes," she said resolutely.
"Yes?"
"Yes, I'll go to the ball with you."
He wondered if it was too soon to kiss her.
"There," Baekhyun said when Jongdae eventually returned to the Slytherin table, melting bonelessly onto the bench, "that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Jongdae didn't respond. He was still too high on the fact that Liyin - the Goddess, girl of his dreams - had said yes to going to the ball with him.
At 7 o'clock sharp on the night of the Yule ball, Jongdae waited at the foot of the Grand Staircase in his best dress robes, fingers playing the with hem of his sleeves. When he looked up, he saw Chanyeol and Baekhyun grinning encouragingly at him from just inside the entrance of the decorated Great Hall. He made a shooing gesture with his hands, frowning at his best friends.
From behind him, a soft cough sounded, and he whirled around.
It was Luna, dressed in a dress made up of a mish-mash of contrasting brightly coloured fabrics. She giggled at the crestfallen expression on his face when he realised she wasn't who he was waiting for.
"She'll be done in a moment," she answered preemptively, "but you should keep looking in this direction so you don't miss her."
And then she wandered away, towards the other end of the Staircase, where her date awaited her. He watched after her, the edges of his lips curling in amusement, recalling the moment two weeks ago when she had cornered him after his class and all but threatened him to take care of her friend.
"I definitely will," he had assured her. "I really, really like Liyin and I would never do anything to consciously hurt her."
"Good," she had smiled. Before she had left, she had given him a hint on what she would be wearing. "A light, peachy colour would do, I suppose."
He shook his head, clearing the memories away, and turned to look up the Grand Staircase.
Liyin had arrived, draped from shoulder to toe, in a simple but elegant pastel pink gown.
He couldn't take his eyes off her as she glided down the stairs, the skirt of the dress trailing behind her in a short train. A hand gripped the wooden bannister and he caught sight of a sparkling bracelet adorned around her wrist - the same bracelet he had gifted her a week before.
"Ready?" she asked when she reached him.
"More than ready," he assured her.
He held out an arm to her and she wrapped her hands around it, allowing him to guide her into the Great Hall.
Author's Note: To the prompter, all I can say is thank you for such a great prompt, and I hope I've done it some form of justice. To my Twitter people, thank you for putting up with my yelling and whining through all this, and for holding my hand. Hugs and kisses and batches of cookies all round. To everyone else, enjoy!