How It Started

Chapter 21 - Selina Black

"Ow Pansy that hurts" I said reaching for my hair where she had just pulled it, Hard.
"Oh shut up, beauty is pain" she responded quite condescendingly. Pansy had insisted that for the Ball she would do my hair, I agreed unknowing just how painful that would be.
"Not this painful" I mumbled under my breath, I glanced up into the mirror and saw her glare at me, I laughed at this. After another round of torture in the form of hair pulling, Pansy let out a sigh.
"Done" she explained
"Thank god" I laughed as she reluctantly joined in. I looked up into the mirror amazed at just how good she had done. My hair was now curled and fell into a loose fitting pony tail. I had told her I wanted to do my own make up, mostly because I was scared she would try and poke my eye out.
"Thanks Pansy" I said getting up.
I was wearing a floor length satin black dress with a slit up the left leg, the dress itself was held up by spaghetti straps, and contained an open back which had an alternating cris cross pattern which fell into a tied up bow. The dress had been sent to me, thanks to the smiths, although I had told them about my father reappearance, they still insisted on being apart of my life.

As we approached the Yule Ball I could already hear music playing, thankfully I noticed a few more people coming down the stairs and entering the ball, at least we weren't the only ones late.
"They're all looking at you" I heard Pansy whisper, I had been solely focused on walking down the stairs without falling when I realised I actually hadn't looked up, when I finally did I saw a lot of eyes looking in my direction. I could feel my cheeks getting hotter, I took my last step as I dismounted the stairs and walked over to Draco and the rest of the slytherin crew.
"Did we miss anything?" I asked avoiding eye contact with anyone
"No, not much I think the nominations dance is about to begin though" Theo said looking directly at me, I nodded at this
"You look beautiful Selina" Draco said quietly
"I uh, thanks Malfoy" I said awkwardly walking to the edge of the room as the music started playing informing everyone of the first dance between the nominations and their dates. I watched as the dance floor came alive, I couldn't help but admire Harry and Vesper as they danced, they were good for each other you could just see that by the way she looked at him, and he looked at her. Eventually the song came to a close and I felt someone take my hand. I looked down at my hand then glanced up to see Theo smiling.
"So you want to dance?" He asked, before I could respond he lightly pulled me over to the dance floor, I had to be honest I was not a very good dancer but Mcgonagall's lessons had surely helped. The ball was fun, but as I found myself dancing I couldn't help but notice Theo was distracted, his eyes kept darting over to Tracey Davis a fellow slytherin. I had, had a feeling for a while that he had liked her, he was probably going to ask her to the ball before I practically forced him to go with me. I stopped dancing and looked at him.
"What?" He asked
"I think you should go dance with Davis" I lightly yelled over the commotion of the room
"Are you sure? I mean what are you going to do?" He asked, I saw his face change slightly he looked excited
"Um I was going to grab a drink anyway, go on" I said pushing him away.

There wasn't any point going back into the dance floor, everyone else looked to be having fun dancing. I scanned the room looking for a seat, I locked eyes with Fred, I waved and he waved back before looking back at a now annoyed Angelina, I wonder what her problem was.

I saw Ron sitting alone, I didn't know why I did it but I decided to walk over to him. I sat down next to him, he looked almost sad to be here, I mean if I was wearing the dress robes he was I would probably be sad to.
"What do you want?" He asked immediately
"Do I really need a reason to sit here?" I teased back
"Well you've been a real bitch the last couple of years so I would assume so" he responded, I had to admit what he was saying was true.
"You're right, I'm sorry did you have a date for the ball?" I said he side eyed me before responding
"I did, I was supposed to go with Padma Patil although I guess I wasn't in the mood for a ball"
"Let me guess you didn't ask hermione quick enough before Krum did" I mumbled now looking at hermione dancing with krum, Ron didn't say anything back
"Well I didn't ask or get asked by the person I wanted to, not to mention my date is now dancing with the girl he was going to invite" I said laughing, it sounded pathetic outloud, I heard ron start laughing beside me
"Why are you being nice to me?" Ron asked suddenly
"Guess I had a change of heart, you know what let's dance" I said standing suddenly. I held out my hand to a very shocked face of Ron Weasley.
"Well you can dance can't you?" I asked as he took my hand. I walked us over to the dancing floor and we started to dance, I couldn't help but notice the glare I received from Draco. At this point I didn't care about the stupid feud going on between our groups in fact it didn't even make sense in the first place.

I was having fun dancing with Ron and we spent a lot of the night dancing until he ran off with Harry to go talk to hermione. I waved goodbye as he did so. The ball was dying out anyway, most people including my normal friendship group had left, only a few people remained inside.
"What's your deal" I jumped hearing a voice behind me, I spun around to see vesper
"Excuse me" I asked
"Well you obviously want something after all why would you dance with Ron?" She asked her eyebrows slightly raised
"Nice to see the Malfoy politeness went to both children" i snickered
"I just wanted some company" I said immediately after
"Whatever" she said starting to turn away
"You know what...... I'm sorry" I practically yelled, I didn't care about the people around me
"What?" She asked still facing away from me
"I'm sorry, for shutting you out, pretending you didn't exist and abandoning you when you needed me the most, truth is I've missed you, I never meant for any of that to effect us like it did, I just want things to go back to the way they were, I never stopped hoping you would come back and we could be friends again, I missed you Vess" I said ranting on.

Just like I had said, I meant every word. I had been friends with her until I stopped reaching out when I moved into the muggle world. She needed me and I new that, I just never reached back out, instead I chose to shut her out and be mean. It hurt so much less to be mean then it did to try and fix what I had broken.

"I know you probably don't want to hear any of this but I'm sorry, so sorry" I said my voice breaking slightly, I felt the tears run down my face but I didn't care. She spun around at this, her eyes slightly welling. After moments of silence, and just us looking directly at each other she spoke.
"I forgive you" she said before walking over to me. I opened my arms and for the first time in a long time we hugged, I knew it wasn't all over, but it was a start, a very good start.