The Boy Who Does Not Belong Here (part 1)

Ch.11 Yule Ball

"Where the hell Wilhelm is lagging?", Rosh groaned, when they were standing in front of the Great Hall doors. People were running back and forth in the lobby, some looking their dance partners and most of the girls kept on running to the bathroom.

"How the hell I should know! I ran to him when he was coming back from his meeting with his mom. Some political stuff maybe. He said he would be ready soon and asked me to wait him", Simon replied and kept on glancing the staircase that led from Gryffindor Tower to the lobby.

Wilhelm had been running in the shower at the point, when Simon had already been pulling his burgundy dressing robe on. Or actually the robe was not his. I was Ayub's little brother's old-one. Well Simon did not have the money to buy clothes, he was going to use once a year and he wanted his mother to use the little money they have to Sara's dress. It was hard to be a girl sometimes, and people would remember if someone used the same dress every year. But no-one cared, what Simon was wearing, so he could use second hand. And Ayub's brother did have a growth spurt this year, so the robe was without helping too small for the boy. Simon just had to settle to his destiny, that he was using the fourteen-year-old boy's old robe, because it was too small to that exact fourteen-year-old...

Rosh and Ayub's dates seemed to become a bit uncomfortable just standing there and he was just about to suggest the others go in, when the familiar dirty-blond haired boy appeared on the stairs.

Simon literally had to clench his hand in a fist because shit Wilhelm looked good. The boy was wearing a dark blue dressing robe and his hair was so clean, that it curled bit behind his ears. His face was a bit red because he had obviously been running the whole way to the Hall.

But what made Simon's stomach twist and heart ache was a single white rose on Wilhelm's left label. Students had a habit of wearing matching flowers on the ball night, boys on their labels and girls on their wrists. So Wilhelm had a date... They had not talked about the subject after that one night two weeks ago, when Simon had also told the boy about his sexuality. So maybe Wille had asked someone, or he finally accepted one of the girls' invites. But Simon had to just swallow his feelings and show a happy face. It was not Wille's fault, it was Simon's own problematic feelings that made the situation difficult.

So he just smiled and waved to Wille. The boy finally spotted them and smiled so widely back, that Simon almost forgot his disappointment. Wille ran to them and offered everybody a hug.

"Sorry I'm late! The meeting kept on going and going", he apologized "Shall we go in?"

"But Wille, how about your date?", Ayub asked before anyone started to move and gestured the rose on Wille's label.

"Oh right!", Wille jumped in. Simon just pressed his gaze on the floor. He seriously did not want to meet this girl! He did not want to see her beautiful dress and matching wrist flower. He did not want to see how perfect the girl and Wille would look together. And he definitely did not want to see a smiley Wille dancing with her all night and then disappear to Merlin knows where...

"Simon", Wilhelm's voice suddenly said next to him, and he had to collect all his strength to look back up.

But he did not see a pretty girl standing next to Wilhelm, wearing a matching white rose on her wrist. He saw Wille looking at him with a nervous smile, holding an identical white rose boutonniere on his palm. Simon's eyes just jumped between Wille's face and the rose. What the hell was going on?

Wilhelm probably noticed that Simon did not understand the whole situation at all, so he cleared his throat and started to speak.

"Rosh told me couple of weeks ago to ask someone to the ball, I really want to spend the evening with. So Simon, would you go to the Yule Ball with me tonight?"