Skill and Seclusion [2] || Harry Potter x OC x Draco Malfoy

133. Tell Me About It

DISCLAIMER

I do not own Harry Potter ... but I'm just as annoyed at Harry and Bel as you are, but it's a SLOW BURN

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December had arrived and bought with it a snowy atmosphere to Hogwarts.

It combined perfectly with the excitement that littered the air for the Yule Ball.

To Bel's immense gratitude, the gossip surrounding her from the article Rita Skeeter had written almost totally died out and was instead replaced over the coming few weeks with such aforementioned excitement.

Well, the girls were all filled with excitement.

The boys, however, weren't.

That had been obvious the second that everyone was made aware they needed to find dates to the ball.

What had immediately begun to ensue was a ruckus of awkward declarations of love, panicked girls who were wondering if they would get asked, stress over what everyone was going to wear. The list was endless.

And amongst all the panic, Bel had found it to be an excellent distraction.

She hadn't been directly interacting with the Cruciatus Curse again since Moody hadn't lifted his demand for her to take a break.

Dumbledore didn't seem any the wiser to her secret lessons during their training practices which were still running smoothly.

Her involvement with the tournament was on pause whilst the champions all figured out the golden egg clue.

All of the strange happenings of that year seemed to melt away and were instead replaced with one large and annoyingly persistent worry Bel had been having.

Harry hadn't asked her to the ball.

In the first week of December, Bel had gone through a hurricane of emotions and thoughts.

It started with her waiting patiently, holding onto a slither of hope that he might ask her to the ball as more than just friends.

But each time she was around him, the boy aggressively avoided the topic of dates to the ball altogether. Especially when Ron asked him who they were going to take out of panic.

That was when it turned into embarrassment. Bel cursed herself for holding out any hope that her best friend would ask her to the ball instead of someone he was romantically interested in.

At that point, she shamefully started to hope that someone else would ask her so she wouldn't have to take up Malfoy's offer.

Axel was of prime interest. But, for a reason Bel now loathed, she avoided the Durmstrang boy just so he couldn't ask her.

To give Harry more time.

Which led onto the third thing Bel had started to feel.

For the first time ever, she was acting deranged because of a boy. Because of a crush.

This was the first step she had taken into the world of romance and, so far, it was simply frustrating her.

She couldn't fathom why she was avoiding a very good-looking older Durmstrang boy in exchange for a delusional hope that her best friend of four years might suddenly see her as something more and ask her instead.

It was infuriating, utterly confusing, and starting to look hopeless with each passing day that Harry either avoided her or didn't bring up the Yule Ball whatsoever.