Closest To Heaven That I'll Ever Be. *Complete*

41. Yule Ball

After our guests had left for the night with Kingsley and Joanna, the rest of us stood there with our mouths open, not exactly knowing what to do. 

"Did she....did she say..." Blaise turned to look at us. "What did she say?"

George looked proudly up at him. "She said you would be receiving the Golden wand." He jumped up and lifted Blaise into the air. "I am so happy for you."

Hermione looked lost. "I'm sorry. What is the Golden Wand? I thought the biggest honour a wizard could receive was the Order of Merlin First Class?"

Draco was looking at the floor in shock.

"Honey," Ron said, taking her hand. "The Order of Merlin First Class is an astounding award to be given. Only the likes of Ministers and award-winning curse breakers and the likes receive it. But a Golden Wand? Well, besides Vicência herself, I think the only one who ever received it was -"

"My uncle," I whispered in disbelief. "He didn't want to accept it, though. He said he was unworthy."

"I know the feeling," Draco muttered.

"It's a phenomenal achievement to get. Percy said they talked about giving it to Harry, but they decided because it was only a UK based threat at the time that the Order of Merlin would suffice. This is epic." George was beaming.

"So it's like a Nobel Prize?" Hermione asked. 

"Who would give a prize for no bells?" Ron asked confused. Hermione just shook her head.

"Why would they want to award us this honour?" I asked confused. I mean, I knew we did good work, but Mother of Merlin we didn't do that good. "It's for people who have -"

"Changed the world?" Ron asked. "You mean exactly like what you have done?"

I looked to Draco, who was still looking at the floor. "What's wrong?" I asked, taking his hand. 

He didn't look up. "I don't deserve this," he shrugged. 

"What?" Hermione gasped. 
"Hell yeah, you do!" George protested.
"Don't be stupid, mate," Ron argued. 

"I don't," he said louder. "All I did was back it financially and -"

"And look after all the legal stuff, stay up with me late at night while I did research, help make sure this idea took off, helping me build it in any way you could," I laughed. 

"But you actually built the thing," he protested. 

"Hermione was a huge help in the building and got me muggle parts I needed. You and Blaise researched every known wizarding medibook there was and spent hours scanning the pages into the system for me. You paid for quite a bit of it, even though you were struggling. All four of us put our whole lives on hold to get this right. I literally put my blood into it that day I hit my head. We are all equal partners."

He looked up at me and could tell from my face that I wasn't going to budge. He looked around the room. "This is going to be a life changing award."

"Yeah," Blaise gave a content sigh. "My mother can't try to marry me off to anyone now. I am an award winner and I choose my own partner."

"Well," George huffed. "Let me meet 'em when you do."

Blaise kissed his cheek. "Like it would be anyone but you."

"Draco is right. Our lives are going to change, drastically," Hermione said, biting her lip. "There won't be a witch or wizard alive you will not have heard of this machine if it takes off. We have saved lives in so many ways."