The Slowest Heart

The Yule Ball

The Champions and their dates lined up in front of the doors to the Great Hall. McGonagall stood in front of them and cleared her throat.

"Good evening, Champions. We will begin the feast and festivities shortly, but first I will announce the order you are to go in. Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory, and Harry Potter. Please enter in that order."

They shuffled around in order to be in the designated spots and the doors opened. All the other students were sitting at tables, watching them come into the room. The eight Champions and dates ascended to a table at the very front of the hall and sat down.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Dumbledore announced, "The dancing will begin shortly, but first we feast!"

He sat back down and said a few words to his plate, which promptly materialized food. Keoghan decided to copy him.

"Roast beef," she instructed the set in front of her. Sure enough, roast beef appeared. Cedric looked at her with a funny expression on his face, shrugged, and ordered beef wellington.

As the other champions began to get their food, Keoghan looked around. Potter appeared to be interrogating the Weasley sitting with the judges (replacing Barty Crouch, who had gone missing) and forgetting to eat. Fleur Delacour was complaining. Viktor Krum was busy attempting to learn to say his partner's name. Keoghan thought she had snagged the only sane Champion at the table.

"Keoghan," Cedric interrupted her musing, "I would like to introduce you to someone."

He gestured across the table to a girl with black hair. She glanced up from her food and smirked.

"Cho Chang," she introduced herself. "Unfortunately here with Harry Potter."

Keoghan shook her hand over the table. "Keoghan Mercury. Why did you go with him, if you feel the same way about him as I do?"

"Few people have the opportunity to engage with Harry Potter. House Chang thought it would be... beneficial."

Status, Keoghan realized. Cho's family spoke the same language as hers.

"And how do you know Cedric?"

"Our families are close," she explained. "We were practically raised as siblings."

Keoghan nodded and filed the information away. She would have to speak with Cho about alliances when she got the chance.

~

The dancing began, lead by the Champions. Cedric took Keoghan's hand and led her to the floor. Sparks flew in her head, which she tried and failed to diffuse. She was enjoying his presence.

They began a slow waltz, his hand on her waist and hers on his shoulder. Keoghan thought her heart would burst out of her ears, and surely he could hear how loud it beated. Why was she feeling this way? He was her fake friend.

Had she looked up, she would have seen that his face was colored a deep scarlet. Whatever she felt, he surely did too.

Cedric spun her around and caught her again, halting the dance as the other students began to swarm into the dance floor. Bodies moved against each other, reminding Keoghan of a Hufflepuff party, and the live band began to play a more upbeat tune. Taking her hand once again, Cedirc and Keoghan jived to the beat of the tune, setting an example soon followed by the students.

Keoghan found herself laughing and smiling, breaking out of her porcelain composure that she usually found herself in. At one point, however, Cedric disappeared to get drinks and she found herself cornered by Ginny.

"What in the name of Salazar have you gotten into?" Ginny demanded. "You're making a fool of yourself and your family."

The broken pieces of porcelain seemed to arrange themselves back together. "I'm sorry."

"You should be. Come sit with Blaise, Theodore, Red, May, and I. You're forgetting who your real friends are."

At that moment, however, Cedric returned.

"I brought us butterbeers," he told her warmly. "I didn't know what you liked..."

Keoghan was about to thank him when Ginny cut her off.

"She hates butterbeer."

But that wasn't true.