Astronomy•Neville Longbottom

Chapter 12: Dumbledore

Rosalie's Point of View

Maddie walked beside me as we made our way down to the great hall, we both smiled as Draco and Neville stood tensely next to us, the two boys were comfortable alone just not near each other. Neville seemed a bit intimidated by Draco and Draco was using all of his might not to sneer at the boy.

"I hope there's food there, cause if not then I may have to excuse myself." I sighed as Maddie giggled a bit at herself, though I knew that she was serious enough about it. She had once left the dining hall crying due to the lack of pie, she was found later in the kitchens arguing with the house elves about their lack of the dessert.

Maddie and I turned to look at each other with the same look, we both knew where the kitchens were, a thank you to Hannah Abbott, a friend of ours from hufflepuff who had told us where the kitchens were and regretted it almost immediately.

As we approached the hall we could see students flowing in and out of the doors and clumping together with their friends, the gown clad students all looked magnificent, it was like something out of a dream. The balls I had attended at Malfoy manor were nothing compared to this, those were all dark hues and diamond necklaces, this was bright, blues and yellows danced around the legs of the students that wore them.

"I'll bet you ten galleons that there's going to be firewhisky in the punch by the end of the night." Draco whispered into my ear as we walked through the doors and into the hall.

It had been completely transformed, gold, silver, and bronze cloth hung from the ceiling and glimpses of the stars peaked through them, the tables were gone and in their place was a large dance floor with a stage at the other end of the room. Draco took my arm as Maddie grabbed Neville and vanished into the other students.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked Draco as he scanned the room, probably searching for Crabbe and Goyle who had somehow managed to get dates, both boys had brought a fellow slytherin.

"Do you want to go dance?" Draco had barely finished the question before I was tugging him along onto the floor, dancing had been something basically beaten into my bones as my mother saw having a daughter as a personal doll, she thought that any classy young lady should at least know the waltz.

Flashback

My mother and father both stood staring each other in the eyes as their hands found one another. The small steps that my father took seemed perfectly calculated just as everything else he did seemed, but my mother her steps were placed and confident she floated around my father in a tantalizing battle. Her hair once pinned perfectly up on top of her head now rested on her back, and the silver gown she wore previously was no where to be seen, instead she danced in her silk night gown, barefoot and makeup less on the kitchen floor.

My father looked at her kind of strange, it was like the way I looked at the stars, almost as if they were unreal. He stood with hair that had been slicked back but now looked like a nest had been build on top of him, his matching silk night wear top had been discarded and my mothers head took the place of his shirt. They seemed to stop time as the stood in the middle of our kitchen dancing, I watched from the top of the stairs as he spun her around and breathy laughter spilled from both of them.

"I wish my father looked at my mother that way." Draco whispered from beside me as we watched my parents, unknown to us at the time, fall even more in love with each other.

"I think he does, but only when she isn't paying attention, he looks at the places she was." I laid my head onto Draco's shoulder.

"I think he forgets that we exist sometimes." Draco sighed as we turned around to go to my room.

He grabbed my hand as my other hand laid down onto his shoulder mocking the way that my parents danced.

"You're rather good at this," Draco mumbled against my hair, "Quite like your mother."

"I guess so, I've always wanted to be just like her." I smiled at the compliment, my mother would be proud. The endless hours of trial and error, endless laughter, and a few tears had payed off.

The song that played around us was one of the many that seemed to ring around my home, a familiar tune.

The song ended all to quickly but Draco and I never parted hands as I led him over to a table to sit. The table seemed to be in the middle of everything, not too far to watch my friends having fun.

"Hey Rosalie, Hey Draco!" A fellow first year waved at us as she walked by, though I had never seen her before I smiled back. It was best to make friends with everyone, as my mother has told me my entire life, life is about connections.

"Who was that Ro?" Draco leaned into my ear never taking his eyes off of the girl, a suspicious look on his face.

I shrugged and went back to a conversation with rest of the table, The table consisted of a few older Slytherins and Ravenclaws. We had been arguing over the best teacher, in my opinion it was McGonagall but they argued Flitwick or Snape.

We argued until it was concluded that McGonagall was the best and the other two were mediocre compared to her.

"Thank you and goodnight."