Overcoming Differences

The Yule Ball

Chapter 4
The Yule Ball

**A/N: I will say this with each chapter, J.K. Rowling owns the entire world of Harry Potter. I simply borrowed her characters and dropped them into my own AU plot. ****WARNING!! NON-CON ATTEMPT IN THIS CHAPTER**** As always Thank You for reading. **

Harry sighed softly, dreading the next few hours. He was dressing for the Yule Ball. He fixed his silvertie in silence, as Hagrid had already left to meet Madame Maxime from Beauxbaton. Thankfully, Hagrid had spent the day before teaching Harry how to tie a tie, explaining that Hagrid’s dad had taught him how before he died. Hagrid was proud to be the man to guide him through this rite of passage. Hagrid had seemed excited about his date with Madame Maxime, which horrified Harry as he imagined scenarios with those two.

Back in the castle, in the Slytherin girls dorms, Daphne twirled in the mirror as she admired herself in the ruby red dress.. She couldn't believe she and Harry were dating each other, and she felt things were going well, too. It was true that the rest of the school seemed to take offense with Harry and her, but she just chose to ignore them. Or yell at them, when necessary. The Gryffindors didn’t know when to shut up about Harry ever. And she had noticed that Granger had all but disappeared from everywhere but her classes.

'Hmmm' she thought to herself as she thought about all the things that had been going on in the castle. Other than hatred of Harry, which seemed pretty unanimous, the students were more divided than ever.  'I wonder if a ball can bring us back together?' she asked herself

The sky turned dark as snow began to fall. The students, staff, and the school champions began making their way into the Great Hall, in their formal robes. Harry joined the other champions in silence as he waited for Daphne.

Daphne walked through the corridor, towards the Great Hall, looking through the crowd for Harry.

Harry ignored the stares from the other champions. Fleur Delacour from Beauxbaton was the infamous Veela who thought he was a lying little boy. Cedric Diggory of course was the other Hogwarts champion. Harry respected Cedric. And of all the champions, he was the least antagonistic towards him.  Viktor Krum, the Durmstrang champion was an egotistical professional seeker, though he was a bloody good one. The Boy-Who-Lived began examining the crowd from the Entrance Hall. He saw Daphne, and his jaw dropped as he saw her in full effect. She was bloody gorgeous.

Daphne's smile brightened as she saw Harry. She walked over to Harry. "Hi, handsome."

"You look beautiful, Daphne." He commented as he fidgeted nervously with the edge of his jacket.

She offered her hand to him, surreptitiously, and pulled his arm up so she was holding onto his arm, as she smiled brightly at him. "Are you ready for this?"

"Well, I can't really leave at this point." He replied sheepishly.

"You will be alright. You are not alone in this. I'm here for you Harry," she smiled encouragingly.

"Thank you, it helps that someone who actually talks to me and likes me is my date.”

Professor McGonagall lined up the champions and their dates to walk into the Great Hall once everyone else was inside, so they could start the dance. Daphne schooled her features to the normal Pureblood mask just before they walked through the door.

Harry didn’t feel graceful although he had also had schooled his features into a neutral face. He was nervous as he walked out on the dance floor with Daphne. He felt everyone’s eyes on him.

"Harry, just relax and follow me. I won't let anything happen I promise." She whispered with a graceful, confident smile.

"That isn't what I'm worried about," He replied shortly. They took their positions on the dance floor.