The Death Eater [HARRY POTTER]

12

Calla had the great satisfaction of watching Draco Malfoy's mouth literally drop open when he caught sight of her, something what Calla had never even imagined seeing. Draco was never speechless. He had never been spechless before and Calla had never even imagined that she would see him speechless hen. But as soon as he and his date, who was a very beautiful girl dressed in a pretty green dress, stepped into the Great Hall, and Draco caught sight of Calla, he stopped.

And his eyes widened. And his mouth dropped open.

And Calla had to laugh. It was with great joy that she walked over to the pureblood boy, noticing the way a couple of male eyes, including but not limited to the eyes of Igor Karkaroff, followed her as she went. When she finally came to a stop in front of Draco, who had actually grown quite a bit over the last few years and who could now look her in the eye, even with her small heels on,

"Good evening, Draco. Daphne," Calla greeted easily. "You two look lovely this evening."

Daphne was grinning up at her favorite professor, just as in awe of her as Draco was, but hiding it much better. Draco still had his mouth hanging open, and Calla had to grin at the sight.

"If you don't close you're mouth, you'll catch flies," Calla teased the boy, watching his mouth snap shut with great satisfaction before she turned to Daphne again. Daphne was one of the few Slytherins that had decided to take Calla's class. She was also one of the shining students, as she seemed to genuinely enjoy it. "May I just say how beautiful you look this evening, Daphne."

Daphne blushed prettily under her teacher's praise, before promptly launching into the long story behind her coming to find her dress, which Calla listened to raptly. Of course the story was a bit dull, but the way Daphne sparkled while she talked about how she, her mother, and her sister all looked for hours for the perfect dress made it worth it. Besides, Calla decided that Daphne listened to her talk to the class several times a week, the least Calla could do was listen to Daphne's story that she wanted to share.

"-and then mother said how pretty I looked, and that this dress was the dress we had to buy. I didn't like it at first, I always thought my color was black, but mother assured me that sea-foam green really was an excellent color on me. And then Missus Malfoy offered for Draco to take me to the Yule Ball when I told mother that no one had asked me, so I know I'm going to have a lovely time."

Draco seemed to have gathered himself during Daphne's epic tale, and upon hearing his name he settled his face into a pleased smirk.

"Of course mother knew how pretty Daphne would be, and she knew that I would have no problem having such a lovely young woman on my arm," Calla nearly rolled her eyes at Draco's obvious flirtation, but Daphne didn't seem to catch the way Draco was trying to dazzle her, because she grinned up at him and batted her eyelashes. "But what are you doing here, Calla? I thought Professor Snape was meant to be chaperoning tonight. Didn't you tell Daphne that you were going to take the night off to grade papers?"

Calla ignored the fact that she had told Draco already that she would be taking her father's place, and went directly to teasing.

"Professor Snape is chaperoning, Draco. Didn't you know that I was a professor now?" Draco's pale cheeks darkened, but he didn't let Calla's teasing phase him. "Besides, I got my marking done early and my father, the other Professor Snape, had things that he needed to do tonight. I thought that I would step in and take his place, seeing as I know Slytherin just as well as Professor Snape does. I was one of you, last year."

Draco did roll his eyes, before he easily wrapped his arm around Daphne's slender shoulders and began to steer her elsewhere.

"Yes, well as fun as it was speaking to you Professor Snape, Daphne and I came to the ball to dance, and dance we shall."