ENTRY #4

[torino10154]

 Title: One Perfect Night
Author: dandelionconstellation 
I am of legal drinking age in my region: (yes/no) yes!
Pairing(s)/Characters/Fandom: Harry Potter/Pansy Parkinson
Challenge/Prompts used: Pansy Parkinson, underneath the stars
Summary: Harry and Pansy go to the Yule Ball
Rating/Warnings: T for language? It’s a pretty mild story but there’s some f bombs haha
Word count: 2,336 (including the header)
Author's Notes (if any): lol this was very silly but also very fun and I feel like I felt much less self-conscious about what I was writing, which was nice!!!

The Moon and the Pleiades 

Tonight I've watched the moon 

and then the Pleiades go down. 

The night is now half-gone; 

youth goes; 

I am in bed alone. 

(I know sappho is not writing this poem for a hetero relationship and has little to do with this piece, but i love it so so so much and all of you should read it if you haven’t already so i’m gonna stick it in here lol) 

Harry paced back and forth across the common room, running his hands through his hair. Frustrated, he plopped himself in a squashy armchair and flipped around, draping his feet over the back of the chair. His long hair trailed on the ground underneath him and he felt the blood rush to his head. Maybe it would help clear his head. 

It was only two weeks until the Yule ball, yet he still did not have a date. At least he hadn’t embarrassed himself by being turned down by Fleur Delacour in front of the entire school like Ron had. He closed his eyes and felt the throbbing in his temples. Hmm. Who to ask. He had really wanted to go to the ball with Cho, but she already was going with Cedric. Hermione had her mysterious date, Parvati and Lavender were going with each other, and that accounted for all of the girls he knew well enough to ask. Hmm. 

“What are you doing, mate?” Ron asked. Harry looked at the muddy hems of his best friend’s robes. 

“Trying to think of a girl to ask to the Yule Ball. Professor McGonagall said that I had to have a date since the champions will be leading the dance,” Harry sighed. 

“Any chance you’d want to go with me and we can just get it over with?” he asked, hopefully. 

Ron made a shifty face. “Sorry, Harry. I love you, but I really don’t really want all those people looking at me and my old robes leading off the yule ball. I’m sure you’ll find another date, though.” 

Harry blew out a puff of air. Ugh. He swung his legs around and stood up out of the chair. He stretched out nice and big, spreading his fingers wide like a cat. 

“Alright. I’m gonna go walk around and maybe an idea will come to me.”

“Good luck, mate! Let me know if the girl you find has a friend, will you?” “Of course!” 

Harry trotted out the portrait hole and made his way down the hallways. Every time he saw a girl, he either didn’t know them or they were in a group and he was too intimidated to ask them. There were some cute boys who he saw and wouldn’t mind asking to the ball, but if even his best friend wouldn’t want to go with him, how would he know how these other guys would react??? He didn’t want to embarrass himself or anything. Bleh. Why was this so hard?? 

Harry made his way down the staircase, lost in thought. What would he do if he couldn’t find anyone to go with him. That would be really embarrassing. He wondered what they would do. Maybe McGonagall would make him dance with her like in the practice lessons. He really didn’t want to dance with McGonagall in front of the entire school. As he turned a corner, he almost crashed into Draco Malfoy. Okay, maybe there were worse things than going to the ball with McGonagall. He could be going with Malfoy. 

“Watch it, Potter! You’re stinking up the whole hallway!” Malfoy sneered. He thought he was so clever, referencing the stupid “Potter Stinks” badges he had been handing out for the past month. 

Crabbe and Goyle and Pansy Parkinson trailed behind him, snickering on cue like a laugh track. Harry kind of wished he had his own laugh track, but then again, he’s also glad that Ron and Hermione have actual personalities beyond “lackey.” He’s not sure what Crabbe and Goyle even like to do other than crack their knuckles threateningly and laugh when Malfoy makes a joke. 

“Shut up, Malfoy! You’re mean and ugly and I hate you!” Harry stuck his tongue out. That would show him!! 

Malfoy rolled his eyes. “At least I have a date to the Yule Ball.” 

“Oh yeah?” Harry puffed up. “Who would want to go to the ball with you?” “I’m –” 

“-- Pansy’s my date! We’re gonna be the best couple there!” Draco said, sticking his nose up in the air, looking like a massive prick. 

Harry was suddenly struck with the memory of Hermione breaking that pretty little nose. His knuckles itched with the desire to deck him a good one. Pansy rolled her eyes from where she was leaning against the wall. It seemed like she didn’t love Draco dearest speaking for her.

“You’re so fucking stupid, Scarhead, that I can literally feel myself losing braincells. If you would excuse me,” he said, shouldering his way past Harry. 

Harry just hated his guts so fucking much. What an asshole. Literally, running into Malfoy would ruin his whole day. He wished he could do something that would ruin his day. He was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea. 

As the Slytherin squad flounced down the hallway, Harry called out: “Hey Parkinson!” She stilled. Wow, her hair was so shiny. 

“You should go to the ball with me instead!” 

“Why should I do that?” She asked. That wasn’t a no!!! He just had to come up with reasons good enough to convince a Slytherin. 

“Well, I’m one of the four champions for the first triwizard tournament in years, so you’ll be remembered in history as my date. Plus I’m hotter than him and cooler than him and richer than him and actually interested in what you have to say. I’m a feminist. And I’m the boy who lived,” he winked. 

Draco whipped around, wide-eyed and slack jawed. 

“No, Pansy is my date you can’t just take her from me!!!” He whined. 

“Excuse you, I am not some toy for you boys to fight over,” she sniffed, tossing her sleek hair and inspecting her nails. She seemed to quite enjoy being fought over, despite what she said. 

“You’re right,” Harry said contritely. “You’re just so pretty and smart and cool and your hair is so shiny and I’d really really like to go to the ball with you, but it makes sense that you’d rather go with Draco since he already asked you. I guess I’ll go.” 

Draco sniffed. “YEah, you should get out of here, Potter! I asked her first!” “Wait!” Pansy exclaimed. “I’ll go to the ball with you!” 

“Yeah?” Harry asked hopefully. 

Draco spluttered. 

“Yeah,” she smiled. 

“You’re my date!!” Draco whined, like a little kid.

“Yeah, but Potter had a better offer! Anyways, see you at the ball, then?” she batted her eyelashes at him. 

Harry smiled and nodded shyly. “Yeah. Thanks, Parkinson.” 

“Pansy,” she said. 

“Harry, then. See you later?” 

“Bye!” 

Draco looked apoplectic with rage. His face was the color of a tomato. Perfect. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Over the next week, Harry’s relationship with all of the Slytherins (excepting Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle) changed drastically. All of the Slytherins who he never bothered to interact with before, figuring that they were utter dickwads like Malfoy, suddenly started treating him really nicely!! They stopped wearing Potter Stinks badges and said hello to him in the hallways and stopped Malfoy from throwing random stuff in his cauldron in potions. Tracey Davis even said she would go to the ball with Ron, as long as he let her fix his dress robes for him. He was only too happy to let her take the moth-eaten lace off of those hideous old things. 

Soon, the day of the ball arrived. Harry was waiting outside where the champions were supposed to wait when Pansy emerged from the stairs leading down to the dungeons like Aphrodite emerging from the foam of the sea. She rose like Persephone coming out of the depths of the underworld to welcome the world with spring. Her pale pink dress glimmered with every step and her glossy lips shone in the torch light as they quirked into a knowing smirk. 

“Hey there,” she said, eyes twinkling. 

“Hey,” Harry breathed. He cleared his throat. “Uh… you look incredible.” he said dumbly. What? You can’t blame him! His fourteen year old brain was exploding!!! 

“Thanks,” she smiled – not smirked! Smiled! “You clean up nice yourself, Harry.” “Err– thanks!!!” 

She walked up to him and took his arm. “I’m so glad that I decided to go with you and that you’re wearing black robes that match with my pink! Draco wouldn’t budge on his lime green robes and they would have clashed horribly!!!”

“I’m glad that you’re here with me and not Malfoy, too,” he growled lowly. She blushed prettily. 

The two of them were waiting outside the great hall with the other champions. Fleur was with roger Davies. Literally who was he? Did she like him because he wore blue too? Cedric and Cho were there together too. They both were really pretty. Hehe. And Krum was with … 

“Hermione??” 

“Pansy???” 

“What are you doing here?” 

“What are you doing here??” 

“I’m here with Harry as his date!!!” 

“I’m here with viktor! Wait I thought you hated Harry?” 

“Not anymore. He owned Draco the other day and I just can’t go out with someone who gets roasted that badly.” 

“Oh that makes sense,” hermione said logically. 

“Anyways, uh sorry for making fun of you for the past years. You seem pretty cool and Harry likes you and I feel bad for making you cry that one time in charms.” 

“Yeah that wasn’t cool.” 

“It’s just you’re so smart abd I’m so not smart and I feel insecure around you but I shouldn’t take that out on you. Also I shouldn’t be prejudiced to you because of your blood. I really am terrible, aren’t I? I promise to stop being racist. We need to lift each other up and not tear each other down.” 

“I agree! You know what else we should do? We should go inside because it looks like the dance is starting. Thank you for apologizing and I hope you have fun tonight. Maybe we can talk again sometime. I like your hair it’s very shiny.” 

Everybody went inside the great hall and the whole school stared because hermione looked so gorgeous and Pansy was there with Harry Potter and not Draco malfoy which was mind boggling. Malfoy was so embarrassed. Ha! Take that you stupid head.

Harry and Pansy danced the night away. Whirling and twirling all over the place when the music was classical and bopping and jumping when it was fun. Ron was a wet sock in the corner because he was mad that hermione went with krum. That’s okay because Tracey came and hung out with Harry and hermione and Pansy and krum and they all had a lot of fun. 

“I just wish Ron wasn’t such a wet sock this year,” Harry thought. 

After having a grand old time of making everyone else jealous of how cool they were, Harry and Pansy went outside underneath the stars. The stars were twinkling and winking overhead like someone poured a can of glitter in the sky. They sparkled like the glistening first snow of December. The night air was cold and crisp so Harry got to cuddle next to Pansy as they walked around. 

They walked by snape and karkaroff having a serious whispered conversation, and Harry was going to eavesdrop. Suddenly, Pansy grabbed him and pushed him up against the wall. What was happening?? 

“Thank you so much for taking me to the ball tonight! I had a really good time!” She whispered, puffs of white air coming out of her pretty pink lips. 

“Sure,” Harry breathed. She was really close and smelled really nice. 

She leaned in. Oh my god. Was this going to be his first kiss? Harry closed his eyes and felt her soft mouth against his. His heart felt like it was going to burst. She pulled away slowly and looked up at him through her long, dark lashes. 

It was a beautiful and lovely and perfect moment underneath the cold winter sky. Harry wrapped his arm around her and they went back inside. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Eventually they went their separate ways after Voldemort returned later that year because she couldn’t be dating the boy who lived whe her parents are loyal to the dark lord. It was really sad and made an already sucky summer even worse for both of them. 

Even though they never were really friends or talked about it again afterwards, they always shared the memories from the Yule Ball in fourth year. Later in deathly hallows, she doesn’t offer him up to Voldemort because she isn’t a bitch anymore. 

Little did they know, soon everything would get messy and complicated. Kids would grow up and become jaded and hurtful. Exhaustion creeps up on you and sadness seeps in through the

cracks. But, for one cold and fragile night in fourth year, all of their troubles were far away and everything was perfect. 

Anyways, it’s five am and I’m tired, lol. Good night!