CTaFA Chapter 6

"Wake up Rose!!" Ginny shouted as she jumped onto Roses bed. "Come on we got to go get ready Rose." Rose finally opened her eyes and came nose to nose with the blue eyed carrot top that had disturbed her sleep.

"Come on lets get going." She pleaded. Rose looked over at her alarm clock and almost fell out of bed when she saw the time. "Ginny its only six. The ball doesnt start til ten."

"Yeah but there are like ten girls who want me to do their hair and I decided that I should do yours and Hermiones too." She explained cheerfully.

"Ugh. Oh alright but I get to do your hair." She said a little less aggrivated.

"Yay, yay, yay." She jumped around for a few moments before she spotted something very interesting on the desk next to Rose's bed. "Oooo whats this." She grabbed the rose and read the note that was attached to it. "Aww thats sooo cute." She said in an overly dramatic voice. "I can't wait to find out who this is."

"Yeah, well, me neither." She she chuckled and walked towards the bathroom. "Lets get this show on the road shall we?"

A few amazingly slow hours later all the girls had their hair up. All of them had a different hairdo which was amazing. None of which looked in the least bit ugly. Ginny really did have a way with hair. She even charmed Rose's and Hermione's hair to shine more than usual. Everyone looked so beautiful. Now the only thing left to do was to put on their dresses.

Rose's dress was white with a one shoulder strap made of a rhinstone studded chain. The wasteline hugged her body while the knee length skirt flowed loose.

Ginny's dress was turquoise and covered in beads that dripped down the gown like raindrops. It had a low open back and was floor length.

Hermiones dress was a short baby pink dress with a low V neckline and low back. It came with a satin belt with a rhinestone buckle.

When they were finally dressed and ready to go they headed down to the Great Hall. The room was lit with candles that glowed pink and purple while the ceiling was enchanted to look like an orange and yellow sunset. The house tables had been removed and replaced by smaller circular tables that were set around the outside of the room. Hermione spotted the boys at one of the tables and she, Rose, and Ginny went over to join them.

"Wow look at them." Ron looked at the girls, mouth gaping. The rest of the boys smiled at them in welcome. Harry, Ron, Neville, Seamus, and Dean all had on fine black dress robes while Fred and George, being the rebels that they were, wore white dress robes with white top hats.

"Well don't you all look handsome." Ginny teased.

"Yeah well you guys look pretty amazing yourselves." Said Harry winking at Ginny. Ginny elbowed him in the ribs playfully.

"Welcome, students, to the first ever Hogwarts ball." Dumbledore looked around with a suspicious looking smile on his face. "I would like to point out that the teachers and I have decided to make this event even more interesting by giving all of the students a chance to earn house points throughout the day. So enjoy, and don't have too much fun." With that said people began to crowd the dance floor as an upbeat tune started playing from an unknown source.

Harry led Ginny out onto the dance floor along with Neville and Luna. "Um...Hermione?" Ron asked. Rose took Rons hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. He looked at her and she gave him a reassuring smile.

"Yes Ron." Hermione asked.

"Would you like to dance with me?"

"Ron, I would love to dance with you." Hermione was shocked. She hadn't expected him to get over Rose so quickly. Deep down, though, Ron still did like the black, green eyed girl. Rose winked at Hermione when she turned back with a giant smile on her face.

"May I have this dance?" Said a familiar voice from beside her. She looked over and saw Fred Weasley holding his hand out to her.

"Uh...sure." She said in confusion. Fred led her out onto the dance floor and they danced. There was a fast song playing and Rose and Fred began to swing dance to the music. He swung her around the dance floor and Rose found that she couldn't stop laughing. She was having soo much fun.

A few songs later Dumbledore announced the first competition for house points. "Alright students, twenty five points will be rewarded to any students brave enough to ask one of these fine Professors behind me to dance. The only rules are that you have to dance with them for one whole song." The teachers didn't seem too thrilled about the idea but went along with it anyways. All the students were upon them within seconds.

"Wow I guess we should have been dancing closer to the teachers."Hermione pointed out.

"Uck, no. I dont wan't Dumbledore gocking at us." Everyone giggled at Ron's statement.

"Hey look nobody is dancing with Snape yet." Harry pointed out.

"Yeah maybe one of you girls should go ask him to dance." Ron said teasingly while waving his eyebrows up and down.

"Ok." Rose said and started walking towards the head table.

"Um..I wonder if she knows I was joking."

"Well you know her, she'll do anything to help us win that house cup." Said Harry.

Rose walked up to Snape and extended her arm towards him before asking, "Would you like to dance Professor?"

Snape looked at her hand then at her with a bored expression. "And why should I help you earn house points."

"Well look at that, " she said pointing out into the crowd, "I don't see anyone else coming up here to dance with you. I mean you would think that someone from your house might actually have the courage to come up here and ask."

"Well, Miss Potter, that is why they are Slytherins and you are the Griffindor. You are supposed to be the courageous one." He said the last sentence with sarcasm while rolling his eyes.

"Well come on then, lets get out there." Just as Snape was about to resfuse Rose took his hand and dragged him onto the dance floor.

He glared at her for a moment before rolling his eyes. "I don't suppose you are going to give up, are you?"

She shook her head with a sly smirk on her face. Finally he gave in and danced with her. It was a very awkward sort of dance that seemed to go on forever. When the song was finally over Snape let go of her immediately and turned on his heals to reclaim his seat at the head table. Rose, then, returned to her spot at her own table for a short break.

"Attention students, lets hear a round of applause for Cho Chang, Susan Bones, Dennis Creevy, Rose Potter, Draco Malfoy, Oliver Wood, Neville Longbottom, George Weasley, and Hermione Granger for earning their houses twenty five points each." Dumbledore's voice rang out.

After the applause died down Rose turned in her chair to look at Hermione. "Hermione? Who did you dance with?" Rose asked not noticing that the brunette had actually asked someone.

"Well, Hagrid of course. He was another teacher that everyone seemed to be avoiding like the plague." Rose smiled brightly at her.

"Man Rose I can't believe you danced with that greasy git without puking."Ron said.

"Why thank you Ron." She said sarcastically.

When another slow dance came on Fred and Rose returned to the dance floor. Everyone else decided they would sit it out.

"Wow George, I don't think I have ever seen you away from Fred soo much in my life." Harry pointed out.

"Yeah what's with him anyways? I think Rose is the only one he has danced with this whole time." Ron said with a little anger showing in his voice.

"Isn't it obvious?"  George explained like it was the most normal thing in the world. "He fancies her."

An angry fire lit in Ron's blue eyes. "Now I understand. Of course she thinks of me as a brother. She plans on making it that way. How long have they been at it?" Ron fumed.

"Woah slow it down there Ron. I said 'he' fancies 'her'. He hasn't even asked her out yet or anything. This is the first time they have done anything together." George looked mischeiviously towards Ron. "Hey Hermione? Would you like to dance?" He asked not taking his eyes off Ron.

"Oh no you don't." Ron said glaring at him. "Lets go Hermione.

"That did the trick." George said when Ron was out of earshot. Everyone at the table laughed.

"Ok students," McGonagall announced. "Its time for our second challenge." The room went silent. They weren't gonna pass up any chances to earn house points. "We have taken the liberty of putting all of the girls names in this hat." She held up a small top hat. "The boys will need to come up and draw a name. Any boy who dances with the girl they draw will earn twenty five points. The girl they dance with will also earn the same amount of points if they choose to dance." One by one the boys went up to the hat and tapped their wands on the rim and a name floated up out of the hat. Harry drew Hannah Abbott, Ron got Pansy Parkinson, Hermione was with Collin Creevy, Neville drew Cho Chang, The Weasley twins were suspiciously paired with the Patil twins, Luna was paired with Earnest Macmillan, and Ginny was with Cedric Diggory. The only pair that didn't dance out of them were Ron and Pansy. Ron said he would never dance with a Slytherin in his life and went back to sit at the table. Then Rose looked up to see her name floating above the hat. She looked over to see who had drawn her and she went wide eyed. The boy smirked at her and started walking over to her table.

'He couldn't possibly be thinking of actually dancing with me could he?' She asked herself.

Her question was answered when Draco Malfoy held out his hand to her. She looked at him in disbelief.

"Well come on. If you are willing to dance with Professor Snape I'm sure you could bring yourself to stomache me for one song."

She glared at him. "Well I don't know about you but I don't think I can dance with three people at once."

Draco looked at her in confusion, and  she pointed behind him and saw that Crabbe and Goyle were looming over him. "Crabbe, Goyle go eat some cake or something." They walked as fast as they could towards the table of food to gorge themselves.

"Is that better?" He smirked and extended his arm out to offer his hand to her again. She took it reluctantly and let him lead her out onto the dance floor.

After everyone had drawn a name and decided if they were going to dance or not a slow song began to play. Rose inwardly rolled her eyes. 'How fitting for this situation.' She thought. She awkwardly put her hand on his shoulder while her other hand rested in his hand. He put his other hand on her waist and they began swaying to the music.

Draco spun her around a few times marvaling at how light on her feet she was. When he brought her back to him he smirked at her and moved his hand from her waist to the small of her back and pushed her into him. She let out a little squeak of surprise and blushed profusely. He looked over her shoulder to find Fred, Ron, and Harry glaring at him and he just waved his fingers at them, taunting them. They all shot daggers at him with their eyes.

Rose was just sitting there trying to clear her head. She definitely could not have thought what she just did. She actually liked the feel of his finely sculpted body. She was lost in her thoughts and didn't realize when exactly she had layed her head on his shoulder. When she finally snapped out of it she jerked her head up with a blush and tried not to look him in the eyes. He just smirked at her some more. He couldn't help but think that she looked cute when she blushed. The end of the song was near so he spun her around a few more times and brought her into a dip on the last drawn out note. They stood like that until the note ended and he took her hand to pull her back onto her feet. He then turned on his heals and walked away. It was then that she noticed that he had left a small note in her hand. She opened it and stood there in shock at what it said.

Secretly Yours