Harry and Daphne's Moment

Her hair, which had previously been a bushy brown mess that looked like it hadn't truly been cared for, was now sleek and done up in a bun, Harry wasn't entirely sure if that was thanks to magic or not since he admittedly didn't know much about hair-care products. She looked far more beautiful than she did before and Harry could imagine that he and Daphne weren't the only ones who would be surprised.

"She cleans up nice." Harry said to Daphne. "Though I still think you're more beautiful." Harry told her in an honest voice.

"Thank you, Harry." Daphne smiled and leaned up to kiss Harry's cheek. "also for what it's worth I wasn't intimidated or jealous of her, I'm just shocked." She admitted.

"You mean shocked that that's Hermione Granger and that she's Victor Krum's date of all people?" Harry asked in an understanding voice. "Yeah, you're not the only one."

"Herm – own – ninny." Victor smiled as he offered her an arm.

"It's 'Hermione', Victor." Hermione told him with an amused voice. "Don't worry, we'll work on it." She added when he started to frown, he gave her a small nod before turning to the others.

"Do you know her?" Victor asked, the question directed at the other four Hogwarts students.

"Um...no, not really." Cedric said with a shake of his head. "I mean I've seen her walking around the halls but I don't think we've ever talked."

"Same for me." Cho said, giving Hermione a small smile.

"Granger is in our year." Blaise said as he gestured between himself, Harry and Daphne.

"Got to say I am rather surprised to see you here, Miss Granger." Harry said, though not unkindly. "How did you two meet, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Victor invited me to the ball one day when I was in the library." Hermione admitted with a smile, she felt like she was doing that a lot today.

"Ah, here you are." A voice said as Professor McGonagall arrived. "Now, in a moment you will all be escorted into the hall. Remember that you all will be performing the opening dance for the ball, before we do that you will all be allowed up to thirty minutes to eat. Refreshments will be available all through the ball if you require any. Also I must impress upon you all that you are representing not just your own houses and families but also your fellow students and schools, so please behave as best as you can. Is that clear?" She asked, the champions and their dates all gave their agreements under her watchful eyes. "Be ready." She said before she walked over to the doors and stopped next to them before she opened them with a flick of her wand.

Cho and Cedric walked in first, the pair got their fair share of cheers seeing as they were both popular students and quite attractive as far as the student population was concerned. They were followed in by Fleur and Blaise who also got their fair share of cheers, Blaise was rather popular with the ladies even if his popularity paled in comparison to Fleur's - who had nearly every male in the hall cheering for her - or even Harry's. The pair were followed in by Krum and Granger, they got cheered as well but they also got confused expressions and disbelief when they realised the Victor Krum, famous quidditch star and Triwizard champion, was going to the ball with Hogwarts's resident bookworm who had actually managed to make herself look rather nice.

Finally Harry and Daphne walked in, they got the loudest amount of cheers so far. Daphne could take credit for at least some of them as she was an attractive girl, one of the most attractive girls in the school, but she knew that most of the attention was because of Harry. Harry was the boy-who-lived but since coming to Hogwarts he had made it clear that he was not happy with simply relaxing and relying on a claim to fame that he couldn't even remember.

Being the boy-who-lived was just one part of who Harry was, he was also the best in his year (and better than those in the year above), youngest chaser in a century, smart, powerful, rich, a Triwizard champion and had managed to perform feats that most wizards couldn't even dream of and he was just quite simply a great wizard. So it was no surprise to Daphne that she was receiving a lot of jealous looks. Daphne smiled at Harry as he looked around the hall, even with his facial scars she still thought he was rather handsome.

As Harry looked around he spotted Angela who was in a beautiful black dress, she had her hair done up in a bun and had Jet wrapped around her arm while Thor was perched on her shoulder. The young bird gave out a small trill when he saw Harry.

"Try not to screw things up." Jet hissed loudly, just loud enough for Harry to hear.

The champions all walked over to a table where the judges of the tournament including the heads of their schools were sat, Harry's eyes narrowed when he spotted Ludo there, wearing some ridiculously bright orange robes. Minister Fudge was there as well, wearing green robes, the man did love green. Once the champions were all sat down with the judges Harry made sure to give Ludo a soul piercing glare that caused Ludo to let out a squeak as he looked like he wanted nothing more than to turn invisible.

"Mr Potter." Dumbledore half-heartedly admonished, he had tried to sound stern but Harry was able to detect the amusement in his voice. "please stop trying to scare Mr Bagman."

"If I must." Harry said with a dramatic sigh before he looked around. "Is Lord Black not here?" Harry asked.

"No, I'm afraid that Lord Black has not arrived yet." Minister Fudge replied. "I don't know where he is but we were hoping that..."

"I'm here." A voice grunted as Lord Black arrived and sat down in his seat next to Fudge. "What?" He asked when everyone looked at him.

"You've got a little bit of red on you." Harry said in a half amused and half questioning voice as he gestured to the blood stain on Lord Black's shoulder, choosing not to mention the fact that the older man had a big cut on his right cheek.

"Huh?" Lord Black looked down at his shoulder. "Huh, apparently I do." He said before he pulled out his wand and waved it to get rid of the blood. He put his wand away and picked up the menu in front of him, the others wisely did not comment and did the same, though Harry made a mental note to ask him about it later.

"Pork chops." Professor Dumbledore said, reading from the menu, a second later his plate had pork chops on them.

"House elves?" Harry asked Professor Dumbledore.

"They are far more useful than people give them credit for." Dumbledore nodded, not seeing the frown from Hermione who was very disapproving over the use of house elves as she saw it to be nothing but slavery, she wanted to protest but decided to hold it off for at least one night. A few seconds later everyone ordered food and the food appeared on their plates the second it was ordered.

Everyone dug into their food and they all enjoyed it, it was a rather nice and peaceful half an hour as the only thing they really did was divide their time in-between eating and talking with each other. Though Harry and Lord Black did make sure to constantly send Ludo some more glares in-between eating and talking. It had somehow turned into a sort of unofficial game between them, the goal was to see who could scare him the most. So far Lord Black was winning but Harry put that up to the fact that he made sure to be a good date and divert a lot of time to Daphne.

Eventually it was time for the eating to finish and for the dancing to start, Harry and the other champions joined their dates in the middle of the hall.

"I'll do my best to not step on your toes." Harry whispered to Daphne as he put one hand behind her and on the small of her back while he used the other hand to hold hers.

"After all the help that Angela and I have given you with dancing, I expect nothing less." Daphne said.

"I wouldn't want to disappoint my favourite teacher." Harry said with a smirk once the music started, the two stared into each other's eyes, blue met green, their feet started moving and the dance started.

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