The Dove; Distressed

Malfoy Holiday Ball, December 2022

Grace slipped her arm around her father's. He gave her a funny look, watching her knock on the entrance door to the Manor.

"If you're going to serve as my chaperon, you may as well play the part, Papa." She giggled.

"The things I do for my children." Papa muttered as a house elf greeted the pair.

"Miss and Mister Potter." She bowed. "Dubsey welcomes you to the Malfoy Holiday Ball."

"Thanks!" Grace said, pulling her reluctant father inside the home.

Papa looked around, relaxing just a little. "It has changed since I was last here..." White and gold fairy lights were strung along the foyer. A silver Christmas tree was decorated with blue baubles.

"It's really pretty." Dove commented.

"Yes..." her father couldn't help agreeing.

"Dubsey will show you the way."

Grace glanced at the seasonally dressed portraits who eyed the pair (especially her) coldly, but none of them said anything as they passed.

It was a long walk up two flights of stairs before Dubsey stopped at a pair of open black doors. "The ball room." She informed before entering.

The sound of chatter was heard as they followed their escort inside. Quite a few people were there, but not as many as there would have been if this were fifty years in the past. Scorpius had a large amount of friends because of his popularity in the Ravenclaw house, and most of the people there were his friends' parents, who, like her Papa, were probably only there to ensure the safety of their children.

Everyone was dressed up. Mostly in blue, because of the over abundance of Ravenclaws, but some took the nature in being unique. Grace favoured the silver attire the best, looking perfect when they mingled in with the blue.

She, herself, had picked a long, solid green, sparkling, sleeved dress to match the traditional holiday colors.

"Potter." Mr. Malfoy greeted coldly. "It is nice to see you have accepted my invitation." Draco's grey eyes set onto Grace, softening just a bit. "Pleasure to have you here, Miss Potter, Scorpius is by the buffet table."

"Thank you, sir." She smiled and broke free from her father, leaving him to his school day enemy.

"Grace!" Scorpius greeted, setting down his cup of butterbeer. "Wow!" He exclaimed, his eyes absorbing her dress. "You look great! A hundred times better than sweat clothes." He laughed at his joke.

Grace blushed. "Thanks... you look great yourself." He looked better than great. His blond hair was comb down and he wore a dark blue tuxedo with silver buttons.

He chuckled. "Yeah, if I do say so myself."

"Oooh, Scorpius!" Jasmine came hopping up with excitement. "Let's double dance with Sam and Paulina!" She took his arm and pulled him to the dance floor. Grace watched them do a traditional fast number, laughing the whole time. Occasionally, the two would switch partners. Grace guessed it was part of the dance, since she saw other couples doing the same.

"Hey." a girl named Kate greeted her, taking a biscuit off one of the serving plates.

"Hi." Grace said, and busied herself to avoid looking like she was staring at Scorpius. She poured herself a cup of punch.

"Isn't he lovely?" Kate whispered.

"Who?"

"Scorpius of course! You are so lucky to be friends with him!" Kate said, turning around to eye him.

Yeah, friends... God, she wanted more though. How would his lips feel against hers? Grace also turned around to look at him, unable to keep her eyes off him for long. He was still dancing; enjoying himself with the ladies his own age.

Dang... Why did she have to be so much younger than him?

"He invited my brother, and I pleaded Brens to also get me an invitation."

"Oh...nice." Grace said politely. Not a lot of girls had been crushing on Scorpius, most were after her own brothers, because of the Potter celebrity name. Recently though, Grace noticed a few girls whispering about Scorpius, Ravenclaws especially.

Grace then saw Scorpius look toward her, their eyes connected for a second before she shifted hers away. Her heart beat starting to race.

A minute later, he stepped up to her, setting a hand onto her forearm, making the hair on her arm instantly stand.

"Sorry, Grace." he smiled. "Jasmine can be persistent. Say, you wouldn't..." he paused, taking his cup of butterbeer from the table right behind her. His shoulder lightly brushed against hers, making her knees feel like jelly.

"You alright?" He asked worriedly, noticing something different about her.

"Ah..." she took a deep breath. "Fine. Terrific really."

"Are you fine enough to dance?" He gestured to the dance floor with his cup. "You look like you could use a little fun." He smirked. "I swear I did not invite you to stand at the food table all night."

"Uh..."

Scorpius was asking her to dance with him!

The excitement in her nearly caused her to throw up. She shakily set her punch down. "Sure." She managed to say without the loss of her voice.

He held out his hand and Grace slowly placed her hand onto it, her palm began sweating upon his contact. How gross. She prayed he didn't notice.

Oh, please, please don't notice.

Scorpius lead her to the dancing floor. She felt a bit nervous. She had never danced in her whole life, and suddenly noticed there was a slow song playing.

Her friend chuckled. "Would you relax? My mother's watching."

"Really?" Grace scanned the room for Mrs. Malfoy, finding the woman was indeed watching them. Studying even.

How strange....

"Ah, she just wants to make sure my dancing lessons are paying off." He said, then he lowered his voice, "You'll probably make me look bad though. You've never danced before, have you?"

Grace smiled sheepishly. "No..." she squeaked. "If you want a different partner, I understand." She went to pull away but he held onto her.

"It's easy." He assured her. "Especially for you, because all you have to do is follow everything I do. Let me lead, alright?" He placed his hand on her waist and cupped her hand into his.

Grace bit her lip nervously and nodded.

"Two steps left, then one step back." He murmured before doing it slowly, allowing her to learn the moves. "And back again..." They did the first steps without any errors. Scorpius smiled. "You're perfect at this, Grace." They repeated the steps. "Now, we'll go for a twirl and a dip, ready?"

A twirl and a what-

She yelped when he pushed her backwards. She was falling!

No, he caught her... her breathing picked up. He looked down at her with a smile before laughing softly. "Did you think I was going to drop you?"

A noise between a laugh and a giggle escaped her mouth. "I didn't know what the heck was going on!"

"You're so adorable." He said, standing her back up. The song ended, and he released her. "You could be an excellent ballroom partner. You should think about taking lessons, Grace." He said no more to her as one of his male friends came up to talk about their school project on the study of cake eating newts.

She was high in the clouds. She stared at the hand that had been holding his. Now she understood why people never wanted to wash their hands after shaking the hand of a celebrity. She felt that way right now. How she would treasure this moment in her mind forever.

"Was it as great as you thought it would be?" Papa asked as they mounted their brooms to return home.

"It was... better than I thought it would be." She said, hiding a girlish smile.

"Okay..." he said slowly, giving her an odd look. "Well, I was bound to get a strange one, I guess." He grumbled and kicked off.

* * *

"He's right." Hermione said. Her and Harry stood by Dove's bedside. The younger woman lay there, curled up, staring at the wall. For a month now she had been irresponsive to anything or anyone.

"I refuse to believe it." Harry said. "I can't just let him near her. After all he's done." He sat in a chair and placed his head into hands. "What kind of parent would I be if I let the man who abused my daughter lay next to her?"

"Their bodies have healing powers for one another, Harry. If you want her to get better, that is one option of doing it. I think more logically than emotionally, thus, if Dove were mine, yes, I would allow it. Strictly for this reason, mind you."

Harry shook his head. "The man is lucky he's not dead."

Hermione laughed without amusement. "The only reason he is not is because it would kill Dove."

"That's still luck."

"What are you going to do, Harry?"

Harry sighed and looked at his daughter. "I can't..." he decided. "Let's keep giving her the potions and continue to cross our fingers."

Hermione crossed her arms in anger. "She could be cured faster with him!" She huffed.

Harry stood up and glared at his friend. "I said no." He growled before stalking out of the room.

Hermione pressed the back of her hand to her forehead,silently cursing Harry's stubbornness. "Sorry, Dovey." She whispered. "I tried..." a tear slipped from an eye. "Please... stay strong..."