It was several days later when they heard people laughing in the Gryffindor table. When looking up, they saw the youngest male Weasley holding something which looked like a brown Victorian dress robe for a middle-aged woman in the middle society.

"What is that thing?" Hadrian asked, while all the Slytherins around him began to laugh, it was still early, so maybe only half of Slytherin was there at the moment, with several from Drumstang and Beauxbatons.

"Sweety, " Draco said, making Hadrian turn to him, only to see his mate trying to hold his laugh. "How much are you familiar with old dress robes?"

"Well almost nothing, but what this has to do with the- oh." Looking again at the brown thing with the white looking itchy thing in the front, and imagining the youngest male Weasley wearing it. Then he began to giggle himself.

"But, why would Weasley need a dress robe like this one?"

"I guess for the Yule Ball, " Theodore said from beside him.

"What ball?" Hadrian asked.

-&-&-&-

"The Yule Ball. Which, if you don't mind, I'd like to speak to you about, Mr Riddle." McGonagall said to him while he was on his way to potion with is friends.

"The Yule Ball professor?" Draco asked beside him.

"It's traditional during the Triwizard Tournament for the host school to put on a Chrismas ball. It is also traditional for the three champions, or in this case four, to be the first to dance."

Hadrian cocked his head to the side like a questioning kitten.

" Dance? With a girl?"

"I leave the decision up to you Mr Riddle. You may bring Mr Crabbe if you desire. But know this: The school has a reputation as long as it is illustrious. It demands and receives the respect of the entire wizarding world. You stand upon the shoulders of giants, Mr Riddle. Shame yourself and you shame all who came before you." McGonagall said before leaving the group alone with a confuse Hadrian for Draco to handle.

-&-&-&-

And now it was the next day, and the entire rank of the school pupils was currently at the Great Hall, girls on one side, boys on the other one, all sitting before the fierce McGonagall.

"You have got to get a grip! Your behaviour barely rise to the level of the common toadstool! I WILL NOT HAVE IT!" McGonagall 'said', making everyone to look at her with fear in their eyes, they all exchange nervous glances.

"Now, " McGonagall continued, "to dance is to let the body... Breathe. Inside every girl is a secret swan slumber, longing to burst free and take flight. Inside each boy is a lordy loin, prepared to prance."

"Something may be about to burst out of Eloise Midgen, but I do not think it's a swan." Someone whispered from the farthest side of the hall from Slytherin house.

"Mr Weasley!" McGonagall almost yelled at the Gryffindor side.

"Yes!?" The youngest Weasley jumped in his seat, looking directly at his Head of House.

"Would you join me, please?" McGonagall 'asked' in a quiet friendly voice, which had nothing nice in it.

Ron glanced around in panic, then slumps forward like a man heading to the gallows.

"Now then, " McGonagall began to instructed, "if you will put your left hand on my waist..."

"Where?!" He sounded like someone came to stab him and just asked him where would he prefer to be stabbed the most.

"My waist," McGonagall said, sounding almost happy with Weasley response.

Grudgingly, Ron obeyed. As Fred and George whistle from behind the Slytherin part, where they were currently hiding from their two youngest siblings. He raises his right hand in a rude rejoinder when McGonagall closes her hand over his just in the nick of time.

"That right, extend your arm... And Mr Filch, if you would..."

Filch drops the needle onto the old record player and a musty Walz fills the courtyard.

"And one and two..."

While McGonagall tried to show them how to dance (something very difficult and almost impossible with Ron keeping walking on her leg over and over) the Weasley twins had made their way fully into the Slytherin side of the room.

"Never going to let him forget this, are you?" Blaise asked the twins. The whole Slytherin house was waiting for the reply.

"Never, " the said unison with a matching smirk, making the whole house to hold a laugh.

After 5 more minutes of torture to McGonagall, she gave up. "Mr Weasley please go back to your seat, and hopefully your date wouldn't want to dance at all, or her feet would be in blood be the end on the night." Filch stopped the music while the whole hall began to laugh at McGonagall words.

Ron went to his sit between Seamus and Hermione with a red face to match his hair.

"Now, is there in this hall anyone who can dance correctly?" The hall gave a quiet sound to the professor question.

"What about you Mr Riddle? Is there once truth in Ms Skeeter article?"

"Yes professor, I can dance. But I do not know how to lead." Hadrian said after seeing he didn't have any other choice.

"Very well, come on. Stand up, I will lead for now so everyone will see how to dance."

With no other choice, Hadrian stood up and went to the waiting professor.

He put his hands behind her neck which he almost couldn't reach, straighten his legs and narrow the gap between them. Filch, with McGonagall signal, began the music over again and they began to dance to the old Walz.

After ten minutes, McGonagall called Neville to switch with her so she could instruct to the school how to dance correctly, while they will show the movements she explains. If Neville wasn't their friends, there might be a chance that Draco would have killed him.

What luck Neville had at the moment.

-&-&-&-

"Would you go to the Ball with me?"

"Would you give me the chance to have a dance with you at the Ball?"

"You, me. What do you say? Will you go out with me to the ball?"

Movements of dancing and pointing toward each other.

100 roses delivery.

Music.

Step dancing.

Giggling everywhere.

Singer's bands.

It was everywhere. Everyone tried to find the perfect way to invite someone to the Ball. The first big thing was of several boys together who decided to step dance their way to several girls and asked them all together. Then there was a guy who decided to order 100 roses to a girl with a big note asking her to come with him to the Ball, the girl said yes after she came back from the hospital wing since she was allergic to roses, but thought the gesture was nice.

They were some who tried to sing and play music while asking too. But most of those didn't even know how to sing, so it was awfully painful to the ears, especially to those who were creatures since they had a better hearing than anyone else.

They were currently on their way to Defence Against the Dark Art lesson with Professor Moody.

Professor Moody got the reputation of an unpredictable teacher. He surprises students in the middle of a class with jinxes and curses shot toward them, he unexpectedly shouted in surprise quizzes and the small tests here and there and in practices, he would join a random group and watch them very closely, making the group uncomfortable till one of them breaks and ask why he is watching them, and the answer would always be the same: "so you would know how does it feel when someone watches you."

They got into the class. Female hands pass a note under desks. One set of fingernails was decorated with hearts... Scratch that, it was every set of fingernails. Hadrian thought, and he wasn't the only one, that he got into hell.

Few minutes after they sat down, which they didn't talk, Moody drops a textbook onto poor Neville's desk, the same textbook on everybody's desk: "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection." The book they never use even though they were told to buy it. What a waste.

He still could remember what Moody told them in the first lesson about the books:
"I see you all slogged down to Flourish and Blotts like good little boys and girls and bought the textbook. Congratulations... It's will make a fine doorstop."

Moody's blue eyes scanned the classroom, several times they fell on him, and each time Hadrian had starred back. After the last time, Moody turned away and takes a flask out of his coat.

"When it comes to the Dark Arts, " Moody began to say, "I believe in a practical approach, as you all probably know."

And they knew very well already.

"Now, which of you can tell me how many Unforgivable Curses there are?"

The students around him trade uneasy glances to each other. Finally, Hermione's hand rises tentatively. As Moody's real eye continued to stare at the spider, his rotates eye turned to her.

"Go Granger."

"There are three, sir..."

"How did you know..." She began to say after she stopped, and Hadrian knew the answer...

"Constant vigilance!!"

...Is going to be yelled at their faces.

Just than Moody Jabs the walking stick into the floor in front of him, making the whole class jump, except for him who decided to just study Moody's scars.

"The devil likes discusses. Never forget that."

"Yes sir, " he said, still transfixed on the scars.

"Again Granger, how many curses?" Moody asked again.

"Three" she answered again, this time, less tentatively.

"And they are so named...?" Moody continued his questioning.

"Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them..."

"...Will earn you a one-way ticket to Azkaban, correct." Moody continued for her. "Now, the Ministry says you are too young to see what these curses do. I say different. You need to know what you are up against. You need to be prepared. You need to find another place to put your gum beside the underside of the desk Mr Phinnegan."

Seamus blinked toward him, caught in the act.

"Blimey. The old man can see out of the back of his head..." Seamus whisper.

"And hear across the classrooms." Moody said, "so. Which curse shall we see first? Weasley!"

"Y-yes?" Run squeak back.

"Give me a curse, " Moody replied with an excited voice.

Ron watched uneasily as Moody returns to the specimen jar, reach inside and the spider run up his hand.

"Well... My dad told me about one... The Imperius Curse," Ron said.

"I expect your father would know that one. Gave the Ministry a fair bit of grief some years ago. Perhaps this will show you why: Imperio!"

As Moody waved his wand toward the spider, the spider leaps from his hand onto Parvati's shoulder. As she shrieks, Moody flicks his wand and the spider bounds from Seamus to Dean to Lavendar, on and on, the students howling with amusement as if finally land on a horrified Ron. Moody grinned, then summons the spider back to his palm, where he slowly circles his wand over it, before Ron could faint.

"Talented, isn't she? What should I have her do next? Jump out of the window? Drown herself?"

One by one, the students' smiles dry up. Hadrian, now with Draco, is still transfixed on Moody scars, now with the addition of the wand.

"Scores of witches and wizards claimed they only did You-Know-Who's budding while under the influence of the Imperius Curse. Here is the rub: how do you sort out lairs?"

As it sinks into the students...

"ANOTHER!"

Moody scans the forest of hands when his eye rotates with particular interest on... Neville.

"It's Longbottom, is it? Professor Sprout tells me you have an aptitude for Herbology."

Neville gave a shy nod back as an answer. Then he answered, "there is... The Cruciatus Curse."

"Yes, particularly nasty."

Moody stepped forward, looming over Neville and drops the spider onto the desk.

"Crucio!"

The spider twitches, legs trembling violently. Moody stands utterly motionless, eyes fixed on Neville, who seems transfixed by the spider's misery. Hermione's eyes are drifting from the spider to Neville's hands, which are clenching the corners of his desk so hard his knuckles are turning white, while Hadrian's hand founds Draco's ones, who are trying to calm him down.

"Stop it! Can't you see it's bothering him! Stop it!"

Finally... Moody drops his wand. The room is silent.

"Perhaps you could give us the last Unforgivable Curse, Miss Granger."

After glancing at Neville, she shakes her head.

"Avada Kedavra!"

There is a flash of green light, a rush of air, and the spider... Rolls onto his back. Dead.

"The killing curse. There is no blocking it. Only one person is known to have survived it. And he is currently... Gone."

Everyone looked down. It was known that from the beginning of the year, Harry Potter didn't set a foot in Hogwarts, and the reasons were printed in the Daily Prophet. Even though The Minister wasn't present in the first task and instead send someone else (a spy to be exact, not that he knew) Rita Skeeter was. It's all started very simply: 

Rita only wanted to ask the saviour of the wizarding world what he thought about the scandal that Dumbledore did, as someone who is considered close to him. But there was a problem, she couldn't find him. She didn't know she will get a new big story from this. After questioning several students from different houses, she found out that the Savior of the Wizarding World never showed up to Hogwarts.

Small research there and a small one there she found out that even Dumbledore didn't know where he was. In fact, he still was trying to find a way to tell the Minister, and well, Rita was his way apparently, even if it was undecidedly.

Right now, there were groups of Aurors all across the country in search for him... Not that they would find anything.

"Mr Riddle, " all the turned to Moody and then to him.

"Yes sir?" He asked back.

"Did you were taught about the Unforgivable in Greece?"

"Yes sir. You need to do a project about them in the third year in EXYPNO."

"So tell me, since the Greeks are known for keeping old magic alive in their country, did you were ever told about ways to stop all three unforgivable from contacting you?"

"Yes sir."

All the class was looking at him in shock and curiously, some even in greed and hopeful looks.

"So, can you tell us how to stop a killing curse from killing us?"

"Simple, you will need someone who is willing to sacrifice himself to save you." He said in a normal voice like he was talking about the weather, with a little bit of sarcasm too.

"But before that, you would do a very dark ritual, sir, which the one who is sacrifice himself need to do alone without no one knowing."

They started at him, horrified looks on each and almost every face.

"Another way, since you said avoid from killing and not dodging is to split your s..."

"Mr Riddle, did they really taught you in that school how to do those stuff?!"

"Only part of them sir. The other part was about why those curses are blessings too."

"Bollocks!" There was a shout from the other side of the room, making everyone to get out from the haze they were in and from staring at him and to look at Weasley, who now realized that he is in the middle of the attention.

"Excuse me?" Hadrian asked in a confused voice.

"Well, although I do not agree with the way Ron said it, I do agree with his opinion. There is a reason why those curses called the Unforgivable." Hermione answered instead of Ron. "These curses are dangerous. Didn't you see what professor Moody just did to the spider?" She asked him in a disbelieving look and tone.

"Yes I did see that, but he only showed you the dark side of the curse, like you were taught to look at a light charm, like the levitating charm, as a good one." He said calmly.

"This is nonsense. The levitating charm can't be a bad one. The only thing it does is to lift things up in the air. The unforgivable are consider evils for a reason." She said in her "Know-It-All" voice, while the other looking at their small debate.

"Well then, you are wrong, " he said, and before she could open her mouth and interrupt him again, he kept talking. "You are a muggle-born, you should have a more open mind than this. That is, after all, what is blessed about you the most: open mind about magic.

"Did you ever thought about the fact that you could levitate a bed, with a person still inside it, into a big fire that you can make with a ' light' charm too? Or that you can just levitate the person over a cliff?

"And did you know that the Cruciatus curse can help you gain back memories which where Oblivate unwillingly? That is how the curse was even invented. The Imperius curse can save someone who is trying suicide. And the killing curse was intended to be used on people who are supposed to die and are suffering in the process. Like someone who has a chronic disease and now only waits for his death in pain. It's not the fault of those who invented those spells, but it's the fault of the people who decide to use them for evil."

And the bell rang, making everyone jump from the haze.

-&-&-&-

Draco was avoiding him all day, even the whole week.

After the lesson, Draco rushed out of the classroom, saying he would meet him at dinner.

But he never came.

Instead of being disappointed that his mate is still avoiding him, he decided to focus on the note Theo gave him with a wink when he sat down, looking at Theo who keeps eating as nothing happened.

He opened the note and recognise Draco's handwritten.

Come to the lake and bring skaters.

Hadrian, confuse from the request, went to his room, before going out of the castle, heading to the black lake.

Even though it was winter and night, it was warm outside, making him fold his button-up shirt's sleeves of the uniform a bit up while walking to the lake, the skaters on shoulders.

And then he saw it.

The lake, despite the warm unusual weather, was frozen, and in the middle of the close area, stood Draco, who had lights on him, making it able to see him.

Slowly, Hadrian walked to the lake, and when he reached the end, music began, a song he recognizes as one which he played on the violin while skating in a competition (in the summer, as you probably released he was very busy during the summer)... Only to realize that the music itself was him playing in the violin.

When the music began, Draco holds a hand to him, making him to put the skaters quickly and to skate to his mate, who when touching his hand, began to lid them in a dance to the middle of what is considered the safe area of the black lake.

They kept like that for almost an hour, Hadrian completely forgetting him being mad at his mate, and from joy, he didn't even notice the light colours slowly changes to a more romantic one, till he sees a hole in the middle of the frozen lake, where they stopped.

Suddenly, one of the squid's tentacles came out of the hole, holding water flowers with a small gift box and a... Is that a camera?

Draco takes the flowers and the gift from the squid, and knees slowly down.

"Will, you, Hadrian Mauve Riddle, would let me take you to the Winter Ball at Yule?"

And slowly, parts of the flowers vegan to freeze, making some of to turn into ice flowers.

Hadrian, with the biggest smile he could ever remember having, and almost in tears, whispered a simple "yes".