Isabelle's head was tilted up, an excited smile on her face as party purple sparks rained down every area of the wintery Great Hall.

Matthew O'Malley was one of the seven graduating Ravenclaw students. And he had done an impressive job of creating his own charm.

The purple sparks were the reason behind the sound of the electric slide blasting from every inch of the Great Hall.

Isabelle could not believe her house was actually about to do this.

But every Ravenclaw was ready — Clementine was just the one brave enough to start it.

"It's electric!" She hollered with the music, racing onto the dance floor, the yellows of her dress billowing behind her.

Everyone else from the house of blue and bronze followed her. Any other student who was on the dance floor yelled while quickly leaving it in fear of being trampled by the Ravenclaws who appeared to have gone insane.

The students of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were looking around to see if this was a normal occurrence at Hogwarts. Fleur Delacour was flabbergasted as her sixth-year Ravenclaw date, Roger Davies, fled from her side to join the rest of his house on the dance floor.

Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Parvati Patil hurried away from their seats to push their way to the front of the crowd to see what was happening. Parvati was the most confused seeing as her twin had told her nothing about this.

Hermione Granger covered her mouth in shock as she recognized the muggle song playing, her lips slowly carving into a grin as she looked at Victor Krum excitedly.

Because no way this was actually happening.

Malfoy yelped, fixing his dress robes as he stumbled away from the dance floor.

Zabini stood on his right, Parkinson next to Zabini. Crabbe and Goyle were looming behind him with Theodore Nott and Daphne Greengrass stood to his left.

They all, of course, shoved any students who tried to take their spots in the front away. Draco wanted to see what bloody hell was happening — have the Ravenclaws gone mad?

His thoughts ran toward his secret admirer yet again: the thing that had been driving him crazy. Her latest letter to him had all but admitted that she was in either Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

Draco scanned through the crowd of Ravenclaws, but he had nothing to go off. No clue as to what she may or may not look like, nothing to let him know if the girl who loved him was somewhere in there.

Then again, she might not even be in that crowd. His secret admirer could be watching just feet away from him.

It drove him mad: and being more observant was not helpful either. He had been analyzing his surroundings to the best of his abilities, but it was useless with not even the slightest bit of a physical description to go off of.

All Draco knew was that she was not in Gryffindor and not in Hufflepuff.

He was still holding out hope that maybe she would be bold enough to reveal herself tonight. After all, he had promised her a kiss and a dance for that matter. Warmth spread through him at the thought of locking lips with his secret admirer.

Draco had his first kiss in his second year. Unsurprisingly, it was with Pansy because she was curious about what a kiss felt like and asked him if they could kiss. Draco who had also been curious said yes.

They shared a few kisses near the end of second year. It was innocent and only happened once or twice. And it was not so much as real kisses rather than quick little pecks.

The following year his parents gave him official permission to start dating.

So long as the girl was pureblood and respectable and not a blood traitor and wealthy and came from a good family name and preferably a Slytherin. AKA — there were many rules when it came to the type of girl that Draco was allowed to date.

It was why he was partly nervous about these letters. Draco was not sure what to do if the girl on the other side of the letter was someone who his parents did not approve of.

Based on what she had written to him thus far: he could conclude that she was definitely a pureblood. She accidentally confirmed it in the last letter. However, he had no clue if she was a blood traitor or if she even came from money.

Even an asshole like Draco did not want to ask if she was a blood traitor or rich. Because despite his upbringing, Draco knew that those were things that should not matter to him. But it was hard when he grew up with such views.

Back to the point though: when his parents gave him permission to start dating, Draco realized halfway into his third year that he did not like Pansy Parkinson as more than a friend.

And while he had never asked Pansy to be more than a friend to begin with: he had still led her on.

Especially when during the spring of third year, Draco was curious as to what it felt like to snog a girl and proceeded to use Pansy for that exact purpose. Pansy did not have an issue with this as she was also curious—but the two were snogging each other like crazy from March to June.

In private, of course, despite everything he still had a reputation to uphold and his parents would kill him if Snape sent word that Draco was practically licking Pansy Parkinson at just thirteen!

Draco was scared of his father's reaction but he was even more terrified of what his mother's would be.

He had no doubt (despite how doted upon and spoiled he was) that Narcissa Malfoy would whoop his ass into next year if she knew he was doing such a thing.

Nevertheless, when June came around Pansy was effectively obsessed with him—Draco realized that she felt far stronger for him than he ever would for her and ended their kissing experiments.

At first, it was fine, Pansy and him went back to being just normal friends.

But when this fourth year started and Pansy arrived somehow fancying him even more than she did when they were actually snogging, now that was a bit of an issue.

First of all, he was suspicious of it because Pansy had not even liked him that much when they snogged. So how the bloody hell did she like him more now?

Secondly, Draco already felt bad enough about the whole situation, it's why he constantly tried to let her down gently. It was just not working—and tomorrow (despite it being Christmas) Draco would firmly tell her that he was not interested in being anything more than a friend.

Ever.

This all to say—Draco Malfoy had only ever kissed and snogged one girl. And that girl was Pansy Parkinson.

Not to mention the last time he snogged Parkinson was in May of last year.

Therefore, in a way, if his secret admirer revealed herself tonight then she would be the second girl he ever kissed. But even without knowing her, he had no doubt in his mind that kissing his secret admirer would mean far more than any kiss he had ever shared with Pansy.

Because apart from this girl seeming to care about him for more than superficial reasons, he actually quite liked her based on what he'd read from her thus far.

It truly was an unexplainable feeling, but somehow Draco knew the warmth that he felt in his chest when reading her letters would be difficult to replicate with anyone else.

Isabelle stood in the middle of the crowd, smashed between Anthony and Clementine as the electric slide blasted. She swept frontward with the rest of the students before backing it up and turning.

"Boogie-woogie-woogie!"

Dumbledore stood watching the dance among the other professors with a light smile on his face. Flitwick looked confused, McGonagall concerned, and Snape simply looked like he'd kill to be anywhere else.

As the other students slowly realized that the Ravenclaws were putting on some sort of dance mob — cheers and laughter began ringing out. Namely, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were cheering and hollering.

The Slytherins were sniggering at the display.

Durmstrang was cheering violently and the Beauxbatons students were only looking around confused.

All in all: no one expected this from the likes of the Ravenclaw house.

The seventh-year students were at the front the dance. Amanda MacDonald, Matthew O'Malley, Catherine Nulling, Agatha Thorncraft, Quentin Moon, Deliah Rowle, and Henrius Sayre. The graduating Ravenclaw class of 1995.

"Ha, they all look so stupid! And what's that they're dancing to? Muggle Music? Can you believe this Draco?" Pansy snorted laughter alongside Millicent Bulstrode.

Draco who had actually had a small smile on his face curled his lip in annoyance at Parkinson.

He had thought it was especially funny when Nott tried to follow the movement only to immediately mess up.

Typically, Draco would have agreed wholeheartedly with Parkinson. If it was any other night he would likely have scoffed and made derogatory comments to his friends about it.

But seeing as this was quite literally a night for dancing and letting loose, he surprisingly found some humor in it.

"Enough, Parkinson..." He sighed disdainfully.

Pansy looked at him surprised but remained quiet at his remark, a frown on her face as she continued to watch the psychotic Ravenclaws dance.

Isabelle finished the last round of the electric slide — the music pausing before completely switching. It was time for the dance that everyone had been nervous about, the one that actually took effort.

An American muggle singer, Kenny Loggins' voice boomed throughout the Great Hall.

This particular dance came from a muggle movie that Isabelle had seen a whopping total of three times. She snuck into no-maj New Orleans and watched it when it was playing at their theatres.

Embarrassingly, and Isabelle would never admit this out loud, Footloose was one of those movies that she could watch a hundred times over and still love.

Matthew O'Malley had suggested the dance and Isabelle had almost squealed out loud.

She was a teenager and it was 1994; of course, she loved Footloose. She had immediately hopped on board with the opportunity to learn the dance with the rest of her house.

Even if it possibly came with the ridicule of the rest of the school.

A flashmob using a dance from a muggle movie? How devastatingly cheesy and embarrassing.

She knew that Matthew was muggle-born, but he was an Irish wizard and she had not been aware that the movie was also popular in Ireland. Then again, it was kind of a world-renowned movie in the muggle world from what she understood. A true classic.

Surprisingly, Anthony and Clementine had never seen the movie despite their love for muggle pop culture. Isabelle had, of course, promised to show them the movie once she got her hands on a copy of it.

She had to sneak out of her house and to the muggle movie theater when they played re-runs of it when she wanted to watch it.

Here was the hard thing about Footloose; in a way, it was choreographed but it also was not. The choreography for the most part was students going crazy with dancing on the parts that were not explicitly made.

The rows of Ravenclaws were quickly destroyed as the House of the Wise started going crazy. They hollered and yelled — spinning and twirling.

Anthony was dancing with Padma. Not a waltz or any fancy dance, just a dance where they faced each other and moved their bodies like there was no tomorrow.

Isabelle and Clementine were doing much the same except five times more exuberantly. As Clementine would shimmy forward, Isabelle would shimmy while leaning back before they switched positions.

Despite the long dresses, the female Ravenclaws did not let that stop them.

After all, this was their time — the ending of a hard semester. It was the time for them to let loose and have fun.

Matthew O'Malley and Agatha Thorncraft passed by, spinning wildly.

Hermione Granger along with a few other muggle-borns and half-bloods jumped excitedly from the sidelines. Of course, the students who had been heavily involved in the muggle world would recognize Footloose.

Even Harry Potter recognized it, the chosen one clapping along with the music a wide smile on his face.

"Oi, what is this? Why's everyone so excited, I mean Hermione is jumping..." Ron asked his friend perplexed.

While he thought the dance the Ravenclaws were doing was cool, he was also not familiar with Footloose.

"It's Footloose mate — one of the greatest movies of all time!" Harry cheered as one of the Ravenclaws actually did a backflip.

Exactly like in the movie.

"What the bloody hell is Footloose?" Draco asked out loud from the other side of the dance floor.

He'd heard a few Hufflepuff students say that the dance the Ravenclaws were doing was something called 'Footloose'?

Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle, and even Pansy shrugged in confusion. All the other Slytherins looked about as confused as him, but even they were clapping along to the catchy tune.

Surprisingly, it was Nott who was dancing in place that said something.

"It's a muggle movie! Don't get me wrong—muggles and mudbloods are filthy—but damn do they know how to make a movie about dancing!" Theodore explained from next to Draco, snapping his fingers and moving his body in ways that Draco did not know he could do.

Malfoy scrunched his nose in confusion. He'd heard about muggle movies, sure, but he never paid enough attention to know what one actually entailed.

Looking to the crowd he tilted his head. Perhaps he should reconsider his thoughts on immersing himself in muggle culture: if just slightly. Only to watch this apparently 'famous' movie, of course.

Draco did not like feeling out of the loop in any manner, even stupid muggle ones.

His mouth formed an 'O' shape when he watched one of the seventh-years do a backflip.

Isabelle and Clementine grabbed grabbed hands, twirling each other around wildly.

It teetered on the edge of dancing that Isabelle was more fond of, spinny swing dances. Spinning around on her toes, Isabelle pulled Clementine to one side of the dance floor along with the rest of the Ravenclaw females.

The male population of Ravenclaws lined up on the other side of the dance floor, both sides facing each other. With that, the beat of the song dropped and both parties pointed toward each other whilst nodding their heads.

In the next second, the two sides shuffled toward each other and trapezed past all while making the floor shake with the intensity of their steps.

The rest of the student population cheered even louder at this.

After that move, all hell seemed to break loose because suddenly Ravenclaw students were flying around in vivacious dances of nearly all genres.

Isabelle was suddenly dancing alongside Anthony and Padma as Clementine twirled around with Cho Chang.

Moments passed before the end of their little dance-mob came. And, of course, they just had to end it in the way that Footloose actually ended. That shuffle where everyone comes together in 'V'.

Isabelle was near the front of it, shuffling forward as she followed along with the seventh-years who headed it. Matthew O'Malley was the tip of the V-shape, the Ravenclaw Irish boy who looked suspiciously like Kevin Bacon.

He was even wearing the same red-colored dress robes that Kevin Bacon wore in the movie.

At that last moment, Isabelle could not help herself but shout a hearty, "Everybody cut footloose!"

Cheers erupted as the dance ended and Ravenclaw students embraced each other. Isabelle, in particular, laughed as Clementine launched herself at her. The seventh-year students also stood embracing each other and laughing loudly.

The charm that played the music had officially ended with the song.

"Oh my gosh — that was brilliant!" Hermione was smiling and nodding to Victor who only nodded back with a happy smile of his own.

Harry Potter was clapping and whooping along with the rest of the Gryffindors.

"Reckon it's our turn then, George?" Fred asked his twin.

"Bloody right you are, Fred!" George said right back.

Draco was surprisingly clapping along with everyone else, looking to Blaise with his brows shot up and a begrudgingly impressed look on his face. Pansy only leaned against Millicent in a bored manner, her arms crossed sourly.

This was the one and only time that Draco would not completely bash such a muggle activity.

"Now that was something—never thought I'd see that from a bunch of Ravenclaws!" The lead singer of The Weird Sisters said into a magical microphone. "Now how 'bout we take a try! 1-2-3!"

The lead singer had shouted into the microphone before all the lights suddenly went out leaving everyone in complete pitch blackness. Immediately, screams of panic broke out seeing as most Hogwarts students were traumatized from the past four years at this school.

However, not even a second later, the lights came back on only for the Great Hall to look like a winter wonderland in rave form. Colorful lights flashed around from a charm as the Weird Sisters broke out in wildly loud music.

The instructors all sighed knowing that the small while they had of the Yule Ball being a calming and intelligent dance was over with the Weird Sisters. Dumbledore seemed to be the only one not fazed, sitting at the table and nodding his head far too calmly to the racket.

The other teachers slowly filed their way to the edges of the Great Hall to keep watchful eyes on the students. The Professors not scheduled to chaperone this portion of the dance were hasty to run away from the room filled with crazy, young, and horny teenagers.

"MOVE YOUR BODY LIKE A HAIRY TOAD! LEARNING TO ROCK N' ROLL!"

Clementine screeched along with many other students as everyone rushed to get as close to the stage as they could. It was a small mosh-pit that formed, no one really dancing anymore so much as jumping around and bumping their arms in the air.

A few couples were getting down and dirty in the middle, going so far as to grind on each other. That was quickly cut short by the Professors — specifically Snape and McGonagall who swooped in out of nowhere and pulled those couples apart.

Draco yelled wildly while jumping around with Crabbe, Nott, and Zabini: his hair leaving its previous neat state. Parkinson was somewhere next to him going just as insane as the rest of Hogwarts.

It may have been a magical school, and Draco may have been bred from one of the most noble pure-blooded houses, but he was still a teenager. A teenager who did listen to the Weird Sisters (when his parents were not home, of course) and wanted to go just as crazy as the rest of Slytherin.

Parties did not happen often, especially not of this magnitude. Slytherin common room parties were rare, and when they did happen they were not big nor crazy seeing as Snape was looming in the same corridor.

If Draco was being honest — this was kind of his first "party" where people were dancing and teenagers were acting wild.

It also made him feel better than it probably should have when he noticed Potter, Weasley, and their dates sitting by themselves at some of the tables. No one else other than Professors were sitting around them.

What losers.

However, before Malfoy could even consider going over to ridicule them, Nott was jumping on him playfully and yelling. Draco, surprisingly, did not yell at his friend to get off, but rather jumped right back as they all sang along to the loud lyrics.

This was SO much better than the stuffy elite parties and balls his parents dragged him to during the holidays.

Isabelle was dancing with Anthony and Clementine in the center of the mosh-pit. Clementine and Anthony were both jumping around and singing to the lyrics like everyone else, but Isabelle was not as she had no clue what the lyrics were.

She was not familiar with this British wizarding band. The music was cool though: it was hype and wild enough to keep the mood up.

The girl knew that her mother would probably scold her for going wild in such an expensive dress, but Isabelle refused to sit on the sidelines in fear of tarnishing the gown. Fun events like this never happened at Hogwarts, she had to take advantage of it while it was here.

And even so — this was more her vibe than the stuffy waltzing that had occurred earlier.

"Hey, guys!" Padma suddenly shouted as she appeared, dancing along with Isabelle and the twins.

"Padma! Where were you — where's Ron?" Clementine asked while taking Padma's hands and dancing with her.

Isabelle and Anthony were listening, but dancing facing each other.

"Bloody hell: that idiot is sitting over there pouting over Hermione and Krum! He won't even get up, he's been sour and refused to dance this whole time! He's certainly been a rubbish date!" She exclaimed.

"Aw—I'm sorry! If it makes you feel any better, Michael has been ignoring me practically the whole night!" Clementine said. "It's definitely more fun to be with friends!"

"For sure!" Padma agreed as they danced with each other.

"I told you that Corner is an ass!" Isabelle shouted to Clementine who only rolled her eyes but playfully flipped her off in response.

"I have to agree with that one, Clem!" Anthony yelled before suddenly putting his hands on Isabelle's hips and getting low with her, both of them facing each other and smiling widely.

Despite the frigid appearance of the Great Hall — it was incredibly warm inside. And even with the snow that fell violently from the skies outside the castle: Hogwarts protected her students from the harsh winter.

The firewhisky had certainly worked wonders in loosening them both up.

The Weird Sisters started playing some beachy-sounding song. Isabelle pushed away from Anthony, flailing her body around in dramatic movements that one might find in a 60s muggle beach movie.

When New Orleans came to mind, not many people thought of the beach immediately. But as Louisiana was a coastal state with New Orleans located not far from the waves, Isabelle often spent many days during the hot and sticky summers lounging on local beaches.

Most were, of course, wizarding-only beaches that she went to. But occasionally she would sneak her way to a muggle beach for a change in scenery.

Clementine and Anthony laughed as Isabelle put on a beach show for them. Well, a beach show in a fancy dress in the middle of a winter ball.

From the other side of the dance floor, Draco danced easily with Pansy. Seeing as it was a fast beachy song, they did not touch each other but rather just danced facing the other. Zabini was dancing with some Beauxbatons girl, and the others were all dancing in a big group with each other.

Draco did not mind dancing with Pansy at all — it was rather fun.

That was until she suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck and forcibly drew him in close. His eyes widened as he stumbled closer to the girl. This position was more familiar than he cared to admit, and the way that her jade eyes constantly fluttered to his lips let him know her intentions.

Pansy Parkinson was a pretty girl. She had chestnut locks and round green eyes. She was always poised and never allowed herself to be seen as anything but elegant. He and she got along well enough. She was a pureblood, she was a Slytherin, her father was in good standing with his father and she was wealthy enough.

She check-marked every single box that Draco's parents required for his partner.

There was virtually no reason that Draco Malfoy should not already be in love with Pansy Parkinson. But the truth of the matter was that he was not, and he highly doubted that he would ever be.

Pansy Parkinson was not the one for him. He was not sure how he knew it but he just did. As though there was an insistent buzzing from his magic that told him he was waiting for someone else.

As Pansy started to lean in, closing her eyes — Draco leaned away. For perhaps the first time in his life, there was a guilty expression on his face as Pansy opened her eyes with furrowed brows.

The loud music and flashing lights were suddenly too much. It made his head pound as he desperately tried to resurface. But he would no longer be able to enjoy his night until he did what needed to be done.

With that, Draco reached for Pansy's hand and led her away from the dance floor. He sneered at Potter as he passed him sitting at the table, leaving the Great Hall with Pansy in tow. There were not many students loitering outside the doors of the dance, but the few around were either snogging or crying.

The two Slytherins walked right past these people, finding a lone corridor before Draco and she were leaning against a wall facing each other silently.

They stood in awkward silence for a few minutes.

Why was this so much harder than Draco thought it would be?

Finally, he let out an irritated sigh and breathed, "Pansy, look—"

Pansy cut him off, holding up a hand and bringing her gaze to the floor sadly. "You've never liked me..." She said with a harsh swallow. "Not once: not when we talked, not when we laughed, not when we kissed..." She sniffled.

Draco's heart dropped. But he knew leading her on any further would only make this worse. Despite this, he reached forward and gripped her shoulders almost comfortingly. Pansy looked up with her face scrunched in irritation.

But Draco was familiar with that look because he'd worn it plenty of times himself. Pansy was more sad than mad, but she was using her anger to cover it up. He could see the tears beginning to form from behind her eyes.

"That's not true," Draco finally said, voice firm, "I've never lied about liking you... but I don't love you... I'm sorry..." He was never the best with words, especially when it came to mushy-feely stuff like this.

But he respected Pansy enough to at least try to comfort her.

Pansy stared at him sadly, but in that moment she was faced with reality.

What she really wanted.

She'd really only been pursuing Draco so hard because of pressure from her family to try and secure the bag with a Malfoy.

Because of that, Pansy forced herself to begin liking Malfoy as much as she could. That was not to say that she did not genuinely like him but the pressure from her family certainly did not help either.

However, hearing Malfoy tell her in the kindest way he was capable of that he would never love her was as relieving as it was saddening.

But the relief started to overpower anything else — it did not matter what her family wanted anymore. Not when Draco did not feel that way about her and was no longer leading her on. In that moment, Pansy let go of any feelings she felt for Draco that superseded friend.

Her shoulders fell and she breathed out calmly.

"Thank you." She finally said after moments of quiet.

Draco rose a brow at that, his grip on her shoulders loosening. Of all the reactions, that was not at all what he was expecting.

"Uhm, you're welcome?" He responded in a questioning manner. "Are you going to be alright?"

Pansy snorted at his question. How unlike Draco Malfoy to ask such a thing — how unlike him to care even in the slightest.

"Do you really care, Malfoy?" She bit sharply.

Draco shrugged his shoulders at that, looking confused about the question himself. Pansy rolled her eyes and shoved past Malfoy. He could not find it in himself to care.

"Wait — where are you going?" Draco called out to her.

Pansy paused and turned around.

"Back to the common room, I'll be fine, Malfoy! Just go back to the dance!" She said before spinning around once more and walking away.

And surprisingly, for as smitten as she believed herself to be with Malfoy mere moments ago — she could not find it in herself to care about it all that much either. After all, why would Pansy waste her time on someone who did not want her back?

Draco watched Pansy Parkinson walk away in all her pink-frilled glory. Even as the smallest amounts of worry for his friend crept into his chest, he found that he felt much better already.

That's why he twirled back around and walked toward the dance. His grin was obnoxiously bright as he swaggered, feeling like an entirely new young man.

"You look ugly when you cry..." He sneered as he passed by a random Hufflepuff girl crying against a wall surrounded by a few of her friends.

All the girls glared at Malfoy as he said that unnecessary and rude comment.

Even if it was true.

No one, of course, had the gall to say anything back to him. And he did not think they would either seeing as they were Hufflepuffs.

As he strutted back into the Great Hall, he quickly walked back onto the dance floor where he joined his crew.

"Oi! What're you lot looking at?" He crudely questioned his friends upon his arrival, seeing as they were not dancing but just standing around.

Nott who had been polishing off a random bottle of firewhisky that had been passed around choked as Malfoy popped up behind him.

Draco yelped while hopping away from Nott who was bent over — firewhisky coming from his nose and mouth as he coughed. Zabini did the same, staring at Theodore in disgust.

"Bloody hell, get your dignity back, Nott!" Draco meanly said to his friend, sneering at the sight of the firewhisky.

As much as he wondered about how much more enjoyable the night would be under the influence of alcohol: Draco was a Malfoy. And therefore firewhisky was beneath him. When he was old enough to truly drink then like everything else in his life — it would be expensive. Fine wines and liquors only.

Certainly not a smuggled bottle of Ogden's Old that was half wrapped in crunchy brown paper.

Who the bloody hell even knows where it came from: it could be laced for all he knew!

Nott ignored him, shooting Malfoy his middle finger instead as he continued to cough. It was insanely lucky a chaperone had not yet noticed the disaster that Nott was making out of himself.

"I can't believe that Goyle has a girl interested in him before me..." Crabbe groaned in frustration.

It was then that Draco noticed the sight the others had all been watching before he came over.

Gregory Goyle leaned against the wall of a corridor many feet away talking to no other than a pretty blonde Ravenclaw.

Draco's eyes narrowed at the familiar Ravenclaw draped in yellow.

It was the Goldstein twin female — the girl who was always with the American witch.

While the blonde was pretty, Draco could not help but think that it looked like the sun threw up all over her.

Goyle did not seem to think this though as he only nodded along with whatever the Goldstein twin was saying to him with a stupid lovesick look on his face.

The female Goldstein was a weird hippie: not necessarily a direct target for Draco, but he'd also never spoken to her. He'd barely even given her a second thought until she approached Goyle a few weeks prior with an admittedly well-drawn sketch of him.

Goyle had, of course, blushed like a madman while viciously thanking her.

Malfoy and Crabbe had only stood by gaping at the scene; neither having thought that they'd ever see the day. Malfoy was not even sure if the Goldstein twin actually liked Goyle or was just so artsy that she drew random students.

But watching her talk with Goyle now made Malfoy think that she was fond of him in some manner.

He briefly wondered where Goldstein's American friend was. Seeing as he doubted his secret admirer was planning on making an appearance perhaps this was an opportunity he could take advantage of and talk to the American.

Draco would need to act as arrogant as ever and flaunt himself. He had a feeling that the new student knew who he was — surely his reputation preceded him — but on the chance that she did not then Draco wanted to establish his importance early on.

If not just to boast about himself and hype himself up.

His train of thought quickly moved on when Zabini and Crabbe started talking to him — all of them still staring at Goyle and Goldstein. Nott had stumbled off to find Daphne leaving only the three of them.

The Weird Sisters started to play a rock song that made everyone around them go crazy. But the Slytherins were still whispering to each other while staring at Goyle and Goldstein in disbelief.

Isabelle Lockley was dancing violently with Anthony, Cho Chang, Cedric Diggory, and Padma to the Weird Sisters loud song.

They were singing a catchy tune that was arguably Isabelle's favorite song they had played tonight. They were singing something about 'talking in your sleep'.

"Where has Clementine gone off to?" Isabelle yelled, slurring her words just slightly. "She said she'd be back in a few minutes almost half an hour ago!"

Reasonably, Isabelle was concerned seeing as who the fuck knows what kind of tricks people had up their sleeves in such a setting.

Anthony shrugged. "I don't know but let's go find her!" He shouted over the music.

Isabelle followed after him with Padma.

They were not searching for long, the three of them freezing when their eyes caught sight of Clementine leaning against a corridor wall with Gregory Goyle.

"No way!" Padma giggled as Isabelle smirked at her friend.

Anthony, on the other hand, groaned while digging the palms of his hands into his eyes. "I can't believe you both like douchebag Slytherin boys!" He cried out dramatically.

Isabelle hushed him and glared heatedly. "Shut up, Anthony!" She bit, looking around to make sure no one heard.

Of course, with the loud music and no one paying attention — there was no one to hear those words except for Padma who laughed.

They stood at the edge of the dance floor and Isabelle noticed that just a few feet in front of them with their backs to them was a familiar group of Slytherin boys.

Draco stood in the middle of Crabbe and Zabini, his hands dug into the pockets of his nice dress robes as they stared unabashedly at Goyle and Goldstein. It did not take a genius to know that the three were obviously expressing their disbelief about their friend to each other.

Isabelle was not the only one who noticed as Anthony and Padma did as well. Anthony flinched back and tilted his head in the opposite direction. He wanted to get as far away from those Slytherins as possible.

"Ugh — let's get out of here — Clementine will find us later..." He said and Isabelle nodded, throwing one last look to the back of Malfoy's very blonde head.

Padma only pursed her lips at the two of them. "What — no — Isabelle you should go ask you-know-who to dance with you!"

Isabelle looked at Padma unimpressed. "I'm going to pray that you mean Malfoy and not Voldemort?" She said his name fearlessly.

There was a whole lecture about Voldemort that Isabelle could get into, but the gist of it was that she was American, and Voldemort never really infiltrated MACUSA the way he infiltrated the ministry so there was not much for her to fear.

During the years he was in power, he was mainly prevalent in Europe. Sure he had spies in America and planned to take it over as well, but he'd never actually had that chance to have much influence over the states before he was eventually defeated.

Anthony nudged her harshly and glared. Padma flinched at the name but was not discouraged.

"Yes, I'm talking about Malfoy!" She sassed right back. "Go see if he wants to dance!"

Isabelle thought about it. He promised her a kiss if she revealed herself tonight, but she had absolutely no intentions of doing that. She was a coward.

Cowardly enough that she tried pining her fear on Ravenclaw logic, and that logic would just not allow her to so much as ask Draco to dance let alone reveal to him that she was who was behind the letters.

She briefly wondered if another letter had been left for her since the time she'd been to Hogsmeade a few days ago for Christmas shopping. If there was another letter then Draco would have had to have visited Hogsmeade sometime in the last three days.

Looking around the Yule Ball, Isabelle decided that while she had a great night — she was about finished. There were certainly going to be plenty more songs, and the slow dance songs had yet to start playing.

But seeing as Ron Weasley had already ditched Padma for the night, Isabelle figured she would be kind and wordlessly give Anthony over to her for the night. It was quite obvious that they wished they had come together anyway.

At least this way they still had half the Yule Ball to be together.

"Actually, I think I am going to head back to the common room," She finally said, looking at Anthony and Padma.

Clementine was still in deep conversation with Goyle not noticing any of them.

"Oh, what? No way!" Anthony complained.

"Yeah, I was only teasing, you don't need to ask Malfoy to dance if you don't want to," Padma told her guiltily.

Isabelle waved her off. "It's not that, I'm genuinely just beat — sorry to ditch you so soon, Anthony. But hey: you guys could always be each other's dates from this moment..." She pointed to both Anthony and Padma before crossing her fingers at the other.

Anthony blushed violently and Padma looked away shyly. It was obvious that she was blushing as well but it was unseen due to her brown skin tone. Isabelle could relate.

With that, Isabelle raised her brows suggestively and turned around patting Anthony on the shoulder before ghosting away from the two. She easily made her way through the Ball and out the doors toward the common room.

But she completely missed the way Draco Malfoy had turned his head to watch her leave curiously.

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the author:

nah, because y'all know I just had to add the most unrealistic cheesy dance in there. it couldn't be written by me if I didn't find an excuse to incorporate the iconic footloose dance. but if you haven't watched it, the movie footloose really is a must-watch!

i promise that we're getting closer to them officially meeting and to some romance. just a few more chapters friends! keep chugging it out for a few more chapters!