Claudia's Winter Ball_part 1

Magnificent.

That was the perfect word to describe it, and the only one she could think of right away. While walking through the doors, holding the arm of her company for the night; Apollo Wong, Claudia could not help but to get impressed by the change that the Great Hall had gone through since the afternoon tea; even for Hogwarts-standards this was incredible. Snow fell from the roof, and the traditional enormous Christmas trees stood even more beautiful and proud than before, all decorated with all one could hope for magic to bring forth. Icicles hung from the pillars, and all of the walls were covered in un-melting frost. Between the small tables people all dressed up and ready for the ball moved, still a bit unsure who should begin what.

Then the low bustling of low talk was broken by the frail tone of a violin, which was soon joined by other instruments. A slow waltz was played, encouraging the students and professors to find their partners and begin the dancing. For honestly; what would a ball without such a thing as dancing be?

Claudia looked up at the boy at her right side; he was going to ask her, right? Considering the slight pink shade on his cheeks he knew enough of manners to know what was to be expected of him.

"Well, hrrm…" he looked at her "Would you like to take this dance with me, miss?"

She could not help but to smile at his way to talk, she liked it…

"Yes, thank you, I would."

And with that as an agreement he took her hand and led her towards the open space on the middle of the floor, where couples already had begun their graceful movement to the rhythm of the orchestra.

Now she could see why he was uncomfortable, he didn't know… Holding back a small laughter at his clumsiness, Claudia took over the lead of the dance, secretly pleased with the spell her grandmother gave her for the shoes; now it wouldn't matter how many times he stepped on her toes, she couldn't get hurt by it. It was still a bit of a disappointment, she'd expected that he would know a bit more than this. He was a pureblood, she knew that, and as far as she could understand his uncle was quite a fan of traditions, so why not dancing? Oh well…


Time passes by faster than expected, at least when you have fun, and soon a gigantic pearl-white moon shone down from the ceiling. From a few lingering clouds some snowflakes still broke loose and twirled down towards the people far below, who continued to enjoy themselves like before. Even if some here and there fell victims to practical jokes involving anything from dungbombs to decorations, there seemed to be an overall happy evening with laugher and Christmas spirits.


Claudia had to admit, even though only silently to herself, that this could in a way be one of the happiest moments in her life. For a split second she worried a bit that it would soon be ruined in some way, but she could quickly reassure herself that this was not like home; the Hogwarts-castle followed a completely other set of rules, and that had always meant safety before.

Suddenly a voice broke her thread of thoughts, a voice she'd heard quite a number of times before, and with an obvious smile in the tone;

"Brother, I didn't know you could dance so well. Or perhaps Claudia is leading and you're accompanying?"

Well, one can be with one twin and expect the other one to be too far away, at least not with these ones… And Apollo looked over her shoulder with an obviously faked smile;

"I'm sure it's your imagination sister." He then made a face and mumbled "Of course I'm accompanying, I can't dance for beans…"

Well, at least he knew then. But Claudia had a feeling he wouldn't mind if she was completely honest with him… She'd had to try;

"I did honestly expect you to be a tad bit better than this, being older than myself even!" But then she realized; it didn't really matter. She shook her head, not understanding why. Maybe it was that the evening had been pleasant enough as it was, but it still made no sense to her…

Artemis on the other hand still smiled while watching them;

"He was never too good at those lessons."

So even with lessons it was this bad? But Apollo was apparently no one to take such, not even from his own twin;

"You're one to speak, sister."

Claudia stood still, looking back and forth between the twins as they continued, seemingly enjoying it;

" At least I didn't trip over my own two feet more times than I could count."

" You made a mistake, we both are terrible dancers, sister."

" Well…" Artemis blushed and shrugged a bit, apparently not being able to neither deny it, nor come up with something worse to throw back. To help her a little Claudia spoke up instead;

"Being at what people call a 'ball', did you really think that there would be no dancing? Being a bit more prepared couldn't have hurt. I do hope you will have learned something after tonight, or I will have failed terribly..."

Apollo only smiled, taking up the role as well-mannered partner again;

"My apologies for being your student then, Claudia. You are a wonderful teacher, especially for being able to put up with me."

Artemis then mumbled just loud enough for them to hear;

"Can't be any closer to the truth than that…"

Claudia herself couldn't help but to notice that he apparently expected them to be on first-name-addressing now. But she chose to simply sigh, and continue as before;

"I would not have much of a choice, now would I, Mr. Wong? Not after actually agreeing to go with you, and then having to choose between this or just sitting still the entire evening? But I do hope that you will know better the next time you bring a girl to this kind of event..." Then the though hit her; would their little argument be the beginning of the idea that she was supposed to teach both of them (since the other lessons obviously didn't work)? She could only hope that it wasn't…

"I don't really have anyone to practice on, and I'm afraid my sister hates having her feet stepped on constantly...  As do I." With that said, the older of the twins made a move to continue the dance, and Claudia simply followed it.  Artemis made a face at her brother as a reply, but then she smiled slyly;

"I'm sure Claudia is thankful that the mistletoe is taken away, no?"

"Mistletoe? They would not bring up such a ridiculous tradition to the ball, would they? I'm surprised they had as many as they did in the castle, not to mention peoples obsession with them..." Claudia could not help but to frown at the past weeks when the little green plant had caused all from giggles to awkward moments all over the school. She herself had done her best to avoid them, but the thought hadn't even hit her that they would bring them in here!

All of a sudden Apollo took over the lead completely and almost dragged her in the opposite direction from before;

"Take care that you don't look up then."

But to say to someone what they shouldn't to is usually the simplest way there is to make them do specifically that, and it worked on Claudia to; she stopped her movement to not trip, and looked up.

" Why not?"

Right away she saw why… She didn't even need Apollo's reply to understand why…

"There's a mistletoe hanging up there, that's why."

"Oh." Not the most intelligent reply, but she kept herself busy with moving away from it instead, grateful that no pranksters had gotten their wands pointed towards this one yet to force people to follow the tradition that everyone seemed to find so hilarious about it.

"Well, thank you then, Mr. Wong, for not following the tradition…"

Artemis seemed to have a bit of a problem not laughing at them, and she slowly took out her wand;

"Oh, he's traditional alright. Wingardium Leviosa!"

One could hear how her brother tried to keep the plead out of his voice;

"Sister! Must you do that?"

Artemis smiled an obviously false sweet smile as she continued to move her wand, almost threateningly;

"You do want to kiss her though; otherwise you wouldn't be dancing under it again"

Her smile only grew wider as her brother kept looking more worried, and all Claudia could think of was the "again" Artemis had uttered, before Apollo turned all read and his eyes grew wider;

"OI!"

Claudia decided right there and then that she did not wish to be a part of this, and quickly tried to back away from both of the twins. But this would not work when it was Artemis who held the wand;

"Oh, no you don't!" She quickly got the mistletoe right above them, and followed all movements Claudia could try. Apollo sighed, giving up;

"It would seem my sister won't let go of this… You may slap me afterwards." And with that he leaned closer and pecked her on the cheek.  Claudia did nothing to hide what she thought of the whole thing (a quite obvious dislike), but instead of doing as the boy had offered her she turned towards "the source of the problem", restraining her voice to sound as calm as she could;

"May I please ask you now, Miss Wong, to quit this not at all entertaining joke, so that we instead can enjoy the evening in a peaceful way?"

"Of course, after all; my brother did get to kiss you in the end."  The smile never left her face as she left to dance with her own date for the evening. By Claudia's side Apollo stood silent, still red in the face. She glared up at the mistletoe, and used her own wand to drag it down and burn it, feeling quite pleased as it turned into ashes (having a wand made of holly didn't give her any sympathy for the plant or its traditions whatsoever);

"I do hope this will be all of this kind of business for tonight…"

A voice behind them made both of them jump;

"Dear boy, have you stepped on all her toes already? She looks quite red in the face...As do you, dear nephew." The professor that just happened to be Apollo's uncle… Claudia took a deep breath to calm down, both from the surprise and the previous event;

"No sir, Mr. Wong is not to blame in this chase."

The professor only looked amused at them;

"Oh? Perhaps it's that mistletoe above your heads?"

Both Apollo and Claudia looked up in shock, but it was the boy who voiced the thought of both of them;

"Another one?!"

Now it was the professor's turn to look surprised;

"'Another'?" But then he noticed the ashes "Ah… Which one of you burned it?" He sniffed the air, as if the burned smell would lead to the guilty one. And apparently it did;

"Was it you, Ms Ripper?"

As guilty as she was Claudia looked down, more ashamed of being caught than of the real "crime";
"It was, sir…"

The professor shook his head;

"Tsk tsk, I'll have to deduct 5 points from Ravenclaw for littering and using magic" He then took another amused look at the mistletoe "And you better fulfill that tradition, you don't want to know what happened to the last bunch that didn't follow it." And with that said, he turned to leave and give them some privacy.

Apollo, however, seemed to be of another state of mind;

"You can't be serio…" But a glare over the shoulder from the professor silenced him, and the older man once again turned to leave. The boy almost looked a bit frightened as he watched his uncle slowly make his way into the crowd.

Claudia decided to keep quiet about the, to her, injustice that Artemis got away with a such obvious spell as the flying one, instead turning to Apollo;

"Can I take this as that your sister has got something to do with this? I do not believe they replace themselves…"