by Gryffindor Student » Thursday 1 January 1970 1:00:00am
I dont own Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling does. These characters are of her creation. Just a reminder! Thank you for reading!
I Don’t Know How To Cry…..
One day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Christmas was upon the castle. Snow four feet deep was lying on the grounds like thick icing on a cake. The buzz around the castle was the same everywhere and everyone you talked too. At breakfast, one snowy chilly say, Harry, Ron and Hermione were enjoying a heated conversation. "Did you hear?" Harry began. "The Yule Ball is coming up again!" "Yea," Ron answered. " Dumbledore booked the Weird Sisters again!"
Hermione put down her toast she was nibbling on. "Well I hope its as good as last years. " Ron smiled and said, "Me too Hermione." Ron blushed and his ears went pink. "Ron go for it." Harry urged. "Okay, Harry, I think I've summoned enough nerve." He turned to Hermione beside him. "Er.. Hermione I-I need to ask you something." Harry smiled, he knew what was coming. Ron had been getting his courage together for this for weeks.
"What is it Ron?" Hermione asked, looking puzzled. "I…umm..well you don’t have too if you don’t want to, I mean I will understand if you don’t---" "Ron!" Harry cut in. "Just ask her!" "Okay!" Ron sputterd. Ron turned back to Hermione and said it all real fast. "Willyougototheballwithme?" "What?" Hermine asked. "I didn’t understand." Ron sighed, took a deep breath and said slowly, "Will you go to the ball with me?"
Hermione blushed a brilliant shade of magenta. "Of course, I would love to go with you!" Ron blushed even redder. Harry smiled, he was glad Ron didn’t get turned down. "So Harry," Ron began. "You gonna ask Cho Chang to go with you?" Harry blushed. "Well I umm…haven't asked but umm----" "You just need to ask her!" Hermione pointed out. "Look here she comes, now is your chance Harry! You asked her before you can do it again!" "Go get her, Harry!" Ron urged, winking.
Cho started walking past the Gryffindor table and Harry stood up. "Excuse me, Cho, can I ask you something?" Cho stopped, motioned for her friends to go on without her and turned to Harry. "Yes?" Cho replied. Harry felt his insides squirm…and he started getting butterflies. Harry summoned up his nerves ('Gosh she's pretty' he thought) and asked, "Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?" He gulped, he was ready for the worst.
"I would like that Harry, sure I will go!" Cho replied. Harry was shocked. He looked at her in disbelief. "R-r-really? He stammered. "Sure! You are the first guy to ask me!" Cho said smiling. "I'm surprised, I thought you would already be asked by someone, I mean you are very pretty." Harry said. That came out before Harry could stop himself. He stared at her, Harry could feel his face getting hot from blushing so much. To Harry's surprise, Cho smiled and blushed. "Thank you Harry. Well I have to be going now, I will see you at the ball. Good-bye." She turned and walked off. Harry turned around and walked back to the table and sat down a look of satisfaction and shock on his face. "W-well…that went better than I thought it would!" "Way to go Harry!" Ron cheered. "Knew you could do it Harry." Hermione added
They heard footsteps behind them followed by a mock, cruel laughter. It was Draco Malfoy. "Well, well, well, Potter's got a date, girlfriend perhaps. How sweet!" His two henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly. "I don’t see you with anyone Malfoy!" Ron spat. Malfoy shot him a piercing look with his pale blue, almost gray eyes. "And who are you going with Weasley? Ron looked proud and pleased and he blushed and said, "I'm going with Hermione!" Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle burst out laughing.
"Haha! Granger?! Your going with Granger?! That Mudblood?!" Ron and Harry looked furious! Hermione threw down her silverware and ran from the Great Hall crying. Ron jumped up and Harry had to grab onto his robes to keep him from attacking Malfoy. "How dare you!" Ron said through clenched teeth. Harry stood up. "Malfoy, you better leave now, you had no right to call her that. Get out of our sites!" Ron's ears were red and Harry could see they had already caused a scene. People were staring and whispering amongst themselves.
Professor McGonagall, who could detect trouble, swept over between Harry, Ron and Malfoy. "What is going on here?" Harry hurried to speak before Malfoy could. "Well Professor, Malfoy came over here and insulted us and called Hermione a Mudblood for no reason!" "Yea, Ron chipped in. "He made her cry! And she ran out!" "Is this true Mr. Mafloy?" She said shortly. "I was provoked!" Malfoy shouted. "Ron about jumped me!" Malfoy had a fake pleading look on his face. "He insulted us before Ron stared to jump you!" Harry shot back.
"Enough!" McGonagall spat. "Off to your classes now! No more of this foolishness or there will be punishment!" Harry and Ron picked up their bags and things and Malfoy strutted off, looking somewhat pleased. The days passed and Hermione had gotten over the insult Malfoy had thrown at her. The Yule Ball was quickly approaching and everyone was looking for a date. Draco Malfoy was walking along the corridor to the Slytherin Common room one day, just days before the Ball. Pansy Parkinson met him halfway down the corridor.
"What do you want?" Malfoy spat at her. "I was just going to ask you if you would like to come to the Yule Ball with me." Pansy replied. "Are you kidding?" Came Malfoy's response. "I would rather cover myself with botiber pus!" Pansy looked startled. "You went with me last time! " She shouted. "That’s because it was the first Yule Ball and I was getting desperate! Plus if you remember I asked you!" Pansy looked at him in total hatred. "Well! Fine! I didn’t really want to go with you anyway!" And she stormed off. Malfoy turned around and smiled as he watched her march away.
Malfoy proceeded to the Slytherin Common Room and sat down in front of the fire when another girl approached him. It was Millicent Bulstrode. She walked right up to him and said, "Would you like to go to the ball with me? I heard you turned Pansy Parkinson down." Malfoy looked at her with a evil glint in his eye. "Yea, I turned her down, just like I will you!" He said icily. "I wouldn’t go with you for a hundred Galleons! You look like a pug my grandmother used to have once!" Millicent looked at him with her mouth hanging open. "Oh, your mouth is hanging open, did you know?" Malfoy asked with fake concern. Millicent didn’t say anything, she looked close to tears. She just walked off to join her group of Slytherin girls in a corner of the common room.
The Ball was only one day away and about two more girls had asked Malfoy if he would like to go with them. (Malfoy hadn't even asked anyone) Of course he turned them down. He said to one girl who was fairly pretty with long black hair, "I would rather lay on an anthill than go with you." And to the other girl he replied, "Ha! Me? With you? My father would kill me! He would say I have dishonored the family name!" He made that girl actually cry.
The time had come for the Ball and everyone was getting into their dress robes. Malfoy was going alone, which was no surprise to anyone. He had been so mean to the girls that asked him, that no other girl would dare. That night everyone was in such a craze. "Does this look all right?" "How is my hair?" "Will she like me?" "I cant dance!" In the entrance hall, Malfoy was leaning up against the staircase banister looking maliciously to each person that came through the door.
"Look at these people, all caught up in this silliness for a stupid ball! They torture themselves for weeks trying to ask someone! Its ridiculous!" Malfoy was looking rather sour. He had come in black velvet robes with silver around the trimming. His parents had even specialized his robes so that they bore a sliver snake on the chest. He then overheard some girls talking around the other side of the staircase. They were just about to go in, but he caught the last few words. One of the girls was in Ravenclaw, two in Gryffindor and the last belonged to Hufflepuff. "That Draco Malfoy! Did you hear? He was asked nearly by every girl in the Slytherin house!" The girl from Gryffindor said. "I know! No girl with have him! He is so sour!" replied the girl from Ravenclaw. "Every girl in the Slytherin house? Wow! And turned them all down?" Came the Hufflepuff girl. "No wonder no girl will have him!" The Ravenclaw girl spoke up. "He is so rude and well no one I think can stand him really! Did you hear? He actually made one girl cry!" "Yea!" The Gryffindor girl said as they started to walk into the Great Hall. "He is so cold hearted…I don’t think he will ever have anyone.." Malfoy heard this and his insides gave a emotional lurch. Was it guilt? Sadness? Remorse? "No!" He told himself firmly, he shook himself mentally and walked into the Great Hall where the Weird Sisters were just striking up the first tune of the evening.
Malfoy saw Harry and Cho, Ron and Hermione sitting at a table engaged in a heated conversation. He glanced around the room and found himself a small deserted table off to the side. He stared tapping his fingers on the table to the music. Malfoy stared at everyone in utmost disgust. "How could they do this?" Malfoy thought. A couple minutes passed and he was getting a bit lonely. He hadn't insulted anyone tonight. "Where are Crabbe and Goyle? They were supposed to meet me here!" Malfoy got up and walked around to find his two missing henchmen. Then he saw something that made him fuming mad. Yet another strange feeling.
Crabbe and Goyle had managed to get dates! Malfoy couldn’t believe it! "WHAT! I'm way better looking than those two and there they are with dates and I have no one!" Then the thought of what he just said sunk into his head----No one… Malfoy shook himself. "Who cares anyway! Its just a stupid dance! Who needs a date anyway?!" He walked back over to his deserted table. No one even bothering to speak to him, all he got was nasty looks as he walked by. Malfoy got to his table and sat down.
Hours past and many songs had come and gone and Malfoy hadn't been asked to dance. He was getting annoyed by this. "Surely I should have been asked by now!" Malfoy thought. All of a sudden a girl came up to his table and he stood up. "Finally, someone to dance with, its about time!" He said under his breath. The girl looked at him and then said, "Are you saving this chair for someone?" Malfoy looked at her with a nasty sneer. "Oh, no… He said in a sarcastic tone. "Take it, I don’t care!" "Umm okay thanks." The girl replied looking at him with a weird stare. "What are you looking at?!" Malfoy spat. "Nothing! Gosh!" She hurriedly picked up the chair and dragged it over to her table of friends.
Malfoy sat back down furious with almost everyone. An hour before the ball was to end, Malfoy was getting a weird feeling that everyone was avoiding him. He still hadn't been asked to dance by anyone! And over to his left just a few feet away was Harry Potter, dancing , having fun. Even Ron, Hermione and to top it all off….Crabbe and Goyle having more fun than he was! Malfoy couldn’t stand this. Malfoy started to get the weird feeling again. This was a feeling he'd had before and it was getting stronger. He tried to ignore it. But he couldn't. Stronger it was getting. Stronger still. It was a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach, a feeling that… no one cared about him at all.
Malfoy had had this feeling times before but he chose to ignore it, thinking it would just go away, and that it count be true. He watched everyone dancing and having fun with their partners. Their dates. His insides gave another lurch, but this time he couldn't ignore it. He suddenly felt a sudden loneliness, an emptiness. He turned over what those girls had said about him in his head. Even at home, he was shunted aside like he wasn’t even there. Even though he acted like he was always the center of his parents universe. His father was always working with Ministry matters, and his mother, well just didn’t have time for him.
And as he sat there he came to a conclusion….. A horrible conclusion. Maybe no one did care…….no one liked him… no one even loved him. He crossed his arms on the table. This had been pent up for a while, these feelings. By the always chose to ignore them, ever thinking a wishing they would just disappear. They didn’t. Malfoy looked painfully again at all the people having the next to last dance. How he yearned to have good friends like that or at least some friends. How he wished he could be liked and loved like everyone else. But he was alone, cold, cruel and alone….that empty feeling he had experienced for so long, was love. He had never known, experienced, given or even received any in return.
Draco Malfoy put his head face down into his arms and he did something that he had never done in his whole life….he cried.
By Gryffindor Student
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gryffindor Student on 2002-08-06 00:13 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Gryffindor Student on 2002-08-06 21:05 ]</font>