Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 8: Your Dimwit of a Best Friend

Later that week, Briar was walking down the corridors when she heard some other Gryffindors whispering about the Yule Ball. One girl had said, "Yeah, I heard that Neville Longbottom asked Ginny, and she said yes."

Another girl added, "I heard that Harry and Ron are going with the Patil twins."

"They're so lucky," A third had sighed.

Briar had sped up her pace down the hallway, her irritation mounting inexplicably once again. Just in that moment, Blaise hopped out in front of her, nearly making her crash into him. He slowly smiled at her without saying a thing.

She raised her eyebrows and demanded, "Are you going to actually say something, or are you just going to keep staring at me?"

He blinked slowly, maybe not expecting that response to his "dazzling smile." He adjusted his tie and began, "So, I was just wondering -- I know that neither of us have dates -- so I wanted to ask..."

Briar noticed Ginny Weasley walking past her with a few other Gryffindor girls in her year. Something made her turn back to Blaise and nod her head just as he was finishing asking her to the ball. "Yes. Sounds great, Blaise. Let's do that. I'm running late to potions, so we can talk more later if we need to?"

Blaise was already launching into a counterargument for her rejection, but his words came to a halt as he realized what she said. She was already halfway down the corridor when he processed that she had actually said yes.

He smugly smiled and thought to himself, And Pansy said there was no way she would say yes to him. He couldn't wait to see the look on Pansy's face when he showed up to the Yule Ball with Briar in tow.

-

On Christmas, the four Slytherin roommates all got ready together. Briar's three roommates had all looked at her suspiciously when she had gone into the bathroom with makeup, but they all happily grinned at her once they realized she was going to the ball with them.

None of them could believe it, and neither could she honestly. She wasn't sure what came over her that day, but she figured it could be fun. If it wasn't, she knew she could always conveniently disappear back to her dorm whenever she felt like it.

Besides, Blaise seemed happy, so that seemed like a good thing. She caught him multiple times just staring at her and smiling in the week after she said yes. She just widened her eyes at him or gave him a tight-lipped smile in return each time. She hoped he would stop with the staring, but he kept doing it, and she thought she was going to go mad after too many times of that happening.

On the day of the ball, Briar slipped into her dark green, velvet dress that had a slit going up one leg. The dress rested on her shoulders with thin straps that crossed over her open back. She grinned as she pulled it on, loving the way her black hair looked against the dark green of the dress.

She felt powerful.

She put some waves into her normally straight black hair, still finishing before the other girls. Briar stood off to the side of the room for a moment until she grew tired of watching Millicent struggle with her hair. She strode over to her and helped her finish curling her hair. Millicent gave Briar a grateful smile when she took over, so Briar softly smiled in return.

All the girls were ready soon after, and they slipped down to the common room where the boys were waiting there for them. Blaise and Malfoy smirked as soon as the girls entered the room while Crabbe and Theo just had small smiles on their faces at the sight of their dates.

Briar came over to Blaise and smiled softly at him. He breathed, "You look incredible, Briar."

She smiled and replied, "Thanks. Are you all ready to go?" She grinned at the group, grimacing at Draco and Pansy when they started kissing.