The Yule Ball II
The inhabitants of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry gave a collective shiver as the chill of winter descended.
It had come early and, as quickly as the leaves on the trees had turned a fiery red, they had fallen and been covered by a cold blanket of soft snow. The stone hallways of the castle afforded the students little protection against the icy air. They could do nothing else but travel briskly between lessons with their winter travelling cloaks drawn tight around them. In fairer weather, groups of students could be found in bunches in corridors and hallways, but now people congregated in the Great Hall, the House Common Rooms or the Library when not in lessons and left their other haunts to the caretaker who, if he was growing irritated with having to continually clean up melt water, was not yet showing it.
On one particularly cold evening after a day of heavy snow and freezing wind during mid-November, students sat in the Great Hall eating and thawing out. The enchanted ceiling above showed that snow still swirled in the night and was giving little sign of letting up any time soon.
In amongst a loose group of Hufflepuffs sat Ulquiorra, a rather pale and morose looking Fifth year who seemed entirely absorbed in the textbook he was reading. His green eyes scanned the page as those around him chatted, each interested in the Triwizard Tournament that, this year, was being held at Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Champion was the subject of much discussion - he had just swept the most points in the first task and, to top it off, he was the first Hufflepuff Champion since the ill-fated Cedric Diggory some years ago.
“It’s lucky he knows decent defensive spells,” Rikku said, eating a plate full of mashed potatoes with some enthusiasm. “He’d have been burnt to a crisp otherwise.”
Several of the students murmured their agreement on the subject while others stayed silent. The topic had been talked about time and time again, but the novelty didn’t seem to be wearing off, particularly for the members of the Champion’s own House.
“I don’t know,” a quiet boy called Florian offered in a brief moment of silence. “There were plenty of defence-wizards and medics on hand in case it went wrong.”
“True,” Yuffie, Rikku’s best friend, said, “But he could have been burnt to a cinder before they even got to him. People have died in Triwizard Tournaments before, remember?”
“But in the first task?” Florian asked, frowning slightly. “If there was a chance of them losing their lives in the first one, they wouldn’t have been picked out of the Goblet. Professor Ansem said that they were picked for courage and ability.”
His friend, Catlin, nodded in his defence. She was known for being rather straightforward, scary and pretty handy with jinxes - all useful things when you considered that she was a Prefect. She was generally quiet and rarely spoke up in discussions, preferring to let Florian do the talking. However, it turned out that she knew more gory stories about what had happened to previous Triwizard Champions than anybody else in Hufflepuff and became almost animated when she regaled them with bloody tales of grievous injuries and interesting deaths. On top of it, she was quite knowledgeable about dangerous monsters and other Enemies.
“It was a Springheel,” she said, looking rather thoughtful. “When Harry Potter competed, they had dragons. Dragons are real dangerous - Springheels are dangerous too, but they’re nothing compared to dragons.”
Florian looked slightly put off his dinner and pushed some vegetables around his plate while he listened. He was a Muggle-born wizard and had been shocked to discover that unicorns really existed, never mind dragons. It had all been rather difficult to take in to begin with and, although he had grown used to the idea, it wasn't something he was entirely at ease with just yet. Care of Magical Creatures tied with was Defence Against the Dark Arts as his favourite lesson, but he rather hoped not to come up against a gigantic, fire-breathing dragon with scales hard enough to repel most spells in the near future.
“Dragons have been given a five-X rating by the Ministry of Magic - that means they’re known wizard killers,” Catlin continued knowledgably, “But Springheels are only rated as four. I think they decided to use one this year because they’re fast, naturally repel Stunning and movement inhibiting charms and are difficult to catch.”
Which had, of course, been the Task. Each Champion had needed to use all of their skills and courage to catch their Springheel and subdue them long enough, without sustaining burns or other injuries, to relieve them of a locket which contained the next clue.
"I suppose it helps if there's less chance of them killing the Champions, too," she added, almost as an afterthought.
Ulquiorra looked up from his book and scanned the group. He was thoroughly disinterested. He had initially been interested in the outcome of the task, like everybody else, but he had gotten it out of his system in the immediate aftermath. For now, he had more important things to think about, namely the homework that was steadily piling up. He could have done without dealing with excitable classmates and disrupted lessons in his busiest and most stressful year thus far. It was, in his opinion, simply a case of bad luck that his Fifth year happened to have fallen during one where Hogwarts was hosting the Triwizard Tournament and he was sure that he wasn’t the only one.
“I wonder what the next task will be...” Rikku mused, looking around for theories.
Ulquiorra finished his meal and got up. It was time to continue his work elsewhere. He glanced over at the Ravenclaw table and, upon not seeing who he was looking for, headed to the Library alone.
The route there was free of trouble makers due to the weather - something that was especially useful when you happened to be a Prefect. It was a responsibility that he considered important, but it was refreshing to be able to travel between destinations without having to warn First- or Second-years against breaking the rules. He saw Mr Ichimaru, the caretaker, vanishing great puddles of water from an area that had apparently suffered a leaky window, but he didn’t hang around.
The library was warm and the familiar scent of dust and books hung thickly in the air. He rather liked the library. It was quiet and free of ridiculous skirmishes between both enemies of different Houses and overexcited friends of the same. Nobody would dare start a duel there - the librarian was renowned for being rather testy when it came to the potential destruction of books.
“Ulquiorra,” a voice called from nearby.
It took Ulquiorra a moment to figure out that it had come from behind a pile of books on a table that was half tucked away behind a bookcase. It was Justin, Ulquiorra’s fellow Prefect from the Ravenclaw House and best friend. It was entirely unsurprising to see him there - they had few other options when it came to spending time together given that they had different Common Rooms and sat at different tables at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“You were waiting for me?” Ulquiorra asked, navigating his way around the table and behind the book-fortress to join him.
“Of course,” Justin replied with a smile. “I didn’t wait around in the Great Hall because I’m not overly interested in endless and increasingly fanciful retellings of the first Task.”
Ulquiorra gave him a nearly sullen look and dragged his parchment and quills from his bag while Justin laughed quietly at him. “You heard them?”
“Yes,” Justin nodded, not quite able to pull off a wicked smile, but he managed to produce an amused expression the same. “It's not just your House that's doing it, but I imagine it's worse for you. You looked thoroughly bored.”
“I simply have better things to think about,” Ulquiorra said, placing a bottle of ink on the table. “What do we have that is outstanding?” he asked, swiftly changing the subject.
“I have Charms and Transfiguration,” Justin grinned, looking at his homework planner. He was the only person Ulquiorra knew who kept one. “The Silencing Charm and Vanishing Spells. I finished my work on Knarls at lunchtime and we have a week before we have to hand in our essay on the Internet for Muggle Studies.”
“I finished my Muggle Studies essay last night,” -it was easy for him since he had come from a Muggle household -- “but I have not completed my Care of Magical Creatures one yet.”
“Well, we can do those last - they aren’t due in yet and I have Charms tomorrow,” Justin said, fiddling with the end of his quill. “If you have no objections?”
Ulquiorra shook his head. It wouldn’t take him long to do the Knarl essay in his own time and, if he got that done, he would be able to help Justin with the Internet one without having extra work hanging over him. His home advantage when it came to Muggle Studies was one that Justin lacked and that he was willing to share.
As Fifth-years, they were allowed to stay in the corridors and, as an extension of this rule, the Library, until 9:30. Justin and Ulquiorra regularly took advantage of this fact and, as a result, rarely ended up struggling under the avalanche of homework that deluged so many of their peers. They tended to work separately on things, but having the ability and opportunity to discuss the homework often helped with the trickier problems. They shared one book as they read the chapter regarding Silencing Charms and, after a while, they both set to the essay.
It wasn’t particularly difficult. They mostly worked in silence, occasionally pausing to discuss something relative to the subject. Silencing Charms weren’t exactly simple, but at the same time, both had excelled in the particular class and got it down rather quickly. Penning the theory was much more difficult and time consuming than performing the charm in the first place.
“Did you find the raven or the toad more challenging?” Justin asked thoughtfully, tapping his lips with the end of his quill.
Ulquiorra dragged his eyes away from the parchment in front of him. “The raven. I would not consider either of them particularly difficult, but the raven took more effort than the toad.”
“True,” Justin replied. “I suppose the difficulty is similar to what Professor Lestrange told us about Vanishing different animals in Transfiguration. Amphibians are less complicated than birds or mammals, so it must be less difficult to silence them.”
Ulquiorra nodded. “It says something like that on the next page. It may be worth including,” he said, reaching to turn it.
Justin had much the same idea.
Their fingers brushed at the corner of the page as each went to turn it. They shared a pause and an awkward look before Justin coloured and looked away, a smile pulling at his mouth.
“Sorry, go ahead,” he said.
He didn’t look particularly apologetic.
Justin’s hand, unlike Ulquiorra’s own, was warm. Justin, despite the pink in his cheeks, looked back at him and seemed a little bit concerned. He suddenly grasped Ulquiorra's hand, the crinkle of a frown marring his expression.
“You should have sat closer to the fire,” he said quietly as Ulquiorra met his eyes.
“I’m all right,” Ulquiorra reassured him. “I am rarely particularly warm.”
“Because of..?” Justin asked, looking around to make sure there was nobody nearby.
He didn’t need to finish his sentence, Ulquiorra knew what he meant. He nodded and looked at him for a moment longer before Justin released his hand - but not before giving it what Ulquiorra took to be a reassuring squeeze. Justin knew something about him that nobody else did and still liked him in spite of it. For a moment, it felt like he hadn’t let go. It was as though a cloak of warmth was still clinging to his chilled fingers. He made an effort to shake the tingly feeling that seemed to spread up through his hand and think about his homework, but it was a little more difficult than it had any real right to be.
Despite the distraction, they both managed to get through their Charms and Transfiguration homework without much trouble. They never rushed their work. They never needed to. Even with Prefect duties and Quidditch practice on top of their workload, they always made enough time to get everything done.
Even the Librarian knew that. It was for that reason that when she systematically extinguished all of the lights, she left the one on their table until last. She seemed to appreciate that they didn’t have much choice when it came to places suitable for cross-House socialising and didn’t seem at all worried that they spent so much time with her precious books. They were, after all, both quiet and respectful.
“All right boys, it’s time to go.” She told them, getting to them at last. “You can come back tomorrow.”
They collected their things together and stowed them away carefully in their bags. The actions of both held a marked lack of enthusiasm, but lids were screwed tightly onto ink bottles, parchment was carefully rolled and quills were cased and stored. They pulled on their outdoor cloaks, bid the Librarian goodnight and left, each of them dragging their feet a little.
The door to the library locked behind them.
“We can do the last two essays tomorrow,” Ulquiorra said.
“All right,” Justin agreed, smiling slightly. “Night, then.”
“Goodnight,” Ulquiorra replied, his expression softening very slightly as he held out an arm so that Justin could hug him.
It had been strange ritual at first, but he had gotten used to it. It was nice.
“See you tomorrow.”
Ulquiorra couldn't stop himself thinking about how warm Justin's hand had felt around his own as he walked the cold path back to his Common Room.
*
The following day, Ulquiorra found himself mildly disappointed to find that a notice had been posted in the common room requesting the presence of all Fourth-years and above after dinner that night with no exceptions. They were to meet in a large, empty basement classroom and, since it had been posted by Professor Aizen, their Head of House, there was absolutely no getting out of it.
He could think of better ways to spend a Monday night, though he felt slightly less sullen about the whole thing when, at breakfast, Justin informed him that a similar message had also been posted in the Ravenclaw Common Room.
“We’re pretty sure that it’s something to do with the Yule Ball,” Justin said quietly, keeping his voice down. “That's just a theory, though. If it finishes up early, do you want to meet me in the library?”
At least he was keeping a somewhat positive attitude to the disruption of their usual routine.
When the time came, it turned out that Justin was right. Ulquiorra stood silently among his whispering House-mates in a spacious but nonetheless warm classroom and waited for Professor Aizen to turn up.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said when he finally made his appearance.
He was a generally fair Head of House. He didn’t favour Hufflepuff over the other Houses in the same way that Professor Hojo did with Slytherin and he didn’t have a bizarre and convoluted point-scoring and deduction system like Professor Johnson did. He, of course, believed that respect and House Points were won with ability and hard work, but given the traits of his House, that was no great surprise.
“As some of you may have already surmised,” he said, looking around at them all, “this is the official announcement regarding the Yule Ball at Christmas.” He paused, giving them time to get the whispering over with. “Dress Robes were mentioned in your equipment list for this year, but if you have neglected to purchase some, they can be picked up in Hogsmeade during next weekend’s scheduled trip.”
Ulquiorra saw the worried looks on the faces of those who clearly hadn’t bought them. He, fortunately, had. They were mercifully plain and made him look terribly neat without the danger of anybody mistaking him for a member of the clergy.
“Be aware that you should find yourself a, well, date for the Ball--” a number of the less social students groaned, sighed or rolled their eyes at that “--and that dance lessons will be held every Monday and Wednesday evening in the run up to it.” He looked around at everyone once the second round of muttering had died down. “The first lesson, however, will be until curfew tonight. Now,” he said softly and with a smile, “can I have a volunteer?”
Ulquiorra was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to get to the library after this.
He watched Professor Aizen's dancing demonstration (Yuna volunteered) and, when they were to practice amongst themselves, he managed to avoid it entirely until the final hour. That was when Rikku and Catlin conspired against him and took it in turns to get him to practice before the lesson was over. He didn’t enjoy it, but he wasn’t bad. He was nonetheless relieved when Professor Aizen called an end to the session.
“Well, that’s it, then. If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask me now.”
Most of them filed out with expressions that ran the scale between excitement and utmost dread.
Ulquiorra hung back, as did a number of other people. It was clear that some were going to ask about the dancing, so he waited until almost everyone had cleared out. In the end, it was only him and Abban Lloyd, the Prefect in the year above him, left.
“I know what you’re both going to ask,” Professor Aizen said before either had opened their mouths. “I don’t expect that either of you want to go and I’m not going to force you, but you are Prefects. You should make an effort and set an example.”
Ulquiorra and Abban glanced at each other and a very mild look of disappointment crossed both of their faces. The professor knew how seriously they both took their Prefect status. They weren’t exactly antisocial, but they were both the kind of quietly intimidating that made people wary of them and didn’t exactly provide them with many friends - not that either of them minded. Their best friends simply happened to be from different Houses to their own.
“Yes, Professor.” Abban said politely.
Ulquiorra simply nodded.
“Was there anything else?” Professor Aizen asked.
“No, sir.” Ulquiorra said, and turned to leave.
*
The rest of the week following that initial dance lesson and announcement was, in Ulquiorra’s opinion, ridiculous. He was glad that the constant chatter about the First Task had finally died down, but he felt mildly annoyed that it had only stopped because it had been replaced by talk of the Yule Ball. It was, somehow, even more tiresome.
It did not help that he was having more than a little trouble finding a ‘date’ or, more correctly, a dance partner. On Friday, after dinner, he finally decided to ask the only girl he could tolerate the thought of spending an evening with to go with him. She wasn’t silly and she didn’t travel around the school as part of a giggling pack. Unlike the others, it wasn’t difficult to get her on her own.
“Catlin,” he said while they patrolled the corridors on Prefect duty. “Would you go to the Ball with me?”
He wasn’t nervous. If she said yes, he figured that it was easier than he thought. If she said no, then he would simply have to find somebody else to ask. Who he attended the Yule Ball with was not going to be very important in the grand scheme of things, but he would rather attend with a friend than somebody he didn’t really know out of little more than an obligation to not turn up alone.
Catlin, usually as reserved with expressions as him, actually looked very, very slightly apologetic.
“I can’t,” she said, “I’ve already asked Florian. Sorry.”
Ah. That didn’t come as a surprise to Ulquiorra. They were close, after all. He nodded. He was a little bit disappointed, but there were plenty of other girls in the school, if only he could separate one from her gang.
By Sunday, matters hadn’t improved.
He lowered himself into the chair next to Justin in the library on the evening and got his things out of his bag. He noticed that Justin had picked a table closer to the fire this time. A lucky thing, since the weather hadn’t improved any. There were still a few weeks to go until the actual Ball, but it seemed to be looming all too plainly on the horizon. He figured that homework, if nothing else, would take his mind off it all.
“Do you have a date, yet?” Justin asked, flattening out his rolled-up and half-finished Potions essay.
Perhaps not.
“No,” Ulquiorra replied, not pausing in getting his writing equipment out. “I asked Catlin on Friday, but she has already asked Florian.” He rolled his eyes. “This is a ridiculous tradition.”
Justin nodded, leaning on one hand. “I think Ari Emory from the year below is stalking me,” he sighed wearily. “Everywhere I go she seems to be waiting for me with a scary sense of purpose. I’m running out of excuses to get away from her with.”
Ulquiorra blinked. “Why do you not go with her?”
Justin sighed and shook his head. “Other than the fact that I'm not really interested in her, my dad and her mom really don’t get on. It's hard to guess which one of us would be the first to receive the Howler if we went together.”
That made sense. Justin loved his dad, but he was controlling and extremely judgemental about the most ludicrous things. He hadn’t yet told him about Ulquiorra being a part-human. He said that if he found out, he’d probably never stop yelling at him. He’d joked about it at the time, saying that he would probably threaten to take him out of Hogwarts, but his grave expression and slightly hollow laugh had given Ulquiorra the impression that it wasn’t entirely a joke.
“Ah,” he said, pulling out his Potions book. “It would be easier if we could simply not go.”
“Yeah, I know.” Justin said, looking like he agreed completely. “We do still have the option of going home for the Christmas Holidays, but my dad would probably tell me that it’s a normal social thing and that it would be weird if I didn’t go.”
“My grandparents want me to go,” Ulquiorra replied, shaking his head slightly. “They didn’t attend Hogwarts themselves--” they were Muggles and Ulquiorra’s maternal grandparents, his mother being a Muggleborn witch “-but they said that they enjoyed dances when they were young. I would prefer not to disappoint them.”
Not getting a date would probably count as that, but UIquiorra knew that he didn’t have to tell them that fact. So long as he didn’t go home and miss the entire event out of protest, they would probably assume that he had a nice time.
“I can sympathise with that,” Justin said, sighing. He seemed to worry about disappointing his father more than anything.
Ulquiorra looked at his homework list and pointed at his Potions book. “Shall we do this one first?”
Justin nodded, apparently grateful to have the subject changed for a while. Potions essays were complicated enough to get all of their attention, especially when Professor Hojo decided that they were to include both the real properties and the folklore surrounding each and every ingredient of their current project.
By the time curfew was nearly upon them, they had both done the required fifteen inches on the potion in question. Ulquiorra, for one, would rather never have to research and analyse the properties of Valerian Root ever again.
They put their things away, pre-empting the Librarian, and left quietly.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Justin said, pulling Ulquiorra into the usual hug. “I hope you feel better then. Don’t worry so much.”
“Worry?” Ulquiorra asked.
“About getting a date,” Justin explained. “Someone will be dying to go with you.” He gave him a smile and let him go with a small degree of reluctance.
Ulquiorra wasn’t entirely sure about that, but he gave a small shrug in reply. He found it difficult to imagine that any of the girls he knew secretly wished to go with him, though it was possible. Maybe Justin knew something he didn’t. He wasn’t the type to humour him.
Justin smiled a little more definitely and reached down to squeeze his hand. “Really.”
“If you say so,” Ulquiorra replied quietly, thinking about the first time Justin had held his hand like that.
“Are you all right?” Justin asked, looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and concern on his face.
Ulquiorra looked up. He didn’t notice that he was frowning much more than usual until he stopped doing so. He was deep in thought, considering something... he shook it away. “Yes, fine.”
The two said their goodnights and parted ways, each heading in the direction of their House Common Rooms. Ulquiorra’s hand suddenly felt a lot colder now that Justin had let go, just like it had the last time he had done that, in the library last week when his fingers had tingled and the shadow of warmth had clung to his cold skin even though he had let go.
He stopped after a few steps and turned back around.
“Justin,” he called, stopping his friend in his tracks.
Justin turned around, a questioning look on his face. “Did you forget something?”
“No,” he said, and shook his head. Then, “Yes.” He swallowed and looked levelly at him, battling a peculiar kind of nervousness that he had never really dealt with before. His heart was beating a fast rhythm in his chest. “Would you go to the Ball with me?”
He wasn’t sure if that was even allowed. He didn’t really care all that much. Bucking conventions was really more of a Gryffindor thing, but him asking Justin wasn’t about that. Ulquiorra had simply realised that there wasn’t anybody else he wanted to go to the Ball with and that, just perhaps, Justin hadn’t been referring to a girl a moment ago.
Justin raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Yes,” he said quickly and then blushed with embarrassment. “I mean... yes, I’d love to.” He said, more calmly that time.
Ulquiorra very nearly smiled. His eyes softened, even if it didn’t reach his mouth. “All right,” he said. “Goodnight, then.”
Before he could turn to leave, Justin crossed the distance between them and gave him another hug, looking rather happy. It was a warm, tight hug - one rather different to the ‘goodnight’ ones that they usually shared.
“Thank you,” Justin said, pulling away enough to look at him. He was still a little red.
“There is no need t- ”
Justin pulled him close again and kissed his cheek, just briefly. “Thank you.” He said again, more softly this time and close to his ear.
Ulquiorra's breath caught in his throat and he felt his cheeks get a little warm. He tried to ignore it. Luckily, it had almost faded by the time Justin let him go.
“Goodnight,” Justin told him, looking rather happy.
*
The week in the run up to the last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas went much more smoothly now that Ulquiorra didn’t have the underlying concern of having to find himself a date for Ball lurking beneath everything else he did.
It turned out that he wasn’t the only person that had asked Catlin and been turned down. Both Abban and his Slytherin friend Seely had been given the same answer as him, and Florian seemed a little brighter about it. He didn’t like Abban very much and, although he wasn’t vindictive, he seemed very secretly pleased to have got one over on him.
Everybody else seemed to be panicking about finding someone nice to go with. The Slytherins had paired up in the ways expected of them and there were, of course, some cross-House dates happening between members of Houses other than Slytherin, for the most part. The Gryffindors in Ulquiorra's year seemed, however, to be failing spectacularly at securing dates thus far. That wasn't the case for some of them in the year above, however.
Coyote Stark, the Hogwarts Champion, was going with Gryffindor Prefect Neliel Tu, to nobody’s great surprise.
Justin finally got to tell Ariane Emory that he was already going with someone when she asked him in the Great Hall, of all places. He let her down gently and she didn’t kick up too much of a fuss, but her disappointment was rather obvious. Justin told Ulquiorra, when they did Prefect Duty on Friday evening, that he felt better about it.
“I know she’s disappointed,” he said, looking very much like he felt a little bit guilty. “It’s better for both of us this way, but I feel a bit sorry for her.”
Ulquiorra nodded. He didn’t much care about the girl in question. He didn’t know her and, to his knowledge, she was an exceptionally gifted student, but tended towards pestering Justin more than he liked.
“You can always change your mind,” Ulquiorra said. He was joking, but he was very good at looking like he was completely serious whenever he did so.
“No! No,” Justin said, shaking his head. “No, I want to go with you. Speaking of which, do you have your Dress Robes?”
“Yes,” Ulquiorra replied. “I got them before the year started. Luckily. I am doing Prefect Duty again tomorrow - I volunteered since I have no need to go into Hogsmeade.”
Justin looked a little disappointed.
“You are going?” Ulquiorra asked, not missing the crease that appeared between his friend’s eyebrows.
“Yes,” he said, stopping to give a couple of running First Years a stern look. He carried on when they walked away properly and turned a corner. “I have to go to the Post Office to send my father his Christmas present since I won’t be seeing him. It’s a parcel, so it’s a bit much for one of the school owls.”
Ulquiorra had already sent his Grandparents presents. They were smaller, so he didn’t have to worry about taking a trip to Hogsmeade in the snow and freezing cold. “I can see you to the doors tomorrow morning, at least.”
There was no point in him going out in the snow unless he needed to, but if he was working the corridors, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for him to do that.
"Thanks," Justin said with a smile.
The following morning, Ulquiorra met Justin near the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall. It was a particularly cold day, but it had stopped snowing for the first time in what felt like weeks. That was lucky for Justin in that it meant that the wrapping on his parcel wouldn’t get wet on the way. Ulquiorra was wrapped up warm despite the fact that he wouldn’t be leaving the building. Justin peered through the doors and looked a little apprehensive about going out.
There was slush on the steps from the people who had walked through it already and the chill seemed twice as bad as they stood in the doorway.
“Do you want anything?” Justin asked. “I may as well make my journey worthwhile.” He had his parcel under one arm.
“I could use another bottle of black ink. I'm not out, but I am running a little low.” Ulquiorra said, his breath hanging in the air in little clouds of steam.
“All right, no problem. I’ll see you when I come back then.” He smiled and stepped out into the snow. He came back a second later. “Would you hold this?" He offered his parcel. "I forgot my scarf.”
Ulquiorra shook his head. Instead of taking the parcel from him, he undid his own scarf and looped it around Justin’s neck. “Take mine. I am going to be inside all day, anyway. It saves you going back.”
Justin opened his mouth to argue, but stopped when Ulquiorra shook his head.
“It’s fine," he said, not feeling too put out about it. “Really. You can give it back to me when you come back later.”
“Thank you,” Justin said, touching the wool around his neck. He had only ever worn the Hufflepuff colours of black and yellow at Quidditch matches before. He smiled and looked happy when he met his eyes.
Ulquiorra was, too. Despite the chill in the air, he felt warm and happy and he didn’t really want Justin to go. Justin didn’t move. He didn’t seem to want to go either. Even so, the sooner he went, the sooner he could come back.
“You should go before it starts snowing again,” Ulquiorra said, tying his scarf properly for him.
“You’re right,” Justin agreed, nodding.
The reluctance didn’t leave them and Justin didn't move. He bit his lip.
After a moment, Ulquiorra stepped just a little closer, the ends of the scarf still in his hands. Justin raised his eyebrows a fraction and, when Ulquiorra straightened and tilted his head up, Justin leaned down and closed the gap between them in a soft little kiss.
Ulquiorra closed his eyes. Justin lips felt warm and soft against his own. It was brief, and a little clumsy, but both were smiling when they parted.
Justin opened his mouth to say something but seemed to decide against it. Instead, he stepped away when Ulquiorra let go of the scarf and waved, practically grinning, before walking out through the doors into the snow.
Ulquiorra decided, then, that he rather was looking forward to the Yule Ball after all.
It had come early and, as quickly as the leaves on the trees had turned a fiery red, they had fallen and been covered by a cold blanket of soft snow. The stone hallways of the castle afforded the students little protection against the icy air. They could do nothing else but travel briskly between lessons with their winter travelling cloaks drawn tight around them. In fairer weather, groups of students could be found in bunches in corridors and hallways, but now people congregated in the Great Hall, the House Common Rooms or the Library when not in lessons and left their other haunts to the caretaker who, if he was growing irritated with having to continually clean up melt water, was not yet showing it.
On one particularly cold evening after a day of heavy snow and freezing wind during mid-November, students sat in the Great Hall eating and thawing out. The enchanted ceiling above showed that snow still swirled in the night and was giving little sign of letting up any time soon.
In amongst a loose group of Hufflepuffs sat Ulquiorra, a rather pale and morose looking Fifth year who seemed entirely absorbed in the textbook he was reading. His green eyes scanned the page as those around him chatted, each interested in the Triwizard Tournament that, this year, was being held at Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Champion was the subject of much discussion - he had just swept the most points in the first task and, to top it off, he was the first Hufflepuff Champion since the ill-fated Cedric Diggory some years ago.
“It’s lucky he knows decent defensive spells,” Rikku said, eating a plate full of mashed potatoes with some enthusiasm. “He’d have been burnt to a crisp otherwise.”
Several of the students murmured their agreement on the subject while others stayed silent. The topic had been talked about time and time again, but the novelty didn’t seem to be wearing off, particularly for the members of the Champion’s own House.
“I don’t know,” a quiet boy called Florian offered in a brief moment of silence. “There were plenty of defence-wizards and medics on hand in case it went wrong.”
“True,” Yuffie, Rikku’s best friend, said, “But he could have been burnt to a cinder before they even got to him. People have died in Triwizard Tournaments before, remember?”
“But in the first task?” Florian asked, frowning slightly. “If there was a chance of them losing their lives in the first one, they wouldn’t have been picked out of the Goblet. Professor Ansem said that they were picked for courage and ability.”
His friend, Catlin, nodded in his defence. She was known for being rather straightforward, scary and pretty handy with jinxes - all useful things when you considered that she was a Prefect. She was generally quiet and rarely spoke up in discussions, preferring to let Florian do the talking. However, it turned out that she knew more gory stories about what had happened to previous Triwizard Champions than anybody else in Hufflepuff and became almost animated when she regaled them with bloody tales of grievous injuries and interesting deaths. On top of it, she was quite knowledgeable about dangerous monsters and other Enemies.
“It was a Springheel,” she said, looking rather thoughtful. “When Harry Potter competed, they had dragons. Dragons are real dangerous - Springheels are dangerous too, but they’re nothing compared to dragons.”
Florian looked slightly put off his dinner and pushed some vegetables around his plate while he listened. He was a Muggle-born wizard and had been shocked to discover that unicorns really existed, never mind dragons. It had all been rather difficult to take in to begin with and, although he had grown used to the idea, it wasn't something he was entirely at ease with just yet. Care of Magical Creatures tied with was Defence Against the Dark Arts as his favourite lesson, but he rather hoped not to come up against a gigantic, fire-breathing dragon with scales hard enough to repel most spells in the near future.
“Dragons have been given a five-X rating by the Ministry of Magic - that means they’re known wizard killers,” Catlin continued knowledgably, “But Springheels are only rated as four. I think they decided to use one this year because they’re fast, naturally repel Stunning and movement inhibiting charms and are difficult to catch.”
Which had, of course, been the Task. Each Champion had needed to use all of their skills and courage to catch their Springheel and subdue them long enough, without sustaining burns or other injuries, to relieve them of a locket which contained the next clue.
"I suppose it helps if there's less chance of them killing the Champions, too," she added, almost as an afterthought.
Ulquiorra looked up from his book and scanned the group. He was thoroughly disinterested. He had initially been interested in the outcome of the task, like everybody else, but he had gotten it out of his system in the immediate aftermath. For now, he had more important things to think about, namely the homework that was steadily piling up. He could have done without dealing with excitable classmates and disrupted lessons in his busiest and most stressful year thus far. It was, in his opinion, simply a case of bad luck that his Fifth year happened to have fallen during one where Hogwarts was hosting the Triwizard Tournament and he was sure that he wasn’t the only one.
“I wonder what the next task will be...” Rikku mused, looking around for theories.
Ulquiorra finished his meal and got up. It was time to continue his work elsewhere. He glanced over at the Ravenclaw table and, upon not seeing who he was looking for, headed to the Library alone.
The route there was free of trouble makers due to the weather - something that was especially useful when you happened to be a Prefect. It was a responsibility that he considered important, but it was refreshing to be able to travel between destinations without having to warn First- or Second-years against breaking the rules. He saw Mr Ichimaru, the caretaker, vanishing great puddles of water from an area that had apparently suffered a leaky window, but he didn’t hang around.
The library was warm and the familiar scent of dust and books hung thickly in the air. He rather liked the library. It was quiet and free of ridiculous skirmishes between both enemies of different Houses and overexcited friends of the same. Nobody would dare start a duel there - the librarian was renowned for being rather testy when it came to the potential destruction of books.
“Ulquiorra,” a voice called from nearby.
It took Ulquiorra a moment to figure out that it had come from behind a pile of books on a table that was half tucked away behind a bookcase. It was Justin, Ulquiorra’s fellow Prefect from the Ravenclaw House and best friend. It was entirely unsurprising to see him there - they had few other options when it came to spending time together given that they had different Common Rooms and sat at different tables at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“You were waiting for me?” Ulquiorra asked, navigating his way around the table and behind the book-fortress to join him.
“Of course,” Justin replied with a smile. “I didn’t wait around in the Great Hall because I’m not overly interested in endless and increasingly fanciful retellings of the first Task.”
Ulquiorra gave him a nearly sullen look and dragged his parchment and quills from his bag while Justin laughed quietly at him. “You heard them?”
“Yes,” Justin nodded, not quite able to pull off a wicked smile, but he managed to produce an amused expression the same. “It's not just your House that's doing it, but I imagine it's worse for you. You looked thoroughly bored.”
“I simply have better things to think about,” Ulquiorra said, placing a bottle of ink on the table. “What do we have that is outstanding?” he asked, swiftly changing the subject.
“I have Charms and Transfiguration,” Justin grinned, looking at his homework planner. He was the only person Ulquiorra knew who kept one. “The Silencing Charm and Vanishing Spells. I finished my work on Knarls at lunchtime and we have a week before we have to hand in our essay on the Internet for Muggle Studies.”
“I finished my Muggle Studies essay last night,” -it was easy for him since he had come from a Muggle household -- “but I have not completed my Care of Magical Creatures one yet.”
“Well, we can do those last - they aren’t due in yet and I have Charms tomorrow,” Justin said, fiddling with the end of his quill. “If you have no objections?”
Ulquiorra shook his head. It wouldn’t take him long to do the Knarl essay in his own time and, if he got that done, he would be able to help Justin with the Internet one without having extra work hanging over him. His home advantage when it came to Muggle Studies was one that Justin lacked and that he was willing to share.
As Fifth-years, they were allowed to stay in the corridors and, as an extension of this rule, the Library, until 9:30. Justin and Ulquiorra regularly took advantage of this fact and, as a result, rarely ended up struggling under the avalanche of homework that deluged so many of their peers. They tended to work separately on things, but having the ability and opportunity to discuss the homework often helped with the trickier problems. They shared one book as they read the chapter regarding Silencing Charms and, after a while, they both set to the essay.
It wasn’t particularly difficult. They mostly worked in silence, occasionally pausing to discuss something relative to the subject. Silencing Charms weren’t exactly simple, but at the same time, both had excelled in the particular class and got it down rather quickly. Penning the theory was much more difficult and time consuming than performing the charm in the first place.
“Did you find the raven or the toad more challenging?” Justin asked thoughtfully, tapping his lips with the end of his quill.
Ulquiorra dragged his eyes away from the parchment in front of him. “The raven. I would not consider either of them particularly difficult, but the raven took more effort than the toad.”
“True,” Justin replied. “I suppose the difficulty is similar to what Professor Lestrange told us about Vanishing different animals in Transfiguration. Amphibians are less complicated than birds or mammals, so it must be less difficult to silence them.”
Ulquiorra nodded. “It says something like that on the next page. It may be worth including,” he said, reaching to turn it.
Justin had much the same idea.
Their fingers brushed at the corner of the page as each went to turn it. They shared a pause and an awkward look before Justin coloured and looked away, a smile pulling at his mouth.
“Sorry, go ahead,” he said.
He didn’t look particularly apologetic.
Justin’s hand, unlike Ulquiorra’s own, was warm. Justin, despite the pink in his cheeks, looked back at him and seemed a little bit concerned. He suddenly grasped Ulquiorra's hand, the crinkle of a frown marring his expression.
“You should have sat closer to the fire,” he said quietly as Ulquiorra met his eyes.
“I’m all right,” Ulquiorra reassured him. “I am rarely particularly warm.”
“Because of..?” Justin asked, looking around to make sure there was nobody nearby.
He didn’t need to finish his sentence, Ulquiorra knew what he meant. He nodded and looked at him for a moment longer before Justin released his hand - but not before giving it what Ulquiorra took to be a reassuring squeeze. Justin knew something about him that nobody else did and still liked him in spite of it. For a moment, it felt like he hadn’t let go. It was as though a cloak of warmth was still clinging to his chilled fingers. He made an effort to shake the tingly feeling that seemed to spread up through his hand and think about his homework, but it was a little more difficult than it had any real right to be.
Despite the distraction, they both managed to get through their Charms and Transfiguration homework without much trouble. They never rushed their work. They never needed to. Even with Prefect duties and Quidditch practice on top of their workload, they always made enough time to get everything done.
Even the Librarian knew that. It was for that reason that when she systematically extinguished all of the lights, she left the one on their table until last. She seemed to appreciate that they didn’t have much choice when it came to places suitable for cross-House socialising and didn’t seem at all worried that they spent so much time with her precious books. They were, after all, both quiet and respectful.
“All right boys, it’s time to go.” She told them, getting to them at last. “You can come back tomorrow.”
They collected their things together and stowed them away carefully in their bags. The actions of both held a marked lack of enthusiasm, but lids were screwed tightly onto ink bottles, parchment was carefully rolled and quills were cased and stored. They pulled on their outdoor cloaks, bid the Librarian goodnight and left, each of them dragging their feet a little.
The door to the library locked behind them.
“We can do the last two essays tomorrow,” Ulquiorra said.
“All right,” Justin agreed, smiling slightly. “Night, then.”
“Goodnight,” Ulquiorra replied, his expression softening very slightly as he held out an arm so that Justin could hug him.
It had been strange ritual at first, but he had gotten used to it. It was nice.
“See you tomorrow.”
Ulquiorra couldn't stop himself thinking about how warm Justin's hand had felt around his own as he walked the cold path back to his Common Room.
*
The following day, Ulquiorra found himself mildly disappointed to find that a notice had been posted in the common room requesting the presence of all Fourth-years and above after dinner that night with no exceptions. They were to meet in a large, empty basement classroom and, since it had been posted by Professor Aizen, their Head of House, there was absolutely no getting out of it.
He could think of better ways to spend a Monday night, though he felt slightly less sullen about the whole thing when, at breakfast, Justin informed him that a similar message had also been posted in the Ravenclaw Common Room.
“We’re pretty sure that it’s something to do with the Yule Ball,” Justin said quietly, keeping his voice down. “That's just a theory, though. If it finishes up early, do you want to meet me in the library?”
At least he was keeping a somewhat positive attitude to the disruption of their usual routine.
When the time came, it turned out that Justin was right. Ulquiorra stood silently among his whispering House-mates in a spacious but nonetheless warm classroom and waited for Professor Aizen to turn up.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said when he finally made his appearance.
He was a generally fair Head of House. He didn’t favour Hufflepuff over the other Houses in the same way that Professor Hojo did with Slytherin and he didn’t have a bizarre and convoluted point-scoring and deduction system like Professor Johnson did. He, of course, believed that respect and House Points were won with ability and hard work, but given the traits of his House, that was no great surprise.
“As some of you may have already surmised,” he said, looking around at them all, “this is the official announcement regarding the Yule Ball at Christmas.” He paused, giving them time to get the whispering over with. “Dress Robes were mentioned in your equipment list for this year, but if you have neglected to purchase some, they can be picked up in Hogsmeade during next weekend’s scheduled trip.”
Ulquiorra saw the worried looks on the faces of those who clearly hadn’t bought them. He, fortunately, had. They were mercifully plain and made him look terribly neat without the danger of anybody mistaking him for a member of the clergy.
“Be aware that you should find yourself a, well, date for the Ball--” a number of the less social students groaned, sighed or rolled their eyes at that “--and that dance lessons will be held every Monday and Wednesday evening in the run up to it.” He looked around at everyone once the second round of muttering had died down. “The first lesson, however, will be until curfew tonight. Now,” he said softly and with a smile, “can I have a volunteer?”
Ulquiorra was disappointed that he wouldn’t be able to get to the library after this.
He watched Professor Aizen's dancing demonstration (Yuna volunteered) and, when they were to practice amongst themselves, he managed to avoid it entirely until the final hour. That was when Rikku and Catlin conspired against him and took it in turns to get him to practice before the lesson was over. He didn’t enjoy it, but he wasn’t bad. He was nonetheless relieved when Professor Aizen called an end to the session.
“Well, that’s it, then. If anybody has any questions, feel free to ask me now.”
Most of them filed out with expressions that ran the scale between excitement and utmost dread.
Ulquiorra hung back, as did a number of other people. It was clear that some were going to ask about the dancing, so he waited until almost everyone had cleared out. In the end, it was only him and Abban Lloyd, the Prefect in the year above him, left.
“I know what you’re both going to ask,” Professor Aizen said before either had opened their mouths. “I don’t expect that either of you want to go and I’m not going to force you, but you are Prefects. You should make an effort and set an example.”
Ulquiorra and Abban glanced at each other and a very mild look of disappointment crossed both of their faces. The professor knew how seriously they both took their Prefect status. They weren’t exactly antisocial, but they were both the kind of quietly intimidating that made people wary of them and didn’t exactly provide them with many friends - not that either of them minded. Their best friends simply happened to be from different Houses to their own.
“Yes, Professor.” Abban said politely.
Ulquiorra simply nodded.
“Was there anything else?” Professor Aizen asked.
“No, sir.” Ulquiorra said, and turned to leave.
*
The rest of the week following that initial dance lesson and announcement was, in Ulquiorra’s opinion, ridiculous. He was glad that the constant chatter about the First Task had finally died down, but he felt mildly annoyed that it had only stopped because it had been replaced by talk of the Yule Ball. It was, somehow, even more tiresome.
It did not help that he was having more than a little trouble finding a ‘date’ or, more correctly, a dance partner. On Friday, after dinner, he finally decided to ask the only girl he could tolerate the thought of spending an evening with to go with him. She wasn’t silly and she didn’t travel around the school as part of a giggling pack. Unlike the others, it wasn’t difficult to get her on her own.
“Catlin,” he said while they patrolled the corridors on Prefect duty. “Would you go to the Ball with me?”
He wasn’t nervous. If she said yes, he figured that it was easier than he thought. If she said no, then he would simply have to find somebody else to ask. Who he attended the Yule Ball with was not going to be very important in the grand scheme of things, but he would rather attend with a friend than somebody he didn’t really know out of little more than an obligation to not turn up alone.
Catlin, usually as reserved with expressions as him, actually looked very, very slightly apologetic.
“I can’t,” she said, “I’ve already asked Florian. Sorry.”
Ah. That didn’t come as a surprise to Ulquiorra. They were close, after all. He nodded. He was a little bit disappointed, but there were plenty of other girls in the school, if only he could separate one from her gang.
By Sunday, matters hadn’t improved.
He lowered himself into the chair next to Justin in the library on the evening and got his things out of his bag. He noticed that Justin had picked a table closer to the fire this time. A lucky thing, since the weather hadn’t improved any. There were still a few weeks to go until the actual Ball, but it seemed to be looming all too plainly on the horizon. He figured that homework, if nothing else, would take his mind off it all.
“Do you have a date, yet?” Justin asked, flattening out his rolled-up and half-finished Potions essay.
Perhaps not.
“No,” Ulquiorra replied, not pausing in getting his writing equipment out. “I asked Catlin on Friday, but she has already asked Florian.” He rolled his eyes. “This is a ridiculous tradition.”
Justin nodded, leaning on one hand. “I think Ari Emory from the year below is stalking me,” he sighed wearily. “Everywhere I go she seems to be waiting for me with a scary sense of purpose. I’m running out of excuses to get away from her with.”
Ulquiorra blinked. “Why do you not go with her?”
Justin sighed and shook his head. “Other than the fact that I'm not really interested in her, my dad and her mom really don’t get on. It's hard to guess which one of us would be the first to receive the Howler if we went together.”
That made sense. Justin loved his dad, but he was controlling and extremely judgemental about the most ludicrous things. He hadn’t yet told him about Ulquiorra being a part-human. He said that if he found out, he’d probably never stop yelling at him. He’d joked about it at the time, saying that he would probably threaten to take him out of Hogwarts, but his grave expression and slightly hollow laugh had given Ulquiorra the impression that it wasn’t entirely a joke.
“Ah,” he said, pulling out his Potions book. “It would be easier if we could simply not go.”
“Yeah, I know.” Justin said, looking like he agreed completely. “We do still have the option of going home for the Christmas Holidays, but my dad would probably tell me that it’s a normal social thing and that it would be weird if I didn’t go.”
“My grandparents want me to go,” Ulquiorra replied, shaking his head slightly. “They didn’t attend Hogwarts themselves--” they were Muggles and Ulquiorra’s maternal grandparents, his mother being a Muggleborn witch “-but they said that they enjoyed dances when they were young. I would prefer not to disappoint them.”
Not getting a date would probably count as that, but UIquiorra knew that he didn’t have to tell them that fact. So long as he didn’t go home and miss the entire event out of protest, they would probably assume that he had a nice time.
“I can sympathise with that,” Justin said, sighing. He seemed to worry about disappointing his father more than anything.
Ulquiorra looked at his homework list and pointed at his Potions book. “Shall we do this one first?”
Justin nodded, apparently grateful to have the subject changed for a while. Potions essays were complicated enough to get all of their attention, especially when Professor Hojo decided that they were to include both the real properties and the folklore surrounding each and every ingredient of their current project.
By the time curfew was nearly upon them, they had both done the required fifteen inches on the potion in question. Ulquiorra, for one, would rather never have to research and analyse the properties of Valerian Root ever again.
They put their things away, pre-empting the Librarian, and left quietly.
“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Justin said, pulling Ulquiorra into the usual hug. “I hope you feel better then. Don’t worry so much.”
“Worry?” Ulquiorra asked.
“About getting a date,” Justin explained. “Someone will be dying to go with you.” He gave him a smile and let him go with a small degree of reluctance.
Ulquiorra wasn’t entirely sure about that, but he gave a small shrug in reply. He found it difficult to imagine that any of the girls he knew secretly wished to go with him, though it was possible. Maybe Justin knew something he didn’t. He wasn’t the type to humour him.
Justin smiled a little more definitely and reached down to squeeze his hand. “Really.”
“If you say so,” Ulquiorra replied quietly, thinking about the first time Justin had held his hand like that.
“Are you all right?” Justin asked, looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and concern on his face.
Ulquiorra looked up. He didn’t notice that he was frowning much more than usual until he stopped doing so. He was deep in thought, considering something... he shook it away. “Yes, fine.”
The two said their goodnights and parted ways, each heading in the direction of their House Common Rooms. Ulquiorra’s hand suddenly felt a lot colder now that Justin had let go, just like it had the last time he had done that, in the library last week when his fingers had tingled and the shadow of warmth had clung to his cold skin even though he had let go.
He stopped after a few steps and turned back around.
“Justin,” he called, stopping his friend in his tracks.
Justin turned around, a questioning look on his face. “Did you forget something?”
“No,” he said, and shook his head. Then, “Yes.” He swallowed and looked levelly at him, battling a peculiar kind of nervousness that he had never really dealt with before. His heart was beating a fast rhythm in his chest. “Would you go to the Ball with me?”
He wasn’t sure if that was even allowed. He didn’t really care all that much. Bucking conventions was really more of a Gryffindor thing, but him asking Justin wasn’t about that. Ulquiorra had simply realised that there wasn’t anybody else he wanted to go to the Ball with and that, just perhaps, Justin hadn’t been referring to a girl a moment ago.
Justin raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Yes,” he said quickly and then blushed with embarrassment. “I mean... yes, I’d love to.” He said, more calmly that time.
Ulquiorra very nearly smiled. His eyes softened, even if it didn’t reach his mouth. “All right,” he said. “Goodnight, then.”
Before he could turn to leave, Justin crossed the distance between them and gave him another hug, looking rather happy. It was a warm, tight hug - one rather different to the ‘goodnight’ ones that they usually shared.
“Thank you,” Justin said, pulling away enough to look at him. He was still a little red.
“There is no need t- ”
Justin pulled him close again and kissed his cheek, just briefly. “Thank you.” He said again, more softly this time and close to his ear.
Ulquiorra's breath caught in his throat and he felt his cheeks get a little warm. He tried to ignore it. Luckily, it had almost faded by the time Justin let him go.
“Goodnight,” Justin told him, looking rather happy.
*
The week in the run up to the last Hogsmeade weekend before Christmas went much more smoothly now that Ulquiorra didn’t have the underlying concern of having to find himself a date for Ball lurking beneath everything else he did.
It turned out that he wasn’t the only person that had asked Catlin and been turned down. Both Abban and his Slytherin friend Seely had been given the same answer as him, and Florian seemed a little brighter about it. He didn’t like Abban very much and, although he wasn’t vindictive, he seemed very secretly pleased to have got one over on him.
Everybody else seemed to be panicking about finding someone nice to go with. The Slytherins had paired up in the ways expected of them and there were, of course, some cross-House dates happening between members of Houses other than Slytherin, for the most part. The Gryffindors in Ulquiorra's year seemed, however, to be failing spectacularly at securing dates thus far. That wasn't the case for some of them in the year above, however.
Coyote Stark, the Hogwarts Champion, was going with Gryffindor Prefect Neliel Tu, to nobody’s great surprise.
Justin finally got to tell Ariane Emory that he was already going with someone when she asked him in the Great Hall, of all places. He let her down gently and she didn’t kick up too much of a fuss, but her disappointment was rather obvious. Justin told Ulquiorra, when they did Prefect Duty on Friday evening, that he felt better about it.
“I know she’s disappointed,” he said, looking very much like he felt a little bit guilty. “It’s better for both of us this way, but I feel a bit sorry for her.”
Ulquiorra nodded. He didn’t much care about the girl in question. He didn’t know her and, to his knowledge, she was an exceptionally gifted student, but tended towards pestering Justin more than he liked.
“You can always change your mind,” Ulquiorra said. He was joking, but he was very good at looking like he was completely serious whenever he did so.
“No! No,” Justin said, shaking his head. “No, I want to go with you. Speaking of which, do you have your Dress Robes?”
“Yes,” Ulquiorra replied. “I got them before the year started. Luckily. I am doing Prefect Duty again tomorrow - I volunteered since I have no need to go into Hogsmeade.”
Justin looked a little disappointed.
“You are going?” Ulquiorra asked, not missing the crease that appeared between his friend’s eyebrows.
“Yes,” he said, stopping to give a couple of running First Years a stern look. He carried on when they walked away properly and turned a corner. “I have to go to the Post Office to send my father his Christmas present since I won’t be seeing him. It’s a parcel, so it’s a bit much for one of the school owls.”
Ulquiorra had already sent his Grandparents presents. They were smaller, so he didn’t have to worry about taking a trip to Hogsmeade in the snow and freezing cold. “I can see you to the doors tomorrow morning, at least.”
There was no point in him going out in the snow unless he needed to, but if he was working the corridors, it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for him to do that.
"Thanks," Justin said with a smile.
The following morning, Ulquiorra met Justin near the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall. It was a particularly cold day, but it had stopped snowing for the first time in what felt like weeks. That was lucky for Justin in that it meant that the wrapping on his parcel wouldn’t get wet on the way. Ulquiorra was wrapped up warm despite the fact that he wouldn’t be leaving the building. Justin peered through the doors and looked a little apprehensive about going out.
There was slush on the steps from the people who had walked through it already and the chill seemed twice as bad as they stood in the doorway.
“Do you want anything?” Justin asked. “I may as well make my journey worthwhile.” He had his parcel under one arm.
“I could use another bottle of black ink. I'm not out, but I am running a little low.” Ulquiorra said, his breath hanging in the air in little clouds of steam.
“All right, no problem. I’ll see you when I come back then.” He smiled and stepped out into the snow. He came back a second later. “Would you hold this?" He offered his parcel. "I forgot my scarf.”
Ulquiorra shook his head. Instead of taking the parcel from him, he undid his own scarf and looped it around Justin’s neck. “Take mine. I am going to be inside all day, anyway. It saves you going back.”
Justin opened his mouth to argue, but stopped when Ulquiorra shook his head.
“It’s fine," he said, not feeling too put out about it. “Really. You can give it back to me when you come back later.”
“Thank you,” Justin said, touching the wool around his neck. He had only ever worn the Hufflepuff colours of black and yellow at Quidditch matches before. He smiled and looked happy when he met his eyes.
Ulquiorra was, too. Despite the chill in the air, he felt warm and happy and he didn’t really want Justin to go. Justin didn’t move. He didn’t seem to want to go either. Even so, the sooner he went, the sooner he could come back.
“You should go before it starts snowing again,” Ulquiorra said, tying his scarf properly for him.
“You’re right,” Justin agreed, nodding.
The reluctance didn’t leave them and Justin didn't move. He bit his lip.
After a moment, Ulquiorra stepped just a little closer, the ends of the scarf still in his hands. Justin raised his eyebrows a fraction and, when Ulquiorra straightened and tilted his head up, Justin leaned down and closed the gap between them in a soft little kiss.
Ulquiorra closed his eyes. Justin lips felt warm and soft against his own. It was brief, and a little clumsy, but both were smiling when they parted.
Justin opened his mouth to say something but seemed to decide against it. Instead, he stepped away when Ulquiorra let go of the scarf and waved, practically grinning, before walking out through the doors into the snow.
Ulquiorra decided, then, that he rather was looking forward to the Yule Ball after all.