13 July, 1997 (9:41a.m, Friday)

Astoria was sprawled out on the couch of the drawing room, Scarlett was lying on the floor. Draco and Theo were off somewhere, neither of the girls knew where, though.

Scarlett had dance lessons in nineteen minutes and Astoria wanted to watch her practice.

Adrian wasn't there yet but Scarlett was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. He still had nineteen minutes to show up.

"It's so hot." Astoria complained as she fanned herself.

"The floor feels so good. It's so cool." Scarlett said, propping up on her elbows to look over at the brunette girl.

"Does your boyfriend planning on coming?" Astoria asked.

Scarlett shrugged, "Who knows. Theo's nowhere to be found."

Astoria looked over at her confused, "I'm talking about Adrian."

"I know that. I'm just saying if he doesn't show up then I'm screwed because I don't know where Theo is either."

"Oh."

Scarlett sighed, "I never should've picked Adrian as my date."

"Yeah, not your smartest idea."

Madam Sallow walked into the room, she didn't speak as she walked over and sat her folder and coat onto the table that she'd dragged in from the hallway before their first lesson. When she finally acknowledged them, she frowned, "Scarlett, your date looks different every week."

Astoria laughed.

Scarlett sat up from the floor, "My date is once  again a no show and I don't know where Theo is."

"So how do you intend to dance today?" Madam Sallow questioned. She looked down at her watch, they only had a few minutes left before practice was supposed to start.

Scarlett sighed, "Honestly, I don't know. I guess I could practice my steps myself. I could go ask Lucius where the boys are but I don't-"

Astoria, who had been watching this with an amused grin, interrupted, "I can be her dance partner for today."

Scarlett turned to the brunette, "Do you even know the dance?"

Astoria shrugged, "I had my ball last year, of course I know it."

"She'd better. I spent three months teaching it to her." Madam Sallow grumbled.

Scarlett looked over at Madam Sallow and then back at Astoria, "Well, I guess we can dance today."

-

Madam Sallow made them practice for three hours. She hoped that when it came time for Scarlett's dance that people would focus on her instead of Theo or Adrian because neither of them were there to perfect the dance. By the time Madam Sallow had decided that it was perfect, it almost one in the afternoon.

Scarlett's feet hurt and Astoria had a headache. After today, she never wanted to hear that stupid slow song ever again. When Madam Sallow finally clapped and gave a nod of approval, Scarlett collapsed onto the floor.

Madam Sallow rolled her eyes and collected her things, "I expect it to be this perfect tomorrow, Scarlett."

Scarlett gave her a thumbs up, not moving from her spot.

The older woman walked out of the room, Astoria turned to Scarlett, "I don't remember her making Draco and I practice this hard."

Scarlett sighed, "This is the hardest that I think I've ever practiced."

When Astoria was sure that Madam Sallow was out of earshot, she sat down beside Scarlett, "Okay, we need to talk about your plan."

"My plan?" Scarlett asked confused.

"Your plan! What are you going to do if Adrian doesn't show up? What if Theo isn't there or doesn't realize in time that he has to dance with you?"

Scarlett groaned, pulling her legs to her chest, "I don't know. I'm just hoping that one of them are there."

"Yeah, but you need a backup plan."

"Theo is my backup plan." She reminded her.

Astoria sighed, "Okay, then a backup-backup plan."

"You. You're my backup-backup plan and don't say I need a backup to the backup-backup plan because you will be there so don't even try and make up a hypothetical scenario."

"Okay, I won't." Astoria nodded, she stood up and walked over to the couch to grab her magazine, she was almost back to Scarlett when she tripped and fell, she grabbed her leg, "Oh my!" She exclaimed dramatically, "My foot! Oh, I think it's broken! You need to figure out your backup to the backup-backup now! Oh, I can't dance!"

Scarlett stood up and headed for the door, "My backup to the backup-backup is running away and transforming myself into a penguin named Jeffrey and then I'll spend the rest of my days in Antarctica." She called out over her shoulder.

"Seems solid!" Astoria called out from her spot on the floor, giving a thumbs up.

-

Scarlett was lying on her bed watching the time pass by on her clock. She had less than eight hours until she had to get up and start preparing for her ball. She hadn't heard from Adrian in days, Theo was sulking again, Draco had been in the Malfoy library for the past three hours, and Astoria had to go home and get some final fittings done for her dress.

Maybe it was time for her to go to sleep. She wasn't tired but she was bored so why not go to sleep?

She reached over to turn off her lamp and then pulled her covers back and climbed in. She was almost to sleep when someone knocked on her door.

She sat up, "Come in!"

She flipped her lamp switch as Draco peeked his head through the door crack, "Did I wake you?" He asked.

She shook her head, "No, I'm not tired."

He walked in and flopped onto the bottom of her bed, "Do you ever wonder what your life would be like if just one thing didn't happen?"

She blinked, "You're asking me that?"

He turned his head towards her, "Sorry, I wasn't thinking. I just meant-"

She waved her hand, "I was only kidding, D."

"Oh."

"But yes, I do wonder. Sometimes about what would've happened if I didn't go to Hogwarts. What would've happened if I'd been home when my mom died? Would I be dead? Would I have ended up at Hogwarts somehow? Who would I live with. Other times I wonder what would've happened if my dad left a few minutes later then he did, would he be alive? I was sick that day, he was headed to town to get me popsicles, what if I had just went to sleep and never asked for any? Or what if I didn't accept Cissy's offer to live here? What if I had been sorted into Ravenclaw, that was the hat's other option for me, I asked to be put in Slytherin instead because my mom told me that's what Malfoy's were sorted into, but I had wanted Gryffindor though because I had befriended Hermione, Harry, and Ron on the train. Sometimes I, wait, sorry, I'm rambling. Why did you want to know?"

Draco was staring at her, that was a lot of information to take in, "You know that the Dark Lord is back, right? That he's planning some big things for this year?"

She nodded, "Yeah, but we don't have to worry about that. It's not our place. We aren't Death Eaters."

He looked away, he couldn't tell her, he was ashamed, "Yeah, but when it comes time to pick a side, whose side are you choosing? If you pick the Dark Lord then you have to think of the consequences afterwards, if he's defeated you're off to Azkaban. But if you pick Harry's side then what if Harry dies and they lose and then you're labeled a blood traitor and are killed."

"Well, it's not time to pick sides yet and when it is then I'll pick whatever side you pick."

He sighed, "But what if I make the wrong choice?"

She shrugged, "Well it won't define you for forever."

How could she be so carefree about all of this? Why could she trust that he would make the best decisions? He didn't understand why she had so much faith in him.

But how could she not? He'd spent the past five years letting her follow him around, introducing her to people, helping her make the right connections, sitting in the common room until four in the morning helping her learn spells she struggled with. To her, he was basically an older brother. He hadn't been wrong about anything before so of course she trusted that he'd pick the right thing in the end.

He changed the subject, "Tori said she practiced with you today."

Scarlett laughed, "Yeah, Adrian didn't show up, what a surprise and Theo was somewhere with you."

"Did it go well?"

"Of course it did, Astoria and I did amazing. I mean, it would've been nice to practice with my date or my backup dance partner but Tori and I did good so I'm confident I'll do well tomorrow night."

"Good."

They were quiet for a minute until Scarlett broke the silence, "Do you think you'll marry her?"

Draco smiled, "I hope so."

"I hope so too." She didn't say anything else because she'd realized her eyed were growing heavy and Draco was starting to get blurry.

He realized it too and stood up, "I'm going to let you sleep, you can't be falling asleep during your dance tomorrow." He joked as he headed to the door.

She nodded, "Night, Draco."

authors note:
y'all are NOT ready for the next
chapter. i literally wrote it before
writing this chapter and i can't
wait for y'all to read it

also.. would it be weird to publish another
theo nott book? i have an idea but i already have this book and king of my heart so what do y'all think? like he's the only person that is entertaining to write about to me. (i do however have a new draco malfoy book out though that's good if you wanna give it a read)

oh and sometimes i post chapter previews on my tiktok @theonotts.wp if you wanna check it out