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Acts of Service
“He brought her, ” the observation was loud, and scandalized which made Susan Bones turn towards her blonde friend whose face pinched in the way that usually meant tears would be flowing any minute now.
“Not here; Hannah, lets go,” Susan urged in a soothing tone, gripping Hannah Abbott's arm firmly. If she didn’t get them out of there now, Hannah would not only be mortified by her outburst but the emotional display of her very evident crush on Cedric Diggory would be equally as damaging. They were mere bystanders of the champion progression, and not even the allure of a ball would allow Susan to let Hannah be laughed about by MandyfuckingBrocklehurst who was looking rather flamingo like in her pink dress robes and obscenely long legs.
As Hannah earlier told Susan when she’d been fussing over her own dress robes, legs weren’t always a great thing.
Though she could tell that was said for her benefit, she did appreciate her best friend's effort.
Susan tugged Hannah off from the group gathered and into the corridor that would lead them back to the Hufflepuff Common Room, the quick pace set swishes her lavender dress robes around her legs. It would have been nice to dance a bit, but she wouldn’t sacrifice Hannah’s reputation for that.
“No wonder he said ‘no’ when I asked him,” Hannah whines, cheeks turning as pink as her dress robes. Susan startles at this, staring over in shock at the confession.
“When on earth did you ask Cedric Diggory to the Yule Ball!”
“Yesterday!”
Susan sputtered, shocked, “YESTERDAY! You waited, until yesterday to ask Cedric Diggory the Hogwarts Champion to the Yule Ball?”
“So you think he said no cause it was last minute?” Hannah queries sadly, the small bit of hope coated the question in a way that Susan refused to crush the blonde any further this evening.
“That is definitely it. You know how he is,” Susan tightens her grip slightly, increasing her pace. Attempting to put as much space between them and the Great Hall as possible. Merlin, had she known Hannah was going to go do that she would have suggested they not watch the champions enter. She thought once her friend had turned Justin Finch-Fletchley down that Hannah had sworn off dates.
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Susan affirms, “I heard Cho Chang turned Potter down when he asked last minute so you probably just missed your opportunity.”
“Really?” Hannah asked again, this time sounding doubtful and amused. Susan paused her relocation effort to take in her friend's amused expression.
“Did you make this up? Hannah!”
Hannah gave her a shifty look before replying, “Oh come on Suzie! Do you really want to spend the night listening to Justin and Ernie moan about not having dates?”
Susan grumbles, and drops her friend's arm making to turn back towards the Great Hall. There was food there, and… The Weird Sisters! She stares forlornly down the corridor, Hannah’s hand shot out gripping her hand and tugging her back towards the Common Room.
“Look, I can’t watch Justin stare at me like we were going to have some big moment tonight and I know you don’t want to spend your time avoiding Longbottom.”
“I don’t need to avoid Longbottom, he was very polite when he asked and didn’t seem too surprised when I turned him down. Saw him with Ginny Weasley I think.”
“Maybe he’s got a thing for gingers?”
“I think he’s just drawn to Hufflepuff cause he should have been one, regardless, why didn’t you just say you didn’t want to go. Instead you had us get all…gussied up.” Susan complained, tapping the barrels as they arrived at their entrance.
Quality Time
“Getting ready together was fun, we never get to dress up! I don’t know, we can just grab some food here with the other undesirables, and gossip about why you turned down Smith.”
Susan frowns, she didn’t want to talk about Zacharias Smith or his less than gentlemanly invitation to the Yule Ball. She’d seen him with a chesty third year and had made a mental note to personally make sure that the girl made it back to her dorm. She hadn’t liked his leer or his implication of why he’d thought Susan would make a good date.
'You've grown into your looks haven't ye, Bones?'
“I wasn’t going to have a date when you were so insistent about not having one,” Susan admits, if Hannah wanted to go alone, Justin factor or not then she wasn’t going to abandon her friend. Not that anyone had particularly appealed to her as an option. Longbottom had been the closest she’d been to saying yes, she’d heard he was a rather good dancer from the giggling of Lavender Brown in Herbology.
The pair of them flop down on two overstuffed armchairs in the Common Room, and Hannah levitates them each a plate of food from a set out table. Younger years and anyone not attending tonight had been given the opportunity to eat in the Common Room, though the food likely wasn’t the same as what they were serving everyone attending the ball tonight, it was a more rich version of what they’d usually be served for dinner.
“You really should have accepted someone’s offer, Suzie. You look proper fit tonight. Not that you don’t usually, but your tit’s are just –” Hannah holds up two dinner rolls under her chin.
Words of Affirmation
“Blaise Zabini stared long and hard at your arse when you walked past him earlier,” Susan replied, diverting her eyes pointedly towards her friend. “He full out almost drooled, the highest compliment a Slytherin male can offer.”
“Keeping his mouth shut, you mean?”
“Precisely,” she laughed, shovelling a forkful of chicken into her mouth. “Tits and arse aside, are we going to talk about how you’ve been avoiding Justin?” Susan asked, referring to the last two days and how Hannah had been rather keen to keep her away from their two male friends at any opportunity.
“No, but I love you for asking regardless” Hannah points a fork at her, “its…things are weird. Can we just not tonight?” Hannah’s tone begged, and Susan knew that it would be a later type of conversation, one for closed curtains and the blanket of darkness.
Susan waited as Hannah set her fork down, taking a look around before speaking again, “I ... before, I did ask Cedric –”
“Hannah!”
“Helga help me, its was the single most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.”
Physical Touch
Laughing, Susan left her armchair and crossed to the other plopping down, and wiggling in beside Hannah. Slinging an arm around her friends shoulder for comfort she waits as Hannah gave a great big sigh and leaned her head on Susan's shoulder. They sit close for a few minutes when finally Susan chose to break the silence, “Not the most embarrassing thing. I’m impressed actually. What did he say? What happened? When?”
“He was coming through the barrels and I was leaving for dinner after dropping our bags. He was alone, for the first time in…forever and it just slipped out! I just stopped him right there in the archway and said, ‘Diggory, mate, how about we go to the ball.’ I’ve never seen someone look so shocked. He was so kind about it, that just made it worse. He gave me the most pitying look at breakfast this morning–”
“He did not!”
“He did, between him and Justin– I just couldn’t do it. I tried Suzie, I did. I’m going to have to transfer to Durmstrang. You know I hate the cold!”
Susan snorts loudly, clamping a hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter.
“Susan! You have to help me pack!”
“Whole new meaning to go big or go home, no?”
“Susan!” Hannah laughs, straightening her head from its place on her shoulder and pouting at the red-head.
Susan shrugs, “think of it this way, by May he’ll be a Tri-Wizard Champion and forget all about you throwing your knickers at him–”
“I did not throw my knickers at hi–”
“And, if it goes badly - he’ll be dead and you’ll not have to worry about it–”
Hannah laughs, leaning forward over the side of the chair “Susan!”
In Susan’s mind nothing bad would actually happen, and Cedric was a good enough guy that he probably did feel bad about having to turn Hannah down. She was endearingly impressed with her best friend's tenacity to be completely honest.
Receiving Gifts
“Here,” Hannah said, opening her hand to show a chocolate frog box, “I hid some under here last night from Ernie’s grubby hands for you after the feast. I know you like the ones that come out around christmas that are orange flavored or mint. Not sure what that one is.”
Susan grins and rips open the box biting the head off the chocolate frog off with impressive speed, offering the body to Hannah who gave her a grin before popping it in her mouth.
“Thanks, for getting me out of there earlier Suzie.”
“Anytime, Hann. Just give me a heads up before you ask Cedric Diggory out again, yeah?”
Hannah snorts, “Yeah, maybe after the tournament. I'll keep a panic bag packed.”