The Yule Ball
"Dépêche-toi!" ("Hurry up!")
"Très bien, je suis presque prêt. Merlin, nous n'allons pas être en retard au bal, nous avons 5 heures. Rien ne presse." (Alright, I am almost ready. Merlin, we are not going to be late to the ball, we have 5 hours. There is simply no rush.")
Despite Carina telling Fleur that they had more than enough time to get ready, the veela simply was not having it. She even went so far that she seriously threatened to drag the girl to her room so that they could have enough time to get ready with one another, most would have seen this as a joke, but Carina knew that Fleur was completely serious as she knew that the veela was extremely strong willed and would without a doubt make good on her threat.
After another couple of minutes, Carina exited her room and made her way across the hall and entered Fleur's room, carrying her dress in one hand and her makeup in the other, she neglected to bring her hair stuff for she knew that Fleur most definitely have stuff that she could use.
"Finalement, j'ai dû avoir des cheveux gris avec le temps que je t'attends ici. Je ne serais pas surpris si j'avais des rides maintenant." (Finally, I must have gotten grey hair with the amount of time that I've been waiting here for you. I would not be surprised if I have wrinkles now.)
Carina laughed at this, she loved her friend's dramatics, it was something that the pair of them shared. They were frequently melodramatic with one another and both of them thoroughly enjoyed being over the top and exaggerating even the smallest inconveniences as if they were going to ruin their lives.
After their laughter had died down, Carina went into Fleur's bathroom to get changed out of her everyday wear and into the dress that she would be wearing for the remainder of the evening. Quickly, she took off the long black dress that she had already been wearing and folded it meticulously, placing it on the cabinet next to the sink. Then she made sure that her corset was tight enough and checked that the shape of it would not interfere with that of the dress. Satisfied, she pulled on a pair of flesh coloured tights and pulled the dress over her head.
Once she was in the dress, she went to look at herself in the mirror and she was extremely surprised but also happy with what she saw. Since a young age, Carina had always known that she was beautiful, it was just a fact, people had always complimented her on her physical appearance, and why wouldn't they, she was that classic sort of pretty - someone who was objectively stunning, you simply couldn't help but notice it. But looking at herself in the mirror now, Carina finally understood what people meant when they told her that, the dress complimented perfectly with her pale skin and made her startling grey eyes even more noticeable, it also hugged her body tightly and flowed down to the floor without collecting at the ground or having a large skirt. The dress was simple but perfect and Carina made a mental note to herself to thank Narcissa for the perfect choice.
However, her spirits dimmed slightly when she realised how startingly like her mother she looked - she had often worn dresses like this one for all sorts of events in Pureblood society, and looking at herself in the mirror now the resemblance between the pair of them was uncanny. Carina had always resembled her father, the Black family genes were simply too strong, but it was only in certain lights that she looked like her mother and in these rare instances they looked like twins. Carina was unsure of why this was, it was strange that most of time she looked the spitting image of her father, but on sporadic occasions she looked exactly like her mother. A part of her would have liked to completely erase her father's mark on her appearance and instead look like her mother constantly, but contrastingly, she also wished to leave her mother's memory untouched - no one could match her mother's beauty and so perhaps it was better that it was only on rare occasions that the two of them looked similar.
Shaking away these thoughts, Carina entered Fleur's room to show the veela her dress and get her best friend's approval.
"Tu es magnifique, vraiment tu es vraiment magnifique." (You look gorgeous, genuinely you really do look stunning.)
Carina then put a hand over her heart and began to act overly dramatic before speaking in an exaggerated tone and manner, "La barbe de Merlin ! Un compliment de Fleur Delacour la plus belle véela, je dois être au septième ciel en ce moment." (Merlin's beard! A compliment from Fleur Delacour the most beautiful veela, I must be in the seventh heaven right now.)
The pair of them erupted into a fit of laughter, and after recovering Carina spoke again, "Tu es magnifique bien sûr, Davies va mourir sur le coup quand il te verra. N'oubliez pas que si vous en avez besoin, je le jetterai dans l'oubli et je maudirai toute sa lignée." (You look gorgeous of course, Davies is going to die on the spot when he sees you. Remember that if you need me to, I will hex him into oblivion and curse his entire bloodline.")
Fleur shook her head in disbelief, but nonetheless smiled at Carina's words.
"Je le pense vraiment, même si cette robe te va à merveille." ("I do really mean it though that dress is stunning on you.")
Carina was without a doubt correct, Fleur did truly look like a princess. The silver silk paired with her light blonde hair made her look like a princess at the end of a fairy tale.
Carina then browsed through their vinyl collection and found an old Queen one, after quickly throwing up a silencing charm around the room, she put it on so that the pair of them could enjoy listening to music while they got ready.
She then started her makeup application deciding to keep it slightly simpler than what she normally would wear as she did not want to draw the attention away from her outfit. Due to this, she kept the same routine bar her usual red lipstick, instead she went for a nude one with just a tad bit of gloss. Satisfied with her makeup she then styled her hair keeping her natural curls down but tying a few strands in a bun at the back of her head so that her hair would not get in the way while she was dancing.
By the time that they were both ready, it was coming to around half past 6 and they had just short of 30 minutes before they had to be down in the Great Hall (being champions meant that they had to be ready earlier than everyone else) and they decided to take a couple photos to remember the evening. Carina took out her camera and charmed it to take a bunch of photos, she then did a variety of poses with Fleur while the camera repeatedly flashed. They then looked at the photos that were taken and Carina smiled because they were truly lovely, her personal favourite was the one when the pair of them were laughing uncontrollably and you could see Carina's head fall back from laughter - it was perhaps the happiest that she had every seen herself on camera.
Carina and Fleur made their way through the magnificent castle to the Great hall where their partners were waiting for them, and though she would hate to admit it, Carina thought that the Hall looked beautiful, it was bewitched to look like it was snowing and the tables had been removed leaving space for a dance floor and a stage. As she entered, she noted that everyone seemed to be crowding around one girl in particular, Carina was unsure of who this was and to be frank she was not interested enough to care about the pitiful gossip and happening concerning fellow teenagers, specifically those from Hogwarts. She then greeted Draco and listened attentively to McGonagall's speech about the order events that were to happen that very evening.
"Good, you are all here promptly. Now you will go in procession into the hall at exactly 7 o' clock and then there will be feast, after this there shall be a dance that you will all lead. The order of procession is as follows: Mr Diggory and Ms Chang shall lead, Mr Krum and Ms Granger shall follow, Ms Delcaour and Mr Davies shall follow them, Mr Potter and Ms Lupin-Black shall follow, and finally Ms Black and Mr Malfoy shall follow them. I trust that it is simple enough for you all to understand."
As they all lined up in the set order, Harry stole a quick glance at Carina, and to his little surprise she looked ethereal. The colour of dress complimented her skin tone perfectly and the shape of it also complimented her features flawlessly. In that very moment, Harry was unsure if he had every seen anybody as beautiful as Carina Black and he was sure that he probably never would.
His thoughts were interrupted as the doors opened and all of the champions and their partners started entering the Hall. Carina held her head up high and refused to make eye contact with anyone watching as she entered the Great Hall with Draco standing by her side, together they were the epitome of elegance.
Carina nodded in thanks to Draco as he pulled out her chair for her. They both knew that for the sake of both of their reputations they had to be perfect and poised, they could not let even one mishap happen, they had to be flawless Pureblood royalty that night, they could not let anything go wrong - if they did the repercussions would be catastrophic, they would lose a lot of the respect that they both had and they were most certainly not going to let that happen if they could help it.
Just as they had all sat down for the feast, Dumbledore stood up and being the Headmaster of the hosting school he started speaking, "I would like to welcome you all to the Yule Ball. Even in the hardest times, the one thing that we can always rely on is each other, if we lose that, then what do we even have left in life. This tournament is a testimony to the unity of the wizarding world and it is mine and the rest of Hogwarts's greatest honour to have you all with us tonight. And with that, let the feast begin!"
The hall erupted with everybody eating and chatting away to their friends, but Carina sat quietly in her seat removed from everything that was happening around her, instead she was pondering Dumbledore's words - she thought that he was hinting at something, but what exactly he was hinting at she was unsure, but she was extremely determined to find out.
"Are you alright?"
Carina blinked and the quickly looked up to see Draco staring at her, concern evident on is face. She nodded and then began eating, opting for the spaghetti as she missed Venice deeply, maybe she just hated being in England, but whenever she and Regulus went abroad she was always much happier than she was in her native country, perhaps that was why she loved Beauxbatons so much, it was an escape for the misery that was England.
After everybody had filled up on food, the part of the evening that Carina was the most excited for started, and that was the dancing. Since she had been young, Carina had always loved to dance, she liked the precision of it, she liked the beauty of it, but most of all she liked that she could command a ballroom when she danced like she was bewitching them with some ancient ritual. Quickly, she and Draco went to the dance floor and got ready, they both understood that this dance needed to be perfect and flashy - they had to live up to their pristine reputations.
"My dearest cousin, are you ready?"
"Yes, let us give them something to think about."
And so they did.
When the music started and a waltz started to play, the pair of them got into hold and started spinning around the dance floor. Fully aware that everyone was staring at them, and somewhat rejoicing in it, they danced and danced, and spun and spun, until they had bewitched the entire ballroom. The music continued and then it started to get faster and louder, during this crescendo, the pair of them also got faster and then suddenly Draco let go of Carina. Now solo, she turned and turned and turned across the ballroom, until the music came to a crashing close and she finished the dance with one swift curtsey.
Sirius watched as the pair of them danced, it made him sick to his stomach. Carina looked like the perfect Pureblooded girl, and he hated it, he hated that his daughter looked like the epitome of everything that he despised in the world. She looked like a member of the Most Nobel and Ancient House of Black, the very family that he had ran away from at just 16, it killed him to look at her - she was a constant reminder of everything that he hated and had tried to escape from.