As much as the former Slytherin didn’t like balls, he had to admit, this one was much more his style. The Yule ball last year had been overwhelming, having to wear dress robes and act so formally was so against his very nature, but he didn’t mind the more casual aspects to this one. At least he didn’t have to wear a tie, or a collar.

His eyes were pulled from the Ballrooms decor by the familiar blonde walking towards him. He took a few steps to meet her halfway, admiring her outfit as he did. Drew bit the side of his lip as he nodded, approvingly. “It really was a great time for movies, wasn’t it?” sure, the Breakfast club and Grease were 8 years apart from each other. He had seen Grease as a child while his mother watched it. At the time he thought it was boring and cheesy, but after having watched it over the summer when his roomate put it on, he gained a little more appreciation for the film, even if he still wasn’t sold on musicals. “I like this look on you. I’ll be your T-Bird.” he decided, offering her his arm. “Since I already look the part.”

Lux Belanger,

He smiled at the idea that they could have planned their outfits. Maybe they should have. Drew figured he could have taken more initiative and asked if she wanted to coordinate when he asked her to the ball, but it wasn’t something he thought about. He would try to be more mindful about that sort of thing in the future. If he was going to try this whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing out then he needed to take on more of a boyfriend mindset - as foreign as that was to him. It wasn’t like they had talked about it yet, or set that label for themselves. But he certainly wasn’t interested in anyone else. Suddenly he only had eyes for her. “Next time we will.” he promised. He meant it. He’d even buy a custom tie to match her dress if she wanted him to. He had never before in his life worn a tie. He would for her.

She took his arm and asked if he had seen the skeletons. He laughed. “Hard not too. I like them. They’re groovy.” he decided. And then a thought popped into his head. A thought that he was confident he had never thought before. “Wannah dance?”

Lux Belanger,

He laughed at her joke, even if it was at his expense. Drew wasn’t the type of person who couldn’t laugh at himself. In fact he was the one making jokes about himself most of the time. If he took himself seriously other people would too. And he wasn’t sure he wanted that in most situations. Work was probably the only exception. The St. Mungos potions lab had become the one place where he wasn’t the moody little Slytherin boy, moping around and reading muggle literature in a corner somewhere. He took things seriously there. People depended on him taking his job seriously. And he kind of liked being depended on.

“A Scooby?” he asked, raising his eyebrow in the same, mocking behavior. “Are you insinuating there’s more than one? Maybe next Halloween we should be Shaggy and Velma.” he laughed. Another offhand comment. The man wasn’t thinking about the weight of the words that came out of his mouth, the fact that he just naturally assumed there would be a ‘next Halloween’ with them. “Don’t mock my language. You know as well as I do that my tastes are stuck in the 80s.” he smiled. He liked this light hearted banter. He liked having someone who wasn’t afraid to dish it back at him.

She seemed just as surprised by his offer as he was. But she agreed, after insisting that she had two left feet. “Great, then we’ve got 4 total. We’ll tally up the bruises after.” he winked. He didn’t mind being stepped on one bit, not if it meant he got to hold her close. He waited until the next song started, a bit of a slower one, and led her onto the dance floor.

Lux Belanger,

“Ooph.” Drew pretended to be hurt by her instance that the older woman might be more his type. However, he then gave an easy laugh and shook his head. “Nah, I’m much more into blondes.” he winked. It was true, Drew’s type had always included blonde hair. While he had the occasional fling with a brunette or a redhead, blondes always had more fun. “Grey hair doesn’t really do it for me. Plus she looks too much like my grandma” If Drew’s grandparents weren’t muggles he was sure that they would love things like this. They went all out for Holidays and decorated their house inside and out for every special occasion. They truly would have done amazing things with magic.

As they danced she insisted she was worried they might trip with all the fog on the ground. Drew couldn’t say he knew much about dancing. He had danced maybe twice in his life, however, he was pretty sure of one thing. “I don’t think you’re supposed to look at your feet while dancing.” he told her. If they weren’t looking down in theory the fog shouldn’t trip them up. “But if you do trip I’ll catch you.” he smirked. “Promise.” He did promise. He’d never let anything happen to her again. Not if he had any say in it.

As they swayed around the floor a thought came into his mind. He wasn’t sure if it was really the right time to ask, but he wasn’t sure when the right time would be if not now. “Have you thought about what you might do for Christmas?” he asked.

Lux Belanger,

She could have been blonde prior to being gray. Drew gave a laugh that was almost more of a splatter of air out of his mouth at the thought. Yeah, he supposed she could be. “Too bad I wasn’t born 50 years sooner then. She could have been my dream girl.” he pretended to give the idea serious thought. There were times when Drew did wonder if perhaps he would have faired better had he been born a generation or two earlier. However, he felt pleased enough to have been able to skip the wars fought just a few years before his birth. And if he had been born sooner he wouldn’t be here now - with Lux.

“My toes are resilient. They can take being stepped on.” he insisted. Plus he was fairly sure that te toes of the shoes he was wearing had bene reinforced by something. They didn’t have a lot of give to them. Typically he wore military style boots, but he had opted for something a little more casual for the occasion. She lost her footing momentarily and his arms tightened around her as well. He brushed it off and took it as an excuse to close a little more of the gap between them, pulling her closer to him so that there was an incredibly little amount of space between their bodies. “If I go down… you’re coming down with me. And then we army crawl under the smokeline so no on sees.” he winked. A joke, clearly. Drew wouldn’t be caught dead crawling around on the floor like that, but for Lux maybe he’d consider it.

She explained that she had an apt at St. Mungos to check in but otherwise she’d probably spend the holiday at home. He was glad that she was out of the hospital and was glad that her healers obviously seemed pleased with her progress. “Are you feeling alright? No symptoms or anything that you noticed or that your healers are concerned with?” he asked, not wanting to spend more time obsessing over her health than he already had all summer, but just wanted to check in on her as well. And then he asked. “Perhaps you’d consider spending some of it with me?” his eyebrow raised as he awaited her response. His stomach churned. Was it normal to be so nervous?

Lux Belanger,