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,

Drew scoffed at the ton of his sisters voice as he made it over to her. Of course the first thing she would ask bout was Lux. While he hadn’t gone around shouting from the rooftops that the two of them were together, it was obvious to anyone who spotted them ever. He could barely keep his hands off her. He always had a hand on her back, or around her shoulders, or clasped with one of her own. The former playboy had never felt like this before and while it was taking some time to get used to, he liked it. Though he understood the mockery that came with it. Love was making him a fool; but a happy fool.

“She’ll be around.” he said with a little shrug. They had planned to meet later on in the day, he knew she had plants to tend to before she’d be free to hang out with him. “I trust you’re not giving her a hard time?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. He could only imagine what Odette might say to the Hufflepuff girl when he wasn’t around. It wasn’t like their family had any deep, dark secrets, but there were still things he didn’t need everyone to know about.

Odette Douglas,

Drew hadn’t spent as much time home over the summer as his family would have liked. He moved out of their family home the week after graduation and had moved into the flat that he rented with Cole in London. Living in London was so much easier than living by the sea. While Drew did miss the ocean air, he liked being so centrally located more. However, not visiting home meant that he hadn’t seen his siblings since they started Hogwarts. Normally he didn’t like to go to these festivals. He usually only went to them because his parents would ask him to keep an eye on the younger ones, however this year was different. Going to these festivals now was like a victory cry since it meant that Lux was finally out of the hospital and able to do fun things again.

He was going to see her later in the day and was trying to talk her into going to see one of the scary movies with him. But in the meantime he was just browsing through the vendor stalls. He spotted Odette before she saw him as she passed a booth nearby. He followed behind her until he could catch up through the crowd. “Fancy seeing you here.” he teased once he finally did fall into stride by her side.

Odette Douglas,

“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,

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,

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,

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,

The last time Drew had gone to a ball he didn’t necessarily want to be there. He had agreed to escort Sutton, the Hogwarts Champion to the Yule Ball the previous year, however, he had mostly agreed to do it just to help out his friend. Before that, the only times the previous Slytherin had gone to a ball was to take the mick out of his friends and see what kind of booze could be acquired. To say they weren’t really his thing was an understatement. But there was something about the idea of going with someone who you really wanted to be with that changed his outlook on the tradition. He wanted to go with Lux, he wanted to be seen with her. He wanted her to have a good time. He didn’t want to be the reason that she didn’t enjoy her 7th year.

So he apparated to Hogsmeade and then made the familiar walk towards the Hogwarts Grounds and up to the castle. He waited in the entrance hall for his date. He wasn’t really sure what he was supposed to wear to this type of ball, so he kept it fairly casual and wore blue jeans with black shoes and a clean, black t-shirt with his leather jacket over it. Thankfully, the shop in Hogsmeade had been selling masks and he was able to pick up one of those on the way as well.

Lux Belanger