A Drunken Ball

Chapter 24: A Drunken Ball

"That's an incredibly disturbing story, Mr. Gremory," Dumbledore said as Madam Pomfrey gave Jake a checkup.

She finally finished her diagnostic spells. "He's completely fine, Albus, just a tad bit low on magic. No magical exhaustion, though," she confirmed.

McGonagall let out a sigh of relief that her student was fine before turning to Albus in anger. "What are we going to do, Albus? Assassins? Here, in Hogwarts? Such a thing hasn't happened for well over 100 years!" She exclaimed. "Should we notify the Aurors, or dare I say, the Ministry? Jake did bring back one of the perpetrators' wands, after all!"

Notifying the Aurors or the Ministry was the last thing Dumbledore wanted. He just knew this assassination attempt would end up in the newspapers, and worst-case scenario, the devils who apparently read their newspapers would find out. Then, Albus would have the terrifying Leviathan right back in his castle. She had just left, and he didn't exactly want her back anytime soon, or worse, Jake's older brother showing up...

Unbeknownst to Dumbledore, Jake, meanwhile, didn't exactly want to involve the wizard police either in this case, considering all the perpetrators were now dead. Although Jake suggested it initially, that was when the death eaters had surrendered. He would have had two prisoners and tons of evidence on his side. But now, all he had was one corpse, one pile of ashes, and the last guy probably ended up as spider poop by now….

"I don't think we should involve them," Jake spoke up. "Malfoy has now lost three of his henchmen, and that should be enough of a message sent to him that he shouldn't try anything again." He knew how the system worked as an orphan. And despite being in a new country and culture, he figured it would still not be working out in his favor, so Jake wisely chose to let the matter go.

"I happen to agree with Mr. Gremory on this one," Dumbledore said. "I figured that it is best that... How do the Muggles say it? Oh yes, we should let sleeping dogs lie. And while I'm saddened that Jake had to take a life, we can easily see from the spells that were cast with this wand that he was left with no other choice."

Jake just nodded in agreement. He didn't exactly want to end up in a murder trial at his age. Also, he's pretty sure his appearance entering the Great Hall already made a bunch of students scared of him. If it came out in the papers that he killed three fully grown wizards, nobody would probably ever talk to him again for the rest of his school year...

"Very well then," McGonagall said, acceding. Though still with her stern glare she spoke to Jake, "I just want you to know that you and Miss Lovegood will no longer be venturing into the Forbidden Forest for the next month or so." Her stern expression meant no arguing that.

Jake just gave a resigned nod. That was severely going to cut down on his ability to practice the larger spells, but he could still practice magic in smaller classrooms if he toned down the destruction. He had a couple more techniques that weren't purely for offense that he'd been meaning to practice anyway.

—---------------------

Jake made it back to the Gryffindor common room later that night, and as he entered, all conversations and noises ceased. Everyone just stared at him. Jake gave them all a wave and smiled. "Hello, everyone! Your champion is back, and I'm in perfect health!" He gave a thumbs-up, causing a few students to giggle. However, the majority still looked at him with uncertainty. Jake was really kicking himself for not cleaning up and showing up to dinner covered in the blood and ashes of his enemies. That was not his best move...

Harry and Hermione stood up from where they had been sitting, what Jake noted as 'interestingly close together' on one of the couches and rushed over towards him.

"Jake, mate," Harry said, patting him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay. What the hell happened? You weren't looking great back there," he said while scratching his head.

Hermione scoffed, "What do you mean, "he didn't look great?"- He was soaked in blood, and his robes were completely shredded! Did you just get into another fight with a dragon or something!?" She came off a bit pushy, but deep down she was concerned for him.

Jake shook his head before leaning in and whispering to them, "I'll tell you guys all about it later, okay? I just don't want the news spreading to the whole school, okay?" The two of them nodded, showing understanding.

"Hey, Ron! How's it going?" Jake called out, waving to Ron, who was sitting by himself, playing on a magical chessboard that seemed to be playing right back. 'Okay, that thing is pretty cool,' Jake thought to himself. Some things in the magical world still amazed him.

Ron turned his head from his chess game, giving a surprising glare towards Jake, before scoffing and going right back to his chess match, completely ignoring him.

"What the hell was that!?" Jake spoke to himself. He knew this past week he'd been busy and hadn't exactly been spending any time with his younger friends. He'd even go so far as to admit that he'd been ignoring them for training, but he had a good reason. The fight against that stray was closer than he wanted to admit. And if it hadn't been for the close quarters, in the chamber, and that stray not being smart enough to fly over the ice instead of slipping on it, he would have been in trouble. Jake wished he had learnt to cast the ice shield spell before that confrontation...

"Um, Jake, I don't exactly know how to say this," Hermione said, "and it's kind of a delicate matter. So, how about later tonight, when everyone else goes to bed, you, me, and Harry have a talk about everything that's happened? We can also tell you about what's going on with Ron… and why he was acting that way towards you."

"It's not just you, either," Harry added. "He's been ignoring us too. But yeah, we'll tell you the reason a bit later tonight."

Jake nodded at the two of them before heading upstairs to change out of his shredded robes. McGonagall had been kind enough to vanish all the blood off them, but there wasn't really a spell to repair all the magical stitching that had been lost.

—-------------------------

Jake returned to the common room later that night to find Harry and Hermione waiting for him. "Hey, guys. So what's been going on with Ron? Why was he ignoring me earlier?" he asked.

Harry and Hermione glanced at each other sadly before turning to Jake. "Jake, Ron didn't take you being a half-devil well," Hermione said plainly.

"Oh," Jake said. In all the craziness Jake had been through the past week, he had honestly forgotten that right before the pint-sized devil and his milf mom showed up, he had indeed revealed his true nature to the trio. And that was pretty much the last interaction he had with Ron since he fainted immediately…

"Yeah, mate, frankly, I'm kinda surprised because out of the three of us, we would have figured he'd have been the most accepting of that kind of thing. His entire family is pretty much pagan and all." Harry joked.

"Well, that really sucks," Jake said. "Is he just going to ignore me from now on?"

Both of them explained to Jake how this wasn't the first time Ron had proven to be very unaccepting of those he deemed 'dark'. "He pretty much hated every single Slytherin student from day one, and yeah, some of them are dicks," Harry explained, "but most of them are pretty alright. Like Greengrass, she happens to be alright in all the right plac- ow, Hermione, I was kidding!" Hermione smacked Harry upside the head before he could finish.

"But you two don't have any problem with me being half-devil, do you?" Jake asked.

Harry waved him off. "Hermione and I were both raised as atheists, so no." Hermione nodded in agreement.

Jake gave them a smile. "Well, thanks for sticking by me, you two. I appreciate that! So, what was the reason that Ron was avoiding you guys also?"

Hermione let out a sad sigh. "Apparently, Ron has been harboring a secret crush on me for the past year. And he was actually going around and telling the other Gryffindor boys, and I quote, "back off! Cause she's mine!"" Hermione scoffed as she did quotes with her fingers.

To Jake's surprise, Harry reached over and took Hermione's hand in his own as they both blushed. "Yeah, so he didn't take it too well when he found out that Hermione and I were going to the Yule Ball together."

Jake smirked. "Good for you guys, and if he can't accept it, then fuck him."

"Language!"

"Yeah," Harry said, "we've been sort of drifting apart for a bit now. That little adventure with Luna was actually the first time we'd hung out together in a while, and he wanted to bail halfway through that."

Jake smirked, "Didn't Hermione try to bail too?" he teased.

"Not important!" Hermione snapped back.

"Well, I'm happy for you guys," Jake said. "I'll be going to the ball with Luna, not romantically, obviously. She's like 13, after all. She's a third year and she wanted to go, but she apparently can't unless her date is a fourth year or up. Plus, as a champion, I need a date, so this is a win-win for both of us." Jake explained.

"With all the orange hair drama out of the way," Hermione spoke, "you need to tell us what happened that made you show up to dinner looking like you just got run over!"

Jake then took the next few minutes explaining to them what had happened, starting from his encounter with the giant spiders, to his short battle against the three hitmen and finally to his clash with the rampaging Fiendfyre spell.

"Wow!" they both exclaimed. "Your life is honestly kinda crazy sometimes, Jake," Hermione said. "And I thought Harry was supposed to be the trouble magnet."

"Honestly, other than my name coming out of the Goblet, it's been pretty tame for me so far," Harry explained. "Last year at this point in time, I'd almost had my soul sucked out by dementors... twice." The conversation petered off, and they called it a night.

The next few days leading up to the ball were relatively tame for Jake. He spent some more time with Luna, Harry, and Hermione. He also took the time to practice tamer types of magic. Jake even decided to sit in on a few classes, figuring he might as well since he was technically a student. He even attended one of Snape's Potions classes... but that's a story for another time.

—------------------

"That gown looks absolutely lovely on you, Luna," Jake complemented his "date" as he escorted her down the stairs.

"Thank you, Jake," Luna said happily. "And you too look quite handsome in that suit."

"Yep," Jake said with a smirk. "I look good in everything."

Jake and Luna eventually joined Harry and the other champions, along with their dates, outside the ballroom doors. When it was time for the ball to start, McGonagall approached them. "As you all know," she said, "it's tradition for the champions to open the ball with a dance with their partners." Fleur, Victor, and their dates, some random students no one cared about, nodded their heads. Meanwhile, Jake, Hermione, and Harry were shocked.

"What?" Hermione exclaimed. "No one told us we had to open the ball and dance in front of all those people!"

"What's the matter, guys?" Jake said. "Don't know how to dance?"

"No, I don't know how to dance," Harry said. "And do you even know how to dance, Jake?"

Jake just laughed confidently. "Nope," he said. "What about you, Luna? Do you know how to dance?" Luna shook her head in the negative as well. She had spent the majority of her life roaming the countryside with her father, searching for mythical creatures that most wizards didn't believe existed. Where would she have had the time to learn how to dance?

McGonagall's face turned ugly upon realizing she'd forgotten to inform them that they had to open the ball in all the chaos of having to reorganize the second task. Now she was afraid that both of her school's champions were going to open the ball and they were going to put on an embarrassing performance for Hogwarts!

Harry and Hermione looked mortified at the fact that they were about to publicly embarrass themselves. Meanwhile, Jake gave Harry a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, man. This is a ball full of teenagers after all. It'll take a half hour tops before someone spikes the punch and once everyone's hammered, no one will care about this absolute travesty we're about to put on." He said with a thumbs up. Harry just gave a small smile in solidarity. At least they'd go down in embarrassing infamy together. Luna had a contemplative look on her face…

Music started playing on the other side of the doors, and McGonagall told them they might as well go in there and start dancing their best…

And that's exactly what Jake and Luna did. Did they go out there and put on an absolutely amazing performance despite their total lack of skill? No, no they did not. Was it three agonizingly long minutes of the entire crowd mocking the four Gryffindor students? Yes, yes it was. But just as Jake had said, once their painful lack of talent was finished being put on display for the first song, most of the students soon forgot about it as they all took to the dance floor themselves. Come morning most the students would be too hung over to even remember half the night properly anyway.

Once the focus was off of them, and being surrounded by a bunch of other people on the dance floor, Jake started having quite a bit of fun with Luna as they danced away to the past few songs. A couple songs in, Jake felt a tap on his shoulder. "Mind if I cut in for a bit?" A recognizable and welcome voice whispered in his ear.

Jake turned around with a smile. "Serafall, what are you doing here?" he exclaimed happily.

"Well, I couldn't exactly allow my possible future boyfriend to experience his very first dance without me there, could I?" Serafall teasingly said as she stepped up next to him and took her spot as his dance partner. Luna, meanwhile, was happy to take a break and made her way over to the punch bowl.

"It's good to see you again, Serafall," Jake smiled at her.

"Did you miss me oh so terribly?" She smirked as she pressed herself up against him in a teasing manner.

"Just a little bit," Jake lied. "There were plenty of other things to keep me occupied for the past couple of weeks, though."

"Oh, I heard," Serafall's cheerful expression momentarily switched to a frown. "I heard all about your little adventure with the young Sairog Bael. Thanks for protecting him and his mother from that assassination attempt, even if it wasn't necessary."

"So, the little guy's mom, her power was off the charts," Jake said, still in awe even after all those weeks passed. "Is she an ultimate-class in power?"

Serafall nodded. "Indeed, you'll find that a lot of the older generations that survived the Great War are at the ultimate class. They just don't go around advertising it. Shockingly, one of the few who isn't and has remained high class is your father," Serafall said teasingly.

That made Jake smirk as they continued dancing. "Wait a minute," he said. "Are you telling me that my dear old dad, who's however many hundreds of years old, isn't any stronger than me, a 16 going-on 17 year old teen?"

Serafall just smirked back at him. "You are correct. He just spends all day playing with his harem and not really doing much to manage the clan. It would actually be your stepmother, I'd say, who really wears the pants in the Gremory house! She happens to be a high-ultimate class being, and if it wasn't for your older brother and her, your old man Zeo would have been overthrown as the clan head long ago." Serafall elaborated. "However, it's not completely unheard of for members of the main pillar families to challenge their elders in order to become heads of their clans." She hinted towards Jake. Sirzechs couldn't do it because he had taken the Lucifer title, but there were surprisingly no laws preventing a half devil from challenging a clan head. Probably because it had never happened before.

They continued their dance through a couple more songs as Jake pondered that information. "So, does that mean as his son, I could challenge him for the clan head position?" Jake asked her.

"Indeed, you can," Serafall said with a nod. "However, you have to wait until you are 18 years old. You have to be an adult and all that to be a clan head." She elaborated.

Jake just gave Serafall a sultry grin. "Well then," he said in a low tone. "It seems that I have multiple things to look forward to when I turn 18," he said, to which Serafall let out a small giggle.

Once their fourth song came to an end, the pair decided to take a break and go look for Luna, who had left them to their own devices for about 15 minutes. They eventually found her by the punch bowl with a flask in her hand, emptying its contents completely into the bowl.

"Holy shit, Luna spiked the punch!" Jake exclaimed, shocked.

Serafall just laughed. "Good for her. I didn't think she had it in her. Also, where does a 13-year-old girl get a flask full of whiskey in a boarding school?"

They approached the girl, who had just finished emptying the flask into the punch, and she quickly stuffed it back into her bag. "Oh, hello, you two." She said completely nonchalantly. "Are you finished dancing now? I just had something small to take care of here." She gave them both a small smile.

"Yeah, we saw," Jake deadpanned at her. "Not that we're against some good old spiked punch, but do you mind if we ask why you specifically were the one to do it?" Serafall was also intrigued. She hadn't spent a lot of time with Luna when she had "attended" the school for a few weeks, but from what Jake had spoke of the girl, that wasn't exactly her modus operandi. Or maybe it was considering this was also the same girl who slipped poison ivy into her bully's laundry…

Luna gave them both a dreamy, knowing smile. "Oh, come now. I don't want to spoil the surprise. Nobody likes that, not even the Silcontarkles, and they like the opposite of almost everything we do.... Care for some punch?" She asked while scooping a small cup for herself.

"Sure," Jake said as he took a cup and scooped himself a large amount with the ladle.

"Ah, Jake, I may recommend a smaller amount. What I poured in was a tad bit stronger than the usual fire whiskey..." Luna said. Jake poured some of the punch back. How much was 'a tad bit stronger'?

Serafall, meanwhile, shrugged and filled her glass to the brim. This was her first night off in weeks, and if she was going to get a bit fucked up, so be it...

The three of them found an empty table, to rest at for a bit, as they started people-watching with extreme judgment. "Look at that moron over there," Jake hypocritically said as he pointed at Draco dancing with his dog-faced girlfriend and stepping on her feet every few seconds, causing her to grow angrier and angrier. Jake just laughed, as he kept watching, until he saw her slap Draco loudly after he probably said some crass comment about her face or something.

"Through some of our familiar spies that we left in the castle, I found out about the little assassination attempt his father put out on you," Serafall said seriously. "He has no idea how lucky he is that me and Ajuka kept that information from your older brother. Otherwise, he would have ended up destroying hundreds of miles of British land in his retaliation. We'll have to tell him soon though…" Jake gulped a little at that, imagining himself with the power to destroy that much territory with a single spell... He wanted to get there someday, and he absolutely believed that he would.

Another song ended, and Dumbledore himself took to the stage. "Excuse me, everyone. May I have your attention, please? This won't take long," he spoke to all the people there interrupting the festivities. "We figured that now would be a good time to announce the next task for the Triwizard Tournament." As he spoke, all the students started applauding, excited for what crazy event they were going to see next!

Harry and Hermione, who were on the dance floor, decided to come over and sit with Jake and the two girls. "Hey there, Jake," Harry said as he and Hermione slid into their seats next to them. "Looks like it's time to see what crazy thing they'll throw at us next..." Harry said that last part with a sigh.

Jake just laughed. "Come on, Harry. You got off super easy in the first task, facing Dementors when you knew the perfect counter-spell for them. Everyone else pretty much got a thrashing. It's time for you to take your legs too, and I have a feeling this next task might do it," Jake said teasingly to Harry.

"As I was saying," Dumbledore continued to give his speech on the stage, "we won't be telling you the full details immediately as that would spoil it. But what I can tell you is that the next task will involve flying, specifically flying on a broom!" He declared as all the students burst into cheers. Wizards really loved anything that had to do with brooms.

Harry smirked at Jake and gave a fist pump in triumph. "Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Harry exclaimed out loud.

"Language!" Hermione cut in.

Meanwhile, Jake's smirk turned into an immediate frown, which caused Harry to send him a teasing grin. "And what was that you said a couple of weeks back, Jake?" Harry taunted. "Something about you not needing to learn how to fly on my broom? Yeah, you already knew how to fly, didn't ya? But you never learned how to fly on a broom, did ya!"

Jake just sighed as Serafall and Luna next to him started laughing. "So, Harry," Jake asked reluctantly, "can I borrow your broom to practice flying on it?"

"Sure thing, Jake. What are friends for, after all?"

Suddenly everyone's excitement for the second task was interrupted when a familiar orange haired Gryfindor took to the stage.

"Excusssseee meeeee, Duuuuumbledore, buuuut I *burp* have something to say!" Dumbledore was literally shoved out of the way as Ron Weasley stepped up on the stage, in front of the microphone, to address the ballroom. In his hand was a glass full of punch. Well, it was full of punch, but he drank the entire cup—three cups, actually…

"I just want to say that none of you are my friends anymore," Ron slurred out loud into the microphone. Almost losing his balance a couple of times just standing still.

"Get off the stage, you moron!" Someone yelled.

"Get off the stage, Ron! You're going to make us all look bad! Yeah, get off!" Fred and George called out to their brother.

"No-no-no! You all are going to listen," Ron said drunkenly as the last bit of his punch splashed out all over himself when he went for one final sip. "I've had *burp* enough of all your shit! I asked a whole bunch of girls to this stupid dance, and none of you wanted to go with me!" Ron exclaimed dejectedly, to which a whole bunch of students started snickering. "I mean, whoooooo would-wouldn't *burp* -want to go with me? I'm super a-awesome, you know? I'm going to *burp* be a professional Quidditch player one day, and then all the witches are going to be my *burp* BIIIIIITCHES!" As Ron finished his short rant, Jake from the sidelines, bore witness as every single female witch in the room gave him a glare that promised pain and agony.

"You're not even on the Quidditch team now!" A student shouted out. "How the hell do you think you're going to be a pro?"

"Yeah! You didn't even get on a team this year, and there are like a dozen of them!"

Jake, meanwhile, who was very much enjoying watching Ron make an absolute fool of himself, turned to Luna as she gave him a devious grin. "I don't like people who turn on their friends," she said plainly.

"And you, over there," Ron, still on the stage, pointed to Hermione, sitting at their table. All eyes in the ballroom turned and looked at them for a few seconds as he did. "I really liked *burp* you a lot, you know? You *burp* were supposed to be my girl, but now you're with Harry, "who has everything Potter." And I don't like that! Why don't you love me, her-her-hermio-blergggh!" Ron vomited all over the stage and himself a little bit...

"EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW! Gross!"

"Please, get him off the stage! Please, somebody have a heart!"

"Fuuuuuck *burp* yo-you guys!" Ron yelled out before a red beam of light came from behind him and struck him, immediately rendering him unconscious. McGonagall came up on the stage, her face completely red and livid at the absolute shameful display he just put on for everybody. She was going to have him in detention for the rest of his life if she had anything to say about it!

"I apologize for his horrible behavior, and I hope that doesn't reflect on my house as a whole," she gave a slight bow to everyone there, and she levitated Ron behind her and headed out of the ballroom.

Jake, meanwhile, had been having trouble breathing for the past couple of minutes.

"Are you okay there, Jake?" Serafall asked with amused concern.

"Haha, yep, I'm just fine," Jake said, still struggling to breathe. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my GOD! That was the best, Luna! That was absolutely the best!"

"Ow, Jake!" Serafall said in pain.

"Haha... Sorry." Jake was struggling to breathe; he was laughing so hard as he said to Luna next to him, who was also contagiously giggling in agreement.

-end chapter-

This was a long one.

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