After the prince and Melissa finished dancing, the two bowed in the direction of the King and Queen with everyone clapping for them.
Then the music played again and everyone started grabbing their partners and began dancing.
Amy, who was still a bit dazed, broke out of her thoughts the moment Nathaniel grabbed onto her hand.
"Let's go." he says and the two danced together in the dance floor.
He then accidentally stepped on her foot. It didn't hurt but he appears apologetic.
"Sorry! I'm a bit bad at dancing."
Amy gave him a forgiving smile. "It's alright. You're still practicing."
Dancing is like a routine. You keep following it and it becomes second nature. Nathaniel is a bit hopeless in that area.
"AH! Sorry." he mumbled apologetically again.
"Move your foot on the front next time and-"
"-there!" she finished as she moved hers back.
His face glowed in achievement.
As the two chat, they are noticed by Rufus and Leon. Melissa is dancing with her uncle and Sabina is dancing with her brother.
"These parties are so booorring!" Leon complained.
"Well, it can't be helped. At least you get to leave early. The rest of us have to stay as long as our parents stay." Rufus says. "And this party ends after midnight. Do you think any of us could stay up this long?"
Leon paused for a moment, "I guess you're right." then he looked at the other kids. "Nate and Ryllis look like they are having a deep conversation despite dancing, Harry is awfully shy, Kitty, Zeze and Vivi look like they are having fun."
"Only Melissa looks bored." Rufus commented. "Wait, actually, I can't tell. She always looks like that." he laughed.
Leon notices the song is about to end. "You think we should partner up with someone?"
Rufus shrugged. "I find parties like these boring. I mostly like to come here for the food." they ate at the food tables and ignored the adults attempts to talk to the young prince.
Then they noticed upon the song ending, everyone already switched partners like they planned it. Amy heads off to dance with her father, Viola switched to Nathaniel, Theseus is dancing with Melissa while Sabina and Harry were next.
"Geez, did they all plan this?" Leon said out loud.
"You weren't here when they started pairing up together." Rufus said.
Leon then had a sudden realization. "That's it!" He says then stares at Rufus.
"Let's all head to one of the empty rooms in the corridor to escape this boredom."
Rufus gave him an incredulous look. "No offense Leon but this is the Winter Ball not the annex. You shouldn't leave like that with the other noble kids just to explore and tour the palace."
"Why not? I could just screw everyone's mind up with a flick of a finger. They won't even know we're gone."
"Leon, don't." Rufus says sternly and glared at his friend. "Most of these people are non-mages. You could mess up their brains."
"Relax. I know what I'm doing. Trust me." Leon says with a devilish smirk.
*
The song finished and Amy smiled happily at her father. She noticed Viola approaching.
"My turn to dance with father!" she says in a cheerful tone and the next song is already playing.
She looked around to see Harry approach her for a dance and she took his hand and started dancing. She looked at him and he has a timid expression. His adult self is quite scrawny and overworked, so much different than his child self. He is healthier looking as a child and hopefully he gains more confidence in himself. His adult self did great things. He will be like that someday.
"Amaryllis, look" Harry said and his direction is at Leon and Rufus where they are chatting, giggling and scheming.
"Oh no." she said. She does not like where this is going.
"Oh no, indeed. Leon may look like this but he's a lot scarier than you'd think." Harry said.
"Scary?" she repeated.
"Yeah," he said while staring at her. "He scared my older brothers so much that he made them pee themselves."
"Eww." her face scrunched up in disgust.
"They never bothered me again. Despite how Leon is, I respect him."
Amy observed Harry's face. He's being truthful but no one knows what he is capable of. At least Leon doesn't tolerate bullying.
"If you put it like that, I guess he's not too bad." Amy murmured. "What about Rufus? Those two are cut from the same cloth."
"Actually, Rufus is more level-headed and usually plays the devil's advocate role for him."
She nodded and notices Rufus and Melissa on the dance floor while Leon is still eating snacks without a care in the world.
When the song ended, Leon approached all of them.
"Follow me. We're getting out of here." he said and everyone started following him out of the ballroom.
Before they left, Amy could see that there are of copies of them where they were previously standing — moving, talking — nothing out of the ordinary. She realized that Leon warped reality to create clones of them. Amy feels like he is so bored that he is willing to trick everyone and escape the ball with this.
This better not last. she thought.
They head to the imperial garden where they could see the blue roses. The roses are fake but they look as real as a real one.
"Wow, blue roses? They're so pretty." Viola commented.
"Why are we here?" Melissa asked.
"To get away from the adults and—" he snapped his fingers and at first nothing happened but then it started snowing.
"Snow?" Amy touched it in her palm. She felt nothing. It's an illusion.
Then Leon snapped his fingers again and the entire blue rose garden transformed into snow. "Let's have a snow ball fight." he smirked.
"Yeah!" Theseus yelled excitedly and already started forming a snowball in his hand and hit Nathaniel with it.
Literally seconds later, all hell breaks loose.
The entire night is them throwing snow at each other. Viola has made a snow fort where she, Amy and Harry use and attack the others. Amy may be aware that she's mentally an adult but she is still a child at heart.
*
A servant was passing by when she noticed that all ten children are snuggled up at the gazebo were they fell asleep and the entire rose garden transformed into a snowy landscape.
After a brief groan, she left to go report this.
As for the ball room, the illusions of the children disappear without anyone noticing.
*
Amy briefly opened her eyes upon feeling turbulence and noticed that she is asleep on her father's lap and his hand is holding onto her hand. Viola was asleep on their mother's lap. Both parents are chatting as quietly as they could and they look happy. At least this means they're not in trouble. She then closed her eyes again and let sleep take her.
*
The next day was a break from classes because apparently the party lasted until 1 am. It was way past their bedtime. It was around 8 am when she woke up.
Amy looked to her mini project and saw that they are hungry. She fed them her energy for a bit before looking at her desk, seeing a letter. Using her free hand, she opened the letter and read it. After she finished, she smiled.