Ben nodded, though he privately thought that Miss Gallivan was underestimating the depths of some people's pockets. He'd seen several of his friends from Excalibur make a lot of poor financial decisions on a whim (and had even encouraged them to make some of those decisions, when he'd been running his own gambling racket right after he'd returned from Canada), and none of them had ended up destitute yet. Then again, his best friend had fallen from wealth and found himself on the run from the goblin moneylenders, which was proof of concept, he supposed. Be stupid enough for long enough with your money, and you really could lose everything. Sponsoring a Quidditch team, though, was unlikely to get anyone there on its own, in his opinion.

"Appearances are everything to some people," he remarked in response to her second point. It was more of an observation about the way the world worked than a criticism, really. Ben knew all about the value of keeping up appearances, of course. That was the whole reason he and Melody were parading around pretending they were madly in love with one another.

  

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MJ made this <3

"Indeed they are," Cecily responded to the man's comment with a nod. To a certain extent, the Gallivans were like that, too. Her father had chosen to 'die', rather than risk having his secret revealed in Great Britain. That would have ruined the entire family to a point where even their money wouldn't save them. No good Quidditch player would want to play for their team.

"I have room in my dancing card, you know," Cee suddenly informed Ben Crouch, seeing that their previous conversation had seemed to have reached a wrap. It wasn't ladylike to ask a man to dance with you, but a little nudging wouldn't do any harm.

The following 1 user Likes Cecily Gallivan's post:1 user Likes Cecily Gallivan's post
   Ophelia Devine

"Oh," Ben responded, honestly surprised when she brought up her dance card. He shouldn't have been, really — they were at a dance, after all, and that was sort of the point. If they'd been having this conversation a year ago, he would have asked her already. It was a little rude, he thought, to detain a lady in conversation for any length of time and not ask her to dance, particularly if she ended up obliged to sit a dance out without a partner because she'd been too busy making small talk. That said, this was one of his first proper social events since his marriage, and he was still navigating how he ought to act.

Married people were still allowed to dance with whomever they liked, though, so why not? He didn't think he'd run the risk of leading her on, because she must have known about his recent elopement already. Everyone in Britain knew, he was fairly certain. If she was the sort of girl who was only looking to spend her time with eligible suitors she wouldn't have brought it up, but it seemed she just wanted the same thing he did: to have a little fun and good company.

"Yeah, let's dance," he said with a grin. "Which is your next free song?"

  

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MJ made this <3

While Cee would like to find love at some point in her life, she didn't view balls as hunting grounds for a husband. She enjoyed dancing for the sake of it. She knew, of course, that Mr. Crouch was married, but she saw nothing wrong with dancing with him, seeing that they'd been talking for the last ten to fifteen minutes. Besides, he was a bit on the shorter side, so even if he was single, Cee would have had a difficult time taking him seriously as a husband prospect.

"That would be this polka," Cecily replied, showing him the card. It was charmed, so Mr. Crouch's name appeared next to the song's name.

They had a pleasant dance and then parted ways.