Chapter 1: Dumbstruck by Drama

A girl wearing a fluffy peach bathrobe paced about her dorm with her hair wrapped in a towel. Her forehead was filled with nervous lines, she was clearly anxious about her very first date whilst her fair-haired friend sat cross-legged on her bed with a magazine on her knees. "Please help me, Mary. I think I'm going to faint in just a matter of minutes because, one, I have nothing to wear and two, my hair is in a mess," she then let out a groan to top off her damsel in distress drama.

Her friend finally put down her magazine and gazed at her from top to toe. "Fine. I shall help you, but do me a favour and subscribe the Rolling Stones magazine for me next year. Thanks, Lily Ann," Mary Macdonald gave Lily a smile before she went to fumble their trunks to look for an outfit for her friend, Lily Evans.

"Did you really have to add in 'Ann' at that moment? Fortunately, my nerves are frazzled and I still need your improvisation, so you are temporarily off the hook," replied Lily miserably. She lay sprawled on her bed, inhaling the smell of the freshly-laundered linen. Her eyes were shut tightly, darkness enveloped her vision as she wished very hard for her very own Cinderella moment. Just as she was picturing one of her wild fantasies compiled from the memories of the many books she read, Mary Macdonald stood in front of her with a smug look on her face. Not only had Mary managed to keep Lily's eyelids open with the fingers of her left hand, but she also had an outfit complete with shoes and accessories balanced on her other hand. "That is simply amazing. And I thought that Alice was the only one who could perform circus tricks," said Lily as she removed her friend's hand from her eyelids and continued gazing at her in awe.

"Speaking of Alice, where is she?" queried Mary as she searched blindly for Lily's right shoe. "Alice is tutoring the first-year student which Professor McGonagall assigned to her. She was so busy chatting to me that she accidently transfigured her cup into a pile of gook. The wonderful ceramic gook fell on the floor, thus causing our dear professor to get her shoe stuck in it. Poor Miss Prewett earned a week of detention and a complimentary week of tutoring thereafter. The end," Lily bowed after she finished her mad tale which she had acted out in a thespian manner.

"Have you considered a career in storytelling? I'm sure that you would excel in it. Considering that you are such a dramatist, perhaps there might be an opening for an amateur actress during the holiday break, you really should join the theater then," commented Mary nonchalantly. "How amusing, Mary. Do be a dear and please pass me that outfit now," she said in an elegant lady's fashion with her hand waving softly above her eyebrow. "I seriously think that you should consider acting," exclaimed Mary as she passed Lily the outfit which she had carefully picked out. After Lily changed, she looked completely different from her previous robe and towel appearance. She was wearing a fun-looking green and white sundress with white wedges to complete her oufit. "Oh right, throw this on if you feel cold, but I doubt so since you are bound to be cuddled," Mary tossed Lily an off-white cardigan belonging to one of their roommates. The trio which consisted of Lily, Mary and Alice shared the same dorm with three other girls, Emmeline Vance, Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadows, they were friendly dorm-mates and the trio occasionally hung out with them. Every so often, the six girls would borrow clothes and shoes from each other to create the perfect outfit.

After Mary had put on a few finishing touches for Lily, she led Lily to a full-length mirror. Lily gazed at her reflection in wonder, her frizzy hair was now a straight, red mane and her emerald-green eyes were accentuated by light green eye-shadow. Lily's eyes lit up immediately, she thanked Mary repeatedly and gave her a tight hug before prancing around the room with joy. In her mind, she was a beautiful green fairy just like Tinkerbell, complete with a pleasant leaf-green glow surrounding her. "Once again, thank you so much, Mary. Hopefully Matthew will find me just as charming," said Lily before she let out a dramatic sigh.

"Oh please, if he doesn't think that you look great, he would be out of his mind. So don't you worry," Mary gave Lily an assuring smile. It was her best friend, Lily's first date, the perfect date which Lily had fantasized to start with a heart-to-heart conversation and end with leg-lifting kisses. Mary gave Lily her last inspection, giving her two thumbs-up before leading her out of the dorm. Out in the common room, Lily and Mary waved at Alice who had just entered through the portrait hole looking weary and grumpy. Alice's gloomy face immediately lit up once she saw two of her best friends, she tossed her books onto a desk and rushed to stare at Lily's transformation. "Goodness gracious, this has to be the best piece of work you have ever done, Mary! Congratulations, I'm so proud of you," she said after having her own awestruck moment. "Now, if you would excuse me, I have a date to go on," Lily interrupted with a wink. She slung her favourite olive-green handbag over her shoulders and went through the portrait hole to meet her date.

Matthew Simmons could be easily described as a tall, dark and handsome teenager. His looks had earned him many hearts of Hogwarts' girls, but his personal rule to date only twice a year made even more fawn over him. He also had an adorable smile which graced his features very well. Rita Skeeter, the junior editor of the school's monthly magazine had posted the results of a recent poll in the magazine's January issue. The poll showed that he was the third handsomest of Hogwarts after James Potter and Sirius Black. Remus Lupin had came in at a close fourth, barely missing the third position by three votes. As Lily came out of the Gryffindor common room, Matthew was amazed by her pretty appearance. He gave her his widest smile before extending his hand to hold hers and he then produced a bouquet of flowers for her. Whilst the bouquet's sweet fragrance lingered in the air, a blush crept onto Lily's face as Matthew complimented her. They walked around the blue lake hand in hand, speaking to each other about themselves and their lives. "You truly are beautiful tonight," said Matthew when they decided to sit on the lush, green grass under a shady tree.

Unfortunately, Lily did not reply, for Matthew's voice was merely a murmur, her attention was drawn to the magnificent scenery surrounding them. Lily's pupils traced after the sun's gleam, it led her into discovering a spectacular sunset. In her mind, she wondered how nature managed create such a perfect blend of colours. A fusion of orange and golden-yellow trailed along soft reds, the bright blue which once settled among the fluffy, white clouds was gone and had only left traces of lilac in its wake. Grapefruit pink clouds filled the sky and the bright, orange sun was setting slowly down the hill. As soon as the sun was hidden beneath the evening sky, Lily was pulled back from her wandering thoughts to reality.

Matthew had been so considerate as to let her gaze at the panorama for nearly an hour instead of engaging her into an eye-gazing moment with him. "I'm so sorry, Matthew," she apologized to him sincerely. "It's just that I get carried away very fast, would you forgive me if I promise you another date next week?" she gushed out in high hopes to make him feel better.

He took a moment before answering her, "Sure, not at all. But just before I send you back to your common room, do you mind sharing a chocolate bar with me?" He fished for the chocolate bar from within his coat's inner pocket and broke half of it for Lily. As Lily chewed on the tasty caramel-based chocolate, she gave Matthew another smile. When Matthew caught her eyes, her green orbs reverted to peer at the ground. "Thanks for the evening. You were really great and all," she told him while blushing furiously in the shadows. "Same to you. As a matter of fact, you, Lily Evans, are without a doubt a nice girl with a unique personality to match," he remarked kindly before putting his hand around her shoulders, enclosing her into a warm cuddle.

When Matthew walked her back to the Gryffindor common room, she thanked him once again and gave him a peck on his cheek before hurrying into the portrait hole, causing her to bump into James Potter. Before he could say anything, she apologized to him quickly and rushed up to the girls' dormitories to give a full report to her best friends.

"I'm..." James Potter had wanted to apologize to Lily but she had dashed up the girls' staircase in a flash, leaving him to be dumbstruck and stay glued to his spot until his best friend, Sirius Black, snapped him to reality. "Prongs, let's go meet Moony in the kitchens. I checked him up on the map, he just finished studying a while ago." Without waiting for an answer from his best friend who was still in a mild shock, Sirius rolled his eyes before dragging him to the Hogwarts kitchens.

As the duo entered the kitchens, a house elf happily ran forward to greet them. The house elf had a green apron against her patched overalls and there was a frayed, pink bow on her head. "Good evening, sirs. What would Mr. Potter and Mr. Black want Alphie to do today?" she asked with a smile plastered on her face. "Hi, Alphie. Have you by any chance seen Remus in here?" inquired Sirius while dragging James behind him. "Mr. Lupin is over there. Alphie will bring over some hot chocolate and cookies for sirs in a while," she pointed towards a plush, red couch in a corner.

"Remmie Lu!" screeched Sirius in a high voice, he was clearly trying to impersonate a girl but the squeal had came out sounding awfully like a crow. James who had foreseen the outcome of Sirius' actions earlier removed the cotton which he had stuck into his ears and clapped Remus on his back. Poor Remus quickly recovered from the disturbance, shooting an annoyed look at Sirius. "Hi Prongs, Siri, anything happened while I was in the library? Perhaps by now, you should have deduced why I would rather study than spend an hour lingering around Sirius," he scowled defiantly.

"Did you by any chance mean Lady Sirella, the heiress-to-be of the House of Black? However, I do know that she does have a voice similar to fingernails scratching a chalkboard," James tried to put on a straight face while he pretended to gaze at Sirius with a look of concentration, as if to study him. Whilst both James and Remus were laughing at him, Sirius had chose to devour his mug of hot chocolate in front of the fireplace. He licked his lips which were covered with froth from the drink. "Moony, wouldn't you like to hear what happened to dear Prongs just a moment ago in the common room?" he said with blackmail clearly spelt on his face.

Remus' werewolf sense of hearing was so sharp that he turned to face Sirius immediately. After Sirius finished telling his tale of James' short encounter with Lily, Remus tried to bite his cheeks to keep from laughing but had failed miserably instead. "Well, it could have been worse," commented Remus whose cheeks were pink from laughing too much. "She looked quite pretty today," said James with a faraway look in his hazel eyes. His two best friends just rolled their eyes knowingly, it was quite obvious that James had a crush on Lily but he tried hard to hide it. In order to conceal his feelings, he acted as if he wanted to date her just because she was the only girl who resisted his charm the most. Moreover, it was a good excuse to play pranks, for he did most of it to impress her.

"Now, what say we go back to the common room to do some homework and pay Wormtail a visit on the way? Poppy said that the poor fellow still needs to stay there for another week," suggested Remus once they had polished off their cocoa and cookies. James shrugged his shoulders nodded his head while gulping down his mug of lukewarm cocoa.

"Ahem. Moony. Firstly, Prongsie and I don't do our homework, we just copy it off you most of the time, which would be fine. Secondly, Wormtail actually broke his arm and leg flying on a broom and he has awful infections on his limbs now. Seriously, I wouldn't want to catch any of that disgusting green pox from him," Sirius shuddered at the thought of his skin with an awful green rash resembling brussel sprouts on it.

"Well, fine then. The least we could do is pass him a sugar quill or some sweets. Oh right. Siri, you can't copy my Charms essay today because of your stupendously awful shriek which interrupted me while I was writing it," Remus gave Sirius a smug smile, looking pleased with himself. Sirius' jaws dropped wide-open, his finger pointing at Remus while his eyes sent voiceless complaints to James. "Nice one, Moony. And good luck to you, Padfoot," said James while patting Sirius' head. Sirius was going to have a long night cuddling up with his Charms books to write an essay on 'How To Improve Security Charms'.

A/N: Hi there folks! Three Days Grace is not working out that well for me because of Deathly Hallows. Well, do leave me a review, please. I take them all, criticism, blabbering (I, myself blabber in my reviews :P), flames and of course, compliments. :D Grammar mistake or a typo? Tell me.
Thanks :)