Author's note/warnings: this is an OC centric fiction. Also I don't have a Beta. You have been warned. Contains some course language.
Disclaimer: Don't own etc.
Enjoy
That week came and went. By Friday almost all the boys had been invited to the Christmas camping trip. It was only Billy that had yet to be invited personally. Kirsten knew that he'd heard about it since he was friends with the others but it was her job to actually invite him. It had taken her all week just to get up the nerve to ask him. So after potions class Kirsten stopped him.
"Kirsten I'm going to be late. You'd better have good cause to make me wait" venom dripped from Billy's voice.
"Billy you don't have class after this, so you ain't gonna be late," Kirsten quickly shot back. Taking a deep breath, knowing she was blushing, she continued "Anyway I thought you might like to be invited on a Christmas camping trip I've organised."
There was a long pause before Billy answered "Why would I want to go on a silly little camping trip?" Again he paused letting his words sink in. Kirsten refused to look at him as she knew he would be looking bored. He always looked bored, the only time he didn't was when he was working on a potion. Unnoticed by Kirsten, Billy was actually watching with interest as her face got redder by the minute.
"Especially with the very people that I choose to spend every day of the year with?" the sarcasm made Kirsten blink but it did not draw her eyes to his face. He knew she was waiting for him to say he didn't want go. "I thought you weren't going to invite me," Kirsten's eyes were on the floor but when she heard the softness and the smile in his voice she looked up. The smile was lopsided but genuine.
"What? No I just...well you're going to be late remember? I'll just be going now" stammered Kirsten taking a step back. She didn't know what to make of this. Billy never smiled at her. She went to take another step back but Billy caught her arm.
"You're not going to wait for my answer? After I let you make me late? You're just going to run off? Wasting my time once again, you're always wasting my time" His voice had return to its normal irritated tone but the smile was still there.
"I'm not wasting your time you toffy nosed git. Are you coming then?" Kirsten demanded trying to free her arm.
"I am. I'll see you later then" Billy said letting go of her and walking out of the room. Kirsten stared after him. He really was the most irritating, arrogant git of the wizarding world she knew. Collecting her books she hurried to the Gryffindor hoping to get some work done before dinner.
Dinner that night was a fairly subdued affair as the Gryffindor quidditch team had just returned from training and were more interested in the food the conversation. The other Gryffindors knew this and just conversed around them. Remus and Sirius both observed the way Lily sat next to James and wiped the dirt off his cheek. Sirius thought about how since Severus had called Lily a mudblood she'd taken quite a shine to James. Sirius also noticed that Lily would lean closer to James whenever the other girls would try to engage James or anyone sitting close to him in conversation. Was Lily feeling threatened by the others attention's towards James? They hadn't changed their behaviour or had they? Sirius thought as he saw Caitlin shoot a glare at Lily who continued to rub more dirt off James' face.
Sirius was not the only one reflecting on odd behaviour; Kirsten was trying to understand exactly what had happened early that evening. Billy was never that, dare she think it, nice to her. She knew he could be nice but it was never directed at her. Well that was not really true. She did have to concede that he had been nice to her occasionally. The last time was when they worked on an assignment for potions class a couple of weeks ago. He hadn't glared at her when she'd asked him questions then. It was hard trying to interpret some of the more obscure archaic language that the text insisted on using. They'd even had decent conversations but not since then. She decided that Billy must have inhaled some of the positive potions they had been making. That was the only explanation for his weird behaviour.
Besides a few students, the rest of the students were excitedly whispering about the secret Christmas party that was being held tomorrow night; really the noise could not be classified as whispering. The teachers also all knew about the party but refused to do anything, as it was Christmas. They also most certainly did not get paid enough to spoil the students' fun.
The next night Caitlin led the way through the cold, dark, empty halls toward the Room of Requirement; two others diligently following behind her. Their progress was slow as they had to constantly jump into shadows to avoid being caught by the care taker.
When they finally arrived at the tapestry of Barnabus the Barmy, Caitlin walked back and forth in front of the tapestry, concentration etched into her features until a door appeared. Grinning excitedly the girls pulled the door wide open. For the first few seconds they let the sound and soft lighting swamp them. The soft light barely illuminating a large collection of teenager's chatting and a smaller group moving to music that seemed to be resonating from the walls.
Caitlin raised a hand in greeting as she spotted Ty slowly making his way through the crowd towards them. He was having a hard time preventing his fire whiskey from spilling as people kept cutting him off. "Sup, Ty?"
"Not much. This Christmas party's only just getting started"
"I can tell" mumbled Kirsten as she observed that for such a large crowd only a small number of people were dancing. The majority of students were talking in small groups around the edges of the room and at the bar. Caitlin had not heard her comment and had continued the conversation with Ty.
Kirsten turned to Lauren who had started to nod her head to the beat of the music. Kirsten caught Lauren's eye and flicked her head in the direction of the main room. Lauren grinned and interrupted Caitlin and Ty's conversation "Hey, so where are the others?"
Ty pointed toward the back of the room and winked "It's not just the boys here tonight," "I got the whole A Class!" his enthusiasm sounding a little too much like a massive fangirl. Lauren would not have been surprised if he let out a "Squee!" at the end of his statement.
The 'A Class' as the group was adoringly called were the smartest and most admired male students in the six and seventh years, thus excluding Severus. This exclusive group included the seventh years the Marauders, Billy and Damien both from Gryffindor; Travous and Lawrence from Ravenclaw; and Andrian from Slytherin. The class was selected by the female students every six months for the Hogwarts Hogwash (their fastest selling issue). Through the mass of people, the girls could just see an area littered with bean bags, low tables and the Gryffindor guys from the 'A class'.
Ty and the girls slinked their way through the small throng of people. Lauren poked Ty when she saw the group "Liar! This isn't the whole A Class!" she accused. Grinning guiltily Ty shrugged and kept moving.
"Hi!" yelled Lauren, though she didn't need to, the music was loud but you could still be easily heard over it. The guys made to answer but before they could Alex jumped onto the unsuspecting girls. Caught off balance the girls fell into the conveniently placed beanbags ungraciously. It took a few moments to managed untangle their various limbs. Lauren twisted herself around to face the girl who had caused their predicament "Bout time you showed up, Alex."
"Shut up. I got here as fast as I could," Alex retorted. Then she explained that she'd been helping in the Divination tower and it had taken her some time to reassure Professor Raicoone that she wasn't going to suffer an untimely death by falling. She then turned her attention to the others "Hey y'all"
"Hey!" all the guys chorused raising their drinks in greeting before downing them in one swift gulp.
"Best excuse for a drink I've ever seen" joked Sirius seeing Caitlin and Alex's shocked expressions.
"I can agree with that. Your blinding selves would drive anyone to drink" Lauren countered as she headed towards the snow covered bar dragging Alex along. Caitlin soon found herself ensconced in a conversation with James and Sirius on the merits of various mixes of fire whisky. Caitlin may have hated potions with a passion but whisky blends were favourite topic of hers and most everybody there. Getting the right combination could be downright dangerous. People were known to lose eyebrows, smelling capabilities and all taste sensation for months. Kirsten, talking to Remus and his boyfriend Chase about their ruins assignment had her back to the others, so when Lauren shoved a fire whisky blend into her hand she jumped sky high.
"Oi! That almost cost you your drink," Lauren scolded the meek looking Kirsten.
The meekness quickly turned into a feral grin as Kirsten eyed Lauren's drink "Mah… you know I would've just stolen yours," making a grab for it. Lauren quickly wrenched her drink away just in time and gave Kirsten a death glare for good measure. Remus and Chase who had been watching the exchange shivered as wrath radiated from Lauren's glare.
Caitlin finding that there was a silent staring war going on without her, squeezed past James and Sirius. Promptly she began glaring at the two girls. A glare war was truly started and only peace was reached when Caitlin began laughing. Soon the conversation on the Beanbags turned to the up-coming camping trip. All of them were able to go. It was just the choosing a location and date to leave on that had to be arranged. Choosing a date turned out to be easy. They would leave the day after term ended. They were all keen to help Kirsten organise the trip. Remus and Sirius offered to help with locating maps of the area. Damien, James and Ty said they'd organise the tents as their parents often went exploring and lived relatively close by. Caitlin volunteered to help Billy check what type of plants and animals they would need to avoid and Lauren and Alex were going to persuade the elves to give them some food.
It took almost three hours before the trance music began to get irritating. It seemed like the same song was being played over and over again. The beat grinding its way into the students minds. Caitlin was the first to crack "This music is shit,"
"Well… I like it," Ty replied. "It's not affecting the others," gesturing to the crowd on the dance floor that had still yet to increase in size.
"Well I don't. So I'm going to change it!" Caitlin expertly navigated her way through the crowd to where the gramophone was. Soon rock music began pouring out of the walls.
"Much better!" sighed Lauren on Caitlin's return. It didn't take long for the girls to start singing along to the music and naturally the next step was to start dancing. As it was no fun dancing just by themselves the girls started pulling the boys towards the dance floor. They only succeeded in dragging one very reluctant Remus into the centre of the room that was posing as the dance floor. Leaving the others ensconced in talk about the latest broom.
'Dearly beloved are you listening?
I can't remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented or am I disturbed?
The space that's in between insane and insecure'
Forming a circle, their arms around each other and the group bellowed out a repetition of 'Ooo's'.As both wizard and muggle songs continued to play, the girls and Remus lost track of time. It was only when Damien stumbled over to them that they realised perhaps they'd been dancing for so long. From what they could tell, the boys were truly drunk and seemed to be finding everything laughable. It was a sad sight, even from the dance floor. Alex was sure that one of the boys was trying to do a handstand on the beanbags. Then again he might just have been trying to stand up.
"Hey Lexie… how's it hanging?" asked Damien, slurring his words as he made his way towards them on the floor.
"Oh by Merlin's beard. . . ." muttered Alex, briefly studying him, and then looking past him to the rest of the boys sitting in the coloured beanbags. Yep, still crying with laughter and leaning heavily on each other.
"I have to be imagining things. They all can't be like this…right?" asked Kirsten, following her friend's eyes.
"Sorry but I think they are" apologised Remus as he lead the way back to the group of inebriated boys. They watched them trying desperately to either get out of the beanbags or become a part of them. It was even-odds on both options.
"That's bloody brilliant! The five of us will have to get these seven back to the dorms." Lauren complained and Kirsten sighed loudly. Caitlin decided that there was no chance that the boys would be able to get out of the beanbags by themselves and had already taken to hauling them out.
"Well, I guess we better get them outta here before, Merlin forbid, someone takes advantage of them." Caitlin slipped her arms around James. He flung his arms around her and dragged his feet as they lurched towards the doors.
Sirius fell on Lauren as he heaved himself out of the beanbag. Taking this as her cue Lauren placed his limp arm over her shoulder, and hitched him up as best she could. Remus lifted Chase and held him upright. He kept a tight hold after Chase tried to support himself and almost slammed face first into the ground.
Alex quickly elected to help Damien and Ty as they, at least, seemed to be able to walk, sort of. She grabbed an arm of each boy so she could steer them in the right direction. They both protested weakly but didn't snatch their arms away.
"Oh gee, thanks guys," sulking Kirsten glared at Billy, who was struggling in a purple twinkling beanbag "Give the shorty the tallest guy to haul"
"Oh no probs. We know how you're the toughest." called Caitlin over her shoulder.
It took Kirsten a couple of goes to get Billy out of the beanbag. It really didn't help that Billy was taller than her by at least a foot. However, he didn't struggle and was sober enough to walk with some assistance, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. "Right, let's get these wankers back before I break. These boys are as weak as a diricrawl!" stated Kirsten, her irritation evident.
Somehow they got the guys up to the Gryffindor common room. It was a true miracle that they weren't caught by the care taker or any patrolling teachers. Still Lauren was sure it had taken three times longer than as usual. It didn't help that Sirius insisted on dashing from shadow to shadow like a deranged ninja. He absolutely refused to walk in the moonlight. As such they were the last to arrive, just. Caitlin who had arrived marginally before her was looking guilty for some reason. Kirsten was looking both thoughtful and thoroughly harassed. It seemed that Billy had passed out somewhere along the way. Only Alex looked un-phased by the trip up.
"Let's dump them here" said Kirsten, as she dropped Billy to the floor with a hard thwump.
"At least put him on the couch." Caitlin said as she placed James in one of the armchairs.
Kirsten sighed and put the top half of Billy on the couch.
"Now the rest of him," instructed Caitlin with smirk as she arranged James into what she hoped was a comfortable position in the chair.
Kirsten rolled her eyes and picked up Billy's legs putting them on the couch too.
"There… happy?" asked Kirsten, glaring at Caitlin. Caitlin stared at her for second then stuck out her tongue before going to help Alex manoeuvre Damien and Ty onto the furniture. Alex was having a hard time as Damien refused to let go and Ty was passed out.
While watching Alex and Caitlin struggle, Lauren put Sirius on the couch with Billy. As she arranged Sirius she noticed that Kirsten had placed a cushion behind Billy's head. Lauren grinned glancing at Kirsten who was trying to pry Damien loose, maybe things were changing. Deciding that a cushion was a good idea Lauren searched and had finally found one as Remus arrived with Chase and headed straight up to their room.
"Look at them go. Remus isn't wasting anytime taking advantage of poor Chase's drunken state." Lauren joked tucking a cushion under Sirius' head.
"I heard that!" Remus called down the stairs but didn't deny it. The girls laughed.
"Keep it down." Sirius muttered, turning further into the cushion.
"Sorry Your Royal Highness," Lauren replied with an exaggerated bow before sitting down in front of the fire.
"Well, that's great. There's nowhere to sit now! Bleeding couch hoggers" whined Alex now free of Damien, joining Lauren on the ground. Kirsten decided to sprawl behind them. Caitlin being stubborn and scanned the room finding the most comfortable spot available, the arm of James chair "Comfy. . . ."
"Ah ha. Sure. . . ." Lauren laughed.
"Shut. Up!" Sirius growled through the cushion.
"Someone's in a mood" answered Lauren.
"Someone had too much to drink" came Sirius' muffled response.
"Well, whose fault is that?"
Sirius said nothing. Caitlin thought that he might have fallen asleep.
"That's what I thought." Lauren said smugly.
"Come on, Lauren. Let's leave these losers. They're no fun anymore." Alex said getting up from the floor dragging Lauren with her.
The four girls left the common room and ran up to the girls' dormitory, halting when they came to top of the stairs. The entrance to the rooms was guarded by a portrait a young teenage witch, in case some boy did ever manage to get up the stairs. The witch had shoulder-length rainbow hair, a wand twirling in her fingers; wearing Gryffindor robes and an impish smile on her thin face as she greeted at the girls.
"Hello Sprite," Alex grinned at the portrait.
"Welcome back, girls. Where have you been that I don't know about?"
"Damien hosted a Christmas party in the Room of Requirement." Caitlin informed the painting.
"Awesome! How was it?" Sprite asked excitedly, bouncing in her frame. She was a portrait that was not impressed with just being a picture on the wall. She liked to live through the students who roomed behind her.
"Fantastimondo! We danced, and drank, and sang. There was muggle music too! The muggle music was not too shabby really. The boys got para'd though, leaving us to carry them all the way back. Typical! Anyway, rules are meant to be broken." Caitlin explained bouncing lightly on the spot. Sprite pouted as her frame swung forward revealing an archway. The girls stumbled along corridor to their bedroom and gathered all their pillows into a pile on the floor. The girls forming a loose circle amongst the pillows.
"Yeah what happened to her at the party? Where was she? I don't remember seeing her" asked Alex, scratching her head emphasising her struggle to remember.
"Yeah, like what the fuck? Isn't she interested in him? Clearly she has no comprehension of what it takes get a boyfriend" Caitlin criticized, flinging her self back on the pillow in esasperation.
"Not that you would know" Kirsten interjected, giving Caitlin a playful shove.
"Hey, that was not my fault!" Caitlin argued, shoving Kirsten back.
"I so don't believe you" retorted Kirsten "So why do you care if she is hitting on James or not?"
"I was just stating a fact that she is totally a mole-face" Caitlin said in defence and sitting up promptly buried Kirsten under the pillows. Punishment handed down Caitlin fell back again onto her pillow.
"Still doesn't answer the question" Kirsten taunted while trying to dig her way out from under the pillows.
"I think someone's got a crush" Alex sang from her pillow.
"I'm sorry, what? I most certainly do not." Caitlin retorted flinging her last pillow at Alex.
Alex ducked and started singing "Caitlin and Jaaames, sitting on a raspberry. . . ." but she failed to think of a second line.
Caitlin shoved her fingers in her ears. "La la la, I can't hear you!"
"How old are you again, seven?" Lauren asked sitting atop a mound of pillows, raising an eyebrow.
"Add a one" Caitlin held up one finger.
"What? Seventy-one! I knew you were a paedophile but this is extreme, even for you" gasped Lauren.
"A gap of fifty-four years is not that much" Caitlin stated firmly nodding her head in agreement with herself.
"Yeah, you like your men young and tender, right?" Kirsten leered, while Lauren gagged next to her.
"Yuck, I feel violated!"
"What is he? A cut of beef?" Alex asked slapping Lauren on the back, trying to stop her gagging.
"Mah, he's totally lamb," Kirsten shrugged.
"I love Lamb" Caitlin said serenely.
"My point exactly," Kirsten said with a triumphant grin.
Caitlin jolted back to reality. "Wait, what?" Her eyes widened as realisation hit her "Oh…"
"Well, moving on! Someone rub my feet!" Alex interrupted, swinging her feet to the inside of the circle.
"How' bout no, you crazy mo-fo?" Lauren responded shoving Alex's feet away.
Alex kicked her, shoving her feet in her face as they laughed.
The girls stayed up until the early hours of the morning, talking about anything and everything. The band posters on the walls blinked sleepily at them as the hours passed by.
