A/n: Meh, only one person has reviewed so far. Thank you for doing so, but I would hope for maybe more than one person. Sigh, ah well.

Flutterby Princess: Thank you! Ha ha, you'll have to wait, I've got a bit moer to write about before they actually start training to become animagi, but you never know what will happen in my stories, hell, even I don't know! Thanks again. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

I give you…

Chapter three

Lily, Mel, Pan and Steph sat in the Great hall eating dinner a few days before Halloween. The hall was, as normal, buzzing with everyone talking about the up coming Halloween Ball.

"He's staring at you again." Steph said to Pan.

"Is he?" Pan said in a bored monotone "Well good for him. I hope he's enjoying the view."

"Looks like." said Mel.

"He is so gonna ask you to the ball." Steph continued to watch the Ravenclaw.

"Right, and I'll be popping down to Hell for some icecream. Get real Steph! The boy does NOT like me, and I don't care anyway." Pan exclaimed, losing her usually calm nature.

"Does too."

"Does not."

"Does too."

"Does… oh shut up you immature little girl."

Steph, for some unknown reason, found this statement absolutely hilarious and proceeded to fall off the bench in a fit of laughter. Mel raised her eyebrow at Steph and turned to face the last member of the gang. Lily had been oddly quiet since lunchtime, her face in a constant grin. Mel suddenly gasped. They all looked at her, even Steph got over her giggly fit to see what was up.

"What?" said Lily, coming out of her reverie.

"You've got a date for the Ball!!!!!" Mel said, her hand over her mouth.

Lily went a red that matched her hair perfectly.

"Oh my Good Godric, she has!" Pan said, her normal calm composure had been thrown out of the window by this point.

"So what if I have?" Lily asked in a would-be-casual voice, though her deepening blush told a different story.

"Well? Who is it?!" Steph added her piece to the conversation.

"Callum Gregory."

There was a stunned silence.

"Callum Gregory? THE Callum Gregory in seventh year? Callum Gregory the smartest and most HOT wizard in the school?" Mel said.

"The very same."

"Bloody Hell you lucky COW!"

"Language, Mel!" Pan chastised her friend, apologising to the nearby first years for her companions behaviour.

"Who you going with Mel?" Lily asked, desperately trying to steer the conversation away from her own date.

"No one yet." Mel sighed.

"Steph?"

"Going with Remus as friends. Balls are so over-rated."

"Says she who wouldn't shut up about Oliver Stephens supposedly asking me." Pan scoffed.

"Well, that was funny. You're so easily worked up." Steph said, slumping onto the table again, her face narrowly missing her dinner. "And the fact that it's true helps the matter."

"S'not true."

"Er… Pandora?"

All four girls spun around in there seats in search of the speaker. Their eyes finally rested on a boy who looked as much like a vampire as you could get, without actually being one.

"Yes Oliver?" Pan said, as innocently as she could.

Oliver took a deep breath as though preparing himself for a fearsome ordeal. "Can I have a private word please?"

Later, the girls sat in their common room. The evening had so far been spent with Pan blushing a rosey-pink (though it seemed red in contrast to her white skin) and Steph repeatedly chanting "I told you so." This was so annoying that her friends had actually had to use a silencing charm just to shut her up for two minutes.

"How come I'm the only one without a date?" Mel said, looking stroppy.

"That could be because you've rejected all of the nineteen guys who've asked you, for the reason that, and I quote, "they weren't tall enough.". Mel there are only two lads in the school not already taken who fit the description of tall enough! And one of them is POTTER!" Lily drew a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.

"So, who are you guys going to the Ball with?" said James. He and the other Marauders were sat in the common room, ignoring the homework that desperately needed finishing, well, starting actually.

"Steph, as friends though." Remus said.

"Hannah Giles, you know, Hufflepuff fifth year." Peter blushed.

"Not bad Wormtail! I'm not going with anyone yet. Truth be told, the only girls I haven't been out with, apart from the Slytherins, are our Gryffindor female counter-parts. I'm probably gonna ask one of them." Sirius said, idly.

"Lily's off limits, Padfoot!" James said quickly.

"She's off limits to you too, Prongs." said Sirius. "Didn't you hear? She's going with Callum Gregory. And he's captain of Quidditch."

"Damn."

"So." said Remus. "Lily's going with Gregory, Steph with me and… who are Pan and Mel going with?"

"Pan's going with that Ollie bloke from Ravenclaw. And Mel? No one." said Peter.

"How the hell did you know?" exclaimed Sirius.

"I can read lips." Peter indicated the girls in question, obviously talking about the same thing they were.

"So, I'll ask Mel then. She's Hot! I hope she hasn't promised to go alone." Sirius said thoughtfully.

"Who'd do that?" James said looking bewildered.

"Er, hate to break it to you mate, but you might just be doing that." Remus said.

James opened his mouth to retort, but Sirius cut across him. "So shall I brave it? Shall I sally forth and win fair lady's heart?"

"Sure, why not." James sulked.

Sirius grinned and almost leapt across the common room.

"Melicka? Would your Ladyship honour me with her presence at the forth coming event?" he said with a deep, flourishing, bow

"Ya what?" Mel said, confusion in plain sight.

"What he meant to say was, "Do you wanna go to the ball with me?"" Lily said, a smirk splitting her face.

"OH! Er… o-ok then. S-s-see you there t-t-then." Mel stammered.

Sirius took her hand and kissed it gently. He then bowed to the others and left, flashing Mel a charming smile.

"That was… interesting, to say the least." Steph said, looking sort of scared.

On the day before the Ball, a Friday, classes were cancelled and the students were allowed to visit Hogsmeade, in order to get their outfits. Each student was to dress in whatever they saw fit, as long as it was formal, and appropriate (the latter had been added by McGonagall). So when the morning of the 30th October came, the four Gryffindor girls were the first up and ready for the day ahead.

As they reached the village, the girls left the main road to visit a shop they had found the previous year. Nobody else it seemed, knew about this particular shop, so there was no queue and the sales assistant's were almost always free.

"I think it would be best to go back to your Italian roots, Darling. Not the traditional dress, heavens no, but something floor length, with a ruff at the back making a train. A sweet-heart neckline I think, and thick straps. Best colour… red. And perhaps a flower on the hip, typically Italian these days." Dominic, Mel's favourite assistant, summed up what would suit her best. Then, with a flick of his wand, the exact same dress he had just described soared out of the store room and into Mel's outstretched hand. "Try it on then, Sweety." Mel cringed slightly and the overwhelming camp-ness, but concluded, as she put her dress on, that it was damned well worth it if this was the result.

Lily, on the other hand, was having her usual problem. What on earth goes with red hair? "Not red, no, too clashy." Annie, Lily's favourite, was bouncing colour ideas off herself. "Blue? Nope, not enough fire! Grey's too boring. We've done black for two years solid now. HA! I have it! Emerald Green! Perfect match with the eyes, compliments the hair to perfection. Now, style. I'd say corset style, though not tight, just so it fits perfectly. Then the skirt should ever so slightly flare out. We'll need underskirts for that. And no straps, off-the-shoulder sleeves!" The correct dress followed the path Mel's had done a moment before.

Pan's assistant was new, but as far as she was concerned, Becca was the best thing since sliced bread. They had the same style, same obsessions, same looks-ish, the only difference was that Becca had had training, Pan could only cope because all her stuff was black.

"No! absolutely not! Annie told me that you've been going in plain black for the past two years!! I refuse to let that continue. What we need is…" here Becca began circling Pan. "black corset, red silk underneath the strings, red silk skirt with net covering it, a train with the skirt too, balcony neckline, long sleeves with flared ends and… a chandelier choker."

If only it the same could be said for Steph as for the others. But no. Steph was having real trouble with her assistant. Robyn refused to accept that Steph would not wear brown, which, as she thought, "completely goes with your hair!"

"I've been in brown most of my damn life! I'm not going to a ball in it. I refuse. I want a purple dress, floor length, slit up to the top of my thigh, straight neckline, seams down the front and back of the bodice so it tucks in and shows off the little figure I have!" On cue, the aforementioned dress flew from the store room. Steph snatched it out of the air and went to try it on. However, she was intercepted on her way to the changing rooms by the manager offering her a job.

The next shop they went to was for shoes. "Pan! Take these! They'll be perfect." Steph was, yet again, in her element. "Lily, these black ones will go nicely, especially with the green ribbon in the lining. Mel, these red ones with suit your dress and these purple ones are great for me!"

"Steph, you really are invaluable." Pan said, admiring the shoes her friend had suggested.

"Here, here." Lily and Mel agreed.

"Your welcome." Steph said, blushing. "I had to be good at something."

As they left the shop, they were too busy to notice the stag in the entrance to an alley way. Prongs watched from the shadows. Funny how he still loved her, even in animagus form. With that, he walked down the alley, steadily turning back into James.

"PRONGSIE!" as soon as James arrived in the Three Broomsticks, he was attacked by Sirius imitating one of his many female fans.

"AAARGH! Sirius! Get OFF! Can't… breath….."

Remus decided to intervene once James began to turn purple. "Alright Sirius, let him go. The poor lad has suffered enough."

"Hasn't" Sirius said, squeezing James more.

"Sirius, I really think you should stop."

"Won't!"

"SIRIUS, he's turned GREY!" Moony yelled.

Sirius released his friend and sure enough, James' face was grey. He sank to the ground gasping for air.

Later on the girls entered the pub. Steph flopped into the same booth as the boys and immediately pretended to be asleep.

"So what does who want?" Mel said.

"You what now?" Pan said.

"What do you want?!" Mel repeated slowly and clearly as though she was explaining that two plus two equals four to a hysterical four year old.

"Oh, well I'll have a butterbeer."

"Ditto."

"Steph? Steeeeppph? Steph?! Stephy?!" Pan turned to the others. "She's gonna kill me for this. Stephanie Rose Melinda Mary Anastasia Katalin." Suddenly Steph was inches away from Pan, her face murderous.

"If you ever use my full name again I will make sure you never have a happy moment in your ENTIRE life, got it?"

Peter looked incredulous. "Stephanie Ros…"

"Repeat my name and loose any masculinity you might have had."

Peter, wisely, shut up.

"So, you girls sorted?" Sirius said.

"Yep. Steph's amazing, she such a good shopper. She picked out the most perfect necklace for me, the perfect shoes for Lils and you should see her dress!" Mel said, a look of happiness lit up her face.

The lads turned to stare at Steph.

"I can't imagine you being a good shopper." James stated.

"And why ever not?"

"'Cause you're a tom-boy! Tom-boys are not good at shopping."

"Well, the outfits will show you differently." Lily glared at James.

"Just because she acts different doesn't mean she is." Pan said, "Looks can be deceiving."

"Yeah, you'd expect Pan to be at least decent with clothes and she's TERRIBLE!" Mel joined in.

"Hey!" Pan objected.

"Pan you wanted to put brown shoes with a black and red dress." Steph said.

"And what's wrong with that?"

"Even I know they clash." Sirius said.

"Me too. It's strange, I would of expected you to be quite good." Remus said looking at Pan.

"I'm not bad." Pan said trying to redeem herself.

"Pan you can only dress yourself because everything is black!" Lily cried.

"You may have a point there." she said thoughtfully.

"Ya think?"

A/n: hope this is good enough. PLEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASE review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I like reviews, they encourage me to write more. So review anyway.