Heading Down

James wracked his mind as he headed down the stairs. "What to do, what to do…what would make the biggest impact, what would make everyone go 'WOW!'…more importantly, what would make an impact, and make a certain person with the initials LE go 'WOW!'…"

Somehow, as hard as he was thinking, James couldn't think of anything that didn't seem too ho-hum for the Yule Ball. Dungbombs were overrated, Levicorpus was old, and Fanged Frisbees were definitely out (James didn't want to get Howlers from angry parents complaining about their daughters' ruined dress robes anyway). "I guess I'm having Prankster's Block…" thought James glumly.

He walked through the door to the common room and sank down into one of the squishy armchairs in front of the fire. It was only 6:20, so the main people in the common room were guys waiting for their dates. Except for a certain girl…

"Hey,Jamesie-sweetie!" A shrill voice practically screamed in his ear. He looked up reluctantly. Standing next to him, in the frilliest, shortest, hot-pinkest dress robes he had ever seen, was Rhonda Vane, a 4th year Gryffindor.

"Hi Rhonda…" James said cautiously. Rhonda had persistently been sickeningly sweet to him ever since the Yule Ball was announced.

She sat down flirtingly on his knee, like a little girl asking for a Christmas present from Santa Claus.

"I heard you're not taking anyone to the Ball…are you not going? If you're not, we can stay together…find a room somewhere…" Rhonda fluttered her heavily mascara'd eyelashes at James, while leaning in closer.

James, completely scared by this point, stood up quickly, knocking Rhonda to the floor.

"Um, Rhonda, I'm going stag to the Ball, sorry." James started backing away, hoping she wouldn't notice.

Rhonda pouted sullenly, though decidedly not giving up. "He's in denial…" She thought to herself.

"Fine Jamesie-poo. We can meet up later at the dance. See ya sweetie!" Determined to get James Potter as her date, Rhonda blew him a kiss and went to join her friends.

James went pale at the thought of Lily seeing Rhonda with him, and turned around. There, he found Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Frank standing behind him, trying their hardest not to burst out laughing. As soon as they saw James's face, they couldn't hold it in any longer. Peter nearly wet himself laughing, while Remus and Frank had to support Sirius up.

"That…would…be…one way…to…make…an…impact…taking Rhonda Vane…to the Ball…" Sirius gasped out.

"Shut up Sirius…" James stormed out of the common room angrily. Rhonda Vane and her followers quickly followed suit, making what remained left of the marauders and Frank laugh even more.

Frank abruptly stopped laughing. He was staring at the door to the girls' dormitories. The rest of the guys quickly turned to see who he was looking at.

Descending the stairs were Alice, Serena, and Lily. Each looked absolutely gorgeous, and the whole room of guys sighed longingly, looking enviously at Frank as Alice walked over to him.

"Hi Frank. You look nice…" Alice blushed becomingly at the look on Frank's face. It looked like he had died and gone to heaven.

"Hey Alice…you look…" Frank seemed lost for words.

"I look awful don't I…"Alice's eyes got sad. "I knew Lily and Serena were lying to me…I told them I looked horrible in these robes!"

"No…no, no, not…at all…you look…" Frank still seemed to not be competent of speech.

Sirius jumped in, feeling sorry for his friend.

"He means you look like an absolute angel Alice…I mean, if he's not capable of taking you, I'd be happy to…"

"HEY! Sirius, back off. You do look amazing though Alice." Frank recovered his speaking powers quickly.

"Anytime mate." Sirius went back to staring at Serena, who was now surrounded by admirers.

"Hey Serena…you know, I don't have a partner to the ball yet…"

"Thanks Will, but I'm flying solo." Serena smiled at the boy, who had asked her at least 3 times.

"Fine." Will made a slight movement to join Lily's admirers, before being stopped by Serena.

"She's flying solo too, just to let you know…and aren't you taking Aquamarine Brown?" Serena laughed to herself, almost regretting to go solo.

Serena and Lily watched the crowd of boys gradually move away to meet their dates.

Sirius kept staring at Serena, thinking, "Man she's hot…James is so missing out…Lily doesn't look bad either…"

Sirius finally came back down to Earth when Remus rapped him on the side of his head.

"Sirius…what are you doing? We should head down now…don't forget about the bet." Remus watched the longing look disappear from Sirius' eyes, replaced by one of mischief.

"Oh yeah...lets go."

A/N: I hope you guys liked it…bumping the rating up to T just in case, don't think it'll be too bad though. Thanks to my lovely reviewers from last chapter, TheBeanMonster and ajteel0203!! Reviews give me the motivation to write! )