"Harry," Aisling whispered quietly into his ear, "I've got something to tell you." Harry sat up in his bed, and tiredly rubbed his eyes. "Aisling!" Seamus hissed from his bed, "What are you doing here?" "Harry, meet me in the common room," Aisling said to him, before quietly leaving the boys dormitory without waking any of the other boys up. "Do you know what she wants?" Harry asked Seamus tiredly. Seamus shifted uncomfortably before, lying back down in his bed. "You better go down to her, Harry," Seamus answered, before going back to sleep.
Harry sighed, before pushing himself out of the bed and onto the floor. He groaned and stood up, before dragging himself over to his trunk, and pulling out a grey t-shirt and pulled it on over his head. Harry jogged down the stairs and into the common room, and saw Aisling, Áine, Sarah and Kathryn waiting in the common room. "Come on, Potter," Kathryn whispered to him.
"We've got a secret to tell you," Sarah said to him, very seriously, "but you can't tell anyone, not even Ron and Hermione." "Seriously though Harry," Áine said, "If anyone else finds out about it, Aisling might get into lots of trouble. And we mean proper trouble, like Azkaban." "I promise I won't tell anyone," Harry said. "Right, follow us," Aisling said to Harry, "before Sarah chickens out." "OI!" Sarah exclaimed, "I will not chicken out of this!"
Harry followed the four girls into the forest uncertainly. "Guys we're probably scaring the hell out of Harry," Aisling said, laughing. "We're so sorry, Harry," Kathryn said laughing, "we've just never told anyone about this before." "And Kathryn's paranoid," Áine added. "Do you think this is far enough in?" Sarah asked looking around. "Yup, I told Ronan and Firenze that we'd be in the forest, they're going to run anyone away," Aisling answered.
"So, Harry," Sarah said, "you know about the Christmas Ball, and the way that people have to dress up for it?" "Yeah," Harry answered. "Well we have an idea for what you could go as," Áine said grinning maniacally. "We were thinking, that you could go as an almost modern person from Game of Thrones, like someone from the Stark family," Kathryn said to him. "But don't the Starks have dire-wolves?" Harry asked.
"Ah, you see that's where Aisling comes in," Sarah answered. Aisling sighed, then Harry watched as she did the same transformation that he had seen Professor McGonagall do so many times before, except instead of a cat, Aisling turned into a large jet black wolf. It had blue eyes, and looked up to Harry rather nervously. "Well hello there, Fluffy," Harry said teasingly, as he reached down and began rubbing Aisling behind her ears.
Aisling then turned back into her human form, and looked at Harry. "So, what do you think?" Aisling asked, rather nervously. "It's bloody brilliant!" Harry exclaimed grinning. "These guys will now you show you there forms," Aisling said, she was back to being relaxed again. Áine smiled at Harry before quickly changing into a phoenix. Áine flew onto Harry's outstretched arm, and he gently stoked her feathers. "You're a phoenix," Harry smiled, Áine then flew onto the ground before changing back into a human.
Sarah smiled at Harry, before changing into a large chestnut horse. She nuzzled Harry's hand, and he laughed before stroking her nose. Sarah turned back into a human, and Harry then turned to Kathryn. Kathryn raised an eyebrow at him, but turned into a cat. Her fur was the same colour as Kathryn's hair, but her cat eyes were green. Kathryn then quickly turned back into a human.
"Now that you know that," Áine said, "I suppose we should also tell you that we're Metamorphmagus'." "You're what's?" Harry asked confused. "We're meta-morphus, no that's not it, feck it!" Aisling exclaimed, annoyed that she couldn't pronounced the word, "our hair and eyes change to match our mood. We can also occasionally change our face." Áine grinning, let her hair change to the colour she like most, which was completely white, but it was pink past her ears.
Kathryn's hair changed into a dark green, with silver highlights. "Supporting my house," Kathryn replied grinning to Harry, who had a raised eyebrow. Sarah's hair turned a dark purple, and it reached down to her shoulders. Aisling's short hair turned black, and the spiky bit at the top of her head became blue. "This is our favourite hair," Sarah explained to a grinning Harry.
"We better get back to the Common Room quickly," Áine said. The others nodded and they ran back to the castle. As they snuck into the Entrance Hall, they heard a very familiar drawling voice. "It's Snape!" Kathryn hissed. "Sarah and Áine you guys take Harry back to the Common Room, don't get caught," Aisling said, "we'll shake Snape off your trail." Áine and Sarah nodded before grabbing Harry and heading towards the Gryffindor Common Room, while Aisling and Kathryn walked towards where Snape's voice came from.
They turned the corner to see Peeves floating away and a very annoyed look on Snape's face. "You two!" Snape exclaimed seeing them, "You're out past curfew detention!" "I'm not a student here anymore!" Aisling exclaimed. "Technically neither am I!" Kathryn exclaimed. "It doesn't matter, Dumbledore told the staff that we could give you detention if you broke any school rules," Snape said smugly.
Aisling and Kathryn shared a groan, and soon found themselves cleaning the cauldrons in the dungeons. "Right!" Kathryn said happily, "That's the last one!" "Come on, let's go to bed, I'm wrecked," Aisling said before yawning. Snape nodded, satisfied that the cauldrons were clean enough and the two girls went to the different common rooms.
The next morning the school was full of excitement, even the teachers were looking forward to the ball that would be held that evening. At the Gryffindor table, Cedric walked over to Áine and sat down beside her grinning. "So, would you like to go the feast and the ball with me?" Cedric asked her. "It would be an honour, Mister Diggory," Áine answered grinning, "so what do you want to go as?" "Well as long as I don't sparkle, I'll come with you," Cedric answered.
Áine laughed remembering what Cedric had been made wear last Halloween by a fellow Hufflepuff. Aisling looked at them rather confused. "Last year, at Halloween, Cedric went to the feast with a fellow Hufflepuff who made him dress up as a sparking vampire," Lucas said sitting beside her. Aisling grinned, and looked at Cedric who's face was very red.
"How about Áine goes as an angel, and Cedric goes as a demon?" Kathryn asked looking at them, grinning. "That would be really cool!" Aisling exclaimed, "What with your white hair Áine!" Áine nodded grinning, as did Cedric. "Who are you going with Sarah?" Áine asked looking at her. "I'm going with Lucas, I'm going to be a pirate and Lucas will be James Bond," Sarah answered. Draco sat down beside Kathryn grinning. "Would you do me the honour of going to the ball with me?" Draco asked. "Yup," Kathryn answered grinning, "What will we go as?"
"Kathryn you could be Red Riding Hood," Áine suggested. "And Draco you could be the huntsman that saved her," Sarah added. "And I could double as both the wolf for Red Riding Hood and Harry's escort," Aisling said grinning. "That sounds really good!" Kathryn exclaimed. "But you'll have to wear a short white dress," Áine said. "I hate you," Kathryn groaned, "why doesn't Aisling have to wear a dress?!" "Because then I'd be a wolf in a dress!" Aisling exclaimed. "Ah, but you see she isn't getting away that easily," Sarah said grinning evilly and Aisling looked up at her warily.
"You see, Aisling has to wear a dress for the ball itself," Áine said, grinning. "NO!" Aisling exclaimed dramatically while Sarah, Áine and Kathryn began to laugh, which was somewhere between evilly and maniacally. "What are you three laughing about?" the Weasley twins asked grinning, and Harry, Ron and Hermione immediately turned their attentions to the three girls. "Aisling has to wear a dress to the ball!" Lucas exclaimed skipping towards them from the Ravenclaw table.
"I hate you all," Aisling muttered, before resting her head on the table. The rest of the day went by quickly, and the evening was soon upon them.
