Things Change (for a Good Reason)
Chapter 10: The Ball
"The student is Sara Bellum. The Prefect of Hufflepuff," Dumbledore said. (A/N 1: I think that is such a funny name. Lucia, yes the girl who plays Wood's cousin, and I made it up in Social Studies.)
"Isn't Sara that student who is the second clone of Hermione?" Oliver asked.
Hermione began to blush. Sara Bellum was the smartest girl in the sixth year. She had the looks, "pureblood," and brains. What more could a girl want? She was the prefect who had gone "missing." People thought she was somewhere doing something intellectual, being the smart witch that she was. But if the Dark Mark was found hovering over her bed, it could only mean two things. Sara had either become a Death Eater or one had killed her.
Dumbledore faintly smiled and said, "Yes, I do believe she is. Now what should we do about this problem?"
Hermione stood up and announced, "Perhaps we shall trace who tried to kill her. She may be tortured or dead. We must find the murderer and send him or her to Askaban. But then there is that dreadful possibility of her being a Death Eater."
Snape got to his feet and protested, "Sir, You-Know-Who may be keeping her and tormenting for information. Even with all the forces in this school combined, we still may not be able to defeated You-Know-Who."
"Severus, this is Albus Dumbledore you're talking to. He is the only one that You-Know-Who is afraid of." McGonnagall said with outrage.
Professor Trelawney dreamily stared into space and said, "Jupiter is unusually close to Pluto. This is a sign," she heaved a sigh, "A very bad sign. This means that horrible, indescribable things are yet to come. I'm afraid that Sara may be gone forever in our lives."
Oliver whispered to Hermione, "The Looney Bin talks!" She giggled and struggled to keep a straight face as Snape gave icily gave her a death look.
"Maybe she's right…after all, many who were captured by the Dark Lord were never seen again. But then, what about the likelihood of Sara being a Death Eater? Another person has joined the Dark Lord, willing to kill and fighting for wrongness. If this keeps happening, the Light will all disappear with in weeks." Lucia shivered at the thought of that. She continued, "All of us are in great danger. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is getting stronger and more powerful as the days pass. One of his supporters must have access to Hogwarts somehow.
"Lucia is right," Oliver added. "If we do not take action soon, the Dark Lord will kill us all." He took Hermione's hand under the table and squeezed it. To his satisfaction, she did not let go.
Hagrid scratched his uncombed beard as he thought. "Should we tell the rest o' the students about this incident?"
"I suppose so," Dumbledore instantly replied. "As I always say, honesty is the best policy!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
"Students, yesterday, a very tragic accident happened. Sara Bellum, the prefect of Hufflepuff, has gone missing. There are no traces of her to be found, so it may be that Lord Voldemort," Dumbledore paused for a minute as students winced at the sound of the dreaded name. He went on, "has captured her. Or she may have become a Death Eater. But anyway, the Ministry of Magic is now searching for her."
The students gasped as they realized that Hogwarts is no longer safe. Some started crying while others began talking loudly. Obviously, they were alarmed by the news.
"Do my parents know?"
"I knew I should have gone to Durmstang!"
"Oh no, what shall we do?"
"Will we have to battle against You-Know-Who?"
"Will we all be in great danger?"
"I have got to get out of here!"
McGonagall got out of her seat and shouted, "Headmaster still has more to say." She sat back down.
"Thank you, Minerva. The staff has informed your parents. Quite many have strongly reacted, remembering what happened to Cedric Diggory years ago. Though they are very afraid, many agree to leave their children in Hogwarts, where he cannot kill any of us."
"That is because, you, Dumbledore, are protecting us." Hagrid added.
The Headmaster blushed and continued talking. "Despite the fact that some parents or guardians want to do that, few want their kids to return home." Dumbledore's eyes seemed to lose his luster as he went on speaking. "The students who are leaving shall go back home on the Hogwarts Express. Their parents will meet them as soon as they arrive at the station.
"The Creevy Brothers, Blaise Zabini, Lisa Turpin, Sally-Ann Perks, Stewart Ackerly, Malcolm Baddock, Eleanor Branston, Owen Cauldwell, Laura Madley, Natalie McDonald, Graham Pritchard, Orla Quirke, and Kevin Whitby are the unfortunate ones. I'm sure we all hope that you have a happy and well future." Dumbledore bade farewell as the students were hustled out by Filch.
"As for the rest of you, we shall work together to defeat Lord Voldemort. *wince* Never shall he defeat the Light!"
~*~*~*~*~*~
"My Lord, I shall serve you until my death." A mysterious Death Eater kneeled down and kissed Voldemort's feet.
"Ahhh…finally a faithful Death Eater." Voldemort patted the person's head. "Sara, I have a feeling that you will do very well with me. Soon, we will dominate this whole world!"
Sara pulled her hood down and laughed maliciously along with him. Her smooth, light blonde hair glinted in the bright moonlight as she suddenly fell to the ground, under the Crucio Curse. Her baby blue eyes closed as pain unexpectedly surged through her entire body. Her agonizing shriek pierced the quiet atmosphere.
"If you ever back out, you will eternally regret it!" hissed the pale white face. His red-hot burning eyes glinted cruelly, watching with satisfaction as Sara was being tortured.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione held onto her wavy hair and deposited some Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on in. It sudden magically twisted in to the "Juliet" hairstyle. The hair was parted side-to-side, just above her ears. After that, her silky hair was combed above the part straight back and weaved it into an English Braid. Then, a magical ponytail holder fastened the end of the braid, and a hair stick suddenly appears and weaves through the elegant braid. (Imagine what Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet" would have looked like) She changed into her royal blue robes that looked like medieval woman's clothing. It had a line-angled skirt with waisted squared necked bodice that closes at the front. The robe was embellished with black and gold braid trim at waist, neckline, front seam and sleeves. Then, she placed a royal blue velveteen headpiece with a silk veil on her head. Hermione slipped her feet into a pair of black medieval-like lady buckle shoes.
Meanwhile, Sarah was dressing into a robe that looked exactly like a light-blue Cherry Blossom Cheongsam. (Chinese traditional dress) Hermione helped her put on a flower porcelain necklace with a matching bracelet. Then, Sarah borrowed some hair potion and made the regular "bun" hairstyle is by coiling her black hair into a basic bun and then "stitching" the bun to the hair against her head using an in-and-out sewing motion, as she inserted the hair sticks in a crossed design. Next, she slipped her feet into a pair of red patterned silk Mary Janes.
They gracefully walked down the stairs as guys gawked at them. Both Sarah and Hermione paid no attention to them.
"Hermione! You look great! So do you, Sarah!" Harry greeted them. He hugged Sarah and brought her closer. He was dressed in aquamarine Quidditch robes that brought out the green of his bright eyes. He wore plain old ordinary sneakers and there was a Lightyear broomstick in his hand, which made him look like a professional Quidditch player.
"Not to mention that you do to!" Hermione said.
"Of course!" Sarah chirped.
Ron suddenly jumped into their conversation wearing a hideous red-orange robe that clashed horribly with his curly red hair. Over the robe, he wore a sarape, a warm blanket, on his shoulder. There was a big, floppy but colorful sombrero on his head. He had multicolored maracas and he kept shaking them.
"I'm a Spaniard! So, what do you think of this?" Ron asked as he turned like a supermodel.
"It's great," Harry, Sarah, and Hermione chorused in unison.
Ron beamed at them. "I bet Lavender will like it too." And with that he strolled toward Lavender.
"C'mon! Let's go!" Hermione beckoned Harry and Sarah to follow her to the Entrance Hall. There were many students crowding around there, waiting for the doors of the Great Hall to open. Those people who had dates from different Houses were edging through the crowd trying to find one another. *BOOM* The doors burst open and people rushed in.
"Hey Potter! Have you seen Hermione?!" Obviously, Oliver was looking for her.
He was wearing a brown leather medieval vest with short white puffy robes under it. A brown swordsman's short cape made him seem even nobler. On his head perched a period beret. Oliver had on spice brown knee breeches with brown tights underneath. Of course, he was wearing medieval boots.
"Wood! She's right here!" Harry called to him as Hermione blushed.
"Oh! Hey!" Oliver ran over to them. "Nice costumes, guys. Well, "guys" include girls too," he added when Hermione gave him an angry glare. "Well, Harry and um…"
"Sarah!" Harry and Sarah shouted in harmony.
"Oh yea…Sarah better get dancing. After all, it is a ball. What else would you do?" Oliver uncomfortably looked away. Harry and Sarah danced as the Weird Sisters struck up another song, which was very s-l-o-w. Suddenly, Hermione and Oliver saw Harry lean down and kiss Sarah
"Looks like Sarah's getting her wish," giggled Hermione.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Did you like this chapter? What did you like? What do you think we can do to improve our writing? Please review.
BTW, we tried to cut down on the A/N stuff and the parenthesis stuff. (Thanks to LadyA.) until the end, and we also tried to make the chapters longer, but we have to warn you, it may take longer to write the chapters. Keep writing flames/good reviews, and we promise, that the story will be better thanks to the comments (good or bad)and, we should add, there will me "action" in the later chapters as soon as we find out how to get past December. Hee hee
Queen of Fluff- We are sorry to say that we cannot fit you into our story at the moment. We put Lucia in sort of for fun. (A/N 1: During lunch she sits right in between us while we discuss Things Change (for Good Reasons) and I guess we felt bad.) (A/N 2: Of course we did!) We must repeat that we are terribly sorry, but if you want, we can try to fit a small part in for you.
Beyond infinity- Thank you so much for your reviews. We hope we didn't keep you waiting too long.
Haley- This is Kat talking. Thank you for reviewing even though you and Steffi are having "problems." I hope you continue to read this fan fiction.
~Crystal~ - Thank you so much! We will try to update as much as we can.
LadyA- The spelling is plagiarizing. We changed it, okay? Oliver is not too old for Hermione. She is 17 and Oliver is 21. Third book was Oliver's last year. Meaning he was around 17 or 18. Hermione would have been 13 or 14. There is only 4 years of a difference. Okay, FYI, incase you did not know, lol means laughing out loud. If you do not like "to press next chapter button a lot" you can always change the chapter on the top of the address bar. If your on chapter 5, it would say. . .&chapter5 All you have to do is change the 5 to a 6. "I hope you don't find me offensive, but many readers would agree with me." Name one. How would you know if she isn't smart anymore. The fifth book isn't even out yet! (A/N 1: Thank you so much for being out first flame. All fanfics need flames. And I thank you for being just critical. Though, I must say, I don't think Steffi would agree. I hope you keep on reading Things Change (for Good Reasons).) (A/N 2: Hey! Kat, stop speaking for me! You got it all wrong! You are mean. _)