When I had about an hour until the dance, I got up from Lily's bed and began to get ready. My gray dress looked as gorgeous on me as it had that day in the store. I added some simple silver jewelry, and Lily and Natalie set to work on my hair. After twenty minutes of pulling and poking, they let me look in the mirror. My hair was curled and put in a simple up do with jeweled bobby pins. I smiled. It looked good, almost worth the pain I went through for it.

"Thanks, you guys," I hugged Lily and Nat.

"Group hug!" Natalie yelled, and I laughed. I knew I'd have fun tonight with my best friends. With that aside, I still wanted to be going with Sirius. As furious as I was with him for breaking off our plans, I could forgive him for it if he'd apologize. Not that I'd let him know that, or make saying sorry easy. That's why I'd been avoiding him. I was curious how far he would go to make things right.

"Okay, ready, ladies?" Lily said, straightening her dress and holding an arm out for me and the other for Nat. We took them simultaneously, and walked down into the common room.

We had to go early so Lily could take care of some last minute things with the Prefects. She volunteered us to help.

It was still light outside, and the Marauders were still sitting in their armchairs. When I came down, Sirius' jaw dropped. I looked away. Now he sees what he's missing. I wonder who he's bringing instead. So I was bitter. I was allowed to be bitter.

"So, why aren't you guys getting ready?" Lily asked.

"We're not going," James responded.

"Why not??"

"Just don't feel like it."

"Ok..." Lily believed James, but I didn't. He was lying. But why? I decided to drop it for now. I'd find out later.

I reached the Great Hall, where the House Tables had already been removed. Prefects and teachers were levitating smaller tables around so they rested on the edges of what was now the dance floor. The rest of the decorations were coming along nicely. There were black and orange streamers, and live bats had been set loose to fly around near the top of the ceiling, which was now showing the beginnings of a sunset.

It was 7 o'clock. Natalie and I had tried to make yourselves useful as Lily went around helping hang decorations and set up the food tables. After we had ripped the orange streamers near the dance floor, taped a Prefect to the refreshments table, and set fire to the stage (I bumped into Nat, who ran into the stage with her wand...), the Head Boy nicely asked us to "sit our asses down at a corner table and stay out of our way," we began a game of Truth or Dare.

"Nat, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Are you mad that Remus didn't ask you to the dance?"

"No. I guess if none of them are going...Besides he wouldn't ask me anyway."

"Oh come on Nat. He does like you. He's just shy."

"Ok Kara. Truth or Dare?"

"Truth."

"Do you forgive Sirius for blowing you off tonight?"

"No! Yes. No. I don't know." Nat laughed.

"What are you thinkin'?"

"Well, I was pissed. I still am. But he looked so SAD when he told me, and now none of the guys are going. And James was lying before. There's a reason why they won't be here. And Remus looked so guilty." Natalie stared down at the table.

"So you really like him, huh?"

"I don't know. I AM mad at him for not giving me a reason. I thought he was better than that."

"Well, maybe he is. Like you said, there's a reason why they're not here. Maybe you should talk to Sirius."

"I think I need some time away from him. But eventually I will," I promised. Just then, the doors to the Great Hall opened to admit the first people into the Halloween Ball.

Lily came up to me as the band, The Awesome Animagi, began their first song. The name was kind of corny, especially since they were all Animagi. But their music wasn't bad, and they were popular.

"Do you want to dance?" I asked Lily in a mock sexy voice.

"Of course," she batted her eyelashes and curtsied. I walked out onto the dance floor and began to tango to the rock song now playing. We were getting quite a lot of stares from people dancing as we cut through them. Once we made your way around the floor, spinning and dipping, we found Natalie laughing. I turned around to see people shooting you annoyed or confused looks.

"Don't worry, they're just jealous because I've got the two hottest dates in the school," Natalie told me.

"Awww...we're flattered." Lily said, and I sniffed and wiped away an invisible tear.

"I meant my boobs," Natalie joked. "Mason and Manny." Lily laughed.

"So you have man boobs?" I asked. The three of us broke out into a fit of laughter.

"That's more men than the rest of me, or you, has!" Nat said when the laughter subsided. I laughed, but that made me think of Sirius for the first time since the dance had started. I wondered what the guys were up to tonight. They seemed a little edgy. These thought were pushed out of me mind when the Amazing Animagi began a fast song, and Nat shouted,

"Time to get our groove on!" She led the way out onto the dance floor, walking like an Egyptian, while Lily and I followed, doing the swim and the lawn mower. The dancing got more sophisticated when we changed over to the monkey, the sprinkler, and then the Macarena, a Muggle dance that Lily had taught us. I ignored the strange looks we were getting and had fun with my friends.

When a slow song came on about twenty minutes later, I went over to the refreshments table, breathing a little heavy from all that dancing. I poured yourself some punch, while Lily danced with Nat, Mason and Manny. I laughed out loud at my joke, and sat down at an empty table. It wasn't empty for long though. Just as I finished my punch, someone slid into the seat next to me. Regulus Black, Sirius' brother. A fifth year Slytherin, Regulus looked a lot like Sirius, but somehow lacked the other's spark that made him so attractive to every girl in the school. His eyes, the same as Sirius' in color, were cold and steely in comparison to Sirius' soft, warm ones.

"Hey, O'Connell," he said.

"What do you want, Regulus?"

"Just figured that since my brother ditched you, you could at least have the company of one Black tonight."

"Not that that offer doesn't sound...tempting, but I have a date."

"Who, that Mudblood Evans and the freaky Charms girl?"

"Don't talk about my friends that way," I said icily.

"Oooooh. Cold. Maybe this will warm you up." Regulus put his arm around me. I shrugged it off and got up from the table.

"No, that just makes me need to take a shower." I told him, and walked back towards the dance floor. He followed me. I sighed and turned around.

"What?"

"Dance with me."

"Is that a command?"

"Yeah."

"Well it's a good thing I don't have to listen to you then." I spun around but he caught my arm.

"Come on," he led me onto the floor, but the song changed to a fast one at that moment.

"Awww, too bad, Reg." I walked away, this time too fast for him to pull me back to him. He disgusts me! How did he even KNOW about me and Sirius?? No one even knew we were going to go together. Slimy Slytherins. Always getting into things that they shouldn't. I found my dates at the punch.

"Having fun?" I came up behind them.

"AAAAHH!" Lily screamed and threw her punch into the air. It landed on a fourth year Ravenclaw. Lily had always scared too easily.

"I'm so sorry!" Lily apologized, whipping out her wand. With a flick of her wrist, the girl's dress was back to normal.

"Funny, Kara."

"Nat thought so." Natalie was hiding her grin behind her hand.

"Come on, let's dance!" I walked out to the middle of the dance floor for some more crazy dancing. We alternated between this and the punch table for a couple of hours, laughing and joking with each other. I didn't mention the Regulus incident. I was having fun and didn't want to spoil it anymore than he had already. Lily found a table near the doors of the Great Hall, and the three of you sat down, tired.

"I'm having so much fun!" Natalie exclaimed breathlessly.

"Yeah, this was a good idea. You guys are better dates than Richard would have been."

"I agree!" I added. "We've said more words in the last ten seconds than Richard would have said all night!" I laughed. He was exceptionally quiet. We talked about nothing for awhile, and pretty soon the lead singer of the band, Colin the Coyote, announced, with a howl, that this would be the last song for the night. Ben the Bear and Ted the Tiger (like I said, corny) started to play a slow song. Boys gathered their dates into their arms and began to sway to the music.

Me, Nat, and Lily did the same. It was like an extended group hug to music, as Natalie put it.

"Our new theme song!"

"Nah," I objected. "Too boring. We need a cool theme song."

"I second that!" Lily put in.

"Okay, how about," Natalie thought. "Beauty," she pointed to herself, "and the Beasts."

"Hey!" Lily said indignantly.

"A theme song for the three of us, not the three of you!" she gestured at Mason and Manny. We all laughed.

"Sorry. Ok what about... Lollipop?"

"Huh?"

"What's that got to do with us??"

"Well, I like lollipops..." Natalie defended her theme song choice feebly.

"I know!" I said! "What about 'I'm Too Sexy'?"

"I like it!"

"Me too!" We began to sing our newly elected theme.
"I'm too sexy for my shirt, too sexy for my shirt, so sexy it hurts! I'm too sexy for Milan, too sexy for Milan, New York and Japan!"

The people who hadn't shot us a glare earlier were doing it now. We didn't care. The dance ended, and me, Nat, and Lily sang 'I'm Too Sexy' all the way back to our dorm. As we fell into bed, exhausted, I was glad I'd gone with my friends.

~*Sirius' POV*~

My jaw dropped when Kara came down the stairs, and for some reason it felt as heavy as the chair you were sitting in. She looked so gorgeous in her gray dress, and her hair was all curly. She barely looked at me before turning away. I was vaguely of James and Lily exchanging some dialogue, but didn't hear any of it. When the girls left for the dance, I had to convince myself, again, that I had made the right choice. Just as I had to every time you saw Kara. I knew my friends needed me, but maybe Prongs was right when he said they could handle it without me. No. He wasn't. And I knew it. As the sun began to set, we left the Tower and the castle under the cover of the invisibility cloak. We were in for a rough night...