"Oh my gosh!" I screamed one morning after a long night of catching up on all my homework. The occupants of the girl's dormitory shot out of their beds. Lily went as far as to grab her wand and get in a defensive position. "Gosh, you're so uptight, it's just me," I said offhandedly, causing my roommates to groan and send a swear word or two my way. "But girls, do you know what today is?"
"What is it, Ell?" Tessie asked kindly, sitting cross-legged in front of me.
"A week and two days before Halloween!" I clapped excitedly. "Which means… Costumes! And Candy! And fun stuff! And roller-skating!"
Prewett and Lily groaned again, doubly as loud this time. In 5th year, Tucker had bought the 5 of us roller skates for Christmas, so it was tradition to roller skate around the school caroling loudly during any holiday, no matter whether it was actually Christmas or not. None of us were particularly bad singers, so we were in high demand during the last weeks of December and the first few of January. Of course, there weren't very many Halloween songs out there, so our repertoire contained of two songs. After two years of the torture of listening to the same two jingles sung repeatedly every day, many people simply ran when they saw us coming. According to a 4th year, during a Bogart lesson in October, almost half the class had seen us coming towards them in roller skates. We were immensely proud of ourselves, of course, and we couldn't care less about the two kids that had fainted.
"Have you even updated your songs since last year?" Prewett asked hopefully. I replied with a big grin and two snaps. The three girls still in bed immediately lay down on their stomachs and pulled their pillows firmly over their heads.
"Be careful, dears, that's how people suffocate to death," I warned as Tessie and I waltzed out of the room to breakfast.
"Are you ready to rock and roll?" I asked the guys as we skated down the hallway. Peter was much better this year, and was able to catch up enough to be at the tail of the group. I led the fivesome with James, Sirius, and Remus making up the middle line.
"People are already cringing and running away," Remus observed as a second year almost tripped over himself in his haste to find another hallway to walk in.
"Ah well. There are always first years who are new to this," James shrugged, sending a beaming smile to a small first year.
"Hit it!" Sirius yelled, and we all snapped twice.
"They're creepy and they're kooky,
Mysterious and spooky,
They're all together ooky,
The Addams Family!
Their house is a museum,
Where people come to see'em,
They really are a scream,
The Addams Family!
So get a witch's shawl on.
A broomstick you can crawl on.
We're gonna pay a call on
The Addams Family!"
"I wonder if McGonagall heard that?" Peter asked with a sly smile on his face after we finished the song. We all cracked up, remembering how last year, the stern teacher had grown so fed up with us that she offered to mark all our detentions null and void if we would just bloody shut up. Of course, since we were all aiming to get as many detentions as we could, we refused brightly.
We skated breezily into Transfiguration, sliding into our seats. Professor McGonagall narrowed her eyes at us and we stared back at her innocently.
"It's that time of year again, eh, Minnie?" Sirius offered casually as the rest of the class chuckled. Lily shook her head while Tessie winked at us. I hummed "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year", a Christmas favorite of ours, as I got out my homework.
"Don't you dare, Miss Carrick. And I'd appreciate it if you referred to me as Professor, Mr. Black."
"That's right, Professor Mr. Black," Sirius nodded, saluting. The Transfiguration teacher gritted her teeth and Padfoot turned around to send us a cheeky grin. At that moment, our new DADA teacher, Professor Gambry, burst into the room and threw a piece of chalk straight towards the five of us. All of us cowered but Sirius, and it struck him squarely on the back of his head.
"Ow!" he yelped, turning around and rubbing the back of his head. "Oh. Hello there, Professor Gambry."
"I heard your choir recital out there, you little maggots," the teacher said, shaking an authoritative finger at us. We all liked the DADA professor this year. Gambry was a strict teacher, but though he would shoot many insulting words at us, we never got a detention from him. He would secretly wink at us while threatening to strangle us and smile approvingly whenever we pulled a small prank at breakfast.
"Hey Professor Gambry," I said coyly, wiggling my fingers at him in a sort of wave.
"Don't think you can wiggle your way out of this, girl." He shook his head while smirking at us. He then promptly left the classroom and we looked at Professor McGonagall appealingly.
"Well, if Professor Gambry will deal with us, you don't have to give us detention, right, Professor McGonagall?" Peter asked winsomely. The whole class laughed uproariously as the stern mistress shook her head, her lips pursed.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to get on with the lesson, unless you'd like an essay with twice the length for homework." That quieted us down fast enough.
I walked arm in arm with James and Sirius back to our dormitories after receiving detention from Professor Slughorn. Usually, he enjoyed our company, but not when we had sung "The Monster Mash" under our breaths a record count of 34 times consecutively in class.
"So, anyone ask you yet?" Sirius asked.
"Ask me what?" I stared at him blankly.
"You don't know?" He gasped. "But everyone knows!"
"My, my, well, everyone who's anyone knows," James corrected.
"What are you talking about?" I asked, baring my teeth at them.
"Why, the Halloween Ball, of course," Sirius finally replied.
"A ball?"
"A formal dance held by higher members of society."
"I know what a ball is, smart one," I growled. "What I'm asking is, why are we having one?"
"Why do you care? It's a great chance to hook up with-" Sirius stumbled and swore before he could finish his sentence.
"Sort of sorry there, Padfoot, but not really." I said after having kicked him in the knee. "Three-timer."
"The Heads of the Houses planned it at a meeting," James explained. "It's going to be a costume ball."
"Yay!" I squealed, jumping up and down. Though all my friends were boys, I still had a girlish love of dressing up. "I can't wait!"
"So, no one's asked you yet…" Sirius said slowly.
"Nope! But it's on as soon as Dumbledore announces it!"
"What's on?" James asked confusedly.
"A contest!" I exclaimed. "Who can bag the most 'ask-outs'!"
"Let the games begin," Sirius drawled.
A/N: OMG, Chapter 10 already! *applause* I can't believe I've got so far already!
Ooh, I wonder who'll win… who do you think will get more 'ask-outs'?
I think this was better… if it seems a little choppy, it's because some of this chapter was written before I actually began making this a story, but some was written afterwards. Hope it's not too bad…
Till next time, her Majesty, the Queen, Violet ^_^