Halloween this year is no more interesting than usual. There's no troll in the dungeon, no dementors trying to suck out the souls of innocent students, nope, it's completely peaceful, and completely boring. Things are getting a little dull around here.
In a somewhat feeble attempt to make something out of nothing, Stacey suggests we have a hens' night. And so we do. After the Halloween feast, we go up to out dormitory and spend the night talking and stuffing ourselves with sweets and butterbeer that we'd nicked from the kitchens. Not until the wee hours of the morning did my stomach begin to ache to a point which was no longer tolerable. So I finally go to sleep, Stacey and Penelope following suite.
"Guess what?" Stacey squeaks at me the next evening in the common room. I reluctantly set down my novel and cast a wary glance in Stacey's direction.
"I'm pretty sure I don't want to know what," I reply.
"Too bad" she says in and exhaustingly cheery voice. "We are going to this year's annual Memorial Ball!"
I snort. "Yeah right," I pick up my book and am turning to my bookmarked page when Stacey grabs it from me.
"No really, we're going this year," this time in a much more serious tone. I resign myself to the fact that I would have to actually have this conversation with her, and that I probably won't be getting much further in my book tonight.
"Why in the name of Merlin would we do that?" I ask skeptically.
"I knew you'd disagree, that's why I've planned out an argument." I take a moment to digest this; Stacey doesn't even plan out her essays before she writes them. "I know that we went to the Ball back in fourth year and it' wasn't fun, and we decided we wouldn't go again, BUT-" I groaned. "-first of all, we were young and naïve and we didn't even have dates."
"What makes you think we'll have dates this year?" Stacey chooses to ignore this very valid rebuttal.
"Next year is our last year. Plus we'll have N.E.W.T's to worry about. Who knows how busy and stressed out we're going to be. This year may be our last chance to go!"
"I still don't see why we should go at all. It's stupid and we're not going to have fun. And think about all the preparing we're going to have to do!" I'm beginning to worry, Stacey seems actually serious about going to the Ball.
Thankfully, Penelope joins us at that moment. She'll be on my side for sure. "What's going on?" She inquires.
"Stacey is under the delusional impression that the three of us will be attending this year's Memorial Ball." I respond.
"Oh?" she arches an eyebrow.
Stacey launches right into her argument again before Penelope could get in another word. I watch Penelope's face intently as Stacey jabbers on; she looks hesitant, at best. That's definitely not a good sign.
"I don't know, Stacey" Penelope says when Stacey's finished speaking. Penelope looks over at me for help. "It wasn't fun in fourth year and Irene and I won't have dates this year either."
"Aha! But I haven't gotten to the best part yet! There will be no need for dates this year. Even I won't be bringing anyone." I watch as Penelope's eyebrows shoot up and become hidden under the fringe of her hair. "That's because, this year's ball is a masquerade!" Stacey finishes dramatically, looking very pleased and excited. There's a moment of silence, and then I groan loudly.
"You have got to be joking. That is the stupidest, most overrated, clichéd idea ever. Who's the wanker that came up with that idea?" I exclaim.
"Oh come on Irene! Stop being so cynical. It'll be fun and romantic," Stacey pleads. I roll my eyes, pick up my novel, and ignore any "ball" talk for the rest of the evening. However, over the top of my book cover, I see Penelope's smile begin to grow and I watch as she sends and excited glance over in Stacey's direction.
Two weeks later, I find myself in Hogesmeade with Penelope and Stacey. We are dress shopping. I'm not quite sure how I came to be in such an unpleasant situation; when I cast my mind back, it is a vague blur of pleading and threatening, both of which were done mostly by Stacey. The ball s in three weeks, and Stacey is pressuring me to buy a new dress, even though I have a pretty good one in my trunk already. The ball itself is a combination of a Christmas celebration and a memorial for the Battle at Hogwarts and the fall of Voldemort, which took place almost six years ago. The tradition was started by Professor McGonagall in 2000.
Stacey leads us into a shop called "Linsietta's Dress Factory". I've never even noticed it before even though it's sitting along the main street. After shuffling through the racks for twenty minutes, Stacey has a handful of dresses for each of us to try on. I grab a few that I think are nice and we head off to the changing rooms. We start first with Penelope. She goes to change into her first dress while Stacey and I wait outside. One thing I adore about Penelope is that she doesn't make a fuss over anything; so after three tries she settles on a floor length shimmering green dress. It's the colour of an evergreen tree, with a closed front, Kimono style, and an open back. She looks amazing in it; it contrasts her fiery hair and compliments her green eyes.
Next we move on to me. I'm relieved that I brought a few dresses that I'd picked out because although the dresses Stacey got are nice, they are a tad too…revealing, for my taste. The first is a sequined blood red dress that's tight all the way through to where it ends just above my knees. I come out rather reluctantly to show the girls.
Stacey smiles brightly, "You look hot" she exclaims. I put a hand on my slightly protruding stomach.
"I don't think so" I say, and go back into the changing room. Another five dresses are discarded in a similar fashion, all of them being too tight, too short, or too low-cut.
"Oh come on Irene!" Stacey exclaims as I go back into the changing room after showing them a particularly horrific hot pink dress that looked more like a piece of lingerie.
However, my choices proved to be worse than Stacey's. Although they aren't as revealing, to be honest they were just plain ugly. So as I reach for the last dress, another one of Stacey's, I pray that it would look at least half decent, because frankly I'm exhausted and sick of this. I slip the silky black material over my head, and let out a sight of relief when I turn to the mirror. It looks pretty darn good. It reaches all the way to the floor and is simple, yet elegant. The top is folded and ruffled and shows just the right amount of cleavage; the back is completely open and crisscrossed with delicate lace all the way down to just above my lower back. There's a soft leather belt wrapped around it, just above my waist that very effectively hides my stomach.
When I step out, Penelope immediately exclaims "This is the one!" I smile at her. Stacey looks me up and down "It's nice," she agrees, reluctantly it seems, "I still think the pink one or the red one is nicer though." I snort as I go back into the room to change into my regular clothes.
Stacey's dress is an even bigger ordeal than mine. Even though she looks great in just about ever dress she tries on, she claims that none of them are "just right". Finally she settles on a sparkling midnight blue dress that reaches just past her knees and is considerably low cut, but does not quite fall into the "slutty" category.
Without even looking at the price tag, I pay for my dress and I can't suppress a sigh of relief as we finally exit the shop and make our way over to the Three Broomsticks.
AN:
Leave a review, pretty pretty please. They help tremendously. :)