AN.

Long time, no update but here it is, all spellchecked and finished.

I'm thinking that there will probably be only two more chapters, and one of them is only going to be short so without further adue, here it is :)

"So have you got your dress yet?" I ask Zoli

"Yeah, I ordered it the other day, and yours to, you wanted that red one right?" she asks and I nod "so they should be at breakfast today or tomorrow"

"Let's hope today, cutting it a bit fine tomorrow don't you think?" I ask her

"Worst comes to worst we skip charms and do some last minute shopping in Hogsmeade hey?" she grins. "now let's go to breakfast, I wouldn't want to miss my Romanian hottie now would I?"

"God no, can you imagine? What would we do?" I fake shock.

"Just don't think about it, just don't" she says shaking her head in mock grief.

"Imma go hit up the mess hall" I announce and head towards the door.

"Where does she get her military lingo?" lavender asks

"Just go with it" Zoli grins.

"Hey, Why weren't you at lunch?" Cory grabs me around the waist and buries his head in my neck.

"No I was but we left early, come on you know I would never willingly miss a meal" I joke.

"Why did you leave?" he asks ignoring my joke.

"My bad, I dragged her out to watch the Hungarian boys swimming" Zoli grins.

"I don't know if I like you watching those show offs" he frowns.

"Cory I was dragged there be my nymphatic friend here, an I got eyes for you only" I sigh.

"Good, no one likes cheaters, I'll meet you in the entrance hall at half past for the dance" he grins slapping my but and walking away.

"What am I going to do with that boy?" I sigh.

"I can think of plenty of things you could do with him" Zoli winks.

"Thanks really, what would I do without you?" I ask sarcastically

"Don't even think about it" she grins. "anyway, we are sooo not missing dinner, move your but, let's go!"

"Pass the eggs Colin please" I ask and fill up my plate when he hands them over then pass them along to Zoli at her request.

"What's today's plans?" she asks with her mouthful.

"Homework lunch then we have to get ready for the ball which should take us all afternoon." I tell her and she makes whimpering sounds at the mention of homework.

"Post!" some squeaky first year calls out unnecessarily, I mean the letters and parcels raining down and the owls swooping and shrieking everywhere wasn't enough of a give away obviously.

"Those dresses better show up!" I tell Zoli just as a massive parcel lands right on top of my breakfast, I bid a silent farewell to my eggs.

"See have I ever let you down?" she asks.

"Mmm yeah, the time you forgot to pick me up from the park, and when you were supposed to bring mums birthday present but you forgot and when you lost my…"

"Yeah yeah we get" she grins completely without remorse and starts opening the package.

"Get your filthy fingers of them!" I shriek yanking it away from her.

"Guilty as charged" she holds up her greasy fingers and reaches out like she's gonna hug me but I fend her of and bid one last farewell to my eggs race her up to the dorm.

"There, if three and a half pages isn't enough for bloody moody he can just go and…" Zoli starts

"Yeah yeah let's go get some grub" I cut her of before she tells us just what moody can do with himself.

We minimize lunch because Zoli figures for the ball the house elves will go a and b the c of d (which I have to explain to lavender is above and beyond the call of duty while Parvati mutters about "military lingo")

"Come on dresses!" Zoli orders and we head up to the dormitory while lavender and Parvati opt to go outside for a couple hours before they get ready.

Zoli pulls the package with our dresses down from on top of her four poster bed where she put them so the wouldn't get crushed.

"Here you go" she hands me a bundle of red material and I strip then slip into it holding my breathe and being uber careful not to look down at it.

I pull my hair out of the way and look in the full length mirror. It's a perfect fit, dark red fitted top with straps and a strait neckline. The skirt is on the long side and very elegant, trimmed with a brighter shade of red that matches the necklace Zoli gave me for my birthday a couple of weeks ago.

I let out the breathe I was holding in relief and turn to see how Zoli's dress went.

She looks amazing, her dress is black and long sleeved with swooping back, so low her whole black is bare. The front is fitted like mine with a crew cut neckline and a a thin turquoise belt that came with the dress (a few shades lighter then her hair) the skirt flares violently in a vintage style and is short but no sluttily so.

"Purrrrrfection" she declares eyeing my dress. "almost wish I'd got that one!"

"Oh please, with your hair? Any way yours suits you, you look great!" I tell her.

"Come on beautiful, let's do something with that mop you call hair" but she's grinning and I n ow she doesn't mean it.

I do her hair up in braided rose bun to show of the back (or lack there of) on her dress but I leave two medium length bits out on either side of her face and charm them into ringlets. Then she sits me down on the bed and does a simple waterfall braid around my head and charms the whole thing into gentle curls.

"Damn we're good!" she giggles as we look at ourselves in the mirror.

"We only have half an hour left to do our makeup and Hermione's still in the bathroom" I groan.

"S'all good, I've my make up bag from last time we went out here" Zoli reassures me and we start doing our make up, trying to look natural except four our lips, I go dark red to go with my dress and Zoli spends ages on hers going from very dark red on the outside and getting lighter and lighter to pale pink in the middle.

"OK we still have ten minutes till we have to be down in the entrance hall let's get out of here!" I call. It's stifling hot in here and it's filled up with a the girls in our dorm and they're all frantically getting ready and talking.

Zoli nods and we push our way out the door and flop on one of the couches.

"Let's not go down yet, our boys won't be there yet and I don't want to stand there waiting around" she says and I agree.

"Nervous?" she asks me.

"A bit" I admit. "fingers crossed it's fun"

"God I hope so with the amount we payed for these dresses" she sighs. "and don't worry, you won't be left without a partner"

I lift up my hand to show her my fingers crossed.

"All right we can go now" she says checking the clock and stand up, smooth down our dresses and squeeze carefully out of the portrait hole.