Chapter Fourteen
A Dress and Dancing Lessons
The next week passed almost unbearably slowly. The only people that I saw were the Marauders, Parker, and my brothers. As promised, Remus kept me up to date with all of my schoolwork. When I had finally gone back to my regular classes, I was met with many curious stares, and even more questions. But, I couldn't very well tell them that I had been attacked by my best friend while he was transformed as a werewolf, so a story was made up and fed to any who asked questions about my elongated stay in the Hospital Wing. The professors knew a majority of the story, but only myself, Remus, the rest of the Marauders, Parker, my brothers, Poppy, and Dumbledore knew the true and complete story.
True to her word I was called back twice a day to the Hospital Wing to have my wrappings changed, and the wound inspected. She would give me several large glasses of various animal blood to help with healing, but the wound still took its time with healing. By the time it was fully healed, October had passed, as had November, and it was a few days before Christmas break. I had received word that my mother wanted me to come home for break, but I was hesitant in going home. I remembered the last time I had gone home, and didn't wish to repeat that mistake. Last year's Christmas had been even more atrocious than the year prior. But this year, I was determined to actually enjoy my break from school. I was going to be staying at school for the allotted two week break. I had been nearly overjoyed when I had found out that Parker and the Marauders would be staying, as would some of our classmates.
But it was at breakfast on December 20th that I got the oddest surprise. No member of my family had ever stayed over holiday break, so we had never been informed of this occurrence, but every holiday break, a ball was thrown on Christmas Eve, a formal ball. Only third years and up were allowed in, unless accompanied by an older date. Another word I hadn't particularly cared to hear, date. Fortunately, I was old enough to make the cut off, but that didn't mean that younger students wouldn't try to get me to ask them so that they could go. And frankly, I wasn't sure if I would say yes to a younger student, either trying to look tough, or one pulling out their puppy eyes. But in direct contrast to my breeding, I didn't get along very well with those younger than myself, as I had very little patience. Although, if you took a close look at my mother (when she had nothing to gain), you would see that she was similar in characteristic (unfortunately).
"Did you guys know about this ball?" I asked, turning to the Marauders. Sirius and James exchanges sly grins before shaking their heads 'no' in sync.
"You do realize that I saw that, right?" I asked dryly, raising an eyebrow. Sirius was the first to cave.
"Okay, so maybe we knew. But you don't need to make a big deal out of it. We're not required to go, so don't worry if you don't have a dress." he said, sounding as if he were talking to some street beggar.
"You do realize that I have been to a few balls in my time, yes?" I asked rhetorically. Sirius looked as if I had shortened the fuse on his temper.
"What is your problem. Two seconds ago you were fine, and now you sound like you're being forced into some horrible thing!" he said angrily, sounding as if he were close to yelling.
"Well excuse me for staying here to try to get away from balls, and formals, and dates, and-" I started, but was cut off by Sirius.
"Why would you think that staying here would get you away from what you obviously love! You obviously want to go to this ball, or else you wouldn't be making such a big deal about it!" Sirius said, now yelling. As he had yelled, he had stalked closer to me. By the end of his sentence, he was right in front of me, only a few inches from my face, glaring at me with a fierce intensity.
What I did, surprised everyone, even myself. It all happened very quickly, in the span of a few seconds. I had raised my hand as a tear trickled down my cheek. It had connected with his face so quickly that nobody had even noticed what had happened until they heard the clear 'smack' right through the air. I glared at him for a moment, before I stalked out, my rage intensifying as I was left alone to simmer. I heard Sirius mutter curses, call me a few obscenities, and huff as he stalked out to the open grounds. I heard Parker mutter,
"You take him, we'll take her," and I heard two sets of footsteps coming in my general direction.
How dare he think that I actually enjoy all of these things. Three years of friendship should have told him otherwise! Had he honestly not seen how much I detest everything that I've been taught growing up? He of all people should understand how it feels, how I feel. How dare he... I thought angrily as tears continued to roll down my cheeks as I sat huddled behind a random suit of armor. After a few moments, I felt a pair of arms encircle me as I stayed hidden. I recognized the feel of these arms, they were the only ones that had ever been able to truly calm me down, to make me truly feel like my existence was something more than a convenience, like I actually had somebody in my life that actually genuinely cared for me. For a vampire, that is one of the rarest, and best, feelings in the world. I recognized these arms, they were ones of my best friend. They belonged to Remus Lupin.
After about an hour of listening to me rant and rave, he offered me a hand, helping me to my feet. Parker had been sitting on the stone base of another suite of armor near the one I had been behind, but she stood when she saw me.
"So, are you going to the Christmas Ball? Because I want to go, and I'm only going to go if you're going." Parker said in a gentle tone that I didn't know that she possessed. She wasn't often quiet, and while yes, she had comforted me a few times in the past, she had never been this quiet. During that hour, she would've said something, but she didn't this time. I didn't know if she was angry or in shock, her heartbeat was pretty slow, slower than her heartbeat normally was.
I couldn't say that I was surprised at her question, I had just been expecting it to come sooner. I closed my eyes, weighing the pros against the cons, and came to a decision.
"Fine, I'll go. But only if Remus goes." I said, turning to him with a smirk. His golden eyes almost fell out of his head, and he started stuttering some nonsense about not going, not owning proper clothes, etc. But it was his last reason that made me grin.
"You don't know how to dance? If that's all that's stopping you then I'll teach you." I said, crossing my arms over my chest with a triumphant smirk. He hung his head and mumbled,
"You're not going to let me out of this, are you?"
"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'.
"Okay, fine." He said, running a hand through his blond hair. Parker grinned, I sighed, and Remus looked like he had just been told that he had failed a test. We all started walking toward the common room when Parker asked,
"What are you going to do about Sirius?" I sighed.
"Yeah, why did you slap him?" Remus asked, raising an eyebrow. I sighed again and ran a hand through my hair.
"He was making assumptions about me based on my family, and he of all people should know not to do that." I said, glaring at the floor.
"Asana, he's a guy. And we all know that they aren't the most observant people." Parker said, slinging an arm around my shoulders.
"Hey!" Remus said, feigning annoyance.
"Well, you're not normal, so you don't count." she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Remus rolled his eyes and put an arm around my shoulders. We walked into the common room like that, and we all fell backwards onto the same couch with a sigh.
"So you're going to teach our dear Remmy-poo how to dance, huh?" Parker asked with a mischievous grin.
"Well, this should be interesting." she said, standing up and walking up the stairs to our dormitory. She came back down a few minutes later with something in her hands. She stood in front of Remus and I, and displayed her wand. I raised an eyebrow in question, and she simply smirked in response. She waved her wand and muttered a few words, and suddenly the once silent room was filled with a loud waltz.
I stood with a sigh, and helped Remus to his feet. He looked nervous, an emotion he didn't usually wear. I walked over to a couch, and easily pushed it against a wall. Parker waved her wand again, silencing the music. Parker and Remus proceeded to do the same, moving every piece of furniture against a wall. After those ten minutes, he walked toward me with worry and dread written all over his face. I rolled my eyes and said,
"Would you stop worrying? Why are you so worried, it's not like it's Potions." He closed his golden eyes for a moment before he slowly opened them and sighed. I gave him a small, encouraging grin before I moved his hands to where they were supposed to go. When he realized where his hands were going, he tried to retract his hands, his face as red as a cherry. I sighed, rolled my eyes, and tightened my grip on his hands.
"Relax, would you? We're friends, it's not creepy." I said, letting go of his hands and moving them to his shoulders. If possible, his face became even darker. I rolled my eyes again, and said,
"Okay, you can open your eyes now, my hands aren't going to be moving anymore." He cracked open a golden eye, before they both fully opened. He sighed.
"You ready?" I asked. He nodded, looking worried. The music began again, and I started to pull him into a waltz. I counted out the steps and told him what to do as we began to dance. I was surprised how well he was doing already, he hadn't stepped on my toes or accidentally kicked my shins yet.
"Are yous sure that you don't know how to dance? Peter kept kicking my shins when I taught him." I said, sending a quick glance down at his feet. Yes, they were actually moving.
"No, I have never dance before." he said, grinning sheepishly.
"Never danced before, or have never been good at it?" I asked quirking a blond brow.
"I have never really danced before, I never had a need to." he said, shrugging. A halfblood that has never needed to learn how to dance before. Interesting, I thought. Most purebloods and wizarding halfbloods at least the ones I had met, had learned how to dance at a young age. It was a trait associated with status. From what I had heard, many pureblood families hosted parties only attended by other purebloods or rich halfblood families, normally along the lines of balls or galas.
Remus and I continued to talk while we danced. The song had long since ended by the time I realized that the song was indeed over.
"Uh... Remus, the song is over." I said, lowering my hands from his shoulders. His face flared red, and he quickly dropped his hands from my waist. He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, and let out a nervous laugh. I hadn't realized that Parker was still there. She let out a bark of laughter, and continued to laugh heartily. Remus blushed a deep crimson, while I walked over to Parker and lightly smacked the back of her head. She stopped laughing, let out an annoyed whine, and held the spot where I had smacked her. She turned around to glare at me, but I just gave her a smirk, before going up the stairs to our dorm...
For reasons I still don't understand, there's a Hogsmead trip two days before Christmas Eve. I still hadn't gotten presents for anybody. Parker apparently hadn't either, because she had woken me up at six in the morning for no real reason, aside from her being anxious about over sleeping and not having enough time to shop for everybody. That's why I was awake and showered by seven. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to leave until ten. Parker had insisted on playing with my hair for some reason, so it had wound up in an admittedly pretty ponytail, with bright blue streaks added into the ends of my curls, and my bangs. My mother would kill me when she saw them.
The evil beings known as professors had assigned a mountain of homework. They said that it was because they didn't want us to be bored, but I think it was just because they wanted to be cruel. Parker hadn't done any of hers yet, but I had fortunately finished mine by yesterday. Thank Merlin for vampire memory and speed.
"Can you please help me with my homework? There's so much of it! I'll never be able to finish it!" she whined, pulling me out of my chair. I sighed and yanked my arm out of her grasp.
"Would you like some advice?" I asked in a falsely sweet voice.
"YES!" she yelled.
"Okay," I said, handing her a Defense Against the Dark Arts book from the library. "This is a book. Open said book and you find information." Her shoulders slumped and she glared at me.
"Okay, thank you queen of the obvious! No, I mean actually help me." she said, looking at me with big pleading brown eyes. I sighed,
"Fine." She grabbed my wrist in one hand, threw the book onto a random table, and dragged me out through the portrait hole. After a few minutes, she actually picked me up and started giving me a piggy back ride to the library.
"You do know that I could carry all of the Marauders and you on my back, and run faster than you can anyway." I said, feeling uneasy at being carried, I liked having my feet on the ground.
"Yeah, but you weren't moving fast enough." she said, bending forward to get a better grip.
"Well if that was the problem, then just put me down and I'll carry you." I said, trying to get down. She sighed, put me down, and motioned for me to pick her up. I bent forward, and she jumped on my back.
"Hold on, I almost dislocated Remus' elbow when he was late to class and asked me to drag him behind me." I warned, remembering the sickening crack it had made when he reached for something in Potions a few minutes after we had gotten there. I heard her gulp, before moving her arms around my neck, nearly chocking me. She nodded shakily, and I started running, nearly as fast as I could.
The funny thing about being a vampire, is that the faster you go, the slower your vision becomes, sort of like when you watch a video that's really fast, and you do a frame by frame to see what's going on. So if I'm running as fast as I can, my vision will make it seem like I'm taking as small a step as possible. It sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is.
We were at the doors to the library in a matter of seconds. I turned my head to look at Parker and had to bite my lips to stop myself from laughing. Her normally curly black hair looked like it was being sucked backwards by a vacuum cleaner. Her eyes were smashed shut, and she was wincing like she was expecting me to run into a wall or something.
"Uh Parker, we've stopped moving." I said, starting to put her down. She climbed off my back, and stood of shaking legs.
"Are you okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
"N-n-nev-never d-do-doing t-that a-aga-again." she stuttered, looking like she was about to collapse. I rolled my eyes, and pulled her arm around my shoulders, helping her to one of the couches in the library.
"I'll be right back with some water. Just, stay right here and try not to pass out or something." I said, putting her into a sitting position, moving some throw pillows to keep her upright.
Two hours later, we were nearly, almost, half-way done with half of her homework.
"Come on Asana, can't you just write the words and stuff down? You write faster than me." she said, giving me her best puppy-dog face. Unfortunately for her, they don't work on me.
"No, nobody wrote mine down, and nobody's going to write yours down." I said, flipping through a Defense Against the Dark Arts book. She pouted and continued writing. I looked over at the pile of completed work and went over the list of things she still had left. Fortunately, she only had one more report to finish and then she would be done, and thankfully, it was a short report, only a few inches long. Thank Merlin she wrote in a large looping scrawl that quickly took up space.
After another twenty minutes, she let out a victorious 'whoop!' and held up the last report.
"You're finished I take it?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. She grinned and started squealing at a high pitch. I clutched my ears and said,
"Parker tone it down! You're giving me a migraine!" I shouted, trying to clamp my hand over her mouth. She quickly closed her mouth and hastily whispered,
"Sorry, I forgot," before pulling all of her completed assignments toward her and placing them in her bag. She slung the bag over her shoulder, grabbed my hand, and dragged me to the common room. She ran upstairs and came down a few moments later with her long black hair in a messy bun. She pulled on her leather jacket and grabbed my hand.
"I will never get used to you. Why don't you get cold?" she asked, dragging me down toward the Great Hall.
"Another one of the perks of being a vampire I guess." I said, my tone soaked in sarcasm.
"Is that why you don't get pimples?" she asked, rubbing a small pimple near her temple.
"Well, yeah. A pinple is caused when a pore becomes infected, and vampire abilities include healing, so my body fights off the infection very quickly, before the blemish is caused." I explained as we made our way into the Great Hall.
"Could you show me your healing abilities sometime?" she asked, sending me a hopeful look. I shrugged and said,
"Sure." The large wooden doors opened, and a breeze blew in, bringing with it flurries of snow. Parker shivered, and I rolled my eyes before saying,
"When you want my sweatshirt, just ask." We walked out and began the trek to Hogsmead. Then a thought popped into my head. I looked around and quickly dragged Parker behind a tree.
"Asana, what are you doing." she asked, looking at me, confused.
"Just be quiet, okay? You have to promise not to shout or scream, okay?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. She nodded, looking worried. I looked around and quickly found a rock with a jagged edge. Her eyes widened as I pressed against the skin on the inside of my wrist, dragging the rock along, quickly tearing the skin and drawing blood. I heard her mouth open, and I put my other hand over her mouth.
"Just watch," I whispered. As she watched, I felt the blood sink back into my skin, the vein start to repair itself, and felt the edges of the cut start to mend together. It continued, finishing mending within a few second. I lowered my hand from her mouth, and she stared at me. I raised gave her a questioning look before she broke into a brazen grin.
"That is so cool!" she said, hugging me tightly. My arms hung loosely at my sides as she continue to squeeze me.
"You've been holding out on us for years, haven't you Asana. You've never shown us the extent of your abilities, have you?" she asked me, looking slightly hurt. I nodded silently, I knew that showing her this would do that, make her question what I had told her, and make her wonder what I hadn't told her, and why. She rolled her eyes and asked,
"Why not?" I looked at her and just smiled. Some days, I was pretty sure that it was Parker and Remus that had kept me sane for the past few years.
"Because they are so weird, I wasn't sure how you'd take it," I mumbled. She slung her left arm around me and we started walking to Hogsmead.
"Asana, you should know by now that none of your vampire abilities will ever drive me away. Best friends, forever and always, right?" she asked, turning to look at me with those chocolate eyes.
"Forever and always," I echoed. We made our way into the little village and looked around. That was the first time I had ever been to Hogsmead, the first two trips were missed because of my wound. I hadn't been allowed to leave the castle grounds, even me going outside for anything other than classes was frowned upon. I hadn't even been outside if months.
I slid my aviator sunglasses farther up the bridge of my nose, and looked at a large wooden sighn hanging over a small dress shop. I felt Parker nudge my side, and I turned to look at her.
"Why are you wearing sunglasses, it's December." she asked, stating the obvious.
"Well, you know how my scenes are sharper than anything else in the world?" I asked, she nodded.
"Well, any kind of sunlight is much brighter for me than it is for you. A pureblood vampire won't burn up in the sunlight, but that doesn't mean that the sunlight doesn't hurt us. If we don't wear sunglasses, it would be like staring into the sun for a human." I explained, fidgeting with a piece of string in my jean's pocket. My black converse sank into the snow and mud, soaking the hem of my jeans.
"Do ya wanna go in there?" she asked, nodding her head toward the dress shop. I shrugged, and she led me into the small boutique. The suffocating scent of too much flowery perfume filled my nose, clogging it to any other scent. I bent forward and could swear that I saw myself cough up a cloud of shimmering pink perfume.
"Are you okay?" she asked, looking at me worriedly.
"Yeah, just a strong scent." I managed out between coughs.
"Do you want to go somewhere else?" she asked. I shook my head and stood up, trying to breath through my mouth, but I still gagged on the scent, the overwhelming scent hitting the back of my throat like an intake of cold air after chewing mint gum. Then I just stopped breathing altogether. Thank Merlin that I don't actually need to breath. Apparently Parker noticed that I had stopped breathing, because she sharply turned to me and quietly asked,
"Are you sure that you're okay?" I nodded and proceeded toward a rack of formal dresses. I held one up and asked,
"Do you need a dress, Parker?" She nodded, and I handed her the dress. She stared at it for a moment, before asking,
"How did you know my size?" I rolled my eyes and said,
"Come on Parks, I spend so much time around you, do you really think that I wouldn't know something as basic as your size?"
"Why does that sound like something James would say to Lily?" she asked, giggling. My eyes widened, and I started giggling too. After the giggles subsided, and she could breath again, she turned to me and said,
"I'll be out in a minute, just let me try this on." She hurried over to a dressing room, and emerged a few moments later. The dress ended around her knees, a deep scarlet, with black sparkly embroidery around the skirt of the satin like materiel. A black ribbon wound its way around her wait, leading up to a strapples corset top. She twirled around, the skirt spiraling out.
"Well, what do you think?" I asked, smiling. She smiled brazenly at me.
"Who'd have thought that you would wind up being girly?" She said sarcastically. I glared at her and said,
"I'm not a girly froufrou girl, but I was raised as a princess, was I not," through clenched teeth. She rolled her large brown eyes at me, and said,
"Anyway, c'mon, we need to find a dress for you." She ran back into the changing room, and stepped out a few moments later wearing her normal clothes again, straightening her purple t-shirt as she rested the dress over her arm.
"What size are you?" she asked, turning to look at me.
"Six," I answered, looking through a rack of dresses.
"Anything I should specifically stay away from?" she asked.
"Anything yellow, pink, orange, ruffly, flowery, or overly sparkly." I listed off, not really thinking about it.
"Will this do?" she asked, holding up a dark blue dress made out of a satin like material. It hung from the hanger by clear plastic straps. Strapless, dark, not overly sparkly, no flowers, and no ruffles. As long as it covers everything, it'll be perfect, I thought, scrutinizing it. I reached for it, and felt the cool fabric between my fingers.
I walked into the dressing room, and hurriedly put it on, pulling my ponytail out of the back of the dress, detesting the feeling of my hair being pulled because of the fabric. The dress easily slipped over my shoulders, falling down to my knees. The fabric itself was a cool midnight blue satin, a thin cover of black lace layered over the top, intricate patterns adding to the otherwise bland dress. The dress hugged my hips and chest, easily kept up. I twirled slightly, and was granted with a twirling skirt. I opened the door and showed Parker. She had been looking out the window, but when she turned to me, her jaw dropped.
"Sweet holy Merlin!" she shouted. I cringed at her voice's volume, and asked timidly,
"Is it that bad?"
"No! It looks... wow," she whispered. I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head to the side.
"That's good, right?" I asked. She nodded, grinning. I rolled my eyes and quickly changed back into my regular clothes. We quickly went to the woman working the counter to pay for our clothes. She was a short round woman with graying black hair and dim gray eyes. Her forehead was heavily wrinkled, meaning she either spent a lot of time with her brows furrowed, or she was much older than she looked. When she spoke, it was in a dry cracked voice, like sandpaper.
"Will you be paying for both dresses?" she asked, looking at me. I shared a quick glance with Parker, and quickly said,
"Yes." I heard her take a lung full of air as she was about to object, but I quickly put a bag of wizard money on the counter, muttered, 'keep the change' and hurried out of the shop with the dresses before she could interject. We were out on the street before she managed to say anything.
"Why did you pay for my dress?" she asked, glaring at me.
"Because I didn't get you a birthday gift, and this way you like what you got, and you actually get to use it." I said, giving her the bag. "If it'll make you feel better, you can pay for the shoes and accessories." She sighed and shook her head.
"No, I'll take the gift. Thank you, Asana." I shrugged, and put my arm around her shoulders, steering her toward a small boutique that sold shoes.
After nearly an hour of going through shoe after shoe, we were finally able to find the right ones. For Parker, that meant black ballet flats. For me that meant black ankle boots with a three inch spike heel. That lead to us going to the Three Broomsticks for some Butterbeer. I had never had the drink before, but I had heard Remus and Parker raving about it when they had come to visit me in the Hospital Wing. To say the least, there wasn't a single person older than me that hadn't at least tried the drink, and almost all spoke well of it.
We had sat down at a small table at the back of the crowded pub, the air warmed in great contrast to the outer world's rather frigid air. A rather boisterous woman named Rosie had come over to take our order, and had quickly scurried off, only to quickly come back with two large mugs of a yellowish brown drink, faint steam coming from the top, what looked like marshmallows floating in it. I eyed it suspiciously, unsure whether it was what others claimed it to be or not. It certainly didn't look that impressive. Parker gave me an encouraging nod, before raising her glass up to her lips and taking a large mouthful. I decided to take her advice, and tentatively raised the glass to my lips. The first thing that registered was, hot. For Parker, I could see why she would like it. As the warm liquid settled on my tongue, it's sweet flavor almost made me want to gag, it was so sweet. I registered an almost cinnamon flavor hidden beneath the sweetness. To say the least, I didn't particularly care for the drink.
I gingerly set it back down on the scuffed wooden table, trying not to let my distaste show.
"You don't like it, do you?" she asked sadly.
"Not particularly. But vampires don't experience flavor the same way you do. To me, it tastes so sweet that I could gag, I can feel the sugar grating between my teeth. That's why I only eat bland things, the flavor in them would be quite bleak to a human, while to a vampire, I can taste every underlying flavor or aspect of the food. So a food that to a human is strong, to a vampire, it is almost impossible to swallow the food." I explained, looking at my hands. I heard her sigh, before she asked,
"Well, if you're not going to drink it, can I?" I smiled and nodded. She quickly finished, payed for the drinks, and we continued to a small shop that sold jewelry and such. After another hour or so, we were finished, her having bought a black choker with a small ruby placed over the center of her throat, and ring with a red stone set in a gold setting, while I had gotten a black lace choker, and a silver bracelet. We had continued wandering around Hogsmead for a few hours, before going back up to the castle, and putting our newly acquired things away.
The next few days passed in a rather boring repetition. I spent most of my time either in the library or in the common room reading or with Parker and Remus, walking aimlessly around the castle, trying to find new shortcuts or secret passageways. Through that, I had done my best to avoid bumping into Sirius. I wasn't sure how to go about explaining why I had slapped him, and I had had a near constant headache for the past few days, and didn't care to have someone scream in my ear.
I wasn't ready for the ball, and I really didn't want to go, but Parker would hold it over me if I made her miss it, and I had already tortured Remus for four days with dancing lessons. At that particular moment, Parker was dragging me out of the library, toward our dorm. Maybe I shouldn't have stayed over break. It had resulted it me getting into an argument with Sirius, slapping him, and avoiding him like the black plague, teaching my best friend to dance, my other best friend picking on him because he didn't know how to dance, and having to wear a dress and heels. I hate wearing a dress...