Chapter 14

Jayda and I spent a few hours in Hogsmeade trying dresses on. The shop, Berrypool Gowns, was incredibly busy – full of stressed girls trying to change their dress orders to match their masks, fluffing about over sizes and increased waistlines and colours. Ms Berrypool, the lady that owned the shop, was sitting at a stool in the window, sipping calmly on a coffee as she watched the mass hysteria take place in front of her. Her assistant, Flaviana, was the one trying to help everyone out.

We stood in the doorway when we got there, looking gobsmacked. It was absolute chaos everywhere. Girls screaming, yelling, throwing dresses and fabric and tantrums left, right and centre. Jayda and I were just about to make an about turn and leave when Ms Berrypool put her coffee down and approached us.

She looked young but her croaky voice betrayed her age. It was the voice of an old lady that had smoked far too many cigarettes and drank more whiskey than was good for her. "Girls, you look like sane young things to me. What do you need?" She took my hand in hers and smiled at us.

I shrugged and looked at Jayda. She shrugged too. "Er, we just wanted a dress each. And some material to make a mask for a masquerade ball." I said, feeling embarrassed. My cheeks were tinged with red.

Ms Berrypool nodded sharply once and led us through a maze of shrieking girls to the changing rooms in the back of the shop. She banged on a closed door. "Time's up!" She rasped.

Padma and Parvati Patil came out looking exceedingly grumpy and annoyed. They hurried away, clutching what looked like giant pink and white meringues. Berrypool led us into the dressing room, which was huge and had a rack of beautiful dresses along the back wall. She took a few quick measurements with a wave of her wand and then flicked it towards the dresses. A few gorgeous gowns floated out and hung in mid-air on the hangers, looking like they were real beings and just itching for us to try them on.

Jayda and I stood and stared at them, feeling incredibly out of place in our shabby jeans and t-shirts. "Well, what are you waiting for? Do you like?" Berrypool offered, sounding impatient. She pulled out an old-fashioned cigarette with a black filter tip and it lit up of its own accord and drifted up to her lips. "Try them on." She said after exhaling a puff of smoke.

We stepped forward and each chose a dress to try on. When we stepped out of our cubicles, I nearly died of laughter as I looked in the mirror at ourselves. Jayda had chosen a navy blue floor-length dress with huge shoulder puffs and ruffles all the way down. She looked like a whale. I was just as bad, with a shocking pink dress that came to my knees. It was incredibly tight, made of some sort of nylon or spandex and it clung to every roll and lump and imperfection of my body. I cringed and quickly returned to the cubicle to try something else on.

It took us a while but we managed to get two dresses, reasonably cheap (Ms Berrypool had accidentally knocked the ashes from her cigarette onto them so she discounted the price) and they looked okay on us. We got some material for the masks to match and we were set.

The ball was a week away. You could feel the excitement in the air at Hogwarts. Exams were all done and dusted, all that was left was packing and the feast and the ball. The latter had most everyone that was attending in fits of excitement. Even Jayda and I could feel it. We found ourselves discussing the ball almost every day.

Finally, I received what Teddy said would be our last letter. The buzz that rippled through my whole body when I read it, the fizz that extended all the way to the tips of my fingers and toes, the jitters I felt was unbelievable. He explained an area down by the greenhouses where I should meet him half an hour before the End of Year Ball began. Jayda said it sounded dodgy, but when we went to check out the place just to be sure it wasn't some dark dank hole or trap, I decided it was romantic. It was a little grove just near the lake with a small stream echoing out into the water. It was still in view of the castle and greenhouses. It was perfect.

Then, before I knew it, it was the morning of the ball. More importantly, the morning of the day that I would meet Teddy. I awoke on a high, ecstatic and bubbly and full of an inexplicable joy. The day seemed to creep by excruciatingly slow. Every minute of useless classes (which were cut short to allow time for students to prepare for the ball) was a wasted minute. Every minute that ticked by seemed a year long. But every minute was getting me closer to meeting Teddy. After so many months. Today was the day.

A fragment of me felt apprehensive and nervous about what would await me down by the greenhouses. What if this whole thing had been a trick? What if all along it was just someone playing a joke – the Weatherfield sisters, perhaps? Every so often I had to remind myself of all the letters we had written, the emotions and personal life stories we had shared. What if that was all for nothing? No, it couldn't be so. Teddy had admitted that he loved me. This was no joke. I thought maybe I loved him too. Then I thought of the possibility of him being someone completely impossible. Harry? That would be too painful. I took a deep breath and ran over the list in my head of all the clues. I had them memorised. No, this was definitely someone I would never have thought of. Anyway, it didn't matter who he was. The person I loved was Teddy. He might go by a different name in different circumstances but he was Teddy all the same.

Jayda and I got ready for the ball together. All dressed up and ready, she looked radiant, like an exotic princess. She was wearing a pure white strapless sheath down to her knees with silver strappy sandals. Against her tanned skin it was gorgeous. I had charmed her mask – the same white of her dress, studded with small jewels – to stay attached around her eyes. The brown orbs stood out a mile away. Her hair was pulled into a thick French braid around one side of her head, resting lightly on her shoulder.

My dress was a little less of a statement. It was a pretty beige colour that ended just above my knees, covered with pleats and ruffles with a simple thin black belt around my waist. My heels were black also. I had Jayda thank for everything. I didn't care how vain or self-absorbed I sounded right now, I looked good. Jayda had artfully styled my hair into curls and placed them around my face. The mask was midnight black and edged tastefully with black feathers. We stood side by side and stared into the bathroom mirror, feeling incredibly excited.

I squeezed her into a hug and uttered a little nervous yelp. "You look so gorgeous, Jayda. I wish we had a camera."

She gasped and quickly ran out to the dormitory. When she came back she was clutching a big bulky camera. "We do! Come on."

We both stood back and let the camera do its work. It hovered in the air a few feet in front of us, clicking away. We posed and posed like silly little girls that had just discovered photography and the vanity it could unleash. After a dozen photos we put it away and stared at each other, finally ready to head downstairs to meet our boys.

"Make sure you don't get too wrapped in your Airhead, okay, I want a few dances with you, please, Miss." I said with mock severity.

"Well, try not to get kidnapped by your Teddy Bear. I want to see you sitting next to me as soon as dinner starts. Bring the Teddy with you, if you must."

We both giggled like children before stepping through the portrait and heading down to the ground floor where we would part ways. We passed so many girls in varying dresses; I never even knew there were that many girls at Hogwarts. The males were a lot less frequent but looked just as dashing and handsome as each other. Hermione caught up with us, her hair tamed somewhat into a tight ballerina bun. She told us that she was meeting Ron downstairs but was very worried about what he was going to be wearing. I assured her that Harry would never have let him head out in anything that wasn't too embarrassing. She looked extremely worried in her gown (a modest lilac floor-length dress, she looked beautiful). Before we had been able to tell her so, she was off, scurrying ahead of us to check on Ron's dress robes, and perhaps change them if need be.

In the Entrance Hall, Jayda and I hugged. I was full of what felt like billions of butterflies running amok in my stomach. I started to feel a little sick. She looked me in the eyes and gave me some encouraging words and told me where I could find her if everything did not turn out okay. She was possibly the best person I had ever met in all my sixteen years. I knew she really couldn't stand Teddy and everything he had done to try and woo me. But still she stood by me. I hugged her one more time and took a deep breath, trying to subdue and slaughter the butterflies inside me, and stamp down on the vomit that was threatening to rise.

I walked a little unsteadily out to the greenhouses, taking so many deep breathes that I thought I might pass out. At one point the ground became slightly soft, so I had to slide my shoes off and tip toe, trying to stay away from the muddy areas. When I arrived at the area that Teddy had described, no one was there. After muttering a quick spell with my wand that was in an invisible pocket in my dress, worry began to gnaw at me, as if the butterflies I had so easily massacred had come back from the dead, grown little butterfly fangs and were now eating me from the inside out. I found a nail on my hand that needed work, so I started chewing away at it nervously.

Where was he? Was he going to leave me hanging, jilted, like a modern day, Hogwarts Havisham? If he did, I swear I would track him down and pound on him like a sack of flour. It was slowly getting dark and cooler. The sun itself had disappeared below the hills, its rays still reaching up in a last bid to clutch and hang on to daylight. Even as I reached into my hidden pocket for my watch to check the time, I turned towards the castle and saw someone there. A boy. My breath caught in my throat and time seemed to slow as I took it all in.

A boy. Tall. Wide shoulders. Black dress robes, trimmed with green and silver. Blonde hair, tousled gently with hair gel. Breathing heavily through wet pink lips. A flush of red on pale skin. Icy blue eyes behind a black mask. A white flower in his left hand. Staring at me.

I stared back at him, feeling shell-shocked. Before I knew it, he had taken a few steps towards me, placed his hands on my arms softly, carefully, as if he was afraid I was going to break. My skin tingled. I looked up into his eyes, feeling light-headed. He hesitated as he leaned in to me. I could feel his hot breath on my skin. Such a burning and tingling was welling up inside me. Every inch, every millimetre, every single part of me trembled.

Our lips connected in a quiet, tender kiss.

Eek, please review and let me know what you guys think! I was so excited to write this chapter and I think it turned out okay, if I may say so myself. Stay tuned, it gets better! :)