Friday

December 19, 1977

Great Hall

So, I think I should probably address what happened in my last diary entry.

At the time of writing it, I was in a certain mixed state of shock and disbelief and decided it would be in my best interest to leave at the point where I left it so as to avoid overthinking literally everything that had just occurred. This, of course, did not prevent me overthinking it whatsoever.

What happened after he snogged me, you ask?

I think from memory - it's a bit hazy now - we just sort of stood there staring at each other for a bit.

It was sort of surreal, I suppose. There I was, having spent all this time obsessed with this boy, and then decided to move on and doing a really good job of it, by the way, now kissing this same boy who decided that I was now suddenly worth his effort.

That makes it sound bad, or like I didn't want him to kiss me, which is not true. Mostly? I don't know. I'm still conflicted about it.

Why are you conflicted about it, you ask?

It's not like I'm super conflicted or anything, it's just like a tiny minuscule inkling of conflict due to the fact that I had actually sort of started to move on, and now I had to readjust my whole perspective of the situation.

Speaking of, I never actually finished the story.

So I was stood there, staring at him, both our faces probably bright red, when he nodded at me, shook my hand, and walked off. Mind you, we still had more patrolling to do, but he didn't seem to care apparently.

What sort of lad snogs a girl and then shakes her bloody hand? He'd just spent the past five minutes spluttering out his new sudden feelings for me and then bloody walked away after we BLOODY SNOGGED.

Oh. Right. There's the conflicted feelings coming in.

After Remus walked off and left me standing there in the corridor I decided that if he wasn't going to finish patrol then I bloody well was going to finish it, much like a responsible adult would. I stuck it out until it was over, and then sort of raced into the common room like a madman and rushed up the stairs into my dormitory.

"Lily, wake up!" I whisper shouted, jumping on Lily's bed and shaking her less gently than I had initially planned.

"Whasgoinon?" Lily said, rubbing her bleary eyes.

"Remus snogged me in the hallway!"

"Alright, I'm awake," Lily sat up straight. "Wait, did you say that just to get my attention or were you serious?"

"I'm serious! (well, actually, no. I'm Eva.) Remus confessed his feelings for me, snogged me, and then walked off with no explanation!"

"He bloody what?!" Lily exclaimed, causing the rest of dorm to yell a mixture of things from 'shut up' to 'is it the apocalypse?'

"Remus snogged Eva and then walked off!" Lily shouted as if trying to process the information. In her defence, it was some hefty information to process.

Within seconds there was a flurry of feet as the rest of the girls leapt out of their beds and onto Lily's.

"Okay, Eve, you're gonna have to rewind and tell us the whole story from the beginning," said Marley, bouncing up and down.

I proceeded to recount the events of the evening.

"Whoa," Marley said after I'd finished my tale. "What does that even mean? Why did that even happen?"

"What do you mean 'why did it happen?'"

"No, I just mean... You made a big show of moving on, and this does seem relatively soon after Remus' breakup, so..."

"Marley does make a good point," said Alice. "Have you thought this through?"

"Clearly I have not thought this through, the whole thing happened literally ten minutes ago!"

"Yikes, Eva, no need to yell," said Lily, surprisingly calm. "We are all completely supportive of you and what happened, aren't we girls..." Lily narrowed her eyes at Marley and Alice.

At least Lily had my back.

"So, what are you going to do?" asked Lottie, piping in at last.

"I was hoping you lot might be able to help me with that."

You know what this calls for? A list!

A Complete List of all of the Viable Options for one Evelyn K. O. Bishop concerning the Matter of one Remus J. Lupin Snogging Her in the Hallway after Confessing His Feelings, Compiled by Lily E. Evans, Charlotte A. Anson, Marlene McKinnon, and Alice V. Sturnam.

1. Cry.

2. Run after him?

3. Regret running after him?

4. Have one Lily E. Evans hex him so he turns orange and squeaks like a Cornish pixie for a week.

5. Cry some more?

6. Dig a hole and burrow down into the so-called 'Chamber of Secrets' and live there forever with Slytherin's monster.

7. Happy cry!

8. Consider the fact that one Evelyn K. O. Bishop's 'dream guy' snogged her in the hallway and CELEBRATE it! Running off? Who cares? SNOGGING!

9. Ask one Sirius O. Black what he thinks about all of this and get his very non-biased opinion on the whole series of events. One Evelyn K. O. Bishops suggests that one Marlene McKinnon's suggestion is terrible. One Marlene McKinnon would like to inquire as to why one Evelyn K. O. Bishop has an issue discussing the situation with one Sirius O. Black. One Evelyn K. O. Bishop would like to suggest one Marlene McKinnon should shut her mouth. One-

10. Has dying been mentioned yet? Because it should have been at the top of the list.

"Okay, Eva, honestly, this list is terrible," said Lily after everyone had finished making their suggestions. "You just need to talk to him about it. Clearly he likes you, and clearly, you like him, so just talk about it! Besides, we have the Christmas Ball coming up next week and although holds no comparison to my handsome beau, Remus would make a rather dashing date, do we all agree girls?"

"Well-" said Marley, before being gently slapped by Alice.

After we all finalised our list it was dictated by Lily that we weren't going to sort anything out when we were all clearly so tired and freshly excited, so we would discuss it further in the morning.

It is now the morning.

There has been zero discussion.

This is mostly due to the fact that I woke up before everyone else and decided to go to the Great Hall early for breakfast.

There has also been a lack of discussion seeing as my breakfast mates are Dorcas TB and Sirius Black.

I felt it would be inappropriate to discuss last night's events with Dorcas TB, seeing as how she was quite recently snogging Remus herself, and as for Sirius Black, I just decided I didn't need him unnecessarily teasing me about it. Also, it would be weird to talk to him about it, just because of who he is as a person and all.

In other words, we're all sitting here painfully silent, and I'm trying to avoid talking to anyone by writing in my diary.

"So..." says Black after a while, finally breaking the awkward silence. "The annual Christmas ball, huh? We all looking forward to it?"

Dorcas lifts her head from her porridge and squints at him. "Is this a trick question?"

"...No?"

"Everyone always looks forward to the Christmas ball, Sirius."

Black raised his eyebrows. "Fair point, Dorcas."

"I, for one," I said, "am looking forward to it being over, seeing as Lily has me working like a dog to get it ready, and I don't like the amount of work it is taking to pull together, and at this moment in time, nor dogs."

Black placed his hand over his heart in dismay. "You don't... like dogs, Evelyn? Since when? I thought you loved dogs! Small, fluffy dogs, medium, scrawny dogs, large, black dogs?"

"It was a comment more specific to that latter dog you mentioned."

Black genuinely looked affronted now. "I must admit, I am feeling quite attacked right now by your mean comments regarding large, black dogs, Evelyn. What did a large, black dog ever do to you?"

"Is this another trick question? So much, Black. So, so much."

What did he expect? I'm already in a bad mood and he has the blatant audacity to start talking to me? Ridiculous. I won't stand for it.

"Okay I'm starting to feel like one, I'm missing something, two, I'm no longer a welcome part of this conversation and three, you guys have some weird kinda chemistry you've gotta sort out at some point," Dorcas TB said, finishing her bowl of porridge.

"Shut up, Dorcas," I said.

"Sheesh, Bishop," said Dorcas TB, frowning and stepping away from the table. "Why so grouchy this morning?"

"Sorry," I muttered. "Just had a thing occur recently and I think it's affecting my mood."

"Well this mood of yours isn't really working for me, so let me know when you've got that sorted," said Dorcas TB, raising a hand in farewell and leaving the Great Hall.

Probably one of her better ideas.

After Dorcas TB left our little gathering, Black and I sat in uncomfortable silence until he thought he would make it more uncomfortable by opening his mouth.

"So... what's this thing that happened?" asked Black.

"I don't want to talk about it, Black."

"Well clearly it's bothering you, I mean you're going as far as insulting dogs, which quite frankly, is ridiculous. I know you love dogs."

I scowled at him from across the table. "Don't you have something else to do aside from bothering me?"

"Well, actually, I'm still in the middle of eating my breakfast," he gestured to his pancakes, "but I do actually want to make sure you're alright. Remember that time we decided we were friends?"

"Unfortunately."

"Yikes," said Black, raising his eyebrows. "I think I'm gonna go too."

He started standing up but in a flash of what I am unable to discern as inspiration or foolishness, I begrudgingly said, "Wait, don't leave. I'll tell you."

He raised an eyebrow at me but slowly sat down again. I swear all he does is raise his eyebrows. Doesn't he have anything better to do? Touch his hair, probably.

"A thing occurred last night that was very confusing and I don't know what it means or how to feel about it so I am in a bad mood. Also, the person that did the thing just kind of shook my hand afterwards and ran off, which is kind of rude, considering the nature of the thing."

"Normally I'm fairly alright at understanding your rambles, Eva, but this time you gotta be more specific."

Agh. A good friend would know exactly what I'm saying.

I squinted at him across the table. "I've considered it and I don't want to tell you after all."

"Wait, no!" he said, his knife and fork cluttering on the table as he dropped them, causing someone over on the Ravenclaw table to utter a loud 'Oi!'. "Sorry!" Black said, before turning back to me and adamantly saying, "You can't just say that and then not tell me the whole story! What kind of business are you playing at?"

"Fine," I said. He did have a point.

You know that feeling when you've gone in too deep to something you didn't really think too much about when you decided to do it and then there's no way to get out of it and you feel like screwing your face up and yelling really loudly and also removing your stomach from your body? Yeah. I've got that feeling. Too late now though.

"Well, the thing that it was that happened, is that Remuskissedme."

I said the last part really quickly.

Black looked pained. "Okay, so you're gonna have to say that again, because I didn't quite hear-"

"Remus kissed me last night and then shook my hand and walked off."

"Oh."

I couldn't quite tell how he was reacting because it seemed like twelve different emotions were fluttering across his face at once. Not, of course, that I expected or wanted him to react in a specific way.

"That's fun," he said at last.

"It's actually not."

"Yeah. Sorry. That was a bad response on my part," he said. "Just processing. Not, of course, that I need to really process anything for my own personal benefit."

"Of course," I said, and found myself looking directly at him, "and I also don't really need you to process anything for your own personal benefit either because both of us know this doesn't actually affect you and I'm only telling you this because you asked me to."

"Right," Black said, holding my gaze. "This has nothing to do with me whatsoever."

"Right."

I suddenly felt a deep sinking feeling in my stomach, and I wasn't sure why.

"I'm sorry, I've got to go," I said.

I wasn't sure why, but I just couldn't talk to him about it any longer. It was bad enough that I'd told him in the first place.

"Right," he said again, then shaking his head as if waking up from a dream. "Well, good luck, and all. Remus is a top lad."

"Well, thanks," I said, and fled.

Sunday

December 21, 1977

Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory

It's been two days since my last entry and I don't have much to report.

Oh, except that on the way out of the Great Hall that Friday morning I ran straight into Remus.

"Morning, Eva," he said, looking a little bit like a frog that had been holding its breath for too long.

"Morning, Remus."

"So about last night," he said, getting straight into it. Honestly, I was glad he came right out with it because I was fair worried that he'd chicken out and pretend it didn't happen.

"I'm rather sorry about that whole handshaking incident, I don't really know what came over me. It was probably the shock of it all. I didn't really expect any of that to happen at all, so."

"Oh, no, it's no worry." Except, of course, it was a worry, because what had I been doing all night and all morning? I couldn't let Remus know though.

"Well, that's good then. Anyhow, my question is would you like to go to the Christmas Ball with me? You don't have to, but, I thought that, well, you looked like you were going to kiss me, and then you didn't, so I kissed you, and you didn't seem to be complaining about it, so I thought that perhaps you'd like to-"

"Of course," I said quickly, cutting off his digression. "I would be honoured, Remus."

For some reason, I had the same kind of sick feeling I'd felt early that morning, except just slightly different.

"Oh, really? Well, that's grand! See you later, I s'pose," he said, walking off with a bright red face.

At least he didn't shake my hand that time.

Anyway, that's that then. Lily thinks it's a good thing that this all happened. Lottie's not so sure. Me? Well, this must be good, because I've wanted this for so long. Remus is my ideal man.

On another note, Lily decided last minute to organise a Secret Santa, and I've got Lottie. My plan so far is to get her something that's a combines the Phoenix Fiends and eggs because what would she want more, right? Perhaps I could buy her a puffskein?

Speaking of Christmas, the ball is almost upon us, and mine and James Potter's part is all sorted, mostly due to James' fear that Lily will break up with him and chew on his heart if he doesn't do exactly what she pleases. It's giving me some time to work on my assignments before the holidays are over, which is rather swell, being a NEWT student and all. At the rate we were going, I was half afraid I wouldn't have any time to do anything, but luckily I can dedicate the next few days 'til Christmas solely and completely focused on my schoolwork, and definitely not stressing about Remus.

I'm afraid, dear Diary, that I must bid thee farewell for a few days as I retreat into my study cave. Alas, that is life.

Thursday

December 25, 1977

Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory

Merry Christmas!

Oh, how wonderful is Hogwarts at Christmas. Hagrid always drags in massive trees from the Forbidden Forest, and they just clump around the Great Hall all decorated in tinsel and lights and baubles, and the candles always seem extra bright. I'm fairly sure Murphy charmed all of the suits of armour to sing Christmas carols whenever you walk past them, and there's about as many suits of armour in Hogwarts as there are books, so it's a fairly consistent cacophony of 'Jingle Bells,' 'Good King Wenceslas' and 'God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs' at all times. Oh, and did I mention the mistletoe that Dumbledore has hung around the castle? If you don't snog the person you're caught with underneath the flower it's magically charmed to follow you around and make chicken noises until you finally do snog them.

Thus far, I have only been caught under the mistletoe one time, completely accidental mind you, and I suppose luckily for me, Remus was on the receiving end. It was all perfectly fine until Black made some snarky comment about there being a rather minuscule line up to be near me with mistletoe, and that he'd be willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of a few galleons. I told him he could shove that idea up his nostrils and Remus glared at him for the rest of the day, so he got his comeuppance in the end.

I couldn't say why, but Black's apparently decided to resort to his pre-friendship 'charming' self of late. It's only been a few days, but it's driving me nuts. I've been so infuriated by him popping up everywhere and distracting me and pestering me that I've barely had a chance to think about this whole Remus situation. What's more annoying is that I don't know where any of this behaviour is coming from!

But enough on Black, there are more important things to discuss. I woke up this morning to find Selene had delivered some presents from my family, namely a batch of brownies, a new watch, and a scarlet and gold blanket crocheted by my mother. None of us girls exchanged presents as we knew that we'd be doing our Secret Santa with the lads after the Ball. I decided to get Lottie a puffskein after all. They're a little pesky, but she loves all animals, and besides, she needs to furry encouragement to get through her NEWTs.

The plans for the rest of the day are simple. Breakfast, homework, lunch, set up for the Ball (thank you magic), get ready for the Ball, and then the Ball itself.

Speaking of the Ball, I just know the Bloody Prat Quadruplet have something up their sleeve for tonight, and I'm just a little bit concerned about what it might entail.

Alright, onto the festivities!

Thursday

December 25, 1977

Great Hall

For the record, I had no idea this night would be so eventful. It's just past midnight and so very many things have occurred. Let's recap.

After we successfully finished applying to finishing touches to the Great Hall, Lily dragged us all to the double doors and made us stare at "our masterpiece" for a little too long, before suggesting that if "we are all going to stand here staring we won't have time to get ready, so chop chop, everyone".

Lily had been practising her transfiguration, and so upon arriving back to the chaos that was our dorm room, helped the girls to tweak their dresses to perfection. My dress was scarlet chiffon, slightly flouncy for dancing, but simple enough that it wasn't over the top. With a practised flip of her wand, Lottie curled my hair, and then we all added our finishing touches and began to head to the Great Hall to meet our dates.

The Marauders, oh golly, the Marauders, had dresses themselves in matching dress robes of bright gold and scarlet, each one with a different garish Christmas-themed pattern on it. Remus beamed at me as I rounded the corner, and said, "you look wonderful," before holding out a Christmas tree patterned arm for me.

Lily and James looked lovely together, as they always do, I must admit, and Lottie didn't look at all out of place on Peter's arm either. Frank joined us shortly to collect Alice, and he, thank goodness, was not dressed like an insane acrobat, much to Alice's relief. To my slight confusion, it seemed as if Marley and Black had agreed to go together, which seemed like an unusual pairing, but who was I to judge, right? At least Aislin would be glaring daggers at her and not me for one.

We ventured into the hall, and although I had already seen it, it somehow looked so much more magical with everyone in their dress robes and Dumbledore's beard plaited with tinsel. Lily had organised for the Christmas trees to be moved to the side to make way for giant, glistening ice sculptures of each house's animal emblem, and what seemed like tiny magical, golden, lights floated through the air, reflecting off the ice and settling like faeries in the trees.

"Whoa," breathed Marley as she stepped inside. "You guys did all this?"

"It was mostly Lily," I said.

"Well I had a lot of help from all of-"

"It was all Lily," said James, shaking his head and smiling softly at her. "We just did what she told us to do."

Lily blushed and stared at him for what we all thought was a bit longer than necessary.

"Well, those guys are obviously having a moment, so how about a dance, Black?" asked Marley.

"Anything for my ravishingly beautiful date," he said, bowing deeply.

"I appreciate the sentiment, Black, but you do not get to say those sorts of things to me," Marley said as she strode toward the dance floor.

"Fair enough," Black shrugged, and followed her retreating back, saluting me as he turned around.

Next to me, Remus grabbed my hand. "Um, dance, Eva?"

"Sure," I said, pulling a face at Lottie. That was weird. I thought this whole Remus thing would be really natural, but that was weird.

Remus and I danced for a little bit before I politely excused myself and went to take a seat next to Lottie, who was watching Peter and James dance the funky chicken a little too enthusiastically.

One thing to note about Remus: he cannot dance. He cannot dance whatsoever.

I had never previously realised this, because the Christmas Ball is only for the older students, and by the time I myself was an older student I couldn't bear to dance with Remus because of the whole 'feelings' issue.

Anyhow, I hadn't quite anticipated the whole stepping on my toes every four to six seconds, hence why I migrated from the dance floor toward Lottie.

"You look like you're having fun," she said, not at all sarcastically.

"Well, sure," I said. "If by fun you mean in pain from having my toes crushed under Remus' feet."

"Oh yeah," replied Lottie. "I should have warned you about that. Remus is a terrible dancer, but no one's got the heart to tell him."

"Great, just my luck," I said, sinking further into the seat.

"You'll be alright," said Lottie, patting my shoulder affectionately. "At least you have a dance partner. Mine's seemingly forgot about me." She gestured vaguely in the direction that Peter was just moments before, but had since disappeared. "Who knows where he is now."

"Eva!" Remus said, strolling over and looking more jovial than he'd seemed in months. "I've brought you some punch! Oh, sorry Lottie, I didn't see you sitting there or else I would have brought you some too."

"That's okay," she said with a sigh. "I suppose I should just get used to being forgotten."

Remus mouthed 'is she okay?' at me and I shrugged, chugging the glass of punch. Oh, Merlin, I didn't even check to see if Black had spiked it. I don't think he did. No, I'm pretty sure that was just normal punch.

"Charlotte, would you do me the honour of this dance?" asked Remus, bowing comically low.

"Um, no, definitely not," she said, right as Remus took another sip of his punch. People should really watch what they say around Remus when he's drinking because I think the brutality of her words caused him to choke on his drink.

I hurriedly stood up and gave him a reassuring pat on his back whilst I waited for him to stop choking. "Don't worry about her, she's just being a sourpuss," I said. "Let's go dance, shall we?"

Taking one for the team, folks.

Honestly, I should have just left him choking there because it meant I then had to dance with Remus for quite a while longer than anyone should have had to dance with a man who cannot dance. I'm not sure if it was thankfully or unfortunately that at the 957th toe-crush Remus was tapped on the shoulder by none other than Sirius Black who asked, rather politely, if he might cut in.

Remus gave him a somewhat stern look for someone who had been stepping on my feet for the past hour, but told me he'd be back sooner rather than later.

Stepping into the arms of Sirius Black was like stepping into a breath of fresh air.

No, that sounds ridiculous. What's a better way of saying that I was so relieved I could feel my toes again that I started for a second not being completely and utterly repulsed by Sirius Black? Repulsed is probably too strong a word. You get my meaning, though.

"You looked like you could use a break from having all of your toes squashed to pieces," he said. For some reason, his breath didn't smell like firewhiskey. Huh. Growth.

"Why did nobody warn me?"

In a surprising turn of events, I discovered Black could actually dance.

"You didn't know?" he asked, grinning a little bit. "How could you not know?"

"Well," I said, "I haven't danced with him before, because, well, reasons, and as aforementioned, nobody warned me!"

"Well, Remus' dancing is sort of something everyone knows about but doesn't really talk about. But you don't need to dance with him all night, you know... There's plenty of other canines in the sea."

"Ha, ha, Black."

"See? I'm funny! Plus, I'm pretty too, so we're the perfect match." Black winked at me as he spun me around.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Don't make fun. You've lost all of your teasing privileges because you've been such a twunt head these past few days."

Black laughed. "Twunt head?"

"Yes! Twunt head!"

"I shall wear that badge with honour," he said, "but-." He paused and suddenly grabbed my wrist which was housing my new watch. "Is that the time? I'm terribly sorry to put a pause on this delightful dance, but I have things that need attending to. Raincheck?"

"These things had better not affect me, Black."

"They won't. Probably. Hopefully. Alright, gotta run!"

And just like that, Black ran off to Merlin knows where to do Merlin knows what.

I glanced around seeing Lottie still sitting off by herself, went and joined her.

"Since when do you dance with Sirius Black?" asked Lottie, raising an eyebrow.

"Since tonight apparently," I said. "He saved me from Remus' feet."

"Fair enough," she replied. "Remus' dancing would make any sane woman go mad."

She wasn't wrong.

The night continued much in the same manner: dancing, drinking punch, chatting to my friends. At one point I ended up dancing with Mark Abery, who was telling me that he was now in all sorts of trouble because he thought that dating Julie Ansen would be one thing, and it wasn't, and now he wasn't sure about anything. For some reason it made me think of-

No, never mind.

It was at that point that we had to put our dance on hold because all of the Slytherins' hair started to turn bright red for no apparent reason.

All four members of the marauders looked suspiciously normal as Dumbledore requested that there be 'no more tampering with the food' or else 'Christmas may be cancelled indefinitely'.

I'm not really sure he can just cancel Christmas, but sure.

It was also at this point that I noticed Professor Sprout looking rather red in the face and attempting to dance a jig with Professor Flitwick. This was a somewhat unusual occurrence, but what made it more unusual was the fact that Sprout had taken off her shoes and Flitwick was holding what looked to be a purple speckled toad.

Upon further investigation of the Professors, McGonagall seemed to be snoring at the Professors table, and Slughorn was dancing slowly by himself, clutching a box of candied pineapple to his chest. Bunt, Travers, Selwyn and Mercier-Roussel all seemed to be in various states of disarray as well, and who knows where the other Professor were.

For some reason, it seemed as if all of the Professors were absolutely sozzled. That is, to say, they were absolutely stinking drunk.

Oh no, what have those boys done?

I ambled over to the four boys who were sitting at a table near the dance floor, calmly spooning peas out of a large bowl.

"Would any of you like to explain why all of the Professors are off their heads?" I asked as calmly as possible.

"Nope," Peter squeaked, ideally in fear of my wrath.

"Oh, that's probably because we put a lot of firewhiskey in their punch," said James Potter, grinning sweetly.

"Seriously? Lily went to all this hard work and you want to ruin it by getting the Professors all drunk?"

"No, no, Eva, it's exactly that! We always do a prank at the Christmas Ball and this one is simple, less harmful, and doesn't really affect anyone, except for the Professors of course! It's the perfect prank!"

"Right," I said as I watched Murphy attempt to wake McGonagall up. He seemed to be the only one with any wits about him. Murphy, having failed to get anything from McGonagall, quickly rushed over to Bunt, who kept falling over and attempted to kind of usher him out the Great Hall. Bunt decided he would rather hiccough like a lunatic and loudly protested Murphy's help. Great. If Voldemort doesn't kill us, the Professors will.

"Well I'm not going to stay here and watch, so goodnight," I said.

"Wait, no! Stay 'til midnight!" said Black, grabbing my wrist and checking my watch again. "It's only five minutes!"

I glared at him but decided to stay. I didn't want to stay near them, of course, so I went over to see Lily and Lottie, who were giggling about McGonagall's snoring.

"Aren't you at all upset by this?" I asked Lily, shocked she wasn't yelling about the Ball being ruined.

"Not really," said Lily, laughing as Selwyn started dancing the funky chicken. "Come on, Eve, it's a bit funny, isn't it?"

I looked around at all my teachers who were in various states of drunkenness. I must admit, Professor Sprout singing an operatic version of 'Gandalf the Grey and the Cow that went Neigh' was somewhat amusing.

My traitorous thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the Great Hall going pitch black.

A single light suddenly lit up the darkness as what seemed to be a miniature firework went off near the ceiling. Soon another one went off, and another, all different colours, all making intricate patterns across the ceiling. It was possibly one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.

I glanced back at the Marauders and made eye contact with Sirius Black, who slowly smiled and nodded his head as if to say 'I told you so.'

Unfortunately, his smile transformed into a look of horror, and I turned back around to see that the Great Hall was on fire.

Unfortunately, most of the Professors were completely inebriated and were unable to assist in putting out the fire that had spread to most of the Christmas trees.

Unfortunately, Lily Evans looked about as red in the face as I'd ever seen her before, and I'd known her for seven years.

Unfortunately, Dumbledore is announcing that the Christmas Ball is cancelled indefinitely right as I write this down.

At least we put the fire out, eh?

AN: Yikes here is another chapter! Thank you and welcome to all my new readers, I hope you're enjoying the wild ride that is this story!

One of my favourite things about this is reading all of the comments because honestly I want to reply 'same' to most if not all of them and it brightens my day to read your feedback and reactions!

Thank you to everyone who votes and comments, and I love you very much!

Most of all, I love my two book wenches, the Lily Evans and Charlotte Ansen to my Evelyn Bishop. I couldn't do it without you, especially when I'm panic-writing with a vague idea and no time to write it.

LOVE YOU ALL!

OXO