A.N.—Please review. Again, thanks to everyone who does, and those who don't….Grrr. this is going to be a long chapter so enjoy!
Disclaimer—Yeah yeah yeah, None of this is mine. I do not own the wonderful world of Harry Potter.
Chapter Twenty Eight.
The Halloween Ball.
I hate girl time.
I mean, it's positively chaos. Girls running left right and centre trying to find a missing earring or wondering where she put her lip gloss. The worst this was the bathroom situation. The bathrooms in the dorms are pretty big, but not big enough for three girls fighting for the mirror. So then Mary had the ingenious idea of going to use the bathroom in Lily's room in the Heads Tower.
Trouble was, none of us had any idea what the password was.
"Shit." Marlene muttered, and I nodded in agreement. We must look stupid, standing outside the portrait of a lion in Africa's savannah, holding big bags filled with our costumes and stuff we need for when we slept in Lily's dorm tonight.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Three damsels in need of rescuing?" we all stiffened at the voice.
"Is that—?" Marlene asked.
"It's can't be—" Mary gasped.
"Oh shit." I cursed, turning around. It was indeed Sirius, James, Peter and Remus, standing there, all of them smirking.
The prats.
"We do not need rescuing, Black, we need the stupid password. Lily forgot to give it to us." Marlene replied. I raised an eyebrow. They were still pretending to hate each other's guts?
"Lily forgot something?" James asked, faking surprise. "What is the world coming to?" Sirius and Peter laughed loudly. Remus just rolled his eyes, his lips twitching traitorously.
"Help us? Please?" Mary asked sweetly, looking pointedly at Peter, who melted before my eyes. I let out a cough and said "Whipped!"
"That's some cough you got there." Marlene said, faking concern. "You might not be well enough to go tonight."
"She's going. I'm not missing a chance to doll her up again." I rolled my eyes. Mary turned to the boys, addressing them now. "She's going to look absolutely beautiful tonight."
"She looks beautiful all the time." Remus pointed out simply and I blushed beet red. Only I knew that he meant it in a different way.
"Yes, well, tonight, everyone will be drooling more than usual." Marlene said cheekily. "Even you Remus."
"Oh-kay then." I hurried on trying to wriggle out of the awkwardness. "Can you give us the password?"
"Treacle tart." James said to the lion and the portrait swung open. I grinned at him quickly and climbed through. I helped Mary in as well and was about to shut the door when the boys came in after us and without saying another word, walked off to James's room.
"Boys." Marlene and I sighed, both of us getting towed up to Lily's room. She was hanging up our dresses for the Ball.
We had decided to go as murder victims, massacred at a ball don't ask me why, because I still thought that the idea was stupid. Mary's mind worked in strange ways, but it was either this or vampires.
The dresses were pretty though. They were all designed the same way, with full skirts, tight bodices and off the shoulder sleeves that had slits in them so you could move your arms. They were all different colours; Lily's was a light apple green, Marlene's was a creamy colour, Mary's was a violet colour that suited her complexion and mine was midnight blue. We all had white sashes that went over the top. The bodice's had light pearl beading on the hem and chest line. We all had strange crowns that shimmered with fake diamonds. We had smeared fake blood on the chests and a bit on the
"Ready?" Lily asked, coming out of the bathroom. We all nodded and got to work. We all took showers and padded around in bathrobes. Mary set about drying my hair and curling it into dark ringlets while I painted Lily's nails. Marlene was organising our accessories and shoes and kept making annoyed little tutting noises. When Mary was done with my hair, I moved so she could do Lily's and I grasped my wand, pointing it at Marlene's beautiful brown locks. At my command, it pinned half of the hair up into a messy bun and left the rest to cascade around her shoulders. Mary had pulled her hair back into a French roll, and Lily's was up in a messy bun. Mine had been pulled into a ponytail, but Mary had made it appear that it was tied in a knot before falling down my back.
We helped each other into our dresses and applied dark makeup to our eyes to make them look dead, and then we painted our lips bright red.
"Okay, I think that we're ready." Lily said as I put my other earring in. I stood up from the desk and nodded.
"Wait! I need to take a picture first." Mary protested, rushing for her camera. I groaned.
"We'll be late!" Marlene said.
We all laughed at her and posed for pictures. About five minutes later we were fixing each other's dresses. Marlene went down first, then Mary, Lily and then me last. We walked down to the Great Hall which was pitch black with flashing lights and floating pumpkins, the thunder rumbling from outside and the lightning crackling.
We lined up and together, then walked in. We earned quite a few stares as we walked over to where the boys were standing. We were a bit away from them but I still heard one of the boys whistle.
"Damn, you girls look good." Sirius said, throwing an arm around Marlene's shoulders. I laughed and they all swung to look at me, their jaws hit the floor. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
"You weren't kidding were you? When you said she would look amazing?" Peter asked Mary, hugging her into his side. She giggled and kissed his cheek. I blushed beet red and smiled.
The boys hadn't even dressed up. They just stood there looking like freaking Greek gods in their black tuxes.
"Nice costumes." Lily complimented dryly. I smiled. We were making progress.
"I like yours too. The undead beauties." James replied with his signature grin. I nodded.
"I like it." Remus laughed. A song called Thriller came on and Sirius dragged Marlene onto the dance-floor. James bowed gallantly to Lily and she just shook her head and took his hand. He looked like he was going to burst with happiness. Peter and Mary wandered off somewhere. That left me and Remus standing there, alone.
Awkward.
I looked at him, saw he was going to say something, and then walked off. I knew it was rude, but that didn't stop me. I just didn't want him to talk about it.
What I didn't count on was that he followed me. I frowned and walked out of the hall, walking down the corridor until I got the small courtyard that had a cute little water fountain standing in the middle of it. It was a secluded spot, and not many people came here, or even knew about this place.
"Sophia." I whipped around. Remus was standing there. He had abandoned his jacket and had loosened his tie.
"We need to talk." He sounded so calm, it was kind of scary.
"What about?" I asked, turning back to the fountain.
"Okay, how about I talk, and you listen?" he proposed. I smiled crookedly and nodded.
"The truth is…I like you Sophia, and I am tired of having to repeat myself. I want to be with you, and before you start protesting saying that it will never work, I'm wondering how you could possibly know that, because we haven't even given us a shot yet. The problem is, Sophia, you're not afraid of being with me, you're not afraid that you'll hurt me, you're afraid that I'll hurt you, and you have known so much hurt in your life that you block everything and everyone out." I heard him take a deep breath. "I have been obsessed with you since third year, wondering how you could bewitch me like this, how you could make me feel this way. I know you feel the same way about me, and I am done denying my feelings. I only want to be with you, Sophia."
He had been walking slowly towards my turned back and I felt his breath on the back of my neck, but I didn't turn around.
"I promise you that I will never hurt you and that I'll do anything you ask, just end my suffering, because that is what's happening, Sophia. I'm hurting inside without you." He paused and reaching out a hand, spun me around to face him. I think he was shocked to see the tears in my eyes. "So now I have to ask if you'll give us a chance. Please?"
I didn't say anything. I just stared into his beautiful eyes, torn between all the emotions fluttering around in my chest. I should have said no, I should have walked away, I should have told him that it would never work, but I didn't do any of those things, because I was selfish in that very instant where I stood up on my toes and kissed him.
We stood there, his hands on my upper arms and mine on his chest, our lips just touching, standing in a courtyard on Halloween.
It was…perfect.
I pulled away and smiled up at him, but soon it faded. He looked dazed, almost as though he couldn't quite figure out what happened.
"You shouldn't have to chase after a girl Remus. You deserve someone who's perfect, not a monster like me." I mumbled.
"You are perfect. And the reason I chase after you is because you run from me. So stop running." He said quietly, winding his arms around me tightly and pulling me close. "And I'm just as much of a monster as you are." He reminded me. "I don't care about what you are, and you told me a long time ago that you don't even care, because you would be a hypocrite if you did. I forget what I am when I talk to you Sophia." I agreed with him there because that is how he made me fell whenever we talked, whenever he looked at me with those eyes of his. He pulled back, holding me at arm's length.
"So, what does this mean?" he asked, his face etched with confusion, a tiny frown forming on his brow.
"You want to be with me, I want to be with you. I guess we're together now." I answered, twirling a curly strand of my hair in my fingers.
"Sophia Harris?" I looked up. "Will you go out with me?" I smiled widely and didn't hesitate as I nodded. Remus hugged me and scooping me up, spun me around, the both of us laughing. He set me down and cupping my face in his hands, he kissed me again.
Fireworks flashed and butterflies fluttered in my stomach as my eyes slid closed. I wound my arms around his neck and he responded eagerly. I could feel the smile on his lips as his arms crushed me to his chest, lifting me off the ground because he was so bloody tall.
"Finally!" I heard people yell. Remus and I broke apart, our noses still touching and, still in our position, looked to the left, where our friends were standing, all of them smiling.
Before we could say anything Lily cut in, "If you two are not boyfriend and girlfriend, I will kiss James."
"Please just be a hook up!" James pleaded and I felt the chuckle that vibrated through Remus's chest. I giggled and he set me down, grasping my hand.
"James, you're not getting lucky tonight. Sorry." I said and the girls squealed, running towards me and nearly bowling me over. Remus smiled at his mates and they all clapped him on the back. He wound his arm around me and I smiled up at him.
"I honestly never thought it would happen." Marlene admitted. I looked at her in surprise. She hurried on, "I mean the amount of times we had the discussion that Remus liked her, and that she should make a move, oh my God I wanted to strangle her!" we all laughed at her and walked back into the Great Hall.
Remus and I danced the night away and I swear I had never had a better time in my life. He seemed to become this whole other person, someone who laughed and smiled and let loose. I saw a lot of the girls take double takes when they saw him laughing at something funny I'd said, probably wondering what had happened to him to make him so not…uptight.
If only they knew.
