Voldemort sat calmly in his chair looking at the two men who stood before him, they were giving him reports on his most resent plan to kill Harry Potter.
"Everything is almost ready my lord," One said. He was one of the youngest Death Eaters by several years.
"Good," Voldemort hissed. "When shall we be completely ready, we mustn't fail this time or leave our any minor details."
"Soon my Lord, most defiantly before the end of Harry's sixth school year," The first one spoke again.
"That will be all then, return to your duties." Voldemort dismissed the two Death Eaters and his beloved pet snake slithered into his lap. "This time my pretty we will get that boy."
It was the night of the Halloween dance and the entire castle was in a buzz, after the whole school had gone to the feast the younger students we're sent off to their houses to go to bed or gather in their common rooms, while the older students prepared for the night.
"Carrie! How much longer are you going to be in there?!?" One of Carrie's roommates shouted as she pounded on the bathroom door.
"I just got in here for crying out loud!" Carrie retorted as she pulled on her dress robes. She was tired of changing behind her bed-curtains so tonight Carrie had gained power over the bathroom…for a little while. Carrie looked at herself in the mirror to see if the robes she had chosen a few weeks ago still looked all right on her.
The robes were black but shimmered with a golden ting if the light hit the fabric just right. Hermione had told Carrie at the robes shop that the robes looked as if they were just made for her to wear them, and quite frankly Carrie had to agree with her. The robe did fit just right in all the right places. Her curly brown hair was pulled up into a bun but had several stray curls that hung down and gave Carrie an elegant look. Deciding that make-up was completely out of the question she emerged from the bathroom.
Hermione looked up from the mirror that she was using and gaped at Carrie. "Oh my gosh! You look…wow."
"I look wow?" Carrie asked as she joined her friend at the mirror.
"Yeah, you look wow, but here put this on." Hermione handed Carrie a small tube of lipstick. Carrie wrinkled her nose and stuck her tongue out.
"I hate…no, loathe make-up," Carrie stated as she carefully backed away from Hermione's outstretched hand that held the make-up. Hermione laughed at Carrie's resistance.
"Alright fine, but are you to chicken to even see what it looks like on?" Hermione challenged Carrie knowing this would work better than persuasion.
"I'm not a chicken," Carrie said rising to the challenge. "Here lemme see that stuff."
Hermione gave Carrie the lipstick and watched as her friend applied the light pink lipstick to her lips. Carrie looked at her own reflection in the mirror and was surprised to see that she didn't look half bad with the lipstick on.
"See, no that didn't hurt too much now did it?" Hermione asked with a smirk on her face.
"No…ok so you were right…it didn't kill me…" Carrie began when she was interrupted by Ginny who popped her head into the fifth year girl's dorm.
"Carrie Fred's getting impatient to leave, he said George and Lee already left."
"All right, tell him I'm coming," Carrie said as she began to look around for her shawl. "Hey Ginny, who's taking you to the dance?"
"Umm…" Ginny turned as red as her hair and looked down at the floor.
"Is it Harry? Or Colin?" Hermione asked abruptly. "Because Harry won't tell anyone who he's taking."
"No it's not Harry, I don't think he's taking anyone," Ginny said shyly.
"Neither's Ron," Carrie said. "Maybe they're taking each other."
Hermione and Ginny shot Carrie looks and then cracked up laughing.
"So Colin is taking you?" Hermione asked Ginny after the laughter sub-sided.
"Yeah, hey I left some of my make-up at home, you mind if I get ready in here?"
"Alright, I'm going," Carrie proclaimed. "I hate make-up and will leave it to you all." Carrie left the girls dorm and began to descend down the stairs to the common room. When she arrived she saw Fred slumped down in a chair facing the fire. Carrie snuck up behind him and covered his eyes with her hands.
"Guess who," She said smiling. Fred blinked his eyes several times and his eyelashes tickled her palms.
"Oh…wow this is going to be hard…uhhh…are you the Queen of England?"
"Nope."
"Uhhh…how about that singer person from America…uhhh…what's her name?"
"I donno, but I'm not her."
"Alright then I'm stumped. Unless you're my date for the dance."
"We have a winner!" Carrie said she took her hands off Fred's eyes. Fred stood up and turned towards Carrie.
"You look…nice." Fred was taken by surprise by how beautiful Carrie looked.
"Nice? Just nice?" Carrie asked as she raised her eyebrows. "Well then you look nice too, but you might want to close your mouth before anything unpleasant flies in there." Fred hadn't realized his mouth was hanging open until then. Closing it he blushed slightly.
"Come on, George and Lee already go the potion from under Lee's bed, so all we have to do is go wait and watch."
"Alright, let's go then." Carrie and Fred exited the common room and began to make their way to the Great Hall where the dance was going to take place. Up on their arrival Fred and Carrie saw that the only change to the Great Hall from the Halloween feat was that instead of four long tables there were many smaller one and that now off towards a far corner was a band who was setting their things up while a muggle radio played music.
"So, what do you want to do?" Carrie asked Fred as they stood looking around the room.
"Let's go find George and Lee and see if they've done the deed," Fred suggested.
"Yeah…the potion takes a couple of hours to work and since this dance is about four hours long that'll give us…"
"Thirty minutes of complete chaos before the dance is over," Fred concluded.
"Yup, so we can have time to ourselves and dance before we have to polish the trophy room," Carrie said smiling. Fred noticed that tonight was the first time since Carrie had come to school that her eyes were a sparkling blue color and she looked as if she was truly beginning to enjoy herself. Fred smiled as Lee and George approached them grinning.
"We did it," George said. "We put the stuff in a few minutes ago."
"Now what exactly does this stuff do?" Lee asked holding up a cup of punch.
"Well since I couldn't find a potion that made you just see a troll I found one that just made you see things in general…like one person might see daisies everywhere while someone else might see pigs," Carrie explained as she took the punch from Lee. "I wouldn't drink it that's for sure."
"Yeah, I think we should all pass," Fred said. Looking over at the table that held the punch bowl Carrie saw her dad, who happened to be chaperoning, take several glasses of punch over to the teachers. Carrie began to giggle helplessly and pointed out the teachers to her three friends.
"This promises to be an interesting night," George muttered to his friends as Draco handed Pansy a glass of punch.
"Maybe I should warn Draco…" Carrie began to say as the band started playing a slow song. The torches in the Hall went out and the only light in the Hall shown from the moon and the stars that shown brightly in the ceiling.
"Come on Carrie." Fred grabbed Carrie's arm and pulled her out onto the dance floor.
"But I…"
"We aren't telling Ron or Harry," Fred pointed out as her put his hands on Carrie's waist.
"Ok, ok, I won't tell Draco," Carrie said as she wrapped her arms around Fred's neck. "Wow you're taller than I thought," Carrie muttered under her breath.
"What was that?"
"Uhhh…nothing." Carrie rested her head on Fred's shoulder and closed her eyes.
Maybe I do like him, but do I like him in a sisterly way or a best friend way or in a couple way? I know all the girls who are in the sixth and seventh year are either head over heels for either Fred or George. It doesn't matter though, Fred doesn't like you like that, I mean why in the world would he want to date someone who's two years younger than him, ok sure it's not that much but Dad would defiantly freak out. Oh well, I'll just wait and see what happens.
Soon the song ended and Fred let go of Carrie. After awhile the band started to really pick up and the Great Hall was getting stuffy.
"You want to go outside and get some fresh air?" Fred shouted over the music.
"Sure! I know my eardrums could use the break!" Carrie answered. "How much longer do we have to wait?"
"Uhhhh…" Fred looked down at his watch. "About another two and a half hours!"
"Are we allowed to go outside?" Carrie asked as she and Fred made their way towards the big door that led into and out of the Great Hall.
Fred shrugged his shoulders. "Probably not."
"Well no one's stopping us," Carrie said and the two slipped outside into the cool October air. The two began to walk around on the grounds and Carrie soon realized that they were heading towards the Quidditch Field. A chilly breeze blew around them and Carrie shivered. Cursing under her breath she now wished she had found her shawl in her room.
"Cold?" Fred asked smiling warmly. Carrie felt her insides melt.
"Yeah," She answered through chattering. She began to rub her hands up and down her arms in attempt to get warm.
"You want to go back inside?" Fred asked stopping. Carrie looked from him to the castle and back to him. What would I have said back at home when I was with Jarred? Let's go into the forest and fool around some? But I'm not like that anymore and Fred's not like that either. If we go back inside we'll be swamped with people and I'm kind-a enjoying the quite.
"No…I'll be fine, let's stay out here a little bit longer," Carrie said as she looked around for somewhere to go and sit. "You want to go into the Quidditch Field and sit down?"
"Sure."
The two walked the rest of the way to the field in silence. Fred steeped up onto one of the rows of seats that lined the Field and offered his hand down to Carrie, who took it and Fred helped her up onto the seats. They sat down and Fred wrapped his arm around Carrie. She rested her head on his shoulder and smiled. When she had first gotten here to Hogwarts she had been lost with out her best friends and longed for AJ and Luke's companionship. Whenever she was with her new friends they would slowly remind her of her home back in America. Tonight was the first real time she was enjoying England.
"What's America like?" Fred asked after several minutes of silence.
"It's not to much different than England. Of course we have different accents over there and we use different words for things and a different system of measuring. Also where I used to live it wasn't as cold as it was here. And people over here are much nicer than in America…even though the southern folk are quite caring."
"People nicer here? Did you think this before or after you met Draco?" Fred was answered by being elbowed in the ribs by his friend. "Sorry," He muttered.
"Actually I know some people who were meaner than Draco, well maybe mean in a different way."
Fred wasn't too shocked by this comment. Draco was a snot-ball, unless Carrie was around, so he wasn't the scum of the earth.
"Who?"
Carrie sighed. If she were going to tell Fred about her past now would be a good time, she had been trying to decided when the best time to tell him was for weeks, and now seemed to be the time.
"Me," Carrie said in a weak voice.
"You?" Fred asked not believing Carrie, she was too nice to have been mean…ever. "You meaner than Draco? That's impossible." Carrie sat up from Fred's chest and sighed.
"Actually no, it's not."
"I don't believe you, you're to nice and happy," Fred said as his arm fell from around Carrie's shoulders.
"Well yeah sure now I am…but I wasn't. If you don't think I wasn't ever mean then what I really did will blow your mind," Carrie said hanging her head ashamed of herself and the things she actually did.
"What? What did you do?" Fred asked precariously.
Carrie sighed and looked at the empty field in front of them. She had a far away look in her eyes, as she remembered what had happened not so long ago. "Well you know how I told you that the dances at our school were pretty bad cause those kids would beat other ones up?" Fred nodded hoping that Carrie wasn't about to actually admit what he was thinking. "Yeah well, that was me, and well some of the other kids I hung out with. Also I've been arrested by muggle police, for several different offences, mainly stealing, under age gambling, and vandalism. Don't even get me started about what I did with guys cause you don't need, or want to hear let me assure you."
Fred starred at Carrie as she told him about her old-self, the self she hated and was even scared of. When Carrie was done she looked over into her best friends' eyes, her own brimming with unshed tears.
"That's…I can't…you did all that stuff?" Fred asked shocked.
"You don't hate me do you? Cause I mean I'm not like that anymore…" Carrie began to say as tears flooded down her checks. Fred held up a hand over her mouth silencing her.
"Carrie, I could never, ever hate you, you're my best friend and I don't care what you were like back in America but who you are today."
Carrie pulled Fred's hand away from her mouth so she could actually talk. "But that's not the worst thing I did…well actually I didn't actually do it but I almost did."
"Carrie you know you don't have to tell me this if you don't want to," Fred said softly.
"No you need to know this, I mean best friends tell each other everything right?" Carrie asked slightly smiling. Fred didn't move or respond. "Well my friends and I…well…we were going to be Death Eaters this year, you know you can sign up as early as your fifth year…but I wasn't sure then and now I know I'm never going to ever go be one…you do believe me don't you? You do believe that I'd never do that now don't you?" Carrie looked at Fred pleadingly tears cascading down her checks.
"I believe you, I mean friends trust each other right?" Fred asked smiling as he wiped tears from Carrie's checks.
"Right," Carrie answered. Smiling she sprang out of her seat and gave Fred a huge bear hug. "I knew you'd understand," She whispered.
"Yeah, well do you want to go back to the party now? I mean your lips are turning blue-ish purple…you aren't cold are you?" Fred asked jokingly.
"Yeah, let's go on in." Carrie grinned and followed Fred down to the empty Quidditch Field. Fred kept walking but Carrie stopped and looked up at the stars.
"Carrie you coming?" Fred asked as he noticed that his companion wasn't at his side.
"You can see the stars so clearly from here," Carrie informed Fred, who sighed and joined his friends side and looked up at the velvet black sky. The stars sparkled like diamonds and Fred understood how this could awe Carrie. She had told him before that she was from the city and the streetlights and everything blocked the stars. The two looked up at the stars for a while and then made their way back inside.
Back inside Fred saw his little brother and Hermione dancing and smiled. "You think they'll hook up?" He asked Carrie pointing to the pair.
"I donno," Carrie answered shrugging. The song that was playing had stopped and a slow song began to play. "Let's dance." Carrie pulled Fred out onto the dance floor and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Half way through the song one of the older Ravenclaw girls left out an ear-piercing scream. Carrie's head jerked up off Fred's should and looked at him. "What time is?"
"Time for the potion to start working," He answered grinning devilishly. Carrie grinned back up at him and quickly found George and Lee. Lee was cracking up laughing when Carrie and Fred sat down next to him at one of the tables.
"This is great! I had this one little first year boy come up and ask why there were tulips everywhere and why there was one growing out of my hair!" Lee stated laughing.
Every face in the room was showing complete fear, happiness or confusion. Carrie smiled in satisfaction at how things were turning out. The dance was complete chaos. One kid was running all over the place shouting, "The mushrooms are attacking!" while another one has run into the snake table knocking the snacks and punch all of themselves and anyone who was standing near-by.
"Oh my gosh! We better split!" George shouted pointing to a very angry Professor McGonagall who was advancing one the group of friends. The faces of the friends showed shock and then cracked into a smile as a seventh-yearer came up and informed her she was wearing a chicken suit. (Which she was not wearing.)
"Let's go," Lee shouted and the four ran from the party towards the common room.
"HOLD ON!" Carrie shouted skidding to a stop. All of her friends froze.
"What?" Fred asked raising his eyebrows and looked back towards the party.
"She'll look for us first in our own common room, let's split up." Carrie purposed. "Two of us can go to one of the towers and the other two and go to the kitchens or somewhere like that."
"Good idea," George said. "Lee and I'll go to the kitchens and you two go to one of the towers." George winked at his twin before her and Lee sprinted down the corridor towards the kitchen and Carrie and Fred ran to one of the many towers that were part of their school.
"This had been one of the best school dances I've ever been to," Carrie told Fred as they turned a corner carefully and looking out for Mrs. Norris.
"Same here," Fred said smiling and the two climbed up the stairs to the North Tower.
(OK sorry it's taken so long for me to post this but one I was having a bit of writer's block and then ff.net was being all weird….so here it is….hope you enjoy. J )