Carpe Diem: Second Year Revision
by Alec6427/NecessaryEvil
Disclaimer: Yeah their mine, I play chess with Ron every morning, beat Harry at Quidditch every afternoon, get tutored by Hermione every evening, and shag Cho every night*checks crystal ball* look there's a snow storm down there in hell.
A/N: Ok now I'm working on three Harry Potter stories and may be getting back to work on my Dark Angel story, so things might take longer to get done. Plz be patient.
Now for you Reviewers:
Ecl@ir: Thanks for reviewing.
Chen: I'll try to write a longer chapter this time, mate.
Anonymous: Well I'm continuing to write. Look at that, I just wrote something.
Cho-Chang: Ok first off I like to give my reviewers notes, cuz it just feels so good to have reviewers to give them to, and I like getting the notes in other peoples stories when I review. Second of all David may be a good friend of mine, but he's also a bit of a git, he's a Hermione/Harry shipper just because he knows it will piss me off. Don't take offense from anything he says, it's just the way he is. Hope you like this next chapter.
Well then we should push on shouldn't we. On with the show mates.
Chapter Thirteen:
Finally Halloween
October finally rolled around (A/N: What you thought it already passed and I just skipped it?) and the students began eagerly awaiting the end of the month when they would have the Halloween feast. They couldn't stop telling the first years and transfer students how great they always were. It was the topic on everyone's lips, well except for Harry and Cho (ahh aren't they cute).
Then a few days into the month Dumbledore stood up to make and announcement during the evening meal, "Attention please, I would like to announce a change of plans in the end of the months activities. We as teachers are swamped trying to teach classes, grade papers, and figure out what the ruins out front are. Knowing this Mr. Finn, the un-official voice of Draconis house has offered to plan and put together a Halloween party and dance, with the help of some of his house mates and the full service of the school's house elves,"
There was a slight murmur among the houses, but seeing as the activities had been upgraded from a feast to a party no one saw much fault in the plan. Everyone was more concerned with who would be their date for the dance portion. Harry and Cho merely shared a look and smiled before starting up snogging again.
*
Once back in the Draconis house Harry asked the question all of them had been dreading, "So who are the unfortunate souls who get with part duty with you?"
"Well, I've got Fred and George and Ben down. Anyone else want to volunteer?"
"I'll do it," came Jess and Jen's voices.
"Well that makes six, plus all of the House-elves. Should be enough,"
"Good,"
"Now to get everyone a date,"
*
A task which was even harder than it sounded. Harry and Cho of course were set, Fred and George both had the honor of taking a Gryfindor chaser, Colin was going stag so he could be the parties photographer, but everyone else was left having to actually ask their dates.
Ron as predicted showed no sign of getting up the backbone to ask Hermione out for a long while. He finally asked her just days before the dance and she said yes, too everyone's great relief as Ron had been pacing at night practicing his speech to make sure it was perfect when he asked Hermione.
Harry had the unfortunate luck of walking by as Will asked Jen to the dance, it went something like this;
"Jen, will you please go to the dance with me,"
"For the last time Will, I'm not interested. Move on,"
"You know how I feel about you,"
"I know how you think you feel about me. You don't love me Finn, it's just an obsession,"
"I do love you, and if you ever need a shoulder to cry on I'm here for you, but you're right I should move on," and then Will began walking off muttering, "No matter how I play things out she'll never believe someone could love her. Shows me how things can't be changed,"
Ron had the unfortunate luck of being just feet away from Draco's successful attempt;
"Ginny, I know that you're family hates me (damn straight), but would you please do me the..."
"Don't finish that sentence if you don't mean it Malfoy,"
"...honor of being my date to the dance,"
"Sure, why not," at which point both Draco and Ginny turned as they heard a strangled cry from nearby, but they didn't see anyone.
After that Harry couldn't have beaten the process out of his housemates, but the results stood as Ben going with Jess, Jen going with the Hufflepuff seeker Cedric Diggory, April and Ernie going together, Dean going with April's sister the Hufflepuff chaser June, Ember going with the Ravenclaw keeper Lyra Penndragon, and Hermes going with the Ravenclaw seeker Winnie Lau (A/N: What with the transfers, the fear of the new houses skills, and just cuz I don't remember what the house teams were for all of the houses many of the Qudditch teams changed their line up). Jeremy and Mike both decided to go stag after what they assured their housemates was a long line of humiliating attempts to get a date. Will said that he had only made one attempt because there was only one girl he wanted, but still after trying to hint another attempt at Jen went stag. Faith(no last name) refused to go.
*
The day of the dance arrived and everyone started getting ready (this'll be funny) Cho had picked out some dress robes for Harry at the last Hogsmeade visit since second years weren't allowed to go. She had gotten him emerald green (aww that's no fun) ones with gold trim. Harry put on his robes and picked up his mask (hey its Halloween after all) went to wait for Cho in the Common Room. When she came out of the girls dormitory Harry's jaw nearly dropped. She was wearing a white gown with little golden wings on the back and little lights dancing around her head.
"Well Mr. Potter how do you like my costume," she teased seeing his reaction quite clearly.
Harry recovered and decided to smooth talk, "What costume,"
"Oh don't tell me I went to all that trouble and you don't even notice it,"
"All I see is the same angel that is my Cho,"
Cho grinned, "For once Harry, flattery is getting you somewhere,"
Harry grinned back.
*
The Draconis house minus Dean, Ember, Draco, Hermes, Fred, George, and Ron who were picking up their dates, were gathered in the Common room all in some degree of costume. Harry had a classic costume ball mask, Cho was as said before an angel, Will and Ben had matching Werewolf costumes (some of these costumes will be further explained later), Jennifer had black angel wings, April had put on fake horns and a tail with her black dress and was wielding a pitchfork, a very harassed looking Ernie was sporting six extra arms that Harry hoped were fake, Colin was wearing an outfit you would expect to see on a private eye in an old American muggle movie, Jessica was quite cute in an elf outfit (Lord of the Rings or Everquest elf not house-elf) complete with ears and fairer than usual skin, Jeremy had merely sprouted a white horn out of the middle of his forehead (some sort of demon costume?), and Mike was fully decked out as a knight.
Being as they were closely knit unit (Malfoy already left) they waited for Jen's date to arrive before leaving for the dance. Cedric was dressed as a stereotypical Vampire and Harry couldn't help but notice a distressed look on Jen's face (hmm, interesting)
*
(A/N: Let's wander a bit at the dance)
At the dance Fred and Angelina Johnson were making quite a sensation on the dance floor with their wild moves, but they were nothing compared to George and Alecia Spinnet. Elsewhere Ember and Lyra were making fun of the dance while they played a bit of poker. Dean and June spent most of their time eating and chatting while Hermes and Winnie spent all of their time on the dance floor. Draco and Ginny also spent much of their time dancing, but occasionally sat down and found something to talk about. Ron and Hermione danced some, but Hermione sat them down when Ron kept stepping on her feet because he was glaring at Draco. Jen and Cedric sat down almost immediately and began a confidential chat after a few minutes of which Cedric cried out and got up and left. Jen went over to Will who was near Harry and asked, "What was that you were saying about a shoulder,"
Will looked at her solemnly and asked, "You told hi..," Jen nodded, "Moron doesn't know what he's missing, " and those two spent the rest of the dance just hugging and with Will comforting her.
April and Ernie joined Dean and June and had a royally good time eating and chatting through the whole night. Jeremy found a Gryfindor girl who had decided to go alone and danced with her for most of the time. Ben and Jess were quite comfortable with each other having known each other since... well quite a long time, and spent their time talking, dancing, and eating. Colin went around taking pictures of all of the couples.
Harry and Cho were in a daze when they saw the magnificent decorations. They could see the romantic in Will and supposedly Ben (since their supposed to be so much alike) they could see the pranksters in Fred and George, they could see the innocence in Jessica, and they could see the dark side of Jen. The walls were split into quadrants one part had things like ghosts and living lovers reuniting on Halloween, another was like a tribute to Peeves and his kind, another part had the cartoon like versions of all of the classic Halloween creatures excluding Vampires oddly enough, and the last bit had Vampires biting people, werewolves slashing people, and all the horrors of Halloween in detail.
Harry now seeing Jen's problems with vampires, though he still didn't know why, was hardly surprised to see that there weren't and bats on the ceiling this year, but instead there were hundreds of Ravens. It was strange seeing them hanging from what looked like thin air (the ceiling looks like the sky outside).
The food was all delicious and the drinks were something he had never tasted before called Butterbeer. It was actually a great night. It got better when Harry got what was coming to him for his compliment. Cho smiled at him and said, "Come on Potter. Time for you to stop your attempts at dancing (Harry sucked) to get what's coming to you," and with that Cho kissed him very very much.
Harry pulled away, much to Cho's surprise, but before she could even consider being pissed he explained, "Being with you is reward enough," and then kissed her lightly and sweetly.
*
A/N: Not quite done with the dance, but I want to get this out now. R/R