A/N: this sarted as an insert in 'Past Partner' but it evolved into it's own story.
"There's going to be a dance!" Lily Evans called like a maniac, red hair streaming behind her, running into the Gryffindor common room nearly plowing James over as she kissed him. "There's going to be a masquerade ball right before Christmas break, fourth years and up are invited!"
Rachel Edwards and Sarah McKinley slowly walked in after their friend smiling slightly at how childish she was being. The marauders were all sitting around the fire except for Peter who was probably in the library studying; he was always studying in order to keep up with the rest. Rachel moved to the couch where Remus was sitting in front of the fire as he smiled taking her hand and kissing her on the cheek. James leaned against the arm of the couch with Lily in front of him, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist. Sirius sat in a chair facing the fire as he played with a package of new toys. Sarah smiled sitting down in the opposite chair as she picked up a book and started to read.
"What's that mean?" Sirius asked as he put down the package since he couldn't break the packaging.
"Well," Lily smiled; "we get to dress up, dance, stay up late and wear masks so no one finds out who you are. You can be totally wild at it cause no one will ever know!"
Sarah reached over picking up Sirius' package and pulled out a quill popping the wrapper then handed it back to Sirius.
"Oh," he told Lily taking the package from Sarah. "So who's going to be the band?"
"The Warlocks," Rachel announced happily smiling broadly at Remus.
Remus chuckled a bit; "well I guess that means we're going." Rachel was in love with the Warlocks as everyone knew.
"I better get going, I told Jessica I would help her with her homework," Rachel smiled kissing Remus and heading off to her common room. Rachel was in Ravenclaw but everyone swore she should of been in Gryffindor and she was a tutor to earn extra money to help out her family. Remus was completely in love with her.
Sarah smiled at Remus who was like an older brother always ready to listen to her problems. Then there was James who was very protective of her but always could poke fun at her when she needed to be poked fun at. Peter was in her mind like a big brother to her, but she also knew that on some level he had a crush on her.
Finally there was Sirius, and while the girls knew no one else did, who she was completely in love with. He could always make her smile no matter what he did with a devilish grin that half the girls in Hogwarts had succumb to. He also needed to be taken care of since his motto seemed to be: 'act before you speak,' it reminded her of a small puppy who needed looking after. Even though he was a clown to most of the school, he did have a serious side which was actually very intelligent and Sarah doted on.
"It'll be so much fun!" Lily smiled; "Sarah, you, Rachel and I will have to go shopping for dresses tomorrow at Hogsmeade."
"Why can't we just wear dress robes?" James asked frowning.
"Because it says you need to wear dresses and slacks," Lily said pointing to a flier that was in her hand.
"That's not good," Sarah whispered looking at Remus.
"Why?" Sirius asked setting down his prank toys and getting back into the conversation again.
"Rachel," Remus answered; "money's been real tight since her stepbrother died."
Rachel was a half and half witch. Her father was a wizard and her mother a muggle, Rachel was the only child of the marriage. Her mother had given birth to a boy when she was barely twenty, five years later she met Rachel's father and two years later Rachel was born. Rachel's brother Mark, had gotten in a car crash only four months ago, was on life support for about a month then died. It had been hard for the Edwards to coop with the death and the expenses that went along with it so any extras were out of the question at the time.
"She's going," Lily said finally; "if I have to beg Petunia for the rest of my life and then be her house elf till the end of time, she's going."
Lily was muggle born, but because of Lord Voldemort her parents had been killed last year around Christmas. She lived with her psychotic sister, Petunia, now who was about as nice as a cactus. Lily chose to stay at other people's house for any vacations she had to take and rarely asked for anything since her sister would give her such a hard time about it later.
"Hold on," James smiled; "before you go selling yourself into slavery maybe I could ask my parents for help?"
James was a lot like the rest of the group in the back ground department. Peter, Remus, Sirius, James, and Sarah were all pure bloods. His family was an old wizarding family though, far older than the rest; sometimes they would joke about James being related to Gryffindor himself since everyone in his family was in Gryffindor. But it was also a well known fact that the Potters were loaded.
"And perhaps I can ask mine?" Sarah offered. But everyone looked at her doubtfully; "fine not my parents, but my gram would help."
Sarah's background was not one she liked to crack into so few knew about it, only James knew the whole truth. Both her parents had been in Ravenclaw and wrote angry letters about the sorting hat making a mistake when Sarah was placed in Gryffindor. Her parents were living off of her father's parents' money but she did have one more relative. Her mother's mother absolutely adored her, and was in fact also a Gryffindor graduate who married a muggle. She was primped for the life of a lady witch and things were expected of her at home, but not at Hogwarts.
"I'll see if my parents can cough up a few galleons as well," Sirius smirked at Remus; "don't worry Moony. If I can't have a date for the dance then I make sure yours isn't stolen from you."
"What are you talking about?" James asked as he hugged Lily a bit tighter; "I thought you were dating Melony from Hufflepuff?"
"Emphasis on were," he sighed playing with the prank toys again; "we didn't have enough in common."
"Code talk for she couldn't kiss," Lily smiled.
"No," Sirius protested.
"She didn't like Quidditch?" Remus tried.
"No," he stated.
"She didn't laugh at the last prank?" James asked.
"No."
"She wasn't that intelligent and she didn't know how to get past the clown part and be serious," Sarah stated as she continued reading.
"Exactly," Sirius smiled roguishly at Sarah; "you think you could find me another girlfriend?"
There was one fact though about Sarah that everyone knew, she was the queen of matchmaking. She was a year behind the others (them being in sixth and her in fifth), but her watchful eye always saw things others didn't. She had been the one who tipped off James about Lily's feelings for him and she had also shown Rachel that Remus was daydreaming about her in class. She was the little sister who would see things that others would forget to notice. "I doubt I can find another girlfriend for you Sirius," she told him closing her book; "you've dated almost everyone from seventh to fourth years. Who would I hook you up with, a professor?"
Everyone laughed but Lily watched Sarah, she knew it was hard for her to have to help Sirius with this since she was in love with the boy and to make it worse the poor fool didn't even know! Sirius, like the others, dismissed her as simply a kid sister and Lily knew that had to hurt though they meant well.
"So do we go shopping for dresses tomorrow?" Lily asked her.
"Sure," Sarah smiled back.
When Rachel found out they needed formal dresses she became very depressed but at breakfast before they set out for Hogsmeade owls from James' parents, Sirius' parents, Remus' parents and Sarah's grandmother arrived getting more than enough money for Rachel to buy two dresses! She was finished crying by the end of breakfast as Sarah and Lily started to escort her to Hogsmeade.
"Sarah!" Sirius called; "I think your owl just got here."
Sarah turned to see her barn owl, Athena, come towards her with a hurtful look and drop a letter in her hands. Curiously she opened it to find it was from her parents.
Dear Sarah Elisabeth,
It has come to our attention that there is a ball at Hogwarts right before your winter break. Your mother and I would like to inform you that you are not to attend this gathering. It is not the right time in your life to attend such childish things.
We would also like to inform you of the plans for your break. Your grandmother has been feeling a bit weaker so you will not be troubling her this year. Your mother and I will be away in Greece during this time so we expect you to stay at Hogwarts and start studying for your exams.
Sincerely,
your father and mother
Sarah shook her head and smiled weakly at her two friends. "Anything wrong?" Lily asked.
"I can't go to the dance," she told them; "you guys go ahead. I'm going to go study." And before the two could stop her she had already run up the stairs to the common room.
(A/N): Oh! Don't you just hate me. Worse don't you hate her parents!