Disclaimer: NOT MINE!
Chapter 25
Preparations
Life in Hogwarts was very relaxed with the exams out of the way and lessons considerably easier and there was hardly any homework, and none at all for the seventh years. In fact the seventh years' lessons had been cancelled. They did whatever they wanted, went wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. Mostly the Gryffindors hung around the Quidditch pitch where they had a lot of girls versus boys games.
Lily kept worrying about her exams but everyone assured her that she'd do really well. At dinner one day Dumbledore suddenly announced that there would be a leaving school ball for the seventh years on Saturday night. Thursday being the day that he told them left all of Friday to go shopping. Sarah, Anna, Vicky and Lily were all really excited; balls meant two things dresses and dates. Vicky would obviously be going with her boyfriend Remus and Lily would definitely be going with her boyfriend James, they weren't going to have many friends when the other girls found out that two of the most handsome boys in the year were already taken.
Katie didn't have a date and she didn't care. She didn't even want to go to the ball really, she wasn't in the mood. The others were making her go to the ball though and they kept assuring her that she'd have a good time, but Katie wasn't so sure. She finished her dinner and went back up to the common room, closely followed by Vicky and Lily. Anna and Sarah followed shortly after but Sarah forgot her bag and had to go back for it so Anna carried on by herself. Sarah picked up her bag and turned to leave but someone stopped her. They grabbed her arm and she span round. It was Andrew Wood.
"Um…Sarah? Do you want to go to the ball with me?" he stammered and went red. Sarah smiled and her eyes lit up.
"Yes of course I would!" she said and they went up to Gryffindor tower together. The other guys smiled and laughed, he had liked her for ages and had only just got the courage to ask her out. Remus and James already had dates but they were worried about Sirius. He never laughed or smiled anymore and he didn't seem interested in Quidditch or girls much anymore, his two favourite things. He had given his heart to Kate and she had ripped it in half and thrown it back at him, even the picture of her as a deatheater scared James and Remus.
That night in the Gryffindor common room the seventh years, minus Peter no one knew where he was, were all sat around the fire. Lily and James were talking, James would normally have been playing exploding snap with Katie, but she wasn't in the mood. She was sat there; expressionless staring at the fire with glazed eyes. Sirius was exactly the same. He now seemed to be permanently thinking he was probably making up for the seventeen years he had missed out on joked James. Remus was, you'll never guess, reading! And so was Vicky except no one actually thought they were reading it. Sarah and Anna were talking about Quidditch with Andrew.
"I don't know what's wrong with him, he's so serious!" James began and Lily laughed silently to herself. "What? Oh no! Lily I'm being serious with this over used joke!" Lily laughed even more and after she'd calmed down said; "I know what you mean. Katie's exactly the same. She doesn't talk, sleep or eat and I haven't seen her laugh since Sirius started going out with Kate" she said earnestly.
"Yeah, that was a mistake" James rolled his eyes, Lily agreed and felt sorry for both Sirius and Katie. "Lily? You will go to the ball with me won't you?" he asked looking nervous.
"Of course I am!" she laughed at his relieved face. "So Remus is going with Vicky, obviously. I dunno who Sarah's going with yet…"
"Wood" James interrupted.
"Thank god! I wondered when those two were going to get together!" Lily laughed. "Anna doesn't have anyone…yet! But I know who she'd like to go with" she added slyly.
"Who?" asked James.
"Ben Summers" James' face was blank "tall, dark, Hufflepuff, friends with Diggory, keeper…"
"Ah I know who he is"
"Boys! Honestly! Mention anything remotely to do with Quidditch and they know it!"
"Well that just leaves Katie and Sirius," said James changing the subject.
"Who make a great couple" Lily said.
"And should go together"
"And forget all this rubbish"
"And we should help them by telling them that the other one's interested" James said.
"Great plan!" said Lily and they both laughed.
They were all planning to go to Hogsmeade the next day. The guys wanted to go together and so did the girls. They weren't going to go at the same time though because they wanted to make it a surprise. All the girls were excited at the prospect of shopping, except Katie who was forced by the others. They kept telling her that Sirius didn't have a date but he was still getting robes, at the same time the guys were telling exactly the same to Sirius but said it about Katie. Sarah wasn't very good at the subtle thing though and kept just telling Katie to go with Sirius and put everyone out of his or her misery.
They went to Gladrag's wizardwear where their friend Jessica Twizzle worked. Jessica was in her thirties and was friends with the five girls. She had graduated from Hogwarts and gone straight into wizard fashion. She designed most of the robes herself and had simply duplicated them.
They arrived at the shop and Jessica's head snapped up as she heard the familiar tinkle of the bell. Her face lit up as she saw them and she rushed ver to them.
"Hi you guys!" she smiled. "What's up Katie?"
"Nothing" she sighed.
" It's not nothing, I haven't seen you this down ever!" she said looking concerned.
"It's Sirius Black," said Lily.
"Yeah, I mean it is so NOT Sirius Black" she shrieked and folded her arms.
"But you want to go to the ball with him" said Vicky mischievously.
"No I don't!" said Katie.
"But he wants to go with you" said Lily smiling.
"No he…. really?" she asked and went silent. The others started talking and followed Jess upstairs. The corners of Katie's mouth twitched but she still refused to smile.
They all went into the upstairs room where there were five changing cubicles. Jessica explained to them that she had decided to take on a little project and had designed them each the perfect dress robes. They all went into their separate dressing rooms and Sarah, Anna and Vicky emerged shortly after. Jessica grinned.
Sarah's robes were sky blue and it had swirly, silver, glittery patters on the under skirt. She looked really pretty in it. Ana's were lilac with dark purple sequins on it. Vicky's were silvery and had a blue sash and blue ribbons round the neck and sleeves.
"Katie? Lils? You coming out?" Anna called.
"NO!" they called back in unison.
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?" asked Sarah nicely. Slowly the curtain opened on Katie's cubicle and she dragged herself out and glared at the others. Her robes were red, she never wore red, and she hated it. It had wavy black lines around the sleeves and bottom. She still looked miserable but lightened up a bit when they smiled.
"Lily?" Vicky called.
"I'm not coming out and you can't make me!" she said defiantly.
"Why not?" Vicky asked.
"Because" that was the best answer Lily could think of in the short period of time.
"We'll tell James that you like that muggle band Westlife and have posters all over your room!" Katie said and the others silently thanked her. She was lightening up now.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! You can't do that!" she yelled and ran out to strangle Katie. But stopped as the others all gasped. The robes were green and had gold ribbons on them.
"See, I told you I didn't like them, I look like a Slytherin!" she whined.
"No you don't!" said Sarah.
"Stop being stupid Lily Evans, you know you look gorgeous!" said Anna bossily and they all laughed.
They thanked Jessica lots and lots and paid for their dress robes. She was happy and told them that she expected to see photographs! They laughed as they walked up to the castle.
