a/n:   Something happy actually happens to Sennin in this chapter! Yay! *claps*

The formatting for this document, and (seemingly) every other document related to Siandra seems to have completely died.  Yet still, I am happy.  Why?  Because I just successfully broke into my own house, having forgotten my key, the effects of my late night Ramune (a.k.a. tiredness) have worn off, I have Limonata, and (getting back to the matter at hand) this is a very good chapter.  I think that everyone who has read this book so far has especially liked this chapter, perhaps because it has nice characterization, is one of the few chapters that I actually got the inspiration for before I sat down to write it.  You will definitely leave this chapter wondering why on earth everyone doesn't just go with who they want to go with, which indeed is very realistic.  SO, you probably are done hearing my, rather egotistical this time, ranting and want to get on with the story and so I shall let you.

GRAMMAR ALERT: I have noticed, when reading my own story on FanFic in my occasional boredom, that I actually NEED to check my grammar/spelling prior to uploading it to the site, despite having gone over it before.  This time, all mistakes can be held accountable to me and I will try my very best not to say something like "the all waited anxiously in the Great Hal".  Thank you!

GRAMMAR UPDATE: Um…I was reading through this and found that some of the words are actually covered by an infinite blackness, or go off the page so that I am unable to scroll to them…no, this is not just an excuse...I LIKE editing, but my computer is now being rather…evil.    

F I G H T S   A N D   F R A U D U L E N C E

S

iandra did not wake up bright and early Thursday morning.  She was up late on Wednesday because of Astronomy, but also because she worked on the homework assignment a lot after the class was over.  She and Lily had to do an oral report on Pluto and she was ransacking her dormitory for information into the wee hours of the morning.  She had to be poked with Gina's alarm clock before she would even budge.  She walked down to the Great Hall for breakfast with Claire and Lily and settled into a seat at the end of the table, next to the rest of the first years.  There was something different about this morning though: no one had any food. They chatted about why for a moment.

            "I think the house-elves must've run out of food," commented Leanne.

            "Run out of food?  How could they, Dumbledore makes sure of that!" said Gina. She was right, of course.

            "What are house-elves?" asked Lily.

            "They are these funny little creatures that like to work for people.  They're working in the Hogwarts kitchens.  Hogwarts had the largest amount of them together!" explained Claire. 

            "Wow," said Lily, "And they just do all your housework? My mom would sure like one of those!"

            Then Dumbledore raised his hands from his seat at the high table.  Silence fell throughout the room like a tidal wave. 

            "I have a very important announcement for you all," he said rather glumly, "That this year, by popular demand, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry will be holding the ANNUAL SPRING DANCE!"

            There was a cascade of cheers down all four of the house tables.

            "Yes!" said Gina, "A dance!  This will be so fun!"

            "And," Dumbledore continued, "All years will be able to attend.  The spring dance is held during Easter Vacation, so I suggest that you get your partners before then.  Thank you."

            And the dishes were now filled with food.

            Not everyone was overjoyed at the prospect of the upcoming dance. 

            "I'm not going," Claire said resignedly during Potions class, "And if I do come, which will just be for the food, I won't get a partner."

            Siandra was doubtful about this because it seemed as though everyone else was getting a partner or at least thinking about whom they'd like to ask.  If Siandra knew Claire, she'd not want to be the only one either not going or without a partner.

            By the end of the day, the big news was that Gina had asked Sirius to the dance and he said 'yes'.  Siandra, Betty, Claire, and Lily found this out for themselves Thursday afternoon at five when Gina came in giggling.

            "Spit it out, then," coaxed Betty.       

            "Well, I went on this walk…"

            "And?" asked Betty.  She was very anxious to hear the news that Gina had.  She knew Gina very well and she knew she couldn't keep it in very long. 

            "Well, I will tell you that I asked out some one," Gina said very slowly and blushed.  "I won't say any more."

            The rest of the dormitory was immediately interested.

            "You don't have to tell me, but you can if you want, and I'd really like to know," encouraged Lily.

            Gina fell onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. "Sirius," she said dreamily.  Everyone else jumped up and looked excited.

            "Do you know what you're going to wear?" asked Betty.

            "Hmm…. I have these nice navy blue satin robes, I think that they set off my hair and my eye color.  I'll get them out…" Gina started digging through her trunk while a figure came clomping up the stairs and swung open the door.

            "SIRIUS!" it said, "SNAPE IS GOING OUT WITH — Oh, it's girl's.  Sorry about that," said James and rushed away.

            "Hey!" said Lily, "Tell us who Snape's going out with, then!"

            "SIRIUS!" he yelled, obviously in the common room.  The girl's dormitory listened very intently.  "Snape is going to the Spring Dance with Anna!"

            "Anna?" asked Betty, "Are they talking about Anna Wilkes?"

            Anna Wilkes was a sort of pretty Slytherin girl.  It depends what your view on 'pretty' is.  She looked very evil to Siandra.  She had wavy long shiny black hair and inky black eyes, like Snape.  Always, under her black robes, she wore a golden snake armlet with glowing red eyes.  Siandra had a suspicion that she might be part veela, or perhaps all veela.  Teachers always called on Anna, even Professor Comora did.  Siandra didn't understand why she even went to Hogwarts if the teachers were so into "distractions to the learning environment".  Anna definitely qualified as a distraction. 

            "Has to be, I can see why Snape's going with her.  She's probably the best girl in Slytherin.  I think quite a lot of them look like hags and are just as mean," said Gina.

            "That's not very nice," said Lily.

            "But they're Slytherins! They're sure not nice," protested Gina.

            "I suppose so," said Lily, thinking about it.  They were all getting antsy over the prospect of the coming ball, and also the fact that neither of them had partners yet.

            The next day, Lily was asked out.  Siandra realized this in Herbology.  Lily sat in front of her and she was paired with Gardenia.

            "Someone's asked out Lily!" said Gardenia cheerfully.

            "Is this true?" Siandra asked Lily.  She thought that she'd be the first on Lily's list that she would tell about this, besides Claire.

            Lily giggled, "Yes, but I will tell you who later."

            "Why did she tell you?" Siandra asked Gardenia.

            "Er…she didn't tell me, I guessed!"  Gardenia said proudly, "I'm really good at telling these types of things!"

            Siandra didn't know it, but she was in for a big surprise.  When she came out of History of Magic, the big surprise was to be revealed.  Binns was boring, as usual.  Today he was treating them to a lecture on the Triumphs and Failures of the Triwizard Tournament. It was a very interesting topic, but not the way Binns was teaching it.

            One Hufflepuff boy in particular was very curious about Binns.  He was convinced that he had a 'better side' and if he prodded him enough that Binns would show it.

            "Is it true that your real name's Bartholomew?  I found that out when I was eaves-dropping by the staff room!" he said very loudly.

            Bartholomew Binns stopped for a brief moment.

            " — and a convention of warlocks started to seriously consider outlawing such a dangerous sport for such young wizardry as — "  Binns rattled on monotonously.  

            Siandra napped during the rest of the class and when the bell rang, she gathered up her books into her bag and scurried out of the dusty room.

            Someone tapped her on the shoulder.  It was James.  

            "Er…" he said, "Meet me in…class four o nine…after lunch… okay?"

            "What?" asked Siandra, there were too big of spaces between the words for her to understand what he meant.

            "Meetmeinclassfouronineafterlunchokay?" he asked.

            "Okay!" agreed Siandra and hurried off.  What could James possibly want with her at four?  Maybe he was going to help her with Transfiguration.  That would be good, because he was quite good at it, she thought, and ran into the lunchroom.  Lunch was bagels and cream cheese with the usual iced pumpkin juice.  Siandra ate her bagel with ease and chatted with Lily about Pluto.  She saw James at the end of the table wink at her as he finished his bagel and run up the stairs.  Siandra scarfed down her bagel and went to hurry after James.

            "Oy!" said Lily indignantly, "Where are you going?  Are you following James?  Why are you — but wait — you — didn't he go with — hey! That's not the way to the common room!"       

            Siandra ran off behind James.  She was running over the thing that he had said to her.  Had he said to meet her at four o'nine?  But it was after lunch and it was only twelve ten and he said after lunch.  Siandra then supposed that he meant the class number.  It must be one of those unused classrooms on the fourth floor.  Siandra climbed the winding flight of stairs up to a corridor on the fourth floor.  She followed the golden sign that said 410 — 400 and she soon came to room 409.  There was no one there. It was very deserted there.  There were a few powder blue puffy chairs, a chalkboard, and a cabinet with an ivy design in the woodwork.  She sat down at one of the chairs to wait.  She didn't have to wait very long.  James soon poked his head in. 

            "You there?" he asked.

            "No," Siandra said sarcastically. 

            "Good.  I wanted to make sure you found the room all right," he said.  Siandra brought out her wand.  While she was waiting she had been practicing the right frame of mind to do Transfiguration in.  She hoped he was going to teach her the Cross-Species Switch.  It was very advanced and one of her favorites.

            "Nice room, isn't it?" he asked, "I like the ivy on the cabinet.  Aren't the chairs a pretty color?  I really like that nice, dusty chalkboard.  How about you?"

           He seemed to be avoiding Transfiguration.  What if he forgot about how to do it and wanted to ask her for help?  She decided to get straight to the point.

            "What about that Cross-Species Switch, then?" she asked a little hesitantly.  He turned around from admiring the cabinet and looked a little confused.

            "Say what?" he asked.

            "Well, didn't you come to coach me on Transfiguration?" asked Siandra curiously.  If it wasn't to teach her, then why did he ask her to meet him in such a secluded place?  Could he possible be —

             "I…er…the reason why I came here is to…er…that'd be to…er…ask you if you'd like to…er…go…um…" he stammered.  Then Siandra thought he must have decided that he'd like to get it over with and went super fast, "Wanna go to the dance with me?" he asked, finally, blushing furiously. 

            Now it was Siandra's turn to stutter.

            "Er…" she thought about it and thought that she'd better ask one question to clarify

 the situation, "Don't you want to go with Lily? I thought that you had a crush on her!" she asked rather quickly.

            "No, I — hey!  How did you know that?" he asked indignantly.

            "Oh, please," said Siandra "It's so obvious."

            "Well, she's already going with someone else, as you've heard.  And, I don't really suppose that she actually likes me back, and I know that no one really likes being second choice, but I really like you too and you are really nice, and smart, and I promise that I won't stare at Lily the whole time.  So will you go with me?  Please?" asked James.

            Siandra thought this over.  He would probably stare at Lily quite a lot of the time because he had only promised not all of the time.  Also, he might not dance with her at all and spend the whole time plotting with Sirius.  But then Gina and Sirius really liked each other so they would dance the whole time.  But neither Remus nor Peter was going with anyone yet so he might just chat with them instead.  But he was also nice, smart, and funny and pretty cute too and she felt sorry that Lily didn't like him.  Plus, he had really nice compliments about her.  But still….She had made up her mind.

            "Okay," she said happily, "I'll go with you!"

            James was very happy about this.

            "Thank you so much!" he cried joyfully and danced out of the room.  Siandra walked back to the dormitory feeling very happy that she had gotten herself a nice partner for the Spring Dance. 

            "I'm still not going!" said Claire resignedly once Siandra had situated herself on her perfectly made bed and started to do her Charms homework.

            "Everyone else is, though, Claire!" protested Siandra, looking up from the incendio papers the class had to write.  Professor Leftner had given them a lecture on how their personal versions of incendio weren't going to work.  The issue of this particular spell had arisen once again because they were doing their half-yearly review a little late and Professor Leftner and found out that they still could not work a proper incendio.  If they actually stuck their wand in a real fireplace with no fire-containing spells like their desks had, they could say good-bye to their wand, unicorn hair and all.

            "Not everyone!  Just in Gryffindor first-years, Molly, Betty, Leanne, and you and me still have not been asked!" Claire continued.  Betty wouldn't last long without a partner, Siandra thought, Claire knew Betty well and Siandra thought that she knew too. There were plenty of boys with a crush on Betty, even though most of them were Hufflepuffs that she didn't even know.  Betty was very nice and rather pretty.  She was of medium height, rather thin, and she had moderately long, straight, brown hair.

            "Well, I am going with someone and I know Betty won't last long and neither will Leanne or Molly, probably!  Anyway, it will be fun!  You don't even have to dance with a partner on the fast dances and on the slow ones you can just sit and talk.  I'm sure not everyone will be dancing and you'll find someone that'll just sit with you.  We're all going to be going, I think!" explained Siandra.   Claire was one of her best friends and she hoped that she was going to the dance with her.

            "Well, I talked to Betty and she agreed that she probably wouldn't be participating in this silly ball-thing either," she continued proudly.  "And as for Leanne and Molly, they can do what they want, but me and Betty will be here on the twenty-fifth practicing charms.  I am certain of this!"

            Siandra was certain that she'd find both Betty and Claire huddling in the Gryffindor table at the time of the dance with two partners, but she remained silent.

            "And what did you say?" asked Claire, "You were asked out?"

            "Er," said Siandra, "Yes, I was."

            "And?" asked Claire.  Even if she was not going, it seemed as though she was interested in the news about the ball.

            "And what?" asked Siandra.  She knew Claire wanted to know who the lucky person was that was going with Siandra, but she was a little nervous and was putting off telling Claire even though she was her best friend.

            "Well, tell us who it is, then!" said Claire anxiously.

            "James," Siandra whispered very quietly.

            "Ooh!" said Claire excitedly. "He's cute!  That's really good!  If I were going I'd probably choose him, but I'm not going and he's taken anyway.  There goes my one reason to go to that dance!"

            Siandra groaned.  She knew that Claire was just teasing her about James being her only reason to go since Siandra was so into getting Claire to go to the ball. 

            Siandra was about to find out exactly what Betty was thinking of when she pledged that she wouldn't go to the ball.  The next day Siandra was in the girl's dormitory still working on the same essay for Charms.  Professor Leftner had insisted on it to be their longest essay ever, so they would take the length of the longest essay they had done before that and make this one longer.  Siandra did not think that this was fair at all to people who had worked hard to do extra.  The people who had worked harder before, had to work harder than the people who goofed off.  Siandra's longest essay was two meters long.  She had resolved to do this essay two meters and one millimeter long.  It was, after all, longer than the longest she had done previously and she doubted that anyone besides Lily had ever done anything longer.

            Siandra was working on that still, while trying to convince Claire to go to the ball.  It was getting to be some sort of daily thing.

            "As I said!" said Claire, "I'll have Betty with me! We'll have a blast together!  We'll work on each other's homework, and go visit Hagrid, and play Shuntbumps on the Quidditch field!"

            Siandra did think this sounded like an awful lot of fun, but she would rather go to the dance and do what Claire planned on some hot Friday afternoon.  She was about to say so when the door burst open and in came Betty, panting, but rather excited.

            "Whew!" she said and collapsed in the bed. "For only March it's sure hot outside!"

            Claire walked over to where the pitcher of water was in a brass pot by the windowsill and poured Betty some in a porcelain glass with snowflakes dancing around on it.

            "Well, me and Samuel are going to the dance," she said.  There was a rather tense moment before this sunk in.

            "WHAT?" asked Claire furiously, "NOT ONLY DO YOU BREAK THE PROMISE AND DECIDE TO GO TO THE DANCE, BUT YOU ALSO GO WITH SOME RAVENCLAW THAT NEITHER OF US REALLY KNOW?  WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

            Betty seemed extremely surprised by the outburst coming from the nice friend who had just filled up her teacup.  Siandra was surprised too.  She hadn't thought that Claire was that upset by the dance thing.  She thought that Claire was just peeved about it.  Maybe there was some underlying fact here that Siandra had missed. 

            "What?" asked Betty calmly.  She was not a very assertive person and had the gift of being very calm some times.  Siandra thought she would have been yelling too. "I may go with whomever I like and if you don't know whom he is, then how do you know that he is a Ravenclaw then?  And anyway, I just found someone I liked, don't get all upset!  This has nothing to do with you, I'm sorry I didn't stay with you, but as I said, by going I don't mean to be insulting you.  I still like you and I think we'd have had fun together too.  Why don't we just save what we planned for some empty Saturday?  The dance only happens on the twenty-fifth anyway."

            "WHY ARE YOU EVEN GOING WITH SAMUEL?" yelled Claire.  Apparently Betty's calmness was not contagious, "TELL ME THAT!"

            It seemed as though Betty had given up trying to control herself, "WHY NOT?  OKAY, I'LL GIVE YOU REASON, HE'S REALLY NICE, AND HE LIKES ARITHMANCY JUST LIKE ME AND HE'S REALLY GOOD AT QUIDDITCH!" Betty shouted.

            "HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW THOSE THINGS?  ARITHMANCY HAPPENS IN THIRD YEAR AND QUIDDITCH — "

            Siandra thought that she'd better walk away quickly and silently so she did, trusting that Betty and Claire wouldn't miss her and closed the double doors silently. As she walked down the staircase to the common room she bumped into Lily.

            "Can you tell me who you're going out with right now?  Please?  You told me that you'd tell me today yesterday!" asked Siandra after Lily muttered 'sorry'.

            "Okay, it's er…. er….um…ah…er…Sennin." Lily said, blushing bright red just before Siandra exploded.

            "SENNIN?" she roared, "WHY HIM?  THERE ARE PLENTY OF NICE BOYS AROUND AND YOU JUST HAD TO CHOOSE THE ONE THAT IS PERFECTLY HORRIBLE TO ME?  HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW HE ALWAYS ANSWERS MY QUESTIONS AND HOW HE JUST LOVES THAT HORRIBLE PROFESSOR PIMEA?"

            "WHAT?" asked Lily, "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH HIM AT ALL!  HE'S NICE AND CUTE AND POLITE AND HE REALLY LIKES ME TOO!  AND I SUPPOSE THAT YOU THINK THAT YOU HAVE THE PERFECT DATE THEN? WHO ARE YOU GOING WITH? NO ONE?"

            "JAMES!" yelled Siandra.       

            "WHAT?  EXCUSE ME, BUT HE IS CERTAINLY NOT THE PERFECT PERSON YOU THINK HE IS!   HE IS ALWAYS MAKING TROUBLE AND HE'S…er…. STEALING MY SOCKS ALL THE TIME!" shouted Lily.

              "YOUR SOCKS?  THIS IS NOTHING TO RIDICULE ME ABOUT!  JUST BECAUSE HE LIKES ME AND NOT YOU!" 

            Siandra knew that this wasn't true because James had told her so himself.  But at the moment she didn't really care.  The odd thing was, she felt there was something about herself getting so mad that she just hadn't told herself about.  It sounded weird, so she forgot about it. 

            "HE DOES NOT LIKE YOU AND NOT ME!" yelled Lily indignantly.

            "OH, SO YOU WANT HIM TO LIKE YOU?  I THOUGHT YOU TOLD ME THAT HE WAS NOTHING BUT A TROUBLE-MAKER AND A SOCKS-STEALER!" retorted Siandra. 

            "NO I MOST CERTAINLY DO NOT! I JUST WANT….HIM TO NOT LIKE YOU!" replied Lily.

            "WHY?  IF YOU DON'T LIKE HIM AT ALL THEN WHY DOES IT MATTER THAT HE DOESN'T LIKE ME IF YOU ARE SO MAD AT ME?" asked Siandra.  It was starting to get confusing.  "I'M GOING DOWN TO THE COMMON ROOM TO SIT!"

            "AND SO AM I!"

            Pretty soon Claire and Betty joined them.  All four sat fuming in their puffy chairs by the fire.  They sat alone without anything to do for quite a while.  A few of the older students stared peculiarly at them for a while wondering what happened.  Siandra felt that odd relaxation in her jaw that happens when you have been really tense and shouting for a while and you finally stop.  Her head was spinning a little too, something that happens after yelling madly also.  Then Arthur Weasley came in the portrait hole.

            "Stupid dance," muttered Claire and walked up to him. "You can go to the dance with me!" she commanded.

            Arthur hadn't managed to find anyone else, "Yes, okay," he said rather timidly.

            "That's done then!" said Claire a little too loudly and marched off to her scarlet puffy chair right in front of the fire.  Their awkward silence was interrupted yet again by Molly, this time, climbing past the fat lady.

            "Jeez!" exclaimed Molly, "What the heck happened here?"

            "It was her fault!" Claire exclaimed, pointing at Betty and breaking the silence, "She broke a promise she made to me and she decided to go with some useless pretty boy from Ravenclaw!"

            "What?" interrupted Betty, "Just because I don't want to boycott this stupid thing and sit around and do nothing, she gets totally mad at me!"

            "It was also Lily's fault!" interrupted Siandra, "She goes out with this person who is so mean to me and doesn't even tell me and then she makes me feel bad because I go out with someone who is nice and that I like!"

            "Excuse me!" exclaimed Lily, "It was you who made me feel bad about dating who I went with, I only didn't tell you because I thought you'd get mad!  He's perfectly fine!"

            Claire and Betty were throwing insults at each other too.  Molly started backing away from them.

            "Okay," she said, "I think I'll go work on homework with Leanne, shall I? Honestly, I am starting to agree with Claire, this whole ball thing is messed up, honestly…"

            "Actually," interrupted Claire.  It seemed that she had trouble going back to a normal voice.  This one was still a bit loud and caused some fifth years to stare. "I am going to the ball with someone."

            "Who?" asked Molly, intrigued.

            "Arthur Weasley."

            "Did you ask him or did he ask you?" snapped Molly, turning around.  Now she was getting involved in the big fight.  Gina came in looking dreamy.

            "Isn't this ball thing just lovely?" she asked, staring at something on the ceiling.

                "NO!" yelled everyone in unison.