You people are amazing. That's all i can say.
"There is a place you can touch a woman that will drive her crazy. Her heart."
-Melanie Griffith
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When the carriage finally pulled up to Hogwarts, all of the nervous friends clambered up to the castle, doing their best to keep the rain off their heads. They clustered into the great hall, and glanced around at each other with wet soppy smiles.
"So who's ready for the ball?" James laughed as his drenched mop of hair dripped down his face and onto his already sopping robes.
The six friends climbed up the stone stairs to Gryffindor tower, into the warm common room, and up, again, towards their dormitories. The boys hurriedly showered and got ready. They had to be down at the dining hall by six thirty, while the girls weren't supposed to be down there until seven.
Lily and Joey were pleased to find that their roommates were already showered and dressed when they came into the room. As the other girls did their hair, Lily and Joey took turns in the shower, and slipped on their beautiful dress gowns. When the girls were finally done with their hair and makeup as well, they just turned to each other and got a good look at one another. They looked incredible!
Lily had on a dazzling jade green gown that had some elegant lacy trim around the edges. The gorgeous gown brought out her emerald green eyes, and she simply sparkled with beauty. Her lips were a deep shade of plum, and her chestnut red hair was half up while the rest of it flowed delicately down her shoulders. In her left hand, she was holding her golden mask that all of the girls were given for the ball. The mask itself, covered from the middle of the forehead to just above the lips. It was held up to the face by a slender wand-like handle.
Joey had on a strapless, sapphire-blue gown that had gold lace beautifully embroidered down the front. The royal-blue, silk wrap that slipped eloquently around her shoulders, sat gently on top of the gold strap that laced up the back of her dress. The back of her silky brown hair flowed magnificently down her shoulders, and the front was braided and coiled to form a crown that wrapped like a headband around the rest of her locks. Her eyes were accented by a smoky blue eye shadow to match her gown, and her glossy lips were a soft rose color. She, too, had her golden mask in her hand. Joey absolutely shimmered with beauty. Lily could only shake her head and laugh at the sight of Flam sitting daintily on Joey's shoulder, quite out of place.
"You aren't seriously going to bring the bird with you?" Lily said a bit smugly. Flam gave an indignant hoot at her tone.
"Of course I am!" Joey said with a surprised smile, "You really didn't think I'd leave him up here all by himself, did you?"
Lily just rolled her eyes. "I don't think Amos is going to appreciate seeing you with a big owl on your shoulder."
"Well it might not matter," Joey said, sounding a little annoyed, "he already informed me he didn't think we'd end up as dates." Lily gave her an odd look but just shrugged her shoulders. "Besides," Joey continued, "Flam can be most helpful at times."
The girls carefully descended the stone steps from the dormitories into the common room. There was definitely a party starting up in Gryffindor tower! All of the first through fifth years who weren't able to attend the ball, were making up for it by going wild at their common room party. Some people were in costumes, others were just in their street clothes, but one thing was common amongst everyone: They were all stuffing their faces full of candy and butterbeer. There was loud music being played, and Lily and Joey could barely even hear themselves think, let alone hear each other.
It was just a few minutes before seven when the girls crawled out of the portrait hole and into the stone corridors. They could see many other girls, masks in hand, descending the steps into the great hall. They hurriedly joined them. The excitement was almost too much to handle. Everyone looked breathtaking, but it was quite obvious how Lily and Joey stood out of the crowd in beauty. When they approached the closed doors of the dining hall, Dumbledore was waiting for them outside of it with a twinkling smile on his face.
"Welcome, my dears," he began. "You all, of course, look quite flattering this evening!" This was too much for the impatient ladies to bear. One of the girls in the back spoke out to Dumbledore.
"So, Dumbledore, sir," everyone was looking at her by now, "what do you have planned for us to find our dates?" Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling again.
"I was just getting to that," he said calmly, with still a joyful smile across his face. "Naturally, I thought the best way to do this was . . . by ladies' choice?" he said as he trailed off in his sentence like it was a question. The girls looked around excitedly. "But of course, I had to be sure that ALL of the boys got a date. So, I decided to do this a bit randomly!" All of the girls exchanged looks of horror.
"You mean we won't really get to choose?" one of the girls in the back exclaimed.
"Well, my dear . . . in a manner of speaking, you will get to choose . . . but you may just be a little . . . unaware? of who you are choosing." Dumbledore paused for another moment, almost as if he was waiting for anymore questions. Then he continued, "Now, what I have planned is for you ladies to draw a number . . ." more people exchanged shocked looks, " . . . then you will proceed into the dining hall, where you will find your masked, and might I add, hooded, friends. You will barely be able to tell them apart, but I assure you, there are ways of doing so." He paused for another moment to let all of the information settle in.
"The reason for the masks, my dears, is more for the boys' egos than anything else." A humorous smile crept across his face, and it was quite obvious that he was proud of this idea. "I assure you that even the last boy to be chosen will still believe that it was because of the mask that he wasn't picked sooner!" smiles began creeping over everybody's faces by now. "Now, to be sure that my plan does NOT backfire, while the boys are allowed to remove their hoods once they have been chosen, I believe it is only safe to forbid you to dump your date this evening!" The girls giggled lightly at this. They were so eager to get into the dining hall and pick out a guy! "And now . . ." he finished, as he held out a black witch's hat and allowed the girls to each grab a slip of paper out of it, one at a time.
Joey and Lily grabbed their numbers and hurriedly unfolded the pieces of paper.
"I got three!" squealed Lily. "Out of about forty girls, that's got to be pretty good!"
"I got seven!" Joey was so excited she could barely breathe. Was she going to recognize any of the boys? She was so nervous . . . What if she ended up with someone like greasy ol' Snape! Trying hard to not panic about that, Joey headed into the dining hall after Dumbledore and the six girls ahead of her. She could hear some of the girls in the back complaining about how unfair the plan was.
When they entered the dining hall, the girls almost gasped at the sight they saw. The room was strikingly beautiful. The class tables had been removed from the room, only to be replaced by small, circular ones that were scattered about. Delicious looking desserts and snacks sat on them. The center of the enormous ball room was clearly left open for dancing, and flower petals speckled the floor with many dazzling shades of red, yellow, and pink. Golden drapes hung, glittering on the walls, and dimly lit candles were floating everywhere. In the center of the enormous ballroom, sat a huge line of chairs, where a huge line of hooded and silver-masked boys sat. Each of the boys had a different kind flower in their hand, which they were obviously waiting to hand to their future date. The atmosphere caused everyone to be in awe (even the girls who were pissed about going to have to pick last had their mouths hanging open).
When the girls finished flooding into the room, they began carefully scanning the crowd of boys. Some of the boys shifted uncomfortably at the questioning looks some of the girls were giving them. One thing was for certain. You could definitely see each boy's eyes through his mask holes. It was a dead give away for who some of the boys were.
Another hint was definitely the shape of the boys' bodies. Even while they had their robes on, it was still clear whether a boy was fat or skinny, scrawny or broad shouldered. This trick seemed to be quite obvious, since the very first girl, a blond with a stunning red dress and matching scarlet lipstick, seemed to hesitate for a mere second before running over to the most muscular boy in the crowd. The boy stood up, and pulled off his hood and mask. Amos Diggory smiled brightly down at the girl and handed her the crimson rose he was holding with his muscular hand. There were numerous groans that emitted from the line of girls who had been hoping to choose Amos.
Amos looked over at Joey and shrugged, giving her a sheepish smile. She forced a closed smile back at him and nodded slightly. He didn't seem to hesitate for a moment before running off with the polished blonde, however. Joey rolled her eyes. This was to be expected.
The next girl went, and then it was Lily's turn. Joey bit her lip in anticipation, praying that her best friend would choose James. Lily walked slowly down the line of boys, seeming like she was looking deep into each one's eyes. She hesitated when she came to one, rather muscular, boy. He was holding a yellow lily in his left hand, and she leaned in closer to get a better look at his eyes. A flash of sapphire blue was gleaming up at her, and she suddenly knew who she was looking at.
"Would you be so kind as to escort me this evening?" she asked with a small smile. The boy stood up and ripped off his hood and mask. James Potter was smiling down on the lovely Lily Evans, twirling a yellow lily under her nose.
"It'd be an honor," was all he said before the two of them walked off to the side to watch the rest of the pairing. Joey was so thrilled, that she didn't even pay attention to the next three girls in front of her. Before she knew it, it was her turn. She nervously looked around at all of the expecting girls, and was almost surprised to see some of them throw her a dirty look. She looked up and down the enormous row of guys. There were still thirty-four boys waiting to be chosen, and she had no idea how she was going to go about finding one.
For a moment, she was seriously considering just picking one and hoping for the best. But then the random image of her accidentally picking Snape popped into her head, and she decided that it would be best for her to use a little more judgment than that. She walked down the aisle, and tried to do what Lily had done: keep a steady stare into the boys' faces, and one was bound to pop out at her. After the first fifteen boys she passed, however, they all started looking the same to her. She wasn't sure how long she had spent looking for a guy, but she could hear the impatient sighs and huffs from the lined up girls behind her.
'Shit!' she thought angrily to herself. 'there are just too many damn choices!' Just as she realized that even Dumbledore was looking at her a bit impatiently, a brilliant idea popped into her head. She glanced over at Flam who had been falling asleep on her shoulder. Trying to act nonchalant, she took her right index finger and poked the bird, sharply on his side. Giving an enraged 'hoot' at the top of his lungs, the brown and white speckled owl leaped off of Joey's shoulder, flew a ways down the row of boys, and eventually landed on one of their shoulders.
A massive smile was across Joey's face as she ran down the aisle of boys to where Flam was sitting, on a muscular, silvery-eyed boy's shoulder. Joey looked down at the flower in the boy's hand and realized that he had a friendly-looking white and yellow daisy held out in front of him. Joey held out her hand to the gentleman, and he excitedly stood up, yanking his hood and mask off of his handsome face. Sirius Black was looking down into Joey's eyes with a happier smile on his face than he had ever had in his life.
He held the darling daisy up to her and she took it, still smiling brightly and as radiant as ever. "Thanks," she whispered.
"You look . . ." a gasp of air caught in the back of Sirius' throat. He couldn't believe it. Joey's beauty had actually taken his breath away! He continued practically in a whisper ". . . words can't even describe how beautiful you look." The butterflies in Joey's stomach gave a wild flutter. Sirius looked so handsome. And she recognized the look he was giving her. It was the familiar look of desire and torture. He obviously wanted to be closer to her than they both knew was allowable . . . there was a rather large barrier in the way, and its name was Amos. Joey turned away from his penetrating gaze, grabbed his hand, and led him over to where Lily and James were standing. The two were still ogling at each other, and Joey and Sirius exchanged looks at the sight of them.
"Well, hello!" James said when he noticed Joey and Sirius were standing next to them. "It's good to see you two made it out together!"
"And you!" Joey laughed.
"Yes, well, I think I have Sirius and Remus to thank for that!" James admitted. "They were the ones who suggested the yellow lily . . ." he trailed off with a shy smile at Lily who was blushing slightly.
"And your hair!" laughed Joey. "It looks so . . . brushed!"
"Yup!" said James proudly. "It's another one of my little surprises that I brought with me!"
"Oh, that reminds me, Joey!" Lily said with a start, "Good thinking with Flam! You're right . . . he can be helpful at times!" Flam gave a joyful hoot at the sound of his name.
"Yes, well Sirius made sure he was holding a daisy as well, you know," James chimed in. "He said Joey would understand . . ." he trailed off with a laugh, "whatever that means!"
Joey looked over at Sirius, but he wasn't looking at her. He seemed to be frantically trying to find something else to look at in order to avoid making eye contact with her. Joey smiled to herself when she realized this. Sirius obviously had planned to want to be her date from the beginning.
Not much time went by before both Remus and Peter had dates as well. Remus ended up being with a delightful looking sixth year named Laura, who had dirty blond hair just like Remus, and jade green eyes. Peter ended up with (who other than?) Suzy Pudgiegutt. They really did actually make a cute couple. Both of them were pretty chubby around the middle, and their very light brown hair matched almost perfectly together.
When the pairing had finally finished, the group of eight wandered over to the dessert tables and began munching, talking, and dancing as the wonderful ball continued.
Please Review! love, SJ