When Myra left the hospital wing later that evening (after being examined and re-examined by Madam Pomfrey) she went straight to Ravenclaw tower. Herbology was still lingering in the back of her mind, threatening to reach out with it's tendrils and strangle her into studying.
She gave the password (Boogerwich), and climbed through the door. Immediately she was taken aback by the swarm of people by the door.
"What's going on?" she asked Leah Prentice, her roommate.
"Haven't you seen the notice?"
"No, what notice?" Myra asked, standing on tiptoe to try and see around the crowd of people in the common room.
"Dumbledore has forbidden visits to Hogsmeade!"
Myra groaned inwardly. This was her fault. If she hadn't been attacked…It would have been someone else, a voice inside her said.
"That's awful," Myra said, pretending that she thought it was the most unjust rule ever.
"No, there's more," Leah said excitedly.
Myra looked at her expectantly.
"To make up for no more Hogsmeade visits, there's going to be a Winter Formal!"
"A what?"
"Apparently the heads of house were trying to arrange for a Winter Formal but the Professors wouldn't go for it. Now that Hogsmeade is forbidden, they've changed their minds. Go see!" Leah encouraged, pushing her roommate forward.
Sure enough, there were two notices, one under the other. The first one was the notice about the new rule forbidding any students to go to Hogsmeade without a teacher escort. The second below it was enchanted to glow orange and green.
"Winter Formal, December Seventeenth. Upper year students only," Myra read aloud. "They're getting The Hags to play?"
Leah nodded excitedly beside her.
"Wow, they're pretty big aren't they?"
"Apparently they owe Dumbledore a favour," Leah said knowingly.
"That only leaves us a couple months to get ready and find someone to go with!"
"Then you better get started," Leah said, eyes sparkling in anticipation.
Myra left Ravenclaw tower to go find Lily. Perhaps she knew more about this since she was Head girl.
She had no sooner started descending the staircase then she saw Lily coming up the staircase parallel.
"Lily!" she called out.
"Myra! I was just coming to see you!" Lily called back.
"Have you seen the notice?"
Lily and Myra both hurried up their respective staircases so both girls stood together on the landing.
"How are you feeling?" Lily said immediately as she hugged her best friend.
"I'm fine, now. How about you?"
"Madam Pomfrey took care of it. Now, what about the notice?" Lily asked, eager to talk about the Winter Formal.
"You knew about this the whole time and didn't even tell me?"
"No, no," Lily said quickly, "We were trying to plan it but it really didn't look like it was going to happen."
"Until…"
"No, I'm sure that's not it," Lily said, taking her friends hand in her own.
Myra just shrugged.
"In any case, this should be a good excuse to get dressed up," Lily nodded enthusiastically.
"Right. I just have to find someone to go with…" Myra looked around, as if expecting her potential date to come around the corner at any second.
"You'll find someone. Who wouldn't want to go with you?"
"Sirius?" Myra suggested with a smile.
"I bet he would go if you asked."
Myra gave her a look of disbelief and laughed.
"Right. The Sirius Black would go with Myra Nightingale. Good one, Lil."
Lily frowned at her friend. "I don't think you give yourself enough credit. Besides, Sirius is just like any other boy. He's just a big dolt underneath his handsome and somewhat sexy exterior."
Myra raised an eyebrow. "This is your boyfriend's best friend we're talking about."
"Doesn't stop a girl from looking," Lily retorted, a coy smile gracing her face.
Myra giggled and then gave a groan as she remembered her Herbology homework that was still sitting in her room.
"I should really go and-"
"Study?" her best friend finished.
Myra nodded sheepishly. Lily gave an exaggerated sigh.
"If you must." She waved her friend towards Ravenclaw tower and turned towards the staircase she had been ascending earlier.
"I'll talk to you later," Myra called after her.
"You better! Don't let that Herbology eat you alive!"
Lily made her way to Gryffindor tower from the West Side of the castle, humming the latest Hags song as she went.
She gave the Fat Lady the password ("Marshmallow Creamulus") and entered through the doorway after the portrait had swung open.
She was met inside by the usual fluster of Gryffindors, only this time they were all crowded around the message board.
She scanned the common room quickly for James, but didn't see him. She gave a quick look around before sneaking up the stairs to the boys' dormitory.
She gave a quick knock which received a "Come in," in response.
As she opened the door, loud music filtered out. Lily quickly stepped inside, closing the door tightly behind her.
"Do you have to keep the music so loud?" she yelled over screaming guitars.
"Yes!" Sirius yelled back from where he was lying on his bed shirtless playing air guitar. His black cat Ophelia lay beside him playing with the shirt he had discarded.
James reached for his wand and turned the music down with a flick of his wand.
"You'll turn it down for her, but you won't for me?" Lupin complained from where he was trying to concentrate on the Defense Against the Dark Arts reading that had been interrupted earlier.
James shrugged and then looked over at his girlfriend. "Everything okay?" he asked Lily as she stood there taking in the scene.
There were clothes and records thrown on every inch of floor space it seemed. A path had been made from the door to each of the four beds but even that was threatening to close in with the mess. Remus' bed alone had been made. The rest were in various states of messiness, with Sirius winning (his sheets weren't even on his bed but in a pile next to it). Various music and Quittich posters graced the walls including The Tornados, The Hags, Led Zeppelin and The Doors.
"Would it kill you to do a few cleaning spells?" she asked, surveying the mess.
James ran his hand through his hair nervously.
"It might," Sirius said in mock seriousness. "We have no idea what's under the first layer of junk. It could be an infestation of Flobberworms."
"Everything okay?" James asked Lily again.
She picked her way over to his four poster bed. "It's fine. I was just going to talk to you about the Winter Formal."
"You saw the notice?"
"So it would seem."
"What notice?" Peter asked from his bed where he was practising colour changing charms on his reluctant pet toad Flubbers.
"Don't you read?" barked Sirius.
"There's a Winter Formal December seventeenth," Remus said, ignoring Sirius' comment.
"Oh, are we going?" asked Peter expectantly at James.
"Well, we're not, I was rather hoping to go with Lily. But the lot of you should. Dumbledore got the Hags to play," James said, looking over at Sirius who was a fan.
"Really?" Sirius looked impressed. "Still, isn't this just one of those excuses for girls to get dressed up and giggle? Present company excluded of course," Sirius added quickly seeing the look on Lily's face.
"You're just afraid you won't get a date," Remus said, knowing all too well that Sirius could go with any witch he desired.
"We need dates?" Peter suddenly piped up.
"Well, you don't need a date," Lily said, "But we hope everyone will at least consider bringing someone."
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"What?" Sirius yelled.
The door opened slowly and a girl's head appeared. Lily recognized her as a fifth year Gryffindor.
"Uh…Sirius," she said nervously.
"Yeah?" Sirius looked over at her sharply.
"Would you like to go to the Winter Formal with me?"
James and Remus regarded Sirius with mild expressions of amusement while Peter gaped slightly at the girl, unable to believe that his friend didn't even have to leave his bed to get a date.
"I'm not going," Sirius said abruptly. The girl stammered a reply that no one could quite make out then shut the door.
"You're not going?" Remus raised an eyebrow.
Sirius shrugged. "I don't like to make commitments. Especially two months in advance. Who knows what might happen between now and December seventeenth?"
"Well, suit yourself," Lily said, getting up off James' bed. "I'll see you in class," she said to James and kissed him a quick goodbye.
"Bye!" the rest of the Marauders called after her. It wasn't everyday, after all, that a beautiful girl graced their dormitory.
"You blokes better go to this," James said menacingly. "I won't be the only one coerced into this lame excuse for girls to get dressed up."
With a flick of James' wand the volume was once again raised to the highest level, much to the chagrin of Lupin who still hadn't finished his Defense Against the Dark Arts reading. He finally gave up and laid on his bed staring at the canopy above thinking of the Winter Formal, or more specifically, Myra dressed up for the Winter Formal. Before long he was sound asleep, dreaming of late nights of dancing and public drunkenness. Ahh, school dances…
"Have you seen the notice?" Myra asked Remus excitedly as she sat down at the chair across from him and began pulling things out of her bag.
"Notice?" He raised an eyebrow.
"The notice about the Winter Formal, you prat!"
He smiled in amusement at how excited she was.
"Ah, that."
"So?" she asked expectedly.
"So what?" he replied.
She looked like she might jump out of her chair, climb over the table and hit him.
"Are you going?" she asked impatiently.
"Oh, uh," he fumbled. He was flustered all of a sudden. "I don't know."
"Are you?" he asked after a few seconds of her looking at him expectedly.
She nodded.
"With whom?" he asked, trying to sound casual about it while thinking uncharacteristically violent thoughts consisting mainly of, I'm going to kill whoever asked her.
"Oh, I don't know yet."
He couldn't help but feel relieved.
"Do you have anyone in mind?" he prodded.
She suddenly turned a light shade of pink, and decided that now was a good time to pull out her book and start studying.
"Well?" he asked.
"Well, there is someone I was thinking of."
"Anyone I know?" Remus casually interrogated.
"Yes, you could say that."
"Are they in seventh year?"
She nodded.
"In Ravenclaw?"
She shook her head.
"Gryffindor?"
She nodded her head, only slightly.
He was suddenly at a cross-roads. What if it was him? He wanted nothing more than to take Myra to the Winter Formal, but there would be questions and he wanted to be nothing but honest with her. He would want to tell her where he went each month, what he turned into. Who he really was.
Then, another even more terrifying prospect came into his mind. What if it wasn't? What if she was madly in love with James, or Peter or Sirius? Well, it's not Prongs you prat, he told himself, He's dating her best friend. And it can't be Peter can it? He definitely doesn't seem like her type, he decided. But what about Padfoot? No, it wouldn't be Padfoot. He's the kind of bloke that those giggling fifth years fall for, not sweet intelligent Myra. Who else did that leave?
"Do I share a room with them?" Remus asked, half dreading the answer.
"I don't think I want to play this game anymore." Myra said quietly.
"Okay," Remus replied, half of him relieved and half of him so damn curious it was killing him.
"So," Myra said, suddenly businesslike. "If I were a kappa, where would I breed?"
"Well," Remus said in mock seriousness, "I would suggest that you would first get a room at the Leaky Cauldron, find some candles and chocolate, and-"
Remus never got to finish what else a kappa would need for breeding because Myra was suddenly beating him across the arm with her Care of Magical Creatures textbook. They both laughed, glad that the subject of the ball was behind them. For now.