::I do not own any of the charachters of this story (other than Anastasia). They all belong to J.K.Rowling. Otherwise someone else would've fallen through the veil in the Order of the Pheonix.::
Chapter 2: Midnight Meeting
Lily was sitting in the Gryffindor common room, finishing her Charms homework. James was in the room too. The rest of the gang decided to hit the hay. They heard someone coming downstairs from the girl's dormitory. Anastasia emerged from the shadows. She looked absolutely extravagant. Lily let out a shocked gasp and ran to her. James started cat calling and Anastasia flicked him off.
"My Lord! Anya, you look amazing!" Lily screamed with delight.
"Yeah, you look brilliant." James said from behind his chair.
Anastasia, blushing said, "Thanks guys! Its thirty minutes to twelve. I better get going." Anastasia just realized something she hadn't thought about before, "Oh no! How am I going to get to the Great Hall without Filch catching me?"
James suddenly stood up, "Hold it right there!" He got up, ran up to the boys' dormitory, and came back with something silvery trailing behind him. "Here," he said giving it to Anastasia.
"What is it?" she said suspiciously.
"Put it on!" James said with a wry smile. Anastasia tried it on and realized it was a cloak. Next thing she heard was a scream and turned to see Lily with her hands to her mouth and a pale face.
"Oh my…" Lily said shakily, "Anastasia, look down!" And so she did and saw with wide eyes that her body was completely gone.
"Son of witch! James, is this an invisibility cloak?" Anastasia shouted.
"Yep." James said proudly, "Er…I would appreciate it if you wouldn't tell anybody about it."
"No problem!" Anastasia said excitedly. She checked her watch. Ten minutes had passed. "Oy! I'm gonna be late!" Anastasia pulled the hood of her cloak over her head. Lily and James wished her luck and Anastasia walked through the portrait of the Fat Lady and made her way to the Great Hall.
Anastasia got there with no trouble at all, which surprised her a lot. She creaked open one of the large doors to the Hall very slowly as not to attract Filch, and snuck in. Anastasia sighed with relief, slipped off the invisibility cloak, and looked around the pitch black Hall. At first, she thought she was alone, but then she saw two shining things across the room.
Anastasia walked slowly toward the shining lights, her heart pounding madly in her chest. She was part terrified, part excited, and part ready to run her ass out of there and forget this whole thing happened. But she couldn't. Anastasia's mind kept telling her to get out of there, but her legs seemed to have developed minds of their own.
She got to the other end of the Hall, but couldn't see anything. Then she heard a loud bark. Anastasia almost had a heart attack and a stroke at that same moment. She looked down and saw a large, shaggy, black dog with a rose in it's mouth. Anastasia groaned at her stupidity. Then she laughed and bent down to pet the dog. " I don't know what I'm thinking." she said taking the rose out of the dog's mouth. His grey eyes shined brightly and his tail wagged happily. "This 'Phantom' guy must've run out of doves to send roses."
It was then something really extraordinary happened. Before Anastasia's very eyes, the shaggy black dog morphed into a person.
Anastasia almost screamed with surprise. She gasped and fell back and almost hit the ground when the boy grabbed her by the wrist and pulled Anastasia close to him. They stared at each other and Anastasia was entranced. The boy was wearing a black cloak and he sort of had the "Phantom of the Opera" look about him. Especially since he had the same mask that covered half his face. His grey eyes were enchanting and hypnotizing. Strands of his black hair reached over to his face. This "Phantom" was unknown, but he was virtually beautiful.
Anastasia was putty in this guy's hands but she pulled herself together and said "You have to teach me how to do that sometime."
The Phantom laughed and said, "Sure, if you think you're up to the challenge." His voice was strange, sort of hollow and deep. Anastasia was sure he drank a voice changing potion.
"So," she said uncertainly, "do you have a name?" He turned his back to her. Did she say something wrong? He took out his wand, waved it, and every torch in the Hall lit. Anastasia could now see the Hall properly and saw that the tables had been moved to the sides.
It took the Phantom a while to respond but then he said "For now, I am known simply as you know me." Anastasia's mind was going wild! My God, how can anybody be so mysterious! "Come on." He said motioning Anastasia toward her. She walked to him, nervous about what he was going to do. But he just waved his wand again and this slow "it's your senior prom" type of music came on. Anastasia stared at the Phantom and he was grinning at her. He held out his hand. "May I have this dance?"
Anastasia blanched, "Oh, I…"
"Don't even try getting out of this one," he said slyly, "you're dancing." and before Anastasia could object, he took her hand and led her to the center of the Hall. The Phantom held Anastasia close to him and just started dancing as if they would never meet again. Anastasia felt that she was floating, yet falling into eternity. It was the most wonderful feeling ever. She looked up into her admirer's face and somehow had the feeling that this was a person close to her. But she couldn't make any assumptions yet.
Before she knew it the song had ended. They both stood back and stared at each other. The Phantom smiled at Anastasia, "You're an excellent dancer." Anastasia's face flushed and she turned the other way and mumbled a "thank you."
"Come on, there's something else I have to show you. Bring the cloak, would you please." Anastasia stopped in her tracks and was going to ask how he knew about the cloak, but then she remembered he must've seen her take off the cloak when she first came into the Hall. So Anastasia grabbed the cloak and she and the Phantom slipped under it. He took her hand, and they left the Hall.
Wherever he was taking her, Anastasia didn't know where he was taking her, but that almost didn't matter to her. The whole time she was just staring at their joined hands. Ten minutes later, she bumped into him and noticed that they were standing in front of a large painting of a bowl of fruit.
"Where are we?" Anastasia said staring around.
"The kitchens." Phantom said simply.
"The kit…?" Anastasia started to say, but Phantom extended his finger and tickled the pear in the painting, a doorknob appeared and he took it. Next moment, Anastasia was inside the kitchens, with hundreds of bustling and hustling house elves catering to her and Phantom's every whim. It was so cool. They had a sort of super early breakfast. Eggs, bacon, toast, English muffins, juice, coffee, the works. Before they knew it, it was four in the morning. They bid the house elves adieu and set off on their way. Phantom walked Anastasia all the way back to the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"I hope you had fun tonight." Phantom said happily.
Anastasia just stared at him and then said, "You know, you've made me the happiest person in the world!" Phantom gave a wide smile. "I can bet you that no person wizard or muggle has done something like this for anybody, especially on Valentines Day. You are the nicest, most romantic guy in…" but before Anastasia could finish, he closed in on her and planted his lips on hers. She closed her eyes and prayed that she wasn't dead because she could've sworn she had went to heaven. Anastasia had to back against the wall to keep herself from falling. Who knows how long that kiss lasted, but all Anastasia knew was that she never wanted to end. But to her dismay, the Fat Lady said " Don't you humans need to breath anymore?" They quickly backed off of each other and blushed.
"Well," Phantom said cheerfully, "I'm sure we'll meet again."
"Yeah," Anastasia said breathlessly, "yeah. I can't wait."
"Until then." he said quietly and out of his cloak he pulled out another rose. Anastasia took the rose, stared at it, and when she looked up, the Phantom had disappeared. Anastasia smiled to herself as she entered her dormitory. Everyone was asleep, she took of the cloak and put it under her bed. She would give it to James tomorrow. She got in her pajamas, collapsed on her bed, and went to sleep with visions of the Phantom dancing in her head.