MAELSTROM

CHAPTER FIVE-THE CHRISTMAS DANCE

Gryffindor was silent and stunned.

We all turned to look at James. His face had drained of all color and he was breathing a bit heavy.

"What happened?"

"He had been killed using the Killing curse," Professor Dumbledore said solemnly.

Again, we looked at James.

He was in complete shock.

"We're not sure what exactly happened though," Dumbledore continued. "But as a safety warning, I'm issuing a curfew. No one is to leave their common rooms after 9 PM."

Whispers went around.

"Of course, that will be lifted for the Christmas Dance. But immediately following the dance, the curfew will be reinstated. Tuck in!"

Food appeared on our plates. We began helping ourselves to food.

"I swear I had nothing to do with it," James said automatically.

"We know, Prongs," Sirius said softly. "But be careful. If anyone finds out...well, I'm sure they heard the flushing of the toilet and Peter's cries...but still, just be careful okay?"

I glared at Sirius.

"Aren't you the least bit upset about what happened to Peter?"

Remus lowered his fork, obviously sensing another battle coming on.

He studied us.

"Don't fight anymore please?" Lily moaned. "Sirius, stop acting so cold. We know you're upset okay? Carrie, Sirius shows his feelings differently."

I nodded, accepting Lily's answer.

Just then, Molly Prewett, a fellow Gryffindor plopped down beside me. Arthur Weasley, another fellow Gryffindor, sat down across from Molly.

"Hey," Molly said looking grave. "I can't believe that happened to Peter."

"I know," I said quietly. "But who would so such a thing?"

"Maybe someone that really hates him?" Arthur suggested.

Molly's shoulder length light auburn hair was pulled back in a ponytail. Arthur also had, short, wavy thick dark auburn hair and blue eyes.

"That fits about one of us," I muttered casting Sirius a fleeting look before turning my attention onto Molly and Arthur.

"So," I said trying to sound cheerful. "Are you two going to the Christmas dance?"

Molly shook her head.

"No," she said sounding miserable. "No one's asked me yet."

"Ah," I said. "Neither have I been asked."

Arthur suddenly turned to me.

"Would you like to go with me?" he asked quickly.

"Um..." I said a bit surprised.

Arthur was quiet, and he loved Muggles. But he was a nice guy.

"Sure!" I finished grinning.

Arthur grinned back..

"Hey, Molly," Remus said leaning over Sirius. "Want to go with me?"

I felt a pang. He had said that I was going to go with either him or Sirius...but then, I realized it was because I accepted Arthur's invitation. Still, I felt jealous.

Molly beamed. "Sure, Remus,"

"James," Sirius said turning to him. "Want to go with me?"

We all laughed.

"I'll be going with Lily," James said still looking a bit off about Peter.

"Says who?" Lily asked raising an eyebrow. "You just assume I'm going to say yes?"

"Well, were you?" James inquired.

"Yeah," Lily muttered as she grabbed a piece of toast.

We laughed again.

Lily was grinning too.

We headed off to class. I noticed now that Arthur was showing some interest in me. He was cute too.

We entered the Potions class. Remus went to sit next to me, but Arthur stepped over.

"Hey," Arthur said brightly. "Would you mind if I sat with Carrie?"

I was already sitting and had my book out. I looked up at Remus.

"Erm," Remus said looking put out and flabbergasted. "Sure...go a head Arthur."

"Thanks, mate," Arthur said beaming as he sat down beside me.

I heard Molly ask Remus if she could sit with him. He accepted.

Sitting behind Arthur and I were Sirius and Lily, James and Frank Longbottom and Remus and Molly.

Arthur seemed nervous around me. When Professor Vaughan had us cut two caterpillars in halves, Arthur ended up nearly mincing his.

"Here," I said, handing him an extra caterpillar that I had. I cut the caterpillar in half and placed it in front of him.

"Whew," Arthur said. "Thanks Carrie."

I smiled back and returned to my Potion.

LILY.

I nudged Sirius.

"Notice anything different?" I asked grinning at him.

He looked up.

Arthur and Carrie seemed to be getting along nicely. Lily sensed that he liked Carrie..also.

"I thought Remus has a thing for her?" Sirius whispered leaning close.

"So did I," I whispered back. "But maybe not. We're going to have to wait and see."

Sirius nodded, still grinning as we turned to our Potion.

REMUS.

I sat behind James and Frank Longbottom. Molly was sitting next to me. I watched as Arthur talked happily to Carrie. Professor Vaughan had given us a 10 minute break before he came around to check on our potions.

I felt a strong pang of jealousy as Carrie laughed at something Arthur had said. She was helping him with his Potion.

"So," Molly's voice cut into my thoughts. "Could you believe what happened to Laura? And I'm so glad you're okay after that Wixev almost gored you to death."

I turned to her.

"Huh? Oh yeah," I said absentmindedly. "Thanks. I couldn't believe it about Laura too. It was just a horrible accident."

Molly nodded and went to reach for her caterpillar at the same time I had reached for a Locus. Our fingers briefly touched.

Immediately, Molly began blushing.

"Sorry," she apologized keeping her eyes on her cauldron.

"No problem," I said picking up the Locus and dropping it into the potion.

"Are you excited about the dance?" Molly asked.

"I guess," I said.

"I'm real excited. I've never actually been invited to any of the dances," she said with a touch of sadness. "I usually spend time alone in the Gryffindor common room reading or catching up on homework."

I looked at her surprised. Molly was very pretty. I couldn't understand it.

"I find that hard to believe," I said adding my own caterpillar to the potion.

Molly turned scarlet.

CARRIE.

Arthur was really a great guy. I've never really talked to him much, but now talking with him, I realized he was.

Besides, I couldn't be sure if Remus liked me or not. We were best friends.

"Can I tell you something?" Arthur asked looking a bit embarrassed as Professor Vaughan came around and began inspecting the potions.

"Sure," I said brightly.

"I've always had a crush on you, just been too nervous to actually say anything," he said blushing a shade of crimson.

"Oh," I said pleased. "Well, I'm glad you asked me."

He beamed.

After class, we headed back to the common room for the 45 minute break before the last two classes, Transfiguration and Astronomy, which would be held in the Astronomy Tower.

I flopped down on the couch. Remus and James sat down on either side of me. Molly, Arthur and Lily sat across from us.

"So does anyone have any idea as to what happened to Peter? Why would anyone want to kill him?" Molly asked.

"We're not sure," James said. "But we intend to find out."

"I just don't understand it," I said. "James, what happened after you...erm, 'helped Peter with his extra credit assignment'?"

Sirius let out a laugh that he quickly turned to a cough after Lily sent him a death glare.

"He said he was heading to talk to one of the teachers," James said quietly. "Professor Anicks I think."

"So," Lily said slowly. "Something had to have happened between where you 'taught' him and the teachers office. That's the whole third floor...isn't it?"

"Yeah," Arthur said nodding. "Professor Anicks office is on the second floor. But where did you teach him, James?"

Lily, James, Sirius, Remus and I all looked at each other.

"Erm," James said. "The Room of Requirement. We had been on the floor earlier in the day and figured a nice, quiet place would be exactly what we needed."

"Then, yes," Molly said. "The whole third floor. You didn't see anything weird did you?"

James shook his head.

"Totally weird," Arthur said shaking his head.

The Christmas Dance came up fast as the weeks flew by.

There had been a trip to Hogsmeade to buy Muggle dresses. Dumbledore had explained to us that it would be non-formal, meaning we could wear Muggle clothing to the dance. There was a store in Hogsmeade called "Switcheroo".

Lily, Molly and I bought our dresses. Lily was wearing a white sleeveless satin dress, Molly had bought a pink short-sleeved dress with a scoop neck on it. Her hair was pulled into a French twist. Lily's hair was pulled into an elegant bun. I had bought a light blue spaghetti shoulder strapped dress with little sequins along the hemline.

My hair was fluffed around my shoulders. We had applied makeup and lipgloss and headed to the common room where the boys were.

They were dressed in suits and ties. They all looked handsome.

"Don't you four clean up nicely," Lily said as she linked arms with James.

Sirius had asked a Ravenclaw girl named Annabelle Sanderson.

He and Annabelle linked arms. I felt Remus' eyes on me as he linked arms with Molly. I linked arms with Arthur and we all headed down to the Great Hall.

Christmas decorations and tinsel were hung from the walls and ceiling. Mistletoe and streamers hung all around as well.

Tables were set up and held about 9 couples to a table. There were about 60 tables. We all sat around a table.

"This is really lovely," Molly said taking in everything as she scanned the Hall.

"Have you been to the last Christmas dance?" Lily asked kindly.

Molly shook her head. "No, this is my first one,"

Lily looked shocked.

"I've never really been invited to a dance before," Molly continued blushing.

"So," Remus said. "What band did Dumbledore get to play?"

"I think they're called 'Charm Casters'," Sirius mused. "Not sure though."

"I've heard of them," Arthur said nodding. "They're really good. Of course, I like the Muggle band called 'Enigma'."

"Oh yeah," I said turning to him. "They're music is really nice. I like them too."

Arthur beamed at me.

I could feel Remus' eyes on me the entire time as each of us broke off into separate conversations.

Shortly, Dumbledore arose from his seat.

"Merry Christmas everyone! Even though tomorrow is really Christmas," he grinned. "Just look at your plates and say what you want."

We all glanced down and dozens of different food combinations appeared.

We hungrily dug into the food.

The band was called "Charm Casters" and soon everyone was up dancing.

Remus and Molly were dancing to one of the bands faster songs. Only Arthur and I remained at the table.

"I don't dance much," he admitted looking upset. "If one of your other friends ask you, I don't mind."

"Oh no," I said. "I don't like to dance much either. I get embarrassed easily."

Arthur nodded.

I crossed my arms on the table and rested my chin on top of them watching everyone dance.

"Are you okay?" Arthur asked quietly and softly. "You look distracted."

"I've been better," I admitted.

I hesitated.

Should I tell him about the dreams? He's not going to judge me or anything.

I then proceeded to tell him about the dreams and how they had come true.

When I was done, Arthur actually seemed to know a great deal about what was going on.

"Sirius is probably right," he said as he too, crossed his arms on the table and rested his chin on top of them next to me. "It does sound like you're psychic. Normally, you would get a vision of what would 'happen' before it does when you're awake, but maybe your dreams are your visions...only when you're sleeping."

"Can that be?" I mused. "I mean both my parents are from the wizarding world."

Arthur shrugged. "Why not? We're just as human as the Muggles only we have magical powers I guess you could say. We're not super humans,"

He was totally making sense now.

ARTHUR.

Carrie looked much better.

Suddenly, her eyes slid out of focus and she began rigid in her seat. She was staring a head blankly at a goblet.

"Carrie?" I asked tentatively.

No response.

Suddenly, her eyes slid back into focus and she gasped.

"What is it?" I demanded. "Did you have a vision?"

I read a lot of Muggle books and recognized her reaction.

"Yeah," she said as she frantically looked around. "Where's Lily?"

"Over there," I said pointing.

Lily was standing under one of the Christmas decorations of a sleigh. She was talking to James.

"Lily!" Carrie cried as she tore from her seat and began running toward Lily. I stood up and watched. Just as she knocked Lily down, the sleigh came crashing down on top of Carrie.

Carrie was knocked onto her stomach. She wasn't moving under the weight of the sleigh.

"Carrie!" I cried.

At that, Remus and Sirius looked up, saw me running over to Carrie and then joined in. The music stopped as everyone watched intently.

I reached Carrie's side first.

James was helping Lily to her feet.

"Get it off of her," James said urgently.

Remus and Sirius grabbed the end of the sleigh and tried to lift it.

"It won't budge," Sirius cringed as he and Remus tried again.

"Try this," I said.

I pulled out my wand and said, "Wingardium Leviosa."

Sure enough, the sleigh lifted off of Carrie and I set it down away.

"It was too heavy to lift manually," I said. "Magic was the only way."

"Thanks Arthur," Sirius said nodding.

I crouched down beside Carrie.

"Is she okay?" I asked in a shaky voice.

Sirius felt Carrie's neck for a pulse.

"Yeah," he said. "Let's get her to Madam Elkin."

So, Sirius, Remus and James helped carry Carrie up to the hospital wing. I looked up. It looked like the setting for the sleigh had been cut.