You might notice that the spelling of Lynn's last name is slightly different (gone from Carrol to Carroll) due to one of my friend's comments (coughhappysuzanne?cough)
The night of the Halloween Ball finally came. The girls sat in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory, all of them getting ready for the ball. Rayven wasted no time telling them about what she and Sirius had overheard a few days earlier. This was the first time in weeks the three friends had found time to sit together and just talk. Rayven and Gari carefully avoided talking to Lily about James until later; for now, they were intrigued by Rayven's news.
Gari was laughing so hard she could barely breathe. "Sigismund…him and Professor Stiffien?" She managed to say, before giggling uncontrollably again. Lily too, had a smile on her face, but also looked thoughtful.
"Sigismund and Stiffien?" Lily pulled echoing Gari's words. "Ugh, the poor woman."
After finally calming down, Gari nodded. "It's so hard to believe…Professor Stiffien is so sweet…but Sigismund…he's just…"
"A wanker?" Rayven supplied helpfully as she brushed her hair.
Gari smiled. "There you go."
"You said that she's doing something against Voldemort?" Lily asked Rayven, looking thoughtful once more.
"Well, that's definitely what it sounded like," Rayven replied. "Sigismund kept saying how something bad would happen to her if she kept doing what she is. Whatever she's working on, she's doing it with Dumbledore."
"Hmm…" Lily looked out the window, pondering this.
"It makes sense though, doesn't it?" Gari said. "Sigismund was probably talking about the Death Eaters. I mean, look at Malfoy and his lot. They're definitely involved with the Dark Arts. If they have connections with the Death Eaters, then they would definitely say something if they found out Professor Stiffien was trying to fight Voldemort."
"They'd kill her," Lily said softly.
"What, with Dumbledore around?" Rayven exclaimed, incredulous. "C'mon…Voldemort is no fool."
"What about during the summer?" Gari argued. "The teachers don't stay here. Voldemort could get to her then. Probably even during one of the Hogsmeade weekends."
"And here's another thing," Lily added. "There are probably other teachers working on it. Sigismund isn't, but what about McGonagall and Flitwick? Hagrid? They're all close to Dumbledore and hate Voldemort. They're probably working against him too."
They all fell silent for a few moments, then Rayven spoke. "Don't be disgusted with me or anything, but…I felt really bad for Sigismund."
Gari nodded as she put on her earrings. "Look, I hate the man…but still…you said that he looked sad."
"Devastated," Rayven nodded. "He loves her."
Lily's face turned cold. "Well if he loves her so much, he shouldn't act like such a prat all the time."
Rayven and Gari exchanged a look. They both knew she wasn't talking entirely about Sigismund and Stiffien anymore.
"Lily, um…about James-" Gari began slowly.
"Save it, Gari," Lily pulled on her dressed robes angrily. "You're dating Sirius Black, so I'm not exactly going to listen to your love advice am I?"
They words were harsh and struck Gari like such. Lily rarely raised her voice to anyone but James. In a soft voice, Gari told Rayven, "I'll meet you guys downstairs."
She walked out of the room without looking at Lily, who still had a stone face.
Rayven got up off the bed and went to face Lily. "Lils…look, I'm your friend. I know what James did was wrong, but he didn't mean to hurt you." Lily opened her mouth to argue, but Rayven stopped her. "I know that this isn't what you want to hear, but I think you need to apologize to him. He must feel awful about what happened."
"Hey, Gideon and Remus are waiting downstairs for you guys," Gari came into the room once again. "Are you coming?"
"Yeah," Rayven gave Lily a final knowing look, then followed Gari down the steps.
The Great Hall was always decorated for Halloween, but tonight it seemed even more so. The ceiling of the sky was a peaceful deep blue with clouds covering the moon, but lightning crackled across the expanse of ceiling every few moments. Golden candelabras floated around the room near the carved jack o' lanterns.
Sirius appreciated the magical and spooky atmosphere, but his eyes could barely stray from Gari. Her dress robes were a shimmery silver, bringing out her grey eyes spectacularly. Her brown waves were held up by a silver comb, allowing some tendrils to frame her face prettily.
Sirius reached out and took her hand, pulling her close. "You look amazing," Sirius murmured in her ear.
She smiled up at him. "Don't look too bad yourself, Black." She brushed a lock of black hair out of his eyes, and tugged on his hand for them to go into the Hall.
Gari glanced back at Lily and Gideon, who were whispering to each other. Then, a thought struck her.
"Is James here tonight?" Gari asked, suddenly nervous. "I hope he doesn't see Lily and Gideon."
Sirius sighed. "No, he's here…most likely to try and find someone to take Lily's place."
"Sirius, what-"
"What the hell?" Gari was cut short by Lynn Carroll's exclamation. "Woah, Black…I guess all the rumors are true. You can't stay with a girl for more than a week."
Gari whirled around to face the Slytherin, who was wearing robes in bold green. Lynn was wearing heavy black make up and smirking at them all.
"Piss off, Carroll," Rayven hissed at the redhead.
'Thank you, Rae,' Gari thought. She wasn't up for Lynn whining about something or other tonight.
Lynn smirked at Rayven. "Well, I guess you'd know about it, wouldn't you, Lockley? You snogged Sirius way back when."
Rayven turned a brilliant shade of red and Sirius looked away. Rayven looked at Remus for some sort of reaction, but all he did was squeeze her hand reassuringly and give a comforting smile that said 'that's in the past…we're together now.'
"And now you're with Lupin," Lynn continued. "Merlin, Lockley, you do get around."
Rayven got right in her face now. "Shut up."
"Who's next?" Lynn hissed back in Rayven's face, taking out her jealousy of Gari out on her. "Potter? How about Pettigrew? I'm sure he'd go for another of Black's cast offs."
"You'd know a bit about that, wouldn't you, Lynn?" Rayven shot back. The girls glared at each, taking turns spewing venom. "Didn't take you long to try and get with Sirius, did it? I bet you'd give it up in five minutes."
By now, quite a large group had circled around the girls, watching them fling remarks back and forth like a tennis match.
"Oh, I've got nothing on you," Lynn replied, that sickeningly satisfied smile coming back. "At least I don't put on a face of innocence. Not like you…innocent school girl on the outside, but still a slut through and through-OW!"
A loud 'smack' could be heard by the people around. Rayven had slapped Lynn hard across the face, and she still looked furious.
"Don't you ever speak to me like that!" Rayven hissed.
"Girls!" Professor Stiffien approached them. Rayven froze. Had she seen the slap? Stiffien glanced at each of them. "Come now, go enjoy the ball. Stop this bickering." Lynn glared at Rayven before moving on with her friends.
Stiffien stopped Rayven before she moved. "Don't think I didn't see the slap, Rayven. I might be a little biased in your favor, but I genuinely despise Slytherins or Gryffindors provoking each other. I would have ignored it if your roles had been reversed too. But if I see this again, I'll be talking to Professor McGonagall."
Rayven nodded solemnly. She leaned against Remus, who was still holding her hand. She gave him a meek half smile. "Are you completely disgusted with me?"
He kissed her forehead. "A little stunned, but never disgusted."
They walked together in the opposite direction of the Slytherins, leaving Gari and Sirius to a corner by themselves. They had been arguing since the middle of the fight, and Gari had tears of fury in her eyes.
"I don't believe you!" Gari cried, trying to keep her emotions in check to no avail. "All that shit that you fed me…'I love the way we are together'…God, what a fool I was!"
"Gari, please, just listen," Sirius tried to get a word in. "She was flirting with me at the beginning of the year, and I was going to go out with her, but then there was us…things just got confusing," He finished lamely. "I don't know what to say. I should have told you. I should have been honest."
Gari glared at him furiously, but her tone was soft, "Yeah, you should have."
Sirius rubbed his temples. "Look, I can understand if you never want to talk to me again…"
Gari glanced up. "I still want to be with you, Sirius."
"Really?" Sirius looked stunned. "Well…wow."
Gari snorted softly in amusement. "Yeah, your damn right 'wow'." She regarded him with an awkward mixture of disgust and tenderness. "So…she…she jumped you?" The thought made her nauseous.
Sirius ran a shaky hand through his hair. "Yeah, that sums it up."
Gari was silent and the hurt on her face was more than Sirius could bear. "Gari, you have to know that I didn't want-"
"I know," Gari said simply, cutting him off. "Alright…well, I'll just try and ignore Lynn tonight."
"Same here," Sirius replied, taking a chance and kissing her softly. They were silent for a few moments, until Sirius spotted James. Gari followed his gaze.
"We should talk to him," Gari whispered. "He's probably torn up about Lily."
When they got to James, however, he was seated in between Kim Matthews and Beth Warren, two chasers on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. Kim and Beth were blonde, blue-eyed, and thin as a rail. They could giggle sexily on cue, and boys fell over themselves to try and get them to look their way. Currently, all three of them were laughing with dozens of butterbeers in front of them.
Gari raised an eyebrow. "I stand corrected."
When Beth got up to get some more drinks, Sirius took her place, and put an arm around James.
"Take it easy, mate," Sirius told him, taking a butterbeer out of his hand. "How many of these have you had?"
"Oh…what would you say, Kim?" James looked at the blonde lasciviously. "Ten or twelve?"
Gari noticed that his words were slurred, and she glanced at Sirius with a look that said 'He's totally wasted'. Sirius responded with a 'You think?' look.
"Alright, James, you've had enough," Sirius took a butterbeer out of his hand when Beth brought over more. He glanced up at Beth and Kim. "You know, Narcissa got sick today, so Lucius Malfoy is here by himself."
The girls gave a shriek of happiness and hurried over to the blonde Slytherin, who greeted them eagerly with a smirk.
Rolling his eyes, Sirius turned back to James. "Look, I know that you're upset about Lily-"
"I'm not upshet about her," James slurred.
"Mate, you're pissed," Sirius helped James to his feet.
"I'm not mad," James looked confused.
"You're drunk, mate, drunk," Sirius clarified. "C'mon…you've had enough. Why don't you go upstairs to bed?"
"You're not my mother, Sirius," James responded angrily. "Go away." James shoved Sirius away and started to walk away, but Sirius grabbed him.
"No way, I'm not going to let you go sleep with someone, pick a fight, or something like that," Sirius said. "James, just go before you do something you regret. It hurts with Lily, okay, but you'll get over it. She's not the only girl for you."
James seemed to come to his senses a little. "Alright…alright…I'll go upstairs…" He stumbled a little as he started to walk.
Sirius glanced at Gari. "I'll be back in a few minutes, I just want to make sure he gets back all right."
Gari nodded and tried not to laugh at the sight of a drunken James Potter.
About twenty minutes later, Sirius came back to find Gari talking with Remus and Rayven.
"Is he alright?" Remus asked as Sirius took a swig from a butterbeer.
"Yeah," Sirius replied. "He'll have a hell of a headache in the morning, though. You're not supposed to drink that much butterbeer."
"Oh my God," Rayven giggled suddenly at something. "Guys, look…"
A slow ballad was echoing throughout the Hall, and the others turned to look in the direction Rayven was staring in. At the sight, Remus and Gari gasped, and Sirius choked on his butterbeer.
"Jesus, he really doesn't give up, does he?" Sirius croaked out after coughing.
Sigismund was dancing slowly with Professor Stiffien. They were speaking in hushed tones, and it looked as though Stiffien was struggling to keep her voice down.
"Come on," Gari grabbed Sirius' hand and led him onto the dance floor. She leaned in close to him and put her arms around his neck, placing them strategically near Sigismund and Stiffien.
"Nice way to eavesdrop," Sirius murmured suggestively in her ear, pressing his body more firmly up against hers.
Gari told him to be quiet and strained to hear the exchange between Sigismund and Stiffien.
"Just like old times, hmm?" Sigismund was murmuring. "I've missed you, Mary." He glanced down at her. "Dancing with you, among other things." Stiffien turned a bright shade of red.
Gari buried her face against Sirius' chest to keep her laughter from being heard. Sirius turned his head away so that the Professors wouldn't see the look of disgust on his face.
"I realize that the teachers have lives to, but really!" Sirius whispered to Gari. "And I thought I was forward."
"I don't want to get into this with you," Stiffien was saying. Her voice was suddenly soft and strained. "You know that it's over. And I can't move on unless you do too."
"So you haven't been able to move on?" Sigismund challenged. "Just tell me this, Mary, are you able to sleep at night? Knowing what you're doing-"
"That's what this is about?" Stiffien was barely able to keep her angry voice down. "All you're talk about missing me, when really you just don't want me fighting You-Know-Who…"
"You're not wrong," Sigismund told her bluntly. "But I do miss you, and I don't want to see you dead." He paused briefly. "I love you."
Stiffien broke away from him with tears in her eyes. She strode away without a word, leaving many of the students around them looking very curious. Gari saw Sigismund watch Stiffien leave, pain etched on his handsome face. Sigismund turned, and Gari met his eyes for a moment. She glanced away quickly.
When Gari and Sirius sat back down next to Rayven and Remus, Rayven wasted no time.
"What the hell was that?" Rae asked.
Lots of stuff, I know; and there's another part to the ball, so that should be up in a few days. And yes, the Sigismund/Stiffien storyline matters.