A/N- I'm so happy that you all haven't given up on me! Thanks for the reviews, you guys rock! And so I have returned for more madness. You keep up the reviews, and I'll do my best with the chapters. So without further ado, chapter 53!
And so the night was young. But unfortunately, this wasn't good enough for Lucius Malfoy. "Snape, I cannot believe you made that useless old man take away everyone's wand," he snapped, pacing back and forth in front of Sevvie, Ally, and Cissa. Cissa patted his shoulder sympathetically, but he seemed to be inconsolable.
Even Ally seemed to feel a little bit bad that Snape had ruined whatever Lucius had had planned that required his wand that night, but Snape felt no remorse. In fact, he bore a familiar smirk as he said, "Where detention fails, a lack of wand certainly does the trick, Lucius. And why is it so important you have your wand anyway? What did you have planned? A romantic rendezvous with Black, perhaps?"
Lip curling in disgust, Lucius gave his long blonde hair a good flip, and turned angrily towards Snape. "Let it suffice to say that when the Headmaster returns my wand, which I am sure he will shortly, you will be the first on my list to be cursed," he sneered, employing the Malfoy evil glare to good use.
"You know, Lucius, you weren't the only one with plans for tonight," Sevvie pointed out, gesturing towards to the sheet toga that he was still wearing. Cissa sniggered, and Ally blushed, but Lucius just seemed more incensed. "Yes, well, had you not gotten all our wands removed, then perhaps we could all have fulfilled our plans for tonight," he said irritably, "Come on, let's go. I've had enough of this greasy man's company."
Not one for standing up to her husband, Cissa followed his lead, waving a sorry goodbye to Snape and Ally as she went. "We'll be back soon, I'm sure," she mouthed, feeling it her duty to let them know that they weren't completely abandoning them, "Now where are we going, Lucius?"
Lucius spun her around and surprised her with a kiss. "First," he said firmly, "We are going to find Professor Dumbledore and demand that he return my wand. I have powerful connections; I'm sure I can get him to waver a little on his extremely rash and unprovoked decision. And then, then we are going to the Astronomy Tower and make a little magic."
Cissa giggled, sure that that was the corniest thing she had ever heard Lucius say in his life. "Lucius, have you been drinking?" she asked suspiciously, sure that something that sweet and cliché had and would never come out of her husband's mouth unprovoked.
"Just a few glasses of champagne," he admitted, giving his hair another loving flip, "but it's not every day I spend the night in this place, and you know, for old time's sake, right Cissy?" That clinched the fact that he had definitely been drinking for Cissa. He never called her Cissy unless he was totally smashed.
Even though she knew he was smashed, though, she couldn't help feeling as charmed as she had when she had first met him, back when they were at Hogwarts themselves. As much as he was a real pain most of the time, and very high-maintenance, it was for sexy moods like these (and his ravishing good looks) that made Cissa love him. "Alright," she said, giggling like a schoolgirl again, "The Astronomy Tower it is."
Unbeknownst to Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy, quite a few other people in the Great Hall were thinking the same thing. "Malfoy had a point about the Astronomy Tower," Harry said shyly to Ginny, loving the feel of her pressing against him as they danced. Ginny raised her eyebrows at Harry's unusual forwardness, but she had to admit she was pleased. It seemed as if Harry had taken a few tips from Fred and George over the course of the evening.
"Are you serious?" she asked, letting herself blush a little as she looked up into Harry's deep green eyes. He nodded and pulled her a little closer. "And now that Ron and Hermione are off in their own little world, we can do whatever we want," he grinned, feeling very free and very lucky.
Ginny rested her head on Harry's chest for a minute, thinking about how lucky she was that he had finally noticed she existed as more than just Ron's little sister. Just knowing that he wanted to be with her was empowering. It made her feel so grown up, and like she didn't have to listen to every warning that came out of her parents' or Percy's mouth. She loved that feeling.
"Then let's go up to the Astronomy Tower before somebody else gets there first," she said, tugging Harry's hand and leading him towards the door. Tingling with anticipation, Harry allowed himself to be pulled along by the fiery redhead. She may have been a year younger than him, but looking at her, nobody could tell.
At the same time, up in the Gryffindor boy's dorm, Oliver and Katie were thinking along similar lines. "That was the best Quidditch I've ever played," Katie said breathlessly, laying back to lean on Oliver, who was sitting up and running a hand through his now extremely tousled hair. "I'll say," Oliver agreed, kissing Katie on the top of the head and wishing he had a mirror to check his hair.
"Don't you feel like we should do something romantic?" Katie asked, looking up at Oliver surprisingly innocently. Oliver cocked his head to one side. "Like play more Quidditch?" he asked hopefully, stroking Katie's hair.
Katie shook her head, but she was smiling. She was used to Oliver's one track mind. "No, like go stargazing or something," she said, getting starry-eyed herself at the idea, "Yeah, let's go look at the stars, up in the Astronomy Tower. What do you think, Oliver?"
Though it wasn't Quidditch, watching the stars with his girlfriend did sound fun. "Alright, sounds good. But you owe me a game of Quidditch, Katie Bell," he said, ruffling her hair before he got up and started trying to make himself presentable. She assured him that she would follow through.
"Oliver, stop with the hair, I swear you worry about it more than I do," Katie said, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend's obsession. Honestly, though, she didn't really mind. It was kind of cute that he always wanted to look good for her.
After reluctantly agreeing to stop for the time being, Oliver took Katie's waiting hand and led her out of the dorm towards the Astronomy Tower. It had been too long since he had been up there. With all the chaos of the courses he was taken, he hardly had the time at night to go up to the place. So he was perfectly happy to go up there with Katie while he had the chance. Maybe he'd even get lucky, and they could play a game of Quidditch while they were up there.
Katie caught that familiar look on his face though, and shook her head, laughing. "Oliver, the world's not all about Quidditch, you know, of either kind," she said good-naturedly. Oliver pretended to be shocked. "Are you positive?" he asked, feigning desperation as she led the way to the Astronomy Tower, "Because those gorgeous Quidditch robes would look even better on the floor."
Unable to stop her heart from racing as Oliver tried his best to seduce her, Katie tried her best not to rethink her decision simply to watch the stars. Somehow, Oliver always managed to convince her that the world really was all about Quidditch, both as a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and otherwise. "Oh alright, just once," she relented, letting Oliver kiss her as they fell back on the soft, hay-covered floor of the most famous hangout for lovers at Hogwarts.
Meanwhile, the champagne was disappearing much faster than it had been intended to when it was laid out in preparation for the Spring Ball. It seemed that once Lupin got past the initial overly strong taste of the rum that Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia had used to spike the champagne, he didn't have such a problem drinking it.
"Whoa there, Remmie," Sirius laughed, rather louder than he would have had he not already had several glasses of the bubbly, "How many glasses is that, mate?" Lupin struggled to remember how many glasses he had had previously through the haze that had settled over his eyes.
"Four, maybe? Five?" Lupin suggested vaguely, holding up three fingers and waving them in Sirius's face. "ME TOO!" Sirius said, excited. He clapped Lupin on the back and grinned. "I'm so proud you finally decided to cut loose, Moony. I always knew you were a man after my own heart," he said, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.
"Hell yeah," Lupin nodded, proud that Sirius was proud, and inexplicably giddy, "Hey, I wonder where Cissa Malfoy went. That was one hell of a snog she gave me when she was trying to make Lucius jealous earlier tonight." He laughed and licked his lips, grabbing Sirius's hand to keep himself from falling over.
Sirius gave his best friend the sadness puppy-dog eyes he could muster, throwing in a sexy pout as well. "What about our Truth or Dare snog?" he asked, sounding as insulted as he could in spite of his slur, "That was hot times, mate, so freakin' sexy. Like, that Parvati who was my supposed to be my soul mate times ten. Like, sexier than James's Quidditch-tousled hair."
Lupin took a bow and ran a hand through Sirius's hair before letting his arm rest on his shoulder. "Is it hot in here, or is it just me?" he asked, a blush spreading over his face. Whether it was from the alcohol or Sirius's comment, or both, was left for Fred, George, Angelina, and Alicia, who were listening for their own entertainment just a few feet away, to determine.
"This worked even better than I thought it would," George said quietly, sniggering as he heard Sirius reminiscing about James Potter's notoriously messy hair. Fred, Angelina, and Alicia agreed completely. "Seriously," Angelina commented, raising her eyebrows as Sirius continued to talk excitedly about their Truth or Dare snog session, "In a minute or two we might have to bring out the hoses, or they're going to be all over each other more than Oliver and Katie at Quidditch practice."
"You sound far too excited about that for your own good, missy," Fred noticed, as Angelina and Alicia giggled in anticipation of the event Angelina had predicted, "We may have to pull the hoses out for you two, in fact." Much to Fred's relief, Sirius and Remus did not start a snogfest in the middle of the Great Hall. However, Angelina and Alicia were not disappointed by the two hot older men, either.
"It's not just you, Remmie, it's like a hot tub in here," they heard Sirius say as he too flushed pink, "I say we cool off with a little sprinkler action." Thinking that he could not have come up with a more brilliant idea had he been sober, he reached for his wand to conjure up some sprinklers.
But Professor Dumbledore had complied with Snape's request, and evened the playing field by removing all the wands from the people attending the ball for the remainder of it. When Sirius reached for his wand, all he found was the inside of his pocket, empty except for, for some odd reason, a pair of smelly socks.
"What the…?" Sirius trailed off, pulling the socks out of his pocket and holding them gingerly, as if they were apt to explode, "My wand's gone, and it's been replaced with a pair of socks!" Lupin giggled girlishly, as did Fred when he heard this from a few feet away. "What did you do?" Alicia asked, rolling her eyes.
Fred smirked. "My feet were just begging to be set free," he admitted, looking down to show that he was inexplicably barefoot, "And may I say, what better place to stash my smelly socks than in the pocket of my younger brother's best friend's totally drunk godfather?" The rest of the group looked at him like he was crazy, but he took it in stride. After all, now he didn't have to carry his socks around, and barefoot was the way to be.
Sirius, though, wasn't particularly concerned with the socks. Throwing them over his shoulder, he completely by accident hit Fred squarely in the face, but he didn't notice. Interestingly enough, Sirius wasn't particularly concerned with the absence of his wand, either. Shrugging easily, he said, "Okay, no sprinklers, then, Remmie. I guess we'll just have to strip down, eh?"
"Sounds hot, or should I say cool," Lupin sniggered, pronouncing his drunken approval of Sirius's idea. "Oh yes, very cool," Sirius agreed, unbuttoning his black button down shirt, and watching with interest as Lupin did the same to his silvery grey one.
"We are SO GOOD!" George exclaimed in a whisper as he watched the two of them stripping down, "What a prank, ladies and gents, what a prank." Fred took a bow and Angelina and Alicia both smiled, but the two girls were too engrossed in the stripping of two of the hottest bachelors in the room to be paying much attention.
After a surprisingly long time (apparently rum impaired the removal of clothes sense as well as that of judgment), Sirius and Lupin were standing right next to the champagne, shirts, undershirts, belts, socks, and shoes in a pile on the floor, and now they were just struggling to remove their pants.
"Well I must say that feels soo much better, Remmie," Sirius pronounced once he had thrown his pants down triumphantly onto the pile of their other clothes, "And those are fabulous boxers, by the way." Sirius looked down, sniggering at Lupin's underwear, which was dark blue with white hearts. "Very understated, very you," he continued with a grin, "That blue is definitely your color."
Lupin thanked him by doing a dance that involved a considerable amount of butt-shaking. "Don't worry, though, Padfoot my man, yours are far better," he admitted shamelessly, taking note of Sirius's red silk boxers, which he dimly remember seeing earlier that night, though he couldn't quite remember when.
"Damn right!" Sirius said proudly, discoing over closer to Remus in a dance that accented his sexy butt. Lupin laughed and pretended to slap it. "Kinky," Fred commented to Angelina, who rolled her eyes good-naturedly.
"We have never been part of a better prank," Alicia remarked, making George pretend to pout. "Well she has a point," Angelina backed her up, getting another glance of Lupin and Sirius half-naked.
After a few minutes of watching Sirius and Lupin's drunk, half-naked antics, other people began to notice. "Ooh, check it out," Parvati Patil whispered to Lavender and Seamus, who were drinking Butterbeers on a break from dancing, "He looks so hot shirtless, doesn't he?" Lavender nodded, much to Seamus's dismay. "Always with the older guys. I mean, come on, Lupin's a werewolf, and he's still hotter than me," he said sulkily.
"Pansy, is that Black and Lupin in their boxers over there?" Draco asked, a look of disgust on his face as his eyes were drawn across the Great Hall to where Sirius and Lupin were pretending to dance, "Red silk boxers? Navy with white hearts? What fairies…"
Pansy reluctantly looked away from Draco's cool gray eyes and ice blonde hair to Sirius and Remus. She was not disappointed though; both men were distinctly appealing in their own ways. "Draco darling, don't you have blue boxers with white hearts? And I know you have red silk boxers, I've seen them more than once," she said tentatively, hoping that he wouldn't be angry with her.
Draco was unable to stop a faint flush from coming over his pale face. "Shut up and kiss me," he said, pulling her into a long, passionate snog in a rather successful attempt to distract her from the fact that he owned almost the same boxers as both Black and Lupin. Immediately forgetting about the two drunken Marauders, Pansy returned the snog with pleasure.
"That was amazing," she whispered in his ear, massaging his neck all the while, "Do you want to continue it up in the Astronomy Tower?" Draco arched a perfectly groomed eyebrow suggestively. "Oh, we can continue a lot more than that up in the Astronomy Tower," he said quietly, pulling her away from the crowd in the Great Hall and towards the open door, "Just you wait."
Ordinarily, Dumbledore would have surely been around to overhear their conversation and make a comment, as was his usual style. But he had been strolling over the lengths of the Great Hall, eagerly searching for Professor McGonagall. "Professor McGonagall, at last!" Dumbledore said when he finally caught up with the head of Gryffindor House, dressed most unlike her usual self in a dazzling dress of red crushed velvet.
"You were looking for me, Headmaster?" she asked, uttering a little giggle that would never have escaped her lips in ordinary circumstances. He nodded, almost gravely, but soon broke into a grin capable of lighting up the whole room. "Yes, Professor, I was wondering if you would be interested in enjoying a few more sherbet lemons, in a purely professional way, as everything seems to have calmed down here in the Great Hall," he said in a would-be casual tone.
Minerva McGonagall had never been more surprised in her life. "That sounds, erm, delightful, sir, but wouldn't it be a bit irresponsible to leave the Great Hall without the proper supervision? And also, I thought that you ran out of sherbet lemons in your office?"
Dumbledore smiled pleasantly, and said, "Well, Minerva, since everything appears to be calm, I think that it would be perfectly acceptable to take a short break from our usual responsibilities. And you are correct; I did use up the supply of sherbet lemons I keep in my office. I do, however, have another stash, which, I believe, is hidden somewhere up in the Astronomy Tower."
