Wow, this update took ages I know! And I am very, very VERY sorry about it!
About the question if Lily will come into the story, yes she will, and she will
play a big role, and as will Sirius, their part is quite clear in this chappie.
I would like to thank my new beta! Tuxedo Cat, loads of cookies and hugs to you:)
But, without further ado… ;)
Chapter 11 Announcements and the others.
I was downstairs for lunch when the news was announced. I was too busy watching my chicken to notice Dumbledore standing up and hitting his glass lightly with a silver spoon.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of 7th year," I tilted my head up. "if you would please stay put for a moment and let all other students leave the hall. I shall be quick."
The hall got emptier and in a minute there were only 7th years left, glancing confusedly at each other.
"Well, I have some wonderful news for you. On the 11th of January there will be a ball here at Hogwarts…" He couldn't finish because roars filled the hall. He only smiled gently.
"There is no theme, just be properly formal. We will have a band, a dance floor, not to mention a lovely dinner. We hope to see all of you, there shall be further advertising later."
Cissa turned to me and I could swear I saw a hint of childishness in her eyes.
"Merlin! There are only five days until that! We will have to do something with our hair, find the proper makeup. And two gorgeous dresses… not to forget the…"
Her voice drifted out in my head. All I thought about was James. Would he take me to the dance after our stupid fit yesterday?
I turned my head to the Gryffindor table. My heart sank. James was talking to
Lily. She was leaning her head on his shoulder, my shoulder! Looking up into his eyes.
All these years of him chasing after her. Now it was the other way round. Maybe they were just meant to be together, how could I stand a Merlin's damn chance?
Better talk to him right after school.
We had a charms lesson after lunch. Little Professor Flitwick stood on a box behind his desk and spoke about some charm we were due to learn before our
NEWTs, I knew it was dead important to listen to him, but my mind was filled with a lot of other things.
After two hours of boredom we finally ran out, I was going to find James and have a private talk, but Cissa was following me everywhere babbling about some dresses she had seen in Hogsmeade.
"Cissa!" I finally turned around and glared up in her eyes.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" She cocked an eyebrow.
"I have to go and talk to James, and then to a practise on the pitch. You go find Zabini or entertain yourself in whichever manner you enjoy the most. Just don't follow me."
"Fine, fine. Chill, just come up later okay, we have a lot to plan."
"Yeah." I muttered before stomping off to the Gryffindor painting. The fat lady stared at me.
"You're not from the Gryffindor house." She stated wisely.
"No I'm not, smart-ass. Can't you just open that hole of yours for two seconds so I can call James?"
"Do you have relations with the masculine raven hair?"
"Yeah. Are you going to let me in or not?"
"Most certainly not." She chimed, and I turned around, still glaring over my shoulder at the stupid portrait, bumping into something very hard.
The person I hated the most fell onto me and her red hair landed on my face and my theory was proved. Her hair was amazingly soft. She smelled good too. I really didn't blame James for liking her.
"Excuse me." She finally huffed.
"Would you please remove your fat ass off my body?" I snorted. She immediately
stood up.
"No problems with that." She replied, trying hard to maintain her cool, causing her voice to sound amazingly corny.
Ah. She was one of these infamous angels of Gryffindor. A prefect. A lady.
"Could you please get James for me if he's in there?" I pointed a finger towards the portrait.
"At your service." She said sarcastically and strode up to the painting, whispered a password to it and I heard her call James' name called sweetly before the hole slammed closed again.
He came out smiling.
"Hey!" He said happily. "Want to take a walk?" That was a good start.
"Sure. You excited about the ball thing?" I hoped deeply he would ask me to the ball now.
"Yeah I guess I'm a little fond of it, although there is a problem."
I froze, realizing I was having one of my hunches. Somebody had asked him.
"Lily asked me to go with her," he continued, making me desperately wanting to strangle somebody. "I said I'd think about it. You know I'm only friends with her now. It wouldn't be anything serious. You and me could just meet on the dance, you could just go with somebody else. I'm pretty sure quite a lot of guys will ask you out."
My brain froze. Overload, too much information.
"Sure." I heard a voice say. Unfortunately it was my voice.
"I just knew you were mature enough to accept this."
"Yeah," I forced a smile. I could only imagine how idiotic I must have looked.
"Look, I have a Quidditch practise to go to, so I guess I'll catch up with you tomorrow."
"Yeah." He pulled me into a hug, and then a wonderful, soft kiss. We were still holding on to each other tight and I was fiddling with his black hair when somebody cleared her throat behind us, in such a 'delightful' manner I could only guess who it was.
"Sorry to interrupt your..." She flicked her perfect red hair "er…moment together but we have a history of magic essay due for tomorrow James."
I tore myself free from his grasp, against my own will and waved goodbye to him, receiving a soft peck on the nose.
I floated on a soft pink cloud down the stone steps, through the dungeons, and into the Slytherin girl dormitories. I got dressed in my still dirty (I hadn't had time to take them down to the house elves,) Quidditch robes and grabbed my broom.
When I stepped out I realized the weather wasn't all that fantastic… storm clouds were gathering above my head and the wind soared effortlessly through the thin nylon fabric of my Quidditch robes.
Lucius was a pain in the ass as usual, and he made me jog twelve laps around the pitch and called me a wimp for complaining about how thin the robes were.
However my soft pink cloud was still in place when I finally managed to drag my exhausted, dirty ass down and up all the stairs towards my bed.
But, when I tossed myself onto it, I was stopped in mid-air by something that could only be a charm.
I looked up to see Cissa standing over me, tsk-tsk-ing at me.
"Crys, seriously, you have clean, fresh covers on your bed, you would have made them all dirty. I mean, look at you." She pointed at my dirty robes, and made me float softly back up. Stupid charms skills of hers.
I took a warm shower, filed and polished my nails, and made Cissa scrub my face with the rip-off priced products I had bought in Hogsmeade.
As I was lying on my bed, and Narcissa was carefully applying the creams on my face, she obviously felt it was time for girly talk.
All the time she was on about dresses, make-up, hairdos, pop bands, and boys she would like to escort to the ball.
"I'm not going with James." I finally managed to babble up, between her long sentences. She turned my head around so I looked up in her violet coloured eyes.
"Why not?"
"Cuz Lily asked him first."
"Well, I'm sure somebody will ask your pretty ass out anyway."
"Damn straight." I suddenly realized I was just being a drama queen. I was going to have fun on that dance.
O"O,O"O,O"O,O"O,O"O,O"O,O"O,O"O
I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. The skin on my face was soft and firm, and my hair was very controllable.
I threw a pillow at Cissa a few times; she finally got on her feet and was ready in minutes, doing the exact same things that had just taken me half an hour.
That girl will never stop surprising me.
At breakfast, the hall was very alive with the sound of people talking, and since I wasn't involved in a conversation I realized the wonderful fact that we had classes with Gryffindors before and after lunch.
James was winking at me and whispering cute things to me all day, causing me to be in a brilliant mood. At lunch I met Sirius, and had an idea.
"So," I began, "do you have a date for the ball?"
"Actually, I have gotten twenty three offers, but I'm not very interested in any of them. How about you?"
"Well no, since James is going with Lily." I looked at my toes.
"Yeah, that is shitty. Do you want to go with me?" He asked, not at all shy.
"Sure." I smiled warmly at him, glad my plan had worked out this well.
We decided to talk a walk outside to chat about stuff, leaving Cissa and James behind, furrowing their eyebrows at each other.
We agreed on walking past Hagrid's hut, around the lake and back into the castle.
"Do you like James? Really like him?"
"Of course I do. Why wouldn't I?" I muttered, a bit angrily.
"It's nothing, I'm sorry."
"It's okay." He smiled, but then I saw terror in his eyes, when he stared at something behind me, and then jumped onto me, causing me to fall on the ground.
I cursed and managed to move around under his large, warm body, enough to see two boys playing with a bludger and two bats, the bludger had just zoomed over the area where my head had been moments before.
"Merlin." I sighed breathlessly and suddenly realized Sirius was staring right at me. From top of me. His hot breath was flowing down my ear, and made me shiver, even though I wasn't cold at all.
For a minute or so I just lay there still under him. It was just too comfortable to resist just lying there for a little while. It felt so utterly safe. His blackish blue eyes didn't leave my face, they were so bloody beautifully clear and boyish, just like his attitude.
But I couldn't help but wonder what was happening in his handsome head. He was on top of his best friend's girlfriend. And had been there for two minutes staring directly into her eyes.
And when I came in and James kissed me on the mouth I wasn't even sure if I liked it as much as I had liked what had happened on the grounds ten minutes earlier, with his best friend of all times, Sirius Black.
Oooh…the plot thickens…the next chappie will contain a HUGE cliffie! So stay tuned! And don't DARE to leave without reviewing!
