The Announcement

James and Sirius both threw on their robes and headed down to Charms. They had slept in and missed breakfast as usual. Lupin being a prefect never missed breakfast and was always on time for every class with his robes ironed. Sirius's robes were almost always disheveled. Professor Trechin their Charms teacher had already started the lesson when Sirius and James walked in.

'Ten points from Gryffindor' Trechin said without even looking up. The rest of the Gryffindors groaned as James and Sirius grabbed a table with Lupin.

'Just once mates' Lupin started, 'Just once even try to be on time'

'Class may begin with their spellwork' Trechin said and with a flick of his wand a cabbage appeared in front of each student. 'The incantations will not be spoken.' James and Sirius looked around for a second to see what they must do. All of the students were standing their really concentrated on their cabbages.

'What are we supposed to do?' Sirius asked Lupin.

'Turn the cabbages into rabbits' Lupin told him. Sirius thought for a moment and then turned to his cabbage and flicked his wand, it turned into a carrot.

'Step one complete' Sirius told his friends.

'A carrot?' James asked.

'Well rabbits and carrots are associated with each other so it makes it easier to turn the carrot into a rabbit then the cabbage into a rabbit' Sirius told them. James and Lupin turned to their cabbages and then turned them into carrots. They started at their carrots for a while trying to silently turning them into rabbits. James's carrot morphed into a black dwarf rabbit while Lupin's turned into a white rabbit. Sirius was still having trouble and by accident turned it into a frog.

'Rabbit…Ribbit…' he muttered. James picked up his dwarf rabbit and headed over to Lily's desk which she shared with her two best friends Chloe Campbell and Mel Harrison. Chloe was a new chaser on the Gryffindor team and she was steadily improving through practices. When James reached the desk he placed the rabbit on it and it hopped over to Lily.

'Hey look at the cute rabbit!' Lily squeaked, 'who did it?' She looked up and was obviously surprised to see James standing there. 'You did it?' she asked, 'how?'

'I'm not as dumb as you think I am' James whispered as he turned her cabbage into a carrot and walked away. Lily looked over at him as he walked back to his table where Sirius had finally managed to turn his carrot into a rabbit.

That night at dinner the old transfiguration teacher and new headmaster made an announcement.

'Greetings students' he called out, 'the Christmas holidays are nearing and this year we will hold a ball which will be held for all of Hogwarts students.' Cheering erupted from the hall and Dumbledore smiled as he let the cheering die down. 'The Ball will start at supper time on December 23rd to allow all students who are going home for Christmas holidays to attend. The event is formal so dress appropriately. Now for our current meal,' Dumbledore waved his wand and a feast appeared on each table.

'You know what this means padfoot?' James asked as he picked up a chicken leg.

'What mate?' Sirius said as he poured glasses of pumpkin juice to his three friends spilling Wormtails, 'sorry' he laughed.

'Dates' James told him raising his eyebrows.

'Who are you going to ask then?' Sirius asked,

'You know who I'm going to ask'

'I also know her answer' Sirius told him smiling slyly. There was no chance that Lily would say yes to James's invitation to the Christmas ball. James decided to wait until after dinner to ask Lily, he'd wait until they were in the common room. The boys spent the rest of dinner viewing over the tables looking for possible dates for Sirius and Remus. Sirius's eyes caught a brunette girl from Hufflepuff.

'How about Katie?' Sirius asked. She had sparkling brown eyes and long wavy dark brown hair. At the moment she was leaning over to one of her friends and laughing. She looked around for a second and saw Sirius, she smiled.

'Katie Shoreman?' James asked. Looking over to wear Sirius was looking. Sirius nodded. 'Hey she's a cute girl. Go for it padfoot' Sirius debated on whether asking her now before she was asked by another student but look anxious or sit back and wait. He decided to keep her interested but not ask right away, he had herbology with her the next day.

The common room was buzzing that night about who was going with who and who students hoped to go with. Girls talked about how they were going to do their hair and their make-up and what their dresses look like. Lily, Mel and Chloe sat in a corner chatting with each other. As he neared the girls sitting on the couch all of them cross-legged they looked up.

'Hey Lily' he said.

'Hi' she said barely looking up. She might say no he started thinking, in fact she probably will say no and I don't have anything really funny to say right now so I just won't embarrass myself. 'So did you finish your potions homework?' he asked.

'Yes I did'

'Another Outstanding from Professor Slughorn I bet' he said feeling really awkward. She smiled slightly,

'Hopefully.' She looked towards her friends.

'So practice tomorrow!' Chloe said brightly making conversation, 'Of course Jones wants us to have a morning practice.'

'Ya I don't like those much'

'They work quite well though, no other team uses the pitch so we have it all to ourselves.'

'They also get you to class on time,' Lily told him.

'Ya we don't lose so many points for Gryffindor those days,' Mel told him.

'Right…' he said and walked away.