Amidst relatively little squabbling, the four girls finished showering and fixed their make-up. Then they got ready to dress and the add finishing touches for the ball. Saffron was sitting on Lily's bed alternately incanting a spell to charm her hair into ringlets and chatting to Lily who had dried her hair and was entwining tiny stands of gold thread into Amy's naturally curling hair. Meg, whose short wavy locks had already been pinned back with clips, sat in front of Lily's dressing table mirror with her make-up bag on her lap.
"Done," Lily said, placing the final strand in her friend's light brown hair.
"Thanks," Amy said, getting up to look at her hair in a mirror. She turned her head slowly from side to side, enjoying the way the gold threads caught and reflected the light. Then she turned and smiled at Lily, "actually I got something for you."
"Really?"
She nodded and went to her trunk, pulling out an oddly shaped bag. Then she walked back and emptied them out on the bedcover. Dozens of tiny little white roses tumbled out over one another as they came to rest in a small pile.
"I thought they'd look really pretty in your hair," Amy said shyly, "they have invisible little grips that keep them in place. I had pink ones when I was a bridesmaid for my auntie."
"Thank you!" Lily said expressively, hugging Amy, "they're gorgeous."
"Are they real?" Meg asked, picking one up.
"Sort of," Amy said, "they're enchanted to stay like that and still feel and smell real when they're picked."
"Groovy!" Saffron said approvingly, sticking one in Lily's hair.
The other two picked one up and together they set about festooning Lily's hair. Five minutes later they sat back to admire their handiwork,
"Beautiful," Meg said fingering one of the delicate petals.
"They really suit you," Saffron nodded, then grinned, "You'll make Remus regret letting you go."
"Thank you Amy!" Lily said again, ignoring Saffron, "that was a really cute thought."
Amy smiled and shrugged, "glad you like them."
"Curly hair is fun!" Saffron said, bobbing up and down on the bed, her newly curled hair springing up and down gently.
"You wouldn't say that if you had to deal with it every day," Amy told her.
"And you can do so much more with straight hair," Meg added, "believe me, curls are more trouble than they're worth."
"I don't know, my hair only curls when it's wet and I kinda like it like that. When it dries most it just goes vaguely straight," Lily replied.
"Alright, enough arguments about hair, I'm going to put on my dress." Saffron announced.
"No you aren't," Meg argued, "we've still got an hour and a half to go, it'll crease."
"Besides, we're waiting for something," Lily added with a grin.
"What?" Saffron responded immediately.
"You'll just have to wait and see," Lily replied loftily.
"And you say I'm mean!"
Lily leaned over and whispered in her ear, "You know what we're waiting for you silly moose!"
"Oh yeah!" Saffron replied, "man I feel stupid!"
Amy eyed them suspiciously and opened her mouth to ask a question. Just then two house elves appeared in the middle of the room, one carried a tray with a beautifully iced cake with an unlit sparkler in the middle and the other a bottle of drink and four glasses.
Meg squealed in excitement and jumped to her feet to get them, "thanks!" she said as she took the drinks. Lily took charge of the cake. The house elves beamed and bowed several times before vanishing.
"Happy Birthday Amy!" Meg announced.
"Surprise!"
Amy flushed with pleasure and beamed at them all.
"Surely you didn't think we'd forgotten!" Saffron said, magicing a small table and several chairs over to put the food and drink on.
"You had!" Meg laughed.
"No I didn't!" Saffron retorted defensively, "I just forgot about this!"
"Whatever- you guys'll have to tell me what you think of the drink, it's one of my favourites, I had my mum send me some especially," Meg said grabbing a chair and sitting next to the table.
Seeing the others otherwise occupied in receiving their drinks, Lily concentrated on the tip of the sparkler and it spluttered into life, bright golden sparks spitting and crackling about it. Setting it on the table the three sang happy birthday to a blushing Amy, who fidgeted under such an unusual amount of direct attention.
"To Amy, our little angel!" Meg said, raising her glass in a toast.
"To Amy!" The others chorused.
Amy smiled shyly and fiddled with a loose strand of hair, "I'm not an angel."
"You are to us," Meg said firmly, getting up to get her friend's present.
The three girls presented Amy with their gifts and watched as she opened them. Lily gave her a delicate gold chain with a crystal pendent in the shape of a star and Saffron's present was a black satin handbag, embroidered with glittering thread,
"You can put however much you like in it, and it'll never bulge or fill up," Saffron told her. "I got it from Mary's last time I was in London."
"Me last," Meg said, picking up a large box about the size of a shoebox from the ground. She held it out and grinned excitedly.
"Oh it's heavy!" Amy exclaimed as she took it from her and set it on her lap. Then she pulled of the pink ribbon and lifted the lid. Immediately a tiny furry grey head peeked it's head out of the top. "Oh Meg! How adorable!" She lifted the tiny kitten out of the box and cradled her next to her face.
The kitten mewed quietly and blinked, gazing at them all though bright blue eyes.
"That is the cutest thing I have ever seen!" Saffron declared as she reached over to fondle its ears.
"She's a girl," Meg said, "She's from Mirabelle's litter, when I left home she was pregnant and I told mum that I wanted one of them to give to you. Mum says she's the prettiest, the one you've got, but the others bullied her a bit because she was so small. I thought she'd suit you."
Amy kissed the kitten and beamed at Meg, "I love her!"
"What are you going to call her?" Lily asked.
"I don't know," Amy looked thoughtfully down at the little kitten as she tickled her gently under her chin. "How about Belle after her mother and French for beauty?"
"Perfect," Lily agreed, "can I hold her?"
Finally they all started to dress, Amy carefully setting her kitten on the bed, continually glancing anxiously at her in fear that she would fall off.
Noticing, Lily rummaged in her trunk for a large fluffy jumper she'd outgrown last year and handed it to Amy, "Here Amy, give Belle this to sit on, you can curl it round her and I'd think she'd stay still then."
While Amy fussed over Belle, Saffron helped Meg to do up the back of her dress. It was a bias cut, full length dress in a shade of blue that reminded her of the colour of the Mediterranean sea, with a low neckline. Saffron, who was already dressed, wore a long backless dress in a daring shade of red that only she could carry off. Lily smiled at her friends as she dropped her own dress over her head, hearing the material sigh pleasurably as it settled. Then she turned and surveyed herself in the mirror. It was long like her dorm mates dresses' and had a small train that trailed behind her. The colour Saffron had picked out for her when they went shopping, a muted shade of green that set off her pale skin and brilliant green eyes.
"You really do look like an angel in that dress," Meg said to Amy.
Lily turned to see her quiet friend wearing a long white dress that shimmered gold when it caught the light. Amy blushed and fiddled with the straps,
"I keep thinking it's going to fall down," she said.
"It's alright," Saffron reassured her, "it won't, off the shoulder dresses are designed to hug the rest of your body and don't rely on straps."
They had just finished putting on their shoes and adding finishing touches when there was a knock at the door. Lily went to open it. It was another house elf, this time he was holding four boxes.
"Your corsages miss," he squeaked, bowing to her.
"Thanks," she said, taking them from him. He nodded and picked up the bag next to him and headed further up the tower to the next dorm. Glancing down the corridor she spotted Kirena, a fifth year, at the door of her own room. "You look good," she told her. Kirena was dressed classically in a long black dress that fitted her exactly.
"Thanks, you too."
"Lily get back in here," Saffron called, "Meg's beginning to twitch about meeting Davies on time."
Lily laughed and went back inside.
Ten minutes later they all walked down the stairs into the common room. There were several nervous looking guys who glanced at them as they came down, obviously waiting for dates, and several people milling around and laughing together. Ben was stood by a window, fiddling nervously with his corsage.
"Go on," Saffron said, nudging Amy over toward him.
Amy made a small squeaking noise and turned pink, but walked over to him. He looked up and smiled shyly as he spotted her, hesitating for a moment he leant forwards and kissed her on the cheek.
"Alright ladies, let's leave them to it," Saffron said, linking arms with the other two and heading out of the door behind a group of excited fourth years.
Lily and Meg's dates were waiting for them at the foot of the marble staircase, both showing no signs of the anxiety and nerves that Ben had shown. Giving Lily and Saffron a kiss on the cheek Meg wished them a lovely evening and walked into the Great Hall with Ryan Davies.
Lily crossed the short distance between her and Remus and kissed him on the cheek.
"You look great!" he told her as he hugged her, "I'm glad we decided to do this, didn't really fancy joining the ranks of the nervous suitors all over the castle."
Lily laughed, "and here was me thinking you wanted to spend time with me!"
Saffron walked over to where her brother was stood just behind Remus with Sirius, "Where's your date big brother?"
Sirius snorted, and James flushed. "Would you believe he forgot to ask someone?" Sirius said.
"No," she replied in surprise with a grin, "you mean James has been doing nothing but plan the May Ball for over a month and then he goes and forgets to ask someone?" She laughed.
"Shut up," he muttered, flushing. "You don't have a date either."
"Ah but that's completely different," she replied, "I chose not to have date, I'm making a political statement."
"Yeah, I heard about that," Sirius said.
"Where's Peter?" she asked, looking around as she realised he wasn't there.
"Our good friend Peter has himself a date, would you believe," Sirius said, "he asked a blond fifth year."
"And I am yet again astounded by you descriptive powers," she replied dryly.
"Over there," he replied, taking her arm and steering her round to see Peter above the heads of a large group of fourth years talking to a blond girl in a pink dress.
"Where's your date?" Saffron asked Sirius, noticing the ever present stares of many of the girls around them, but none of their looks seemed possessive enough to be a prospective date.
"Our Sirius seems to have taken it upon himself to play the knight in shining armour tonight," James said with a grin. Saffron raised an eyebrow at Sirius who shrugged and grinned.
"I heard about what you were going to do and then I thought that there'd probably be several girls without dates here, and I figured that it'd be nice if they all got at least one dance tonight is all," Sirius said, looking slightly embarrassed at his philanthropy.
Saffron smiled at him, "that was a really nice thing to do Sirius!" She hugged him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Saffron, you coming?" Lily asked, turning to them.
Remus offered her his other arm which she took and they headed into the Great Hall where the babble of talk blended with soft music was filtering out into the halls around.
Sirius smiled ruefully as he watched her go and slung an arm round James as they followed the others in, "I never thought I'd see the day that the only Marauder with a date for a ball would be Peter."
******
A/N: Hehe, sorry to keep you all in suspense, but the next chapter I promise is the May Ball!
Just a short extra note to one or two ppl-
Misty- thanks for your review, reminds me to keep my focus a bit, and I admit I have been wandering for a bit, but not totally without point. It was important to set out relationships and that kind of thing. But I promise we'll be getting back to the Moonlit Ones stuff soon! Really soon, and notice I said Moonlit Ones, not Huntress- oh did I say that out loud? Bad me, for giving away hints *evil giggle*
And Damina-Queen of the Gypsi's- I really like Saffron a lot too! Her part has just got bigger and bigger as this story went along. I hope the rest of you like her, because you'll be seeing a lot more of her soon.
Anyway, this chapter, while kinda cute, isn't particularly fascinating, so review quickly and I'll post the next chapter 'The May Ball' (told you it was going to be soon) ^__^