Draco was never as happy as he was dressed up.
It didn't even have to be in a costume; anything out of the ordinary made him feel especially… just i good /i in general. Sleek.
Lucius had sent him this outfit, but had given him along with it a stern lecture that had something to do with growing up already. Draco scowled to himself and smoothed his clothes. If growing up already meant not being able to feel like this, then he never would.
At long last they came to a door almost no one could remember seeing. Draco was in the front half of the crowd, somehow separated from his fellow House members. Finky stood at the door: the world's smallest bouncer. It held up one sharp hand and peeped, "Enter, sirs!"
Then the door opened.
Music gushed out along the deep throb of a bass line. Draco felt his neck prickle. No student had made something as big as this. The thing was, anyone i could. /i But no one ever had… why was that? If students ever organized anything they kept it within their House. They…
But he was getting distracted. The song he recognized; it was by The Sirens and it breathed into everyone the want to move, dance. The crowd surged forward by its own accord, sucked through the jamb like light itself into a black hole.
After the squeeze through the door, the throng began to diffuse a little. But where was their hostess? They all paused communally like a wary animal unsure.
"Oy people; let's PAR-TAY!"
This yell was met with a roar of approval from the horde that broke any awkwardness or uncertainty with a sledgehammering blow. People migrated toward the refreshment table but the majority flew at once to the dance floor.
Only Draco looked up to see who had shouted. Standing on a balcony, a pale light bathing her from a floating candle, was Rory. At least, he thought she was Rory.
The girl's hair was curly in a different way then Rory's. Each lock of hair seemed defined; every tress curved perfectly into the one next to it. The face was triangular, true, but it had been painted white to the jaw line, the small round lips dyed deep red. The spaces between her upper eyelids and brows were painted blue, and a beauty mark was penciled next to her mouth.
And that was just her face.
Her body was cinched in a black strapless corset, legs encased in fishnets that were held up by red garters. A red feather boa wound docilely around her arms. This amazing apparition started down the stairs, black heels clicking minutely on each step.
Draco suddenly wanted to hide. Rory was one thing, Rory he could handle, but this—it was something else to speak to someone when they were hidden by white paint and red silk.
But he was frozen. It was something, he decided, not even The Siren's song could touch.
Rory spotted two things and two things only when the door first opened. The rush of students popped through, and near the front, jammed so close together she didn't know how the missed each other, was Draco and Harry.
i If their two Houses are the strongest in Hogwarts, those two students are the strongest of their Houses. /i
Harry was dressed in professional Quidditch robes, the team being the Chudley Cannons. To Rory, that was the equivalent of someone at her old school dressing as a football player when he was already on the football team. Not very imaginative. And yet that something was still there— i meet him just say hi scuze me while i kiss the sky /i —like a magnet.
Draco, on the other hand, was dressed as something she recognized and something that made her skin sting. He was a droog, like in the movie i A Clockwork Orange. /i Being a pureblood, she thought he'd never seen a Muggle film.
The crowd quieted. Oh no. A thought
( i here goes nothing /i )
wriggled across the top of her mind like a viperfish and she shouted
( i Oy people; let's PAR-TAY /i )
something that broke the ice and then everything was fine. Rory breathed a sigh of relief and started down the steps.
"Welly welly welly welly welly welly well. Viddy who it is; dear old Malfoy, out for some of the old ultraviolence."
Draco turned. There she was. This Rory-double had her hands on her hips and one knee bent. He managed quite nicely to revert to his old self. "What gibberish are you talking at me?"
"Nice costume. Don't you even know what you are?"
"Nice costume. Don't you even know you look like you'd do it with whatever moves?"
"How charming."
"Well, that's me." He drank some punch and felt heat bloom in his throat. "What are i you /i supposed to be?"
"Janet Weiss from i Rocky Horror Picture Show. /i "
"…Who?"
"A character in a Muggle movie."
"Ah. Well, I must say dear, you certainly have improved your look since you arrived here. Very sex kitten, I must say."
She laughed. Long fake eyelashes like spider legs framed his right eye. The other was bare.
"Do you want to dance, sex kitten?"
"Don't mind if I do."
Harry wasn't sure what kind of a time he was having.
The party had been going on for a few hours now, and Ron had been "occupied" with three or more girls after having too much of that weird punch. It wouldn't surprise him to hear it was spiked.
He had mostly stayed on the sidelines, too uncomfortable in his own body to dance, feebly feeding off of the high emotions of others. He'd seen Cho Chang earlier, but Fred Weasley's idea of a joke was dressing up like Cedric Diggory, and she'd left, blubbing. Harry didn't know lust for a girl could diminish so quickly after seeing her with tears and mucus running down her cheeks.
