Chapter Seven: Everyone Else Dines and Sleeps
"So where are we all going to eat?" Sirius asked with a grin. The nice thing about being a ghost was that you could eat absolutely anything you wanted, and never gain an ounce. He was planning to take full advantage of that perk this evening.
"Umm…" Remus began, crossing his arms as they traipsed through the lobby; there were scads of restaurants of every kind all throughout the lobby and downstairs, but no one could agree.
Half wanted Japanese, and the other half wanted Italian.
"How about…Oh!" Nymphadora grinned, pointing towards what looked to be a diner, complete with a disco ball and multicoloured floor. Wrinkling her nose, and making sure no muggles were watching, she changed her spiky hair to match said floor, with squares of different colours that could rival the restaurant.
"Looks good to me!" They all chimed in unison, going to stand in line at 'Huggy's Diner', where it was said they were having a dance-off at nine. That would be incredibly interesting.
"Wait!" All heads turned towards Sirius, who was peering at a Mexican restaurant.
"No, we already decided on this Padfoot." Remus stated, attempting to pull his friend and fellow marauder back in line.
"No…I thought for sure I saw You-Know-Who.." The other man explained, causing looks of horror from each of the other people in the group.
They all looked at each other and shook their heads, "Nah…."
With that, they were ushered to their huge booth, and the orders were taken. Most all had ordered the usual, which was a hamburger, fries and a strawberry milkshake (except for Remus and Nymphadora who got chocolate, obviously couldn't wait for bed where they had all of their bags of candy from the shop downstairs). The food came, and everyone was eating and talking animatedly about their day.
"Well! Kingsley and I got tattoos!" Alastor said with a bright grin, extending his finger, receiving a few smiles and quite a few snorts. Kingsley revealed his bicep, and Minerva even swooned. This made Mad Eye pout and stuff a few fries into his mouth.
"Well we did a lot of shopping." Tonks replied, leaning back in her seat as she took a sip from her chocolate milkshake, though she wasn't going to disclose what they had bought, lest the rest of the group be trying to make off with the sweets.
Dumbledore and Minerva shrugged and showed off their knitting extravaganza, which really wasn't much, as only two more rows had been accomplished on whatever it was the woman was making. Albus really could be too much of a distraction sometimes. Alright, all the time. Especially now that he was dead, he was acting very zany.
Harry and Ron yawned slightly, knowing that their day with Arthur and Sirius hadn't been that entertaining. Sleeping by the pool for an hour, then reading a bit, then sleeping some more. In truth it wasn't that interesting a day for them.
Apart from seeing a rather rotund mousy looking man sun tanning his bum. This scene had scarred them all for life. That and the ugly man who had been seated beside him. Had he not had a nose? Well, Arthur and Ron hadn't seen one. But Sirius and Harry had been asleep at the time, so they couldn't recognize or tell.
All of a sudden the lights were down low, and a short balding man with carrot red curls, dressed in bellbottoms and an open-chested paisley print shirt walked onto the stage area. A microphone was lowered from the ceiling, and he began to speak into it.
"Alright man, ladies and gents', it's time for the signature dance- off of the evening!" He whispered into the microphone, his eyes squinting as he looked out over the audience. It seemed as though he was scoping out tonight's competitors. People seemed to be cowering in their seats, some even hiding underneath the benches out of fear that they might be the ones chosen by this atrocious looking man.
Fortunately for them, someone raised their hand…someone was brave enough to take on Dancin' Rick!
Unfortunately for our group at the table, that certain courageous somebody happened to be Dumbledore, who in reality, had just been trying to reach the disco ball above the table.
"And congratulations to our brave contestant!" The DJ stated, coming over to usher Albus towards the middle of the dance floor.
"Don't worry guys, back in my day, I knew how to boogie down….besides, I really need to wee so it ought to be fine!" He whispered with a mischievous glint in his eyes as he followed the man with abhorrent fashion sense to the middle of the floor.
All of a sudden the lights were out, and the disco ball was lowered completely to its position. The floor began to flash its various colours, and the music began to start. Everyone began to move closer in order to see what was going on, and the different dance moves that would be brought to show at this evening's dance off!
"Well lookie here, it seems Dancin' Rick is doing a little electric slide.." The man announced as Saturday Night Fever began to blare.
"Is that…the sprinkler? Looks like newcomer Albus knows his stuff….but how long will he be able to last?"
"Oh….Rick's pulling out the hardcore stuff now…he's got a little side action goin' down…"
"Albus picks it up with a little worm now…"
"Looks like Rick's getting jiggy with it…"
"Albus seems to be getting a bit freaky…"
The music stopped after a little Bee Gees, and both the man and the ghost stopped, sweating like pigs and exhausted.
"Shall we do the applause-O-meter?" The DJ asked, only to be answered by thunderous clapping from the various booths. "I take that as a yes then!" He replied, pointing to Albus, "Who wants this man here?" He asked, looking around at the patrons. The ground shook with all of the clapping (even if Sirius had hexed some of them into clapping against their will). "Oohhh looks as though this might be close!" He stated, now pointing to Rick. "And how about this man!" Crickets chirped, and people looked uncomfortably at each other, afraid that the pudgy man with the fro and the polyester pantsuit might hunt them down.
"Well! It seems as if we have ourselves a winner ladies and gents! Albus Dumbledore from London!"
Dumbledore raised his hands in victory, giving a little shake of his bum as he moved to accept his prize, which was, a golden brooch in the shape of disco balls.
"Albus wins the golden balls!" Cheers rose from the audience, and Dumbledore accepted it gratefully, before running off to do his business at the nearest loo.
Later that same evening, Remus and Tonks were in bed eating chocolate and watching 'An American Werewolf In London.', since this seemed to be a bit of a role reversal. The older man laughed at all of the inaccuracies, shaking his head and hugging his girlfriend as he stuffed his face full of the newly bought sweets.
"They've really no idea what they're talking about do they?" He asked, sighing and wiping the tears from his laughing eyes.
"Nope, you could teach them a thing or two!" Nymphadora replied as she bit into a raspberry truffle. "Perhaps you ought to go into the horror movie business." She suggested in a joking tone.
With anyone else, Remus would have been offended, but in this case he merely turned and began tickling her mercilessly.
In the meantime, Harry and Ron had fallen fast asleep, so Sirius and Arthur had gone off in order to watch the 'Island of Dr. Moreau' in their room.
"I am the law!" Sirius barked, nearly falling off of his bed as he watched, trying to take it seriously. The one dude did happen to look a bit like Remus after a bad full moon, but he decided not to tell his friend, as that might be considered a bit insulting. Arthur merely sighed, not really paying attention to the movie at all, he was too busy taking apart the heater and figuring out just how it worked. These things were amazing!
"Goodnight my little dance off winner."
"Goodnight my little headmistress."
And I think that that's all we need to go into in that room.
"Do you suppose I should wear the tank top pajamas? Or my fuzzy ones? Only, the fuzzy ones don't show off my new tattoo, the tank top does nicely."
"I don't bloody care what ones you wear! Just turn off the flamin' light!" Alastair replied in a very cross tone indeed. He was seated in his bed, arms crossed over his gingerbread man pajamas. He had been so excited to find them. He even named each of them and introduced them to the tattoo on his finger.
"But what about my tattoo!" Kingsley whined, pouting slightly as he looked towards the older auror.
"Shacklebolt. It's the middle of the bleeding night. The only way anyone will see your tattoo is if there's a fire!" He hissed, crawling underneath his quilt and pulling it over his head, trying to block out all the light as he closed his eyes tightly. It didn't work.
"Oh fine!" He mumbled. "You're no fun anymore." He added, flipping off the light as he crawled under the covers in his fuzzy pajamas.
"Seriously Kingsley. If Albus got a new tattoo, and there was a fire, do you think anyone would care what he-
"WAS WEARING" Interrupted a cross-eyed man in a Viking hat.
"I suppose you're right." The other auror replied resignedly, snuggling up against his pillow with a long sigh.
"I know I am." Moody stated into the dark as Kingsley began to snore. Mad eye took that as his cue to fall to sleep as well.