Disclaimer: I don't own anything anybody else does.
On Sunday afternoon me and Ginny were sat in the common room drinking mugs of hot chocolate and discussing the Halloween celebrations. Professor McGonagall had said that a party would be organised in the great hall and if anyone wanted to help with ideas and planning for the event then they should come and see her.
Me and Ginny had come up with the idea of a fancy dress competition. It seemed to go down quite well when we suggested it to a few Gryffindors who were also sat in the common room, whiling away their time playing exploding snap or chess or doing homework with their friends in the warmth of the room.
"So, so far we've got; everyone in the castle, including teachers, have to come in a traditional muggle Halloween fancy dress outfit (e.g. a ghost or a vampire, maybe even a witch or wizard!). And that the competition will be judged by the students, according to a vote." I informed Ginny, summing up our ideas in a couple of sentences.
"Yep," she replied. "That sounds about right. Oh wow, this is going to be so great, I wonder what everyone will go as? We'll have to make our costumes extra special. Do you think we should go and put it to McGonagall now?"
"Sure." I was only half listening to Ginny as she rambled on about how great it was going to be. Most of me was focussed on completing the notes that we were going to present to McGonagall.
"Do you think we should wait for Harry and Ron to come in?" Ginny's question penetrated my subconscious.
"Erm, probably not. You know what they're like with Quidditch, once they start they won't stop for a long time." I replied.
"Hey!" Ginny was looking offended in a joking over exaggerated sort of a way.
So that was how me and Ginny found ourselves stood in front of McGonagall in her office trying to persuade her that this was a good idea.
"Please professor, it would be really fun, and it would give the students something to look foreword to. We would organise the whole thing, we wouldn't ask you for help at all professor. And it's not like we could cause much trouble anyway, I mean, there's only fifty of us. Please?" Pleaded Ginny.
McGonagall looked up from reading the notes I had written out for her on the competition. She raised a sceptical eyebrow at us. "Well…" Me and Ginny both had identical beseeching expressions on our faces.
"Oh, go on then." Ginny let out a whoop of excitement, "but, I don't like this about staff having to dress up too."
"Well professor, we could change it so that only students have to dress up for the party, it can be optional for staff. Though I expect that a lot of them will want to participate." I compromised in my best business like manner. McGonagall rewarded me for my efforts with a small smile.
"That sounds excellent Miss Granger. You have my full permission to put up posters and make arrangements. I will make an announcement at dinner tomorrow to inform people of the competition, I will leave the rest to you."
"Erm, professor," Ginny was rather nervous and hopeful, "do you think it would be ok if we could help with the decorations too?"
"Be my guest." Confirmed McGonagall with another, slightly warmer, smile at us. My own face lit up like a Halloween pumpkin in anticipation of the times to come.
I walked briskly out of the office after Ginny who had practically run, a delighted smile on her pretty face, her eyes were bright with keenness for the project.
"Yes!" Ginny cheered raising her hand to high-five me. Laughing I continued to stride up the corridor back to Gryffindor.
So now I'm sat in my favourite chair by the fire in the common room right next to Ginny. I'm holding a sheaf of notes and plans about the fancy dress. Ooh, I can't wait! This is going to be so brilliant!
"Hey Ginny!" I call to her over her highly enthusiastic conversation with Harry and Ron over what they are planning to wear. "How do you think we should decorate the great hall for the party?" Ginny looked over at me curiously, her head tilted to the side.
"Hmm, well I don't know. But we have to make it look amazing and, dare I say it, magical!"
Next Day
I awoke with a contented, warm, happy feeling deep inside of me. Standing up I stretched and yawned feeling quite tired as me, Harry, Ron and Ginny had stayed up long into the night discussing our ideas. I guess that a fancy dress competition shouldn't really be that exciting, however we hadn't had anything to get excited over and plan like this, well, probably ever. But certainly since Dumbledore has died, it's like preparing an thrilling event like this one has put the spark back into everyone.
I walked over to the window of our dormitory to have a peep at the weather. My bare feet sunk into the soft fluffy carpet where I stood next to the glass pane that showed the view of outside. It was a glorious morning, the sky was a clear exhilarating blue whilst the sun shone vividly, dazzlingly making all the colours that made up Hogwarts seem somehow much more intense. It was like she had woken up to find that a curtain had been draw back on the world, making everything far more vibrant.
I yawned again then reached up and pulled open the window to let the fresh morning air whip back my hair and rustle the rich scarlet curtains. Breathing in the scent of morning dew on grass and pine sap from the forbidden forest I suddenly felt wonderfully refreshed it was a fascinating feeling . My fingers clenched on the catch of the window tightly whilst I closed my eyes to listen to the morning chorus of twittering from the birds situated all around the grounds.
With a deep, invigorating sigh I turned back to my bed and pulled on my chosen outfit for the day along with my uniform robes. I then turned to the mirror by my bed to wrestle with my infuriating hair just as Ginny began to awake.
As there were so few gryffindor girls we could chose who we shared a dormitory with, we could even have one of our own if we really wanted! Of course me and Ginny had opted to share with each other and had, subsequently been dispatched to the old sixth year girls dormitory, my old one! Both me and Ginny had been delighted with the arrangement as our old dormitory was one o the best, it had a fantastic view out over the grounds of Hogwarts from its two window. Of these, one faced east and the other was roughly pointing west meaning that we managed to catch both the sunrise (if we were up early enough!) and the sunset (if we happened to be in the room at the time).
Over the last year however me, Parvati and Lavender had caught some of the most phenomenal glimpses of the sky and grounds at their best.
I really miss them, it really is odd, after six years of living together and sleeping in the same room, you get used to people, you grow to care about them deeply.
My smile faded slightly as I realised that I hadn't seen Parvati since Dumbledore's death, I will probably never see her again. Hopefully she will have a happy life, hopefully we will both live to see each other in happier days after the war, I would just love to know how she is.
Lavender is still here at Hogwarts so I still see her all the time, although it still isn't quite the same not sharing a dormitory with her. She opted to have one on her own and I understand why, if Ginny wasn't here I probably would have done the same. Without Parvati sharing a dormitory with Lavender would just be sad and strange.
"Morning 'Mione, ever the early bird eh?" Ginny shoved her heavy scarlet and gold off her and clambered out of bed. Yawning she scrambled over to her trunk and pulled out a particularly crumpled pair of jeans and t-shirt. I grinned at her and, with a cheerful nod I skipped into the bathroom to brush my teeth. As I came out Ginny was just pulling her heavy, ebony black, school robes over her tousled head. Her bright red hair was looking very dishevelled and part of it was sticking to the pale, freckled skin of her pretty face. I tossed a hairbrush at her which she caught with a cheeky grin.
"Thanks 'Mione. Now seeing as we've got so long before breakfast how about I do your hair and make up for you?"
I groaned at her request, my hair was currently pulled into a loose ponytail a the base of my neck and my make up was, well, none existent. I don't tent to wear make up as I find it irritating and time consuming to apply and remove. Not to mention the troubles of keeping it looking good on your face as you walk around school. I always end up forgetting about it and accidentally rubbing my eyes plus any lip-gloss or lipstick you put on will just rub off extra quickly, particularly as you eat breakfast meaning that you have to continuously re-apply it.
Ginny however appears to think that all the problems are outnumbered by the advantages (none of which I can see, by the way) she seems to enjoy applying the stuff and not to mention the amount of time she spends in shops buying the damn stuff in the first place. And I, being the lucky girl that I am, am generally the sad one stood beside her complaining and begging her to hurry up so that they could get to the nearest bookshop as soon as possible.
"Aww, Hermione, please? You can look so lovely when you make the effort, pretty please?" I attempted to avert my gaze from the expression she was giving me, you know, with the pouty bottom lip and the big puppy-dog eyes. Unfortunately for me however I am no good at resisting Ginny when she really wants something.
"Oh, fine then." I informed her felling like I had just made a very big mistake. "But you had better not take too long."
"'Course not." Ginny replied already digging in her make up bag to find 'just the right colour for today'.
After about twenty minutes of pure torture (to me anyway) Ginny finally proclaimed herself satisfied and we emerged from our dormitory. When we arrived down in the common room we discovered that we were still up earlier than everybody else, or maybe they had all already gone down to breakfast.
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling as Ginny came down, she was still rambling on about something or other, I wasn't particularly listening.
"Hey Hermione, have you had any more thoughts on how to decorate the great hall?" Ginny's cheery voice once again cut across my trailing line of thought.
I deliberated for a minute or so thinking. I had had a few ideas to be honest, but I still thought we should keep to the traditional Halloween decorations.
"Well, the floating pumpkins have to stay." I informed her firmly. "We should probably have lots of dark colours and, ooh! Maybe we could have a thunderstorm for the ceiling, that would be wonderful, wouldn't it?"
"Very spooky," Ginny agreed. "And of course the pumpkins have to stay, it wouldn't be Halloween without the Hogwarts Halloween floating pumpkins!"
A/N I'm really sorry, this
chapter is slightly shorter than the past few have been. I'm kind
of busy and I am aiming to get something up at least once a week.
Sparkle Black: I'm very gald you liked the chapter, it was my favourite too. My name is kind of odd, it came from a songs lyrics that my dad sings sometimes (leapin and a hoppin on a moonshadow).
1madcat: Thanks for the review!
marshmallowey-pumpkin: Thanks for the review!
I hope you all continue to enjoy, and if there is anyone reading this who hasn't reviewed, please do! I love to hear from you! Thanks for reading,
Miss Moonshadow
Miss Moonshadow
