Disclaimer: I don't own anything anyone else does.
"When is it?"
A bleary voice welcomed me back to consciousness.
"What? Hermione's party thing?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, about a week I guess."
Well that certainly woke me up. I sat bolt upright in a complete panic, one week? Help me! You wouldn't believe how much there is left to do, we still have to add the finishing touches to the decoration plans, look up some spells and then perfect them. Oh and I have to get my costume. My costume! What on earth am I going to wear!
"Oh, Hermione. You're awake."
"About bloody time too." I certainly had no trouble guessing the identity of the mutterer. Ron grinned sheepishly at my stern glare.
I sighed then glanced around my dormitory when something struck me as odd. Ron and Harry were both on Ginny's bed, Harry curled up next to her at the head with Ron perched on the very end looking faintly disgusted. Since when have Ron and Harry been in our dormitory?
"What are you two doing in here?" I inquired with a raised eyebrow. My mind was suddenly racing as I realised two very important and unusual facts: a) It was about midday judging by the bright sun in the clear sky outside. And b) I had only just woken up! What on earth was going on!
Ginny caught my confused expression as I glanced at her. "Sleeping potion. Remember?" She grinned and grabbed a bottle off my bedside table to wave in my face.
I though hard then felt it return to my mind. Of course! We went down to the hospital wing as me and Ginny have barley been sleeping since our, well, discovery. Madam Pomfery prescribed us rest and relaxation then gave us some dreamless sleep potion to help with our nightmares.
So I haven't been taking a particularly active part in our lessons and their planning though I do sometimes intervene as the boys disciplinary skills when Neville somehow manages to transfigure himself into a cabbage are not good. I also haven't had any homework on the orders of Professor McGonagall who had a big meeting with Ginny to inform us that we were not to tell anyone about the presence of Malfoy and Snape in our school. That's right, they're staying. I have no idea and frankly, as long as they don't hurt anyone in the school, I don't care.
Ok. You've got me. I do care. Just the thought of them loose in the school in enough to make me shiver with suppressed fear. God they scare me. I know that Ginny's having similar problems, for instance, we keep having these nightmares. Both of us, the same dream. It is truly terrifying.
I shook my head to bring my thoughts round.
"Hey Gin, what are we going to do about costumes?" Professor McGonagall had announced the Hallowe'en party and the dressing up plans to the students about a week ago and since then me and Ginny have been working feverishly on the plans for decorations and arrangements. It has to be perfect.
"I thought we'd hit the shops later or maybe tomorrow."
"Make it later we've got lessons to plan tomorrow." Tomorrow was Sunday and we still hadn't got any of the lessons that we were supposed to be teaching planned yet. I know that I'm not supposed to be working. Sheesh, I get reminded of it often enough so I should know. However those lesson plans have to be done and as I'm the only one who will ever get round to doing them… but I need to set aside an allotted time to do it or even I will forget.
"Hey 'Mione, what you going as?" I groaned.
"Oh, don't ask me that I have absolutely no idea! There's so many choices, but this is going to be great, I haven't dressed up for Hallowe'en since primary school which was about seven years ago. I remember I never could decide what to wear then either."
Ginny shook her head, "well you're going to decide right now 'Mione, we've got to get your costume together. The party is on Friday! That's under a week to prepare."
"Don't remind me, please Gin. What have we got ourselves into?"
"So what are the decorations going to be like?" Harry interjected looking thoughtful.
"Well…" Ginny began to tell him but I cut her off straight away.
"You'll just have to find out on the night like everyone else, it's a surprise. Right Ginny?"
Ginny glared playfully at me, but after a deep sigh she nodded. "I guess she's right. Now what we really have to decide on is your costume Hermione. Stop changing the subject. What ideas have you come up with?"
"Well," I racked my brains for ideas. I come up with them at the oddest moments, like when I'm eating a carrot, I'll suddenly go; of course I should go as a house elf! Well, not really, hang hmm, that's an idea. "How about a house elf?" I cocked my head and smirked to await Ginny's reaction, she did not disappoint.
"What! A house elf. No way 'Mione, I was thinking more like Guinevere or something."
"Guinevere? What that soppy Queen who supposedly broke king Author's heart by running off with his favourite knight? Why would I want to dress up as her?"
Ginny's lip curled at my response. "But she was beautiful 'Mione, why do you think Lancelot wanted to run off with her?" Seeing my mouth open in furious response she continued quickly.
"Oh all right, all right! I didn't mean to start an argument on the happenings of hundreds of years ago. Not Guinevere then. How about a Roman goddess? Or Greek actually, I like them better."
I rolled my eyes then an idea suddenly struck me. "Hey Ginny, you know that Hallowe'en supposedly originated from the Celts?" She nodded. "Why don't we look into their goddesses, we're sure to find some interesting ones and it would be very appropriate."
To my surprise Ginny looked delighted with the idea. She nodded eagerly then jumped up. "Well, what are you waiting for, library!" She then proceeded to physically drag Harry, who looked slightly shocked off her bed and start towards the door.
"Hey Ginny, not so fast."
"Well how fast were you planning on going, we need to buy these outfits or at least their components today. There's no time to loose!"
"I'm not even dressed yet!" I protested pulling down my duvet to reveal a pair of dark purple three-quarter length pyjama bottoms and a short sleeved top of the same colour with a cute picture of Eeyore decorating it.
Ron and Harry's eyebrows shot way up. Causing Ginny to smirk widely then smack her boyfriend head, he blushed guiltily and turned away.
"Well, how about we set off to the library seeing as Ginny's so keen. You can get ready and meet us there in a bit?" We all agreed to Harry's suggestion so, after a, minute or so for Ginny to sort out her hair they left me in peace to shower and dress.
LaterAfter a late lunch me and Ginny set off for Hogsmeade. We were alone having ditched the boys back at the Quidditch pitch, they had needed little persuasion to leave Ginny and me to go do 'girl stuff'. That translates to us normal people as 'shopping', most particularly shopping for clothes which was exactly what me and Ginny were off to do. I expected that we would probably end up buying fabric and making our own costumes though.
After a fairly short consultation with the library Ginny had decided that she was going to go as Brigid, the Celtic fire goddesses. We did some research on her and apparently she had married the king of a warring tribe in an attempt to bring harmony between the two of them. This had sadly not worked, it was only when one of their three son was killed in a battle between the two sides of the family that a unity was formed. This was due to the terrible grief of Brigid who was pronounced the goddess of peace and unity.
Ironic really considering our position with voldemort and the war, but Brigid was an awesome goddess, we found a lot of stories about her. Amongst them we discovered that she supposedly invented whistling. This is one fact that I almost wish was still unknown to us as Ginny had not stopped whistling since we left the library which she got us kicked out of for whistling too loudly.
I have an idea for Ginny's costume which I've not put to her yet, but I think would be fabulous. In one of the books I found a list of symbols which represent Brigid, it also had colours. I decided that Ginny should wear a white dress with red decoration in embroidery of swirl on the bodice. It should be a halter neck as they always look great on Ginny, with a low back, far more daring than I'd ever dream of, but this is Ginny we're talking about and she's bound to go to the extremes. On top I think she should have a black kind of cloak meets cape going down to her knees, she would probably take it off straight away but it would have a wonderful affect on the costume and one of Brigid's symbols was a cloak.
We eventually came to halt outside a cute little sewing shop which I know in Hogsmeade. I knew that we would eventually end up here but Ginny had insisted on looking in all the robe shops before hand. As I predicted she found nothing to suit her extremely picky tastes. As we entered the shop I told her all about my idea for her costume. She loved it, it was "absolutely perfect" in her words.
We walked into the aisles of different fabrics, needles, cottons, embroidery silks and other miscellaneous items used in sewing and dressmaking in complete wonder. I loved that shop, I always went there to buy wool for my elf hats and scarves, it was always lovely quality, so soft! With such vivid colours.
Anyway we both began to feverishly sift through the soft velvets, the smooth silks, the rough linen to find the perfect material. After a couple of minutes Ginny emerged clutching a sample of soft, light, silky, white material in her hand. I smiled.
"Perfect!" We spoke simultaneously.
About ten minutes later we exited for the shop, arms laden with bulging bags of material, needles, thread and dress patterns. Ginny had selected a rough black material for the cloak, some shimmery deep, blood red thread for the embroidery stitches and a slivery coloured metal ring which Ginny said was for the halter neck fastenings to attach to.
You might at this point be wondering what my costume is. Well tough, it's a surprise! You'll just have to wait and see. I can tell you though, it's going to be great! Me and Ginny have both our outfits planned down to the last stitch.
Even laterAfter dinner we were all sat in the common room in a cosy little circle around the fire. In fact about half of the remaining members of our house were sat there talking to us in a small group. We were discussing the Hallowe'en party and what we were going to wear, a very relevant topic as me and Ginny had spent most of the evening before dinner cutting out and pinning our new material for the dresses. We were following a basic dress plan with a tight bodice and a flowing skirt, it was very pretty but we had modified it quite a bit to fit our needs. Ginny in particular.
Lavender was delighted with our designs. I was still refusing to tell them all who or what I was going as, a fact which all of them were trying to change, but Ginny couldn't stop talking about the goddess her costume was based on. In fact this was actually a fascinating topic, particularly trying to apply what Brigid would do in different situations.
The conversation was starting to turn towards darker subjects and Harry looked distinctly uncomfortable when someone asked what we thought Brigid would do when faced with Voldemort who was about to murder all of the students in the school. Ginny frowned noticing Harry's expression and going over to comfort him.
"Hey guys, what are you lot going as?" She stared at them expectantly her red colour of her hair flickering and changing slightly in the light of the flames.
Harry and Ron both glanced at each other victoriously, then; "well if Hermione's not going to say then we'll keep ours as a surprise too."
I glared at the pair of them, their costumes were probably going to be ace as well, ah well. I'll find out soon enough.
A/N I'm so sorry about the amount of time it's taken me to get this up. I've been very busy and also ill for a bit. Hope you like Ginny's costume, we'll be finding out Hermione's in the next chapter which is the party. Hope you enjoyed.
Sparkle Black: Thank you for the ideas, they were brilliant. I hope you like the costume I decided on for Ginny. I think Hermione just didn't want to face the trouble of Harry and Ron's reactions when she was in the hospital wing, as she was very tired. Also Draco isn't going to start attending the school because, as I see its, as soon as the student knew he was there they'd attack him. I'm betting Harry and Ron would anyway. Hope you enjoyed and thank you so much for reviewing.
1madcat: Thanks for the idea. I think I am going to have Draco as a vampire, that was one of my first thoughts and I like it. I think I'm going to have it so that no-one knows who he is at the party though. As I said above I think if Ron and Harry saw him then they would attack him and I don't think that would be a great start to Hermione and Ginny's party which they had put and awful lot of work into! I wonder what Hermione will think of him… Thank you so much for reviewing and hope you enjoyed.
I really really appreciate it if you review, comments, critique or anything you want to say, I love it all! Thanks for reading, I'm really glad that people are enjoying my random ramblings.
Miss Moonshadow
