"Conservative suit and tie for Severus, a sensible tween suit and walking shoes for Minerva." –Vitugglan, "Redeemed"

"Severus, you look wonderful," said McGonagall. "Every inch the epitome of the stodgiest kind of Toryhood. I didn't know you had it in you."

"You're too kind, Minerva," said Snape with a smirk. "If it comes to that, you look quite impressive yourself. I wouldn't have thought that anyone could make a full-body costume of a preadolescent witch look sensible, but somehow you've managed. And the shoes are a nice touch."

A chuckle essayed from somewhere inside McGonagall's tween suit. "Why, thank you," she said. "Shall we to the Opposites Ball, then?"

"By all means," said Snape. "If nothing else, I can't wait to see how Albus dressed up as the opposite of himself. What is the distinctive costume of a sane person, anyway?"

"The penalty for breaking the concrete may be less important than dying." –ShayneT, "The Many Deaths of Harry Potter"*

"May?" Moody repeated. "Don't you know what the penalty is, lad?"

Harry hesitated. "Well… no, not exactly," he said. "I mean, I heard it was something bad, but…"

"Well, then, let me spell it out for you," said Moody. "Anyone who chips, cracks, splits, or otherwise breaks the concrete in front of the Wizengamot chamber is sentenced to have fresh bubotuber pus poured into his eyes, his fingers chewed off by catoblepates, and his liver transfigured into a ravenous moonrat, after which what's left of him is to be kissed by a dementor, stripped and trussed up in rusty barbed wire, and immersed in quicklime for two hundred years."

"Oh." Harry considered this. "Well, all right, then. I suppose dying may be less important, after all."

"It very often is, Harry," said Dumbledore gravely.

"Tres Bien. Ou as-tu été toute ma vie ?" –enembee, "You Meet in Paris"

« Oui, Gabrielle, j'ai certainement été pour toute ta vie. Tu étais née le 30 janvier de 1987, en quel temps j'ai déjà été pour précisément cinq ans et demi. Ou crois-tu, peut-être, que mon existence est périodique – que j'ai cessé à être de temps en temps depuis ta naissance ?»

« Mais non, Harry. C'est seulement que, si tu as été pour toute ma vie, il n'est pas tellement bien après tout. Le rite de transfèrement des puissances vélanes demande qu'on tire l'onction d'un quel temps qu'il y avait le sujet du sort, mais pas son objet ; n'a pas Hermione te ce dit ? »

« Oh, ce n'est pas une problème. Je dois seulement donner ce retourner de temps une inversion vers la droite ; vas-tu chercher un morceau d'huile fraîche de fève soporifique, et je t'y rencontrerai dans une heure, s'il te plaît. »

"Hermione was of the opinion Ron could do much better, Harry kept his own council on the matter." –RobSt, "No Hurry at All"

Harry rapped his gavel, summoning the select circle of his classmates to attention. "Right," he said. "This meeting will now come to order. First item on the agenda: finding Ron Weasley a more suitable girlfriend."

There was a chorus of groans around the table. "Not again!" said Seamus Finnegan. "You've had us on that for five months now, Harry! Isn't there something else we could be doing – planning Horcrux hunts, maybe?"

"First things first, Seamus," said Harry firmly. "It won't do the wizarding world any good to be rid of Voldemort if Ron and Lavender are still sucking face in every corridor. Or at least it won't make Hermione's and my day-to-day life any easier, and of course that's the important thing." He gestured to the young Hufflepuff sitting beside him. "All right, Lyle, let's hear what your researches at Beauxbatons turned up."

As Lyle stood up and cleared his throat, Daphne Greengrass rolled her eyes and leaned toward the brunette Ravenclaw to her right. "Lovely way to spend a Saturday, this, isn't it, Barker?" she whispered. "I tell you, if I'd known Potter was going to keep us so long on a matter like this, I never would have signed up for the Chosen One's High Council in the first place."

*And again, Sorting-Head tip to thrawnca.