Chapter Fourteen

Falling With Grace

It was an odd thing, the way that nothing could hurt so much. And that's what it was, I decided. Nothing at all.

Sirius cast me a look from across the table at breakfast and I allowed a smile in return. I'd been irrational the other day, perhaps. He had just been being Sirius. I'd just hoped…

Hoped I'd meant something more to him, too. Which was irrational all in itself. I'd been ignoring him, so what should I have expected? Him to break down my walls and confess his undying love for me?

Yeah. Maybe not so dramatically, but something of the sort. I'd be content with just the implication of my presence in his thoughts. Very irrational.

Next to me, Lily was chattering on, swinging her fork around in the air and chewing quickly. "So then he asked if I'd attend his Christmas party. I really do think he's brilliant. I'm thinking of getting him a gift while I'm on vacation. I asked James if he'd come with me tonight—oh, Merlin, do I even have anything to wear? What do you wear to something like this?"

I raised my eyebrows, indicating I had no clue what she was going on about.

She brushed me off, disregarding my lack of attention. "I'll figure it out later. Remus's been invited as well… I wonder who he'll be taking. Did you get an invite, Gracie?"

I paused mid-chew, staring, and then swallowed. "I'm sorry, to what?"

She huffed impatiently. "Professor Slughorn's having a Christmas party. Did you hear any of what I said?"

I nodded, resuming my eating, and waved my hand at her. "Bits and pieces."

Lily stirred her food around on her plate idly, looking lost in thought for a moment. She glanced over to me again. "I don't see why you didn't get an invite. Professor Slughorn adores you."

I choked loudly. "Yes," I said, and the choke turned into something of a laugh. "I am the prime example of what not to do in class." I rolled my eyes at the ceiling and threw my hands up. "Adores me."

"Maybe Remus will ask you to go with him," she supplied hopefully.

"Probably shouldn't," I said. "Professor Slughorn might suffer from cardiac arrest if he sees me in heels."

She stared blankly. "Wear flats then," Lily suggested instead.

"You're missing the point, Lils. He doesn't like me and that is that. I'm not going," I said adamantly. I turned to her, shoulders swaying. "Besides, it's not even like Remus has asked me. We're just wasting our breath."

She slouched a little in disappointment and rubbed her fingertips together. "I think you just frighten him, that's all."

"Because that's so much better?"

She shrugged. "Perspective, I suppose."

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I'll deal with it if I need to. All right?"

"I'm not really sure how that's supposed to reassure me, but whatever," she said, waving her hand dismissively.

"Drama?" Remus appeared beside me, and a smug look suddenly flashed across Lily's face. I glared and she smiled sweetly at Remus.

"Oh, nothing, nothing," she said quickly, making sure to shovel an incredible amount of food into her mouth so neither of us could attempt to speak to her.

Remus raised an inquisitive brow but I assured him it was nothing with a shake of my head.

"All right," he said, slowly at first. "Well, I came over to ask if you'd received an invite to Slug Club's Christmas party."

I snorted. "Slug Club? Is that what you're all calling it? What is this?"

"I didn't think of the name," Remus said, laughing slightly. "Anyways, I'm going to assume that's a no…"

I hummed nonchalantly.

"Would you go with me, Gracie?"

I looked at him for a moment and drummed my fingers on my chin. "Are you asking me as your date, Remus?" I grinned at him cheekily.

The word "date" seemed to capture the attention of a dozen others around us, but I ignored them, directing my attention solely to Remus. He blew out an impatient breath, but smiled despite himself.

"No, Gracie, I am not. But would a 'yes' persuade you?"

"Mmh." I turned back to my plate. "Probably not. I was thinking I'd stay away from Slughorn as much as possible." I turned back and leaned in close to him. "He hates me, you know."

"Oh, please," Remus sighed, "you are the only entertaining thing I'm sure he ever sees in that classroom."

I looked at him with a straight face for as long as I could, then decided it was pointless and broke into a smile. "Fine, I'll go with you. As your date."

He squinted his eyes and I only winked. "All right, but don't expect a bouquet… or… something date-ish."

I frowned at Lily and exhaled loudly. "He's a terrible date." Then I glanced at him and nudged him in the shoulder. "Only joking, of course not. Go on."

"Fine," Remus said, standing up. "I'll be in the common room at seven." Then he paused, staring at me with a similar straight face, and whispered in my ear, "Wear something pretty." And then he winked and strut away.

I exploded into laughter and stared after him in hysterical disbelief. "Remus!"

"Gracie," Lily hissed from down the staircase. "Merlin, she takes longer to get ready than all of the girls in our dorm combined."

"Lily! Do not ruin my moment!" I called down, pulling my flats on my feet at Lily's suggestion. "Is Remus there?"

"I'm here."

"Gracie, honestly, you do not need a grand entrance. We're going to be late—"

"Shh, Lily! You are ruining my moment!"

I heard a banter of laughter from the boys and I ran my fingers along the hem of my dress.

"Remus?"

"Go ahead," he responded, and I placed a toe at the top of the stairs, primly balancing, waiting…

And then I fell. The step I'd balanced on collapsed into the stairwell, and my foot slipped against the smooth marble surface. I landed on the flat staircase with my other foot and let out a high shriek, my dress flitting around me as I slid down the slope full speed. My body was buzzing with adrenaline and I soared downwards uncontrollably. My hair flew in my face and I couldn't see where I was tumbling but I felt my body hit another. We stumbled backwards and I giggled with enthusiasm as the arms caught me and stood me up straight. A hand brushed the hair from my face and I saw it was Remus. "The entrance you were hoping for?"

"Precisely," I answered, beaming, gaze flickering over to the others. I grabbed his hand and whispered, "Now's the time when we take our bow."

"I thought girls curtseyed?"

"Stop being so particular," I said, and dipped my head down in a bow, tossing my hair with the motion. I saw Remus join me from the corner of my eye and flipped myself back up, inhaling a satisfied breath and releasing Remus's fingers.

James, Sirius, and Peter clapped enthusiastically while Lily just laughed, shaking her head. She told me sometimes that I liked to take things to the farthest degree.

I had been waiting forever to do that. There definitely were benefits to the male ability to turn stairs into slides.

"How graceful," James said, wiping at his eyes like he'd been crying at the beauty of the spectacle.

"Falling with grace," Sirius corrected, and the two slammed their shoulders together, congratulating themselves on being the wittiest blokes in the room.

The room quickly descended back into order; everyone started to fall into separate conversation and move away, but Sirius stood still, gaze fixed on me as everyone scattered around him. I raised my eyebrows, but he only blinked, like he'd forgotten where he was and was silently trying to decide if he was awake. I vaguely felt chills running down my arms and I laced my fingers together to keep myself in order. My thoughts had left me, and the only thing I was aware of was his grey gaze holding mine. And we stood there for that moment that felt like forever, staring at each other, until a corner of his lips curved upwards and it was all gone.

"Direly late!" Lily announced, taking James's sleeve and pulling him along. Remus rushed after them, then cast me a backwards glance.

I waved to Peter and Sirius, who hadn't been invited and were staying behind in the common room. I couldn't pity them because I would have gladly switched places, but I was all about making the best of the moment. I skipped up to meet the other three and grabbed Remus's hand again. "Come on, date, we can't be late."

"You should be a poet."

"And to think I didn't even know it!"

He scoffed. "Unoriginal."

I sighed. "Some people are so hard to please."

"Why are we holding hands?"

"Because we're on a date!" I shrieked, bumping him with my hip teasingly. "Really, you act as if you've never been on a date, Remus."

"You know." He bit his lips together. "Sometimes I'm not even really sure how seriously I should take you."

"I hope it doesn't surprise you that I get that a lot."

In all honesty, I hadn't been expecting the night to be spectacular. The game I'd been playing with Remus died down quickly; I let go of his hand and we spent most of the night leaning onto a table, drinking punch and talking about Transfiguration homework. I also enjoyed watching a quarter of my year awkwardly socialize and attempt to find their nitch at the party. Were we supposed to dance? Or just eat and talk? Were we supposed to acknowledge Professor Slughorn? It was all very, very awkward, and a lot of the time Remus and I spent the time snickering under our breath at the sight of it all.

James and Lily were off to the side, talking by the window. They weren't necessarily being affectionate, but you could tell by the way they poised themselves next to each other that they were content just in each other's company. It was warming to see, really. I wished they would just bloody get married already.

A figure appeared at my side, taking a large, noisy gulp of punch. "What a dull party, I will say."

I flinched, turning to see Sirius. Remus eyed him suspiciously. "What are you doing here?"

"What, Remus, I'm not special enough for this lively event?" He cocked an eyebrow, tilting his head. He'd swept his hair back and thrown on dress robes—no, thrown on wasn't right; he looked downright elegant. Merlin could this boy clean up well.

But I was not gawking. I turned my head from him and sipped my punch, glancing at him from the side instead.

"Oh, I don't care," Remus said, "just warn me if you decide to blow the place up, okay?"

Sirius smirked. "You know me too well. I wasn't planning on blowing the place up, thank you, but crashing the party was somewhere on my to-do list for the day."

Remus set his goblet down with sudden determination. "Can I help?"

"Me too! But wait." I drained the punch and then came back up to gasp for air. "Okay, me too."

"Excellent. Oi, Peter is supposed to be here, too… Look, there he is, behind the curtain. Come out, Wormtail, no one's going to hex you."

A head of brown hair bobbed out from behind the curtain, and slowly Peter's entire body emerged, revealing a sleek pair of dress robes that made Peter look like a dressed up teddy bear.

"Oh, Peter, you look adorable!" I gushed immediately, flailing my hands with constrained excitement.

Peter winced. "Sirius! It's your fault!"

I frowned. "What?" I looked at Remus. "Is 'adorable' bad?"

Sirius laughed, clapping Peter on the shoulder. "I'd take it as a compliment, mate. Gracie didn't even comment on my appearance when I showed up."

And thank goodness I had not. I did have some self control.

Peter mumbled in discontentment and pulled a sack from under his robes. "Here, you do it. Because I'm adorable." He handed it to Remus, who only shrugged at me.

"What is it?" He opened the sack at the top, peering into it.

"You'll want to be careful with that," Sirius warned. "It's got an Undetectable Extension Charm on it, and I'll tell you it took forever for me to get down, but it looks to be working now. Anyways, those are the teacups."

"Teacups?" Remus started to reach his hand into the bag, but Sirius cut him off.

"Ah! Like I said, careful. They're called 'Nose-Biting Teacups'. I'm sure you can imagine why."

"They're 'Nose-Biting', Padfoot. Meaning they are not going to bite my fingers."

"True, but they're a bit touchy. They don't like the bag very much." He smiled sheepishly. "Once they're out in the open, they should function fine."

I glanced into the bag over Remus's shoulder, standing on my tip-toes. "What are you planning on doing with them?"

"Replacing the goblets for them, of course."

"Oh." I giggled mischievously beneath my hand. "That's terrible."

"We'll see," Sirius said, and ushered Remus on. "If you'll do us the honor, Moony."

"Me? Why me?"

He looked at the three of us for a moment, searching for a rescue, and then seemed to decide it was hopeless.

"Fine. Fine…" He turned away, muttering, and we watched as he moved stealthily, pulling out teacups (and also dropping them on the table and cursing and shaking his hand in pain) and sweeping the empty goblets on the table into the sack.

Remus darted back with a sack full of goblets clanging together melodically. I turned inwards at an angle where it appeared I was making conversation with Peter and yet could still see the table where Remus had laid out the teacups. Sirius did the same, sheltering his face from view, and we all waited with anticipation until Alex Fronsac walked up to the bowl of punch.

Sirius erupted into stifled snickers, and I slapped his arm with the back of my hand. He sobered instantly, straightening himself, and we all attempted to act sophisticated in our wait.

Another Ravenclaw pair joined Fronsac, and they conversed calmly while pouring their punch in teacups. No one paid heed to the fact that the goblets had mysteriously transformed into teacups, which aided the prank that much more. Several others collected their own teacups, but no one had taken the liberty of a drink yet. Sirius, Peter, Remus and I were practically standing on our toes at this point.

And then it happened. Much to Sirius's amusement, it was Fronsac that drank first from his cup. It happened in slow motion at first: Fronsac was lifting the cup to his lips, then turning it upside down to drain the punch, when he let out a squeak and threw the teacup to the ground. His tip of his nose was a bright red and his hand jumped to rub it instantly. The room fell around him like a domino effect.

"It just BIT ME!" a Slytherin girl screamed at her date, and when he stared blankly she threw the cup at him, spraying him with bright pink punch that dripped down his face and onto his white oxford shirt. He gasped and she shoved past him, whimpering and holding her nose, running out of the room in tears.

She wasn't the only one, either; the room was soon filled with shrieks and yells and the sound of teacups clattering to the ground and the sight of students drenched in punch. The most dignified students (namely, the Slytherins, though there were a few bothersome others, such as Alex Fronsac) resorted to pitiful flailing and retreating.

Professor Slughorn stared at the spectacle, his small eyes going wide, perplexed. I caught sight of Lily turning from the window, looking concerned and quite a bit alarmed, and I shoved Sirius beside me so we wouldn't catch her eye. She would know if she saw us all standing together. Lily saw through everything.

We were all trying not to laugh, at least visibly, but the scene was much too hilarious. I was suddenly glad that Slughorn favored his Slytherins so much; if he hadn't invited all of them, it wouldn't have been nearly as funny. Sirius was chuckling still and pulled open his robes to find something else he had stashed away for the event. "We're not done just yet. We've got one last round for the show."

"I don't know if I like the sound of this," Remus said, though his eyes were creased with the laugh that we were all finding was hard to keep away.

"Believe me, it's magical," Sirius assured, pulling out another small sack, which I did not doubt he'd practiced another Undetectable Extension Charm on. "We'll probably all want to run after this. Here, you can all have one. But make sure you throw it. Far."

"What—" Sirius placed it in my hand and then another to Remus and then another to Peter. I stared down at the round, brown capsule in my palm. I looked at Sirius warily. "Dungbombs? Sirius, we'll smell for ages."

"Silly Gracie. Dungbombs don't make you smell. They just smell." He returned the pouch to his robes. "Well, we're running just in case."

I shrugged, glancing at Remus and Peter who only mirrored me.

"Remember, throw. No suicide bombing tonight. On three?"

We nodded.

"All right. One…"

We were definitely not going to get away with this. I'd probably be in detention until I graduated.

"Two…"

But, all in all, whatever happened would be worth it. Most likely. If not, I would just blame Sirius until the end of time. I glanced around the room and caught sight of Kenneth, standing close to Ruth Powell, his Potions partner. I'd seen them together occasionally. Maybe they were together now? I'd never really given the two much thought…

"Three!"

At the sound, we tossed the dung bombs in different directions and the boys scattered, and it was only until I noticed Peter's lousy throw that landed right next to my foot did I realize I should probably run for it, too. And his was about to go off. Bloody hell, I was about to get blasted—

Suddenly I was yanked backwards, and Sirius was expelling things that I could barely decipher in the flurry of it all. "Gracie! I told you to throw—"

And I yelped as we fell to the ground in an unorganized heap, tangled in each other in a most uncomfortable fashion. Sirius quickly retreated behind the shelter of the curtain by the window, and pulled me along after him.

The room was all panic, a kind of panic that should be reserved for a school invasion of You-Know-Who's Death Eaters or something much more high scale and dangerous than a couple of dungbombs. Really, they were acting as if they were all about to perish in the eternal flames of hell. The dungbombs were harmless! I laughed and dropped my head on Sirius's shoulder with exhaustion. All around us was the sound of coughing and shouting and crying and running. It was chaotically insane. Lily would kill us if she found out.

"We almost got caught there, you know," Sirius said, poking me in the side. "Thanks to you here."

"I didn't throw that one. It was Peter. I was just reacting slowly."

"No excuse." I lifted my head and glared at him. "But it's fine. We didn't get caught, so I'll forgive you."

"Thank you." I settled back into the wall, relishing in the sound of the scene we'd caused. Leave it to Sirius to destroy the most highly prestigious Hogwarts party of the year. In the clamor, I'd forgotten all of those lingering feelings for Mr. Black boy here, and only now as the sounds of the pandemonium were dying down did I feel that tug at my heart again. But it was tolerable, I reasoned, and I was happy just sitting beside him in the momentary silence.

Oh, Merlin, and the fact that we had gotten away with all of that…

Suddenly the curtain shrank away from us, revealing Sirius and I to the remnants of the party room and the red, furious face of Fronsac.

"Here they are, Professor!"

"Aw, damn," I heard Sirius mutter beside me.

Right. Never mind then.

A/N: Sirius, you and your crazy ideas. Hurray for a fast-ish update! BUT NO MORE WRITER'S BLOCK! This was fairly fun to write, teehee. I like Remus. Oh, and thank you all for your reviews as always. I'll try to update to twice a week, but that's just my goal. I'll have one a week at the very least. Thank you for reading lovelies, hasta la vista for now~