CHAPTER 4
Asha had sworn her to secrecy when it came to telling people, and Hermione would keep to her word on that, but there was nothing said about doing something about it herself. There were a couple evenings when Charlotta would be busy flirting with Sirius and Sirius would be busy flirting with Charlotta while Chaylse and Peter attempted to get them both to shut up. Those same evenings, James and Lily would have meetings with the Headmaster or have rounds to help with.
On those nights, Hermione would drag Asha, whom she'd become increasingly close to, even more so than she was with Lily, to the library either just to sit and talk quietly away from the others or to work on homework so they wouldn't have to do it later. More often than not, Severus would join them. Hermione couldn't help but be slightly thankful that the Marauders or the other Slytherins hadn't taken not of that bit.
It was the Wednesday following the challenge between Hermione, James, and Sirius, and once again Asha and Hermione appeared in the Library, making their way to the back corner table that they prefered due to the fact that they could see others before the others could see them. The two girls had settled down at the table next to one another, their books open infront of them and parchements with two different penmenships scattered the expanse of the large table.
Both were so entranced in finishing their essays for Slughorn, that neither notice that their papers were being organized and set beside their respective owners, nor did they notice that there was some one else at the table, sitting directly across from Asha. They noticed nothing other than the words sliding on to the parchment until the other person cleared his throat, causing both girls to jump a good six inches out of their seats and both to shot dark glares at the male.
A smirk was resting on Severus's expresion and his eyes were dancing in amusement, "So sorry, did I scare you?"
"That was incredibly cruel, Severus Snape!" Asha said, trying to catch her breath and fight the blush rising over her face at the same time.
"That is hardly my fault. When I am capable of walking up to this table, moving your papers, including your notes, around and reorganise them for you, without you taking note, I daresay you deserve a bit of a wake up call," he smirked.
Hermione rolled her eyes slightly, "Have you brought your things? You may as well finish your essay as well."
"That was my intention," he said with an arched eyebrow as he pulled his own materials out of his bag and set them on the table.
The bushy haired witch rolled her eyes again and turned her attention back to her homework, this time keeping ears open for someone else who would be brave enough to attempt to sneak up on them. It didn't take long before all three of the table's occupants were settled into a companionable silence as they worked, occasionally asking one another how to word something for the best effect or for a reminder of a particular ingredient that their potion required.
"Hermione?" Came a quiet, hesitant voice.
The witch's eyes rose from her assignment again as she glanced around for who was speaking to her, only for her gaze to rest on Remus who was looking slightly nervously between her and the other two occupants. "Can I help you, Remus?"
His nervousness seemed to increase but he gave a small nod, "Do you think you could help me with that Potion's essay?"
"You need my help on a homework assignment?" Hermione blinked in surprise.
"It's Potions, Granger," Snape smirked. "The entire school knows that Lupin is just short of helpless in that class."
A faint blush rose over the other wizard's face as he shot a slight glare at the Slytherin, "Unfortunately, that's exactly why I'm asking for help."
Hermione gave a small smile and motioned to the seat across from her and next to Severus. "Have you gotten it started?"
Remus nodded as he took a seat, pulling his materials from his bag, "Yes, I did quite abit, I just don't think the information I managed to gather is used in the right context or in the correct order."
"Let me see it," Hermione said, holding her hand out. When he handed it to her, she let her eyes scan over the paper, her brows furrowed in concentration. After she'd read it she lifted her quill and arched her brow, "Do you mind?"
"Oh, no, please, if you see something wrong, mark it," Remus said.
Setting the parchement infront of her, she chewed on her lower lip as she made the necissary corrections on the wizard's paper, frowning when she had to read something over a few times to make sure she wasn't markign something wrong that was indeed correct. When she placed her quill down she glanced to Severus, "Mind looking over this as well? It's always better to have another set of eyes."
Severus glanced from Hermione to Remus, studying the other wizard for a moment befor giving a small nod and accepting the essay. From that moment on, there was an unspoken agreement between the two that put their past quarls to the side. Seeing this, Hermione smiled and when Remus's eyes met hers she gave a small nod, as though finally giving her acceptance, before turning back to her work.
That became their nightly ritual, every once in a while one of the four wouldn't be able to make it to the study session, either for the Full moon, meetings with the rest of their 'friends', whatever the case may be.
Two nights later, Remus arrived with a slight smile on his face, "Hermione, Asha, Lily's going crazy looking for you two, she said if I saw you to tell you she has to talk to you as soon as possible."
The two girls exchanged confused expressions and shrugged as they restashed their homework and got to their feet, "If we can, we'll be back, depends on what Red wants whether we manage that or not," Asha said as they exited the library.
Hermione glanced over her shoulder to see Remus take his usual seat next to Severus and the two boys start working on their assignments as they usually would. She gave a small smile as she linked arms with her friend, "We are in luck, my dear friend."
"Calm down, Lils, it's not that big of a deal," Hermione said with an amused smile as her redheaded friend paced in the girls' dormitory.
"It is a big deal, Hermione! We have to plan this event on our own. Not only that but it's Potter who I have to work with!" Lily glared at the other girl.
"You've got three weeks, besides, between the five of us and the four of them…we'll have the primary planning done in no time," Asha said placatingly.
"You mean you guys will help?" Lily asked desperately.
"Of course we will. This is just our type of thing." Asha replied pulling a notebook from her bag and flipping to an unused page before pulling out a quill and ink. "First thing's first, entertainment."
Lily continued to pace but moreso in a thoughtful manner than a nervous manner, "I don't know, to higher a band to come in would cut down the amount we're able to spend on everything else."
"I've got an idea," Hermione said with a slow smile creeping across her expression. "Hold auditions. Fourth year and up is permitted to attend the winter ball, allow anyone fifth year and up to audition for part of the entertainment."
"The entertainment will have to be monitered to make sure it's appropriate. We'll have to have judges, as well," Chaylse said with a nod.
"I'm sure some of the teachers would volunteer to be judges, if not some of the students who have an ear for this type of thing," Asha nodded.
Hermione nodded, "There should be open auditions for individual or group wanting to perform at the Ball. Seeing as the ball will most likely be a few hours, we could offer maybe two songs to each of the ones who make it through."
Lily was smiling at this point and her pacing had picked up as the idea began sounding better and better. "Perfect! Limitations would clearly be fifth year students and up, a limit of two songs, instruments allowed but applicants are responsible for providing their own music. Um, what else...?"
"Prior to auditioning, all applicants must turn in a written copy on the lyrics to their songs to be inspected for inappropriate material, to the judges," Charlotta said with a small nod.
"Finalists should be as close to as evenly matched between Houses as talent will allow," Hermione added.
"Which teachers should we ask to be judges?" Asha asked when she finished scribbling down the guidelines.
"Professor Dumbledore would be thrilled, I think," Hermione said with a small smile. The other girls exchanged looks but nodded in agreement with that statement and Asha wrote down the name.
"I think Flitwick would probably like to help as well," Chaylse suggested. Soon the girls had Dumbledore, Flitwick, McGonagall, and Slughorn as their Staff judges and a Ravenclaw boy who had muggle musicians for parents, a Gryffindor sixth year who had a flare for what was popular, a Slytherin who knew what to look for as for hidden meanings, and a Hufflepuff who was an insturmentalist as well, all as their student judges.
The girls spent the next hour and a half throwing together ideas for the Ball and finally, Lily collapsed on her bed with a smile, reading over the notes that Asha had taken. "Well, looks like I've got something to show Potter in the morning."
Hermione and Asha exchanged glances and Hermione cocked her head in amusement as she watched the Head Girl, "Hey, Lils?"
"Hmm?" Lily said, green eyes glancing up from the notes.
"Isn't it tradition, on an event like this that Head Boy and Girl share the first dance?" Hermione asked innocently.
Soon Lily's face matched her hair and she started coughing to hide her embarrassment, "W-what!"
"She's right, Lils," Chaylse said with a thoughtful grin. "It'll be good for you."
"Oh, bloody Hell," the redhead groaned as she fell back against her bed, but not before the rest of the girls could see the slightly hopeful smile on the girl's face.
The girls chattered on about the preperations for the up-coming Ball well into the night, none bothering to sleep until around midnight. Between the five, they had set up plans for everything from table decorations to if they would be auditioning for a chance to perform. They all ended up falling a sleep on Asha's bed as they read over all the notes the girl had taken, once again, strewn lazily all over the one bed.
The next morning came, a little sooner than they would have liked, fortunately, however, it was a Saturday, thus the girls didn't have to get up as early as usual. Lily was the first one to leave inorder to catch up with James to show him all the ideas they'd come up with the night before. James had mentioned that he too would be getting ideas from his group of friends and then they would compare and combine the ideas and get things in motion for the Ball.
Hermione was the next to awaken, never being one to spend the whole day sleeping. She slipped quietly down the steps and into the common room where James and Lily were sitting side by side at one of the tables going over the girls' list of ideas. Hermione smiled slightly and tilted her head in thought, remembering how, in her own time, Remus would talk about how the two slowly grew closer during their seventh year.
"You can come over and help, Hermione," Came James's teasing voice. "It's not polite to stare anyway."
The witch blushed slightly and sat across from the other two at the table. "Can I see you guys' notes, I know what we have."
James nodded and handed the stack parchment in Remus's neat handwriting, "Sure, so far you girls seem to have out done us though."
Hermione gave a small shrug and began to look through the notes, "No. No alcohol, I'm betting that one was Sirius's idea, but no."
"That's what both Remus and I told him but he insisted that it atleast be put in the notes," James agreed.
With a small nod she turned her gaze back and scanned through. After a few minutes where the three looked through the notes, Hermione set down the ones she'd been looking through and nodded, "It looks as though we're all on the same track on most of it."
Lily nodded, "It appears that way, so we're set to get started on actually putting the plans into motion."
"Not just yet, we've forgotten something. Both groups." Hermione said.
James and Lily exchanged confused expression, "And what's that?"
"The attire. How are people to dress?" She shrugged.
"Dress robes," James said simply.
"But that's so...boring," Hermione whined.
"What do you suggest then?" He asked, eyebrows arched.
She smiled, "We should have the attire as muggle Formal. The girls have the elegant gowns and the guys have the suits and what not."
"Who would have guessed that Hermione Granger would be a fashion expert," James smirked.
"Oh, no. No, no, I'm definitely no expert, but don't tell me you wouldn't love to see Lily, here, in a long, gorgeous emerald green, strappless, shimmery, ball gown. Her hair up and flowers braided into it." Hermione explained, glancing at her friend as she mentally came up with what would look the best on her.
James's jaw had dropped at the mental image and he glanced at the girl next to him who looked just as amazed. "I think you've won us over on that one, Hermione."
She shifted slightly and nodded, "Good, now. We should probably get moving on asking the Professors to be judges. We also need to get signs to be posted in all the common rooms about the auditions. The posters need to have a list of the rules and regulations and each should have a place for those interested to sign."
The other two quickly overcame their surprise and they all started working on a layout for the signs that would be put up in the common rooms for the auditions. James got to his feet and headed off to find if the teachers would agree to be Staff judges and to find those they had decided for student judges while Lily and Hermione fine-tuned the rest of the details.
"James and I will speak with Dumbledore later this evening, he'll be surprised that we've got all the details ironed out already," Lily smiled. "Hermione?"
"Hmm?" Hermione lifted her gaze from the notes, seeing the other girl's curious expression.
"How did you do that, earlier?" the redhead asked.
"Do what?"
Lily huffed, "When you were talking about the Muggle gowns. You just threw out a random ensemble that would, in all honestly, look magnificent. How'd you do it?"
Hermione shrugged slightly then gave a sheepish expression, "When I was a little girl, before I got into books, drawing was my passion. I would always come up with these beautiful drawings of outfits for my mum. Now, I never cared much for what would look best on me because…well because it was just me. Then I got into books and needing to know everything, and I let that part of me slide to the back of my mind. I just let myself become book-ish, plain Hermione Jane."
"But you've never lost it, just hid it," Lily nodded.
"Yeah. I can take a look at you or any of the other girls and immediately know what would look absolutely stunning on you. But I've never been able to do it for myself," She said wryly.
"Oh, I'm sure you could, you've just never given yourself the opportunity to take a good look at yourself. You're a pretty girl, Hermione," Lily argued.
Hermione blushed slightly and shook her head, "I'll figure something out between now and the Ball."
"Are you going to audition?" the redhead asked.
"I don't think so, I'm not much for having 'all eyes' on me. I couldn't do a solo," She said, wrinkling her nose.
"Well, what if all of us auditioned together?" Lily suggested.
"Would you be interested in doing a Muggle song?" Hermione smiled.
"Uh...yeah, that's probably the best idea," the red head replied.
Hermione started to suggest something popular from her own time and then winced inwardly.
That wouldn't work. She certianly couldn't take a song that had yet to be written and claim it as her own. It just wouldnt' seem right.What else could she do? She wasn't familiar with much from the current time period. "What songs would you suggest we try?"
"There are so many to chose from," Lily said thoughtfully.
"Well, what type of Genre should we look into what kind of songs?" Hermione asked.
"Do we want to shock them, or do we want to play it safe?" She countered.
"Shock them, of course."
"Then we go for Rock," Lily grinned.
"We should do one really Rock one that'll show a fun side but also a softer one that'll be a little lighter mood," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"I've got just the songs," The redhead said suddenly.
At once, the girls leapt to their feet and raced to the dormitory. Despite her stage fright, she was looking forward to performing with Miss Lily Evans.