"Hurry up!" Gabriel shouted into the bathroom, knocking on the door.
"Hand on a sec!" Emma called back through the wooden barrier. Gabriel rolled her eyes and looked at herself in the mirror, fixing silver hoops through the holes in her ears.
"We're going to be late." She said loudly.
"No, we're not. It's eight twenty. It starts in five minutes." Emma said.
"What are you doing in there anyway?" Gabriel asked as she straightened her hair and her dress and looked at herself in the mirror. She wore a dress of white, turquoise and gold silk. Her natural auburn hair was straight and smooth, and she'd dyed it black with Sleekeazy's Hair Wash-Out Color.
"I can't zip up the back." Emma muttered through the door, "Oh, wait, done it!" Gabriel heard the lock click open and Emma slid out through the doorway. Phoenix fought off a sideways grin.
"Wow, Miss Beech. Look at you." She laughed. "That's a little daring for you."
"What?" Emma asked. Phoenix raised an eyebrow, almost laughing. Emma was wearing a dark blue damask dress and corset and a pair of white elbow gloves. Her hair was in long ringlets.
"So, what are you supposed to be?" asked the girl in the white dress.
"The Queen of France." Emma smiled, pulling a long red ribbon out of her bag and beginning to tie it around her neck. "Guess which one? How about you? You're looking awfully tall, dark and sexy."
Phoenix picked up a gold drama mask from beside the dressing table. The eyeholes were outlined with thick black ink, extending out at the tip to create Egyptian-style eyes. The edges were bejeweled with red gemstones.
"Cleopatra." Phoenix said, dramatically. Emma grinned.
"I really wouldn't recognize you, it's awesome."
"Well that's the idea, isn't it? Party anonymously until midnight, then expose yourself, it's all part of the allure." Phoenix put the mask down and bent forward to the mirror, painting her lips red. "So, what's yours look like? Is Chase gonna be able to pick you out of the crowd?"
Emma picked up a black and silver lady's mask with a gold fleur de lis extending over the nose and eyes.
"I dunno." She shrugged. "There are a lot of blondes in Hogwarts, I just want to make sure he doesn't go off dancing with the wrong one."
"I'm guessing that's why you didn't opt for the infamous Marie Antoinette wig accessory from Diagon Alley? Want to make sure your pretty blonde hair is the prettiest and blondest of them all." Phoenix said, finding a make up brush and stroking her hand with it.
"Exactly." Emma grinned. "Okay, you thought we were going to be late, so get a move on with your make up." Phoenix reconciled, dusting gold make-up over her eyes and affixing her mask.
"Ready!" she laughed. Emma attached her mask to her face added a fake beauty mark below her eye with a dark pencil and looked at them in the mirror.
"Damn." She said, putting an arm around Phoenix's shoulder. "Marie Antoinette and Cleopatra should have hung out more often." Gabriel grinned.
"Come on, let's go." Together they slipped into their shoes and went outside into the Ravenclaw common room. The room was full of elegantly dressed 6th and 7th year students, most wearing the masks. Everyone was enthusiastic about concealing their identities until midnight, and there were many classmates that Emma couldn't recognize. Luckily, she and Phoenix's disguises meant that none of them realized a Gryffindor was sneaking through their secret common room.
"Come on, Cleo." Emma whispered in Phoenix's ear and they hurried towards the door and slipped out.
"I'm determined to make this the best night ever," Gabriel grinned, linking arms with Emma.
"Why, you can finally dance with someone asides from T?" Emma teased.
"Shut up, or I'll cut your head off." Phoenix threatened, amiably. Emma pouted.
They trooped down to the Great Hall in a crowd of masked students, all dressed elegantly. Emma could see princesses, ancient wizards, storybook characters and historical figures of all disguises floating around her in formal wear. Some she recognized, many she didn't.
The Great Hall had been decorated with layers of swooping black and violet fabric, gracing the walls, and huge pumpkins carved with laughing faces, and watching eyes. Tables of pumpkin punch and cauldron cakes lined the walls and a full orchestra was playing a waltz. This was the October Masquerade, reserved only for students over the age of 16.
"Are we going to even attempt to find Bri and Rea?" Phoenix asked.
"You don't even have to try." Said a voice from behind them. Emma and Phoenix turned and looked back at two masked figures, one dressed as a Can Can dancer and the other as a Renaissance princess. Emma squinted.
"I really can't tell the two of you apart." She said, trying to peer through the eyeholes.
"Or are we Bri and Rea at all?" Asked the princess. The voice was unrecognizable, and her skin was paper white.
"Nice try." Gabriel grinned. Bri and Rea, the dancer, looked at each other.
"Damn," Rea said, "I thought we were going to keep that one up. Christ, Phoenix, I don't even recognize you." She laughed. Phoenix's mask covered the scar on her face, erasing her distinguished feature.
"Isn't that the idea?" Gabriel smiled again.
"Where do you think the boys are?" Bri asked from beneath her silver, crown shaped mask.
"No clue." Emma said. "Let's go scout them out." With that, they went further into the hall, eyes scanning for the unmistakable tale-tell signs of their respective boyfriends.
"Maybe we should split up. I think four girls walking around together is going to make us pretty easy to find." Rea said, looking through her feathered mask.
"Good plan." Gabriel nodded. "Maybe meet up with you later?" she asked. The other three nodded, and dispersed into the crowd.
Emma headed for the corner of the clearing of the dance floor and helped herself to some punch from the shell shaped bowls on the tables. Many couples were already dancing. She checked the clock. Nine o'clock. Three hours to find Chase, without letting him know she was finding him. That had been their deal anyway.
"I bet I can find you first." Chase had said the night before at dinner. She'd smiled, ever competitive.
"I think not. I'm sure I'll find you first, and you won't even know it's me."
"I'd recognize you across a crowded room." Chase laughed, "In cognito or not."
"I'll find you first. My costume's good." Emma warned.
"So is mine."
The waltz ended and several people applauded for the orchestra, who immediately began to play again. Some one extended a hand to Emma. It was a man in a red doublet and white, beaky mask with brown hair and blue eyes. She accepted his hand and went onto the dance floor without a word. As they fell into step, she glanced around for Chase.
And then she saw him, wearing a white full-face mask, pointed at the chin and decorated with gold. He was dressed as a jester. Emma grinned. His sleek, shiny black hair caught the light, hanging over the top of the mask. His eyes sparkled blue.
He was standing to one side of the dance floor, talking to a boy with long, light black hair, wearing a black domino mask and dressed as Apollo, with a horn strung over his shoulder in a leather strap, T. She could tell by the way he gesticulated and laughed.
"What?" asked her partner. His voice was muffled by the mask. She shook her head and changed the subject.
"So what are you dressed as?" she asked. She imagined the boy would have smiled if she had seen his lips.
"Nothing really. I didn't have time to find a costume." With that, the dance ended and the partners bowed and curtsied to each other. Without speaking, Emma left the dance floor and tried to find Chase, but she could no longer see him.
Instead, she bumped into the Renaissance princess with white skin and a tall, blond vampire in a plain white mask.
"So," she said stopping there, "You found him?" Bri looked up.
"Of course. Easy." She grinned, sliding her hand into Liam's. "He's the only boy wearing make up."
"What can I say?" Liam shrugged with a laugh. "She's a genius."
"Well you two make quite the gothic pair." Emma laughed, while Liam feigned biting Bri's neck.
"Thank you?" Bri said, openly. "Find Chase yet?"
"I spotted him." Emma smiled. "I'll see you guys later." Bri and Liam grinned and waved her off. Emma swept towards the back of the room, trying to look at the dance floor, but it was hard, being shorter than most of her classmates.
"Let me guess," said someone behind her. She turned. It was a pair of girls dressed as Celts. "You're Marie Antoinette."
"Yes." Emma smiled. "Well spotted." The first girl, in a yellow tunic, smiled.
"That's such an awesome mask, Alice. Where did you get it?"
"I'm sorry." Emma said, "I don't think I'm the person you're looking for." She bit her lip nervously and went back to looking for Chase. She didn't get a chance to. Someone extended a hand to her, and she took it, and was pulled back out to the dance floor.
An hour later, she was sitting at one of the small tables, drinking her third cup of punch, when she saw Cleopatra and Apollo laughing together to one side of the room. Most people were dancing now and there were few people refraining from participating. She went over.
"Hey Em." Gabriel said. "Look who I found." She smiled, tugging on T's leather strap.
"Hi Emma." He said.
"Well, look at you two. I think you're actually in the right time period of each other," she laughed.
"That's more than Rea can said." T grinned, putting an arm around Phoenix and pointing across the hall at a dancing couple, made up of a French dancer and Leif Erikson. Emma laughed.
"Is she sure that's Hunter?" she asked.
"Most definitely. Couldn't keep their hands off each other. Plus they told each other what they were going to be this morning." Phoenix smiled.
"Way to spoil the surprise." Emma said. "Well, I've dogged Chase."
"I was talking to him earlier." T said. "He said he hadn't seen you. Don't worry, we won't tell him what you're dressed as, Mademoiselle." Emma grinned wryly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the jester making his way towards the nearby food table. She excused herself and went over, smiling. The dark-haired boy picked up a cup and filled it with punch.
"I must say," Emma said from his elbow, placing a hand on his chest, "I was expected you to dress up as something… I dunno, sexier than a harlequin." The jester looked up, their blue eyes meeting. Emma saw them crinkle with a smile.
"I think the Queen of France is flirting with me." He said, putting the cup down and took her hand from above his heart. "Care to dance?" Emma smiled in response.
The orchestra started to play a waltz and they danced along with all of the other couples. Emma dared to say something to him about finding him first, but Chase hadn't actually acknowledged that he knew who she was, so she kept her mouth shut through the whole song.
Afterwards they curtsied and bowed and Chase kissed her hand. Emma smiled, but didn't follow him back to the side, or ask for another dance. Exiting the hall through the double doors, she went into the girls' bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her red lipstick was coming off, and her red ribbon necklace was coming undone. She fixed herself and heard the toilet flush behind her.
Rea came out and pulled off her mask, revealing her pretty face and dark black eye make-up.
"I fucking hate this thing." She said, glaring at the mask. "Remind me that feathers are a bad idea." She put it on the shelf under the mirror and washed her hands. Emma smiled.
"So you and Hunter removed the element of surprise, I hear." She said, lifting up her mask and checking her eye make-up.
"Yeah," Rea shrugged, "Well, he's the only person I want to dance with. And he doesn't like surprises. Find Chase yet?" she asked.
"Yeah. Not sure if he knows who I am yet." Emma shrugged, checking her immaculate hair. "His costume sucked. I found him immediately." Rea smiled.
"You think so? I thought it was a bit… out of the box for him. Oh well. You know each other best." She laughed. "I'll see you later, Em." She said, replacing her mask and leaving the bathroom. Another toilet flushed and a girl with brown curly hair in a chignon and a patchy maid's dress came out. She wore a simple white eye mask and heavy make-up underneath.
"Hi." She said, coming forward to wash her hands. "Having fun?"
"Yeah." Emma said, with a smile. "Just, doing some much needed adjustment."
"You look fine." The girl said sweetly. "Marie Antoinette?" she asked.
"More people are getting it right than I expected." Emma laughed. "What are you? Sorry, I'm awful at this sort of thing."
"Columbina." Said the girl, " From Commedia dell'Arte."
"Right, I see it now." Emma smiled. She recognized the girl now, since she hadn't done too much to conceal her face. Her name was Ursula Newton, a Gryffindor. Emma had seen her and Chase flirting in the library once, before she and Chase had gone out. She smiled, recognizing a fan girl when she saw one.
She finished with her hair, said bye, and left the bathroom.
She realized most of the night had been used up trying to conceal her identity. It was now eleven thirty. As she stood, looking at the clock, Gabriel arrived at her side.
"Almost time." She grinned. "I'm kind of scared that at midnight, I'll find I haven't actually been talking and dancing with T this whole time, and instead it's just a really good disguise." Emma laughed at her.
"I think you're safe from creepy misogynists, Phoenix." She said. "Come on, let's get some cauldron cakes and position ourselves for the great revelation." They went hand in hand to the food table and munched on cauldron cakes and drank butter beer, watching the dance floor.
Apollo arrived a few minutes before midnight, when the orchestra announced the final dance of the night.
"May I have the final dance?" he asked Phoenix.
"I won't tell Caesar." Emma winked as her two friends took off for the center. She saw Chase making his way towards her side of the room and tried not to smile, the bells on his sleeves ringing.
"Want to dance?" asked someone from beside her. She looked up, seeing the brown haired boy with the beaked mask with an outstretched hand.
"Oh," Emma said, glancing at the approaching Chase. "I can't actually, I'm going to dance with my-" she stopped, seeing Chase stretch a hand towards Ursula, the little Columbina. She smiled and took his hand and went to the dance floor with him. Emma narrowed her eyes.
"Yeah, actually, I will." She said, taking the boy in the red doublet's hand and leading the way to the dance floor. Everyone paired up, and the music began. Emma kept her eye on Chase the whole time, wondering what he was doing with her mind.
She satisfied herself by thinking he was trying to make her jealous. She really wasn't that well disguised, and he'd probably recognized her on sight, just as she had with him. She looked over at him dancing with Ursula again.
"Are you okay?" asked her partner.
"I'm fine." She said. The clock neared midnight.
"You look pale."
"I'm fine, I told you." She snapped. Around her, she could see her friends dancing with their significant others. Bri and Liam had their fingers entwined. Gabriel was laughing at something T had said. Rea and Hunter had their arms around each other. She felt very angry all of a sudden.
She glanced back at Chase and Ursula, seeing them talking as they dance. Chase nodded his hair at something she said, and laughed. As Emma watched, he drew the little Columbina close to him and stopped dancing. With one hand, he raised his mask slightly and kissed her gently on the lips.
Emma stopped, completely thrown off. Without thinking twice she marched over to the pair kissing and stood for a moment, watching them. Her heart beat furiously and she tore off her mask.
"What the hell are you doing?!" she cried. Ursula and Chase pulled apart. He looked at her.
"What!? Emma?" he stammered, still holding Columbina's hand.
"I can't believe you!" Emma shouted. The clock struck twelve and the music ended. She reached over and pulled Chase's mask from his face. "How dare you!" she shouted. Everyone was looking over now, their masks removed, watching the three of them.
"What are you doing with my boyfriend?" Ursula retaliated, pulling off her mask.
"Your boyfriend?" Emma snapped.
"Wait, I can-" Chase began, but Emma glared at him, on the verge of tears. His blue eyes had lost their intensity, his face seemed oddly squared. She blinked. She barely recognized him. It wasn't Chase at all, she saw now. It was just-
"Emma?" she heard someone behind her and turned. Her brown hair partner was walking over. As he drew close to her he pulled off his beaked mask, revealing a pair of bright blue eyes. With the same hand he pulled off the wig he wore, and slick black hair fell over his eyes. Emma opened her mouth.
"I found you first." He said with a smile.
"I-" Emma began, looking back at the boy with Ursula. He put a hand to his head and pulled off his own shiny, black locks, revealing a head of dark blond cowlicks. The face smiled, along with Ursula. Emma looked back at Chase, the real Chase.
"Thanks, John." He said, smiling over her head at the boy with Ursula.
"I'm so confused." Emma said. Chase took her by the waist with his free hand.
"Just be satisfied that I won." He said. "I found you first."
"I didn't even recognize you." Emma said, "I thought you were-" she pointed over her shoulder.
"Exactly." Chase smiled, boyishly. "That's why my costume is better than yours. And that's why I won. I tricked you." Emma looked at him, and then blushed.
"Oh." She said quietly.
"Sorry for the interruption, everyone!" Chase shouted to the crowd, apologizing. "The Great Emmeline Beech is just being a sore loser because she lost a-"
Emma pulled him down by the collar and kissed him on the lips to make him shut up. The crowd laughed a little and Ursula and John looked at each other nervously, Columbina and the Harlequin, together. The music started up again for the final dance of the evening. Chase kissed Emma back, and moved his hands to pull her by the waist towards him. Emma stopped abruptly and he looked her surprised.
"Your costume is terrible, actually." She said with a smile. Chase looked a little disappointed that she had ended the kiss. "What are you supposed to be anyway?"
"I told you before, I don't really know." He said. He tried to kiss her again but she stopped him, grinning, teasing him.
"I thought you were going to come up with some cheesy Prince Charming line." She said, putting a hand to his chest.
"I don't need a costume to be Prince Charming." Chase said, looking her in the eye.
"And that line actually works for once." Emma grinned, and she kissed him again.