For the seventh year students, their last time to Hogsmaede while attending the school was quite precious. Many went on dates, some of where the pairings where an absolute disaster to even consider being a thing. However, no one blamed them. It has been the first time since we came back from the Christmas holidays that rumours around the Slytherin House being evil and full of potential death eaters finally died down. Everyone was too obsessed with having a great party – literally, a party. A cousin of Mary-Louise, whom has been quite a popular girl among the Houses has decided to throw an underground party. I suspecting it was more of a thing Mary-Louise whispered in her ear to do, instead of doing it herself, just to avoid trouble.

I thought of it as a perfect cover for me to be at the arranged appointment that I made last week with Severus. I had the perfect idea planned for my escape; I show up with my friends, have a drink and then just disappear in the crowd. We had 3 sightings scheduled, hopefully we can sit through it to the end. I'd hate to obtain a headache nor to have my first day as a fiance already end up arguing. For this day I did want to look nice; It gives a nice confidence boost and obviously it has to be believable that I am attending this party. To do so, I got a curling iron that was magically working on the ends of my hair, leaving the top just as it is, falling down around my face. I paused it a few times to pose in front of the mirror to see the progress and if I was satisfied with the result I was getting. Since the chambers were full with other students coming in and out and dressing I had to keep as much space to myself as possible, so that no one would bump into me and get my skin burned. It took me about 45 minutes with the make-up included; a nice winged black eye-liner, deep red lips with a shining finish. A nude eyeshadow and only the tiniest bit of blush swiped on my cheeks.

I looked over at the bed on the opposite side of the chambers that belonged to Beatrice. She always went all out with her make up, which was easy because many weren't made to fit her brown skin yet, so instead she used some extra black for a more dramatic, and rather skanky, look. It suited her a lot, despite her constant obsession over quidditch, she enjoyed walking on heels and putting on a face as well. Everything she did, she did with passion. Which would make for a fun debate: Why we're friends. Even when we're both Slytherins, we were absolutely on the different side of the spectrum from each other. My parents wouldn't be able to be comfortable around her because she was just too pure for them to handle, she's someone to follow her heart instead of her brain, so she wasn't invited that often. They wouldn't want to allow "bad influence" into my life. Beatrice sensed my glance and put up a big smile.

'You ready too, Luce?' she asked all excited over this party. For the past 3 days she actually wasn't all that excited, just because she failed to score a date. She has hunted down a couple of guys and they were too scared of her by the time she could even mention going to the party together. Like I said; everything she did, she did with passion. I nodded at her in response.

'Shall we go into the Common Room and see if Andrew is already there? I bet Mary-Louise will still be busy for at least half an hour,' I suggested.

'Very funny!' I heard Mary-Louise yell at me, who just entered the bedroom chamber, having her hair up all guarded by a towel, as if she was afraid just the slightest breeze of air would make her have to start all over again.

'Shall I help you, then?' Beatrice offered her. Mary-Louise was not to decline that offer, she had been fishing for it all morning actually, since Beatrice was very skilled at prepping a face for a party. However Beatrice also knew very well how Mary-Louise could get over things like this. Her insecurity could get her want to change things up a million times and as soon as she claims to be ready she feels the need to start all over again. It was a very tiring process. Quickly she got up from her bed and walked over to her to get started immediately.

'Let's hope your magical make-up skill saves this mess!' Mary-Louise threw her arms in the air in desperation.

'Oh, don't be such a drama queen, it's a party – you'll probably end up with tons of Butterbeer in your hair anyways!'

'Can you please not speak of such dark arts?'

Already feeling the tension rise, I wished them luck and left by myself. In the Common Room it wasn't much better, everyone was stressed and prepping for their dates but there were less girls around, so less chances on fist fighting. I saw Andrew at the corner of the room, close to the door, fidgeting and pulling his shirt down. I walked over to him, studying his movements and the sweat dropping from his head. I still hadn't forgotten the shady business around the library.

'They're still not done?' he asked once he spotted me come up to him. I smirked, leaning against the wall across of him.

'It's your girlfriend that's the problem. She's treating it like this is going to be your wedding instead of just a secret school party,' I answered, I wasn't sure what to suspect him to be doing behind her back. The first thing that came to mind was cheating, but every time I was thinking of it, it just didn't make sense. If he ever got caught, he'd be dead. He laughed and shook his head, probably picturing how she was acting in his head. My smile fainted and turned dangerous, getting this flash in my head that maybe the reason he took such care of her was him feeling guilty.

'She asked me,' I slipped before realizing. He looked up at me, the fun disappearing from his face, the faded spark in his eyes meant that he wasn't sure what I exactly meant she asked.

'If there was anything she needed to know. She... grew quite suspicious,' He sighed when my words hit him, He brought his face up towards the ceiling as he took a deep breath with his eyes closed, aggrivated with me for even bringing it up. He seemed to run either out of patience or turn desperate. He brought himself back to earth and turned back to me.

'Look, Lucrezia.. There is nothing. I swear. I promise. I am not doing anything behind her back, please,' He begged looking fiercely into my eyes and seemed absolute. I frowned. I wasn't satisfied with this answer. Regardless of it possibly being a lie or not, I want to know the exact details. I didn't know what I witnessed and I didn't like it. At that moment I noticed Beatrice and Mary-Louise were finished and that they were coming towards us.

'Then what is it that you were doing at that library?' I hissed at him, demanding answers. Which he couldn't answer in time without being caught gossipping so it would have to wait.

'Finally, ready to go!' Beatrice took the lead, no longer having any patience to wait, desperate to have some fun. Mary-Louise kissed Andrew as they met up and without waiting much longer we left towards Hogsmaede. There wasn't a set time for this party, but it was definitely going to be an all nighter anyways, so there wasn't a specific moment to arrive. In the streets you saw groups of friends do shopping, strange couples on dates or breaking it off, even teachers who were enjoying a stroll together. The past few weeks has been very tense for everyone in the castle and as real as it was people also wanted to convince themselves it was far away enough to let loose for a bit. Our path took us on High Street, to Dervish and Banges. Inside, we went through the backdoor to the section were repaired magical devices were waiting to be picked up. We walked up to the counter; The man had his face covered by his own bangs so you couldn't really tell who he was. Actually, he seemed to be blind even – as he didn't greet us when we came in and didn't say anything to us when the approached him either. Mary-Louise gave us a look and then leaned over to him, whispering something into his ear. He nodded and just started to stroll away from his little counter towards one of the closets. We followed him towards there, expecting some kind of key to get wherever we were supposed to. He opened the doors and to my amazement there was a stairs, making it no longer look like a closet.

'That is the smartest thing I have seen in a long time! I bet with all those magical devices in the shop, they cannot even track the location of all this magic!' Andrew exclaimed. Ready to party, we went down the rabbit hole – literally. The narrow staircase brought us down to the basement area, which was expanded enough to fit enough people, music equipment and tables for food and drinks. It was already pretty crowded, meant it was the perfect situation for me. The music was produced by enchanted instruments and the perfect kind of loud, yet you couldn't hear from up above. Instantly we got a few drinks and we got dragged to the dance floor by Mary-Louise, who loved dancing and was most likely not going to be able to stop once she started. I couldn't keep track of time, but we went early enough for me to not miss the appointment itself. After 2 songs I started to loosen up more and more, my dancing got out of hand and my friends had a hard time keeping up with me. Fluently I moved through the crowd, hearing Beatrice calling me from behind, but her voice faded as I declined to look behind me and the last eye Andrew had on me lost track of it's trail. And finally, I was alone. As a wallpaper gazing over the wild crowd that was going crazy already even though the party just started. I climbed up the stairs, running into only 2 sixth year Ravenclaws along the way up, but they didn't seem to be endangering the mission that I was on. I bursted the closet doors open, stepped out of it and went out of the shop. I walked down the road as fast paced as I can and turned to my left. I entered a building that had all it's lights out. I got startled as I saw a light appear right beside me.

'You're late,' The brightness of his Lumos spell coming from the tip of his wand showed irritation, maybe even anger in his eyes. I was supposed to apologize for it but I didn't. I planned and executed it perfectly, so there was nothing to be excused for.

'Shall we?' I asked after a moment of silence and I offered him my arm. His hand reached forward and he placed it right below my wrist, his skin felt cold and ran shivers down my spine. With that I drew my wand and we vanished into thin air, like we were never there to begin with.