Disclaimer. I own nothing. I also realize that I'm not the first one to have an idea like this (the masque thing) and so I'm just saying to anyone who may read this and think that I may have copied: I. DID. NOT. Thank you.
A/N—I received a review that said that James was a seeker not a chaser, but I think I said this before (sorry if I didn't—then I'm saying it now), I had to make James a chaser so that he could compete with Lily. If he was a seeker there wouldn't even be a point to her being on the Quidditch team—but since this story is about them competing with each other it fit really well to make them both chasers so they could argue over the quaffle and stuff.
CHAPTER SEVEN! Masks, Flowers, and Armor
"I've heard of that before," said Mel when Lily told her and Kaye about the Hogsmeade Masquerade. "Apparently, the reason everyone's supposed to wear a mask is so that if anything erm… happens… then nobody can get in trouble for it."
Kaye laughed. "Do we really want to go?"
Lily nodded. "Yes!" The other two girls looked at her.
"Miss Head Girl wants to break the rules?" Kaye asked skeptically.
"Oh come on," Lily smirked. "We're gonna be wearing masks. Nobody will know we're there."
Mel smiled. "Good point. I'm all for it!" She paused. "But let's get ready together. I don't care what they say about not telling your friends what you're wearing—I don't want to be completely alone with masked freaks in Hogsmeade."
Lily and Kaye laughed.
"So, what are you guys going to go as?" Kaye asked.
"Oh god! Somebody should be the Muggle idea of a witch! I mean with the HUGE pointy hat and the nasty black hair and the green skin!" Mel exclaimed.
"Why don't you? You can make your mask green so you don't actually have to paint your face," Lily suggested.
"Yeah, I think I will," Mel decided. "Then no creeps can hit on me for having a hot costume!"
"What do you mean? Green is all the rage, don't you know?" Kaye joked. "Anyway, I still don't know what I'm going to be."
"Me either," Lily added.
"Lily you should be a princess!" Kaye exclaimed. "No, I don't mean wear frilly pink and stuff," she said at the look on Lily's face. "I mean like from the renaissance or something. You'd be really pretty in it. And we could curl your hair. We could get you one of those masks that only covers the top of your face and—"
"Whoa, Kaye!" Lily exclaimed. But then she grinned. "I really like that idea. And what about you?"
"Kaye should be a fairy!" Mel said suddenly.
"A fairy?" Kaye asked.
"Yeah! You could be like a pixie or something… you know, wings, green dress, all that jazz," Mel explained.
Kaye looked skeptical. "And the mask?"
Lily looked thoughtful. "You know, if you wore green you'd kinda be like a woodland pixie, so if you had a mask like the one you described for me—only it had leaves or something on it…" Lily trailed off.
A smile tugged at the corners of Kaye's mouth. "I kind of like it." Her face fell. "How do we get these costumes?"
Mel bit her lip and Lily's eyebrows furrowed. For a few moments the three sat in silence, contemplating how exactly they were to obtain their costumes.
"Well… Halloween is in two weeks, right? Well, next weekend we could um… sneak out to Hogsmeade—they have a robes shop, I'm sure they have costumes," Mel suggested.
"Ok, but how exactly do we get out of the castle?" Kaye asked.
Again they were puzzled.
Then a conspiratorial glint found it's way into Mel's eyes. "We could ask the Marauders…"
-----------
The next morning at breakfast Sirius stopped Lily before she could sit down. He quickly asked if she had told Mel and Kaye about the Halloween party in Hogsmeade. When she had replied that yes she had, and he had informed her that Peter and Remus had been told as well, they sat down together. Lily and James studiously ignored each other. They were still on bad terms because of the previous day's Quidditch match. The group sat away from other people so they could discuss the Hogsmeade masque.
"So, do you guys know any way to sneak out next weekend so that we can get our costumes? Because we really don't want to leave it to the last day," Kaye said to the Marauders.
Sirius looked at his fellow Marauders. "Hold that thought," he said to Kaye as the Marauders all grouped together and bent down their heads and began to discuss something in very low voices.
"Alright," Sirius said. "We're going to let you girls in on a huge secret. But you cannot tell a soul—or we'll hex you and prank you until you don't even look human," he threatened.
"Gee, thanks," murmured Lily.
Sirius glanced around to make sure that nobody was watching. "There's a statue of a one eyed witch—"
"Oh! I know where that is!" Mel interjected.
"And if you tap it with your wand and say 'dissendium', it opens and there's a passage all the way down to the Honeydukes cellar," Sirius finished.
"So that's how you guys always seem to have stuff from Hogsmeade… and where the hell you go when you sneak out!" Kaye exclaimed.
Sirius just smiled. James and Remus were engaged in a quiet conversation and Peter was eating some scrambled eggs. Lily and Mel were discussing sneaking out.
"What are you going as?" Kaye asked Sirius.
He laughed. "I can't tell you that!"
"Please?" Kaye pleaded.
"What are you going as?" Sirius countered.
"You wouldn't tell me, so I'm not telling you," Kaye retorted.
Sirius smiled. "I have an idea. The first person at the masquerade to guess the other's costume and find them successfully wins… um…" he paused.
"Wins what?"
He smiled mischievously. "A kiss."
Kaye made a face. "Alright, fine. I'll win, and then I just wont take your stupid kiss."
"We'll see," Sirius smirked, shaking Kaye's hand.
-------
That week swept past in a breeze of homework papers and Quidditch practices for Lily. Finally it was Saturday, the day that she, Mel, and Kaye had agreed to sneak out to Hogsmeade.
They snuck out of breakfast and went down the corridor in which the statue was. Lily cast a furtive glance over her shoulder as she tapped the witch statue with her wand and muttered the incantation. Mel and Kaye stood with their backs to her, trying not to look suspicious incase anybody passed them.
"Got it!" Lily said as the statue opened.
They slid through the opening and heard it close behind them. They found themselves in a long dark corridor. Tentatively they felt their way forward until they were sure there was nothing down there. It felt like they walked for a very long time. Finally they encountered a staircase. Mel inquired as to who wished to be the first in line when they climbed it. Mel ended up going first, because Lily and Kaye decided that she was the most daring of the three.
"Damn, there are so many stairs!" Kaye complained after it felt like they'd climbed four hundred stairs.
"Yeah, I wish we could just get to the–OUCH!" Mel yelled as she hit her head on something.
"What?" Lily asked.
Mel felt above her with her hands. "There's a trap door here." She pushed and it opened slightly. "Cool! Sirius didn't lie to us after all!"
She pushed the trap door open enough so that she could see into the Honeydukes cellar.
"Nobody's down here at the moment," she whispered to the other two. "Let's go!"
They climbed out of the trap door and into the cellar of Honeydukes. There were boxes of candy crowding almost every corner.
"You know... we could just take some..." said Kaye, reaching out towards an open box of chocolate frogs.
"No!" hissed Lily, slapping Kaye's outstretched hand. "Let's get into the store before someone catches us down here."
Mel closed the trap door, and the girls ascended the staircase they assumed went up to the actual store part of Honeydukes.
They exited the candy shop and went out into the Hogsmeade streets.
"Look, there's that robes shop! And they do have costumes," Mel pointed out.
They went into the store. A sales witch with frizzy red-brown hair and kind brown eyes came up to them.
"How can I help you?" the sales witch asked them.
Glancing at her friends, Lily spoke. "Um, we're looking for Halloween costumes for–" Lily was about to tell the witch that they were to be attending the Hogsmeade masquerade, but then she thought better of it. "Um, well for Halloween of course," she saved rather lamely.
"Ah, what kind of costumes can I help you find?" the sales witch asked.
"Well, I was going to be a Muggle witch–you know, green skin, frizzy black hair, really exaggerated hat..." Mel said.
"Why don't you help us one at a time?" Kaye suggested when the witch looked at her and Lily. "Lily and I will look around."
Lily nodded in agreement, and the sales witch turned to Mel to help her with her costume.
"Wow! Look at this!" Lily exclaimed, holding a hideous mask that was supposed to be the face of a china doll up to her face.
"That's weird... oh man look at this dress!" Kaye said, pulling a dress half off the rack for Lily to see. It was white in a renaissance style, with a corset and belled sleeves. "You should wear this!"
"Yea," Lily breathed.
Lily and Kaye took it off the rack and went to find Mel to show her.
"Mel! Look at this dress!" Lily said when she had found Mel and the sales witch over by some green masks.
"Wow! Try it on!" Mel squealed.
The sales witch turned. "Do you want a dressing room?"
"Yes, please," Lily said.
Lily got a dressing room, and put the dress on. It fit pretty well, except for the fact that she couldn't lace the corset by herself.
"Kaye!" she screamed. "Help me with this please!"
Kaye opened the dressing room door. She laughed when she saw Lily struggling to lace her own corset. Kaye yanked at the laces until it was tight.
"So? Does it fit?" she asked.
Lily gasped. "I can't really breathe, but otherwise it fits."
Kaye grinned. "I won't lace it so tight for the masque, and it's only for one night. It looks great. Come show Mel."
-----------
Mel was excited when she saw Lily's dress, too. While Mel was trying on a black dress for her Muggle witch costume, the sales lady helped Lily find a white mask and some shoes to go with the dress. It didn't take long–the shoes didn't go with the time period–they were heeled shoes that would be good for dancing, but they were hidden by the dress anyway. The mask Lily wore was simple white, and it covered half her face, tying behind her head. It had small white beads lining the edges of it.
After they found all of Lily's outfit and she went to change out of it. A really pretty green dress made of floaty material was found for Kaye, along with some wings that could actually be magicked to stay on her back without straps or anything. They found some weird strappy shoes to go with the dress.
Finally, they were done after shoes were found for Mel and a mask was found for Kaye.
"Thank you so much for helping us," Lily thanked the sales witch as they were paying for their purchases.
"Any time, dear," the sales witch replied. "Come again!" she yelled after them as they exited the store.
They went back to Honeydukes, swinging their bags in their hands. The girls made it back to Hogwarts without any hassle. It was actually pretty late when they returned–nearly dinner time. When they entered the common room, the Marauders were there.
"So, what did you buy?" Sirius asked, slinking over to Kaye and trying to look inside her bag.
"No way, Black," she warned. "You dirty cheater." She yanked the bag away.
"Ha," he replied.
Remus came over as well, and they all began a conversation. Peter was in a near trance-like state, working hard on some potions assignment. James was sulking over by Peter. He and Lily still weren't exactly on speaking terms from the Quidditch match last week. He knew it was stupid, but he was actually beginning to believe that he would never have her, and that there was a reason they'd been rivals for the past six years.
–--------
"So, are you still not speaking to James?" Mel asked Lily when they were back in their dormitory.
"Yes," Lily said vehemently.
Kaye shook her head. "Is it about the Quidditch match?"
Lily glared. "Yes."
"Lily, it's stupid. The game was a week ago, and you still won. You both played really well. Come on, talk to him," Mel persuaded.
"No," Lily shook her head. "We're better rivals than friends."
"It's not like you've ever actually been his friend. You were just barely friendly to him this year," Kaye added.
Lily's mind went to the early morning conversation she'd had with James a few weeks ago. Had she really nearly been friendly to him then?
"We haven't been able to get along in six years, what makes you think that we will now?" she asked?
Her friends (not exactly having an answer to that) decided to change the subject, and for a long time they discussed the masque and how exited they all were.
But as Lily was falling asleep her thoughts swung back to the conversation about James. She realized at that moment that the only reason they hadn't been friends was because neither of them had been willing to give it the effort. For all she knew, they could be very compatible and end up great friends. That's not entirely true, she thought. After fifth year, James was more than willing to try to be friends with me–he wanted to go out with me. I was the only one unwilling after that. That thought made her feel strange in a way she couldn't explain. She attributed it to the fact that she was tired, and shoved it out of her mind for the time being and allowed herself to sleep.
—-------------
Lily and James barely spoke throughout the next week. It wasn't that they were still mad, it was that Lily found it easier when she just wasn't talking to James, and James was too embarrassed to talk to Lily. However, that didn't mean Lily's friends didn't hassle her about still not talking to James.
"You have to talk to him eventually. What about prefects meetings and Quidditch practice?" Mel asked on Friday night, the night before the masque.
"No, I don't. And as for Quidditch practice, he's captain, he can talk all he wants. And prefects meetings? We don't necessarily need to talk during those," Lily replied.
Kaye smirked. "You know, since that Quidditch game, you two haven't really competed at anything. I was especially surprised in Transfiguration when–"
"Why do you guys care so much?" Lily questioned.
Kaye didn't answer, electing to smile in a way that Lily found infuriating. Lily just rolled her eyes.
"So, guys, tomorrow are we just going to stay in Hogsmeade?" Mel brought up.
"Oh, I hadn't really thought about it. Yea, I think that whoever's going is just staying in Hogsmeade," Lily said.
Kaye sat down on her bed. "How do we get our costumes there?"
"We could shrink them," Mel suggested.
Lily grinned. "That's a good idea."
Kaye bounced up and down on her bed. "I'm so excited. It's kind of scary thinking that we won't know anybody there. Well, we might, but we won't know who they are."
"And we probably won't even know most of the people!" Mel exclaimed.
They stayed up late that night, discussing how they thought the masque was going to be.
—---------
The next morning, Lily, Kaye, and Mel went to Hogsmeade with the rest of the students. However, they had shrunken their costumes and a bunch of hair stuff and put it all in their bags. They walked around until it was time for everyone to leave. They hid up near the shrieking shack as their classmates all went back to Hogwarts (well, most of their classmates.) While they were up there they thought they heard movement inside, and Lily thought she saw the silhouette of antlers in one of the windows, but as she glanced around she realized it must've been the shadow from a tree branch.
What the girls didn't know was that there were three illegal animagi (plus one regular human) in the shrieking shack as they were hiding near it.
"What time is it?" Kaye asked as they walked back up the main street.
"Nearly seven," Mel replied, checking her watch.
"What time does the party start?" Kaye said.
Lily shrugged. "Eight, I think, but I'm not certain."
"We shou.ld go–um wait. Where are we going to change and stuff?" Mel inquired.
Kaye grimaced and Lily bit her lip. Oops, they hadn't thought about that.
"Maybe we should go back..." Lily suggested.
"Or we could ask in the robes shop if we can change there? Hopefully the sales lady is working there today and remembers us," Kaye said.
Luckily, the sales witch did remember them, and was kind enough to let them use the dressing rooms to change. They didin't need much makeup since Mel's whole face was covered, and only Lily and Kaye's lips were showing. Kaye put on some pink lipgloss and Lily put on dark red lipstick. Lily had her hair half back with a piece hanging down on one side, and she'd left it wavy. (A/N–like Satine in Moulin Rouge.)
They emerged from the shop a little past eight o'clock. Sure enough, the main street was shut down and people were starting to fill it. There were all sorts of costumes–but the one thing they all had in common was that there was a mask covering each face. Some of the masks covered whole faces, but most were like Lily's and Kaye's and the person's mouth could still be seen.
Mostly, people were dressed elegantly. There were a couple groups of people who looked rather strange, though. Like the girl in the gold sparkly coat and matching hat accompanied by a man dressed as a woman, or the girl dressed like a rag doll with a skinny guy in the pinstriped suit and some other guy dressed as what looked like a green blob.
"Ooh, look at that, it's the phantom of the opera!" Kaye exclaimed, pointing out a tall man.
"Hahaha! Look it's Zorro!" Mel laughed, nodding towards the costume.
Lily saw many costumes that caught her eye. One girl was wearing a beautiful long red dress, and while Lily didn't know what she was supposed to be, the dress was gorgeous. Another man was dressed as a knight, but instead of the cumbersome and annoying armor that one would expect, it seemed he had bewitched it to move smoothly with him, and the armor fit him well, too.
There was a live band, and they were playing music. Around the stage on which the band was playing was sort of a makeshift dance floor. People were dancing already. Lily, Mel, and Kaye made their way over to the dance floor.
The phantom of the opera came over to them and asked Lily to dance. She obliged, and they stepped out onto the floor. Surprisingly, the style of dance was actually ballroom dancing, which made the whole masquerade party seem more like a masque ball that one would read about in a story than anything else.
Lily saw over the phantom's shoulder the knight asking Kaye to dance, and when she and her partner spun in the dance, she saw Mel dancing with a very well dressed pirate.
"Your dress is beautiful," Lily's dance partner said to her.
She smiled up at him. "Thank you."
The song ended a few moments later. The phantom ran a hand through his dark hair, which brought Lily's attention to it. There was something familliar about the way it fell into his eyes...
He bowed (wow this is formal, Lily thought, when she glanced up and saw all the guys bowing–and all the ladies curtsying!), and she curtsied in response. She realized that she had ended up right next to Kaye and the knight. Lily smiled at Kaye as they switched partners.
Another dance started, and Lily and the knight spun away from Kaye and the phantom. The knight was actually a very good dancer. Lily was surprised, not many guys she knew were. She was sure that James and the rest of the Marauders were completely horrible.
The knight had on a mask like hers (only without the beads), so she could see his mouth and all of his hair, which was very dark. She could see his eyes too, through the holes in the mask. The sky was darkening, so thousands of candles had been bewitched to float over the street.
He smiled at her. She expected he would give her some generic compliment like the one she'd received from the phantom, so she was surprised when he said, "The sunset is so beautiful... it's the same color as your hair."
"Thank you," she said lamely. She was bad at starting conversations, especially with people she didn't know–and she couldn't even see his face, so it was slightly unnerving. She looked at his eyes. Their exact color was hard to make out, but they were large and long-lashed. Was it just the candle light or did his eyes look really familiar?
She spun and saw Kaye and the phantom laughing. She remembered she'd also thought the phantom was familiar, and decided that it was probably just her being nervous at not knowing who anyone was that she kept thinking people were familiar when she'd probably never seen them before in her life.
"It's kind of unnerving not knowing who anyone is here," the knight commented, glancing around at all the masked faces.
Lily was surprised at the parallel between what he said and what she'd been thinking. She laughed. "Yea, but it's nice in a way, because personality matters more when you can't see someone's face," she said. It sounded really stupid when it left her mouth. She was actually slightly taken aback with herself, she hadn't said two sentences to him before and already she cared what he thought?
He smiled and agreed with her. She got the feeling that he knew more than most people what she was talking about. A strange thought occurred to her. Was he really ugly, or maybe deformed in some way? Well, what did she care. Everyone was wearing a mask, and for all he knew she could be the one who was really ugly or hideously deformed.
She wanted to spend more time talking to the knight, but the song ended. She reluctantly left him and went to find Kaye or Mel to see if they were having fun.
Mel and Kaye were standing together at the edge of the dance floor. Lily saw them and went over to them.
"Having fun?" Lily asked.
"Yeah! That pirate bloke was really interesting," Mel told them.
Kaye looked around. "I have to find Sirius Black before he finds me!"
Lily smirked at her. "Well then don't scream his name, or he will find you first."
"Oh, shut up! Have either of you seen anyone who could be him?"
"Yeah, I've seen a lot of them! Anyone tall and with dark hair could be him," Mel remarked.
"Gee, thanks!" Kaye said sarcastically.
"So, only dance with the tall dark haired ones," Lily suggested.
"Well, I danced with that knight, and that phantom... but so did you, Lily. Did either of them seem like they could be... him?" Kaye inquired.
Lily laughed. "No, they were actually polite to me. I don't think I've seen any of the Marauders, thank god."
"Ah, but you can't be sure. You could've danced with James and wouldn't have even known it!" Mel said slyly.
"I highly doubt that. Like I said, the two men I danced with were actually polite to me," Lily repeated. "Besides, I think I would've recognized his voice."
Mel sniggered. "The only time you've ever associated with James you two have been arguing, so therefore you only know the sound of his voice when he's yelling or angry."
"Shut up! I don't think there's that much difference! And I don't want to talk about Potter," Lily said forcefully, effectively ending that subject.
"Hey, look at that over there. It's a musketeer or something. That could be Black," Mel suggested to Kaye.
"He's a bit too short, and his hair isn't dark enough," Kaye said.
"What about that bloke over there? He's tall and has dark hair," Lily said, pointing at another man and trying to hide a snicker.
"He's dressed like a woman and his hair is poufy and curly!" Kaye exclaimed!
Lily and Mel laughed hard. They spent a few minutes trying to figure out which male was Sirius until the song that was playing ended and Zorro came up to Lily to ask her to dance. Kaye went with the musketeer, and Mel went with the tall skinny guy in the pinstriped suit.
Zorro wasn't much taller than Lily, and he had blonde hair, so that ruled out the possibility that he could be Sirius or James.
In this particular dance, partners were changed often. Lily was spun into the arms of the pirate for a few seconds before being returned to Zorro. She danced with Zorro for a few more seconds until everyone turned and got a new partner. Now Lily was with the musketeer. He was tall, but not that tall, so Lily didn't think he could've been James or Sirius either.
She was then spun into the arms of a pharaoh, and since he had something wrapped around his head and had a mask on, she was slightly uncomfortable, because she only had height to give her clues to his identity, and he was definitely tall enough to be James or Sirius. She was relieved when she was back with the musketeer. But not for long.
Her next partner was the guy Mel had been with earlier, the tall skinny guy in the pinstriped suit. Lily noticed he had a bat or something on as his bow tie. It was strange. She was losing interest in this dance. The only person who could've been Sirius or James was that pharaoh guy, and now she couldn't even see him. But then she was spun into the knights arms. Unfortunately she only had time to merely smile before she returned to her previous partner.
She was bored now... the dance had only been going on for about two minutes, but Lily was never with one person long enough to actually talk to them! It was infuriating! There was no way she could even pry for long enough to find out who exactly she was dancing with. Wait, she thought suddenly. Wouldn't Potter be wearing glasses? Maybe. She wasn't paying attention to the next person she got as partner.
"So, we meet again," he said, and she looked up and saw the knight again. He was grinning.
"Finally, somebody I... sort of... know," Lily said.
His smile grew. "I know what you mean. This dance changes so fast!" he exclaimed.
"Yea, like right now!" Lily said as she went temporarily to the arms of the green blob thing.
Back to the knight. They were about to change partners again. "Look for me after," he said to her as they separated. She didn't even have time to nod her head or anything.
She didn't find Mel or Kaye after the dance. It was just as well because she was looking for that knight. She pushed past the transvestite and wove through some Lord of the Rings characters. Where did he go? Was he playing a trick? Something lightly touched her shoulder. She turned, expecting to just have been bumped into accidentally. It was the knight.
"Hey," he said.
——-------
James hadn't been expecting to meet a girl at the masque. He had actually been planning to find Lily. But he'd danced with this girl, and he'd felt an instant connection to her. Maybe it was because she reminded him of Lily... her hair was long and red, but it was wavy whereas Lily always wore hers straight. But there was no way this girl acutally was Lily.
James was proud of the genius of his costume. He'd bewitched the mask so that he didn't need his glasses (that had taken a long time), and he'd also bewitched his armor so that it wasn't uncomfortable or cumbersome.
His mind wasn't completely off Lily when he went to meet the girl in the white dress (he didn't actually want it off Lily), but he was hoping maybe to make a new friend–maybe someone who could convince Lily that he wasn't all bad.
He had told her to look for him after the previous dance. He spotted her and went over and touched her shoulder.
"Hey," he greeted, smiling.
She smiled. He wondered what she looked like with her mask off. Right now all he could see of her was her mouth... and her eyes.
"Hey," she replied.
They walked to the edge of the now huge party and sat down on a nearby bench.
"Ouch," she said, pulling at the back of her dress.
"What?" he asked.
She grimaced. "Corset. It went with the dress. It's not laced very tightly but it's still hard to breathe," she explained.
"I read somewhere that when ladies used to wear corsets every day it rearranged their insides or something," he said, hoping she wouldn't think it was really gross.
"Yeah, I heard something like that, too. Like their stomachs would end up way up in their rib cages or something..." she replied.
He smiled. The girl bent down and picked a flower. James was surprised there even were still flowers blooming. She put it behind her ear in her hair.
The guy dressed as a pharaoh passed them. The girl looked at the pharaoh strangely.
"What?" James asked.
"His head's wrapped in that cloth thing, and he has a mask on. You can't even use his hair color to try to figure out who he is."
"Yeah, and his mask covers his whole face... that's a little creepy," James laughed.
--------—--
The knight laughed. Lily smiled, too. She'd just pointed out the pharaoh and told the knight why she didn't like the costume. The knight had a really musical laugh. It was wonderful. But she found herself wondering what he looked like...
A breeze blew by and Lily shivered. It hadn't been an especially cold night, but now it was getting late and the night air was cold.
"Oh are you cold?" the knight asked, noticing her shiver. "I wish I had a jacket to give you or something," he said. "I don't think armor would help much."
She laughed. "It's all right."
"A couple of my friends are wearing jackets–I could steal one from one of them!" he exclaimed.
Lily laughed again. "Forget it, really. I'm fine."
——–--------
Meanwhile, Kaye had stopped dancing and was looking around for anyone who looked like Sirius. She skirted the dance floor, watching for people who moved like Quidditch players (she'd noticed that guys that played Quidditch seemed more graceful.) Then she spotted the man dressed as an Egyptian pharaoh. Since his hair color wasn't visible, and he was tall and muscularly built, Kaye thought that maybe it could be Sirius. She was just debating how to find out when he approached her and held out his hand to ask her to dance.
She took it, and he led her onto the dance floor. He was graceful enough, but he hadn't spoken to her yet so there was no way she could be sure.
"Having fun?" she asked lightly.
"Yes, this is awesome," he said with an American accent. Well that ruled him out, unless Sirius had learned to speak with a perfect American accent just to fool her. But this guys voice was a little higher than Sirius' anyway.
As she danced, Kaye took every opportunity she could (without seeming rude) to glance around the dance floor. The transvestite was graceful, and he was tall enough. Kaye didn't think Sirius would dress up as a transvestite though, and she was relieved to see that the only thing making the transvestite so tall were six inch heels. There was no way she could see who was inside that green blob costume. The phantom was pretty graceful too, but Kaye doubted that Sirius even knew what the Phantom of the Opera was.
Where was that knight? He was tall, dark haired, and he moved like a Quidditch player. Kaye didn't want to seem rude to the pharaoh, so she waited until the dance was over to really search for the knight.
She walked around looking for him when she suddenly stopped. Sitting on a bench a ways away and out of the way from the rest of the party was Lily with the knight. They were talking and laughing, it looked like. Kaye watched for a second–maybe Lily had discovered Sirius. The knight ran a hand through his hair. That's exactly how James does that, Kaye thought. She glanced at Lily to see if she had noticed. She hadn't. Typical Lily. But now that she thought about it, that knight did remind her of James...
Whatever, she was probably just seeing things. She really needed to find Sirius before he found her. There was no way she was kissing him, and the only way to ensure that she didn't have to was to find him already.
She went back to the dance floor to see if she could find Mel. Maybe Mel had seen something. Instead, the phantom came up to her and asked her to dance. She was about to give up on Sirius anyway. What he hell. She went out onto the dance floor with the phantom.
They started to dance, and as they danced, he bent his head down and whispered something in her ear.
"Hello, Kaye."
–-----—--------
Lily had been talking to that knight for what felt like hours. It was great–she hadn't expected to make a friend at this crazy masquerade.
However, as much as she didn't want to leave, things were getting crazy. The amount of people who were crowded on the street seemed to have doubled, and most of them were acting pretty drunk, though Lily hadn't seen any alcohol brought in.
"We should meet sometime... without the masks..." the knight suggested. "It might not be the best time to take them off here...."
Lily smiled. "That would be great. Um... where... when?" she asked cautiously. She didn't want to reveal to him that she was a Hogwarts student if he ended up being in his late twenties or something.
"How about at the three broomsticks next weekend? Um... Saturday at eight?" he asked.
She grinned. "Alright."
Just then, a slight gust of wind blew her flower out of her hair. She reached for it on the ground, but the knight picked it up first.
"Can I have this?" he asked.
Lily laughed. "Sure."
—------—--------
Kaye glared at the phantom that was Sirius.
"Please do not tell me that you've been saying that to every single girl you've danced with all night?" she pleaded.
"I haven't!" he said indignantly.
"Tell me how you did it," she commanded.
Sirius smiled. Curse him, she thought as he spoke, "I don't want to give away my secret."
"If you cheated in any way I will kill you, I promise," she threatened.
He raised his eyebrows (even though she couldn't see it). "Alright! I figured out which one was Lily–really you can't miss her hair anywhere–and then I saw her talking to you and that witch that has to be Mel. Since you're blonde and Mel is a brunette..." he trailed off.
"Oh," Kaye muttered. Then she had an idea. "So will you tell me what the other Marauders are wearing?"
"No. Figure it out! You get one guess–if you guess right, then maybe I'll tell you the other two," he bargained with her.
"James is the knight–and before you say something stupid like 'which knight', there's only one knight here."
Sirius laughed. "Yes, James is a knight. If you want I'll tell you what Remus and Peter are."
"No, I don't care what they're dressed up as–well wait, they're not the green blob, are they?"
Sirius laughed harder. "No, and for the record they're not the transvestite either."
"Alright. Then I have another question. Do you want Lily and James to get together?" she inquired.
Sirius nodded. "Yes I–"
"Then come look at this." Kaye led him off the dance floor and to a spot where they could see the bench that Lily and James sat on, but they couldn't be seen by either.
"Ok, there's no way that thickhead got Lily to talk to him if she actually knew who he was. And he's about to give up on her, so I don't think he knows who she is either," Sirius reasoned.
Kaye's eyes widened. "Wait! Did you just say he's giving up on her!?"
Sirius nodded unhappily. "Yes. Oh no, he's still in love with her," he said at a look on Kaye's face, "but he's still giving up."
"But look at that. They're so perfect for each other. They just refuse to take a chance with it!" Kaye exclaimed, slightly angry.
"So, let's not tell them who they spent the whole night talking to, let's show them..." Sirius said.
Kaye grinned. "What did you have in mind...?" She really wanted Lily and James to just go out already, and if it meant teaming up with Sirius then she'd do it. She'd actually forgotten all about that stupid kiss–but he hadn't.
–----------
Lily felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up. It was Kaye.
"Hey!" she said.
"Hey yourself!" she replied. "You know, I hate to ruin your fun, but it's almost midnight, and some of those drunk blokes over there are starting to scare me."
Lily glanced at the packed street. "You're right. Um, see you later," she said to the knight.
As they were walking away, Kaye had to make sure Lily hadn't figured out who any of the other Marauders were (even though Kay herself only knew who James and Sirius had been.)
"So did you find out any of the Marauders?" she asked cautiously.
"No! I didn't even see many potentials. Did you find Sirius?" Lily asked.
"How?" Lily asked.
"Lucky guess," she said bitterly (even though it was a lie.)
Lily laughed. They met up with Mel, grabbed their bags from a very good hiding place (they hadn't wanted to carry them around, so they'd shrunk them and put them in an inconspicuous place) and went back to Hogwarts via the Honeydukes cellar (it was still open because of the masque.) They chatted happily about the masquerade as they were walking back. Lily thought back on the knight. Oh no! I didn't even get his name! That was not something that they had to wait to reveal. Unless he went to Hogwarts...
As Lily lay in her bed, nearly asleep, she kept wondering what that knight looked like without his mask on...
end chapter seven
A/N–Wow, that was really long! I wasn't planning on making it that long. I knew it was going to be longer because of the masque thing, but... not this long. Hope you enjoyed it!
Review please and I'll love you forever :-D