Chapter 15: The Perfect Day For A Banquet…Almost

Saturday dawned bright and beautiful. The perfect day for an awards banquet.

Khyana and Kelria had to go to work, since they had missed it on Wednesday, but they didn't really mind. Khyana had the banquet that night to look forward to, and Kelria was going out with Remus. Around noon, Sirius burst into the office, just as Khyana was getting ready to go for lunch, and stopped outside her cubicle, grinning.

"Yana, you'll never guess what just happened!"

"Well then, I supposed you're going to tell me, are you?"

"James and I got tickets to the Appleby Arrows game tonight! Isn't that great?"

"Well, yes, but-"

"I gotta run, we have to go get ready!"

Sirius pecked Khyana on the cheek quickly and ran out of the room.

"I-but-I-SIRIUS!"

But Sirius had already left. Khyana, debating whether she was furious with him or not, made her way slowly to Kelria's cubicle and leaned on the door.

"Hey, Kel, what are you doing tonight?"

"I'm going out with Remus. You have that awards banquet with Sirius, right?"

"Well, you're half right. Sirius just came and informed me that he's not going."

"What?!"

"Yeah, he and James got tickets to the Quidditch game, so they're going to that instead."

"James' wife just had a baby and he's going to the Quidditch game?" Kelria asked, incredulous.

"Apparently."

Kelria shook her head. "Well, I can break my date with Remus if you want me to go with you."

Khyana shrugged. "I don't want to intrude. I'll just go by myself."

"You most certainly will not, I'll go with you. Here, just let me write a letter to Remus, and then we'll go."

"We don't have to leave right now, Kel. The banquet doesn't start until 7!"

"But I have to get a dress, and we have to get our hair done and…oh, there's so much to do, Yana! Come on!"

At 4 30, the two friends arrived back at Khyana's house, armed with supplies to get ready for the banquet. Kelria had bought a new dress, as well as a multitude of hair supplies with which she insisted she was going to do Khyana's hair, whether the younger girl wanted it done or not.

So, with tools in hand, Kelria set about putting Khyana's hair in an elaborate up-do, which Khyana complained about to no end.

"That hurts, Kel! OUCH! Stop, my hair doesn't stay in curls! Oh, maybe it does, look at that. But it won't stay in for long. You'll have to use that whole can of hairspray. Here, why don't you just leave my hair alone and do your own? Really, Kel, this is too much, OW that hurt, stop pulling so hard!"

"If you would stop complaining, Sara Khyana," Kelria replied, pulling on a particularly difficult knot, "It wouldn't hurt so much!"

"OUCH!"

"Khyana, I am going to put a silencing charm on you very soon if you don't shut up."

And so, Khyana sat in a brooding silence, arms folded, pout securely in place, while Kel worked on her hair until 5 30, when she set about doing her own.

"Kelria, why didn't we just use our wands to do our hair?" Khyana asked suddenly.

Kelria got a sly smirk on her face. "Because I like to see you suffer, Khyana."

Khyana rolled her eyes and went up to her bedroom to get changed.

By 6 30, the two friends were all set and ready to go to the banquet.

"Well, we could do things the boring way and apparate…" Kelria said thoughtfully, "Or we could do things the fun way and rent a limo!"

"What?"

"Yeah, apparating sounds best to me, too. Do you think we could go now?"

"I'm sure we could. They said they were serving appetizers at 6 30…"

"What? Food already? What are we doing sitting around here then, let's go!"

Khyana rolled her eyes as Kelria spun on the spot and disapparated, following her friend quickly.

The two appeared about a block from the university, and hurried to the campus.

When they arrived, Khyana quickly located her small group of friends and dragged Kelria over to introduce them.

"Khyana!"

The four girls in the group squealed in delight when they saw her, and Khyana grinned.

"Kelria, this is Lezly, Eliza, Anna and Mackenzie. Girls, this is Kelria. She's just here for the food."

"Hey, it's a free meal for me!"

"Kelria can't cook," Khyana said in an aside to the other girls.

"At all?"

Kelria shook her head.

"Did Remus know this when he proposed?" Khyana asked teasingly.

Kelria shrugged. "Why do you think we always go out?"

"I thought Sirius was coming with you, Na," Lezly said, confused.

Khyana's face darkened as she replied, "He was. He made other plans."

"What a jerk."

"It's okay, Khyana, you can just hang out with us for the night."

"Thanks, Anna."

"No problem," Anna replied, a big grin on her face. Everyone laughed.

"What about you, Ly, is Bobby coming?"

Lezly nodded. "Yeah, he should be here any minute."

"He's a better boyfriend than Sirius, apparently," Kelria muttered darkly.

Khyana shrugged. "I should have known Sirius was going to do something like this."

"Hang on a second," Anna said suddenly. "Did you just say Kelria's boyfriend proposed, Khyana?"

Khyana gaped at her friend. "I said that like a million years ago, Anna."

Anna shrugged. "My brain processes things slowly, Na."

"Well, congratulations, Kelria," Lezly said, grinning.

"Thanks," Kelria replied, feeling a little uncomfortable.

"What about you, Khyana?" Mackenzie asked. "Are we hearing any wedding bells in your near future?"

"Yeah, Yana, what's up with that?" Eliza asked, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

Khyana burst out laughing. "Sirius? Married? HA! That's a laugh. He can't even commit to a simple dinner, let alone a marriage! No, my dear girls, no wedding bells in my near future."

Kelria looked thoughtful and didn't say anything for a moment. The other five girls started on another topic, but she remained focused. Khyana had brushed off the comment of her friends like it was no big deal, Sirius' lack of commitment, but Kelria knew the younger girl well enough by now that she knew it was starting to wear on Khyana, not having a boyfriend who's main priority was his commitment to her. She made a decision to have a little chat with Sirius in the near future…

Bobby Masdem arrived at that moment, and discreetly called the attentions of Khyana and Kelria to himself, and beckoned them to him.

The two girls excused themselves and went to see him.

"I'd appreciate it if you two wouldn't mention to Lezly that you know me, okay?"

"Why?" Khyana demanded, just as Kelria was about to agree.

Bobby shrugged. "Because that would be awkward. She doesn't know I'm a wizard, let alone an auror informant. So don't mention anything about it, okay?"

Khyana shrugged. "Okay, whatever."

"Thanks."

The banquet started at precisely 7, and the five girls and their guests (all except Eliza and Mackenzie, who didn't have guests) sat at a table together, and they spent a lot of the time catching up with Khyana and getting to know the guests.

Professor Laurent came around about halfway through and said hello to Khyana and met everyone's guests.

"Bonjour, Khyana!"

"Bonjour, Professor!" Khyana replied.

"I'm glad you decided to come. Lezly said your boyfriend was coming…?"

"Yes, he was supposed to, but he backed out at the last minute. This is my best friend, Kelria Song."

"Hello, Kelria," the woman said, smiling widely. "It's very nice to meet you."

"You too," Kelria replied.

"Well, I must keep moving. It was nice to see you again, Khyana."

"You too, Professor," Khyana replied as Professor Laurent moved away.

At the end of the dinner, Professor Laurent stood and called for attention.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your chit-chatting, but we really need to get on with our program."

Everyone quieted quickly, most of them used to Professor Laurent's strict "no talking" rule in her classroom.

"Thank you. Alright, so we're here tonight to honour a number of students who have done exceptionally well in this class. We have quite a few academic awards to give out, and we'll start with the honour roll. As your name is called, please come forward."

Kelria tuned the teacher out, watching all the students filing up to the front to get their awards. This wasn't Khyana's award, so she didn't really need to pay attention, she didn't know any of these people.

"And now we'll move on to the specialized awards. First off, we'd like to honour our most improved student. I know, this sounds really cheesy and lame, but it's true. This person, coming into this class, had no previous experience in French at all. She came in and had no idea even how to say simple things. Now she is almost fluent, she can carry on an intelligent conversation, and I'm very proud of her. So come on up here, Khyana."

Kelria and those at her table cheered the loudest of everyone there, and everyone gave Khyana a standing ovation.

"It's a good thing Malfoys don't blush," she whispered to Kelria when she returned with her plaque.

Kelria smiled, then her smile faded slightly. Sirius should be sitting in her place, congratulating Khyana. Her anger with her friend's boyfriend increased.

A/N: Well, there you go. This one's pretty long...and then next one should be interesting...so R&R please people!