Chapter 7

Two girls skipped their way to the Headmasters office on the dawn of the first Hogsmeade weekend. Felicity, her forest-green-streaked sienna hair tied in a professional looking bun, was toting a folded-up easel. MJ, whose brown hair was tied up in a similar fashion, was carrying several huge presentation boards under her arm. Both girls were wearing professional-looking outfits; Felicity a dark violet jacket and some slacks paired with a mauve blouse, and MJ a businesslike electric violet dress. They both wore black pumps.

They gave the password Dumbledore had given them last night when they requested to meet with him, and they rode up the moving staircase.

"Enter" the Headmaster's kindly voice called after they knocked.

They marched in; all business, and strode in to shake his hand before they set up the easel with a blank board in front.

"Professor Dumbledore" Felicity began. "We have heard much about your Yule Ball that was held last year—"

"And nearly everyone that has told us about it has expressed the desire that another ball would be held" MJ chimed in.

"Now, we understand that it would be uncouth to have everyone stay here over the holidays just to attend another Christmas ball—"

"So we have come up with an idea that we believe we make everyone happy." MJ tapped the blank board with her wand, and it fell to the ground, revealing another board that read in big, golden letters:

Halloween Masquerade

Look around, there's another mask behind you.

True is False.

Who is who?

It looked quite impressive in the mid-morning light streaming in through the window.

"We found out that Muggle Studies is covering Muggle musicals this year, and this semester is Phantom of the Opera." Felicity tapped the board again, revealing a magnificent photo of a masquerade scene. "We took the tagline directly from the musical. Everyone will dress in whatever type of costume they like, but they have to wear a mask—"

"We'd like to hold it in the garden on Halloween night" MJ added. "We've already drawn up plans for decorations" she tapped the board to reveal them.

"Of course, it's up to you to decide what the age limit shall be—"

"—how late we can party—"

"—and a code of conduct for the event."

Dumbledore looked contemplative. "You say that many expressed interest in having another ball?"

Felicity nodded. "Yes, sir. Here are the statistics" she revealed a pie chart. "91.5% of students wished for another ball—"

"—5% said no—"

"—and 3.5% didn't care."

The Headmaster frowned. "Did you ask everyone in the school?"

"Only those that attended the Yule Ball, Professor" Felicity answered.

He leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. "I see. Since we are already in the month of October I'm sure you will want an answer as soon as possible. I will talk to a few other teachers, and get back to you before the end of the day. Is that alright, ladies?"

"Yes, sir!" Felicity beamed.

"Thank you, sir!" MJ gathered the boards while Felicity grabbed the easel.

"Good day, Professor" they both shook his hand before leaving.

As soon as they were down the stairs and in another corridor, MJ yanked her hair out of its bun and Felicity took off her pumps and continued down the hall barefoot.

"I think that went rather well, huh?" MJ commented.

"Yep. I knew it would; we only rehearsed a bazillion times."

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Hiya! MJ here.

After our interview, Lis and I changed into more comfortable attire, and left for Hogsmeade.

"Should I scope out the stores to make sure we don't run into any annoyances?" I asked my friend. We both had gained a few enemies our first month here; most of them being Gryffindors and Slytherins. Felicity was hated by Gryffindors for being a Slytherin. Slytherins hated me for daring to approach them, not to mention the fact that I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

"Sure" she replied. "I'll disguise myself and take the East side; you take the West, 'kay?"

"Yep."

We both went behind some bushes on the side of the road. As she changed her hair to dark brown and long, her skin to a light tan, and grew about 6 inches, I changed into my animagus form: a fox.

Did I ever mention my animagus powers? No? Well, you never asked!

When I was little, my parents made the decision to become animagi. Since my mother's brother-Uncle Arthur-is one of the biggest blood-traitors around, they figured it'd be safer for our family if we had proper disguises if Voldemort ever returned. After they completed their animagus training (all self-done of course, so we wouldn't have to register), they taught me. I've been an animagus ever since I was 11 years old.

Using magic, Felicity altered my appearance a bit so I could pass for a stray dog, and then we went our separate ways.

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Felicity met up with MJ about a half-hour later.

"No good" she told her as they both changed back. "Draco's gang has split up and there's at least one dude in 3 different stores, the Carrow twins are in another one, and Pansy and her crew another. The only clean places aren't even worth going into."

"Same" MJ replied gloomily. Even though Draco was Felicity's cousin, he always picked a fight with her best friend. The Carrow twins were just downright unpleasant, and Pansy's crew was completely annoying.

"Hey! Why don't we go to the Hog's Head? Nobody from Hogwarts ever goes there! And it'll be fun!" the metamorphmagus exclaimed.

MJ was hesitant. "I don't know… I heard it was kind of gross…"

"Aw, c'mon!" Lis grabbed MJ and started leading her towards the place. "Once you get past the smell of goats, it's not half bad. And we have to wear disguises there, so it'll definitely be interesting."

"Disguises? Why?" MJ asked.

"Because I snuck in there my first year, and got banned for life."

"What did you-"

"Gwen was with me. It involved a butterbeer bottle, a guy, and... target practice."

MJ shook her head. "Gwen? Then I definitely don't want to know."

"Nope."

"So what will our disguises be?"

Felicity pulled some robes out of her messenger bag. MJ stared at her in disbelief. "You carry Holocaust cloaks around with you? Who are you; Andre the Giant?"

Her best friend rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, Miracle Max said I could keep 'em." Then she shrugged. "Actually, I just figured they would come in handy."

A short while later:

"We look like dementors" MJ complained as they walked up to the bar. She tugged on her dark robes.

"Nuh-uh!" Felicity told her. She then assumed an accent that sounded very much like her friend Gwen as they entered; in order to further complete their disguises. "Makes li'l difference in 'ere anyway. You ge' some strange people 'ere" she said as they sat down near a big picture window.

They observed the other people in the bar with mild interest. It wasn't until the bell rang and the Golden Trio traipsed in that they spoke again.

"Wha' do you think they're doing 'ere?" Felicity asked MJ.

"Search meh" MJ answered in a similar accent.

"'arry looks slightleh nervous abou' somethin'; like 'e's abou' t' do somethin' dangerous. Wha' do you think 'e's worried abou'?"

MJ waved her hand. "Probableh nowt of any consequence."

Felicity raised her eyebrow "'nowt of any consequence'?"

"What?" MJ whispered defensively to her. "It sounded more British-y than 'nothing important'!"

Her companion rolled her eyes.

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Hi there, MJ here. We were still sitting in the Hog's Head, and pretty soon, a whole bunch of people filed in, eventually gathering around my cousin and his two friends. I knew most of them either personally, or by reputation.

There were three Gryffindors; a boy named Longbottom that Ginny had gone to the Yule Ball with, a boy who I'm pretty sure was one of Ron's roommate's—Thomas Dean or something—and a girl that Hermione often complained about—Lavender Brown. What a weird name. Who would do that to a daughter?

Anyway, after them were the Patil twins, an Asian girl that was in Lis' year, and a girl next to her that I'd never seen before. I grinned when I saw Luna Lovegood; I had her in some classes, she was awesome. Then came Katie and the other Gryffindor Chasers. The Creevey brothers traipsed in too (Colin was in a few of my classes, he was cute). Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbot—Hufflepuff's new prefects—were there, along with Ernie's best friend, Justin, and Susan Bones. Then there were three Ravenclaw boys; Goldstein (a prefect), Michael Corner (Ginny's boyfriend), and a dude who I'm pretty sure was named Boot. Oh, and there was Ginny! I almost waved, when Lis kicked me and I remembered that I was in disguise. I wanted to know why they were there, and I'm sure Lis did too, so I decided to act like I didn't know them.

After Ginny, the Hufflepuff Quidditch captain came in: Zacharias Smith. He was pretty good-looking, but he was kind of a snob.

And last but not least, I beamed widely under my hood when Fred and George waltzed in with their friend Lee. They had obviously been to Zonko's; they were holding a ton of bags from there. Those three got along with Lis now, or at least tolerated her after...

Cue Flashback!

"MJ? Byrd?"

Felicity and I nearly jumped a mile, but then we realized it was just Fred, George, and Lee. We were crouched outside of Umbridge's quarters. "SH!" we shushed simultaneously.

"What are you doing?" Fred whispered.

"You'll see tomorrow, ok?" Felicity stated quietly. "Just... go. The more people here, the more we risk being caught."

"That's rubbish," Lee muttered. Fred looked as if he wanted to stay too, but George whispered, "Let's just go, mates," so they slunk off.

End Flashback

The next day, once they saw Snape unwittingly wearing Umbridge's cardigan for a day, and Umbridge—equally unwittingly—wearing Snape's billowy cape of doom for a day, they had a whole new respect for my best friend. She was the one who had masterminded it all. Lee was still the stiffest around her, and Fred had more of a grudging respect, but George was completely at ease with her. He was always the more laid back of the twins.

I looked over at Lis to see what she was making of all of these people in the Hog's Head. It was kind of hard to see her face because of the hood, but I could tell she wasn't looking at me; she was staring in the direction of my twin cousins and their friend. I kicked her under the table and hissed, "Don't act like you're watching them! What kind of a spy are you?"

I could practically FEEL her glaring at me through the hood, but she stayed facing me.

We waited. Hermione called them all to order, and they started talking about how they had to learn to defend themselves. After they all signed a parchment and left, I frowned and looked over at Lis. "Why didn't they tell us about this?" I asked in an undertone.

"Hellooo? I'm a Slytherin" she pointed out.

"Oh yeah. But you'd think my own cousins—"

"—would know that I'd be the first person you told about this. Correct?"

I sighed dejectedly. "But Fred and George—"

"Ron probably got Hermione to tell them not to tell us."

"Yeah..." I downed the rest of my butterbeer. Then I thought of something. "Wait. How did you know that it was Hermione that invited them?"

"Er…" she paused. "... Ok. I overheard her telling Cho Chang about it."

I was at a loss for words for a moment. "So… you would have made me come here, even if it was safe to go into another store?"

"Yep" she quietly chirped before finishing her drink. "But I had us scout anyway 'cuz I figured you'd appreciate the excuse to run around."

I chuckled. It was a lot of fun to travel quickly on four paws as a fox. I didn't get to do that often, seeing as how I was unregistered.

So don't go blabbing it to anyone, 'kay?

"Nice." I told Lis. "But they'll never let us join."

"You're right" she said sadly.

"Oi!" the barman yelled, making us jump. How did he get next to us so fast? "You walk in 'ere with an accent, and suddenly you lose it and sound like.." he yanked off Felicity's hood. His eyes narrowed.

"Hehe... hello, Aberforth... how's it going?" Lis grinned sheepishly up at the elderly-but scary-man. "Business been good?"

Less than a minute later, we were on the street, heading back to the main part of Hogsmeade.

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G'day, it's Felicity. After disrobing so that we could stroll around in our Muggle clothes, MJ and I wandered through Hogsmeade a bit. We stopped in Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment, so that MJ could buy a new hourglass, and then we had to go back to the castle for lunch. We wanted to be available for Dumbledore, since we were still waiting for his answer about the Ball. And we didn't really feel like talking to anyone we saw in the pub; we didn't want to reveal that we knew about their secret Defense classes.

Once we got back to the castle, I sat with MJ at her House's table like I usually did. Gwen, Sadie, Lee, Fred, and George usually joined us, but they were all still in Hogsmeade. The only Hufflepuffs there were first and second years. But my brother came over and sat with us, his hair falling into his eyes as usual.

"Hey guys" he greeted, sitting next to MJ, who inconspicuously scooted away from him a tiny bit.

Have I mentioned Willis' crush on my best friend? It's adorable. She doesn't find it amusing though.

"What's up, Willis?" MJ asked him.

"My interest, Doll-face." I snorted into my pumpkin juice.

"Oh, geez" she said, sounding strangled. He had gotten much bolder with his flirting this year.

I couldn't wait until he was a teenager.

He grinned at her flustered expression and looked over at me. "Why are you guys back so early?"

I sighed. "We didn't feel like exploring too much today. And besides, we're still waiting for an answer from Dumbledore."

"Oh yeah! How'd your lecture go?"

"Our presentation went just fine. He just has to clear it with the other teachers."

"I still say your mini-seminar was boring." Willis told us.

"We spiced it up!" MJ told him defensively.

"How?"

"We used pictures."

"Ooooooh" he sarcastically acted impressed.

I rolled my eyes and flipped my brown and green hair out of my face as they continued to bicker. Then I turned around and looked over to the Slytherin table. Draco was sitting with his back to me and across from Adrian Pucey, a Chaser on our House team. I wondered why they weren't in Hogsmeade. Adrian caught my eye and smiled. I smiled back, and then looked away. I remembered Adrian from my first year...

Flashback

"Avifors! Avifors!" I cried, jabbing at my clay vase with my wand.

Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. Not even a wisp of light. The stupid vase would not turn into a bird.

The Slytherin common room clock struck one. I was exhausted. I was only a month into my first year at Hogwarts, and I was already having trouble with a class. I slumped over the table and tried hard not to cry in frustration, the angry tears threatening to spill.

I heard a noise from the stairway to the boys dormitory and looked up. Standing in the doorway was a boy that I had seen around the common room before, but never spoken to. He was kind of pale, had short, dark hair, big ears that stuck out from his head like a car with open doors, and he was wearing bright orange pajamas.

"Oh!" I quietly exclaimed as I stood up and quickly swiped away my stupid tears with my fist. "I'm sorry! D-did I wake you up?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I was up getting a drink when I noticed that there was still some light coming from up here. Shouldn't you be asleep?" he asked kindly as he approached me. His voice was slightly deep, I could tell it was still in the process of changing. Once he reached me I realized that he was about the same height as me. But I had never seen him in any of my classes...

"Having trouble with a spell, huh?" he continued when I didn't answer him, looking down at the accursed piece of pottery that refused to be a bird.

"Yeah... I hate Transfiguration" I told him. "It's never been easy for me, but I've just about had it now! I can't get this stupid vase to turn into a bird!" I plopped back down on the floor and scowled at the vase.

The boy was nonplussed. "I love Transfiguration. It's one of my favorite classes!"

"It's dumb."

He shook his head. "You're just saying that because you don't understand it." He sat down next to me. "Show me what you've been doing" he instructed.

I really was not in the mood for company. Nor did I like it when people criticized my work. But I did what he said anyway.

He watched me closely, and after I tried and failed he startled me with an, "AHA!"

"What?" I asked, annoyed.

"You're jabbing your wand at it. You want to wave it, like this" he demonstrated, pretending to hold a wand. "Now you try."

I sighed. "Ok."

Waving my wand like he showed me, I halfheartedly said, "Avifors."

Nothing happened. Gee, that was a big surprise. I raised my eyebrows at the boy.

He rolled his eyes. "Now do it again-" I started to protest, but he cut me off "-and say the incantation like you mean it" he finished.

I made a face, but did it again. "AVIFORS!"

Vivid blue light shot from my wand, and before I knew it, a beautiful blue bird had replaced the vexatious, vapid vase.

I stared at in in shock. "See?" the boy said triumphantly. "You can do it!"

"Whoa" I said quietly. Then, I beamed at him. "Thanks!"

He laughed. "Happy to help. I'm Adrian" he held out his hand.

I shook it. "Felicity."

Soon after that, I learned that his last name was Pucey, and he was a second year. He helped me with Transfiguration not only every night for the rest of that semester, but every night for the rest of the year. I found out that he loved Quidditch, and wanted to try out for Chaser the next year. Now that I'm back, I can see that he obviously made the team.

He and I really didn't get to hang out much this year. I no longer needed his help in Transfiguration; I was excelling in that and my many extra classes, and he was studying for his N.E.W.T.s and playing Quidditch, so after we were reunited in the common room on my first day back, we just said 'hi' in the hallways. I didn't really mind though. Whenever I did talk to him I became uncharacteristically tongue-tied. He was no longer a scrawny, big-eared second year, and I had definitely noticed that.

Yeesh. I hate getting older.

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Yes, it is I-Draco.

I turned around when I noticed Adrian smiling at someone behind me. It was then that I noticed my cousin and Quarters sitting at the Hufflepuff table. I wondered why they were back already. Adrian and I didn't go to Hogsmeade because he spent the morning teaching me the Sloth Grip Roll, since I had almost been pummeled by a bludger in our last practice.

I looked back at Adrian to see him frown slightly. "Why do you let your cousin sit with the Hufflepuffs?" he asked me.

I snorted. "Do you really think Felicity listens to me? Besides, her best friend is a Hufflepuff."

He grinned wryly. "I can't say that I don't think she's on the right track; we should make friends in other Houses, but it sure gives me a lot less time to talk to her."

I was dumbstruck. "Wait, what?"

Chuckling, he told me "Don't look so surprised that I know her. You must remember, she was here for her first year; before you came. I met her then. We hung out in the common room quite a lot."

"Really? And now she doesn't want anything to do with you?"

He frowned again. "I hope not. I think we're just both so busy..." We fell into a comfortable silence as we finished our lunch.

Once I had cleaned my plate, I noticed that he was gazing at the Hufflepuff table again, a far-off look in his eyes. I snickered. "Don't tell me you fancy her?"

He snapped his gaze back to me and raised an eyebrow. "What if I did?"

I shrugged. "I don't have a problem with it. I think a Slytherin boyfriend would be good for her."

"Oh, I'm so glad I have your seal of approval" he said sarcastically.

"So are you going to ask her out?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Maybe..." Then he gathered his things and headed out. "See you later, Draco."

"See you."

End Chapter 7