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Chapter 13: Rocking Around the Christmas Tree
Mumble mumble, groan, inhale, oof, patter patter, leap, yell, squeak, groan. The usual Christmas morning in the fifth year boy's dormitory.
"Coommme Onnn" Sirius whinned, continuously bouncing on top of James, up down, up down, the bed sighing and groaning each time gravity kicked in.
"You go open yours," James groaned, flipping over onto his stomach and sticking his head under his white pillow.
"No! It's no fun when you exclaim about your presents to yourself. Please Jamsey Poo? For me?" he battered his eyelashes, which caused Bob, one of their fellow roommates, to stop dead in his tracks as he walked passed James's bed to go to the bathroom. He decided that he would rather not know why Sirius was straddling James and battering his eyelashes at a pillow and so continued walking, this time more quickly, towards the bathroom.
"Gah fine. But you have to get off me, stay on your bed and if I fall asleep during your exclamations, don't wake me," James sighed in defeat, surfacing from under his pillow to see Sirius grinning like a mad hatter.
"Sounds fair. Now UP!" he commanded, leaping off James and onto Remus's bed next to James. Upon landing on the sleeping object, it shot up as if being struck by lightning. Sirius clapped his hands happily, getting up off Remus and jumped across the room and onto his own bed and sat down, looking between James and Remus to see if they were watching and upon seeing that they were, dove for the sack of presents at the end of his bed. Remus and James watched him groggily at first as he exclaimed, oohed, arghed, and swore (Bellatrix had sent him a pink teddy bear with 'I Wov You' on its stomach written in white cursive writing) at his presents. By the time he was finished, both Remus and James were dozing with their heads resting on the end of their beds facing Sirius.
"Do you guys want me to jump you again?" he said loudly and Remus and James suddenly found themselves wide eyed and bushy tailed. Sirius clapped his hands happily again somewhat like a five year old. "Your turn!" he told them, sitting down to admire his presents again. Remus and James continued to stare at Sirius, before diving down and heaving their sacks on their bed and began the ripping.
"Uh, thanks for the licorice wands," James told Sirius after unwrapping the slightly sloppy wrapped present.
"Yeah, thanks," said Remus, holding up an identical packet "So where's the rest?"
"Huh?" asked Sirius in surprise, dropping the packet of sherbet lemons he had been eating (courtesy of Bob) and look of astonishment on his face.
"Well, on the packet it says in large gold letters 'Not for Separate Sale'. So where's the rest?" Remus inquired, raising his eyebrow and Sirius turned pink. Now that James thought about it, these packets of licorice wands were smaller than the ones they bought in Honeydukes, the looked more like the ones you bought in a mixed packet along with Bertie Botts, Chocolate Frogs, Droobles, Fizzing Whizzbees and Sugar Quills.
"Hang on, you don't like licorice wands," James exclaimed, just remembering this small, insignificant detail. "These aren't the packets of licorice wands that were in the mixed boxes we got you for your birthday, were they?"
"May-be" Sirius said shyly, looking at his hands. He instantly felt two pillows making contact with his head.
"Are you done now?" he asked as he resurfaced, grabbing his bag of sherbet lemons and as he sat up plopped two into his mouth. James and Remus shrugged their shoulders and continued with their presents. Sirius popped the rest of the sherbet lemons into his mouth and grabbed the giant box of Bertie Botts Beans that was laying next to him on the bed, ripped off the top and began eating.
"James thanks!" Remus exclaimed as he pulled the rest of the wrapping and a big, old, heavy book fell into his lap "How did you know I wanted An Anthology of Eighteenth-Century Charms?"
James shrugged "I didn't. It was a big old book with large words so I thought you might like it," Things were still a bit awkward between Remus and James since the Hogsmeade trip that went bad a few days ago so Remus just nodded and continued with his presents. An hour later, the entire dormitory was covered in trash and the four boys sat around eating and admiring their gifts. Remus was already buried in the book James had given him and Sirius, Bob and James were having fun eating Animal Crackers (Cream coloured, vanilla flavoured thickly cut crackers in different animal shapes. Side effects: small pop and hey presto! You're an animal).
At 9:30, four hours after they had been woken up, Bob had told them he was hungry and began getting dressed to go down to breakfast. James got up too and upon hearing movement, Remus joined them in finding their belongings under all the wrapping paper rubbish. Sirius, who had been eating packet upon packet of sugary delicacies, was by some miracle also hungry and five minutes later all four boys exited the trashed room.
-:-
The sun was rising, causing it to reflect of the newly fallen sludge that could possibly pass as snow and into the eyes of one Miss Lily Evans. She groaned and turned onto her other side, her back now facing the window and found Jessica sitting up in bed, munching.
"Uh?" Lily asked, her brain to slow in the first few minutes in the morning to form sentences. She grinned.
"Its Christmas, couldn't resist. Sorry," she gave Lily a small apologetic gesture then motioned to something at the end of Lily's bed. Lily lifted her head a fraction and once spotting the outline of a sack at the end of her bed, she let her head fall back onto the pillow.
"Give me a minute," Lily mumbled to Jess before throwing the doona over her head. Two seconds later, her soft snores could be heard again. Jess looked at her watch and when the second hand returned back to the two, she threw her pillow at Lily. She made a stifling sound and stretched and threw the doona back off.
"Okay, I'm up," she told Jessica and reached over the end of her bed, grabbed the top of the sack and heaved it up onto the bed. Lily went through her sack of presents and Jess went back through hers, both commenting on the gifts they had received. Lily laughed when she opened her present from Sirius and found the small packet of licorice wands and saw on the back the 'Not For Separate Sale' written on the back.
"Look at what Felicity bought me," Jessica told Lily, screwing up her face as she reached down and pulled up a giant, clear case full to the brim with make-up. Lily couldn't help it, she laughed.
"It's not funny," Jessica pouted, returning the large case to the floor.
"Yes it is. I've never seen you wear any type of make-up," Lily told her "Have you ever worn make up before?"
"Of course I have!" She said defensively and Lily raised her eyebrow "Okay okay, I was three and I was my older sister's doll for the day because I lost at snap,"
"Hmm," Lily said, stifling another laugh and opened the packet of licorice wands "Felicity would've wanted to see your face,"
"Please don't wake her!" Jessica whispered, practically begging "She's been just awful the past few days. First I thought it was just a hangover but hangovers don't last three days..."
Lily turned her head to look over at Felicity, still sleeping and curled up in her doona. Since they returned to the castle three days ago, Felicity had refused to leave the sanctuary of their room, and biting everyone's head off whenever they spoke to her. Although Lily could not begin to understand the suffering her friend was going through, she could sympathize. Remus had obviously tipped her over the edge with his words and this was Felicity giving up hope.
"Yeah, but you have to understand what she's going through," Lily told Jessica as Felicity stifled and rolled over, burying herself deeper into her bed.
"I know, I know," Jessica mumbled, throwing up her hands in frustration and plopping another handful of beans into her mouth "but still, if it were me, I wouldn't be taking it out on my friends,"
"Yeah, but you're not Felicity," Lily pointed out and Jessica laughed "Yeah, thank god,"
"I reckon," Lily replied after unwrapping her present from Felicity, and holding it up to show Jessica who choked on her beans "I don't think I could handle having two friends giving me a matching pair of lacy underwear,"
"Hey, don't speak too soon, you haven't opened your present from Claudia yet,"
Placing the underwear back onto the wrapping paper and placing it to the side with the presents she'd already opened, she leanded over the end of her bed and searched for anything from Claudia. When she resurfaced, she had her hand tightly clutching a white envelope with a touch of pink.
"That's all?" Jessica asked her in surprise as she sat up. Lily ripped the envelope open and two pieces of parchment fell out. She picked up the one on top which had the scent of the Dior perfume and began reading the letter from Claudia
Merry Christmas Lily!
I hope this letter finds you well and having a Happy Christmas. I hope that having to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas with only Hamon and Felicity isn't bringing you down. We'll be seeing each other tomorrow so just use that thought to get you through the day. Enclosed is a years subscription to Witch Weekly. I know you love to be on top of the goss and fashion and this way you can have a copy of your own, rather than borrowing week old ones from Felicity.
Can't wait to see you tomorrow
Claudia xo
The second piece of paper was the receipt from purchasing the years subscription, also informing her she will receive a free face mask as a gift for subscribing, valued at 13 sickles.
"Well, at least its better than lacy underwear," Jessica sympathized after reading the letter from Claudia once Lily threw it away "Now open mine!"
Lily leaned over the end of her bed yet again and picked up a present that was round and about the size of a soccer ball. As she lifted it up to her bed, it began quivering and Lily dropped it onto her bed in shock.
"It's okay," Jessica laughed as Lily gave her a look of pure shock "It's not going to hurt you, though I suggest you open it soon. You've already activated it,"
"Activated what?" Lily asked her, a hint of panic escaping into her voice. Jessica didn't answer; she just motioned to the round present. Lily picked it up again and rotated it around in her hands, wondering where to begin when her fingers brushed over the latch that, after a closer look, undid some kind of door. Lily slowly tried to undo the latch, which proved to be difficult as the ball shaped present was quivering quite violently at this stage. As soon as Lily pried the little latch open, her whole present exploded, showing the whole room in sweets. The explosion seemed to have shocked Felicity awake as she bolted up in her bed. Lily and Jessica instantly threw an apologetic smile in her direction, hoping today would be a new day. All hopes of this were crushed seconds later when a large, multi-coloured lollipop landed on top of Felicity's head, signaling the return of the scowl and she threw her doona over her head to stop the sweets from hitting her head.
"Hahaha thanks Jess, this is awesome!" Lily laughed as she threw her hands up into the air to catch the falling sweets.
"Oh, I know," Jessica told her, catching some sweets of her own. The sweets continued to fall, much to Felicity's distaste, and before long Lily realized she was hungry, despite the small mountains of sweets that had formed on the beds and all over the floor. Lily grabbed the clothes she had worn the previous night that hung at the end of her bed and headed to the bathroom. When she returned, Jess was already dressed and they left to go down to breakfast, though Jessica was pretty full from the sweets she had been snacking on all morning. When they arrived at the Great Hall, it seemed like the Marauders had only just made it down here before them as they were busy loading their plates full of delicacies.
"Merry Christmas Gentlemen," Lily greeted them as she and Jessica took their regular holiday spots next to James and Sirius.
"Morning Ladies, have a good morning?" James asked as they sat down, but before they had a chance to respond, Sirius demanded
"Why do you have Droobles and Pepper Imps in your hair?" Both girls laughed, Jessica shook her hair and Sirius watched in dismay as they fell to the floor whilst James brushed the sweets out of Lily's hair affectionately.
"Well?" Sirius demanded, obviously upset by the loss of the sweets.
"You weren't seriously going to eat them, were you?" Remus asked Sirius in a tone of disbelief. Sirius turned to the girls and demanded
"Do either of you have lice?" Lily and Jessica both shook their heads and Sirius turned back to Remus.
"Yes," he told him and the other four gagged; hairy imps, lovely. "So how come you have sweets in your hair," Sirius asked, going back to his original question.
"Ha, well, its kind of raining them in our room, thanks to Jess," Lily told them and Sirius deflated. Stupid, untrustworthy boys rule.
"So, are you going to the dinner feast tonight?" James asked Lily as Sirius began his sulk.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I?" Lily asked in surprise, they always went down to the dinner feast. She'd never stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas before but she couldn't see how it would be any different. Jessica swallowed the piece of toast she had been chewing.
"Haven't you ever stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas before?" she asked in surprise.
"Noo..." she said slowly, looking around at her friends waiting for someone to take pity on her and explain.
"On Christmas Day, the headmaster likes us to dress up," Sirius said grumpily, his chin resting on his folded arms which rested on the table.
"Which is exactly why I chose to be missing during the time of the feast," Jessica mumbled to Sirius who nodded his head in agreement.
"Define 'dress up'?" Lily asked her friends slowly, thinking if worst came to worst, she'd go do a Jessica.
"It's just wearing something nice, gives the girls a chance to let their hair down, buy a new frock and have fun walking in high heels," James told her soothingly, rolling his eyes in Jessica's direction as she shuddered.
"And for the boys? What do they get out of this?" Lily asked James curiously as she loaded her plate with food.
"Why, we get to admire the view of course," he said, winking "So are you up for it?"
"I don't know..." said Lily slowly, delaying her answer by sipping her pumpkin juice "I don't have a new frock,"
"I'm sure Felicity would lend you one," Jessica told her, nearly making Remus chock on his croissant and causing Sirius to lean over and thump him on the back. This gave Lily an idea.
"James, if you'll be my date, I would love to go to the feast with you," She said, turning to James who, upon seeing the little sparkle in her eye replied "It would be my pleasure,"
"Jess," the red head said as she turned from James to face her friend "Come on, lets go pick out our dresses for tonight," she said, standing up, this time actually causing the person in question to choke on the item of food they had been eating at that point in time.
"Our dresses?" she spluttered once she had swallowed enough food to be able to breathe.
"Yes," Lily told her impatiently, grabbing her friend under the arm and pulling her to her feet, then steering her out of the hall. Once up the marble staircase and at safe yelling distance, Jess cried
"Are you purposely trying to ruin my Christmas?"
"No," Lily said shortly, "I'm trying to make Felicity's one better," dropping Jessica's arm as she said so. Jessica continued to stare blankly at Lily as they walked along the corridor. In the end she sighed
"Okay, I give up. In English?"
"Felicity needs to get out, either to begin to get over him or seriously commit to wanting to win him. Right now, she's a mess and if we keep letting her go on like this she'll do it during term as well. If we get her into a nice dress, do her hair nice etc. etc. boys will ask her to dance and it will give her a chance to forget her worries, and we can watch Remus to see if he even gets a little jealous. And I can't do this all by myself, so will you please help me?" Lily asked her as they stopped in front of the Pink Lady. Jessica sighed in resignation and Lily grinned.
-:-
Upon entering the dormitory room, it was clear that the room was still raining sweets.
"How long did you say this was going to last?" Lily asked her as she sized the room up, planning her best chance to walk through the mounds that covered the floor.
"Dunno," Jessica answered her, "I didn't exactly read the instructions. The store had me at the title 'Raining Sweets',". Lily made her way across the room to the bed still occupied by Felicity, grabbing the doona and yanking it off Felicity, the mound of sweets falling instantly onto the floor. Felicity grumbled and rolled over so her back was facing Lily.
"Felicity," Lily said, her voice filled with authority "You have to get up,"
"Says who?" she snapped, curling up into the fetus position.
"Me," Lily said "And I second that motion," Jessica called from across the room where she was still trying to plow her way across.
"Well, I don't want to," she told them stropilly and pulled her pillow down over her head. Well, Lily thought, she asked for it.
'Levicorpus' Lily thought, pointing her wand at Felicity and watched as her friend shrieked as she was hoisted up by the ankle by some invisible piece of rope.
"LET! ME! DOWN!" she screeched, struggling against the invisible force that was holding her life in its hands.
"Nah, I'm good thanks," Lily said, sitting down on Felicity's bed and looking up at her.
"Lily Evans, you let me down this minute!" she demanded, her face turning red from anger. Or perhaps it was due to her blood pressure since she was upside down?
"Or what? You'll hang around all day?" Jessica mocked from the space she had cleared of sweets from her bed.
"Look Felicity, we're not going to sit here and watch you ruin your life because of some guy. You are going to get up, get out and get on with your life,"
"But I don't want to! I want HIM!" she whined, instantly ceasing to struggle as she felt her eyes well up with tears.
"Well, you have a funny way of showing it," Lily told her sternly "Do you reckon Remus would go for a girl who, on Christmas Day, is up in her room crying, or a girl out there having fun on what is supposed to be the best day of the year?"
"The second one?" Felicity guessed, hiccupping as she looked at Lily to see if her response was correct.
"Yes, he would go for the girl having fun and right now that's Claudia. So tonight we're goin to put on some nice dresses, do our hair in something other than a pony tail and have fun, okay? And maybe if you have fun tonight, you could just relax and let everyone see the real you," Lily told the dangling girl.
"Fine," Felicity grumbled, folding her arms "NOW can you let me down?" Lily did the counter charm and Felicity fell back onto her bed, right on top of the newly fallen sweets.
"Can you stop it already?" Felicity snapped as she sat up, rubbing her back. Jessica picked up the remains of the ball shaped present and threw it out into the corridor. The raining instantly stopped in their room and Lily heard the sound of the sweets landing on the stone in the hallway. She grinned as she had another idea.
-:-
"Okay, nearly there," Lily told Sirius, holding her hands over his eyes as they climbed up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.
"Aww, come on Lily, tell me! You know I only like surprises if I know what they are,"
"Yes, which then defeats the purpose of the entire purpose," Lily told him as they reached the landing. She led him three steps into the room before stopping.
"Ready?" Lily asked the boy who nodded. Lily dropped her hands and watched him as his face totally lit up, then ran the length of the room and dove onto his bed, which by now was covered by a good inch of sweets.
"This is the best Christmas EVER!" he yelled and proceeded to make snow angels on his bed. Lily laughed as she watched him enjoy himself. He stopped suddenly, as if he only now remembered her being there in the room and sat up facing her. His face dropped.
"What do you want?" he demanded, sizing Lily up and down.
"A favour, that can be asked anytime,"
"A big favour?" he asked, groaning at the very thought
"On your part, no," Lily told him and he yelled "Yippee!" and opened his mouth in welcome for the falling sweets. Lily laughed at her friend again before exiting the dorm room, carefully shutting the door behind her and making her way back to the common room. Just as she turned to head back up the girl's staircase, she heard someone call her name and found herself face to face with James Potter.
"Do you want to have a snowball fight after lunch? You and me vs. Remus and Sirius, what do you say?"
"I think Sirius is rather indisposed right now, I don't think he'll be coming. If you wait a minute, I'll go see if Jessica wants to play," Lily told him before climbing the stairs two at a time and entering the room. Jessica was busy, broom in hand, making a pathway around each of the beds to make them accessible.
"Hey Jess, you wanna join the snowball fight James is organizing after lunch?" Lily asked her friend, making her way along the newly created pathway to her bed to retrieve her coat, scarf and gloves.
"Sure, though we should probably tell Felicity where we're going," she replied, abandoning the broom and fetching her own coat and gloves.
"Where is she?" the red head asked, noticing the brunette wasn't in the room with them.
"I forced her into the bathroom, she should be out soon. She's been in there ever since you left," she told Lily and sure enough, minutes later, Felicity surfaced from the bathroom, towel around her torso and another around her head.
"Felicity, we're goin g to join the boys outside to have a snowball fight. Do you want to come watch?" Lily asked her gently as she made her way over to her bed on the newly made pathway.
"No," she sniffed "I'll stay here,"
"Okay," Lily said "But if I find you in bed when we come back up to get ready, you'll wish your head never touched that pillow, kapesh?" Felicity nodded.
-:-
Hours later, Jessica and Lily returned to their dormitory, soaked to the skin and covered in sludge. Happy finding Felicity sitting on her bed reading, Lily went and took a long, hot shower. When she returned back to the room, she found Felicity and Jessica in the middle of a heated argument.
"Over my dead body!" Jessica was yelling as Lily slipped on her bathrobe "No way, nuh uh, wrong number, not doing it, no way, no how! I refuse to wear pink!"
"Its not pink, its pastel and you'll look really good in it. It would complement your skin tone and highlight your chocolate brown hair!"
"I don't give a damn about my skin tone! The fact is that dress is PINK, and I refuse to wear it. It has frills for god's sake!"
"Felicity," Lily asked the girl before she had the chance to respond. She had seen the dress and she wouldn't be caught dead wearing it and didn't want to force Jessica to either, after all she had begrudgingly accepted to come "If you didn't own this dress, what dress would you recommend?"
"Well, how could I not own this dress? It was rated at number four on the must have list by Witch Weekly but, if you insist," she dropped the pink, or 'pastel' dress on the bed and walked over to her trunk and pulled out an aqua green, sleeveless, knee length dress. It was rather high cut with the straps meeting in the middle of the dress, near the bust line and went out on an angle and on to the shoulders. Lily couldn't believe it, this dress had Jess written all over it, and Lily thought she'd never see the day when a dress was actually calling to Jessica to be worn. Even Jessica was dumb struck, staring at the dress hanging on a coat hanger that Felicity was holding up in mid air, tapping her foot with impatience for a reaction.
"Wow. That dress isn't ... half bad," Jessica told her, walking across the room and taking the coat hanger from Felicity and holding it against her body.
"Yeah, I can actually see you wearing that," Lily told her before Jessica headed to the bathroom to try it on. Although the girls were different shapes, Felicity being a stick with small speed bumps, Lily being flat but with definite boobage and Jessica who was a little flatter than Jessica but with a waist, the dress seemed to fit her pretty well. She came out the bathroom moments later, she was never the type of girl to take ten minutes to get changed when it really only involved pulling off jeans, throwing the tee-shirt over her head, unzipping the dress and throwing it over her head and zipping herself back up.
"So the truth. How horrible to I look in this dress?" she demanded when she returned, turning slowly in a circle.
"You know that's insulting. Of course you look good, I wouldn't have bought the dress if it didn't look good," Felicity snapped, walking over to her and brushing the dress down. The dress reached just above the knees, since she was a little taller and had curves to fit in, which surprised Lily as she had always assumed her to be a brick with her baggy shirts and cargo pants.
"It's not too over the top?" she demanded to Lily, not trusting Felicity's opinion as she would never say anything bad about any item of her wardrobe.
"No, it's just like a sundress. Loose and very flattering," Lily told her, nodding as Felicity finished brushing the white fluff from the dress. She then walked over to her trunk and pulled out a large leather bag and pulled out a pair of dangerously high heels. Jess's jaw nearly reached the floor.
"Are you serious? It said 'nice dress' on the notice board not bloody formal wear! Those shoes are just plain dangerous!"
"Hmmph these shoes ARE nice and are just begging to be worn," she informed her and Jessica rolled her eyes.
"I am a girl who lives in converse. I won't be able to walk in those!" she complained, shooting Lily a begging look from behind Felicity's back. Lily sighed and dug around in her trunk, finding the one at first and then a small amount of digging later she retrieved the second one. She threw the pair at Jessica who caught both of them, though slightly surprised when she found herself holding a pair of silver, ballet flats.
"They're the same colour as those ones aren't they?" Lily asked Felicity, gesturing to the pair of strappy, silver shoes she still held in her hand. Felicity nodded and then dropped the pair of shoes back in the bag and then went back to her trunk to find a dress for Lily. She sighed, deciding it was probably best that she wore whatever was picked out for her, she had already weaseled Jessica wearing what was picked out for her and she could tell that Felicity was cut. She was surprised though when Felicity pulled out the dress she had decided upon for Lily. It too was sleeveless, but it had rather thick straps that went across her chest and met in the middle, just below the bust line. The dress itself was black but to avoid cleavage being shown, there was a strip of white material going across, joining the two thick straps together. The rest of the dress was black and holding it up to her body, it reached her knees. Felicity nodded her head in approval.
"Yes, I think that's the one. The black is a wonderful contrast with your red hair and it really brings out your green eyes. Now, hurry up, off you go," she said, shooing Lily into the bathroom to change. Lily came out moments later in the dress, with two white sashes hanging down on each side.
"I couldn't tie a bow behind my back," Lily told her sheepishly and turned around for Felicity to do up. She shook her head.
"No no, the tie is supposed to be on the side of your front," she tutted to Lily, moving forward to see what else Lily had done wrong.
"Come again?" Lily asked her, the side of your front? What sort of instructions were they?
"Here," Felicity said, grabbing the two sashes and tying a knot on the left side of Lily's dress, right near the seam. Oh, the side of the front ...
"Let me guess, you don't want to wear heels either?" She asked Lily, guessing her very thoughts. Lily nodded sheepishly. Felicity sighed and dug inside her bag and pulled out a pair of black Mary Jane shoes, black with the strap across the foot. Lily lifted her leg and placed it on top of the other whilst she tried to put the shoe on. Her foot made it three quarters of the way in before getting stuck. Lily pushed it in further, but the shoe, or her foot, wouldn't budge.
"Uh Felicity, the shoe doesn't fit," Lily sung out to her friend who was busy, head inside the trunk, looking for something she could wear.
"Just make it bigger," the muffled sound replied, pointing her wand at the shoes as she surfaced and said "Engorgio". The shoe instantly became larger and Lily felt her foot slip into the shoe easily "Claudia and I are different shoe sizes so we would just enlarge or shrink each others shoes," she told her and Lily could see water about to leak from her eyes.
"No no Felicity, don't cry. Come on, which dress are you going to wear tonight?" Lily asked, a little more enthusiastic than necessary. Even Jessica, who was sitting cross legged on her bed barefoot, the silver flats still on the floor, was even trying to show as much enthusiasm she could manage. Felicity smiled and sniffled and pulled her dress from the trunk. It was short, and strapless and bright pink with small, white polka dots all over it and a white sash around the waist. It had a little tulle under the skirt so it sort of stuck out, rather than hugging her figure. It was really cute, and totally Felicity. In one swift movement, Jessica and Lily both moved from their beds, over to Felicity and pushed her into the bathroom to try it on. She, of course, took longer than both Jessica and Lily did to get dressed but she soon came out and did a little twirl, causing the skirt to fly out.
"Wow, Felicity! You look really good!" Jessica said in disbelief when she finished twirling around for them to see.
"Why the tone of surprise?" she asked Jessica, whose cheeks turned a light pink "Are you sure I look okay?"
"You look more than okay Fe, you look great," Lily told her sincerely making her friend smile. She looked down at her silver wrist watch to check how long they had left.
"How long?" Jessica asked her, reseating herself on her bed, the shoes still remaining on the floor.
"Its five o'clock" she told them and Jessica smiled "Excellent. Plenty of time. Exploding snap anyone?"
-:-
"James, why are we here? You know, just one more time," Sirius asked impatiently as they stood around in the common room. Sirius had his hands shuffed inside his jacket pocket that he wore on top of his white shirt and jeans. He claimed that adding the jacket on top of his everyday gear classified it as nice, for he never wore those formal styled jackets. James didn't care, he was wearing the same sort of thing really. Though he decided to do something nice for the headmaster and leave his jeans in his dorm, he was wearing brown corduroy pants instead with a navy tee and a brown jacket on top. Sirius had lent him the jacket, he had rather a large collection. Remus was sitting in the arm chair in front of the fire, reading a day old copy of the Prophet.
"Because I said I would accompany her to dinner and it is gentleman like to wait for her and go together and since us three guys and those three girls are the only Gryffindors left over the holidays as everyone was desperate to return home, I thought it would make sense that we all went down together," James told him as Sirius continued to sway, backwards and forwards with his hands still in his pockets.
"Wish they'd hurry up," Sirius complained, ceasing to sway and instead walking over to where Remus was sitting and leaning against the arm of the chair.
"Its quarter to seven and the feast starts at seven. They're not exactly late are they?" James told his friend and continued to stand in the middle of the common room, in front of the staircase.
"Still," Sirius retorted "Girls take forever to get ready,"
"Actually, we just didn't want Jessica to win Exploding Snap, again," said a voice from the staircase and all boys looked up to watch the three girls descending. Lily was in front, wearing a black dress which seemed to have a low neck line but to Sirius's disappoint there was white material there. Her red hair rested on her shoulders, almost flicking up at the end as it was too long to just hang there. James couldn't help but staring at her and only looked away when he noticed she noticed that he was staring and she blushed. Felicity was right behind Lily and she was making it her mission to stay as close to Lily as possible, even though Remus was safely at the other end of the room. Felicity was making it in her best interest to avoid looking at him at all cost, though Remus didn't extend the same courtesy, unable to look away from the mousy brown haired girl, her hair reaching just above her waist and was wavy and her strapless pink and white polka dot dress complemented her long legs. Lily and Felicity stood their sheepishly for a while and the boys stared between the two girls and the staircase, wondering what happened to the third.
"I've changed my mind," yelled a voice down the stairs "I'm not coming down,"
"Oh hurry up Jessica, I'm starving and I don't have time for you to try on all your different colours of lip gloss to see which one matches your dress the best," Sirius yelled back, sufficiently irritated, like most males are when they're hungry. Lily shot James an apologetic smile before hurriedly climbing back up the stairs. Lily found Jessica sitting on her bed, legs crossed and the silver flat shoes back down on the floor.
"You're coming down to the feast, whether you like it or not," Lily told her, picking up the shoes and handing them back to her.
"No, they'll laugh at me. I mean, I'm wearing a dress for goodness sake! Me, Jessica! I'm wearing a fricken dress! I may as well have a big yellow neon arrow pointing to me saying FREAK!"
"Do you want me to do to you what I did to Felicity?" Lily threatened, shaking the shoes in front of Jessica's face.
"Meh, hanging upside down beats social embarresment," Lily sighed, dropping the shoes next to Jessica on the bed.
"Let me rephrase. Do you want me to hang you upside down and then levitate you downstairs, threw the corridors, down the staircases and into the Great Hall? And may I remind you you're wearing a dress?" Lily threatened pointing at the shoes. Jessica just stared at her blankly so Lily shrugged and took her wand from where the sash around her waist was holding it and raised it. Then Jessica decided to move. Quick as lightning she bolted up out of bed. Lily smiled.
"There we go, that wasn't so hard was it?" Lily asked her sweetly, placing her wand back safely in the sash and walked towards the door.
"Hang on a sec," Jessica called and Lily turned to find her friend digging through her trunk. She raised her eyebrow in confusion.
"What are you doing?" Lily asked her puzzled, staring at her friend who was throwing her possessions from her trunk around the room as she continued to dig down. She suddenly pulled up, her fist clutching around what seemed to be a piece of black licra.
"This," she said, bending over and stepping into the wholes of the material which Lily finally recognized as a pair of short bike pants. She pulled them up, under her dress and over her orange underwear and then dropped the dress back on top. No one would have guessed they were there.
"Why?" Lily asked her suspiciously as Jessica hopped on one foot to get the shoe on her foot, then on the other.
"Just in case I don't look like I'm enjoying myself during dinner and you decide to follow through with your threat," she told Lily, both shoes now on her feet and she hurried past Lily and down the stairs, Lily following closely at the stairs. When Lily reached the bottom of the stairs, she stopped and watched Jessica as she continued full pace up to Sirius and slapped him across the face. Five pairs of eyes stared wide eyed at her in surprise.
"That's for even thinking that I'm shallow enough to own several shades of lip gloss and giving a damn about which one looks best with this dress," Jessica snapped, grabbing Felicity's arm from where she had been standing, a meter away from the boys and the two of the girls exited the common room together, though Felicity was half dragged.
"Well," Lily said when she suddenly found herself alone in the common room with her three old friends.
"Shall we?" James asked her, holding out his arm for Lily, who slipped her arm through his and the four of them exited the common room after the two girls, who could be seen walking together, this time at a slower pace at the end of the corridor.
"You know what? I never noticed but Jessica's ass actually sways side to side when she walked," Sirius said absentmindedly, causing the other three to all look to their left with the same mirrored expression on their faces.
"What?" he said defensively "It was seriously shaking from side to side when she stalked away from me!"
"Yeah, after she slapped you," Remus sniggered and Sirius thumped him.
"Yes, an incident we shall not ever discuss again as it will hurt my manhood," Sirius said simply and Remus muttered "What manhood?"
"Well, I saw you admiring the young Miss Felicity. Saw something you liked?" Sirius striked back, instantly causing Remus's smile to drop. The four of them climbed down the marble staircase in silence, meeting Felicity and Jessica at the bottom of the stairs where they had paused to wait for them.
Sirius shot Jessica a smile which she returned back with a glare. Sirius took a step back and pulled Remus's shoulder in front of him, making Remus roll his eyes. Together, the six of them walked towards the Great Hall and through the doors. All four tables were pushed against the wall, one on top of the other, two on each wall. Instead, in the middle of the hall was a rather large, circular table with a white table cloth and with a quick calculation Lily counted seventeen place settings.
Apparently they weren't the first ones there. Professor Dumbledore sat directly opposite the doors with Professors McGonagall and Slughorn on his left and right. Professor Sprout was in a deep conversation with Slughorn who she was sitting next too with Flitwick, who was next to McGonagall, stared at the six Gryffindors. On the other side of Professor Sprout were three, giggly Hufflepuff third years, which Lily didn't find surprising them sitting there. After all, she was there head of house.
On Professor Flitwick's other side were also three students, this time Ravenclaws. Two boys looked like they were in their 6th year, one Lily noticed was a prefect and the third was a girl in what she would guess as her forth. The girl and the boy sitting next to the prefect looked quite alike in facial figures and Lily assumed that they were brother and sister. Between the last Hufflepuff and the Ravenclaw girl were seven seats which the six Gryffindors spread out in, leaving the spare seat next to the third year Hufflepuff as no one felt like sitting next to the gigglers. Once they were all seated and returned the greetings from the professors the clock in the Entrance Hall chimed 7 o'clock.
"Well," Dumbledore announced "There's no point in letting the food get cold. I'm sure Magescum will come down if he's hungry. Dig in," That was all Sirius needed. He reached right into the middle of the table for the plate full of roast potatoes and began loading his plate full of them. All three Gryffindor females and the girl from Ravenclaw looked on with looks of disgust. Apart from that, dinner was quite enjoyable. The students and teachers alike had fun with the Christmas Crackers that each person found on their bread and butter plate and once pulled the two persons were bombarded with confetti and either a witches or wizards hat sprung on top of either person's head. Dinner was nearly over when Dumbledore clapped his hands.
"Ah Magescum, nice of you to join us. Where you hungry?" The six Gryffindors who all had their back to the entrance, turned in their seats to see the new arrival. Magescum Shiverfreeze was a seventh year Slytherin and played Keeper on the Slytherin Quidditch Team.
"Couldn't find the kitchen" the Slytherin mumbled, looking livid when he realized that the only seat was next to a third year Hufflepuff. The boys couldn't help but snort into their plates when he sat down and all three Hufflepuffs turned to face him before turning back to face each other and burst into a fit of giggles. Magescum glowered and grabbed a dinner from the bowl in front of him and began tearing at it. Every so often, people would place their knifes and forks on their plate, signaling they were finished with their meal. Before long it was only Sirius and Dumbledore still eating, though Dumbledore could have been excused as he was quite old, but mainly because he was supplying most of the conversation between the students of different houses. Sirius was just a pig. Sliding his knife and fork onto his plate, and knowing Sirius too well to know he wasn't going to finish any time soon he declared.
"How about some dancing? Wear off some of that Christmas Feast before settling into pudding," taking out his wand and causing the table, all the chairs and the people onto the chairs to levitate and he slowly moved them across the hall to the right causing the occupants onto the chair to clutch to the side from fear of falling off. Dumbledore placed them down a little way away, making room for dancing. Lily's ears then tuned in to the sound of some kind of semi up tempo music, playing from somewhere she couldn't see. Dumbledore stood up and offered his arm to Professor Sprout, who accepted graciously and lead her to the dance floor.
"You wanna dance?" Lily heard someone whisper in her ear and she felt a hand snake behind her back and behind her waist. Lily looked up at James and felt herself holding in the urge to snort. James continued to look at her questioningly and Lily felt her face fall when she realized he was serious.
"Uh, um, er James... I can't dance," she stammered and to her surprise she saw James face break into a rather large grin.
"Doesn't matter. I can," he laughed, pulling her to her feet and leading her towards the dance floor. As it turned out, James was a dangerous dancer. Lily was holding onto James, her hands tied behind the base of his neck as James steered and spun around the dance floor. She nearly toppled over poor Professor Flitwick who was dancing a fair distance behind her with Professor McGonagall. But thankfully, after that particular piece of music cease to play, a softer, sweeter piece of music began to play, reminding Lily of a lullaby and James had no choice but to sway to and fro around in a circle but truthfully, he didn't mind. He didn't mind at all.
-:-
Remus was sitting at the dinner table, feeling alone, just how it almost always was for him. James was dancing with Lily, the Ravenclaw prefect had asked a very surprised Felicity to dance and Remus couldn't help noticing she blushed as pink as her dress when she accepted. The other Ravenclaw sixth year had asked one of the giggly Hufflepuffs to dance, though Remus was sure he had regretted the decision as soon as he asked, leaving her two friends to gush over the 16 year old and quiz the pair's compatibility.
Even Sirius had left him. When McGonagall had left to dance with Professor Flitwick, she had sent the food back down to the kitchen, turning a deaf ear to Sirius when he complained he hadn't finished. Dumbledore had conjured a table full of plastic cups surrounded by a bowl of punch, located conveniently next to the dance floor obviously for the use of the dances to take a drink between songs and Sirius had walked over to 'taste test'. Remus knew of no rule or statement that acknowledged that drinking half a punch bowl classified as taste testing which left Remus to stare around the edges of the blank white table at the people who surrounded him.
Jessica had left, claiming the need for the bathroom and so the Slytherin Magescum in the company of the Hufflepuff. She seemed to have got the message to leave him alone; his body language practically shouted it and she had turned back to her friend and were currently discussing the pros and cons of their friend dating this sixth year. Two seats along, Professor Slughorn was busy smuggling one crystallized pineapple out of the packet in the pocket of his robes, though to no avail. If the specs of sugar in his mustache weren't obvious, the sound of the plastic crackling was a dead give away. The rest of the teachers were dancing leaving the Ravenclaw fourth year staring off into space.
Remus watched as Slughorn discovered he had no more pineapple left, thank goodness, the noise was beginning to irritate him, and watched him stand up and walk into the middle of the dance floor and tap tiny Professor Flitwick on the shoulder and ask to cut in. He accepted graciously, handing him McGonagall and made his way back to the table and took his old seat next to the Ravenclaw. Remus soon found himself staring out the window of the hall, out into the darkness lit with stars and looked out across the Hogwarts ground. He turned back in time to hear the Ravenclaw girl ask Professor Flitwick
"And I know you said it was rather advanced, but I tried but I think I've nearly got the Bedazzling Charm but the thing is it is temperamental. I mean, one moment I'll be invisible under a sheet I charmed and then next minute I'm there again. I know Bedazzling charms wear off after time but surely not that quickly," she was saying to the professor who seemed to be deep in thought. Remus looked at the girl in surprise. A Bedazzling charm, that was at least OWL level, maybe it was 6th year material. This really took him for surprise, it had taken him ages to finally getting the Bedazzling charm right and she was already up to setting the time. He continued to watch the girl with dark copper hair as the Professor explained the details for setting the period of time for the charm to hold for.
"Watcha looking at?" Sirius slurred as he slumped down in his seat, slightly swaying, obviously suffering from being punch drunk.
"Nothing," Remus told him, turning to face the slightly red Sirius "Nothing at all,"
A/N:OMG LOVE YOU! Haha thanks to everyone who contributed to the 187, for those who asked, there was no specific reason for asking for that number. This chapter originally was planned to be two but I just couldn't stop writing and Grey Mustang would have thrown a fit if I didn't post it as one and I figured I would give it too you guys as like a birthday treat :D so a BIG BIG thanks to all that reviewed and if I don't hit 200 reviews for this chapter, since it consisted of 20 pages and 8,500 words, I will know if you guys truly love me back.
All those interested, on my profile i've posted weblinks to the dresses which I found for the girl's to wear, I think i had a LITTLE too much fun with it, but rock on over there and check em out.
IMPORTANT:Not intending to be dramatic, which I guess is quite easy for a writer, but my world has literally just been tipped on its head and I don't know how this is going to affect my writing. I will either get massive writers block or bury myself in my writing. Will let you know, and I have now officially figured out how the story ends, which I probably should have done before I began, but now it is all in my head but I will let you know how it goes. You guys rock!