Chapter Sixteen:
Events, Events, Events!
The third and fourth exciting events of the day occurred just as the Funny Farm was heading into the Great Hall. Terry Boot, a blonde-haired Ravenclaw in their year, broke out of a knot of students and hurried towards them.
"Tanya," he called breathlessly. "Hey—wait up!"
"What is it?" she asked, turning to meet him.
"I was wondering if you'd like to go to the Yule Ball. With me, of course."
"She would love to, Terry," Hannah answered without a moment's hesitation.
He looked at Tanya for reassurance, and she nodded, her thin face turning pink with embarrassment. "Sure I will, Terry."
"Cool. See you then?"
"Yeah, see you then."
Terry grinned and ran off to join his friends again.
"Four down, only two to go," Katelyn said, grinning mischievously at Rachel and Seamus.
Rachel gave a slightly cynical laugh. "Yeah, right."
Seamus looked suddenly thoughtful. "That reminds me. Rachel, I've been wondering if—"
"Vrachell!"
She gave a resigned sigh and turned around as Nickolay hurried up to them. "Hey, Nickolay."
"I vas vondering iv you vould go to the Yule Ball vith me."
Seamus smacked himself on the forehead.
"Yeah, okay," Rachel replied. "I'll go."
Nickolay grinned, said 'tank you' and walked off.
"I thought you hated him!" Tanya exclaimed.
Rachel colored. "I thought I might as well. It's not like I'm going to get a whole lot of other offers, and he's not exactly a hideous troll, after all."
Seamus gave a snort of derision.
"Oh?" Hannah replied, lifting an eyebrow.
"By the way, Seamus," Rachel said, "what was it that you were going to ask?"
"Well, since you'd said that you weren't planning on going to the Yule Ball with anyone, I was going to ask if you wanted to go with me. As friends."
"And now you tell me?" Rachel exclaimed, then gave in to childish impulses and stamped her foot. "I would much rather go with you as friends than with Bulgaria Boy over there!"
"I suppose that's a relief," Seamus said with a shrug.
"Well, who are you going to go with now?" Rachel said, her face flushed with disappointment.
"I suppose I'll go by myself—" he began.
"No, no, no," Rachel said vaguely, scanning the crowds of students. "How about…Lavender?"
"No, I'll go alone," he said hastily.
But it was too late. Rachel stood on her tiptoes and shouted, "Hey, Lavender!"
Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil looked up. "What is it?"
"D'you want to go to the Yule Ball with Seamus?"
"Sure!"
Lavender and Parvati waved, then ran off, giggling like mad.
Seamus groaned. "Why her? Why?"
"She's nice," Rachel said, after a moment's hesitation. "A little blonde, but nice."
"A little?" Katelyn echoed.
Rachel laughed. "Okay—so I exaggerated."
"Rachel wins the Understatement Of The Year award," Hannah said, deadpan. "Whoop-dee-do."
"Here's an understatement to match Rachel's," Seamus said, with a sly grin. "Hannah is fond of Dean. Ow!"
Hannah looked vaguely like a snorting bull as she rubbed her fist and glared at Seamus, who was massaging his arm and wincing. "Shut it, Finnigan."
"Hey," Rachel said with mock affront. "I thought I was the only one allowed to say that! Okay, okay, sorry, Hannah, I meant no offense…"
And everyone backed away.
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Before they knew it, it was December 23, the day that their very own Snoodles was getting married. The Funny Farm and a few seventh years that Oliver had invited congregated together in the Entrance Hall just an hour after breakfast. The four Funny Farm girls stood off to the side a little bit, looking slightly uncomfortable in their dark red silk bridesmaids' dresses and elegant hairstyles, wrapped in matching shawls and their black wizards' cloaks.
"Do you know when they're supposed to pick us up?" Tanya asked finally.
"Between eight and nine," Hannah answered.
Seamus and Dean looked at their watches. "8:05," Dean said.
Rachel tapped her foot impatiently, wincing a little. "Oh, I wish they would hurry. My shoes are killing me."
"Maybe if you'd wear high heels more often, they wouldn't hurt so much," Katelyn replied.
Rachel hiked her skirts up to reveal a pair of strappy black sandals with murderous-looking 3-inch heels. "Katelyn, I'm 6-foot in these. That means I'm tall. Which, in turn, means I can't wear heels without looking like an Amazon."
Seamus had to tilt his head a little to look at her. "How do you plan to dance if you're taller than everyone else?"
She twitched her cloak aside so everyone could see the canvas bag she was holding. "I'll cheat," she said, and pulled a pair of Muggle flip-flops from the depths and displayed them. "I also brought my wand in case Oliver's relatives get drunk and start hexing Haley's…"
"Right…" Seamus said.
Tanya looked at her own shoes. "I should wear these more often. Now I'm 5-foot-4!"
Katelyn and Hannah nodded in agreement.
Just then, a group of students came into the Entrance Hall, and Harry Potter broke out from the clot and made his way towards them. "Hey—Hannah!"
"What?" she asked.
As he got nearer, the Funny Farm cold see that he looked flustered and worried. "Hannah, will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
"This is awfully last minute, Harry," she replied. "But sorry, I'm already going with Dean."
Harry turned to Tanya.
"Sorry, Harry, I'm going with Terry Boot."
Harry then turned to Katelyn.
"Sorry. I'm going with Wes."
Harry turned to Rachel.
"You're really desperate, aren't you?" Rachel said with a wry smile.
"Sorry," he replied. "I forgot—you're going with Seamus."
"No, I'm not," she said quickly. "I'm going with Nickolay—a Durmstrang student."
"You know what," Hannah said, coming to everyone's rescue, "Harry, Parvati Patil's free. Why don't you ask her?"
Harry looked immensely relieved. "Okay. Thanks!" and he ran off.
"It looks like I'm just in time," said a new voice. The Funny Farm turned to see Mrs. Schreiter coming towards them, her forest green Mother-of-the-Bride dress swallowed up by a large Muggle coat. "Hi, Mom!" Hannah cried, and ran to fling her arms around her mother.
Mrs. Schreiter smiled and looked around the Entrance Hall. "Hasn't changed much since I was here for Haley's graduation last year," she commented.
"May we go now?" asked one of the seventh years, a tall, haughty-looking boy.
Mrs. Schreiter blinked. "Er…yeah, the Hogwarts Express will take us back to London, and we'll take a cab to the cathedral from King's Cross."
"Why can't we walk?" Dean asked.
Mrs. Schreiter pointed out the door, and everyone saw the swirling white snow. "Ah," Dean replied.
So they walked out into the frigid air, the girls holding their skirts nearly up to their knees so the hems wouldn't get wet. They all piled into a horseless carriage to be driven to Hogsmeade Station, then clambered into the Hogwarts Express and spent the next hour and a half running up and down the corridors unsupervised. "It's so we don't jump up and scream 'I OBJECT' halfway through the ceremony," Seamus explained when Mrs. Schreiter asked them to calm down.
But when they got into the cab, everyone fell silent as the beginnings of nervousness started to stir in their stomachs. This is it.