AN: I'm so sorry this is so late. We've been moving house and it's taken a while for the internet to start working again. I hope you enjoy.

The rest of the break was uneventful. More snowball fights and more Quidditch in the field next door to The Burrow and we soon found ourselves back at Hogwarts and resuming classes. Defence Against the Dark Arts with Lockhart was getting worse; who seriously thought that that man could teach anything that had more than a one digit IQ?

Falling back into classes meant that time was flying; Oliver and I were spending more and more time together and we had won pretty much 90% of our Quidditch matches. Soon, too soon if you asked me, it was Valentine 's Day. Oliver and I had spent the day in my room along with Fred, George, Alicia and Katie. It was quite lovely, eating chocolate frogs and munching on candy Fred and George has somehow got from Honeydukes at the last minute. That night, we were all sitting in the Great Hall, eating pink coloured deserts when Professor Dumbledore drew everyone's attention to the front.

"Good evening," he began, "I hope you have been enjoying your festive feast but before you all retire to your common rooms and prepare for tomorrow's classes I wanted to make an announcement."

For someone so intelligent, I had never heard so much unnecessary elaboration when trying to get a point across as Professor Dumbledore when he wanted to speak to the school. Never the less, he continued and I was not paying much attention.

"As is custom in Paradox at Easter," my ears pricked at this, he now had my full and utter attention, "We will be having a feast and, after we have filled our stomachs with as much food and chocolate as we can muster, we will be holding –"

"A ball." I said at the same time as Dumbledore. I smiled a little, Easter was my favourite time of the year, not just because of the ball, but it was my birthday around the same time.

Dumbledore smiled again as he continued to speak, "…and to honour our exchange student, Miss Gorman, the feast and ball will be on the afternoon and night of the 7th of April."

I laughed under my breath as Dumbledore bid his farewell to the students as some started to make their way out of the Great Hall.

"That sounds like fun but what's so great about the seventh?" Oliver asked, smiling at me.

"It's my birthday," I said as we started to leave the hall.

Oliver looked flawed for a moment and followed me quickly, "Why didn't you tell me it was your birthday?" he asked, sounding hurt.

I laughed, "Obi, I don't make a big deal about my birthday. You shouldn't either."

We walked together back to the common room, chatting animatedly about my birthday. Oliver didn't understand that my birthday wasn't important to me. I received one present from my family the morning of and my family and I had dinner together on the night of my birthday. That was about it. I asked Oliver to not make a big fuss about my birthday and he half promised not to. I knew he had something planned already and I didn't bother to harass him. In all honesty, I was too apathetic towards my own birthday to care much about what he was thinking.

By the time we reached to Common Room, there were posters around about the ball. It was the same stock poster that Nimirix stuck on every wall leading up to the ball.

Students from all grades are invited to attend a semi-formal ball in celebration of Easter.

Please be advised that dress robes are not necessary; students are encouraged to dress semi-formally, as muggles would.

(Please refer to your fellow students or head of house if you do not know what is appropriate to wear)

The evening feast will begin at 5:30 and the social ball will begin at 7:30 on the 7th of April.

I hope to see you all there,

Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster.

The weeks of February and March flew by. We versed Hufflepuff again in the quarter finals of the house cup and beat them 350-150. By the time anyone knew it, the last week of March was upon us and, according to Katie and Alicia, it was time to go to Madam Malkin's Formal Dress Shop in Hogsmeade to look for dresses to wear.

We walked to Hogsmeade with Oliver, Fred and George [as Alicia and Katie were asked by the twins the day before if they would accompany them to the ball] and Alicia promptly shooed them as we entered the side of Madam Malkin's painted pink and purple as the boys entered the door painted blue and green. Oliver gave me a swift kiss on the lips as he said good bye.

"Don't get something too pretty," he whispered, "People will try to take you from me."

I chuckled, "I could say the same to you."

Before either of us could say another thing, Alicia yanked me in the pink door.

The female side of Madam Malkin's was beautiful; ornate silver door handles attached to the changing room doors and ever-freshly smelling roses on vines wrapped around pink pillars and clung to the walls.

Katie was immediately drawn to the pink section and followed begrudgingly. I disliked the colour pink but we had decided as a trio that we would take turns helping each other find dresses. It looked like Katie was first. I had taken my camera with me and was snapping happily away as Katie tried on pink after pink dress. Katie had one of two looks on her face when she exited the dressing rooms for us to see her; the 'does this look as disgusting as I think it does' face and the 'this isn't so bad' face.

Finally, Katie opened the door to the dressing rooms and Alicia and I gasped; this was the dress. It was a dark pink strapless dress that clung to her body, ended just above her knees and was slightly ruffled.

I volunteered Alicia to be next and after trying on about half a dozen dresses she decided upon a blue boat neckline sleeveless dress that flared slightly at the waist. Then it was my turn. I didn't really want to wear a bright colour like Katie and Alicia had chosen; so I went to the black section first. The first dress I tried on was the one I settled on. Alicia and Katie had made me try on a few others but we all agreed the first was the best. It was completely sequined black and silver and reached midway up my thigh. It had sleaved that reached just below my elbows. Now that we had settled on our dresses, Madam Malkin ducked between the dividers in the shop to tell her husband the colours that we had chosen for our dresses so he could make sure the boys wouldn't pick something that clashed horridly. I was thankful for this as I was fully convinced that Fred and George would make Oliver wear bright green and tell him it would go well with anything I wore.

We then searched for shoes and bags; Alicia had decided to do what she had called 'colour blocking' which was apparently what was 'in' in muggle fashion. Her bag and shoes were bright yellow. Katie opted for a silver pair of heels and bag. I chose a black clutch with a silver skull for the latch and a pair of black heels.

Once we were all set for the ball, we met the boys outside and shuffled off for a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.

The afternoon of the ball Dumbledore had arranged dinner to be at 5:30, allowing us all to prepare for the ball which would commence at 7:30. Dinner was amazing; it was filled with everything I can remember having at Nimirix the years before. Roast meats of all kind, mashed, baked and fried vegetables and even a chocolate pavlova for desert.

I was a little concerned about showing my dress to Oliver in a few hours, so I mainly picked at my food. I noticed most of the other girls doing the same. Fred began pestering Alicia, Katie and myself to eat more until Katie snapped.

"Fred Weasley!" she yelled, "If we eat too much our stomachs will look swollen!" after finding that almost everyone in the hall was looking at her, she exited and headed up to the tower. Alicia and I followed quickly after her, muttering apologies to the boys. I soon saw a majority of the girls start shuffling off to their respective common rooms as well, presumably to get ready.

When the three of us had showered and dressed, it was time for the makeup and hair. The spells I had taught the girls earlier in the year had come in handy. Waving my wand over Alicia's face, I muttered 'Morbi'and watched as a subtle blush added itself to her face along with a thick line of eyeliner that flicked out at the end of her eye lids. Alicia was a master at muggle mascara, so she opted to add her own after I had finished the spell on her face.

Katie had done her own make up the muggle way and I was very impressed. She looked lovely with a light pink lipstick on and darker pink eye shadow. She had her eyes and mouth open as Alicia helped her with her mascara as well.

I stood in front of the mirror and frowned. I had no idea how to do my makeup; I was honestly stumped.

Katie laughed, "Let me do it. I have the perfect idea."

I complied and sat down on the edge of her bed. She took about 15minutes to finish my makeup and when I looked in the mirror it was perfect. My eyes were a lot like Alicia's but with a tad more black eye shadow and my lips bright red.

"Do you like it?" Katie asked tentatively.

I laughed, "I love it Katie." I looked at the clock; it read 7:25, "Now let's put our shoes on, the boys must be wondering what's taking us so long!"