Another busy day coming up, so I figured I'd publish earlier than usual. If I can, I will publish again tonight, if not then you'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Thanks for the reviews, PintoNess, Madmad237, and LizziePixie-Aiko! :D

…Remember when I said earlier to fasten your seatbelts? Review, eh? ;]

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THIS, EXCEPT FOR ANY CHARACTERS YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE. JK ROWLING IS JESUS!

CHAPTER 34

Christmas Day.

I had never spent the holidays at the school before, but Sirius and James told me that the castle was usually empty. There were so many people left for the ball that it seemed like the school wasn't on break at all.

It was weird not going home to my parents, or meeting them in Russia and having Christmas with the entire family. But at least Hans, Petro, and I were all together, and among friends.

Audrey and Marlene were taking a walk around the grounds, as it had been for the last twenty four days, it was still snowing. It seemed heavier the last two days.

"So is Remus excited for tonight?" Audrey nudged her friend, Marlene laughed.

"Yes, yes. He's quite excited. However he's been a bit annoyed with James and all his whining lately."

"About Lily?"

"Who else would James Potter be whining about?" Marlene snorted.

"I know, I know. Well did he find a date?"

"Yeah, he asked Veronique. She's quite excited about it, I just hope he's not going to be a big git about it." said Marlene, biting her lip.

"I'm sure James will be the utmost gentleman to Veronique…however, to Lily and Dmitri, hardly."

Dmitri, Zoloto's Quidditch captain, asked Lily to the ball a few weeks back.

"So how has Karl been?" Marlene asked. "Do you know if he'll be coming tonight?" Marlene asked, changing the subject.

Karl had been recovering slowly, he had made a lot of progress in the last few weeks, but Audrey didn't think he was fully up to walking just yet.

Audrey shook her head and sighed. "I don't think so, Madam Pomfrey said he's still missing some bones in both feet. He was really disappointed when she told us that in the Hospital Wing."

Before either girl could say anything, a snowball came hurtling at Audrey's back. They turned.

"Karl?"

He flashed her a grin, she laughed sprinting towards him and hugging him.

"What happened to 'he needs to grow some bones back in his feet'?" She asked, kissing him.

"A ruse." said Marlene from behind them.

"You knew?"

"Duh." Marlene cocked her head.

"How long?" Audrey asked, looking between the two of them.

"I was cleared three days ago, Madame Pomfrey even played along." Karl mused.
"Which I wasn't expecting her to do." Marlene added.
"But she did." Karl said, giving Marlene an 'I told you so' look. Audrey laughed.

"Well, I'm glad you've recovered then…wait, are you even ready for tonight?" Audrey asked, raising a brow.

"Sven picked up some robes for me." Karl smirked.

"Was everyone in on this?" Audrey asked, throwing her hands in the air.

"No, just Marlene, Sven, and I." said Karl, kissing her hand. "Come on, let's go get some lunch, I'm starved."

"Quidditch players." Marlene snorted, as the three made their way inside.

The rest of the day seemed to flash by in seconds, and before I knew it, the eight of us, and Sarah who we snuck into the common room again, we're getting ready in our dorm.

It was absolutely chaotic.

"Lily! Have you seen my earrings?" Alice called.

"Uhh, I think they're on the dresser." Lily called. "Marie can you zip me up?"

"After I finish Veronique's 'air!" She called.
"I don't even want to go with James." Veronique whined.
"Then why'd you say yes?" Audrey called, curling Chantal's hair with her wand.

"Where are my shoes?" Sarah yelled.
"Did you leave them in your common room?"
"SHIT!"

"I can't wait to tell Henri that you forgot your shoes." Chantal laughed.

"Audrey, what are you doing with your hair?" Lily called.
"I haven't the slightest, Lily." said Audrey, finishing Chantal's hair and putting on her dress.

"Curl it." said Marlene.
"Marly." Audrey said flatly, taking a stand of her hair. "Have you seen this? It doesn't do much, it's the most stubborn thing ever and you could make a bloody coat out of it."

"I'll take the challenge." Lily shrugged.
"They do call her the brightest witch of our age." Sarah said, shrugging.
"Fine!" Audrey said. "Go for it, Lils!"
"Yay!" She squealed.

Meanwhile, the Gryffindor common room was filled with guys.

"What do you think they're doing up there?" Henri asked.

"Maybe they're snorting pixie dust." James shrugged.

"We're not snorting anything, sod off!" a seventh year named Amelia called down the stairs.

"Well then you lot ought to hurry the bloody hell up!" Frank Longbottom roared in response.

"KEEP YOUR PANTS ON." Sarah yelled down.
"Unless you're Sven, then you can take them off!" Audrey called, mimicking Chantal's voice perfectly. Chantal elbowed her.

"Hey, seeing as you're going with Karl. Who's Sirius going with?" Chantal nudged Audrey who rolled her eyes.

"I don't even know, I lost track of his girlfriends again."

"I've got the talley this year, he's on twenty, and it's a Ravenclaw 5th year, can't remember her name for the life of me." said Alice.

"Ah well, he won't be on my back then." Audrey grinned, the girls laughed.

Finally, they were all finished, with the exception of Sarah not having her shoes.

Chantal wore a floor length, ocean blue dress with a silver waterfall style backing.
Lily wore a one shoulder light green floor length dress with rhinestones in the center.
Marlene had on a simple strapless plum dress with a split down the left leg.
Sarah cleaned up in a halter purple dress with swirls going all the way down to the hem and around.
Audrey wore a long red dress, the top had a shiny material that was split down the chest by a chain of red and silver leaves that extended to her back, below that was an opening in the back.

"We're like a Christmas tree." Lily snorted, looking between herself and Audrey.
"All you need are some fairy lights!" Sarah chimed in.

The seventh year girls made their way down first, followed by sixths, fifths, and finally fourths. Fortunately, by the time the fourth year girls got down to the common room it wasn't nearly as crowded as it had been before.

"It's about bloody time." James murmured with a grin, extending an arm to Veronique.

Audrey and Chantal approached Sven and Karl.

"Well…don't you two clean up nicely." Audrey laughed, she really meant it. "I don't think I've ever seen Sven in formal attire, and you, Mr. Gregorovitch." She poked Karl in the chest.

"Well you're so used to seeing me in wand maker's clothes." Karl grinned, he took her hand and they made their way down to the ball.

During the first few minutes, Audrey found herself standing next to the Headmaster.

"Greetings, Ms. Dalio." He said, with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Professor." Audrey nodded at him. "I expected you to have a certain lady in a kimono as your date to this lovely function."

"Oh she is my date." said Albus. "But she had some business to attend to and will be arriving late. It's probably for the best that these students don't see their headmaster with a younger woman." He chuckled and walked away, Audrey found her way back to Karl.

"Gregorovitch!" boomed a familiar voice.
"Karkaroff." Karl said evenly, not pleased to see him.

"I didn't know you were taking Audrey to the dance. I wouldn't expect such a divine lady to be in the presence of a wand maker's apprentice" He replied, he had a malicious glint in his eyes as he looked at Karl.

"Yes, Karkaroff. As it stands, if you're not a creep and are a generally nice person you will always find a date." Karl said, not breaking eye contact. He gave Audrey's hand a squeeze and lead her away to the dance floor.

"Sorry about that." He whispered in her ear as the moved to the music. "I'm not a fan of his."

"I can tell." Audrey replied, as he twirled her around. "Severus informed me of how cruel he is. He tried talking to me the day you were injured, as soon as I saw Severus I bolted. He's very…creepy."

Karl nodded.

The ball itself was wonderful, I had never seen the Great Hall decorated so frivolously before. There was an ice theme, and several ice sculptures which were charmed to not only move around the dance floor but not to melt. Everything was going splendidly until Sirius just had to ruin it.

I don't ruin things, per say. I simply meddle in things that aren't my business.

Sirius had bumped into Karl and Audrey for what seemed like thousandth time that night. She excused herself from Karl for a moment and was going to go have a word with Sirius. This was just getting ridiculous.

Their tables were right next to each other and she took advantage of the fact that Sirius was alone. She tapped him on the shoulder.

"Russia!" Sirius exclaimed, as if nothing were wrong.

"Cut the bullshit, Sirius." Audrey hissed.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sirius said, casually sipping from his goblet. She slapped it right out of his hand and it landed on the floor with a clatter. Not like anyone had heard it, the music was pretty loud.

"Sirius, you know exactly what I'm talking about." Audrey replied, exasperated. "You've been doing this all year."

"I haven't been doing anything, Audrey." Sirius snapped.

Okay, I lied. But who hasn't lied about their feelings before? No one, that's who.

"And then you follow up by always denying it!" Audrey said, crossing her arms. "I don't understand it, Karl's been nothing but kind to you. You may not like him but you can't deny that."

Sirius was about to open his mouth to speak but Audrey cut him off.

"For once, I'm happy with someone and as my friend I thought you'd be happy for me. You were the one always saying. 'Audrey, just go out with someone already!' I really like Karl, and I can't believe you're doing this. I don't call you out about the girls you date. You're my friend and if you're happy I'm happy but this is just ridiculous!"

On the other side of the ballroom, Sven sat with Chantal, taking a break.

Sven had seen Igor Karkaroff lurking around Karl's table tap his wand to someone's handbag earlier in the evening, he had no idea who's it was, or what Igor had done to it. But he was suspicious…

Sven's heart threatened to pound out of his chest when he noticed Audrey walking across the floor, towards the very table which that handbag sat.

She was arguing with Sirius Black, of course. What else was new? Sirius had been at Audrey's throat all year because she was almost always seen with Karl Gregorovitch. Karl was one of the only other kids in the school that didn't fancy the dark arts, and for that reason, he and Sven were fast friends. They were from the same area too, they only lived about forty five minutes apart. As for Sirius, Sven wasn't too fond of him, he was rather arrogant and constantly tried to get Audrey's attention in the most pathetic ways. For the past three summers since they started school he had heard stories about Sirius and his friends. She obviously didn't want to talk to him most of the time from what Sven understood.

"I'm going to go break them up, she's getting annoyed." Sven said to Chantal, who nodded and let him go.

He began to push through the crowd, reaching the table just in time.

"I'm going." Audrey huffed.

"Why?" Sirius whined.

"Because you obviously don't want me here. Merlin forbid I have some fun with a guy I like!" Audrey hissed, giving him a look.

"Audrey, I didn't mean that…you didn't give me a chance to explain…I lov-"

Audrey was trying to grab her bag but Sirius swatted her hand away, he wanted her to hear him out. She was looking around for Hans, or Petro, her cousins, but she hadn't seen them since the beginning of the ball hours ago.

"Audrey." Sven said, she didn't hear him. She just glared at Sirius.

"Audrey!" Sven said again, she seemed to be ignoring him. She was furious, she dodged one of Sirius' arms and grabbed her handbag. It glowed a bright blue.

Sirius and Sven seemed to register at the exact same moment what was about to happen and grabbed onto the bag with a second to spare.

Everything was spinning.