Avery breathed in the crisp morning air of the Qudditch Pitch. It was an ungodly hour in the morning, which meant no other team would dream of being up this early on a Saturday, leaving the Pitch available for use. With the help of his new co-captain, James had been enforcing more practices to prepare for the big match against Ravenclaw that was scheduled to take place a week after the Yule Ball, much to the other Gryffindor's dismay. Today, however, James had left Avery in charge, claiming he ad other things to attend to, and, though Avery wanted this victory as much as he did (if not more so), she decided to cut practice short in his absence.
"Okay, everyone, great work today. Go hit the locker rooms. And let's keep this from James, there's no sense in causing him even more stress during a time like this, is there?" The team simultaneously agreed and let out a cheer of approval before gliding down to the ground and dismounting their brooms.
While Avery was packing up the the equipment, a shadow was creeping quietly up behind her. It wasn't until she turned around she noticed.
"Boo!" Jessica yelled. Avery kept her stoic face, causing Jessica to groan, "Man, why are you so hard to scare?!"
"Have you considered the possibility that you are just bad at scaring?"
"...Shut up..."
"What are you doing here anyway, I thought we were going to meet Lily by the Whomping Willow at the shortcut."
"Just checking out the competition."
"Cheater." Avery scoffed.
"There is no such thing in Quidditch. I am simply being resourceful." Jessica said indignantly.
"Well try being resourceful in an empty field, I need to go change."
"Okey dokes, I'll wait here. Is it okay if I use your broom, I promise I will probably won't break it."
"Sure, but if you do break it, I'll break you."
"I don't doubt it." Jessica laughed as Avery sauntered off.
When she had finally made it to the changing room, Lily was already chatting with a couple of other teammates, "So, do you have your dress for the Yule Ball picked out?"
"Yeah, I went last week to Gladrag's, they have awesome dresses!"
"Ooh, I still need to go get mine, I have barely had any free time lately. What about you, Aves?"
Avery snorted, "I have better things to do with my time than spend hours dying on the inside."
"So that's a no. We're going. Like now." Lily's tone of voice left no room for argument as she dragged her out of the changing room and went outside to meet Jessica.
"But I don't want to waste a precious day of freedom."
"We were going to go anyway, no one else has chosen theirs either. C'mon, I promise it won't be too bad."
"Just so you know, I am wearing converse." Avery warned Lily.
"But, Averyyyyyy-"
"Nope, it's either dress with converse or so help me I will show up dressed in a Dory costume."
"...What's a 'Dory' costume?"
"Finding Nemo? You know, that Disney movie about fish." Jessica asked.
Lily simply stared at her blankly. "I don't watch many muggle movies, both of my parents are wizards!"
"You had no childhood," Jessica said scornfully, "It's official, we're going to have to watch it sometime. You are not getting out of this."
"Well, I guess I couldn't expect anything less from you, Avery. But please don't choose worn out looking ones." Lily sighed in defeat before perking up, "Come on, I promised we'd meet Rose at the dress shop!" She grabbed their hands practically sprinted to Gladrag's Wizard Wear.
Avery mentally prepared herself for the war zone that would surely be inside. Sure enough, inside there were hordes of teenage girls in varying degrees of stress from all the schools dashing about in all types of dresses: Frilly dresses, painfully colorful dresses, ridiculously short dresses, and some dresses that looked like they would sprout a pair of wings and fly off. NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE. Instinctively, Avery started back pedaling out of the store only to be stopped by Rose, "Oh, I see you managed to get her here. I'm glad we didn't have to resort to the 'Drug and Kidnap Plan'."
"You are going to find a dress and it will be perfect, even if it kills us." Rose said as she shoved an armful of dresses that seemed to appear out of nowhere and ushered her to the nearest changing room.
"At this rate, it just might." Avery muttered.
*Timeskip*
After trying on approximately 327 dresses, Jessica, Lily and Rose had their dresses while Avery was back at square one.
"I can't do this, can I just show up in jeans and a t-shirt?" Avery asked exasperatedly.
"C'mon, Avery, there had to be one dress you liked. Seriously, the sooner you find one the sooner we can leave this hellhole." Jessica shuddered.
"I dunno, none of them seemed like me. I don't even see the point of going, really." Lily and Rose looked at her in shock.
"But Avery, you have to go!"
"Yeah, haven't you already got a date already? Rose asked.
"No, where'd you hear that? Avery asked curiously.
"You mean James haven't asked you yet?" Avery flushed. "No, he hasn't, we are JUST friends now."
Rose questioned, "Well it's not like no one else has asked, right? How about that John guy?"
"There has been a few but in all honesty I'd rather go with Flitwick than most of the guys who have asked me."
"So, I take it Dimitri hasn't asked you yet?" Rose asked teasingly while Lily abruptly busied herself with another dress.
"Well, he has, but I haven't given him a definite answer yet." Avery changed the topic, "So who are you going with Rose?"
Rose blushed before mumbling incoherently under her breath. "What was that?" Avery teased.
"Scorpius..."
Lily squealed , "I knew it!"
Avery laughed,"I call Maid of Honor."
"Only if I'm the Godmother."Lily countered.
"Woah, woah, woah. Calm yourselves, there are no plans for marriage and children." Rose reasoned.
"Yet." Lily giggled.
"What about you Lily?" Jessica asked.
"Oh, just Marco as friends. I didn't have the heart to say no."
"Well, I was going to ask Albus if he wanted to go together, but he's seems like he is still mad at me." Jessica said dejectedly.
Lily stuck her tongue out before turning to Avery, "Okay, we have seen every available dress in the store. Just go with you gut and choose the one you like best, or we can always find another one later."
Avery looked helplessly at the mountain of dresses and was just about to pull a random one out of the pile when a store assistant walked by, her eyes widening for a second when she saw the pile, "Is everything working out for you young ladies?"
"Well, actually my friend here is decision impaired, she can't seem to find a dress." Avery was about to protest her hair turning blue in indignation when the salesclerk clapped her hands in excitement,
"Ooh, you're a metamorphagus, aren't you?!"
"Yes?" Avery said, slightly confused.
"Ooh, I think I may have a dress for you..." She squealed, Avery once again being dragged across the store to yet another changing room before slipping into the dress and opening the curtain.
*TIMESKIP*
As Avery hauled her shopping bag upstairs, she was met with the empty Gryffindor common room, or so she thought. "Sup, Ree?" Avery yelped before missing a step and tumbling down the stairs. Huffing in irritation, Avery looked up from her place on the floor and was met with the weirdest sights of her life: James Potter sitting upside down, glasses dangling on the edge of his nose, reading "The Clockwork Angel"?...
"What's gotten into you?" Avery asked before she could process her words.
"What?"
"You're reading?"
"Yes, and?.."
"...You read? For fun?"
He wiggled his glasses,"That's what these are for."
"I don't know what to make of this. You're reading and it isn't a quidditch magazine." Avery said in shock
He shrugged, "Well, you seemed so interested in it on the train, I thought I'd give it a go. It's more sappy than I would've expected from you."
"Shut up, it's a good book, despite the clliche romance! I mean demonhunters, warlocks, clockwork minions-"
"NO, no don't spoil it, I will suffocate you, I'm only on page 64!" James warned.
Avery smiled deviously before saying loudly, "THEY TRAVEL TO GONDOR TO RETRIEVE-"
"NO STOP!"
"THE LIGHTNING BOLT-"
"THERE IS NO LIGHTNING BOLT, YOU LIAR!" James yelped indignantly.
"Duh, of course I wouldn't spoil a book, I have a conscience!"
'...Since when?" James askedl, feigning confusion
"I'm going to kick you."
"At least let me finish the book."
"Ughh, fine." Avery sat on the back of the sofa, looking over James's shoulder.
"Whaaat are ya doing?"
"Reading along, now shh this is one of my favorite parts."
After a few minutes, James looked away from the book, "So, Avery, I was wondering-"
"Hi James!" A squeaky girly voice said from behind Avery, causing Avery to instinctively cringed.
"Oh hey, Brittany." James said good naturedly.
"Um, I just had a quick question. I was wondering if you wanted to go to the Yule Ball with me?"
"I would love to, bu-"
"Great! I'll show you the color of my dress later so we can match and I'll meet you at the Winding Staircase at 8 o'clock, kay? Bye!" She scampered off elated, leaving James looking confused and Avery sitting there awkwardly.
"Well, I better get going, need to go put my things away." She said, trying to find any excuse to distance herself from James.
"Wait, Avery, what's the rush?"
"I'm really busy, James, I'll discuss Quidditch drills with you later." She rushed upstairs, not daring to look back at James.
IT HAPPENED IT FINALLY HAPPENED I GOT A BREAK FROM MY 3 AP COURSES TO DO THIS. I DECIDED ABOUT THREE MINUTES AGO THAT 4500 WORDS FOR THIS CHAPTER WAS TOO MUCH SO I'M SPLITTING IT INTO TWO PARTS SO THE NEXT ONE WILL MOST LIKELY BE LONGER. I LOVE YOU GUYS!- ALEX