Of Monsters, Of Men

Chapter 40

Afterwards, Harry met up with Tom and the others in the Room of Requirement. They spent the next few hours getting ready for the Yule Ball: they curled and styled their hair, the girls applied their makeup, and everyone changed into their purple-themed outfits.

Harry and Tom sported elegant black dress robes with Tyrian purple ties—they had to appear classy and traditional, so purple robes were out of the question. (And in any case, the last thing Harry wanted was to look like he was imitating Dumbledore's eccentric eyesores he called outfits.)

Lawrence was wearing a similar outfit to Harry and Tom: black dress robes with a Tyrian purple tie. The only difference in his outfit was that his dress shoes were dark purple instead of black.

Polly was wearing a periwinkle gown that fell to her ankles. Her intricate updo and the gown's open neckline emphasized the silver necklace her mother had given her. She also wore hanging pearl earrings. Her lips were pale pink. She was breathtaking.

Lawrence is such a lucky guy, Harry couldn't help but think.

And by the awe-filled looks that Lawrence sent Polly, he knew it too.

Myrtle was wearing a plum evening dress, her usually pin-straight hair transformed into bouncy curls that fell slightly past her shoulders. Her straight bangs were also transformed into waves that framed her face. The cream-colored bow Nina had gifted her was placed at the back of her head. She had purple lipstick on, and her cheeks were tinted pink and her eyelashes were long and dark. She looked beautiful.

When Harry asked Nina why she'd made that face earlier when Myrtle put the bow on the back of her head, she gave him a long look and eventually explained, "Bow placement means things. If a girl puts it at the back of her head, it means she's not interested in men."

Harry blinked at this and wasn't quite sure of how to respond, so he remained quiet. However, he saw Nina occasionally send longing glances to Myrtle, and he couldn't help but wonder if Nina was also... not interested in men.

Nina was wearing a blue violet floor-length skirt and a white silk blouse, her hair styled into a classy updo. She had refrained from wearing much makeup, if any at all—personally, Harry couldn't tell. In any case, she also looked beautiful.

Harry grimaced at the thought that he and Tom would have to deny that they were dating Nina or Myrtle. Really, it was more for the picture perfect image of inter-house unity—both Slytherin champions would arrive hand-in-hand with a Gryffindor and Ravenclaw student, and the other two founders of FiGS would go together, a Ravenclaw and a Hufflepuff. Truly a picture of forward-thinking modernity. Once again, a clever marketing strategy. It was the best they could do, considering Septimus Weasley's warning; they had to stress unity in every possible sense of the word. (Of course, Harry would have liked to go with Tom, but that simply wasn't possible.)

And in any case, they had quite a lot to do at the ball—much more than dancing and looking pretty. Their primary objective at the Yule Ball was to convince the senators to vote in favor of chartering FiGS at the upcoming Senate meeting. As FiGS' fate depended on a two-thirds vote in their favor, everyone had quite a bit of schmoozing to do with the senators.

The Hogwarts Student Union Senate was composed of seventeen senators: the President, the Vice President, one senator from each year, two senators from each house, and a muggleborn community senator. Already, they knew that six senators wouldn't vote for them since they were Slytherins or affiliated with Slytherin: the two Slytherin senators Druella Rosier and Rowan Parkinson, the Senate Vice President Walburga Black, the third-year senator Ercole Greengass, the fifth-year senator Alphard Black, and the Ravenclaw senator Olive Hornby. Six senators were guaranteed to vote for them: the muggleborn community senator Patricia Morton, the second-year senator Robert McGonagall, the fourth-year senator Malcolm McGonagall, the Gryffindor senators Minerva McGonagall and Ignatius Prewett, and the Hufflepuff senator Aletes Macmillan. Now, they just had to convince the remaining five senators to vote for them (in order from least to greatest difficulty): the first-year senator Zara Shafiq, the Hufflepuff senator Ackley Diggory, the Ravenclaw senator Anna Chang, the sixth-year senator Caspar Crouch, and the Senate President Connor McLaggen.