Suffocating In Darkness

Chapter 15

I wore a short pink and black dress with a pink rose hair band, crystal earrings, a butterfly ring, pink heels and the charm bracelet Fred had given me. I walked over to Oliver with a smile.

"You're actually wearing dress robes." I point out.

"It took a lot of persuading from Harry." Oliver shrugged. "You look lovely Minnie."

"Thanks Oliver, lets go! I need to see this Hermione and Zacharias Smith thing for myself!" I say making both of us laugh.

We had arranged to meet with Harry and Luna by the Great Hall at eight. So when we got there I was surprised by how lovely Luna looked. She was wearing a set of spangled silver robes that were attracting a certain amount of giggles from the onlookers, but otherwise she looked quite nice. I was glad, in any case, that she had left off her radish earrings, her Butterbeer-cork necklace, and her Spectrespecs.

"You look amazing Minnie," said Harry smiling at me, leading Luna up the marble staircase away from all the staring and muttering, we followed and walked side-by-side. "Did you hear, there's supposed to be a vampire coming?"

"Rufus Scrimgeour?" asked Luna.

"I--what?" said Oliver, disconcerted. "You mean the Minister of Magic?"

"Yes, he's a vampire," said Luna matter-of-factly. "Father wrote a very long article about it when Scrimgeour first took over from Cornelius Fudge, but he was forced not to publish by somebody from the Ministry. Obviously, they didn't want the truth to get out!"

I, who thought it most unlikely that Rufus Scrimgeour was a vampire, but who was used to Luna repeating her father's bizarre views as though they were fact, did not reply; we were already approaching Slughorn's office and the sounds of laughter, music, and loud conversation were growing louder with every step we took.

Whether it had been built that way, or because he had used magical trickery to make it so, Slughorn's office was much larger than the usual teacher's study. The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald, crimson and gold hangings, so that it looked as though we were all inside a vast tent. The room was crowded and stuffy and bathed in the red light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the center of the ceiling in which real fairies were fluttering, each a brilliant speck of light. Loud singing accompanied by what sounded like mandolins issued from a distant corner; a haze of pipe smoke hung over several elderly warlocks deep in conversation, and a number of house-elves were negotiating their way squeakily through the forest of knees, obscured by the heavy silver platters of food they were bearing, so that they looked like little roving tables.

"Harry, Oliver, m'boys! Melissa, you look lovely m'dear!" boomed Slughorn, almost as soon as we had squeezed in through the door. "Come in, come in, so many people I'd like you to meet!"

Slughorn was wearing a tasseled velvet hat to match his smoking jacket. Gripping ours arm so tightly he might have been hoping to Disapparate with us, Slughorn led us purposefully into the party; Harry seized Luna's hand and dragged her along with him, Oliver grabbed my hand and followed.

"Harry, Melissa, I'd like you to meet Eldred Worple, an old student of mine, author of Blood Brothers: My Life Amongst the Vampires--and, of course, his friend Sanguini."

Worple, who was a small, stout, bespectacled man, grabbed my hand and shook it enthusiastically; the vampire Sanguini, who was tall and emaciated with dark shadows under his eyes, merely nodded. He looked rather bored. A gaggle of girls was standing close to him, looking curious and excited.

"Harry and Melissa Potter, I am simply delighted!" said Worple, peering short-sightedly up into our faces. "I was saying to Professor Slughorn only the other day, Where is the biography of Harry and Melissa Potter for which we have all been waiting?"