Thick Smoke

Yule Ball

Eliza's most dreadful thought ended up being the truth. Remus packed a red dress and sent it by Furvus. He even bought her heels and sent her make up and for a moment she thought Remus and Sirius have planned it together.

Lavender and Parvati seemed delighted by the dress and they were genuinely excited for the ball.

"You're more feminine than you give yourself credit for," Parvati commented during lunch.

The girls were talking about their dates. Lavender was going with Seamus and Eliza couldn't help but laugh loudly.

"And here I was hoping you'd invite me." She whispered jokingly, making him blush.

Parvati was going with Harry and she genuinely looked happy about it. Ginny ended up with Neville and the whole group of girls and Seamus decided not to give their opinions on that.

From the table, Eliza noticed boys from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons looking at them and she was sure it was already too late to reconsider. Actually, Eliza had nothing to reconsider because she didn't say she was going with the blond. He just assumed that on his own, yes.

Those thoughts were getting worse and worse as the day became night and she found herself in front of a mirror, dressed in a sleeveless long red dress with a portion that was coming around her neck. She used magic to comb her hair in a bun and do her make up. The heels were uncomfortable and were making her even taller than she was. Overall, she looked like completely another person.

She took a deep breath and walked into the Common Room where Dean and Seamus were.

"Hey! Wow what a change!" Dean complimented his friend. "Your partner is lucky. Why didn't we ask her?" He asked Seamus but the boy didn't utter a word when Lavender just got down as well.

"I heard from Neville that Goldstein was planning on asking you. Did he?" Seamus asked, seemingly comparing his date with his friend.

"You probably heard wrong." The green eyed girl responded really fast before getting out of there.

She was uncomfortable. In her entire life Eliza had never felt more unsure of her body figure. Another thing that annoyed her was the way she was walking on heels. She was swaying from time to time and almost missed a step down the stairs. It was embarrassing.

Harry and Ron were in in Entrance Hall, now remarkably transformed into a place to grab attention or show off. Parvati and Padma were on each side, excited for the dance while Ron was looking more embarrassed than Eliza in his costume.

Harry was staring at Cedric and Cho and she suddenly realized she might have escaped but that meant Harry's date wasn't the one he truly wanted.

"You're being ignorant," Eliza whispered to Harry when she got downstairs, startling him.

"You look very different," Ron added, noticing his brunette friend in a dress. "I didn't know- you know- that you were so-"The girls turned to the ginger with questioning eyes, waiting for him to finish his idea. "Just different! Stop looking at me like that. Merlin, girls are scary!" He mumbled feeling like his destruction was near.

"Stop stumbling on your heels," Parvati whispered, leaning towards Eliza to help her stay straight.

The green eyed girl only scoffed but used her dorm mate to actually gain some balance.

At the sight of Blaise Zabini and his date, Eliza froze and remembered just who was her partner. She glanced at her friends and smiled before she gave some random lie that she forgot something and ran the opposite way of the hall.

Eliza just walked around the corner when she noticed Hermione walking towards the Great Hall, looking fabulous. With one quick self encouragement, she turned towards the stairs with the intention of sneaking back into the dormitory. That didn't go very well because she met her perpetuator who was coming from the dungeons.