"What about this one Elsie? It's festive enough right?" She held the dress up for me to see. It was a dark shade of red, the skirt of it seemed to flow and seemed very silky. I wasn't one for dresses but we had been looking about for an hour and Lily already found a dress. I just wanted to get out of here so we can eat. "Good enough, lets get it" She happily dragged me to the counter and we paid for our things. "Can we go get something to eat now?"I groan as we walked down the snow covered streets. "Alright alright... We'll go" I wonder how the boys were going, this is the first time I had missed a Hogsmeade trip with them. Sure I was normally away on Christmas, but it felt different going with Lily.
"But thank you for coming with me" She smiled, I'll admit it was nice spending time with her. Despite that it was for shopping of all things. I can only imagine how many times Prongs will be willing to ask Lily, it seemed better off that I'd gone with her. "Well couldn't leave you with James, gotta keep him out of trouble" We made our way to the three broomsticks. I couldn't wait to get something to eat, maybe even a butterbeer. "If I didn't know any better I'd say that you wanted to protect him" She could say that, I remember last year she threw a hex at him after a full week of flirtations. James was throwing up for a full hour. It was truly a disgusting experience for not only him but all five of us. "From your advanced hexes... Definitely" We both laughed and talked about his many attempts to ask Lily. It was only between us that I knew she found most of his attempts funny. They amused everyone really.
"Lily! Finally come to accept my offer?" Speak of the devil. We hadn't even sat down yet and he is already asking her to the party. This will surely be entertaining. "Sorry Potter but that spots already filled" She turns to me and smirks, we both knew if he found out at the party it'd be much more fun. "What? With who? No one could be better then yours truly!" I could see Remus at the table behind him, he was holding in a laugh. He must've known that Lily would've had another date, well it isn't all that surprising is it? She always rejects James so having anyone as a date really is no surprise.
"The spots filled and that's final" We took our order before joining them. I know Lily despised being near them but she took me dress shopping. This is just making it even, besides her and Remus get along well just fine. I've often seen them having tea together while studying during the night. Mostly when the boys are asleep so they wouldn't be bothered.
"Speaking of the party... Elsie" Padfoot turns to face me, along with the rest of the boys who were eagerly waiting for the scene to unfold. "Yes Sirius?" I could feel the others gaze on us, as if they were leaning in closer and closer to hear what he wanted to say. "Would you like to join me? To the party that is?" He wanted me to be his date? Sirius? I thought he'd just pick a girl on the night... Why would he ask me? "Oh... Um... Sorry Padfoot but someones already asked me and I said yes..." I felt a little guilty but I did say I would go with Lily, I can't leave her hanging. He looked so disappointed... much like the others. "Who are you going with Vixy?! Why not Padfoot here!" James burst up from his seat, almost spilling his drink in the process. "You'll find out at the party I guess"
"Well this sucks" Peter whined to himself quietly before muttering something else that I couldn't quite catch. "Got that right Peter" Remus mumbled. Why did they all look so depressed? Was it something I did? "Here are your butterbeers ladies" A waitress places two butterbeers in front of Lily and myself. "Oh and your meal" She placed the bowl of stew in front of me. I eagerly began to devour my food. It was a little quiet for a moment before the conversation picked up again. Lily stayed quiet and left when she saw Alice and Mary, two girls whom we shared a dorm with. "Alright now that Evans is gone how about we discuss tonight" Sirius starts, we never spoke about our monthly outings around others or whatever projects they had in mind. They weren't afraid of being caught, but they certainly knew it would complicate things. So we kept quiet about it all. As they discussed how we would get out tonight I finished my lunch and continued to drink my butterbeer.
"Vixen we may need your artistic skills in this project" I looked up from my drink, unaware that the topic of the conversation had changed. "What was that sorry?" James sighs. "The map vixen! The map!" Oh right, the map. Now that operation furball was a success, they were onto another. They want to use it for mischievous reasons but it will be helpful to see what people are doing every minute of the day. Especially when we need to sneak out once a month. "Oh right, yes. I can lend a hand" His smile grew. "Great! This'll be great! Imagine the trouble we could cause!" James and Sirius started discussing how they would make this map. Remus adding a few comments and thoughts every once in a while. It was decided that Peter would venture the castle at night in his rat form. Remus and myself would work on looking for secret passages and books that would help us. The other two would be creating the map, along with my input as they aren't the most artistic people. "This'll be our greatest achievement yet... You know besides operation furball"
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