Deceit (Harry Potter fanfic)

Death and Dancing

Hailee's P.O.V

Lucy and I stood in my room in the Beauxbatons carriage, trying to pick out outfits for the party tonight. The carriage was our temporary accommodation but even so it was richly decorated, only the finest materials were good enough for Beauxbatons students, the curtains and bed sheets were made of luxurious velvet and the units were embellished with gold, it was like someone had picked up section of the Beauxbatons palace and placed it inside this carriage. 

"What about this?" I asked, holding up a pale green cocktail dress. 

"You will freeze" Lucy stated, flicking her blonde hair. 

"Hmm... It is very cold here..." I mused, returning to my wardrobe, after digging around for a little while I found what I was looking for, a white leather jacket. 

"That's nice" Lucy mumbled. 

"What's the matter?" I replied, confused, Lucy was normally hyper before a party. 

"Nothing" she replied quickly. 

I raised an eyebrow and she continued "well... um...you know...er... Well it's just that... I was kinda planning to spend tonight with our friends from Gryffindor and, well, they probably won't be welcome to Lily's party"  

I rolled my eyes, Lucy wanted to go to a different party, nothing drastic, I thought she might have been ill or something. 

"I'm sure they could come with us, Lily did say we could bring friends" 

"Yay! What are you waiting for Hailee, that dress will look amazing" she squealed, dragging me out of the room "wear those white heels I bought you last Christmas, we haven't even picked my outfit yet, come on... we haven't got all day, we still have to do our hair and makeup and oh what shoes shall I wear..."

Many, many outfits later...

Lucy had finally settled on a short, figure hugging, blue dress with long sleeves accompanied by short, studded boots. She had straightened her hair to show off it's length and I had curled mine and clipped it to one side. I passed Lucy one of the gold wristbands Lily had sent us earlier and placed the other around my own wrist, I examined mine carefully, it looked to be made of solid gold but there was some sort of inscription in neat cursive script it read: videntum et non videri. An eagle had delivered them accompanied by a short letter, detailing that they contained some sort of concealment charm so we could sneak out unseen. Lily had supplied us with two extra but I figured they could probably be duplicated easily enough.  

"So, who exactly are we meeting?" I questioned. 

"Hmm... Fred, George and Lee, Azanya and Arya...Ron, Hermione, Harry, Seamus and Amie" she replied counting them off on her fingers. 

"I barely know half these people" I exclaimed. 

"You're lucky then 'cause I know all of them" she smiled. 

"Well, that means we still need... eight more wristbands" I sighed, counting in my head. 

I pointed my wand at one of the wristbands and whispered "Geminio" immediately it flickered and another appeared, then another, until we had enough, I smiled and placed the spare bands in my white clutch. We were careful to stay out of others' way as we made our way down to the lake but no one saw us, which was weird as we could see each other, I had firstly assumed the bands were not working but after passing directly in front of Madame Maxime it was evident that they worked perfectly.

We passed Arya, Azanya and Amie near the carriage entrance, Lucy removed her bracelet momentarily so they could see her and she handed them theirs, instructing them to head for the lake. When we reached the lake, it was teeming with people, quiet chatter was muffled by the whistle of the wind, an odd sight greeted us as four, seemingly disembodied, pairs of feet began walking in our direction, I watched intrigued as they got closer.