Killer Queen (A Marauders FanFiction)

Chapter 10 - Dreamers Ball

Warning(s): alcohol, drugs, swearing, implied sex

Throwing a birthday ball might just have been my best idea thus far, if I did say so myself, and it hadn't even started yet. I was gradually walking through the doors of the Great Hall, embracing my dramatic entrance for every little millisecond that it was worth. All eyes were on me, as they should be since it was my birthday and I bloody love attention, and suddenly I understood what brides must feel like when they walk down the aisle. The train of my sparkling golden gown trailed along behind me, leaving a stream of glitter in my wake. It had been both a style choice and a way to infuriate Filch when he had to clean it up. Have fun with that, you miserable bastard. The Great Hall was decorated from top to bottom in gold, gold streamers, gold glitter, gold balloons. It was akin to the Emerald City from The Wizard Of Oz but, well, gold. Anyone who was anyone was among the crowd watching me, providing they were at least a fifth year; I didn't want little kids at my birthday party, thank you very much. The only ones I would even consider would be Rhea and Luke, but they weren't at Hogwarts yet and right now, I was grateful for that. As far as I could see, everyone had a glass of amber-coloured liquid in their hand, which I assumed was butterbeer for the far majority of people in the hall. Some minuscule part of me wanted to squirm under all of the attention, but I suppressed it as best as I could. I had a reputation to keep up, after all.

You may be wondering how on earth I got access to the Great Hall for my birthday party, and honestly, I can't blame you for pondering such a thing. It had been a complete stroke of luck which had come in the form of good old Minnie McGee. I'd been explaining my plan for the ball to the lads during one breakfast back in September, yes my plans for it have been in the works for that long what are you going to do about it, and Minnie had overhead while she was walking past our usual spot. I'm quite sure she has some kind of hearing superpower, even though that particular sense should be decaying with her old age rather than growing. And just in case you've somehow found this, naturally, I mean no offence, Minerva, so please don't give me another detention I really don't want one please and thank you. She'd then gone on to offer the Great Hall for the party but with three conditions. One, she could go and bring Dumbledore as her 'date', two, we served nothing stronger than butterbeer and three, we actually worked hard for our OWLs which were just around the corner. Initially, we all thought that she was joking but it turned out that she was deadly serious (naturally Sirius had interrupted her with his classic pun) and that she was, in fact, rather looking forward to going to a party for the first time in a while. James had then asked if she was on drugs, because quite frankly this was one of the nicest things she had ever done for us, and she came very close to whacking him upside the head for even suggesting such a thing. But she never actually denied it, so I still secretly think she does weed. I don't know about you, but I can most certainly see it.

Now, as you'd expect, I was rather disappointed at Minnie's suggestion of a near total absence of alcohol, but it hadn't been long before Sirius, always searching for an excuse to drink to the point where I often wondered if he was addicted, had suggested something quite marvellous: an afterparty. Such a seemingly straightforward idea quickly turned into something so much more. We decided to hold it later on in the night in the Room of Requirement, and only the elite people knew about it and, subsequently, invited. And by 'elite', I mean the male specimens I call friends, the females who I love and cherish and a couple of other people. And that was bound to be very much alcohol-fuelled. As long as I had that to look forward to, I could endure a much more age-appropriate evening, just not for too long.

Finally, I reached the platform where the teachers would usually sit during meals, and bear in mind that I had been milking the moment for way longer than necessary, so this did take some time. I cleared my throat for effect before speaking in an impossibly posh voice, "Thank you all for attending my ball this evening. I won't talk for too long because I would hate to bore you to tears, I'll leave that job to Professor Binns. Now, Minnie, don't look at me like that, we all know it's true. Look, even Dumbledore agrees with me and you can't argue with Dumbledore. Moving on, I would like to say a couple of things so entertain me for a moment. One, if any of you are caught drinking anything stronger than butterbeer, then I will happily leave you to face the wrath of our dear Minerva on your own, I have no intention of arguing with any teacher tonight." A few giggles rippled throughout the crowd as well as a few pouty faces from people who were doing a shockingly awful job at hiding mini bottles of firewhiskey behind their backs. It wasn't my problem, I did say this on the invites I sent out, if they chose to go against that then they would deal with the consequences, not me. I continued, "Two, I hope you all enjoy yourselves tonight and remember, it ends at precisely eleven o'clock, which means don't hang around. Frank and Alice, I'm looking at you." The couple in question blushed furiously and Alice gave me a death stare that could rival the one I get from Remus when I gather enough courage to steal some of his chocolate. I then clapped twice to signal the official start of the ball and music began to blast from the speakers I'd linked up to my record player which was enchanted to start playing a record whenever I clapped my hands.