She Said What?

Chapter 25: I Blossom Just a Little Bit

A/N: This chapter features the day of the Christmas party, so I hope you enjoy this one. I certainly will be.

Cheers!
X

December 20

6:22 PM
Status: Nervous

Well...tonight is The Evening of Slughorn's Party, at long, long last. Hooray. Huzzah. God bless the Queen. Why hasn't there been a parade yet?

Eurgh. To be honest, I thought this Monday would never come, after all the trauma I have been enduring since the weekend, when I last wrote.

I probably should have expected that – I mean, how could I ask James Potter to a dance and not expect any kind of repercussions to haunt me afterwards?

The moment I told Alice and Livvy about what I'd done, they completely freaked out. Alice did a little victory dance and then they both sat me down to ask me an avalanche of questions. It was the usual girl-to-girl-to-girl nosiness – how did you do it, when did you do it, why did you do it, that sort of thing. I tried to answer their questions the best I could, but there was so much to say and so much they wanted to know – it took us an outrageously long time to discuss it properly.

The end result was basically that Alice did another victory dance and Livvy said I was doing marvelously, I was going to have a wonderful time at Slughorn's party. And I wanted to kill them both.

But they were just the beginning.

Somehow, somewhere, the news that I asked James out leaked and became the subject of gossip yesterday and most of today. Despite the fact that we had ridiculously difficult mock-N.E.W.T. exams to take all day today (which, by the way, were miserable), I had too many people gawking at me between classes and I had to force the truth out of Eleanor Murphy in the bathroom during lunch using my wand and a tube of lipstick (don't ask).

Apparently, what was going around was that I gave James roses and begged him to go to the Christmas dance with me and he made me wait three weeks before saying yes. I don't know who made that up or why they have such an underdeveloped sense of self-preservation, but it wasn't true and I had to keep stoutly informing people of it when they stared after me. That kept some of the tide under control, but I also had to enlist the help of Alice, Livvy, Russell, Frank, and Sirius – Sirius being the most effective because people always listen to what he says. I didn't get a chance to corner James about the controversy, but I assumed he was just as irritated as I was. Why wouldn't he be?

I don't know why people are so meddlesome. I really don't. I mean, James and I are Heads. We're also friends. The prefects can vouch for the fact that we are perfectly civil and friendly and not romantic around each other. Anyone who has seen us together can vouch for that, actually (except Alice, who will have to be locked up in a cupboard someday for her horribly biased accounts). Why is it so entertaining to pretend we are anything except what we are? I have never understood that logic.

Alice and Livvy are bad enough. Alice won't stop squealing when she sees my face, insisting that I am the cutest thing she's ever seen and I am completely blind to how much I am in love with James. Livvy, seeing that Alice's approach is not doing anything except darken my mood, ignores the subject altogether and skips off to be with Russell, leaving me alone with my psychotic best friend. Two days of this has been bad enough – I am so glad I didn't listen to Alice and ask him earlier. I don't think I could take the rumor mill, which is far too convoluted at Hogwarts.

Getting ready tonight was another challenge in itself. I had selected a white skirt and green sweater (my hair could suffice for the red necessary for the season) for the party, but Alice and Livvy insisted it was not good enough. Alice raided my clothes to find something suitable, but insisted I had nothing. Meanwhile, Livvy decided that leaving my hair down was not a good idea at all, and insisted on doing it for me.