The Christmas Ball: A Marauders Story

The Day Of

It was the day of the Ball. I was overjoyed that it had finally come! Most people (especially the girls) were very excited for it, but I think I can rank myself in the top ten people in the whole school who were the most excited. The day started off and it was clear it was not a normal one. I woke up in the fourth year's dormitory, having spent the night, and we all, except Libra, got up squealing and talking about our dresses and who we were going to dance with and how many dances we were going to dance in at all. We got dressed in our usual Saturday clothes and prepared to go down to breakfast. We went down together in a group and realized we were not the only ones. When we arrived at the Great Hall, we saw that all of the tables were split almost evenly into boys on one end and girls on the other. After commenting and laughing about this, we went and sat down. I really wanted to go sit next to James and especially Sirius, no I mean especially James (remember, there is nothing between me and Sirius), but when I made eye contact with James, he smiled and gave me a look that meant I should stay where I was. I had to convince Libra to stay with the girls, she never really wanted to hang out with us, but I managed to grab her before she walked past.

The ball wasn't until right before dinner, so we had lots of time to kill. All of us girls took a long time to eat breakfast, just like everyone else. I guess everyone was too busy talking about tonight to focus on eating. When we were done, however, Libra and I managed to escape from our friends and make our way over to the rest of the Marauders. When we sat down, Sirius looked up at us in feigned surprise.

"Girls! On our end of the table! Oh how dreadful!" and he proceeded to pretend to faint into Remus.

I jokingly punched him in the arm, "Oh ha-ha! We would have come over sooner, but we were too busy talking to my friend, you know, Lily Evans? She's very nice, maybe I could introduce you guys sometime, I think you all would get along smashingly."

"Honoria!" said James, a look of mock anguish on his face.

"Well, it's your fault she didn't want to go with you!" I told him, but I could tell he was not enjoying our conversation, so I quickly changed the subject to something more enjoyable, "Do you guys even have plans for what you are wearing or are you just going to wing it?"

"Wing it of course! Why would we plan anything!" James laughed; I could tell he was grateful for the change of subject.

"Well, you might be winging it, James," interjected Sirius. "but I have a date. Did you hear that? D-A-T-E date. I have to make sure I am matching with her."

I punched Sirius in the arm again, he was not helping me change the subject, "Isn't it a little late to be coordinating outfits? And besides, I'm not going as your date, we are going with our friends."

"Don't let McGonagall hear you say that!" he said. "She'll kick you out of the party! You are going to have to pretend you are my date for the whole day, then we will drop the charade, deal?"

"I didn't realize we were making deals, but okay," I said, inwardly jumping up and down with excitement.

"So what are you wearing? Any flowers I could match you with?" Sirius insisted.

"How are you going to get flowers this close to the ball?" I asked him.

"Easy! The greenhouses!"

"You are not stealing flowers just so we can match!"

"Would you two drop it already!" Libra caught our attention.

We looked around and saw that our friends were staring at us and I had no idea how long we had been arguing. I had completely forgotten that the rest of them were even there. That would not be acceptable tonight! I had to remember that showing too much attention to Sirius would result in some hurt feelings on James' end.

"Alright fine! I'll stop trying to be nice!" said Sirius. "Besides, I already know, Libra did some snooping and found roses in your room, so that better be what you are wearing."

"Libra!" I tried to sound outraged, but it was very difficult. Sirius and I were going to be matching! This was going to be a very hard night for me to keep my composure. "Alright, yes I am wearing roses, but did you get enough for everyone? It would be fun if we were all matching!"

I could tell this was not what Sirius had had in mind, but he nodded, "I guess there would be enough for all of us boys, not for Libra though!"

"That's fine, I already planned on having roses too!" she countered.

"So much ball talk!" James put in. "Do any of us actually care what we are wearing?"

I did, but I just agreed with the others when we all said in unison "No way!" and "Definitely not!" James suggested we should all go out on a walk before lunch time came around. We all agreed and got up to walk out of the Great Hall. Sirius put his arm around me as we were walking towards the large doors and I felt some sort of leaping in my stomach. His arm was still around me as we walked past the Gryffindor girls and their looks of envy were just an extra reward for me.

Sirius knew better than to continue with this behavior after we had left the Hall, so he removed his arm and started talking about good pranks to pull at a school ball as if nothing had happened. James was a little hesitant to join in but after a while we were all laughing about some grand idea he had involving a certain Mulciber ending up in a punch bowl. Even Remus thought that was funny.

After a couple hours, it was getting close to lunch time so Libra and I left the boys to go to my empty classroom on the first floor so I could drink my potion. After a couple minutes of Libra standing guard outside of the door, I fixed my disheveled hair, and we prepared to go to lunch. This time we sat with the boys, one could only stand so much girl talk, you know. I decided to sit next to James this time so as to keep him happy until tonight, when I knew Sirius would make me sit by him the entire time.

We had been a little late to lunch, so after maybe half-an-hour, everyone was shooed out of the Great Hall and told that if anyone was not done eating there would be more food in the side hall. As we were all done, we decided to leave. I was thinking about how I wanted to head back to the common room to change into my dress, but how everyone would make fun of me if I left this early, when Lily Evans actually walked up to us. This was very unusual considering she hated James and I was standing right next to him; James immediately ran his hand through his hair to ruffle it up. I was internally begging him not to say anything, but sibling telepathy only works so well.

"Did you change your mind about tonight, Evans?" he asked her.

Oh, James... Really?

"No I did not Potter, and I would thank you to stop asking me," she retorted. The way she talked to James always made me admire her even more. "I actually was hoping to not have to speak to you while I came over to talk to Honoria and Libra." Turning to us, she asked, "Do you girls want to come get ready with us?"

I really did, but I didn't want to say that, so I just told her, "Sure! We'll catch up to you in a bit."

"Alright! See you later then, Nori, Libra!" and with that she ran off to join the rest of her friends.

There was one who was looking at Sirius with a hint of longing in her eyes and when he saw this, he proceeded to put his arm around me again as we walked away. I saw her out of the corner of my eye, quickly turning around to hide her embarrassment.

"We should go join them soon, Libra," I said, after we had walked for a bit. I stopped her before she could retort, "Even if you don't want to, you need to become better friends with those girls anyway, especially Lily."

I stuck out my tongue at James clearly mocking him for fawning over Lily, but I quickly released myself from Sirius' arm and went over to give him a hug, smoothing his hair down as I did so, just to annoy him. I shouted a quick "See you later!" at the boys and grabbed Libra's arm to drag her off to the common room to find Lily.