SMILE » n. longbottom

lxxviii

"THE SLUG CLUB BALL"

Alana Wallace had not been prepared to dress herself for the Slug Club Ball, in particular — she hadn't even been prepared to be in the Slug Club in the beginning, she only enrolled into Advanced Potions because she had nothing better to do.

But, surprisingly, she was terrific in it. Additionally, the rumors surrounding the wealth of her parents, and the good association of her house only solidified her place in the club. She was practically automatically in.

At some point in time, she had bought a dress and accessories at some dusty shop in Hogsmeade that could work for this occasion. But the time had come. Alana walked towards the office of Slughorn, where the club's ball was being held. There were some students talking outside of it, some of the club, some their dates to it. Alana looked through the group of people and saw Jayden Brooks, who was her only viable option as a date, especially since he is her bodyguard.

She wore a floor-length black velvet sleeveless dress, along with a champagne-colored gloves, and a carefully picked white-gold necklace with a daisy pendant that Neville had gifted her at Christmas last year when she visited him at his house.

He pulled himself out of a meaningless conversation, excused himself, said to her quickly, "There you are, let's go," before pulling the two of them together through the doors of the office.

Music and the buzz of other meaningless conversations hummed from inside, and they walked in slowly before finding a barren spot to stand towards the wall of it.

The ceiling and walls had been draped with emerald, crimson and gold hangings, so that it looked as though they were all inside a vast tent. The room was crowded and stuffy and bathed in the red light cast by an ornate golden lamp dangling from the centre of the ceiling in which real fairies were fluttering, each a brilliant speck of light. Loud singing accompanied by what sounded like mandolins issued from a distant corner; a haze of pipe smoke hung over several elderly warlocks deep in conversation.

Alana looked around the room and saw the other Slug Club members with their dates: Ginny and Dean, Ron and Lavender, Hermione and Cormac McLaggen surprisingly, who all stood next to each other just like how she and Brooks had been standing next to each other, she turned to her, "Perhaps some drinks, Jayden?"

He nodded, "Of course. Let me get them." And then he was off through the crowd towards the tables where the food and drinks were being served. Alana looked at the other people in the room, there were the other Slug Club members who talked amongst the crowds, Zabini, the Carrow twins, as well as former members of the Club who attended, a man in a red suit baring a camera, as well as a small and stout man who was talking to a tall man who was already talked about being a vampire, and then just Snape.

Amongst the crowds of people, there was Professor Trelawney, the Weird Sisters amongst the biggest and loudest crowd in the room, as well as Professor Camelia. There were also other people at this ball, the service staff who were holding silver trays of drinks or smaller food, as well as wearing a white button-up jacket with golden buttons and a golden emblem on the breast of the jacket, as well as white gloves, and black pants. Some she barely recognized, perhaps older students of different houses who had a knack for Advanced Potions.

One of the servers had walked through the crowd to the left of her, and had been holding a tray of some drink in glasses. She looked up, it was Neville. She asked innocently, "What is it?" she motioned towards the glasses.

He smiled in a way that only a server would be expected to smile, he said, "It is a fizzy version of a butterbeer, Slughorn calls it a Butter-Spritz." His eyes stared at her, and his face became pink within seconds.

She shrugged at the thought of a Butter-Spritz, and picked up a glass and sniffed it, "Thank you." She noted how pink his face was.

The smell of the spritz hit her. The wine smell in  combination of the butterbeer grossed her out immediately. "Oh my god," she placed the cup back onto the tray he was holding. He grinned again, nodded and walked away to another guest of the party that might like the drink.

Alana's eyes lingered on Neville, and so did his, as it seemed that he would always position himself to other guests so that he could look at her past the shoulders of the guests who would pick from his tray. Alana blushed in response, when she realized what he had been doing, as all she could do in this moment was stare back at him.

"I'm back," Brooks had announced himself. He was holding two glasses of drink that looked suspicious like the same glasses Neville had on his tray.

"That isn't —?" she asked almost before Brooks answered:

"It's Butter-Spritz," he responded.

Alana immediately pulled the glasses out of his hands, and placed it down onto the closest table. She made a gagging motion, "Don't even, I did. Let's look together, shall we?" And so they did, and she walked towards the other side of the room with the food tables where he had just been.

On the table were trays of food and drink such as: Christmas pudding with spoons placed next to it, crumpets, a jug of eggnog, treacle tarts, as well as an assortment of pastries, desserts, and drinks like actual Butterbeer in a barrel supplied by Hogsmeade's Three Broomsticks, whiskies and brandies, which was assumed to be only given out to the of-age members and guests of the club, but they were practically gone and were already being restocked with new glasses by a server holding a full tray.

They each grabbed a mug and filled it with the Butterbeer from the barrel, as well as one of the Christmas pudding to share, and spoons. Alana and Jayden set their mugs and plate on a table, where no one had been. They ate and drank their items in silence, that is — until Horace Slughorn had walked up to them, immediately with a conversation, "Ah, good to see you, my dear Hufflepuff and Slytherin! How are you enjoying your time at the Slug Club Christmas Party?"

"Professor Slughorn, it's an honor to be part of the party! I'm having a great time," Jayden began.

Alana added in, "We're good, Professor Slughorn, the party is wonderful."

"Delighted to have you both!" Slughorn smiled, "Tell me, have you been keeping up with your Advanced Potions studies?"

"Absolutely, Professor!" Alana responded, "Your guidance has been invaluable, for the time being."

"That's wonderful to hear! Dedication is key, my dear," Slughorn then pointed towards the man in the red coat with a camera, "This is Adrian, a former member of the Club, and is now a Photographer for the Daily Prophet."

Alana and Jayden nodded in response, then Slughorn posed between the two of them, and Adrian snapped a picture of the three of them. Then with that quick conversation and photograph, the two of them had left the two students. Slughorn had called out, and was off, "Farewell, you two. Enjoy the festivities."

And just like that, it seemed as though the Slug Club's Christmas Party had ended soon enough after some music had passed, and the party had decreased to the point where the two of them had decided to call it a night and returned to their own dormitories.