Pieces Falling into Place -S.B

Ch.18 The Ball ][

We were descending the beautiful, magical staircase and even spotted James and Sirius through the thickening crowd. I glanced over at Lily nervously and she smiled at me encouragingly. It was now her turn to motivate as I took a look around me. Lily was on my right and a few other students, seeing as they had taken the same route, were streaming down like a waterfall. I noticed a few murmurs and excited sounds and thought nothing of it. After we'd made it down we began making our way to the Ballroom through the ever populating cloud of divinely dressed witches and wizards. "Is that her?" "No, it cant be." "She's gorgeous!" As it was not directed at me, I kept moving through the mingling groups slowly pouring into the Great Hall. "Yes, that's her, next to Lily Evans!" My ears suddenly perked. "That's Marlene and Mary's friend!" I glanced around to look to the other side of Lily, confident that I can't have been the person the two Slytherins and the Ravenclaw were talking about. But, oh to my surprise, there was no one neither Marlene, Mary, Lily or I know.

Why would they be talking about me?

"Bloody hell, Raylander!" A boy said to another and I suddenly felt my head reddening.

But my mind was soon ripped away from the students. My mouth would not close. It was the most beautiful sight I have ever had the pleasure to enjoy.
The Great Hall, now also known as the Ballroom or "bloody disco room" as the boys called it, was decked out in front of me. The air left my lungs and my heartbeat increased as I gazed at the spectacle in front of me.

Charming, delightful, graceful, glamorous, gorgeous, ravishing, stunning, bewitching, alluring.

I can not find the right words to describe the room in front of my eyes. I squeezed Lilys hand as she too stood in awe. The Great Hall was at its finest and the ceiling, the most alluring thing, was decked in brown, red and gold leaves tumbling down to softly disappear from slight when reaching a certain length from the ceiling. Around them one could scarcely make out a golden sunset, which was to turn into a starry night. My eyes wandered lower as I discovered the autumn theme and feeling of the dance. Everything was the colour of the leaves falling down and golden, magical cutlery decked the long tables. A feeling of warmth flowed through me and I followed the long line of precisely placed table decor. Next my eyes fed on the beauty of the isle and followed it right to the back, where it broke into a big dance floor. The floor of the isle was covered in leaves which, looking down to my own two feet, were magical, enchanted as well. I gave the dance floor my attention and diverted my gaze from the leaf covered floor. The former was decorated differently to the rest and signalled the start of a hopefully glorious winter.
It was covered in a soft blue haze which I soon made out were small snowflakes, bewitched to move. The light blue, white floor was round and even had fog floating like a ghost on it.

Oh how I love magic.

Pulled out of my trance, I heard giggles from the right. I turned away from the beauty and was met by the grey orbs of Sirius Black. For a split second he stared at me, his look full of ignorance and.... jealousy.

Why would he be jealous?

The Gryffindor himself had girls at all sides, slung to his arm as if they'd fall off any second. Pathetic. And to imagine that I pined after him was quite ridiculous at that moment. He diverted his gaze and I now saw the cause of his jealousy, and I was baffled. Most of the male eyes were on me, and there were some whispers going around. I took a confident stride, took a hold of my dress and lifted my head up high.
A few moments later, most fo the attention had subsided and I looked at Lily. "Right, we need to find Mary and Marlene, Christ knows where Alice's gone off to." Lily crammed in her purse and took out a seemingly blank parchment, decorated on the rim with magic leaves. "What's that?" I looked over her shoulder. "Revelo" Lily mumbled and to my great surprise, ink started to magically appear in swirls. "These" Lily pointed towards the piece of parchment and then to a table. "Are our official seats for the night. "But we may 'move around as we please'." She quoted the sentence on the seating card. "McGonagall gave this to me when we entered." "Ah." I nodded and we moved to the seats. The table, in a row, was covered in what looked like a glass replica mantelpiece. Bellow our golden cutlery, one could scarcely make out the ground below them. It was the same wintery theme as the dance floor. It looked like we were dining on glass. It was all marvellous and got even better when we found ourselves opposite Mary and Marlene. The two had come to meet us in a hurry, wanting to get back to their dates. "I heard that Sybil and Tom are finally together, thank the angels." Marlene said hastily and Mary groaned. "It's taken two bloody years for Tom to ask her out." "Apparently, Beth and Philip are going for a dance." Alice popped up, giggling. "You look awfully cheery tonight, did Frank finally pop the question." Lily sarcastically added as Alice tried hard to look annoyed at her dorm mate. She rolled her eyes and winked at us, waving as she scurried away. Mary and Marlene too said their goodbyes and I let out a sigh. "We're not even twenty minutes in and there's already enough gossip for the rest of my days." "It'll be a long night." Lily laughed and I too cracked up. "It'll be fun." I looked around and noticed that the music had been turned up and there was a gathering at the crystal dance floor.
Earlier this evening we had been informed of the plan tonight and I knew this was the Entree and first dance part. In an hour or so, we'd all be seated again to eat.
I gathered my dress once again and left my chair, pompously standing in front of a giggling Lily. "May I have this dance, my fair lady?" I bowed and stiffled a giggle. Lily gracefully rose from her chair and curtsied. "You may." She took my hand in hers and together we made our way to the dance floor.