1 Unread Message - A Pansmione tale

The Ball - Planning

Pansy's PoV

"Could all eighth years please convene at the library?" Professor McGonagall's voice echoed over the loudspeaker. I groaned and packed away my still unfinished Charms homework and wandered off to the library yet again.

Professor McGonagall stood in front of the beanbags and armchairs once again and spoke, "Sorry for bringing you all here again, but I forgot to mention something about the ball. As part of your responsibilities as Eighth Years at Hogwarts, a group of about ten of you will be tasked with choosing the theme and decorations for the ball. Can I get a list of people who would be interested in participating in that? Anybody who isn't interested may leave now and return to your studies."

I was just about to leave when I thought, If i can't have a girlfriend, I may as well do something interesting in my last year at school. Maybe I can get some of the other people in our year to, if not become my friend, at least not hate me anymore.   I made up my mind and turned on my heel, heading back towards Professor McGonagall. I saw that most of the boys had left, but Ron and Harry had stayed behind, both glued to Hermione like usual, although I noticed that Harry and Ginny were holding hands as usual, their fingers interlaced delicately. I felt a worm of jealousy slip through my intestines, before it passed swiftly and I sidled up to McGonagall, pretending my feelings for Hermione were nothing past 'mutual' dislike.

Professor McGonagall looked at me appraisingly, and muttered, "Good idea, Miss Parkinson," before writing my name on the register. I saw Hermione look at me oddly out of the corner of her eye, and I smiled to myself. Hermione still didn't know that I knew. Then I saw Hermione's eyes well with tears, swiftly disguised with a coughing fit which, had it been real, would have surely brought such tears to her eyes. Part of me felt bad for telling her that I had a crush on someone, but most of me thought it was hilarious, especially after what she put me through. And I even said that she used her pickup lines to make me fall for her . What a silly human.

There was about twelve of us in the group: me, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny, Padma, Parvati, Evie, Elora, Luna, Millie (Millicent Bulstrode) and Dean. I'm not sure that Dean wanted to be there, but McGonagall decided that he would help keep us focused.

We all sat together in an empty classroom designated for us for the next two weeks and began discussing decorations.

"So since it was house unity that ended the war, I was thinking maybe a metallic theme? Because red, green, yellow and blue just don't go together at all, so we could do bronze, silver, gold and black," Hermione suggested, ad I looked away. it was an unspoken fact that many of the Slytherins had not fought in the war, and of those who had most had been on the other side. I didn't want to be carted off home by Mum, but she decided that the battlefield was not safe for me.

"Don't you think that's a little obvious though?" Millie asked, "I feel like we should have something more subtle, that people will really have to think about. And not just blue equals joy, red equals victory and so on, but something really deep."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully and ran off to the library, returning a few minutes later with a book of wizarding colours and their meanings. She opened it up and began to read aloud.

"Red is the colour of victory, anger, pride and bravery. Orange is the colour of jealousy, hatred and war," she paused, "do we want this to be about how bad the war was, how glad we are it's over, in remembrance or in celebration of a bright future?"

That gave us all pause. We all stopped for a few minutes to think, when Ron piped up, "I think we should have it being a celebration of what's to come, along with an acknowledgement of the lives sacrificed for us. So cheerful but with a sad undertone. If we chose our colours right it could add a whole new layer to the event."