Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Whatnot

We only had one more day of class before break, and I was hoping Ron and Hermione would make up soon so she could come to the Burrow too, but alas, how could I be so stupid?

In Transfiguration, we were working on ‘human transfiguration,’ which is apparently the art of changing one’s eyebrows different colors. Hermione laughed when Ron accidentally gave himself an unsightly mustache, and I’m talking laughed at him, not with him. Of course, all of us in the vicinity laughed, it was absolutely ridiculous, but he took the most offence to Hermione’s. This caused him to do a cruel, however accurate, impression of her jumping up and down in her seat every time McGonagall asked a question. By the end of class, Hermione was on the verge of tears and ran out of the room as soon as the bell rang.

I slapped Ron on the back of the head as I passed.

I went back to the common room, thinking if Hermione wasn’t there yet, she soon would be. About halfway, though, Peeves suddenly flew overhead singing something along the lines of ‘Potty lurves Loony.’

Potty lurves Loony? Loony’s obviously Luna, and Potty…right, Harry. Harry loves Luna? He must have asked her to Slughorn’s party.

And sure enough, by dinner everyone knew, and about half the girls in school were sobbing over it. I was sitting with Hermione at dinner, as I had been since she and Ron got into this stupid fight.

“I still can’t believe you asked McLame to go to Slughorn’s party,” I said.

She sighed, “I know, but I had to find someone else, and he’ll annoy Ron the most” she muttered the last part.

“Seeing as he annoys basically everyone, I’d say you’re safe there”

When we’d finished eating, we went down to Harry and Ron to say hello to at least Harry. Parvati and Lavender had just joined them and Ron and Lavender were once again glued to each other’s faces.

“Oh, hi Hermione! Hi Caroline,” Parvati said as we approached.

It seemed like she felt bad about earlier when she laughed at Ron’s imitation of Hermione.

“Hi, Parvati! Are you going to Slughorn’s party tonight?” Hermione asked as I smiled.

“No invite,” Parvati said gloomily, “I’d love to go, though, it sounds like it’s going to be really good…”

“Oh it’ll be a jolly good time,” I said, over-enthusiastically.

Parvati gave me a slightly weird look, then asked Hermione “You’re going, aren’t you?”

Why is there no one left here who gets my humor?

“Yes, I’m meeting Cormac at eight, and we’re – “

Suddenly, with an odd sucking noise, Ron emerged from behind Lavender. Hermione acted as if she hadn’t even noticed him.

“ – we’re going up to the party together.”

“Cormac?” said Parvati. “Cormac McLaggen, you mean?”

“That’s right,” Hermione said sweetly. “The one who almost became Gryffindor Keeper.”

“Yeah, remember how you were the one who prevented that? Great story to tell the grandkids,” I muttered in her ear.

She shot me a look.

“Are you going out with him, then?” Parvati asked.

“Oh – yes – didn’t you know?” said Hermione, with a giggle that sounded disturbing coming from her.

“No!” Parvati was wide-eyed, oh how she loved gossip. “Wow, you like your Quidditch players, don’t you? First Krum, then McLaggen…”

“I like really good Quidditch players,” said Hermione, still smiling.

“Ooh, nice one,” I whispered again, with a smirk.

“Well, see you…Got to go and get ready for the party…” she said.

“Pip pip!” I waved as we left.

At about ten to, Hermione and I were leaving our dorm to meet our dates for the party. I was wearing an above the knee, strapless burgundy dress, and Hermione was wearing a sleevless, pink dress that came about to her knees.

“Please at least try to have some fun, I hate seeing you so glum,” I said.

“I don’t really see how I’ll be able to seeing as who is accompanying me,” she answered.

“And who’s fault was that?”

She scowled.

“Just pretend to get food poisoning half way through, that should do the trick, or would you prefer me to just hex McLame? I truly wouldn’t mind”

She smiled a bit, “Caroline, somehow you always manage to get me to smile no matter what”

I shrugged, “It’s what I do, now run along and just give me this sign behind your back if you need saving,” I pointed three fingers to the side.

“What’s it supposed to mean?”

“Well, I just made it up, but now it means ‘Help, this unsavory bloke is boring me to tears and/or trying to swallow my face,’ good?”

She laughed, “Right, you have fun too, I’ll see you there in a little bit”

She ran off to meet McLame and I went to find Neville. Which wasn’t too hard, as he was waiting right outside the portrait.

“Oh, hello Neville,” I smiled.

“Hi Caroline, you look beautiful,” he smiled back, blushing slightly as he was wont to do.

“Thank you”

“Shall we?” he held out his elbow.

“We shall,” I hooked my arm through his.

When we got to Slughorn’s office, I saw that it was bigger than normal professor’s studies. Whether it was always like that, or had been magically altered, I didn’t know, and the walls were draped with red, green, and gold hangings. The room was cast in a red glow from the lantern in the middle of the ceiling in which bright fairies fluttered. It was also incredibly crowded as well as loud.

Neville and I just hung out for a while, talking to people we saw and saving Hermione from an encounter with McLame’s lips, although he looked pretty determined, so I didn’t know if she’d be able to evade him for much longer. We met Eldred Worple and his vampire friend, Sanguini. Vampires always fascinated me, but he didn’t talk much…or at all, so I could only learn as much as Worple told me.

At some point, Neville went to get a drink and I was making my way through the groups of people, looking for Hermione. I was intercepted, though, by none other than Blaise Zabini.

“Hello,” he smirked, standing a little too close for comfort.

“Uh – hi Zabini,” I said, and tried to push past him.

He just stepped in front of me and put his hand against the wall behind me.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Well, I was trying to get away from you, but obviously that’s not going to happen”

“No,” his smirk still in place, “it’s not”

“So...what are you doing here?”

“I was invited of course” he said.

“I meant, what are you doing here, preventing me from going anywhere?”

“Well I wouldn’t want such a pretty girl to get away, now would I?”

“Are you drunk Blaise?”

He chuckled, and pointed up. I looked above me to see mistletoe hanging from the doorway we were currently under. When I looked back to him, he was leaning down towards me.

“Whoa, slow down fella, I think someone may have spiked your punch”

“Come on, we’re just two people at a party having fun, we can forget the house rivalries and
everything, I just want to get to know the beautiful girl in front of me a little better”

“Ha ha yeah, too bad the beautiful girl has a boyfriend and no desire whatsoever to get to know you better,”

“What your boyfriend doesn’t know won’t hurt him” he said, leaning towards me again and
slipping an arm around my waist.

I tried to pull away, but he was stronger. I had about a second to decide what to do. So I acted on instinct and brought my knee up hard. He immediately doubled over, groaning in pain and releasing me.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, “enjoy the party!”

I slipped through the crowd as fast as I could. Finally, I spotted a tall, brown-haired boy walking towards me.

“Neville!” I said and grabbed his arm as soon as I reached him, “Don’t leave me alone in here again, please”

“Why? What happened?”

“Blaise just tried to kiss me” I said, looking around to make sure he hadn’t followed me.

“Zabini?” he asked.

I nodded.

“Zabini?!”

“Yes! It was so weird!”

“Isn’t he here with someone?”

“I don’t know. I asked if he was drunk, but he cleverly avoided answering. It seems like the only explanation though, you know?” I was looking around again.

“It’s not the only explanation” Neville muttered.

“What do you mean?” I asked and he blushed, realizing I’d heard him.

“Well…I’m just saying, you know, cause I’m a guy too, that – well, especially in that dress and…”

“Neville, are you trying to say you don’t find me repulsive?”

He blushed again, “Yeah, pretty much the opposite really. So Zabini doesn’t necessarily have to be drunk in order to be attracted to you”

I smiled, “You’re sweet, but make sure he doesn’t find me again, okay? He probably doesn’t do well with rejection and bruised…you know”

Neville looked a bit confused, but then it seemed to dawn on him and he laughed, “You kneed him?”

“Yes, but what else was I supposed to do? He wouldn’t leave me alone”

Neville was still laughing, “That’s brilliant”

We ran into Luna after that, talking to Professor Trelawney, who always had something entertaining to say, so we talked to them for a while. Then I got pulled away by Hermione who had finally been cornered by McLame under the mistletoe, and I did my best to help her avoid him for a while.

All in all, a fairly entertaining night.