The Best Year...

The Best Year…04

The Ball!

The Great Hall doors opened and they all stood there in awe for the Great Hall didn't look like its usual self. Where the Head Table usually was, there was a stage where the Weird Sisters were getting ready to play. The house tables were no longer there; there was a space in the middle, which was to be used as a dance floor. There were lots of tables surrounding the dance floor, with enough chairs to sit about a dozen. Up by the stage, there was a teachers' table where all of the teachers sat. (Obviously)

Oliver and Alex made their way through the crowd hand in hand until they say Harry and Kayla sitting at a table, waving at them to go over there. "Do you want to dance?" Oliver asked Alex.

"Sure!" Alex said as they made their way towards the dance floor instead of the table. They danced to a slow song that Alex had never heard before. She put her hands around Oliver's neck as he put his on her waist.

"Ohhh! Ollie and Allie!" Angelina squealed as she entered the Great Hall.

"Ollie and Allie, I like that," Alicia said to them. "Oh so cute."

"Allie?" I asked.

"Yeah!" Angelina replied.

"Why Allie?" Alex asked. She was blushing furiously.

"Because they rhyme!" Angelina said again. "Oh, by the way Allie, Ollie fancies you."

It was Oliver's turn to blush. He said to Angelina, "You're dead."

Alicia giggled as she pushed the two closer together. "Bye! Bye! I will leave our two lovebirds alone!" she left to go and sit with Kayla and Harry. "So, how are our two lovebirds doing tonight? Harry? Have you asked Kayla to dance yet?"

Harry blushed. "No, I was about to until I was so rudely interrupted!" Harry said jokingly as he took Kayla's hand and led her to the dance floor. "You look nice tonight."

"I don't look nice every night?" Kayla asked him, a smile tugging at her mouth.

"No, uhhh…I didn't mean it like that…uhhh…I love you?" Harry stammered.

Kayla burst out laughing and Harry blushed. "I-was-just-kidding!" Kayla said in between laughs. Then, she straightened up and asked in a serious tone. "Do you really love me?"

"Yes," Harry said, quite unsure of himself.

"I love you too," Kayla replied smiling.

The song ended and Harry and Kayla kept dancing throughout about four songs. "How many songs have we been dancing through?" Kayla asked.

"I don't know…" Harry said. "Maybe about four."

"Do you want something to eat?" Kayla asked as they headed towards the table where Oliver, Alex, Lavender, Dean, Seamus, Parvati, Ron and Hermione were sitting. They were talking and laughing very loudly. "What are we laughing about?" Kayla asked them as she sat down beside Alex.

"Ollie!" she giggled and then burst out laughing again. Kayla waited a few moments before Alex could breath again and asked, "What is so funny?"

Alex giggled for a moment and said, "Did you ever wonder where Oliver got the nickname Ollie?"

"No…" Kayla asked, not knowing where this conversation was going.

"Well, Angelina, Alicia and Katie got a hold of his baby pictures when they were over at his house for a day last summer practicing Quidditch! Angelina has some of them! Show her Angelina!" Alex burst out laughing again.

Angelina handed the pictures over to Kayla and Harry. They saw baby Oliver, sitting on a big rubber ducky float in one of those muggle inflatable swimming pools. Oliver had a muggle baseball cap on and had a smile where there were only three teeth. "What happened to the rest of your teeth?" Kayla asked Oliver. She too, was starting to laugh uncontrollably.

Oliver smiled and said, "I got into my dad's Quidditch supplies in his room and accidentally set a bludger free and it hit me in the mouth. My mum fixed them though." He said, smiling, showing off all of his teeth.

"Obviously…" Alex said, still laughing. "Here is another one!" She handed Kayla another baby picture.

It looked like the typical picture, he was held on his father's shoulder with his old baseball uniform on. "You played muggle baseball?" Kayla asked.

"Yeah, my dad said that it had a lot to do with Quidditch. The people that hit, yeah, they are good for beaters, the people in the outfield, they are like the Seekers except if they catch the ball, they don't score an extra one hundred and fifty points. But, it does help spotting small things. The people on the bases, that is good practice for Chasers because you throw the ball to each other. The person with the mask on, the one behind the plate, that is good for the Keeper, sort of, because if you have to catch the little ball and not let it get past you." Oliver explained.

Everyone at the table was lost. They didn't understand muggle baseball, well; Harry understood a little bit of it, but not much. They all looked down at the picture again and Harry noticed the look of disgust on baby Oliver's face. "What's with the face expression?" Harry asked Oliver.

Oliver smiled. Then, Harry knew why. The uniform was green. "You didn't like green, even back then, did you?" Harry told him.

"Hated green. And, just my luck, the uniforms were green. And, I think it's safe to say was my last season of muggle baseball," Oliver laughed along with everyone else.

After a good ten minutes of laughing, Oliver and Harry left to go get something to drink for Alex and Kayla. Then, Lavender asked them, "What's the deal with you two and Oliver and Harry?"

"Oh, well, I'm going out with Harry," Kayla smiled.

"What about you, Alex?" Parvati asked, ignoring the looks of boredom on Seamus, Dean and Ron's faces. They all rolled their eyes and got up and left the girls alone.

"Well, I'm not sure. Angelina told me that Oliver liked me, twice actually and one time in front of him and he was like, 'you're dead' and he asked me the Welcome Back Ball. I don't know. He hasn't officially asked me out yet," Alex explained to them.

"Oh," Parvati said as Seamus came back and asked her to dance, "Yeah!" she said, getting up and going towards the dance floor.

Right then, Ron came up to Hermione and took her hand and led her off to the dance floor. Dean also came up and asked Lavender to dance. "What are the chances that all of our friends go off and leave us here?" Kayla asked laughing.

"I don't know, but, here comes Oliver and Harry," Alex said as she straightened her dress robes and made sure her hair was okay. "Hey Ollie!" she said as they sat down with goblets of pumpkin juice for both girls and themselves. "Hey Harry."

"Hi Ollie, Hey Harry!" Kayla said to them, but looking at Harry more then usual.

"Where did everybody go?" Harry asked, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice.

"They went dancing," Alex said, not bothering to see where all of her friends were.

"Oh…" Oliver said.

Kayla looked over at the dance floor and it seemed as if Hermione, Ron, Lavender, Dean, Parvati and Seamus had all stopped dancing and was just standing in the middle of the dance floor, watching the four of them, as if expecting them to blow up any minute. Kayla nudged Alex and nodded towards the dance floor where she too, noticed all of them had stopped dancing. They all saw Alex and Kayla looking at them and hastily started dancing again. Oliver and Harry looked where they were looking and Harry asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Oh, ummm…nothing," Kayla said as she reached for her goblet and took a sip of pumpkin juice. "Well, I'll be right back, my makeup is coming off," Kayla said, getting up.

"Yeah, I'll come too," Alex said getting up and following her out of the Great Hall.

Harry and Oliver watched them leave the Great Hall. "So, Ollie," Harry laughed, "What's the deal with you and Alex?"

"I don't know if she fancies me or not," Oliver explained as he looked over at the door.

"Do you fancy her?" Harry asked curiously.

"Yea…" Oliver trailed off as Lavender, Parvati and Hermione came back to the table.

"Yea what?" Hermione asked as she took her seat.

"Where are Seamus, Dean and Ron?" Harry asked.

"They went to get something to eat," Parvati said as she rolled her eyes and continued, "This will be like…their fourth plate of the night. It's not even ten o'clock!"

They all laughed. Then out of the blue, Parvati asked, "Oliver, do you fancy Alex?"

"Yeah," he answered. Then, he realized what he said and blushed.

Angelina, Alicia, Fred and George were passing by heard. "I knew it!" George yelled pointing at Oliver. "You owe me five knuts, Fred!"

All the girls went into a fit of giggles. After they had all calmed down, Lavender asked, "So, Harry, you like Kayla huh?"

"Like?" Harry asked. "Love."

This made the girls giggle even more. Then, Harry saw Ron coming towards the table, hearing the girls giggle he rolled his eyes and sat down beside Hermione and started eating his fourth plate of food.

Oliver nudged Harry and nodded towards the door to see Alex and Kayla walk through the door, smiling. They came towards the table and sat down in their seats. "Hey Alex," Oliver said to her.

This made the girls giggle even more and Alex looked at them curiously. Hermione noticed this and said, "Oh, sorry. Please, continue."

"Thank-you," Alex said sarcastically. "Hey Ollie."

Oliver blushed and started to laugh, along with everyone else.

Harry put his hand on Kayla's and smiled at her. Kayla smiled back and gave Harry a kiss on the cheek.

The Weird Sisters started playing a slow song. "Do you want to dance?" Oliver asked Alex.

"Yeah!" Alex replied as she got up and followed Oliver to the dance floor. Oliver put his hands on Alex's waist and she put her hands around his neck.

"I wish I had an English accent," Alex said out of the blue.

"Why?" Oliver asked, half laughing.

"Just because. I was born in America so I have an American accent and an American accent is boring but…anyway…don't ask why I just said that. It was getting way to quiet," Alex told Oliver who was smiling.

"Yeah…wow, you must feel like…intimidated with all of these people that have English accents around," Oliver said in his cute Scottish accent.

"Yeah," Alex continued, "but I'm not intimidated by cute guys with Scottish accents!" Alex blushed and looked down at the floor.

"You like my accent?" Oliver said jokingly.

"Yes! I love your accent!" Alex exclaimed.

Right then Angelina came up to them and said, "Awww look at our little Ollie and Allie! They grow up so fast…"

Alex and Oliver blushed furiously as Oliver stepped on Angelina's foot. "Ow!" She exclaimed as she bent over and rubbed her toe. She got back up and whispered to Oliver, "Ask her out."

In reply, he stepped on her other toe. She got the hint and left muttering something that sounded like, "People these days…"

"Anyway…you think I'm cute?" Oliver asked her.

"What makes you say that?" Alex asked him.

"You said and I quote 'I'm not intimidated by cute guys with Scottish accents' huh?" Oliver asked her.

"What makes you think I was talking about you?" Alex said laughing.

"You-you weren't talking about me?" Oliver stammered, looking very embarrassed hurt.

"Yes! Oh my God! I was talking about you!" Alex said laughing.

Oliver breathed a sigh of relief as the song ended. Alex leaned in and hugged Oliver. Oliver, never have been hugged before, didn't know what to do. He followed his instinct and hugged back. "What was that for?" he asked Alex.

"I just felt like hugging a cute guy with a Scottish accent," Alex said jokingly as they made their way back to the table.

The rest of the evening went by way too fast for all of them. Before they knew it, it was midnight and time to go back to their dormitories. Harry and Kayla walked together. "Did you have a good time?" Harry asked Kayla.

"Yes! That has to be one of the best balls I have ever been to! Probably because I went with you…" Kayla said to Harry as they made their way up to Gryffindor Tower.

"I'm so happy today is Saturday!" Kayla told Harry.

"Why?" Harry asked, looking at her.

"Because I want to sleep in!!!" Kayla said as they entered Gryffindor Tower and she flopped onto the nearest couch and took off her shoes. "These shoes are killing me!" She exclaimed.

Harry laughed at her.

"What's so funny? You try walking around for five hours in these!" Kayla started laughing too. Then, she got up, crossed the Common Room and gave Harry a hug. When they separated, Harry asked, "What was that for?"

"Can't I just give my boyfriend a hug?" Kayla asked innocently.

"I'm not objecting or anything, I just want to know," Harry laughed.

"Thank-you," Kayla replied.

"For…" Harry trailed off, waiting for a response.

"Everything, the rose, taking me to the ball, just, everything!" Kayla replied as she made her way up to the third year girls' dormitories. "Goodnight, Harry!" She called down the stairs.

Harry looked around; he spotted her shoes by the couch that she had taken off. He went over and picked up the shoes and went up the staircase to the third year girls' dormitory. He knocked on the door. "Come in!" A voice said.

Harry came in, his hand over his eyes and putting the shoes inside. He heard giggles. He put his hand down and looked into the dormitory. "Wow! This is a lot bigger then the boys' dormitories!" he exclaimed. He stepped inside. "Why do you girls get bigger ones?"

"Because we're special!" Parvati said to Harry as she continued to remove her makeup.

Harry walked over to a decorated box by a bed and began to look through it. He found curlers, curling iron, a hair straightener, all sorts of cosmetics, about twelve different shades of lipstick, lip-gloss, nail polish, nail polish remover, makeup remover, and a bunch of other things he didn't recognize. "What do you use all of this stuff for? If you put all of this stuff on you're going to look like a clown!" Harry exclaimed.

"You don't put it on all at the same time, silly," Kayla explained to him as she sat down on her bed. "We use it to make ourselves look natural."

"Natural? I say again you'll look like a clown if you put all of this stuff on at once!" Harry exclaimed, looking extremely confused, which made him look cuter then before.

"That's why we don't put it all on at one time!" Kayla giggled. Harry dug around in the box. He pulled out an eyelash curler and started playing with it. "Wow! What does this do?"

"It's an eyelash curler!" Kayla replied as Harry started trying to clip his fingernails with it. Kayla, Hermione, Lavender and Parvati laughed hysterically.

Then, they heard a knock on the door, "Girls! It's Professor McGonagall! May I come in?"

"NO!" Kayla yelled. "Not yet!" The door was cracked open but it immediately closed.

All four girls were panicking. Finally, Kayla stuffed Harry under her bed and let McGonagall in. "Hello-uhhh-Pro-Professor Mc-McGonagall," Kayla stuttered.

"Hello Kayla, now, I have class schedules," she said as she headed towards Kayla's bed and sat down.

"NO!" Kayla yelled just as McGonagall sat down.

"What?" McGonagall replied.

"No way! Class schedules already? Wow! That's really…uhhh…fast!" Kayla said sweating, not knowing what else to say.

"Well, classes do start Monday," McGonagall told Kayla.

"Oh…I see…"Kayla whispered under her breath.

"Now, Lavender Brown, come up and get your schedule," McGonagall recited, holding out a piece of parchment.

"Parvati Patil, come on," Parvati reached her hand and took the piece of parchment out of McGonagall's hand.

"Harry Potter, come get your schedule, oops, how did he get in there?" McGonagall said to herself.

Harry made a noise under the bed and McGonagall said, "What was that?"

"Uhhh…mice?" Parvati said uncertainly.

"That didn't sound like mice…let me have a look under the bed," McGonagall said as she got up and started to bend down.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" Lavender screamed. McGonagall was inches away from the floor. She put her head up. "A spider! A spider! A spider!" Lavender shrieked pointing to the closet. "Professor! Kill it! Kill it! Kill it!"

McGonagall straightened up and said, "Miss Brown, it is just a little spider, certainly you can handle it…" McGonagall asked her.

"It's in the closet! Please Professor! Please! It's in the closet!" Lavender pointed.

"Very well, Miss Brown," McGonagall sighed as she went into the closet. Harry got the hint and slipped out from under the bed and started tiptoeing towards the door. He was right by the opened door when suddenly McGonagall turned around. Harry saw and dived behind the door. "I don't see a spider, Miss Brown."

"It's in there Professor!" Lavender continued to shriek. McGonagall went back into the closet and Harry ran out of the girls' dormitory.

"Ahhh…here it is!" McGonagall yelled triumphantly, holding up a very small, but dead spider. "Now, back to course schedules. Harry Potter? Oh whoopsies, wrong stack. How did he get in here? Well, anyway, Hermione Granger, you have lots of courses, come up and get your schedule." Hermione bounded up to her, looking excited and grabbed the parchment and read it with a very happy look on her face. "Kayla O'Connor, here is your schedule," McGonagall said without raising her eyes from the paper. "And, Alexandria Savage."

"She's not here…" Kayla replied, looking over her schedule.

McGonagall looked up immediately. She is roaming the halls at midnight?" McGonagall said with a very stern look on her face.

"She's not here in the dorm!" Parvati exclaimed, not knowing what she was going to say.

"That-Miss Patil-is obvious. Where is she?" McGonagall continued.

"Bathroom?" Lavender said suddenly.

McGonagall exited the dormitories, leaving Alex's schedule on the bed and muttering something like, "Children…I'm glad I was never one…"

"Whew…that was close," Kayla said sitting down.

"Why are you sitting down? We have to find Alex before McGonagall does or she'll get into trouble!" Parvati exclaimed, grabbing Kayla's wrist and pulling her off of the bed and out of the dormitory.

"This is my favorite spot in all of Hogwarts," Oliver said to Alex as they stopped to look at a statue of Godric Gryffindor with a plaque underneath it that read: 'Godric Gryffindor-one of the four founders'

"I thought you're favorite spot in all of Hogwarts was the Quidditch field," Alex teased.

"It is. But I like to come here and think," Oliver explained, as he took her hand. Oliver leaned in for a kiss when suddenly they heard a familiar scream, "Alexandria Savage! Where are you? This is Professor McGonagall! Come here this instant! You are roaming the school at midnight!"

Alex grabbed Oliver's hand and ran down the path until they reached a great big hedge and sat down. "Whew, that was close," Oliver breathed.

"We should wait here a while, just until she's gone," Alex suggested.

"Good idea…" Oliver trailed off.

Alex looked up into Oliver's eyes. Alex leaned in when suddenly she saw a face above her, and it wasn't Oliver's. "Kayla! What the hell are you doing here?" she asked quietly.

"Saving your ass is what I'm doing here!" she said. "Come on! McGonagall's looking for you and if she finds you then you'll be in so much trouble!" She looked around. "Ohhh…I see…sorry Ollie but let's go!"

Alex and Oliver got up and looked around. They saw Parvati, Lavender and a quite anxious looking Hermione. "What's wrong Hermione?" Oliver asked.

"We're not supposed to be out of bed. I'm breaking a Hogwarts School Rule. I've never done that before…if we're caught then it'll go on my permanent record!" Hermione wailed quietly.

"If you keep moaning like that then we will get caught!" Kayla said to her as all six of them started running towards the castle.

Five minutes later, they came to Gryffindor Tower and muttered the password. They went inside and collapsed on the couches. "Whew! That was close!" Oliver heaved a sigh of relief as rubbed his eyes.

"Yeah…" Alex said.

"Well we're going to bed. Goodnight!" Parvati said as the four girls went up the stairs.

Alex sat up on the couch and Oliver came and sat by her. She put her head on his shoulder. She looked up to see Oliver's eyes and leaned in (again) for a kiss when suddenly, the portrait door slammed open and a very mad looking McGonagall came in. "Alexandria Savage! Where have you been?" McGonagall bellowed, walking over to Alex.

"Uhhh…bathroom?" Alex guessed.

"Oh, I should've known…" McGonagall rolled her eyes and turned and left the Common Room.

"Well, goodnight Alex," Oliver said, getting up.

"Goodnight Oliver," Alex said also getting up. They stood there in silence for a few moments. Oliver turned and Alex said to his retreating back, "No goodnight kiss?"

Oliver turned around and smiled. "Well, I've been trying to kiss you all night but twice we're interrupted by a McGonagall that looks and sounds like a rabid dog and once by Kayla…" Oliver trailed off but stepped towards Alex and kissed her.

When they broke off, Alex saw Harry at the foot of the stairs looking at them. "What?" Alex laughed as Oliver put his arm around her shoulders.

"Oh…I was just looking for Oliver, but I decided not to interrupt," Harry laughed as he turned and went up the stairs.

Alex turned around to face Oliver and said, "Goodnight!"

"Goodnight," Oliver said back.

"Oh my God! I love you're accent!" Alex laughed as she headed up towards the third year girls' dormitory.

Oliver laughed and he headed up towards the seventh year boys' dormitory.