If Love is a Game...

Chapter Thirty-One

Punch Drunk Love

After many more slow dances, Sirius and Krystyna had tucked that one part of their first slow dance in the back of their minds for the rest of the night. The slow music turned very upbeat again. They had stopped dancing and were finally getting hungry and thirsty after all that work. When they got out off of the dance floor, Krystyna spotted the others already sitting down at a table. Peter's Hufflepuff dancer was not there. They meandered their way over to the table through a few people. They sat down together.

"Hey, Peter, where's that Hufflepuff girl of yours?" Sirius asked, grinning. His short friend turned a little pink in the face and hid behind the menu that had been lying in front of him seconds ago.

"Michelle is still dancing with some of her friends," Peter replied from behind the menu. Sirius grinned a little and began to peruse his menu for something to eat. He had only eaten the food he'd got at the Three Broomsticks and then ate some candy (it was James's candy) from Honeydukes before the Masquerade. That could definitely not fill up a growing boy, such as him.

"How is the food supposed to be served?" Krystyna asked, looking over at Lily, who was sitting on her left. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all looked over their menus (with the exception of James, who did not have a menu) at Lily, then at each other, and then at Lily again. They hadn't thought about that until now. Lorena was the only one who was still looking at her menu and not at Lily.

"Um... you think about what you want to eat hard and it appears in front of you," Lily told them, peering to the side from her menu at the boys.

"Oh," was all that the boys said. Sirius, Remus, and Peter hid behind their menus again to find what they wanted to eat and Lily did the same. Krystyna picked hers up and began reading the menu thoroughly for a dish she wanted. However, James sat there without a menu. He looked confused and scratched his head. He peered under the table.

"James, what are you doing?!" Lily questioned shrilly, bringing everyone, except Lorena, out from their menus. James had his head stuck under the table skirt and it looked quite odd. Anyone who didn't know his situation might come to the conclusion that he was looking under the table for other reasons. James went to sit up straight, but smacked his head on the table.

"Ouch, damn table!" James exclaimed angrily, pulling his head out from underneath the table and rubbing the back of his head.

"James, watch your language, please!" Lily told him reprovingly, giving him a hard look over. "We're at a fancy Masquerade; would you please act like a gentleman for heaven's sake?"

"Sorry about that, Lil," James replied guiltily, still rubbing the back of his head. She frowned at him and then sighed. She leaned over to him slowly.

"Let me see it," Lily sighed, rolling her eyes. He leaned over to her. She pushed her hands through his already unruly black hair and touched the large knot on his head. He flinched and she apologized to him quickly. She checked again and then sat back straight. He did the same. "Well, it's not bleeding and you're not dying so I think you're just fine. It's just a lump. Now, what were you doing a minute ago?"

"I can't find my menu! It has mysteriously disappeared and now I won't be able to get anything to eat because the menus disappear once you order something!" James answered exasperatedly. Peter looked over his menu at him curiously.

"It does?" Peter asked. James nodded his head. Unbeknownst to them, Peter was trying to think hard about the food he wanted. Pork chops with mashed potatoes and corn suddenly appeared in front of him and they all (with the exception of Lorena, of course) jumped back in their seats from surprise. Peter scooted back in his chair quickly and threw his menu in the air. With a few sparks, it vanished in thin air.

"See, what did I tell you?" James asked frantically. "They disappear just like that--poof--and now I won't be able to eat!" There was silence. None of them knew what to do. Their menus had been in front of their seats when they had sat down. It seemed to be hopeless.

"Un carte du jour, si vous plâit," Lorena blurted from behind her menu. A menu appeared in thin air above her. She reached out and caught it without looking away from behind her menu. She extended it out to a shocked looking James. He took it slowly and she pulled her hand back down to her.

"How did you know that?" James asked, sounding astonished. Lorena suddenly folded her menu up and sat it in the middle of the table. A bowl of Fettuccini Alfredo appeared in front of her and the menu in the middle of the table disappeared with a few red sparks. She looked at James boredly.

"I read in Hogwarts, A History that in the last Ball held at Hogwarts, the menus had to be asked for, but in a different language," Lorena replied listlessly. She picked her fork up and turned her attention to the food in front of her. Sirius scratched the back of his head.

"It sounded like French to me," Sirius noted. She looked up at him.

"That's because it was French, Sirius," Lorena replied dully, rolling her eyes at him. Shouldn't he have known that? Most Pure Blood families wanted their children to learn French for some unknown reason. She swore that she would never subject her children to such torture.

"Oh," Sirius said, nodding his head slowly. Then, he stopped and stared at her oddly. "You know French?"

"Good grief, Sirius, I'm Malfoy's bloody cousin," Lorena replied incredulously, setting her fork down and shaking her head at him. "What do expect a family like mine to do? My mum, Malfoy's dad's sister, and my aunt thought it would be a lovely idea to have some French lady tutor Malfoy and I in French."

"Oh, yeah, that would make sense," Sirius sighed, thinking about it a little more.

"James, you should've had a menu; I got here first. I asked for seven menus and I got seven menus," Lorena told him, feeling slightly frustrated. She harrumphed lightly and frowned. "I don't where it could have gone to. I don't think they can sprout legs and walk away like those books we got for Care of Magical Creatures..."

"This one boy asked if he could borrow a menu and I handed him..." It suddenly dawned upon James why he didn't have a menu. "Oh, yeah, I sort of gave my menu to someone else." He grinned apologetically.

Lorena slapped the palm of her hand on her face and covered her eyes while shaking her head. He could be such a dope at times. "I'm surrounded," she muttered under her breath. Soon, everyone else ordered their food and it appeared while their menus disappeared. That's when they all realized that they had nothing to drink with their food.

"I'll get the drinks," Krystyna said, getting up from her seat. Lily looked up at her.

"I'll go with you, Krystyna, since you can't possibly carry them all by yourself," the red-headed girl told her friend calmly. Lily stood up and they walked over to the seemingly harmless punch table.

James was too busy talking to Lorena about their next Quidditch game (if you don't already know, James is a seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, duh) to warn the girls about the punch. Sirius had already forgotten about it; Remus hadn't heard them because Peter was telling him about Michelle Brant, the Hufflepuff girl he'd danced with.

Krystyna and Lily came back with some red punch. They sat the five cups down in front of their friends and then sat down themselves with their drinks. Sirius took one look at his cup of punch and drained it quickly before he started eating his chicken (he'd always liked chicken for some strange reason). Remus took a drink of it without looking at it and James took a drink, still talking to Lorena about Quidditch. Peter wasn't thirsty at the moment. If this didn't spark the boys' memory, nothing would. And it didn't.

Soon, everyone had their food in front of them and had drunk their punch. Lily had gone to get some more while James began to tell Krystyna about their next Quidditch practice (he was the Captain). Sirius was talking to Peter about his "date" while Remus and Lorena talked about tomorrow's Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Lily came back and they began to drink some more.

James looked across the room when Lily started talking to Krystyna about "girl things"--or so that's what he labeled them. He saw something--or rather someone--that gave him a twisted dare that no one would dare do probably. He grinned and waved his hand in front of Lorena's face rather rudely, cutting her and Remus's conversation short. She looked over to him with a small frown on her face.

"Lorena, I have a challenge for you," James told her. Sirius and Peter stopped talking immediately when they heard these words. They looked at James, who was grinning impishly. "I won't have any problem and I won't tease you if you decide not to give it a test fly."

"What's in it for me besides the possible humiliation?" Lorena questioned automatically. Any dare from James, one of the Marauders, couldn't possibly be any good. He was a shady character at times and this was one of those times.

"I'll give you a good ten gallons and my complete stash of Fizzing Whizbees, if you have the guts to do this dare," James said seriously. Krystyna and Lily stopped talking abruptly and gaped at James. Lorena's eyes widened for the first time since they had sat down at the table. She raised her eyebrows curiously. Peter's mouth fell open. Remus looked at James suspiciously; this was something big--and deeply embarrassing. Sirius began to think of what his friend could possibly have in mind.

"Ten gallons and Fizzing Whizbees... hm," Lorena mumbled to herself. She looked at James calculatingly and heaved a sigh. "Okay, what is it?"

James's mischievous grinned broadened. "I dare you to dance with Snivellus for one song and you have to put the charm on it," he said quite cheerily. This time, both Remus and Sirius's mouths dropped and Lily's eyes widened. Krystyna dropped her fork and it clattered on her plate. Peter leaned in quickly. Lorena, however, was still.

"Let's see; ten gallons, Fizzing Whizbees, and total school mortification or not... Ten gallons, Fizzing Whizbees, and possibly the most embarrassment that will occur in my life or not... Ten gallons and my favourite candy, and a huge dent to my dignity or not...?" Lorena weighed her options and finally came to the simple decision that was clearly obvious. "I'll take the face of shame and embarrassment, Fizzing Whizbees, and ten gallons."

"Are you sure about that, Lorena?" Krystyna immediately questioned. Lorena stood up and touched the back of her head gingerly, as it was hurting. She looked at Krystyna and dropped her arm.

"Yeah, I haven't had any of that candy for so long and I haven't had an allowance for so long either so I'm flat broke," Lorena replied. "My family may be rich, but I guess I don't have the attitude to be rich along with them just yet. I mean, sure, Malfoy might tease me for the rest of my life and it'll probably be brought up in many dinner parties, but oh well."

Lorena gave them a wan smile and walked away from them. Everyone moved in their seats so they could watch her dance with Severus Snape. James was sniggering uncontrollably already. Possibly, he might've already had too much of that punch. Remus didn't seem to like the idea, but kept his mouth closed. They all watched as Lorena walked up to Severus, giving an expression of fake cheeriness.

"Hello, would you like to dance with me?" Lorena asked with a lot of fake happiness. Severus, his arms folded tightly and a bored look on his face, immediately looked to everyone at his side, which was no one since he was standing alone, and then back at Lorena, who was still smiling at him. He looked at her guardedly and pointed at himself.

"Are you... are you talking to me?" Severus questioned her warily. No doubt he was afraid that she might explode on him again like she had done at Hogsmeade earlier today.

No, I'm talking to the invisible guy to your left, Lorena thought sarcastically, holding back the urge to roll her eyes at him. Yeah, who else would I be talking to?

Lorena forced a pleasant smile on her face and nodded her head slowly. "Yeah, I mean, you just seemed all lonely over here by yourself, not dancing with anybody, so I thought I'd just try to cheer you up with just one dance maybe," she said coyly. She flashed him a brilliant, shy smile and his eyes widened. And then, she frowned and gave him a very disappointed look. "But if you don't want to dance with me, I'll understand..."

Lorena looked at her shoes sadly and then her eyes looked back into his eyes swiftly, very imploringly, with a bashful smile on her face. His eyes widened even more. Who knew a girl you could be afraid of for one second could look so cute the next second. Hey, how could he resist a face like that? It would be very difficult. Then, he wondered what Lucius might say to him: "You danced with Lorena? You danced with my cousin?! And she asked you? And she didn't kill you?! You didn't mess with her drink, did you, because if you did..."

No matter how much Lucius had denied it--no matter how much he dismissed it and laughed it off--no matter how stubborn both Lucius and Lorena were--Severus knew that deep down, Lucius did still care about Lorena's well being, even if they didn't get along one bit. Lucius had never had a little sister and he'd always been paired up with Lorena, who was younger than him, so she was pretty much like the little sister he never had.

No matter how much Lucius said it was impossible, Severus knew that if any boy did anything to harm Lorena, that guy would have hell to pay. He'd seen his friend get really worked up when he saw her walking around with Remus Lupin. He'd grind his teeth and was positively flaming with fury. Though he'd later deny it, every time he saw them together without Krystyna in sight, he would start ranting on and on how Remus was up to no good being with her and how he wasn't good enough for her. Deep down, Lucius still cared about Lorena. If he did anything to her, he would never see the light of day again.

And no matter how much he, Severus, tried to ignore it, he couldn't help but think that Lorena was a very attractive teenage girl. He sighed and looked at her shrewdly. "Fine, I'll dance," Severus sighed, trying to sound as if he really did want to when he did. She smiled brightly.

"That's great and--oh, wonderful--this is one of my favourite songs!" Lorena exclaimed happily. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him out onto the dance floor quickly. She was going to get this over with very quickly. They got in "dance positions" and she immediately felt uncomfortable.

Bloody sodding hell, I really wish I would've taken the "not" choice. Me and my stupid greed! Ten gallons and some of the best candy in the world are not worth world class humiliation! Lorena thought when she began to see a few people look at her as if she was crazy. Or is it...? Oh, whatever; I've been disgraced plenty of times. Like the fact that Malfoy's my cousin. Just think; I'll have to live with that forever. Damn.

It took all of the self control in the world for her to keep a straight face with Severus's hands on her hips as they danced. It was just her luck that Lucius came dancing around with his partner. She pulled Severus behind some other people hastily. She moved again because she saw Rodolphus Lestrange. Now, if he saw her dancing with Severus Snape, he'd somehow force her to dance with him and that was definitely not going to happen.

I never thought I would have to dance with Snape--again, Lorena thought rather miserably. When she was younger, their parents had made them dance together at a dinner party. Well, at least he's a lot better than he was then. He's not stepping on my feet.

Soon, the song ended and they quickly parted, walking to the other side of the room where Severus had been before Lorena came along. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away hastily. She sighed and looked at her shoes, thinking of what to say next. She looked up at him.

"Well, I hope I made your night a little better and I'm sorry about this afternoon; I was a little worked up because of this Masquerade," Lorena said cheerily. He looked at her and gave her a small grin. "Well, that was a better dance than we had last time, wouldn't you say?"

"Yeah, much better," Severus replied hastily, nodding his head slowly. He seemed to be more at ease with her now after they had danced and she was being really nice. This was strange. One moment she's screaming at him and the next she's smiling and dancing with him. The world was turning upside for sure, he surmised.

"Well--er--goodbye, see you in class tomorrow," Lorena chirped with a fake smile. He bid her goodbye and goodnight before she walked across the dance floor back over to the table where James and Sirius were howling with laughter. Peter had a napkin over his mouth because it was full of food and he was sniggering. Remus was frowning and trying not to scowl. Lily was shaking her head and Krystyna was trying her best to keep a straight face.

"Never again," Lorena simply muttered, sitting down in her seat. She shook her head jerkily. "I will never dance with him again. James, I want my ten gallons and Fizzing Whizbees first thing tomorrow." James nodded his head, still laughing. Lorena took a large drink of her punch.

One innocent cup of punch became two and soon, two became three, and now...they had passed six cups of red punch, none of them noticing their change in tongue colours and how oddly everyone was now acting.

"Hello, James, are you paying attention?" Sirius questioned, waving his hand speedily in front of James's blank eyes. James did absolutely nothing. "James, listen to me!" He slapped his friend out of his reverie and he immediately looked at him.

"What was that for?" James demanded angrily. Sirius pulled his hand back.

"Peter's telling us a funny story about Malfoy tripping his partner on accident, dear," Lily told him calmly, putting a hand on his shoulder. James looked at her, nodded his head, and then looked at Peter, who was looking at him. Lily looked at Peter. "Okay, you can continue now."

Peter looked a little nervous, but continued with his funny tale, nonetheless. "Okay--er--as I was saying, Malfoy--"

"You have a purple tongue!" James blurted out loudly. He began to guffaw cheerfully. "Peter has a purple tongue everybody!"

He pointed at Peter and then held his stomach because it was beginning to hurt, he was laughing so hard. Everyone looked at Peter. Sure enough, he had a dark purple tongue. Krystyna started chortling softly when she hiccupped. She stopped laughing and hiccupped again and again.

"Oh, no"--Krystyna hiccupped once--"I have the"--she hiccupped again--"hic"--she hiccupped three times in a row--"cups." She put her hand to her mouth when she continued to hiccup. This caused a loud uproar from James. She took a long drink of her punch, but was still hiccupping, much to her dismay.

James was laughing so hard and leaning on the back legs of his chair that it slipped from underneath him and he fell backwards onto the ground. Lily gasped and bent down to see if he was alright. Sirius started chuckling at James when he suddenly gave a very loud belch. This caused Lily to sit up straight.

"Sirius Thomas Black, where's your manners?!" Lily shrieked shrilly. Sirius started to laugh even harder while Krystyna was still having problems with her hiccups; she had ran out of punch and that was the only way she knew how to get rid of the hiccups.

"Oh, great"--Krystyna hiccupped--"I ran"--she hiccupped twice--"out of pun"--she hiccupped suddenly and it nearly made her jump out of her seat, it was so hard--"punch."

"I'll go get you some more, Krystyna," Lorena said calmly. She stood up from her seat. She took one step and the strap on her shoe broke, causing it to fall sideways on her foot and making her fall to the ground in a rather violent crash. "Damn! My bloody shoe broke!"

Lily looked up from James; pulled her wand out; and pointed it at Lorena's shoe. "Repairo!" The shoe was immediately fixed and Lorena put it back on. "There you go, all fixed."

"Thanks, Lily," Lorena sighed, putting her hand on her chair and pulling herself up. She saw that Krystyna was still hiccupping. "Now, I'll go get that drink for you, Krys." She walked for the punch table somewhat clumsily since the world around her seemed to be spinning now. But, as obstinate as Lorena is, she ignored the fact and poured some punch, at first missing the cup.

"Oh, damn again," Lorena muttered to herself. She pointed her wand at the mess and said, "Scourgify! There, it should be clean now." She filled another one up (this time making it) and walked back to the table, feeling slightly light-headed and dizzy.

Lorena gave a (still) hiccupping Krystyna one of the cups and sat her cup down on the table. She went to sit down, but missed her seat completely and fell on her butt. And since she was on the ground, she could see James on the other side on the ground from underneath the table, laughing uproariously. Still quite able to be angry, she shot James a glare underneath the table.

"That wasn't my fault!" Lorena said angrily, shooting daggers at him. "Someone pulled my chair out from underneath me!" She grabbed a fallen napkin and threw it at him pointlessly. It was only then did she realize that not only were James and Sirius laughing, but another boy behind her. She looked around and saw that the perpetrator was--

"Malfoy, you twit, why did you do that?!" Lorena yelled angrily. "Out of all of the lousy, no good, dirty rotting, snide boys, it had to be you, Lucius Malfoy, my God forsaken cousin, didn't it?" He smirked very cheerily and nodded his head quickly.

Normally, he would probably be taking off right now. Actually, normally, he wouldn't have done a thing like that. But he wasn't normal right now. He'd had ten too many cups of green punch. She jumped to her feet as fast as she could in her dress--not to mention high heels, which she was definitely not used to at all. She wobbled slightly, pointing her finger in the air. He looked a little alarmed, finally considering the fact that her usual anger might be ten times worse after a lot of punch.

"Why don't you stink your--"

"Hey, it's not my fault you're a clumsy idiot!"

"How dare you call me that, you jerk wad of a cousin, who--"

"Calm down, you might blow your top off for everybody to see!"

"Oh, look who's talking with that--"

"You dare call it a--a--that's it, Lorena, I've had it with you and your remarks about my hair!" Of course, the most dastardly thing to say about Lucius was something bad about his hair, for which he has a freakish obsession to make it look perfect. He was about to slap Lorena when someone caught him by the wrist.

"Don't you dare lay a hand on Lorena," Remus snarled coldly. The two glared at each other heatedly, leaving Lorena in between them rather uncomfortably. She looked helpless. James had finally pulled himself to his feet and saw back down in his chair to watch the scene unfold.

Sirius squinted and had a fleeting thought to steal James's glasses so he could see, but then remembered that he didn't need glasses because he had 20/20 vision. Krystyna went silent and Peter gawked. Lily was worried that with all this strange activities happening around them, Remus might do something...dumb.

Sure enough, Lucius Malfoy decided he was not going to let this guy tell him what to do. Lorena, though usually the one to scream and kick, was beginning to think that something bad was going to happen if anything happened at all. "I wasn't going to smack her, Lupin," Lucius said calmly, glaring at him.

Remus snorted, causing Lucius's glare to get more furious. "Oh, what were you going to do then? Pat her on the head, say goodbye nicely, and walk away?" Remus retorted hotly. No good was going to come out of this, Lily surmised. Remus eyes became slits; Lorena definitely knew something bad was going to happen now--she could literally feel the heat coming from Remus and that was not a good sign. Lucius, in turn, was positively raging.

"You know, you don't have to protect her all of the time," Lucius said icily. "You act like you own her or something, which I doubt you will since everything you own are rags and she is definitely not a rag." That did not go down well with Remus. Red slowly crept upon Lorena's cheeks.

Things can't possibly get any worse than they already are, Krystyna thought. Well, she couldn't be more wrong. She watched the scene unfold from the table, slowly sinking lower in her seat. It did not help the fact that both Remus and Lucius were a little--dare I say?--tipsy.

"Well--er--it's nice of you to finally notice that since you treat her like one!" Remus replied angrily. "And I know she doesn't need any protecting. I know she can kick your arse any day--any time--any where. Why do you care so much anyway?"

"She is my younger cousin, you know," Lucius drawled idly, "or maybe you, being as thick as you truly are, haven't figured that out yet after six and a half years."

"Look who's talking about being thick; it takes one to know one!" Remus spat crossly. "I've been wondering the same thing since you obviously don't treat her like your cousin!"

"I haven't done a single thing to harm her, thank you very much," Lucius replied smoothly, crossing his arms across his chest. Lorena rolled her eyes. Remus snorted and Lucius's glare hardened.

"Yeah, and I'm a Snarflegork," Remus chuckled derisively. Lucius didn't seem to appreciate that. "At least I care about her more than my hair!" Lorena put her face in her hands immediately because of the major blush that had fought its way up her cheeks and because she was crammed between Lucius and Remus, who were probably about to get into a fight.

And although Krystyna's mind was shouting, "Beat him up, Remus! Please, beat him up!" she didn't want Lorena to be caught in the middle of the fight. Lucius had had it with Remus and he was going to make sure that he got Lorena away from him too.

"That's it, Loopy, I've known it from the beginning, you're the reason Lorena and I don't get along so much! It's your bad influence on her! But I've had it with this!" Lucius exclaimed furiously. He grabbed onto Lorena's arm and jerked her away from Remus. "C'mon, Lorena, I'm getting you away from this crazy guy immediately."

Lorena pulled back a little. "But I don't want to leave now, Malfoy," she replied firmly. "And Remus is not a bad influence on me; you are! I don't like you because you're evil!" He pulled on her harder. Normally, she would've easily been able to stop him, but she wasn't as elegant when she was in awkward high heels and was still feeling dizzy.

Suddenly, Remus grabbed her other arm and pulled her to him. "Maybe she doesn't want to be dragged away with you!" he told him spitefully. "Maybe she'd rather stay here with us!"

"Yeah, and maybe Potter might get a brain," Lucius snorted sarcastically. James didn't appreciate that comment one bit because he stood up quickly.

"Hey, I have a good sized brain, I'll have you know," James yelled angrily. Lucius didn't pay him much attention. Krystyna sunk lower in her seat. So, the night had gone from perfect, to sad, to cheerful again, and now to mayhem. Lucius Malfoy could ruin her life and her last romantic night with Sirius. Her hate for him deepened to the darkest depths. She could only imagine what Lorena was thinking at this moment, being pulled by her cousin and her...Remus.

"She's my cousin and she's coming with me because I know best for her!" Lucius said loudly, tugging on Lorena to him. "And you're not good enough for her! You're only going to bring her down!"

"You know best for her? Don't make me laugh!" Remus growled madly, pulling Lorena closer to him. "Oh, I'm not good enough for her and I'm going to bring her down? You don't even deserve to be her cousin and you're bringing her down!"

"Will you shut that overly large trap of yours for once, Loopy?" Lucius snarled angrily. Remus was about to say something back when Lorena had found that she had had enough.

"Hello, will you stop fighting over me? You're both going to pull me apart if this keeps up!" Lorena snapped loudly to get their attention. It worked; both Remus and Lucius stopped pulling on her and everyone just gaped at her in shock. Her shouts were immediately followed by silence between the eight of them.

Lorena took a deep breath and pulled herself out of Lucius's grip. She pointed a finger at him. "You, go away"--she turned to Remus--"you... um... just sit down and cool off"--she looked at James, who was still standing up and looking irately at Lucius--"you... sit down and lay off of the punch."

It was strange. He was silent. Lucius gave Remus and James a glare. He then proceeded to glare at Sirius, who was looking idle and had his arm around Krystyna, and smirk at Krystyna, who wasn't looking at him but at Sirius affectionately. He glanced at Lily, who was giving him an accusing look, and then at Peter, who was squabbling with his knife and pork chops; determinedly not looking at him. He gave Lorena, who was looking at him fiercely, a rather odd look and stalked away. Lorena sighed and sat down in her seat while Remus sat down slowly. Lily pulled James down in his seat.

"Well, that was certainly...different," Lily sighed, trying to break the awkward silence. Lorena suddenly stood up and rubbed the back of her neck.

"You know what, I think I'll go to the bathroom for a sec," Lorena noted calmly. Everyone gave her a worried glimpse and she rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to have another emotional breakdown! I have to go, okay?" She grinned at their apprehensiveness and walked away slowly. Remus scratched his head and sunk in his seat when James and Sirius gave him funny looks.

"Too much punch," they thought they heard Remus muttered as his face turned red. Peter glanced at everyone at the table, chomping away at his food. Sirius kept a protective arm around Krystyna as he shot a backward glare at Lucius from another table. He looked at Krystyna softly. They began to talk again, although Remus was silent.

When Lorena came back with a large grin on her face, everyone wondered what could possibly make her look so jovial. It was only when did she explain what she heard in the girls' toilet that they realize what had raised her spirits up. Narcissa Black had been stood up by her date, Lucius Malfoy, and was now sobbing in the bathroom. Although Lorena did have some "comforting" words to say, Narcissa hadn't been too nice to her after she said them.

"I don't know what her problem was, honestly," Lorena said thoughtfully. "She was over there by the mirror, sniveling and drying herself up like a great prune, and I told her that 'it didn't matter if Malfoy stood her up or not because he's a jerk and wasn't her type anyway'. She told me to buck off and...die. Well, it rhymed anyway."

Everyone laughed and drank some more punch. Soon, things began to simmer down, until the dance music came back on and they felt like dancing again. An overly cheery Remus had dragged Lorena onto the dance floor before everyone else went, much to their amazement. Sirius felt like dancing some more so he took Krystyna over. Lily and James were talking, but soon came to the dance floor. Michelle had once again found Peter.

They danced for what seemed like hours, happiness spreading throughout them like wildfire. And for once, Krystyna forgot that she was going to have to break up with Sirius in just two days. She forgot everything except that she loved Sirius and that she was in bliss. She felt like nothing in the world could go wrong and that everything was right. Krystyna felt on top of the world, and Sirius was right there with her.