NOX° SIRIUS BLACK

Chapter Forty-One

"What?" Calypso gasped, bringing her hand over her mouth. "No way! I used to always tell James that they were the perfect match, but he always insisted they were just friends."

"Didn't you and Sirius dress up as Poppy and Bartholomew?" Dorcas chimed in, but Calypso ignored her because Pandora suddenly shot up from the ground with a determined look on her face.

"What are you doing, Panda?" Calypso asked.

"I'm going to go downstairs right now and I'm going to tell Xenophilius that I like him!" Pandora declared. The girl's raised their brows at their friends.

"Really?" Dorcas asked. Pandora nodded her head.

"It's like Cassandra's mum says: I'll just go with it and see what happens. What's the worst thing he could say? No, right? That's fine. I can live with no. It'll just be humiliating and I'll never be able to look at him again, but I can live with iit." Pandora rambled. She took a deep breath and marched out of the room without another word.

"Wow, is she really going to go do it?" Cassandra asked, sounding impressed.

"No, she'll be back in a few minutes." Calypso said while Dorcas took a brush through Calypso's curls to make them voluminous and bouncy. "But, I'm sure she'll take your advice eventually. Now, how do I look?"

Calypso stood up and looked at herself in the mirror. The light blue dress matched her eyes and it was flowy enough that she could move about freely and dance into the night.

The door to the room swung open and Pandora walked back in, her face red.

"I only made it to the end of the steps." Pandora said, breathing heavily. "I'll do it some other day."

"We know, Panda." Dorcas patted Pandora's shoulder encouragingly. "Now, we have a party to get to."

Dorcas linked arms with Calypso and the pair of them walked out of the room and Ravenclaw Tower to go to the Gryffindor common rooms where they would meet with Lily and Marlene. They lingered outside the portrait of the Fat Lady for the girls to come and watched as the other people passed them by to head to the Great Hall.

Calypso leaned against the wall adjacent to the Fat Lady when the portrait opened and James and Sirius stepped out in the dress robes.

"Don't you boys look handsome?" Calypso teased, catching their attention. A wide grin spread across James's face as he walked up to Calypso, his arms open wide and Sirius chuckled beside him. Calypso allowed James to hug her before she pulled away and fixed his hair.

"Don't touch the merchandise, Talon." James said. Calypso rolled her eyes.

"Oh, please." Calypso said. She turned to Sirius. "I'm surprised you agreed to come with James to one of these things."

"My usual date ditched me, so . . ." Sirius shrugged playfully and Calypso hit him. "Anyway, James was hellbent on having me go instead of Remus, who begged to come, by the way."

"Yes, well, I wanted my best mate to come along with me." James said, clapping his hand on Sirius's shoulder. Calypso and Sirius exchanged a suspicious look with one another before the entrance to Gryffindor Tower opened once more and Marlene and Lily stepped out, each of them looking beautiful. James stared at Lily, stunned, when she walked over to greet Calypso and Dorcas.

Marlene and Dorcas exchanged sweet, shy smiles with one another before they turned to the others.

"Are we all walking there together?" Marlene asked.