𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐑 ❧ sirius black

XVI - A Gut-Wrenching Feeling

After two long nights filled with anything but sleep, Hermione wondered how she was ever going to be able to muster up enough energy to participate at tonight's Halloween dance.

In comparison to yesterday's overthinking, something about planning out her schedule for tonight both eased and excited Hermione. For one, her mind was taken off of whatever thoughts were running through her mind yesterday that brought her anxiety and confusion. She was more at ease with order; Hermione was much more used to performing with a concrete plan in tact. Secondly, she grew excited, more or less, because she knew tonight would be a big night. A big night for exposing Peter, so she hoped.

Thankfully, after a light brunch with her Gryffindor friends, Hermione actually got some decent sleep during her rare early-afternoon nap. And pretty soon, the time came for each of the girls to begin getting reading for the Halloween dance.

Alice was over the moon. Even though she was decked out head to toe in the most beautifully extravagant Juliet Capulet costume, she seemed more eager for Marlene's outfit, even though it was nothing more than a simple black cat costume. Regardless, spirits were high in both Alice and Marlene's department.

Lily, on the other hand, slipped into the stunning black dress that James had spotted the other day at lunch. Hermione helped her pull her hair into a tight bun, put a gorgeous sparkly hairpiece at its base, and finished it off with a large dose hairspray. Accompanied by a large faux pearl necklace and sheen black cloves, Lily easily gave Audrey Hepburn a run for her money. The only thing at gave her away was her bright red locks.

Lastly, Hermione put together her beautifully unique costume and put on some of Lily's makeup for the first time in a long time.

A stream of positivity bounced off the walls of the girls dorm, each girl heavily complimenting the rest on how stunning they looked tonight. And when they left for the dance, not a single girl felt less than gorgeous.

The boys, on the other hand, had costumes that were even more last minute than the girls'. Well, most of them at least. According to Remus, he had his costume in the works for quite a while, and was itching for the night to finally begin. Peter, like the girls, had also purchased a costume from Gladrags' Wizardwear yesterday after they all had eaten. He was quite amused with himself, have picked up a rat mask from the shelf and calling it a day.

The most ill-prepared of the group were James and Sirius, by far. They had pushed it as far back as possible, trying to throw something together on hours before the dance started. Each of them ended up wearing a fancy suit charmed to seem all bloodied up and mangled. Sirius borrowed his from James.

When asked about their current costume situation by Remus and Peter, Sirius and James pretended not to have a care in the world. But a part of them wanted to look dapper and keep up appearances, for something that each of their attractions would explain. Even though it was obvious to the rest that James couldn't get over the little black dress peaking out of Lily's bag from the day before, Sirius kept those type of thoughts to himself.

"So, Moony," Sirius started while Remus zipped up his costume, "what's the news with you and Dorcas?"

Remus firmly avoided eye contact, keeping his gaze straight forward at the dorm room mirror. Not a single word left his mouth before James could add on to Sirius' words.

"It's been well over a month since you last gave us any update on the two of you, Rem," he spoke, hand on his hip like a mother dealing with her incompetant children. And for the first time in a long time, arguably, Remus was that incompetant child.