I came here to be a dance announcer and I honestly feel so attacked right now
FRANK: It had been a great night.
Everybody loved the karaoke idea. Not to be vain, but I loved it too. It was probably one of the best things I'd ever thought of. Music brought people together. As I watched people dancing from the stage, it was simply amazing to see the walls that the songs were breaking down.
Whether it be a popular wizarding hit or a famous muggle song, everybody danced. The muggleborns and half-bloods taught the pureblooded folk various line dances to popular songs. I'll admit, it was entertaining to see the Hufflepuffs step up and teach the Slytherins cotton eye joe.
After a while, I couldn't help but notice even more wonderful things. Nico and Will had started a revolution by dancing together. Since then, wherever I looked people were dancing together without a care. Girls and girls, guys and guys, everybody with everybody. I'd even caught eye of a hesitant Gryffindor boy asking a Slytherin girl to dance. They were the second power couple of the night.
Speaking of power couple, it was almost time to announce the awards. Dumbledore had requested that the prefects try their hardest to unite all blood statuses tonight, since there had been so much unfortunate divisions in today's society.
I decided to incorporate a bit of a stereotypical muggle school dance tradition with tonight's ball. Each prefect came up with a different idea for a yearbook-like award.
I'll just give a quick summary of the next few minutes. I announced away after award. The recipients stood on stage as Colin Creevey took their pictures, since he had so eagerly volunteered to do so.
This award was for the best pranksters. The boy recipient was a tie between Fred and George, while the girl's award went to Ginny Weasley.
Next up was kindest boy and kindest girl. The boy's award went to me. It was a bit awkward handing myself an award and shaking my own hand, but it resulted in laughs so I was fine with it. As for the girl, the award went to Natalie Pierce. She seemed thrilled to get a picture with me.
The most likely to fall off their broom award went to Harry Potter and Annabeth Chase. People were still talking about how she had missed the snitch at the Ravenclaw/Gryffindor match. As for Harry, that was self-explanatory. With breaking his arm in his second year and the dementors in his third year, it was obvious he'd get it. Funnily enough, Annabeth was nowhere to be found--which was probably a good thing. She would have been quite embarrassed to have received this award. The weird thing was that Harry wasn't there either.
Next up was best dressed of the night. That award went to Hazel Levesque and Lee Jordan. Lee was wearing a light up tux with what were practically clown shoes, no doubt done as a dare from one of the twins. He took the award with pride, while Hazel was nowhere to be seen.
Most likely to crack a pun in an awkward situation, (yes, these were very specific awards) went to Leo Valdez and Susan Bones. No surprise there.
Best singer went to Will Solace and Natalie Pierce, since they were two of the four people who sang tonight. Between Leo's rendition of Selena, my duet with Will, and Will and Natalie's killer vocals, it was obvious they'd win.
The best dancer award went to Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, which was done as a bit of a joke. Still, they took the awards with smiles.
Most likely to succeed went to Piper McClean and Jason Grace. Piper stepped on stage her took her award with pride while Jason was nowhere to be seen. As she received the award, I pulled her aside.
"Where is everyone? I've announced them all and they haven't shown."
Piper hesitated.
"When you're done announcing, find me. We have a situation." She looked alarmed, but she insisted that I keep announcing. So, I did.
Best hair went to Lavender Brown and Professor Snape. Since the professors weren't at the dance however, we decided to give the trophy to him in potions tomorrow.
Next up was another joke award, best pet. Each house was awarded one award. For Gryffindor, Hermione's cat one. It was well-known throughout their house. For Slytherin, a bunch of people put in Draco Malfoy's name, referring to last year when he had been turned into a ferret. I announced it, very well knowing Draco wasn't allowed at the dance. People laughed all the same. For Ravenclaw, Luna Lovegood won. Probably because of all of the imaginary creatures she claims are around her. And for Hufflepuff, it was Hazel Levesque's niffler, Robin. Neither Robin nor Hazel were anywhere to be seen.
The last award, the most important of the night, was best couple. This was essentially the royalty of the dance. However, we didn't necessarily refer to it as 'king and queen,' because not every couple at Hogwarts consisted of a boy and a girl.
"And best couple of tonight goes to...Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley."
"IT'S ABOUT TIME!" Fred Weasley shouted. George cheered, starting the chanting from the Gryffindors. Their entire house voted unanimously for Hermione and Ron. I should know, I counted the votes.
Finally, awards were done. Ron and Hermione received their crowns and the couples joined them in the dance floor for the last slow song of the night.
"Hello, Frank." Natalie approached me. She'd been a bit clingy all night, though I don't blame her. It was probably annoying having me have to announce something every five minutes. Natalie didn't seem bored though, she must have always found somebody to talk to or somebody to occupy her time while I announced.
"Hey, Nat. Have you seen Hazel by chance?" I gestured towards the awards on the stage. "She revived multiple awards and she isn't here."
"That's so rude, isn't it?" Natalie said solemnly. "All of the prefects worked so hard planning those awards and making up the trophies! Yet, some people thought they were simply too good to receive them."
"I don't think it was particularly rude. What if something was wrong?"
She snickered.
"Oh, Frank. Always thinking of others. Those who didn't step up to get an award are probably off snogging in a corridor. Think about it, who didn't come up?"
I though on it.
"Annabeth, Hazel, Will, Harry, Leo..." I trailed off. All of these people were involved in my current situation. Something was wrong.
"I need to find Piper, I'll be back."
Natalie stamped her foot. This sudden outburst surprised me. She'd always been a pretty mellow person around me.
"First you talk to Hazel and compliment her dress, now you're off searching for Piper McClean? You'd think that they were your dates!" She complained.
"Nat, I'm sorry. I'm just in the middle of something right now--"
"Admit it, you would have rather gone with Hazel." She was fuming.
"Please, calm down!" I insisted. "We can talk this out.
"You would have rather gone with Hazel! Frank how oblivious can you get? I thought through absolutely everything but you still chose her! I forced Susan Bones to tell Will's secret because I knew he'd think it was you. I knew Hazel was friends with Will and that would result in her hating you! But still, you somehow managed to work through that. So I asked you to be my date and I made Ernie Macmillion ask Hazel but you still managed to talk to her and she still weaseled her way out of my plan. I've been making students in her year tease her about the things Trelawney was saying about her just so she would appear pathetic and alone and you'd choose me instead, but she still managed to befriend Ginny Weasley, the most popular girl in her year! I made sure of every last detail--I even made sure that Sprout would allow her to keep that niffler because I thought people would see it as annoying and want to avoid her but then she goes and gets best pet award! I even tampered with the kindest girl award just so you and I could have something in common! At this point, I figure it would just be easiest to get rid of her so I could finally have a chance at getting you to look at me!"
Everybody in the dance was silent. We were center stage and I had the microphone in my hand, pointed directly at Natalie. Once she realized what happened, she froze.
"So I guess this means I should announce the real winner of kindest girl." I ignored Natalie, stepped over and read the votes.
"Cho Chang. If you'd step of here to receive your trophy, please."
The room was silent as everybody continued to stare at Natalie. Cho still stepped center stage and received her award like a champ.
"Congrats, Cho." I whispered, handing her the award.
"Thanks," she said shortly. "Good luck dealing with that one." She glared at Natalie then stepped off stage.
Just so the awkward silence of the dance wouldn't carry on further, I pressed play on the stereo. But alas, even the muggle band Blondie couldn't unravel the tension in the air. Debby Harry sang about thinking she had known what her relationship was, but it turns out her love had a heart of glass. It's unfortunate when phrases of a song such as, "mucho mistrust, love's gone behind" speak to you.
"Frank, wait up...please, I only want to talk to you."
She followed me out of the room.
"Frank, please!"
"Where are they?" I turned around and pointed my wand at her. She looked hurt.
"I don't want to have to do this," she sobbed. "Please, Frank. Put down your wand."
"Where are my friends?" I repeated. "What did you do to Hazel?"
She continued to cry.
"You don't understand, I had to. I had to do it for us!"
"What are you on about?" I shouted. I tried not to lose my temper very often. This was one of those situations however where it would be inappropriate not to lose your temper.
"Where are my friends?" I repeated.
"Hand me your wand." She commanded. I couldn't control my actions. I handed her my wand.
"What the hell?"
"Don't speak." She commanded.
I couldn't call for help. I was too shocked to even move.
"Sleep." She sobbed.
I fell to the ground. Before my eyes drifted shut, I saw Piper in the distance. Clever girl, following us out here. She held Harry Potter's invisibility cloak in her hand. I watched her slip it on as she began to follow Natalie to wherever it was she was dragging me.