"We have calcium in our bones, iron in our veins, carbon in our souls, and nitrogen in our brains; 93 percent stardust, with souls made of flames, we are all just stars with people names." - Nikita Gill
Marlene McKinnon smiled at her reflection, enjoying the way the gold eyeshadow made her blue eyes sparkle. Lily was squatting in front of her in just her bra and undies, working the rest of Marlene's makeup into place. Charlie stood behind the blonde, working her locks into a complicated twisted updo.
"You did lock the door, correct?" Marlene asked with an arched eyebrow. "I mean, we're all practically naked, especially you, Charlie."
Marlene, like Lily, was in her under garments, but Charlie had completely abandoned her bra and walked around in nothing but her underwear.
Charlie snorted. "I am unashamed of my body and don't act like you haven't been checking out my boobs, McKinnon. But, yes, I locked the door with some spells. The bathroom is all ours."
Lily made a face. Charlie noticed and said in reassurance, "There are other bathrooms, Lily. It's not like we're hogging the only bathroom in the dormitory. Besides, there's only so many of us getting ready to go."
Lily rolled her eyes with a shrug. "Sure, sure."
Charlie snapped the last of a golden, twisted crown into Marlene's hair. Marlene's hair had taken the longest, as it had to be straightened before they could do anything with it. She admired her handy work of Marlene's hair and turned to smile, looking at Lily's as well– red waves, arranged into a messy updo, leaving a few strands to frame her face.
"Done," Charlie announced after she tapped a finishing spell onto the girl's golden locks.
Lily nodded. "Same."
Marlene stood, twisting herself to admire her friends' handiwork. "Thanks, you guys," she grinned. "Ready to put on our dresses?"
Lily nodded hurriedly, excitedly running to grab her dress that was hanging on the far wall. Charlie and Marlene followed suit, and they all slid into their respective dresses, taking turns clipping and zipping the backs of their dresses.
Marlene was in white dress that hugged her waist, that flared slightly at her hips falling to her a feet with a small slit in the front. With the gold bangles on her wrist, just the right amount of cleavage, and her golden locks in an updo, she looked like some kind of Greek goddess. Lily's dress was a strapless black gown, that contrasted vividly with her pale skin and fiery hair; it hugged her waist and hips and dipped way down her back. Charlie's dress was a champagne color with hints of gold along the material. It was snug against her chest and torso and fell loose at her legs, but the giant slit in the front along with the open back left little to the imagination.
Charlie turned to see her brunette waves fall into the open back of her dress. Marlene had suggested pulling the top layers back to give her a more sleek look, and it had worked.
"We're hot," Charlie commented with a smile, turning to look at her friends.
"Damn, straight," Marlene winked.
"Ready?" Lily asked with a dazzling smile. She hadn't said anything, but she was so very excited. She had grown up in a modest, strictly middle class family. There was nothing wrong with that of course, but she had never had an excuse to dress up, to be so posh.
Charlie returned her smile. "Let's go."
The three friends exited the bathroom and made their way down to the common room. Various upper level Gryffindors were crowded in the room, excitedly chattering about the night ahead of them. A burst of excitement exploded in the pit of Charlie's stomach, and she squeezed the hands of each of her friends.
A line had formed in front of the fire place. One by one a student would step into the fire and in the blink of an eye, disappear within the flames. Marlene went first, followed closely by Lily, then Charlie.
The girls step out of the flames into a grand white room. The ceilings toward high above their heads with golden fabric draped across the ceilings. The floor expanded before them in a black and white checkered patter like a massive chess board. Someone was even playing a piano in the corner of the room.
Charlie let out a surprised laugh. "Holy shit."
Marlene whistled. "This may be the most pretentious thing we've ever been apart of."
"Ladies!" James shouted with a clap as he made his way through the growing crowd. "Impressed?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "Keep that ego down, there's only so much room in here."
He made at a face at her. "Merlin knows, you're best at keeping my ego down, Evans."
While his best friend was busy, Sirius quickly wrapped his new girlfriend in his embrace. Remus silently made his way towards Charlie and handed over a single glass of champagne. Thank you, she mouthed as she watched one of her best friend argue with her ex and the other best friend be other wise preoccupied.
Remus and Charlie silently sipped their drinks, as Remus admired his handiwork. One of the trickiest parts of the party was figuring out how to get everyone here without getting caught, especially after the party, when people were no longer sober and non-to-careful about making their way through the halls.
Remus rigged four fireplaces that were a type of floo network. There were no floo networks connected to Hogwarts as protection, but if you were coming from within the castle, you could connect the rooms. Remus constructed four separate fireplaces in the room of requirement and connected each one to a different fireplace in each of the houses' common rooms, even including a filter that wouldn't allow anyone that was younger than fifth year through the fireplace.
"It's nice," Charlie commented. "You lot did well. I'm impressed." Remus winked at her and tapped his glass to hers with a clink!
"Ah," Remus said. "I think someone wants to talk to you." He nodded his head, and she followed his line of sight. Her cousin, Jacob, was standing in a very well tailored suit in all black. With his honey curls and fresh stubble, he looked like a vision in his fine attire.
He gave her a wave and started making his way towards her with another boy in tow. He had short, dark hair and was a little bit taller than Jacob; he had high cheekbones and dark skin. He was rather dashing, and Charlie gave her silent props to her cousin. They were quite the pair, but Charlie wasn't sure why, but he seemed familiar.
"Cousin!" Jacob greeted her happily. He wrapped her in his vast embrace and pressed a kiss to her temple.
"Hey, Jake, who's this?"
He pulled away from her with a grin. "Someone I really want you to meet," he said, arching onto his toes in his excitement. "This is my boyfriend, Thomas."
Thomas outstretched his hand with a smile. "Pleasure to meet you, Charlotte. I've heard so much about you."
"Hi," Charlie smiled. She was in the midst of outstretching her own hand, when it hit her. "You're one of those asshole Slytherins I hexed a couple years ago for bullying Jacob!"
A fire blazed in her ocean eyes. He made a face in return, looking back to Jacob with a deep sigh. "I told you she'd remember."
"Jake, what the fuck?" She demanded, stepping forward as if she wanted to shield her cousin from the boy.
Jacob looked at his cousin with soft eyes. "Charlie," he said. "Don't."
Her eyebrows came together, and she looked at her cousin as if he had just physically harmed her. "Don't 'don't' me, Jacob." She turned to Thomas. "Why are you dating my cousin? What do you want?"
"I can explain," he answered with a sad smile, hands raised in surrender. "I was deep, deep in the closet when all of that went down. I went along with it to hide who I am because I wasn't ready to accept who I was at the time. I'm not proud of it, and I hope you won't hold who I was then against who I am now. Pureblood families tend to not be so accepting of gay people, and when you're raised in an environment like that, it fucks with you. Me and your cousin are good. I hope you and I can be too because I really like him."
Jacob smiled as Thomas spoke, heart swelling with pride. It didn't go unnoticed to Charlie how her cousin looked at him; she had never seen him this way before. She nodded.
"I can understand that," Charlie responded. "But, if you hurt him, I will kick your ass."
He let out a laugh. "I don't doubt that, and I promise, I won't hurt him."
Charlie watched as Jacob reached for his hand. They smiled at each other, eyes shining with admiration for the other; as happy as Charlie was for him, it made her ache.
"I'm happy for you, Jake."
"Thanks, Cousin," he smiled. "Have fun tonight. Let me know if any assholes get too handsy, we'll fuck 'em up."
Thomas nodded. "I'm with him. You're basically family now in my eyes, and I need to give an ass kicking in your honor."
Charlie snorted. "Dammit, Thomas, you're going to make me like you." He wiggled his eyebrows at her as they walked away.
The night began to pass in a blur of drunkenness, pounding music, and cigarette smoke. It was the epitome of being young and carefree– of being a teenager. It was okay to be sloppy drunk and to laugh at dumb jokes. It was okay to not care because the real world was growing much too close for comfort, and the outside world didn't seem to be so welcoming. A war was brewing outside of the castle walls, so while they were still on the inside, contained, they deserved to be able to be teenagers.
The many, many quick paced songs turned to a slow melody. The people that were already dating like Sirius and Marlene and Jacob and Thomas quickly fell into a comfortable slow dance, but for the single students, it left them scrambling for either a partner or an escape.
Marlene smiled at Sirius as they danced with her hands around his neck and his hands around her waist. "What took you so long, McKinnon?"
She arched an eyebrow. "Meaning?"
"You've liked me for awhile," he smirked confidently. "Why'd you take so long to come around?"
"You're one to talk."
He grinned. "Bite me."
"Let me get a little more drunk, and then, we'll talk."
On the sidelines of the dance floor, James Potter was downing another shot of whiskey. He stared enviously at his best friend kissing his girlfriend. He made it look so easy– getting the girl you fell hard for. He was happy that they were happy, but he didn't know why he didn't get to be happy.
James had barely had the mentality to admit it to himself, but he had become bitter. He had been in love with the same girl since he was eleven, and when, he finally dated someone else seriously, she broke up with him because of that girl. Why didn't he get to be happy?
A redhead suddenly came running into his view. Lily Evans clutched at his hand, and he was pretty sure his heart stopped. James had done his best not to stare at Lily all night, as to not seem creepy, but she was a vision in her black dress.
"Help me," she said hurriedly, pulling him from his own thoughts.
He arched an eyebrow. "Evans?"
"Severus keeps trying to talk to me," she spoke so quickly, her words were practically a buzzing in his ear. "Dance with me?"
His eyes widened. "What?"
She tugged him towards the dance floor. "Please," she begged.
Lily stopped in the middle of the dance floor and put her hands around his neck. He breathed shallowly as he wound his grip around Lily's waist.
"You okay, Potter?"
"Yup," he answered much too quickly.
She smiled. "You look nice, James."
His heart pounded in his chest. "And, you look beautiful, Lily."
Charlie watched James and Lily interact, sipping her umpteenth glass of champagne. As much as it hurt, she could see it; she could see that they were meant to be together, even if they couldn't see it yet.
"Want to dance?"
Charlie turned to see Remus looking at her with eyebrows raised and a drunken grin on his face.
She downed the rest of her drink. "Sure," she smiled, reaching for his hand.
He led her to the dance floor, holding one of her hands in his his and wrapping his spare arm around her waist.
"You clean up nice, Riggs."
"You too, Lupin."
"Have you enjoyed yourself tonight?" He asked as they swayed to the rhythm.
"I have," she smiled. "But, it makes me sad in a way."
His eyebrows came together. "Why?"
"These moments are becoming few and far between. I mean, we're almost out of here," she shrugged.
He nodded. "I know what you mean. Do you ever love a moment so much, you wish you could stay in it forever?"
She smiled. "Yeah, I get it. Let's enjoy it while we can."