Soothing my aching throat with cold Butterbeer was a ritual for me after every Quiditch game. I put away my second bottle and decided to get dressed for the party. Outside, the sun had been long gone. Silver stars twinkled against the dark sky.

I lifted open my trunk and sifted through articles of clothing. I was the only one in the dormitory room I shared with Kassidy and two other Ravenclaw girls. Kassidy had chosen to run to the bathroom, deciding the mirrors there would help her put on her make-up better. The mirror in the room was more than enough for me.

Choosing a pale violet sleeveless shirt and jeans, I stood in front of the mirror with a brush in hand. My hair was wavy if you squinted hard enough and it was several shades lighter than Kassidy's that it was almost blonde. As I combed it, un-knotting the knots and un-tangling the tangles, I looked at my reflection and noticed that my blue highlights were starting to become fade.

I made a mental note to dye them again and Kassidy burst through the door. Seriously, the girl had no grasp on how to do things quietly.

"Are you ready to party?" Kassidy asked. I envied how she could put on her make-up immaculately. Whenever I tried (within the locked doors of my parent's room), I always ended up looking like a clown with a serious lip problem.

I held up a hand. "Hold on and - alright! I'm good." I threw my brush onto my bed and flipped my hair, faintly smelling the scent of my shampoo.

Kassidy put her make-up pouch away and we headed towards the designated party location. A light conversation ensued as we maneuvered through hallways and ducked down to avoid any detection from Peeves.

"How'd your boyfriend take the defeat?" I started conversationally. Kassidy rolled her eyes. She was, after all, in her own words, dating the 'biggest Drama queen in all of Hogwarts' - Nico Godfrey.

"Believe me, Ava. Dating is not all it's cracked up to be." Kassidy chuckled. We had been so confident that Hufflepuff was going to win; we had seen their practices, watched their maneuvers and everything in between. Kassidy continued, "Nico was half-convinced Gryffindor cheated. But, we all know the cheaters in this school are the Slytherins." She made a face of disgust.

"Don't you think you're being a little too judgmental? And prejudiced?" I treaded carefully. I knew Kassidy had a bad experience with Slytherins. During our third year, a Slytherin named Erica Fawley had tricked Kassidy terribly. I rather not go into the nitty-gritty details.

Kassidy shot me a look and I pushed the subject no further.

Three suits of armor and an imaginary musical montage later, we finally made it to the seventh floor. I was confused. "Why isn't the party in their Common Room?"

Kassidy looked at me and sighed as if I was a child asking some ridiculously obvious question. "Too risky, Ava. Remember second year? The fireworks? The flying cats and sparkling weasels?"

I nodded grimly, the memory coming back to me; Kassidy running after her cat that had sprouted bat wings between the shoulders, me being chased by a vicious red-and-black weasel made out of firework sparks.

"Well, what do we have here?"

I turned around and my lip curled into a smile unconsciously. Standing not a few feet behind us, their arms full of butterbeer cases and food nicked from the school kitchens, were James and Sirius.

"Lost, ladies?" Sirius drawled attractively. It should be illegal to look that attractive without trying. I wrinkled my nose at him, "No."

"Do you have any idea how adorable you look when you do that?" Sirius grinned at me. Inwardly, I was a flailing, screaming mess of teenage girl. Sirius Black. Sirius Black called me adorable. It was a long shot from beautiful or attractive, but I'll take it anyway.

I rolled my eyes. "I bet you say that to all the girls."

Kassidy patted my shoulder with a solemn expression. "He does. He probably does."

"We should get to the party, Padfoot." James laughed, addressing Sirius, "You can flirt with Ava more once we get there."

I rolled my eyes again. "Hey, do you boys need help? You're carrying an awful lot of stuff." I pointed to the precariously stacked trays of food James was carrying and the several cases of drink in Sirius' arms.

James shook his head, "Nah." He said flippantly, trying to wave his hand in dismissal but failed seeing as he would tip the trays and their contents, "We can handle these."

Sirius poked James' biceps as if to prove a point, winking wordlessly as he gestured to his own.

I raised an eyebrow, "Very macho, you two. Very macho."

Kassidy guffawed. "They're about as macho as my pet Chihuahua."

The two pure-blood wizards in-front of us looked very confused. "What's a Chihuahua?" asked James. "Is it something intimidating?" asked Sirius.