Too Honest ~ James Potter

Chapter 24

*7th Year*

Weeks passed, warm September faded into cool October and James and Mariya continued to become better friends. Mariya sent letters to Regulus every week, even though he only sent them back every fortnight. She had not organised many events over the weeks, having been far too occupied with the mock exams teachers were putting them through at the end of the November. Most of the students were none too thrilled about having to do these tests, especially considering that they wouldn't even be sitting the exam for another six months and their scores probably wouldn't be an accurate estimate because in most classes they hadn't done a fair chunk of the course.

Mariya however, had an idea for how to take their minds off it, an idea she posed to James and Professor McGonagall on their second Monday meeting in October.

"I think it would be a good idea to have a Halloween ball." James grinned, immediately on board with the idea of loud music and alcohol. Minerva did not express her opinion but gestured for Mariya to continue.

"Not a normal Halloween party where everyone comes dressed as skeletons or vampires." James face fell slightly as he realised that he wouldn't be able to come dressed as a deer like he usually did, "A proper ball. With live music and everyone dressed up nicely."

"A masquerade ball?" Minerva asked, curious as to why Mariya would want to burden herself with organising such a thing.

"Yes exactly!" Mariya exclaimed, "I think it is exactly what everyone needs to take their minds off the tests."

James interjected with another good reason for Professor McGonagall to agree, "And this way, you can try to control how much alcohol everyone consumes, Minnie. Rather than just pretending that you don't know we drink it anyway."

Minerva sent him a faux reproachful look for the informal way he had addressed her, before turning back to Mariya, "If you can largely organise it by yourself, Miss Seratova, I would be happy to find a band and sort out food. After all we generally have a feast but I am sure it can be arranged with the house elves that something slightly different be done."

"Thank you Professor McGonagall. James and I would be happy to sort out everything else."

The following two and a half weeks of Mariya's life passed in a whirlwind of colour schemes, posters, and organising of food, with a less than healthy amount of sleeping, and virtually no studying at all. James was even worse, the full moon had fallen on the second weekend of the month and so he didn't get any rest whatsoever and spent the Monday walking around with shadows under his eyes and wincing at loud noises. Mariya did her best to not bother him with decisions that weekend, in the knowledge that he was helping Remus when she could not.

By the Wednesday of the week before Halloween, Mariya was glad to see the end of the organising. Everything was finished and now it just had to go to plan. She had arranged for each house to have basic dance lessons on the Friday and a Hogsmeade weekend had been organised for everyone to go and buy their dress robes. Mariya and James had worked hard to persuade McGonagall that all students should be allowed to attend and had offered themselves and the rest of the Marauders as escorts to help the first and second years find their robes.

Everyone in Mariya's Defense Against the Dark Arts class was glad to get out of class early for the dance lesson. The Seventh Years gathered in a small hall where Professor McGonagall was stood next to a large gramophone. She instructed them to get into pairs - Mariya partnered with Remus - and used James to demonstrate the steps. They switched partners every few minutes so they would experience a range of abilities, and by the time they stopped two hours later, Mariya's feet were aching and her jaw hurt from smiling so much.