The next morning, Lily woke up to a white sky. Jumping out of bed, she ran to the window and smiled as pleasure ran through her at the sight of the Hogwarts grounds covered in snow. It appeared there would be a snowball fight that day, instead of a day of exploration. Sighing over the memories to come, Lily walked back to her bed and sat down. She twiddled her wand through her fingers, trying to decide what to do. As her mind ran through numerous charms she could use to make a cup of tea or some toast, she looked around her dormitory at her fellow sixth years.
There was Alice Connelley, who was completely in love with the Hufflepuff sixth year, Frank Longbottom. Well, we know who’s going to be voted ‘most likely to get married’, Lily thought. Then there was Kendall James, who seemed to always be happy, no matter what the situation. Next to her bed was Gwenyvere Ann Marie Welliston, commonly known as Gwen, who fancied Remus and would be going to the ball with him. Gwen, who was quite often very quiet, perfectly complemented Remus. Smiling, Lily looked to her right and her best friend, Aleydis Figg. They’d met on the train to Hogwarts and been inseparable since. Leda was like the sister Lily never had. More like sister I always wanted, she corrected herself, thinking of her prat of a sister, Petunia.
Sighing again at how lucky she was to be going to Hogwarts at all, she pulled herself out of bed and over to her wardrobe. She selected a series of warm pants, many layers of tanktops, t-shirts, turtlenecks, and sweaters, and finally, her spare cloak. Humming to herself, she poked Leda, hoping she would wake up. Luckily, she did and was up quickly and explaining what exactly they were going to be doing that day.
“Here’s my plan: Gwen, you, and me will go down early and pick a good spot where we can make our snow fort. We’ll build it quickly, make some snowballs, and then you can bewitch them to fly at the boys. Then, we wait until they come out, thinking they’re up before we are, and ambush them!” Leda quickly explained all of this while changing into her many layers of clothing, not giving Lily a chance to say anything. During the rundown of her plan, she also woke up Gwen by pulling her blankets off of her and shouting, “Good morning, Sunshine!” With a muffled curse, Gwen rolled out of bed and stood up, blearily looking up at Lily and Leda.
“What’s going on now?” she asked, mildly irritated. She blinked her bleary blue eyes a few times before looking up at Lily.
“It snowed!” Lily answered brightly. “And Leda’s awake. Those are two miraculous feats of nature.”
“Omigosh, Gwen! I have the perfect plan of what we’re going to do to the boys!” Without any further inquiries, she re-explained her plan, this time to Gwen, who yawned.
Twenty minutes later, the three girls, resembling very large Stay-puff marshmallows, walked down to the Great Hall and quickly ate breakfast, vowing they would beat the Marauders. Giggling, they ran out of Hogwarts and over to a line of bushes where there was a particularly large snowdrift. They began to create the perfect fort, alternating between the three to make snowballs.
“Phew. This had better be good enough,” huffed Gwen. Her normally pale cheeks were rosy from the cold. “We’ve got to have at least a hundred snowballs here.”
“All that’s left is to charm them,” hinted Leda.
“I don’t know Leda. It will take the fun out of it, though, won’t it?” asked Lily.
“Of course not! This time, we can actually hit our targets instead of trying to lead them,” pointed out Leda with a wide grin on her face.
“Good point.” With a word, the snowballs glowed, then all floated about an inch in the air.
Gwen grinned wickedly. “They won’t know what hit them.”
“Wake up you old ingrate! Come on, how do you expect us to hit the girls with snowballs if we’re not down there?” shouted James, rocking Sirius back and forth on his bed. Giving him up as a lost cause, he moved over to Remus’ bed and was about to start a very loud and long rant challenging his manhood when Sirius tackled him from behind and onto Remus’ bed, consequently landing on Remus.
“Ingrate? Who’s an old ingrate, you slime eating bubotuber!” growled Sirius. His insult would have been perfectly believable if he hadn’t laughed immediately afterward. Laughing with Sirius, James immediately began an impromptu wrestling match.
“Prongs, Padfoot, as delightful as this occasion might be, you will both need to remove yourselves from my impaired legs,” said Remus, sitting up and glancing at his friends who were currently wrestling at the foot of his bed. When they didn’t comply, he merely kicked them off the bed. With a loud and resounding thud James and Sirius landed on the floor, knocking their heads together like a bunch of coconuts.
“So what was this about girls?” Sirius asked, finally getting up off the floor.
“I said before, that we’ll have to get down to the grounds ahead of the girls so we can surprise them,” stated James, scratching his head as he looked for his gloves. Seeing them under Sirius’ mattress, he pulled them out.
“Hopefully they didn’t get down there first,” said Remus, as he got out of bed. Before James could respond, though, another loud thud distracted him, this time coming from the window. Rushing over to it, he flung it open and stared down, looking for the culprit. Spotting red hair, he grinned.
“Oy! Evans! What gives?”
“We challenge you to a snowball fight!” she called up to him with a come-hither smile.
“You’re on!” Closing the window, he turned to Remus and Sirius. “We’ve been challenged. Let’s go kick their butts.”
“Ok, get ready girls! Here they come!” giggled Leda. The three friends hurried behind the fort as soon as James dashed away from the window.
“Maybe we should camouflage ourselves,” suggested Gwen. Immediately, she began to cover her dark blue cloak with snow. Taking Gwen’s suggestion to heart, Leda flopped down in the snow and began to roll around, covering every inch of her cloak.
Five tantalizing and freezing minutes later, the girls watched with subdued giggles the boys rush out the front doors. They shoved each other around in a playful manner, falling over and tripping themselves. When they got closer, the girls could hear from their hiding spot the boys laughing and joking.
“When do we go for them?” whispered Lily. She pulled her wand out, having it at the ready to Banish snowballs.
“Wait for the perfect moment,” smiled Leda. As the boys got directly in between their fort and a very large bush covered with snow, Leda’s lips curved into a smile and she nodded.
With something akin to a war cry, Gwen, Leda, and Lily jumped out of their hiding places and Banished snowballs at the boys. All three boys stopped dead in their tracks, staring in disbelief at the wall of snow coming straight toward them.
Being the first to think in the two seconds they had before the snow hit them, Remus pulled out his wand and cried, “Impedimenta!” The snowballs stopped mid-float.
Feeling much more confident now, James and Sirius grabbed their wands out and seconds before the snowballs started moving again, they sent them back toward the girls.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Gwen shouted, hands on hips. Then with a squeak, she dived behind their fort, barely missing a snowball. Lily and Leda were not as lucky. The two friends were pummeled with snow and promptly fell over. Not waiting a second, the three girls jumped up and ran at the boys, snow flying around them.
“Bloody hell!” Sirius yelled, drawing the two words out as he ran in the opposite direction. He dived behind a large bush, followed by James and Remus. Huddled behind the bushes, James, Sirius, and Remus gulped air.
“Oh mates, this is gonna be short. They’re using magic! We’ll be killed!” wailed James.
“Well then, let’s call a truce and say no magic,” Remus hinted.
“Now why would we want to do that?” demanded Sirius.
“Sometimes, Padfoot, I have to wonder if you weren’t dropped on your head when you were born,” James snickered. Sirius seemed to consider this. It was entirely plausible, considering his family wouldn’t think twice about it.
“Sirius, they’re girls. Do you honestly think they can throw with any sort of aim?” asked Remus, sounding exasperated
“Hmm, that does make sense…”
Taking a deep breath, James jumped out from behind the bush and toward the oncoming force of the girls.
“Hey! We call a stalemate!”
Lily stopped dead in her tracks. “What? Are you crazy, Potter? We just got started!”
“That’s debatable Evans. Anyway, we say no magic, because it makes it more enjoyable if we do this the Muggle way.”
The three girls looked at each other with suspicion in their eyes. There couldn’t be anything wrong with no magic. Nodding, Gwen, Leda, and Lily put their wands away. Lily immediately felt uneasy. No magic? This isn’t going to go so well…
Grinning like a maniac, James dashed behind the trees and a second later the boys appeared with snowballs in their hands. Imitating the girls’ war cry, the boys ran at them. Deathly afraid, the girls sprinted back to their fort and began hurling snowballs as fast as they could. They didn’t worry about aiming. That was trivial. Gwen happened to hit James in the leg, but it didn’t slow him down. Lily hit Sirius in the stomach by complete mistake; she’d been aiming for Remus, who was about fifteen feet to his left. Leda didn’t hit a blessed thing…Not even the stationary tree.
When they ran out of pre-made snowballs, Gwen, Leda, and Lily abandoned their fort and attempted to outrun their pursuers.
“All right gents, let’s get our girls!” Sirius howled with glee. He immediately began to catch up to Leda and chased her in circles around a very large oak tree. Remus dashed after Gwen, who was waving her arms in an attempt to release herself of the surge of adrenaline running through her body. James caught sight of Lily and ran with all his might toward her.
Lily took it as a personal challenge when she heard the boys pursue them even after they had abandoned their fort. She ran with all her strength, ignoring the snowballs at her back. She was getting more sluggish due to how much snow there was and the effort of getting to a good hiding place. Spying a willow tree, she ran toward it. Seconds later though, she was knocked flat on her face in the snow. Without time to recover, she was flipped onto her back and the snow cleared from her face by a gloved hand.
“Hi Evans,” James teased. Not being able to help herself, she laughed out loud and “wrestled” herself away from him and back toward the willow. He let her get a few feet away before tackling her again, this time trapping her legs so she couldn’t move.
“You know, you really have to learn to walk,” he mused.
“Potter, I will cause you a large amount of physical pain if you don’t get off me right now!” she exclaimed, failing miserably to keep a smile from her face.
“You’re not very good at protesting,” he pointed out, leaning down to her. Her breath caught in her throat as he loomed closer. Her gaze shot between his lips and his eyes, which she knew were focused completely on her. When his lips were a centimeter from hers, her gaze locked on his eyes. Not wanting to give her the opportunity to genuinely protest, he gently kissed her. Finally releasing her long-held breath, she sighed, quickly remembering how much she really liked this. As James pulled away, Lily wrapped her arms around his neck, not giving him chance to move. James was very nearly shocked. She opened up to him and he could feel it. He kissed her again, this time longer and not so gentle. Lily swore she could hear some swelling behind her ears and fleetingly remembered a trip to the beach and listening to the ocean in a seashell. James finally pulled back and lay his head on her shoulder. Lily breathed deep, trying to steady herself. All she succeeded in, though, was sending sparks out of her wand. With an embarrassing yelp, she jumped (as much as she could with James’ full body weight on top of her).
“Are you ok?” James asked, slightly concerned.
“Oh, of course. It was just my wand, it, umm, let loose some sparks. I didn’t do it on purpose, it just did…” She trailed off, her cheeks turning pink when she looked him in the eye. To her relief, though, James laughed.
“Mine did the same thing,” he chuckled. Unable to do otherwise, Lily began to laugh as well.
Without warning, James flipped them over so that he was now lying in the snow and Lily was sprawled on top of him. Using as much dignity as possible, Lily sat up, somehow still straddling James. When her lips quirked into a slight frown, James shook with silent laughter. Deciding to play his game, she leaned down and propped her elbows on his chest, then her chin on her hands and looked him straight in the eye. He was preoccupied, however, with running his hands up and down her sides.
“So, Lily, does this mean we’re going out?” That simple question was just enough to throw Lily off balance, her elbows falling, and her landing on top of James with a very unladylike “oof!” Not waiting for an answer, he flipped her back over; they were now where they had started.
“Lily, what do you say?” His eyes had an emotion in them that Lily couldn’t believe. He’s practically begging me, she thought.
“James, I’ve never had a boyfriend,” she babbled. Good God girl, not now!
He grinned down at her. “I know.”
Lily let out a nervous giggle. “I guess you would.” After a moment, she continued, “this is going to make me seem slightly daft, but does this mean you like me?”
“More than you could ever know,” he answered sincerely.
She grinned back at him. As a sly look crept into her eyes, she grabbed a handful of snow in each hand and dumped it on James’ head. The contrast of his jet-black hair and the pure white snow made Lily laugh. He jumped up and pulled Lily with him.
“Oh, think I’m funny, do you?” he asked in mock anger. Without preamble, he threw a perfect snowball right into her face. The rest of the afternoon had them throwing snow at each other and snagging the other for a quick kiss.
Later that night, James, Lily, Sirius, Leda, Remus, and Gwen trudged into the Gryffindor common room. They all immediately collapsed into the chairs nearest the fire and lay as still as the dead. At one point, Peter walked over to them, having missed all the fun.
“Ok, so who wants to go raid Filch’s office?” he asked, rubbing his hands together greedily. “It’ll save us at least twenty Galleons at Zonko’s.” None of the remaining three Marauders had the energy to lift their heads. There was, however, a very distinct sounding “Ugh” from the general direction of Sirius. Looking disappointed, he shuffled away to their dormitory.
After another five minutes, the girls began to stir. “I don’t know when I’ve had more dirt under my nails. It wasn’t even this bad when we repotted Mandrakes,” Leda complained, closely examining her fingernails. “Well, I’m off to the showers, and bed. Good night everyone, ‘Night Sirius.” She blushed slightly when she said his name and looked at him. Quickly, she turned and ran to the girls’ dormitory.
Sighing with exhaustion, Lily and Gwen began the very slow process of getting up. James currently had Lily trapped on the armchair. She sat on his lap and his arm curled around her waist protectively. She looked at him; his eyes nearly closed and head slightly tilted back. She was swamped with an indefinable emotion that she didn’t care to examine at the moment.
“James, I’ve got to get up,” she said wearily. His response was to grip her waist tighter. She lightly chuckled. “Come on, unless you want me to be eternally dirty.”
He popped open an eye. “But you would still be with me on this very comfortable armchair. Now isn’t that tempting?” he grinned boyishly.
Smiling with him, she leaned down and kissed him lightly while pulling his hand away from her waist. “Good night, James.” With that, she and Gwen walked up to the girls’ dormitory. All three boys, who were nearly men, watched their girls walk to their dormitory.
“How’d we do today?” Remus asked slyly.
Sirius grinned and pretended to buff his nails on his shirt. “I’m no longer the most sought after bachelor in the school.”
“Gwen and I have a mutual like for each other; we’re giving it a try,” Remus replied.
When Remus and Sirius turned to James, Sirius didn’t give him a chance to answer. “We know you two are an item. First, let me say, ‘FINALLY! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG?’ And second, did you make any fire under that willow tree?”
“Our wands both shot sparks. Does that count?” joked James.
In the showers, all three girls stood underneath scalding hot sprays, kneading the sore muscles in their arms and backs.
From one stall, Leda asked sleepily, “So who’s going out with who now? I’m going with Sirius. More details tomorrow, when I’m lucid.” She yawned.
“Well, Remus and I discussed our feelings for one another today, after the inevitable snow fight. We agree that we really like and respect each other, so we’re going to see what happens if we’re boyfriend and girlfriend. It should prove to be very interesting. He’s a hell of a kisser. I never knew of some of those things you can do in the limited space between a bush and the Herbology greenhouses,” Gwen replied.
“Too many details!” Leda whimpered. “I’m begging you, don’t overload my brain just yet.” After a lapse of a minute or so, Leda called out to Lily in the stall next to her. “What about you, Lily? Are you going to confirm what we already suspect?”
“Yes, James and I are a couple. I didn’t realize he liked me like that. I have to say, though, he’s also quite a kisser,” Lily said, filling her voice with her smile.
“Great, we’re now going out with the cleverest, most popular, most mischievous boys in school,” Gwen confirmed. “I sure hope their idea of a good date isn’t to share their detention.”
The next day was cloudier than before, and it happened to be Christmas Eve. Lily got up earlier than she wanted to because she had to help with final decorations for the Ball. Throwing on a spare black robe and grabbing her wand, she dragged her feet down the stairs, into the common room, where she saw James still lying on the armchair from last night.
Just look at him, she thought. He must’ve been in that same uncomfortable position the entire night. Walking over to him, she kneeled down in front of the armchair, watching his serene expression of sleep. Lily still couldn’t believe that James liked her, let alone even asked her out. Last night, she’d done the typical see-if-his-last-name-sounds-good routine. Lily Potter; she’d shuddered then, and shuddered now. It sounded foreign. Above all things, Lily had to figure out her real feelings for James. She liked him, that was for sure, but deep down, what did she feel? She feared loving him. The fear originated from somewhere not in her and she couldn’t understand why. It probably originates from him having so many girlfriends, and me not having any. Any boyfriends, that is.
Struck, Lily nearly kicked herself. What am I doing? We haven’t even been going out for twenty-four hours! Completely disgusted with herself, she stood up and brushed off her robe just as James opened his eyes.
“Good morning 'Green Eyes'.”
Lily smiled at him. His voice croaked slightly from just waking up and his hair stuck on end. “Good morning. I’m just on my way to the Great Hall. I have to finish with the decorations,” she explained.
“Ah yes, the ever-important Christmas decorations. No chance I can distract you, can I?” he grinned evilly.
“Ha, no. I’ll see you later though.” Placing her hand on his shoulder, she leaned down and kissed him softly. Fulfilling a desire he’d always wanted to do, James reached up and dragged his hands through her long red hair. “I really have to be going now,” she said; and with a final kiss on the cheek, she was gone.
An hour and a half later, Lily walked through the halls of Hogwarts, making sure the decorations were in the right spots. Some of the portraits didn’t like the ivy around their frames, but they would have to live with it. Hagrid, the gamekeeper, had been a big help in carrying the Christmas trees. Using Levitating Charms, Lily had strung the lights and ornaments. Hogwarts was now completely bedecked. Professor Dumbledore said he would set up the Great Hall for the Ball, so that all that was left for her to do was go outside with her friends.
She meandered through the halls, going whichever way pleased her, knowing she’d end up at Gryffindor Tower eventually. She thought to the future and what it could hold. She sincerely hoped she would become Head Girl. She loved to have authority over others; not for the feel of power, but to help them and guide them. Content with how life was turning out to be, she arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady, told the password, and hurried up to her dormitory to change into snow clothes.
Ten minutes later, she ran through the halls and burst through the front doors. She jogged around toward Gryffindor Tower and found her friends: they were already in the middle of a very heated snowball fight. In her absence, Sirius had replaced her, and Peter had come out to side with Remus and James. She ran over to Leda, Gwen, and Sirius and saw they were simply throwing as many balls as fast as possible. The only person who managed to hit the opposing team was Sirius.
At Lily’s arrival, Gwen gave an exasperated huff. “It’s about time. These two lovebirds here have been crowing to each other ever since we got out here. I need you to either hit them or help me. You could do both if you wanted,” she generously offered.
Ducking behind the snow fort wall, she began to make snowballs and throw them at James. After another three hours of snow fights, couples running off for a few minutes to themselves, and simple goofing around, everyone went inside for tea.
After changing into comfortable clothes, Lily grabbed a book for one of her classes and carried it down with her to the common room. She stopped, though. Now she was torn as to where to sit. Normally, she sat at the table by the window with Leda and Gwen. Now that she was going out with James, she wasn’t sure if she should sit with James by the fire or at her normal table. Compromising, she settled on an armchair near his and began to read. Soon, though, she began to lose interest and even dozed off, wondering where everyone could have gone.
She dreamed of sorrow and happiness; tears and laughter. She heard a woman scream in agony, but so distantly that it sounded merely like the wind between two rocks. A flash of green light filled the plane of her dream. Unknowingly, she whimpered in her sleep before being pulled sharply out of her dream. When her eyes popped open, her first sight was James standing above her, his hands on her shoulders, his eyes full of worry and concern. Without a word, he lifted her into his lap, sat on the armchair, and hugged her tight.
“What happened?” she whispered. She had no memory of her dream, just impressions, bad ones. She wrapped her arms around his neck, grateful for the support.
“Don’t worry about it now. It was just a bad dream,” he assured her. He stroked her hair, almost as if he were comforting a child.
“No, seriously, what happened? I don’t remember anything,” she told him, sitting up.
“You were whimpering in your sleep, almost like you were afraid of something,” he said quietly.
“Oh,” she said, understanding. In an attempt to distract her, he asked, “So what were you reading?”
“Just supplemental reading. I had an itch to learn about the history of some symbols for Ancient Runes, so I picked up this book at the library.” Her eyes brightened up considerably as she began to describe the book. At his amused expression, she stopped.
“What is it?”
“It’s just that I don’t think even Professor Vector could make this interesting.” She looked confused, so he simply laughed and they headed down to supper hand in hand.
“Merry Christmas!”
“Leda, come over here so I can kill you,” Gwen grunted from her bed. She moaned when Leda spread her hangings and the sun shined in her face.
“Come on Gwen! Don’t be such a wet rag! It’s Christmas!” Leda sang. She began humming “Deck the Hall” as she jumped onto Lily’s bed, throwing her onto the floor. Leda danced around the dormitory, effectively waking everyone up with her horribly off-key singing. Alice shut her up by throwing a large pillow at her face. It didn’t stop her, though. She skipped back to her own bed and began to unwrap presents.
Rolling her eyes, Lily climbed back onto her bed and began to unwrap her presents, too. She smiled when she realized she already wore James’ cross around her neck. When she was finished, she hugged her friends, thanking them for their presents.
“Hey, let’s go see the boys!” Gwen suggested now that she was wide-awake.
“Excellent idea,” Lily grinned. Together, Gwen, Leda, and Lily ran down to the common room and up the steps to the boys’ dormitory. They burst through the Sixth Year door shouting, “Merry Christmas!”
Lily ran over to the window and threw open the shades as Leda and Gwen ran to Sirius and Remus’ beds, respectively. Smiling, Lily ran over to James’ bed and threw open his hangings. His face was smashed into the pillow and the comforter covering him to his waist. Without wasting a moment, Lily jumped onto his bed and leaned down so her lips were even with his ear.
“Merry Christmas James,” she whispered. His ears visibly perked up, but he didn’t move his head. He mumbled something incoherent due to the pillow covering his mouth. She laughed. “What was that?”
He rolled over and faced her. “Merry Christmas to you too. Are you going to make it a habit of waking me up? I could definitely get used to this.” Laughing, she leaned down and kissed him. He didn’t object at all; he simply brought his arms around her and smiled.
“Sorry, but I think it’s a holiday thing.”
“Well, will you ladies be up for another snowball fight which we will, inevitably, win?” asked Sirius, with no small amount of smugness. Leda’s eyes narrowed at him from her position at the end of his bed.
“We’ll beat you yet,” she answered, her voice full of determination.
Hours later, at four o’clock, the girls trudged up to their dormitory, preparing to get ready for the ball. They had been defeated once again, to their absolute pleasure. All three girls took long, hot showers and slathered themselves with sweet-smelling lotions. Once they got back into their room, they performed the ever-sacred female ritual of getting dressed.
Out of her wardrobe, Gwen pulled out pale lavender robes that reminded Lily of hyacinths. With them, she had clear plastic shoes that showed off her legs.
Holding up the shoes, she explained, “My mum and I had to go to a Muggle shoe store to get these. I swear, that is one of the oddest things I’ve ever been to. I can see why you have a love affair with shoes, though,” she added to Lily, who was notorious for melting at every pair of shoes she spotted.
“Well, Sirius won’t be able to peel his eyes off of me with these robes,” she said proudly, displaying her gold robes. The shimmer in them was nothing compared to Leda’s eyes, brimming with happiness and joy. Lily and Gwen smiled with her. No words were needed to tell Leda how great that night would be.
Turning to her wardrobe, Lily pulled out her emerald green robes and sighed again. She was really quite happy that her finger had landed on these and not on the lurid, big flowered robes right next to them. She pulled them on, and then rummaged through the bottom of her wardrobe for a pair of shoes. She gave a sound of triumph as she found a pair of strappy high-heeled black shoes. She danced over to her bed, sat down, and put them on. Turning her foot this way and that, she gave a nod of approval. All three girls met again in the middle of the room and surveyed themselves in a large mirror.
“We look hot,” joked Leda.
“Beware of ice cubes then,” Gwen warned.
There was nearly an hour left until seven, when the ball would begin. That time was reserved for the most important part: hair and makeup. Standing in front of the mirror, Gwen fingered her curly brown locks.
“I’ve not the slightest clue as to what to do with this mess.” She pulled out her wand and twirled it, considering. As a smile formed on her face, she cleared her throat, pointed her wand at her hair, and muttered a Severing Charm. In an instant, some of her hair fell off, and her hair was now chin-length, as opposed to shoulder-length, as it had been seconds earlier. “Much better.” She turned and primped her hair. “Anyone else?” she asked saucily. Leda and Lily looked at her fearfully.
Improvising, Leda twirled her wand around her head and her long blonde hair flew into a curly mass on top of her head. Lily still stood in front of the mirror, staring at her red hair. It was wavy, not curly like Gwen’s or straight like Leda’s. She couldn’t think of anything to do with it and feared she wouldn’t figure it out in time. Abruptly, she turned around to face Leda and Gwen.
“Help,” she begged. Coming to the rescue, Gwen pulled her away from the mirror and over to Leda. Together, they pulled out their wands and began twirling and muttering around her hair. If she hadn’t known there was a thing such as magic, she would have sworn they were muttering some witchly Barbados enchantment. Her scalp tingled slightly before Gwen and Leda stepped away. When she turned back to the mirror, her jaw dropped. They hadn’t done much, but what they had done made Lily beyond grateful that they were her friends. They had done a messy bun style, but more intricately woven to have pieces of hair looping in and out of others. She breathed a quiet sigh of contentment and turned back to her friends.
“This is going to be the best night of our lives,” she predicted.
In the boys’ dormitory, the Marauders didn’t need to take nearly as much time as the girls to get ready. All of them had gone with black robes, as they had been the easiest to pick out. James looked at his reflection in the mirror, which kept pointedly looking at his hair. Rolling his eyes, James made a vain attempt to flatten his hair, but to no avail. He knew it wouldn’t lie flat, and besides, he preferred it like this. All four of them were ready rather quickly.
“Well, shall we go downstairs?” Remus suggested nervously. He kept picking at the cuffs on his robes and his stomach lurched. For once, he was positive he wouldn’t be able to eat a thing. As felt Sirius. And James. Peter, who had never gotten a date, strolled around the room, oblivious to his friends’ nerves and whistled a tune.
As they started downstairs, they were all deathly silent. Finally, Sirius broke the uncomfortable silence.
“If you all were any happier, I swear I would need to tie you to the ground from bouncing form excitement.” The humor was forced, but helped to lighten the mood as they entered the common room. Brightening somewhat, they interacted with the other boys who filled the common room and waited for their dates.
By chance, James glanced at the girls’ dormitory stairway and felt his heart give one powerful thump in his chest before falling flat at his feet. Lily walked down the stairs, tendrils of auburn hair around her face, and clad in the green that perfectly matched her eyes. Prominent on her chest, hanging from a silver chain, was the cross he had given her when she was in the hospital. Unconsciously, he ran a finger over the cross under his robes, and then pulled it out. She finally stopped moving, and he realized she stood in front of him, smiling.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmured, touching a hand to her cheek. Under his fingers, her skin heated and pinkened on her cheeks.
She tried, really tried, to come up with a clever response. All she came up with, though, was, “You don’t look so bad yourself.” He grinned, completely dazzling her.
After about five minutes, it was finally time to go down to the Great Hall for the Ball. Everyone squeezed through the portrait hole and surged down to the Great Hall, chattering the entire way. When they arrived, a collective “ooh” emanated from the group.
Strings of garland of metallic blue, red, green, gold, silver, and black were strung across the ceiling, mingling with the light snowflakes that fell. Each wall had a flag on it, one for each house. In between them were large green wreaths with bright red bows that spoke of Christmas. Giant Christmas trees stood along the walls like sentries. One wall was opened up into a courtyard that Lily suspected Professor Dumbledore had made for them. The tiny, circular tables that were all along the Hall and seated eight people at a time completed the entire scene.
As the Gryffindors entered through one door, the Slytherins entered through another. The person in front, leading the Slytherins, was unmistakable. Somehow, Lucius Malfoy had weaseled his way into the Ball. It had been common knowledge throughout Hogwarts what Malfoy had done to Lily, and many were surprised that he would have the audacity to show his face at such an event. The feeling quickly passed, however, once Dumbledore clapped his hands and motioned to everyone to sit.
“Merry Christmas, students of Hogwarts!” he began. “It is well known, I imagine, that we have set up a court for our Ball. I will announce them by house, and would appreciate it if they would stand up when they’re names are called.” He smiled at the entire group of students. “From Ravenclaw, the nominees for King and Queen of the Ball are Lawrence Brocklehurst and Liz Miller.” A round of applause came from the Ravenclaws and the rest of the students as a couple, both of them very tall, stood and bowed. “From Hufflepuff, the nominees are Richard Brown and Mia Fletcher.” More applause followed. “From Gryffindor, we have James Potter and Lily Evans.” All the Gryffindors roared as loud as they could while everyone but the Slytherins clapped. “And from Slytherin, the nominees are Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black.” The Slytherins, in turn, clapped and roared, with Malfoy smirking in the middle of it all. Deep down, James felt his blood boil. He suppressed his rage, and instead took Lily’s hand and calmed himself.
“The King and Queen will be announced towards the end of the ball. For now, though, enjoy food and drink, and please welcome The Peppermint Sashes!” Everyone cheered loudly as five wizards jumped onto the stage, dressed in robes of white with red and pink stripes on them. They cued up their instruments and began to play a fast, rock-style song.
Jumping up, James dragged Lily to the dance floor and began a very quick…something. Lily wasn’t quite sure what he was doing, but it looked to be like a mixture between a chicken scratching for food and an ungainly two-step. She looked at him, torn between horror and amusement. She decided the best thing was amusement.
“Come on Lily! The whole point of a Ball is to dance!” At Lily’s blank look, he laughed and pulled her close to him. He wrapped his hands around her waist as her arms came around his neck. He pulled her closer, which she hadn’t thought possible. He began to dance, slowly and in a manner Lily would not have done in front of teachers if she had been able to think about it. He grinded his hips suggestively against hers, making her relax and laugh. Neither of them noticed as they slowed considerably, although the music was still pulsing and fast. Now, they were simply swaying.
“You wore my cross,” he said softly. He demonstrated by running his hand up her back and lifting her cross from her chest. On the back was the engraving, which he still marveled at.
“Of course. And you wore mine.” She imitated him by pulling it out from under his robes and waved it a little in front of him. They grinned at each other, kissed, and each tightened their hold. In her mind, Lily whispered, I love you, James Potter.
Three hours later, the energy level that had existed at seven o’clock was no longer existent. Nearly everyone was collapsed on a chair somewhere in the Great Hall. Only one couple had not walked off the dance floor yet, and that was Sirius and Leda. Lily sat slumped in a chair near Remus and Gwen, waiting for James. He’d had to use the lavatory, so she’d taken a rest. Dumbledore stood now, calling for the students’ attention.
“It seems to me, that now that you have all had your fill and are satisfactorily exhausted,””“Ugh””“I will announce the winners of the King and Queen nominations. First, though, I would like to commend you on your behavior through this first Ball.” Very worried now, Lily jumped up and walked out to the terrace to look for James. Not immediately seeing him, she followed a path away from the school, searching for him. Behind her, she vaguely heard Dumbledore say James’ name and then hers. They had won! She did a quick twirl of victory and skidded to a halt.
The sight that greeted her stabbed twin knives of hurt and anger right into her back.