Yes, No, Sure, Whatever by violagirl
Chapter Notes: The dance is almost here, and Lily, James, and company finally finish exams and spend some last few fun moments together.
Disclaimer: Ah, the usual: Lily and James aren’t mine, some of the characters aren’t mine, this story isn’t real, and…yeah, that’s about it.
“Lily,” James asked for the umpteenth time as they trudged up the stairs to the seventh floor, “where in the world are you taking me?”
“You’ll find out,” Lily answered, as she had to every question.
“Are we on the seventh floor?” James asked dumbly.
“Yes, James, we are on the seventh floor,” Lily said patiently.
“But, why are we””
“James!” Lily finally burst. “You. Will. Find. Out. When. We. Get there! Now please, just shut up!”
Apparently Lily had knocked some sense into James’s head”his very thick head, I might add, she said to herself”because he stayed quiet for the last two minutes as they started walking back and forth in one place, Lily muttering something repeatedly until a plain old door appeared.
“What is this place?” James wondered aloud.
“Honestly, you’re a Marauder and you don’t know?” Lily asked with disbelief.
James shook his head.
“We are standing outside the Room of Requirement, James,” Lily explained.
“What’s it do?” he asked.
Lily smiled that same mysterious smile. “Open the door and find out.”
James very tentatively pulled open the door, walked inside, and murmured, “Holy crap.”
The room was filled with animals”all tame, Lily reassured him”small objects, and a list of spells for reference.
“What is all this?” James asked with wonder.
“The Room of Requirement, also called the Come and Go Room, is a place that appears only when a person is in need of it,” Lily quoted as if from Hogwarts, a History. “In other words, this room has become a room for Transfiguration practice because we need it. What do you think?”
James had been staring at the room in amazement for the time she had been talking, and he managed to summon up, “Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.”
Lily beamed at his response, then reminded him, “Well, now that we’re here and know what it’s here for, why don’t we use it?”
For the next four-and-a-half hours the two of them worked on spells. Lily was a big help on spells that James had never mastered, and even James proved to know some wand movements that Lily had been doing entirely wrong. When Lily finally looked at the clock on the wall, she was very surprised.
“It’s already nine-o’-clock!” she exclaimed. “We’d better head back to Common Room if we want to be well-rested for tomorrow.”
James also gazed at the clock, but soon began to head out the door. He opened it for Lily and muttered, “Thanks for the help.”
Lily looked into his eyes and said, “No, James, thank you.”
James held out his hand and Lily took it, and as they walked down the hall back to Gryffindor House, James figured that her “thank you” had more than one meaning to it.
The next two weeks were a blur for the seventh-years. They had N.E.W.T.s practically every other day, and in-between the students were cramming for the next exam. The fifth-years, who were in the middle of their O.W.L.s, were behaving in the same manner, and could often be seen running down the halls in a mad rush to retrieve wands or shoes from their Common Rooms.
The Saturday after exams were completed, however, was a dream come true. On this day, Lily and her friends were relaxing under the shade of a tree, and the Marauders were trying to draw the giant squid closer to shore, but to no avail.
Lily was on her belly and flipping through a Witch Fashion magazine, Janice was eating an apple from the Great Hall, and Alena alternated between glancing at Lily’s magazine and skipping stones on the lake. Elisha had nothing to do and was bored, so, as no one really wanted to talk about N.E.W.T.s, she decided to bring up the ball.
“What color and style gown did you choose from the catalog, Lily?”
Lily smiled and continued turning pages from Witch Fashion. “I’d rather not say, I’d like it to be a surprise.”
“Mine is beautiful!” exclaimed Alena, and she quickly looked up from the magazine with enthusiasm. “It’s a light pink spaghetti-strap gown. It’s very silky, and the pink is pastel-like.”
Lily could just imagine seeing that gown on Alena. Alena’s skin was a perfect light tan, and she had sunshine hair and bright blue eyes. Lily called them sapphires, as most everyone called her own, emeralds.
“Mine is turquoise,” Janice said shyly. “Sirius recommended it.”
Lily grinned. Janice was smitten with Sirius, and all four of them agreed that Sirius had been showing signs of liking her. He made a good choice, she thought in amazement. Janice had very tan skin and dark brown hair, but her eyes were turquoise, and they could understand why Sirius would’ve liked the color.
“What about you, Elisha?” Janice asked her. “You brought it up.” Elisha had dirty-blond hair, hazel eyes, and very light skin. It was difficult to find a matching gown.
Elisha answered very happily, “It’s a light sky blue color, and I have a matching hair ribbon, eye-liner, and nail polish. I have a picture of it with me.”
Elisha pulled out a photograph of a witch modeling it, and Lily marveled at how wonderfully it seemed to suit her friend. It was a halter-top dress, but still very modest. It was a little tight at the top, but from the hips down it flared out in an elegant way, and flowed as you spun. As Lily looked from Elisha to the picture and back to Elisha, she said only, “Perfect.”
Elisha looked very pleased with the compliments she received, and took it back to put in her purse.
“And you, Lily,” Alena asked expectantly.
Lily looked down at her magazine and said, “I already told you, I want it to be a surprise.”
“At least tell us what color it is,” Janice tried.
“But that would give it away!” Lily laughed.
“How about a general color then?” Elisha persisted, and the girls leaned in.
“All right!” Lily finally relented, and put Witch Fashion away. “It’s green.”
“Green!” exclaimed Janice. “Green like””
“Don’t take any guesses!” Lily interrupted. “I’m not telling anybody!”
“Not even your best friends?” Alena whined, and displayed a puppy-dog pout.
“No, no, no!” Lily giggled. “I’m not falling for the face and I’m not telling you!”
It turned out that all they managed to extract from her was that her dress was green, so after about ten minutes they gave up. The boys didn’t have as much luck either, and came over to join the girls so they would have something to do. Janice offered to throw in her apple core for the squid, and succeeded in bringing a long black tentacle to the surface, much to the annoyance of the boys. (Except for Peter. He was so excited to see it he almost wet himself.) After that they were all at a loss for amusing ideas, and sat there pondering for six minutes before James shouted, “Let’s play Quidditch!” The Marauders agreed, but the girls were skeptical.
“If we do it girls against boys it will never worked!” Elisha told him. “You and Sirius know how to play, and Alena’s pretty good, but the rest of us aren’t that great at it.”
“Alright then, I know what to do!” proclaimed Remus, always the problem-solver. “James, Lily, Peter, and Elisha will be on one team, and the rest of us will be on the other. It’s only fair,” he added, as James and Sirius looked daggers at him. “I know you two would like to be on the same team, but we have to take Elisha’s words into consideration. Plus, this way there’s an even number of boys and girls on each team.”
James and Sirius still looked murderous, but maybe because they were with their dance partners and a good friend they agreed. Lily was a bit nervous: she could fly pretty well but had never tried the sport. Both Elisha and Janice were pretty good on the broom, and Alena was even a substitute Chaser for the Gryffindor House Team. As for the boys…Remus and Peter had played it enough to be pretty good, and both James and Sirius were wonderful, but only James had made the team.
James, Sirius, and Alena summoned their own brooms from their dormitories, and Lily summoned some from the broom cupboard. Remus and Peter went to bring the box of equipment, and soon everyone was ready to play. Janice and Elisha were set as Keepers, James and Sirius were Seekers, and Lily, Peter, Remus, and Alena were Chasers. (There weren’t any Beaters in this game.)
James began to give out instructions. “Okay, Keepers to their posts, Seekers, just anywhere, Peter and Remus out on the field, and Lily and Alena, I’ll throw the Quaffle up to you to try and catch.”
Everyone headed to their assigned areas. James released the Snitch and threw the Quaffle up in the air to begin the game.
Alena grabbed the red ball and sped in the direction of Elisha’s goalpost. Halfway there she was intercepted by Lily, who passed the ball to Peter, who passed it back to Lily, and…
“Goal!” Elisha shouted from the other end of the pitch. Lily did some loops in the air, then got ready to chase after Alena. Alena sped down the court toward Elisha, threw it, and Elisha caught it. This went on for awhile, and soon James’s team had 60 points, and Sirius’s team had 70 points. So far no one had seen the Snitch.
Then, about three minutes later, James sped downward as fast as was possible. Sirius followed close behind, and the rest of the players were in a stand-still. The two boys were very close to the ground, and pulled up just in time to avoid crashing. Sirius was lagging behind because his broom just wasn’t as fast as his friend’s.
James reached his arm out, caught the Snitch just barely…
And crashed into a goalpost.
“James!” Sirius and everyone else flew down to where James had fallen. Lily landed just seconds after Sirius did, leaned over James, and whispered anxiously, “Are you alright?”
James groaned and stirred a little. Sirius flipped him over and onto his back, and began to look him over. He had a big bruise on his head, but otherwise he looked okay….
James suddenly grinned and started laughing. Peter was whimpering a little, Remus shook his head in disbelief, Alena, Elisha, and Janice breathed sighs of relief, and Sirius yelled, “Prongs, you nearly gave me a heart attack!” Lily, however, flung her arms around James and didn’t care about what other people thought. James obviously didn’t either, because he returned Lily’s embrace and pressed his lips firmly against hers.
Lily’s instincts told her she was in heaven, and she kissed James back. After a few seconds James pulled back, and gazed at Lily happily. Lily, however, realized that she had just kissed a guy, felt her lips, and muttered, “Oh my gosh…”
James asked casually, “You like that, Evans?” and as Lily smiled the affirmative the other six in the group just stared at them. James helped Lily up and offered his hand, and Lily took it, and, beaming, the two of them walked off the Quidditch field, not really caring that they had just won the game.
A/N Hip-hip-hooray for Lily and James! Yeah, this was a fun chapter to choreograph. There’s probably just one more chapter after this that will take place at the ball, and I’ll end it there. As usual, reviews please! Thanks, you guys!