The start of Lily Evans' seventh and final year at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry had began and Lily was sitting at the Gryffindor table, awaiting the Headmaster's, Professor Dumbledore, start of term speech.
The old man stood and raised his hands for silence, which he received immediately. He took a moment to survey the students with his dancing blue eyes before speaking.
"To my older students, welcome back. To my new students, welcome to your very first year at this fine school."
There was another pause as his eyes ran over his precious students.
"I can see that this year we have a fine selection of children - and young adults."
He allowed himself a chuckle before continuing,
"So I think you would all enjoy a nice, relaxing break around Christmas time when the teachers seem to enjoy piling mountains of homework upon you. Therefore, this year, I have decided to host a “Cheer Up” Christmas Ball. Not only will this be something to keep you going and hopeful throughout these difficult times."
Lily felt a pang of despair as she remembered how a Dark Lord by the name of Voldemort was gaining power. It was a dreadful time for all witches and wizards everywhere, Dumbledore seemed to have noticed the change in atmosphere because he continued with a kind smile and understanding eyes.
"This ball will also promote the much needed inter-house unity that seems to have recently died out."
His eyes lingered on the Slytherin table.
"Now, all decent balls need entertainment, so, if you would like to be part of this entertainment, please write your name and talents on a slip of paper and place it in this box," he conjured up a small, wooden box with his wand, "by Monday evening.
“As this announcement has been slightly lengthy, I shall finish it after you have been fed and watered."
He smiled round at his students as he raised his arms. The usual piles of food appeared, making the four House tables groan under their weight.
*
"Come on, Lily!"
"Guys, I really, really don't think we shoul-"
Despite Lily’s protests, her friends insisted and ended up almost dragging her from the girl's dorms to the Great Hall, where the entry box resided.
"Please, Lucy, Karen, I don't want to perform! I don't want to! And you can't make me! Got it?" Lily cried, twisting out of their grasp.
Her friends just giggled and continued walking towards the box, Lily had no choice but to follow them.
"Look, I don't want you to do this!" Lily shouted, suddenly extremely angry.
"Lily, listen, what are the chances of you being chosen out of all the people who are bound to enter?" Karen reasoned.
"Very slim, but they would be lower if you didn't put my name in!"
The door of the Great Hall suddenly burst open and the four greatest tricksters of Hogwarts, the Marauders, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, came swaggering in. Lily groaned. No doubt James Potter would take this opportunity to ask her out several times.
"What’re you doing here?" Lucy asked.
"Entering mine and Jamsie's names," Sirius replied.
Lily raised an eyebrow. Jamsie?
"Cool, what're you entering for?" Lucy asked Sirius.
Lily couldn't quite understand why Lucy and Karen were friendly to the Marauders, except Remus. He was the only non-girl-obsessed boy out of all of them.
"Our dance," 'Jamsie' replied as Sirius opened his mouth to speak.
Lily had no doubt what the content of his speech would have contained, had James not cut in.
"Show us," demanded Karen.
James and Sirius looked at each other, shrugged and grasped each other by the hands. What pursued was a kind of cross between a tango, a poorly performed ballet and some form of dance Lily had never seen. Whilst James and Sirius twirled and pirouetted around the hall, Peter hummed tunelessly and Remus buried his head in his hands, looking thoroughly embarrassed.
With a final spin, James and Sirius stopped dancing and looked up at the girls expectantly. Karen and Lucy realised that they wanted feedback.
"Er, very...original?" Karen suggested
"Unique in it's own way," Lucy provided, causing the boys to beam.
"Absolute crap," Lily stated nonchalantly, causing Remus to snort with laughter.
"Aww, come on, Evans, it wasn't that bad!" James persisted.
Lily just rolled her eyes. James sighed and decided this was a good as any moment to ask her out.
Karen and Lucy took opportunity of the crazed shouting that followed to discreetly slip Lily's name into the box.
*
A couple of days after what Sirius dubbed as “The Box Accident”, the Marauders were seated around the fire of the Gryffindor common room.
Usually, they would not be caught dead with the ‘half-witted civilians’ of Gryffindor that the Marauders thought were below them, but tonight was different. Tonight they were plotting.
And Lily had put a curse on their dorm to make it colder than a freezer as revenge. It got cold up there in the evenings.
Ever since they had found out that one of their numbers, Remus, was a werewolf, they had set about becoming animagi, succeeding in their fifth year.
If anyone should look outside their window during a full moon, they would see a stag, a huge dog, a rat and a werewolf running around.
A week before the full moon arrived, the Marauders would sit down and plan what they would do that night, it often got boring wandering aimlessly around the grounds all night. Even if they were with a werewolf.
“What if we gave the centaurs a fright? I’ve always wanted to do that. They wouldn’t be so high and mighty scared to death,” Sirius suggested.
His suggestions were often stupider than that one.
“We could visit the kitchens and get some food.”
This was one of Peter’s more sensible ideas.
“Don’t be thick, Wormtail, you can’t bring me into the castle once I’m transformed!” Remus lectured.
“WHAT AM I GONNA DO?” James suddenly howled, making the others jump and many other Gryffindors to look around in alarm.
“Chill, mate, what’re you going to do about what?” Sirius asked, the first to recover and pick himself off the floor.
“Evans! She’s never going to like me, ever. She’ll hate me forever, then what am I going to do?”
“Oh, her. Look, mate, I think she’s a lot more bother than she’s wor-”
He was cut off by James’ yelps.
“Of course she’s not! She the most wonderful person on the planet!” James cried.
“You really love her don’t you, Prongs?” Remus asked quietly. James nodded.
“Then tell her that, let her know, and not being an ‘arrogant, bullying toerag’ “ her words, not mine “ wouldn’t hurt either.” Remus told him.
James frowned.
“But you’ve spent the last couple of years telling me not to change for her, that she’d come round eventually!”
“Maybe I was wrong, just become a better person and tell her how you feel. Perhaps you’ll stand a chance then.”
So, over the next few months, James followed Remus’ advice.
He stopped hexing innocent first-years in the corridors, he stopped asking Lily out whenever he saw her and spent hours in front of a mirror telling himself that he was nothing, not to degrade himself, to make himself less arrogant and self-centred.
And one day, his chance to change Lily’s feelings towards him arrived.
*
Lily was exhausted. She had spent all morning studying for her NEWTs and she wanted nothing more than to hex the tests into the Whomping Willow.
She groaned and shut her book, she couldn’t study anymore. Besides, NEWTs weren’t until next June, it was only October, she had plenty of time left.
Lily decided to give herself a break and take a walk through the grounds to clear her mind.
Being the time of year that it was, rain fell regularly and the grounds were layered with mud. Lily was slightly bothered by it, but, after all, it was only mud, it would wash off.
Her mind was changed significantly when James Potter came charging up to her, skidding to stop himself falling, and coating Lily in mud.
“Potter! You half-brained gnat! What do you think you’re doing?” she screeched.
James’ eyes widened in surprise, then he lowered his head and mumbled an apology.
“Look, Potter, I don’t need you right now, ok? I need to be alone. A-L-O-N-E.”
“But I have to tell you something, Ev “ Lily.”
Lily stared. He had called her Lily. He hadn’t done that before. Did that mean she had to call him James? The thought of it freaked her out slightly. He had always been Potter to her, like she would always be Evans, right?
James took her silence and mistrustful stare to speak.
“Look, Lily, I just want to apologise for everything that I’ve done wrong, everything that you don’t like and I wanted to tell you um, well, I wanted to tell you that I...I...I love you, Lily. I always have and I always will. Everything about you makes me smile. I’d be yours for all eternity if you’d just let me. So, would you like to er, go out with me sometime?” James stuttered, amazed at what he was doing.
Lily stared at him. He loved her? But she was just a game to him, something he wanted because he couldn’t have it. But the sincerity in his hazel eyes told the truth. He loved her.
But she didn’t love him, did she? Now she was starting to question her own feelings, something she had told herself she would never do.
Did she love him, or did she hate him? Stick to what she had always done, always knew, or do something crazy and new. Date Potter, love him like he loved her, or stick being Lily Evans forever?
She knew what she would like to do, but how could she date someone she had despised ever since she first laid eyes on him?
“James…I…yes...I mean no…I mean, James I don’t know!” she cried, before running up to the castle
James was left standing in the mud, utterly confused. Had Remus’ advise worked? Or had he just succeeded in making his situation a whole lot worse?
*
The next time Lily saw James, was at the Halloween Feast.
She was sitting with Karen and Lucy, the Marauders on the opposite side of the table, slightly to the right.
Sirius and Peter seemed engrossed in a conversation about mashed potatoes, Remus was reading a book and James was staring miserably at his plate, glancing occasionally at Lily.
When their eyes met, they both blushed slightly and made a point of looking away.
Karen and Lucy seemed to have noticed this and talked quietly amongst themselves, leaving Lily to mull over her thoughts.
She still hadn’t decided what she felt about James. Sometimes, when she looked at him, she felt like she could never stop, like she could melt in his gaze. At other times, however, she thought how foolish she was to even be considering the possibility of her and James together.
She sensed James watching her again and snapped out of her thoughts.
Lily was spared the embarrassment of returning his gaze by Dumbledore rising from his sat at the teacher’s table.
“Good evening, now, I know how hungry you all must be, but first I have an important announcement to make.
“As you will remember, at the beginning of the year, I opened a entry box for those wanting to perform at the Christmas Ball and I now have the winners.
At this point, Ogg, the gamekeeper came shuffling up to the headmaster, holding the box that Lily’s name had been put into. Only, she didn’t know this.
“Ah, thank you, Ogg,” Dumbledore praised as Ogg smiled gawkily and hobbled off to wherever he had come from.
“Now, the people performing in December are as follows:
Ted Tonks, with his one-man-band,
Lucy Greggs, with her poem “My Brother”
Billie Harris, with his burped performance of “Silent Night” whilst having a bath.”
Many of the attentive students burst out laughing. The unfortunate Hufflepuff, Billie Harris, who had obviously submitted his entry as a joke and slid under the table.
Lily noticed Dumbledore chuckling slightly at the teacher’s disgusted expressions. Lily found she was enjoying herself, she knew Karen and Lucy couldn’t have put her name in that box without her noticing, so there was no way she could be picked.
She thought back to that day, her sharp mind automatically analysing any opportunity they would have had to enter her.
They hadn’t been anywhere near the box when the Marauders had entered and they had been watching avidly when James and Sirius had been performing so there was no chance there.
What had happened after that? Oh, yes, she remembered, that infernal James had asked her out again. And she had lost her temper as easily as always. What had her friends been doing then?
She didn’t know…that meant…had they really?
Lily threw her gaze back at Dumbledore and mentally begged him to finish speaking.
She saw his mouth moving, but couldn’t hear anything, then the people nearest her were clapping and patting her on the back. Dumbledore was smiling kindly at her as he repeated what he had just said.
This time Lily heard. And she didn’t like what she did.
*
Lily sat by the fire of the Gryffindor common room and wondered what on earth her friends had gotten her into.
She still hadn’t gotten over the fact that she had let her temper take control of her and gotten her into this. She was still furious at Karen and Lucy for entering her. But she was angrier with herself for not being able of stopping them.
Since that announcement almost three months ago, she had spent hour after hour reading through the hundreds of songs she had written, trying to find the perfect one. Only, she couldn't. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't.
So Lily had spent what time she had left, sitting by the flickering fire, watching her classmates, trying to find a tiny spark of inspiration. Only, none had come.
Not a single ounce of it. Usually the calm serenity of the dancing flames would calm her enough to allow thoughts to flow freely through her head. It was these thoughts that came out on paper as songs.
There must've been something on her mind, stopping her from doing this.
It didn’t help that the teachers had started their NEWT coursework. She now had extra studying on top of finding a song. And performing it.
That was when she noticed James fooling around with his friends. Lily sighed. She still questioned her feelings about him. Did she love him, or hate him? She couldn’t imagine life without him asking her out and grinning cheekily at her whenever he saw her.
But then again, the recent peace and serenity were wonderful.
At least, it used to be, but the silence between them was becoming unbearable.
Ever since he had last asked her out, almost two months ago, he hadn’t asked her out at all. She kind of missed it. But she hated the way he hexed and cursed anyone that stood in his way, just because he could.
But did he still do that? She had been so preoccupied recently, she hadn’t really noticed.
But whether it was the sleepless nights she had been enduring, or the dim light of the fire, Lily found her feelings change. Dramatically. She found herself noticing different things about the boy she had tried to hate so much.
Like how his hazel eyes shone with laughter, his smile made her want to smile too, how he seemed to be shying away from the limelight he usually revelled in.
That was when Lily noticed how he had changed since the last time he had asked her out.
He no longer hexed or cursed innocent students, he ignored Severus Snape's taunts, he had even stopped asking her out whenever he saw her, and he seemed like a kinder, sweeter man. He had even been made Head Boy, along with Lily being Head Girl.
She sometimes even enjoyed the nightly patrols of the school. He made her laugh, he made her happy.
So what was stopping her from rushing up to him and kissing his suddenly beautiful lips? What was stopping her from charging up to him and flinging her arms around his neck? What was stopping her? She looked down at the blank sheets of paper on her lap. That was stopping her. She would deal with Potter later. Right now, she had more important things to do.
Then Lily realised what she had been thinking. James Potter, handsome? James Potter, kissable? James Potter something more than an enemy?
Lily frowned at the strangeness of this and glanced back over at James. He was looking embarrassed at something his friends were laughing at. Lily began to chuckle. Then she stopped when she realised what she was doing.
She stared back at James. He was looking intently back at her. She found herself unable to tear her look away from his, she blinked and the moment was gone.
Lily swallowed, took a couple of deep breaths and turned back to the paper on her lap.
She frowned, took one last look at James and at last allowed her heart to rule her head. Lily began to write.
*
The night of the Christmas Ball had arrived. Lily had dressed nervously in her new emerald green dress robes and braided her fiery hair away from her pale face before wandering down to the hall.
The hall itself looked a treat. The usual floating candles had been dimmed, allowing the starry sky and cloudless heavens to rain down on the occupants of it. Mistletoe and twelve-foot tall decorated Christmas trees adorned the walls and ceiling. Even the ghosts had dressed up for the occasion.
The evening passed reasonably well for Lily, she danced with several people, chatted with her friends and just generally socialised and had fun.
Then Dumbledore, dressed in purple, stood up on the stage that had been erected especially for the ball. The hall fell silent immediately, as it always seemed to do when Dumbledore stood.
"Now, for tonight's performance, we have our very own Lily Evans!" he announced. Lily was about to step up on the stage when someone tapped her shoulder; she turned around to see the last boy on earth she wanted to at that moment. Potter.
"Lily, I never got a clear answer last time. Please will you go out with me?" he asked.
Lily just sighed and made her way onto the stage. Insults and rejections of him had grown old long ago. Besides, she couldn't keep the students of Hogwarts waiting any longer.
As the audience sat down at the tables on the edges of the hall and the lights dimmed, Lily sat down at the grand piano, adjusted the microphone and began to play and sing, putting her whole heart and soul into the music that she had scribbled down just the previous night.
"Everything about you,
Makes me see,
Just how rosy this world, can be,
I see your face,
And I start to glow,
I hear your voice,
And off I go.
Everything about you,
Makes me shine,
Am I dreaming, are you all mine,
I pinch myself,
But I'm still awake,
It's all too much,
For one heart to take.
I feel I'm in a world of make believe,
What other tricks have you, got up your sleeve?
Everything about you,
Thrills me so,
Ever since we first
Said, hello.
You look at me,
Winter turns to spring,
Promise me, you won't change a thing.
'Cos everything about you,
Everything about you,
Everything about you,
Makes my heart,
Sing."
The final chord of the song echoed around the hall. There was a stunned silence before the hall erupted into cheers. Lily waited until the applause had subsided before trying to make the announcement she had lain awake the previous night composing.
She opened her mouth, but the words she had planned so carefully refused to come. She sighed and went with the first thing that came into her head.
"Potter - er James - the answer to your question is yes."
She saw the outline of James falling off his chair in shock.
Everything About You by JC_Cainstone
Chapter Notes: The rating is just me being extremely safe as there is one use of mild language. The song "Everything About You" is from "Feather Boy the musical". Finally, I'd just like to say a massive thanks to my wonderful friend and unofficial beta, R.A Wicklow for scanning the improvements in my fic at awkward moments and making them better! Thank you and enjoy!