Summary: Lily Evans ended up planning a Masquerade Ball due to her two best friends constantly begging her to have one. At the Ball, Lily danced with a mysterious boy with hazel eyes. And she was enchanted by both the eyes and the boy's personality. One-shot!
Enchanted
Lily sighed as she fiddled, once again, with the dress that she was wearing. She wasn't sure how she let her two best friends, Alice and Marlene, talk her into planning a Masquerade Ball. Being friends with the Head-Girl had its advantages, though, especially when that one Head-Girl wouldn't say no to her friends. At the time, something in Lily's mind had told her that it would be such a great idea. Now, looking at the mask that she was wearing (which had feathers and gems on it) she had no idea why she agreed.
Even while she was organizing it, Lily would curse her friends. It was both the Head-Girl and the Head-Boy's job to organize all events. The problem with that, you might ask. The problem is that the Head-Boy is the arrogant toe-rag, James Potter. Granted, he has been acting much more mature since Seventh year started and he also hasn't asked Lily out all year, so far. Still, she tried to keep their communications to the only necessary level, this was very quiet unnecessary. Lily was positive that Alice and Marlene had known this when they had poked and prodded her with the idea for a week before she finally gave in.
"Lily!" Alice reprimanded for the fifth time in the past fifteen minutes. She pulled Lily's hand away from her dress, "Will you stop it? You look good. If I have to, then I will put you in a Full-Body jinx until it's time to head downstairs."
Marlene, who was painting her toenails, Muggle style on her bed, looked up and smirked at Lily, "Nervous for seeing a special guy tonight, Lily?"
That question made Lily turn her bright green eyes on Marlene, "If you are talking about Potter then-"
Smirking, Marlene held up her hands – at least as best she could with the brush in one hand and the bottle in the other – in surrender to her red-headed best friend, "For the record, I didn't say any name. It was you who brought up Potter."
In response to Marlene, Lily glared then tried to see what Alice was doing to her hair, "Alice, are you almost done? I need to be in the Great Hall before-"
"Don't even try to play that card on me, Lily." Alice laughed, "You already lost that card yesterday when you were complaining about having to do the whole set up with James this morning."
Lily sighed, mentally cursing herself for not leaving that excuse open to get away from her crazy best friends, "Yes, so I had already set up this morning. I still do have to make sure that everything is set-"
"And you will be able to as soon as I am done. I won't be much longer, Lily." Alice was not going to let Lily go, but she was suddenly nervous as soon as she felt her long red hair become much lighter.
A minute of silence, to which all Lily could hear were beauty spells that Alice was muttering, then Marlene, who had finished doing her nails, stood and looked Lily up and down. She smirked and nodded in agreement, "Merlin, Lily. If I swung your way, I would totally date you."
Lily and Alice both laughed at what Marlene said, "Now I understand why you are dating, Black." Lily giggled, but her laughter was short-lived as she got nervous of what Alice had done to her. She went to twirl a frill on her dress around her finger, but Alice grabbed her wrist.
"Lily! I said stop it!" Alice growled, but then smiled when Lily looked at her, "Go into the bathroom and look at yourself. You are gorgeous!"
That can't be possible, Lily thought to herself. Alice and Marlene were both breathtakingly beautiful, as they had both gotten ready before Lily. She required – mostly – full attention, so that she wouldn't attempt to jump out of her dress or something. Lily still walked into the bathroom to just see how much her two best friends were lying, and also to see just what they had done to her.
As she looked in the mirror, it took her a moment to realize that she was even looking at herself. She knew that dress that she was wearing. It was a blue dress that was corset-ish over her chest and torso, but then it became frilly around her waist and below, which went all the way down to her feet. She was wearing blue high heels so that the dress wasn't dragging on the ground. Her mask was also blue, sticking out a few centimeters over either side of her face. Blue gems were circling her eyes, with two feathers on either side. Lily then looked at her long red hair, only it wasn't long anymore. Her red hair was now just past her ears – it had been just at her lower back – and layered out. She knew that she could regrow it if she wanted to, but she actually didn't. It was actually good looking.
She had to concede, she looked pretty okay. That was what she thought she walked out and back into the Dormitory. Alice and Marlene were both smirking at her. Lily sighed and smiled, "I'll admit, you did a good job."
Alice squealed, "I knew you would love your look!"
Alice was in a very simple, peach colored dress. She was never one to draw attention to herself. Marlene, on the other hand, was a whole different story. She was wearing a dress that was, like Lily's, tight around the chest and stomach (but it also started much lower down, showing a bit more of Marlene then Lily's showed of her) but at the waist and below it became very poofed out and only stopped just halfway up her calves. Her dress was red and black with large strips of each color. She was also wearing a black mask with black gloves that went up to her elbows and black boots. She really popped out of the group.
"And the guy-" With a glare from Lily, Marlene smiled and raised her hands slightly, "-whoever he may be. I won't name any names. You can now dance with him without him recognizing you."
Lily opened her mouth to make a retort, but came up short. Marlene just smirked and nodded, "I promised to meet Sirius in the Common Room. He will probably be fashionably late, but I might as well get there first. See you at the ball!" Marlene waved to her two best friends then left the dorm.
"I wish that Frank was here." Alice sighed, Frank was her boyfriend, but he was also a year older than them, so he graduated last year.
"This is supposed to be an anonymous dance." Lily said, she would have said that to Marlene, but she left so quickly.
Alice looked at Lily, "Even so, I would love to know that Frank was hidden among all the handsome boys. Wouldn't it be something to catch his eye at the Ball, without even knowing that it is him, and fall in love from just that one look?" Alice smiled and sighed happily at the imagination.
"Whatever you say, Cinderella." Lily laughed.
"Who?" Alice asked, looking offended, "Did you just call me a disease? My name is Alice."
The comment that Alice just made helped Lily feel much better and much less nervous, "It's a Muggle fairy tale." Lily explained to Alice. "I didn't call you a disease, I promise. I'm sorry, I just forgot that we were raised in two different worlds."
Alice shook her head, "As long as you didn't just call me a disease, it's fine." Alice, getting distracted, looked outside and put on her mask, she looked at Lily again, "I think that we should head downstairs."
Lily nodded to Alice, "We should." The two girls walked out of their dormitory and headed downstairs. They caught Marlene on the couch in the Common Room, snogging – who they assumed to be – Sirius Black. The two hid back a laugh as they walked out and down all the corridors that they knew so well right to the Great Hall.
Alice breathed in amazement, "Wow. You really did a great job." Lily noted that her friend's voice changed ever so slightly, but just enough so that if she didn't realize that it was Alice, she wouldn't have known who was talking. That was all to help the 'anonymous' factor. It is a spell that happens as soon as you enter the Great Hall, it will be lifted as soon as you leave.
"Thanks." Lily nodded, the Great Hall was pretty amazing. Her and James along with Remus and all the other Prefects had spent a good four hours setting up. Even with magic, it was still a long process, but it was so worth it when she looked around.
"If I leave you, you won't disappear back into the Common Room, right?" Alice asked Lily, glancing over at a guy in a very shy mask.
"No, I'll stay here." Lily told her best friend. Alice searched Lily's eyes first, to make sure that she wasn't lying, then smiled and nodded, heading off to the mysterious guy.
With Alice gone, Lily suddenly felt her insecurity's coming to fly back to her. Was she slouching? No, she couldn't be, not with this corset-like dress on. Was her makeup running? No, it couldn't be. How was everyone else enjoying the ball?
Lily started to feed in out of groups of people dancing to the band that Lily was too nervous to remember the name of. At one point, she had noticed Marlene's out-there dress, dancing with the same guy that she was snogging in the common room. Everyone here was sixth or seventh year, the only time that someone younger was allowed was because they were a sixth or seventh years date. Lily's eyes skimmed around, not catching anyone in particular, she didn't know what she was waiting for. She could dance with literally anyone, yet she didn't.
Suddenly her eyes stopped on a pair of hazel eyes from across the room, the two of them just clicked and held each other's gaze. Something about those eyes, the way that they were looking at her, like she was the most prized person in the world, made all her insecurities just vanish. Gone. Hazel eyes were asking her one simple question, "Have we met before?" Only he was too far away to actually ask, but Lily could tell that was what he was asking. Lily was wondering the same question, of course they had met before, but who was he? She didn't really want to know, at least just yet.
Hazel eyes made his way over to her, "Hello." He simply said, for a second, Lily tried to match the voice to a face that she knew, but the voice had changed and she stopped trying.
"Hi." Lily smiled, the two were swaying to the music, it was a much softer song.
"Come here often?" Hazel eyes joked.
"Not really, maybe three times a day." Lily smirked.
He shook his head and laughed, "I come here at least seven times."
"I don't even think that is possible."
"When you are a hungry, growing boy, it is."
"Sorry, but I'm not a guy."
"No," The boy agreed, "Who are you?"
"This is an anonymous ball." Lily said, "If I wanted you to know who I was, I wouldn't be wearing a mask."
"Well, then instead of torturing me with trying to figure out who you are," He held out his hand with a smile, "Would you care to dance?"
"That would be lovely." Lily took the hand of the masked student and quickly found out that he was skilled in the art of ballroom dancing. He danced beautifully with Lily. Honestly, it was almost as though they were one when they danced, as though they were made for each other.
Not once did they even attempt to find out who the other one was, besides at the start of the conversation. Lily enjoyed that the two could remark and countermark each other, as easily as if they had known each other their whole lives.
It was well past morning before the ball had finally ended, Professor Dumbledore was the one who had to stop everyone. It was only meant to go on from nine that night to midnight, Lily didn't get back to her dorm until three in the morning.
"You mean to say that you danced with this mysterious guy for hours and never found out who he was?" Marlene yelled to Lily as they stripped out of their dresses and into much more comfortable pajamas. Both of Lily's roommates couldn't understand that Lily never asked the boy of his name.
Lily shook her head, "Of course I didn't."
Alice jumped in, "But you want to know, don't you Lily? I saw you smiling and blushing all the way up here. You really want to know."
As Lily pulled her hair up into a bun, she had magically regrown it back to its normal length, she gave a small smile, "I guess, just a little, but I wasn't going to ask. I was the one who thought up the idea of everything being anonymous; it wouldn't have been fair if I broke that rule."
"Lily!" Marlene and Alice both moaned.
"Literally everyone else broke that rule." Marlene complained.
"You really aren't one to speak, Mar." Alice told her, "You were snogging your date before you even got into the Great Hall." Marlene shrugged in response and Alice turned back to Lily, "We could help you find him. Think about that." Alice then jumped into her bed happily. Somehow Frank had gotten into the Ball, he had special permission from Dumbledore. Alice had the Cinderella story that she wanted, even though she still thought that Cinderella was a disease.
Marlene hopped onto her own bed as well with a smile, "Night girls!"
"Night!" Lily and Alice mimicked back. The three girls all drew their curtains around their beds at the same time. Lily lay back in bed and thought about that mysterious boy. She was only a bit tired, even though she knew that she would only have an hour of sleep before she would head back to the Great Hall to help clean up the mess left from the ball. The House-Elves in the kitchen would have been more than happy to do it, but Lily refused to let them do all the work. She wanted to help, but she had two hours to change out of her clothes and everything before she was due back down at the Great Hall.
Her mind became set on the mysterious boy. Who could he have been? For a moment, she thought that it could be Remus. He was polite enough to be, something that Lily had always just stuck with Remus, but he was a few inches taller then what she knew Remus was. She marked out most of the Slytherin boys, as she knew that they hadn't even gone. Maybe it was Sev- no! It wasn't him. She knew that right away because of the eyes… of course, there are spells to change that… no! Sev- Snape is planning on becoming a Death Eater, he uses Dark Magic, he calls people Mudblood! It wasn't him. Lily just sighed, praying that something would bring her and the boy together again.
Something that did nag her mind was wondering if he already has a girlfriend, someone else to love. Lily didn't even know his name! She shouldn't use the 'L' word! Still, she had to admit that something clicked between them. She just wondered if he knew it. She just wondered if he knew how enchanted she was to meet him. Yeah, enchanted, that was the word.
Lily sighed, now wide awake with the thoughts of this mysterious boy, wishing that he would just knock on their dormitory door and say that he was as enchanted to meet her as she was to him. Of course, she knew that that was impossible. Boys weren't allowed into the girls dorms. It was a sacred rule since the founders of Hogwarts. Then again, she still didn't even know his name.
Maybe if Lily hadn't left before him, then maybe she would have asked what his name was. Now she was mentally kicking herself for not. His eyes would float around in her mind, they were beautiful. She would remember them and watch out around the school for them. In the back of her mind, something screamed that she knew them. She really just couldn't put a face with those eyes and that personality.
What would Lily do if she saw those eyes again? Truthfully, Lily knew what she would do. She didn't care who it was, she knew that she had seen the great personality of someone who she loved. She didn't know just who it was, which made it much safer to say that she loved the personality. That was what she wanted to judge a person on anyway. Whomever it was, their personality was beautiful. When – if – Lily saw this person again, she would want him to know just how she felt. Enchanted.
After staring at the ceiling for a good fifteen minutes, Lily knew that those eyes would not be leaving her mind anytime soon. So, as quietly as she could, she slipped out of her bed, changed into something a bit more presentable, and headed downstairs. She was still quiet, as she knew that sometimes people fall asleep in the Common Room for various reasons and she didn't want to wake anyone. However, as she was walking down, she heard the voices of Black and Potter.
"-telling you, Padfoot, we were almost made for each other. You should have seen the way that we danced." That was Potter.
"Prongs, this is why I have no idea why you didn't ask her what he name was!" Black yelled, Potter shushed him.
"Padfoot, quiet. We don't want to wake anyone."
Black laughed, "Don't want to get Evans mad at you?" He paused then gasped, "What if it was Evans? What if you were dancing with Evans? You said that she said that it was an 'anonymous ball,' that is only something that Evans would say!"
Lily gasped and quickly covered her mouth. It couldn't be! But the eyes! Suddenly they clicked into her mind; she saw James Potter's eyes in her mind then her mysterious masked man. They were the same. Oh. She- she- she fell for James Potter. She couldn't deny it. She, Lily Evans, who has denied James Potter since first year, had suddenly fallen for him at a Masquerade Ball.
While Lily couldn't – didn't want to – believe it, she knew that it was true. James had changed so much coming into Seventh year. He was politer and held much more responsibility. Not once this year had he asked her out in the immature ways that he always did in the past. She also had to admit that she had yet to catch him attempting to prank a Slytherin. Lily just looked past all James' new ways and kept her mind on the arrogant toe-rag that she had known. James was different now. He was James – not Potter. Lily suddenly realized that she had started to think of him as James.
Lily bit her lip and she walked down the rest of the stairs, James had gone quiet, she did hear Black chuckling. "James?" Lily asked timidly, walking out of the door that led to the stairs and shut it.
Black – Sirius – she should probably call him by his first name too, even though his maturity level had yet to grow. It was something that Marlene had been begging her to do. Now that she realized just how much she had fallen for James, his best mate, she agreed that she should. Sirius glanced up to her, his face serious now (no pun intended) and nudged James. James looked up to see Lily standing in front of the door.
"Lily!" He exclaimed, jumping up, at the moment, no one was in the Common Room besides Lily, James and Sirius. "We aren't due in the Great Hall for another forty five minutes. What are you doing up?"
Lily, still biting her lip, saw James' eyes. Yep, she thought, those are defiantly the eyes that I had danced with for hours on end. "Couldn't sleep." Lily mumbled.
Sirius, looking back and forth between Lily and James, gave an evil smile and started to head to the boys stairs, "I think you two have some things to say to each other. See you in the morning, Prongs! Night Lily." Sirius added the last part as he passed Lily.
James glared at Sirius' receding back up the stairs then looked at Lily, all his anger disappearing. He nervously ruffled his hair, making it much more messier then it needed to be, "Er- how much of that did you hear?"
"Enough to answer my question that has been keeping me up." Lily spoke softly, but her voice was still loud in the empty Common Room.
"Have you-" James started then his eyes got wide in amazement, "You just called me James! You've never called me James before." He had a big smile on his face, one that Lily had never truly seen before. It looked as though Christmas had come early to him. James moved away from the couch and a bit closer to Lily, not too close, there was still a good few meters between them.
"Has it really been that important to you?" Lily noted just how excited James was, and also moved away from the door a bit, just a hair closer to him.
"Of course it has been! I was starting to think that you didn't even know that I had a first name." James' smile made Lily feel both a bit guilty for never seeing this new side of James as well as a little filled with butterflies.
"I thought that you were over me, that you had moved on?" After the first month of Seventh year, it was something that buzzed around in her mind. Something that, suddenly, she realized how sad she would be if he said yes to this. Lily wanted to be the person that James loved and Lily wanted to love James.
James shook his head, "Never. Lily, I've loved you since first year. Nothing about that has changed. Just because I have stopped bothering you with the question, doesn't mean that I stopped wanting to ask you."
Lily smiled and moved ever closer to James, only a meter of space was between the two of them. She looked into the beautiful hazel eyes, "James, you only have to ask one more time."
"Ask-" James faltered, then his face lit up like fairy lights with understanding, "Lily Evans, will you go out with me?"
Realizing that, just twenty-four hours ago, Lily would never have believed what she was about to do, she probably would have asked if someone put love potion in her dinner, as well. No, this was a new Lily, one that saw the new James, the more mature James. Lily slowly nodded, "Yes."
James cheered with joy and, without really knowing what he was doing, he kissed Lily. Lily, without knowing what she was doing, kissed him right back in the most passionate kiss she could ever have. James easily proved, in that one kiss, just how much that he had always loved her. Lily told him just how much she was ready to love him.
They were only interrupted by Sirius bursting into the Common Room, cheering. "WOOP!" Sirius yelled, "I told you! I told you Moony! I told you Wormy! And I told you Prongs!"
"Sirius." Remus had quietly said, Lily pulled away from James to see Remus trying to pull Sirius away. Sirius wasn't budging. Peter Pettigrew was standing at the back of the group, silently watching.
"Nope. Pay up, both of you." Sirius smirked, holding out his hand.
The next morning, James and Lily realized just how many people had betted on the two of them becoming a couple. There were cheers of joy from the people who won the bet and calls of annoyance to the people who had lost the bet. Lily was pretty sure that she had even saw McGonagall and Dumbledore smiling at the two of them.
A year later, when James and Lily were about to get married, Lily thought about that day at the Masquerade Ball. She nodded to herself, silently waiting to walk down the aisle. James agreed with her, they really were enchanted to dance together at that ball. That was still the word to describe their life. Enchanted.
Authors Note: So, I got this idea for this story because of the song Enchanted by Taylor Swift. It only semi-follows the song, the song only really just gave me the biggest inspiration to write this story. That's about all. I hope you enjoyed the one-shot. Review if you would like. Favorite if you would like. Until next time, bye!