Sweet Sixteen
My sixteenth birthday had to be perfect. I was having a huge party, and everyone in my year was invited, along with muggle friends, except for the Slytherins. Even though James Potter was coming, I was not about to let that ruin everything. Even though he was the one person in the world who could.
Everything was all set. It was just like a fairy tale. My favorite one, Cinderella. The tables were covers with a silver fabric, and the chairs were a gold cover. Bouquets of silver and gold balloons on every table, and even some that had escaped to the ceiling of the room. The ceiling was enchanted to look like a starry night sky, and along with the lost balloons, looked fabulous, just like a dream.
There would be classical music playing, perfect for dancing. Sure some people would want something they could really dance to, instead of the traditional slow dancing, but I didn't care. This was, after all, my party.
There was going to be a five course meal. First a salad and then soup. Third would be an appetizer of the persons choice, either cheese sticks or pretzels, a childhood favorite of mine. Then would come the main entree of the person choice, either chicken or steak, served with vegetables. Finally the last course would be the desert, my birthday cake. The cake itself could have served as an entire dinner. It was a good sized cake, not huge and not small. It had three tiers, and it was vanilla. It also had pink and silver frosting flowers on it.
There was also a carriage, made out of cardboard, there. It looked so real the way it was done, plus when a light was on it, it looked like it was covered in diamonds due to the glitter. It was the perfect place for pictures, along with the castle background behind it. Now all I needed was my prince charming.
Too bad I didn't have one. I would be going to my sweet sixteen a single, which wouldn't be that bad I guess. At least I could have fun, and not have to entertain a date all night. I would be free to mingle with all my guests, which was good because I didn't want to upset anyone by not giving each person a few minutes.
The night of the event finally arrived. I had had my nails done earlier, a nice french manicure. No fake nails though. Along with my toes too, since I was wearing open toe shoes. My hair had been curled and half of it was pulled back, the other half left down. I also had a shoulder massage while getting my toes done, which did help me relax. A bit.
My dress was a simple, strapless, white dress. Not like a wedding dress like some girls may do for their sweet sixteen, which I do think can be ridiculous at times, but one that looked more as if it would be a bridesmaid dress, or a formal one. It had some detail along the edges with small white pearls, but other than that, it was very plain, which made it the perfect dress for me for my special day. My make up was plain and simple. Just enough to cover up any blemishes that I had had from all the stress, along with a bit of glitter, and a light pink lip gloss.
I arrived a bit early, to make sure everything was set up right. My parents didn't allow me to help with any of that stuff, saying that I needed to relax. They had been very kind through all of this, helping me with the planning. They even let me use money out of my savings to pay for this, since I didn't want them to spend much on this.
When I got there, things were perfect. Everything chair perfectly arranged. Stars shining bright. Music playing softly in the background. All the balloons practically standing still, as if holding their breath, waiting for my reaction to everything. I could do nothing but smile, and I almost started crying too. It was everything that I had dreamed. But remembered I couldn't cry, or I might mess up the little bit of make up that I did have on.
Soon people started arriving, signing the guest book and leaving any gifts they might have bought on the table by the door. I greeted everyone as they arrived, and chatted for a bit with them, before the wandered off to find a seat, or dance a bit to the music.
Everyone was all dressed up too. The girls in dresses, the guys in suits.
When it was just about time for dinner, most of the guests had already arrived, last to arrive, were the marauders. Sirius and Remus each came with dates, which they quickly took to the dance floor. Peter quickly wandered off to find a snack, but James stayed, as if expecting me to ask him to dance or something like that.
"Hello James" I decided for tonight, that I would not call him 'Potter' as I normally did. Tonight was supposed to be one of the best nights of my life, and I was not about to ruin it by acting like a little kid.
"Hello, Lily. Happy Birthday." Thankfully he wasn't acting like one too by calling me Evans. Strange, he didn't seem to have a gift with him. I know a sound greedy, but honestly I'm not. It just seems that James, of all people, would bring something, hoping to win my hard, or something like that.
After a few moments of silence, I decided to break the silence, since it was getting a bit awkward. "Well, if you'll excuse me, I have other guests, who are alone, to attend too." But James wasn't ready for me to leave.
"Wait a minute. I'm alone. Why not stay here and chat with me" Well, he was right. He was alone at the moment. But I knew if I didn't leave soon something would happen that could ruin the evening. Which could have been anything, knowing James.
"I really must" But I was interrupted, by one of the servers saying that it was time for dinner. Saved by food, who would have thought that"Well, I guess it's time for dinner, I guess we'll have to chat later."
I went quickly to find my seat. I was not sure who would be sitting with me, since I did not have a date, nor any family here. I was going to have a dinner with family members at a later date. My parents wanted to do something for my birthday, since I was paying for most of this, so they are doing that.
I soon learned that I should have made seating arrangements, because who sat next to me? Non other than James Potter himself. I could tell this night was not going to go as planned. Sirius, Remus, and their dates soon joined us at the table. Peter was no where to be seen. He either choose the wrong table to sit at, or got lost all together.
"Well, I guess we're chatting a bit sooner than you thought Lily" James smirked. Yeah, this night was definitely not going to go the way I wanted it to.
We got through the salad and soup with out much of a problem, then it was time for the appetizers. I had, of course, pretzels, when most others seemed to have choose the cheese sticks, including James. Little did I know, he had a hidden motive to choosing so.
"Since you've choose the pretzels, Lily, would you like to have a few of my cheese sticks" He asked very politely.
"Why, no thank you James. Though I do hope you enjoy. They do have garlic in them just so you know." I gave him the nicest small I could, trying not to laugh.
"Well, I guess I should save room for the main course then" James pushed his plate away from him. So did everyone else at the table. I guess no one wanted bad breath. Sirius and Remus I could tell why since they had dates, but James didn't. Which, of course, could only mean one thing.
We got through the main course with out any problems, and soon it was time for the cake. I was a bit unhappy, probably turning a bit pink in the face, by having to stand up while everyone sang me happy birthday. This is where things started to go bad.
One of the servers accidentally tripped while carrying a plate, white promptly shattered into a million pieces, the cake on the plate, however, went flying through the room, hitting the carriage. I'm guessing it must have been going pretty fast, since it knocked the carriage over, which didn't weigh that much, and then the carriage knocked into the castle scene behind it, creating a hole in it. So much for my perfect fairy tale portraits.
"Oh no." I covered my face with my hands, trying my best not to cry. So one thing had gone wrong. Very wrong. But there was still the dancing. Unless everyone would decide to leave after the cake, which was, at the moment, still being served at the moment, though I declined to eat any after that. (Thankfully we had ordered two cakes due to so many people.) Little did I know that that was the first of the bad things to happen.
After the cake had been eaten, and the tables cleared, some people got up to dance, some stayed seat, chatting. Sirius and Remus promptly got up to dance with their dates, leaving me with James. I wonder if James had previously discussed this with them.
"I'm sorry about your cake and fairy tale setting Lily" James said quietly. And he did sound honest about this. Which did, I'm not happy to say, make me feel a bit better.
"It's not your fault." And it truly wasn't his fault. He had done nothing that had to do with the cake flying through the air, and he hadn't really done anything to make me mad this night either.
Then followed a long period of silence. We both just sat there, in silence, both staring at the table. I'm guessing James did take a few glances at me, as I did with him. "Lily, I was wondering" But he didn't get to finish what he was saying, because the second disaster occurred.
The music suddenly seemed to slow down, making it sound weird, and eventually stopped, but not after a few sparks shot up from the music player. Sadly, I had not planned on having back up music and it could not be fixed, no matter how much magic was used. The night was now officially ruined.
People soon began leaving, though I didn't notice since I had started crying. The gloves that I was wearing were almost completely soaked from trying to hide the fact that I was crying. I was so upset that I barely noticed when someone tapped in on the shoulders.
I looked up and sat James. I quickly took off my gloves and grabbed a napkin left on the table and wiped my face. I didn't like it when people saw my crying, especially James. But apparently he had been there the whole time.
"Lily, I"
But I interrupted him. I wanted to be alone. "Please James, not now. I" But he interrupted me too, except not with words.
James pulled out, from his pocket, a silver bracelet. I gasped. It was beautiful, though I'm guessing it wasn't real. But either way I couldn't help but admire it.
He took my wrist and gently put the bracelet around my wrists, making sure it was fastened correctly. When he was done, I looked at it and examined it more carefully. It also has something engraved on it. It was Sweet Sixteen and then Lily Evans along with my birth date.
"James" I was speechless. I didn't know what to say. The person who I thought I hated most in the world had just given me this wonderful gift. Plus he was the only one still at my party, when everyone else had left after everything went wrong.
"You don't have to say anything." Then he got up to leave. But something inside me didn't want him to.
"James" He stopped and looked back at me. I smiled. "Thank you."
He smiled back"Your welcome." Then he paused for a moment. "Lily, do you think you would like to dance"
"But there's not music."
"Does the music really matter"
Something inside me was telling me no, but something else also said yes. What else with this night could go wrong, anyways. "No, the music doesn't matter" I said as I stood up.
While James walked with me over to the dance floor, I began thinking. Maybe I had misjudged James. Sure he was always playing pranks and trying so hard to please me, but tonight he revealed something else to me. James showed me that he had a nice, sensitive, almost normal side to him. Something that I liked.
And so, as we were dancing to music inside our heads, his arms around my waist, and mine around his neck, I couldn't help but smile looking at him. It just felt perfect. Which is why I let James kiss me then. Sure we might go back to school and things might be the same of usual between us. But there was a chance, when he asked me to go to that first Hogsmead trip of the year, that I would say yes.
Happy Birthday
Now your sweet sixteen...
A/N: Hope you all enjoyed! This was just a short fan fic that I wrote.. I may possible turn it into something longer, but I need to concentrate on some other projects right now..