In the year 1977, as Muggle killings and fear of You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters spread, more and more parents were keeping children at Hogwarts, in the belief it was the only truly safe place. The tension at Hogwarts was building, and the usually noisy corridors were simply full of funeral whispers, when Dumbledore had called a meeting with the Head Boy and Girl, and decided that Hogwarts would have its first ever Christmas Ball since the Yule Ball tradition had stopped.
As you can imagine, all the talk of the excited teenagers (and preteens, if you want to be picky) for weeks was this event. Girls everywhere were comparing mail-order dress robes, and boys, who had to ask a girl to be their date, were skulking around, trying to catch the girl of their choice alone (why do they have to travel in packs?) As the date loomed closer, most boys had to resort to blushingly asking a girl if they could talk, and then mumble their request to them.
Of course, some of the braver boys simply marched up to the girls and asked them, but there were few that bold. However, the Marauders are an exception to every rule, you know. Who didn't know the Marauders, dashing Head Boy James Potter, handsome Gryffindor Quidditch Beater Sirius Black, cool and calm genius Remus Lupin, and adorable Peter Pettigrew! (the last was thought adorable only by one particular moronic girl) They ruled the school, and it was every girl's dream come true if they got to go to the Ball with one of them (even Pettigrew would do).
Well, every girl except one. Enter Lily Evans, the fiery red-headed Head Girl of Hogwarts. The whole school knew James Potter was infatuated with her, and asked her out on a daily basis, but unfortunately (and stupidly, as the girls of James Potter's fan club thought) she loathed him, and thought of him as a big-headed idiot who just liked to show off. So, when James predictably asked her if she would accompany him to the ball, it came as no surprise to anyone when she yelled, "I will fail all my N. E. W. T. S. before I go to the ball with you!"
Many other boys had asked Lily to go with them (she was by no means unattractive, there was also a Lily Evans fan club), but for some reason, she had declined all offers. They were nice boys, and she liked them immensely, but she simply didn't want to go to a Ball with them.
That was how she ended up sitting alone at the refreshment table, as her traitorous friends (who had promised to stay by her side the whole time) went off to dance. Mary and Stuart were dancing erratically to Celestina Warbeck's new single, Love's Never Ending Spell, while Sirius Black had shocked the whole school by asking Sunehri, Lily's other best friend to dance, and she had mysteriously accepted. Lily herself suspected the Imperius charm, but she didn't feel like ruining the party by busting him.
It wasn't so bad at first. Mary and Sunehri visited often, and there was some fun in watching the beautifully dressed girls and the well-turned-out boys dance. Lily herself was an amazing dancer, she had taken years of ballet and jazz dancing, but there is considerably little fun in dancing with boys who always manage to step on your foot. After trying to dance once with Edward Fawcett, a nice, towheaded Ravenclaw boy with two left feet, she decided to give her big toe some well-deserved rest; he had managed to stomp it no less than four times.
That was when things began to get boring. The whirling couples who could dance were making Lily sick with envy, and it got on her nerves to be just sitting there when she could dance better than any of those cow-footed girls. Lily was naturally jealous, it was a personality trait that just seemed to come with green eyes. Tapping her foot (without the injured toe) in time to the rhythm, she wondered idly where James Potter was. There was Sirius and Sunehri, both pretty good dancers, and Remus clapping them on, as Peter awkwardly shook himself about with a short fourth year, but no sign of James Potter.
James Potter not attending the dance was more serious than it sounded. As the head of the school in more ways than one, his reputation was on the line at such carelessness. He's probably off pulling some prank or other, Lily easily concluded.
She got to her feet and stretched. I might as well go up to the Common Room and read Gone with the Wind, she decided. As soon as she stepped into the Gryffindor Common Room, she regretted her decision: James Potter was sitting in his favorite armchair by the fireplace, scratching out a letter.
Startled, he looked up at Lily. She defensively tensed, as though waiting for some comment. He did raise one of his eyebrows (how she wished she had that ability!), but then he smiled at her and greeted her with a "Hey, Evans!"
"Hello", she cautiously replied. Then he seemed to go back to the parchment, and she curled up in the other armchair and began reading. The music from the ball came faintly up to the Common Room, creating a peaceful atmosphere. But her mind wasn't really on the book. She was wondering about James Potter just writing quietly while there was a ball downstairs.
"Er…Potter?" The surname seemed unfamiliar and heavy on her tongue when she wasn't berating him for something. He stared at her with surprise at the uncertain tone in her voice. But she could not rest until he told her why he wasn't at the Ball. "I was just wondering…Sirius is at the Ball, and so are Remus and Peter. Er…I'm sorry if I'm being rude, but why aren't you?"
James knit his eyebrows in confusion at her question. Why does she even want to know? "Why?"
"Yes, why are you up here alone?" He thought he could detect some embarrassment and curiosity in her voice.
"No, I didn't mean that, why do you want to know?"
Lily blushed crimson, and shaking her head, she mumbled, "Oh, never mind…er, I was just a little curious. Doesn't matter, I'm sorry."
"Oh" James looked back at his letter home. "I didn't really feel like going. Not in the mood."
"Really?" gasped Lily, not bothering to cover her astonishment. He looked at her, raising his eyebrow in humorous irritation. She backpedaled hastily, but blushed angrily as well.
"Oh, come on, you know what I mean!" She angrily tried to defend herself. "You're the James Potter, for crying out loud, you're always in a mood to have fun."
"I didn't realize I had a title. I guess I'm more famous than I thought." He smirked to himself, and Lily rolled her eyes, sighing. Always the ego, she thought with amused resignation. But he was talking again.
"Have you maybe considered the fact that maybe I wouldn't have fun at the ball?" He looked at her questioningly, and she stared blankly right back.
"Why wouldn't you? I mean, beautiful girls dancing with you, and sighing over you, and everybody's envying you…It's your perfect setting!"
James snorted in contempt. "'Beautiful girls?' Did you not see them lumbering around like cows? Besides, I don't really like any of them. They're nice and all, just sort of redundant."
Hearing James Potter, the James Potter speak thoughts that she had been thinking made Lily widen her eyes in shock. Did he really feel the same way?
"You're just saying that because you probably can't dance, and you're afraid to admit it!" It was the easiest and quickest comeback she could come up with.
"Au contraire, Lily, I can dance. Quite well, if I do say so myself." James was shaking his head amusedly, like he knew a secret she didn't know. Which probably was true, but he didn't have to act so bloody smug about it!
"Really, James? I don't think a girl's standards of dancing and a boy's ideas of dancing really match. I just had Edward Fawcett, who assured me he could dance divinely, step four times on my big toe in one song!" She chortled over the memory, remembering the robot like plastic smile she had pasted on her face all through that dance. She was pleasantly surprised to find James laughing along with her.
"Edward Fawcett? Lily, don't tell me you couldn't find anybody better to dance with than him! What happened to all those men crowding over you, begging for dances?"
Lily rolled her eyes again, but there was a smile on her face. "I don't really like any of them. Nice fellows, but definitely boring. Plus, they can't dance."
James got up and stretched. "Well, then, don't you think you should be having some fun as well on this happy night?"
Confused, Lily raised both her eyebrows (since she couldn't raise only one) "Who said I wasn't having any fun?"
Oh, right. She had been having a bad time before coming up to the common room. She had forgotten, it was such an interesting conversation. She was thinking over this, wondering how, when she realized James had been saying something. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Lily, will you – "
"NO, Potter, for the thousandth time, I won't go out with you." Suddenly, she began feeling tired. Just when she had actually started considering James Potter as a decent human being, he had to go all bigheaded again. People didn't change in one evening, after all.
But James was talking again. "If you would let me finish, Lily, you would know that had not planned on asking you again. I was asking you if you would like to dance with me."
She raised both her eyebrows at him. "Are you really as good a dancer as you say you are?" Lily had no idea why she wasn't shooting him down already. The lethargy seemed to drain out of her just as quickly as it had come.
James seemed delighted that she hadn't said no…yet. "You will never know unless you try."
Just then, a new song started, with a lively beat that set Lily's foot tapping impatiently. James extended his hand, Lily grabbed it, and they were whirling around the Common Room, lightly, easily, effortlessly. Or were they floating in the clouds, leaving the sun, the moon and stars, all below them? This was what dancing should always be like, thought Lily contentedly.
As the last strains of the song faded away, Lily collapsed onto her armchair, laughing in between breaths of air. "You're right", she admitted as her chuckles faded away, and for once, she didn't mind saying it.
"About what?", James questioned, an expression of mock curiosity on his face, even though he knew exactly what she was talking about
"You're a pretty good dancer." Hey, Lily had her pride!
James stared down at her, a soft expression on his face. Abruptly, he spoke, "I didn't go to the Ball because I was thinking, what was the use of having so many beautiful girls about you when the girl you wanted to dance with would not dance with you?"
Lily couldn't think of any answer to that for a while, and so she remained silent, her startled green eyes staring into James's hazel ones. The silence grew longer, until the notes of another lively reel came up from below and broke the silence. The sound shocked Lily into speech.
"Well then." She cleared her throat nervously. At Lily's words, James came out of his reverie, and was about to go up the boys' stairs, when Lily called his name.
"James?"
He turned and gazed questioningly at her.
"Would you like to dance?"