Lily Evans loved nighttime in the spring and summer. She even liked it in the fall and winter, given she was properly bundled up, or it was warm out. She never really knew what attracted her to the nighttime atmosphere, but she loved the way things looked when the world was bathed in moonlight. A constant hue of cool colors, blue, green, purple, and that radiant silver light, energizing, mystical. It was an escape, this much she knew. She was uptight. She followed and enforced rules, did all of her homework, studied, and got good grades. Her mates thought her to be crazy. She was somewhat of a spoilsport, she guessed, which is why she had many friends (she was nice enough), but never best friends. She worked too hard for that. And so throughout her time at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry she moved in and out of social circles, making acquaintances, making friends, but always searching for that connection. Her biggest fear, she had come to realize, was loneliness, and it was slowly stifling her in a lamentable way.
She supposed it wasn't all her fault. She didn't really have trouble making friends, she was smart and nice, outgoing, and all the other perfect aspects that friendship seemed to encompass. She was picked on, singled out by a boy. James Potter, to be exact. Potter, as she liked to refer to him, thought he was hot stuff. She supposed he probably was, of course, she would never concede this fact to him, as arrogant and obnoxious as he was. Well, not really obnoxious, come to think of it, he was only obnoxious to her. They fought constantly. In some ways, she supposed, he was her contemporary, but she could not for the life of her stand him. James was popular, head boy to her head girl, Quidditch captain, brilliant, and all around Hogwarts hunk, which inflated his ego to epic proportions, in Lily's opinion, at least. Girls swooned over him, he would in return give them a cocky hazel eyed wink from behind his round glasses and ruffle his unruly black hair. Hot shit, sure. Lily could at least understand why girls liked him. She had to admit, he was devastatingly handsome and all the things one would look for in a boyfriend. He had a reputation, whether true or not, that always seemed to rub her the wrong way. The thing Lily hated about him the most, though, was how he made her jealous. She had to work so hard while he barely lifted a finger and was perfect.
James challenged her; she had to admit, made her question things and sharpened her intellect with his quick-witted jibes and their enormously famous altercations. He annoyed her, scaring away any chance she had at having a boyfriend like he had some sort of claim on her, and scaring away friends who feared that they too would have to endure constantly being made fun of. James knew how to have fun, to prank and romp around with his rowdy and popular group of friends who had named themselves the marauders upon their formation in first year. Lily had trouble letting loose. James, she thought would never change. He would always follow her around, asking her out, getting into passionate arguments until she just wanted to up and slap him, no, she was a witch, a good one too, yes, a well placed hex would be satisfying. If only magic in the hallways wasn't forbidden, then he wouldn't come near her, she was a powerful witch, just as James Potter was a powerful wizard. And so they were evenly matched, both extremely attractive, caring, brilliant, loyal, and responsible, well not in Lily's opinion. She had always seen James as an irresponsible prat. What she really needed was to let loose.
Sometimes Lily did let loose, go crazy and wild, she just did it in secret. No one would know she was breaking the rules, and her reputation, as good girl extraordinaire, would stay intact. So began her moon dance rituals. At least once a month Lily would sneak down to the Hogwarts grounds, not during the full moon, of course, there were werewolves out there, ones Lily knew of, but she would never betray his secret. He didn't even know she knew this. The gibbous was good enough for her. The moon would be big and the night perfect. She was always so enraptured with the colors and the sounds of the night and the general energy that pervaded her mind, engaging her imagination and enticing her senses. And under the moon she would dance, a crasy, graceful dance. Sometimes she would run, frolicking, if you will, letting her laught escape to mingle with the precious sounds of the night.
"We get it on most every night
When that moon gets big and bright"
And she was happy. She didn't worry about loneliness because here, dancing under the silver light, she knew that that connection would soon find her.
"It's a supernatural delight,
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight"
She had been moon dancing for as long as she could remember. Her first moon dance had been when she was a little girl with her father. She was safe. She was loved. She could dance and not worry who else was watching. It was a crazed kind of fantasy that she had been living under the open sky, sneaking out to live it whenever the occasion called for it. It was on one of these such occasions that she sensed another presence, not formidable in nature in the least, but pleasant, someone else to enjoy the night.
"Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark and they don't bite."
She continued her dance, hearing another, and more masculine laugh amongst her own sporadic laughter. Looking up to catch glimpses of messy black hair atop a figure twirling and gliding about in the same manner she was. She was thirteen at the time of her first shared moon dance. She wasn't accustomed to sharing her time with the night, but she liked it all the same.
"They keep things loose, they keep things light
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight"
This was right, so unlike herself, so rigid and perfect. It was flawed, which made it so magnificent to her. To be having a perfectly flawed time dancing under the stars, knowing someone else was dancing too, not a care in the world.
"Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and right
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight."
Time went by since her fist moon dance in another's presence, and she continued to run into him throughout her next year at Hogwarts under the stars. She knew who he was by now. That fool, Potter. She, however, enjoyed just having his presence there when she was dancing, hearing him laugh too. When they were fourteen, and fifteen, it continued. They never talked, or even danced together, they just acknowledged each other as another part of the night. She liked it; it was so different then how they normally interacted, no disagreements, no loud arguing, no sexual innuendo or him asking her out, just two lovely little dances. She loved to think that they could dance without arguing, and she was right, no fighting, and she was so blissfully aware of his presence too, as she was sure, he was aware of hers, but it was different than their daytime encounters, there was no judgment except maybe quiet admiration.
"We like our fun and we never fight
You can't dance and stay uptight"
Twirling and twirling and twirling, her red hair flying out behind her as she ran, her green eyes sparking and mirth, she would call to the night, and hear it echoing into the sky. Occasionally she could hear a loud bellow escape deep from the chest of her companion.
"It's a supernatural delight
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight"
It wasn't until her sixth year that they actually began to dance together. She was sixteen now, and still very lonely, he still asked her out, and pranked people. He stopped, however being mean and cruel. He still scared away all the competition for Lily, though, he wanted her to himself, claiming during the day that they had passion, in their arguments, and unmentioned in their dance. Now, on this night, he was here to show it. The green grass covered in shadows, was wet under her bare feet as she spun, dancing to the music that no one else could hear, except James, of course. He came up behind her, and slowly placed his hand on her waste, gently turning her around to face him. Her hand met his; clasped in the air, and her other found his shoulder. The did a moderately fast rhythmic dance, he spun her out every couple of steps making her dizzy, the cool night air filling her nose and lungs, giving her a feeling of elation, that she so rarely felt. It was so wonderful to dance with someone else. Lily had come to realize that she had never really hated Potter. She just wouldn't admit it. Now, she knew she could never really hate him, not when he danced with her like this, keeping her company from the solitary night, and she knew that she could never feel quite the same way dancing with herself ever again.
"Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and bright
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight"
Her dependency on his presence scared her, but she looked up into the sky, and felt the warmth from the hands seeping into her body, and knew it was alright. They never talked, they just danced, a sloppy, yet graceful kind of dance the silver of the moon reflected in his glasses whenever they made eye contact, and the occasional soft smiles she received. It was all very charming, really. This ritual repeated throughout her sixteenth year, both of them silent, the only sound to escape was enchanting laughter, hers, tinkling, mixing with his deep chuckle. She had come to expect these dances with him, it baffled her how different he was when under the moon, he didn't expect anything from her, except her willingness to dance, and let loose, and he saw a side of her no one else could see. They started to argue less towards the end of her sixth year, though they were by no means friends.
"Everybody here is out of sight
They don't bark, and they don't bite
They keep things loose, they keep things light
Everybody was dancing in the moonlight"
Presently, it was the start of her seventh year. Seventeen years old and head girl. Her hard work appeared to pay off. Of course, Potter was head boy, but Lily wasn't as upset about it as she would have been a year ago, when they used to argue more frequently, but things between them had calmed down somewhat. She missed dancing with him, even if they never did talk. She had danced by herself all summer and needed company. She had determined that she would go out tonight, knowing that he would be out there as well. Though they never spoke, she knew he enjoyed the night as much as she did and had come to like their moon dances as well. That night she had evaded Filch and McGonnagal, as well as a few of her mates' curious questions. She nimbly hopped down the last few stairs of the front steps of the castle and throwing caution to the wind, she began to run, her dressing gown getting caught between her legs and the air rushing past. She stopped at the top of a hill, her cheeks rosy and illuminated in the moonlight. She laughed as she stared up at the night and then with all the grace of a small elephant, she flung her body to the ground.
She rolled down the hill, laughing gaily. Her white dressing gown became mottled with grass stains. She came to a stop, panting from the exertion of her tumbling. She lay on her back to look up at the sky. Lily could see the tops of the trees in the forbidden forest, strangely still, and from her vantage point, she could make out the hoops on the Quidditch pitch. She closed her eyes, breathing in the night air and knowing he would come, and he did. Not a moment later a shadow blocked out the light. She slowly opened her eyes to see James smiling his charming smile and offered him a soft smile in return. He gave her his hand, a truce, she knew, and this time it was different. Usually she was already dancing when he joined her, but tonight she knew things were different. Oh how she missed the moon and Hogwarts, and well…James, she supposed. So forgetting a moment of indecision, she swung her hand up to meet his. He gave a tug, and she popped up, ending up snugly against his body. She blushed a little, Oh no why was she blushing, and glanced up at him, taking a step back for space. He acted like he hadn't noticed their closeness, though she knew he had, she could tell be the quirk in his lips and the amused sparkle in his eyes as he stared straight ahead. Their hands synchronously met in midair and they began their wild dance, and anyone watching would have been astonished by the amount of poise and grace portrayed in a silly, wild dance. They had been dancing for ten minutes or so, when she heard singing. A male's voice was issuing straight from the depths of the man in front of her. James Potter was serenading Lily Evans. She listened to the words that seemed to fit so nicely with their whole theme of the night.
"Everybody's dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and right
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight"
It was the first time either one of them had spoken during one of these escapades. From then on everything changed. They danced slower and spoke more often, really speaking not just singing. They talked about everything there was to talk about. They became friends under the moon, which was odd, since they had never before had real civil conversations. Lily realized that James was a really good friend, and soon he became her best friend. They walked to classes together and talked in the common room. It was nice to have someone looking out for her, someone to work with and talk with, to share how her day was and someone to share advice with. James stopped pranking her. Although by no means did they stop arguing, but it was passionate, she knew they had passion.
"Dancing in the moonlight
Everybody's feeling warm and right
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight"
James was handsome and perfect, she realized she may have come upon this fact too late. He balanced her out, she was uptight and he was loose. A synergic combination if she ever saw one. It was too bad he stopped asking her out. Instead she watched him, when they walked to class, when they were eating, when he played Quidditch, and she missed him. They still danced often enough, and that was what started everything. Dancing under the moonlight in the serene and wonderful night was how Lily Evans and James Potter became Lily and James best friends. Lily thought she would settle for this, for friends, though she knew by now, the middle of her seventh year that she was helplessly in love with the fantastic bloke, too bad half of Hogwarts was also. She had the advantage though; she was on this inside, one of his closest friends, besides the other marauders, of course, who had seemed to except her with open arms much to her surprise. They had even stopped teasing her about James' huge crush on her for the past few years. Lily was scared to become something more with James, she was afraid she would lose all they had, but she wasn't a Gryffindor, brave, for nothing.
"Dancing in the moonlight"
It was another moon dance. Lily stood on the top of that same hill she had rolled down what seemed like so long ago at the beginning of her seventh year and she was crying, the wind quickly drying her tears, leaving stains down her face, and the salt mingling with her lips. She sat down and pulled her knees toward her chest, in no mood to dance tonight. The source of her agony, incidentally, was James Potter. She didn't know when it had happened, when he had become so important, when she cared so much what he thought but it had happened and it appeared that he didn't reciprocate her feelings, though she knew he valued their friendship deeply. It was then that she heard steps behind her and a voice whispering, "May I have this dance?"
She quickly wiped her eyes on the sleeve of her robe and turned to look at the speaker. Just as she thought, it was James, and her heart gave a little wrench. He pulled her up and then looked into her eyes. "Lily, what's wrong?" James asked, his face riddled with concern.
"It's n-nothing." Lily stuttered out, but she could tell that James didn't buy it by the skeptical expression marking his face.
"C'mon Lily, you can tell me what's really wrong, I know you better than that." James stated, his eyes searching hers as they swayed gently. But she couldn't tell him, how could she just up and tell James that now that he stopped liking her she was head over heals for him. How could she ruin their friendship like that? But she had to do something. So with a moment of careful deliberation she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him straight on the lips, falling into it for a second and then pulling away. She leapt out of his grasp and looked up into his eyes, which were laden with a curious surprise. She couldn't do this, she ran. She was breathing hard, a million thoughts running through her head, how she had ruined everything, how wonderful that kiss was, and what James would think. James, her best friend, she had kissed him. She heard him calling after her as she ran, over hills, as fast as her legs could carry her. James, she hadn't realized had chased after her. He caught up to her on the front lawn, practically tackling her in his haste to halt her progress. She tried to escape, she started to cry again, but he just pulled her to him, hugging her close. "Did you want that?" he asked. "Did you mean that?" he questioned, this time in a fevered whisper.
"Yes." She choked out. James looked down at her and then swept her up into mind-blowing kiss.
When they broke apart James was still holding her close. He looked down at her earnestly and stated, "I've been waiting to do that for seven years and I was beginning to think it would never happen." And he kissed her again sweetly. Their hands once again laced under the moon and Lily felt that happy bubbling as they swayed and laughed and kissed well into the night, just her and James and the moon.
"Everybody's feeling warm and right
It's such a fine and natural sight
Everybody's dancing in the moonlight"