This is a one-shot split into two parts describing the yule ball during Lily and James' seventh year. At this point that are not going out yet, but James did ask Lily as his date (and she accepted) because of how close they had gotten.
This one-shot is part of a much larger story that I have written, but I'm not sure if I'll ever post it because it was written back when my writing skills were...well...not as refined.
Anyway, happy reading!

When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I stopped in shock. James was standing a few metres away in front of me. He too was standing still staring. In any other moment, I would've been embarrassed or annoyed at the thoughts that came to my head. But seeing him, in black robes over a white shirt and black, smart trousers. With a bowtie. I really wasn't ashamed when my first thought was "He looks hot".

After a few seconds he broke the silence.

"Lily….you, you look amazing. Beautiful." he stammered. I blushed and looked down at the floor, fiddling with the straps on my shoes.

"You don't scrub up too bad yourself Potter." I said, looking up and grinning. He grinned back and walked towards me until, he was right in front of me.

"What's with the no shoes?" he asked, raising one eyebrow curiously.

"They are death traps. I had to take them off at the top of the stairs, because there is no way in hell that I would've been able to walk down the stairs in them. And they kill my feet." I answered with a huff. James was smiling. Amused by my pain.

"You realise that there's a massive staircase, more formally known as the grand staircase, leading into the great hall." I frowned. Damn, I'd forgotten about that. Not fair.

"You know what. I'm leaving the shoes here. I refuse to torture myself with them." I threw them onto the sofa, where they bounced and clattered onto the floor. I frowned in frustration. James chuckled.

"Nice throw Evans."

"Shut up Potter." But both of us were positively beaming at each other. After a moment's pause of silence, James said softly,

"I have something for you." I narrowed my eyes at him, this better not be some prank.

"I promise it's not something silly or a prank. It's a gift." He said, obviously having seen my dubious look. I eased up my look, and replaced it with a smile. He put his hand into the pocket of his robe, and pulled out a little white box. Carefully he opened it up facing me, so that I could see inside. I gasped. Nestled inside black silk, was a hair pin in the shape of a feather. It was completely encrusted in diamonds, but not in an overpowering look of wealth way, and at the top, was a large emerald. It looked exactly like a peacock feather.

"How did you know?" I whispered, my fingers gingerly stretching out to touch the feather.

"How did I know that peacocks were your favourite animal?" I nodded. He shrugged and grinned.

"I have my ways."

"I really hope you didn't buy this James." he shook his head, it's been passed down through our family. As far as I know, it's never been worn. I sent an owl to my Mum this morning, asking her to send it. I thought it would match your eyes. Little did I know it would match your dress as well." he said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Your parents are fine with you just giving this to me? It's a family heirloom!" I exclaimed. He shrugged.

"It's never been used, and we'd rather it got used and given as a gift, than it collect dust for the next century, or it got sold." He said with a shrug. I smiled at him. I pulled it out of the box, and reaching round to the back of my hair, I fixed it in place where my small ponytail was. I thought for a moment before stretching up on my tiptoes and kissing him on the cheek.

"Thank you James." he beamed at me, and went slightly red in the face.

"Come one we better go, or we'll be late. And I know for a fact that all the girls dates are outside waiting for us to leave." he said as he chucked the box onto the sofa, where it most annoyingly stayed. He smirked at me. I stuck my tongue out.

"Shall we?" he asked, holding his arm out for me to take. I grinned and slipped my arm into his.

"Why not?" And we walked out of the common room.

Remus (who was waiting for Leila obviously), Aro (Who was waiting for Jemima), Jake (Dorcas), Charlie (Emmeline) and Logan (Marlene) were all outside. Remus positively beamed when he saw me on James' arm, I rolled my eyes. Aro winked at me, which I happily returned.

"Ooh, James stop a sec." I turned to Jake, Charlie and Logan.

"I happen to know that all of you are going to the ball with my friends not as friends, but as hopefully a bit more. But I swear to the great freaking Merlin, if you mess with them or hurt them, today or any other time, I will tear you to pieces. I will find some way to make the remainder of your seventh year a living hell." I said with a glare. Then I turned to Remus and Aro who were smirking. "And that goes for you two as well." Their smirks faltered.

I turned back to James.

"Okay, we can go now." James was grinning in amusement from ear to ear. He offered me his arm again and I gladly took it. As we walked away, I noticed how cold the stone floor was without shoes on. But it sort of felt nice, to be without shoes, like I was free.

"You, know I had that same talk that you just gave the boys, from Marlene this morning." James informed me. I smirked and nodded.

"I'll have to thank her." I giggled. He frowned.

"But you know I'd never hurt you right?" he said, sounding worried but caring.

"I know." I said stopping us and turning to face him. "But you act different when you're alone with me. It's like you have a facade that you use when in public. But when we're alone, you're different. Not as loud or prideful. You don't try to hide things, like your fears. It's not like you hide yourself when you're in public. I don't know how to explain it. And that's something that Marlene has never seen. She's hasn't seen you when you're alone with me" I sighed.

"You bring out a different person in me." James whispered. I smiled.

"Yeah." I breathed.

"Which person do you like better?" he asked, looking at me through worried eyes. I placed my other hand on his arm and said,

"I like both of you." he stared at me, uncomprehending. I sighed.

"Come on, no more morbid talk tonight. Let's enjoy ourselves." I said with a light-hearted smile. And we carried on walking.

We walked in silence. But when we reached the stairs that went down to the great hall, James whistled.

"Wow." I gasped. The whole thing was a glittering silver and white of icicles. They hung from the 12 Christmas trees in the hall, off of tables that had trays and trays of food on them. Like normal, the ceiling displayed the weather, but today it was filled with sparkling white voluminous clouds, snow fell from them, which dissipated just before it reached people's heads. The floor was a grey, but that made no difference to the beauty of the sparkling, glittering and shining white landscape in front of us.

We walked down the stairs in shocked silence, taking in the view in front of us, gaping at the amount of icicles, and white ribbons that were around us. The floor was colder, but it only fuelled my liking of walking barefoot. There were lots of people already there, milling about, waiting for the music to start. We spotted Peter with a Hufflepuff girl and went over to them at the drinks table, we drank from crystal goblets, while we chatted light-heartedly and joked. A few minutes after we arrived, everyone else arrived as well, that was except for Leila and Remus. Who Jemima informed me that Remus hadn't been able to keep his eyes off of Leila, so Marlene pushed them into a corner so that they could snog in private. I sniggered at that. But Sirius wasn't here either, with whoever his date was. When I asked James who he was coming with, he just smirked and said,

"Just wait and see." And no less than a few seconds later, Sirius swept in, dwarfing the small body of Poppy Baden on his arm. Both were grinning and were chatting away, like it was the easiest thing in the world. When everyone thought that it wasn't, seeing as they had to the two most contrast personalities in the world. I smiled at Poppy and waved my hand in a little wave, which she returned with a grin I'd never seen on her before. Sirius winked at me when he saw me with James. Which I rolled my eyes at, but I silently appraised him for getting Poppy to go with him.

A minute later Remus and Leila came running in, both red in the face and looking a little bit flustered. Remus' hair was sticking up in all directions. James noticed it as well, and pointed it out for him, when they were still a few metres away. Remus sheepishly patted it down. I smirked at Leila, and she stuck her tongue out at me. Everyone was here now, and the hall was slowly filling up with couples. Which basically meant nothing, seeing as the hall was so big. So while everyone milled and chatted at the sides. The middle was left open for dancing.

Suddenly, some sort of classical music filled the room, and Dumbledore appeared at a table that was at the head of the room. Which all the teachers were at as well. I hadn't seen that before. He pressed his wand to his throat, and spoke in a loud voice that easily flowed over the music.

"Once again, we are gathered in this hall for our annual yule ball. This year especially, I believe that we are all in need of a night of entertainment, and free from worry. So without further ado, I ask you all to enjoy yourselves tonight, and to join our head girl and boy in the first dance." What!?

I looked at James in worry. Did I hear that right? James and I had to start the first dance? No, I must've been imagining it. But James had taken my hand and was pulling me into the centre of the dance floor.

"James." I hissed. "I can't dance." James stopped in the centre.

"What do you mean you can't dance? You're good at dancing." he whispered in a confused tone as he put one hand on my waist and pulled me closer, pulling my other hand up into mid-air.

"No James, I can't waltz or anything like that. I will step on your toes." I hissed in frustration. He let go of my waist and pulled my empty hand onto his shoulder, and then returned his hand to my waist. I sucked in a breath when his hand touched my waist. Sparks moving across my skin, despite the fact that he hadn't actually touched my skin. It was a bit...intimate. Wasn't it? For a school dance?

And then he started moving. Stepping this way and that while I just managed to stumble along. My body was pressed so close to his, and my eyes didn't leave his. He was so tall. I had to look up at him, I vaguely remembered from that one lesson we'd had on waltzing that we had to always look at our partner. So that's what I did, and he never looked anywhere else. Even though I never looked away from James, I could feel everyone's eyes on us. It was embarrassing.

"See, this isn't that bad, is it?" James whispered as Remus pulled Leila onto the dance floor.

Thank Merlin for Remus. Probably the only one of my friends who knew about my bad waltzing skills and was willing to relieve the pressure from me by dancing himself.

"To you, this may feel good. To me this feels like I've got three left feet. It is not a relaxing, comfortable feeling." James chuckled.

"How are you so good at dancing anyway?" I asked him, trying to divert the attention away from me. More people were waltzing now, nearly the whole student body.

"Dunno, it's just always come easy to me." He said. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't try and lie to me Potter. I'm not Peter, I can tell when you're lying." I huffed. He sighed.

"My mum made me take ballroom dancing lessons when I was eight. Pureblood parties meant that every child must be able to dance by the time they're ten. I loathed them. Not for the dancing, but because the teacher was horrible. She was this short, fat witch. She seemed to be under the illusion that she could dance. Sure, she knew the theory of it. But when it came to actual dancing, she would mess up all the steps and then blame us for doing it wrong. It's a wonder any of us could actually dance by the end of the course. Pure torture." He ranted.

I rolled my eyes.

"It can't have been that bad." I reasoned. Now it was his turn to raise his eyebrows.

"Oh, you think so? Well I would be delighted to introduce you to her sometime if you want." He drawled sarcastically. I giggled. After a moment's pause James said,

"Lily..."

"Yup." I replied.

"You're dancing." He announced. And so I was. I'd unconsciously fallen into the rhythm and was now stepping in time with James. Forwards. Backwards. Left. Spin in a circle. Repeat.

"So I am." I replied. He gave me a dazzling smile. "Okay, maybe this isn't so bad. I may actually be enjoying this if Leila wasn't glaring at me every time she comes into my line of view." And to punctuate my sentence, Leila twirled with Remus, glared at me, and mouthed, "Shoes".

"Aaaahh, she's annoyed that I'm not wearing any shoes." I told James. He chuckled at his little sister.

"Well, now that you've established what Leila is annoyed about, are you enjoying this?" James asked.

"You're not going to give up until I've told you that I'm enjoying this, are you?" I asked, sceptical. But already knowing the answer.

"Nope." he replied with a grin. I sighed.

"Fine. Then yes, I am enjoying this." James grinned.

"So you won't mind if I do this then." And with that he put both hands on my waist and lifted me up as we twirled round. I almost squealed, and quickly grabbed his shoulders for more support. Gently, he put me down, and returned one hand to my waist, and grabbed my other hand like nothing had ever happened.

But I was smiling. However stupid and surprising he was to dance with. He made me enjoy it. And I'd never enjoyed ballroom dancing before. I started laughing, and before I knew it, he was chuckling along with me.

We danced until all throughout our laughter, which was quite a while, seeing as every time we looked at each other, we would burst into fresh fits of chuckles. And then we continued dancing, just revelling in each other's closeness. It was….nice. As I was looking up at him, I noticed things about him that I'd never seen before. Like how he had this tiny scar above his left eyebrow. And how his hazel eyes had flecks of black in them that twinkled when he laughed. And then it turned to noticing how nice his lips were, and how his messy hair didn't actually look stupid. It actually looked quite….good. And…..how he had a really good jaw. Like, Merlin, it was good. Each time I noticed something like this about him, I silently cursed myself. But I would always go on and find another thing that made him…...hot. Yes, I was starting to think that James Potter was hot.

Eventually the music stopped. James let go of me and stepped away. I frowned, but he simply gave me a smile and bowed. So I indulged him and curtsied back. But when we started to walk over to where our friends were, I said,

"You know, in contemporary, tap and jazz. Everyone bows. Male or female. There's no segregation of the sexes. That is actually one of the reasons why I used to hate ballroom dancing."

"You used to hate ballroom dancing." James pointed out.

"Sshhh Potter. I'm explaining something. Anyway, ballroom dancing is completely sexist. The way that the man has to lead the dance, and then the woman has to curtsy to him. Which, by the way is a completely sexist move. A curtsy is a sign of, like, submitting yourself to whoever you're curtsying to. A bow is simply recognition of the other person. So all the man has to do is recognise the girl, while the girl has to submit herself to the man. Completely sexist, and people just go along with it!" I ranted, my hands flying out in wide gestures. We had now reached the others, and Sirius was looking at me curiously. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"So, you used to hate ballroom dancing because it's sexist?" James asked, and hint of awe in his voice.

"Yes." I breathed out.

"Aww Lily! Not this again." Leila whined. A babble of voices joined in, either complaining about or backing up my rant on sexism. But I didn't join in, I was too busy staring at James out of the corner of my eye every now and then. But he wasn't trying to hide his staring at me. He just didn't stop looking at me, unashamedly. He had this look on his face. It was like a mixture of awe, joy and…..something else in his eyes. I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was though.

The music started up again, and James broke away from staring at me. I was expecting him to offer me another dance. But instead he turned to Sirius and curtsied. What!

"Sirius..." He said, stretching out his hand to him. "Will you give me the honour of this dance?" His face a picture of complete seriousness. Sirius' face lit up in a mischievous grin.

"Of course I will my love." He curtsied to James before taking his hand. Though Sirius was taller, James offered him his arm, which Sirius took, and they walked onto the dance floor. I could see McGonagall at the teacher's table, with a look of scepticism on her face, but Dumbledore next to her was smiling in amusement. James became the lady now, and let Sirius put his hand on his waist, while James went for Sirius' shoulder. They started waltzing, every now and then, swapping roles. So James would become the man, and then Sirius the lady. This went on for a minute before Remus went over to Peter and offered him his arm. They too walked onto the dance floor and started waltzing. They didn't switch roles though, they stayed as Remus as the man, and Peter as the woman.

I could still see James and Sirius, twirling effortlessly. At one point, Sirius lifted James into the air, like James had done for me. I giggled when James shot me a wink. Next to me, Jemima was bowing to Leila. Leila bowed back, and they both proceeded to walk onto the dance floor. They started to dance, giggling the whole time, with Jemima as the man and Leila as the woman. Dorcas and Emmeline caught on and ran onto the dance floor, waltzing gracefully together.

I walked up to Marlene, and bowed to her. She bowed back.

"Dance with me." I said with a pout. She chuckled, but put herself on my arm. We walked next to where James and Sirius were waltzing. And took up our own waltz. Marlene as the man and I as the woman. This really was easy. Marlene and I laughed our way through the dance, but I couldn't help stealing glances at James as we span around a few times. Okay, maybe a bit more than a few. Well, it was more like with every turn I would look at him. I couldn't help but notice how easy he made this look. The messing around. The….having fun. His smile was contagious, every time I saw it, it just fuelled my laughter. The way he winked at me when he caught me staring at him, made me want to wink back. He made me feel…...alive.

Towards the end of the song, James twirled Sirius out, and then left him there. Instead coming over to me and Marlene, Sirius was left behind him pouting dejectedly. He tapped Marlene on the shoulder and said,

"Mar, as much as you two look lovely dancing together, Lily and I look better, so, you know, shuffle on over to Sirius. I'm sure he'll indulge you in a dance if your heart so desires it." I rolled my eyes, but Mar just winked at me and went over to Sirius. He did indeed indulge her in a dance. But it was nothing like the way that James and I had danced, it was more like a declaration that they were just friends. And anyway, Sirius kept looking over at Poppy, glares upon his face. She was dancing with another Ravenclaw boy, who was making her laugh.

James put his hand on my waist and pulled me close, I smiled up at him.

"So, Miss Evans. Is this defying the stereotypes of sexism enough for you? I believe that Jemima and Leila are still dancing together, so are Moony and Wormtail, and so are Dorcas and Emmeline. And Sirius and I made sure to switch roles throughout the dance. Sirius also lifted me into the air. And I believe that I'm right in saying that you and Marlene would still be dancing together if I hadn't come and interrupted." James told me, putting on a posh voice.

"And why did you come and interrupt our dance Mr Potter. Marlene and I were having such fun." I said, imitating his posh voice. But there was nothing posh about his voice as he leaned down and whispered into my ear,

"Because although dancing with Sirius is great. It has nothing on what dancing with you feels like." His breath was hot on my neck, and I shivered, but blushed at his words, refusing to look at his face. When I did pluck up the courage to look at his face, he had that same look on his face as he had before. Only this time the awe was gone from it. He looked so happy, but there was still that unnamed look in his eyes.

To be continued