This was written for Addicted-To-Sugar-Quills' The Happy New Year Competition at the HPFC forum. Six short drabbles revolving around New Year's. There is a slash pairing, just to let you know, though it's very, very, brief... :D

These are the pairings I use during this chapter.

Lily/James

Molly/Arthur

Alice/Frank

Unrequited Lily/Snape

Sirius/Marlene

Unrequited Remus/Sirius

My prompts were: Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six, and Five.

Enjoy!

Lily/James – Prompt: Ten

Lily felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to the owner of the finger. She knew who it was without even looking.

"James Potter! If you ask me one more time to go dance with you, I'll strangle you!" she said, annoyed and exasperated. She shared looks with Alice, with whom she had been speaking. Alice gave her a look that clearly said, "Have fun," and the turned and left, probably to go find Longbottom.

"What are you talking about Lily?" James asked. He obviously knew what she was talking about, but she took the bait anyway. It was good stress relief.

"You've already asked me nine times—this is the tenth time you've asked me to dance. Tell me, Potter, if you're so clever, what are the chances that if I've said no nine times, I'll say yes now?"

He continued as if she hadn't said anything.

"Lily, will you do me the honour of dancing with me?" James grinned immediately after, in a way that he probably thought looked cool.

Lily shook her head with vehemence.

"No."

"But it's New Year's Eve, and it'll be a new year in ten minutes! Please dance with me!"

Lily thought about this for a moment, wavering between a genuinely sorry feeling—it was New Year's, after all—and that annoyed feeling that bubbled up whenever James came close.

"No."

"But I'm desperate here! Come on, you're killing me, I need your amazing dancing skills to save me!"

"No, you're rather amusing like this... in a pathetic way, of course"

"So you'll dance with me out of pity?"

Lily smiled slightly at his quick answer, buy still shook her head.

"Nice try, Potter, but NO!"

"Too bad."

Lily caught sight of the mischievous smile the teachers hated a moment too late. By then, she was being pulled closer to James and being whisked onto the dance floor. For a moment, she found herself enjoying the closeness, the music, the dancing...

But then she remembered who she was dancing with and froze. That led to James tripping over her feet and nearly crashing into her.

"God, I'm sorry!"

Lily shifted her embarrassed face up so that she could see him, and it happened just as he looked down at her. Their lips met.

Molly/Arthur – Prompt: Nine

Arthur and Molly stood in silence for a few moments, not feeling in the mood to celebrate the New Year that was rapidly approaching. Arthur felt eyes on his cheek and looked over at his girlfriend. She had tears tracks staining her beautiful face.

"Molly, dear, don't cry."

Her lower lip wobbled slightly, and for a few long seconds – nine, maybe -, she looked about to do just that. Arthur gestured to the chair, and Molly sat down gingerly.

"Are you alright?"

Molly looked murderously at him, but then reverted to her earlier miserable mood.

"I know Pomfrey wasn't very nice about it, but I promise it'll be alright. We can even go to the ball right now if you want to-"

"I'm PREGNANT!" she screeched, and Arthur became glad of the silencing charm he had put up.

"Shh. It's all going to be alright. She told you we could put up glamour charms to hide evidence from everyone, and that you could take some potions to minimize the symptoms. Besides, it's our last year, we're off after this. I was planning on asking you to ma-"

"What?"

Arthur scratched his head slowly, trying to think up a way to get out of this without much trouble.

"Well, Molly. See, I love you so, so much! I wanted to – I was planning it - ask you to marry me at the end of the school year."

Molly looked up at him, one orange curl falling into her face. Many emotions flickered over her face, and then she smiled. Arthur let out a breath that he hadn't known he was holding, and then took her hand.

He lowered himself down onto one knee, holding a little box behind his back.

"Molly Prewitt, will you be my wife?"

She smiled even wider and nodded eagerly. She pulled him up and planted a kiss on his lips as a way of saying thanks.

"I love you," she said into his lips.

"I love you too," answered Arthur, pulling her closer "And in nine months, I'll have one more person to love!"

Then Molly grabbed him by the tie and pulled him forwards, falling onto the bed with a giggle.

"Happy New Year, Molly."

Alice/Frank – Prompt: Eight

Frank leaned back in his seat so that he could look at Alice. She was sitting a few seats down, and was immersed in her work. She looked so sweet like that, so vulnerable and delicate. Her partner said something, and she laughed quietly in a way that sounded like wind chimes clitter-clattering in the breeze.

She added something to the potion, and it bubbled rapidly, turning a very dark shade of green.

Frank looked at his potion, which resembled vomit – it was green-yellow and thick – ugh!

"It wouldn't be so bad if you weren't making eyes at Growitt over there." Frank realized that he had spoken his thoughts out loud.

"Sorry," he apologized, though he was already craning his neck to take another look at her. She was now bent over her parchment, quill in hand, scribbling her observations down madly. It was rather endearing the way her hair fell out from behind her ear, no matter how many times she pushed it back.

"Just ask her to the holiday ball, it's still eight days away! Besides, this is our seventh year at Hogwarts, there's no eighth year. Now or never." his lab partner seemed exasperated and confused at Frank's refusal to ask out a girl he was obviously smitten with.

"I think she has already agreed to go with someone else." Frank had been most disappointed to hear that.

"So what? Just ask her."

Eight days later, Frank was leading Alice into the lavishly decorated Great Hall.

Unrequited Snape/Lily – Prompt: Seven

Severus Snape stood in a corner, feeling grouchy – grouchier than usual, that is. He watched the ball unfold through half-closed eyes, sipping his sixth, maybe seventh large glass of punch. It was definitely spiked, though it wasn't with anything as obvious as Firewhiskey. Whatever, it was working.

He watched as Lily Evans, most beautiful girl (woman) to ever grace the world with her presence, was whisked onto the dance floor by that buffoon Potter.

He scoffed as she laughed and threw her head back in mirth, and vowed to someday hurt James Potter as he said something again. How dare he steal Lily? Lily was his! No one in this school understood Lily like he did. No one knew about her sister's hostility, no one knew how many times she had been made fun of for being a freak.

But no, she had to go and be sorted into Gryffindor. As if that wasn't torture enough, she had to go and become someone he didn't like, someone who followed all the rules, laughed at some of Black and Potter's jokes, and Head Girl. None of that mattered, though, no matter how hard he tried to hate her.

She was still Lily. Lovely Little Loopy Lily with the bright smile and the kind words.

Severus watched with disgust as she pressed her lips up and to his. He tried to count to ten in order to calm down, but only got to seven before he felt bile rise up into his mouth and he had to turn away.

Sirius/Marlene – Prompt: Six

"Sirius Black, come back here!" Marlene shouted loudly, though she knew her protests were to fall on deaf ears. This was the sixth time that night that he had tried to get away from her, trying to slip away when one of her friends approached or when she went to go get punch. He refused to dance with her, and she was frustrated.

It had taken an hour to get into this dress, two more to finish getting ready, put her make-up on, and then for her to gain the approval from her classmates. That plus the three hours spend finding the dress in Hogsmeade amounted to a total of six hours getting ready for this ball. There was no way that she was going to waste all that hard work on a date that only wanted to get away.

She grabbed his cloak, pulling him back into her.

"What do you want?" he asked with a slight hint of petulance in his voice. "I was with you all of tonight, let me go and say hello to Remus, and then I have a brilliant idea for a pra-"

"Black, if you say the word "prank" one more time tonight, I swear you will not know what hit you."

"Are you trying to threaten the King of Payback?"

Put like that, it was a silly thing to say, Marlene acknowledged.

"Fine, Sirius, I'm sorry. Can we just dance to this one song?"

He nodded, a bit stiffly, she thought. He pulled her even closer and began to dance. He led her strongly, and he most definitely didn't seem to have any trouble with where to place his feet. It was probably the result of etiquette lessons as a child; she had heard some of her Pureblood friends – with traditional parents – complaining about the hours spent learning a multitude of dances.

She felt herself smile mechanically as she was twirled and taken around the Hall, feeling the puffy skirt of her dress float up and around in a circle. They were picking up speed, and Marlene became aware that they were now entertaining some of their classmates.

When they finished, Marlene took it as a goodbye. The relationship had only been going on for a week, and she had always known that she wouldn't be the one to crack him. Sirius kissed her cheek and disappeared. Marlene let him go.

Unrequited Sirius/Remus - Prompt: Five

Sirius felt Marlene's eyes on his back for a few moments before he disappeared into the crowd of students dancing. He weaved his way in and out of couples dancing merrily, searching for Moony.

He finally spotted his friend after a good five minutes of looking, dancing with a girl with pink hair. Pink hair.

She reminded him of his cousin Andromeda who went to work with a metamorphagus and studied metamorphagi because she found them interesting. He found the idea rather intriguing, but that was obviously done by a (not very skilled) hairstylist. And also, he wasn't supposed to know what Andy was up to these days.

So Moony liked pink hair, did he? So then Sirius would dye his hair pink. Remus pulled her close, closer than some teachers would approve of. She was a sixth year, Sirius knew. He thought she might have a distant relation to the Greengrass family. She had that aristocratic look about her. Her nose was stuck into the air so high that Sirius thought she might just topple over backwards.

She was smiling though, so that had to be a plus.

Go Moony, he thought miserably. You can get her. You need a gi-girlfriend anyway. I've had five - relationships, not only girls - 'till now, it's your turn. We're in our seventh year next year, you're almost out of time. Too bad I want to be your first.

He swallowed hard and backed away from them, feeling pain rising up into his chest, making it feel too tight and too small and too- He broke into a run.

Before he got completely out of earshot, he heard an exchange between the two of them.

"You, Remus Lupin, are one very good dancer."

"Why thank you Lorri, you're not so bad yourself."

Ugh.

Part two will be up soon, I promise! That will include the following pairings:

Remus/Tonks

Dean/Seamus

Harry/Ginny

Neville/Luna

Ron/Hermione

Review?