"Might I be able to steal your fair lady for a dance?"
Lily could tell that this dance was about to go downhill the moment the words slipped from his mouth.
"Shouldn't you be off snogging Narcissa or something?" asked James, setting down the half finished glass of Butterbeer he had been drinking.
"Unfortunately, Cissy has insisted upon going off with some other Slytherin boy for the moment, leaving me with nothing to do for a while."
"And you want to fix this by coming to me?"
"Can't you just wait for your girlfriend to be done? We're kind of busy here not being stuck up prats."
"Would you rather me stick around right here to interrupt whatever you might be doing off the dance floor?" Lucius asked mischievously, raising an eyebrow.
Lily sighed, exhasperated, before turning to James. "I guess I'll be back in a minute."
"Lily-"
The fiery redhead silenced him with a quick kiss on the cheek. "He won't leave us alone unless I do, for some outlandish reason. Besides, what harm could one dance do?" Lily almost felt as though she was pushing her luck just by asking.
The moment Lily stood up Lucius had seized her hand and was leading the Muggleborn out onto the white and silver dance floor. Begrudgingly, Lily grasped her new partner's hand and the odd duo began moving to the formal ballroom dance that was playing.
"Seriously, though, why come to me?"
"Oh, I have my reasons."
"Is this some sort of weird revenge plot to get back and James for whatever prank he and his friends last pulled on the Slytherins?"
"Actually, this is mostly about you."
Lily raised her eyebrows questioningly. "Right…"
As the song wore on the Gryffindor tried to ignore what could have been longing in Lucius's gaze, the way he grasped at her more tightly than she would have liked, the way he was subtly steering them further away from where James was waiting for her to return. Relief washed over her as she heard the finality of the song's last few drawn out chords, and immediately began pulling away. Lucius held his grasp, however, until they had moved into a shadowed corner of the Great Hall just off the dance floor.
"Alright, Lucius, you got your stupid dance. Can I go now?"
Lucius was silent for a moment. "Lily…" he murmured, reaching out tenderly as if to move Lily's hair behind her ear. Lily jerked her head back in response, anger and loathing in her expression, but Lucius, instead of taking the hint, brought his hand down to grasp her shoulder.
And in one fluid moment, he pulled her closer and his lips were on hers.
The kiss was so sudden that Lily was rendered motionless for a moment. Disgust and outrage kicked in a few heartbeats later, and Lily was able to wrench herself away and soundly slap Lucius across the cheek.
"What the hell was that?" she asked incredulously.
"Oh, just having a little fun," the Slytherin replied smugly.
Lily gave Lucius one last, somewhat undignified glare, before storming off back across the dance floor towards where James was waiting, wondering what Lucius had been thinking and why she had the smallest of traces of longing in the back of her mind.