Chapter 2 – The party
"But
mum! Do I really have to go to Potter's party?" Lily asked for
the hundredth time that day.
"Yes, Lily, you do. Now stop
complaining and help me pick out an outfit for you." Mrs. Evans
replied irritated, going through Lily's closet "What about this
skirt and this top?"
"No mum. Can't I just wear shorts and a
t-shirt?"
"Lily, dear, I talked to Mrs. Potter and she said
that it was a little on the dressy side of casual wear, therefore you
must wear at least a skirt! I will not allow you to embarrass
yourself by letting you wear a crumby old t-shirt and shorts!"
'Yeah right,' thought Lily 'more like she won't let me
embarrass her and dads reputation.'
"Ugghh. If I have to dress
up then at least let me pick out my own clothes." Lily then
reluctantly joined her mother in picking out her outfit for James
party. They went through top, after top, after skirt, after skirt,
after dress. Finally, after what seemed like hours to Lily, they came
up with two outfits to choose from: a summer dress and a skirt and
top.
The dress was light green with emerald green leaves and
flowers printed on it. It had spaghetti string straps and a small
slit in between the collarbones held together by a dark green lace
ribbon. The dress was made of a soft yet stiff cottony material that
reached just to the tops of her knees.
The skirt and top ensemble
consisted of a black silk slip under and attached to a black lacey
see-through material cut so that it looked like two pieces
overlapping each other with wavy pieces of the lacey material along
the edges. The top was white and covered with mostly tiny blue
flowers that were occasionally attached to little green vines, stems,
and leaves. It was cut in a Chinese, figure-fitting fashion with a
swirl, silvery blue and white button closing the short collar. The
entire top was outlined with a silky blue hem and was made of a mix
of a cotton and nylon material that gave it a stretchy feel.
"Which
would you rather wear," questioned Mrs. Evans, "the skirt and
blouse or the dress?"
"Well, considering I'm going to wear
the skirt and blouse to my birthday party; I think I'll wear the
dress." Lily replied logically taking both outfits from Mrs. Evans
and setting them on her dresser for her use of them the next day and
on her upcoming birthday.
"Can I go to bed now?" Lily asked in
an annoyed sarcastic tone.
"No, of course not." Replied Mrs.
Evans in a serious voice. Lily laughed slightly at first, thinking
that her mother was kidding, but stopped after receiving a serious
glare from her. "Now we have to pick out some shoes and a purse.
Some jewelry, too."
"Jewelry too? Do I have too?" Lily
whined.
"If you absolutely cannot stand to wear very much
jewelry, then at least wear a necklace and I'll be happy. Now pick
out some nice shoes and I'll get some purse choices. Wait, where
are your purses?"
"In my closet on the very top shelf. You may
have to get a step ladder to reach them."
"Well, no wonder you
never use a purse; always that bloody backpack that you're obsessed
with." Mrs. Evans muttered pulling the chair from Lily's desk and
using it as a ladder to bring down the box full of purses.
Lily
picked a pair of shoes and showed them to her mother, who was sorting
through the box of purses muttering about 'wasting money' and
'collecting clutter'.
"No, not those, they don't match.
What about those ones with the little flowers on them? They're
cute."
"No way, too many flowers; besides, the colors will
clash. Ooh! I know! These are perfect!" Lily exclaimed, pulling out
a pair of strappy twine canvas platform sandals that she would most
likely break her neck in.
"Finally, a little excitement over
something other than tennis shoes and sweat suits. And look at that,
they'll go perfectly with the dress. Now for a purse."
After
finally picking out a twine and canvas purse to match the shoes they
had picked and a necklace, they went to bed. As soon as Lily's head
hit the pillow, she fell into a restless sleep.
"James!"
Lily gasped as she sat bolt upright in bed, breathing heavily, beads
of cold sweat running down her face. 'What could that dream mean?'
she questioned herself. Lily got up and went to the bathroom, passing
the door of her sister Petunias room on the way.
Petunia was
three years older than Lily. She had brown hair and brown eyes, a
long neck, a bony face, and a boring boyfriend of one year named
Vernon Dursley. Petunia was always mean to Lily. She called her
strange, a freak, a tomboy, and always had a mean comeback for her,
especially when Vernon was around.
She reached the bathroom and,
after quietly pulling the door shut, turned the light on and splashed
cold water on her face. Drying her hands and face with a towel
hanging from the hook on the wall, Lily looked in the mirror still
thinking about the dream. 'What could it mean? Why was James in it?
It couldn't be true could it? Things like that don't exist, do they?'
As these thoughts ran through her head, one stuck its ugly nose
out of line. 'I was dreaming about James. WHY was I dreaming about
JAMES POTTER?' Then another part of her brain said 'Probably due to
the stress of being forced to attend his birthday party tomorrow.'
she glanced at her wrist watch 'scratch that, having to attend his
birthday party today.'
Lily returned to her bedroom quietly and
flopped on her bed. After pushing the dream from her mind, she
quickly drifted into a peaceful sleep full of good dreams, instead of
nightmares. BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BE-
"SHUT OFF THAT BLOODY ALARM!" came the shrill sound of
her sisters voice from down the hall, followed by the slam of a door.
Lily got up, turned off her alarm, and looked out her window.
The
view from her window was, in her opinion, anything but glamorous. All
you could see when you looked out it was the side of the Potter's
house, a little grass, and... well... nothing, unless James window
counted, which it didn't to her.
She turned to the clothes she
had set out the night before and sighed. 'Oh boy! A whole day with
Potter while wearing a dress, carrying a useless purse, and wearing
shoes that, although nice, I'll probably break my neck in! It makes
me so happy. Not!' Lily thought to herself. Lily sat at her desk and
began through her jewelry box looking for a necklace that wasn't too
dressy but went with her outfit. She picked a necklace made of black
cord-like string with four beads on it: two light yellow-brown wood
beads, two black, and a silver center charm shaped like a sword.
Looking at the necklace, Lily thought 'This is such a cool
necklace. I wonder where I got it. Probably from mom. I swear, every
time I turn around she's adding to my pile of junk that she calls
jewelry!' As Lily got up to put the necklace with her outfit she
happened to bump into her dresser and knock over her yoga matt.
"I
should probably do my yoga now. Maybe it will take away the pain in
my neck." she said out loud to herself "Oh, wait, that's
just Potter. Never mind." she then unrolled the yoga mat and
began doing her exercises.
When she was finished she put up the
mat and looked at her watch. Only 9:30, she still had a lot of free
time, and she wasn't hungry, so she sat down at her desk again.
Her
desk just happened to be right under her window. Lily sat there
looking absent mindedly out of her window and into James' trying to
think of something to do until one other than sit and wait. Nothing
came to mind immediately so, she kept thinking about it, gazing into
James' open window. Then, quite suddenly, it wasn't empty anymore. It
was occupied by a rather large white and black blotched owl.
After
a minute or two of pecking on the window, it opened, and the owl flew
into the room.
The owl landed on a chair just inside the room,
and stuck out its leg, which she now realized had something small
tied to it. Lily could see a pair of hands reach out and try to untie
the object from the owls leg, but the but the string obviously had a
hard knot stuck in it, because the person had to lean in to get a
better look at it. The person just happened to be James Potter.
James finally got the knot untied and the owl flew farther into
the room so that Lily couldn't see it anymore. James sat in front
of his window, in the chair the owl had been perched on, at his desk
(which he had purposely sat facing Lily's window, and looked at
whatever it was that was attached to the owl for a while. Then he
chanced a glance up and out his window, which just happened to mean
that he was looking directly into Lily's window, and directly at her.
Their eyes locked for a moment. During this moment, which Lily
noticed seemed to last longer than it should, Lily studied him.
James hair was messy, as always, but today it looked a little
more... stylish might be the word. His eyes were a deep, deep
gorgeous shade of chocolate brown. He also just happened to not have
a shirt on, giving Lily a chance to study his torso. She noticed
that, while he didn't look the type, or the build, he did actually
have stomach muscles; the beginnings of what looked like a six-pack.
The moment was ended by Potter greeting her "Hey Lils!"
She snapped out of her analysis of his muscles and replied "Hello
James." in as casual a way as she could manage. There was a
rather long pause then "Okay, well, I have to go get ready for
your party...err...bye." and she disappeared from her window,
quickly gathered her outfit, and headed for the shower.
Lily took
a refreshing shower, got dressed, descended the stairs into the
living room, and looked at the clock on the wall. It was 1:05. Lily
hurried back up the stairs and put on the necklace she had dug out
earlier, then grabbed the small box containing the present she had
bought for James and hurried back down the stairs. Lily exited the
house through the front door, grabbing, also, the present her mom
bought for James as a present from the family. Lily walked down the
driveway, across the sidewalk, back up the Potter's driveway, and on
up to their front door. She sighed and rang the doorbell, putting on
her 'oh yes, of course I'm happy to be here' smile as she waited
for someone to answer the door.
"Lily, dear. Come on in.
Here, give me those presents and I'll put it with the others."
greeted Mrs. Potter. Margaret Potter was a short but thin lady. She
had, surprisingly enough, black hair with bubblegum pink highlights,
probably for the party. Also, she had very fine features, like that
of a wise old woman who's seen it all, even though she was only
around thirty six now.
After placing James present from her mum
on an ever-growing pile on a table by the door, Lily put her present
to him in her purse, which was empty, and followed Mrs. Potter. Mrs.
Potter took Lily through the house and out the back door, all the way
chatting to her without pause "OH, I'm so glad you came, dear.
Your mother said you might not be able to make it, but here you are/James will be so pleased that you could come. Oh, Lily dear, I love
your dress! It looks gorgeous on you!" Lily managed to fit in a
quick "Thanks" before Mrs. Potter continued "Ahh, here
we are. James and his little friends are just talking right now, but
we'll start games and such when all of the guests arrive. Off you go
now, don't be shy."
And with that Lily was given a slight
shove in the direction of the corner where James and five other boys
were sitting around a white lawn table, talking animatedly about
something. Then James, who was sitting facing Lily and the back door,
looked up and fell completely silent, his jaw dropping and his eyes
widening in an oddly attractive way. 'What are you talking about
Lily! Get a hold of yourself! This is Potter we're talking about!'
Lily thought to herself. James' friends looked at him strangely for a
minute then looked up at her just as she said "Hello there,
James. Having a nice birthday party?" and bridging the remaining
gap between the table and myself.
The only empty seat was on the
end next to James, and another boy, so she sat in it and put her chin
in her hand while waiting for him to respond. She soon found herself
trying not to look annoyed at his newfound hobby of staring at her.
However a couple of his friends had joined in staring at her and
she was starting to get annoyed.
"Umm... Potter?
Helloo-oooo?" she said trying to snap him out of it, whatever it
was; but James and his friends kept staring at her with a surprised
look on their faces. By now she was really annoyed and wanted to just
smack him up side the head to get him to stop, but refrained from
doing so. Then she noticed a glass of water sitting on the table in
front of one of his friends with shoulder length black hair.
"Do
you mind?" she asked him politely, gesturing to his glass. He
just sort of blinked and nodded slightly in response, so she took it
as a 'yes'.
She dipped her fingers in the glass and pulled them
back out, then quickly flicked all the water on her fingers in James
face. He blinked a couple of times then seemed to come to his senses,
wiping off his face and quickly smacking his friend to the left on
the arm to get him to snap out of it.
"Err... right...err,
guys this is Lily Evans. Lily this is Sirius Black-" the boy
with the long black hair whose water she had used smiled, he was
sitting on James other side across from Lily "-Remus Lupin-"
the boy beside her nodded his head at her, he had light brown caramel
colored hair "-Peter Petigrew-" By far the worst looking of
the boys, he had short light blond hair and a rat-like appearance, he
was sitting behind Sirius "-Andrew Michaels-" Andrew had
dark blonde hair that reached down to the tops of his ears in a kind
of shaggy looking way and had hazel-ish brown eyes "-and Sammy
Turner." Sammy was sitting behind Lupin and had black, no, blue
hair. A very dark navy blue to be exact.
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"Oh, right. You're the sensible one who sat and read all day and you're the idiot who went streaking through my back yard."
"Um... Yeah..." Remus said, blushing slightly.
"Why are you blushing? He's the one who streaked through my backyard, which was gross by the way. My mother freaked out and called the cops too. That part was actually kind of funny..."
"What can i say? I feel the need to be free." Sirius smirked at Lily cockily. 'Jackass.' Lily thought.
"Yeah, sure, whatever. So what were you all talking about?"
"Oh, nothing really." James said, looking around innocently.
"Right,
like THAT'S believable? I know you well enough, James, to know that
anything you're talking about can't be nothing. You're too
mischievous to think about simple things like who won the football
finals and such. Now, what are you up to?"
"I-I have
now clue what you're talking about Lily." answered James.
"Okay, fine. But you better not be planning to pull pranks
on me!" I responded.
At this James seemed a little relieved.
"Oh, come on Lils. You have to admit that was pretty funny."
"I do not. And I won't. I personally did not think that it
was funny. And neither did my mum when I came home covered in sticky
stuff. And I was the one who got punished for it too. I was grounded
for two weeks, while you were out running around doing only god knows
what." Lily said rather heatedly. She had wanted to chew James
out for this ever since it had happened last month.
"Wait.
Let me get this straight. I pulled a prank on you. You got mad at me,
then went home. Then your mum got mad at you because you were covered
in sticky stuff from the prank I pulled and punished you." James
paused looking a little confused. "That's weird. Not to
mention completely backwards, you know? Your mum has a bad temper
too, doesn't she? I remember that time when we first moved in here
and I accidentally spilled something on her new carpet. She
practically exploded in my face." James reminisced.
"Yes,
well, she does have a rather bad temper. Especially when it comes to
the house. I mean, she's a cleaning fanatic. Can't stand even the
tiniest of spot on the floor. You know, after you left that day she
immediately called in a floor cleaning place. And when they couldn't
get the spot up she had the entire downstairs re-carpeted." said
Lily, laughing a little at her mothers obsession.
"No way!"
said James joining in her laughter. He was followed by the rest of
the group, Peter coming in last and laughing a little too hard,
probably because he didn't get the joke.
They continued laughing
for a while with random little comments by the others on the odd
things that their parents did. When the laughter died down they all
heard a CLACK! as the screen door closed on James house and two girls
came out.
The two girls looked incredibly similar. The first girl had long red hair with natural blonde highlights that reached the middle of her lower back in waves and bright sapphire blue eyes. She was wearing a jean mini skirt and a white spaghetti strap tank top under a navy blue v-neck vest that had a hood in the back and a hoody pocket in the front. On her feet she wore a pair of brown and navy blue tennis shoes that had a 'DC' logo on the side. Lily had never heard of this brand before, but she didn't find it unusual seeing as she didn't normally pay attention to brands. Normally she would just buy the shoes that fit her and didn't look like giant bits of glitter. Also the girl had her ears pierced three times; one pair of small silver loops, one pair of faux diamond studs, and one pair of silver star studs lined her ears on each side. Around her neck she wore a blue and green gem with little flecks of gold in it on a silver chain and on her wrists was an assortment of silver, blue, green, purple, black, and white bracelets. The girl carried a large blue hand bag on her shoulder that looked like it could swallow Lily whole. Well, maybe it wasn't that big, but it wasn't small either.
The
other girl Also had red hair, but the natural highlights in hers were
brown, making her hair a little darker than the first girl's, and
it reached two or three inches past her shoulders in wavy locks. Her
eyes were a green hazel and were complimented nicely by the light
band of freckles that crossed her nose. She was wearing long jean
shorts and a green t-shirt with the design of a dragon printed on it
in black. She had on a pair of black converses and a black belt with
silver studs in it to match. The girl had four or five string
bracelets on her wrists and a gold locket on a long golden chain
hanging from her neck.
"Becca! Rebby! Hey! It's great to see
you again! Guys, except for Remus, and Lily, this is Rebecca Burns"
he gestured to the first girl. "And this is Rebecca Miller. They go
by Becca and Rebby respectively to cut down on the confusion. Becca,
Rebby, this is Sirius, Peter, Andrew, Sammy, and the lovely Lily,
also the only other girl here at the moment." James introduced
everyone to the two new girls.
Lily sent a small annoyed glare
at James and reached out to shake Becca and Rebby's hands. "It's
nice to meet you two. Would you like to go get a coke?" Lily
asked in a friendly way. She didn't know them yet, but Lily already
liked them. The two girls agreed to get a coke with Lily, so they
walked over to the table that was sitting against the back wall of
the house and found a couple of cokes in a cooler to drink.
"So,
Becca, Rebby," Lily started, in need of some sort of
conversation "How do you know James?"
"Oh, we met
at a, err, garden party a couple of years ago. We didn't really keep
in touch, but his and my father work in the same, err, department at
work, so we see each other when we're forced to go to business
dinners and stuff. How do you know James?" Becca asked in return
smiling like a child on a sugar high.
"I live next door.
How I ended up here, at his party, I'm still not sure. I think it may
be some sort of punishment devised by my sister for something that's
not even my fault. That or my mom just wants me to make friends with
him." Lily replied.
"You don't like James?" Rebby
asked sort of surprised "Usually everybody likes him."
"It's not that I don't like the bloke, he can just be
really annoying sometimes. He always knows just how to get to me, to
make me mad. And for some odd reason he always does. Make me mad that
is."
"Oh, really? I don't really know him that well. I
only see him like, once or twice year generally. But Rebby, James and
I are going to the same school this year, so we'll probably be
seeing a lot more of each other."
"Really? Which
school is that?" Lily asked hoping that she wouldn't be going to
the same school as him.
"It's, err, called Hogwarts. It's,
umm, a small private school in northern England. You've probably
never heard of it." Rebby replied rather awkwardly.
"Oh,
that's cool I suppose. I feel sorry for you having to go to school
with James though." Lily said a little relieved.
The three
girls continued to talk for a while, as more and more guests arrived.
By the time it seemed that everyone who was going to come had come,
there was at least forty people at the party ranging in ages from a
couple years younger than Lily to quite a few years older. Lily,
Rebby and Becca's little group was joined by two other girls, Jill
Black and Belinda Hopkins.
Jill was of average height and a curvy
but slim build. Her straight brown hair had blonde highlights and was
worn down so that it reached the bottom of her shoulder blades,
curving softly at the ends. She had light blue eyes, the color of the
ocean in pictures of the Caribbean, with light tan lines running
through them. They reminded Lily of the ocean and the beach in
summer. Jill's halter top was light blue, the same color as her
eyes, and she wore a dark blue jean skirt with a rainbow striped belt
around her waist. She had a pair of clear blue thong flip flops on
her feet and a pair of black sunglasses on the top of her head
holding back her hair from falling into her eyes. Around her neck was
a silver chain with a silver charm of a dragon and a tiger about the
size of a bottle cap and her ears had a pair of blue dangly earrings
hung from her ears. Jill was a funny girl, always with a witty come
back or amusing comment to add to a conversation. She was tough too,
Lily could tell by her stance that Jill was not someone to anger
easily, but that when she did you had better stay out of her way.
Belinda, who immediately requested everyone call her Bindi, had straight, light brown hair that nearly reached her shoulders and light grey eyes. She was tall for her age, at least a head taller than Lily, who was of average height, and had olive toned skin. Her slightly curvy form was clothed in a fitted black t-shirt and a pair of tan cargo pants held up by a black leather belt and on her feet was a pair of black high heeled flip flops. She had a small black purse and was wearing dangly black and gold earrings and a gold bracelet.
A
little after everybody arrived, James turned on some music as an
attempt to get people to dance. Nobody really seemed willing to, so
Lily took it upon herself to get the party going. She turned to the
four girls standing with her, who were talking about a store that was
apparently called Zonkos.
"Hey guys. Why don't we go
dance?" Lily asked.
"YES! Finally some to dance with!"
cried Jill.
"I'll
dance too!" agreed Bindi.
"How 'bout you two?" Lily
prompted Becca and Rebby.
"Oh boy! Dancing! You know, I
love coke! it makes me hyper though. Oh well cokecokecokecokecoke!"
Sirius just sort of popped in behind Becca and said this rapidly,
bouncing slightly, then disappeared again just as quickly.
"Um, that was odd." Rebby said.
"Yeah, just a little." Becca added.
"You're one to talk. After you've had seven or eight cokes you tend to be worse off than he is now."
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Am not."
"You're living in denial."
"Maybe i like it here. It's nice and warm with a light cool breeze coming in off of the Mediterranean."
"Ha ha, no. That joke is way overdone. Please never attempt it again."
Becca, in her ever so mature manner, stuck her tongue out at Rebby, who responded like wise.
"Well, could any of you three possibly be persuaded to go dance with Jill and I?" Lily asked.
"Hmm...
This is one mighty good cookie. I don't want to ruin it by bouncing
while i eat it. I think i'll just sit down here and finish it."
Becca said, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. She took a bite
out of the chocolate chip cookie and ate it slowly, so slowly it was
almost painful.
"Beeeeecccaaaaa? Pleeeeeeeeaaaase?"
Lily and Jill pleaded.
"What? I'm eating." Becca said
while taking a bite out of her cookie and chewing as slowly as
possible.
"BEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Lily,
Jill, and now Bindi as well, groaned.
"WHAAAAT? What did I
do?" Becca replied.
"Will you come dance with us?
Pleeaaaassseee!!!!" Lily begged.
"Okay, okay. Fine.
Just let me finish my cookie." she replied taking another bite
and chewing as slow as possible.
"Rebby? You too?"
"Um...
Sure..." she agreed reluctantly.
When Becca finally finished
eating her cookie, the girls dragged her and Rebby out onto the dance
floor and started dancing. After a while a few others joined in the
dancing. They were all having a blast when a slow song came on.
"Dang it all! I was just getting the hang of this dancing
stuff too." said Becca.
"What now?" questioned
Jill.
"I don't know." Lily responded to Jill's
question only to turn around and see that she was gone. She looked
around and noticed that Jill was now dancing with Andrew, and that
Bindi was dancing with Matthew Tanner, a boy with short black hair
who had just rolled up a couple of seconds ago on his skateboard.
Lily knew him only because he lived down the street and she heard her
sister gossiping with her friends about him and his family. Rebby and
Becca were looking questioningly at Lily, wondering why she was
talking to herself no doubt. Before either girl could voice this
question, a guy named Michael walked up and asked Rebby to dance. She
accepted and walked onto the dance floor with him. Lily looked around
for Remus, she had thought him to be the more mature of James's
friends and was going to ask him to dance, but that plan was shortly
spoiled when she saw that he was dancing with another girl already.
Lily turned to Becca and with only a glance they both headed to the
snack table. The people who weren't dancing were standing there for
the most part.
"Sooo... Coke?" offered Becca.
"No
thanks. I'm not thirsty." Lily replied watching as a girl led
Sammy out onto the dance floor. "So, if you had to pick one of
the guys here to dance with, who would you pick?" asked Lily
making conversation.
"Umm... Remus or Sirius. Although
James is kind of cute. How 'bout you?" replied Becca.
"I
would have to say... Remus would be my first pick."
"And
your second pick?"
"I think I'll have to go with-"
"Me! Pick me!" interrupted James from out of no where.
"Well? Would you pick him?"
"Uh, NO,
definitely not."
"Hey! You could at least not say that
in front of me at my birthday party."
"Well it's the
truth."
"She's got you there mate."
"Oh,
bugger off Sirius, I don't see you dancing with anyone."
"Actually I was just coming to ask Becca, is it?" Becca
looked surprised then just sort of nodded at him in a dazed sort of
way. The two of them walked onto the dance floor and started dancing.
"So." said James.
"So." said Lily.
"You wanna dance?" James asked sheepishly a hint of a
blush coming over his cheeks.
Lily had every intention of saying
no, until she saw him blush. When he blushed she just couldn't help
it, he looked so cute, not to mention James Potter was not one to
blush very often.
"Well... On two conditions."
James
brightened up considerably "And they are...?"
"One:
no pranks."
"Check!"
"Two: don't laugh
at me if I can't dance, I haven't had very much practice at slow
dancing."
"Oh I have every confidence in your
abilities to slow dance, and even if you do terribly, I swear I'll
never laugh, not once."
"Okay then, here goes
nothing." Lily sighed rather reluctantly.
Dancing with James
wasn't actually as bad as she thought it would be. He didn't
laugh at her when she stepped on his foot once, and somehow she
seemed to be able to just, fall into rhythm with him, which was kind
of weird because the previous times she had slow danced with a boy,
they had ended up giving up because she kept stepping on his feet and
couldn't seem to get the rhythm right. After a while the slow song
ended and Lily found that she didn't want to stop dancing with
James. Yet again the voices in her head reared their ugly heads
'Lily! What ARE you doing! You don't like James, he is not cute!'
'He is too.' 'BUT YOU DON'T LIKE HIM!' 'Who's to say I
don't?' ' Uh, YOU ARE!!' 'Urrgghh! Ok! Fine! You win! But
if he asks me again I'm not going to say no, if only because we
make good dancing partners.' 'FINE!'
"Err… so." said
Lily.
"So." said James.
"I'm going to go get
something to drink now."
"Can I join you?"
"I
suppose, if you want to. It is your party after all." They both
walked over to the snack table and got a coke out of the cooler
sitting beside it. Lily walked over to the table they had been at
earlier and sat down in a chair. James followed her over and sort of
stood awkwardly looking at Lily. "Well go on and sit
down."
"Really?"
"Nothing's stopping you, I mean
it's your house."
"Yeah, but you would usually bite my
head off if I sat down at the same table as you." said James as
he sat down hesitantly.
"Yeah, well, I'm bored, everyone
else is dancing, and it's your birthday, so sit down."
"Well
when you put it that way." James sat down in the chair next to
Lily's and looked around for something to talk about. "So."
"So."
"What are you doing for your
birthday?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'm not going to have a
party because I-er... my friends aren't er... in town."
"All
of them?" James asked raising his eyebrow. "I mean, you
must have a ton of friends."
"Actually, I don't have
very many friends."
"Really? Why not?"
"I
don't know. People just find me, I don't know, strange, weird even,
compared to others. It's like they look at me and say hi, then they
decide that I'm different and that they shouldn't be friends with
me." Lily looked at her feet, her self esteem shrinking as she
thought about her lack there of in the friends department.
James,
seeing that Lily was getting a little upset, became a little
uncomfortable. He was the one who had pushed her into telling him
about her lack of friends. He wanted to give her a hug and apologize,
but he thought that she might not want him to give her a hug, seeing
as she tried to avoid him all the time and she adamantly refused to
be friends with him. He did however try to apologize. "Lily...
I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay. You
didn't know. You just assumed that because you liked me that everyone
else in the world must too. Bit self centered, but nice to know that
someone cares." Lily said, then tried to change the subject
before she started crying from the feeling of being utterly alone.
"So."
"So."
"When are you going to
open your presents?"
"Uhhmm... I-I don't know. Now I
suppose." James stood up and looked down at Lily again. Another
slow song was playing and they were the only ones not dancing other
than Peter. "But first, would you mind to terribly much to dance
with me again?"
At this Lily smiled a little. "You
know Potter, I dislike many things about you, but one of them is not
dancing with you." Lily didn't actually realize that she was
saying this till it came out. 'You idiot! Now he's going to think you
like him!' 'So! I like to dance with him, it's somehow... soothing.'
So Lily and James walked out onto the dance floor again and
began to dance again. At first they were dancing like they did the
first time, all stiff and rigid and practically a foot apart. Then
slowly they somehow ended up closer, Lily laying her head on his
shoulder with her eyes closed, James guiding her while playing with
one of her long red locks of hair behind her back.
"Awe!
They look so cute together! I can't believe that she doesn't like
him. I mean, look at her and him over there dancing." Becca,
Rebby, Jill, and Bindi had just stopped dancing and were standing by
the refreshment table getting something to drink. Becca had just made
this comment to the other three and Bindi and Jill looked at her sort
of surprised. "What?"
"She doesn't like him? In
any way?" Jill asked, very surprised.
"Nope."
said both Becca and Rebby.
"So which do you think is better
David Bowie or-"
"Bindi! Aren't you paying attention?"
"Yes, I am. And all I have to say on the subject is not to
meddle in it, trust me, it never helps matters. Anyways, back to what
I was saying. Which is better David Bowie or-"
"Um,
James."
"Yes, Lily?"
"The, er, song is
over."
"Oh, right." James said disappointed
slightly, pulling away from Lily. When he had pulled away he looked
at her face and saw that she was blushing a little and smiling
brilliantly. "So." said James.
"So." said
Lily.
"You know, we really need to learn to start
conversations in more than one way with out arguing."
"Yeah,
really. So, you going to open your presents now?" she asked.
"Sure, why not." James whistled, then waved to
everyone to come closer. "Okay, present time! Let's go! In the
house! Hup, two, three, four. Hup, two, three, four." At this
everyone did as he said and went inside the house and into the living
room where Mrs. Potter had moved his presents to the coffee table.
"Okay, which one should I open first?" James then proceeded
to rip open present after present, thanking people for their gifts as
he went. Most of the presents were clothes, and books, and other
boring stuff like that. A couple of them, however, Lily found very
curious, like the eagle feather quill he had received, but didn't
comment on them. Mrs. Evans had gotten James a navy blue t-shirt that
had a logo on the front, and a gift certificate for an arcade. The
present Lily had gotten for James was still in her purse. She opened
her purse to get it out at one point, but then stopped and decided to
give it to him later.
After he finished opening his presents
Mrs. Potter turned off the lights and brought in a cake with eleven
candles on top. She walked it over to James and sat it in front of
him. James looked around the room, supposedly thinking of his
birthday wish, then his glance came to Lily. He looked at her,
narrowing his eyes and grinning mischievously, then turned and blew
out his candles, making his wish.
At that moment Lily felt a
tingling at the back of her neck that made her shiver. Everyone got a
piece of cake and talked. When everyone was finished eating, Sirius
gathered them up and led them back outside and over to a corner to
play a new game he had just learned. Of course the game just had to
be Spin the Bottle.
