"Hello," Remus said to the shy looking Ravenclaw girl.
"Hi," she squeaked, blushing and looking down.
"Your bracelet is really pretty," he told her, referring to the tiny gold chain with little X's and O's hanging from it.
"Thank you," she said, smiling and blushing deeper but still not looking at him.
"Where did you get it?" he asked.
"My best friend gave it to me," she said, looking up at him. Remus sat down next to her.
"What's her name?" he asked.
"Her name's Lucy," the girl said. "She's a muggle."
"And what's your name?"
She was now a shade of maroon, but her smile increased every time he spoke to her.
"I'm Amy," she said.
"That's a beautiful name," he told her.
Her grin was now stretched from ear to ear. "Do you want to dance?" she asked.
Amazingly, he did. He was enjoying talking to Amy. "Of course," he said, taking her hand.
*****
Finally James was about to be able to ask Lily to dance.
He stood up from where he was sitting and started walking over to her. At that moment, Sirius came from nowhere and grabbed bother her hands, pulling her to the dance floor. She didn't look happy about it, but she went willingly enough.
James suddenly had a strong urge to murder his best friend.
*****
"What are you doing?" Lily asked Sirius.
"Dancing with you," he said matter-of-factly.
"Traditionally a guy asks a girl if she wants to dance with him," she said.
"Yes," he agreed. "Traditionally. But I don't like playing by the rules."
"You know, it was cruel of you to send Peter over here," she told him. "The poor boy acted like he thought I was going to bite his head off."
"You know something, Lily?" he asked.
"What?"
"You've danced with 75 percent of the marauders tonight," he told her. "And none of them have been the right one."
She rolled her eyes. "James hasn't asked me to dance."
"Aha!' he cried. She looked startled.
"What?" she asked.
"You just admitted that you would dance with James if he asked!" he explained triumphantly.
"I-I…" words seemed to fail her, and she hung her head sheepishly. "Yeah," she admitted. "I would."
"He wants to ask you, you know," he told her. "He wants to dance with you, but he thinks you'll say no."
"I know," she said miserably. "I kinda had that one coming, huh?"
Sirius shook his head. "Nah, if you didn't, you wouldn't be the Lily he loves."
"Loves?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"Uh, er, what I meant was…" Sirius trailed off, as Lily seemed to have gone into shock.
"I didn't mean to tell you that," he said. "Please don't-" But before he could finish, Lily had already run out of the Great Hall.