Lily was about to enter the Great Hall alone. Indeed, she would have succeeded with this; however, she stopped suddenly as she reached the doorway, jaw dropped to the floor. All of the dozen Christmas trees had been decorated with a different theme: apparently, each school subject sported its own tree. Among them, Lily spotted the Potions tree, each bough decorated with miniature glittering potions, and the Transfiguration tree, home to what appeared to be live flamingos that took turns transforming into Christmas baubles. Lily continued to stare, but was thrust roughly into the room as a large group of third year girls entered. The giggling stampede rushed to the dance floor and Lily was shunted to the side into the prickly embrace of a large fir tree.
Lily wrestled with the tree for a moment (the enchanted tinsel garland had found it appropriate to snake its way around her head) before stepping out and dusting herself of pine needles. After a quick check of her reflection in one of the silver baubles, Lily made towards a nearby table; she was impeded again as the large doors swung open violently, knocking her into the Christmas tree again. Although she could not see who was behind them, judging by the shocked gasps, applause, and the return of the giggling mass of third year girls, Sirius had just walked in. As the doors shut behind him and the third years retreated grumpily at the sight of Alyssa, Sirius looked imperiously around, spotted Lily, and genially pulled her from the Christmas tree's branches as though she were some sort of overdressed pinecone.
"No need to hide, dear Lily, you need not enter the ball alone! I'll escort you two lovely ladies!" and then aside to Lily, "Of course, if you hadn't blown James off, you wouldn't have to worry about taking shelter in the boughs of the Christmas tree, you know." With that, Sirius hooked a stammering Lily's arm with his own and strode to the table nearest the dance floor, Alyssa grinning and Lily looking around sheepishly.
Lily had just sunk gratefully into her chair when Alyssa yanked her up again and steered her towards the punch table.
"Punch, Lily?"
"Er, perhaps a bit later."
"Good. Here you go!" Alyssa thrust a goblet of punch at Lily, who had no choice but to accept as Alyssa turned to serve herself. Lily still had not drunk any when Alyssa turned around and began to steer Lily back towards the table. To Lily's great annoyance, James was now sitting in the chair across from the spot Lily had chosen.
"I'll just take this spot here," Lily said, trying to quickly sit in the chair at the very end of the table.
"Nonsense, you've already picked this one, across from James. Hello James," she added as they reached their (or rather, Alyssa's) destination. James grinned at the both of them.
"You two look lovely tonight," he said, looking at Lily. Lily inclined her head courteously before sitting down and examining her silverware excessively.
"Drink!" cried Alyssa's voice. Lily looked up. Alyssa was watching Lily closely and motioned for her to drink her punch. Lily took a sip.
"Are you feeling alright?" asked Alyssa, "you look sorta peaky."
"I'm fine. I just-"
"I know what you need! A dance!" gasped Alyssa. Lily would not stand for much more of this.
"I'm just fine thank you," she said in a cold voice, draining her punch and standing up to go nowhere in particular. Maybe she would seek refuge in one of the friendlier Christmas trees, after all. Perhaps flamingos made good conversation.
However, James, no matter what Lily had just said, must have taken her standing up to mean "dance with me," and jumped from his chair immediately as though he had sat on a pin. At the end of the table, he tapped her on the shoulder. Lily spun around. Her eyes fell on the hand extended towards her, then followed the arm up to the face. James!
"Would you care to dance with me?"
Lily was so tired of this. She spat out a quick, almost resigned answer.
"Yes."
…She had perfect reasoning for this (or, that's what Lily was telling herself, anyways). Just concede a little, and then maybe James would leave her alone. She had been meaning to spit out a vehement "No!" but her mouth mutilated the words before they had even left her and now, she was out on the dance floor, hand in hand with James. Yes, she had perfect reasoning for this.
Lily entered an almost semi-conscious state as her body went on auto-pilot and her thoughts separated themselves from her conscious mind. James took her hand and began to guide her through the dance, and Lily found it quite… respectable, almost, that James knew what he was doing. Lily would have continued on with her detached documentary-like view of everything, but James's voice broke the silence. It took Lily a few moments to register that he was talking.
"-you thought, huh?"
"Er…yeah," said Lily, trying to replay what he had said in her mind so that she could figure out what he was talking about.
"Really? You think so?"
The truth was probably better in the long run. "Forgive me Potter, I was distracted by those flamingos over there." The complete absurdity of her statement struck Lily like a Bludger, and before she could help herself, she burst out laughing. She laughed so hard that she actually put her head down and leaned into James for a brief moment. When she realized what she was doing, she pulled away a respectable distance and lifter her head. She could see that James had been laughing, too.
"At first, I had no idea what you were talking about," he said between laughs. James gazed into her eyes, and Lily immediately flushed and dropped her gaze. He continued, "I figured someone had spiked your punch or something."
Lily laughed some more, and then stopped suddenly. "Excuse me." She let go of his hand and walked quickly to the table where Sirius and Alyssa were still seated, leaving a puzzled James behind. Alyssa was showing a small, pink bottle to Sirius.
"Ooh, what's that, Alyssa?" asked Lily pointedly.
"Oh hi, done dancing so soon?" her friend replied.
"Yes. What is that?" asked Lily again.
"Oh. What, this? Only perfume," she stated, slipping it into her pocket.
"I don't smell any perfume. I thought you hated perfume. Why are you wearing perfume?" Lily asked, getting more nervous, suspicious, and angry at the same time.
"I don't hate perfume. Are you feeling ok, Lily, you look a bit funny," Alyssa asked seriously. Lily began to back away.
"Excuse me." She turned and walked hurriedly into the Entrance Hall. Lily felt dizzy, flushed, and confused. She seated herself a few steps up on the staircase, putting her head in her hands and taking deep breaths. She felt like she would pass out at any moment.
"This is stupid. What's going on? This is stupid. I can do this. This is stupid. I can't do this. What am I doing? This is stupid…." She continued this mantra for some time. Lily's thoughts were going so fast, she felt almost like a spectator, watching them in a blur as her mind began to think without her. Her pulse was racing. Lily tried to take deep breaths, calming herself down a bit. Perhaps this feeling of being taken up in a whirlwind was just a side effect of the potion. The potion! How could Alyssa do such a thing! Lily felt so… betrayed? Not entirely. Lily didn't know what she felt now; all she knew was that it wasn't normal, and that she would have to deal with it until a better solution came up.
A sliver of light and warm laughter split the darkness of the Entrance Hall as the doors opened; as quickly as it had appeared, it died, and Lily heard footsteps coming her way. All Lily wanted to do at that very moment was curl up into a ball and sink into the shadows. She felt like a fish out of water, completely out of her environment and very, very freaked out.
"Lily?" Lily's pulse raced. She wanted to say, "She's not here right now," but resisted. The statement was true, anyways. This was not Lily. It was as though some strange creature had possessed her.
"Are you alright?" James peered around the great banister to where Lily was seated. How many times had Lily heard that question tonight? She tried to speak, but was unable to make a sound.
"Have I offended you somehow? If I have, I'm so sorry, please know that I didn't mean it." James sounded desperate, worried.
Lily found her voice, or the remains of it, anyhow. She half spoke, half whispered, "I think you're right."
There was a pause in which James walked around the banister and up to where Lily was seated, sitting down next to her.
"About what? Offending you? Please, I didn't mean to. I-"
"No, I'm not offended. You've been right. About…about…" she took a deep, steadying breath. "Everything," she concluded.
"What makes you say that?" he asked. Lily acknowledged that James was not being arrogant at all about this, but rather, he was being extremely un-James-like, a sweet gentleman.
"I've been very conceited. And you do deserve some credit, for being-well, resilient is a good word-all these years. And someone has spiked my punch," she added as an afterthought. She gave James some time to digest this.
When enough time had passed that even such a big-headed person as James could understand what she had said, Lily continued.
"However, I want you to know that whatever you might think, there is nothing going on between us, Potter. Whatever state you've seen me in tonight was potion-induced, so don't go around with the idea that, somehow, y-"
"Wait, wait, how do you know your punch was spiked?"
"I saw Alyssa with a bottle of… of potion. Love potion." Lily blushed a little as she said this."
"Lily, I know you're a bit angry at Alyssa, but maybe you're just mistaken?" James suggested.
"No, I know potions, James, and that was definitely a love potion!" Lily was getting frustrated now, as her anger and confusion compounded itself and snowballed. She stood and paced on the step above where James was seated, silent.
After a moment, James rose and leaned against the banister. "…James?" he asked. He looked bemused and lost, as though he had just woken up.
"Yes," she said, trying to save face. "er, that's your name, isn't it?" Lily asked. She found herself biting back a laugh at the look on James's face. Plastering a stern scowl on her face, Lily stared at James. He did not say anything, and as Lily kept staring, she noticed that his eyes were hazel. Well, she had always known that, but she really realized it at that moment.
"James Potter, at your service," said James, with a flourish and a bow, attempting to recover from the silence. "And you are?" he asked, looking up into her eyes again.
Lily giggled at the questioning look on his face, then stopped abruptly when she realized what she was doing. Stupid love potion. Her moods were changing so fast, one moment she was laughing, the other she was annoyed. It was almost like PMS.
Slightly annoyed, slightly amused, she said, "You know who I am, I'm Lily!"
"No, I don't think I know you. The Lily I know doesn't' seem to like me very much," said James, softly.
Lily giggled again. Then stopped. Stupid love potion. She needed to get out of there before she did something stupid in her potion-induced state. Lily sighed and began to walk away.
"See, this is the Lily I know," called James at her retreating back.
"No, it isn't, Potter. This is a Lily drugged by her own best friend. I'm leaving before I do something stupid."
"We're back to Potter, now?" James asked. "Lily," he said as he rushed after her and blocked her from leaving the Entrance Hall, "what are you afraid of?"
Lily took a deep breath. "Falling in love."
Stupid love potion.
