Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, if anyone gives a shit. Leave a review to let me know you care. Thanks and enjoy!


She's spent hours getting ready, making sure her hair and makeup are just right, and ensuring that her dress— which cost more than she would ever admit — hangs from her soft curves perfectly. Instead of focusing her obsessive compulsive tendencies on her homework, for once, she'd concentrated on her appearance and the result was akin to divinity. She felt lovely.

It's her first year attending the Yuletide Ball with a proper date. Of course, she's always had suitors. Well, one suitor in particular. When James asked her again this year, she dutifully declined just as she always has. Her date, Nathaniel Andrews, had asked her the day after James. She chose to take that as coincidence and had accepted enthusiastically. After all, he is kind, handsome and clever. Best of all? She doesn't absolutely abhor him.

She stops at the top of the staircase before the entrance of the Great Hall.

He's standing with Sirius, the both of them waiting for their dates. The ball started twenty minutes ago and Sirius is impatient as ever.

"Merlin," Sirius grumbles, elegantly handsome in his dress robes. "Women take bloody forever."

But James isn't listening. His eyes are glued to a girl standing at the top of the great marble stairs, eyes sparkling as they sweep over the crowd. Deep scarlet curls cascade from her intricate up-do, framing her face, adding a touch of delicacy to her features. Her plump lips are stained an inviting pink. Pale slender fingers tap anxiously against her hip and he notices her dress for the first time. A deep burgundy, it hugs her breasts, waists and hips magnificently and falls just above the floor in silken waves.

He's awestruck. He honestly believes he has never seen anyone look as stunning as she does tonight, not even the witches in those magazines Sirius is always showing him. She's walking down the stairs and James doesn't know what to do with himself. He's fighting between the urge to race up to her and take her into his arms and his current inability to move in the slightest. When she reaches the bottom, she stands alone, looking around uncomfortably.

Without any conscious decision from him, he's ambling over to her. He comes up behind her, places a hand on the small of her back. She turns to him, face expectant. Her smile fades just the tiniest bit when she realizes it's James and not Nathaniel.

"Lily," he starts, voice no more than a murmur. "You look absolutely radiant."

She blushes, he notices, and he can't help his smile.

"Thank you," she whispers.

His hand is still on her back and his fingers are humming at the feel of her.

They chat for a moment, strictly small talk, until James sees her date over her shoulder.

He's wholly unable to form a coherent thought, not with her standing so close, not with her looking the way she does, not with her being her. So without thinking, as seems to be his pattern this evening, he leans down, his lips a mere millimeter from her ear. He's so close she can practically feel his lips on her skin. She unconsciously inhales sharply.

"Save me a dance?" he murmurs.

She nods slowly, dumbstruck, as he slowly backs away. She has the urge to grab his wrist, place his hand back on her waist, make him stay, but she doesn't. He has this little smile as he leaves her and it makes her chest tighten.

He stares at her all night. He can't stop. Sirius keeps snapping photos obnoxiously with his brand new camera. James knows that he's going to look hopelessly distracted in all of them. For her part, Anthea, his date, is doing everything in her power to focus him. She even goes so far as grabbing him through his trousers during the feast. James, slightly taken aback, politely pushes her hand away. Anthea huffs in annoyance.

Sirius chuckles. It baffles him why anyone agrees to date James when it is so blatantly obvious that he is head over heels in love with Lily.

Anthea decides that although she looks great on James' arm, she is not getting enough attention in the least. She kind of pats James on the head and flounces over to a solemn seventh year who's own date has left him for her friends.

He hardly notices.

It takes him a few minutes to clear the cobwebs in his mind enough to stand up, to walk over to where she's sitting. She looks up at him, mildly surprised.

"You said you'd dance with me," he says and out of habit, it almost sounds accusatory, defensive. She thinks she sees him blush.

"I did," she agrees.

Thankfully, Nathaniel is chatting with a few of his friends and doesn't see her own charming blush.

"Er… Care to now then?" He's embarrassed. She's making him all tongue tied sitting there looking as she does. It's not fair, he decides. Not fair at all.

She smiles slightly and nods. He holds out a hand for her and leads her to the dance floor. He takes a moment to appreciate that it's a slow song. One calloused hand reaches out to rest on her hip. The silk of her gown slides tantalizingly beneath his palm, against her skin. The other holds hers, tiny and delicate. And then they're swaying and spinning and it feels like they're floating. Lily is not a dancer. She can never accurately find the rhythm. But here, in the middle of the dance floor, with James' arm around her waist, she feels like a ballerina. It's all just so natural.

He whispers something to her and she laughs, partly because it really is quite witty and partly to hide the tremble that courses through her as his lips brush against the cusp of her ear.

The song ends too soon and they stop. She's a little dazed and dizzy and there's this funny clenching sensation in her tummy. As he releases her, he drags his hand down her hip almost accidentally and he squeezes her hand in intimate gratitude.

"Thanks, Lily," he murmurs.

"I… you're welcome."

"Enjoy the rest of your night," he whispers. He turns and walks straight out of the Great Hall. It takes everything he has not to look at her over his shoulder. If he did, he would see her staring after him, more than a little confused.