Lily's POV (it's finally going to change!)

It was the first day back after winter break, and the school was sitting at the four house tables for the first time that year.

Naturally, as soon as the term started, the entire school knew about James and I. suspect Sirius was behind it, and he probably is.

I was sitting in the usual spot, about ten chairs from the front. Not only was Marlene with me, and Alice, my other best friend, but so were all four marauders, stuffing their faces as usual.

Dumbledore stood, somehow causing the deafening noise all around the great hall to disappear.

He cleared his throat, and began his usual speech about the start of the new year.

"Now, in light of recent events, with Voldemort on the rise," He continued, "Despite that your holiday break just ended, the staff and I have decided... To hold a ball."

Judging by the other professor's expressions, only Slughorn was happy about this, and it was all Dumbledore's idea.

Whispers erupted around the hall- some disbelieving, others excited.

"Are they serious?" I gasped, facing James, and held up a hand to my left. "Don't even go there, Sirius. I know what your name is."

I glanced back as he visibly pouted into his plate and returned to his food.

As Dumbledore went over the finer details, I half whispered to James, "So they really are holding a ball!"

James watched me in amusement, and I flicked his shoulder. "Don't look at me like that! I'm allowed to be a girl, you know." He chuckled, and I looked down at the table, then up at him. "Who do you think I should go with?" I asked, putting on an innocently thoughtful face.

James stared at me in disbelief, and our friends began to listen in on the conversation. "Me!" His voice cracked adorably. "You're supposed to go with me!"

I stroked my chin, pretending to me thinking. "Well, there is that one Ravenclaw boy..." I said, and I watched as James's face visibly hardened.

"Oh Merlin, Lily, you should so go with him." Marlene piped up, playing along.

I shrugged, and turned to her. "Yeah, but what about the other Ravenclaw? With blonde hair?"

Marlene clucked her tongue. "Tough choices."

"Yeah." Alice agreed. "I heard there are a few Hufflepuff boys who have your eye on you." She winked.

I nodded thoughtfully. "Decisions, decisions." Finally I laughed, at the look of malice across James's face. "Of course I'll go with you."

"Lily," he whined, as our friends howled with laughter, "don't do that to me."

I shoved his shoulder. "Sorry, James. But you bring it on yourself."

James POV

The night of the ball had come, and I was nervous, as always. Lily was getting ready with her friends in her dorm, and my friends, surprisingly, hadn't gotten any dates. Sirius had turned down quite a few, and so had Remus.

I flapped my hands a bit, pacing the room. I was wearing dress robes, of course, but I wasn't sure which color. Dark blue or red? Which did she like better? Why didn't I ask what color her dress was?

Don't look at me like that. It's perfectly normal for someone to stress about things like this.

"Oh, calm down." A female voice spoke from the doorway. I spun quickly, worried I had somehow spoken out loud.

"Just wear the red, so you'll match." Marlene said, "and don't put so much gel in your hair. It's useless anyways. I figured you'd be freaking out. Lily would be to, if it wasn't for Alice." She tapped her wand on my head, which removed most of the gel. I was about to thank her, but she had disappeared with a wink.

Flustered, ten minutes later I walked down the stairs to meet Lily there, as we had agreed to.

Sitting on one of the couches, I couldn't keep my leg from shaking. I couldn't afford to mess this up, and knowing me, I would.

My eyes went toward the stairs hopefully as I heard the footsteps. Lily stepped into the common room with her friends nervously.

It wasn't my best moment, considering I probably looked like a fish gasping for air (well, water) at the sight of her. Her red hair was partially pinned up and in slight waves, and she was wearing a darkish red dress with gold colored flats. Her face looked different from usual, and I realized she was wearing makeup.

After staring at her for what was probably a good minute or so, I managed to compose myself and held out my elbow to her. "Merlin Lil's, you're gorgeous."

She gave me a lopsided grin as her face colored slightly. Her eyes looked a little dazed as she looked at me shyly. "You do, too."

I grinned, and reached forward to take her arm, mine feeling heavier than normal.

As I helped her through the portrait hole, she grumbled to herself; something about dresses being impractical. I grinned over at her, and she kissed me on the cheek.

Now I felt myself flushing. Okay, sure, I had spent like, six years imagining this and talking about it happening with my friends and sometimes to Lily. But now that it was actually happening? I was about to melt. Well, it felt like that, judging by the hot feeling in my chest that was making me knees weak.

We carefully descended down the stairs, because of Lily's skills with walking on flats, and the weak feeling in my knees.

In the back of my mind, I remembered Sirius saying offhandedly that you walk much slower when you're with the person you love. Of course, I had been walking ridiculously slowly at that time.

Funny how that works.

When we entered the great hall, taking in all of the decorations, I certainly didn't expect nearly everyone already in the hall to turn and stare at us.

For one of the first times in my life, I felt myself grow insecure (aside from when I was trying to be charming around Lily) as everyone either gaped or glared at one of us.

I swallowed, looking over at her to see that her face had reddened.

I leaned down to her. "Maybe we should go to the side. Anything to get their eyes off of us?"

She nodded. "Please."

As casually as possible we navigated towards the side of the hall, and the eyes left us except for a few flitting towards us as we passed.

The tension was released as our friends joined us. Sirius and Marlene had decided to pair up together, while Peter and Remus were "going stag" as Sirius put it. Alice, of course, had already started dancing with her date (Frank Longbottom) and probably would be snogging him in a corner for most of the night.

As the music started up, Sirius immediately whisked Marlene away to dance as she glared at him.

I extended my hand to her, asking her to dance, but she wrinkled her nose. "I don't really like dancing."

I rolled my eyes. "Lils, this is a dance. You're supposed to dance."

She grinned sheepishly. "Maybe not this song, then."

I sighed in amusement, and we stood side by side with our hands intertwined as we watched the rest of the couples dance.

"That could be us, but you playing." I muttered playfully, and I heard Lily snort.

"What did you just say?" She let out a choked laugh as I looked at her sheepishly.

"I've heard a few muggleborns say that." I grinned. "I think it's a muggle term."

She giggled again. "It certainly is."

As the song changed, I nudged her. "Care to dance this time?"

She grinned and took my arm, us walking out to the dance floor. We (rather awkwardly) took the typical stance for dancing before starting to dance.

To be honest, I felt rather ridiculous, though I had been dreaming of this for so long. However, basically everyone was doing the same thing that we were, and slowly it started to feel natural as I stared at Lily.

As cliché as it sounds, it was true; I felt like we were alone, and it was just me and Lily. Even the music faded out, and we were stepping in sync to a seemingly non-existent beat.

As we spun, I leaned my head down and held her closer, our foreheads touching.

"You have no idea how much I love you," I breathed, before kissing her sweetly.

Yup, that's me. James Potter, master of all things cheesy. Well, maybe not actual cheese. That's Peter's job.

I nearly jumped when the people in the vicinity started clapping.

I looked around confused, feeling my face heat up before Sirius appeared out of no where.

"Sorry, mate. Couldn't help but raise your volume a little."

I glared at him, and Lily did nothing but roll her eyes, her face even redder than mine felt.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "You're not even going to hex him?"

She smirked. "Oh, I will. Eventually. When he least expects it."

We turned and watched Sirius as he turned white as a sheet and scrambled off, away from Lily's strangely calm, evil look on her face.

I laughed lightly as she leaned in closer to me and lowered her voice. "To be honest, I can't think straight anyways," she smiled softly, and I grinned back.

"Do you want to go someplace more private?" I asked her, and it was her turn to raise an eyebrow.

"James, what exactly are you implying?" She asked, rather suspicious, and I guess she had a right to be considering she had to put up with Sirius and I for six years at Hogwarts.

I rolled my eyes. "Just to talk," I replied. "Maybe snog." I gave her a cheeky grin. "Don't worry. I just feel like everyone's staring at us."

She blew a puff of air through her nose. "They are staring at us. Let's go."

She gripped my hand as we slowly edged our way out of the hall. (I guess if we had made a show of it, it would spread uncomfortable rumors fairly quickly.)

I squeezed her hand to get her attention and shot her another cheeky grin. "So is that a yes to snogging?"

She slapped my shoulder and called me a prat, but I still caught her smiling as she turned away.

Don't worry, there will probably be an epilogue!

Sorry if you felt the awkwardness that I did during this chapter, there's only a select few characters that I can comfortably write from a first person POV, and James is not one of them (probably because I'm not a guy, although some male characters I can write in first person)

Which POV do you want the epilogue to be in~ Lily's or James's?