The Cretin from the Curtain

Much later on in the evening, and many, many times after that moment, James Potter would curse his friends for not calling him back and telling him that the girl he had just asked for a dance was in fact the very Lily Evans that he had mistaken her sister for, but at that one particular moment in time he was blissfully unaware of the mischief he was causing. His friends, on the other hand, were not, that was for sure.

If James had ventured to glace behind him, he would have seen Sirius' face and known immediately that something was woefully amiss, but he never did.

"Guess," said Lily, looking up at him with fluttering eyelashes, a vision of innocence in blue and white. The raven-haired cretin with whom she was dancing raised an eyebrow ever so slightly.

"I don't think I'd be able, I'm terribly inept at that sort of thing; haven't got the patience for it."

"Surely you're just being modest, Mr Potter?" she asked him sweetly. Lily could not imagine that this young man was anywhere close to modest in the slightest, not if his comments from behind the curtain earlier were any indication. "I can't imagine that you are any better or any worse than any other person – it's not a game that requires much skill."

"It may take me a long time."

"Lucky for you, I'm a very patient girl."

He studied her for a moment. "Really, it wouldn't be wise of you to ask me to guess; you don't look like somebody who is in possession of a commonplace name."

"Was that a compliment, Mr Potter?"

"It might be," he said. "If you choose to take it as one."

This was the opportune moment to give a flirtatious answer, but something told her to remain a little more aloof. She had already surpassed herself by demanding that he dance with her, and it simply would not do to appear too eager.

"Are you going to guess my name or not, Mr Potter?" she instead chose to ask him, clicking her tongue impatiently.

"If I must," he said, and frowned slightly. He was, perhaps, wondering how to successfully guess her name, so as to seem impressive, without making it obvious that he already knew exactly who she was. Lily was not expecting him to err at this early stage of what was now to be their sparring, but that did not mean that she would not be watching him closely for any mistakes. "Georgina?"

Lily shook her head. The piece of music that had been playing came to an end and the small orchestra in the corner struck up a different, slower tune, but she barely noticed.

"Emily?"

"No."

"Elizabeth?"

"No." She shook her head. "Although, Elizabeth is my middle name."

"Ah, I see." He looked visibly heartened by this. "Lydia?"

Lily shook her head again. "No, but you're close."

"Close?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Your name begins with an 'L', I presume?"

It was, she knew, not a coincidence that he had whittled the matter down so quickly, but she had to play the unsuspecting innocent and not question his knowledge, so she merely nodded and smiled rather tightly.

"Lenora?"

"Lenora? Heavens no!" she laughed.

"Laura?"

"No."

"Lucinda?"

She shook her head again, feeling a short stab of impatience. If Potter was going to continue this charade all night she would surely get irritated. "Do you concede defeat, Mr Potter?"

His name was James Potter, he had told her so minutes earlier. It seemed to suit him, although she couldn't quite place why, for James was a name that she had always admired and she most definitely detested this man with all she had in her. It was a good thing that she had overheard the conversation, because there certainly was something very pleasing about his manner and appearance and Lily knew her own tastes well enough to know that she otherwise could have found herself to be quite taken with him.

"I don't like to give up once I've started something."

"Neither do I, but time is fleeting and there are many female names beginning with L that one could list. If you admit defeat, I shall tell you my name and then we could move onto more interesting topics of conversation."

"As I recall, you said you had a lot of patience?"

"I lied," she said shortly. "It's common practice amongst people who have just met."

If she was surprising him with her bold statements, it did not register on his face. "Very well, I give up."

She smiled as enigmatically as possible and dipped her head, to appear modest and shy. "My name is Lily Evans, Mr Potter."

There was an odd moment in which his brow furrowed in what she could only assume to be surprise, but it disappeared almost as quickly as it had come. He had certainly rehearsed his actions perfectly; his intelligence was admirable. "Lily Evans?"

"That is correct."

"I presume that your parents are Mr and Mrs Charles Evans, from Cheshire?" he continued.

"Yes." She faltered. She had not expected him to have such in depth knowledge. "Yes, they are. Have you spoken?"

"I had a brief conversation with your father earlier," he replied, shrugging. "I didn't know that you were his daughter, however. You don't really resemble him."

"Don't I?" she said, feigning confusion as she moved far closer to him than she had been, and looking up at him with innocent green eyes. "Perhaps you haven't examined my face properly. I'm sure you could find some likeness if you looked hard enough."

He seemed slightly taken aback, but obeyed her request and examined her seriously for several seconds, far too long. Lily found herself begin to redden beneath his intense gaze.

"I can't see the likeness," he admitted. "But then, perhaps it's your father who I haven't taken enough notice of."

"I doubt it, really," she sighed, lifting her nose. "I really don't resemble my father, and the red hair is from my mother's side of the family."

Potter, who had also begun to blush, blinked several times in his confusion, perhaps at being shamelessly told to examine her face when there really was no need for him to do so. "But is your mother not blonde?"

"Yes, she is. I take after my grandmother."

Her cunning companion opened his mouth to reply, but words seemed to fail him. Instead, he stared somewhat absently at her nose for a while, looking slightly lost in thought, and as confused as always. She left him to devising whatever plans he had before the silence absolutely started to bore her and she was forced to break it.

"Penny for your thoughts, Mr Potter?"

He immediately snapped out of whatever trance he had been in, opened and shut his mouth, and shook his head. "I don't think you'd care for my thoughts, Miss Evans."

"My name is Lily, Mr Potter." Yet another bold and inappropriate statement had fallen from her lips. "And I think it is safe to assume that if I don't mind barging up to you and demanding that you dance with me, I will not be irritated if you call me by my first name."

"I assumed that propriety wasn't something you advocated," he said, with a quiet, pleasant laugh.

She didn't answer in words, merely shook her head.

"I'll call you Lily if you call me James, Miss Evans, and not a moment before," he put to her, smiling genially. "It's entirely up to you."

"As I was about to say, Mr Potter, before I abruptly changed the subject," she carried on as if he had never spoken at all, feeling wicked. "You won't know whether or not I care for your thoughts until you voice them."

"I suppose I'll have to take that penny, won't I?"

"I'll owe it to you."

He laughed again; he had a very lovely laugh, and mock bowed to her mid dance. "Well, if I am to earn that penny, I'll tell you; I was just thinking to myself that you are undeniably the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. It's not something I wanted to tell you so early, but if you're not worried about being rude, then I can't say that I am, either."

Lily was utterly horrified to feel herself blushing at his words. She was used to the pretty little compliments that had been paid to her by her father, and Chamberly, and various other people who paid them in an attempt to be polite, but coming from Potter it sounded completely different to what she was accustomed to. Furthermore, the little pang in her chest that sprung up when she reminded herself that he wasn't sincere was worrying, almost as if she wanted him to be telling the truth, but she had no idea why. It was terribly embarrassing and made her angry, besides, but the physical manifestations of this could only serve to convince him that she was merely flustered and shy.

"That was rather brave of you," she said coyly, once she had recovered her wits. "For all you know, I could be married."

"You aren't married," he countered. Unlike her, he seemed perfectly at ease. "Even if you were, it wouldn't diminish your beauty at all."

"Beauty is worthless, and I am not a woman, only a little girl," she retorted, a tad too sharply.

"Worthless it might be, I can't argue with that," he said reasonably, nodding. "All the same, a mere boy like me cannot help but appreciate such a fine example."

"I'm a fine example of worthlessness, you say?"

"You twist my words, Miss Evans."

"Ah, but you have figured me out, Mr Potter. I persist in digging for compliments."

"Well, here's another," he offered. "My first impression of you was that you're as far from worthlessness as a person can be."

"First impressions are devious, you know."

"Hopefully I'll be allowed a second."

"Oh, you most definitely shall be," she said.

They had danced to two songs by this time and Lily could see her mother throwing her suspicious glances. It was probably time to move on to another dance partner before she had to endure her many probing questions. Edward Chamberly was nowhere to be seen, which could only be a good thing, for she did not imagine that either he or her parents would find her plan even remotely amusing. On top of that, she had no idea what else to say to the cretin. She would have liked to converse a bit more but the key to everything was to move slowly. If she left him now, it would surely be inevitable that he would want to make the next move.

"If you don't mind, Mr Potter," she said, before he could reply to her. "I can see that my mother is searching for me. It was interesting to meet you."

"And you," he said, looking down at her with an expression that made her face redden, to her embarrassment. "Goodbye, Miss Evans."

"Are you sure I can't convince you to begin an internship at my practice, Remus?"

"I'm afraid that at the moment I'm undecided, Edward," Remus lied. He was definitely lying, Lily could tell. Why on earth anyone would willingly work for Edward Chamberly and spend a minute more in his presence than they absolutely needed to was beyond her. "But it is definitely something that I would consider."

"When you do make your decision," cut in another man whom Lily vaguely recognized from other dinner parties, but with whom she had never before spoken. "Remember that there is always a job for you at Chamberly and son."

"Thank you, Mr Harris. I will keep that in mind."

Unfortunately, it was at that moment that Chamberly happened to turn around and catch sight of her lurking behind a woefully obese man who had chosen that time to dart towards the buffet.

"Why, Miss Lily!" Jovial as always, Chamberly's bellowing greetings were really starting to grate on her. "Do come and join me!"

It took all of Lily's self-control not to groan loudly. Evidently, she could only eavesdrop upon one conversation per night without being noticed. That said, she had not been making much effort to hide this time; there were no curtained recesses or pianos to crouch behind. She had rather hoped to avoid Chamberly all night, but her curiosity had grown upon seeing him talk to the amiable Remus Lupin. She put on her best smile, ignored the anxious feeling that had been flip-flopping in her stomach ever since she had danced with James Potter, and came towards the three men.

"Mr Chamberly," she said, and her glowing cheeks seemed only to be a symptom of merriment, not shattered nerves and high excitement. "What a lovely ball this is."

"Gentlemen, allow me to introduce Miss Lily Evans to you, she is more beautiful than my descriptions can give credit to, is she not?" Here he shot Lily a charming smile. "Miss Evans, this is my one of my partners, Mr Benjamin Harris; I believe you have already met? And this fine young fellow is Mr Remus Lupin, a friend of the family."

"Miss Evans," said Mr Harris, taking her hand and giving her a quaint little bow. Unlike her brash host, Mr Harris' manners and hospitality did not seem to be forced. He was a thin, debonair man with a comically curly moustache and a flair for theatrics. Lily had spoken with him for the first time only the other day and had been very amused by his flamboyant nature. "Why, you are the belle of the ball! I shall never understand why you do not have a string of love-struck admirers hanging from your skirts!"

"Thank you so much." Lily giggled earnestly at Mr Harris and his favourable comments, because he, at least, seemed to be entirely sincere, if a bit ridiculous. "And it is so nice to see you again, of course, Mr Lupin."

"You already know Remus?" said Chamberly.

"Oh, yes sir, she does," piped up Remus, with a kindly smiled in Lily's direction, his eyes twinkling. "She and I chatted briefly earlier on in the evening, about… Shakespeare, if I recall correctly?"

"Ah. Shakespeare," said Chamberly, looking stumped. Lily wondered if Chamberly had ever read Shakespeare in his life and was willing to wager quite a lot that the answer was no. "How very nice."

"Oh, it was just silly chit-chat," said Lily airily, lest Chamberly start to think she was more intelligent than the empty bubble he thought her to be and his head explode from confusion. "You know, I simply couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation as I came to find you, Mr Chamberly, and I must confess myself a little confused."

"Confused?" His brow furrowed. "Why is that, my dear?"

"Well," she said, for she had been curious about this since she had heard of Edward Chamberly. "Mr Harris is your partner in law, is this correct?"

"Yes," he said, throwing a suspicious glance at Mr Harris.

"And you have no others, do you not?"

"Why, no," he said faintly, regarding her with great confusion. "None at all."

"Yes, well you see, I was just wondering," she gave as pretty a smile as she could muster, hoping that she was portraying the vapid, stupidly curious little girl in the correct manner. "Why is your firm called Chamberly and son?"

"Oh," he said, looking inexplicably relieved. Perhaps he had been worried that Lily was going to start thinking; he seemed like the type who secretly believed that women should not be allowed to think – a cruel symptom of Lily's resentfulness towards him. "Well, it used to belong to my father, but he has since passed it to me."

"Well, you must be a very intelligent and competent solicitor, Mr Chamberly, to take the reins of a business at such a young age."

Chamberly, for some reason, looked distinctly uncomfortable. His eyes darted around the room for a moment and he did not speak until he had clapped his eyes on whatever he had been looking for.

"Yes, Miss Evans, indeed, but I'm afraid that I've just noticed something that I must see to. Harris," he addressed his partner with a significant look and Lily wondered if he considered her too stupid to realize that he was reacting in a most unorthodox way. "You'll take care of Miss Evans for a few minutes until I return, won't you?"

"Of course," said Mr Harris, twirling his moustache around his finger.

"I shall return in a mere moment, make sure you keep a wary eye on her, Harris – we wouldn't want Mr Lupin here getting ideas!" he said, with forced cheer, and gave Lily a wink before he disappeared into the milling crowd.

Lily turned to look at Mr Harris, slightly confused.

"Mr Chamberly seemed a little upset," she said, frowning as though concerned, even though she really could not have cared less, however, she was curious. "Did I mention something amiss?"

"It's nothing you were likely to know about, Miss Evans," said Mr Harris kindly. "Edward is a little sensitive about his father."

"Why is that?" she replied, somewhat impolitely.

"Well!" Mr Harris did not seem to mind her rudeness, and gave a rather loud chuckle. "You are a curious cat, aren't you?"

"I'm thoroughly unashamed to admit that I am, sir."

"Well, I'm not really supposed to tell anyone," began Harris, leaning forward confidentially and twirling his moustache around his finger. "However, I must confess myself powerless when faced with such a beautiful girl, and I do so love to gossip." He winked at Remus. "Quite unmanly of me, don't you think?"

"We all have our guilty pleasures, Mr Harris," said Remus, smiling at Lily. "I must confess that I have some interest in gossip myself."

"Oh, very well then!" said Harris, as if Lily and Remus had twisted his arm to get this information. "Now, you mustn't repeat this to another soul, Miss Evans. You'll promise, won't you?"

She nodded, and crossed her heart. "I'll take it to the grave, Mr Harris."

"Well, the story is this," said Mr Harris, looking very much in his element as Lily and Remus paid rapt attention to his words. "Edward's father, also named Edward, was the founder and head of the law practice for thirty years and took his son on as an apprentice several years ago, and Edward is a fine solicitor, but his father was better. He was highly sought after and rarely lost a case at all, until…"

"Yes?" said Remus, after a while, as Mr Harris seemed to have trailed off with evident dramatic purpose and was waiting for one of them to urge him on.

"Well," he continued, looking very grave indeed. "Just last year, the elder Mr Chamberly took a turn for the worse, you could say."

"Did he… did die?" said Lily softly.

"No."

"What happened to him?"

"Dementia," said Harris simply. "Lost his mind. A dreadful pity too, for he was such a fine man. He lives in a hospital in London now, your father's hospital, actually." He inclined his head towards Lily with a smile. "Edward gets horribly depressed about it. He was very fond of his father and they were very close, especially since his mother passed away."

"Oh dear," Lily said, feeling sudden pity for her previously loathed host. She couldn't imagine losing her kindly father to such a terrible ailment. "That's simply awful."

"You can understand why he does not wish for people to know this, of course. His father's reputation is very important to Edward and your father has done well to keep his true circumstances secret. Most of the people in London are under the impression that he is retired and living in Scotland. Edward even bought a house there to make his story appear - Oh, hush now, he's coming back."

Lily whipped around to see Chamberly making his way over, accompanied by her own father, and felt a sudden rush of guilt for having judged him so very harshly. She smiled at both men as they approached her.

"Mr Evans," Chamberly was saying, smiling around at everybody once he came to a stop in his original position. "I only just now remembered that I never introduced you to this young man! Remus, this is Charles Evans, Lily's father."

Lily's father gave his daughter a grin as he and Remus shook hands.

"It's a pleasure, sir," said Remus, smiling rather awkwardly.

"The pleasure is all mine, my lad," said Mr Evans, surveying him with the same critical eye that Lily knew he surveyed everyone with. "I presume that you came here with the three other young men?"

"If you are referring to Sirius, James and Peter," Remus replied, with a glint of what seemed to be amusement in his eyes. "Indeed, I did."

"On that note, where is James?" said Chamberly, drawing himself to his full height to look around the room. Lily went bright pink in a matter of seconds and her face was burning hot. It was hard enough, trying not to think about James Potter, but she didn't think she would be able to keep a straight face if Mr Chamberly started nattering on about him. She noticed that Remus was looking at her strangely and remembered with a jolt that not only was he Potter's friend, but that that she had seen him with the idiot when she had introduced herself. She shot him a warning look.

"I think he's with Sirius and Peter," Remus responded, clearly confused. Chamberly shook his head.

"That he is not, Remus. I asked them just this minute." Chamberly pointed over to where the aforementioned Sirius and Peter were sitting. Lily took a good look. One of the boys, short and blonde, was perched gloomily on a plush settee beside an even gloomier, though very comely boy who was rudely ignoring the chatter of a young lady who was hovering next to him. The blonde boy looked oddly familiar to her, although Lily couldn't imagine why. She stole another glance at Remus.

"Sirius is the dark haired one, Peter is the blonde," he said, by way of explanation.

"Your friends are very nice young men, Mr Lupin," said Mr Harris, with a rather strange look in his eyes as he stared at Sirius Black. He adjusted his trousers hastily. "Oh yes, just spiffing."

Remus nodded. "I like to think so."

"I like the Pettigrew boy, for his own sake. The other two are really far too outgoing," said Harris, who was one of the most outgoing people Lily had ever met.

"Oh now, Harris, Pettigrew is a little mouse of a boy," argued Chamberly. "Potter and Black are far more interesting."

"I liked the Potter boy," said Mr Evans suddenly, and most decidedly. "Good strong handshake, and looks you in the eye when he's talking to you."

Lily blushed, if possible, even harder.

"Oh, Potter is quite a fantastic young fellow!" said Chamberly, wearing a triumphant look, as if the cretin's supposed brilliance was entirely down to him. "Which brings me back to my original question, where is he? I was hoping to introduce him to Miss Evans."

"You needn't introduce the boy to my daughter, Edward," said Lily's father, who seemed very amused by something or other. "She's already quite familiar with him."

Lily's insides froze solid, as four pairs of eyes turned to her face. Indeed, there were no suspicious looks being directed towards her, but to Lily, Chamberly's mildly confused, barely curious look was one that tried to see into the depth of her very soul. She averted her eyes to the ground and wished that it would swallow her up whole. Or that somebody else nearby would cause such a terrible scene that she and Potter would be forgotten about.

"Familiar?" said Harris.

"Do you know James from somewhere else?" asked Chamberly.

"It's nothing like that," put in Mr Evans helpfully. "I'm quite sure they only met today, but they were dancing together not twenty minutes ago."

"You were dancing with James Potter?" Chamberly did, for the first time, appear a little bit alarmed.

"Well, yes, and we spoke, briefly," Lily replied, trying to look and sound as if the subject was of no importance to her and managed to pull it off quite well. "He seemed pleasant."

"If I may be excused," said her father, with an odd smirk playing at his lips. "I need to speak to my eldest daughter concerning a certain matter."

"I'll talk to you later in the evening, Charles," said Chamberly.

"Yes, indeed," said Harris. "We can catch up later."

"It was nice to meet you, sir," said Remus.

"Lily, my dear," said Mr Evans, leaning in to kiss her forehead.

"Goodbye, father."

She felt like screaming in frustration when her father walked away and left her - left her in the company of some very curious men. She had no idea why he had felt the need to announce her impropriety to the rest of the party and even less of an idea why he seemed to be so amused about it, but whatever it was, she wasn't about to ask him to explain himself.

Men, she silently concluded, were all completely useless.

Now, James thought, leaning his head against the cool window pane, was the time for him to forget about Lily Evans, but he feared that this was something easier said than done.

He glanced quickly behind him, just to make sure that no one had entered the empty lounge he was standing in, as he had realized all of a sudden that he had forgotten to close the door. Once he established that he wasn't being watched, he flicked his wand and waited until after the door had shut and the satisfactory click of the lock was heard before turning back to the window to continue his musings interrupted.

That girl was going to be Mrs Edward Chamberly. The thought of it made him laugh, and laugh humourlessly. This girl could not, should not, be engaged to that idiot, and would not if he could decide such things. He was convinced that he had been misdirected somehow. He prided himself on having fairly good intuition, and this girl was definitely something out of the ordinary; she and Chamberly would be the worst match imaginable. But had not Chamberly explicitly said that it was Lily Evans that he was betrothed to? James was sure that he had, and it stood to reason that she was also aware of this already. But then why would she come up and demand that he ask her to dance?

As he probed his thoughts further, he came to notice that there had been something seriously amiss about their conversation, although he couldn't put his finger on what it was. For the most part, she seemed strangely guarded and prim. At some points in the conversation, she had talked to him in a tone that was bordering on sharp and looked at him with eyes that betrayed her distaste, but on the other hand, she had willingly stood so close to him that only a small movement would have found his lips on hers and he couldn't forget the way she had answered him when he enquired about seeing her again. Her tone had implied... well, he had been sought after enough at Hogwarts to know that this girl was suggesting something more than tea and crumpets.

On top of that, he had talked to Remus a few minutes ago and Remus gave him an entirely different description of the girl. He was utterly confused.

He told himself not to flirt with the girl even before he had learned of her true identity, purely because it would have been dreadfully improper, and yet it seemed to slip out before he could catch himself. If Chamberly were to learn of James' behaviour, that was, if Lily Evans were to tell him, he would challenge James to a fight because that was the kind of stupid thing he did, and then James would be forced to hurt him. Not that the idea wasn't appealing, but the fact of the matter was, forming some kind of romantic attachment to this girl could only end in tears.

But she had flirted with him. Not in an obvious way, like Elvira Patil would do, but still, she had most definitely flirted. How was he meant to keep his distance from a girl like that?

When James Potter saw something he liked, be it a racing broom or the best slice of cake, he had to have it, and once he set his mind on taking something, there was no stopping him. This was entirely new, however, this had never happened with a girl before, and Merlin, did he want her. This girl was promised to another, this much he knew. There were multiple warning signs flashing in his head, telling him that this was dangerous, and wrong, and undeniably stupid.

But there was one thought, one single, solitary thought; that won out against every argument he put forward in his mind, no matter how hard he tried to disregard it, and it would continue to win out until the day that it was made irrelevant. It was an argument that, he knew, would quash the resolution he was making even now to stay far away from the girl. The efforts he was promising himself to make were all in vain.

For just moments ago, before she had left him, he had taken a good look at her left hand. To be more precise, he had looked at her ring finger, and had found it to be completely bare.

She wasn't engaged yet.

He was about to do something really foolish.