Luckily they managed to arrive just in time. After they had eaten, Dumbledore stood up and waved them up to the Staff Table. Glancing at each other, they walked forward cautiously and stood in front of their Headmaster.
"I take it everything is prepared for tonight?" Dumbledore smiled.
"Yes, sir. We have the decorations done, as you can see, and we have the buffet prepared-well, no, the house-elves did that-and we've booked the band...James, we forgot to book the band! Oh, dear." Lily sounded frantic.
"Lily, I know how much stress you've been under lately, so I-er-took the liberty of doing that myself. I do hope you're not offended," Dumbledore chuckled.
"Of course not! You've just saved us from having to rush round at the last minute. We're more than grateful," James replied with a cheeky smile.
"In that case, you may return to your seats," Dumbledore motioned.
Lily and James looked at each other, then walked back to their seats. When they got back they noticed that Coral and Remus were whispering together, and so were Lacey and Sirius.
I sure hope she hasn't told anyone about the shower incident, James found himself thinking.
Lily patted the seat next to her and James sat down. Coral and Lacey gave their best friend a rather strange look and then stood up to leave, Remus and Sirius following in their wake.
Lily, mystified, looked at James inquiringly, but he just shrugged his shoulders, yawning, and said, "Lily, I think we should go back to the common room and run over some plans."
"Okay, then, come on." Lily streched like James had done earlier that morning and stood up, pulling James along with her.
They went back to the Heads' common room and sat on the sofa. James cracked his neck, making Lily shiver. She hated it when people did that. James produced a piece of parchment from inside his robes and began reading it aloud to Lily.
"Band?" he asked first.
"Check," Lily replied. Over the next several items she had got so used to saying this that she wasn't actually listening. James continued listing items for a couple of minute, finishing with, "Agreeing to go out with James and marry him one day?"
"Check," Lily said automatically. James said nothing but just sat looking at her with a smug look on his face. As soon as she realised just what he had said, she turned bright red, and James laughed. Lily dived the length of the sofa and pummelled him until he fell onto the floor. She followed him down and proceeded to tickle him mercilessly.
It was this scene that Remus walked in on just at that moment. James and Lily were oblivious to his entrance. He cleared his throat loudly, and their heads whipped round in surprise.
"Listen, you two, tonight we have-um, maybe I should come back later," Remus said, not bothering to hide his laughter.
"No, Remus, help me. Please, I beg you. She's going to kill me," James spluttered.
Lily stopped tickling James and fell off him, laughing breathlessly. Before she could recover, James picked her up and threw her onto the sofa and then ran to his room, placing every locking spell he knew on the door. Remus rolled his eyes and quietly slipped out.
After ten minutes of trying to get into James' room, Lily gave up.
"You'll have to come out sometime, James Potter, or you won't get any food," she shouted through the keyhole. "I'm not getting you any, and I'll ban Remus and Sirius from bringing you anything."
She smiled when, after a brief pause, she distinctly heard the word, "Damn."
Lily was looking through her closet for her dress robes when Professor McGonagall knocked on the doorway and walked in.
"Lily, where is James? He needs to hear this, as well," McGonagall said in her usual brisk manner.
"Oh, we were messing about. I began tickling him, and when I stopped he ran off and locked himself in his room." Lily smiled sweetly at her professor.
McGonagall left and Lily could hear her knocking on James' door. "Potter, get out here this instant," McGonagall barked.
The bedroom door creaked open and James came out. He gave Lily a dirty look.
"What can I do for you, Minnie?" he asked cheekly.
"It's Professor to you, young man," McGonagall snapped, although Lily was sure she saw her lips twitch.
Lily and James listened as McGonagall told them it was traditional for the Head Boy and Girl to lead the first dance in the middle of the Hall. This didn't seem to faze James one bit. It did Lily, however, as she remembered having placed mistletoe there.When McGonagall left, James looked at Lily and said, "I suppose you need to start getting ready, then?"
"No-it isn't even midday yet. It doesn't take me six hours to get ready, you know," she said, rather puzzled as to why James would mention it.
As lunchtime approached, Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, Coral, and Lacey headed to the Great Hall. Lily huffed at James and Sirius when they piled their plates up with mashed potato and began throwing it at one another.
At one-thirty they left the Hall and walked along the corridors to the Heads' dorms. Lily gave the password and entered, and the rest trudged in behind. They sat in front of the fire and there was talk of getting ready for the Ball. At half two, the girls decided it was time for them to start preparing. James, who refused to leave the common room, was escorted out by Sirius and Remus whilst the girls laughed.
After about five minutes of being over Sirius' shoulder, James demanded to get down. Sirius, who didn't usually listen to orders, took the instructions literally and dropped James straight from his shoulders to the floor. James lay on the ground snarling at Remus and Sirius, who were now laughing so hard that they, too, dropped helplessly to the floor, rolling around and holding their sides. Some first years that walked past gave the trio some decided peculiar looks and edged past them cautiously.
Meanwhile, back in the Heads' dorm, the girls had had their showers and were taking it in turns to do each other's hair. Coral did Lily's in a French braid twirled around into a bun. Coral had her hair in a high ponytail, courtesy of Lacey; and Lily was busy curling Lacey's hair using her wand.
"Do you think the boys are ready?" Lily asked, twirling Lacey's hair around her steaming wand.
"Oh, I hope not. We still have loads to do yet!" Coral squealed.
When Lily had finished putting the final touches to Lacey's hair, she got up and walked over to the three sets of dress robes laid out on the bed. Lily was wearing light green to compliment her hair, Lacey's robes were dark blue, and Coral was wearing a light pink colour.
Lily began to iron the robes whilst Coral and Lacey did their makeup.When Lily finally finished ironing, Lacey and Coral got dressed and Lily put her makeup on. Then she slipped into her dress robes. Coral and Lacey gasped.
"You look lovely! I'm sure James will be pleased," they both said almost at once.
Lily smiled and thanked her best friends, and complimented their outfits, which really suited them, in turn.
With a final nervous pat to hair and robes, the three girls left the dorm and went to find their dates.