A/N: I'm back on track with this fic, I've been HORRIBLE with updates, and i'm SO sorry. I'm currently in mourning, as the Harry Potter tale has finally ended... but I'll try to post more often. Promise. Thanx so much to cryingcloud15, my amazing beta - couldnt have done this without you, Sharmila!

"Do you think they're done yet?" James was standing with Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Daniel in front of the stairs leading to the girl's dormitories, dressed in impeccable black dress robes, and bouncing on the balls of his feet impatiently. "What the hell makes girls take so long to get ready?"

Sirius chuckled and said, "Mate, who are you even waiting for?"

James immediately stopped bouncing and mumbled, "Nobody… random girl."

Sirius grinned, but the grin suddenly slid off his face as he heard a girl squeal "Sirius!!!!!" Turning around slowly, he saw his date running towards him and pasted a false smile on his face.

"Hey, Lauren…" Lauren Ferguson was a petite Gryffindor 7th year, with long, honey blond hair, and a blinding white smile. She was dressed in a pink, frilly outfit, which was entirely too short and much too low cut. She quickly bounced over to Sirius and threw her thin arms around him.

James smirked at Sirius and turned around to hear Remus intake a sharp breath.

Chelsea was coming down the stairs in a long black strapless dress that hugged her body in a way that made her seem a foot taller than she normally was. Her face glowed and her sapphire colored eyes stood out brightly under blue eye shadow. Her hair framed her face in long, glossy curls. Dangling around her neck was a sapphire necklace, and the glittering diamond bobs that Remus had given her were in her ears. She stepped forward and hugged Remus tightly.

James grinned at his friends loving embrace, and had to stifle a gasp as he turned back to the stairs – Lily was coming down.

Lily was dressed in a sleek emerald green one-shoulder dress, which accentuated her eyes. Her red hair cascaded down her back in waves, and was held out of her face by an elegant gold clip. Her eyes met James's and she smiled tentatively, putting a hand to her neck. James looked at her arm but all he saw were three glittering gold bracelets with emeralds embedded in them. His eyes flicked to her neck and he grinned when he saw the necklace that he had given her on her neck. He was about to step forward and take Lily's hand when she stepped past him and took Daniel's instead, softly saying, "Thank you so much for the bracelets, Danny – they were beautiful…"

Sirius had by now pried himself out of Lauren's grip and stepped forward to the stairs, yelling, "Oy, Natalie! You coming or what?"

"Wait a minute, for god's sake!!!" Natalie's shrill voice echoed in the stairway, and Sirius scowled as he turned back to Lauren. A minute later, a nudge from James told him that Natalie was on her way down.

Natalie was in a red halter dress that reached just above her knees, which hugged all of her curves seductively. Her normally wavy hair was now gathered into a stick-straight high ponytail. Multiple strings of rubies that Sirius had given her glittered off her neck, ears, and arms. She looked like a seductress, but her hazel eyes were as cold as ice as she walked past Sirius, straight into the awaiting arms of… James?!?!

James smiled half-heartedly as he took Natalie's arm, missing the looks of shock and disbelief on both Sirius and Lily's faces. Natalie, however, caught Lily's eye, and silently tried to apologize, but Lily blinked, her face unreadable, and looked away quickly.

Lily's eyes blurred and she shut them tightly, trying to squeeze out what she had just seen. When she opened them, Natalie was laughing at something James had said, and it took all her willpower not to burst into tears at that very moment.

She turned to Daniel, took his hand, and said, voice trembling slightly, "Come on, Danny. Let's go." She tugged his hand gently and pulled him out of the common room, the others not far behind.

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After dinner was over, Dumbledore stood and the students' voices soon turned into a low rumble, finally turning into the occasional whisper, while the students waited for their headmaster to speak.

"Now that we are all fed and watered, I would like to ask our Heads, Miss Lily Evans and Mr. James Potter, to take the floor for the first dance of the night."

From opposite sides of the room, the two individuals slowly made their way up to each other, stopping precisely in the middle of the floor.

James took one of Lily's small hands in his, and her petite waist in the other, thinking constantly about what a fool he was. Normally, in the given circumstances, James would be tripping over himself trying to impress his "lady love," but at the moment, the last thing he wanted to be doing was dancing with someone who probably hated his guts, evident by the fact that Lily was avoiding his gaze and her normally bright, happy eyes, had turned dark and dangerous.

"Lily-" he started, but a slow waltz song cut him off and forced him to focus on his footwork. James tried to get Lily to face him, but it was clear by the way her eyes were focused on her feet that she had no intention of looking up anytime soon. Both being excellent dancers, the lack of eye contact didn't hinder their flawless waltz, but the tension between them was apparent to everyone.

As the song ended and the other students started to tumble out onto the floor, James tried once more to capture Lily's attention, but his efforts were in vain – she spared him one disdainful look before stalking off to Daniel.

James slowly walked over to Natalie, who was talking to another girl in their year, and said with a small smile on his face, "As your date, I guess I'm going to have to ask you to dance sooner or later… may I?"

Natalie took James's hand in hers and once the two were on the dance floor, she was filled with remorse… it was all her fault that Lily was mad at James, after all. "James… I am so, so, sorry about this…"

James looked genuinely puzzled as he said, "Sorry for what?"

"If you must know, I only asked you because… because I wanted to make Sirius jealous."

James laughed morosely and said softly, "I knew there was an ulterior motive… and I can't say I can find flaws in your plan either, look at him!" Sure enough, Sirius was sitting by the punch bowl, glowering at James, and not bothering to look away when James caught his eye. James winced and turned his head back to face Natalie, and was caught by surprise as her lips landed on his.

It all happened in a matter of seconds – Natalie pulled back with a look of horror on her face; Lily let go of Daniel and ran out of the hall, unable to cover a sob that escaped her throat; and Sirius got up from his seat so violently that the giant punch bowl that he had been sitting next to was in danger of tipping over.

James looked at his date with a look of shock on his face and exclaimed, "What was that for?!?"

Natalie seemed incapable of speaking for a moment and said in a mortified whisper, "I-I meant to kiss your cheek… oh no, Lily's going to kill me, what have I done?" Wringing her hands worriedly, she ran out of the hall to search for her friend.

James barely had time to dwell on Natalie's words – Why would Lily kill her? – before Sirius had thrown a punch so hard into his nose that he felt dizzy for a minute before he realized what had happened.

"Why'd you kiss her, man? What is your problem? What the hell is your problem?" Sirius was breathing heavily, teeth bared like an angry dog, much like they were when he was in Animagus form. He raised his arm, ready to punch James again, when James hastily scrambled up and held up a hand to shield his face from any more damage.

"She asked me, mate. No way would I ask her, of course not. I wouldn't do that to you, I swear." Tentatively, James lowered his hand when he thought it was safe to do so.

Sirius blinked and his shoulders slumped. "She asked you?" When James shrugged regretfully, he pulled out his wand and flicked it at James's nose, muttering " Episkey. Sorry about that, mate."

James nodded his thanks and wiped some of the blood from his face with a sleeve of his navy blue robes, and sunk into a chair.

Sirius was halfway across the Great Hall when he realized that James wasn't following him. He ran back to where James was sitting and asked him incredulously, "Well, aren't you coming?"

"What's the point? The damage has already been done…"

"So you're not going after her?"

"No… are you?"

"Hell yes. This is the difference between you and me, Jamesie-poo – I don't give up." Tsk-ing at James in a mock pitying way, Sirius turned around and sprinted out of the Hall.

A voice from behind James said, "Sirius has never really been one for balls, has he?" (A/N: No pun intended)

James turned to see Chelsea and Remus behind him and smiled sadly. "Not really."

Chelsea let go of Remus and softly hugged James, whispering into his ear, "Don't worry James – Lily's a sensible girl, she'll come through!"

James put his head in his hands and mumbled sadly, "Hopefully…"

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Thoughts flooded Lily's mind as she ran out into the snowy Hogwarts courtyards, her heaving sobs cutting through the still and silent night air. Shivering, she sat down on one of the frozen benches and wiped the tears off of her face. How could Natalie have done this to me? Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard the clacking of heels close by.

"Shit, shit, shi- OUCH!" Natalie skidded to a halt clumsily on the frozen cobblestones and reached down to pull a broken high heel off of her foot. "Lily, I can explain -"

"Go away."

"But-"

"I said, go away."

"Listen, -"

"I don't want to listen to you."

"Lily, -"

"Get -" Lily stood. "Get OUT!! What is your problem, Natalie?! Why'd you say yes to him? You knew how I felt about him! You knew I loved him!!"

Natalie bit her lip and said quietly, "I asked him, Lily."

Lily seemed incapable of speech for a moment, opening and closing her mouth in disbelief. Her lips curled in a sneer and she said, "Funny how I remember that you said 'Oh, I said yes to the first boy who asked me!' I should have known that you would do something like this. You never even gave a thought to how I might feel, did you? You are such a bitch, Natalie; everything you do is for you, and only for you, you don't even care who you hurt in the process, do you?" So caught up in her furious rant, Lily didn't notice the snapping of twigs in the bush behind her.

Natalie opened her mouth as if she were about to defend her actions, and then said in defeat, "I know. I was a total… I don't even know what. I'm sorry." Tears started to fall down her face as she said, "I don't know what I was even thinking, Lily. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't even think about how it would affect anyone… he was just standing there, and he told me that you had said no to him, and… and I just thought that it would drive Sirius crazy… so I asked him…" With this, Natalie sank down onto a cold, moss-covered rock and started to cry.

Most of Lily's anger at her friend vanished on the spot, and she instantly regretted losing her temper at her friend – she had never gotten this angry with her friends before; James was normally the target of her fury. Natalie was normally the emotionally strongest of their little trio, and it alarmed Lily a little bit to see her in the miserable state that she was in, over a boy who probably wasn't worth a bit of her tears anyway. Before she could comfort her friend, though, a person sprang out of the bushes and wrapped his arms around the crying girl, murmuring things into her ear.

Natalie turned in shock when she felt a pair of strong arms envelop her, but relaxed when Sirius whispered in her ear, "You can't say your plan didn't work, Coleman… you drive me absolutely nuts, sometimes…"

"Do I?" Natalie asked skeptically.

"More than anyone else I know." With that, Sirius's lips landed on hers, and it was only after a minute or two that Natalie pulled away apologetically and turned to face Lily, who was standing there rather uncomfortably.

"Sorry, Lily…"

Lily smiled and said softly, "Don't be." She walked out of the small clearing and heard a muffled giggle from Natalie as she made her way back to the castle.

As she entered the castle, she ran into James, who was apparently looking for his best mate, and started to apologize profusely at the sight of her. "Lily – I didn't mean to kiss her – she did it, I swear – I don't like her that way… wait, where's Natalie? Where's Sirius?"

"Where do you think they are?" Lily rolled her eyes and jerked her head in the direction of the courtyards.

"I – what? Oh. OH." James grinned and said, "Well, that was quite fast, considering just a moment ago, she was my date…" The sound of a waltz came from the Great Hall, being played for the last few dancers on the floor, as it was very late into the night.

James gave Lily a lopsided grin and said, "Er… may I have the pleasure of escorting this lovely lady to her bedchambers tonight?"

Lily smiled and held out her arm; James, however, had different ideas. He looped an arm around her waist and took her other hand in his. He dipped her once and then spun her outwards, catching her and picking her up in his arms; one supporting her back, one under her knees.

Lily shrieked delightedly. "James, what are you doing?!"

James just laughed.

If one had bothered to see what the commotion in the hallways was that night, they would have seen a red haired beauty in the arms of a raven haired teenager, laughing as they headed towards their rooms.

They would have seen a sandy-haired boy and a blond girl as they walked to their common room, her head on his shoulder, hand in hand.

They would have seen a black haired girl and a black haired boy kissing passionately as they crept into the Room of Requirement.

Despite the number of mishaps that night, all had turned out well.

A/N: I know, the ending sucks, stick with me, I promise the next chapter will be good. I'll try to make it as good as possible. Read and Review!!!!