Nice quick update, cause everybody loves quick updates, and I'm getting braces on tomorrow so I wanted to get this out before my mouth is in pain once more…
Thanks for all the Reviews! We're over 100 and that makes me happy :)
…okay, enough of me…to the story…
The morning of the 26th was crazy in the Potter household, except, of course, for the four boys sitting around the kitchen table. Sirius had fallen asleep in his oatmeal; Peter was poking at his mindlessly with a spoon; Remus was eating while reading a book propped against the milk jug, and James was staring absent-mindedly at the ceiling. Suddenly, the silence of the room was broken when Mrs. Potter burst into the room, causing Sirius to jerk awake with oatmeal in his nose, Peter to drop his spoon out of shock, Remus to close his book, and James to smile at his mum.
"Happy Birthday, baby!" James was smothered in hugs and kisses for about a minute before he could escape.
"Yeah, thanks mum." He smiled in spite of himself.
"I hope you have a beautiful young lady to escort to the party tonight."
"I said I would Mum, of course I do."
Sirius, Remus, and Peter's heads snapped up. "You have a date?" Sirius asked, shocked.
"Yeah, I do."
"Who?" Remus asked.
James looked Remus determinedly in the eye, although he felt bad on the inside, he couldn't let Remus know it. "Beth, Beth Micrada." Most of the colour drained out of Remus's face at that moment.
"Oh." Remus replied. He quickly opened his book again, his face seeming to get paler and paler. Sirius sat speechless for the first time in his life, and Peter just stared at James, his mouth hanging open.
"Oh, that young lady Sam was telling us about, yes? I hope that she is beautiful enough for my James." Mrs. Potter smiled again, placing a giant kiss on her sons face. James rolled his eyes, and walked out of the room, closely followed by his mother, Sirius and Peter.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Potter." Remus whispered to the empty room, "She is the going to be the most beautiful woman at the ball."
""
"Lily!" Beth smiled as Lily toppled out to Sam's fireplace.
"Hey, Beth." Lily coughed, brushing soot off her clothes, "Excited about tonight?"
"Of course, I actually have an escort, so why wouldn't I be?"
"Remus?" Lily asked, giving Beth an odd kind of look.
"Nope," Sam sighed, coming out from the fireplace behind Lily, "James is her escort."
"James?" Lily repeated, slightly stunned. Beth nodded, and Sam sent Lily a 'Don't ask' look, so Lily just smiled and said, "Well, where are our dresses?"
"Come on, follow me." Sam smiled leading the way up to there bedroom to start getting ready for the party.
""
A soft knock came on Remus's door.
"Who is it?" He called.
"Sirius—mate, can I come in?"
"Yeah, I suppose." Sirius creaked open the door and slipped inside.
"You okay? You're looking abnormally pale for this long before the full moon."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't get much sleep last night, that's all." Sirius nodded and stood awkwardly near the door.
"Well, James is a bastard." Sirius attempted.
Remus smiled up at Sirius. "No he isn't, but thanks for trying."
"Right." Sirius rocked on his heels for a second, and then pointed to the door. "I'm just going to leave…now."
Remus smiled again as Sirius practically flung himself from the room. He had good friends, whether he wanted to admit it or not right now.
""
"Come on! We're going to be late!" Sam called, banging on the door to her room and the door to the bathroom, where Lily and Beth were putting the final touches on their make-up. Sam herself was wearing a dark red muggle dress that Lily had bought her for Christmas. Her dark brown hair twisted simply into a knot on the back of her head. She smiled into the hall mirror as Lily came out of the bathroom.
"Ah, but fashionably late." Lily smiled at Sam. Lily's gold dress swept to the floor, and Lily's hair hung loosely over her shoulder in soft, natural curls. "Where's Beth?"
"Still locked in my bedroom," Sam rolled her eyes playfully, "For a bookworm, it sure takes her forever to get ready."
"Yeah, well my hair is twice as long as yours is…so cool your jets!" Sam and Lily turned to face Beth with a sweet smile. "Okay, let's go."
""
"This is boring." Peter complained, standing in between Remus and Sirius. "This is a crappy party."
"That's only because nothing can start until the birthday boy shows up, and he can't come into the ballroom without his date, and the girls are late." Sirius sighed, his hands in his pockets.
"Only a little bit longer." Remus commented.
"Boo!" Sam jumped up behind Sirius.
"Oh good, you're here. Can the party start now?" Peter sat up eagerly.
"Of course! The fun is here!" Lily smiled, joining the group.
"Where's Beth?" Remus tried to ask with a calm voice.
"In the hall with James and Mrs. Potter, I think Mrs. Potter is taking them captive." Right then the lights dimmed just slightly. Everyone turned in one rhythmic movement to face the doors. James and Beth made their way slowly into the room. James looked like he always did in soft black dress robes, but Beth looked fantastic. She was wearing simple dress robes of sky blue, but dress robes had never looked better on anyone, the top layer of her hair was pulled up in a barrette, and the rest of it fell gracefully over her shoulders. Lily reached over and gently pushed Remus's mouth shut, and he didn't even notice. But then the orchestra started to play, and James turned to Beth nodding in a bow. Beth smiled, slipped her hand in his, and began to waltz.
"She's here with James." He whispered so softly that no one else could hear him. Suddenly, Remus felt pathetic and angry all at the same time. He didn't even notice Sirius politely asking Sam to dance, or Peter darting toward the small buffet. It wasn't until Lily started talking to him that he snapped back into reality.
"Hello? Are you in there?"
"Wha-oh sorry Lily, what was that?"
"I said, isn't this ballroom lovely. I must hold thousands of people."
"2,500. Mr. Potter told us when we were helping him make sure the decorations looked right."
"Oh."
Lily and Remus made their way over to one of the walls and sat on the chair next to it, managing to hold a semi-causal conversation. However, Lily had the feeling that Remus wasn't whole-heartedly listening. Honestly, she couldn't blame him, because she too was slightly distracted by the blue and black swish of clothing in the centre of the dance floor.
""
Several hours went by, and the dance only had an hour or so remaining. Lily and Remus were still sitting in their chairs near the wall, but they had both given up on their conversation, though for different reasons. Lily was taken aback by the whirls of colours from all the dresses and dress robes, and how fantasy-like the ballroom looked. Everything looked almost perfect, until she looked next to her. Remus was sitting stiffly in his chair, his jaw set, and his hands clenched in fists, his eyes following James and Beth with amazing accuracy as they weaved through other couples. Lily sighed, thinking over what her kindness would lead to, but then decided to take one for the team.
"Come on." Lily grabbed Remus by the wrist and dragged him onto the dance floor. "May we cut in?" she asked sweetly when they reached James and Beth.
"Of course, my dear." James smiled happily slipping Beth's hand into Remus's and taking Lily's in his own, linking his other arm around her waist. "Just couldn't stay away, could you, Lilikins?" He smiled sarcastically.
"Oh please," Lily smiled, glancing over James's shoulder at the couple behind him, "This is totally not for you."
""
Remus was smiling more than he had all Christmas break. He was dancing with Beth, and she was smiling at him. She was tapping her finger against his shoulder in beat with the music, and whenever the music swelled, she would squeeze his hand softly. Far sooner than Remus would've liked, the song ended, and Beth slipped her hand from his to clap for the orchestra. Mrs. Potter stood from where she had been sitting with Mr. Potter, her voice magically magnified.
"Now, since it is James's Birthday, and he has been such a lovely young man as his crazy mother forced all kinds of fanciness on him, I have gotten him an extra present."
A band walked onto the stage, that Remus recognized to be one of James's favourites, but he couldn't name it, because his brain had gone briefly dead. Beth had just slipped her hand back into his, and whispered into his ear.
"Come on; let's go get some punch or something." The slipped to the table, grabbed some punch, and headed out to the balcony running the length of the second floor ballroom as the band started up a loud song.
"This is fun." Beth smiled
"Yeah, the Potters really know how to throw a party."
"And it's awesome that they are letting us all stay here. I mean, I just ran up to my guest room for a minute to put up some stuff, and it was huge! And Beautiful! And the curtains were casting this odd golden light and…now I'm just babbling." Her cheeks went slightly pink.
"That's okay; I like to hear you talk." Remus said without thinking. An awkward kind of silence fell between them. They stood for a couple of minutes staring off the balcony, before Beth let out a small, "oh!"
"What?" Remus asked.
"I really like this song." Beth smiled as a slow tune filtered out from the ballroom.
Remus watched her for a second, and then mustered all the courage he could. "Um…Beth…would you like to dance?"
Beth smiled and nodded. She stepped toward him; then let out a small laugh when she realized how clueless he was. She took his hands and placed them around her waist before putting her hands around her neck. He smiled his thanks.
"Hey, I just noticed something," Remus commented as they began to dance, "You don't have your notebook."
"No," She smiled up at him, "it's on the desk in my guest room. I'll write down everything when I get back."
"You'll remember it all?"
"I remember everything."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
Remus smiled again. Gaining the small courage he had left, he looked down and right into her eyes. "Hello," he whispered.
"Hello." She whispered back. Remus just then noticed how close they were. Beth seemed to notice too, because she nervously bit the corner of her lip. Remus smiled, and suddenly felt he had all the courage in the world.
"I'm going to kiss you now."
"Okay."
""
"Oh my, that's sweet." Lily smiled, still watching Remus and Beth over James's shoulder.
"I told her it would work." James smirked, turning around so he could see them over Lily.
"What d'you mean?"
"Beth was getting irritated because Remus wouldn't act on his crush, so she wrote me a letter asking me to help. I knew if I asked Beth to my party, Remus would start to get jealous. I was hoping he would act on his jealousy, but I guess you did it for him. Either way, it worked."
Lily looked up at James as he looked over her shoulder at Remus. She smiled just slightly. Her lessons were beginning to pay off. She got on her tip-toes and quickly kissed James on the cheek.
"What was that for?" James said, shocked.
"You're a great friend."
"Thanks." James tried to sound off hand, but his face had gone rather red.
""
The end of the party went by rather un-eventfully or un-eventfully by Marauders standards. Beth and Remus were practically attached at the hand all night, Sirius made Peter's drink explode a couple of times, and Peter let a mouse loose, causing both Lily and Beth to jump on to chairs, and Sam to stain her dress by crawling under a table to get it, and Sam and James were constantly disappearing when their parents came near to try and make them dance. All in all, it was a good party.
It was an extremely good party. Remus thought as he climbed into bed with his book. Just when he decided to put his book down and start to fall asleep, the door burst open. Remus snatched his wand from the bedside table and pointed at the intruder.
"What? Am I that scary? You are the one who decided to kiss me." Beth smiled from the doorway.
"What in the world are you doing bursting into my room at one in the morning?" Remus laughed, placing his wand back down on the table.
"I want my rain check. You said you would get a snack with me whenever I want." She sat down on the edge of his bed.
Remus rolled his eyes, and picked up the little bell that was charmed so that only the house elves could hear it. Celeste came into the bedroom.
"What can I get for you?" she squeaked, bowing low.
"Can you just bring up some of the leftovers from the ball?"
"Of course, sir," She said straightening up, "Oh, and Madam." She added, seeing Beth. She scuttled out of the room, and a couple of minutes later, she returned with a basket full of leftovers. She bowed and left again.
"So, why the midnight munchies?"
"Cause I wanted to talk to you. Is that such a shame?"
"No, I suppose not." Remus smiled and continued to talk to Beth for several hours, before he found himself drifting to sleep.
Well there you have it. Beth and Remus have finally gotten there act together (In the most corny way possible, it seems). Yay for them.
Okay, Now I have a question for you all. How long should this story run? Until the end of Hogwarts, Until Lily and James's wedding, Until Harry's Birth, or until that sad Halloween night? What say you all?
Bekah