Title: Two of a Kind

Disclaimer: I own nothing found in the Harry Potter books, as much as I'd like to own the rights to Lily and James and the good Marauders, I don't.

Chapter 11: Samhain Ball- Part 1

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A few weeks passed and the school work got harder and more homework was given to all students. Fortunately no one had been unlucky enough to have a mental break down. Many older students started to wonder when the first Hogsmeade trip would be and if they'd have to wait until the holidays to go.

Lily and Holly walked down from the girls' dormitory on Monday the 2nd of October. Lily instantly looked towards the notice board, always wondering when the next prefect meeting might be. And sure enough there was to be a prefect meeting held during 2nd period. (A/N: and I don't know how they organise the names of lessons, but at my school they're called periods.)

"Damn!" Lily swore. "The prefect meeting's in transfiguration. I need all the practice I can get in that subject."

"Don't worry Lils," Holly answered her voice perfectly calm. "McGonagall would have checked the notice board too, she'll give you all the work and teach you and James everything."

"But she won't have time to teach us anything new. Halloween's coming up and then Quidditch, there'll be no time for me. And knowing James he'll be able to do whatever she asks him to do even if he doesn't know the spell properly yet. I'll be sitting there not knowing anything while everyone else passes the subject and I'm failing." Lily started to hyperventilate taking small gasping breaths, trying to get air into her lungs long enough to keep talking.

"Lily calm down," Holly said reassuringly. "Take deep breaths and stop worrying. I'll help you. I'll be at transfig. So I'll give you all the details, and help you until you get the spell right. Now breathe. In, out, in, out."

Lily closed her eyes and started breathing. 'In.' she thought to herself. 'Out'. When she felt as though she could walk around and do things without having an attack she opened her eyes and jumped backwards a few feet, because staring at her only a few centimetres away was…

"Sirius, next time you want to stare at me look a few feet away. I don't want to calm myself down to be scared to death by your face." Lily said after she'd gotten over her fright.

"Well I just wanted to see if you were awake." He replied giving Lily a 'duh' look, and turned towards the boys dormitory. "JAMES!" He screamed up the stairs. "The slowest person to get up, I'm telling you." He told the group. To Holly he mumbled. "Keeps dreaming about a certain someone."

Holly giggled, turning her face away from Lily's view so she didn't realise that something was said that she hadn't heard.

"I'll go wake him up, the right way." Remus said sighing. "Gods know you don't scream at James that never wakes him up. Now can you see anywhere I can hide? The couch will do. Be back in like 5 seconds, and don't count Peter I know you always do."

"What's the right way? And why does he have to hide?" Lily asked after Remus left. Sirius and Peter didn't answer her and Holly just shrugged not knowing herself.

A few seconds later a loud scream was heard and Remus came sprinting down the stairs to hide behind the couch. Loud thumping of bare feet on the stairs told everyone James was racing down them, following whoever just disturbed his sleep. He ran through the doorway for everyone to see him in is boxers, dripping wet.

"Where is he? I'll kill him." James said through gritted teeth.

"That's the proper way to wake James up? Pouring water over him?" Holly asked turning to Sirius and Peter then back to James who just realised he was not alone in the common room. In fact pretty much the whole house was down stairs looking at the notice board or just sitting around talking before breakfast was served.

"Um…yeah, we tend to do that to each other a lot. To be precise James here made up the 'wet the person wake them up' thingy. He's usually the one doing the wetting, but we got him back this time." Sirius explained, his face revealing how funny he found the prank now.

Holly walked over to Lily, who was one of the only people not looking at James, and bent down to whisper in her ear. "Look at his body. It's pretty exposed right now, you know without a shirt on and only boxer shorts." She looked back up at James whose face was bright red. "He looks kind of hot."

She waited at Lily's speaking level for her answer

"I'm not looking." Was Lily's whispered reply as she resumed staring at the other side of the room.

"Aw you'll just be missing out on all the fun." Holly said out loud so everyone could hear.

"Holly!" Lily exclaimed turning around to face her, and in the process getting a pretty good look at James' exposed body. "You bitch." She whispered not looking away. For some strange reason she couldn't. (A/N: I wonder why?)

James seemed to notice that not only was everyone else looking at him, but that one certain red head wasn't taking her eyes off him. He went redder, if that was possible.

"I think I'll go upstairs and get changed, don't leave for breakfast without me. I'll get you later Remus. " He said running upstairs to get changed.

Holly and Sirius turned to look at Lily who was still looking to where James had been standing.

"It's ok Lils, James is gone now, there's nothing left to see." Remus said walking over and sitting next to Lily.

"Yeah, but there was. And this whole 'get over James 'coz he's not that hot' thingy isn't working. I mean you saw that didn't you? And if it keeps happening I'll go insane." She replied slowly.

"That was the first time he's done that. What do you mean 'If he keeps doing it'?" Holly said sounding upset.

"Lils, if you didn't want us to wake him up and bring him to the common room in his boxers then you should have said something." Sirius said in a matter-of-fact way. "Now I hope he doesn't take too long breakfast is about to be served and I'm hungry." Sirius added as James came trotting down the stairs fully dressed and carrying his books for classes that day.

"Yes," He said looking at the notice board. "Prefect's meeting through transfiguration."

Everyone just looked at him.

"What?" He complained.

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1st period came and went and Lily soon found herself walking to the prefect's meeting with James in silence wondering why everytime they were going somewhere together things were always so awkward.

'See?' She told herself. 'Things would never work out between you two. You'd never know what to say to each other and would be too scared to bring anything up.'

This sort of conversation continued until they reached the prefect room.

"Lily over here," Charly called to her. "You too James. We saved you guys' seats."

The other 6th year prefects were already there and they had indeed saved them seats near the rest of the group. Lily immediately relaxed when she walked over to the girls and started talking to them. She hadn't noticed but James had. She had been tense the whole walk over.

'There must be something wrong. I'll remember to ask her later on.' He told himself as he sat near Amos to talk quidditch.

"Attention everyone." The Head Boy, Frank Longbottom, said addressing the prefects. "We've held this meeting today to discuss Halloween."

The minute he said the word everyone broke down into chatter about what they could do for a ball or a day off school work.

"Prefects please," The Head Girl, Andrea Lakesoft, cried getting everyone's attention. "We have already decided that this Halloween we will hold the traditional ball, the reason you prefects are here is to come up with ideas for the ball, such as a name, foods, decorations, themes"

"Wouldn't 'Halloween' be the theme?" Lucius Malfoy, a Slytherin prefect sneered, smirking at the idea that anyone might have missed that.

"Yes most people would see it that way, but we mean a dress code, magic/non-magic, traditional orange/black colours and so on. Those sorts of things." Frank replied.

"So does anyone have anything to say or any ideas on this? And take your time we've managed to get everyone out of the next period as well." Andrea said looking around the group.

"Well, maybe we could have it muggle clothing?" Roddy suggested.

"Yeah, and everyone can come in formal kind of clothing." A Hufflepuff 5th said.

"Shouldn't we do that sort of thing for the Christmas ball? That's always fancier." Another 5th prefect said.

"Ok so we'll have it wizard dress for now." Toby said confirming what others had suggested.

"So," said Andrea. "We've worked out that its magical dress code, so dress robes for everyone, but what about a name, decorations? Does everyone agree on the ball just being called 'The Halloween Ball' or is there something more exciting, more unusual that you think everyone would like?"

The prefects sat there for a while in thought. Then Lily had and idea.

"How about we name it 'Samhain'?" Lily asked the other prefects.

"Sow'in?" James asked. "What kind of name is that?"

"Pronounced 'Sow-in' but spelt S-A-M-H-A-I-N. It means the end of summer." Lily answered.

"And what exactly is it?" Frank asked.

Lily looked around at the rest of the puzzled faces and realised she was going to have to explain everything from the beginning.

"Ok, so Samhain is a Wiccan holiday. The Wiccan society is also known as the Pagans to muggles." Lily started.

"Oh," Said Beltrix Black, the other Slytherin 6th prefect. "We're going to name our 'wizard' ball after some muggle group?"

"We never said we were going to name it that." Andrea pointed out. "We just need Lily to explain it to us before we go and decide whether it's for us. Continue."

"So, when I was little my sister was really into Wicca and made me learn all about their holidays and stuff with her so that when her friends came over it looked as if our whole family liked the Wiccan ways." Lily told them taking a breath. "So now that I know everything there is to Samhain we could base our ball on it."

"Ok," Frank said. "What's …Samhain really about?"

"Well," Lily replied thinking of the best way to put it. "It marks the first day of the Celtic New Year. It is celebrated on November 1. Most consider October 31 to be the Eve of Samhain." She paused to let that sink in. "Samhain is the 'Feast of the Dead.' The Wiccan's would celebrate by placing food on tables to honor the spirits of the dead. On Samhain, the veil between the realm of the living and the realm of the dead is lifted, making communication with spirits easier. The Dark Mother- the crone- and her aging consort, the Dark Father, also known as the god and goddess, were honored on this night. People now celebrate Samhain to honor the god and goddess, as well as the deceased. The Pagans had decorations, foods, herbs and different colours to symbolise the different Sabbats."

"What's a Sabbat?" Roddy asked trying to get a hold of all the information.

"A Sabbat is like the Pagan holidays. There are eight of them. Samhain, Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lammas and Mabon." Lily answered counting the Sabbats off on her fingers.

"We could use this Sabbat as an excuse to have more celebrations, using the other Sabbats. It would be like the beginning of a tradition." Amos said looking around at the other prefects to get their views.

And so it was decided, the Halloween Ball would be celebrated as the Samhain Ball. Decorations would be seen to by Lily, while others would ask her about colours and foods/herbs.

Hogsmeade trips were organized for two weeks and a week away from Samhain and notices were to be posted around as soon as possible.

'I can't wait to tell Sirius,' James thought as he and Lily walked to the Great Hall for lunch. 'Two Hogsmeade trips within two weeks of each other. How exiting.'

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So how did you like this chapter? The start of a few chapters for the ball. I thought that everyone has Halloween balls and since my mum brought me up believing that Halloween was just an American excuse for a holiday (which I don't believe by the way) I thought of all the Wiccan things I've red over and studied until I was blue (not really) and decided it would be nice for a change.

Anyways tell me what you think of it and ill write more soon.

Bye, bye

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