Disclaimer:- Another week has passed and I am still no nearer to owning the Harry Potter series.

Thanks for all the reviewers, especially to Cosmopolitan and Weasleygrlz07 who have been faithful readers and reviewers!

Chapter 11 – The Christmas Ball and the aftermath

"Decorations" Lily said whilst looking through her preparation notes for the Ball.

"Check" Her Prefect partner Remus said whilst ticking his notes.

"Food and Drink"

"Check"

"I think that's it then, tonight should run smoothly" Lily finished in a hopeful tone.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine! It was last year"

"I hope so, do you want to go back to the common room and play some chess?" Lily asked.

However, James' accusations echoed in his head as he was about to agree, "Unfortunately I have to go and get ready and get the others out of bed!"

Lily's face fell, "Oh, well ok I'll see you there then – I'd better go and get ready myself"

"Ok then" Remus waved her off, feeling slightly guilty but also knowing that this was the best thing to do for James and he would do his best tonight to try and push the two together.

Over in Remus Lupin's dormitory, James was pacing the floor, wondering what dress robes to wear – he had the regular black and white ones, a gold one, and then a midnight blue set and he had no idea which ones he should use. There wasn't even a fellow Marauder to help him in his decision. He went downstairs to the Common room and found Lily, as always reading.

"Evans". She looked up curiously.

"Yes" as she put her book down.

"May I have your assistance in what you think I should wear? There isn't anyone else to help me"

Lily laughed "You sound like Cassie".

James was slightly offended, "There's nothing wrong with wanting to look your best"

Lily looked at the three sets of dress robes, James had bought down with him.

"Um I think the blue"

James looked doubtful, "You sure? You're not trying to embarrass me are you?"

Now it was Lily's turn to be offended, "Course not, thought we were friends?"

Then a massive grin spread across James's face, "Ok then – you need any help with yours? Like the zip for instance" he said cheekily.

"No thank you" She said coolly "I have my friends to help me upstairs thank you very much"

"Alright then, see you tonight – and I want a dance"

Lily went back to her book, but still, she couldn't help but be flattered with all the attention he had been paying her recently. She knew she wasn't really interested in him, but yet could he be interested in her? But then she disregarded her thoughts and realised that he flirted with every girl and that he could get any girl in their year so he would hardly want her who never gives him the time of day.

As Lily and Figgy walked into the ball they were flabbergasted, it seemed as if the atmosphere had made the decorations look ten times better and everyone had really gone to town with their costumes. Cassie had not arrived yet as she would be coming with Sirius a little later, so Lily and Figgy decided to find a table first, before dancing or getting any Butterbeer.

Lily was wearing a beautiful green dress that went with her eyes and though compared to Cassie she might look ordinary, whilst she wasn't there, she was clearly the most beautiful at their table. Figgy was wearing a pink and purple dress, which was a little shorter than Lily's but also looked stunning.

Anyway, the next to arrive was the Marauders minus Sirius; Peter and Remus had gone for the traditional black and white dress robes, where James had gone with Lily's advice and worn the blue. She was right, not one other boy was wearing blue, some red and some purple but he really stood out.

Figgy whispered over to Lily, "Doesn't James look hot in his robes?"

"He looks alright I suppose, I did pick the colour"

"Well good choice. What do you reckon, James in dress robes or Quidditch uniform?" Figgy asked, "I reckon Quidditch uniform".

"I'm not answering that!"

"Oh come on, it's only an opinion, I'm not gonna tell everyone"

"Probably the Quidditch uniform, but whatever he looks like doesn't mean he isn't any less arrogant".

Figgy grinned knowing that Lily might start again on her rants about the Marauders again for the one hundredth time that week but was stopped by the arrival of Cassie and Sirius, who obviously liked to make an entrance.

Cassie looked absolutely beautiful in a red gown with gold trimming and Sirius, who also wanted to look a little different, appeared in gold dress robes himself and they looked every bit a couple. There was even some gasps and whistles from the students once they had walked in. Sirius went to the Marauders, where Cassie went to meet Lily and Figgy.

"Hi!" Cassie squealed.

"You look lovely Cas" Lily added in admiration.

"Awww Thanks, but so do you two, what do you think to Sirius? Doesn't he look nice?"

Figgy smiled, "He does, but as we were saying earlier, we think James looks better"

Cassie turned her head, "Lily admitted James looked good"

"Well, no I didn't Figgy's twisting my words" Lily said with her head down.

Cassie's voice suddenly went into a whisper, "girls don't look now, but Amos Diggory is checking either of you two out!"

"Don't be silly Cas, like every other lad in the room he's probably looking at you" Figgy said.

Cassie shook her head, "No we went out for a bit in fourth year, and apparently I broke his heart and now he hates me. Anyway I'm gonna go and get Sirius to dance – you two go and mingle or something." She walked away with her head held high as if she owned the room.

All of a sudden a bright spark flew into the dance floor, like a firework, then Headmaster Dippet stood up – it was time for his speech.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope you enjoy the festivities. I'd like to thank all the prefects for their hard work but most importantly Lily Evans and Remus Lupin who I believe have done the most work. Anyway let the enjoyment commence."

There was lots of chatting after the room had gone quiet and it had just dawned upon Lily how many people were actually in the room.

Meanwhile, James and Remus came over to talk to Lily and Figgy,

"Alright Evans?" James said along with one of his famous trademark smiles. Just a couple of meters away, some third years were giggling, trying to catch his attention. He saw but just smiled and turned back.

"Would you like to dance Arabella?" Lily, James and Remus all looked to see that Robert Boot of Ravenclaw had asked her to dance.

"Sure thanks. Um is that okay Lily?"

"Sure have fun" Lily smiled; it was rare that a lad took a lot of interest in Figgy and she was pleased as she was beginning to get down about it. Although she dated a lot more than Lily, there was never that enthusiasm that Cassie had with Sirius.

"What about you Evans? Would you like to join me?" He grinned, but she did not.

"No thanks, I'm happy just sitting here"

However he would not give up.

"Well I'll just sit here with you then" Lily rolled her eyes.

A great amount of sadness and despair made James sit down at her table. He did not really know how to go about winning her over. He thought he was progressing but obviously not – he knew though he had to stick at it. A great girl such as Lily Evans wouldn't be easy for any man.

Or so he thought, he was just about to engage in conversation with her about school (her favourite topic) when someone interrupted.

"Lily?" She looked to see it was Amos Diggory, perhaps Cassie was right after all.

"Would you like to dance?"

Lily was unsure; Amos was intelligent, good looking, a good Quidditch player, but he was incredibly vain. Then she saw her two friends on the dance floor, dancing, Cassie and Sirius not to their best ability but dancing all the same. Then she looked at her table knowing if she declined, she would be stuck with James all night.

"I'd love to". Well the look on James' face was hilarious. He was very confused, why would she say yes to Diggory and not him? He was way better at Quidditch and he had asked first. He banged his head on the table in despair.

"Cheer up mate, it's only a dance" Remus added.

He moodily got up, "I suppose so". However he needed a confidence boost and went to the other side of the hall; lots of girls were following him with their eyes, but he had gone over to Rachael, his biggest fan to ask her for a dance and then led her to the dance floor.

He saw Lily and Amos having a good time and felt a huge pang in his chest; still at least it wasn't a Slytherin.

A couple of hours had gone by and it was nearly midnight; most people were sitting down at this point, tired from the evening's events. Again, most people seemed to think the Ball was even more successful than last year so thus Lily had a permanent smile on her face.

James and Rachael had left about half an hour ago claiming to have gone for a walk around the castle when Sirius and Cassie decided to do the same.

"You wanna go back to the dormitory?" Lily said with a yawn.

"Yeah I could do with some sleep, got class in the morning" Figgy replied. "So what did you think of Diggory?"

"He is alright, not really my type, he's a little vain. But it was fun to spend some time with him tonight"

"And be the envy of every girl there, an invitation from both Amos and James." She said with a snigger.

"How did you know about that?" Lily asked on the way back.

"He told me you refused, he seemed a little upset"

"Well I probably wounded his ego – he had it coming"

"Yeah but you just said you thought he was attractive"

"So, I also told you I wouldn't be able to spend time with him because of his arrogance. I mean did you see him waltz over to Rachael like he had forgotten his past behaviour; I don't know what that girl sees in him." She said angrily

"Well, it's her fault I suppose, though she does get the added bonus of sneaking off with James around the castle"

"You call that a bonus? I'd say it was a form of torture"

Figgy laughed, "Oh lily what are you like, come on then let's get some sleep before class tomorrow"

Lily yawned, "That's a good idea".

As the two girls left the Gryffindor Common room, James walked out from the shadows having heard everything. He knew it was wrong to listen in, but now he really knew what she thought of him – not a lot. He would have to change that somehow or she might start falling for the likes of Amos Diggory who was an even bigger prat than he was.

He began wondering what girls liked, although Lily was in a different league, she must like some attention – he decided to step his 'charm Lily' campaign up a gear and behave how she wanted him to.

The next morning, Lily had awoken to find a rose on her bedside cabinet – she knew there was no way it was there before she had gone to sleep. Had someone given to her at the Ball? No, she would have remembered – She hid it under her bed immediately, knowing that if Cassie or Figgy had found out, she would never have heard the last of it. She decided to quickly get dressed and hurry down to breakfast before Defence Against the Dark Arts began.

She had got dressed and decided to creep a long the Common room as a lot of students had crashed out there last night from after the Ball. She had nearly made it when she heard.

"Good morning Evans" It was James, but to Lily's great surprise he didn't hang around annoying her, he had just strolled straight past her instead. Yet he had still messes his hair up which was something Lily could not stand.

She wondered if he was up to something . . . was he planning a prank? But she decided she would just wipe him from her mind; she had a very busy day in front of her.

Instead she got her breakfast and found herself behind Amos; she cringed not knowing how to act.

"Hi Lily" He said whilst reaching for some porridge.

"Hi, um thanks for the dance last night" They continued talking for a while whilst James looked over at them, watching like a hawk; that is until Sirius nudged him to save him from being yelled at again.

When Lily and Amos had finished talking, they had separated – Lily wondered where to sit, but then saw Cassie sitting next to Sirius. They were becoming obsessed Lily thought to herself. She decided to walk over anyway and found that she was sitting next to James and opposite Cassie.

"Morning" She said to everyone.

"You alright Lils?" Cassie asked, "The Ball was a huge success, everyone's talking about it"

Lily beamed, "good"

"Evans?" James added, "You haven't got a spare hour tonight have you?"

"Why?" She said coldly.

"Well I could do with some help on that Charms work and Remus is away because his mum is sick"

"Sure" Lily replied, never one to turn down an offer to teach people her knowledge.

"But I thought it was me that needed teaching? Remember transfiguration?"

"Yeah, but I have apologised for that?"

"Like you apologised for the prank in second year?"

"Oh come on, that was ages ago, get over it"

"Do you know what? Do the work yourself, if we can't eat breakfast without arguing, we haven't got a hope have we?" Lily said on the verge of shouting.

"Guess not".

The rest of the day went quite smoothly for Lily; she had felt a little guilty for the way she talked to James, but it wasn't just her fault. Her classes meant she hadn't seen him a lot during the day and this cheered her up a lot. Furthermore going to bed was getting nearer and nearer, and as she felt so tired this was a very great thing.

At eight o clock, she said goodnight to all of her friends and went up to bed. She had slept well all the way through the night as she was shattered. But all of a sudden, she awoke. She heard something.

Boom.

Boom.

Lily got out of bed – she went to the window to see that it was almost morning; the sun was just rising. Although she wasn't exactly what you called brave, she was not a scared being either so she went downstairs to find out where the noise was coming from. She realised it was from the Common Room and dressed in her dressing gown, she lifted a mug she found on the way down about to hit the attacker.

"ARGHHHHH", two voices screamed at the same time.

"Lily it's me" She squinted through the darkish room to see Remus; he looked shocking, pale and shaky.

Lily was still breathing hard "Remus, sorry I didn't mean to scare you. How's your mum"

He looked in surprise, "My mum?"

"Yeah, Potter said something about you being away to visit her."

He jumped in realisation, "Oh yeah, much better now thanks"

"So why you back so early?" She said as she put the fire on.

"Only train available. So you and James spoke then"

She shook her head, "I would not call it speaking, more like screaming abuse at each other, and I just don't know how you can stand him for all these years?"

Remus laughed, "You hardly know him, he's a damn good friend"

"Yeah right" scoffed Lily.

"He is, he has done things for me that no other person would even consider doing for a friend".

"Like what? Making you abuse your position of Prefect to join in pranks?"

"It doesn't matter what; just don't judge him till you know him" He finished.

Lily looked extremely confused, "Well I will never think well of him until he has proved he can be a good friend." She said stubbornly.

"Look Lily, I'm going to tell you something that you need to keep quiet"

She rolled her eyes, "Okay"

"Have you ever noticed that I'm not present at Prefect meetings around the full moon?"

Lily's eyes widened having just realised what he meant.

"Yes, well anyway, to help me through it James, Sirius and Peter also interrupt their schedules and join me in animagus form"

She gasped.

"And I would say this proves they're loyal companions."

"He does this for you every month?" Lily said in surprise.

"Ye- shhh" They heard some footsteps.

"Morning Moony, oh Evans it's you." It was James, he reached for the Daily Prophet. "How's your mum Moony?" He winked.

"Stop chatting Potter and go and get your Charm books?" Lily said shortly.

"What?" He said in surprise.

"Well you said you needed help!"