Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. If you don't like how I deal with the cancer I'm sorry, but I don't claim to be an expert and my focus is more on how everyone handles it instead of the details of day to day life with the disease. Don't flame me unless you can give advice that doesn't just tell me to cut the cancer part, because that won't happen. Hope you like this chapter

Chapter 12- The Yule Ball

Lily caught the train back to Hogwarts Friday morning and got back before dinner. Instead of going to the Great Hall, though, Lily went straight to her room, not feeling up to answering questions. The past week had been the most difficult she could remember in her life. A lot of her extended family came to support and Lily even saw Professor Dumbledore come by the luncheon that was put on by some member of a society club her mother had belonged to. She almost didn't recognize the headmaster who had come in a suit that blended with the crowd around him.

It was nice to see so many people. Lily's Uncle Brad, Violet's older brother, had arranged the funeral, and it was quite lovely. Many childhood friends that Lily only saw during the summers once or twice had come. With all that were around, though, Lily felt empty inside. She managed to not cry through the services, and even sang at the funeral, but only because it seemed easier that way.

Lily entered her bedroom and put her clothes away in a methodical, emotionless way until she got to the dress she bought for the Yule Ball. Mum will never see this now, a thought that sent Lily over the edge. She hung the dress in the closest and sat down on her bed and started to sob. Her cat, Sassy, rubbed up against her affectionately; the cat her mother had gotten her before her first year so she wouldn't be lonely. Remembering this caused Lily's crying to grow louder.

"Lily," a voice from the doorway came tentatively.

Lily sniffed and wiped her tears away quickly. "Yes?"

James stepped into the room and sat down, facing her and putting a strong comforting hand on her back. "Did you want to talk about anything?"

"Yeah, I need to know what time you want me to be ready tomorrow evening," Lily looked at him, keeping a firmness in her look.

"We don't have to go if you don't-"

"I do want to go," Lily said confidently.

"Are you sure? I mean after all of this?" James's heart nearly broke for her, seeing the pain in her eyes.

"Yeah, I need something to distract me," Lily said, standing up and looking at the bookshelf through blurred eyes.

James came up behind her, wrapping his arms around Lily and giving her a caring kiss on her neck. "I have a better idea, why don't we go play some games in the Gryffindor common room? Samantha's been waiting to see you, something about plans tomorrow."

"I don't know if I'm ready to see everyone," Lily said, staying where she was, but lifting her hands to James's strong arms.

"They won't ask questions, or bring it up, I promise," James said, turning Lily around, a smile playing on his lips. "And if they do, I'll hex 'em into next week."

"No you wouldn't," Lily said, really smiling for the first time in a week.

"Sure I would. You know that time I spent in the library a few weeks ago? Found some interesting books. Who would've thought?"

"Yeah, just imagine, books in a library," Lily rolled her eyes at James.

"So you do you want to?"

"Sure," Lily said taking a deep breath. "And James?" she added as he turned to lead the way.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

"Anytime."

The Marauders, Lily, and Samantha had spent nearly all night playing Exploding snaps, having a miniature wizarding chess tournament, and having all sorts of fun with muggle games that Lily had. Clue confused Sirius, wondering why they couldn't just call in 'please men' to figure it out. Remus liked Candyland, since it had to do with chocolate, and James was just glad to see Lily smile and laugh.

Samantha, her father being muggle born, and Lily had great fun beating the Marauders and making up rules that pleased them. They convinced Peter that if he was at the end stretch of Candyland and didn't have the last color in the next draw, you had to start at the beginning again. They had a good laugh over this before telling him that he'd actually won.

After such a long night, Lily ended up sleeping in until noon the next day, when Samantha woke her up. "Why didn't you come in before?" a groggy Lily asked.

"You looked so peaceful, but I figured you ought to get some substance before we have to go get ready."

"What exactly is the plan again?" Lily asked.

"We're going to do a spa day. Some of the other girls in our year will be there too. Hestia Jones, Jeanne Ackerly, and Ammelia Bones are coming along," Sam said turning away while Lily dressed. "We'll do masks, paint our nails, do each other's hair, blah, blah, blah," she said figuring by this point Lily had an idea of what was going on.

"Alright," Lily said. "Then are all they guys meeting us in the Gryffindor commons?"

"Yeah, just remind James. He's been really busy working on this," she said.

Lily smiled. She was glad she didn't have to deal with this one. Things had gone so crazy since school had started, and Lily tended to be a perfectionist with these things. James had really pulled through, and she couldn't wait to see the fruit of his labor.

When all the girls were ready, they started making their way down the stairs slowly, one by one. James and Sirius were soon the only two boys not with their dates yet. Samantha was the first of the two close friends making last minute touchups. Her hair was thrown up with a pile of curls tumbling down, little straight pieces sticking out here and there to give a contemporary twist to the classic do. Sam wore a silver dress robe that brought out her natural blush. It had a long form-fitting cut and a neckline that dipped down to her collar bone, while the back went very low, causing temptation to run through Sirius's blood. Around Samantha's neck was a silver scarf, placed around and tied in the back. She smiled as Sirius met her at the base of the staircase in awe.

"You look," Sirius looked her up and down, grabbing her hand and spinning her around, "absolutely stunning!"

"Thank you, Mr. Black," Samantha said. She turned her attention to the anxious boy standing just behind Sirius. "She'll be down in a minute."

As if on cue, a flash of Lily's foot was caught in James's eye. They were adorned in sleek navy blue shoes, open toed with skin showing through the straps. The cut of the skirt was angled, the longest part in the back with a train and the shorter end stopping just under the knee, and it was loose. The farther down Lily came, the more color in the dress showed, fading from a dark deep navy to periwinkle and ending in white sleeves and bodice. The different colors were layered in tiers, apparently growing from one another. The neckline started out straight down, but angled and came down to a point.

The bodice and long sleeves were fitted tightly accentuating every curve and movement. As a final ornament, Lily had carefully placed sapphire earrings and a necklace set in silver. Her thick red hair had been braided in small, delicate strands, and pinned in a pattern around her head. The excess hair was pinned into a loose bun, a few strands left out and curled into light ringlets.

James was rendered speechless. Sirius had to push him toward the staircase so he would hopefully say something. "Hey," the shy James said lamely.

Sirius and Sam looked at each other, containing laughter over seeing the usually suave James so out of control.

"Ready?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Y-yeah," James said, blushing for maybe the second time in his life.

James put out his arm, Lily accepted it, and they were off to the Great Hall, Sirius and Samantha a little further ahead. James, finally gaining control of his senses, leaned over and whispered in Lily's ear, "you're beautiful."

Lily stretched her neck to reach James's ear, "thanks," she whispered back. As they made it to the Great Hall, Lily took a deep breath. "Oh my," she said. Lily's shock was more satisfaction than James thought he could handle.

"The prefects worked hard, and Dumbledore fixated the ceiling like that," James explained, remember Kyla's newest advice in not taking all the credit.

The ceiling, unlike showing every cloud really in the sky, shown as a clear shining night, and an image of a comet ending at the end of the ball's deciding theme, 'Some Enchanted Evening'. The candles had been replaced by fireflies contained in a certain perimeter above them. The room, therefore, was more dimly lit than usual making for a very romantic setting. Having set up the dance, James lead Lily to the head table where they would be eating.

Along with the teachers were all the prefects and their dates sitting up there. Before the dinner started, Dumbledore stood up and thanked those at the head table for the support they had given to putting all together, and even acknowledged James for the work he had put into that night. Severus, who was sitting three seats away from Lily, scowled as James stood up and gave a wave of gratitude when the rest of the population clapped for him, loudest of all Lily.

After a meal of choice the tables were cleared and Squib, a popular rock group, started playing. James and Lily started dancing. James was quite a good dancer, Lily noticed, and Lily wasn't too bad herself. "Where did you learn to dance?" she asked as he dipped her down at the end of the second song.

"My mum," he said smoothly pulling her out of the dip as a ballad began.

"Really? Most guys wouldn't dare let their mothers do something like that," Lily said.

"Well, I asked," James said, winning over Lily even more.

"That's impressive," Lily said honestly. "But don't get a big head over it, otherwise we might not be able to get you out of here tonight."

"Ouch, Lily, that hurt," James said pulling his and her hand up to his chest and placing her hand under his, palm flat. "Right here."

"Just trying to help," Lily said. "Tough love."

"Love?" James said raising one eyebrow.

Lily rolled her eyes at James. "You know what I mean."

"Do I?"

"You should learn to stop while you're ahead, Pot-"

"Excuse me," a voice came from behind halfway through the song.

James turned around and saw none other than, "Snivellus, what do you want," he spat bitterly.

"James, don't," Lily said. "What is it?" she asked Snape.

"I was wondering if I can cut in?"

"No way in h-"

"Sure," Lily said interrupting and giving James a look that would hopefully calm him a bit. "Just one dance," she said more to James than Severus.

"Fine," James said, temper rising. "Just one, Snivellus," James whispered as he passed, purposely bumping into Severus with his shoulder.

Severus nervously took Lily's left hand and awkwardly put his other hand behind her back. They stepped silently for half a minute before Snape mustered up the courage to say something to the beautiful specimen before him. "I-I like your robe," he said.

"Thank you," Lily said simply, giving him a half smile. "Who did you come with?"

"A girl in fifth year, Andromeda Black," Snape said, happy that Lily took some effort in talking to him.

"Sirius's cousin right?" Lily said, having met Andromeda once or twice, she seemed as accepting of Lily as Sirius was.

"Yeah," he said.

"You enjoying her?" Lily asked.

"She's alright, but nothing compared to you," he complimented.

"Well, the song's over, so we both better get back to our dates," Lily said, blushing from the last thing Snape had said.

"Why do you like him?" Snape asked, hurt with the affirmation that Lily wanted to be with James more than him.

"He's sweeter than you know, Severus. He's helped me a lot lately, and I know you wouldn't understand, but James has changed; and I will talk to him about calling you names," Lily promised.

"Don't bother," Snape said quietly as Lily walked away.


A/N: Hate to end it there for your sake, but it will work for the next chapter. Sorry it's taken me so long to write another chapter. For some reason I thought I had already posted something similar to the beginning of this post, but when I looked back I was shocked to realize it wasn't there. This is a bittersweet but, well, that's the whole premise of this fic is a bittersweet feel!

Thank you:

Mochalattee225: Thank you, you gave me that last kick in the butt to write another chapter!

tHeOnEaNdOnLyStEpHy: Okay, never doing the caps in that name again! Thank you! I'm glad you like it.

Rose in Winter: Sorry t took so long for this one, but it could have been a worse cliffie... I could have ended it without you knowing whether or not Lily's mom actually died (which I had been considering.

Daine Sarrasri: Yes sad, but I'm glad you're reading and reviewing!

Hearts: Here you go... Sorry it took so long!

Space-Pirate10: I like the idea that Petunia and Lily care about one another, because honestly, blood is thicker than water, and I think they both understand that, and I think there's more behind Petunia's meanness toward Harry then we know. If you want my view on it, see my one-shot fic 'resentment'.

mione-xavier: More happy, but it's got its moments

JamieBell: Thank you for all your reviews and support, I'm surprised you haven't been hounding me on this one.

AAandACForever: Lily will be okay, but I had to do both and get it over with, because I knew I was going to cry... and I did.

groovygreek: One of my favorite characters in this is Kyla and her advice to James, I'm glad so many other peps think it's funny.

Josephine Sawyer: I hope you like this chapter, and THANK YOU for all the advice you've given me, I feel great every time you write good or critics.

and all the other reviewers! Sorry I didn't have time to respond to you all right now, but I hope you like this chapter, and if you want you can e-mail me anytime!