Nobility

Chapter nineteen: The Dinner

Riddle cursed as he made his way to the castle of night, kicking his ebony horse to go faster. He would gather his troops then continue off to the Potter castle. The chosen one would eventually have to return there to take her rule, but he would have to stop her. He couldn't have some woman ruling The Land of Hogwarts, oh no that would never happen as long as Tom Riddle was alive. He would fight for it, no one could possibly kill an army of eight thousand.

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Scenes flashed before the group's eyes like an old movie, flickering in and out of the darkness; scenes of death and destruction, and war that caused the hair on their necks to stand up, also scenes of happiness, love, and new birth. The air was constricted in the black tunnel that the group seemed to be flying through.

Air was soon becoming very scarce and right when Lily was about to start panicking the bottom of the tunnel seemed to open up beneath them and they dropped to the cold hardwood floor.

The five friends stood up slowly and carefully dusted themselves off, and slowly took a look around. There were many sets of eyes staring curiously at the group who had seemed to drop out of midair.

"Father," James bowed his head towards the head of the long table. The others also bowed and curtsied at the great King, for they were indeed in the Potter castle, more specifically the council room.

"Have you obtained all the stones?" King Brian asked Lily who was standing proudly at the head of the group, obtaining the three stones and completing all the obstacles correctly seemed to have given Lily a new confidence.

The red-head nodded once and held out her hand to the closest council man, who just happened to be Albus Dumbledore, he pressed her palm lightly. Lily's eyes began to glow a bright green, her hair began to blaze a bright blood red, and her skin began to shine like the moon in the night. Dumbledore released her palm with awe.

The councilmen and advisors looked impressed while the king looked slightly relived.

King Potter clapped his hands together once and stated, "Call the maid-servants and get these young adults cleaned up…they look a mess," he finished with a James-like grin.

And they did, their skin was coated with dirt and brine from the sea, and their hair was greasy and streaked with grime.

Soon five servants' three men and two women came and began to lead the group to their separate rooms.

Lily was lead to the left and up a set of stairs, her maid lead her to a heavy dark wood double door and opened it to revel a beautiful room. It was painted expensively an ivory color; her bed was large and covered with pillows which were ivory and light blue along with a feather down light blue silk comforter.

There was a room sized light blue with ivory flower patterned rug that kept the chill off of the floor. A large fireplace and two ivory sitting chairs sat across from the bed. One door on the left side of the fireplace lead to a massive washroom, with another door on the other side of the fireplace lead into a large closet filled with expensive dresses. The entire sight brought a gasp from Lily.

The maid silently ushered Lily into the washroom, gesturing her to strip and get in the tub, which had already been filled with hot water. Lily did as she was told and stepped into the relaxing water.

The maid gave Lily a bar of vanilla scented soap and the red-head quickly rubbed it between her hands and began to scrub down her body. The maid soon lathered her hands up also and began to scrub Lily's scalp and rinsing her long hair free of dirt and small twigs.

After Lily had been thoroughly cleaned the maid left to lay out her dress for dinner, Lily quickly left the tub and wrapped her self in a towel and walked to the main room.

"Do you need your hair done Miss Lily?" the maid spoke for the first time.

"No thank you, I believe I have it" Lily smiled

"Your escort will be here shortly," the maid snapped as she left the room in a huff

Lily put on the dress that had been laid out for her and looked at her self in the mirror. The dress was ivory and long, its sleeves where short and slightly puffed up over her shoulders. The neck was cut square and showed a little bit of cleavage, the bodice was fitted and embroidered with and intricate gold flower design. The dress flowed gently over her hips and down to the floor.

Lily blinked once and her hair was dry and flowing in soft ringlets down the length of her back.

Lily padded softly over to the large bay widow, where the sun was setting casting a rainbow of colors to swirl across the blue sky. Staring over the town, Lily could make out the tiny speck that was her old cottage.

The light from the setting sun beamed through the window around Lily causing her form to darken and blur around the edges like an angel in a distant dream.

A knock on the door startled Lily out of her reverie. She walked to the door and pulled it open to reveal tall, dark, and handsome Sirius Black.

"Why isn't James my escort?" Lily asked bluntly as she took Sirius' arm and walked out.

"We will meet him at the entrance to the dining room, he's escorting Arabella and I cant let my best friend get my girl…although I think he's pretty happy with his," Sirius said with a obvious side glance at Lily, whose cheeks had turned a light pink.

The two friends walked through the castle laughing at Sirius' ridiculousness their booming laughter echoing through the halls.

Finally they came to a large curving staircase and began to gracefully walk down it. As they turned the curve, Lily could see a large entryway with many noble people walking around beyond it. Then Lily saw James, he was standing next to Arabella and staring at her as if she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

He was wearing black slacks and a white shirt with a black jacket over it. His hair was as always, charmingly messy and his handsome face broke out in a swoon worthy grin as they caught each others eyes.

James had never seen someone so beautiful and radiate in all his life, her cheeks were tinted from laughter, her eyes shown brightly and her dress fit her angelically. He grinned as he caught her eye causing her to smile brightly also.

Finally James took Lily's arm as Sirius took Arabella's and they met up with Remus and took their seats around the large dinner table.

Dinner went extremely well, there were introductions, laughter, and plenty of delicious food.

Everyone was having a great time until…

…One of the castles highest guards came running in, gasping for his missing breath.

"Tom Riddle and his army at the front gate," he managed to rasp out.

Surprisingly it wasn't King Potter who stood and spoke up first, it was Lily, " Lead me to him."

The guard looked at the king questionably, "you heard the woman and send the army behind her," The King said standing up along with all the solders in the room, including all James' older brothers, James, Sirius, and Remus.

The guard led Lily out of the room and through the castle, finally bringing her out the main doors and across the yard, where a sea of black was standing waiting, with Tom Riddle at the head.

Lily held her head higher, she was finally ready to face her fate.

A/N: did you enjoy?? I like this chapter and I left you on a cliff but you wont have to wait long b/c im coming with the next chapter in about five minutes. :D reiview please. :D i'll love you for it.