Alice was combing through Lily's hair furiously, "Do you want it up or down?" Alice was already dressed and ready for the ball in a silver colored gown. Her hair was pulled back into a classy bun, wisp of her blonde hair framing her face in tiny curls. She looked beautiful.

"How about half, you know half up half down." Immediately Alice set to work.

Lily hadn't been thinking about the dance, In fact she had all but forgotten about it before Alice burst into the room demanding to know why she wasn't ready yet. So Alice—still scolding her for not getting ready—was helping Lily with her hair as Lily searched for a gown.

Lily figured she might as well go with something green, seeing as it would bring out her eyes. Lily listened absentmindedly to Alice who was gushing about Frank while running her fingers over the three green dresses she had brought along. One wouldn't do it was rather old and velvety she wondered why she had brought it along at all; it was too small for her now.

The other two weren't too hard to choose from. One was so long she would have to be holding her dress at all times and if she were dancing there was a good chance she would trip. So she settled with the last one. It was a little longer than knee length and a green that complemented her eyes. There was a ribbon that was right under the bosom and accentuated her curves rather nicely.

"Oh, that's the one Lily it's perfect," Alice said smiling. She was still working on Lily's hair and stopped only to allow Lily to put the gown on. She wheeled Lily over towards the mirror when Marlene walked in dressed as well and offered to do her makeup. Not soon after Dorcas came in as well and was looking for shoes for her.

Lily smiled, it was nice to be here getting ready for the dance with her friends.

James smirked as Remus fumbled with his tie. "Can you help me?" Remus finally asked exasperated.

"Nah, I don't know more than you do there mate," James smiled pointing to the tie he had draped over his shoulder. He had been trying to get it tied for some time now but— seeing as he never wore ties—he had been having quiet some trouble.

"I'm going to go find Jennifer maybe she can help me." With that Remus sauntered out of the room.

"Ah he's just sore because I'm not even wearing a tie," Sirius said smirking. He was in a much better mood today.

James snorted and looked over at his friend. "Such a rebel."

"Yeah," Sirius said smiling. "I'm going down to the Common room, Frank and Derrick should be down there."

"I'll come with." James and Sirius walked down the spiral staircase discussing old memories of the dances, like when they had accidently spilt Jello in Professor McGonagall's hair. James had never seen her face get so red. Or when they had put the slipping spell on the floor, they never got caught for that one. It was quite funny when boys were falling forward into girls; the girls sure didn't like that. Good times these dances were.

Lily walked down the stairs realizing that in all of this she had overlooked getting a date. Sure she had had several boys ask her even today but she had been so busy and quite use to it that she didn't even pay them any mind when she turned them down.

She hoped she hadn't been rude to any of them. She had just been finishing an extra credit potions essay.

When she reached the bottom Alice rushed forward to Frank complementing how nice he looked in his dress robes. Marlene hurried out the door muttering about Jonathan and Dorcas followed her telling Lily she was going to go find Charles.

Nicole who had joined them along the stairwell met with derrick. That left only two other people.

Sirius was talking loudly to James who nodded. "I suppose I better go pick up Emma before she gets too pissed." He walked past Lily.

"Have a goodnight my lady." He said bowing before stalking off towards the other end of the room.

"So…" James said. Lily looked up; he looked rather handsome in his dress robes. His hair was still unkempt and all over the place but his shirt was actually tucked in, something he never did.

"You look nice." Lily said in surprise as if she had expected him to look as he always did.

"Well…yeah I figured," James reached his hand up to run it through his hair but brought it back down and stuck it in his pocket. "I might as well try to look 'nice' at one of these things. And you look…Gorgeous."

"Thank you." Lily felt a blush rising into her cheeks. "I figured I might as well try to look 'gorgeous' at one of these things."

"So…" James said again almost running his hand through his hair. "Who's your date?"

"Oh, um…err…I don't have one." Lily admitted feeling rather foolish. She fidgeted a bit wishing her hands hand something to do rather than to just hang there.

James looked taken aback for a second before regaining his composure. "Oh, I would've thought…"

"I don't like anyone right now," Lily said quickly in explanation. She really didn't like anyone now. "Who are you going with?" Lily asked to change the subject.

"No one." He said looking at her puzzled. Then he suddenly smiled his huge dazzling smiling and looked down at Lily his eyes full of mischief. "How about I take you…" Lily started to object but James continued. "… As a friend. We can go as just friends."

Lily hesitated looking up at his beaming face and nodded. Joyfully he took her arm and led her out of the portrait door.

Lily had made sure James wasn't holding her arm anymore but he still couldn't help but let his happiness bubble through. It seemed to be affecting Lily too though, because she wasn't sulking as he had feared she would. She was giggling right along with him.

She really did look magnificent, her hair was nice and shiny the upper half rolled into little curls around her head the bottom half nice and sleek. The dress she was wearing suited her it was flowy and reminded him of spring, the green of the fabric brought out her eyes.

"I remember that one year when you turned the ceiling into a mirror that was really cool you know not really a prank. How'd you four manage that?" Lily asked curiously.

"Err…we uh…did an excellent bit of transfiguration." James smiled. "Although we did spike the punch that year, fire whiskey, made the hall much more enjoyable."

Lily rolled her eyes remembering how she wouldn't go anywhere near it, she just glared at James the whole time and demanded he fix it. That had been in their fourth year, the first year they were allowed to go.

"14 and already drinking fire whiskey," Lily shook her head a little a smile tugging at the edge of her lips.

"Oh…we didn't drink it." James said smirking. "Mum would've known when I got home the next morning." James said to Lily's questioning look.

"Oh…well I suppose yes." She said thinking about the women she had seen in the picture with her long black hair and kind weathered face.

The pair walked through the huge doors into the Great Hall, Lily smiled at the scene before her. All the four tables had been pushed to the edge of the room where they held mounds of food. Little round tables stood of in the corner for everyone to sit down and eat at.

Lily rushed forward to start speaking to Isabel a Ravenclaw girl who Lily talked to now and then. "Oh, hi Lily!" She said smiling. Isabel looked very pretty her dark brown hair was swept up into a glossy bun and her dark blue dress went well with her eyes.

"Hi, Isabel!" Lily said happily. The new band the twisted sisters were setting up, and as lily looked at them she felt sure that they had to be at least her age.

"I heard this band is really good, though I've never seen them play." Isabel was saying nodding toward the stage that was now where the head table usually was.

"So…Is James Potter you're date," Isabel said casually but it was clear that she had wanted to know this since Lily walked through the door.

"James!" Lily laughed. Though inside she was slightly alarmed, was everyone thinking this? "No, we're just friends. Neither of us asked anyone so we decided to just come down together."

"Oh…" Isabel said clearly disappointed. She looked at Lily as though trying to gauge whether or not she was lying.

"So who's your date?" Lily asked not wanting to be on the subject of James any longer.

"Mark Garretson over there," Isabel said pointing at a handsome boy with wavy Chesnutt hair. "He's getting us punch."

Lily talked a little longer to Isabel before headed off toward the table Marlene and Jonathan were sitting at. "I don't know I think I would prefer purple ink over orange in that instance more professional…Hi Lily!" Marlene said before turning back to her greeting Lily sat down at the table talking to a few other people here and there before getting up to go get her food.

James guffawed with the rest of the group while Sirius turned a dark shade of Red while dancing with Emma. "If you would kindly excuse me one second, I would like to speak to my good old chums over there." James could hear him saying. He couldn't help but laugh at the slightly disgusted look on Emma's face. "What," Sirius said annoyed. "Everyone does it!"

"Okay" Sirius said stomping over towards the group. Garret a Hufflepuff boy snickered. "Who put the loose tongue spell on me?"

"Err…I don't know what makes you think that…" James began keeping his composure.

"Don't tell me you didn't send that spell my way. No one in their right mind would tell their date they had diarrhea last week and were feeling a little gassy. Who did it?"

James was roaring in laughter, the spell had worked great.

"James?" Sirius questioned darkly.

"I didn't…I…I…swear!" James said in between belts of laughter.

"He just happened to give a few people some ideas." Emery said snorting.

"Prongs, Don't you dare think about putting another prank on me or you'll be flying into girls left and right hear me?" Sirius said darkly.

"Yes…sir!" James said tears running out of his eyes.

Sirius walked away muttereing to himself.

"Did you take the spell off yet?" James asked Emery laughing even harder when Emery shook his head.

A/N: Finally I have reached one of my milestones, just touched it really seeing as i'm not done with the dance yet but anyway, i've had a plan for quite sometime now and i've finally gotten closer to a BIG milestone. So thanks to everyone whose been reading my story and keeping me going.