Many of Lily's Ravenclaw friends had joined the surprise, they tiptoed slowly behind Lily and Arabella on the way to the Gryffindor Tower. So many thoughts filled Lily as she began to notice her heart was beating faster than a professional Seeker's best flying record.
"Okay... What if he smiles at me? I tend to go real gummy with my smiles, as if I'm showing off dentures or something.. Don't worry about that now, Lily.. He's probably only here because he has to be.. He hates you.. Push it out of your mind.. You DON'T like him." Her mind told her.
Arabella led her into a small room to change and so that Arabella could do her hair. It was probably the prefects' bathroom, Lily couldn't tell. She was so tired and fed up with her day she just wanted to go to bed. Arabella pulled Lily's top hairs away from her face and left the rest of it down and helped her into a pair of whimsical blue pants with the waistline and the leg cuffs trimmed with large, round, shiny silvery blue trinkets, and similar trinkets were all over a sparkly yellow muscle tank. There was an inch wide piece of blue velvet with a round silver charm that found it's way to Lily's neck, and a lovely pair of whimsical blue sandals found their way onto Lily's feet. Tired, Lily was lead closer and closer to the tower.
Have you ever had those feelings you couldn't explain and wouldn't admit? Like something hit you so fast that you knew had been there, but never knew exactly where it had been?
Unfortunately, this feeling is usually love. And this feeling, unfortunately, had hit Lily like a brick.
She had almost fallen asleep on the walk over to the tower, but she woke up almost instantly with one glance around the room.
Among the outrageous (and weird) party decorations was the best gift of all. James. Dressed from head to toe in black, mostly leather... Drool, drool. He smiled, and Lily's too-gummy smile returned to her mouth unintentionally as he began to walk towards her.. Or so she thought.
James walked straight past Lily and towards Sarah Barnes, who was dragged along by her brother Sean. James greeted her with a hug, and Lily's pasted smile recovered itself quickly. James, like most males, didn't exactly realize what he was doing. Lily's heart stopped for nearly three seconds, and she stood there frozen for a moment, and then she snapped back. "You're an idiot, Evans... You DON'T like him! What happened to that?" She asked herself quietly. "He probably doesn't even have a gift."
A four-tiered cake rested on a stool in the center of the room, each with four shining stick candles, and a great big sixteen candle on the top, with piles of presents all over, confetti making the figures around the room unclear, streamers and balloons were floating about everywhere and everything went into slow motion. The pasted smile disappeared and a glowing one reappeared. She softly held her hair away from her face and blew out all the candles. She closed her eyes and a vision came to her.
It was a little girl in a pretty white party dress with shiny blue trimmings. Perhaps she was eight, maybe nine. This girl was always small for her age, but never mistaken for any other age but older.. Many thought she was a midget eleven year old. Her hair, part of it brought up into a big shiny blue bow, rested on her shoulders and went down her back... Red curls.. Bright red-orange curls. She stood on a velvet-stool, blowing out the candles on her small cake, perched high. Her mother and father stood nearby, but not together. Another woman, a blonde woman, stood nearby to lead the little girl to the big 'fantastic' birthday party awaiting her. With little rich children like herself. She wanted to stay inside the conservatory and dance around the room to the faint music outside, and she was being dragged away.. By the blonde woman. Her smile disappeared. Lily looked straight into her eyes. They were a dazzling green. They hurt to look at after a while. The door to the terrace slammed and Lily snapped back to reality.
Remus, Sean Barnes and Lily's friend Nick all chipped in to buy her a special edition of Quidditch Through The Ages: Quidditch With Flair that was small enough to fit in a handbag. That was a laugh.
Arabella bought her a huge, gaudy tiara with words engraved in the inside, Princess Lily P. No one else understood it, but Lily smiled and instantly put it on. She looked like a dork, but a glamorous dork nonetheless.
Sarah gave her an old set of pantyhose. Lily threw it into the fire when no one was looking (except James, she didn't know he was watching, but he was, with a laugh dieing to escape his lips).
James presented her with a book, a scarlet crushed velvet-colored copy of The Little Princess, with Lily's name embroidered inside the fluffy cover in gold, as well as a quote, also embroidered in gold. She read it. "Whatever comes," she said, "cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside, It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it." Lily looked at James with awe. He had quoted one of her favorite authors, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and presented her with the book it came from. He looked away, not used to her admiring smile.
Her friends in Ravenclaw (Mia, Coco, Clarisse, Leola, Diana, and Jennifer) each made everything they gave her. Mia made Lily her Halloween costume, Coco and Clarisse made the dress and the dress robes for Yuletide, Leola and Diana made her what they called the 'Quidditch Captain Special' and Jennifer bought shoes and accessories for each ensemble. Lily began laughing as Sirius started releasing his version of silly string. There were three boxes left.
Munguldus selected one of them and presented her with a set of sketches of the past year, framed in slick white frames like the ones in her room. Lily smiled and moved on to Sirius's present, which read on the package: For your eyes only.
So, as the cake began to get cut, and James whisked away the last package for some odd reason. Lily went to the corner of the room, pulling some silly string out of her hair.
In a silver photo frame with the word Princess engraved on the top, there was a photo. Of two people sitting on the steps of a gazebo in a park in Godric's Hollow. This picture made her entire life disappear and made her watch the smiling faces. She sneaked off to her room and put the frame on her desk.
The party was havoc, at least to McGonagall. There was music, dancing, silly string and fireworks, as well as cake. All on McGonagall's list of a ruined party. James watched as Lily danced with Sirius in the goofiest way with silly string and some cake in her hair, laughing so hard she fell over. He took the present with him as he climbed the stairs to her room. After about six hours, Lily started walking up with all her presents as her friends started to clean up.
"James!" Lily exclaimed as she switched on the light. She put down the packages and smiled, absentmindedly removing a firework from her hair (the one that never did go off). "What are you doing up here?"
"Giving you your present." He said, glancing at the photo on her desk. "Interesting room."
"Thanks." She said with discomfort, hoping she wouldn't say something stupid like, 'Can I eat your shirt?' "Didn't you already give me a present?"
"I did, but this one is for you. That one was for the public you. There's a difference, you know."
"You are really starting to get on my nerves."
He pulled the dowel and led her up the stairs. She loved the cool air that was up on top of the tower, and the sparkling stars on a bed of black velvet.
"Here." He said, thrusting his package into her hands. She opened it, and perhaps a million little balls of light floated around her, darting everywhere.
"They only stay where you want them to, and they change color, see?" He asked, proud of himself. Right now there were a few that were light blue, a few that were pale pink, and a lot that were pure blue. They floated around her, caressing her fingers and tickling her. She was in awe, watching them flow like a river and watching them dart about.
"Happy Birthday, Lily Evans." He said quietly as he went back down the stairs and back to the party.