In the last chapter…

"Go too the ball with me, Lily," he said suddenly, looking more awake than he had in hours. Lily just looked at him shocked. Her eyes were wide and she looked some what like a goldfish out of water.

"I…I umm I," she was stumbling over her words. God Evans get yourself together it's Potter! she thought. She could feel her face flushing and she looked away.

Chapter Five

James watched her with, his heart rising. She turned around; her face was normally colored now. She walked up to him, smiled sweetly and said "Go to Hell Potter, I won't go to the ball with you. I will dance the first dance because we have to, but after that, don't come near me," she said, still smiling sweetly. As she spoke those words, James's heart fell right to the floor. He made a mental note to go look for it in the dungeons the next day…

Lily hurried and finished the letter and sent it off before going up the stairs to the dorms. The walk to the top set of dorms seemed longer than normal. It's just because you're tired, she told herself as she reached the door marked Seventh Year Girls. Lily decided that she would never tell anyone about their little encounter down in the common room. She tried to tell herself that it was just nerves and tiredness mixed together that made him ask.

Her plan would've gone much better if the creaking door hadn't woken Shelly up. Lily and Shelly weren't best friends, but they were close enough to figure out when some thing was bothering the other. But then again I guess that's what happens when you live with someone for six and a half years.

"Hey Lils, you just getting to bed?" shelly asked tiredly, peeking out from the curtains that were closed around her bed. She reached out and felt around for her glasses, and once she had them she put them on, clearing up her vision.

"Nothing," she said simply. "Just tired," she added at Shelly's questioning look. She rolled her eyes. "I'm serious nothing's wrong Shell,"

"Oh my god! He asked you didn't he?" Shelly demanded suddenly awake and very excited. "James asked you to the ball! I knew it!" Unfortunately for Lily, this woke Andrea up.

"Well, did he Lils?" she demanded, pulling her tangled curly hair out of her face. Lily made a face and nodded her head causing the other two girls to squeal with delight. "What'd you say? You said yes didn't you?" Lily made another face she shook her head, causing her friends to groan.

James walked up to the boys' dorm while Lily was still finishing the letter to the Weird Sisters. As soon as he opened the door, three eager faces were waiting for him. "What'd she say Prongs?" and "Did you ask her?" were some of the many questions thrown at him from his dorm mates. He just sighed, and climbed into bed, not bothering to change out of his uniform. Somewhere in the back of his head he could hear Remus saying "Padfoot, just leave him alone, I think she might've said no," then he was asleep.

The week had passed pretty quickly, and soon the whole seventh year was helping with decorating the hall, with Lily and James supervising. This wouldn't have been that bad if Sirius would have quit putting mistletoe up when they told him that there was not going to be any mistletoe.

Sirius soon forgot about mistletoe, and was entertained with something else for the time being. Lily sat down at one of the house tables, she wasn't sure which, and it didn't really matter to her. She lazily floated some streamers up a little ways where they had decided the imaginary ceiling was going to be. She was just about to float a group of balloons up when some one sat down beside her.

"Hey Lily," Remus said, helping her tie the balloons into a group with two blue and two silver. Not waiting for her to say anything, he continued. "He does really like you know you."

Lily sighed, and turned to face him. "Yes, I'm quite aware of that Remus." Then she pulled a face. "What is Sirius doing?"

Remus glanced across the hall to see what she was talking about. His best friend was sitting on the floor with a line of mistletoe hung in a line across the whole great hall in front of the doors so that girls would have to kiss him to get out. "Who knows, it's Sirius," he said, shaking his head and laughing slightly. "Anyway, if you know he likes you, then why not just go to the ball with him?"

"It's simple really, I don't like to lead people on, and if I say I'll go to the ball with him, he might think that I actually like him." She said, looking at him. Too bad you like him she thought to herself. Grr Lily no you don't you do not like Potter.

After about another hour, the Great Hall was completely transformed. It no longer held four long house tables, they were all moved away, and all that was left was the staff table for food and several smaller tables for people to eat and sit down when they weren't dancing. The tables all had dark blue table cloths with small sliver stars and a single blue candle in a silver holder floating above it. All the food was set out, and they still had two hours to get themselves ready.

The Seventh Year Girls' Dorm was alive with movement and shouts and talking mirrors that evening while they were getting ready for the ball. They had girls from lower years asking them to do their make up or their hair because they couldn't get the charm to work right, or they wanted to do it the muggle way but didn't know how. They were borrowing things and transfiguring things.

The Seventh Year Boys' Dorm however, was very unlike that. They took a shower shaved and put on dress robes. That was it; they didn't bother to see if their shoes went with the dress robes, they didn't care really. They just went down to the common room and sat down to a game of chess, ignoring Peter's mirror that was telling them to 'smarten up there will be young ladies around!'

Just as Lily was putting the finishing touches on her Make up, there was an announcement for all the students to report to the entrance hall. She, Andrea, Shelly and Kimberly all made their way down the stairs into the common room. They met up with the Marauders at the bottom of the stairs, because Andrea and Remus wanted to walk down together. They were some of the last students out there, except for a group of Ravenclaw girls who were still not all the way ready.

"As most of you may know, we are having this ball tonight to honor our guests. Now, we will be having the Headmasters and Headmistresses from three different schools, as well as their head students. Now, would Head boy and girl please come forward, I would like you be out there to great them as well as myself and the other members of the faculty." Dumbledore's voice rang through the air, magically amplified to be sure that every one could hear him.

Lily and James fought their way to the front of the crowd. Lily ignored a group of Hufflepuff guys that whistled when she walked by, but unfortunately, James didn't. Just as he was about to say something and cause a scene, Lily grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. "Come on Potter, we have to make a good impression. Although, with hair like that it might be hard," she said, pointing to his hair.

James pulled a face. "It grows that way. I can't help that it has a mind of its own." He said, just as they reached the front of the crowed. Dumbledore led them and the rest of the student body out onto the grounds. Just as the crowd was getting restless and Sirius was no doubt going to pull a prank, a large boat emerged from the lake. It kept going until it looked as though it was going to run into then all. It stopped, and a latter came down. A Large man came out, shortly followed by a girl and a boy, neither of them exactly small. Dumbledore introduced them to the students, and then they waiting some more. The boy who had come out after the Headmaster was just about to go over and talk to Lily when a large carriage appeared, drawn by two huge white horses with wings. Once more they were introduced, and once more they waiting.

The student body was really getting restless now, and it took all of James's self control to not pull the snitch out of his pocket and start playing with it. He decided instead to make small talk with Lily. In the middle of the conversation about how Lily would rather be eaten by the squid than burn to death, the Night Bus pulled up. James' comment about saving Lily from the squid before it could eat her was drown out by the roar of the bus.

Six students and one Headmistress walked up the path to the castle, looking slightly shaken, levitating their trunks behind them. "Finally," James muttered, forgetting about saving Lily from the giant squid.

Professor Dumbledore introduced the Headmistress as Miss Grattan, and the six students as Alice Sinclair, Stacy Martin, Melanie Martinez, Scott Turner, Jeffery Mathews, and Mark Shaw. "Well," he said cheerfully, Now that we are all here, I say we go inside and get on with the ball. Would the students in the back there please hold the doors for every one?" Dumbledore's voice rang out through the grounds.

Lily and James were the last ones in, except for Remus and Peter because they were holding the doors and Andrea because she was waiting for Lily and Remus. As the group made their way into the Great Hall, they found it exactly as it had been when they completed decorating it earlier. Not one thing was out of place, and the sky matched with everything. It was clear and dark, with a few stars every so often. There were a few minutes while people got things in order, and then Dumbledore stood to make an announcement. "Well, I would like to welcome our wonderful guests again and also to thank the Head students here at Hogwarts for putting aside their differences and getting this ball put together on time. Thank you Mr. Potter and Miss Evans, you've done an exceptional job.

"Now, to get this wonderful Ball started, would all of the Head Students please come forward to have the first dance?" Dumbledore sat down, and Lily and James slowly made their way to the front with the head students from the other schools, glaring at each other the whole time. The band had appeared on stage, and began playing.

Lily put her arms around James's neck stiffly, as he put his arms around her waist. "Ugh, this I so stupid," Lily muttered, when James laughed lightly and shook his head Lily glared at him. "What?" she asked suspiciously. "I still have all my hair don't I?" she asked, suddenly removing on of her hands and feeling the top of her head. She sighed with relief when she felt her thick red hair under her hand.

"Yes you have all of your hair, and for the last time, I didn't curse that letter. It was Padfoot." James said ignoring the strange looks they were getting from the other students from the other schools. "And to answer your question, I was just laughing, because of all the times I imagined us dancing together, it didn't involve you glaring at me the whole time and you weren't forced to dance with me." He said, sighing,

"Well, Potter, I'm sorry I hate you," she said, then she shook her head. "Let me rephrase that, I'm sorry you made m hate you," then she rolled her eyes giving up on what she was trying to say.

"Evans, why don't you like me?" His question caught Lily off guard. Before she could reply, he went on. "I changed for you, I did everything and you still don't like me. I don't get it." He said, shaking his head.

"James, yes you did change, but it wasn't just the stopping cursing people in the hallway that you changed. It was a change that you couldn't control that I needed from you, and this year, when we were planning this damn ball, I noticed that you did change. So I couldn't help but start liking you. Congratulations Potter, you grew up," Lily said. This caused some of the people around them to laugh slightly, but before Lily could say anything to them about it being true that he did grow up he leaned down and kissed her.

a/n: AWWWW! It's over, no more, done last chapter! Woo go me!! Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers! I LOVE you guys! If it wasn't for you guys I probably wouldn't have ever made myself get up off my lazy ass and get this written! I hope you guys liked it!

I'm also thinking about doing a sequel to this...let me know if you think I should or not.

-Manda