Talk of the Entrance Ball increased as it came closer to that day. Even the Marauders couldn't avoid the subject. James was getting anxious. Remus saw his friend's nervousness. "What's wrong, Prongs?"

"I don't know who I have to take!" James wailed, "I'm certainly not going to ask Rebecca!"

Melanie yawned, stretching. "Why don't you just take me? Sirius over there hasn't asked me yet, and I don't think he will anyway. Then there's always Miss Felicity Delacour."

Sirius glanced at her and sighed. He was about to open his mouth, when Tristan Lombard approached the table. He smiled nervously at Melanie and fiddled with his tie. "Um…Melanie…"

The girl looked intently at him, listening while Sirius was getting angry. "What is it?"

"Will you go with me to the Entrance Ball?"

"Buzz off, buster!" Sirius cried out, infuriated, "Nobody's going with Melanie but me!"

Tristan looked at him calmly, "Did you ask her yet?"

Sarah smirked, loving the fact that two very attractive guys were fighting over her cousin. Remus pulled Sarah over and whispered in her ear. She nodded, and the two walked away, leaving Peter, Lily, James, Sirius, and Melanie at the table. Peter also shirked away, wanting to keep away from altercations of any kind.

"Guys, relax," Melanie said, a bit panicked. "No need to fight, okay?"

Lily whispered to James, "Maybe you really should take Melanie to the dance. She did ask you."

"No way!" Potter answered, "Besides, who are you going with?"

The Head Girl shrugged. "Who else? Maybe I might actually agree to go with Peter."

James laughed. He smiled, "Hey, since you're still available, why don't you go with me to the Entrance Ball? I wouldn't want to be left with no partner, and with Sirius seething with anger like that, I don't think he'd ever let me near Melanie."

"James Potter, you are asking me to go with you to the Entrance Ball?" Lily asked, mockingly, "The man who could earn devotion in a heartbeat? Why don't you ask any other girl?"

He looked around, "That's because if I ask any one of them, everyone else will start to jump on me as well. Better keep it safe and ask a friend. Is that okay?"

Lily nodded, and glanced at Sirius and Tristan, who were still glaring daggers at each other. Melanie sighed and smiled sweetly at Lombard. "I'd love to go with you, Tristan."

"HUH?!" Everyone in the table cried out, even Lombard himself. Sirius gulped, "You are?"

Melanie nodded, glaring at Sirius. "You heard me. I'm going with Tristan."

The lucky boy nodded, smiling, and left the table, going back to his friends and telling them the great news. James looked on with shock at what Melanie just did. Lily broke the silence. "Melanie, are you okay? Didn't you mean, you weren't going with Tristan Lombard?"

"I meant what I said, Lily," Melanie said sternly, "I'm going with Lombard to the Entrance Ball and that's that."

Sirius shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll just ask someone else."

The girl glared at him and walked away, not hungry anymore. As she left, Sirius fell onto his chair, still shocked. He put his hands on his face. "What have I done?!"

Lily looked on with concern. "Sirius, are you okay? You don't mean to tell me that Melanie wasn't just a momentary date, was she?"

"No!" Sirius shook his head. "Now who am I going to bring to the Entrance Ball? Rosa Johnson?"

James chuckled, "Why not? I hear she's still available. Want me to call her?"

To Lily and James' surprise, Sirius shook his head. "That's okay, I'll go alone. I don't really need a partner."

"Sirius Black," Lily began, "Master of Seducing Women, Great Handsome Dashing Wizard of the Year, not want a date for the ball? What has happened to you?"

"Nothing!" Sirius answered, a bit too quickly, "Hey, I think classes are about to start in a few minutes. Let's go, or we'll be late."

Lily and James looked at each other. Sirius? Not wanting to be late? There was definitely something wrong with him. And James was going to figure out what.

"Padfoot!" James and Remus cried out, trying to catch up with Sirius, who was walking as fast as he can towards the trophy room. He turned and stopped to wait for his two best friends.

Sirius smiled at them uncertainly. Remus frowned. "What's been eating at you? Are you still getting over Melanie? Is that it?"

James looked at his friend with concern, "Hey, Sirius, are you really okay?"

"Yeah, I am," Sirius grinned, almost his normal self again, "I have a detention to carry out, so, I'll meet you guys…"

"No way," James interrupted, "We're going with you, whether you like it or not. What are friends for?"

Remus was about to protest until James shot him a look and he nodded as well. They worked on wordlessly, cleaning the trophies in the room, until Remus broke the silence. "So, Padfoot, any ideas who you are taking with you to the ball? You know, it is going on tonight."

Sirius shrugged. "I asked Cameron. She said yes, after I told her of my desperation. Of course, who could resist?"

James and Remus laughed, "So, you really are back to normal."

"Who wouldn't be?" Sirius chuckled, then his eyes gleamed. "Hey, Prongs, I heard you're going with Miss Evans. Well, that's not surprising."

The Head Boy stopped. "What are you hinting at?"

Remus's eyes also gleamed. "Isn't it obvious? YOU—LIKE—HER."

"Hey! We're only going as friends!"

As James suffered these torments from his two best friends, Lily and the others were getting dressed for the occasion. Lily just walked in the girls' dorm, and spotted Melanie and Sarah fussing with their hair. Sarah spotted Lily and pulled her over to a mirror. "Come on, you better get dressed. Your hair is going to take forever to fix if you want to look like a model when you get down there."

Melanie was already holding the dress that James bought in Hogsmeade. "Wow, this dress is really expensive. Potter picked it out? Well, I appreciate his taste."

"Would I pick out a dress like that?" Lily asked, a bit irritated, "Besides, dressing and fixing myself up like this was definitely not on my to do list this year."

The two cousins waited for Lily to get her dress on and then started with her hair. Sarah was holding bobby pins in her mouth, and had been fixing Lily's fiery red hair. Melanie sighed. "You know, Lil, I wished I had your hair."

Lily almost snorted. "Why? Melanie, you're already gorgeous enough. Stop complaining."

"Yeah, well," Melanie said, crossly, "Maybe Sirius would pay more attention if I had a lighter hair color like Sarah's."

Her cousin looked at her. "Hey, Mel, you still brooding over him? Don't worry, by the end of the ball, he'll crawl back to you, pleading for you and him to get back together. If I didn't know him better, then I wouldn't say something like this, but he really loves you."

"To be sure," Lily agreed, "Didn't you see him sulking about? He even hesitated to ask Cameron Tortal to the dance!"

Melanie laughed. "Wow, I didn't know. I shouldn't have done that to poor Padfoot. I really should apologize."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Sarah replied, combing Lily's hair down, leaving the ends of her red hair curling about. "Lil, turn around and let us get a good look at you."

Lily did as she was told and was surprised to see Sarah and Melanie starry eyed. Melanie was sniffing with delight while Sarah jumped joyfully about. "Beautiful! This is great! Rebecca, eat your heart out!"

"Lil," Melanie was already getting teary eyed, "Make us proud and go out there!"

The Head Girl pulled on her dress and remembered something important. She took a green ribbon from her drawer and tied it around her wrist, making it resemble a bracelet of some kind. She smiled, then stepped out, followed by Melanie and Sarah. As they walked out, the three girls were admired and looked at by many guys who were heading to pick up their dates. Even the guys with girlfriends stared at them, wishing that their girlfriends looked half as good as the three did.

Sarah laughed and pointed at Remus, who was just coming in. "Look! They're here! Melanie, Lily, come on! We gotta stun them!"

Remus spotted his date and smiled. He came closer and grabbed Sarah's hand. "You look great, Sarah."

"Why thank you, Moony," Sarah giggled, then waved good-bye to Lily and Melanie, who glanced about a bit nervously.

Melanie looked around, waiting for her date to pick her up. "Where could that Lombard be? I wouldn't want Sirius to be here before my partner shows up."

Unfortunately, Sirius and James showed up before Lombard appeared. James and Sirius noticed Melanie first and their mouths were wide open. Looking mischievous, Melanie pointed to Lily. "Hey, you forgetting the Head Girl, belle of the ball tonight?"

As their gazes moved to Lily Evans, their mouths were hanging even wider than when they saw Melanie. Sirius whistled, and James was speechless. Melanie congratulated herself and her cousin for having a job well done.

"Wow," Sirius said, then got back to his senses, "Yes, ahem…I better go and pick Cameron up."

He left, making Melanie look gloomy. "Yeah, I better go find Tristan, too."

This left James and Lily to stare at each other. Lily smiled nervously, "Well? Are we going to go now?"

"After you, Miss Evans," James said, holding his hand up to hers.

At this moment, Lily knew at once that she would finally have a good time.

Sure enough, Sarah was right. Melanie was already bored with Tristan and kindly told him that she was going to leave him after the first dance. She walked towards the table that the Marauders picked out to be theirs. Peter was sitting by himself as well. "Hey, didn't you come with someone?"

"Yeah," Peter answered, "Presea went to the lady's room. She'll be back in a few minutes."

Melanie nodded. She sat down, and Peter's partner came back, leaving Melanie sitting in the Marauder table all alone, that is, until Sirius also came upon the table. He looked nervously and sat down. "So, enjoying yourself?"

His "supposedly ex-girlfriend" glared at him. "What's it to you? I bet you're having fun with Cameron Tortal."

"Aw, come on, Mel," Sirius said, his eyes serious, "Why'd you do that for? You know I was going to ask you until Lombard showed up. Why are you angry at me for?"

"For being such a jerk, Sirius," was her cold reply, "Don't think I forgot how much you were flirting with Felicity Delacour just a few days go."

The young man nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, I do see the problem. But you know it was just jest. I couldn't stray too far from a beautiful and smart girl like you. Now, look what you did. You've made me speak mush!"

A smile played on Melanie's lips. "Does that mean you wanna dance, Padfoot?"

Sirius also smiled, "Hey, why not? Let's rock the dance floor!"

The couple held each other's hands and started dancing to the beat, careful to tread on everyone's toes wherever they danced. Sarah and Lily saw this, and the two of them smiled at each other, satisfied that Sirius Black and Melanie Belle were back together again. James also noticed this and whistled. "So, Sirius really does love her. Ha, Peter owes me 10 Galleons."

"Honestly," Lily scolded, "You guys bet on this situation?"

"Who doesn't?" James grinned.

A slow song began to play, and Lily stopped, reluctantly. "I'm a bit tired, so I'll go and sit down."

James held her hand. "Oh no, not until we finish dancing to this one."

The two danced to the music, getting absorbed into each other's eyes. As the song finished, James let go and Lily stepped away, telling her partner that she needed to get a drink. Melanie was winking at the Head Girl like mad, and this annoyed Lily. "What are you winking at? Do you have something in your eye?"

"Oh, no, Lily dear," Melanie said, laughing an evil laugh, "It's just that you two really look good out there. Makes me and the rest of the Marauders kinda want to see you guys…you know…hooked."

"WHAT?!" James asked, also coming in, and hearing Melanie's statement. "I don't believe this, what are you talking about, Melanie? We're only friends. Besides, since Lily is really gorgeous now, I bet all these guys are waiting just to dance with her, right, Lil?"

Lily smiled and left, not wanting to set an uncomfortable situation. James looked on, puzzled. "Did I say something wrong?"

Melanie glared at the one who Lily has finally given her heart to. "You don't get it, do you, Potter?"

"What?" James asked, receiving another furious glare from Melanie.

The dark haired girl had an urge to throw something at the Head Boy, but managed to stop herself and talked to him as calmly as she could. "James, don't you think you should stop hurting her and tell her how you feel about her already? I mean, come on, I saw you two when you were both dancing on the floor…"

Running his hand through his hair, he sighed. "I can't do that…Melanie. It isn't as easy as you think. I'm not like you or Sirius…"

"Oh, but you understand how Sirius feels and acts, is that it?" Melanie asked, "So you wouldn't know what to do in a situation like this? You're just going to let her go?!"

James Potter held up his hand in alarm, looking about to see if anyone heard his friend. "Shh…not so loud, Mel. They don't need to hear this! Look, can we talk in a place less populated?"

Raising her eyebrows, Melanie grabbed James' arm and led him into a quiet clearing, with a bench and a fountain. Melanie looked about and nodded with approval. "Nice place they got here. Not bad when you take Lily out on a date."

"Me!" James cried out, "It's not like that…please…"

She hushed her friend and sat down on the bench, not even bothering to offer the empty space to James. Melanie sighed and looked up at the stars. "You know, as surprised as I was, Sirius took me here. That's why I know about this place."

The Head Boy nodded, not surprised that Sirius would do something like that. It only made things clear. Then he turned around to face her. "So, what were you talking about before you were carried away with another topic? Hey, you better hurry up, or Sirius will be suspicious and he might think that you're cheating on him and going out with his best friend."

Melanie laughed, then her eyes turned grim, "It's Lily…she's…well…"

Sparks flew through the air, making the sky glow bright, and they could see a figure up in the sky, laughing as they flew with a broomstick. James looked up, and he saw that it was none other than Sarah, who was using her broomstick. He smiled. Melanie and Sarah were completely different. Sarah was the risk-taker, and second in the lead when it came to the number of detentions. Sirius and James took the lead with 125 that year. Melanie, on the other hand, she wasn't like her cousin at all. She was smart, witty, shy, and knew what was going on, whatever the circumstance.

"Oh great," Melanie sighed, also seeing her cousin, "That's 120 even detentions for her. My gosh, I wonder why you guys aren't expelled yet?"

Before the two can continue their conversation, Sarah popped up next to them, laughing. "Well, well, look what we have here! Don't tell me…James is having Lily trouble! And he's asking you for advice!"

"Um…no," Melanie and James replied, hastily, walking out of the garden.

Sarah looked on at them, a bit curiously, "Hey, anything the matter? We're supposed to be having fun here! Get back to the party!"

The three wizards went back and enjoyed the rest of the night, hardly remembering the event at the fountain. Lily came back to her normal self and although she was avoiding James, she was still enjoying herself. James didn't seem to notice and he found out that Rebecca had been enraged that she lost her bet, and so she was true to her word and didn't bother the Head Boy. At least, for that night.

As for Remus and Sarah, they were having the time of their lives, with Sarah zooming about in her broomstick, while Remus and Peter were chasing her, telling her to wait for them, and waving their wands like maniacs, trying to catch up. Sirius and Melanie kept on treading on people's toes as they waltzed around in the dance floor, grinning evilly as they spotted Snape and his partner (none other than Rebecca Ruppert). As they got closer, Sirius pulled his wand out and bewitched Snape's nose to grow longer, while Melanie charmed Rebecca's hair to disappear.

It was a night to remember…