When they entered the Great Hall, they saw that it had completely changed. All of the house tables had been vanished, replaced by hundreds of small tables, each seating about four. They were covered with orange tablecloths, and four candles were floating above them, with a central candle in the middle of the table.
Lily and James, as the Head Boy and Girl, were the first to see it all. Lily's eyes sparkled in the light of the candles, and James couldn't help feeling all weak in his stomach when he looked at her. Over and over in his head, he kept on thinking, Merlin, James; you've been in love with this girl since third year.
No, I don't love Lily Evans; I just like her a lot.
However, he had often been thinking since he was sixteen how he truly felt about Lily. When he was around fifteen, he had been quite arrogant around her, hoping to catch her attention. However, once he realized that he wouldn't catch her attention by hexing innocent students in the hallway, or vanishing chairs in classrooms while other students were working on exams, he stopped being such an arrogant jerk.
Lily still had her arm interlocked with James. Every time he looked at her, she blushed deeply. James wondered whether or not she wanted to be with him there. However, she had agreed to go with him, so he figured she must've wanted to be there with him.
Professor McGonagall directed them to a table. When they sat down, they saw a card written in delicate handwriting, saying: Reserved for Prefects and the Head Boy and Girl. James grinned. "At least Snape's not going to join us."
"Who are the Slytherin prefects, anyway?" Lily asked.
James shrugged. "I dunno." He opened his mouth to say more, but Remus and Chelsea sat down next to them. "Hi Moony, hi Reynolds," James said sullenly, slightly irritated that they had interrupted him and Lily.
"Hi, Prongs," Remus said, smiling.
"Lily, oh my gosh! Did you see the robes Rebecca Perge, that seventh year from Hufflepuff, was wearing?" Chelsea said, the instant she sat down on next to Lily.
"No… But why would I care?"
"Because! She went to the dance with your date's best friend! And her robes are UGLY."
"Moony, isn't Reynolds your date?" James laughed.
"Isn't Lily your date?" Remus said bitterly. "I really wish she wouldn't do that."
Once everyone had entered, Albus Dumbledore strode in, an aura of greatness surrounding him. He sat down at the table next to their table, and smiled at Lily and James, his blue eyes twinkling. Tonight he was dressed in robes of deep blue, and the stars on his pointed hat twinkled occasionally. "You know," he said, leaning over to Lily and James, "traditionally the Head Boy and his date, and the Head Girl and her date open the Halloween Dance. You're saving us a lot of space on the dance floor."
Lily blushed and James grinned. "Well, of course, I knew I had to, Sir."
Lily and James talked absentmindedly while everybody shuffled in, and then they picked up their menus, once Dumbledore had done so. James took out his wand and tapped tortellini, and his golden plate filled up instantly with the pasta. Lily tapped lasagna and her plate filled up completely, too.
After everybody had their full, Dumbledore stood up, indicated for all of the students to do so, and clapped his hands. Instantly, some of the tables in the middle of the Great Hall flew towards the walls. "Now, beginning with the Head Boy and Girl, you may dance."
James was extremely nervous. He had never danced before, and hadn't planned on dancing much. He took Lily's hand and went into the dance floor, and placed his arms around her waist. Lily took her arms and put them on James's shoulders, and they began a slow dance, as a magical orchestra began playing. Slowly, they moved around the floor, Lily occasionally saying hello to people she knew.
"Sorry I'm not much of a dancer," James said when the first song ended. "I never really—"
"I think you dance wonderfully," Lily said, and kissed James on the cheek. James instantly went beat red, and Lily turned a shade of pink as well. Across the Great Hall, Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he watched them.
By the end of the first song, every student present was dancing on the floor. James and Lily were slowly revolving on the spot, and for once, James hoped, Lily was impressed with him. After all, James thought, she had complemented me on my dancing ability.
James's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden flash of light, then another, and another. There was a gash on his right arm, left leg, and across his forehead. He whirled around in the source of the direction that the Slashing hex was sent. Snape was standing not six yards away from him, wand out.
James looked into Lily's deep green eyes for a moment, and she understood. Snape had just attacked him, and he had to defend himself. Within a moment, his wand was out, and he sent a hex at Snape.
Apparently, he wasn't the only one. Remus had his wand out, a faint frown line visible. Sirius, too, had broken away from his dance, and he looked positively vicious. James looked back in the direction of Snape.
Snape looked horrified. In his hands, he held his unusually bulbous nose, and most of the strands of his greasy hair. He scowled at James, and sent four more Slashing hexes at James, who ducked, but one hit Lily. She let out a slight, "Oh!" and covered her arm where it had been slashed.
That did it for James: in several flash of light, Snape's wand was in James's hand, and Snape was on the floor, hit with a Stunning spell.
"ENOUGH!" came McGonagall's furious voice. "POTTER! BLACK! LUPIN! HERE, NOW!" she shouted. Waving a sad goodbye to Lily, who was trying to stop the bleeding on her arm with a skin-sealing charm, James walked over to Professor McGonagall. "Explain yourselves," she said, her lip almost completely gone.
"Professor," James said in a calm voice, "Lily and I were dancing when Snape sent slashing hexes at me. I did nothing to provoke him, and I had to retaliate," James said.
"And you two?" she said, her eyes sweeping over to Remus and Sirius.
"We couldn't let Sniv- er, Snape get away with that, attacking our best friend when he wasn't prepared," Sirius said.
"Yet you all sent hexes at him, making him lose his hair and nose! And then, Potter, you stunned him! I have never seen anything so unfair—"
"Professor," Remus said quietly, "he was the one being unfair."
"Be that as it may, Mr. Lupin, you all hexed him. Madam Pomfrey is going to have a lot of work to do tonight: she'll have to brew a hair growth potion, and she'll have to reattach his nose. I'm afraid I'll have to sentence detention for all three of you."
"What about Snape?" James asked furiously.
"Mr. Snape will be dealt with once he is fully healed. As for you three," she said, "thirty points from Gryffindor."
"But—"
"Mr. Black, please do not make this situation worse for you," Professor McGonagall said, strolling away from the three of them.
"Well," James said heavily, "I'm going to go back to dancing with Lily- if she'll let me…"
"Good luck, mate," Sirius said, clapping a hand on James's shoulder.
"Thanks," James said, "I'll need it." He walked back to Lily with a heavy heart. He was positive that Lily wasn't going to want to continue going out with him now.
When he reached her, she was sitting down, her hand clamped over where Snape had hit her with the Slashing hex. "Look, Lily, I'm sorry I—"
"Thanks for defending me," Lily said, and kissed him once more on the cheek. "That was awfully noble of you."
"I-er…" James said, wide eyed. Lily Evans was kissing him. Again.
The next day, Dumbledore made an announcement at breakfast. "After last night's episode," he said, his blue eyes flickering, in turn, at James, Sirius, Remus, and Snape, "there shall no longer be a Halloween Dance." There were several groans of indignation, and several Slytherins glanced contemptuously at the Gryffindor table. "However," Dumbledore said, raising his voice to go above the groans, "I have decided, instead, that each year for Halloween, there will be a feast. I apologize that the seventh years are going to miss the first ever Hogwarts Halloween Feast, but they were there for the last Hogwarts Halloween Dance. That is all."
The start of November started the tedious study for N.E.W.T.s for the seventh years. James and Lily, being Head Boy and Girl, had massive amounts of homework to do, as well as their duties. James had to supervise the male prefects in patrolling the corridors at night, Lily had to do the same with the girls, and always had to do role call with the prefects.
On top of homework, James had Quidditch practice three nights a week. Being captain of the Quidditch team, he had to schedule the games for Gryffindor and the practices. He managed to push Gryffindor's first game to the beginning of the next year, so he could have a bit of a break.
So, by the time Christmas Holidays were approaching, James was glad to have a break from school.
It was six days before the holiday that Lily approached him in the hallway. They had become fast friends ever since the Halloween Dance, and, at times when they were alone in the Gryffindor common room, they were sitting extremely close on the couches. She was blushing furiously, and Chelsea Reynolds, who was with her, seemed to be livid with rage.
"Erm, James?" she said, almost timidly. "Could I have a word?"
"Sure Lily," he said, his stomach falling into his legs, a feeling of dread sweeping over him. "What's up?"
"Well, I owled my parents a couple of days ago, and I asked them if I could bring a friend. They said yes, and I was wondering- would you like to come?"
James stomach went straight from his leg to his Adam's apple. "You wanted to invite me to your house?" James asked, his voice very high, quite unlike his own. "And- visit your house?"
"Yeah," Lily said, blushing. "But, of course, if you don't want to come, I'd—"
"I'd LOVE to come!" James said, smiling widely.
"R-really?" Lily asked, smiling as well. "You would?"
"Yeah!" James said, and they walked up to their next class hand in hand. However, they didn't notice a certain Chelsea Reynolds glaring at the back of James's head.
"You can't steal my best friend from me, James Potter," she snarled.
