Lily was fazed as she and her friends walked through the buzzing corridors,
full of students streaming from the Great Hall.
"What time is it, again?" Dana asked.
Clara checked her watch, "Its half past two, meaning we've missed breakfast and lunch as well. Funny how it only felt so short in the pool, don't you think?"
Dana and Lily nodded.
"It- today- what-"Lily tried saying something.
Dana grinned, "That reminds me, Lil, a certain dream boy of yours had his arm around your shoulders!"
"Yeah, 'Lily Flower," added Dana teasingly, egged on by the girl's crimson face, "You, Miss Lillian Rose Evans, Gryffindor Prefect and Gryffindor Chaser snuggled up to Jamesie!"
"Don't call him that!" Lily snapped mockingly, getting to the beat of the teasing. "It's Jamesie Poo!"
The three laughed and joked until they reached the entrance of Gryffindor Tower. "Wiggle Bumpkin," said Dana.
The portrait hole revealed their familiar common room surrounded in warmth. There was something unusual since it was only the Gryffindor boys occupying the cozy red and gold room.
"We are so late for dressing up!" Clara cried, realizing their wrong timing and the three girls ran up the stairs, dropping their towels, so the older boys stared after them, mostly at their scantily clad backs, as their towels fluttered to the ground from their grasps.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Hazel stood with Alice, blocking the girls' way.
'Oh no!' Lily thought frantically. 'I should've known the past month without them hovering like hawks above my neck were too good to be true!'
"What were you doing with James?" Alice demanded, crossing her arms.
"And Sirius? You were with them from 6 in the morning until now!" challenged Hazel, advancing towards them.
"Nothing we should tell you," snapped Dana, but she was inwardly shaking with fear, for the two blondes were known to have the boys of Hogwarts under their fingers since no one dared defy them; their fathers were rather important Ministry officials.
"How dare you stand up to me, Summers, for your little Mudblood friend?!" screamed Hazel.
"You-" Clara let out a string of words that Lily knew she'd never dared say in normal circumstances but this was far from normal. Before anyone knew what the hell was happening, Lily had two scorching white slap marks on both her cheeks.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Sirius screamed. The five girls' eyes riveted to the unseen boy, stepping out of the shadows. "
They, with the exception of Hazel who brought a hand up to her hair and batted her carefully-curled eyelashes, glared at Sirius.
"What have you done, Alice? Hazel? Why'd you hit Lily?!"
Alice jumped in to help her friend. "She provoked us, Siri! We were on our way, when she," she pointed an accusing finger at Lily harshly, "came up to us and just started trash talking us!"
"I highly doubt that. Anyway, just go do your make-up or something!" Sirius stormed off to the boys; dormitories.
"You bitch!" Alice hit her shoulder against Lily's painfully. Lily winced as a pain shot up through her upper arm.
"Skank ass whore!" Alice slapped Lily across her face again with all the might she could muster, and stalked off after her friend.
"Come on, Clara, Lily," Dana said, fuming with anger. They entered the busy room of the Gryffindor fifth year girls.
"What happened?" Jamian rushed forward to them. "We could hear Dumb and Dumber screaming like maniacs all the way here!"
"We had the unfortunate displeasure of experiencing a run-in with the two blonde bimbos of Gryffindor," Clara said darkly, as they sank onto Lily's bed.
Paige swept her forehead dramatically. "OH, you poor souls! You must be scarred for life!"
Dana laughed along with the others. "Believe me, we are! Anyway, would you mind if Clara and I dressed up here?"
"Go ahead, get your stuff!" Mantra said, sidling over to Cassie, who'd grabbed her brush. Lily waved to her friends, made her way to the cabinet and opened a specially locked drawer. She took out her Hogsmeade shopping bags that held her dress robes, necklace, bracelet, make-up kit and her shoes. Lily touched the soft fabric of her dress robes and ran her fingers over it smoothly. It'd been a week since she'd last seen it (that's when she bought it) and she felt like it was worth the 26 Galleons she paid.
The two cousins arrived, bags in hand.
Cassie cleared up her throat. "Hey everyone! I'd like our dresses to be a surprise so later after we put on our make-up, let's put on our dresses behind some boards I'd be happy to conjure. Is that all right, you reckon?"
The girls set down in front of their own mirrors (duplicated from the original vanity dresser) and each took out their own make-up kit. They were all in their underwear and their hair was in towels.
"I'm so glad I remembered to buy the Dictate Your Face make-up kit last weekend!" Lily sighed happily.
"So," Paige said, as they put on their make-up, "Who're you going with to the Ball?"
Clara said thoughtfully, "I'm going with Ray Chang. He's from Ravenclaw, the one in our Care of Magical Creatures Class?"
"Hmm..," Mantra said, "I'm going out with Ludo Bagman. From Hufflepuff? I find him oh so cute and he is a Beater for his Quidditch team! We'll have a lot in common, I expect."
"I'm going with Martin Flinch-Fletchely, from Hufflepuff, too. He likes horses and musicals, like me!" Dana said happily.
Jamian said, "Well, as for me, I'm going with Anthony Abbot. You know, from Hufflepuff, too!"
Paige grinned. "Guess who I'm going with? Josh Grandon, from Gryffindor 6th year?"
The girls gushed. "Oh, you lucky girl! However did you manage to get a date with him?" demanded Clara.
"Well, it was three days ago.." Paige launched into a fully detailed description of how the handsome Gryffindor asked her out. After 15 minutes of continuous swooning and gasping, Paige asked, "Cassie, who's your date for the Ball?"
"Christian Anderson, Ravenclaw, 6th year, you know? The tall, dark and gorgeous one?" She smiled at their shocked faces.
Josh was the cousin of Christian and they were known to be two of the hottest guys in school besides the Marauders (excluding Peter, the fat little ratboy, of course).
"You guys are so lucky! I wish I had a date with either of them. Y'know, I heard that they're as nice and funny as they are cute and gorgeous!" Jamian said, a wishful look upon her face, not unlike the rest of the girls.
"Lils, how about you? Did you say yes to any of the guys who asked you out?" Dana said, realizing that her friend hadn't told them who her date was.
The fiery redhead smiled almost as I f she were in a day dream. "Severus Snape."
Looks of disgust, venom, loathing and hatred filled the other girls' faces. (A/n: if you think that's too rash for them sorry, but they really hate Snivellus!)
"Lily, why? Why a Slytherin?" Jamian said slowly, as if Lily could understand the rashness of her actions by accepting a date with Snape if she pronounced each word slowly.
"I don't know, he just seems so closed off to everybody," Lily said, applying some mascara. "I want to get to know him and what better way then to accept his offer to escort me to the Yule Ball?"
"You said you turned him down!" Dana pointed an accusing finger at Lily.
Lily sighed and put down her make-up. "I turned him down once."
Mantra giggled. "You mean the idiot had the stupidity to ask you again after you turned him down already?"
Cassie laughed. "That's just stupid, but Lils, tell us how Snivellus begged for your glorious presence with him to show off to Hogwarts?"
Lily grunted admonishingly when Cassie adopted the Marauders' nickname for the Snape (or Severus, in Lily's eyes.)
"Ok, so it was last week in Potions, you remember, Paige, and Cassie, you were with me in my table..."
FLASHBACK
"Cass, this is too hard! Lils, help me!" Paige was ready to strangle her hair from frustration.
Cassie (the resident Potions mistress in Gryffindor) and Lily (the resident walking-talking spell book) just clapped her back comfortingly and tutted.
"What are you tutting at me for? It's not my fault I can't make a Verisaterum!" Paige said angrily.
"Relax, Paige, it's not the end of the world," Lily said, trying to restore her friend to peace.
"For you it's not, since you are both so smart and-" the dumbstruck Gryffindor trailed off as she looked up at the figure that had currently shadowed over them.
"Hello," the sallow skinned, greasy-haired Slytherin greeted the Gryffindors. "Er, Ev, I mean, Lily, can I have a private word with you?"
Paige and Cassie stared at him, not trusting a word he'd said. Snape sighed, "Look, it's prefect business, besides, I'm not as bad and evil as Potter and Black made me out to be."
They nodded slightly and Lily felt a blush come up to her cheeks in embarrassment at her friend having to give a guy permission to speak to her. He pulled her up from her chair.
"What are you doing?" she hissed in his ear......Lily inhaled his scent.. 'Mmm,' she thought, as he opened his mouth to answer back, 'Strange, he smells wonderful!'
"Professor went out to get something from Madame Prinuella. I need to talk to you outside the dungeons, somewhere private," Snape hissed back, trying to stay in the good graces of Paige and Cassie.
Snape took her hand, Lily turned scathingly red again, and she quietly followed him out. "What is it, Severus?"
Lily could tell he felt a rush of gratitude towards her as she didn't call him by his last name, like most of the Gryffindors did, namely the resident pranksters of Hogwarts.
He started fidgeting with his feet and even though his hands were held together at his back, Lily strongly suspected that he was twiddling his thumbs.
"I was, uh, I was thinking, Li- Lily, would- could, I mean, would you g- go to the Yule B-Ball with me?"
The redhead looked at him expectantly, as Lily only heard the stuttering of Severus. "Could you repeat that again, Severus?"
Snape couldn't've looked more uncomfortable than that moment even if there was a poisonous rattle snake put in his boxers.
"Lily, I know you've turned me down already, but I really want to go with you to the Ball as my date, please, would you go with me?"
Lily was too stunned to speak. The first time had been bad enough, turning him down, and he asked so nicely, too, she really couldn't-
"Okay, Severus."
Snape could hardly believe his ears. "Really? OH, wow!" He did a most unexpected thing, and hugged Lily Evans, all the while thinking, 'I don't care what Father has against Muggleborns, they've proved themselves worthy of studying magic, like Lily.'
The Gryffindor could feel her face heating up as she awkwardly put her arms around the thin frame of Severus, thoughts running wildly around her head. 'There go the worries of not finding a date! But, he's a Slytherin! Oh, stop it, Lily Evans; you are no discriminator of what House a person is in, it depends on his personality!'
"If you don't mind, Severus, Professor has returned!" Lily said, hearing the familiar clicking of the sour Potion's master's boots.
When Lily came back to their table, Cassie and Paige noticed, she looked exceptionally happy and flushed. Snape looked just the way she did.
"Hey guys! Paige, I'd be glad to make your Verisaterum for you!!"
END FLASHBACK
"He HUGGED you, Lily? As in, arms around your body, embrace, a sign of affection?" Jamian shrieked.
"Yeah, and what's bloody wrong than that?" said Lily, getting a little bit pissed off at how her friends were reacting.
"Well," Mantra said, "technically, nothing's bad about that except he's a freaking "SLYTHERIN! Lils, their level is low, way low!"
Lily sighed and said, "You guys are stooping down to their level of you continue this. The only way we can be higher than them is to help them get out of that level!"
"She has a point, but still," Clara said, "that doesn't mean I like him, Lils."
Dana checked her watch, "Hey guys, it's 4 already. I think we're ready, so let's conjure the dressing board thing Cassie said about."
"Hold that thought, Dana, won't our make-up get smudged as we put on our dress robes?" Lily asked, patting a damp tissue cloth over her finished face.
Jamian laughed. "I remember, this is your first time to buy the Dictate Your Face make-up kit. There's one thing you should know, it like has this enhancement thing so that it's safe from water, smears and smudges."
"Useful for weddings wear women bawl their bloody eyes out," a male voice said. It was amazing to see the reaction of the Gryffindor girls to that single sentence.
Paige and Clara, who were sitting closely to each other screamed and jumped into a nearby bed and drew the hangings, their legs still seen from the outside. Dana and Mantra gave yelps of surprise and headed for the bathroom, slamming the door behind them. Jamian and Cassie dove into their closet, which was open, and the closet doors banged after them.
Lily, who'd stood up to get her dress robes when Dana proposed they dress up, was in the middle of the room. She sort of froze on her spot. What else would you expect from seven girls in nothing but their underwear?
There, leaning on the doorway, were none other than James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, grinning like wolves (in Remus' case that was normal).
"Why so surprised?" Sirius asked, a cheeky grin lighting up his face from ear to ear.
Remus laughed teasingly, "Yeah, Lily here isn't even attempting to cover herself!"
The aforementioned blushed and turned around, giving the boys a full view of her behind.
"Come out, it's not like we didn't see you in your bikinis a while ago," James called out to Clara and Dana, "And Lily Flower, might I say, you're as pretty in the back as you are up front!"
Sirius walked to Lily and put his hands on her shoulders, saying seductively, "And, oh Lily! What a great ass you have!"
The blushing redhead pushed Sirius away and forced the boys out of their room, and before the door completely closed on the boys' faces, she giggled, "Perverts!"
"Lils! You swam with the Marauders?" Cassie shrieked as she and the others emerged from their hiding places. "And I can't believe you just stayed you just stayed there in front of them! In your underwear!!"
"Yeah, yeah, it's not that big a deal. Besides, Peter wasn't there and I wasn't alone. Clara and Dana were with me!" Lily said, and before anyone could answer, she continued, "Let's just get on with dressing up, shall we?"
~at the common room~
"That was bloody brilliant!" Sirius whooped. "Dana was like, 'aaah!' and boom! Off to the bathroom with Mantra!"
Remus, ever the quiet one, grinned. "Did you see Clara? Just screamed and jumped in a bed!"
"Lily's reaction was the worst. Just sort of stopped moving, and stared at us like aliens. I mean, we aren't that ugly, are we, Padfoot, Moony?" James mock wiped away a tear and sniffled.
Sirius slapped James' back. "The best, you mean, Jamesie? Man, I stand by what I said earlier, Lily Evans has a great ass..I'd love to see the others'!"
~an hour later, at five o'clock, (two hours and thirty minutes till the Ball) back in the fifth year girls' dormitories~
Jamian's voice rang out through the messy circular room. "Hey, everyone, are we all ready to come out?"
"Yeah, just a minute or two, Jamian, I have to put on my shoes, and it's so hard," Paige complained.
"I also need to find the back of my earring!" Dana said frantically and Lily could hear rustling sounds coming from Dana's dressing board as she lifted the plastic and wrapping paper in search of the back of her earring.
Mantra shouted, "I need a brush, and I don't have my wand with me, could someone toss one?"
From Cassie's board came flying a brown brush, sailing through the air and landing on-
"Ow! Oooh, who ever threw that is going to have to pay, you conked me on my head!" Mantra said fiercely, and Lily giggled, Mantra was rubbing her head back and forth in an effort to ease the bump and muttering darkly 'under her breath'.
After a good ten minutes, "Are we ready now?" Jamian yelled.
"Yeah, Jay, we're done," Lily said, fixing her hair one last time. She stepped out and gazed at her friends. They were all smiling insecurely and self-consciously.
"So," Clara said, her smile still plastered on her face, "I guess I'll take away the mirrors and boards now, eh?"
No reaction. She sighed and with a wave her wand, the mirrors and boards disappeared, the messy room back to its usual orderliness. With another wave of her wand, their vanity mirror enlarged and stood before the girls, who looked back at their reflections.
"We're gorgeous!" Mantra said, twirling around so that her cream-colored dress robes flowed out gracefully around her.
"You could say that again," Cassie said as her beautiful burgundy gown sparkled in the light of their room.
Paige stood in robes of dark purple and commented dreamily, oozing with confidence, "We're definitely hot!"
"I'm so buying all my dress robes from that store from now on!" Dana said, twirling like Mantra and she watched her dress robes of canary yellow hug her body nicely.
"Of course we'll buy our robes there," Clara said reassuringly, fingering the beautiful light gold material that layered her robes.
Jamian, the usually loud girl, was outspoken this time. "In all my life, I never thought I could be so pretty," she said softly, lightly touching her robes of light pink carnation.
"Wow, I never thought I could look this okay, too!" Lily said in awe, as she gazed at herself.
In all honesty, Lily looked remarkable, beautiful, pretty, astounding, spectacular, amazing, natural. The top of her dress robes was a tube and had a tight bodice. Waist down, the skirt flowed out beneath her and covered her feet completely, leaving only her toes to be seen. It was a beautiful color, forest green, and brought put her sparkling emerald orbs. The robes hugged her figure nicely, exposing her curves. Lily's dress robes had glitter scattered all over, making Lily shine and stand out when put in the light.
She wore her hair in an elegant French twist, leaving curly auburn tendrils to frame her face. Her hairstyle exposed her neck, pale and sprinkled daintily with freckles.
Lily's face was that of an angel: dark green eyelashes and pitch black eyeliner and mascara accentuated her big green eyes, a faint blush lit up her rosy cheeks, her lips had a pale soft lip gloss to make them shine and the lip liner she'd applied made her lips fuller and pouting. She had a transparent green hunter's cloak to cover her bare shoulders.
Her neck displayed a beautiful necklace, a plain gold chain with a beautiful lily pendant (she'd decided to get rod of the emerald) hanging. Lily's right wrist had a simple bracelet, made of entwined lilies, irises and roses (this, too, had improvements, first it was only lilies, but now it included irises and roses).
Her petite feet were elongated and encased in dark green stilettos, giving her two extra inches. The straps were complicated, reminding anyone that Lily loved Herculean times (as the strapping were like the people's sandals). They spent the time just talking about everything; Hogwarts, boys, make-up, fashion, love, cute guys, everything (excluding Quidditch).
~Down with the guys, at 7:15~
"Sirius, remind me again why we're waiting for the wrong girls? Our dates are from different Houses, four your information. Except James, he's meeting Aretha in the Great Hall," Remus complained, sitting down and impatiently checking his watch.
"Because, Moony, we have to show them what they're missing when they go to Balls with other guys besides us," Sirius said indignantly.
"Who exactly are you referring to as 'they', Padfoot?" James asked, straightening his robes.
The mischievous boy grinned. "Clara for Remus, Dana for moi, and 'Lily Flower' for you."
Remus blushed and James looked away, not wanting anyone to see the blush that came upon his cheeks, too.
"Remus, you seriously don't think the whole of Gryffindor doesn't know you have a spot for Clarakins? And Prongsie! What with evening talks, your actions this a while ago and the way you act towards Lily, who wouldn't think you don't fancy her?"
Then, Sirius turned sober. "But with your habit of picking up and dropping girls every two weeks, I'm afraid she'll just get hurt."
A serious Sirius (no pun intended) wasn't something you encountered every day. James sighed. It was true; he had a new girl every two weeks. He was about to break it off with Aretha Ryan. But he wasn't as dense or daft as Sirius. He knew Lily liked him, not meaning to be arrogant, though. It was flattering, that infatuation of Lily's, but so were the rest of the girls of Hogwgarts' crushes on him. But Sirius got one thing wrong: James didn't like Lily..not in that way, at least.
"Jamesie! Oh, Jamesie!" An annoying voice sang out.
Before James could turn to Sirius and snap at him, giggling could be heard from the girls' staircase.
The three Marauders sat up, waiting eagerly for the pretty girls sure to come down after hours of getting ready. None of them even gave a thought that an annoying voice like that could ever be Lily, Dana or Clara.
To their disappointment, Alice and Hazel emerged, both in shocking pink robes. To James' dislike, Alice sidled up to him, and to Sirius' delight, Hazel made her way to him.
"Oh, Jamesie, that Aretha Ryan is so mean to steal you from me! But, I guess every hoping girl should at least have one night with James Potter," Alice giggled some more. "I remember our first date last July. After dinner, I found out that you were better in bed than I thought you to be!"
Sirius choked. "Excuse me, please keep your information about James' body to yourselves!"
James stiffened, and was about to turn to Sirius to snap at him when more giggling and loud voices came frilled the hallway following the girls' staircase again.
"I can't believe I just stood there in my knickers! Talk about embarrassing.." Lily said.
"You wanted to see Jamesie-Poo to see your gorgeous body, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hmm?" Jamian teased.
"I did not! I just..froze!" A frustrated Lily tried hard not to pull her hair from its style.
"Relax, Lils, we're only messing with you. Don't get your knickers in a twist!" laughed Cassie.
"Bet Lily would love to see Jamesie-Poo in his knickers!" Mantra said gleefully, causing more laughter.
They composed themselves as they neared the stairs, and went out one by one. Finally, only the three best friends were left. The other girls' voice faded away as they went out of the portrait hole and to the Great Hall. Clara nodded uncertainly.
"Let's go."
~With the boys!~
Remus sank deep into thought when he heard Sirius say that everyone on Gryffindor knew he had a soft spot for Clara. It was not that disturbing, but Remus found it something important to dwell on.
"Talk about embarrassing.."
HE snapped out of his stupor. "Huh?"
Sirius' beetle black eyes twinkled. "They're here, Remmie, m'boy! Clara for you, Dana for moi and 'Lily Flower' for Jamesie!"
The three boys watched eagerly, while Alice and Hazel huffed and marched through the portrait hole along with the other fifth year girls as soon as they saw the boys' attention wasn't on them.
They heard a faint, "Let's go."
And after a while, three beautiful angels stepped out to meet them.
"What time is it, again?" Dana asked.
Clara checked her watch, "Its half past two, meaning we've missed breakfast and lunch as well. Funny how it only felt so short in the pool, don't you think?"
Dana and Lily nodded.
"It- today- what-"Lily tried saying something.
Dana grinned, "That reminds me, Lil, a certain dream boy of yours had his arm around your shoulders!"
"Yeah, 'Lily Flower," added Dana teasingly, egged on by the girl's crimson face, "You, Miss Lillian Rose Evans, Gryffindor Prefect and Gryffindor Chaser snuggled up to Jamesie!"
"Don't call him that!" Lily snapped mockingly, getting to the beat of the teasing. "It's Jamesie Poo!"
The three laughed and joked until they reached the entrance of Gryffindor Tower. "Wiggle Bumpkin," said Dana.
The portrait hole revealed their familiar common room surrounded in warmth. There was something unusual since it was only the Gryffindor boys occupying the cozy red and gold room.
"We are so late for dressing up!" Clara cried, realizing their wrong timing and the three girls ran up the stairs, dropping their towels, so the older boys stared after them, mostly at their scantily clad backs, as their towels fluttered to the ground from their grasps.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Hazel stood with Alice, blocking the girls' way.
'Oh no!' Lily thought frantically. 'I should've known the past month without them hovering like hawks above my neck were too good to be true!'
"What were you doing with James?" Alice demanded, crossing her arms.
"And Sirius? You were with them from 6 in the morning until now!" challenged Hazel, advancing towards them.
"Nothing we should tell you," snapped Dana, but she was inwardly shaking with fear, for the two blondes were known to have the boys of Hogwarts under their fingers since no one dared defy them; their fathers were rather important Ministry officials.
"How dare you stand up to me, Summers, for your little Mudblood friend?!" screamed Hazel.
"You-" Clara let out a string of words that Lily knew she'd never dared say in normal circumstances but this was far from normal. Before anyone knew what the hell was happening, Lily had two scorching white slap marks on both her cheeks.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Sirius screamed. The five girls' eyes riveted to the unseen boy, stepping out of the shadows. "
They, with the exception of Hazel who brought a hand up to her hair and batted her carefully-curled eyelashes, glared at Sirius.
"What have you done, Alice? Hazel? Why'd you hit Lily?!"
Alice jumped in to help her friend. "She provoked us, Siri! We were on our way, when she," she pointed an accusing finger at Lily harshly, "came up to us and just started trash talking us!"
"I highly doubt that. Anyway, just go do your make-up or something!" Sirius stormed off to the boys; dormitories.
"You bitch!" Alice hit her shoulder against Lily's painfully. Lily winced as a pain shot up through her upper arm.
"Skank ass whore!" Alice slapped Lily across her face again with all the might she could muster, and stalked off after her friend.
"Come on, Clara, Lily," Dana said, fuming with anger. They entered the busy room of the Gryffindor fifth year girls.
"What happened?" Jamian rushed forward to them. "We could hear Dumb and Dumber screaming like maniacs all the way here!"
"We had the unfortunate displeasure of experiencing a run-in with the two blonde bimbos of Gryffindor," Clara said darkly, as they sank onto Lily's bed.
Paige swept her forehead dramatically. "OH, you poor souls! You must be scarred for life!"
Dana laughed along with the others. "Believe me, we are! Anyway, would you mind if Clara and I dressed up here?"
"Go ahead, get your stuff!" Mantra said, sidling over to Cassie, who'd grabbed her brush. Lily waved to her friends, made her way to the cabinet and opened a specially locked drawer. She took out her Hogsmeade shopping bags that held her dress robes, necklace, bracelet, make-up kit and her shoes. Lily touched the soft fabric of her dress robes and ran her fingers over it smoothly. It'd been a week since she'd last seen it (that's when she bought it) and she felt like it was worth the 26 Galleons she paid.
The two cousins arrived, bags in hand.
Cassie cleared up her throat. "Hey everyone! I'd like our dresses to be a surprise so later after we put on our make-up, let's put on our dresses behind some boards I'd be happy to conjure. Is that all right, you reckon?"
The girls set down in front of their own mirrors (duplicated from the original vanity dresser) and each took out their own make-up kit. They were all in their underwear and their hair was in towels.
"I'm so glad I remembered to buy the Dictate Your Face make-up kit last weekend!" Lily sighed happily.
"So," Paige said, as they put on their make-up, "Who're you going with to the Ball?"
Clara said thoughtfully, "I'm going with Ray Chang. He's from Ravenclaw, the one in our Care of Magical Creatures Class?"
"Hmm..," Mantra said, "I'm going out with Ludo Bagman. From Hufflepuff? I find him oh so cute and he is a Beater for his Quidditch team! We'll have a lot in common, I expect."
"I'm going with Martin Flinch-Fletchely, from Hufflepuff, too. He likes horses and musicals, like me!" Dana said happily.
Jamian said, "Well, as for me, I'm going with Anthony Abbot. You know, from Hufflepuff, too!"
Paige grinned. "Guess who I'm going with? Josh Grandon, from Gryffindor 6th year?"
The girls gushed. "Oh, you lucky girl! However did you manage to get a date with him?" demanded Clara.
"Well, it was three days ago.." Paige launched into a fully detailed description of how the handsome Gryffindor asked her out. After 15 minutes of continuous swooning and gasping, Paige asked, "Cassie, who's your date for the Ball?"
"Christian Anderson, Ravenclaw, 6th year, you know? The tall, dark and gorgeous one?" She smiled at their shocked faces.
Josh was the cousin of Christian and they were known to be two of the hottest guys in school besides the Marauders (excluding Peter, the fat little ratboy, of course).
"You guys are so lucky! I wish I had a date with either of them. Y'know, I heard that they're as nice and funny as they are cute and gorgeous!" Jamian said, a wishful look upon her face, not unlike the rest of the girls.
"Lils, how about you? Did you say yes to any of the guys who asked you out?" Dana said, realizing that her friend hadn't told them who her date was.
The fiery redhead smiled almost as I f she were in a day dream. "Severus Snape."
Looks of disgust, venom, loathing and hatred filled the other girls' faces. (A/n: if you think that's too rash for them sorry, but they really hate Snivellus!)
"Lily, why? Why a Slytherin?" Jamian said slowly, as if Lily could understand the rashness of her actions by accepting a date with Snape if she pronounced each word slowly.
"I don't know, he just seems so closed off to everybody," Lily said, applying some mascara. "I want to get to know him and what better way then to accept his offer to escort me to the Yule Ball?"
"You said you turned him down!" Dana pointed an accusing finger at Lily.
Lily sighed and put down her make-up. "I turned him down once."
Mantra giggled. "You mean the idiot had the stupidity to ask you again after you turned him down already?"
Cassie laughed. "That's just stupid, but Lils, tell us how Snivellus begged for your glorious presence with him to show off to Hogwarts?"
Lily grunted admonishingly when Cassie adopted the Marauders' nickname for the Snape (or Severus, in Lily's eyes.)
"Ok, so it was last week in Potions, you remember, Paige, and Cassie, you were with me in my table..."
FLASHBACK
"Cass, this is too hard! Lils, help me!" Paige was ready to strangle her hair from frustration.
Cassie (the resident Potions mistress in Gryffindor) and Lily (the resident walking-talking spell book) just clapped her back comfortingly and tutted.
"What are you tutting at me for? It's not my fault I can't make a Verisaterum!" Paige said angrily.
"Relax, Paige, it's not the end of the world," Lily said, trying to restore her friend to peace.
"For you it's not, since you are both so smart and-" the dumbstruck Gryffindor trailed off as she looked up at the figure that had currently shadowed over them.
"Hello," the sallow skinned, greasy-haired Slytherin greeted the Gryffindors. "Er, Ev, I mean, Lily, can I have a private word with you?"
Paige and Cassie stared at him, not trusting a word he'd said. Snape sighed, "Look, it's prefect business, besides, I'm not as bad and evil as Potter and Black made me out to be."
They nodded slightly and Lily felt a blush come up to her cheeks in embarrassment at her friend having to give a guy permission to speak to her. He pulled her up from her chair.
"What are you doing?" she hissed in his ear......Lily inhaled his scent.. 'Mmm,' she thought, as he opened his mouth to answer back, 'Strange, he smells wonderful!'
"Professor went out to get something from Madame Prinuella. I need to talk to you outside the dungeons, somewhere private," Snape hissed back, trying to stay in the good graces of Paige and Cassie.
Snape took her hand, Lily turned scathingly red again, and she quietly followed him out. "What is it, Severus?"
Lily could tell he felt a rush of gratitude towards her as she didn't call him by his last name, like most of the Gryffindors did, namely the resident pranksters of Hogwarts.
He started fidgeting with his feet and even though his hands were held together at his back, Lily strongly suspected that he was twiddling his thumbs.
"I was, uh, I was thinking, Li- Lily, would- could, I mean, would you g- go to the Yule B-Ball with me?"
The redhead looked at him expectantly, as Lily only heard the stuttering of Severus. "Could you repeat that again, Severus?"
Snape couldn't've looked more uncomfortable than that moment even if there was a poisonous rattle snake put in his boxers.
"Lily, I know you've turned me down already, but I really want to go with you to the Ball as my date, please, would you go with me?"
Lily was too stunned to speak. The first time had been bad enough, turning him down, and he asked so nicely, too, she really couldn't-
"Okay, Severus."
Snape could hardly believe his ears. "Really? OH, wow!" He did a most unexpected thing, and hugged Lily Evans, all the while thinking, 'I don't care what Father has against Muggleborns, they've proved themselves worthy of studying magic, like Lily.'
The Gryffindor could feel her face heating up as she awkwardly put her arms around the thin frame of Severus, thoughts running wildly around her head. 'There go the worries of not finding a date! But, he's a Slytherin! Oh, stop it, Lily Evans; you are no discriminator of what House a person is in, it depends on his personality!'
"If you don't mind, Severus, Professor has returned!" Lily said, hearing the familiar clicking of the sour Potion's master's boots.
When Lily came back to their table, Cassie and Paige noticed, she looked exceptionally happy and flushed. Snape looked just the way she did.
"Hey guys! Paige, I'd be glad to make your Verisaterum for you!!"
END FLASHBACK
"He HUGGED you, Lily? As in, arms around your body, embrace, a sign of affection?" Jamian shrieked.
"Yeah, and what's bloody wrong than that?" said Lily, getting a little bit pissed off at how her friends were reacting.
"Well," Mantra said, "technically, nothing's bad about that except he's a freaking "SLYTHERIN! Lils, their level is low, way low!"
Lily sighed and said, "You guys are stooping down to their level of you continue this. The only way we can be higher than them is to help them get out of that level!"
"She has a point, but still," Clara said, "that doesn't mean I like him, Lils."
Dana checked her watch, "Hey guys, it's 4 already. I think we're ready, so let's conjure the dressing board thing Cassie said about."
"Hold that thought, Dana, won't our make-up get smudged as we put on our dress robes?" Lily asked, patting a damp tissue cloth over her finished face.
Jamian laughed. "I remember, this is your first time to buy the Dictate Your Face make-up kit. There's one thing you should know, it like has this enhancement thing so that it's safe from water, smears and smudges."
"Useful for weddings wear women bawl their bloody eyes out," a male voice said. It was amazing to see the reaction of the Gryffindor girls to that single sentence.
Paige and Clara, who were sitting closely to each other screamed and jumped into a nearby bed and drew the hangings, their legs still seen from the outside. Dana and Mantra gave yelps of surprise and headed for the bathroom, slamming the door behind them. Jamian and Cassie dove into their closet, which was open, and the closet doors banged after them.
Lily, who'd stood up to get her dress robes when Dana proposed they dress up, was in the middle of the room. She sort of froze on her spot. What else would you expect from seven girls in nothing but their underwear?
There, leaning on the doorway, were none other than James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, grinning like wolves (in Remus' case that was normal).
"Why so surprised?" Sirius asked, a cheeky grin lighting up his face from ear to ear.
Remus laughed teasingly, "Yeah, Lily here isn't even attempting to cover herself!"
The aforementioned blushed and turned around, giving the boys a full view of her behind.
"Come out, it's not like we didn't see you in your bikinis a while ago," James called out to Clara and Dana, "And Lily Flower, might I say, you're as pretty in the back as you are up front!"
Sirius walked to Lily and put his hands on her shoulders, saying seductively, "And, oh Lily! What a great ass you have!"
The blushing redhead pushed Sirius away and forced the boys out of their room, and before the door completely closed on the boys' faces, she giggled, "Perverts!"
"Lils! You swam with the Marauders?" Cassie shrieked as she and the others emerged from their hiding places. "And I can't believe you just stayed you just stayed there in front of them! In your underwear!!"
"Yeah, yeah, it's not that big a deal. Besides, Peter wasn't there and I wasn't alone. Clara and Dana were with me!" Lily said, and before anyone could answer, she continued, "Let's just get on with dressing up, shall we?"
~at the common room~
"That was bloody brilliant!" Sirius whooped. "Dana was like, 'aaah!' and boom! Off to the bathroom with Mantra!"
Remus, ever the quiet one, grinned. "Did you see Clara? Just screamed and jumped in a bed!"
"Lily's reaction was the worst. Just sort of stopped moving, and stared at us like aliens. I mean, we aren't that ugly, are we, Padfoot, Moony?" James mock wiped away a tear and sniffled.
Sirius slapped James' back. "The best, you mean, Jamesie? Man, I stand by what I said earlier, Lily Evans has a great ass..I'd love to see the others'!"
~an hour later, at five o'clock, (two hours and thirty minutes till the Ball) back in the fifth year girls' dormitories~
Jamian's voice rang out through the messy circular room. "Hey, everyone, are we all ready to come out?"
"Yeah, just a minute or two, Jamian, I have to put on my shoes, and it's so hard," Paige complained.
"I also need to find the back of my earring!" Dana said frantically and Lily could hear rustling sounds coming from Dana's dressing board as she lifted the plastic and wrapping paper in search of the back of her earring.
Mantra shouted, "I need a brush, and I don't have my wand with me, could someone toss one?"
From Cassie's board came flying a brown brush, sailing through the air and landing on-
"Ow! Oooh, who ever threw that is going to have to pay, you conked me on my head!" Mantra said fiercely, and Lily giggled, Mantra was rubbing her head back and forth in an effort to ease the bump and muttering darkly 'under her breath'.
After a good ten minutes, "Are we ready now?" Jamian yelled.
"Yeah, Jay, we're done," Lily said, fixing her hair one last time. She stepped out and gazed at her friends. They were all smiling insecurely and self-consciously.
"So," Clara said, her smile still plastered on her face, "I guess I'll take away the mirrors and boards now, eh?"
No reaction. She sighed and with a wave her wand, the mirrors and boards disappeared, the messy room back to its usual orderliness. With another wave of her wand, their vanity mirror enlarged and stood before the girls, who looked back at their reflections.
"We're gorgeous!" Mantra said, twirling around so that her cream-colored dress robes flowed out gracefully around her.
"You could say that again," Cassie said as her beautiful burgundy gown sparkled in the light of their room.
Paige stood in robes of dark purple and commented dreamily, oozing with confidence, "We're definitely hot!"
"I'm so buying all my dress robes from that store from now on!" Dana said, twirling like Mantra and she watched her dress robes of canary yellow hug her body nicely.
"Of course we'll buy our robes there," Clara said reassuringly, fingering the beautiful light gold material that layered her robes.
Jamian, the usually loud girl, was outspoken this time. "In all my life, I never thought I could be so pretty," she said softly, lightly touching her robes of light pink carnation.
"Wow, I never thought I could look this okay, too!" Lily said in awe, as she gazed at herself.
In all honesty, Lily looked remarkable, beautiful, pretty, astounding, spectacular, amazing, natural. The top of her dress robes was a tube and had a tight bodice. Waist down, the skirt flowed out beneath her and covered her feet completely, leaving only her toes to be seen. It was a beautiful color, forest green, and brought put her sparkling emerald orbs. The robes hugged her figure nicely, exposing her curves. Lily's dress robes had glitter scattered all over, making Lily shine and stand out when put in the light.
She wore her hair in an elegant French twist, leaving curly auburn tendrils to frame her face. Her hairstyle exposed her neck, pale and sprinkled daintily with freckles.
Lily's face was that of an angel: dark green eyelashes and pitch black eyeliner and mascara accentuated her big green eyes, a faint blush lit up her rosy cheeks, her lips had a pale soft lip gloss to make them shine and the lip liner she'd applied made her lips fuller and pouting. She had a transparent green hunter's cloak to cover her bare shoulders.
Her neck displayed a beautiful necklace, a plain gold chain with a beautiful lily pendant (she'd decided to get rod of the emerald) hanging. Lily's right wrist had a simple bracelet, made of entwined lilies, irises and roses (this, too, had improvements, first it was only lilies, but now it included irises and roses).
Her petite feet were elongated and encased in dark green stilettos, giving her two extra inches. The straps were complicated, reminding anyone that Lily loved Herculean times (as the strapping were like the people's sandals). They spent the time just talking about everything; Hogwarts, boys, make-up, fashion, love, cute guys, everything (excluding Quidditch).
~Down with the guys, at 7:15~
"Sirius, remind me again why we're waiting for the wrong girls? Our dates are from different Houses, four your information. Except James, he's meeting Aretha in the Great Hall," Remus complained, sitting down and impatiently checking his watch.
"Because, Moony, we have to show them what they're missing when they go to Balls with other guys besides us," Sirius said indignantly.
"Who exactly are you referring to as 'they', Padfoot?" James asked, straightening his robes.
The mischievous boy grinned. "Clara for Remus, Dana for moi, and 'Lily Flower' for you."
Remus blushed and James looked away, not wanting anyone to see the blush that came upon his cheeks, too.
"Remus, you seriously don't think the whole of Gryffindor doesn't know you have a spot for Clarakins? And Prongsie! What with evening talks, your actions this a while ago and the way you act towards Lily, who wouldn't think you don't fancy her?"
Then, Sirius turned sober. "But with your habit of picking up and dropping girls every two weeks, I'm afraid she'll just get hurt."
A serious Sirius (no pun intended) wasn't something you encountered every day. James sighed. It was true; he had a new girl every two weeks. He was about to break it off with Aretha Ryan. But he wasn't as dense or daft as Sirius. He knew Lily liked him, not meaning to be arrogant, though. It was flattering, that infatuation of Lily's, but so were the rest of the girls of Hogwgarts' crushes on him. But Sirius got one thing wrong: James didn't like Lily..not in that way, at least.
"Jamesie! Oh, Jamesie!" An annoying voice sang out.
Before James could turn to Sirius and snap at him, giggling could be heard from the girls' staircase.
The three Marauders sat up, waiting eagerly for the pretty girls sure to come down after hours of getting ready. None of them even gave a thought that an annoying voice like that could ever be Lily, Dana or Clara.
To their disappointment, Alice and Hazel emerged, both in shocking pink robes. To James' dislike, Alice sidled up to him, and to Sirius' delight, Hazel made her way to him.
"Oh, Jamesie, that Aretha Ryan is so mean to steal you from me! But, I guess every hoping girl should at least have one night with James Potter," Alice giggled some more. "I remember our first date last July. After dinner, I found out that you were better in bed than I thought you to be!"
Sirius choked. "Excuse me, please keep your information about James' body to yourselves!"
James stiffened, and was about to turn to Sirius to snap at him when more giggling and loud voices came frilled the hallway following the girls' staircase again.
"I can't believe I just stood there in my knickers! Talk about embarrassing.." Lily said.
"You wanted to see Jamesie-Poo to see your gorgeous body, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, hmm?" Jamian teased.
"I did not! I just..froze!" A frustrated Lily tried hard not to pull her hair from its style.
"Relax, Lils, we're only messing with you. Don't get your knickers in a twist!" laughed Cassie.
"Bet Lily would love to see Jamesie-Poo in his knickers!" Mantra said gleefully, causing more laughter.
They composed themselves as they neared the stairs, and went out one by one. Finally, only the three best friends were left. The other girls' voice faded away as they went out of the portrait hole and to the Great Hall. Clara nodded uncertainly.
"Let's go."
~With the boys!~
Remus sank deep into thought when he heard Sirius say that everyone on Gryffindor knew he had a soft spot for Clara. It was not that disturbing, but Remus found it something important to dwell on.
"Talk about embarrassing.."
HE snapped out of his stupor. "Huh?"
Sirius' beetle black eyes twinkled. "They're here, Remmie, m'boy! Clara for you, Dana for moi and 'Lily Flower' for Jamesie!"
The three boys watched eagerly, while Alice and Hazel huffed and marched through the portrait hole along with the other fifth year girls as soon as they saw the boys' attention wasn't on them.
They heard a faint, "Let's go."
And after a while, three beautiful angels stepped out to meet them.
