Disclaimer: Professor Dumbledore and his students are the property of J. K. Rowling.
Choosing the Head Boy Chapter Five—DecemberLily shoved away the papers on the table in front of her, spilling a bottle of black ink in the process. "Stupid, stupid, stupid," she muttered as she tried to blot up the black puddle with wadded up parchment. She dropped the soggy parchment in the bin and then scowled in disgust at her blackened fingers.
"Just wipe them off on your robe," James said with a laugh. "It's already black."
"And then I'll get ink on the upholstery of the sofa. Men," she huffed with a roll of her eyes.
"Or you could ask a handsome wizard you know to do a cleaning charm on your hands and the table," James said as he twirled his wand between his fingers.
"Or I could ask you instead," she said with a smile
James grinned back. He liked her sharp tongue and her willingness to insult him. It called to mind the teasing familiarity that he and his friends shared, and he much preferred it to the fawning attention some girls gave him because he was a Quidditch player. Lily's insults had more genuine affection than their compliments. He also liked Lily's smile, and he hadn't seen enough of it in the last two weeks. It pleased him when he succeeded in drawing it out.
"Scourgify," he said as he flicked his wand at her hands and then repeated the charm for the table. He gestured to the prefects' hall duty schedule for January and February. They were trying to get it done early before getting bogged down in end of term work. "Do you want me to finish this? You don't seem to have the patience for it tonight."
"No, it's not this—it's—" She sighed in frustration.
"C'mon," he said as he grabbed her by the hand and pulled her toward the office door. "This can wait. You need chocolate. Have you ever been to the kitchen before?"
"No, and you shouldn't be there either. We shouldn't be sneaking around in the kitchen."
"We won't be sneaking," James said. "If you'd ever been there before you'd know that we're welcome in there."
Lily found that James was not exaggerating. The house elves who comprised the kitchen staff were elated to have students in need of pampering within their midst. A large slice of the chocolate cake that Lily had eyed at dinner, and then virtuously declined, soon found it's way in front of her. James refused the cake. He requested a big plate of hot, greasy chips instead. She watched with amusement as he tried to eat the first ones without burning his fingertips or tongue.
"You could do a cooling charm, you know."
He shook his head as he inhaled to cool his tongue. "Better hot." He paused in eating only when Lily licked chocolate frosting off the fork. She tried not to smirk.
"James was right; I did need chocolate," she realized as she began to relax and feel more like herself.
"So, are you going to tell me what's wrong, or do I need to guess?" he asked.
"I guess I was just feeling down because I decided to stay here for Christmas."
"You could come to my house for Christmas," James offered immediately. "My parents are 'the more, the merrier' kind of people. Sirius could move into my room, and you could—"
"No thank you," Lily interrupted him with an emphatic tone. "I wasn't fishing for an invitation. I've decided to stay here."
James's brow wrinkled as he stared at her intensely for a moment. "You're depressed about staying here, but you want to stay here. O.K., let's back up. Why are you staying here anyway? Will your parents be away or something?"
Lily found herself spared the necessity of answering when a house elf came over to remove the empty dishes. "Will Sir or Miss want anything else?"
"No thanks, Frigg. The chips were great as usual." The elf beamed as he took the dishes and hurried away. "Spill, Evans. I'm good at guessing, but I'd prefer not to."
"It wouldn't be safe if I go home—for my family, I mean. There are people out there who honestly, seriously, want to kill me. They can't get me here, but they might try when I'm at home. My parents are Muggles; they'd be sitting ducks. I can't do that to them." She felt sad but resigned, so she forced a slight smile. "The only good part of all this it that I won't have to spend Christmas with my sister's fiancé. Vernon. Ugh." She laughed and smiled again, but her heart wasn't in it.
"Sirius stayed here for Christmas a couple of times. He said the feast was great, and there's always at least a few Gryffindors who stay, so you won't be in the tower alone." James thought for a moment. "Your parents are in danger if people know you went home for the holiday, right?" She nodded. "So, how about this. You make sure it's common knowledge that you are staying here, and you do stay here most of the time. But maybe for part of Christmas Day, or for Christmas Eve, you go home and spend some time with your family. Or, better yet, Boxing Day! People will pay attention to whether or not you're here on Christmas, but no one will even notice if you aren't here the next day. And if you time it right, you can avoid the dreaded Vernon."
"Lovely plan, but I've no way to get home. I haven't taken my apparition test yet—I was supposed to do that during the Christmas break—and I can't Floo home as my home isn't on the Floo Network."
"The Knight Bus," James said as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Oh," Lily blinked as she thought about it. "I could, couldn't I?"
James looked at his watch. "C'mon, it's getting late. We'd better get the papers we left scattered in the Prefects' office and head back to Gryffindor."
He took her by the hand as they stood to leave, but Lily wasn't quite ready to leave. She gave his hand a slight pull, and he immediately stepped closer with a smile.
"Thank you for the invitation and for the wonderful idea," she whispered just before kissing him.
"If I have another wonderful idea, do I get another kiss?"
"Um-hmm," she murmured as she cuddled closer.
"I'll come back early, and maybe we could have a little New Year's Eve Party or something."
"I'd like that."
* * * * *
Although her arithmancy textbook and notes lay spread on the table before her, Lily knew that she had absolutely no hope of getting any work accomplished. In the letter she had received yesterday, James had said that he be back at school at eleven o'clock on the thirtieth. Today was the thirtieth, so Lily was wearing the copper-coloured cashmere sweater that James had sent her for Christmas, and according to her watch, it was almost half past eleven. He hadn't said how he would be returning to school, so Lily had chosen a seat where she could watch both the common room fireplace and the portrait hole. She was just starting to worry that he meant eleven p.m. rather than eleven a.m., when the portrait hole opened and the familiar messy black hair came into view.
For just a moment, Lily considered pretending that she was deeply engrossed in her work. Someone had once told her that it wasn't "ladylike" to appear overanxious for a date. Then he remembered that the "someone" had been her sister, Petunia. She abandoned arithmancy and ran to give James a welcoming hug. James dropped his bag, but his broomstick remained firmly in his other hand as he hugged and kissed her back.
"Don't tell me you flew up here," Lily said as she pressed the palms of her hands against his cold cheeks.
"No, I apparated to Hogsmeade and flew from there. I like flying over the Forbidden Forest. It's interesting seeing it from above. And very nice to see you in that colour again."
"I love it. Thank you. But I know how much cashmere costs, and you shouldn't have spent so much."
He shrugged. "I wanted it to be soft for you. Thank you for the fountain pen. I'd never seen one before. Very cool. I liked being able to write and write without slowing down to ink it like a quill."
"There are some things Muggles have that are better than what wizards use," she said with a grin.
"I tried some other kind of Muggle pen once before, but it didn't feel right or look right. Will you come upstairs with me while I put my stuff away?" He glanced over at the only other occupants of the common room, three younger students playing cards. "Or do you want to wait here?"
"Go upstairs," one of the younger students said without looking up. "We won't tell."
"I guess if James Potter can obey the rules, Lily Evans can break one," she said with a smile. She led the way up to the seventh year boys' dorm. As she entered the circular room, she tried to guess which bed was James's without looking at the trunks at the feet of the beds. Unfortunately, after being empty of its usual occupants for a week, there were no telltale clues left strewn around. "Overly efficient house elves," Lily thought.
James went to the bed directly opposite the door and put his bag down beside the trunk. Lily followed and sat on his bed while he put his things away. "Whose bed is whose?" she asked.
"That's Peter's," James said as he pointed to the bed on his left, "and that's Sirius's," he pointed to his right, "and Remus is on the other side of Sirius. Lucky me, Peter and Sirius both snore. Thank God that Remus arrived at school already knowing how to do a silencing charm."
"Wow, we didn't start learning those in class until fourth year."
"Well, Remus used to have some really horrible nightmares—not so much anymore—but he was afraid that he'd wake his dorm mates up. So, his mum taught him how to put a silencing charm on the curtains of his bed. Of course," James said with a grin as stretched out on the bed beside her, "once we hit puberty, we all thought that it wonderful that we had learned that charm, just in case we ever had an opportunity to put it to good use."
"And have you put it to good use, James?"
"Of course."
Lily tried not to show her disappointment at that admission, or her disapproval at the flippant way that he had said it.
"Like I said," James continued, "I have three very noisy dorm mates. Oh, did you think that I meant sex?" he asked in mock surprise. "I'm surprised at you, Miss Evans. A gentleman never kisses and tells." He laughed at the blush on her cheeks. "You're cute when you blush, you know."
He slid one hand up her back and began to run his fingers through her long hair. She reciprocated by leaning down and pulling off his glasses to kiss him again. The kiss in the common room had been an innocent fit-for-in public kiss. This one was not. Tongues sliding over tongues, and hands sliding over clothes, itching to slid inside.
"You have two choices, Red," James said almost breathlessly. "Do we go back downstairs now, before our young friends start to imagine what we're up to? Or do we stay up here for a mind-blowing snog as long as they think that's what we're doing anyway?"
"Actually, we have a New Year's Eve party to plan." And she slid off the bed before he could object.
"All we need is you, me, and champagne," he said as he patted the side of the bed. "What's your hurry?" But she was already heading down the stairs, and James dutifully followed a moment later.
"We need to plan a few things," she said over her shoulder as they went down the narrow spiraling stairs. "I know that when you offered to come back early so we could celebrate New Year's Eve, you meant a party for the two of us, but—do you have any idea how many students stayed here for Christmas this year? Some are here for the same reason that I am; it wasn't safe for them to go home. Some of those, their families have actually had to go into hiding. And some students are here because their families have been killed. It made me feel so guilty that I had felt sorry for myself. And then I started thinking about how much I was looking forward to New Year's Eve and seeing you, and I—"
"And you wanted to have a New Year's Eve Party for everyone," he finished with a smile. "It's a great idea, Lily. So, what do we need to do?"
"Well, the kitchen staff will take care of the food; I've already asked. And Professor Dumbledore said that he'd put some circular tables in the Great Hall instead of the usual house tables. We thought that it would look more like a special occasion that way. All we need to take care of are music, decorations and anything special that you can think of." As she spoke, she grabbed a blank piece of parchment and a pen from the table where she had been working and then sat down on a loveseat by the fireplace.
James sat beside her. "Special? You've got me at a disadvantage, Lily. First you only give me one day's notice to come up with something worthy of the Head Girl's grand soiree, and I've got to come up with it without my usual accomplices."
"I have faith in you. You'll rise to the challenge." She gave him a quick kiss to back up her words. "Speaking of your accomplices, where is Sirius today? Did he feel comfortable staying at your house without you, or did he go to one of your other friends?"
"He's at Remus's for a couple of days. I think Remus was considering inviting him over anyway, and when I said that it would be a big favor to me if he did, it gave him an excuse. Of course, Sirius is just over the moon that Remus invited him. He was so excited this morning. He woke me up at six bloody thirty this morning—by jumping on my bed—because he couldn't sleep." He left out the detail that Sirius had also licked James's face. He thought it might sound just a bit odd since he couldn't explain that Sirius had had fur and four feet when he had jumped on the bed.
He looked down at the parchment on which Lily had just written "Decorations." "What kind of decorations did you have in mind?"
"I had been thinking of wintry colours—white, silver, pale blue—but you gave me a better idea while we were upstairs."
"You were giving me a better idea upstairs too, but it had nothing to do with the decorations," he said quietly enough that the card players would not overhear.
She smiled and allowed her long hair to fall forward and partially cover her face. "Later—if you're a good boy and help me with this."
"I can be a very good boy—if I have the right incentive." He pulled her hair back over her shoulder and began running his fingers through it again. "What wonderful idea did I inspire you with?"
"Champagne. I don't know about wizards, but I know that some Muggles consider champagne an almost essential part of New Year's Eve, and—"
"I didn't bring that much champagne back with me," he interrupted.
"No," she said laughing, "it just made me think of bubbles and champagne colours. I know the charm that Professor Flitwick used to create all those unbreakable bubbles on some of the Christmas trees, and we could use a variable levitation charm on them to make them float around the room."
"I can picture it; I like it. And if we made some of them glow, we could skip the usual candles."
"Oh—yes, I like that."
"So, other than drink champagne, what else do Muggles do on New Year's Eve?"
"I can only think of one thing," Lily lied. She didn't think it wise to mention the tradition of noise making at midnight to James. "If you kiss the one you love at midnight, it'll ensure that you'll be together throughout the new year."
"You'll definitely have to help me practice that one; I want to do it right tomorrow night."
* * * * *
James's familiarity with the lesser-known parts of the castle proved beneficial. He brought Lily to the storage room where the various banners and other decorative hangings for the Great Hall were stored. The silver banners, paired with green for the Leaving Feast last year, and the gold banners, paired with red during the two previous Leaving Feasts, were selected to be paired together. Professor Dumbledore or Professor Flitwick could easily summon them directly from the storage room to their places in the Great Hall, but since Lily, James, and a handful of helpers would be doing this themselves, they stored them in the small sitting room off the Great Hall until the time came to hang them after dinner.
He also led Lily to one of the large butler's pantries just off the kitchen. This one contained not only the school's extensive collection of gold flatware, goblets and plates, but also an equally extensive collection of the same in silver.
"I don't know why they never use this anymore," Lily wondered as she held a silver fork closer to a sconce and examined the design. "I remember our very first night here, the tables were set with all the gold plates, and one of the older girls mentioned that she'd never seen them before. They used to use silver for feasts."
"That was when they started using the gold ones? I didn't know that." James would have been willing to bet his broomstick—and he loved his broomstick—that he knew exactly why the switch from silver to gold had coincided with his class's arrival at Hogwarts. Silver burns werewolves. "Maybe some wealthy Gryffindor alumnus didn't want his children eating off Slytherin silver plates and gave the school some Gryffindor gold ones instead," he joked.
Lily suddenly gave James a very appraising look. "Oh? Is that just a random thought, or do you know that's the case?"
"What?" James realized that he had inadvertently implied that his family had given the gold plates to the school. "No! I didn't mean—I was just joking. But, now that I think about it, our first year was Dumbledore's first full year as Headmaster, right? And he's a Gryffindor. So maybe the switch from using these plates," he lifted a silver plate, "to these," he lifted a gold one, "did have something to do with lingering house loyalty."
"Perhaps," Lily admitted as she put the fork back where it belonged.
"So which ones do you want to use?"
"Both. Gold and silver just like the banners. We'll use the gold plates, the silver goblets and flatware, and a mix of both for the serving pieces. Now if only the houses mixed equally as well."
* * * * *
The task of creating hundreds of unbreakable bubbles had fallen upon Lily and her assistants. Some helped because they were prefects, some helped because they were Gryffindors, and some helped because they were bored and had wandered into the Great Hall looking for something to do. Most hadn't known the charm necessary to create the bubbles, but all learned it quickly under Lily's tutelage. Caroline Ernst of Ravenclaw had initially been frustrated that she couldn't make her bubbles consistent in size. Lily pointed out that soap bubbles varied in size too, and that it was part of their charm. The levitation charm would not be put on the bubbles until after dinner, so the bubble makers stored their creations in the enormous chests that Professor McGonagall had transfigured from half of each house table.
Lily had been irritated that James was nowhere to be found that morning, but he had dashed into the Great Hall at lunchtime and explained that he had been in the library all morning researching.
"Researching what?" Lily asked warily.
"You did say that you wanted something 'special' for the party, right? Well, I thought of something last night, but I wasn't quite sure how to pull it off."
"Pull what off?"
James grinned. "You don't want to know, Lils. Not only will it spoil the surprise, but you'll lose deniability if it goes badly."
Lily suddenly regretted putting the idea in his head. "Please don't do it, whatever it is. I never meant for you to do something against the rules."
"Don't worry; it'll be fine. But I'm going to be busy all afternoon. I have to get a few ingredients in Hogsmeade, and then I have a potion to brew—and I'm really telling you too much—but I should be done by dinnertime, so I can help after dinner with the banners and the levitation charms."
* * * * *
A giant clock temporarily on the wall revealed that midnight was less than a minute away. Music was playing, couples and groups of friends were dancing in the open area fringed by tables, friends were talking and laughing at the circular tables, and a thousand bubbles floated above and around everyone.
"I feel like I'm inside champagne," Lily overheard a girl say. She smiled to herself and looked up at her dance partner. James smiled back.
"Champagne," he said. He had overheard as well. "You're brilliant you know."
"TEN…NINE…" people began to chant.
"Kiss me," James said suddenly.
"Wait for midnight," Lily said.
"SIX…FIVE…"
"No, now," he urged just before he inclined his head to catch her lips with his own. Whenever James kissed her, it was wonderful—it was both exciting and safe, both loving and erotic—and Lily almost regretted that she resisted this particular pleasure for so long.
"TWO…ONE!"
They had just parted but were still close enough to breathe only one breath. Lily felt a minuscule drop of moisture near her eye as if a soap bubble had just popped near her face. A faint scent of roses wafted through the air, and she knew that she had to kiss James again.
Wolf whistles and nervous laughter began to fill the room. Lily pulled away from the kiss in confusion. The couple that had been dancing beside them was staring at each other in shock. Nervous laughter and murmuring continued throughout the room. Lily looked up with a sudden suspicion.
"James, I don't see any pink bubbles."
Near the end of dinner, James had arrived in the Great Hall pulling a floating bag with at least a hundred pale pink bubbles. "They represent pink champagne," he had explained.
"Of course not, they all popped at the stroke of midnight."
"What was in them?"
"Air," he said with a grin.
Lily thought for a moment. "What was the outside of the bubbles made of?"
"Primarily soap, glycerin—and a love potion."
"James!" Panicking, Lily looked around the room again. No one seemed to be behaving more amorously than they should be. "Love potions are illegal!" she hissed.
"Not this one; it's too weak. The most it can do is give someone a nudge into kissing or hugging someone else, and that only if they like each other anyway. It's not strong enough to overrule your existing feelings or lack of them. Besides, no one got more than a whiff of it, so no one even had a strong dose."
"But still—" she continued to look around the room, judging everyone's reaction. No one seemed to still feel the effects, but many people seemed shocked by their own behavior or the behavior of others. Even Professor McGonagall had bright red patches on her cheeks and was alternately looking down at her feet and glancing around the room. "What were you thinking?"
"You said that it was traditional to kiss at midnight," he answered as if it had been a logical thing to do. "I didn't want us to be the only ones having fun."
"Why are so many people looking shocked?" Lily wondered. "Are you sure it only effected people who like each other anyway?"
"That's what the book said. However, they didn't have to like each other romantically; platonically will do. If I had to guess, I'd say a lot of people either saw or experienced their first same-sex kiss tonight. Consider it my little blow against homophobia. My one regret, I wasn't watching. My friends would love to hear who kissed whom. Uh-oh."
Professor Dumbledore was striding through the crowd toward them. Students were drawing back and watching the headmaster nervously. James gave Lily's hand a quick squeeze and then released it and took a step toward the headmaster. However, Dumbledore looked past James to Lily.
"Miss Evans, I would like to thank you and all your assistants for providing us with a most enjoyable and memorable evening."
"Thank you, Professor," she said. When Dumbledore's penetrating gaze shifted to James, she watched nervously.
"And Mr. Potter," Dumbledore regarded the young man waiting unflinchingly, "although I have always approved of the custom of kissing at midnight, I do think that such kisses should be completely voluntary. Wouldn't you agree?"
"Yes, Professor."
"But as no harm was done, I think one night's detention should be sufficient. Please meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall at eight o'clock on the night your other friends return." James nodded. "Quite ingenious really, the way you introduced a stabilizing agent into the Friendship Aflame Potion to make the bubbles durable enough to last until midnight. You should do quite well on your Potions N.E.W.T. later this year."
Author's Note—You don't think Dumbledore would react they way he did to James's little prank? Please remember that this is the same man who gives Harry the invisibility cloak when he is a first-year AND returns it to him when Harry accidentally leaves it behind in a tower on the night he is caught out after curfew.
--August 2003