Lily Chapter 8: The Christmas Dance, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter 8

James and Sirius were in the boys' dormitory, James holding ice to both cheeks. It was a rather comical sight, all in all. Sirius was getting bored, and when Sirius gets bored, you better watch your back. "Oh Jaaammmeess!"

"Yeeeeesss Sirius?" James was not in the best mood. He had just been slapped in the face by a first year, who, to top it off, was a girl.

"I see that crestfallen look on your sad little face. Heartbreak, my good chap, heartbreak!" He threw little sly smiles across the room at James. "And don't tell me you didn't feel the electricity crackle when Lily smacked your face."

"Look, I only like her as a friend...well, I don't really know her that well, so I guess I don't like her even as a friend...but, since she seems to be Remus's friend, I guess that she's my friend, too, if someone who slaps you across the face is considered a friend." James rubbed his own face sorely.

"Well you deserved it! You acted like a jerk out there! I mean, honestly, she just lost her parents!" Sirius was sprawled out across his bed. He looked a little like a spider, and you could almost see the web being woven in his mind. "Luckily for you, Prongs, I've thought up a plan that'll probably make Lily start talking to you again, at least. If it works out the right way, both of you will have a lovely experience."

James sighed and watched his breath crystallize between the ice packs. "Whatever could your plan be?"

"Well, there's going to be a dance right before the Christmas holiday. Lily seems to me like the kind of girl who loves to dance. I'll bet that if you ask her, and if you apologize, you two will be back on speaking terms with each other. I can see it all now..." Sirius clasped his hands and looked off into the distance like a lovesick schoolgirl. "The romantic lighting, the slow music, ah!" He swooned back onto his bed, fluttering his eyelids madly.

James chucked a pillow at Sirius, who caught it and sat back up. "You can forget about the romance, Mr. Matchmaker. I don't think she wants to even be in the same room as me at this point. Anyways, I have to train extra hard for our Quidditch Captain. I swear, he's lost his mind. We won Saturday's match, so we'll be playing in the tournament against Ravenclaw. Thank goodness that Malfoy broke his arm and the Slytherins didn't have a replacement. We would have been long gone by now if that hadn't happened."

"You can set aside a little time for the dance though, right?"

"Weeell....nah..." James was a little bit reluctant to agree with Sirius, since it would almost be like admitting that Sirius was right.

"I'm not telling you to kiss her or anything, I just want you to ask her to the dance!"

"She'll say no."

"And you'll be happy, right? It's a win-win situation. She says yes, you have one more friend, she says no, you avoid years of my torment. Come on!"

"All right."

James made his way down to the common room to find what he expected. There, in the dark corner of the room, was Lily. She didn't notice that he took the seat next to her until about five minutes had passed. Lily would have been content to remain in her unfocused, inward-turned thoughts, but went back to reality. She saw from out of the corner of her eyes that someone was staring at her, and set her jaw tightly when she realized that it was James Potter.

"What, are you here for a replay of this morning?" She spat, while choking back tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. "I'll be happy to slap you again!"

"Jeez, I didn't think you were going to get all offended. I was always told that the best medicine was laughter. Now I know it doesn't work for you." He half-cautiously smiled.

"No kidding!"

"I really didn't mean to make you so mad!" The smile dropped from his face. "I just wanted to make you feel better about it."

"Can one person be more insensitive?" Lily crossed her arms over her chest and avoided James's eyes. "Don't you get it? I don't WANT to laugh! I don't WANT to be happy right now!"

He sighed. "I know what you mean. How you're feeling..."

"Oh, sure you do. That's why you made fun of me like that!" Her voice positively oozed with
sarcasm.

"Look, just trust me here! I know how you feel!" James stopped trying to make eye contact with Lily and said quietly, "My mum passed away before I came to Hogwarts. I really didn't get it then, that death meant forever, but I can understand that you wouldn't want to be happy if you knew what death was."

She caught her breath with a small sob. When she spoke, her voice was heavy and uneven with
suppressed tears. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm...sorry, I guess."

"Me too. For hitting you, I mean."

"So, we're friends again?"

"Yeah, I guess so." She rose and walked towards her dormitory. "I'm going to go get some sleep."

"Um, Lily? Would you like to go to the dance with me? Just as friends, of course," he added hastily.

"Sure. Why not?" For the first time since she got the letter, Lily smiled.

The days until Saturday flew by, and soon it was time for the dance.

Lily found her emerald green robe and Chantel charmed it to sparkle, like her friend's eyes. Chrissy wove Lily's hair in a long braid with little lilies scattered throughout the thick auburn locks. Her shoes a light green and her cheeks flushed, she made her way down the steps.

Chantel wore a violet colored robe and a light shade of eye shadow. Her hair was done up with a twist that ended at the back of her head. Lily gazed around and saw Chrissy following with a river blue robe, her hair in a messy look that somehow worked, and very heavy make up.

All three girls walked in the Great Hall awaiting their dates (and friends) to arrive. After several minutes passed, the three boys sauntered in. Quite a few girls looked with longing half-smiles after James.

James approached Lily and said, "May I have this dance?" Lily took his outstretched arm and
followed him to the dance floor.

James proved to be a very good dancer, despite Lily's fears. It was kind of nice, she thought, to be dancing with him. Her world seemed to be slowly rebuilding itself, now that someone seemed to truly understand and to want to be her friend. "Something interesting going on with your feet?" She teased.

James, who had been staring down at his feet to make sure that they didn't trip over themselves, suddenly looked up. "Hmm?"

"Never mind," Lily laughed. They kept dancing, her world seeming to come together one brick at a time with every note of the music.

When the song ended, they walked back to the Gryffindor table. "Want some punch?" James offered.

"Sure," she said.

A third-year Hufflepuff girl came over, glaring at Lily. "What do you think you're doing with James Potter?"

"We're just here as friends," Lily explained placidly.

"Well, you're not looking at him like you're just friends. And let me spare you a world of disappointment, little girl. He's out of your league. For one thing…"

Lily didn't feel like having her faults laid out for her. "Thank you for your concern," she interrupted, "But I told you, James and I are just friends."

The girl acquired a smirk that looked like she had just eaten a dozen lemons and rose her voice so that everyone within a ten-meter radius could hear. "Hmm. I just hope that a scrawny, uppity little self-righteous first year brat like you doesn't have high expectations. It would be just terrible for you to get rejected. I'm sure you would." The girl's blatant cruelty left Lily speechless. The older girl was just about to launch into another bitter tirade on Lily's self-esteem when she saw James coming from the other side of the Great Hall. She smiled nastily. "Have a lovely evening."

Just like that, Lily's world fell back down. She felt the tears start to well up behind her eyes, but she had just a shred of dignity left, and she wasn't about to destroy that by letting that Hufflepuff girl – or anyone else – see her sobbing. Without even staying until James reached the table, she ran, she ran out the front door until she felt the cold night air grip her skin, sending chills throughout her body.

Her mind turned into an irrational whirlwind, somehow connecting the girl's vicious insults to fault for her parents' deaths. She was uppity, she was self-righteous, why else would she have almost started to get a crush on James? And what made her think she could actually make it in the best school of witchcraft and wizardry in the country? What made her even presume to answer the owl, to come here and distinguish her family to Voldemort? Where did she get the gall to –

"Lily?" Her self-deprecating train of thought was halted when James called after her. "Lily, what happened?"

She turned around and looked straight at him. Nothing. Just friends, she thought with relief. Only then could she calm down enough to answer. "It's just…this Hufflepuff girl came over when you were getting us punch, and she sort of started making fun of me for no reason. No reason I could think of, anyway."

"Er…I think she might've been jealous. I got a lot of invitations to this dance, y'know."

"What?" Now she felt even worse.

James smiled bashfully. "I'm not trying to be a show-off, but a lot of girls did ask me to this dance. After I asked you. So, I think that girl was jealous of you. Sorry."

"That's fine." She took a shuddering breath and tried to calm down. "It's not your fault."

"I'm still sorry." He shrugged, sitting down on a bench next to a marble fountain. He hesitated, then spoke. "You ever been to Hogsmeade?"

"Of course not! I'm just a first year, remember? Only third years and up are allowed to go to Hogsmeade."

"What would you say if I told you that we could go there right now? Buy some things from
Honeydukes? Well, maybe not buy, per se…"

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

"How can you get there?"

"I have a map...."