Lily Chapter 36: The Matchmaker, a harry potter fanfic

Lily

Chapter 36

Lily walked to the common room after being in the library. She had been studying for a Potions exam...or at least she would have been, if that stupid little Gilderoy hadn't been hanging around her the whole time, babbling about how charming he was.

She wasn't at all surprised to see the "miniature egomaniac" clinging to Eurydice once again, near the portrait hole. "Come on. You know you love me! Don't be coy!"

"But I don't!" Poor Eurydice looked scared.

"I'll make it easy for you. You're in such deep denial, it's just too hard to ask me to the dance. I'll ask you!"

"But don't you already have a date? Jessica?"

"Who ever said a gentleman like me couldn't take two at one time?" He smiled that toothy smile of his. "Come on, what do you say?"

Little did he know that Juno was right behind him. She grabbed him by the collar and shoved him against the wall. "Listen, you little (censored)! She said she doesn't want to go to the dance with you! Do you have a problem with that?"

Gilderoy raised an eyebrow. "I've never seen a girl go to such great lengths just to get a kiss. Pucker up!"

"Yick!" She dropped him and backed off. "You're such an (censored)!"

"Juno!" Eurydice picked Gilderoy up and straightened his robes. "I'll go with you, I guess." She obviously felt sorry for the little guy.

"When WILL you all figure out that my charm never fails? Ah, well." He bowed elaborately and kissed Eurydice's hand. "I shall see you tomorrow, then, my beautiful dancer!"

While this exchange continued, Lily opened the portrait hole and walked inside.

"1, 2, 3, PELOGEO VIOLA!"

"Eek!" Lily didn't jump out of the way fast enough; a blast of purple hit her.

A voice behind the couch yelled, "Wait, it's Lily!"

"Oh, man! We're in for it now!"

James and Sirius popped up and ran over to her, where she lay on her back, completely winded. "Are you all right?"

"What happened? What was that spell?" Lily blinked, trying to see any results of the curse.

Sirius was grinning like a hyena. "You miiight wanna go check a mirror."

"Sirius! It's not funny!"

Lily had already conjured up a mirror on the end of her wand. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" Her hair was a bright purple color, and it stuck out from her head in a perfect triangle shape. "WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING??? I'M GOING TO TELL PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL!"

"I'm sorry! We thought you were someone else!"

"NEWS FLASH: I'M ME!"

Sirius shook his head and pointed his wand at her. "Mutus!" Immediately, she couldn't talk. "Just listen for a second, all right? We were planning to give that little Gilderoy thing a wake-up call, and we heard his voice, so when the portrait hole opened, we thought it was him, and..." He gestured towards her hair and stifled a snicker. "Oh, yeah, Verbomus." She could once again talk.

"YOU'RE STILL AN IDIOT!"

"Look, we said we're sorry, and we are, Lily." James took a slightly more practical approach. "Wouldn't it have been nice if we had hit Gilderoy?"

"I don't care! Just work the countercurse and get it over with so I can go to the dance tomorrow!"

Sirius's grin faded, and he and James exchanged a nervous look. Lily looked from one to the other. "What? You DO have the countercurse, right?"

"Er..."

"Um..."

"Well, that's a funny little story..."

"Yeah, really funny. You'll laugh!"

Lily clenched her teeth. "Don't tell me you don't have it."

"We won't. We'll just...imply it," said Sirius in a very small voice.

"And it happens to be the truth." James suddenly took off and ran up the steps to the boys' dormitory as fast as he could. Sirius turned and started to follow him, but he wasn't so lucky. Lily caught him by the back of his robes and spoke threateningly into his face.

"I swear, Sirius, if you don't find that countercurse by tomorrow night, I'll tell McGonagall that YOU set off those Dungbombs at breakfast today! Not only that, but I'll get that home beautician's kit from Amelia and shave off every bit of your hair!"

Sirius, who was quite proud of his hair, nodded. "I'll find it! I'll find it! Your hair will be back to normal by tomorrow night!"

"GOOD!" Lily let him go and stormed up to her own dormitory, where she pored over spellbooks all night.

The next morning in the common room, Lily sat on the couch with her hat pulled low. She leafed obsessively through book after book of curses, charms, and spells, just trying to find something that would turn her hair back. She didn't even notice when the Marauders came down and took seats next to her.

"Um, Lily?" Remus tapped her on the shoulder, making her jump.

"What? Is my hair showing?"

"No...I've been elected...or, rather, forced..." (he glared at Sirius) "To tell you that
we haven't found the countercurse yet."

Lily sank low in her seat, clutching the sides of her hat. "Oooooh...how can you find a curse without a countercurse?"

"It was a really old book," explained Sirius. "I guess this spell isn't used much. Part of the pages were ripped out, including the one with the countercurse on it."

Lily shook her head despairingly. "Why me?"

"Because you never learned to swim."

"What?"

James had always been one for chain reactions, and this was a perfect occasion. "If you had learned how to swim, you would have swam back to the castle on the night you were Sorted. Then, you wouldn't have met up with Remus in the Shrieking Shack, and he wouldn't have introduced you to us, and your hair wouldn't be purple and triangular right now." Nobody reacted, they just stared at him. "Just something I figured out," he mumbled embarassedly.

"Well, why-ever it is, your hair IS purple and triangular now. Take my advice and just keep that hat on all day. Nobody will bother you, some people keep their hats on all the time." Remus got up and walked towards the portrait hole. "I'm going to breakfast now. There's a dance tonight, and dinner's not going to be til late."

All through classes that day, Lily shot Sirius glances across the room, asking with her eyes whether he had found the countercurse yet. Every time, he shook his head nervously and ran a hand through his hair.

Lily sat in the common room, an owl perched on the arm of the chair, writing a letter furiously. It was fifteen minutes until the dance, and Sirius STILL hadn't found the stupid countercurse! "So, please send me that home beautician's kit that you got for Christmas so that I can shave your brother's head. With love, Lily." She muttered as she wrote. "There." Just as she was about to tie the letter to her owl's leg, Sirius bounded down the dormitory steps.

"I found it! I found it! I found the countercurse!" He held a ragged old piece of parchment in his hand. He slammed it down on the table and smoothed it out. "It's right here!"

Lily leapt up and screeched, "Well, go ahead! Put my hair right!"

"Ok, ok!" He cleared his throat as she took off her hat, and took out his wand.
"Normalus!"

She grabbed a handful of her now-relaxed hair and looked at it. "Red! My hair's red again! Just in time, too! Oh, no, I've got to get dressed!" She ran up to the girls' dormitory, completely forgetting about the owl.

Lily held up a set of pinstriped purple dress robes and asked Juno breathlessly, "How about this?"

Before she knew it, the dress was knocked from her hand and fell to the floor with a small thud. "You are NOT wearing that!"

"Okay..." She tiptoed back to the closet, still moving very quickly, and held up a nauseous yellow color. "This?"

Juno shrieked and grabbed it from her. "God, Lily! Do you have ANY fashion sense?"

"Well-"

"Don't answer that! I already know...remember at the last dance?" She shuddered. "You looked absolutely HORRENDOUS!!" Juno crossed haughtily to Lily's closet, brushed her aside, and took a good look inside. "Ack!" She staggered back, clutching her eyes. "Please tell me this is some kind of joke!"

"Well-"

"No, I already know. You seem really out of touch. Time to bring out the reserves." She flung open her own closet and took out a set of sparkling dress robes. They seemed to shift colors with the light. Were they pastel orange, pink, or yellow? "I don't know...this might not be the best for you. You're not really a changing person, more constant."

"Well, I'm-"

"I know! This one is perfect!"

"Oh..." Lily smiled, taking some of the dress robes in her hands. "This is beautiful!" It was blue, but only barely. The color was so pale that it was almost as if someone had painted a thick white glaze over a light blue dress. "It's perfect!"

"You don't have to tell me, I already know. What do you think, 'Dice?"

Eurydice rolled her eyes impatiently. "I really don't like when you call me that. But as for the dress, it's really nice. It'll look great on you, Lily."

"Great." Juno heaved the dress unceremoniously into Lily's arms and walked out. "We'll be at the dance, all right?"

"Sure. I'll just...put this on..." The door closed behind them, and Lily looked down at her hands reflectively. Why was she allowing herself to get so close to them? They were nice, that was certain, but that was the reason she didn't want to be friends with them. Every moment she spent with Juno and Eurydice, they came that much closer to the same fate as...Lily didn't want to think about it. Well, not much had happened lately. Maybe Voldemort was backing off a little, for some reason only he could understand. With this happy thought in the back of her mind, she put on the dress robes and started down to the dance.

When she arrived, Remus and Vanessa were claiming the dance floor. Vanessa's flaming red dress floated elegantly as she twirled and dipped in Remus' arms. Lily let her gaze wander to the girl in the corner with balled up fists and clenched teeth. Fierce expressions crossed over her face as her body stiffened, whenever she saw a grin play across Remus' face. It was then that Lily realized, the girl was Juno.

Lily Stood at the entrance for a while, until she felt tense vibes glide through the room. James, Sirius, and Peter were making their way towards her. They were all dressed in their finest robes, and drenched with strong cologne, that made her nose crinkle.

Sirius whistled. "Is this m'dear Lily?" He said in a mocking tone.

"What do you think?" She teased.

James chimed in. "I think you look positively wonderful."

"Well, thanks!" She blushed a little and brightened up considerably.

"Yeah, you do look nice."

"Thank you!"

Sirius made an overly elegant bow and spoke in a deepened, Casanova-ish voice. "May I have the pleeasure of this dahnce?"

Lily shrugged, still blushing. "Why not?" She took the outstretched hand and failed to notice the dirty look that James gave Sirius as they passed him.

It turned out that Sirius wasn't a very good dancer at all. "OW! That's twenty-six!"

"Sorry," he mumbled, staring down at his feet in concentration.

"You keep stepping on my toes!"

His downcast eyes gave him the chance for a secret smile. Little did Lily know that Sirius was stepping on her toes on purpose. "Well, now you've learned a lesson. Always ask someone if they're a good dancer before saying you'll dance with them."

She sighed in exasperation and stepped away. "I think I've about had it with you."

"Come on, just finish the dance!"

"All right, all right." She went back and reluctantly kept dancing.

Sirius spiraled slowly towards where James had been forced into a dance with Melissa. He stepped on Lily's toes one last time, and as quickly as he could, took Melissa's arm with one hand and pushed Lily into James's now empty arms with the other. "The matchmaker always wins," he whispered triumphantly as he deposited little Melissa at the Gryffindor table, where she crossed her arms and pouted.

Lily, having been thrown off-balance by Sirius's push, grabbed onto James's shoulders. Instead of breaking away with awkward apologies, she stayed just as they were, and he didn't show any sign of wanting to break off, either. James took one of her hands in his and put his other hand at her hip. "The next dance is starting," he whispered.

"Yeah..." Lily moved in, closer to James, and felt his heart beating against hers. She closed her eyes. Part of her screamed that they were just friends, that there was nothing between them but friendship. But the other side, the one that spoke so much more softly, asked her...what harm could one dance do?

One dance...

Two dances...

Three dances...

They were oblivious to the people staring, their classmates' whisperings and accusatory pointing. They had created their own world, and both were reluctant to leave that world too quickly. However, halfway through the last dance, Lily heard a shriek coming from across the Great Hall. She turned her head quickly towards it, and what she saw made her go utterly pale.

Their wands forgotten, Juno and Vanessa were rolling about on the floor, tearing and scratching at each other wildly. Remus was standing off to the side, not wanting to get involved, but looking like he thought he should. Eurydice had taken the opportunity to tear Gilderoy away from her and had run over to Juno's aid.

"Juno! Stop it! Get away from her!" Lily cried.

"She started it!" Came the muffled shriek of a reply.

"Liar!" A nearby Ravenclaw who Lily recognized as Jessica, Gilderoy's date for the last dance, shouted. "Juno started it, she was dancing with Vanessa's date!"

"Well, what's the problem with that?" It was the first time Lily had ever seen Eurydice yell at anyone. "It's perfectly all right for a girl to ask a boy to dance!"

"That's not the point!"

"Yes it is!"

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"Are you trying to start a fight?"

"What if I am?"

Lily was rather frightened that Eurydice was acting so unlike herself. Lily ran up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. "I don't think we want to get too involved in-"

Eurydice shrugged her off like a bug. "Stay out of it, Lily!"

"All of you stay out of it!" Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore had arrived, and each seized one of the quarreling girls and pulled her to her feet. "Now, may I be so bold as to inquire what happened here?"

The idiotic nature of the fight suddenly seemed to hit both the girls, and they fell silent. Lily backed up very slowly. She didn't want to get so involved anymore.

"Miss Evans, what has been happening?" McGonagall had obviously deemed her the most reliable source.

She looked quickly over at Remus, who was pale. "Well...I guess it all started-"

"The short version, if you please!" she snapped.

"All right." She looked down at her feet and hid a small smile. "They were fighting over Remus."

All eyes turned to Remus. His pale face suddenly flushed as red as Vanessa's robes, and he looked like he wanted to shrink into the crowd.

TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: I AM DESPERATE FOR IDEAS! Not just little tiny pebble ideas, I need boulders!
E-mail me at: arianaveelagrace@hotmail.com if u have any. But, please understand
that I won't accept any non-canon ones, okeydokey?