Lily Chapter 60: Before the Christmas Dance, a harry potter fanfic

A/N: *cheerily* Guess what? We're implementing a new system! Or at least, we're trying to…both a classier look (gotta love that .htm file!) and faster gratification for you lovely readers/reviewers! And remember: We're review junkies, please feed our addiction.

We're also officially 60 this chapter!!!

Lily

Chapter 60

"Will you please hurry up, Lily?" Juno called up the dormitory stairs. "We're going to be late, and if they've already played all the good songs by the time we get there, I'm blaming you!"

"I'll be right down; I just need to finish my hair!" She was twisted around and bent backwards in such a way that she could see what she was doing in the mirror. The downside was that she couldn't really move. With a sigh of exasperation and a prayer of thanks that she was a witch, Lily picked up her wand and did a Protocol Hairspell, which automatically judged the situation for what hairstyle would be best. When she looked back in the mirror, her hair had been entwined into two braids, then magically pinned up at the nape of her neck. It was certainly strange, but it somehow worked. She smoothed out her shimmery tan dress robes and checked proudly to make sure that no lipstick had gotten on her teeth. Lipstick was a new addition for her – she had never found the occasion to wear it before, even for a school dance.

Juno, Peter, Remus, Sirius, and James were already waiting in the common room. According to Sirius and Peter, they had instructed their dates to wait outside the Great Hall for them. "We can't just go common room-hopping for them," Sirius had explained. "We'd get caught for sure. Besides, Prongs found a new secret passage right near the Great Hall entrance."

Considering Lily's previous luck with secret passages, she was a little bit nervous. But something told her to relax and enjoy the night.

Remus held out his arm to Juno. "Shall we?"

"You do a great impression of a gentleman," Juno said sarcastically, taking his arm. The pair climbed through the portrait hole.

In a great impression of Remus's great impression of a gentleman, James offered his arm to Lily. "Here goes nothing, right?"

"Oh, I'd say here goes SOMETHING," Sirius snickered, obviously trying to cover up his evil glee at the fact that Lily and James were finally an item.

James rolled his eyes and grinned apologetically at Lily. "Wanna let him loose for a minute?"

"Sure, why not?" She checked the common room clock. "You have sixty seconds of 'I-told-you-so' time, starting…now."

"Muahahhahaha!!!! I TOLD YOU SO! I CALLED IT! I knew it as SOOOON as you smacked him across the face in your first year. I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW IT! Everyone else knew it, too! You just ask anyone – annnnyyyyooonnnee in this whole bloody school! You two've practically got a prearranged marriage! Not to mention the teachers. Oooh, but Professor Lollio's going to go through the roof when she hears about this! But most importantly, I TOLD YOU SO! Hehehehehehe – ooh, and here," Sirius reached into his pocket and fished out a scrap of parchment with writing all over it. "Bet you don't know what I've been writing on THIS! I think the time has come for its grand unveiling! First entry-"

Remus cleared his throat loudly. "Time's up."

"What?"

"It's been exactly one minute, and you talk too much anyway. Quite refreshing to actually be able to shut you up once in awhile," Peter said lazily.

"And quite refreshing to be a nice big dog when you're a scrawny little rat once in awhile," Sirius muttered under his breath.

It took awhile to get to the Great Hall, for a few reasons. The first was that, caught up in the moment, everyone had forgotten that they weren't exactly going for a nice legal stroll through the castle, so they needed to go under the cover of the Invisibility Cloak.

"All of us?" Juno screeched. They had reconvened in the common room, since James had even forgotten to bring the cloak.

"It'll be a tight squeeze, but I think we'll be all right," Remus evaluated.

Juno sighed. "We should have one person go ahead, though, just to make it a little more comfortable. Besides, what if someone's coming and they hear us? We're going to sound like elephants."

Lily was, of course, voted to be the most teacher-friendly out of the six, which is why she found herself sneaking through Hogwarts, apparently alone. After they were halfway to the Great Hall, she checked to see that the coast was clear, then turned around to address the air. "Okay, my turn under the cloak. Someone else can be the lookout for awhile."

There was no answer.

"Guys?" Her voice rose with panic. "This isn't funny!" She listened very closely, since she would at least hear breathing if they were there. There was nothing. "Oh, no," she muttered. Where could they have gone? Maybe they were already at the Great Hall, having a good laugh at her. Whatever was going on, it was definitely some kind of trick. Well, she wasn't going to fall for it! She leaned up against the wall, resolute to stay there until someone came by and found her.

After five minutes, the darkness and silence and shadows got the best of her, so she decided to retrace her footsteps and listen for signs of her friends. A portrait of a very old, plump witch dressed in deep blue robes peered down at her. "Lost, are we?"

Lily smiled back. "No, I'm just looking for some of my friends."

"Hmm." The witch crossed her arms over her chest and regarded Lily suspiciously. "Don't think I was painted yesterday, y'know! 'Tis against the rules for students t'be gallivanting about at this hour of the night!"

"No, really, I…er…I've got permission." She was astounded at herself.

"Oh, really? From whom?"

Lily looked down the hall, trying to invent a likely Professor. When she looked back, the portrait was empty except for a large blue armchair that the witch had presumably been sitting in. "Good riddance," she muttered. "Old busybody."

The armchair blinked and, with a small pop, turned into a blue duck. It flew out of the frame and started speaking very quackingly. "Quite sorry to interrupt you an' all that, but you seemed t'be a mite lost!"

"Kipper, would you leave me alone?"

"Ah, stick it in your ear, Carrots!" He turned himself into a large blue chalkboard and drew four stick figures, apparently to symbolize the four Marauders, and one stick figure wearing a skirt – that was Juno. "If you're so bloody worried about your friends, chew on this, genius: Their dates are outside the Great Hall, right?" At the opposite corner of the chalkboard there appeared two skirted figures. Then, another materialized in the middle of the board, this one with plentiful question marks surrounding her head.

"How did you –"

"Don't interrupt! Now, if their dates are outside the Great Hall, and they can't go to the dance without their dates…" He had the patient, expectant tone of a teacher instructing a challenging student.

"Oh!" She turned and started towards the Great Hall, calling over her shoulder as an afterthought. "Thanks!"

It wasn't long before she heard Jessica's screeching voice echoing through the hallway. "Well, if they aren't going to show up on time, maybe we should just go back."

"Yeah, maybe." The second voice must belong to Sirius's date, Anna, Lily thought.

She rounded the corner and saw the two girls leaning against opposite walls. Jessica was picking at a green carnation set on her teal dress robes, looking rather bored and a little angry. Having heard Lily coming, she glanced up and crossed her arms over her chest. "All right. Where are they?"

Anna twisted her neck to the side. "Who's this?"

"Oh." Jessica gestured carelessly towards Lily. "James Potter's date. Her name's Lily." Immediately, she went back into interrogation mode. "So where-"

"Hi, I'm Anna." She extended her hand cordially. Anna wore sparkly, powder-blue robes. She was a tall, medieval beauty with long hair cascading in a shimmering gold waterfall down her slender back. Lily judged that she must be Muggle-born when a friendly smile exposed braces over her teeth.

Lily shook her hand with a quick 'hello,' then turned to Jessica. "I don't know where they are. They sort of deserted me in the hallway back there, but don't worry. They'll be here…er, sooner or later."

"Really? Well, hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later," Jessica said acidly.

A huge black motorcycle prowled noiselessly through the halls of Hogwarts Castle with three sixth-year boys on the large seat and one girl of the same age perched atop the handlebars. Its gigantic shadow approached the eagle statue pushed against one wall. All of a sudden, the motorcycle stopped in midair, causing the girl on the handlebars to fall off with a loud thud.

"Are you seriously that thick? Twice in one night?"

"No, it was on purpose this time!"

"You left him on purpose?"

"Wouldn't you?"

There was apparently a heated conversation going on, seeing as they did not even notice when a first-year Ravenclaw – Pamela Vancouver herself – peeked around the statue, wondering what the noise was. She watched with wide eyes as the motorbike dipped closer to the floor to allow the girl to climb back onto it, then proceeded towards the Great Hall.

Little Pamela convinced herself that she was seeing things and scampered back to her bed.

It was at least ten minutes of tedium until the three girls saw the giant motorcycle touch down just outside the Great Hall. Lily gaped. "What…how did-"

"I owled it to myself, bit by bit, over the summer," Sirius said with a grin. He hopped gallantly off the bike and took Anna's arm.

She beamed in an overwhelmingly bubbly way. "Hi!"

Remus started to help Juno down from the handlebars, but she brushed his hand aside. "D'you really think I need help getting down from there?" She noticed the slightly hurt look on his face and rolled her eyes. "Come on."

James tried to act 'calm, cool, and collected.' His feelings, however, were given away by the nervous half-smile on his face.

He moved towards Lily and started to hook his arm in hers, but then, as if on a second thought, he reached for a hand. "Thanks for coming with me," he whispered.

"Thanks for inviting me," she said, blushing.

"Wait a damn minute!" Jessica shrieked. "Where's my date?"

Lily looked down the hall. James, Sirius, Remus, and Juno were sliding rather wily looks towards each other. "What happened?" she demanded suspiciously.

"Ask him." James shook his head and pointed towards Sirius.

All eyes turned to the accused. Anna seemed to be suppressing a laugh, Jessica a growl. Sirius quailed, speaking in a small voice. "He was being so annoying."