Authors Note: Hey guys!!! Thanks for reviewing so much. i apologize about how long it took me to post this chapter, but I had to write it first... Anyway, this is a really good one, enjoy!!!

Chapter 27

Une Tres Grande Fete

They spent the afternoon decorating, or rather, watching others decorate. They had helped

to put up some streamers, and to supervise the setting of the tables. The girls were put in charge

of sprinkling the sparkling snowflakes over the white table cloths and tasting all of the delacasies

prepared by the chief chef. At 4:30, the girls decided that it was time to go upstairs and get

ready. The guests would start arriving at 6:00, and Lily still needed to shower, as well as select

one of Caroline's many gorgeous dresses. Caroline wanted to shower, curl the bottoms of her

hair, and get dressed. Since there was only one shower, Caroline went first while Lily chose a

dress, and then they switched.

The bathroom was part of Caroline's suite of chambers, and was as big as, if not bigger

than, Lily's bedroom at Privet drive. It had a giant jacuze bathtub, a shower with a giant nozzel

that could be adjusted to the perfect tempertaure and pressure, a toilet, a sink, and a vanity

table. There were shelves and drawers full of makeup and bath salts, fizzes, and soaps. It was

Lily's idea of heaven. She took the longest shower she had ever taken in her life, and she smelt

like roses afterwards, having raided Caroline's supply of soaps and scented oils. She stepped

out of the shower and stepped onto the soft, pink mat, twining her toes into the soft material.

She toweled herself off and wrapped a pink terrycloth bathrobe around her, tying it in the front.

She took the matching pink towel she had used to dry herself with, monogramed with the Rupert

family crest, putting her hair up on top of her head. She stepped out of the steaming room,

leaving the door slightly opened so as the de-fog the mirror. She went into Caroline's dressing

room, Caroline had already finished changing and drying her hair, and slipped into the simple

dress she had selected. It was white, to match the theme, and had little snowflakes embroidered

with silver thread. It was spaggetti strapped, falling to her knees and coming out slightly at the

bottom, after clinging tightly to her body all the way down. The dress fit as though it had been

made to order. Lily stepped out of Caroline's dressing room and marveled over Caroline's dress

selection. Her dress was an exquisit masterpiece that had been made to order by the highest

names in fashion. It was a deep red, floor length dress that was not too tight, but not baggy. It

looked perfect on Caroline, with exactly the right neck line for her body type. It had a v-neck,

and was slightly off the shoulders, the sleeves went down to her wrist and angled outward. Lily

stood there, starring at Caroline, she really looked like a queen.

"Oh my goodness Caroline, you look amazing. You're drop dead gorgeous. If Ben wasn't

already crazy about you, which I assure you he is, he will be after tonight." Lily exclaimed,

complementing every intricate detail of Carolines gown. Next to her, Lily felt totally out of place

and all together too informal. Lily and Caroline, after they had finished exclaiming over how

beautiful the other looked, fixed eachothers hair and makeup and prepared for the party. From

Carolines window Lily could see all of the fairy lights and streamers they had bought. Lily

squealed as she heard Mrs. Rupert welcoming guests downstairs. There was a soft tap on the

door and Ben entered, looking quite spiffy in his tux, with his hair done up with gels. He really

cleaned up well. He smelled good too.

"Might I escort you two lovely young ladies downstairs? The guests have begun to arrive."

He said, offering an arm to each of the girls. Lily couldn't help but notice that as he spoke he

couldn't take his eyes off of Caroline. The girls took his arms, Lily inwardly smiling over Ben and

Caroline. They were so sweet together. Ben and Caroline entered together, Lily detached

herself before they reached the stairs, knowing it was more formal and romantic for the couple

to enter together, alone. She waited a few minutes, taking a deep breathe and making the final

adjustments to her dress, looking at herself in the gold rimmed mirror on the wall. She went to

the top of the formal stairs and commenced her slow desention of the sweeping staircase.

She put her hand gently on the banister and looked out at the people down in the entrance

way. More people were arriving by the minute through the fireplace, all of their faces turned up

towards her as she entered. She walked down the stairs just as she had seen in the movies. She

looked over the crowd, most of the people were adults. She did see a few children, but those

that she did see were not very compforting. She saw James Potter standing next to Sirius and his

parents, he was whispering to Sirius, but looked up at her as she came down the stairs, breaking

off mid sentence. Lily noticed that he had combed his hair for once, and had actually gotten it to

stay flat. As their eyes met Lily felt the room go deathly still, she felt like the room was spinning.

She looked at him for a moment, although it felt like decades. She looked away, feeling her

cheeks flush slightly. As soon as she looked away the spell broke, and the room filled with noise

again. Lily made her way down the rest of the stairs to a waiting Caroline.

"Hey, where did you go? One second you were walking with Ben and I, and the next you

were gone." Caroline said coming over to her.

"I, er, had to go to the bathroom."

"Oh, well, what happened just a second ago when you were coming down the stairs. You

got this weird look on your face and you were staring off into the distance for, like, ever. Who

were you staring at?" Caroline stood on her tiptoes, looking over the heads of the people and

spotting Sirius. Her high heels gave her an advantage of height, so she saw past him to James.

"What's going on between you two, anyway?"

"Nothing. I hate him, he's a concieted, self centered, jerk." Lily snapped back, but the flush

on her face said differently.

"Whatever you say." Responded Caroline, giving her a sidelong glance, but deciding not to

push the subject. Perhaps something had happend between the two that Lily wasn't mentioning?

Lily looked around, Caroline and her had helped decorate, but when they had gone upstairs, it

had looked nothing like this. The confetti was falling and it looked like actual snow, yet

somehow none of it made it to the floor. There were ice sculptures all of over the place, yet the

room was not cold, and the sculptures were not melting. The hall looked magnificent.

"Caroline, might I have this dance?" Ben asked softly from behind the girls. Caroline flushed

nodding and taking his hand. Soft music had begun to play and couples were moving onto the

floor. On the pretext of checking out the decorations in the garden, Lily exited, again leaving

Caroline and Ben alone. Lily went onto the patio, breathing in the fresh air. She admired the fairy

lights and streamers. As she walked outside she walked through streamers hanging down. On

the pation, everything was white. Little Slice of Heaven had truly been turned into a Witer

Wonderland.

"Hey." Lily spun around to see who the speaker was. There was James Potter, looking

slightly sheepish for some reason.

"Hello." Lily replied coldly, turning back around.

"Lily, come on, please. What did I do? I don't even know why you hate me. You're the one

who dumped me, remember?"

"Yes, I remeber well, thanks." She said frostily, still not meeting his gaze.

"So why are you mad at me?"

"I just am James Potter, if you don't know by now, I'd prefer not to have to explain it to

you."

"What's that? Code for I don't even know, and I'm just too porud to admit it?" He started

messing with his hair, as usual, and it was soon its normal, messy, self.

"Of course not." Lily still refused to look at him.

"Well you just fit in perfectly with this theme don't you?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" She looked at him now. What was he driving at?

"You're a regualr ice queen. And by the way, I still want my invisibility cloak back." He had

thrown in that last remark just to spite her. He was goading her on prupose. What did he think

he was playing at?

"You can take it if you need it so much."

"Alright, where is it?" Well, he could ask all he wanted, but she sure as hell wasn't going to

aid her arch nemisis.

"I don't recall." She replied vaguely.

"Lily, you can hate me or not, but can you at least be civil? Or explain why so I can make it

better?"

"No thank you."

"Will you dance with me?" Before she could decline distainfully, Mrs. Rupert came out onto

the patio. She was wearing a black velvet affair, and looked just as regal as her daughter.

"Lily, James, what are you two doing out here?" She said it in a way that Lily did not like, as

if she were implying something. "You two should go inside and dance, go on. James, take Lily in

to dance, a pretty young girl like you shouldn't be left partnerless." Mrs. Rupert looked so

pleased with her matchmaking skills, she gave Lily a look that suggested that Lily shoud be

greatful. Perhaps Mrs. Rupert thought that Lily liked James and was doing her some kind of

favor. James looked at Lily and smiled at her, now she couldn't ignore him, she would have to

hear him out. James offered her his arm, leading her onto the dance floor.

He bent down and whispered into her ear, "yes Lily, do dance with James Potter."

"Stop it. Mrs. Rupert just doesn't know that I hate your guts."

"And I don't know why, so seeing as we're stuck together, why don't you explain it?"

"Because I told you I don't want to." They glided around the dance floor together, Lily was

consious of his eyes locked onto her the entire time. He never looked away, and it made Lily

feel warm, and uncompfortable. Being in his arms brought back memories of the time they had

spent together, before she hated him of course. He was so strong, and she felt so safe in his

arms. No. No Lily, don't think like that. She looked at the floor and did not speek to him or

look at him the entire time they danced. As they danced past Sirius he made noises under his

breathe, gaining him a nasty look from James. He winked obviously at the two and went away,

laughing, to get himself some punch.

"Please at least look at me?" James asked her, a pleading note in his voice. When she did

not respond he squeezed her gently, "Lily, come on. Don't you think this is at least slightly

ridiculous?"

"No I most certainly do not." She looked at him, finally, but regretted it at once. He was

looking at her with his round, brown eyes. He looked so cute and innocent, well, as innocent as

James Potter could be. Lily dropped her arms, letting go of him and walking away. She could

not handle him. She hated him, he was so frustrating, and then he would win her over, but not

this time, she would not let herself be won over.

"I saw you and Jamesy getting pretty cosy over there." Sirius slid up beside her, holding out

a glass of punch and brushing his hair out of his face. He looked elegant, as always, even with his

hair falling in his face. Some people would have look scruffy with their hair like that, but not

Sirius, he somehow pulled it off.

"We were not!" Lily said indignatly, taking the punch just in case he finished his thought.

"We were just dancing, stop turning everything into something dirty."

"Alright alright, someones a little touchy on the subject- why so defensive?" He asked,

egging her on.

"I'm not defensive, okay?" She snapped back, in a very defensive manner.

"Of course you aren't." He replied in a tone that made it obvios that he did not believe her.

"Oh, cut it out Sirius. You're so annoying, no wonder Holly dumped you." Lily stated, in an

effort to steer the convorsation away from James and herself.

"What makes you think she did?" Sirius replied, seeming odly calm about it.

"Well, she did, didn't she? Oh my god, did you dump her? This is inconcievable, Holly has

never been dumped in her life." Lily was shocked. Surely Holly would have told her if he had

dumped her.

"Stop jumping to conclusions. That's ridiculous, why would I dump Holly? What makes

you think anyone dumped anyone?" He asked.

"Well, you have, haven't you?"

"You sound pretty certain that we have, did she say something about it?"

"Well, no, I just assumed because, well, its you and Holly. I don't think any of her

relationships have ever lasted past one night."

"Well, now they have, cause we're still together. We broke up for a little while, but we got

back together."

"Why didn't she tell me? We tell eachother everything!"

"She probabally didn't tell you beceause of, you know."

"What?"

"You and James, you know, how you two like eachother and then you pretend not to like

him in order to play hard-to-get and stuff. Besides, if she had told you when you were in your 'I

hate James Potter' moods, you would have looked down on her for dating his best friend and

you would have tried to talk her out of it."

"James? Me, play hard-to-get? Never, besides, I am hard-to-get, and I don't like him. So

your theory, totally off the mark. Besides, Holly can date whoever she wants, whether I

approve or not. She could date James if she wanted."

"Mmm hmmmm. You aren't hard-to-get? Shall we ask Severus what he has to say on that

subject?"

"You know what, shut up, that was a mistake, okay? I felt bad for him. I never actually

liked him, and if I did, I was out of my mind. Besides, that was a long time ago, and anything I

did feel for him, totally gone now."

"Okay then. So, you claim to not like James? Even the tiniest bit? Be honest."

"Of course I don't like him." Lily was indignant, hadn't she been repeating this over and

over for the past ten minutes?

"Why not? You two seemed like the perfect couple not so long ago."

"No, we weren't. We went out, like, once, and withing the first two days of being an item, I

cheated on him and he cheated on me. It was never meant to be." Lily said calmly, as if

explaining something very simple to an over-excited two year old.

"You don't like him at all just because your relationship didn't work out?" Sirius sounded

confused now.

"No. While we were dating, he had me fooled. I thought he was an incredible guy and all of

the things I had heard about him hadn't been true, that they were just nasty rumors-"

"What have you heard?" Sirius looked up sharply, his voice hardening.

"How he just uses girls to get what he wants and then dumps them. How he's an egotistical

jerk. How he's a bully, and beats people up because he can."

"Well, most of that isn't true." Sirius said, his voice returning to normal. Lily wondered if

he was trying to hide something?

"Whatever, I thought so too, and then he acted like a total pig and I decided that maybe the

rumors were true, and then he dated, like, 50 girls a week for months, which was even more

proof that he was only using them to get what he wanted and then dumping them."

"He was only dating that many girls to prove to you that he was trying out other things.

That's what you told him to do, right?" He was on the offensive again.

"He told you about that? Whatever. That's not what I meant. I didn't mean feel up as many

girls as possible and then leave them heartbroken and betrayed, I said we both needed to be in

relationships to get a feel for what we wanted, but I didn't mean feel literally."

"And that's what he was trying to do! If you ask me, you sound more than a little jealous."

"Why are you yelling at me? And why do you even care about whether or not I date James

Potter?"

"He's my best friend in the world. He's like my brother, I'd do anything for him, and I just

want to know why you hate him so much, Holly would do the same for you."

"I know she would, and you're right, but not about James. I just don't like him, I'm sorry,

but there's nothing you can do about it."

From a dark corner, hidden behind a bush, Severus Snape heard every word of their

convorsation. She didn't like him, had never liked him, but she didn't like James Potter

either. There was hope for him yet. Maybe he could play the sympathy card again, get her

on his side, give her more proof that thesse rumors were true. He smiled and slunk out

feom behind the plant, walking unobtrusively through the shadows into the main room,

where it would be harder to be spotted.

Hope you liked it, dont worry, that party isn't over yet...things are just starting to get interested. In order to find out what happens next, read and review!!!