Chapter 12 The Ball

Half an hour before the ball and even Ciara was beginning to panic. The entire common room was abuzz so the girls had moved to Lily's own room. They all had their costumes on but were protecting them by wearing cloaks. Nothing was going to hurt their outfits if they could help it.

Ciara was using a spell to temporality shorten her hair. For her costume she needed her waist length hair as a bob.

Only Ellis was taking the opportunity to unwind. As she was part of the HBB she had also had the day off to prepare but she had done her only job two weeks before, so she had been relaxing all day, but a little more couldn't hurt!

Finally Lily was pinning her hair up in a similar way to how she had had it when she had met James at the masked ball. She had had to alter it slightly as her costume required her to wear a hat.

"Ready?" Lily asked.

"No! Wait!" Isabelle said as she fixed a small silver tiara across the front of her head. It sharply contrasted with her black hair and looked stunning. "Okay,"

They all took off their cloaks and revealed their costumes. Lily and Ciara added their hats and their looks were complete.

Lily had chosen a medieval princess costume with a long white flowing dress and a typical princess hat, a cone with material suspended from the top.

Ciara was dressed in a sixties mini-dress with a white cap and knee high white boots Something Lily would never have imagined her wearing.

Ellis must have been planning her costume since she asked if they were starting with cavemen as she had a small top and mini skirt in a bright tiger print.

'No one but Ellis' thought Lily grinning.

The feather Mia was trying to fix was explained as she was wearing a thirties flapper dress, in a bright red.

Isabelle's dress was incredible. It was black velvet and had a corset tied up tight, shrinking her waist to an almost painful size. It was much wider after her waist and Lily guessed that it was from the seventeenth or eighteenth century.

"Time to go?" asked Ciara. Lily and Isabelle agreed and promised to meet Ellis and Mia, who were going with Ravenclaws, in the hall. They climbed down the stairs to the common room Lily shared with James. Down there, was an elderly wizard with a huge white beard slouched across the couch and a knight in armour pacing up and down the room.

"Prongs will you sit down?!" The wizard asked in aggravation.

"I can't help it, I just…….. wow!" James replied as he saw the girls coming down the stairs.

"You look….." he told Lily, lost for words. At that moment he could not think of a better word for beautiful.

Meanwhile Sirius was trying to tell Isabelle the same thing, more direct than James he just let his eyes travel around her tiny waist and up.

"You look great," he told her and kissed her cheek. "Shall we go?" He took Belle's hand and waited for James and Lily. Lily linked her arm through James's and they made their way to the Entrance Hall.

"Wait till you see the decorations," Sirius told them.

He wasn't exaggerating, now Lily could understand why it had taken them so long. The Entrance Hall had been turned into the outside of a typical fairytale castle. It had turrets and flags and a drawbridge leading into the Great Hall. Under the drawbridge was-

"Sirius, is that a moat?" Lily asked in disbelief.

"Complete with fish," he replied smugly.

"What are you going to do with it after the ball?" she tried to ask but was distracted by a hand on her arm.

"Can we leave this until later?" James asked, they agreed and walked into the hall.

Lily and Isabelle were basking in the jealously sent their way for having got the two best-looking guys in the school. Occasionally returning the dirty looks they were given or giving girls a look that simply said 'Hey but what can I do?"

The Great Hall was decorated as a cave, the walls were rocky and uneven with primitive drawings etched across them. The music was loud and pounding, there was no tune it was just thumping in different rhythms. Deciding that they would not be able to dance to it, they took a seat with Isabelle and Sirius. Unfortunately for them a group of dateless Slytherins were sitting behind them.

"Oy Potter, is that the best you could get?" they asked. He swore at them then asked Lily if she was going to say something back.

"No, why?"

"Because they just insulted you,"

"They got sorted into Slytherin, is there a worse insult than that?" she asked, causing the Gryffindors to chortle and the Slytherins to scowl and walk off.

"Mudblood bitch," called back one of them. James stood up to go after them but Lily held her back.

"You can make up for it later,"

"How?"

"I don't know, but I'm sure the Marauders will think of something," she replied her eyes twinkling.

Then suddenly, the decorations around them changed. The rocky walls turned into stone blocks and it looked as though it was the inside of the castle in the Entrance Hall. Tapestries appear on the walls and a large fire crackled in the fireplace that had not existed five minutes before.

The music stopped and Ciara stood up to tell everyone that dinner was about to be served. Instead of the four house tables, usually there even for ball, there were small tables just for two people and slightly larger ones for groups of four.

Lily sat with James on a small table and they made casual if slightly flirty conversation while they looked at their menus. Lily read hers and saw:

Beans and Cheese on Toast

Pork Chops

Mac and Cheese

Lamb Shanks

Strawberries and Sugar

Christmas Pudding and Cream

Confused by this unusual choice she leaned over to see if James had the same. They exchanged menus; His was completely different and said:

Spaghetti Bolognese

Sushi

Fiori di Zucchini

Roast Beef

Chocolate Mousse

Tiramis

"It's our favourite foods!" he said, having just worked it out.

"Roast beef? You snob!" She teased.

"What's feery di zooshiny?" she asked curiously.

"Fiori di zucchini," he corrected, "It's an Italian fish thing. It's good,"

Lily chose lamb and strawberries whereas James picked sushi and chocolate mousse.

"You been to Italy?" she asked as she ate.

"Got a flat there. Go in the holidays sometimes. You like sushi?"

She replied that she had never had it, and made a face as he gave her some.

"It's slimy!" she squirmed. "Chocolate mousse is much better," she sighed as she ate that as well.

"Not as good as strawberries though," he said eyeing them. Sighing she gave some to him, and he stood up. Just in time. Since everybody had finished eating the tables were disappearing one by one with a small pop. Unfortunately for Lily, the chairs were disappearing as well. Needless to say, she was slightly surprised when she found herself halfway to the floor, being caught by James.

"My hero," she said grinning.

"I try," he grinned back, feigning modesty. "Well, if that doesn't earn a dance……." He trailed off. He took her hand and they walked over to the dance floor. Around them the scene changed again. From a sober Victorian setting it transformed into a vivid 1930's club. The music became livelier into a fast jazz and Mia looked quite at home in her costume. But the floor could have disappeared beneath them and neither of them would have noticed.

Lily had never been so happy or comfortable in her life. James was much better at dancing than she had expected.

"You're a good dancer," she told him.

"We've danced before,"

"I know, but I was too busy trying to work out who you were,".

"You went mental," he chuckled.

"Not without reason," she reminded him gently. Noticing as James sped up their dance she asked him what he was doing.

"The music's wrong, we're dancing too slow"

Lily shot a meaningful look at Mia who was standing by the band. Taking the hint she gestured them and the music slowed right down.

"I don't hear anything wrong with the music," Lily said settling back into James's shoulder.

James could hardly believe it. He was dancing with Lily Evans and she knew who he was and she wasn't running away and they were having fun and her hair smelt like coconut and he had her all to himself all night. He could have died right there and he wouldn't have cared.

Eventually the ball ended and only the HBB were left to clear up the mess. The walls were now covered in large flowers for the sixties and there was an eerie silence now that the band had gone home. Ellis was sprawled out across a chair opposite Ciara who was curled up next to Remus on a sofa. James was sitting with his arm around Lily as they chatted to Isabelle and Sirius. Months of planning and it was all over but they all agreed that their evening had been a success, and in fact a number of students had asked if there was going to be another ball soon. Lily had already started mentally planning the Christmas Party. She had tried to fight it but she couldn't help how exhausted she felt, subtly trying to cover a yawn but failed and took James up on his offer to walk her back to her room. Sirius sniggered when he asked her, but James had meant it innocently enough.

James could have sworn that their rooms moved, far away when you wanted to get there and much closer when you didn't. It seemed only minutes to get there and then there was the traditional awkwardness outside the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow then. Tonight was great," he said and kissed her cheek.

"Thanks," she mumbled and watched as he span around and walked away. That was it? Her night had ended with a peck on the cheek? Ellis was going to love that.

Disappointed she turned around and began to unlock her door when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Surprised, she turned around and found herself being kissed, not pecked, but kissed properly by James. She felt his hand playing with her hair before resting on her back. She was so taken by surprise that she thought she would have fallen over if it hadn't been for his hand on her back.

James pulled back, "Night," he said grinning.

That smile was affecting her more every time.

Both smiling, Lily walked up to her room and James went back to the Hall, ignoring all the remarks and questions about his smile.

Carefully, Lily felt where he had played with her hair; it felt different and slightly heavier. He must have put something there. Despite the last five minutes Lily felt her temper rising, of all the times to pull a stupid bloody prank……….but she found what it was and pulled it out of her hair.

It wasn't a prank.

It wasn't even stupid.

It was beautiful.

It was a single pure white lily.