A/N Hey guys! Sorry about the incredibly long wait. But, here it is—finally! I just want to say a BIG thank you all my reviewers—you keep me going—and an even BIGGER thank you to my RL friends who constantly bug me to update (you know who you are—Snez, Laura, Sam-453, becks89). On with the story…
Dislaimer: You know the drill, people. It all belongs to the fantastic JKR.
Previously…
"Potter. Evans. It is traditional for the champions of the Triwizard Tournament to lead the first dance at the Yule Ball. However, as we are not holding the Tournament, Professor Dumbledore and myself have decided that as Head Boy and Girl, you will lead the first dance—together."
Chapter 6Lily's mouth dropped open in surprise, as she realised the meaning of Professor McGonagall's words. She would have to lead the first dance with Potter. Dance with Potter. She looked round at James, expecting him to have a similar look of shock or anger, but found a wicked grin on his face.
"Professor," she protested, "I don't think this a good idea at all—"
"Miss Evans, there is no point in arguing with me. It was originally Professor Dumbledore's idea, and I believe it to be an excellent one. My mind is made up on the subject. Besides, even if I did not favour the idea, it would not change anything in the slightest—Professor Dumbledore seemed most keen on it."
"But…" Lily began to complain, but she was interrupted by James.
"Now, now, Evans. You heard what Professor McGonagall said—her mind is made up on the subject," he said, with a smirk on his face.
"Hold your tongue, Potter. I have something else to tell you both. As Head Boy and Girl, you will be in charge of decorations and entertainment. I suggest that you take this responsibility very seriously, because Professor Dumbledore has placed in his trust in you both, and if this trust is violated, I will be most seriously displeased."
With that, she swept out of the Great Hall, but her usually stern eyes had a twinkle of amusement in them.
"God, the teachers are trying to kill me. First the tutoring and now this. I can't take much more of this," Lily sighed.
"Come on, Evans, we've been entrusted with a great responsibility, remember? Now, I think we should meet once a week to discuss the Ball arrangements, and have meetings with Prefects nearer the time. We better work fast—we've only got a few weeks 'til Christmas Eve."
"Once a week?! But we already have to meet twice a week for tuition!"
"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me—we have to set a time for you to tutor me in Charms. How's tonight for you? We can have our first Yule Ball meeting afterwards."
As much as she detested the idea, Lily had no choice to agree to James' proposal. She sighed and made her way back over to the Gryffindor table, contemplating the day ahead of her. Last year she had made the mistake of thinking that nothing could be worse than Prefect meetings with James once a week, and she realised that she had now hit an all time low. It wasn't as if James couldn't be nice and normal; he had been friendly and even caring during their first tuition session. It was as if he had a split personality or something. That was what annoyed Lily the most—that, and his abnormally large ego. She tried to put her meeting with James out of her mind and eat her breakfast in peace; he wasn't worth stressing out over.
Later that evening Lily made her way over to the crackling fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, where she had agreed to meet James for the Charms tuition session and the Yule Ball meeting. Lily had asked Professor McGonagall if they could use one of the empty classrooms in which to practise Charms and have their meeting, since if they were noisy in the library, Madam Pince might have killed them in a slow and painful way.
James spotted her and made his way over. "Hey, Evans. Shall we get going?"
"Yeah, I suppose we should. Professor McGonagall said that we could use one of the third floor classrooms. Let's go."
They made their way out of the portrait hole and towards the third floor.
"Okay, I thought we'd start with the Summoning and Banishing Charms, since you seemed to have a little difficulty, with them in class. But one thing I don't understand is, if you always had so much difficulty with Charms, how did you manage to get an 'E' in your O.W.L.?"
"Well, the examiner was a little old lady, and when I told her that I wasn't feeling very well and smiled my "brave-little-soldier" smile (as Mum puts it), she sort of…sympathised with me," he said, with a smirk on his face.
"You charmed your way to a good grade?" asked Lily, incredulously.
"Yep," James replied.
"Well, N.E.W.T.S. are different; they're much more important. You won't be able to charm your way to a good grade this year."
"I seriously doubt that. I can be very charming."
"Not to mention very pig-headed," Lily shot back, whilst removing a box of purple cushions from a cupboard. "Okay, I'll stand on this side of the room with a cushion and you try and summon it."
She walked to the back of the room and stood against the wall. With a look of intense concentration that was almost certainly false, James drew his wand and shouted the incantation. The cushion flew about a quarter way across the room it where lost heart and landed on the floor.
Lily sighed. She hoped that he would have been able to summon the cushion half way across the room at least. Tutoring James was going to be harder than she thought, especially if he didn't make any effort whatsoever. Lily held out another cushion, and James tried to summon it once more. It reached the middle of the room this time, but then wavered uncertainly in midair and finally fell to the floor. They tried a few more times but each time the cushion seemed to run out of steam towards the middle of the room.
"Potter, you're going to have to concentrate if we're going to get anywhere. Just concentrate really hard and imagine the cushion flying into your hands. Picture it as it's coming towards and don't take your mind off it."
"I'm doing my best, Evans! You just look so gorgeous that it's making me nervous!"
Lily shot him a death glare. "Stop trying to chat me up, Potter, and just get on with it. And my name is Lily. Use it."
"And my name is James. Return the favour," he shot back.
"Fine. Why don't we try this again, James?"
James drew his wand once again, but this time the look of concentration seemed genuine and he whispered the incantation fiercely instead of shouting it in a dramatic manner. The cushion flew straight across the room into his outstretched hand and Lily gave a whoop of joy.
"You've got it!"
"Yeah. That's the first time I've ever done it properly. Even Flitwick couldn't sort me out. You're a pretty good teacher, Lily," he said, with a grin.
Lily smiled shyly. "Thanks."
James suggested moving on to the Yule Ball arrangements, since their first Charms session had been quite an exhausting one, and for once, Lily heartily agreed with him.
They both decided that the decorations for the Ball definitely had to be more extravagant than the regular ones they had every Christmas; they wanted it to feel like a special occasion. Lily suggested hiring a band for the music, and so it was decided that a band should be voted for at the next Prefect meeting.
"What about dress code?" James asked.
"Well, I guess we should have dress robes. Although I think that Muggle formal wear can be more flattering. Robes can make us girls look at a bit pear-shaped and frumpy."
"Frumpy? You? You have a figure that most girls would die for and most guys would die when they see it," James commented, with a cheeky grin.
Lily laughed, her good mood preventing her from coming back with a cutting remark.
"Shut up." She fished around in her bag and pulled out a Muggle magazine. She opened it at a random page which had a picture of a British film star in a subtly revealing dress going to a film premiere with her current beau, and pushed it towards James. "That's what Muggle formal wear looks like."
James' eyes popped out of his head for a moment and he spluttered incoherently before saying,
"I – I think we should go for Muggle clothing. It can be a sort of theme. It'll help raise Muggle awareness and…and it'll help the Muggle Studies students with their subject."
"You just like it because it's more revealing than robes!" Nevertheless, Lily could not argue that Muggle clothing allowed for more variety than robes, and so they decided to ask Gladrag's in Hogsmeade to stock it for the winter season.
After jotting down various notes about the meeting, Lily glanced at her watch—it read ten past eleven, so the pair started to make their way up to the common room. How had time flown so quickly without her noticing? What was that saying? Time flies when you're having fun. Who would have thought that she had managed to have a whole evening of fun with Potter—no, James? And without any arguments or awkward moments. Maybe miracles could happen after all.
And there you have it. I promise to try and get the next chapter out more quickly. But for now, please review! It'll help me get that next chapter uploaded faster!