A Hogwarts Cinderella
By: Tiger Lily
Chapter Two
Author's Note: I would like to thank Jeanne, bombshell, Agloechen, and kuro-tenshi_2nd for their kind reviews on chapter one. (To Agloechen: I tried to leave you something on your website but I don't speak German.Thanks!) For future reference, if you want a personal thank you and you leave an anonymous review please include your email address so I can thank you. If you leave a signed review I will either email you or send you a review on one of your stories. If I can't do either I will thank you at the top of the next chapter. Thanks again!
" James! Earth to James! Do you copy? Helloooooo?"
Sirius Black waggled his hand in front of James Potter's face.
"Huh? What?" exclaimed James, " Oh, it's you Sirius.What's going on?"
Sirius groaned. " James, you haven't been yourself since the ball. That was nearly two weeks ago! What'd that girl do to you? Brainwash you?"
"I dunno," said James with a sigh, " It's just that that girl was the only girl I've ever been able to have a normal converstation with. She didn't chatter about how cute I was or force me to dance with her or blab on and on about make-up! We just talked like normal human beings. And now all I have left is this darn shoe! Why is everything that girl does like a fairy tale?"
Sirius looked at his friend sympathetically.
"Who do you think it was? I mean, there aren't that many redheads in Gryffindor. You try the shoe on everyone of 'em and it's bound to fit one of them. Then, BAM, you have your girl and you live happily ever after! How hard could it be?"
James nodded. He didn't want to tell Sirius but he was thinking, " What if the shoe fits more than one girl? And, even worse, what if I put it on the wrong girl?"
By the next week James had made a list of all the girls who could have possibly been Lady Gryffindor. Then he narrowed it down to the three girls who were most likely to be the one he was looking for. They were: Violet Thompson, Rose Thompson, and 'Remus's friend who's name I don't know'. (The latter being, of course, Lily.) She was the one he was looking for but James, of course, didn't know that.
"Attention people! I have an announcement to make!"
Every head in the common room turned towards James, who was standing on a table shouting.
"On the night of the ball," said James, lowering his voice now that he had everyone's attention, " I met a very nice girl who looked like a carbon copy of hte portrait of Lady Gryffindor. I'm sure you've all seen it. Around midnight this girl ran out of the Great Hall leaving behind only this shoe. I found it and I have narrowed the list down to three girls who it could possibly fit. The girl whose foot fits the shoe will become my girlfriend, if she wants to be. Would Rose Thompson, Violet Thompson and, uh, Remus's friend with the red hair please step forward and sit down?"
The three girls stepped forward. Lily tried to be first in line but Violet pushed her out of the way.
Rose's foot fit the shoe but when James asked her to be his girlfriend she giggled and whispered to him, loud enough for everyone to hear, that she was going out with Gilderoy Lockhart, a fifth year Hufflepuff boy who was rumored to be almost as handsome as James and twice as conceited.
Violet's foot didn't quite fit but she shoved it in before James could notice and pulled it off as he got down on one knee (You know like men do when they're proposing) and said, "Violet Thompson, I would be honored if you would be my girlfirend."
Violet shot Lily a mean, gloating look and said in a sugary-sweet voice, "Of course, Jamesie Whamesie!"
James took her hand in his and kissed her on the cheek. Lily ran out of the common room in tears, Remus hot on her trail.
"Lily, what's wrong? What's the matter?"
Remus caught up with Lily in the library.
"H...he d..doesn't even kn...know my name!" wailed Lily," He d...didn't even glance my way!"
Remus pulled Lily into a brotherly hug. "Lily, Lily, Lily, " he said, " If you want him to notice you you have to take charge of your life. You can't leave everything to Fate, that's not how it works. Unless you help James realize that you are Lady Gryffindor and not Violet, she'll win. "
Lily just buried her face in his chest.
"I can't do it," she whispered, " He wouldn't look at me if I was dying! He's too enamored by who he thinks she is! Me!"
Remus rocked her back and forth like a baby. "We'll figure out something, Lily Flower," he whispered, "I promise."
"James, you idiot," he thought," When will you learn that Lily is the one for you? When will you learn to see with your heart and not your head? Why are you breaking Lily's heart?"
~~~~~~~~~~~
"Isn't it wonderful, Lily?" gushed Rose when Lily entered the room later that night.
"Isn't what wonderful?" asked Lily, as if she didn't know.
"Violet is going out with James Potter, the most popular boy in school!" squealed Rose, "Aren't you happy for her?"
"Um," said Lily.
"Of course she isn't.," snapped Violet, " Because she knows that she was Lady Gryffindor and James just put the shoe on the wrong girl's foot!"
"Huh?" asked Rose (she's a little dense if you know what I mean), " But, sis, I thought you were that Lady Gryffindor person. How do you know it was Lily?"
"Because, halfwit, I saw her at the ball!" yelled Violet, " I was dressed as Cleopatra and Lily was dressed as Lady Gryffindor! That's why she won the bet the two of you had!"
"Oh," said Rose, "Well then we should tell James he got the wrong girl, shouldn't we? I mean, we wouldn't want him to have the wrong impression of you."
"Are you kidding?" yelled Violet, "Don't you see? This is my chance to get the boy of my dreams and keep him plus make our family stinking filthy rich! Get it through your thick skull!"
"Oh," said Rose, "I get it. It's like that fairy tale you're always reading, Lily, Cinderellie or something like that."
"Cinderella," said Lily quietly.
"Yes, that one, " said Rose, " And in it the pretty girl gets the handsome guy. Just like Violet and James."
"Whatever you say," said Lily, too tired to contradict her. She rolled over, closed the hangings on her bed, and was soon asleep, dreaming about James dropping Violet like a hot potato and realizing he was really in love with her.