A Hogwarts Cinderella

Chapter Eight

By: Tiger Lily21

A/N: Hey! Thanks for all the reviews! I just had to write this chapter for all of you! You guys are, as I've said before, the best! Now, here's the chapter!

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James had taken a wrong turn at some point in his race to the library and found himself down the Charms corridor. By the time he reached the library Lily and Violet were gone. (If you recall they had been taken to Dumbledore's office.) All he could see were the empty cover and the pages from Lily's book, which Violet had destroyed.

His first reaction was to panic but, remembering that he was not a wimp ( despite what some people, including Lily at sometimes, thought) he sat down at the table and began thinking out loud.

"Okay, so Lily's not here. And neither is Violet. The book is ripped up and it looks like one that Lily would read. Therefore Violet ripped up Lily's book. But what happened then? "

He was struck with the thought that perhaps Madam Pince had seen the fight. Trying to stay calm he walked over to her desk.

"Madam Pince, did you see Lily Evans and Violet Thompson in here earlier?" he asked.

"Yes I did," declared Madam Pince. "I sent them both up to Professor Dumbledore. Why? Are you worried about one of them? Oh, of course, Miss Thompson is your girlfriend."

"How did you know?" blurted James, shocked that the librarian even paid attention to school love affairs.

"We professors know more than you think," replied Madam Pince, almost mysteriously.

"Well, just to let you know," said James, regaining his composure, " I broke up with her earlier tonight."

"That's nice," said Madam Pince. "Now get out of here. You are entirely too loud. Go on, out."

"There are two things I will never understand," muttered James. " Girls and teachers."

James practically ran to Professor Dumbledore's office. He got there just as Lily was stepping off the moving staircase.

"Well James, you were right. Violet blames me 100%,"she said.

"You sound happy about that," said James, noting the smile on her face.

"I am," said Lily. "Because she got a month of detention for ripping my book and slapping me. Plus, I thougth of a way for you to find Lady Gryffindor."

James brightened visibly.

"Really?" he asked. "What?"

"What if we arrange another Christmas ball? A masquerade ball just like last time? Lady Gryffindor would probably come."

"You think so?" asked James, unconsiously sounding like a little kid.

Lily smiled. "Yes," she said, "Especially if she somehow found out Violet would get it there."

"Huh?" asked James brilliantly.

"Think about it," said Lily. " She's probably been moping for the past three years because you took Violet instead of her. Wouldn't it be nice if she could see Violet completely humiliated by you at the ball? I'm sure she'd be quite amused."

"Yeah," said James," It would. And I'd love to get Violet back for what's she's done to my friends and me over the years. This is a perfect idea! Lily, you're a genius!"

Lily blushed and was about to say something when James, obviously now comprehending the part of her speech on Lady Gryffindor's amusement at Violet getting pranked, said, " Hold on a minute. Lily, how do you know what Lady Gryffindor would think about Violet getting pranked? Do you know her or something?"

Lily's face turned, if possible, redder. She mumbled, " More than you know."

"So you know who she is?" asked James excitedly.

"Uh, yeah," said Lily. "But she made me promise not to tell you. Race you to the common room!"

WIth that she took off leaving James to race after her as best he could.

Lily mentally kicked herself. How could she have been so stupid? She'd let another opportunity go by to tell James who she really was. Why oh why had she done it? Did she want to see him humiliate Violet at the ball first? Or was she just too chicken to tell him after three years?

She arrived in the common room out of breath to find Remus sitting calmly in a chair by the fire.

"Remus, we have a huge, mega-problem on our hands!" she cried. "I just practically promised James that Lady Gryffindor would be at the Christmas ball we're planning and I just realized that the dress won't fit anymore and Violet has the other shoe! What in the world am I going to do?"

Remus looked completely calm as he said, " Why not buy another, larger dress and a new pair of shoes?"

"I don't have that much money!" cried Lily in utter exasperation.

"Then use the Engorgement Charm and just buy new shoes," said Remus, now obviously annoyed.

"Oh you're no help!" huffed Lily.

Just then James came huffing and puffing into the common room.

"What's all this?" he asked, looking from the red-faced, obviously furious Lily to the calm, bored-looking Remus.

" I just got mad at Remus for something," said Lily quickly. "By the way, I beat you!"

James looked puzzled then laughed outright.

"You have the weirdest sense of humor of anybody I know," said Remus. "Well, except maybe Sirius."

Then he stood up and headed up to the boys' dormitory.

"Coming James?" he asked. " It's nearly midnight and we have classes tomorrow. 'Night Lily."

James looked at his watch, looked at Lily, then looked into the fire. "Ummm..." he said.

Lily smiled at her friends and said, "Why don't we all go to bed? James, you and I can talk tomorrow during break, okay?"

Then, before James could say a word she Summoned her things from her room, set up a bed on the nearest couch and lay down.

" G'night, Lily," yawned James as he followed Remus up to bed.

He soon fell asleep. But Lily lay awake for hours, thinking about James, the ball, and how Lady Gryffindor could make her appearance with only one shoe and a too-small dress.

The next day Lily and James made lists of ideas and compared them during break. Lily's looked like this:

Music: Classical (Vivaldi, Mozart, etc.)

Food: Cheese, salsa, chips, punch.

Decorations: Typical Christmas. (Trees, holly, wreathes, mistletoe (?) )

Other: Dip Violet in cheese, salsa, and/or punch.

James's list looked like this:

Music: The Weird Sisters (if possible)

Food: Any kind of dessert that involves frosting (and chocolate).

Decorations: Whatever Lily put down. Only no mistletoe!

Other: Throw a cake at Violet.

Of course, when they compared lists they had some explaining to do.Lily had no clue who The Wierd Sisters were and James didn't know any of the composers she'd named. But after a few explanations and several long discussions they finally came up with this list.

A/N: Okay, I want to get you guys involved in this story some more so please tell me the following in your review:

What music should they have? (Classical or Wierd Sisters?)

What food? (Lily's list, James's or a combination of both?)

What prank should they play on Violet? (By the way I'm only putting that in because I don't want to kill off Violet but I want her to get what's coming to her.)

So, start reviewing and answer the questions. I will tally up the results and put the list at the beginning of the next chapter.

Toodles!

-- Tiger Lily