A.N. / Hey you guys! Sorry it's taken me so long. Been busy gettin my house together, and been trying to keep my self busy while my husband is underway. Well, Read, Review, and Enjoy!

Chapter 21

"Morning Moony!" Sirius sang off tune. "It's Friday, last day of the week! Tomorrow we have the Hall-oooo-wweeen Baaaaallll!" Sirius finished singing way out off tune.

"Shut up Padfoot!" Lily heard the other three Marauder's yell.

Lily giggled, "What are you giggling about?" James asked smiling down at his girlfriend.

"Well," Lily said still smiling. "They can't hear you or open your draperies...remember? You put a spell on them, so they wouldn't know I was in here. So why are you yelling at Sirius to shut up?"

James smiled at her, "Habit, and I can see my beautiful little bookworm remembers everything."

She smiled and nodded, "Yes I do."

James kissed the top of her head, "I would have never dreamed you'd actually be mine."

Lily giggled, "James, I'm not property."

"I know that."

"Jamey!" Sirius chimed, "Come out, come out! We'd like to see what lovely shared your bed last night."

"Oh no!" Lily gasped, "How do I get out of here?"

"My invisibility cloak, I've got it here under my pillow. Just slip it on and you can sneak out when I leave the room to take my shower. You head to the Girls' Dormitory to get ready for class, okay?"

Lily smiled and softly kissed his lips, "You think of everything don't you?"

James shrugged his shoulders, "Well, I am a Marauder after all."

She playfully hit his arm again while slipping on the Invisiblity Cloak and followed his lead out of the room. As she made her way to the Girls' Dormitory she then took it off and walked inside the sixth year room.

"Lily?" Cassidy gasped running towards her best friend and grasping her with everything she could manage. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"

Lily looked taken back, "Scare you like what?"

"Well you marched out of here mad and I had no clue where you went and you just now show up? An hour before classes start?"

"An hour...that's all?" Lily whined and Cassidy nodded. "Well," Lily's happiness was back. "Good thing I took a shower last night...let's go down to breakfast."

"You're not getting off that easy," Gabby spoke up stepping in front of her friend.

"Yeah, spill...where did you go last night after you stormed out of here?" Alice jumped in.

"Well," Lily thought of a good lie. "I smelled that awful perfume that Paris and Heather wear. So I went to the Hospital Wing...because I started to feel dizzy headed...and was suggested that I stay over night."

"Damn those two sluts," Cassidy scowled.

"Are you alright?" Gabriella asked running over to her friend.

Lily put up a smile, "Yeah."

"Tonight we need to talk," Cassidy spoke up.

"About?" Alice asked a little lost.

"About the letter Lily recieved last night," Cassidy said rolling her eyes at Alice's ditzy-ness.

"Oh yeah."

"Girls I have a Prefect Meeting after dinner. Why don't we talk about it tomorrow night?"

"Lily have you forgotten?" Alice asked outraged.

"Tomorrow is the Halloween Ball. I'm going with Sirius, Alice is going with Frank, you're going with James, and Gabby's going with...."

They all turned to look at Gabby, after she'd broken up with Amos last night none of them even knew if she was even going to attend the ball.

"You are coming to the dance, aren't you?" Alice asked.

Gabriella smiled, "Of course I am. Remus is taking me."

Lily smiled, she was glad for her friend. "Are you two a couple yet?"

Gabriella shook her head no, "No not yet. We want to take it slow. I'm not ready to fall into a relationship again. But I do care for Remus, and he understands that I want to take it slow."

"That's great!" Alice said hugging her friend tightly. Lily giggled, Cassidy sighed a bit annoyed, and Gabriella tried to find some room to breath.

"Wait a minute!" Lily gasped, "Remus doesn't have a costume...how will...

Gabriella shrugged, "Remus said he'd be able to get one tonight. He just asked what my costume was and I told him and he said no problem."

Lily smiled, there was no doubt in her mind that James's invisiblity cloak and the Marauder's map would be used to get Remus's costume tonight for tomorrow night's ball.

"Well, the Prefect metting shouldn't take too long. So after the prefect meeting is over, I'll come up here and spill. Okay?" Lily asked as her best friends nodded yes.

Later on that morning Lily sat down beside Cassidy in their first class of the day, Potions. Cassidy was busy writing Sirius a love letter to notice that James had dropped a letter in front of Lily.

Lily took out the Quick Quill-notes, and got her quill to write down the notes as she read the letter she'd just recieved from James.

My lovely Lily Flower,
I can not wait until tomorrow night when we will be together at the Halloween Ball. I can not wait to see you in your costume tomorrow. We need to talk tonight, about us. I know you have a Prefect meeting tonight. Maybe you could meet me after your meeting?

Always yours,
James

"Crap!" Lily yelled to herself, of course she wanted to spend time with her friends and tell them what was going on. On the other hand she also wanted to talk to James, so Lily wrote James back with her response.

Dearest James,
I too can not wait until tomorrow. I am afraid to say that I can not meet you tonight after my Prefect meeting. I promised the girls this morning that we'd chat tonight. I promise we can meet anytime except for tonight. Again, I am sorry.

Lily

Lily felt horrible for letting James down. Sure, she'd told him over and over again for years saying 'no,' to his constant asking her out. Lily knew there was no way she could pass this not to James durring Potions because they must have had the worst Potions teacher ever, Professor Nickel.

"Today," Came Professor Nickel's raspy voice. "We will broil a Sleeping Draught." She tapped the chalk board. "You should be finished copying down your notes...if now, oh well. Ingredients and instructions are now on the board. You have an hour left, BEGIN!"

Lily sighed, how much she did hate Professor Nickel's class. Professor Nickel was the meanest, worst teacher at the entire school. Plus she was Slytherin's Head of House, and that made things for Gryffindor ten times worse. Even Professor McGonagall hated Professor Nickel, and McGonagall usually liked everyone.

A long hour later, the class finally ended. "I want to tell you now that I want a roll of parchment on the Sleeping Draught due by Monday." Everyone in the class groaned and the bell rang.

Lily acted as if her bag had broken and told her friends she'd meet them in their next class, Charms.

James picked up on what Lily was doing and claimed he lost his wand under his desk, so the other three Marauder's left him behind. Professor Nickel left the room without noticing the couple was still in there.

"Alright there Lily?" James asked looking at her pick up her bag.

"Not really, read this." She handed James the letter she'd written. A minute or so later she saw him frown while pocketing the letter.

"What do the girls want to talk to you about?"

"Last night, the letter, and most likely my status with you."

"Your status with me?"

They exited the Dungenos and walked towards the Charms classroom. Lily went on, "Yes my status with you. If I still hate you, are we friends, or most likely when you and I are finally going to get together."

"Well that's easy," James said shrugging his shoulders. "Just tell them we got together last night."

Lily stopped in the middle of the corridor and James looked at her oddly. "Are you serious James? We should tell them? After what the letters our parents recieved and the one I got last night? You heard his words...do you really think it wise to flaunt our relationship?"

James grabbed her hand and brought it up to his mouth to kiss. "Lily, my darling spring flower, I realize you are scared by the letter you recived last night and the letters our parents have received. But our parents told us to live this up. Lily we care about one another! Screw Voldemort! I thought we talked this over last night? I knew you'd do this, this is why I wanted to talk to you tonight."

Lily eyed him, "What do you mean you knew I was going to do this?"

James sighed and ran his hands through his hair, much to LIly's annoyance. "You won't let yourself be happy."

"Excuse me?" She asked outraged.

"Cassidy told me last summer. Ever since you found Stoyan and Narcissa...."

"That is none of your business!" She snapped walking off, leaving him speechless...as usual.

James sat in the Common Room later that night, miserable. He'd ticked Lily off, and with his luck she'd break up with him tonight. Lily had returned from her Prefect meeting an hour and a half ago, and didn't even speak a word to him. She'd marched straight upstairs to the Girls' Dormitory without even a glance at him. James knew Remus would be back soon from Hogsmede from buying his costume. Sirius had detention with Professor McGonagall, and Peter was once again with Amy.

So James sat by himself pouting, a voice startled him. "Tough luck with Lily."

James turned around fast, Cassidy looked truly sorry for him. "Yeah, I always mess things up with her. Hell, she probably only accepted to be my girlfriend because she was tired of me asking her over and over again."

"That's not true!" Lily said tears falling quickly down her face, she'd ran out of her hiding place. James eyed her quickly and ran to hold her...feel her against him.

"Uh..." Cassidy felt very unwanted at the moment, "I'm going find Sirius."

Lily and James didn't notice Cassidy exit the Common Room. Lily felt so fragile and kept apologizing over and over again for being a spaz...and collapsed in his arms. She' been through so much in the last three months, no wonder she couldn't handle her own emotions. "Are you done talking to the girls?" James questioned, he didn't care about what they needed to talk aobut, James could tell he needed to hold her, let her know everything would be alright. Lily nodded to his question, and James led her to his room to try and calm her down.

The next morning James awoke to the smell of strawberries and fiery red hair across his spare pillow and bare chest. Lily had spent the night with him, again. She'd refused to go back to her own bed. Shew as in one of James's flannel pajama shirts, she wouldn't wear the pants to bed. She'd said something about she could never sleep in them. James only in pajama pants, didn't know how he was able to control himself the night before. The tempting Lily Evans had snuggled very close to him all of last night.

James was surprised Sirius hadn't tried to wake him. As a matter of fact that topic was being debated downstairs at that very moment.

"Where's James?" Alice asked sitting in Lily's usual spot.

"Upstairs with Lily," Peter said with a wide grin to his face.

Peter got a pillow thrown at him by Gabby as she looked at him in disgust, he was so oily...almost as bad as Snape. She always wondered why Remus, Sirius, and James put up with him. Sirius rolled his eyes at his slow friend and explained about the night before. "After Cass and I returned to the Common Room and Lily and James were no where to be seen...I had a feeling they were in his room. So we followe my hunch and went to the door about to expose them when..."

"Sirius stopped me, he said he could hear Lily sobbing and James trying to console her. I pressed my ear to the door and heard it too."

"Later that night," Sirius spoke again. "I opened James's draperies from around his bed, to see them asleep. Tear streaks visible on Lily's face and James's chest.

"So their still up there, sleeping?" Alice questioned and Sirius nodded his head yes.

"We should go wake her up," Gabby said standing before Cassidy stopped in front of Gabriella.

"No," Cassidy said surprising Gabriella. "Let Lily come down when she's ready."

Alice sighed, "Everything just goes so wrong for them. I wish they could just be happy, something is always happening to them."

"I just hope everything goes alright with them at the dance tonight," Gabriella said looking sad for her friends.

"Me too Gabby, me too." Cassidy said looking toward the Boys' Dormitory, while the rest of her friends just nodded in agreement.

James gently kissed the top of Lily's head, and the little movement made her begin to stir from her dreamland. She moved her head so she could look up into those beautiful eyes of his that captivated her. "Morning sleepy-head." James said smiling and leaning down to give her a sweet peck on the cheek.

Lily smiled, "Good morning." She rubbed her eyes, showing that she still was a bit tired. "What time is it?" She asked, her face showing that she truly wanted to know.

James lifted his free arm and glanced at his watch, "Eleven."

Lily's brilliant green eyes filled up with a questioning look. "You sleep with your watch on?"

"No, not normally. But I was too determined to make you feel better last night, that I forgot to take it off."

Lily blushed, "Sorry about yesterday."

James shook his head, "Don't be. Don't worry about it, that was the past. Let's just look towards the future."

Lily rolled up, where her hair was hanging down into his face. "Future? What future?"

"The dance, tonight...have you forgotten our date already?"

"Oh! Oh my! It's after eleven and the ball begins at seven, which means we need to meet in the Common Room at about six-thirty. Plus I've got to sneak out of here to the Girls' Dormitory in you Cloak, shower, dress, and go to the Great Hall for lunch. So that leaves me at one. Oh no! I'll only have four hours to look perfect for you tonight!"

James chuckled at her, "You don't have to try and look perfect. You look perfect all the time."

Lily kissed James's lips, "Good line slick, but I've got to go get ready." She kissed him noce more, grabbed the cloak, and left the room.

James threw himself back on the bed and sighed. How on Earth he was able to lie in bed with the very sexy Lily Marie Evans all night without being fresh...he had no clue how he did it last night.

The rest of the day was a very fast blur for the girls. After Lily came down from the Girls' Dormitory at about eleven forty-five, all the girls agreed they needed to go eat lunch so they could start getting ready for the ball, pronto!

While the girls got ready the Marauder's stayed in the Common Room. Sirius and James played a few rounds of Wizard's Chess, while Remus and Peter rotated in and played the winner of James and Sirius's game. But around five-thirty the Marauder's went upstairs to shower and begin gettin ready for the night ahead of them.

Meanwhile the girls were all showered and getting dressed. Or most likely helping out one another look perfect for tonight, withtof course nasty remarks from Heather or Paris...in which the girls ignored.

Lily was doing everyone's hair as she was very good at it, Cassidy was doing make-up, Gabriella with accessories, and Alice with shoes...of course!

Alice was the shoe queen, any kind of shoe you want? Alice had it. Good thing all the girls wore a size seven shoe.

Lily had taken advantage of Cassidy's trust...and charmed most of Cassidy's long locks off. Good thing they were witches, because tomorrow it would be back to it's normal length. She'd made Cassidy's hair relaxed curls. Gabriella's straight hair had lots of body to it tonight, with relaxed cursl, and glitter everywhere. Alice's hair was pulled halfway up with curls only at the ends. Lily's hair was done by Cassidy tonight. Lily's hair was twisted up in the back, curled on the top, all curls pinned together, with two single hairs to pull in her face.

Lily's costume was of Juliet, in which James would be her Romeo. Lily's fourteenth century dress was dark green, to match her eyes, to blend with her pale skin, and red locks. Cassidy was Marilyn Monroe and Sirius was going to be President Kennedy. Gabriella was wearing a red slinky Salsa dress and Remus would be a matching Salsa male dancer. Alice was Repunzal and Frank was her prince.

Lily's make-up was light with black eyeliner and mascara, light green eyeshadow, a bit of blush, and clear lipgloss. Gabriella's make-up was black eyeliner, dark eyeshadows, deep blush, and red lipstick. Alice had on blue eyeliner and mascara, but neutral eyeshadows, with pink lipstick. Cassidy had on black eyeliner and mascara, neutral eyeshadows, blush, and red lipstick.

Lily's accessories were a floral halo on her head, the necklace James had given her, and some of Gabriella's long beady earrings. Cassidy had on pearl earings, necklace, and braclet. Alice had on a simple silver necklace with a blue teardrop charm. Gabriella had on huge hoop earrings, a deep neckline necklace, and lots of rings.

Lily's shoes were baby-doll black velvet shoes, Cassidy wore white pumps, Gabriella wore red strappy shoes, and Alice had on blue pumps to match her dress.

When the girls were finished Lily glance at the clock, six thirty on the dot. "Showtime girls!" Lily smiled and the girls nodded, heading downstairs to meet their dates...Heather and Paris had left an hour before.

Alice came to the Common Room first, and left in a dash, she was to meet Frank at the Grand Staircase. Peter had already left ot meet Amy in the Entrance Hall. Gabriella was the next down the stairs, and the remaining Marauder's made all kinds of noise for this saucy Seniorita! Remus took Gabby's hand and headed towards the dance with his date. Next, to come down was Cassidy and Sirius's mouth dropped. Never in all his life did he imagine that she'd look so sexy! Sirius kissed Cassidy, much to her surprise, and they too took Remus and Gabby's route to the dance.

Finally, Lily trailed down the staircase to a smiling, yet floored James Potter. Never in his life had he seen such a beautiful woman. James didn't say anything...he just stared.

"Dissapointed?" Lily asked, sadness filling up in her eyes at not making James happy.

He pulled her into his embrace, "Lily." He whispered, "Dissapointment? Are you kidding me? You're the most beautiful woman I've every seen. You took my breath away." He leaned in to give her a sweet kiss.

She smiled at him, "So you like?"

James shook his head, "Love. Your gorgeous, I'm going to have ot beat the other guys off of you."

"Where is everyone?" Lily asked just noticing their friends weren't around.

"Already headed downstairs to the Halloween Ball."

"Already?"

James nodded his head, "Ready to join the rest of the school?"

"Not just yet," she said smilng and pulling him into a very passionate kiss. Moments later Lily finally pulled back to have James breathless, again.

James chuckled nervously, "Wow...where did that come from?"

"What?" Lily said shrugging her shoulders, "I can't give my handsome boyfriend a good snog?"

James smile grew, "Anytime babe. How about another kiss?"

She giggled, "Yeah...um, maybe later. We've got a ball to attend!" With that she pulled him out of the Common Room and towards the Halloween Ball. Ahh yes, the Halloween Ball, a night they'd never forget...