A.N. / Hey everyone! I know I make mistakes on my fanfic, so if anyone would like to become my Betta Writer, Just leave me review and let me know and I'll get back to you okay? Thanks.
Chapter 31
Tyler looked over to Lily when he saw James with Paris and he saw total disgust upon her face. "Lily?"
"We actually have to bow to James and that slut?" Tyler nodded, "Maybe we shouldn't be here at all. I don't think I can go through this. Oh Tyler, I'm so sorry."
"No," he said putting an arm around her. "It's alright. If it's too soon for you we'll just go to your house and watch the Television and count down the New Year there drinking hot chocolate."
"Really? You'd do that for me?" Lily asked smiling from ear to ear.
Tyler nodded, "Anything for you."
Lily and Tyler began to walk off when they heard a twelve year old girl squeal, "Lily! Lily wait! Where are you going?"
Lily sighed, she was trapped and she knew it. There was no way she was going to be able to get out of the social event now that little Sarah Potter had seen her. "Hi Sarah."
"Lily!" Sarah squealed hugging Lily. Lily had been by far James's best girlfriend ever! So how on Earth could James just drop her? Amnesia and he was still under it a bit and Paris of course wasn't helping any to get it back, because she knew that as soon as James had it back Paris would be on her way out. "Where were you going?"
"Uhhh…"
"You're not leaving are you?"
"No, no of course not…Tyler just needed a smoke."
"Smoke?" Sarah now turned her attention to the man standing beside Lily. "Aren't you the famous Quidditch player Tyler Smith?" He nodded and she squealed and now turned her attention to Lily. "He's a lot cuter than my brother."
Lily nodded, "Speaking of your brother…how's he doing?"
"He's memory comes back in bits and pieces. He remembers his room and a few things from when we were little…mum of course. It's taking him a bit longer to remember dad."
"And you?"
Sarah shook her head, "I'm shut out of the door just like you. He doesn't remember me and even when he starts to Paris gets in the way of it."
"He's started to remember me?" Lily tried to ask, but trying not to sound desperate.
Sarah shrugged her shoulders, "I have no clue. Paris never lets James out of her sight and when she leaves he goes straight to bed. Sirius doesn't even know what's going on inside of his head…and that's saying something because the those two use to be joined at the hip."
Lily nodded and she remembered that. Her heart started to ache and she saw everyone enter the ball and Sarah's little date approached them, "The dance has started Sarah. And are you Lily?" She nodded, "Mr. and Mrs. Potter would like to see you as soon as you enter the ball."
"Where are they?"
"Towards the front wall, they'll be having a conversation with Professor Dumbledore and Moody."
Lily nodded, "I guess I'll see you later on tonight, huh Sarah?"
"Wait! Where's your mask?"
Lily and Tyler looked at one another and were completely confused, "Mask?"
"Yes your mask, I wrote it in your invite."
"No you didn't Sarah. You mean to tell me that this is a Masquerade Ball and you forgot to tell me to bring a mask? Guess we can go in now."
Sarah shook her head, "Now don't be silly. We have some extra masks here. Let's see…Lily you are wearing hunter green…so I'll give you the peacock mask." Lily took the mask from Sarah and admired it. It was quite lovely. "And Tyler…"
"It's okay I brought my own."
"What?" Lily asked looking at him oddly, "You knew this was a Masquerade Ball and didn't remind me?"
"All of their balls are Masquerade…I figured you knew that."
"Let's go inside!" Sarah squealed, "I hear Daddy announcing something!" Sarah and her date fled into the ballroom and Tyler turned to Lily first before he opened the doors.
"Are you sure you're ready for this? We can go home and you don't have to worry about seeing James or Paris."
Lily shook her head, "Their not going to ruin this evening for you or me. I've got my friends here too and I haven't seen any of them, except for Alice, since we left the train. So come on! Let's go!"
Tyler could see the fear in Lily's eyes, no matter how hard she tired to hide it. He wouldn't try and stop her, because he knew how strong she was and how she thought she had to do this to prove how much of a strong person she was. Lily held her mask up to her face and Tyler fastened a regular black mask on his face.
"You ready for this?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
Tyler nodded to her honest comment and opened the Ballroom door, he then closed it after the two of them entered and she put her arm around his arm. They were both relieved that they weren't done announcing names. There were four couples in front of them.
"Paris from the house of Waters, escorted tonight by James from the house of Potter." Lily glanced up and saw that Paris was wearing a very low cut, revealing pink dress with rhinestones everywhere and her mask matched too. James had no a black tux, but everything else was black too, plus a regular plain black mask. There was a bit of applause and Lily clapped lightly to be polite. Later on during the night, Sirius and the gang would explain to Lily and Tyler about the fight James and Paris had because he refused to wear pink, just for her.
"Cassidy from the house of O'Brian, escorted tonight by Sirius from the house of Black." More applause and Lily looked in front of her…she couldn't figure out who else was in front of her. This was because she hadn't gone shopping with her friends, because she figured that James and Paris would be along.
"Gabriella from the house of Martinez, escorted tonight by Remus from the house of Lupin." Lily smiled, it would only be Gabriella to wear that red dress with matching red mask, outlined in marabou feathers.
"Alice from the house of Westbrook, escorted by Frank from the house of Longbottom," Lily sighed. It was amazing how all of her friends were still with the guys that they cared deeply about and Lily was staring at James wishing so badly that she was here with him and not Tyler.
"Lily from the house of Evans, escorted by Tyler from the house of Smith," Lily curtsied and Tyler bowed. When Lily stood back up she saw that Mr. and Mrs. Potter were at the very far end of the ballroom on two thrones. They were of course dressed like a King and Queen, Lily giggled a bit and it all made sense now.
"A bit funny isn't it?" Tyler asked seeing a smile upon Lily's face, and she nodded. "They do this every year you know?"
"A Masquerade ball and them as King and Queen?"
Tyler nodded and she giggled a bit more. Tyler and Lily walked toward Mrs. and Mr. Potter. The Potters saw the couple approach them, but because of the masks they had no clue who the couple was.
"And who might this handsome young couple be?"
Lily smiled and took off her mask, "Oh Lily!" Grace gasped jumping off her throne and threw her arms around the young woman. "You look so beautiful! Wow! You look so gorgeous, and who is this handsome young man that has had the compliment in bringing you to our ball?"
"Well this is, " Lily said pulling Tyler closer to her and he began to take his mask off. "Tyler Smith."
"The Tyler Smith? The Professional Quidditch player?" Harold asked jumping down from his throne.
Tyler blushed a bit, "Yes sir."
"This is an honor." Harold said shaking Tyler's hand.
Tyler shook his head, "No Mr. Potter, the pleasure is all mine. I've always wanted to meet you…you're the best living Auror around. You're the reason after I retired from Professional Quidditch that I started Auror school."
"You're going to school to be an Auror?" Tyler nodded.
"Uh Lily dear," Grace said sighing. "Dating an Auror to be? Not such a good idea, trust me. I'm married to one of the greatest Auror's ever and I hardly ever see him, you know now with this whole Voldemort thing going on."
Lily nodded, "So how's James doing."
There was a bit of pity in Grace's eyes for Lily, but luckily Lily couldn't see it in the dim light. "He's good and getting some of his memory back, slowly though."
"That's what Sarah told me earlier."
"Oh! You've seen Sarah already?" Lily nodded to the older woman's question, "She's been so anxious to see you. She's really missed you during the holidays…we all have."
"I missed you guys too."
Grace glanced over and saw Paris sucking on James's neck while he was having a constant conversation with the Marauder's. "He was suppose to bring you home for the holidays, not that horrible girl that's over there with him."
Lily sighed, "Maybe this is all for the best. It's obvious we're just not meant to be."
Grace shook her head no, "Lily you don't really know that. James is still suffering from the Amnesia and Paris is stuck to him like hot glue."
"No Grace, it's fine. Besides Tyler is really good to me," Lily said looking over to her left and seeing Harold and Tyler talking about none other than Quidditch.
"That's good, I'm glad you're getting over this. And if my son still doesn't want you after his memory is back well then he's a fool."
"Honestly Grace, I can't wait that long. It's almost been a month since James's accident and I've moved on. I really care for Tyler and I believe he feels the same about me."
"That's great Lily."
"You're not angry with me?"
Grace shook her head no, "We all tried to convince you were James girlfriend, not Paris. He believed Paris over you, me, Sarah, Sirius, Remus, Cassidy, Gabriella, and Alice. If he can't believe us and you've found someone else go after that new someone one. Life is only so short and you need to take advantage at every opportunity you get. We need to go and find Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom, we have something to discuss with them. I hope to see you later Lily."
"Of course," Lily said with a smile and Grace pulled Lily into a hug. "Harold? The Longbottoms are waiting."
Harold nodded, "I'll see you later Tyler, Lily."
"Good-bye," the couple said together at the same time.
"What to do next?" Tyler said with a smile behind his mask.
"Visit with your friends?" Lily suggested.
"I have no friends here. I know only a few select people at Auror School, as I just started attending there, and none of them are here. Then all the friends I know from back home in America don't know the Potters, so of course their back in America and aren't here also. How about we visit with your friends?"
"You sure?"
"Positive."
It took Lily and Tyler about five minutes to find her friends, but there they all were sitting at a table together eating. "Hey everyone." Lily said smiling and was glad to see her friends, as the only one she'd seen through out the entire Christmas Vacation was Alice on Boxing Day.
"Lily!" Cassidy, Gabriella, and Alice exclaimed at the same time and the boys said their hellos. Of course they were all excited to see Lily, but they weren't as giddy as the girls were.
"Oh I've missed you so much!" Cassidy said hugging her best friend, "You've got to stay with me tonight."
"Can't. Mum and Dad want me to come home and tell them how the ball went, but of course you know you're always welcome over."
"Deal! We'll leave about an hour before the ball is over and Floo to my house to pick up my bag and then come back here."
"Hey!" Gabriella said in mock outrage, "And what about me? Am I not part of the Witchly-Sisters anymore?"
Lily giggled and Tyler smiled, it was good to see her happy and smiling. She hadn't done that for a while. "Well of course you are and Alice too. It's not really the Witchly-Sisters if the four of us aren't together!"
"Oh Merlin, their calling themselves the 'Witchly-Sisters' again." Sirius said with a sigh.
Lily pushed Sirius playfully, "Oh stuff it. At least we don't have a stupid name like 'The Marauder's,' anywho. So who's up for dancing?"
"I agree with Sirius," Paris Waters said stepping through the crowd and standing directly behind Lily.
"Oh please don't," Sirius pleaded. "I don't ever want to agree with you on anything."
Paris rolled her eyes and everyone noticed she was a bit clingy on James, "What is riff-raff Mudblood Evans doing here. You know at the Social Event of the season."
Sirius and Remus stepped forward, but it was Sirius that had spoken first. "Don't you EVER call Lily that again."
The girls had also stepped up, "That's right because we all know that you're just a slut Paris." Cassidy said with a smile creeping in front of her face, "At least we all know that out boyfriends took us for us and not our looks. That's all James sees, I guarantee it."
Paris rolled her eyes, "That might be true, but obviously James wasn't too interested in Lily." She turned to James, "I smell an odd odor." Then she smiled and looked at Lily, "Oh just the Mudblood…let's get away from it before the stench comes over us."
Paris walked off with James tagging along like a lost puppy, but James did something that surprised them all he turned around and looked at Lily until Paris and James got lost in the crowd.
"I think he's caving Lily," Sirius said with a big grin and Lily also did something to shock them all.
"So?" She said shrugging her shoulders, "I'm not interested anymore. He wasn't interested in me when I wanted him…besides I've found better."
"Who's better than James?" Sirius asked outraged.
"Do you see my date?" Lily then turned to Tyler, "Care to dance?"
"Sure…isn't that we are here for in the first place?" The couple walked off and everyone's mouth dropped.
"Is there something here I didn't catch?" Sirius asked with his mouth hanging open.
"I think we all missed that one Padfoot," Remus said staring where Lily and Tyler had just been standing.
"I kind of saw it coming," Alice said looking down at her feet.
"Explain," Sirius barked in a dog like form.
"We all know we cancelled our little trip on Boxing Day because of Gabby's mum, how is she by the way?"
"She's better and stay on topic," Gabriella responded back.
"Well, I knew that Lily had been down because of the whole James thing."
"Yeah we all did," Cassidy spoke up.
"Well I went to see her on Boxing Day and she told me she was still upset about James but she thought she was moving on to Tyler."
"It's got to be just a rebound," Sirius said shrugging it off.
"I hope you're right," Alice agreed.
"That's alright I formed a plan just in case something like this happened." Sarah said with a smile walking up to the crowd.
"That's my girl," Sirius said with a chuckle, "So let us in on the plan." The group plus Sarah got in a group and began discussing her mischievous plan.
Music to Waltz came on and everyone began to Waltz and everyone seemed to notice how close James and Paris were standing. Grace rolled her eyes and Harold and Grace got closer to the couple, "Leave room for Jesus will you?" Grace and Harold spun off to the other side of the Ballroom.
"Who's Jesus?" Paris asked behind her mask.
James rolled his eyes from behind his mask, "Paris I have the case of Amnesia and I know who Jesus is."
"Why are you being so mean?"
"I don't know…just lately you've been getting on my nerves a bit."
"Maybe because we spend so much time together."
James thought for a moment, "Maybe." But he highly doubted it.
James couldn't help but notice how pretty 'Red' looked today…and he overhead her name today too…Evans. James knew it was only her last name and for some reason he couldn't remember her first name…but something about this Evans girl was making his stomach flop around like crazy. James didn't recognize her at first of course because of the mask, but when Paris was offensive to Evans and Evans took off her mask that's when James felt as if he was going to melt right there. Evans looked like an angel and if only he could remember her name.
Paris was gossiping away to James and he was tuning her out once again. A couple just twirled past James and Paris, and James recognized the hunter green dress and the peacock mask. It was Evans and she looked even more heavenly as they danced. James looked at Evans's date and he was wearing practically the same thing as Evans's date…same mask and everything. They looked even the same height.
The song ended and Sarah had approached Evans's date and James saw that he excused himself…this was James's chance!
"Excuse me."
Paris looked flabbergasted that James interrupted her, he knew better than that. "What do you mean 'Excuse me'? Weren't you listening at all to me?"
"Uh yeah…but I need to use the little boys room."
"I told you to use the bathroom before the ball started and I told you I wanted to dance all night." She said very demanding.
"Stuff it. When nature calls I'm responding." He walked off in the crowd and made sure Paris lost track of him then he walked across the dance floor to where Evans was now standing.
James approached her and held his hand back to her, "Back already?" She sounded excited and James nodded. "I was hoping you wouldn't be long. What did Sarah want?"
James was stumped…what would his little sister want with Evans's date.
"Did she want your autograph?" James nodded. Lily snuggled up to James's shoulder and danced closely to him.
"Hey everyone!" Sarah yelled over the crowd, "Ten seconds to midnight! Ready?!"
"James!" Paris said walking around looking for her boyfriend and James pulled Lily closer and she giggled.
"You're being really cuddly."
"Five…four…three…two…one! Happy New Years!" Everyone yelled and some began to sing the famous New Years song. James went in to kiss Lily with their masks on and Lily went into the kiss, thinking it was Tyler.
"Lily?" Tyler asked standing behind her with his mask off.
"Tyler? But if you're there…then who?" She pulled off her mask now and started at the guy in front of her.
"Lily." James said taking off his mask and staring at her like he had before his Quidditch Game that horrible day. "I…I remember you…I remember us." Everyone around gasped and looked at what was going on.
"JAMES!" Paris yelled, "How dare you betray me!"
"Shove it whore," James said with no emotion at all and Paris gasped and ran out of the ballroom sobbing.
"J…J…James, what's going on?"
"I recognized you the other day in the robe shop and then more came back to me tonight when Paris was being rude to you. I knew there was something about you and after we kissed it came all back. I want you back…please take me back."
"J…James," Lily gasped. "I'm so confused now."
James eyeballed Lily oddly, "What do you mean you're confused? You've made this decision before, remember? And you realized that I was best for you. I mean come on Lily he's five years older than you."
"Age isn't anything but a number."
James rolled his eyes, "Okay. Age isn't anything but a number, but Lily come on you know how much I care for you."
Lily face twitched a bit to tell that she was thinking, "Um. I'm not sure about that. You had Amnesia and you didn't believe that I was your girlfriend and wouldn't listen to anyone else but Paris."
"Lily I had Amnesia! I was totally confused and didn't know what to do or who to believe."
"So you believe the one person who lies to you?"
"Okay Lily I understand you're upset with me."
"Upset? Upset?! That's not even the half of it. You broke my freaking heart!"
"Lily I understand…"
"No I don't think you do. You have no idea what I was going through! I've been going crazy and do you want to know who was there for me? Who picked me up when I was down? Who treated me like number one and only thought about me? Yeah that's right, Tyler did."
"Lily had no help over that."
"YOU CALLED ME 'RED'! I mean what is up with that? No, James I don't want to hear your lame stories anymore. We're out of here."
Lily grabbed her date's hand and marched out of the Potter Ballroom without a look back at James Harry Potter.
"Lily?" Tyler asked as they got into his car.
"What?" She asked fastening her seatbelt.
"You didn't have to do that back there."
"Do what?"
"Pick me over James…I know how much you care for him and I don't want to come in between you guys relationship."
"Relationship? Are you kidding me? He picked that slut Paris Waters over me!"
"Lily he was suffering Amnesia after a thirty foot fall off his broom during a Quidditch Match. He was confused…"
"Why are you defending him?" Lily interrupted Tyler.
"I'm not I just don't want you to pass up an opportunity to get your relationship back with James."
"It's okay Tyler…"
Tyler shook his head, "No Lily it's not…we're just friends."
"That's all you want isn't it? I am too young for you, aren't I?" Lily asked feeling rejected yet again.
"No, no Lily it's not that."
"Then what? What the hell is it?"
"I'd love to see you as more than a friend…"
"So would I."
"But you see…wait…you what?"
Lily smiled at him, "You heard me." She said batting her eyes at him.
"You…you want more like I do?" She nodded at his question, "But what about James…you know your relationship with James?"
"What relationship Tyler? I mean honestly. I don't think I could ever trust James again and even though he has helped me through a lot, you have lately and my feelings have switched from him to you."
"So you want to be my girlfriend?"
Lily walked up and got close to him then put her arms around his neck, "Just shut up and kiss me."
