Chapter 4
(A/N) Thanks for the reviews!
Disclaimer: I own the plot.
*~*~*~*~*
"Why d'you hate her?" Sirius asked, later that day, in the Common Room, tossing a tennis ball at the ceiling and lying on the couch.
"Why do you like her?" James retorted, watching a group of Gryffindor first year girls playing chess.
"Because she's hot, you numbskull," Sirius grinned, and caught the tennis ball.
"No, she's not."
"Yes, she is"
"No, she's not. Nice eyes, you could say. Pretty hair, I suppose. Okay complexion, I guess. But if you add them all together, the outcome looks bad," James shrugged, as a girl in brown pigtails was checkmated.
"So you admit she's hot?" Sirius shot upright on the couch.
"I didn't say that," James said, turning to face his friend. "I just took note of certain points of her features that were nice. But, as I said earlier, when you put them all together on the same face, it's not so nice."
"I still say she's hot," Sirius said, returning to his throwing game.
"I still say she's not," James returned, watching the new game of chess started.
"Excuse me for eavesdropping," a certain girl with "nice eyes", "pretty hair", and an "okay complexion" set her books down on the coffee table that the sofas were placed around. "But I'd rather like to be left off the Potter/Black list of 'Who's Hot and Who's Not', for now, anyway."
James rolled his eyes. "Whatever. And just for the record, you would have been on the Not list."
"She gets my vote for Hot," Sirius chuckled.
"Mixed reviews, I see," Lily said crisply. Taking a seat in between James and Sirius, she picked up her Transfiguration textbook and flipped to page 206.
"We only have homework in the first thirty pages," James said suspiciously. "Why're you reading all that?"
"Because, it's always good to know these things."
Sirius choked. "You're reading that for pleasure?"
"No, of course not. It's just that I lack expertise in the subject of Transfiguration, unlike my skills in Charms and other subjects," she replied cooly, flipping a page.
"'Lack expertise' my foot," James muttered.
"What was that?" Lily asked sharply.
"You don't lack expertise, Evans. You. Just. Suck."
"Oh, that's terribly kind of you to point out," Lily scoffed.
"Really? The kindness wasn't intended."
"Lovely. I'm going to the library, where certain people won't distract me from my studies," she said, getting up to leave. With that, she slammed the portrait hole behind her ("How rude! Straighten my frame this instant!")
"Who's that?" a first year asked in awe.
"Your Head Girl, of course," Sirius grinned.
*~*~*~*~*
That evening, after the students all retired to their common rooms after a large dinner, a certain group of Gryffindor seventh years remained.
These particular students were, of course, the Head Girl and Head Boy, and their friends. They were all casually sitting around the table, with the exception of Sirius, who was lying on the couch, as usual, and Lily, who was sitting off to the side, in a straight backed chair, doing her homework, her back facing the fireplace.
"Who're you taking to the Ball, Remus?" Sirius asked.
"Erm…" at this pause, Bella looked hopeful. "Evelyn, would you like to go with me?"
"Oh. Um…"
"Hey, you know what we could do?" Peter said suddenly.
"What?"
"We could all agree to have each other as a back up, in case one of us can't find a date!" he said, obviously very pleased with himself for coming up with such an idea.
"I guess we could," Sirius shrugged. "Who's up for that?"
There were a few shrugs of "Yes", or nods.
"Uh, Lily? Your vote?" Sirius said.
She jerked up. "Hmm? What? Oh, right, whatever, yeah, sure." After this short ramble, she drifted back into her private world of books.
"I'll take Evelyn as my back up," Sirius said.
"Hey!" Remus said.
"Snooze, you lose, buddy," Sirius grinned.
"Okaaay, then I'll take Bella."
"I'm second choice?" she said indignantly.
"Women," James muttered under his breath. "Anyway, I doubt I'll have any trouble finding a date, and besides, I'd rather go alone than with Evans."
Lily was too into her work to notice.
"Good. That leaves me with Lily!" Peter said cheerfully.
Sirius coughed something that sounded like, "Fat chance."
James had to agree. Though he wasn't a personal fan of Lily Evans, many others were… even if they knew her long history of sending boys to the infirmary, not leaving a single piece of evidence for teachers to trace back to who had been able to dislocate arms so easily.
As if to prove it, an owl flew in through the window, carrying a purple envelope for Lily, with chocolates.
"Can somebody open that for me?"
"The chocolates? Gladly," Sirius said, unwrapping the box and popping a dark chocolate heart into his mouth.
"I meant the envelope," she said, not looking up from her work.
Bella grabbed the envelope from Sirius. The minute it opened, someone's voice burst out,
"WILL YOU GO TO THE BALL WITH ME, LILY EVANS?"
Confetti erupted from it, forming the words, "Gilderoy Lockhart".
Lily didn't look up. "Bella, give me the envelope."
Her friend handed it to her. In one swift movement, she tossed it into the fireplace behind her.
*~*~*~*~*
"And since when are we having ice sculptures?"
"Well, since when are we having elves?" Lily shouted at James though they were only a foot apart.
"Since now!" he retaliated.
Anyone else would find this topic rather trivial; ice sculptures or elves, why not both? However, Lily Evans and James Potter were not "anyone else". This being said, they weren't too enthusiastic towards each other's ideas.
Lily sighed. "We'll get back to that. What's next on the list?"
"Music," James replied promptly. "I took the liberty of typing up a song list," he said, handing her a sheet of paper.
"It's… blank," Lily said, frowning.
"Exactly," James said, looking as if he had just discovered the way to solve world hunger problems. "The less singing there is at the ball, the better off we are. Suits of armor cannot sing."
Lily crossed her arms stubbornly. "I thought we'd be having a traditional Christmas selection, preferably with a piano and singer."
"Yeah, well, you thought wrong," James said.
Lily scowled. "Fine. We'll skip decorations and music for now. Attire?"
"What? I thought all we needed was muggle wear."
"Yeah, well, you thought wrong," Lily said.
"Can't even think up your own insults, Evans?"
"You are just so infuriating!"
"It takes years of practice, so appreciate it," he said.
"You-you-…" she sighed. "This is useless. Save the verbal sparring for later, Potter, right now, we have work to do. So, back to the attire. Dresses for girls, and suits for boys, right?"
"Whatever."
"Good. Now for the food."
James perked up at this. "Food? Hmm… What to pick, what to pick…"
"I don't have all day, Potter," Lily said.
"Fine," he grumbled. "Cakes, mulled meade, ooh, we'll have to have that new flavor changing ice cream, pumpkin juice, er, a bowl of all the new sweets they have at Hogsmeade as toppings, oh, and a huge slab of that new chocolate they came out with-"
"No."
"Oh, and you have any ideas?" he said.
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do," Lily snapped testily. "Roasted turkey, mulled meade, I guess, maybe a little chocolate cake, cheesecake, perhaps, a salad bar would be necessary; Bella went vegetarian last summer…"
"We live in Hogwarts, not the Buckingham Palace, Evans," James said.
"Really? I thought you were the annoying court jester," she said sarcastically. "Anyway, age restrictions. I was thinking, fourth years and above?"
"Fifth, fourth years wreck everything," James said.
"No, Potter. Let me explain something to you. Not every fourth year behaved like you and your friends."
"Fine. Fourth years and above. What's next?"
Lily glanced at the list. "Mistletoe branches. Out of every branch, comes… eight mistletoes."
"I didn't quite get that, Evans," James said blankly.
"Okay, let me explain this to you. There are mistletoe branches. Magical mistletoe branches. As we all know, we don't hang branches over our doors, so, we only use bunches of the leaves. So, they sell them by branches. Eight different mistletoe pieces come from one. So, you multiply the number of branches by the number of mistletoe there are," Lily said slowly, as if talking to a small child. "Oh, that's right! Silly me, I forgot; you're still having trouble with addition. Should I explain that to you also?"
"Huh?"
"I take that as one branch," she muttered, scribbling onto the clipboard.
Dumbledore walked into the room cheerfully. "Hello, Lily! Hello, James! How are things going?"
"Not very well," Lily replied. "Potter wants to cancel out music completely."
The Headmaster smiled. "Sorry, Mr. Potter, music is required."
"F- I mean, darn. Who'll be singing?"
"The suits of armor, unless we can find anyone else."
"Sh- I mean, darn."
Lily rolled her eyes, and muttered something about the vulgarity profanity. "Professor, you never discussed the Christmas tree."
"Oh, you, Mr. Potter, our staff, and, of course, the prefects will be decorating it, the muggle way, of course."
"But-" James started.
"It's the best way to get into the holiday spirit, Mr. Potter. Now, two more things," Dumbledore said. "One, is that, of course, you two will have to open the dance together."
"Dance," Lily said blankly. "I don't dance."
"Yes you do," James said. "You waltz with an imaginary partner whenever you ace a test. Besides, you've had to do it with me the past two years as a prefect."
"Shut up."
Dumbledore smiled. "Now, the other thing is, as Head Girl and Boy, you are required to make a personal contribution, such as a food, or perhaps a nice ornament on the tree. Small things. Prefects and staff are required to do it also."
*~*~*~*~*
In the girls' dormitories, there was a great deal of whispers about hair, make-up, dresses, and, of course, boys. Everyone seemed to be swept up in the excitement of the Ball, and one particular Common Room, there was even more whispering than in any of the others.
Surprisingly enough, it wasn't the Hufflepuffs.
"Oh, you guys are awful," Lily said, as she listened to her friends gossip viciously on the subject of what Charity Blesidle had picked to wear at the ball.
"We can't help it, Lils," Evelyn shrugged.
Lily flinched. "Don't call me that."
"Sorry, I forgot the Rules."
She was referring to, of course, the small book of rules the girls had written out of whim in first year, and had added to it as a joke over the years. By the time it was their fifth year, Lily had charmed the papers into a leather bound book, with the golden inscription of: The Rules of BEL (Bella, Evelyn, and Lily).
Taking out the now familiar book, Lily flipped to a page that was titled: Of the Residents.
"Rule number six: Never, under any circumstance, may any person in the room address Lily Evans as Lils, Lil', Lillers, or anything else of that nature," she recited.
"An eleven year old with a twenty year old vocabulary," Bella smiled. "Ooh, maybe it's time we look over all the rules we've made over the years!"
Lily smiled to herself. "You know, we've had a bunch of rules in here that we changed. Here's one: Sirius Black is a pea-brained idiot. Now, it reads: Sirius Black is the hottest boy in the school."
Evelyn grabbed the book. "I thought I had a concealing charm on that," she muttered.
"You, dear, are worse than Potter at Charms," Lily said. "And that's saying something."
"Hmph. Oh, here's the rules we made regarding the Marauders in third year… Rule number one: Never address James Potter by his first name alone, unless such formalities are required."
"Ah. That's a classic. We haven't changed that one yet, have we?" Lily smirked.
"We call him James."
"And I call him Jerk," Lily said. "Not a jerk. The jerk."
"You're hopeless, Lily," Bella sighed. "Oh, I just remembered! What's your personal contribution?"
"My what?" she asked blankly.
"For the Ball!" Bella said. "Honestly! Don't you ever pay attention?"
Lily ignored the latter. "Oh! That! It's a surprise. Well, goodnight."
"What?!" Both Bella and Evelyn sprang up. "You're leaving it off at that?"
Lily gave them both a funny look. "Even Potter doesn't annoy me like this."
*~*~*~*~*
Outside, a half moon shone faintly through the trees. Quite soon, it would be full. Quite soon, a werewolf would starting his monthly prowl for a human chew toy.
*~*~*~*~*
The next morning, there were dozens of owls flying in. One large brown owl landed at the Slytherin table, stopping in front of Severus Snape with a large, yellow envelope. Obviously, he opened it.
What a big mistake that was.
No one was quite sure of what had happened next, but there were many variations of the tale, spreading like wildfire within the seconds afterward. They all started out the same.
According to the tales, Snape had jumped onto his table and burst out singing, "I'm a little teapot, short and stout; Here is my handle, here is my spout…"
Out of embarrassment, Malfoy pulled him down. Losing his balance, Snape fell headfirst into his morning cake. ("Shouldn't be having sweets in the morning," Sirius said, while James was hastily unwrapping his usual package of candy) The outcome? Argus Filch's pregnant cat jumped from her place and began to lick off the icing. This sent many Slytherin girls squealing off in separate directions.
One girl, in her haste, whacked Malfoy with her wand. Twenty minutes later, he was still moaning about the great loss he suffered when a boy took all his lemon chicken flavored tulips.
Another owl flew in, carrying a large banner with the words: "BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE MARAUDERS."
After this, it all branched out into different stories. One said that McGonagall suspended the Marauders… this proved untrue.
Yet another said that all the Slytherins were covered in warts… this was partially true. They were actually a great series of popping zits on their faces, on each was one especially large one with a telltale "M" on it.
There was a popular one that said that Snape had been seen dancing in the hallways wearing nothing but boxers singing on the top of his lungs, in a very off-key voice, "Born to be W-I-L-D, Born to be W-I-L-D…"
This one was slightly inaccurate. He had actually been singing "Joy to the World," but it was impossible to interpret his words.
The last one was that Malfoy had, in his anger, pushed over the Gryffindor Table with his strength, (or so he claimed, to the fawning Slytherin girls) and had sent many of its occupants falling off, due to the gravitational, downward pull of Earth.
That part was a bit exaggerated.
However, there was one bit that most interested everyone. Lily Evans had fallen off, and James Potter had caught her.
This part was true.
*~*~*~*~*
(A/N) Did you enjoy? Then, by all means, review! I know, I know, not exactly the BEST chapter I've ever written, but give me a break, will you? Apparently not. Well, carry on with your critiquing.
To Come: More of Gilderoy Lockhart, the quidditch match, and more.