Chapter 7, The Christmas Ball

"Potter, what have you done to Pete, Lerel, Chaz, David, Clara, Carlos, and Danielle, and everyone else?" yelled Lily marching into the boys dormitory.

"Who?" asked a very baffled James.

"Ugh, idiot, my clothes. Where are they?" she asked giving him a death stare.

"Why did you name your clothes?"

"Because I can. Now, where are they?" this time walking so close that their nose were almost touching, eyes like little slits, no green tint visible.

"Erm… did you name all of them?"

"I named practically everything in the dorm room. Now tell me where they are before I kick your sorry ass."

"Sirius, uh, a little help please?" James asked taking a step back.

"Nope, sorry mate, I want to see you wiggle you way out of this one." There was a smirk forming on his face.

"Remus?"

"Sorry, same here."

"Peter?"

All James got back in return was a squeak.

"Fine don't help out a friend whose about to lose his life. Lily, aren't we a little close."

"I want everyone back here by the time I count to three. One… two…thr-"

"Hey, is that McGonagall?" Lily turned around so fast that if James hadn't ducked to get his invisibility cloak and threw it over himself. By the time Lily had turned around, she couldn't she him at all.

"Where is he Sirius?" asked Lily threateningly.

"Who, your shirt, or James?"

"My shirts name is Carolyn, so therefore the only he that I could possibly be referring to is Pot Brain," stated Lily now rounding on Sirius.

"I have absolutely no idea where he is."

"Are you suggesting, that he just became invisible?"

"Yes…well…uh…."

"Fine, but tell him the next time I see him he's going to be very sorry he stole my clothes. No one and I mean no one, messes with a very angry Lily Evans. Good day boys."

When she shut the door, Sirius said that James could come out of the cloak. "God, that was the most scariest experience of my entire life, please save me." He took Lily's threat very seriously; he knew what she was capable of.

"You better get her back her clothes before she dose something very drastic."

"I know Remus, I know, I'm as dead as a dirt. Accio Clothes!"

"Here better take this, just in case you need a quick getaway. Oh, and the girls staircase is charmed so the only way to get up there is to walk along the walls. I would advise putting everybody into your backpack, so they don't fall."

James stuffed all of Lily's clothes into his backpack and walked down the stairs with his invisibility cloak in the other. "Thanks for the advice Sirius."

Bit Sirius wasn't listening, he was too busy talking to Remus.

"Honestly, who the hell would name all their clothes? She must have a lot of time on her hands Moony."

When he got to the girl's stairs case and took a step, the floor began to tilt and at once James thrust himself up so that his legs were on one end of the wall and his feet on another end. It took him a while before he reached Lily's dormitory. When he did, he performed the unlock charm that he used on countless occasions, and jumped into the room. He ran to Lily's trunk, and thrust it open and started putting he clothes away when he realized something. Wait a moment, Sirius should be here putting this away, not me, he took them. He's going to get it when I get back. He made a mental note to hurt Sirius. When he finished he put on his invisibility cloak, and walked out the door, then sat. The stairs turned into a slide, a very slippery slide, and slid all the way down, invisible. When he got to the bottom he got up and started running to his dorm, Sirius was going to get it big- time.

When James got to his dorm, he saw Sirius laughing with the rest of them. "I don't believe you, you are dead. I was so close to get Lily to stop hating me, and there you go."

"Sorry, but…but…James she named her clothes, and you should have seen the look on your face! Price-"

"Silencio! I don't want to hear it!" James shot five more curses at Sirius before he was satisfied with what he saw. Sirius had sprouted arms from his head, boils all over his face, colors of green and silver, his feet were now turned to cauldron that made Sirius yelp in pain but no sound was heard due to the Silencing charm he had performed earlier.

Remus undid the Silencing charm and heard Sirius yelling, "James… sorry… take these off feet…Won't do again… Remus help… James…!" He was doing a funny dance, because of the cauldrons. "Really, really sorry… won't ever do again…swear."

"Prongs, I think he's suffered enough," put in Remus.

"Fine." James said the counter curse and Sirius was lying on the floor, holding his feet.

"Lets hope his kids don't cause to much trouble," James gave Sirius a death glare. "I'd hate to find out what their punishment would be."

It was the night of the ball; girls were in their dormitory getting g ready. Only one girl stayed behind to read her book. "Shouldn't you be upstairs with the others getting ready?" asked James who had just come over.

"What makes you think I'm an ordinary girl? I don't take hours to get ready for a ball, all I'm going to do is slip into my dress, and brush my hair. That should only take five minutes at the least, maybe ten… depends on how knotted this cursed hair of mine is."

"Okay then…. What'cha readin'?"

"Princess in Love, by Meg Cabot. I've almost finished."

"What is about?"

"Well, it's about a girl named Mia, and she thinks she is a loser, a freak, and ugly, and she's had this crush on this guy who's her best friends brother. She likes him and has been sending him love letters anonymously, but she has a boyfriend already. It's just a huge mess. Right now I just got to the part where she and him break up, and her crush, Michael, has just written across this computer screen:

Roses are red,

Violets are blue,

You may not know it,

But someone loves you.

"A computer is a muggle thing, it's a muggle book, and she just ran in the bathroom," finished Lily.

"Okay…." He really wasn't expecting that big of an explanation, but then again, you have to expect the unexpected with Lily, he thought.

"Lily there you are, what are you doing down here, you need to get ready," Catherine was pulling Lily up knocking over her book.

"Rin, I don't know what page I'm on," complained Lily, "and why do I have to get ready a whole two and a half hours earlier? I'm not going with anyone, I told you before.

"Yes, yes, but you're opening the ball with James, all eyes are on you, and you have to look beautiful."

"I don't have to be beautiful, I just have to look presentable."

"Lily, we have to go put on Alex then we have to do you face with Gregory, Dylan, Chad, and Maggie, and everyone else," said an exasperated Catherine.

"So, I don't want to look pretty for anyone, especially Potter," stated Lily firmly.

"HEY!"

"Shut it! I'm sitting here until ten minutes before, and you can't stop me," she sat down on the chair, and started looking for her page.

"Lily you are forcing me to take drastic measures."

"Go ahead and try," dared Lily.

Catherine just glared at her for a minute, then performed the banishing charm. Lily was heard screaming at the top of her lungs that she didn't want to get ready for the stupid ball, and that she wanted her book back. "Accio book!"

The book came up and floated past James and disappeared up the stairs.

"FINE, IF I PUT OF THE STUPID DRESS AND BRUSH MY HAIR WILL YOU LET ME GO AND READ IN PEACE!" Lily screamed.

"NO!" Catherine was screaming back.

"WHY?"

"BECAUSE I HAVE TO DO YOUR MAKE-UP ALSO!"

"I REFUSE TO PUT ON ANY MAKE-UP AT ALL, THAT'S STUFF IS DEGRADING TO WEMEN EVERYWHERE!"

"YOU STILL HAVE TO PUT ON YOUR DRESS!"

"I TOLD YOU I'M GOING TO DO THAT TEN FRECKIN' MINUTES BEFORE I HAVE TO LEAVE, NOW LET ME GO AND READ IN PEACE! THANK YOU!"

Lily came storming down the girl's staircase, stomping her feet very hard and sitting in the chair she had previously occupied, opened her book and started read, smiling, blushing, then biting her lip.

"Lily, why are you blushing, and smiling, and biting your lip?" asked James.

"They just kissed. Oh my God, they kissed. Finally, oh, I have to go and tell Rin. She'll be ecstatic. I'm so happy. Can I have that pillow behind you for a second?" she asked James.

"Thanks." She lowered her face into the pillow and screamed out a muffled "Oh, my God!" When she removed the pillow, her face was very red; then she ran up the stairs yelling "Rin! Rin!"

"Geeze, when that girl reads a book, she really gets into it, doesn't she Padfoot?"

Sirius who came over while Lily was screaming into the pillow replied (sarcastically), "Just a tad."

A moment later James heard two girls yelling "OH MY GOD!"

Lily didn't come down after that; he checked his watch and it read 6:50, ten minutes before the ball.

He walked up to his dorm and put on his dress robes. And tried to comb his hair. Sirius was there, ready and waiting, sitting on the edge of the bed, Remus was brushing his teeth, and Peter was trying to get on a pair of blue dress robes.

"Did you hear the yelling, what was that all about?" asked Sirius.

"Lily didn't want to get ready for the ball, and Catherine tried to make her. You just can't make that girl do anything if she doesn't want to," explained James.

"Stubborn as a mule that one," said Remus coming out of the bathroom.

"Yeah well, what can you do? We've got to get going it's starting soon and Prongsie has to be there for the opening of it so…," said Sirius rising from his bed.

"Yeah let's go."

James walked down to the common room because he had to wait for Catherine to come down because they were going together.

Catherine and Lily were the fist to emerge, though still smiling at the fact that they kissed. Lily was wearing a dress that had a square cut neck line and the sleeves were flowing down that they reached halfway from her knee to her ankle. Her hair was down and looked really wavy, but not too wavy. Catherine had worn a topaz dress, that was sleeveless, but has a square cut neckline all the same as Lily's. Catherine hair was all the way down to her elbows, whereas Lily's was halfway down her back.

When Catherine saw Sirius she walked over to him, but she was still talking to Lily. "So, what d'you think might happen next? D'you think they'll hook up?"

"I hope they do. You can't just play with a girls feeling like that can you, besides, it's Michael, Rin, he's not the type to play with a girl, and the way he said I love you to her it was just, you can't explain how much he really did love her. Hi guys," said Lily acknowledging that they were there.

"Er…"

"They're still talking about a book Sirius. Hi," explained James.

"Oh… hi… um shall we go then," said Sirius nervously.

"Yes let's, the faster we get there the faster I can get back and start doing something worthwhile with my time," agreed Lily. Then followed her out of the portrait hole.

When they reached the Great Hall, Professor McGonagall was yelling for the Heads and Prefects come over to where she was. "See you soon." Lily turned and started walking toward McGonagall, James following her. As Lily was walking she could see people dressed in either muggle dresses or suites, and if they weren't dressed like that they wore dress robes of many colors.

"The house prefects are to dance with each other, and the Head Students the same. Line up, girl on right, boy on left, Head Students in the front, Prefects behind. The doors are going to open in a few moments," explained McGonagall.

James turned to look at Lily standing beside him, with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face, muttering to herself. "What's wrong?" asked James.

"Nothing," grunted Lily.

"C'mon the doors have opened," James took her hand and led her to the dance floor.

"Let's get this done and over with," grumbled Lily.

The music started and they danced. "I swear if you move us underneath the mistletoe I'm going to kill you," said Lily, the scowl never leaving her face.

"Tiny problem there, you see, the mistletoe moves on its own and Helen, in Hufflepuff, charmed it so the when two people are under it the have to kiss," James could see the mix of angry, and worry in her eyes, and added hastily, "I told her not to, but she wouldn't listen. Why do you name your clothes?"

"Because I can, why do you care? You think I'm a nutter, don't you?" James's attempt of changing the subject wasn't working to well.

"No, just curious, are you going home for the holidays?" asked James, once again trying to change the subject.

"Yes, we have this tradition where we put everything up together, the mistletoe, the tree, everything," said Lily dreamily.

"Yeah, well, my mum just bought a new place and now Sirius and me have to move everything during the holidays. Then when we get out of school we'll have to move everything back into our new place after we graduate. It makes no sense, but that's my mum," explained James grinning.

"Wait, wait, wait, you and Sirius live together, since when?"

"Since the end of fifth year, during the summer. He showed up on his broom with his trunk and everything. Of course we let him stay, his parents seemed thrilled that he was gone," explained James.

"Why do you take books so seriously, it's not real?" again James asked a question.

"Because when I read a book I pretend like I'm the character. Though in this case I am the character, well for except the fact that I'm not tall. There's always a connection between the reader and the character that most never find out, but if you look you'll find one. I know it sounds childish but…." Lily just stopped explaining.

They just swayed there for a few moments unaware of the time passing by, then James asked, "Lily, why do you hate me?"

"I don't hate you, it's just that you annoy me, and I also hate myself for something else and sometimes, okay most of the time, I take it out on you."

"I know what you're afraid of," James whispered in her ear after a couple seconds of silence.

"No you don't." Lily's voice was on the verge of breaking, and she looked terrified.

"Yes, I do, you're afraid of falling in love, because you don't want to get hurt. You don't want him to play with your feelings like a toy. You're afraid of love."

"So what if I am? What are you going to do about it, huh, what?" Lily looked angrier than James had ever seen her before.

"Look up," was James's only reply. There were three mistletoes hanging over them. Everyone was starring at them, silent as ever; the only sound was the music.

"You're de-" but Lily was cut off because James had just kissed her. It was like nothing she ever felt before. She felt like warmth had touched every fiber of her being. When James broke it everyone was looking at them, "-ed." Lily finished.

She just stood there, in a daze, then muttered, "Go…must…bye…. " Lily was shacking from head to foot as she walked out the door. Everyone moved so that there was a pathway leading to the doors, no eyes left her. She could just barely hear the lyrics to the song as she stumbled out: Do we know more than we knew then/ Or do we know less and we just pretend/ Should I ignore my heart and walk away/ Your eyes tell me more than words will ever say/ Should we take a chance and dance the last dance/ Should we spend the night one more time/ Caught up in this romance/ Or maybe wait and see/ Let it be, the way that it will be/ Should we take a chance and dance the last dance.

Where…go…need…think…Headroom…. Was all Lily could think as she walked to the Gryffindor tower and up to the fireplace and said, without thinking, "What?" and the fireplace sprang to life, allowing her access to the room.

No, no, no, no, Lily, what have you done, what? This can't be happening to me. No, I did not just kiss him; I did not kiss anyone.

You can't deny it, the feeling you got when your lips touched. Something spoke truthfully in her mind.

Yes I can, you know having a conscience is no help at all, none whatsoever.

Lily was lying on the couch with her face in the pillow. The Headroom was created to look like the home of the person occupying it. Lily thought that this was the perfect place for thinking. Sometimes she would come in here while no one was watching and do schoolwork or write things. It was her thinking room.

I better get to the dorm and start getting ready to sleep. The others wont be back for at least a half hour, I expect they'll want to ask me a load of questions, thank God the train leaves tomorrow, thought Lily walking up the stairs to get some sleep that she thought she really deserved.