Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise. If I did, you would be reading this in a book and the plot wouldn't be a film.

A Cinderella Story

By Araidel

Search For Cinderella

Lily ran back inside the Great Hall and began to look everywhere for Joseph. She needed to get back to the library before twelve. And that was in five minutes. She finally spotted her Zorro clad friend and where she saw him, Lily stopped and had to shake her head to check if her eyes weren't going haywire.

Joseph was in a lip-lock with Rosanna and she had his hat in one hand, her other in his hair. Lily stared at him and then shook her head. She had to get Joseph out of Rosanna's clutches and back the library. Lily walked up to the pair and stood attentively behind them.

"Jo." she called out, trying to get her attention. "Jo!"

Getting nothing but a shift of a position from Rosanna, Lily tired again to attract her friend's attention. "JO!"

This shout broke the pair apart. They turned around and Joseph looked at Lily. He smiled at Rosanna and took his hat back from her.

"I am sorry, my fair." he said with a bow to Rosanna. "I am called away." He made another sweeping bow and placed the hat on his messed up hair.

He led Lily away, towards the door. Lily caught sight of James Potter run into the hall and begin moving through the crowds, frantically looking for her. However, the music from Lucy's dancing skeletons stopped and a voice came on instead.

"The professors and I have been judging the costumes of tonight's ball." McGonagall had stepped onto the stage in front of the spelled corpses. Lily dragged Joseph towards the stairs again and James caught sight of them. He started to move towards her and McGonagall started to talk. "This year there is a King and Queen. The winners are…"

McGonagall paused and nodded to tiny Professor Flitwich. He flicked his wand a spotlight came on and flashed across the hordes of students.

"Prince Charming and his Cinderella!"

A cheer went through the hall and the spotlight split and focused on James and Lily. Lily looked at Joseph while James paused in his pursuit of Lily. Joseph indicated the time and jogged up the rest of the steps. Lily followed him and as she ran over the landing, her blue purse slipped from its holder on her ankle and fell to the floor. James reached the landing with the purse on it just as Lily and Joseph ran up the Marble staircase. James stopped and picked up the purse, the spotlight still following him. He turned the purse over in his hand and looked up at the doors where his Cinderella had fled from.

Lily ran up the Marble Stairs and stopped to pull of her mask. Joseph caught up with her and they began to walk back to the fourth floor slower. As they walked towards the stairs to the second level, she caught sight of Linda, Rose and Petunia heading up to the same floor as her.

"I still don't believe that you charmed our costumes to be Siamese Twins Cats, Petunia." Rose complained.

"I think you look lovely, darlings." Linda cooed. They turned a corner to walk up the stairs and Lily whipped Joseph's cloak from him. The sudden movement attracted Petunia's attention and she turned around, dragging Rose with her.

"Do you mind?" Rose exclaimed angrily.

Petunia ignored her twin and looked directly at Lily. Lily had covered her outfit but as she caught her step-sister's line of sight, Lily turned around and disappeared into the crowds moving up onto the second floor.

Petunia turned to her mother and sister and said "That was Lily!"

Linda snorted and said "Don't be silly, darling. Lily is cleaning the library. Not down here."

Petunia rolled her eyes and pulled her mother up the stairs. Rose tried to fight her sister's dragging and pulled Petunia, and Linda, behind a tapestry.

"Where does this go, girls?" Linda asked frightened.

But Petunia and Rose heaved her up the stairs, and the quicker way to the library. They hurried up the stairs and had to leave one portrait to cross the empty corridor to get the other leading to the library door. As Petunia and Rose, hauling Linda behind them, crossed the empty corridor, Lily and Joseph came around the corner. They were running to reach the library before Linda, Petunia and Rose.

The tapestry fluttered closed and the twins ran up, their mother waddling behind them. They reached the door to the library a few moments later and pushed open the door. The library was deserted and Irma, Natalie and Michael looked up as the door banged shut. They all had varying degrees of worry on their face as they had not seen Lily or Joseph return.

Linda stormed up to her employers, with a nudge from her daughters, and demanded "Where is Lily?"

Irma and Michael looked at each other and Natalie went first to try and stall Linda. "Linda, I need to ask you about the filing cabinet."

Linda began to walk towards the main library, ignoring Natalie. Petunia, Rose, Irma, Michael and Natalie followed Linda's progress through the library. Michael moved round Linda and picked a random book from the shelf.

"Linda," he began. She stopped and stared at Michael, who gulped and carried on. "This book is faulty. I was checking it…"

The book was flung out of his hands as Linda pushed him aside. She continued her search of the library and Petunia and Rose shared a knowing look. Irma took one look at the twins' smug smiles and took her chance in stalling Linda.

"Linda. Professor Dumbledore was in here earlier and…"

But Irma was cut off by a bang coming from their right. A tuft of red hair was visible over a bookshelf. Two books were pulled away from their shelves and Lily's face appeared instead of them. She gave a fake gasp at the sight of her step mother, step-sisters and three library-friends and bent down to pick up two more books.

"What are you doing, Lily?" Linda asked.

"Well," Lily stammered "This section was knocked down and I was just clearing it up."

Linda was satisfied while Petunia and Rose looked murderous. They both turned on their heels and stormed back to their room. Irma smiled at Lily, who grinned back. Lily pulled out her wand and replaced all of the books she had pulled down in a hurry when she had flew in with Joseph; literally. Joseph had summoned his broom from his dormitory and they had flown from a window on the third floor to the window farthest away from the library door. Lily sunk down on a nearby chair and begun fiddling with her dress. Linda had come storming in only seconds after Lily had and she had had no time to take off the dress or let her friends know she had returned.

Lily's thoughts drifted to Prongs. To James Potter, who probably thinking who his Cinderella was and she couldn't help wondering if he was going to try and find out her real identity.

"Lily," Joseph said seriously as he walked her down to the Great Hall the following Monday. "Trust me. James Potter would have forgotten all about you and Cinderella by now."

However, as soon as he said these words, the pair walked into the Great Hall (which was back to its original state) and saw hundreds of posters plastered around the hall. They were yellow and were sliced at the bottom. Moving closer to read one, Lily saw that it was a picture of her at the Halloween ball. However, her face was covered with a question mark. In bold letters on top of the picture were the words 'ARE YOU CINDERELLA?' Beneath the picture and above the cuttings was written 'TALK TO JAMES POTTER'.

Lily turned to look at Joseph. He was staring at the poster with his mouth open.

"He has really forgotten about it, Jo." Lily said sarcastically.

"He is desperate." Joseph muttered and Lily glared at him.

"James Potter is not desperate. He just wants to meet his Cinderella… I mean me." Lily said matter of factly.

"Really." Joseph said skeptically, "Then what is that?" He pointed to the Gryffindor Table, where James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were levitating posters to stick on the wall.

"What is the point of this, Prongs?" Sirius said exasperatedly.

James didn't look at Sirius as he answered. "I want to meet her, Padfoot."

Remus muttered "Understandable." while Sirius rolled his eyes. Peter then looked around the hall.

"How will you know she is the right one?" he asked.

James shrugged and Sirius stopped magically attaching posters to walls. He looked at Remus and whispered something in his ear which made Remus smile and nod heartily. Sirius slipped off and Remus quickly took over Sirius' job so not to arouse suspicion due to his friend's sudden departure.

"You need to tell him." Joseph said to Lily as they walked down the corridor towards Charms. "He needs to know."

"No he doesn't." Lily argued.

Lily walked passed a section of the hall where the cloakrooms were. Her eyes flicked up and caught James', who was passing with his friends. They kept each other's eye sight for a while until a door flew open in Lily's path and Lily walked straight into it. Joseph stopped and steadied the unbalanced Lily and out walked a small Hufflepuff.

"I'm so sorry!" she said when she saw Lily rubbing her nose delicately.

Lily shrugged and turned around, realising that the moments eye contact with James was over. She saw James walk into the Charms classroom. The Hufflepuff girl walked away still looking worried but Joseph gave her an encouraging smile and she scampered away.

"You see Lily?" Joseph said. Lily was still watching the Charms door as if hoping for James to come out. "You need to tell him. Not for him, but for you."

Lily shook her head and pulled Joseph over to the door and opened it. She looked inside and caught a glimpse of Rosanna, Noël and Natasha sitting in their, waiting for Flitwick to start the class.

"I will tell James, if you tell Rosanna." Lily said looking back at Joseph.

Joseph's mouth fell open. He also peeked into the Charms classroom and saw Rosanna. When he withdrew his head, Joseph had a defiant expression on his face.

"Fine." He said. "In break, I will."

Rosanna stood in front of her two friends and looked back at them. Noël and Natasha were lounging on the seats in the stands surrounding the Quidditch Pitch.

"And," Rosanna continued having just finished telling her friends of the adventure she had had last night. "Then I kissed him. It was like … like … magic."

"This whole place is full of magic, Rosie." Noël pointed out carefully.

"I know that." Rosanna snapped but her dreamy expression was back the moment the words had left her mouth. "But Zorro was amazing. I could tell he really cared and … and … that isn't surprising after he saved me from that bastard Snape. And when we kissed …" Rosanna clutched her hands over her heart and spun round like a small child.

Both Noël and Natasha lent back in surprise at Rosanna's actions and Natasha said "Rosie, stop acting like that. You look like a first year."

Rosanna stopped abruptly and then turned around to look at her friends once more.

"Have you ever experienced something like love?"

Natasha's mouth fell open. "You are in love with him, Rosanna?" she demanded

Noël nodded at Natasha and added "You don't even know the dude's name!"

"Yes I do!" Rosanna argued. "It's Zorro … ok maybe I don't. But still …"

Noël and Natasha glanced at each other, triumphant.

Rosanna flicked her eyes around the Quidditch Pitch. She watched James, Sirius and Remus soar around the sky on their broomsticks. Petunia and Rose were arguing and were tossing a Quaffle, forcefully, between each other. Rose chucked the red ball at Petunia's head and Petunia stepped back into a huge pile of wet mud behind her. At the entrance to the stadium, two people walked in and started to look around. Rosanna's eyes skimmed over them and then returned to her friends.

Joseph pointed to a place on the other side of the stands and he left Lily and walked over to Rosanna. He coughed and Rosanna raised an eyebrow when she turned to look at him.

"Who are you?" she asked.

Joseph took hold of her hand and raised it to his lips. He caught her eyes and saw her disgusted expression on her face. "Zorro, my fair." He said and gently kissed her knuckles with a sweeping bow.

Rosanna lent back, her hand still in Joseph's clutches. She turned to face her friends and mouthed 'Who is he?'

Both Noël and Natasha tipped the heads to the side to see Joseph. Then Natasha mouthed back 'Joseph Miller.'

Rosanna raised her eyebrows and Noël added 'You cheat of him in Arithmancy.'

Rosanna opened her mouth and mouthed 'Oh' before she yanked her hand out of Joseph's hand. Joseph looked up at Rosanna and made a sweeping bow again.

"Is everything alright, Rosanna?" he asked

Rosanna looked him up and down, taking in his orange shirt and blue trousers, his thick glasses and his full bag perched over his shoulder. Her eyes rested on the Ravenclaw badge that was sewed into the corner of his shirt.

"You know, Jo." She said slowly. "I don't think this is going to work out."

Joseph blinked opened his mouth to reply. However, before he could say anything, a loud shout was heard from where Petunia and Rose stood. They were still chucking the Quaffle at each other, though the red colouring was barely visible through the mud covering it.

"You bitch!" Rose had shouted interrupting Joseph. Petunia had just thrown the Quaffle so hard that it had flown straight through Rose's outstretched hands and hit her in the face. Rose threw the Quaffle with all of her might and it, too, soared threw the air. However, it flew over Petunia and landed in a huge puddle of mud.

The mud splashed up and hit the two people standing nearest to it; Petunia and Joseph. Petunia got a face full of sloppy murky water but Joseph was soaked, head to toe, in mud and water. He shut his eyes against the flow and lifted two fingers to wipe the mud off his glasses. Rosanna recoiled and pulled Natasha and Noël out of the stadium.

When Joseph had cleaned his glasses enough to see through them, he saw an empty place where Rosanna had been standing. He made his way over to Lily, shaking mud off his legs as he went.

Lily pulled out her wand and muttered "Scourgify!" Joseph was cleaned in an instant but the absence of mud revealed his red face.

"Well." He said to Lily as she took him out of the Quidditch Pitch and away from the laughter of the students in the stadium. "She can forget about cheating off me in Arithmancy anymore."

James landed on the sloppy ground and watched the pair walk away from the pitch. He frowned, thinking of another time when he saw those very same people walking together into something. However, his musings were distracted by a tug on his arm.

Sirius pulled James arm and led his best friend out of the stadium and onto a near by bench. Remus came from the opposite side of the bench. He had landed a few minutes before James and Sirius which had given him time to round up a huge crowd of girls, which he know led to the bench where James and Sirius sat.

James blinked and stared and the mass of girls lined up in front of him. Remus sat down on the bench and Sirius stood up. He tapped a muggle record player with his wand and conjured a microphone from no where.

"Ok, Jimmy!" Sirius said into the microphone. The voice came booming out of the record player on the bench beside James. "Its time to meet Cinderella!"

James eyes flicked from Sirius on the microphone to the line of girls. Sirius, once again, tapped the record player with his wand and it burst into life. A calm song came out of the speakers. James' eyes flicked back to the player beside him and Sirius also glanced towards it.

"Oops." Sirius said, lamely. "Wrong song."

Sirius tapped the player again and the calming soul music stopped and was replaced by a loud, heavy metal song. Sirius nodded his head to the beat and Remus reached over and tapped it with his own wand to stop the heavy metal song and start the natural pop song which they had agreed on using.

Sirius shook his head slightly and beckoned to the first girl in the queue for possible Cinderellas. She was a small girl with long straggly dirty blonde hair, rather large eyes and a Hufflepuff badge on her robes.

"And for our first contestant…" Sirius was saying in a 'game show host' voice.

James shook his head at his friend's antics and looked over to Remus. Remus was laughing quietly and looked at James, catching his eye.

"You actually expect me to believe this?" James asked, in a tone of mock-anger

Remus shook his head and Sirius coughed loudly. "Jimmy!" he demanded. "There may well be Cinderella in this lovely pile of girls."

James flicked his head back to the girls and saw a rather large, black haired and brown eyed girl had taken the Hufflepuffs place. James muttered "You are so dead." To Remus and heard him chuckle slightly.

Another girl came to face him and James rubbed the bridge of his nose thoughtfully. This girl was a short girl with a round face. She also had red hair. James looked at her face and then shook his head. Her eyes where, once again, brown.

The fourth girl, a tiny fourth year Ravenclaw, and the fifth, a huge Gryffindor fifth year, were both rejected and James slung his arm around Remus' shoulders.

"You are so dead!" he said and Remus nodded his head.

"And for our sixth person …" Sirius began. However, he was interrupted by the voice of the new Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Lipman.

"What's all this, eh? Break it up." She said as she strode down the grounds towards Sirius, James and Remus.

When Professor Lipman reached them, she took out her own wand and banished the record player. She caught sight of Sirius, still holding the microphone, James with his arm slung around Remus and the crowd of disappointed girls walking away.

She smiled slightly at the two boys on the bench and then said "You boys had better be getting back up to the castle as the next period will be starting soon."

Sirius also banished the microphone and joined James and Remus walking up to the castle. "Find anyone?" he asked James when they walked through the doors to the Entrance Hall.

For an answer, James cuffed Sirius on the back of his head. "I'll take that as a no, then." Sirius said his voice full of mock-sadness.

Remus nodded and dragged Sirius into the Great Hall leaving James alone in the Entrance Hall, thinking.

James headed up the stairs and into the library. He walked over to the librarian's desk and sat down slowly, pulling the list of books towards him as he did so.

Lily came around the corner and spotted James sitting at the desk. She stopped her heart racing. Turning, Lily saw Natalie and Irma watching her while Michael was looking at James. When Michael's eyes moved from James to Lily she mouthed 'That's Prongs.' to her friends.

All three of them leant forwards slightly to get a better look of James. The boy sat up straighter and, unknowingly, gave the librarians a better view of him. Once they had stood upright again, they all nodded their approval. Irma came up behind Lily and pushed her forward slightly and Lily moved to stand behind the desk.

James looked up and smiled at Lily as she walked behind the long desk, towards him. "Hi." He said brightly. "Do you know where I can find this book?"

James was pointing to a book under 'Recreational'. Lily moved her head closer to peer at the title and bit back a chuckle when she saw 'How to Charm Charming'.

Lily nodded and vanished to pick up the book. When she returned, James took the book with another smile and silently wrote his name on the parchment for taking out books.

Suddenly, he looked up at Lily and asked "Have you ever been in a situation where you really wanted to find something, but you had no idea where to look?"

Lily blinked and nodded. She knew that he was talking about the Cinderella Issue and was debating with herself whether to tell James the truth. "Many times." She said.

"What did you do in them?" James asked curiously

Lily shrugged and said "I dunno. I think I just kept telling myself that I would find it. And that I shouldn't give up."

James nodded his thanks and flicked through the book. Lily bit her lip and glanced over to where Joseph stood with Irma. Joseph took one look from James, to the title of his book to Lily's worried expression and mouthed 'Tell him.' Irma, seeing Joseph's words, nodded her agreement. Lily looked over to Natalie and Michael and saw that they were also giving her encouraging looks.

Lily took at deep breath and said "James?" James looked up and shut the book he was flicking through. "I'm-"

"LILY!"

Lily flinched and looked to the right where she saw, to her horror, Linda standing. She had her hands on her hips and was glaring at Lily.

"Stop doing whatever you are doing behind the desk and get up to the restricted section. It needs cleaning." She said forcefully.

Without another word, Linda swept out of the library. Lily turned back to James who had slipped the book into his bag and was watching her curiously.

"Sorry." Lily mumbled and he got up to leave.

"Thanks for the tip anyway." James said and walked out of the door.

Joseph threw his hands up in frustration and Irma shook her head in sorrow for her friend. Lily just watched her Prongs, James, walk away from her and faintly heard the bell signalling the start of a new lesson and the free period in which Lily had to clean the Restricted Section.

AN: Sorry about the lateness of updates, but I had a confused 'writer's block' over this chapter. You see, this one and the next chapter are so closely related, that I didn't know which events to put in which chapter. But it is here now and the next one shouldn't take so long. Shouldn't, so no promises.

Kel Potter: It depends. Either two more of Lily and James and one more of Harry. Bit that is when the story doesn't go into any weddings or Harry being born or anything. However, it would be about four or five more chapters if I include the wedding and Baby Harry. So which one should I do?

CaramelD: She needed to leave by midnight because that is when Linda was coming back to the library and if Lily wasn't in the library then there would be HELL! But don't worry about being simple-minded – I am simple minded most of the time …

Pansy: wow! Thanks for the REALLY dudes review. I hate Hilary Duff to, but when I saw the film in the cinema, I was just like 'OMG! THAT WOULD BE THE BEST JAMES AND LILY STORY EVER!" so I started to write it. And is one day good enough to not be killed?