Editing.
Disclaimer: Is it just me, or have we been over this before? No part of Harry Potter and co. is owned by me. For anybody who didn't know (you probably should if you're reading this), it's all J.K Rowling's.
A/N: Hey! Not much to say really…I had a lot of time on my hands today, so I decided to write a chapter! I hope you like it and everything. Um…okay! Anyways…
By the way, I just wanted to let you know that this is the 10th chapter! Getting into double digits here! Can you believe it? No, I can't either. I didn't know I would ever GET to a tenth chapter! Okay, okay…on with the story……..
Love is a Funny Thing, Chapter 10
The common room was a mess of shifting and chattering bodies, swathed in fancy fabrics and crisp suits. It was rather odd seeing everybody dressed in totally different attire, muggle dresses and suits in fact. Lily noted in amusement how some of the boys looked like uncomfortable little penguins in their clothes, obviously unaccustomed to wearing suits.
"Lily!" Dave called, a little ways across the common room, grinning. Lily had to notice that while other boys looked out of place in their suits, Dave managed to effortlessly look as good as they came. He looked quite appreciatively at Lily's dress.
"Hi Dave!" Lily said a bit breathlessly, suddenly shyer than normal. She wondered what she'd have to say for the rest of the dance, if she was already speechless. Oh goodness.
Dave made it easier, though. He was always so thoughtful.
"You look beautiful, Lily." He smiled a little and bent down to kiss her on the cheek in greeting.
"Thanks. Um, you too." Lily answered awkwardly, blushing.
"Me? Beautiful? Why thank you." Dave's beautifulblue eyes had distracted her. Once again. He sounded joking, though, not really making fun of her. Her cheeks had better not bebright redor she'd…
"I mean handsome." Lily clarified, staring at her high-heeled shoes in fear of being brainwashed by Dave's eyes once again.
"Yeah, that's what I hoped." He replied, winking jokingly. She smiled up at him and he smiled back. He tied the flowers (white roses that went nicely with her dress, she noted appreciatively) onto her wrist (she felt tingles).And after a few minutes of light chatter and flirting, they started to make their way towards the actual dance.
Lily noticed Amanda and her date, Mitchell, strolling casually towards the dance. Amanda threw her head back in laughter at something Mitchell had said, blonde curls cascading prettily down her back. Amanda was never unsure about what to say, she thought somewhat enviously.
Lily had also noticed Hazel shyly chatting with her date. Michelle, however, seemed to be nowhere in sight. Itfigured, really,that the one person she wanted to spot, she didn't see. Oh well. She'd finally figure out who Michelle was with when they were at the dance.
"Well?" Dave asked, smiling, holding out his arm. "Shall we?"
But even as she accepted his arm and smiled, she thought idly of a boy who had done almost the exact same thing.
James Potter looked quite wistfully at the fire-haired girl who was dancing with her date—Dave Wellings, he thought with a sneer. He'd actually always liked the guy, being on the quidditch team with him and everything. But now, as he watched Lily smile and laugh and something Dave had said, he felt like a red-hot poker was shot through his stomach.
Or perhaps that was a bit dramatic. But, still.
He tried to pay attention to his date. He really did! He'd only asked Jemma because she'd seemed like a nice, semi-quiet girl. Clearly he was wrong about the latter, because she'd spent the last half-hour chatting away at James about God-knows-what, with only mute nods and mm-hmmm'sof assentcoming from James' side. He was too busy looking enviously (he hated to admit it to himself—but it was true) at Lily and her date dancing.
Speaking of Lily, he'd been stunned by her beauty when she tried. She was always beautiful in James' opinion, but she looked truly amazing tonight. He turned back to Jemma.
"And then she was like, no way! And then I was like, way! And so can you believe that SHE had the NERVE to say that my robes were, like, uncoordinated? I know! I mean have you seen when SHE gets up first thing, like even once her hair was sticking up and I bet you she didn't even, like brush it!" (Jemma looked utterly horrified at this point. James attempted to look stunned at this shocking piece of information, but couldn't bring himself to.)
"Erm, yeah, bad." James said distractedly, still looking at Lily. He often forgot to brush his hair in the morning—not that it made a difference whether he brushed it or not. It still stuck up in the same stubborn way.
Suddenly a slow, dreamy, romantic-like song struck up, and Jemma squealed in delight.
"Oooh, Jamesie! Can we dance to this one, I love this song!" she said, dragging him off to the dance floor. Right where Lily was dancing with Dave, James thought bitterly. Perfect. He tried not to even steal a glance at her, but it was hard.
After a few boring moments of more brainless chit-chat with Jemma, Professor Dumbledore stood up at the teachers' table with a magical voice-amplifying microphone. James was glad to note that Dumbledore had stuck with his normal robes, and was not wearing a suit like the male students. That would have been fartoo weird.
"For our next song, we would like to invite all you students sitting down to join in the festivities of dancing! I myself will not be able to join in, but I suggest you all do! We will be engaging in a game called Snowball—a rather good game, I think at that! Each pair will begin dancing, but when I strike this note" (he struck a loud "ring" with his wand, tapping it on the table) "everybody will change partners with the person to their left! Enjoy!" he ended, smiling merrily.
The band promptly struck up another slow, sappy tune. James inwardly rolled his eyes.
All the couples began dancing, James placing his hands dutifully on Jemma's waist, swaying to the slow beat. Jemma promptly pulled him closer, nearly strangling him in the process. She placed her arms around his back and rested her chin on his shoulder. No, James was definitely not enjoying this. He spied a few dancing couples close to him, but nobody he knew or cared about. Aside from Lily, of course, he thought with another hot shock (was it envy? no, it couldn't be) coursing through his veins.
Ring! The couples switched. Jemma sorrowfully moved to dance with Mitchell Laves, shooting James puppy glances all the while. James himself was obligated to dance with a girl called Amanda—one of Lily's friends, who wasn't so bad and was on the Quidditch team as well. They spent a few moments chatting about new maneuvers, and then the ring! sounded and they both moved away.
James danced with a self-centered blonde, a very pretty Indian girl, a shy Hufflepuff who was too nervous to meet James' face and barely touched his shoulders while they danced, an Asian girl and some others before he had to danced with a girl who he was both greatly anticipating dancing with and also dreading.
Lily Evans.
Ring! The students shifted to the person on their left. Lily smiled up at him, and though James hated to admit it, it melted his heart. How could she be so damn gorgeous? James thought in wonder. He placed his hands on her waist and she daintily placed hers on his shoulders (she could barely reach) and they began to dance.
"Hey, Lily." James said as she danced over to him.
"Potter." She inclined her head and grinned up at him.
"So…erm…happy Christmas?" James half-stated, in want of something better to say. It must be her electrifyingly green eyes that were making him forget what he was saying.
"Thanks…you too." She said, although she didn't seem the slightest bit awkward or speechless. It must just be me, James thought, annoyed. Oh, great.
There was a pause for a few moments. James took the opportunity to enjoy dancing with her, smiling inwardly at how cliché it was that they fit together so well. James liked how he towered a head or so over her, and how she almost had to be on tip-toe to reach his shoulders.
"I know this is kind of random," Lily said out of the blue, breaking the silence, "but do you know who Michelle's going to the dance with? She wouldn't tell any of us…I thought maybe you'd know one of the boys who's taking her?" Lily asked.
"I don't know about her…but do you know who Sirius is going with? Usually he can't shut up about his dates, but now he kind of refused to tell us who he's going with." James said.
Lily wrinkled up her nose in confusion. James had to smile at that; she was the very picture of innocence.
"I know what we'll do! We'll meet after the dancing game is over, then we'll do some spying work, okay?" she smiled again. James felt his joints subsequently turn to jelly.
"Yeah, sure, great! Meet me at the punch bowl after the game's over…and we'll see what we can uncover." (he grinned at her charmingly at that point).
The ring! sound chimed far too early for James's liking. He rather enjoyed dancing with Lily. He took the opportunity to shout out, quite spontaneously, "Save me the last dance?" just as she was dancing away to the next partner, which in fact happened to be Remus.
"I'll see what I can do." She smiled and waltzed off to Remus. He himself was dragged off to Ashleigh Jennings, a smiling curly blonde-hair witch with scarily perfect teeth.
After a few more ring!s and switches of partners, Lily walked over to the punch bowl. She'd seen Dave talking to one of his quidditch friends, so she wasn't too worried about him. She found James there at the punch bowl, leaning on the table and waiting for her. What was she doing? Spying on her best friend with James? What an odd night it was shaping up to be.
"Hey, again." James smiled his lopsided grin at her. Lily felt something stir inside her but ignored it.
"Hi." Lily said. "So, shall we start looking?"
A few minutes of searching told them that neither Sirius or Michelle were dancing or sitting in the main hall, which was odd. James led Lily by the hand outside into the dark adjoining corridor, which had a large fountain in the middle, splashing water droplets everywhere. It was only lit with miniature fairies' wand lights, which made the place altogether very dark. It made an ideal snogging place for couples, and Lily noticed a few couples behind concealed bushes, snogging already.
He didn't let go of her hand. Lily found that she really didn't mind.
They had to be quiet so as to not be noticed by any of the snogging couples, as well as some random people just escaping the dancing. James tugged her hand and pulled her behind a large statue of some eighteenth century wizard, shielding themselves from a teacher's view who was patrolling the area. Lily felt herself pressed against James' warm, tall, muscled body and found that she, well, didn't mind all that much. She felt a little shivery shock go through her stomach.
His eyes were lit by the tiny, weak lights and she noticed the gold flecks interspersed among the hazel. It would have been an awfully romantic moment for a first kiss, Lily thought idly, had they been dating and had a teacher not been prowling around, looking for snoggers. She dismissed the ridiculous thoughts from her head, instead concentrating on being as quiet as possible.
James put a finger to his lips and slowly led Lily out behind the statue so they could see the water fountain. There was a small, shallow pool around the fountain to hold the water. There was also a large, wide stone bench circling it, with bushes planted on it.
They crept closer to the fountain, ducking behind chairs here, under tables there. Slowly they came upon a couple not even concealed by a bush. Their backs were mostly facing Lily and James, though, so it was difficult to see. Lily and James were currently crouching behind a small, vacant table, and the couple didn't seem to be more than a few feet away. They were currently snogging unabashedly, the girl sitting on the boy's lap.
Wait. Didn't Lily recognize that hair? And the dark purple satin of the dress which was difficult to see because of the absence of light? That small figure that was sitting on—who?
No—it couldn't be. Was Michelle really sitting on the lap of a boy and snogging for England—with Sirius Black, nonetheless?
Lily was just opening her mouth to gasp, but James placed his warm, strong hand over her lips before she managed to get a sound out of it. He didn't remove it until a few seconds later. Lily felt a thousand butterflies violently flying about in her stomach.
They looked at each other under the table as if to say, who was expecting that?
James slowly crept backwards, Lily in tow. After a while more cat-creeping, they reached the dance hall, Lily's eyes slowly adjusting to the bright light.
James looked down and Lily, and she looked up at him. And they both burst into hysterical fits of laughter at the exact same moment. They didn't stop for a while. James noted that she looked pretty endearing when she laughed.
"D'you—d'you—" James was trying to say something, but was laughing too hard to get it out. "D'you—d'you—think it would be mean of us to tease them for the rest of their life?" He asked, promptly setting back into laughter. He gripped a nearby stone table for support, still cracking up.
"No!" Lily exclaimed, laughing loudly still. Who had expected that?
Finally the two were so consumed by laughter than they had to sit down, straight on the floor. They sat laughing hysterically for a good while, earning odd glances from nearby students. Lily didn't really care though; it felt so good to laugh. After a while they calmed down, and their hysterical laughter subsided.
"Wow. My stomach hurts." Lily commented from her place quite close to James on the floor.
"Same." James answered. "Wow. Who expected that?"
"Not me—although it was hilarious! Could you imagine what would happen if Dumbledore—or worse—McGonagall found them? She'd give them detention for years!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah—but I bet they'd figure out something to waste the time in detention! I had half the mind to push them into the fountain, it'd scare them out of their wits! Can you imagine?" James finished.
They both fell back into the spell of laughter and stayed there for a long, long time. Lily felt herself collapsing slightly into James's chest, and twanging nerves shot through her. She really didn't care much, though—she was laughing so much it just didn't matter. Eventually James was lying down on the floor, Lily's head near his, both still chuckling.
Lily lay next to him, watching her chest rise and fall in harmony with his. "I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life." She commented.
"Yeah, me neither." He agreed. "But it was so funny, could we even help ourselves?"
"Nah, probably not." Lily replied, exhausted. Her stomach muscles still hurt. It was strangely nice, though.
Eventually James sat up, Lily with him. He got up, holding out a rough hand, Lily taking it and pulling herself up with it. She dusted her dress off. There was an awkward silence.
"So did you still save this dance for me?" James asked, a stray smile left over from their laughing fit still in his eye.
And without words and with an inward smile on her face and butterflies in her stomach, she let herself be led to the dance floor. And they settled into a dancing position, her hands on his shoulders, his hands on her waist—they knew they didn't need to talk. Because sometimes, laughing—and dancing—are even better than words.
A/N: Aww! I really liked the ending of this chapter, although I think it might have been kind of too sappy. Or fluffy. Oh whatever, deal! Just letting you know, the next chapter might be just a little (a few days longer than usual, maybe; I don't really know) delayed because I'm not totally sure of what I want to happen.
As always, if you have any suggestions, comments, flames, ideas, whatever…I'm always happy to hear! Reviews encourage me so much to keep writing! And as always… you get my imaginary cupcakes! Vanilla or chocolate with sprinkles! (yum!)
(hands out imaginary pretty cupcakes to my wonderful reviews!)
Alright…now on to review responses! You guys are the best; I couldn't write this story without you!
Evenstar of the undyinglands: Really? I hope you liked the LJ hint of romance! Well, not really romance but… friendship/flirting, I guess.
Ashley: I'm glad you liked it, I'm trying to update as soon as I can!
blood emerald: Yay…another reviewer! Don't worry, I'm trying to update as often as possible .
Siriusly Sirius Lily Black: Thanks so much.
SweetSouthernGal: Glad the mistakes are going down, lol! Glad you liked the chapter too.
vix: Aww, I'm honored.
Laylana-fairyweather—Yup…we'll see about the kissing booths in a few chapters, I hope!
Lilypad007: I'm happy you enjoyed the story… I'm trying to update quickly.
Jameslover: He didn't ask her because they are just becoming friends. I mean, just a few weeks ago, she would have bashed his head in at any opportunity she got! But now that he saved her, she tried being nice to him for a change and so that's when she realized that he's actually an ok person. And they're becoming friends. But it takes a while, you know? I'm glad you like cupcakes as well as my story, too!
Veiled dreamer: Yeah I'm sorry if I overdid the fluffiness… but I know, they're so cute together! I'm also really trying to update soon!
DobbyGrl: I'm glad you liked the chapter. The booth contest thing will be in Feburary, and it's December now…so I don't know, give it a few more chapters? Who knows.
Travelledtheworldandthe7seas: That's so cool that you do gymnastics! I'm a cheerleader so I can do the basics…you know, cartwheels, backbends, that sort of thing. I've always wanted to do gymnastics seriously but I'm afraid I didn't start early enough, so now I can't start, really. What type of stuff are you doing? Tell me in the review or email me, because that's really cool!