Chapter 23 - Meet Me At The Yule Ball
The first Hogsmeade weekend had arrived and the Hogwarts students from third year and up were milling around the small wizarding village. Lily and Carly were in Gladrags Designer Robes trying to find the perfect dress robes for Carly. As they walked around the popular shop Carly again brought up a subject that Lily didn't want to talk about.
"Lily why won't you come to the Yule Ball?" she asked.
"Because I don't want to!" Lily exclaimed in exasperation. They had already been over this five times since the ball had been announced.
"Li is it because you don't have a date? I don't have one either. We can go together."
"Car it's not because I don't have a date. Who needs one? If I wanted to go to the ball I'd gladly go by myself. I just don't want to go okay?"
Carly sighed. She knew she wasn't going to win this battle any time soon. Carly picked up a few robes that she liked. "Li I'm going to go try these on."
"Fine. I'm gonna go over to the bookshop for a while. I'll meet you and the guys back at The Three Broomsticks like we decided this morning."
When Carly finally found the perfect robes for her she paid for them and walked over to The Three Broomsticks. She was the first from their group to arrive so she found a table and sat down to wait for the others.
James, having finished his Christmas shopping, walked into The Three Broomsticks and shook the snow off himself. He noticed Carly sitting by herself and went to sit with her. James took a breath as he tried to work up his courage. Carly tilted her head slightly and looked at him curiously. "Are you okay James?" she asked.
He let out his breath and said, "Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Carly raised her eyebrows at him in surprise. "As a friend?"
"Not as my friend, as my date."
"You mean-"
"What I'm saying is will you be my girlfriend?"
"I'd love to."
James and Carly grinned stupidly at each other. At this point Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter walked into The Three Broomsticks and spotted Carly and James. "Hey guys!" Lily called out brightly to them.
Carly jumped up as they reached the table. "Lily I have to talk to you." Carly grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her towards the bathrooms. Remus, Sirius and Peter gave James curious looks as they sat down. James simply shrugged in response.
In the ladies toilet Carly was talking a mile a minute and Lily couldn't understand a thing she said. "Carly! Slow down! Breathe. Now start again slowly."
"James asked me out. He asked me to go to the Yule Ball with him and to be his girlfriend." Carly squealed as she finished. Lily could tell that her best friend was excited but Lily was slightly more cautious.
"Carly I don't want to sound negative but are you sure about this? I mean James is a great guy and you know I like him but he also has a reputation. You know as well as I do what he used to be like."
"Li he's changed. You know that. Please can you be happy for me?"
Lily gave Carly a reluctant smile and said, "Sure."
Carly grinned and squealed with delight. She grabbed Lily's arm again and dragged her back to the table where the boys were drinking butterbeers. Lily sat down and watched James. James felt her gaze and looked her slightly uneasy.
As the group of six were leaving about an hour later Lily stopped James. The others walked on without noticing that Lily and James had stopped. "You had better not hurt her James Zacharias Potter. You will pay if you do. Carly is my best friend so if you've decided to go back to your old flavour- of-the-week ways and simply use her I will hurt you. I'm making that a promise."
"Li I really like Carly. I'm not about to hurt her or drop her the way you think I am."
"Good." Lily smiled brightly and slipped her arm through his. "We'd better catch up to the others."
"You know Lily your sudden mood swings can sometimes be scary. You're brilliant. But scary."
"I know." Lily smiled at him again as they rejoined the group.
A week later Remus, Sirius and Lily were sitting around the common room fire doing homework. Sirius and Remus had talked her into it three hours beforehand but since Lily had caused them to procrastinate so much they were still only up to their second piece of homework.
James and Carly traipsed into the common room laughing at each other. They stopped in the middle of the room and started kissing. Sirius shook his head and sighed while Lily rolled her eyes in disgust. She packed up her things and walked past James and Carly to get to the staircase. "Oh get a room," she muttered in annoyance as she past them.
James and Carly stopped kissing to look at her in surprise at the way Lily was acting. Lily ignored them and walked up to the girl's dorm. Carly and James moved to the couch that Lily had vacated and sat down. "What's up with Lily?" James asked.
"Sorry mate," Remus replied, "wouldn't know."
Three days before the Yule Ball Sirius flopped down next to Lily, who was reading for about the billionth time Pride and Prejudice. "I'm exhausted Lady Lily. Thank God it's holidays now."
Lily looked at him in amusement. "You work yourself way too hard Siri," she said sarcastically.
"Oh like you're such a hard worker yourself Miss Evans?"
"Of course I am. How else would I be so good at school?"
Sirius merely rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I actually took the time to come down here for a reason."
"Really? Did you actually have a thought? Should I mark down this date in history in case it never happens again?"
"You blow me away with your sarcasm Lily. But anyway what I wanted to know is if you'll go to the ball?"
"How many times do I have to tell people that I'm not going?"
"Yes, yes I know you don't want to go but I'll provide compensation?"
"Oh really? And what kind of compensation would that be Mr Black?"
"Well you see Miss Evans I was hoping to pull quite a huge prank. But the problem is I don't know what to do. Nothing I can think is wide scale enough."
"Hmm. Well how about getting everyone drunk? Using muggle alcohol?"
"Now there's an idea. But how are we going to get muggle alcohol when the ball is in three days?"
Lily grinned and looked around for a piece of parchment. Having found one she pulled a pen out of her hair and wrote a quick letter. She folded it up and placed it in an envelope.
"What did you write?" asked Sirius.
"A letter to my cousin Mel. He's a wizard too. We're the only ones in the family with magic. But anyway. He's old enough to buy alcohol. So I asked him to buy us some beer. I know he will. He's cool like that."
"So it sounds like you'll be coming to the ball after all."
"Looks like it." Lily grinned then realized something. "Oh no. I don't have robes."
"What about what you wore last year?"
"Are you kidding? You don't wear the same dress to two things. You just don't do it. Besides what I wore last year was an evening gown. Muggle formal wear. I need to get dress robes. Sirius you have to get me into Hogsmeade tomorrow."
"But Lily that's against the rules."
"Don't you try to play innocent with me Sirius Black. I know you. And I know you know where the secret passageways out of the castle are. So you are going to show me how to get to Hogsmeade or else you don't get any alcohol."
Sirius sighed. "Fine. You can be a real bitch sometimes Lily."
"Yeah. But you guys know you love me."
Right before the ball was due to start Sirius and Lily snuck into the Great Hall and over to the refreshments table carrying the three cases of Fosters beer that Lily's cousin Mel had sent them. Apparently Mel was currently working in Australia and according to him had found a beer that was better than Guinness.
"Okay where's the butterbeer?" asked Sirius.
"There." Lily pointed to a large cask. "Where are we going to put all the butterbeer?"
"In here." Sirius pulled out a small box. It was a never-ending box. Only recently released at Dervish and Bangs.
"Excellent."
Sirius placed the box under the spout and Lily turned it on. She looked at her watch and swore under her breath. "The ball starts in fifteen minutes. We need it to go faster. Okay I know. Let's get all the beer cans open so we'll be ready."
As the last dregs of the butterbeer poured out Lily and Sirius had opened 12 of the 24 cans. Together they began to pour it all in into the cask. When they had poured in 10 cans the cask was full. "We need more casks. A lot more casks."
Sirius turned around and transfigured some chairs into what Lily wanted. "Thanks Sirius. Now let's hurry. We only have a few minutes left."
They finished just in time. Sirius and Lily snuck back out of the Great Hall and joined the gathering crowds in the Entrance Hall. They high-fived then saw Remus and his Ravenclaw date and went to join them. Carly, James, Peter and his date met up with them a few minutes later. When the students were allowed inside Lily, Carly, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and their dates Melanie and Scarlett went straight to the "butterbeer".
They all poured themselves a glass and raised them together. "Cheers." They all took a sip and smiled. 'Mmm good choice Mel,' thought Lily.
"You know this tastes different to butterbeer," said James. "It tastes great, just different." The others nodded their agreement while Sirius and Lily exchanged glances. Carly, James, Remus, Melanie, Peter and Scarlett went to find somewhere to eat while Lily turned to Sirius.
"I propose a toast," she said. "Here's to drunken fun."
"Cheers to that," Sirius replied cheerfully.
For most of the night Lily and Sirius hung out near the refreshment table. During the night McGonagall staggered over to them. "Why aren't you two out on the dance floor?" she slurred slightly. "As I recall we couldn't get you off it last year."
Lily tried to stifle her laughter as Sirius snorted into his beer. "Umm Professor," said Lily, "I think you might have had a bit too much butterbeer."
McGonagall wasn't paying attention and stumbled away to talk to other students. Lily and Sirius burst into laughter. When they had calmed down Lily thought of something. "Hey Padfoot how come you didn't have a date?"
"Ugh. If I came with a date then she would be fawning all over me all night constantly asking why I got suspended and how it makes me so mysterious. Too annoying for my taste. Besides you already know why I was suspended and you helped me out with the prank. You're a lot more fun than most of the girls at this school Lady Lily."
"Go team me," Lily smiled. "So how many people do you think will be drunk by the end of the night?"
"Oh I'd say close to everyone here."
After the ball had finished Lily, Carly and the Marauders were sitting around the fire in the common room. "You know I'm still curious about that butterbeer," Remus said.
Lily and Sirius grinned. "You guys really want to know what was up with the butterbeer?" asked Sirius.
"What did you two do?" Peter queried with caution.
"Oh we just replaced a few things," Lily replied vaguely.
"A few things?" James raised an eyebrow.
"Do you wanna tell them Sirius or will I?"
"Oh I think you should Lady Lily. It was your idea after all."
"Okay so a few nights ago Sirius convinced me to go to the ball by saying he wanted my help with a prank."
"I was wondering why you'd changed your mind Li," said Carly.
"Yep. Anyway he couldn't think of anything big enough. So I suggested that we get everyone drunk. So I wrote to my cousin Mel and he sent us back a heap of Fosters. It's Australian muggle beer. Tonight before the ball started we snuck in and switched the butterbeer with real beer." Lily looked at the others with pride.
"Well that explains why McGonagall was acting so weird," James commented. The six of them laughed at the memory of McGonagall walking unsteadily around the Great Hall and slurring her words. They sat around until dawn chatting and laughing the friends always do.
The first Hogsmeade weekend had arrived and the Hogwarts students from third year and up were milling around the small wizarding village. Lily and Carly were in Gladrags Designer Robes trying to find the perfect dress robes for Carly. As they walked around the popular shop Carly again brought up a subject that Lily didn't want to talk about.
"Lily why won't you come to the Yule Ball?" she asked.
"Because I don't want to!" Lily exclaimed in exasperation. They had already been over this five times since the ball had been announced.
"Li is it because you don't have a date? I don't have one either. We can go together."
"Car it's not because I don't have a date. Who needs one? If I wanted to go to the ball I'd gladly go by myself. I just don't want to go okay?"
Carly sighed. She knew she wasn't going to win this battle any time soon. Carly picked up a few robes that she liked. "Li I'm going to go try these on."
"Fine. I'm gonna go over to the bookshop for a while. I'll meet you and the guys back at The Three Broomsticks like we decided this morning."
When Carly finally found the perfect robes for her she paid for them and walked over to The Three Broomsticks. She was the first from their group to arrive so she found a table and sat down to wait for the others.
James, having finished his Christmas shopping, walked into The Three Broomsticks and shook the snow off himself. He noticed Carly sitting by herself and went to sit with her. James took a breath as he tried to work up his courage. Carly tilted her head slightly and looked at him curiously. "Are you okay James?" she asked.
He let out his breath and said, "Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?"
Carly raised her eyebrows at him in surprise. "As a friend?"
"Not as my friend, as my date."
"You mean-"
"What I'm saying is will you be my girlfriend?"
"I'd love to."
James and Carly grinned stupidly at each other. At this point Lily, Sirius, Remus and Peter walked into The Three Broomsticks and spotted Carly and James. "Hey guys!" Lily called out brightly to them.
Carly jumped up as they reached the table. "Lily I have to talk to you." Carly grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her towards the bathrooms. Remus, Sirius and Peter gave James curious looks as they sat down. James simply shrugged in response.
In the ladies toilet Carly was talking a mile a minute and Lily couldn't understand a thing she said. "Carly! Slow down! Breathe. Now start again slowly."
"James asked me out. He asked me to go to the Yule Ball with him and to be his girlfriend." Carly squealed as she finished. Lily could tell that her best friend was excited but Lily was slightly more cautious.
"Carly I don't want to sound negative but are you sure about this? I mean James is a great guy and you know I like him but he also has a reputation. You know as well as I do what he used to be like."
"Li he's changed. You know that. Please can you be happy for me?"
Lily gave Carly a reluctant smile and said, "Sure."
Carly grinned and squealed with delight. She grabbed Lily's arm again and dragged her back to the table where the boys were drinking butterbeers. Lily sat down and watched James. James felt her gaze and looked her slightly uneasy.
As the group of six were leaving about an hour later Lily stopped James. The others walked on without noticing that Lily and James had stopped. "You had better not hurt her James Zacharias Potter. You will pay if you do. Carly is my best friend so if you've decided to go back to your old flavour- of-the-week ways and simply use her I will hurt you. I'm making that a promise."
"Li I really like Carly. I'm not about to hurt her or drop her the way you think I am."
"Good." Lily smiled brightly and slipped her arm through his. "We'd better catch up to the others."
"You know Lily your sudden mood swings can sometimes be scary. You're brilliant. But scary."
"I know." Lily smiled at him again as they rejoined the group.
A week later Remus, Sirius and Lily were sitting around the common room fire doing homework. Sirius and Remus had talked her into it three hours beforehand but since Lily had caused them to procrastinate so much they were still only up to their second piece of homework.
James and Carly traipsed into the common room laughing at each other. They stopped in the middle of the room and started kissing. Sirius shook his head and sighed while Lily rolled her eyes in disgust. She packed up her things and walked past James and Carly to get to the staircase. "Oh get a room," she muttered in annoyance as she past them.
James and Carly stopped kissing to look at her in surprise at the way Lily was acting. Lily ignored them and walked up to the girl's dorm. Carly and James moved to the couch that Lily had vacated and sat down. "What's up with Lily?" James asked.
"Sorry mate," Remus replied, "wouldn't know."
Three days before the Yule Ball Sirius flopped down next to Lily, who was reading for about the billionth time Pride and Prejudice. "I'm exhausted Lady Lily. Thank God it's holidays now."
Lily looked at him in amusement. "You work yourself way too hard Siri," she said sarcastically.
"Oh like you're such a hard worker yourself Miss Evans?"
"Of course I am. How else would I be so good at school?"
Sirius merely rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I actually took the time to come down here for a reason."
"Really? Did you actually have a thought? Should I mark down this date in history in case it never happens again?"
"You blow me away with your sarcasm Lily. But anyway what I wanted to know is if you'll go to the ball?"
"How many times do I have to tell people that I'm not going?"
"Yes, yes I know you don't want to go but I'll provide compensation?"
"Oh really? And what kind of compensation would that be Mr Black?"
"Well you see Miss Evans I was hoping to pull quite a huge prank. But the problem is I don't know what to do. Nothing I can think is wide scale enough."
"Hmm. Well how about getting everyone drunk? Using muggle alcohol?"
"Now there's an idea. But how are we going to get muggle alcohol when the ball is in three days?"
Lily grinned and looked around for a piece of parchment. Having found one she pulled a pen out of her hair and wrote a quick letter. She folded it up and placed it in an envelope.
"What did you write?" asked Sirius.
"A letter to my cousin Mel. He's a wizard too. We're the only ones in the family with magic. But anyway. He's old enough to buy alcohol. So I asked him to buy us some beer. I know he will. He's cool like that."
"So it sounds like you'll be coming to the ball after all."
"Looks like it." Lily grinned then realized something. "Oh no. I don't have robes."
"What about what you wore last year?"
"Are you kidding? You don't wear the same dress to two things. You just don't do it. Besides what I wore last year was an evening gown. Muggle formal wear. I need to get dress robes. Sirius you have to get me into Hogsmeade tomorrow."
"But Lily that's against the rules."
"Don't you try to play innocent with me Sirius Black. I know you. And I know you know where the secret passageways out of the castle are. So you are going to show me how to get to Hogsmeade or else you don't get any alcohol."
Sirius sighed. "Fine. You can be a real bitch sometimes Lily."
"Yeah. But you guys know you love me."
Right before the ball was due to start Sirius and Lily snuck into the Great Hall and over to the refreshments table carrying the three cases of Fosters beer that Lily's cousin Mel had sent them. Apparently Mel was currently working in Australia and according to him had found a beer that was better than Guinness.
"Okay where's the butterbeer?" asked Sirius.
"There." Lily pointed to a large cask. "Where are we going to put all the butterbeer?"
"In here." Sirius pulled out a small box. It was a never-ending box. Only recently released at Dervish and Bangs.
"Excellent."
Sirius placed the box under the spout and Lily turned it on. She looked at her watch and swore under her breath. "The ball starts in fifteen minutes. We need it to go faster. Okay I know. Let's get all the beer cans open so we'll be ready."
As the last dregs of the butterbeer poured out Lily and Sirius had opened 12 of the 24 cans. Together they began to pour it all in into the cask. When they had poured in 10 cans the cask was full. "We need more casks. A lot more casks."
Sirius turned around and transfigured some chairs into what Lily wanted. "Thanks Sirius. Now let's hurry. We only have a few minutes left."
They finished just in time. Sirius and Lily snuck back out of the Great Hall and joined the gathering crowds in the Entrance Hall. They high-fived then saw Remus and his Ravenclaw date and went to join them. Carly, James, Peter and his date met up with them a few minutes later. When the students were allowed inside Lily, Carly, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and their dates Melanie and Scarlett went straight to the "butterbeer".
They all poured themselves a glass and raised them together. "Cheers." They all took a sip and smiled. 'Mmm good choice Mel,' thought Lily.
"You know this tastes different to butterbeer," said James. "It tastes great, just different." The others nodded their agreement while Sirius and Lily exchanged glances. Carly, James, Remus, Melanie, Peter and Scarlett went to find somewhere to eat while Lily turned to Sirius.
"I propose a toast," she said. "Here's to drunken fun."
"Cheers to that," Sirius replied cheerfully.
For most of the night Lily and Sirius hung out near the refreshment table. During the night McGonagall staggered over to them. "Why aren't you two out on the dance floor?" she slurred slightly. "As I recall we couldn't get you off it last year."
Lily tried to stifle her laughter as Sirius snorted into his beer. "Umm Professor," said Lily, "I think you might have had a bit too much butterbeer."
McGonagall wasn't paying attention and stumbled away to talk to other students. Lily and Sirius burst into laughter. When they had calmed down Lily thought of something. "Hey Padfoot how come you didn't have a date?"
"Ugh. If I came with a date then she would be fawning all over me all night constantly asking why I got suspended and how it makes me so mysterious. Too annoying for my taste. Besides you already know why I was suspended and you helped me out with the prank. You're a lot more fun than most of the girls at this school Lady Lily."
"Go team me," Lily smiled. "So how many people do you think will be drunk by the end of the night?"
"Oh I'd say close to everyone here."
After the ball had finished Lily, Carly and the Marauders were sitting around the fire in the common room. "You know I'm still curious about that butterbeer," Remus said.
Lily and Sirius grinned. "You guys really want to know what was up with the butterbeer?" asked Sirius.
"What did you two do?" Peter queried with caution.
"Oh we just replaced a few things," Lily replied vaguely.
"A few things?" James raised an eyebrow.
"Do you wanna tell them Sirius or will I?"
"Oh I think you should Lady Lily. It was your idea after all."
"Okay so a few nights ago Sirius convinced me to go to the ball by saying he wanted my help with a prank."
"I was wondering why you'd changed your mind Li," said Carly.
"Yep. Anyway he couldn't think of anything big enough. So I suggested that we get everyone drunk. So I wrote to my cousin Mel and he sent us back a heap of Fosters. It's Australian muggle beer. Tonight before the ball started we snuck in and switched the butterbeer with real beer." Lily looked at the others with pride.
"Well that explains why McGonagall was acting so weird," James commented. The six of them laughed at the memory of McGonagall walking unsteadily around the Great Hall and slurring her words. They sat around until dawn chatting and laughing the friends always do.