Chapter 8

March Madness

Mid March found the students of Hogwarts stuck in the rut of perpetual schoolwork and praying for the Easter holiday that remained a fortnight away. A sudden spurt of warmer weather did nothing to improve the mood of fifth and seventh year students, who felt the imposing weight of their upcoming exams more than ever. In fact, Lily wished the weather would have stayed cold. Sure, the above freezing days had ended the threat of impromptu snowball fights on the way to and from Herbology lessons, but the snow had been replaced by a melted, muddy, treacherous mess. Lily would rather have taken her chances with the clean, powdery snow.

She was mud free at the current moment, staring out over the brown, wet grounds absentmindedly. She and Anne had already finished their in class exercise in practicing partial human transfiguration (turning each other's hair into feathers and then back again.) McGonagall left the majority of the class to their own devices as she prowled the room, sorting out those students who had not been successfully de-feathered by their partners. This included one unfortunate Remus Lupin, who although he had molted, had remained gloriously bald. Professor McGonagall seemed to be having a hard time in reversing this unexpected side effect. Poor Remus resigned himself to ignoring the taunts of the Slytherins and staring daggers at his partner, Peter, while James and Sirius howled with mirth at the next table.

While the rest of the class chatted about their plans for the weekend, Lily allowed her usually attentive mind to wander. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about her forthcoming date with James that evening. He wouldn't tell her where he was taking her, but she had been promised a romantic Friday night. Anne bet he had bribed the house elves into turning the kitchens into a French bistro. Lily was inclined to think along the same lines, since there really weren't too many romantic date spots available inside Hogwarts. She definitely hoped the date didn't involve a trip to the Astronomy tower, since the nocturnal activities that occurred in and around it were anything but romantic, and she didn't mean star gazing.

A loud crack startled Lily out of her thoughts. Remus' hair had finally been restored, allowing McGonagall to make her way back to her desk amid the crinkle of parchment being shoved hurriedly into bags in the usual Friday rush to leave.

"I know you are all anxious to start your weekend, but I have an announcement before you are dismissed."

"Please don't let it be another two yard long essay," Anne mumbled quietly.

"As many of you may already know, every year the Hogwarts staff sponsor a formal ball for the seventh year students. I am pleased to announce that this year's ball will be held on the night of April 30th."

A loud groan arose from many of the boys in the class, while many of the girls started talking excitedly with each other.

"You know what this means?" Anne spouted happily, a huge grin on her face. "We get to go shopping for new dress robes!"

Lily didn't have time to respond. McGonagall cleared her throat loudly before continuing.

"This ball is meant to serve as a last hurrah of sorts for all the seventh years. It will be one of the last opportunities you will have to come together as a year, without the competition of house affiliations, before you all leave Hogwarts and begin your adult lives. Therefore, attendance is mandatory," another groan rose from the boys. "Attendance will also be restricted to seventh years only, with the exception of younger students permitted as the dates of older students. It is not mandatory for you to have an escort, but encouraged since there will be a live band and the opportunity to dance. I expect to see you all there. Class is dismissed."

A thunderous scraping of chairs and friendly chatter filled the room as the students queued inside the narrow doorway, pushing to get out into the hallway. Lily laughed as Anne immediately launched back into a discussion of a shopping trip, and in depth details of the dress robes she wanted to get. The prospect of a seventh year dance was exciting, especially since Lily knew she already had a date. Finding someone to attend balls with had always been more trouble that it was worth, and having James around meant the only thing Lily had to worry about was what she would wear.

"Hey, Thatcher!" rang out in the corridor.

Anne turned away to see who had shouted her surname and immediately wished she hadn't.

Apparently, Lily wasn't the only one thinking about the upcoming ball. "How would you like to attend the ball with a smart, funny, handsome guy?" Sirius Black shouted from his position several people behind Lily and Anne.

"I'd love to," Anne yelled back sarcastically. "Do you know anyone who is smart, funny, and handsome?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I do," he shouted back, undaunted by her jab. "How about…me!"

"Not on your life, Black."

Sirius didn't look like the rejection bothered him. He shrugged and called after the two girls, "your loss then," before returning to heckling Peter about his feathery failure in class.

Anne shook her head, rolled her eyes, and sighed while Lily laughed. "The sad thing is, that line is going to work on some love struck fifth year," Anne mused.

Lily waited anxiously in the common room for James, nervously trying to get her stomach to stop grumbling. Supper was included in their date, so she had gone down to dinner with Anne, but had only sipped some pumpkin juice and nibbled a bit of sourdough bread to hold her over. However, James was apparently running late, and Lily found herself waiting not very patiently by the fire. She flattened the skirt she was wearing, having changed out of her uniform and robes and into something a bit more date appropriate: a skirt, sleeveless blouse, and fitted cardigan sweater that kept her modest but still reminded James that she was a girl. Well, it would remind him that she was a girl, if he ever showed up.

James did finally appear, emerging from the boys' dormitory looking the part of the date as well. Like Lily, he had changed out of his robes, and was dressed instead in khakis and a blue dress shirt. It even looked like he had attempted to control his unruly hair, though with not very much success.

"Sorry," he whispered as he gave her a light kiss, "Quidditch practice ran late."

"That's alright," Lily replied, forgiving him instantly. "Will you tell me where we are going?"

"No," James laughed back, as Lily looked indignantly at him. "It's a surprise."

The corridor James lead Lily down was definitely no where near the kitchens, leaving Lily even more mystified as to where their mysterious date would take place. They seemed to be on the sixth or seventh floor, far from any of the popular date spots that Lily had knowledge of. James finally stopped in the middle of an empty corridor, containing only one painting of an exasperated looking wizard and three very unhappy looking trolls in tutus.

James flashed a toothy grin at Lily. "Now bear with me for a while. I need you to think of whatever you are hungriest for right now," he instructed.

"Okay," she replied hesitantly. What was she hungry for? Almost anything seemed appealing in her current state of hunger. Roast beef sounded nice, with gravy, and potatoes, and maybe a small salad, or fresh baked bread, and butterbeer, with tea and scones afterward. But why was this important? He wasn't going to tell her he was a legilmens was he? That would just be too much.

"Keep thinking whatever you're thinking," he said cheerfully, grabbing her hand and starting to lead her down the corridor again. He seemed to be concentrating hard on something too. Maybe if you walked down this hallway while hungry, and thinking of what you wanted to eat, it magically appeared. However, they had only paced a few yards when James turned her around and started marching her back.

"Keep thinking of food," he whispered.

Lily gave him a slightly apprehensive look, but kept quiet. She ran the list of food she was hungry for through her mind, though confused guesses at what was going on kept popping up as well, especially after James turned around a second time. Lily began to suspect she was a butt of a joke, and that Sirius had bet James on how long he could keep her pacing before she stopped and demanded to know what was going on. However, the third time they turned around a door had appeared where there had previously been none.

She wasn't able to bite down a, "where did that come from?"

"I'll explain once we're inside," James replied as he reached for the handle. With a guiding hand on the small of her back, he led Lily inside, quietly closing the door behind them.

Lily gasped at the room around her. Had she not known better, she would have sworn she had stepped into a quaint little restaurant in London. The walls were painted a light maroon, with a large brick fireplace crackling merrily in the middle of the opposite wall. Candles glowed from elaborate wall sconces, providing romantic lighting that mingled with the soft classical music playing from an unidentifiable source. A single table, set for two, stood in the middle of the room. It was bedecked with all the food Lily had been hungry for, as well as two more glowing candles.

"What is this place?" Lily demanded again, as James pulled her chair out for her before seating himself.

"We found it, Sirius and I, our third year," James responded proudly. Lily sensed there was a story behind their discovery that probably involved the breaking of at least ten school rules. "Mind you, it did take us a year to figure out the finer points of how it worked. At first we thought it was just a hidden library."

"A library?" She didn't see any books.

"It changes," James replied with a grin. "You have to walk past that ridiculous portrait three times, thinking of whatever you need, and it will appear inside."

"So you thought of the need to take me somewhere on a date," Lily replied as she served herself some of the roast beef and potatoes.

"And you thought of dinner," he returned with a smirk. "Good choice, by the way."

Lily laughed as they continued eating. "But why did you and Sirius need a library, when there is a perfectly good one downstairs?" she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"We were researching how to turn into animagi, and let's just say Madam Pince wasn't exactly inviting us into the restricted section to find what we needed."

"So you found an accessible restricted section up here," she laughed.

James nodded through a mouthful of food.

Lily supposed she must have just overlooked the sofa sitting in front of the fire in James' magical secret room. She had only noticed it once they had finished dinner, after thinking to herself how nice it would be to lay in front of the fire. So now she snuggled close to James, his arms wrapped around her from behind as they lay spooned against each other. She was amazed by how her body seemed to fit with his. Her head rested against his chest, using the crook of his right arm as a pillow. She could hear his even breathing and steady heartbeat over the crackle of the fire as they basked in loving silence. She felt happier and more content than she had in long while.

"This is nice," she mumbled quietly, not wishing to wreck the mood.

"It's even nicer because it's you I'm holding," he responded, pulling her even closer. She felt him move his head, and heard his gentle breathing by her ear as he tipped his head to kiss her temple. She felt like she was in a very pleasant dream.

She rolled slightly so she could kiss his lips briefly. James, however, wasn't satisfied with briefly, and soon Lily found herself not caring if it was a dream or not. In fact, her mind seemed incapable to think of little else other than the way sparks seemed to shoot down her spine, making her whole body tingle when James kissed her this way.

They left the magical room grudgingly. James had tried to convince her to sleep there, in his arms. As tempting as that invitation had been, Lily had suggested it may be better for their reputations if they slept in their own beds. If they didn't return to the dormitories, it would surely be noted by their friends, who could put two and two together pretty quickly. She would rather avoid that heckling session, and after a while, James had agreed. They tip-toed, hand in hand, back through the castle, aware of just how many hours had passed since curfew. It didn't matter if they were Head Girl and Boy, they weren't on duty and would get detention if found out of bed just as quickly as any other student. Perhaps even faster, with James' track record.

They made it safely back to the empty common room. The fire had died to just embers, casting the room in eerie shadows. James walked her to the foot of the girls' staircase where they said goodnight.

"Thank you for a wonderful night, James," Lily whispered in his ear as they pulled away from each other, hands still intertwined. She retreated up the stairs, letting go of his fingers only when she absolutely had to.

James walked jauntily into the Gryffindor common room. Usually Mondays were depressing for a Marauder, well except maybe for Remus. James, however, could care less if it was Monday. He was a man on top of the world. He still hadn't come down from the euphoric high caused by his date with Lily on Friday night. He even didn't care that Sirius had caught him humming a sappy Muggle love song that morning. He was quite sure that he was the luckiest man alive, and would remain so as long as Lily Evans continued to be his girlfriend. Not only was she finally dating him, but she didn't care that his best friend was a werewolf and that he was an illegal animagus. She had even surprised him by proving she had a sense of humor. What other girl would let him tease her about how her rack compared to his. He was definitely the luckiest man in the world, and his four-leaf clover was only yards away, doing her homework.

Grinning, he slipped into the chair next to her. "Having fun doing potions?" he teased.

When she turned her head to look at him he saw that she had tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked, feeling as though he had been drop kicked off cloud nine and back to solid ground.

She shook her head, hurriedly whipping away the tears. "It's nothing…"

"It's something," he pushed.

"It's just," she nodded toward the notice board where a new notice was hanging. "McGonagall posted the sign up sheet for those staying over Easter Break, and, for the first time ever, I had to sign it. Where else do I have to go?"

"It's okay," he soothed as she broke into a new set of tears. "I'm going to be staying too. I know how you feel, Lily. The first holiday without them, I felt awful over Christmas. But Sirius was there for me, and I'm here for you. And there's always Anne, she'd do anything for you."

"Except throw me off the Astronomy tower," Lily mumbled into his chest.

"What?"

"Never mind," she choked, giving him a half-hearted smile through the tears. "It's not just that it will be the first Easter without them, it's that I almost forgot. I've been so happy with you that I almost forgot that I'd lost them."

"You forgot to be miserable about it, you mean."

She nodded.

"Lily, I know I never met them, but would they really have wanted you to be miserable? You can still miss them while letting yourself be happy. You're always going to miss them, but you don't want to be miserable for the rest of your life."

"Do you still miss your parents?"

"Of course, everyday! And I'll really miss them over Easter, and when we graduate, and during every other major event in my life. But they made it exceptionally clear before they passed away that I wasn't to mope around because of them. In fact, Mum threatened to come back and haunt me if I did and she'd make Peeves look like a kitten."

Lily smiled a little. "I know it sounds silly, since I'm eighteen years old, but I'm going to miss the Easter basket Mum always made for me and Petunia. It was just a straw basket filled with Easter grass and candy, but she always got us these big peanut butter eggs, covered in chocolate. And I don't know where she got them, but she'd get our names written on them in icing. That way, when we were little, Petunia and I couldn't argue over whose was whose, and it just sort of became tradition."

James pulled Lily into a tight hug again, an idea forming in his mind.