We Have to What?

Chapter Eight

Dancing in Circles

Summary: Lily and James are told by Dumbledore that in order to be Head Boy and Girl in their seventh year at Hogwarts, they have to learn to live together! In a two room flat! Chaos ensues…

So Far: Lily and James move in together, and must complete several tasks before going to Hogwarts as Head students together. They go to a dinner party where they take part in charades, all the while being punished if they argue. These are lifted, and the two are required to take a 12-hour polyjuice potion to switch places. They are then instructed to go to Diagon Alley to fetch their stuff for school. They meet up with Sirius, and after having a great day, just for fun they decide to kiss outside their door. They switch back in the middle and Lily runs off, going to sleep on a bus stop bench. So beginneth the chapter…

Rated: PG-13 for sexuality. Some language, but that would probably be mostly PG language. No violence as of yet. Thischapter is especially PG-13.

Disclaimer: I feel kind of guilty that I never put one up, so here it is. I don't own anything you recognize. I do own Podis Bagmore (mentioned once in chapter one).


James had spent an agonizing night running all around London looking for Lily Evans, the bane of his existence. He had started really panicking around four in the morning, when he had finished checking if she had gone back to her house.

It had taken a lot of persuading of her friends through owl correspondence to persuade them to give up her address, and while he was waiting, he had gone through most of London to look for her.

Or at least, it seemed like most of London.

He had careened through Diagon Alley, and persuaded a drunken cabbie to drive him to King's Cross. She wasn't on platform 9 ¾, or at The Leaky Cauldron. Diagon Alley was actually quite scary at night, with all the shops closed. He went through Knockturn Alley, on the off chance Lily would have hidden there to escape him.

He had gone through several parks, knowing from his Lily-obsessed fifth-year days that she loved nature.

When he had finally received the address from Marlene McKinnon, a friend of Lily's who had graduated the year before and was now in the middle of auror training, he had flown on his broomstick for half an hour to the middle of Surrey, only to find that her parents weren't the nicest people when woken up in the middle of the night. He had been driven off the property by several angry-looking dogs.

He was back in London now, and dawn was coming over the rooftops, a cool, beautiful dawn that didn't know that a girl was missing. And James was despairing of ever finding the vibrant red-headed beauty with a temper to match the hair. Her face swam in his mind, red lips and green eyes against her pale skin, with a light dusting of freckles that no one knew was there unless they really looked.

Finally, he hung his head. There was no choice but to go back to flat and contact Dumbledore. Dumbledore would be disappointed, and probably take away his Head Boy-ship, but right now, he was more interested in saving Lily's life.

He was actually closer to the flat than he had thought, so it didn't take him much time to reach it.

He ran up, rang the doorbell, and waited for five seconds before he remembered that Lily wasn't there to answer it, opened the door, ran upstairs to the flat, opened that door, and ran smack into Lily, falling on the floor in a mess of limbs.

He rubbed his head thoroughly for several seconds before realizing that there was someone else next to him.

His eyes widened as he saw the girl next to him on the floor, also rubbing her head. "W-what are you doing here?" he asked, rather stupidly, he thought.

Lily frowned at James, narrowing her green eyes at him untrustingly, "Why should you care? I don't have to answer to you."

"Evans!" James cried, exasperated, "I've just spent the entire night running around London and Surrey looking for you! Your friends didn't even know where you were. Where have you been?"

"Around," she shrugged, and then stood up. She brushed herself off, and James noticed that her skirt was slightly wet and dirty, and her top had a large grass stain on it. She walked over to the counter, and then turned back towards James. "Dumbledore sent us another letter." Picking it up, she threw it at James, who was still on the floor, looking at it in shock. "Well?" she said impatiently, "Open it. I'm waiting."

James gave a growl, glaring at her, then at the piece of parchment. It felt rough in his hands, and the neat loopy handwriting at the front eased his thoughts. Dumbledore would never do anything to hurt them. Dumbledore could be trusted. His anger at Lily subsided, and he calmly tore open the envelope, taking out the rich parchment, and read.

Dear Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans,

Congratulations for handling the polyjuice task admirably.

Your next task will be similar to, but not the same as, when you went to dinner. Tonight, you are going ballroom dancing! You will be going to the restaurant named on the card enclosed. It also functions as a dancing hall. Since it will be a public place, I expect you both to be on your best behavior. I hope you've been practicing! I have taken the liberty of inviting Sirius Black and Marlene McKinnon to dinner with you. I trust you will inform them of just the details they must know. Enough muggle money to cover both yours and their dinners is enclosed as well.

Until then,

Yours,

Albus Dumbledore.

James looked in the rest of the envelope, where there were two fifty pound notes and a twenty pound note. 'How much money does he expect us to spend?' he wondered to himself, and then stood up. He handed Lily the note, and she glared at him, rather for no reason, James thought.

"What?" he asked.

She glared at him again. She couldn't possibly still be angry at him for bumping into her, he thought.

Lily was still angry at James, though at this point, she had no idea why. "I don't want to go dancing with you," she said, rather immaturely. She didn't even know why she was acting this way, but it was childish, even for her.

"Oh, grow up, Lily," said James, echoing her thoughts.

But she would never admit that.

"I am grown up. It's you who's a child, James Potter," she paused, getting angrier by a moment. "I'm going to bed. I had a long night."

With that, she turned around and stalked towards her room, slamming the door. Or at least, that was what she would have done if James hadn't grabbed her elbow forcefully pushing her against the wall. Lily's eyes got wide as she saw the anger, hurt, and, for some reason, lust, in his eyes as he stared at her. Then she stared back at him, and both teenagers were silent for what seemed like years, both breathing hard, both refusing to back down.

"You are a child James," Lily breathed, breaking the silence before it got worse. And taking her mind off the heat of his fingers pressed into her elbows.

Suddenly, Lily remembered last night. How amazing James had felt kissing her. Why she had run off. And she looked back up into the eyes of the boy looking at her.

"You will never have me James."

"Who ever said I wanted you?" But James had moved forward slightly, speaking low in his voice, so that it was almost a growl, and Lily was feeling ever more breathless. Her cheeks had flared up, bright red, and she could feel it spreading down her neck. James had a slight grin on his face, sinister, yet inviting.

"You're not good enough for me, James," but her voice was quiet, breathy, not at all the yell she had intended.

He moved closer, and their noses were almost touching. Lily could hear his breath too, and her heart was beating against his fingers.

"I think that's why you like me," he said, and then his lips were on hers. She was surprised slightly, but she didn't think. She reacted, kissing him back with all of her soul. She wrapped her arms around his neck, threading her fingers through his messy black hair. Where their lips touched, fire threatened to consume them. James had his arm around her waist, and his fingers made her back tingle. He moved forwards, shoving her more forcefully against the wall, pressing his whole body against hers, and he opened his mouth, and she opened hers, and she gasped at this new sensation, this strange, beautiful sensation.

Suddenly, something clicked, and Lily's brain unfroze. She wrenched her lips away from James', pushing him away. He stumbled away, and she looked at him with shock on her face, then anger.

"I-I have to go," she stuttered, and ran to the bedrooms, slamming the door so that the whole flat shook.

James was left standing rooted the spot, staring at the shaking door.


"Lily, get out of the room!"

"No!"

"We have to go to dinner! Sirius and Marlene are expecting us."

"I don't care!"

"Dumbledore won't let us be Head Boy and Girl if we don't complete the tasks!"

There was a pause, and James leaned against the door hopefully.

"Fine!" Lily shouted, "You go there first. I'll come later."

James sighed. If that was the only way he was going to be able to go, he would agree, "Fine," he said, walking towards the table in the middle of the room, "but I need my suit!"

Silence again, but he could hear rustling in the corner of where his 'room' was. The door suddenly opened violently, and his clothes were thrown out in a large pile, and the door slammed closed once again, making James wince.


There was an awkward silence at the table between Lily and James as Marlene and Sirius tried to make strained conversation.

"So, Marlene. You're in auror training now, I've heard."

"Er, yeah. And you? Still the slacker you always were?"

"Mmm-hmm."

And then no one else spoke. Lily glared at James subtly, and he was staring at the floor, counting dots, making shapes, and generally pretending he didn't see anything. A fast-paced song came on, and Sirius stood up, offering his hand to Marlene, and looking pointedly at James who looked up again.

"Care to have this dance?"

Marlene smiled and nodded, getting up gracefully and placing her palm in his. She did a little twirl, and James shifted uncomfortably in his seat. At this rate, they were never going to pass all of the tests that Dumbledore was setting them.

Lily wasn't paying attention anymore; she was taking her turn at making words out of the floor wood patterns. She looked up with surprise when, after a few minutes, an outstretched hand obscured her vision, and then frowned when she saw who it was.

"Dance with me, Lily." It wasn't a question, and when Lily looked into James' hazel eyes, she couldn't resist. She felt herself standing up silently, placing her warm hand into his cool one. She tried to distance herself from him, looking instead at Sirius and Marlene dancing enjoyably.

Then the song ended, and a slow, romantic one came one. Typical, thought Lily. But she didn't say anything. They reached the dance floor, and James turned towards Lily putting a hand gently on her waist. She bit back a gasp at the way her heart jumped when he touched her.

James held her possessively, and after a while, leaned towards her. Lily jumped away from him, breathing harder. He laughed, and she fumed.

"I was just leaning down to whisper to you," he said. She didn't say anything in return, instead turning her head away from him, refusing to look at the face of the boy in front of her.

James responded by tugging Lily gently so that she was forced to come closer to him, her chest touching his lightly. She felt her heart speed up, and her face redden, and she made the mistake of looking at him.

He was staring at her, smiling slightly, volumes of feelings projected by his eyes. And Lily realized in shock how nicely he was holding her. But she wasn't admitting anything. His hand on her waist traced light circles, and shivering slightly, she moved unconsciously closer to him.

"Don't try anything, Potter," she whispered. He just kept staring, and Lily felt more and more uncomfortable every second he looked at her.

"I won't try anything you wouldn't like," James said huskily, and somewhere deep down, Lily knew that was a terrible line, but the song was over, and she let him go quickly, stammering,

"I-I have to go to the bathroom."


A/N: Yay! New chapter. I hope everyone is happy with this one. I had fun writing it, and I hope you had fun reading it. Some of it didn't come out exactly the way I had imagined it in my head, but that's all the fun of writing, isn't it? I have the first scene of the next chapter all planned out, but it would be nice to have some more ridiculous task ideas. This one was sort of boring. Thanks!

Crystaltambaia