A couple of people have pointed out that Hogwarts doesn't have annual balls. Not in Harry's time anyway. But as far as I know, no one knows what goes on in Lily and James' time apart from the flashbacks, so I figured: this is a castle with teenagers and a Great Hall. Why wouldn't they have balls? So, the next step in my (naturally flawless haha) logic was: maybe they did. But if so, there's got to be a reason why they stopped doing it. Step three was: I know! I'll invent one! So that, people, is why I have included the idea of a traditional New Year's ball. And I did a Halloween one because a) I felt like it, and b) it really helps the plot along. Oh, and c) it's fun!

Lily, Chrissy, Jessica and Carrie walked down the main street in Hogsmeade, chatting away about the ball, the outfits they wanted to wear and the boys they wanted to dance with. Jess had decided to dress up as a harem dancer, which would definitely suit her, and they were just discussing Carrie's plan to go as a fairy princess. Chrissy had immediately said "Isn't that a bit little-girly?" but Lily disagreed.

"No, little-girly is cool, especially as this is for fifth years and up. You're not gonna get anyone else dressed as a fairy."

"I suppose not," Chris agreed.

"Plus," Jess said, "Carrie'll really suit it – she's all thin and waif-like. She'd definitely make a good fairy."

"Okie dokie, that's settled. What colour dress, C?" Lily turned to her friend.

"I was thinking a wispy musliny white one, maybe spaghetti straps."

"Sounds good. How long? Shoes?" Jess got right to business.

"Probably about knee length. And maybe some white ballet slippers."

"Oh yeah, that's be so cute!" Lily said. "I've got some satin ballet shoes you can borrow. Get some ribbons to stitch on and turn them into ankle-ties."

"Oh wow, yeah. Thanks Lil. What about you anyway?"

"Hmm, I was kinda thinking creepy vampire woman."

"What, like bondage?" This was Jess, typically.

"Yeah, can you imagine it? Lily Evans, dominatrix supreme!" Christina joined in. All four girls burst out laughing, then noticed the four guys on the other side of the road looking at them very oddly.

"Lily Evans, dominatrix supreme? Wow Sirius, there's something you haven't been telling us…" James grinned cheekily at Sirius, who didn't look amused.

Remus noticed Sirius' expression and said, "C'mon, mate. Lighten up! Prongs here is just jealous."

"Hell, yeah," James said and winked saucily at Lily. She blushed and turned to her friends.

"Come on, guys, here's the robe shop. Let's get away from these perverts."

The girls turned into the shop and Chrissy said, "Wow, Lily, he likes you!"

Lily turned to her, confused, and said, "Of course he does! He's my boyfriend!"

"No not Sirius, you dumbschnitzel! James!"

Lily blushed and looked at Jess.

"She's right, Lil. He so wants your babies."

"Well, wants you to have his babies."

"Guys, shut up!"

"Why, Lil? You know it's true!"

"Carrie, you know that's not true don't you?"

Carrie looked at Lily with a contemplative expression. "Well actually, I think they might be right. He's definitely getting flirty with you."

"No, he's not! He's just being nice cos I'm his best friend's girlfriend!"

"No, he's not."

"Argh, let's leave this conversation. Shopping time!"

They didn't argue, but got to work finding dresses. Jess already had her outfit and just needed some shoes, but the rest of them needed the whole getup. The first dress they found was perfect for Chrissy, who had decided to go as an Egyptian princess. It was white silk and clingy, with gold and royal blue edging. Chrissy tried it on and it looked amazing. There was a thigh-high slit up one side showing off her amazing legs and the dress clung just right.

The next dress they set about hunting for in the enormous shop was Carrie's. They found several, and she tried them all. One was very short but loose, and they all thought it looked amazing except Carrie, who thought it made her legs look like matchsticks. The next dress was perfect apart from the length – it was thin and floaty with a pinched in waist. The last one was beautiful: empire line with spaghetti straps and a torn hem that showed off Carrie's chest but didn't make the rest of her look like a twig (Carrie's term, not Lily's). Finally, Carrie was happy and they set to finding Lily's.

"Are you going for the vampire thing then?"

"Yeah, may as well."

"Rightie ho then. What colour?"

"Hmm, dark green?"

"Don't be an ass, vampires wear red or black. Anyway, you always wear green."

"Red looks crap against my hair."

"No it doesn't."

"Does."

"Fine. Black, then?"

"Okie dokie."

"What style?"

"Long. I'm not having my legs on show."

Chrissy rolled her eyes. "If you say so. Corsetty or loose-fitting?"

"Corsetty! You'd look amazing in a corset," Jess exclaimed.

"I'd also look like bondage-woman."

"No you wouldn't. Not with a pretty floaty skirt."

Lily's dress took hours to find, but she finally settled on a black silk one with a strapless corset bodice and a floor-length flowing skirt. It showed enough cleavage while leaving her legs to the imagination, which, in Lily's opinion, was where they should stay. Jess also found a red cloak with black ties which matched perfectly.

"That'll clash with my stupid hair!"

"Dye your hair then."

"What?"

"Yeah, dye your hair."

"What colour?"

"Black."

"Black? Black! It'll totally wash me out!"

"No, it won't."

"And even if it does, vampires are supposed to be pale," Lily wished her friends wouldn't gang up on her, but knew she was beaten on this one.

"Right, shoe time!"

>

Before they knew it, the night of the ball had come around. It was a Friday, so all their classes had been excitable and no one had managed to get any work done. In fact, in their last class, Professor van Spyk had announced, "Right, I'm not going to bother teaching you anything today. There are a few questions on the board, but other than that I'm going to be coming round and discussing your outfit plans with you. I want to make sure no one's planning on wearing anything too horrendous." Lily burst out laughing as the rest of the class sat with their mouths open. A teacher cum fashion advisor? That was a new one.

One by one, their Professor called each one of them to the front and had a quiet conversation with them that no one could hear. A few people came back looking slightly embarrassed, and others were in fits of laughter. Others merely looked perturbed. Lily realised towards the end of the lesson that she would be left till last. Professor van Spyk had started at the front of the classroom and was working slowly backwards. Ten minutes before the lesson was due to end, Lily was called up.

"Lily! Come here please."

Lily got up and made her way to the front. She took a seat opposite her Professor, who was wearing a green sweater and jeans with some amazing black knee-length boots. Lily made a mental note to ask her where she shopped.

"Hi."

"Hi, Lily. How's life?"

"Life? It's okay, thanks."

"Yeah? How's Sirius?"

"Fine," but Lily's facial expression gave her away.

"Boy troubles, huh?"

"You could say that," Lily realised there was no point trying to hide anything from Ms Van Spyk, and found herself saying it all. "He's so bloody paranoid! I like him but he's bloody obsessive! If I try to tell him I don't wanna shag him he gets all offended so I end up doing it anyway and it sucks. I just want some freedom – he's treating me like we should be joined at the hip or something. Shit, I shouldn't have told you that."

"Whatever. I had sex at fourteen, no big deal."

"Really?"

"No, I lied. Yes, of course. And let me guess: you've found your eye wandering."

Lily blushed. "Not exactly."

"I'm not accusing you of anything, but I'm guessing you have. It's not a sin."

"Yeah, I guess so." Lily instinctively looked back at James, whose head was bowed over his parchment. She looked back to her Professor and found her smiling knowingly. Lily scowled. "You're trying to set me up with James, aren't you?"

"No. I'm merely trying to aid people in broadening their horizons and getting closer to people they ought to befriend. You liking young Mr Potter there is not my problem."

"Fine," Lily was suddenly angry. It was her problem. It was all her fault. "It is your stupid fault! I wouldn't like James if it wasn't for you!"

"Aha!"

Lily suddenly realised what she had said. "I like James."

"Excellent deduction, Detective Evans. Well done." Lily banged her head on the desk. "Don't do that, Lily. You don't want a massive bruise on your forehead tonight."

"Hmph," Lily's head was still on the desk.

"Look, Lily, I know you don't want to hurt Sirius, but right now all you're doing is hurting yourself. Give yourself some time, but you need to end it. Otherwise when it finally ends, Sirius will be hurt that you let him think you loved him, James will have got over anything he feels for you, and you'll hate Sirius because he stopped you getting James."

"Why. Do. You. Always. Have. To. Be. Right!"

"Because I am amazing. Now, your outfit. What are you going as?"

"A vampire. What muggles think of as a vampire anyway."

"Hmm, original. What are you wearing?"

"A black dress, red cloak, red pointy ballet slippers. And the girls have decided to turn my hair black so it doesn't clash with the stupid cloak."

"You've got good friends. I'm guessing you didn't want to wear the cloak?"

"Yup."

"Trust me, you should. You need to have something swishy to make you look truly evil. Mastered how to do fangs yet?"

"No, I keep ending up like a bunny rabbit." Professor van Spyk snickered. Lily decided to distract her before she decided to take the piss. "Professor, where do you shop?"

"Call me Petra; 'Professor' annoys me."

"But –"

"Shut up. Don't argue. I shop anywhere and everywhere. Mainly muggle shops though." Lily raised her eyebrows. "Just because I'm a Slytherin doesn't mean I hate muggles. Anyway, their clothes are cheaper. CLASS DISMISSED!" As the rest of the class began to get up, making a lot of noise as they did so, Petra added, "Stop by my office when you're ready, I'll fix your teeth."

"Thanks," Lily said, turning away. When she left the classroom, she turned back around and said, "Bye!" then added - as an afterthought – "Petra."

>

The girls raced through the Halloween dinner – one couldn't really call it a feast, as it was nothing compared to the usual - and ran upstairs to their dormitory. The ball started at eight, so they only had two hours to get ready. Getting dressed was the easy part, although Lily had to borrow a strapless bra from Chrissy as she had completely forgotten about underwear and didn't have the time to mess around with vanishing the straps on one of hers.

Chrissy was wearing a wig so her hair wasn't a problem. Carrie had perfect hair as it was, and just let her blonde locks fall onto her shoulders. Jess had tied up her hair and Carrie had taken charge of teasing curls out of the ponytail and setting them in place magically. Chrissy had the difficult job: Lily's hair. She had found a colouring spell which she said had worked perfectly (Chrissy wouldn't let Lily use a mirror until she was finished) and was now curling Lily's hair into long soft waves – not too tight, not too loose. Or so she said.

Carrie finished up Jess's hair and began painting Lily's nails. They had all agreed that her long nails should be blood red to match her cloak and shoes.

Next was the makeup: Lily worked on Chrissy, as she was the most reliable at eyeliner. Jess sorted Carrie's 'natural look' out: she was barefaced apart from beautiful sparkling fake eyelashes and blushing cheeks. She looked every inch the innocent. When Lily was done turning Chrissy into Cleopatra, Chrissy began working on her.

Suddenly, as Chrissy was finishing, Lily thought of something. How was she going to get to Petra's office without anyone seeing her outfit?

"Chrissy, could you do me a favour please?"

"Sure, what?"

"Go and ask James if I can borrow his cloak."

Chrissy snapped on her golden mask and bounded out of the room, and Jess said, "How do you get her to do that?"

"Easy. She ain't gonna say no to a chance to see Remus half-naked! Plus, she knows she looks amazing."

>

Chrissy knocked on the boys' door.

"Come in," she heard Sirius say.

She entered and gasped. All four guys were standing there topless, Sirius in boxers. She didn't care though -- all she could see was Remus.

"Yeah?" James grinned, amused.

"Er, Potter, can – can Lily borrow - borrow your cloak?" she managed to stumble out.

"Sure," James bent over to pick it up from the end of his bed. Chrissy vaguely registered 'nice ass,' before he threw the cloak to her. She quickly exited, heart pounding, not listening to the conversation as the door shut behind her.

Remus spoke first. "Wow, who was that?"

"Chrissy," James said. "Who else would Lily be sending to do her dirty work?"

"She looked…amazing," Peter said, his mouth wide open.

"Yeah…" said Remus.

James grinned exasperatedly at Sirius and whispered, "Why doesn't he pull her already?"

Sirius shrugged. "Why does Lily want your cloak anyway?"

James shrugged back. "Who knows? They're girls."

>

Lily laughed as Chrissy fell through the door, cloak in hand, a huge dopey grin plastered across her face.

"Remus half naked, huh?" Chrissy could only nod. "That good?"

She nodded again, then remembered the only other thought she had had while in the room. "James has a nice ass…"

The other three girls burst out laughing.

>

Knock, knock

Petra van Spyk opened the door and Lily pulled the cloak off her head. Petra was dressed as an elf, wearing a long forest green dress which somehow managed to show a lot of cleavage while still looking demure and elf-like. She had her hair curled like Lily's and her now-pointy ears poked out. She really looked amazing.

"Wow, I love your outfit!"

"I was about to comment on yours actually. You look good evil."

"You reckon?" Lily grinned slyly.

"Definitely. You seen a mirror yet?"

"Nope."

"Good. I repeat: you have good friends. Who did your hair?"

"Chrissy."

"Ah. She seen Remus half naked yet?"

"Yep."

"So she's lying on a bed somewhere fanning herself?"

"That's about right."

Petra laughed. Lily noticed that she didn't look quite as evil when she smiled. "Let's see about your teeth then," she cast a spell Lily didn't quite catch, and said, "Smile!" She nodded with a satisfied smirk and said, "Pure evil."

"Thanks. I'd better be going though – I've still got to find my shoes for Carrie."

Petra nodded. "Just hold on a second; I think I've got a finishing touch." She fished in a drawer of her desk and stepped behind Lily. "Hold still." She draped a necklace around Lily's neck and then spun Lily around to face her.

"Thank you. It's yours?"

"Yes. It's somewhat…special to me." Petra picked up the pendant and fingered it, wearing a wistful expression, then placed it back on Lily's chest. "Be careful with it." As the pendant touched her bare skin, Lily felt the unmistakable tingle of magic. She wondered what it was bewitched with, but didn't get a chance to ask. Petra said, "You'd better be getting back," and, next thing Lily knew, she was standing outside the portrait hole.

>

This chapter is mainly there to move the story along, and I didn't really know what to do with it, so I included some fun with our favourite Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher cos, let's face it, we love her! Well, I do...

Anyway, I know this isn't my best chapter. In fact, I wrote my best chapter last night, forgot to save it, and deleted it. You know those really old versions of Microsoft Word where all the documents are in the same window? Well I was working on one of those, and I'd written about 2500 words (and it took me hours!), when I decided to open another chapter to check something. I closed it and when the window came up saying 'Do you want to save changes to Chapter 10?' I automatically (being a dumbschnitzel) clicked 'no' and there it was- gone! And my stupid AutoRecover settings didn't work either. Grr... But oh well, I rewrote it today. It's now almost 5000 words long, so that's a treat for you guys next chapter, plus I think it's better than the first one I wrote.

Thank you time...

Angel2510 Love that review! It's joint favourite with one of HPBeatles', which just said 'it rocked. loved it.' You can't beat that, but you're as close as it gets. I love randomness - it's what makes life interesting! I totally know what you mean about Sirius. I love the guy, but I'm making him so annoying! How did that happen? Oh well, there may be some Sirius-bashing later on, hehehe. Yeah, they slept together. I didn't want it to happen, but it happened to me and it made a big impact, so I can't really say this story is based on me if the same stuff doesn't happen, you get me? I hope this update is soon enough, and keep the randomness coming!

Dayle Thanks, characters have always bothered me - it's so hard when you have to write about groups of friends, and just make them up, and to succeed in making them all individual is one of my big goals. I hope I'm achieving it! By the way, I love your email address, pure genius!

Weird Not Boring I hope I answered the part about the ball well enough at the top, but thanks for pointing it out. It does annoy me when things like that happen, and also when they go on 'spring break' and have 'semesters'. JK doesn't call them that, so why should we? Lol, rant over. Sorry. Thank you very much for the compliments, I must say I enjoyed writing the L/J chapters the most. Who wouldn't!

HPBeatles Ohh, the tension is coming...it's coming! Trust me. I am evil.

Right, we're into double figures! I think that's a reason to review, don't you? As soon as I get four reviews I'll update this next chapter. I think that's gonna become my minimum update number, but I've got some faithful reviewers now, so thanks to them you shouldn't be kept waiting too long!

Thanks guys

Becca