Chapter 12: Preparations

James woke up the next morning to find Lily asleep in his arms, 'she's so beautiful' was all James could think as he saw the way her red hair was fanned out against the pillows like flames to paper. He gently brushed his fingers against her soft cheek and watched her move her head against his hand.

Lily woke up to a very gentle kiss, but that gentle kiss was quickly replaced with passion.

"Well, good morning to you too," Lily said with a lazy laugh as they pulled apart.

James just kept looking at her, as her eyes were still filled with sleep. "I have to go buy a dress for tonight so I need to head out pretty soon," Lily said as she felt slightly different about the way James was looking at her.

Lily then felt exactly why James was looking at her like that as he slid inside her, "Well maybe I can go shopping later."

Later after Lily finally escaped from James, she made it to Diagon Alley. She went into a new Muggle clothing shop, "If I'm going back to Hogwarts, I might as well show them how a muggleborn really dresses," Lily said as she began to search through the silky gowns.

The young woman who was standing behind the counter as Lily walked in, began to watch Lily as she picked up a pink pearl dress, and she shuddered. "Oh please don't even dare trying that on!" She practically yelled at Lily.

"Excuse me?" Lily asked astonished that the woman said that out of no where.

"I'm sorry ma'am, I'm Emma and I work here. I got to tell you, pink is not for red heads," Emma said as she pulled the dress from Lily's hands. "Here, try this,"

Emma handed her a deep green evening gown, then began to pile assortments of black, green, and silver dresses into Lily's open arms.

Soon Lily couldn't see over the dresses, but she could hear the woman as she was muttering about what size she thought Lily was, then Emma began to push Lily into the stall.

"Now you try them all on and show them to me, I want to see if I was correct," Emma said as she shut the curtain.

Lily looked at her options and began to laugh, not one red, pink, or orange dress in sight. She sighed then began to try them on. Many were too big and made her look like a little child but finally Lily narrowed the ones she liked down to a top three. One was a black halter that was tight on the body until it reached her calves then spread out. The next was emerald and went to her knees, but the last was a gray dress that was strapless and crisscrossed in the back then flowed to the floor.

When Lily walked out of the dressing room and saw Emma escorting a very pale but beautiful girl around the lavender dresses.

Emma looked up and saw Lily, "Oh my Merlin! Lady you have to buy that dress," Emma squealed as she rushed over to toy with the fabric of the gray dress.

Lily noticed the pale woman looking over at her and smiled, but was only returned with a glare and a lifting of her nose.

"Honey, if you wear this dress I promise you that you will have every man running after you at that re-union," Emma told Lily then pushed her back into the dressing room for her to get changed.

While Lily was buying the dress she could hear the woman, talking to Emma.

"I want something to appease my fiancé while we go to the reunion, and make him wish that we were at his home instead of at the party," The Violet said proudly as she looked at the younger clerk.

"Well then Honey you'll want this dress," Emma said as she lifted a deep violet dress up close to Violet. "It will be tight and formfitting, plus purple looks great with your hair, especially this shade."

Violet looked at the dress, then thought of Lily's dress, "Will it be as appealing as the dress that woman is wearing now?" She asked while she shook her head over to Lily.

"Well that's hard to say but I could tell you that you'll be a bombshell for your man tonight if you buy this dress," Emma said pushing Violet into the changing stall.

Emma said her quick goodbyes to Lily and sighed, "I still cant believe she wanted to wear pink."

When Lily got home it was already late, and James was already ready in his tuxedo.

"You better hurry Lily!" he yelled as she ran up the steps.

An hour later, when James thought the world was going to end, he heard Lily's heels hit the bottom step.

(A/N Should I leave you like this?o0o0ooooooooo 00000000000000ooooooooooo ooo0000000000ooooooooooooo0000000000000000oooooooooooo0000000000000000oooooooooooo00000000000000ooooooooo0000000000000000oooooooooooooooo000000000000000oooooooooooooooo0000000000000000oooooooooooooooo0000000000000oooooooo Nah!)

James could have sworn that his jaw hit the ground, as Lily walked toward him.

The dress made her pale skin glow like moonlight and her hair was blown into soft curls. She didn't have much make up on but it was enough to define her eyes and make them look even more like the bottle green they are.

Finally James spoke, "Whoa…Are you ready to leave Foxy Lady?"

Lily laughed at James' nickname for her, "You bet my Prince."

When they Apparated to the Hogwarts gates, they were immediately placed in the carriages that were driven by thestrals just like when they were in Hogwarts.

"Now you keep a look out for any woman looking at me Lily," James said as they entered the school.

"Yeah what a piece of cake," Lily mumbled as they entered and automatically every females' eyes were on James, as if he was a pair of high heels that they were dieing to grab. Lily rolled her eyes and held on to James tighter. "This is going to be one fun night," Lily sighed.

Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Petigrew all spotted James…with Lily? Sirius quickly made his way over to his best friend, "Whoa, James, who is this divine woman attached to your arm…oh wait its Lily 'Heart-Breaker' Evans!" he said sarcastically.

James was quick to defend, "Hold on give her a break! You don't understand what happened."

"Well tell me what did happen Potter," Sirius said while glaring daggers at Lily.

James was about to begin the long, long story when Lily nudged him, "Not here, not now," Lily hissed and looked around the room, so James could catch the hint.

"Sirius you guys have to trust us, but we can't tell you now, but after tonight you will be the first to know. Just for now be nice to Lily," James begged his best friend. "Please man…we love each other."

Sirius sighed, "You better name one of your kids after me." Then smiled boyishly at Lily, like a brother would to a sister.

Lily laughed and threw her arms around him, "Every single one."

They all stood there as Dumbledore gave his speech welcoming them back and how wonderful it was to see them all once again.

They began to root through the crowd to find their friends, when Lily lost James.

"Oh James isn't this wonder-" Lily turned around to find no one, "ful? Hmm"

Lily began to search for James but he was lost in a big mosh pit that Lily just didn't want to go through so she decided to rest against a wall, and watch them, until he got free again.

Suddenly Lily had a hand clamp over her mouth and she was being dragged off.

What the attacker didn't know was that Remus was watching and saw the whole thing happen. Remus fought through the group and made it to James finally. "James, Lily was taken down to the dungeons!" Remus cried in a horrified manner, but James was expecting this and fought through the crowd then slowly made his way to the dungeons.

Lily sat there as this woman tied her up. I was the woman from the dress shop that gave her such awful looks, "Why are you doing this to me?" Lily asked her.

"Because you don't deserve James, I deserve James!" the woman cried out.

"What is your name?" Lily asked, trying to connect the face to a name.

"Violet Stradford," the woman said with pride, "Future to be Mrs. James Henry Potter."

"James wont let that happen, he wont marry you, when he already loves me," Lily said shaking her head, trying to convince this to Violet.

"No, you see he's using you. He doesn't love you, he loves me," Violet said in total denial.

"James will come for me, you'll see," Lily told Violet.

"No my dear, the only reason he will come is to stand by my side as I rid you of this world," Violet said in such a manner that gave Lily the shakes. "But who knows I might get rid of you before James arrives so he doesn't have to put up with your whining like I have."

Lily felt a tear shed down her cheek, because if James didn't make it soon, she could very well never see him again.

A/n Hello my friends, I have finally gotten Fanfiction to post Chapter 12! Yay! haha well I hope you enjoyed it and get ready for chapter 13 as we will encounter action, maybe death, and a look into the past.

But the only way you'll get it is if you Review Review Review!