Hey first of all, sorry bout the lines, don't know what happened. Second of all; quickest update ever I think! Go me! Third of all; Okay it's here, the time has finally come. Almost Everything that happened in my series of one-shots called 'Slughorn's Party' (which you should read now if you want to fully understand what happened, but is not necessary) happens tonight, except whatever I've changed in this chapter to the Lily/James section.

Haven't i seen this somewhere before? Why yes, yes I have, in my story Slughorn's Party [aren't you just loving my shamless self-promotion?]. Oh, and Harry Potter.

Slughorn's Party, need I say more?


Chapter Six – One Big Mistake

One week, two days later and things had started to settle into their normal rhythm – food, class, more food, unreasonable amounts of homework, late nights in the 7th Year Gryffindor Girls' Dormitory gossiping about boys and dissecting the latest issues of Witch Weekly, and Quidditch. Life at Hogwarts seemed as usual as ever, and with Professor Slughorn's Slug Club Annual Start-of-Term Party coming up soon, things could only get better, right?

"Argh!" Lily exclaimed as she walked down to the dungeons with Alice and Marissa after lunch. Marissa didn't do potions but was going to the library to borrow out some books on jinxes and was walking part of the way there with Alice and Lily.

"What?" Alice asked, sounding like she knew what Lily was talking about but asked anyway.

"Potter's is in my potions class!" Lily complained.

"He's in all of your classes." Alice pointed out.

"Argh, don't remind me." Lily complained, clearly unaware of how bored her friends were with this conversation.

"So why are you upset the James is in this particular class?" Marissa asked dryly.

"Cause he's probably going to ask me out to Slughorn's Party." Lily explained.

"Wouldn't he have asked you in either of this morning's classes that you had together?" Marissa asked,

"I was avoiding him." Lily admitted,

"So can't you just avoid him again in Potions?" Alice asked,

"No. We're partners on the antidote project." Lily explained, "And I really don't want him to ask me."

"Why?" Alice asked, "Going with somebody else?"

"Nah, I just don't want to hurt his feelings" Lily answered.

"Or maybe you just aren't sure you would say no." Marissa proposed,

"No way! I would go with Potter, he's completely insufferable."

"Didn't look that way last week when you were kissing him." Marissa pointed out.

"Would you stop bringing that up?" Lily hissed angrily, "If was a dare, it meant nothing, and I did not like it."

"Mh-hm, sure," Alice dismissed, "but um, Lily," she continued, "one slight problem there."

"What's that?" Lily asked innocently,

"You've been talking about him for the past 5 hours!" Marissa cut in, Alice nodding in agreement.

"I have not!" Lily defended herself,

"You kinda have" Alice pointed out, "And no-one I know can both claim to hate a person as much as you say you hate James, and talk about him for five hours straight."

"I do not like James!" Lily yelled, causing I few student in the hallways to turn and look weirdly at the trio, "I do not like James." She repeated softer.

"Whatever." Marissa dismissed, turning away down the fourth floor corridor that lead to the Library, leaving Alice and Lily to descend to the dungeons.

"Ah! Nice to see you've made it in time!" Slughorn announced loudly to the girls as they entered, Lily looked around and saw that not many people had arrived yet.

"Must be something holding everybody back at lunch." Slughorn reasoned, "Well, we must be getting on, take you seats girls."

Lily took her seat at the front of the room but was grateful to see that James was not sitting in it. Phew, at least I can avoid him asking me out for a few minutes. Alice and Marissa can't be right can they? I mean, surely I haven't been talking about Ja- Potter, all day, have I? I mean, I guess it wouldn't be so bad if I went with Ja- Potter, what am I talking about? It would be horrible! Would it? It would. Would it? It would. Would it?

"Coming tonight are you?" Slughorn asked Lily, standing over her desk and breaking her out of her internal debate.

"Um, yeah." Lily answered shaking off what she had been thinking of before.

"Bringing a date?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her,

"Um, " Lily began, in truth she did not have a date, no one had asked her, but she didn't mind, she took it as an excellent opportunity to get in some extreme flirting time with Sam, the hunky 7th year Hufflepuff she had been crushing on for ages.

Slughorn was called away before Lily could answer, leaving her thought to fester with 'what if's about James, and Sam and the party.


"Argh! I have no clothes!" Lily exclaimed, throwing the majority of her wardrobe (which she had been rifling through for the past hour) on the floor.

"None at all?" Alex joked, "But you're wearing some now!"

"I meant none that I could wear to the party tonight." Lily clarified.

"You can borrow some of my clothes." Alice offered,

"Thanks! I know you guys are ready so you can just go on and I'll meet you there." Lily told her friend waving them off.

"Kay! See you there!" Marissa called to Lily as they walked down the stairs.

"Hey Alice!" Lily yelled down at them.

"Yeah?" she called back up,

"That shimmery blue dress of yours?"

"Yeah,"

"Can I wear that?" she asked

"Sure," Alice replied.


Lily was alone in the 7th year girls' dormitories frantically looking through draws and shelves, throwing various items on the floor in frustration and annoyance.

"Where is it?" Lily muttered as her head disappeared under her bed, arms stretched out in front of her wildly flailing and sweeping the ground. Grunting and admitting defeat Lily stood up and surveyed the room.

It looked like I bomb had gone off.

The beds were made and the doors intact, but you couldn't see the floor beneath the layer of assorted items strewn all across the carpet and all the doors of every cupboard, wardrobe and draw were open and the contents spilling out. The clock beside one of the five identically sheeted four-poster beds flashed 10:45.

"Shit!" Lily cried upon discovering the time.

A glimmer of slivery blue shone out from underneath a pile of curtains.

Aha!" Lily exclaimed in relief, "There it is!"

Lily got dressed as quickly as she could but even then it took her a good hour to get fully ready. The party started at 9 and Lily was already more than an hour and a half late.


The lights were out in most of the school. All was dark but for a few dimly lit corridors leading the way from each of the four house rooms up to the seventh floor corridor, opposite the tapestry of Barnabus and the Trolls.

Lily Evans walked hesitantly along a sixth floor corridor, not quite lost, but definitely unsure. She had walked this way many times before on her way to charms class (her favourite class) but it was approaching midnight and the castle had a habit of looking mysterious after dark. Lily turned left down a flight of stairs that lead all the way down to the dungeons.

"Lumos" she cried, voice shaking slightly as she said it.

As the tip of her wand lit up and spread across the stairwell, it became apparent that there was someone else standing on it. A boy, no more than 17, was standing leisurely against the banister, with apparently no intention of moving any time soon. This person remained unnoticed by Miss Lily Evans, who continued her attempt to locate the Room of Requirement.

"It's back the other way" the boy in the shadows said nonchalantly,

At the sound of his voice Lily immediately spun round to find none other than Remus Lupin, a 7th year Gryffindor, leaning casually against the stairs.

"Didn't you see the lights?" he asked, in a tone that clearly implied that he thought you would have to be stupid to not have noticed them,

"Umm… No" Lily responded tentatively, "To which lights exactly are you referring?"

"Those lights" Remus replied, matter-of-factly, pointing to the ceiling lights of the corridor Lily had just left.

"Oh," said Lily, just as she realised that the lights had been leading the way; lighting only those corridors which lead to the party. Lily had been thinking about James (something she wouldn't care to admit) while walking down the corridor and had turned off without really looking around. "Thanks," she said sounding rather defeated, Lily hated to be wrong.

"Going to Slughorn's party are you?" Remus asked as Lily began to make her way back up the stairs,

"Yes actually, I am" Lily responded very proudly. Lily was rather good at potions (second in the class behind Severus Snape) and liked being one of the special people who Slughorn thought worthy of being in 'The Slug Club', even if he did think it amazing she was such a good witch, despite being muggle born. Lily knew from Sev growing up that not everyone was as accepting of muggle borns as people like Dumbledore, but regardless, she took it all in stride. It helped a lot that she was great in all her classes and, disregarding the unfortunate blemish of her school timetable that is Transfiguration, an all-round impeccable witch.

"Say hi to James for me" Remus continued, "He'll be there waiting on you hand and foot." The last part was said with a smirk, and although she knew it was a joke (or at least partly a joke) Lily's face couldn't help but fall.


Lily, having finally found the way to her desired destination, reached the seventh floor corridor a little after quarter past twelve. Lily had only passed this corridor a few times, as it was out of the way of most of the classrooms, but she was sure she had never seen a room big enough to fit 30 or more students, not to mention food or a stage as Slughorn suggested. Nevertheless, Lily continued toward the tapestry of Barnabus and the Trolls, and upon reaching it stood in awe of the magnificent site before her. A grand marble archway, easily 15ft tall and nearly 10ft wide, opened onto a room about the size of the great hall, decorated in all four house colours. Banners of scarlet and gold, ribbons of silver and green, streamers of blue and bronze, and balloons of yellow and black, were everywhere you looked; long wooden tables simply packed with all sorts of exotic food lined the walls and a stage sat raised above the floor against the back wall. Strobing lights of red, yellow, orange, blue and green lit up the dance floor as the band played, and people ate, danced and socialised.

Lily spotted Alex and Gracie right away, Alex was off in the corner snogging her Hufflepuff boyfriend 'call me Mike', and Gracie was chatting up some Ravenclaw 6th year with red hair. Lily decided to just let her friends be for awhile, after all, you don't want to get in between Gracie and her younger guys or Alex and her boyfriend. Lily looked for Marissa (who, granted, was probably off with her boyfriend, Daniel) but she was nowhere to be found. Lily was hungry (having not eaten for over 5 hours) so she attempted to locate the food. It appears the room was laid out in sections; drinks, appetisers and light snacks were over to the left; and mains and dessert were to the right. After sufficiently filling herself up on actually-much-more-delicious-than-they-sound Dragon Tartar, she resumed her search for various people in the thoroughly packed ballroom.

Lily saw Sam lounging near the drinks table and made her way over. Lily had been crushing on Sam since 4th year but had never plucked up the courage to ask him out. He was alone so Lily decided that tonight would be the night that he finally noticed her. She had gone to Hogsmeade on the weekend with Alex and Gracie to pick out a dress and it took the whole day for all three of them to find the 'perfect' dress, shoes and handbag. Lily, personally, had tried on nearly 50 different dresses. It even took them nearly 5 hours, walking up and down Hogsmeade's Main Street just to decide which shop to go in first.

"Hey Sam!" Lily called over cheerfully,

"Oh Hey Lily!" he called back equally as cheerfully. Yes! Lily thought, this is the night!

"Hey Lily I wanted to ask you something" Sam said when Lily reached the drinks table,

"What is it? You can ask me anything, I'm sure the answer will be yes" Lily flirted unabashedly with him as she spoke, batting her eyelids and twirling her long red hair.

"I was wondering…" he began uncertainly

"Yes" she urged him on

"If you would think about…" He continued nervously,

"Yes, yes?" Lily urged, getting increasingly excited

"Oh hey there baby, what you been up to, I've missed you." Serena 'Man Stealer' Stevens was strutting over to Sam thrusting out her chest and swaying her hips. Serena had been after Sam for nearly as long as Lily had. She heard rumours that she'd got a new man but it couldn't be Sam, it just couldn't be.

"Hey Rena" Sam replied sexily,

Oh Merlin! He's got a nickname for her, I'm screwed.

Serena reached Sam and began snogging him with such passion it looked like they were about to hook up right there and then.

After about 10 mins of standing there in an odd mix of shock and awkwardness Lily was about to walk away when they finally broke apart.

"Did you want something?" Serena asked coolly,

"Er… I'm I was just, going to…" Lily began, very embarrassed.

"Aww, how cute Sammy, I think she wanted to ask you out. Like she had a chance"

Lily turned away her eyes beginning to well up,

"Lily, wait up! I still have to ask you something." Sam called after her.

"What?" Lily asked,

"Will you tutor me in charms?"

"Seriously?" Lily clarified, "That's what you wanted to ask me" she said, clearly hurt,

"Yeah, why? You didn't think I wanted to, oh Lily, you're great and everything, but I need a girl who's just a little more mature, and, a little more experienced," Sam winked, "If you know what I mean." He then turned back to Serena and started leading her away, probably off to a broom closet somewhere.


After that little fiasco Lily wasn't really in the mood for any more boy-drama, she'd had a few boyfriends; Frank in 4th year (before he started dating Alice); Daniel in 5th year (before he started dating Marissa); she even dated Sirius Black for a while last year, and an amazing kissing as he was, it just didn't work out, just like the rest of them, just like Sam. Lily was in the mood for a guy-drama free night of partying, food and general social mingling. Unfortunately for her, waiting by the drinks table with a tray of assorted dips was the far-too-good-looking-for-his-own-good-but-still-avoid-at-all-costs James Potter. Lily turned to move away but it was too late.

"Lily!"

Dam! Lily thought

"Hey Lily wait up!" James Potter was now following her as she attempted to weave her way through the crowd.

"Lily, wait up!"

"What?" Lily cried as she stopped and turned to face James as she always ended up doing.

Apparently James had not expected her concede to his pursuit quite so quickly as so was rather surprised at her sudden halt and as a result found himself colliding with her and covering her with the dips spilling them all down her dress and in her hair.

"Oh Sweet Merlin Lily I am so sorry!"

"JAMES!"

"Lily what happened?" Alex had apparently stopped snogging her boyfriend for long enough realise the Lily was now covered in pink, green and orange goo. "Are you okay?"

"Are you kidding!"

"Lily please calm down"

"Calm down? Calm down? I'm wearing our appetizers! And you expect me to calm down? Oh I'm going to murder you James Potter!"

"Lily it wasn't his fault" Alex cut in while attempting to stop Lily from lunging at James.

"Not his fault? Not his fault? Of course it was his fault!"

"But he said he's sorry!"

"So sorry Lily, I am soooooooooo sorry!"

"I don't want to hear it James" Lily said on the verge of tears

"It's only a bit of dip" James said with a laugh,

"Only a bit of dip?" Lily says as she slowly approaches James, "Only a bit of dip? Do you have any idea how much this dress costs? It's not even mine! Or how long it took me to put on my make-up?" Lily cried tears beginning to spill from her eyes. "No James, this is so much more than 'only a bit of dip', this, this, is the final straw." Lily said backing away and turning to run out of the room crying.


Lily sat against the bathroom wall hugging her knees and crying silently. Why oh why did James anger her so? She knew he liked her, and she was starting to think she liked him too. She found herself smiling whenever he was around and every time she yelled at him she felt so guilty afterwards.

After what happened tonight he'll never like me again, how could he? I was so mean to him.

The sound of approaching footsteps broke Lily away from her thoughts.

"Gracie?" Lily asked the seemingly empty hallway outside the Girls' Bathroom.

"No Lily, it's me." Came a strong, male voice from the doorway.

"James?" Lily asked, surprised as the handsome figure stepped out into the light, "What are you doing here?" Lily was so surprised, and relieved, to see him. So he doesn't hate me!

"I am so sorry" James said, crossing the floor to where Lily sat and sitting down next to her.

"I know," Lily replied.

"Can you ever forgive me?" He asked hopefully.

"I don't know James, I honestly don't know." Lily said shaking her head. "I like you James; I do, but it just so hard! I see you smiling and I think: maybe this time I'll say yes; but then you inevitably do something completely stupid and it's back to square one."

"I like you too Lily, a lot. I mean a lot a lot. I really, really like you." James says as he slowly leans in, their lips moving closer and closer together with every passing breath. And then he was kissing her, and she didn't pull back. A million thoughts were running through her head but all she could do was kiss him back.


*Gasp* They kissed! (well, they kissed last chapter as well, but that was a dare) what now? well, honestly; i don't know. cause i haven't actually written any of it yet.

Probs won't update for a few days, but will defs try to get the next chap (and maybe even the one after that if I'm uncharacteristically productive) by the end of next week (i know, so long, but i do have actual homwork as well, essays and stuff, as well I'm going on holidays)

xx Mermer