A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys, wow, this story is almost over and done and the sequel is going to come out soon, are you excited? Well, here's the ball, or most of it, or all of it, I don't know, I just write what comes to mind. Anyways, here goes nothing.
Disclaimer: Yeah, JK Rowling's, not mine, except the people you don't recognize.
It was almost like a royal ball, wait, take that back, it was exactly like a royal ball. Flitwick had enchanted the staircase to have wings where each gentleman would wait for the lady and then escort her down into the great hall. It was difficult to get the hang of, but this was the gist of it. McGonagall would call the name of the girl and then who she was escorted by and then she would walk down the stairs as ladylike as possible, meet her date and they would enter the hall together. Of course, since Lily and James, Tanya and Remus, and Claire and Sirius were the ones who were supposed to enter last during the commemoration and thank you speech from Dumbledore about the decorations, they were all in the back of the line.
Claire, Lily, and Tanya went towards the big staircase on the way to the great hall and stopped, seeing the huge line of seventh year girls and the professor calling their names in alphabetical order. Soon, every girl was gone and then Lily's name was called and she took a deep breath and walked down the steps as gracefully as she possibly could. James saw her and his jaw dropped, the way her hair complimented her dress and the beauty of her just sent him into wonderment. Lily noticed and grabbed James's hand as they proceeded down the stairs to wait at the bottom for the others. As soon as they were away from the crowd, Lily shook James a little bit. He was wearing a tux, a really nice one too. Lily had to admit that he looked hotter than usual, and she had no problem with that. After shaking him and he returned to his sense, he leaned down and whispered in her ear.
"You look so beautiful," he said softly. Lily felt her face grow hot as she blushed and James kissed her cheek stroked her cheek with his free hand.
"Tanya Bolanos escorted by Remus Lupin," called McGonagall's voice. Lily and James snapped back into the real world and watched Tanya, in her cream-colored dress, descend the stairs as Remus watched her in awe as well. He took her hand gingerly and led her down the stairs where Lily and James were.
"Tanya, you look amazing," said Remus softly.
"Thanks," she said with a hint of her accent poking in like it always did when she got shy. Everyone turned to wait for Claire, especially Sirius, who was wearing a beautiful tux with a silver tie and a silver vest. He looked nervous and worried, whether about how he looked, Claire looked, her health, or whatever, no one knew.
"Claire Martin escorted by Sirius Black." Claire stepped around the corner in her strappy heels and Sirius turned around to see her ducking out from behind the wall, a shy and uncertain expression on her face, something neither Lily nor Tanya had ever seen before. Sirius saw her dress and his eyes grew wide, his jaw dropped and he looked like he was going to cry, not because she was so beautiful, but because he knew she was going to die soon and that beauty could never be in his arms again. She was playing idly with her fingers, trying not to make eye contact with anyone as she got down the stairs and Sirius recovered, taking her arm and walking her down the steps.
"You are more beautiful than any angel, and when you get to heaven, they'll be so jealous," he whispered softly, causing her to blush and a small tear to roll down her cheek. Sirius noticed and flipped the tear off her face before wrapping his arm around her waist and taking her to the bottom of the stairs. Professor McGonagall bustled over to them hurriedly and looked at the couples.
"I never thought that you six would ever be this way. It's something that makes me proud to be your teacher because you realized how stubborn you were being and took the time to realize what was wrong with the picture. Thank you for doing that. I never thought I'd see three of the most mismatched pairs in the world go through the school at the same time. Congratulations you six, and have fun in the real world. Though, Dumbledore has told me to warn you of a growing Dark presence," she said, her voice going much lower. "It will soon overtake us if we do not have a resistance. Now, Dumbledore has one started, and, because you were six of his best ever pupils, he would like to extend an invitation to join to you. He thinks you would be ever valuable. You would all be able to work your day jobs, but think of this as an…extracurricular activity, only one with far more importance than Quidditch. Well?"
"I'm in," said James and Sirius at the same time, Tanya and Claire snorted a laugh while Lily only rolled her eyes at them. Remus just shook his head thoughtfully.
"I will," said Claire strongly. Sirius turned away from her, knowing she would never be able to do something dangerous even if she lived for another month or two.
"Most definitely," said Remus.
"Would I miss out?" asked Tanya with a grin. Everyone looked to Lily, who still hadn't answered.
"What? Did you actually think I wouldn't?" she said jokingly. "Yes, of course professor."
"Oh, wonderful, Dumbledore will be so happy. Now then, present matters, now. Lily, you and James in the front as Head Boy and Girl, and then Sirius and Claire behind her and next to Sirius and Claire I want Tanya and Remus. It should be a triangular shape, yes? Good, now go ahead." Lily took a deep breath and felt James's arm wind around her wais in a comforting gesture.
"Now announcing the pupils who organized this event for you, Lily Evans and James Potter, Claire Martin and Sirius Black, and Tanya Bolanos and Remus Lupin," came the headmaster's voice. They took deep breaths and entered the great hall, which was decorated absolutely amazingly beautiful as the students formed a path up the center towards the podium where Dumbledore was standing. "Now, I would like to turn the attention to our Head Boy and Girl, Lily and James, would you pleas come up here and read your speeches?"
"Speeches?" asked Lily in a worried tone.
"Yeah, seriously, we weren't told to write speeches, professor," said James with an eyebrow raised.
"Wing it," said Dumbledore genially, stepping down from the podium and motioning for them to get up onto the stage and in front of the podium. Lily went up, James following, his hand pressed against her waist, her holding it there for comfort. She got to the podium and saw the face staring up at her and was filled with inspiration. James was standing behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist comfortingly.
"Okay, wow," she said after magnifying her voice. "I can't believe I met you guys seven years ago, huh? So, when I came here I made enemies," she turned to look at James, "And a lot of friends. Over time, my list of enemies decreased and my list of friends got longer. Now, I would have to say that most everyone in this room doesn't have a problem with me, but I might be wrong. There are a lot of people here who hate me, but you know what, I don't care. I love this place, and I am sad to be going, but so excited to be starting something newer, different. As some of you know, I am going into healer training at the end of the summer to become a poison specialist at St. Mungo's Hospital For Magical Maladies and Injuries. Oh wait, only Sirius and James knew that," she said, winking at Sirius. Claire's eyes grew wide as soon as she said poison specialist, and it was in appreciation. Claire didn't want another person suffering like she had suffered. "And now, here I stand at the end of my days here and I have to say, wow. The best memories I could ever have are right here, in this school. I made friends here, I learned a lot here and I suffered for my own betterment here. Nothing could be better than that. Best of all though, I fell in love here. I don't know if anyone else has, but I did, and I hope you all get that chance." She stepped away, applause echoing through the room. She was about to walk away when James grabbed her hand and pulled her back towards him, amplifying his voice.
"Now, guys, raise your hand if you thought I'd ever get Lily," he called out, only about twelve people in the room raised their hands. Claire, Tanya, and Remus among them, but even Sirius thought it'd never happen. "Alright, well, I never thought so either. Sadly enough, at first I only wanted her because I thought I could never have her. Anyways, I'm supposed to be making a speech here, thank you for that poll, it was very kind of you. So, I came here thinking I would rule the school, wrong! I had detention at least once a week for the first five years I was here, I cleaned up my act in sixth year in hope of getting Head Boy so I could get closer to Lily here. Wow, I am horrible at staying on topic. Anyways, I have a ton of enemies here, as every Gryffindor would. I'm sure the Slytherins hate me too, but who cares, as Lily so nicely put it. Now, I know a lot of you are going to go out into the world and do something incredibly cool, but how many here want to be a healer like Lily?" Only about three people raised their hands. "An auror?" About twenty-five raised hands. "Something else?" the rest of the room raised their hands. "Alrighty then, now, I guess since we are all going different routes there are probably a lot of you I won't see ever again, and so I want you to go up to the people you hate, right now, and say you are sorry for something you may have done."
Lily and James watched as people began turning to each other and apologizing for things they had done, and a lot of hugging was going on.
"Lily," whispered James.
"Yeah?" asked Lily, turning back to him.
"I'm sorry for stalking you from first year on through sixth."
"I'm sorry for not giving you a chance," she whispered back. Lily ran back to the podium and amplified her voice.
"All right, this is a dance, now let's get this started, guys!" she yelled. A crack of thunder and the band appeared behind her on the stage.
"Well, hello, Hogwarts!" called the person in front. "Congratulations on your achievements, and welcome to the real world, but before you move on, let's have some fun." There was a lot of yelling and screaming as the band started to ply and James and Lily got off the stage and ran over to their friends.
"Great speech, mate," said Sirius, slapping James on the shoulder. Then, Sirius looked to Claire. "Wanna dance, love?" Claire coughed, a lot, but kept a smile on her face as she nodded her assent. Sirius grabbed her hand and gave a worried glance back to Lily, who just shrugged, and they tried to get a feel for the music. This band played everything, and right now, hip-hop was what was playing. Sirius stepped up to Claire, whom had one of her hands on Sirius's shoulders, and Lily and James watched in horror as those two were grinding on each other; that was something they expected form Sirius, not so much Claire, but Claire was a very unpredictable person, and they wondered where she learned how to do that (assuming that existed back then). Tanya was laughing and Remus was rubbing his temples. Lily rolled her eyes and James had an appreciative smile plastered to his lips.
Just then, a blonde boy from Slytherin house who they had never met, but had seen in some classes came over and tried to sandwich Claire. Sirius, on the other hand, was not a happy person. A fist flew and connected with the Slytherin boy's jaw and sent him falling to the ground. James was about to jump into the fray when the Slytherin ran off like the wimp he was.
"Now, back to dancing," said Sirius with a grin.
"Hold on, I'll be right back," she said, kissing him on the cheek. The next thing they saw was Claire running with her stiletto heels raised above her head, chasing the Slytherin boy as though she wanted to kill him, which she probably did. She threw a shoe that hit him in the head and knocked him out. McGonagall was over there pretty fast though.
"Miss Martin, what has gotten into you?" asked McGonagall worriedly.
"He was compromising my honor and I had to do something about it," said Claire, glaring at the boy on the floor at her feet.
"Compromising your honor? Even after the way I saw you dancing with Mr. Black?" Claire blushed furiously. "Well, seeing as there is no more school, I cannot give you a detention or anything of that sort. I guess you will have to settle this on your own."
"Gladly," smirked Claire, looked down at the boy with a devilish grin. She walked over to the bowl of punch on the table and picked it up, Sirius watching in amusement from the corner. James was laughing his butt of, Lily, as usual, was rolling her eyes, Tanya was looking anxious, and Remus was pretending not to know them.
Claire carried the bowl of punch over to the boy, noticing his expensive white suit, she overturned the punchbowl, letting it splatter all over his dress robes. He yelled a profane word at her as she walked back to Sirius, who raised an eyebrow before walking with her back to the dance floor. Tanya and Remus had somehow gotten into a fight in the last few minutes and they were sitting on opposite ends of the room.
The music had slowed by now, and James and Lily were in the center of the dance floor, everyone watching them eagerly. Sirius pulled Claire to the gap too, and began dancing with her. Claire looked up at him with a tear stricken face. Sirius wiped the tears from her face with another worried glance.
"What's wrong?" he asked hopelessly.
"It's…soon," she choked out.
"No, not soon," said Sirius, shaking his head angrily.
"It's…tonight," she whispered.
"Tonight? How come you didn't say anything before?" asked Sirius with rage burning into his eyes.
"I just realized it when we were getting dressed today, for the ball. I'm so sorry," she choked out, her tears rolling down her face without end. She wrapped her arms around his neck as tightly as she could, looking for some comfort in his embrace. He wrapped his arms around her too, and neither of them noticed that everyone had stopped dancing, that everyone went quiet and was watching them sadly. Lily's tears were pouring from her eyes, and she buried her face in James's shoulder. Tanya and Remus were nearby, apparently having gotten over their little spat and both were watching with sad faces.
"Don't be sorry, you have nothing to be sorry about," he whispered, taking a strand of her curling hair and placing it behind her ear. When he drew his hand away, she held his palm to her face and breathed in his scent, loving one of the last moments she would cherish with him. She closed her eyes slowly, looking down. She was surprised to feel a pair of soft lips touch hers and then her eyes flew open and she wrapped her arms around Sirius's neck deepening the kiss. When they finally pulled away form each other, Sirius still looked incredibly sad.
"I want my last night…to be happy," she whispered. "Please don't ruin that for me." Sirius cleared his thoughts and thought only of how much fun he had been having a second ago. Then, the music rushed back into his mind and the people around him were there again, but the most beautiful person in his mind was Claire, and now was his last time to spend with her. He was going to have fun. He smiled at her and lifter her up, letting her place her hands on his shoulders.
"I love you!" he yelled so that everyone could hear him.
"I love you, Sirius Black!" she screamed even louder. He let her down and she landed gracefully (something that didn't happen often). "Let's have some fun."
"Agreed, love," said Sirius happily, pulling her through the crowd to the tables. He tapped a plate with his wand, causing a ton of food to appear on it. "Hungry?"
"Famished," she sighed, sitting down. Sirius grabbed the seat next to her, conjuring up more food. She ate noisily and then, they were up at the dance floor again.
Lily and James were slow dancing again, thinking they were the only people in the world and everyone had parted to watch them dance. Tanya and Remus had been talking sadly for a long time, finally agreeing on friends being the best thing for them.
"Hey, Lils…" began James nervously.
"Yeah James?" asked Lily, wondering why he was acting that way.
"My parents…they're moving to a new house and as soon as tonight, I inherit the house my parents were living in, the one you saw. I was wondering if maybe…you wanted to come and live with me?"
"I couldn't think of a better way to live," said Lily happily, jumping on her tiptoes and planting a sloppy smooch on James's lips.
"Love ya," said James after she went back down on her feet.
"I know," she said with a smile. "I love you too."
A/N: Oh no, cliffhanger, and what's up with Tanya and Remus? Well, at least Lily ad James will be living together soon. Reviews please because I need something to brighten my day a bit.