My first story on here! I've been lurking in the background for a while, then I got the idea for this, and decided to post it.
This is (very loosely) based on the song Enchanted, by Taylor Swift. I was listening to it on repeat, while thinking Lily and James, and was inspired.
I don't own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does.
Lily was frustrated. Whose daft idea was it to have a masked ball? Oh, that's right. Hers. She had thought it might be fun. She hadn't stopped to think of all the planning, and work that actually had to go into it. She also hadn't stopped to think about all the time she'd have to spend with James Potter, the head boy to her head girl.
Well, actually, that hadn't been too bad. James seemed to have actually changed a bit this year, grown up a bit. Whether that had anything to do with her, or because he'd been made head boy, she had no idea, and didn't really want to know anyway.
He had actually helped with planning this ball. He had done the decorations, and of course, he had helped with getting the word out. She really didn't want to know how they (the Marauders) had managed to charm all 6th and 7th dorm rooms, boys and girls, so that they had giant flashing posters advertising the ball.
The 6th and 7th years had been buzzing for weeks about the ball. The girls talking about what they were going to wear, how they were going to do their hair and make-up and, of course, which boys they wanted to escort them to the ball. Last Hogsmeade weekend the one shop in the village that sold Muggle clothing was flocked to girls wanting to buy ball gowns, Muggle style. The boys, on the other hand, were all daring each other to ask different girls to the ball.
Lily herself had been asked not once. Not for the lack of trying. Over the years, she had been asked out quite a few times, and gone on a few dates. But none had come to fruit because within 2 days of the date, the boy was jinxed, hexed, or otherwise dealt with by James Potter. Therefore, the entire male population at Hogwarts left her alone for fear of James Potter's wrath.
Even James hadn't asked her out. This was disconcerting, but Lily didn't really mind, because it meant she could get on with just planning the ball, without worrying about dates.
Lily got ready in silence. She put on her gown, twirled her hair into a top knot, and positioned her mask over her eyes.
Then, with one last look in the mirror, she turned and walked out the room.
When Lily entered the Great Hall she was taken aback by how wonderful it looked. James had offered to be in charge of the decorations, and she had agreed. It was until later that this meant that he could do whatever he liked to the hall. But it was too late to anything then. So all she could do was hope for the best.
She shouldn't have worried. The walls had mardi gras masks, beautiful ones, on them. At the end of the hall, over the teachers platform, hung a banner that said, 'The Masked Ball.' A bit of a lame sign, but oh well. Blue and silver streamers hung from the walls and ceiling, and a large disco ball hung from the charmed ceiling. Tonight the night was clear, not a cloud in the sky. The stars twinkled down on them. It looked wonderful.
Lily quickly found Alice, her best friend, and Frank, Alice's boyfriend. Although you were not allowed to tell anybody your name tonight (the teachers had thought of this rule, to promote inter house mingling), Lily knew who Alice was because Alice had dragged Lily shopping with her.
Lily mingled for a couple of hours, but really, unless you had a date, it was quite boring. Alice and Frank went off to dance, and stayed there for ages. In fact, Lily was contemplating leaving when she saw him.
Their eyes met across the dance floor. Extremely clichéd, yes, but true. He started making his way across the dance floor to her.
Afterwards, she would think back, and ask herself, 'why on earth did you not think of James Potter? Even a mask can't change that unruly dark brown hair, and those beautiful warm brown eyes. And that smile. The smile that makes most of the female population weak at the knees.
But, at the time, she didn't think that. She didn't really think at all. He arrived at her side, and asked her to dance. She didn't hesitate at saying yes. And that was it. She was lost. Gone. Totally gone. Over her head.
He was a wonderful dancer. He didn't step on her feet once, and glided them seamlessly through the sea of other dancers.
They danced the rest of the night.
And when Professor Dumbledore finally called the ball to a close, he slipped away.
She floated the entire way up to the dorm room. Alice caught up with her there, and started happily talking about her night with Frank. Alice asked Lily a question, and Lily failed to answer. Alice spun Lily on the spot, to face her. And then she caught the look on Lily's face.
The first question out of her mouth was, "Who is he?"
Lily, brought back to earth by the sudden turn, sighed, and said, "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know who he is?"
"I mean, I don't know his name, or his house or anything. Other than he can dance. My god, he can dance. And he's really sweet. And nice..."
"Oh! This is the guy you were dancing with for half the ball?"
"Yeah."
"OH!" And then she started laughing.
"What?"
But she just carried on laughing.
Eventually Lily gave up trying to get an answer out of her, because every time Alice would look at Lily she'd start on a new bout of laughter.
Lily got ready for bed. As she lay between the comfortable sheets, she wondered who the guy was.
She fell asleep dreaming of him.
/
The next day, classes started again.
Alice still couldn't look at her without giggling. It was starting to get very annoying. So, Lily headed off to breakfast and classes by herself.
Breakfast went off without a hitch. Lily glanced around the Great Hall, wondering which of the guys in the hall her Prince Charming was.
Her first class of the day was Defense against the Dark Arts.
James Potter and the Marauders were in class with her.
As usual, the Marauders headed for the back. Class processed as usual until they all had to pair up for the practicing of the spell they were learning.
Instead of letting them all choose who they would pair up with, Professor Bryant chose who they would be working with.
As the professor read out who the pairs would be, Lily once again went back to day dreaming about who the guy was. She remembered his eyes, his beautiful brown eyes.
As she was lost in dream land, it came as a bit of a surprise when Professor Bryant read out "Lily Evans, James Potter."
Lily's head snapped up, and found herself looking directly into James Potter's eyes. Brown. Sparkling. Like his. For a second she entertained the idea that he was the guy. But then she shook it off. Impossible. Ridiculous. James Potter was not her mystery guy.
"Well? Are we going to practice?"
"Yeah, sure," she said, just a little bit too fast.
But James had changed. Maybe he was the guy. Maybe she's just been so set in her ways and thinking of him that she hadn't stopped to consider that he had changed, and was more mature this year.
Again, she shook off the thought. No. You could always ask him, just to be sure, said the rebellious voice in her head.
"So, you at the ball last night?" she asked, hoping to seem unconcerned.
"Yeah, it was fun. All your hard work paid off."
"Thanks. Nice work on the decorations by the way. But the sign. Really James, really? 'The Masked Ball?' Couldn't you have thought of something a little bit better and less corny?" she teased him. Then she ducked the jinx that he sent her way in return. They were practicing ducking and avoiding spells.
"Yeah well, I couldn't think of anything, so thought I'd state the obvious. Anyway, nobody else cared," he got defensive, until he saw her grin.
"True, true that," she agreed with him. "But I'm shocked that the famous lead Marauder couldn't come up with some great piece of wit for the sign."
"I wasn't sure that the head girl and top of class student Lily Evans would approve of anything else that I came up with," he spared back at her.
"Never stopped you before," she returned.
Unfortunately, their talking had caught the attention of Professor Bryant.
"You two, stop talking! Concentrate on the task!"
They both immediately shut their mouths, and got back to work.
Since they could no longer banter, Lily could now reflect on the conversation. As she did, she realised that they had been flirting.
Flirting? With James Potter? She had sworn she would never do that! But sure enough, they had flirting.
When she next saw Alice, she was relieved to find that her friend had finally gotten over the laughing thing.
"So, do you know how the guy is?" Lily asked Alice.
"Yep, and no, I am not telling you," she quickly added, seeing the next question on her friends' lips. "You can work this out for yourself."
"Well, if you know who the guy is, then you can help me. I know who it is too," said Lily triumphantly.
"Yeah? Who?"
"James Potter," said Lily, totally bluffing, thinking, 'at least if I'm wrong, we'll get a good laugh out of it.'
"And how did you work that out?"
"We had Defense together. His eyes..."
"Well, congratulations. I thought it would take a lot longer than that. I even told James to not tell you until you worked it out on your own."
"So I'm right? It was James Potter?"
"You didn't know? You were bluffing?"
"Yep," said Lily, extremely triumphantly.
"Damn. Right. Well, that can't be changed. So, anyway, what did you do about it?"
"Nothing. I didn't know it was him. I mean, James Potter? That's the guy I fell in love with at first sight last night? I mean, I know he's changed, but... I didn't expect it."
"Well, to start off, I don't think you fell in love with him at first sight. Some subconscious part of your brain knew it was James Potter, the guy you've been, again, subconsciously, falling in love with this entire year, and bam! The first chance it had, your brain communicated with your heart, and you fell in love."
Lily blinked twice at her friend, then paused. "You've really thought this through, haven't you?" she asked slowly.
"Yep. Me and Frank have been watching you two for this entire year. We even have a bet on when you'll end up together by. And no, I'm not telling you who's currently winning so you can rig Frank to win in revenge on me."
"Merlin. You know me well!" said Lily, laughing.
"Seriously, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know! I mean, part of me just wants to jump him, and the other, well, the other has absolutely no idea."
"You're taking this surprisingly well, falling in love with the guy you swore you'd never go out with, the guy you told me to AK you if you ever agreed to go out with."
"Oh, this is just a front. Inside, I'm a gibbering mess."
"Well, you're hiding it well."
"Thank you."
"No! Stop changing the subject! What are you going to do?"
"I don't know."
"Well, while I think that James would very much enjoy it if you suddenly jumped him, I don't think that would probably be the right way to go about it. And since I'm your best friend, I think it's my duty to come up with the best way to go about it. Now, here's the plan..."
/
Alice's plan was simple.
It would take place in the Head's common room. As head boy and girl, while not getting their own head's dormitories, the head boy and girl did get to share a room, much like the Gryffindor common room. They could do homework and other things in this room.
It was password protected, like the Gryffindor dorms, so they weren't in danger from being disturbed, apart from people they had given the password to, but as Alice knew what was going on, shewas going to notify the rest of the Marauders, they had no danger of interruptions.
Lily was going to dance.
She had a Muggle music player, in the room, and some traditional music, like waltzes.
She was simply going to go into the common room when James was in there, and put on her music. Then, she was going to ask James to dance with her.
Hopefully, he would then sort of catch on, and some how she would tell James she was in love with him, and it would all work out for the best.
/
The plan started off well.
Lily hid (yes, hid. No, that's not weird.) near the entrance to the head's room, and waited until James entered.
She then waited another 5 minutes before entering herself.
James was seated in one of the chairs by the fire, doing schoolwork.
He looked up as Lily entered, and smiled at her.
She returned the smile, and James looked slightly surprised. He was not used to her smiling at him, usually she just glared.
Lily went over to the stereo, and put in the tape. She pressed play, and was pleased to hear the tinkling of the introduction to the waltz.
She then paused. She knew James was watching her. She turned from the stereo to see James quickly look back down at his book.
Then she walked over so she was just in front of the chair James was sitting in. He looked up.
"Dance with me James?" she asked him, offering him her hand.
"No, sorry, I've got to get this finished by tomorrow."
This was not part of the plan. He was meant to agree immediately. But oh well.
"Please James? Just one dance? Please?" she added another please, and bit her lip.
"Oh.., alright," he gave in, taking her hand and standing up.
They stood close together, looking in each other's eyes for a moment, before the music began the waltz.
Lily put her other hand, the one not holding James', on his shoulder, and James put his other hand on her waist.
They began to waltz.
They danced around the room, turning and stepping, in perfect time with each other and the music.
"You're an excellent dancer," she commented.
"Yeah, well, etiquette lessons when I was younger. My mother insisted."
"Well, they paid off."
"Thanks."
"James, I have to tell you something," Lily started out delicately.
"What?"
"I, I know it was you who I danced with at the ball."
"Oh," he said, pulling away and looking down. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I should have told you who I was or something."
"No, you shouldn't have. I was an idiot for not seeing it. Not even a mask can hid your brown eyes, or that incredibly messy mop of hair of yours. And besides, it would have been against the rules."
"Yeah, but," he started out sounding defensive, before pausing and taking her words in. "Wait, what? You're not angry at me for taking advantage of you or something?"
"No. I'm not angry with you. I'm actually really thankful to you for that, because it helped me realise that I'm in love with this really great guy."
"Oh," James said, looking extremely downcast. "Well, I'm glad that I could help you with that. And good luck with the guy. Now, I believe the dance is over. Could I get back to doing my school work now?"
"Oh, for Merlin's sake, James! The guy is you! I've fallen in love with you!"
"What?"
"I'm in love with you."
"Right, where is he?" said James, going from looking ecstatic to looking like a thundercloud in about 5 seconds.
"What?"
"Sirius. He's the one who put you up to this, isn't he?"
"I repeat, what? You think is some kind of joke?"
"I don't think it's a joke, I know it's one."
"Why? Because you have made it quite clear, over the years, that you would never go out with me. So it's got to be a joke."
He had now started searching the room.
"Why can't I have changed my mind?"
"Because, because you're Lily Evans!" James cried, frustrated. "You don't change your mind."
"Stop putting me on a pedestal. I did this time! This is no joke, I can assure you!"
"Yeah? Well, if it isn't a joke why on earth are Sirius, Peter and Remus hiding under this table?"
"What? They are not!"
"Yes they are!"
"Moony! I knew we should have used the invisibility cloak!" came Sirius' voice from under the table.
"Damn," muttered Lily under her breath. This definitely not going to plan. She had hoped to be finally kissing James by now.
She grabbed her wand, and levitated the table from where Sirius and the other Marauders' hiding place.
Sure enough, there were 3 boys huddled in the place where the table had been.
Lily saw red. And swelled up.
"YOU THREE!" she yelled. "ALICE TOLD YOU TO NOT COME HERE!"
"Miss the show?" asked Sirius cheekily. "I think not."
"YOU..." she trailed off. "I will deal with you later. Right now, I can't."
"Going, going," said Sirius. He lead the three boys towards the portrait hole.
Lily swung around to face James.
"That was not planned. I had no idea that your idiotic friends would try to spy when I got Alice to ask them to avoid coming in here."
"Yeah, that would kind of give it away."
"No. You don't understand. I asked Alice to get them to avoid this room so they wouldn't interrupt because I was going to tell you, and didn't want them to interrupt."
"You're still trying to convince m-"
He was cut off because Lily had finally given in with trying to convince him with words, and just, for lack of a better word, jumped him.
Kissing James was even better than Lily had imagined.
He was an expert. How he got the expertise, Lily didn't even care. But she did know that you don't become so good at kissing unless you've had a lot of practice. Even though he had been protesting that it was all a joke just seconds before, he seemed to have surrendered his arguments for the moment. Because he was most definitely kissing her back.
He begun to conduct a leisurely exploration of her mouth with his tongue.
And then, quite suddenly, a piercing whistle cut through the air.
They broke apart, and turned around.
The other three Marauders were standing behind them. They seemingly had never excited the room. It was Sirius who had whistled.
"OH! I honestly can't be bothered to yell at you right now," said Lily. "Just go."
This time both her and James turned to watch them leave.
At the last minute, just before the portrait was about to close, she sent a non-verbal Bat-Bogey Hex after them.
Then, she turned back to James.
"Now, are you convinced or not that I am completely in love with you?" asked Lily.
"Well, I'm fairly convinced. But you might what to convince me some more to make sure," James replied, grinning at her.
"With pleasure," she said, leaning in to kiss him again.
Just before she was about to, he stopped her.
"Just so you know, I'm in love with you too," he said, before closing the gap between the two of them once more.
/
Several hours later, Lily entered her dormitory again. She closed the door and leaned against it.
"How did it go?" asked Alice eagerly from her bed where she was sitting cross-legged.
"Good," said Lily dreamily.
"I can see that. You are going to have to invest in a lot of lip balm, my girl. You look thoroughly snogged out."
"That's because I am," said Lily, in the same dreamy tone. "James is the best kisser."
"That's great!"
"So, what happened? Did the plan go to plan?"
"Well, it was, until James got extremely suspicious of me, saying it wasn't possible that I was in love with him because I don't change my mind. He then decided it was a joke, and started hunting for the Marauders."
"Oh no!" said Alice, looking stricken. "I did tell them not to go there this evening, I swear it!"
"I know," said Lily comfortingly. "But his stupid friends decided to hide in the room, and 'watch the action' as Sirius put it."
"Oh, honey. That must have put a spanner in the works."
"Yeah, it did. But I kicked them out, and then, jumped him. And then Sirius ruined the moment again because the Marauders hadn't left the room, and Sirius whistled. So I hexed the lot of them, and kicked them out for real this time, and went right back to snogging James again."
"Well, at least it turned out all right in the end."
"Yeah. James is such a good kisser."
"You're so love-sick! You've said that already!"
"Oh, have I?" said Lily, looking confused. 'Well, it's true."
Review maybe?