(A/N) Due to the release of the fifth Harry Potter book, parts of my story
are ruined. (Well parts of my plans for the story are at least.)
But we'll work with it. I'll do what I can to work the book into my
story and see how it goes. Deal? Deal. Sorry this took
so long for me to write. If I just sit down at my computer and start
writing I'll get whole chapters done...ever getting around to sitting down
is the problem.
Anyways thank you as always to my wonderful reviewers...and I loved writing this chapter, I think it's juicy...and sets up for things to come...
Enjoy...I hope.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters, but I do own my gifts that they give each other...and doesn't my grade book sound like a lot like Hermione's homework journal she gave Ron and Harry? Great minds think alike... j/k.
Ch 10 The fun of dating begins
That summer, the rumor of the dance was found to be true. The administration sent out a letter to each 4th year and up student saying that all students should bring dress robes to school the next year. Tara was staying at Lily's house when the letter arrived, and since neither of them had dress robes, Lily's mother decided to take them shopping. They went to Diagon Alley and after exchanging pounds for galleons, went shopping.
The first robe Tara tried on was deep red made out of fabric that sparkled. It fit her figure perfectly and she looked like a model. Lily's first robe was light blue that clung to her in a most unattractive way and made her complexion look pasty. They swapped robes and again Tara looked perfect, but the red on Lily completely clashed with her hair. They each tried on two more with the same results; Tara looked good in everything while for some reason there was always a problem with every single one for Lily. Tara decided to get the first robe she had tried on. They moved on to the next shop.
And the next shop...
And the next shop...
...
After a whole day of searching, Lily was almost in tears. Her mother and Tara tried to comfort her.
"Sometimes it's hard to find the right dress..or robe I guess in this case," her mother said, "but once you do, it's perfect!"
And sure enough, the next robe she tried on was perfect...almost.
It was emerald green, bringing out her eyes and made of slinky satin that flowed down to her ankles. She looked absolutely gorgeous in it. Unfortunately, it was low cut and sleeveless. Her mother did not approve.
"I'm sorry, but you're not wearing that young lady," her mother stated.
Lily sighed. She didn't want to wear anything that was "scandalous," but they had looked so long. "But mom, there's nothing else..." she started.
"I'm sure there are more stores," her mother started, but there was exhaustion in her voice. "Fine," she said after a moment. "But I'm altering it–raising the neckline and giving it sleeves," she said.
"But how are you going to find the same fabric?" Tara asked.
Lily's mom sighed and thought for a moment. "Fine! I'll buy two of them and cut up the other one ot make the alterations," she said in exasperation.
Lily's eyes widened. "Thanks mom!" she said squealing in excitement. She jumped up and down.
The price of the robes was outrageous, but her mother didn't care anymore–as long as they had found something.
***
Her mom finished the robe the day before Lily had to leave for school. Lily's mom had nearly killed herself making it look perfect, but it finally did.
"You better have a wonderful time at this dance," her mom said laughing.
It was then that a horrible possibility hit Lily. What if she wasn't asked to the dance and all of her mom's hard work and money were for nothing? She decided then and there she would pretend that she had gone anyway and hear about the details from Tara.
***
As Lily boarded the train for Hogwarts, she took a deep breath. It was the beginning of a whole new year and she felt a rush of excitement and slight anxiety. She calmed down a bit when she saw Tara, Severus, and Lucius sitting at the end of the compartment, talking. Lily sighed. Although she was very excited to see Severus it had always seemed to be a pact between Tara and her that they would sit together alone on the train so they could discuss boys and other girl topics. Oh well, she thought.
"Hey," Lily said as she sat next to a scowling Lucius Malfoy. Lily smiled charmingly at him and his expression got even darker.
Severus's eyes brightened at the sight of her, however, and he exclaimed, "Hi Lily! It's so great to see you again. Sorry I didn't see you there for a minute...Tara had me distracted."
Lily's mood darkened a little, but she scolded herself. She should not be jealous of her best friend. She noticed that Severus was wearing his hair in a ponytail again and shook her head. It didn't seem to suit him.
"Don't shake your head at me, Lily Evans. This is the beginning of the year...I can't have done something to make you mad at me already, can I?"
Lily smiled. "No, you haven't...I was just looking at your...new robes. But that's not important. How was your summer?"
Severus sighed. "I'd rather not talk about it, thank you."
"His parents got into another huge fight and are separated again," Lucius piped in for the first time and received a glare from Severus.
"Again?" Lily and Tara said at once.
"I didn't know there was any problem between your parents Sev," Lily said looking concerned.
Severus shook his head. "I don't really like people knowing," he said giving Lucius another glare, "but they've always had problems. Don't worry about it, let's talk about something else."
Lily, Tara and Lucius all exchanged a glance, but didn't say anything. An uncomfortable silence spread over the group and Lily, desperate to break it, burst out, "So who are you guys thinking of asking to the dance?"
Lucius smirked. "I don't know, but I'm sure any girl in the school would love to go with me."
Tara and Lily burst out in incredulous laughter while Severus nodded in agreement.
"Boys are so cocky!" Tara exclaimed.
Severus, who seemed to be in a depressed mood ever since the topic of his parents came up said "I wasn't agreeing that any girl would like to go with me too–Lucius is rich and all you girls probably think he's...handsome. I probably won't go at all. No one will want to go with me."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't be like that. I'm sure plenty of girls want to go with you."
Lucius smiled, "She's right Sev. You could get any girl. And that's not being cocky, it's honest. Cocky is James and Sirius. They're holding auditions to get dates."
The other three screamed, "WHAT?" at the same time.
"You didn't hear?" Lucius said, surprised. "I thought Lily'd be first in line."
Lily glared at him. "I'm sure it's just a rumor...you can't be serious..."
Lucius turned around and pointed to a flyer a few feet behind them. "See for yourself," he said.
She marched down, grabbed it off the wall, and brought it back for the rest to say.
"What does it say?" Severus asked sounding disgusted.
Lily read aloud.
Attention all Young Single Women of Hogwarts!
This is your lucky day! The two hottest and most popular boys in Hogwarts are looking for dates to the upcoming Winter Wonderland Ball. Since finding the perfect, most beautiful dates on our own would be quite an ordeal, we have decided to hold auditions. The sign up lists for times will be available by contacting James Potter, and Siruis Black (the two dates, of course), or Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Please sign up for times according to your last name:
A-H September
I-S October
T-Y November
If your last name starts with Z, don't bother coming. We've already searched out all of the girls who's last name starts with Z, and none of them are hot enough to be up to par with our standards.
Thank you and we're looking forward to seeing you there.
Lily crumpled the ad in rage. Tara screamed, Severus made a sound of disgust, and Lucius laughed.
"See I told you," Lucius said.
Severus scowled, "And I told you that they were no good, Lily, but no you always defended them and said they were good deep down inside..."
"I don't believe this," Lily said quietly. "It's either a set up or a joke on their part."
Tara shook her head. "I think so too Lily, but if this is legit... this is one of the stupidest things they've ever done."
"I agree," Lily said, scowling.
And again, Lucius laughed.
***
To everyone's horror and disgust, and Lucius's great amusement, the ad was real.
The ball was announced at the opening feast, and afterwards, to Lily's astonishment, girls started gathering around the four boys, clamoring to sign a list.
The next time Lily saw James, she announced that she wasn't speaking to him.
And life continued to be as fun as ever after that. Classes started as usual, and Severus actually started to study. After tying with James the last year in tests and all of the teacher's speeches on OWLS, he even seemed kind of stressed.
But, worst of all, as time passed everyone started to get asked to the dance. Lucius picked his date, the snobby, rich, beautiful Spanish foreign exchange student, Severus declared that he didn't want to go, and the auditions continued, but Lily and Tara still had not been asked.
Lily wasn't worried for Tara. Even though she refused to go to the auditions, it was quite obvious that James wanted to go with her anyway, at least that was the school rumor, and so she was as good as asked. But Lily herself was very anxious. Most of the boys that she was friends with had already chosen dates. Remus had asked Jessica, Peter had asked some popular Hufflepuff who was too nice to say no, Sirius and James had the auditions and possibly Tara, and Severus refused to go. Oh joy , she thought.
Finally, one day, after dressing up in her robes again to see if they fit, she decided to go down to the common room and think for awhile. It was about one in the morning and no one would still be awake. As she went over to sit on the couch by the fire, she noticed that Severus was sitting there by himself looking into the flames.
"Oh Lil," he said sleepily. "What're you doing up?"
Lily tried to stay in the shadows to hide her robe. "I...um...couldn't sleep."
"Me neither," he said, moving over and patting a cushion. "Come, sit down."
"Erm, no that's alright. I'll go back upstairs," she said edging toward the steps to the girl's dormitories.
Severus half stood up, "No seriously, I'd be really grateful for the company... Please?" he asked in his best begging voice.
"Alright," Lily said walking slowly over to him to sit down. Maybe he won't notice. He's a boy, they don't notice things.
But apparently he did because he let out a whistle and said, "Wow, Lil, you look gorgeous. What's the occasion, some secret date tonight that I'm interrupting? Who is it...let me guess...Lucius!" He burst out laughing.
"No," she said slowly, blushing slightly, "I was just trying on my dress robes to see if they still fit and thought I'd come down here and think for a while. It probably wouldn't matter if they didn't fit, though." She sighed.
"Why, Lil?" He said putting his arm around her as she sunk into the couch.
She put her head in her hands. "No one's asked me to the dance yet, and probably no one will."
"Don't talk like that, I'm sure someone will. If they saw you in that outfit the whole school'd be hammering at your door." He said, then continued slowly, "Out of the whole school, Lil, who would you want to ask you?"
Lily was taken aback at the question and realized that she wanted him to ask her more than anyone. She couldn't just tell him that, though and so she stammered embarrassedly. "Well, you know, someone nice but cute...I guess like James when he's not being stupid...or someone." Like you, she added in her head.
"James, eh...?" he said sounding a bit disappointed. "Well I heard from unofficial sources he's planning to take Tara, but he could change his mind."
"No, no he won't, but it's ok. It's really ok. This is just the first time I've ever talked about this with anyone, so I sound a bit...hurt and pathetic, but it'll pass," she said.
Severus stood up abruptly. "No, Lily you'll be asked and have the night of your life, just wait." He smiled weakly and added a, "Good night," before heading up the stairs to his room.
***
Surprisingly, a few days later Lily was asked to the ball...by James. He came up to her one day and apologized for the audition thing and admitted that it had been stupid. Then he popped the question.
"Will you, um, please go to the dance with me?" he asked, faltering a little.
Lily was completely taken aback. "Um, I thought you were asking Tara."
He smiled. "There was a change of plan, besides I believe Snape's planning on asking her in a little while."
Lily's heart sank. Even though she liked James and was relieved at being asked and ecstatic that she was on speaking terms with him again she couldn't help but feel hurt. Severus was asking Tara?
"Um, yes, James, I'd be delighted to go with you," she replied.
"Cool," he replied smiling a little in relief, "Well, I'll..see you round."
"Yea, see you," she said absentmindedly.
Later, she met up with Tara and they talked about both of their confused feelings.
"I mean, I really like Severus, but he had pledged he would not go to the dance and James had practically told me that he was going to ask me soon," Tara said.
"Yea, I know," Lily replied, thinking. "It's weird for James to change his mind so abruptly, especially since I wasn't speaking to him until he apologized and asked me."
"Yea," Tara sighed. "Well at least we're both going, even though we won't be able to talk much at the dance since our dates will be trying to kill each other if they're in each other's sight."
Lily laughed. "Well, we'll have to get together afterwards and compare notes about our dates," she said slyly.
"Of course!" Tara grinned.
And so the day of the dance came...
(A/N) MUWAHAHAH so what happened? Why did James ask Lily and Severus Tara? All will be revealed later in the story (well some of it like much later)...but it's good and juicy and...well I loved writing this chapter. Sorry it took so long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways thank you as always to my wonderful reviewers...and I loved writing this chapter, I think it's juicy...and sets up for things to come...
Enjoy...I hope.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters, but I do own my gifts that they give each other...and doesn't my grade book sound like a lot like Hermione's homework journal she gave Ron and Harry? Great minds think alike... j/k.
Ch 10 The fun of dating begins
That summer, the rumor of the dance was found to be true. The administration sent out a letter to each 4th year and up student saying that all students should bring dress robes to school the next year. Tara was staying at Lily's house when the letter arrived, and since neither of them had dress robes, Lily's mother decided to take them shopping. They went to Diagon Alley and after exchanging pounds for galleons, went shopping.
The first robe Tara tried on was deep red made out of fabric that sparkled. It fit her figure perfectly and she looked like a model. Lily's first robe was light blue that clung to her in a most unattractive way and made her complexion look pasty. They swapped robes and again Tara looked perfect, but the red on Lily completely clashed with her hair. They each tried on two more with the same results; Tara looked good in everything while for some reason there was always a problem with every single one for Lily. Tara decided to get the first robe she had tried on. They moved on to the next shop.
And the next shop...
And the next shop...
...
After a whole day of searching, Lily was almost in tears. Her mother and Tara tried to comfort her.
"Sometimes it's hard to find the right dress..or robe I guess in this case," her mother said, "but once you do, it's perfect!"
And sure enough, the next robe she tried on was perfect...almost.
It was emerald green, bringing out her eyes and made of slinky satin that flowed down to her ankles. She looked absolutely gorgeous in it. Unfortunately, it was low cut and sleeveless. Her mother did not approve.
"I'm sorry, but you're not wearing that young lady," her mother stated.
Lily sighed. She didn't want to wear anything that was "scandalous," but they had looked so long. "But mom, there's nothing else..." she started.
"I'm sure there are more stores," her mother started, but there was exhaustion in her voice. "Fine," she said after a moment. "But I'm altering it–raising the neckline and giving it sleeves," she said.
"But how are you going to find the same fabric?" Tara asked.
Lily's mom sighed and thought for a moment. "Fine! I'll buy two of them and cut up the other one ot make the alterations," she said in exasperation.
Lily's eyes widened. "Thanks mom!" she said squealing in excitement. She jumped up and down.
The price of the robes was outrageous, but her mother didn't care anymore–as long as they had found something.
***
Her mom finished the robe the day before Lily had to leave for school. Lily's mom had nearly killed herself making it look perfect, but it finally did.
"You better have a wonderful time at this dance," her mom said laughing.
It was then that a horrible possibility hit Lily. What if she wasn't asked to the dance and all of her mom's hard work and money were for nothing? She decided then and there she would pretend that she had gone anyway and hear about the details from Tara.
***
As Lily boarded the train for Hogwarts, she took a deep breath. It was the beginning of a whole new year and she felt a rush of excitement and slight anxiety. She calmed down a bit when she saw Tara, Severus, and Lucius sitting at the end of the compartment, talking. Lily sighed. Although she was very excited to see Severus it had always seemed to be a pact between Tara and her that they would sit together alone on the train so they could discuss boys and other girl topics. Oh well, she thought.
"Hey," Lily said as she sat next to a scowling Lucius Malfoy. Lily smiled charmingly at him and his expression got even darker.
Severus's eyes brightened at the sight of her, however, and he exclaimed, "Hi Lily! It's so great to see you again. Sorry I didn't see you there for a minute...Tara had me distracted."
Lily's mood darkened a little, but she scolded herself. She should not be jealous of her best friend. She noticed that Severus was wearing his hair in a ponytail again and shook her head. It didn't seem to suit him.
"Don't shake your head at me, Lily Evans. This is the beginning of the year...I can't have done something to make you mad at me already, can I?"
Lily smiled. "No, you haven't...I was just looking at your...new robes. But that's not important. How was your summer?"
Severus sighed. "I'd rather not talk about it, thank you."
"His parents got into another huge fight and are separated again," Lucius piped in for the first time and received a glare from Severus.
"Again?" Lily and Tara said at once.
"I didn't know there was any problem between your parents Sev," Lily said looking concerned.
Severus shook his head. "I don't really like people knowing," he said giving Lucius another glare, "but they've always had problems. Don't worry about it, let's talk about something else."
Lily, Tara and Lucius all exchanged a glance, but didn't say anything. An uncomfortable silence spread over the group and Lily, desperate to break it, burst out, "So who are you guys thinking of asking to the dance?"
Lucius smirked. "I don't know, but I'm sure any girl in the school would love to go with me."
Tara and Lily burst out in incredulous laughter while Severus nodded in agreement.
"Boys are so cocky!" Tara exclaimed.
Severus, who seemed to be in a depressed mood ever since the topic of his parents came up said "I wasn't agreeing that any girl would like to go with me too–Lucius is rich and all you girls probably think he's...handsome. I probably won't go at all. No one will want to go with me."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Don't be like that. I'm sure plenty of girls want to go with you."
Lucius smiled, "She's right Sev. You could get any girl. And that's not being cocky, it's honest. Cocky is James and Sirius. They're holding auditions to get dates."
The other three screamed, "WHAT?" at the same time.
"You didn't hear?" Lucius said, surprised. "I thought Lily'd be first in line."
Lily glared at him. "I'm sure it's just a rumor...you can't be serious..."
Lucius turned around and pointed to a flyer a few feet behind them. "See for yourself," he said.
She marched down, grabbed it off the wall, and brought it back for the rest to say.
"What does it say?" Severus asked sounding disgusted.
Lily read aloud.
Attention all Young Single Women of Hogwarts!
This is your lucky day! The two hottest and most popular boys in Hogwarts are looking for dates to the upcoming Winter Wonderland Ball. Since finding the perfect, most beautiful dates on our own would be quite an ordeal, we have decided to hold auditions. The sign up lists for times will be available by contacting James Potter, and Siruis Black (the two dates, of course), or Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Please sign up for times according to your last name:
A-H September
I-S October
T-Y November
If your last name starts with Z, don't bother coming. We've already searched out all of the girls who's last name starts with Z, and none of them are hot enough to be up to par with our standards.
Thank you and we're looking forward to seeing you there.
Lily crumpled the ad in rage. Tara screamed, Severus made a sound of disgust, and Lucius laughed.
"See I told you," Lucius said.
Severus scowled, "And I told you that they were no good, Lily, but no you always defended them and said they were good deep down inside..."
"I don't believe this," Lily said quietly. "It's either a set up or a joke on their part."
Tara shook her head. "I think so too Lily, but if this is legit... this is one of the stupidest things they've ever done."
"I agree," Lily said, scowling.
And again, Lucius laughed.
***
To everyone's horror and disgust, and Lucius's great amusement, the ad was real.
The ball was announced at the opening feast, and afterwards, to Lily's astonishment, girls started gathering around the four boys, clamoring to sign a list.
The next time Lily saw James, she announced that she wasn't speaking to him.
And life continued to be as fun as ever after that. Classes started as usual, and Severus actually started to study. After tying with James the last year in tests and all of the teacher's speeches on OWLS, he even seemed kind of stressed.
But, worst of all, as time passed everyone started to get asked to the dance. Lucius picked his date, the snobby, rich, beautiful Spanish foreign exchange student, Severus declared that he didn't want to go, and the auditions continued, but Lily and Tara still had not been asked.
Lily wasn't worried for Tara. Even though she refused to go to the auditions, it was quite obvious that James wanted to go with her anyway, at least that was the school rumor, and so she was as good as asked. But Lily herself was very anxious. Most of the boys that she was friends with had already chosen dates. Remus had asked Jessica, Peter had asked some popular Hufflepuff who was too nice to say no, Sirius and James had the auditions and possibly Tara, and Severus refused to go. Oh joy , she thought.
Finally, one day, after dressing up in her robes again to see if they fit, she decided to go down to the common room and think for awhile. It was about one in the morning and no one would still be awake. As she went over to sit on the couch by the fire, she noticed that Severus was sitting there by himself looking into the flames.
"Oh Lil," he said sleepily. "What're you doing up?"
Lily tried to stay in the shadows to hide her robe. "I...um...couldn't sleep."
"Me neither," he said, moving over and patting a cushion. "Come, sit down."
"Erm, no that's alright. I'll go back upstairs," she said edging toward the steps to the girl's dormitories.
Severus half stood up, "No seriously, I'd be really grateful for the company... Please?" he asked in his best begging voice.
"Alright," Lily said walking slowly over to him to sit down. Maybe he won't notice. He's a boy, they don't notice things.
But apparently he did because he let out a whistle and said, "Wow, Lil, you look gorgeous. What's the occasion, some secret date tonight that I'm interrupting? Who is it...let me guess...Lucius!" He burst out laughing.
"No," she said slowly, blushing slightly, "I was just trying on my dress robes to see if they still fit and thought I'd come down here and think for a while. It probably wouldn't matter if they didn't fit, though." She sighed.
"Why, Lil?" He said putting his arm around her as she sunk into the couch.
She put her head in her hands. "No one's asked me to the dance yet, and probably no one will."
"Don't talk like that, I'm sure someone will. If they saw you in that outfit the whole school'd be hammering at your door." He said, then continued slowly, "Out of the whole school, Lil, who would you want to ask you?"
Lily was taken aback at the question and realized that she wanted him to ask her more than anyone. She couldn't just tell him that, though and so she stammered embarrassedly. "Well, you know, someone nice but cute...I guess like James when he's not being stupid...or someone." Like you, she added in her head.
"James, eh...?" he said sounding a bit disappointed. "Well I heard from unofficial sources he's planning to take Tara, but he could change his mind."
"No, no he won't, but it's ok. It's really ok. This is just the first time I've ever talked about this with anyone, so I sound a bit...hurt and pathetic, but it'll pass," she said.
Severus stood up abruptly. "No, Lily you'll be asked and have the night of your life, just wait." He smiled weakly and added a, "Good night," before heading up the stairs to his room.
***
Surprisingly, a few days later Lily was asked to the ball...by James. He came up to her one day and apologized for the audition thing and admitted that it had been stupid. Then he popped the question.
"Will you, um, please go to the dance with me?" he asked, faltering a little.
Lily was completely taken aback. "Um, I thought you were asking Tara."
He smiled. "There was a change of plan, besides I believe Snape's planning on asking her in a little while."
Lily's heart sank. Even though she liked James and was relieved at being asked and ecstatic that she was on speaking terms with him again she couldn't help but feel hurt. Severus was asking Tara?
"Um, yes, James, I'd be delighted to go with you," she replied.
"Cool," he replied smiling a little in relief, "Well, I'll..see you round."
"Yea, see you," she said absentmindedly.
Later, she met up with Tara and they talked about both of their confused feelings.
"I mean, I really like Severus, but he had pledged he would not go to the dance and James had practically told me that he was going to ask me soon," Tara said.
"Yea, I know," Lily replied, thinking. "It's weird for James to change his mind so abruptly, especially since I wasn't speaking to him until he apologized and asked me."
"Yea," Tara sighed. "Well at least we're both going, even though we won't be able to talk much at the dance since our dates will be trying to kill each other if they're in each other's sight."
Lily laughed. "Well, we'll have to get together afterwards and compare notes about our dates," she said slyly.
"Of course!" Tara grinned.
And so the day of the dance came...
(A/N) MUWAHAHAH so what happened? Why did James ask Lily and Severus Tara? All will be revealed later in the story (well some of it like much later)...but it's good and juicy and...well I loved writing this chapter. Sorry it took so long!!!!!!!!!!!!!!