Ch 11 The Ball
*dun dun dun...* rofl j/k
(A/N) Ok...I'd like you all to notice that I posted this chapter so soon. It's only been a few days! I'm so good. Go me! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter...in fact basically the only character I own in my story is Tara. – sad huh?
The day of the dance there was an early morning Quidditch game between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Lily, for once, didn't know which side to root for. She had house pride, but if Gryffindor lost her date that night would be really grumpy. After weighing the options, Lily decided to still root for her team. She'd enjoy rubbing James' face in it if they won.
And so that morning at 6:00 AM, not a fit hour for anyone to be up according to Lily, Lily and Tara arrived at the Quidditch field, one of them wrapped from head to foot in green and silver, and the other holding a sign that said "GO RAVENCLAW...I STILL BELIEVE!" Lily rolled her eyes at Tara. Ravenclaw had lost their first two games and were pretty much out of contention already.
"Right, I hope our dates don't kill each other because I'm so excited for this ball," Tara said enthusiastically.
Lily laughed. "Well since they play positions that don't exactly interact with each other, I think we should be ok.
"But this is James and Severus..." Tara observed, "somehow they always can find a way to get into a fight..."
Just then the players walked out onto the field and Lily started jumping up and cheering, while Tara stayed seated waving her sign.
The game started out rather well. Slytherin scored the first seven goals and seemed to be pulling away from Gryffindor. Sirius answered, however, with a goal that just barely got past Severus. Slytherin again answered by scoring seven goals, and then finally an eighth goal. The score was 150-10. They only needed one more goal to put them out of danger even if James caught the snitch before the Slytherin seeker. Lily was screaming and even Tara had abandoned her poster and was cheering. Then all of the Slytherin cheering stopped short. James had caught the snitch and was holding it proudly in the air. They had lost.
After the initial shock of that news, Lily started to think about the implications of the loss.
"James will want to brag at the ball," Lily said glumly.
"Severus will be horribly depressed," Tara said just as glumly.
They both looked at each other. "Let's never mention this game again," Tara said.
"Works for me," Lily replied.
***
Lily had to bribe the girls in her dorm ten chocolate frogs each before they allowed Tara to sneak into their room to get ready for the dance, but to Lily, it was worth it. It was nice to have someone there to help her get ready and to give her advice on makeup, which was still foreign to her.
First, Lily got into her now perfect dress robes and then put her hair up into an up do with some of her magical hair clips. After that, Lily turned herself over to Tara who pulled out her extensive makeup collection.
"Now, lets see," Tara said sucking on the end of an eyebrow pencil. "You definitely should have some eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow. Your eyes are gorgeous and should be brought out..."
Tara wen ton for a few more minutes and Lily became increasingly more afraid. She noticed a certain glee in Tara's voice as if she had been dying to do Lily's makeup for quite some time. Lily tried to think positively and not to flinch even when Tara shoved a mascara brush at her eye. Finally, well actually only about five minutes later, it was over.
"Voila!" Tara exclaimed handing Lily a mirror. "My masterpiece is complete."
Lily gasped sightly as she looked into the mirror. She didn't look fake and still looked like herself, only a prettier self.
"Wow, Tara thanks!" Lily said in astonishment.
Tara laughed. "I didn't do much. You've got so much natural beauty. I only enhanced it."
One of Lily's roommates turned around to look and gasped. "Lily? Natural beauty? You must have used every trick in the trade to get her like that. She looks halfway decent."
Lily and Tara glared at her and Tara whispered in a meant to be heard voice, "Don't worry Lily, she's just jealous because she has to go to the dance with Goyle..."
The girl squealed with rage and grabbed a tube of mascara, emptied it on Tara's dress and stormed out of the room. Tara almost started crying before Lily magic-ed the liquid off of her dress.
"Wow, nice spell," Tara said gratefully.
"It was one of the first spells I memorized," she explained. "When you spill things as often as I do it becomes a necessity."
Tara laughed and then looked around to see the rest of the girls in the dormitory glaring at them. Goyle's date was long gone, but the others didn't seem to be too happy with them either.
"Um...if you're ready, Lily, I think we should go now," Tara suggested in a quiet, careful voice.
Lily nodded. "Yea, me too."
The two girls both made a dash for the door and luckily made it into the common room before any other problems could arise.
"Vicious, those roommates of yours," Tara commented.
Lily sighed. "Yea, but I've gotten used to them..."
It was then that they heard two gasps behind them. Upon turning around they saw Severus and Lucius in their dress robes gaping at them.
"You two..." Severus stammered, "You're both gorgeous!"
Lucius nodded, "Yea, Tara always is but Evans really pulled one out of the bag. If you tried really hard, Lily, you could probably make it as a..."
Severus interrupted him loudly. "Well, should we go?"
Lucius had been even nastier to Lily than usual since she had accepted to go to the dance with James. Severus was trying to keep the peace by interrupting Lucius all of the time, but it didn't always work.
"Yes," said Tara, just as loudly. "We don't want to be late...and you two," she indicated Lily and Lucius, "still have to find your dates."
The four of them stepped out of the common room and Lucius announced, "My date is picking me up here."
"You're making her pick you up?" Tara asked incredulously.
"Yes," Lucius said as if he were doing the only logical thing.
"James said he'd pick me up here too," Lily said slowly.
"You two can go ahead," Lucius said slyly. "We'll be fine waiting here by ourselves."
Severus cast a suspicious look at him. "Um... no we'll wait here," he said giving Tara a knowing glance.
Lucius laughed. "Don't worry, Severus. I'll be a good boy. I won't even insult her, promise. Besides, you don't want to be here when James arrives."
Again, Severus gave him a suspicious look and then said, "Ok then, give me your wand for a second."
Lucius obliged, hesitantly.
Severus waved his own wand and muttered some words Lily couldn't make out. "There you go," he said, handing the wand back, "That'll hold you to your promise."
"Ok," Lucius said slowly.
"Shall we go, Tara?" Severus asked, holding his arm and allowing her to take it. "Bye, Lil," he said as he walked away. "Have a wonderful time."
Then they left down the hallway. Lucius looked after them to make sure they were gone and then turned to Lily. "So, why do you suspect Potter asked you to the ball? You must have had a good audition."
"No, I didn't audition," Lily said haughtily, raising her chin a little. "He just asked me. I don't know why."
Lucius grinned evilly. "It might have been for other reasons then. Or perhaps you persuaded him, after all you aren't any better than a common..."
Out of nowhere, Lucius's wand jumped from his robes and started hitting him on the head and yelling in Severus's voice.
"LIAR!" Thud. "LIAR!" Thud. "LIAR!" Thud. "YOU" Thud. "BETTER" Thud. "START Thud. "KEEPING" Thud. "YOUR" Thud. "PROMISES" Thud. "BEFORE" Thud. "SOMETHING" Thud. "BAD" Thud . "HAPPENS" Thud. "TO" Thud. "YOU!!!!" Thud.
Lucius made wild grabs for the wand and finally got it under control. He rubbed his hair and said, "OW! How in the world did Severus do that? Something bad happens to me? Something bad did happen to me. My head hearts and my hair is probably all messed up. Now I'll have to go fix it..." he grumbled to Lily, who was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. "Psh," he grumbled again and went back into the Slytherin common room.
After Lucius disappeared as the door closed, Lily started laughing hysterically. Just then, James came walking down the hallway and saw Lily trying hard to contain her laughter.
"Oh, James, hi! Severus...put...a...a...spell on...Lucius's... w...wand and...it hit him over...the head and...started...yelling about...keeping promises...when he broke one....and... it... was ... so... funny!!!" Lily burst out between spouts of laughter.
James smiled a bit and gave Lily a sideways look. "Um, yea sounds hilarious," he said taking a half-step back. "You look beautiful," he said handing her a rose as she finally got her giggling under control.
"Thank you," she said smiling, "you look pretty good yourself."
He beamed and offered her his arm and they walked off in the direction of the Great Hall where the ball was being held.
***
When Lily entered the Great Hall she was amazed at the transformation. It had been changed into a winter fairy land, with real snowflakes that fell from the sky that never seemed to land. Wondering at the spell, Lily almost bumped into James before she realized he had stopped in front of her.
"Want to dance?" he asked.
Lily smiled slightly, "Um, yea thanks," she said slightly frazzled.
They started to dance across the floor to a beautiful slow song. Lily let her mind wander, looking over all of the decorations and guests. She was amused at all of the couples she saw where the girl looked miserable as the guy droned on. Then of course, there were the couples kissing in corners, including, she noticed feeling slightly sick, Goyle and the girl from her dormitory.
"Um, some Quidditch match today, wasn't it?" James said, interrupting her train of thought.
"What?" Lily asked as she focused back into James.
James spoke a little louder. "Um, I said it was quite a game today, I mean Gryffindor winning and all and me saving the game. Too bad your Seeker isn't very good, but I mean he is from Slytherin, what do you expect?"
Lily rolled her eyes but didn't answer, so James continued. "Isn't Quidditch the best? In fact, I got you something." He pulled her off of the dance floor as the song ended and over to the snack table. After searching around in his pockets for a while he finally pulled out what he was looking for.
"Aha!" he said as he presented her with a golden snitch.
"Um, you got me the game snitch?" Lily asked incredulously.
James beamed. "Yep. I always carry one with me," he said casually letting the snitch fly away and grabbing it back, "but I wanted you to have this one."
Lily looked at the snitch a minute, thinking of how to reply. What was she going to do with a snitch? Besides since her team had just lost she wasn't exactly in the mood to talk or think about Quidditch. She loved the game but everyone had their limits!
"No, thanks James, but I can't really use a snitch," she said looking at him with a sad look on her face. "I wouldn't have anywhere to put it. Besides you're the seeker. You keep it."
James's face fell a little. "Well, I mean I thought you'd appreciate it because this was such a special game for me and Gryffindor and all. But, I understand what you mean. On the other hand, though, you could probably just put it in your trunk and keep it there. You could even write on it the date and the score: Gryffindor 160, Slytherin 150."
Finally Lily couldn't take it anymore. "No James! Have you forgotten what house I am from!? I don't want a snitch with a score on it rubbing it in my face that we lost the game and probably all chances of winning the Quidditch cup! I don't want a stupid snitch at all! Can we PLEASE talk about something other than Quidditch!?" she screamed before she could stop herself.
He stood there in silence for a while and a few of the people standing close to them gave Lily weird looks.
"I'm sorry James," she said, mortified. "I just...we just lost and I'm not really in a Quidditch mood."
James smiled a little back at her. "Don't worry about it," he said, "I know what you're talking about. I'm never in a good mood after we lose a match."
She smiled back at him gratefully.
"So, would you like some punch?" he said offering her a glass.
"Yes, thank you," she said.
They talked for a few minutes more about the past year and life in general. Lily became much happier as they caught up on each other's news they had missed since Lily had announced she wouldn't talk to him.
After a few minutes of talking, Tara and Severus walked over to the punch bowl, Severus looking confident and Tara casting worried glances at James and him. To the girls' surprise, no fight erupted. They just looked at each other and nodded slightly as if there was some forced understanding between them. Lily and Tara exchanged a few words while Severus got punch for both of them and then they moved on over to talk to a group of students from Slytherin and Ravenclaw.
"So what was that about?" Lily asked innocently.
James looked at her as if he had been distracted. "Wha? Oh, that was nothing. What do you mean what was that?"
"Well," Lily explained, "usually every time you see him you start yelling at each other or punching each other or...something."
He just shrugged. "Well this is a ball. Do you expect me to be uncivilized enough to start a brawl in the middle of a formal occasion like this? But you're right. It is unusual for Snivellus."
"Who?" Lily questioned, confused.
"Oh," he said, "You missed out on our making up a nickname for him. We've missed you Lily."
Lily gave him an annoyed look. "Well I think it's a stupid name. Honestly, can't you get any more creative? Or why can't you just call him by his name?"
"Ha!" he said sounding amused. "As ugly as his name is it's not nearly ugly enough for him."
Lily felt herself getting angry but quickly smothered it. She wasn't going to let herself explode again. "Let's talk about something else since we obviously will never agree on this topic," she said quickly.
"Yea, um, want to dance again?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied.
And so James and Lily danced the night away with occasional stops to talk to some of her old Gryffindor group who she hadn't seen much of all year. They avoided the topics of Severus and Quidditch and got along perfectly.
At the end of the night James walked Lily to the entrance of the Slytherin common room.
"Well, I guess this is it," he said gazing into her eyes.
She smiled slightly, "Yea, I guess it is..."
He grinned back. "There's something that I've wanted to ask you all night," he said.
"There is?" she asked hopefully.
"Um, yea, I was wondering if I could...kiss you?" James asked nervously.
"Well, if you really want to," she said smiling a little.
James smiled cockily. "Great, now I pull ahead of Sirius in how many girls we've both kissed."
"WHAT!?" she almost shrieked. "How many girls exactly are you two up to?"
"I'm not supposed to tell; it's part of the pact," he responded sounding scandalized.
"Well you'll just have to stay tied then," Lily said angrily, pushing past him to the entrance. "Now go away so I can say the password."
"But...Lily, I'm sorry. Please don't be this way!" he pleaded.
Lily sighed loudly in exasperation. "This is exactly the reason I stopped hanging out with your group this year in the first place! You two are exasperating!! You are so cocky and have no clue or care about other people's feelings! As far as I'm concerned you two will never get the pleasure of using me to get ahead in your little games because I will never get near one of you again until you learn a little humility and some manners. Now go away!"
She didn't turn around to look, but assumed James had left. After a few moments she said the password and went into the common room quite upset. They had been one of the last to leave the ball so the common room was empty except for Severus who was sitting on the couch in front of the fire reading a book.
"You're back late," Severus said before going back to reading his book.
"And you sound like my mother," Lily said smiling a little through her anger.
Noticing the strain in her voice, Severus put the book down and moved over so she could sit down.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Lily sat down and laid her head on his shoulder. He looked a little surprised but pleased at this. "James is a jerk," she said simply.
Severus's expression suddenly became very dark. "Well I knew that, but did something happen on the date? Did you not have a wonderful evening?"
"No, I had a great time," she said slowly as tears welled up in her eyes, "but at the end of it..."
"YES!?" Severus asked his face becoming even more red.
"He asked if he could kiss me and was bragging that when he did he'd have kissed more girls than Sirius...as if that was the only reason," she stopped.
"AND!?!?" Severus asked, tension mounting in his voice.
She sighed, "And so I got mad at him and yelled and basically said I never wanted to see him again until he changed..."
Severus let out a long held breath. "You did the right thing, Lily. I'm sorry by the way that you didn't have the perfect night you'd envisioned. Did you not have a good time?" There was a strange kind of hope in his voice.
"No, I had a great time, it's just, well it wasn't perfect," she gave him a wry smile.
"Did you want to be kissed by James that badly?" he asked sounding incredulous and slightly sad.
She sighed, "Well no I suppose it's not just because James didn't kiss me. Talking to you has made me feel better, though. Thanks."
"No problem, Lil." After a moment of sitting there in silence he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "That make it better?"
Lily was astonished. He had just kissed her forehead. Scverus Snape had KISSED her–and it was the special place her mom always used to kiss her... "That's what my mother always does when I'm having a hard day..." she started in a slightly emotional voice.
"Will you stop comparing me to your mother!?" Severus said in mock anger, laughing.
Lily burst out laughing with him. Just then, Lucius came down from the boys dormitories.
"Um, are you guys ever going to quiet down? I'm trying to get some sleep up there..." he drawled.
Severus stood up quickly, but was still laughing. "Yea, just a minute. Good night, Lil."
"Good night Sev," she said and they laughed all the way back to their dormitories.
(A/N) Ok so y'all ready for the next chapter where everything comes unglued? Well not everything, that comes much later, but well I gotta make it work with the books at least somewhat ... so next chapter will do some of that.
BTW did you like this chapter? Please review or I don't know what my readers think and...then they could end up hating the story because I'm doing something that really bugs them.
Thanks to all of my reviewers...I love you all! Thank you so much–you guys really are the best!!
*dun dun dun...* rofl j/k
(A/N) Ok...I'd like you all to notice that I posted this chapter so soon. It's only been a few days! I'm so good. Go me! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter...in fact basically the only character I own in my story is Tara. – sad huh?
The day of the dance there was an early morning Quidditch game between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Lily, for once, didn't know which side to root for. She had house pride, but if Gryffindor lost her date that night would be really grumpy. After weighing the options, Lily decided to still root for her team. She'd enjoy rubbing James' face in it if they won.
And so that morning at 6:00 AM, not a fit hour for anyone to be up according to Lily, Lily and Tara arrived at the Quidditch field, one of them wrapped from head to foot in green and silver, and the other holding a sign that said "GO RAVENCLAW...I STILL BELIEVE!" Lily rolled her eyes at Tara. Ravenclaw had lost their first two games and were pretty much out of contention already.
"Right, I hope our dates don't kill each other because I'm so excited for this ball," Tara said enthusiastically.
Lily laughed. "Well since they play positions that don't exactly interact with each other, I think we should be ok.
"But this is James and Severus..." Tara observed, "somehow they always can find a way to get into a fight..."
Just then the players walked out onto the field and Lily started jumping up and cheering, while Tara stayed seated waving her sign.
The game started out rather well. Slytherin scored the first seven goals and seemed to be pulling away from Gryffindor. Sirius answered, however, with a goal that just barely got past Severus. Slytherin again answered by scoring seven goals, and then finally an eighth goal. The score was 150-10. They only needed one more goal to put them out of danger even if James caught the snitch before the Slytherin seeker. Lily was screaming and even Tara had abandoned her poster and was cheering. Then all of the Slytherin cheering stopped short. James had caught the snitch and was holding it proudly in the air. They had lost.
After the initial shock of that news, Lily started to think about the implications of the loss.
"James will want to brag at the ball," Lily said glumly.
"Severus will be horribly depressed," Tara said just as glumly.
They both looked at each other. "Let's never mention this game again," Tara said.
"Works for me," Lily replied.
***
Lily had to bribe the girls in her dorm ten chocolate frogs each before they allowed Tara to sneak into their room to get ready for the dance, but to Lily, it was worth it. It was nice to have someone there to help her get ready and to give her advice on makeup, which was still foreign to her.
First, Lily got into her now perfect dress robes and then put her hair up into an up do with some of her magical hair clips. After that, Lily turned herself over to Tara who pulled out her extensive makeup collection.
"Now, lets see," Tara said sucking on the end of an eyebrow pencil. "You definitely should have some eyeliner, mascara, and eyeshadow. Your eyes are gorgeous and should be brought out..."
Tara wen ton for a few more minutes and Lily became increasingly more afraid. She noticed a certain glee in Tara's voice as if she had been dying to do Lily's makeup for quite some time. Lily tried to think positively and not to flinch even when Tara shoved a mascara brush at her eye. Finally, well actually only about five minutes later, it was over.
"Voila!" Tara exclaimed handing Lily a mirror. "My masterpiece is complete."
Lily gasped sightly as she looked into the mirror. She didn't look fake and still looked like herself, only a prettier self.
"Wow, Tara thanks!" Lily said in astonishment.
Tara laughed. "I didn't do much. You've got so much natural beauty. I only enhanced it."
One of Lily's roommates turned around to look and gasped. "Lily? Natural beauty? You must have used every trick in the trade to get her like that. She looks halfway decent."
Lily and Tara glared at her and Tara whispered in a meant to be heard voice, "Don't worry Lily, she's just jealous because she has to go to the dance with Goyle..."
The girl squealed with rage and grabbed a tube of mascara, emptied it on Tara's dress and stormed out of the room. Tara almost started crying before Lily magic-ed the liquid off of her dress.
"Wow, nice spell," Tara said gratefully.
"It was one of the first spells I memorized," she explained. "When you spill things as often as I do it becomes a necessity."
Tara laughed and then looked around to see the rest of the girls in the dormitory glaring at them. Goyle's date was long gone, but the others didn't seem to be too happy with them either.
"Um...if you're ready, Lily, I think we should go now," Tara suggested in a quiet, careful voice.
Lily nodded. "Yea, me too."
The two girls both made a dash for the door and luckily made it into the common room before any other problems could arise.
"Vicious, those roommates of yours," Tara commented.
Lily sighed. "Yea, but I've gotten used to them..."
It was then that they heard two gasps behind them. Upon turning around they saw Severus and Lucius in their dress robes gaping at them.
"You two..." Severus stammered, "You're both gorgeous!"
Lucius nodded, "Yea, Tara always is but Evans really pulled one out of the bag. If you tried really hard, Lily, you could probably make it as a..."
Severus interrupted him loudly. "Well, should we go?"
Lucius had been even nastier to Lily than usual since she had accepted to go to the dance with James. Severus was trying to keep the peace by interrupting Lucius all of the time, but it didn't always work.
"Yes," said Tara, just as loudly. "We don't want to be late...and you two," she indicated Lily and Lucius, "still have to find your dates."
The four of them stepped out of the common room and Lucius announced, "My date is picking me up here."
"You're making her pick you up?" Tara asked incredulously.
"Yes," Lucius said as if he were doing the only logical thing.
"James said he'd pick me up here too," Lily said slowly.
"You two can go ahead," Lucius said slyly. "We'll be fine waiting here by ourselves."
Severus cast a suspicious look at him. "Um... no we'll wait here," he said giving Tara a knowing glance.
Lucius laughed. "Don't worry, Severus. I'll be a good boy. I won't even insult her, promise. Besides, you don't want to be here when James arrives."
Again, Severus gave him a suspicious look and then said, "Ok then, give me your wand for a second."
Lucius obliged, hesitantly.
Severus waved his own wand and muttered some words Lily couldn't make out. "There you go," he said, handing the wand back, "That'll hold you to your promise."
"Ok," Lucius said slowly.
"Shall we go, Tara?" Severus asked, holding his arm and allowing her to take it. "Bye, Lil," he said as he walked away. "Have a wonderful time."
Then they left down the hallway. Lucius looked after them to make sure they were gone and then turned to Lily. "So, why do you suspect Potter asked you to the ball? You must have had a good audition."
"No, I didn't audition," Lily said haughtily, raising her chin a little. "He just asked me. I don't know why."
Lucius grinned evilly. "It might have been for other reasons then. Or perhaps you persuaded him, after all you aren't any better than a common..."
Out of nowhere, Lucius's wand jumped from his robes and started hitting him on the head and yelling in Severus's voice.
"LIAR!" Thud. "LIAR!" Thud. "LIAR!" Thud. "YOU" Thud. "BETTER" Thud. "START Thud. "KEEPING" Thud. "YOUR" Thud. "PROMISES" Thud. "BEFORE" Thud. "SOMETHING" Thud. "BAD" Thud . "HAPPENS" Thud. "TO" Thud. "YOU!!!!" Thud.
Lucius made wild grabs for the wand and finally got it under control. He rubbed his hair and said, "OW! How in the world did Severus do that? Something bad happens to me? Something bad did happen to me. My head hearts and my hair is probably all messed up. Now I'll have to go fix it..." he grumbled to Lily, who was trying her hardest not to burst out laughing. "Psh," he grumbled again and went back into the Slytherin common room.
After Lucius disappeared as the door closed, Lily started laughing hysterically. Just then, James came walking down the hallway and saw Lily trying hard to contain her laughter.
"Oh, James, hi! Severus...put...a...a...spell on...Lucius's... w...wand and...it hit him over...the head and...started...yelling about...keeping promises...when he broke one....and... it... was ... so... funny!!!" Lily burst out between spouts of laughter.
James smiled a bit and gave Lily a sideways look. "Um, yea sounds hilarious," he said taking a half-step back. "You look beautiful," he said handing her a rose as she finally got her giggling under control.
"Thank you," she said smiling, "you look pretty good yourself."
He beamed and offered her his arm and they walked off in the direction of the Great Hall where the ball was being held.
***
When Lily entered the Great Hall she was amazed at the transformation. It had been changed into a winter fairy land, with real snowflakes that fell from the sky that never seemed to land. Wondering at the spell, Lily almost bumped into James before she realized he had stopped in front of her.
"Want to dance?" he asked.
Lily smiled slightly, "Um, yea thanks," she said slightly frazzled.
They started to dance across the floor to a beautiful slow song. Lily let her mind wander, looking over all of the decorations and guests. She was amused at all of the couples she saw where the girl looked miserable as the guy droned on. Then of course, there were the couples kissing in corners, including, she noticed feeling slightly sick, Goyle and the girl from her dormitory.
"Um, some Quidditch match today, wasn't it?" James said, interrupting her train of thought.
"What?" Lily asked as she focused back into James.
James spoke a little louder. "Um, I said it was quite a game today, I mean Gryffindor winning and all and me saving the game. Too bad your Seeker isn't very good, but I mean he is from Slytherin, what do you expect?"
Lily rolled her eyes but didn't answer, so James continued. "Isn't Quidditch the best? In fact, I got you something." He pulled her off of the dance floor as the song ended and over to the snack table. After searching around in his pockets for a while he finally pulled out what he was looking for.
"Aha!" he said as he presented her with a golden snitch.
"Um, you got me the game snitch?" Lily asked incredulously.
James beamed. "Yep. I always carry one with me," he said casually letting the snitch fly away and grabbing it back, "but I wanted you to have this one."
Lily looked at the snitch a minute, thinking of how to reply. What was she going to do with a snitch? Besides since her team had just lost she wasn't exactly in the mood to talk or think about Quidditch. She loved the game but everyone had their limits!
"No, thanks James, but I can't really use a snitch," she said looking at him with a sad look on her face. "I wouldn't have anywhere to put it. Besides you're the seeker. You keep it."
James's face fell a little. "Well, I mean I thought you'd appreciate it because this was such a special game for me and Gryffindor and all. But, I understand what you mean. On the other hand, though, you could probably just put it in your trunk and keep it there. You could even write on it the date and the score: Gryffindor 160, Slytherin 150."
Finally Lily couldn't take it anymore. "No James! Have you forgotten what house I am from!? I don't want a snitch with a score on it rubbing it in my face that we lost the game and probably all chances of winning the Quidditch cup! I don't want a stupid snitch at all! Can we PLEASE talk about something other than Quidditch!?" she screamed before she could stop herself.
He stood there in silence for a while and a few of the people standing close to them gave Lily weird looks.
"I'm sorry James," she said, mortified. "I just...we just lost and I'm not really in a Quidditch mood."
James smiled a little back at her. "Don't worry about it," he said, "I know what you're talking about. I'm never in a good mood after we lose a match."
She smiled back at him gratefully.
"So, would you like some punch?" he said offering her a glass.
"Yes, thank you," she said.
They talked for a few minutes more about the past year and life in general. Lily became much happier as they caught up on each other's news they had missed since Lily had announced she wouldn't talk to him.
After a few minutes of talking, Tara and Severus walked over to the punch bowl, Severus looking confident and Tara casting worried glances at James and him. To the girls' surprise, no fight erupted. They just looked at each other and nodded slightly as if there was some forced understanding between them. Lily and Tara exchanged a few words while Severus got punch for both of them and then they moved on over to talk to a group of students from Slytherin and Ravenclaw.
"So what was that about?" Lily asked innocently.
James looked at her as if he had been distracted. "Wha? Oh, that was nothing. What do you mean what was that?"
"Well," Lily explained, "usually every time you see him you start yelling at each other or punching each other or...something."
He just shrugged. "Well this is a ball. Do you expect me to be uncivilized enough to start a brawl in the middle of a formal occasion like this? But you're right. It is unusual for Snivellus."
"Who?" Lily questioned, confused.
"Oh," he said, "You missed out on our making up a nickname for him. We've missed you Lily."
Lily gave him an annoyed look. "Well I think it's a stupid name. Honestly, can't you get any more creative? Or why can't you just call him by his name?"
"Ha!" he said sounding amused. "As ugly as his name is it's not nearly ugly enough for him."
Lily felt herself getting angry but quickly smothered it. She wasn't going to let herself explode again. "Let's talk about something else since we obviously will never agree on this topic," she said quickly.
"Yea, um, want to dance again?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied.
And so James and Lily danced the night away with occasional stops to talk to some of her old Gryffindor group who she hadn't seen much of all year. They avoided the topics of Severus and Quidditch and got along perfectly.
At the end of the night James walked Lily to the entrance of the Slytherin common room.
"Well, I guess this is it," he said gazing into her eyes.
She smiled slightly, "Yea, I guess it is..."
He grinned back. "There's something that I've wanted to ask you all night," he said.
"There is?" she asked hopefully.
"Um, yea, I was wondering if I could...kiss you?" James asked nervously.
"Well, if you really want to," she said smiling a little.
James smiled cockily. "Great, now I pull ahead of Sirius in how many girls we've both kissed."
"WHAT!?" she almost shrieked. "How many girls exactly are you two up to?"
"I'm not supposed to tell; it's part of the pact," he responded sounding scandalized.
"Well you'll just have to stay tied then," Lily said angrily, pushing past him to the entrance. "Now go away so I can say the password."
"But...Lily, I'm sorry. Please don't be this way!" he pleaded.
Lily sighed loudly in exasperation. "This is exactly the reason I stopped hanging out with your group this year in the first place! You two are exasperating!! You are so cocky and have no clue or care about other people's feelings! As far as I'm concerned you two will never get the pleasure of using me to get ahead in your little games because I will never get near one of you again until you learn a little humility and some manners. Now go away!"
She didn't turn around to look, but assumed James had left. After a few moments she said the password and went into the common room quite upset. They had been one of the last to leave the ball so the common room was empty except for Severus who was sitting on the couch in front of the fire reading a book.
"You're back late," Severus said before going back to reading his book.
"And you sound like my mother," Lily said smiling a little through her anger.
Noticing the strain in her voice, Severus put the book down and moved over so she could sit down.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Lily sat down and laid her head on his shoulder. He looked a little surprised but pleased at this. "James is a jerk," she said simply.
Severus's expression suddenly became very dark. "Well I knew that, but did something happen on the date? Did you not have a wonderful evening?"
"No, I had a great time," she said slowly as tears welled up in her eyes, "but at the end of it..."
"YES!?" Severus asked his face becoming even more red.
"He asked if he could kiss me and was bragging that when he did he'd have kissed more girls than Sirius...as if that was the only reason," she stopped.
"AND!?!?" Severus asked, tension mounting in his voice.
She sighed, "And so I got mad at him and yelled and basically said I never wanted to see him again until he changed..."
Severus let out a long held breath. "You did the right thing, Lily. I'm sorry by the way that you didn't have the perfect night you'd envisioned. Did you not have a good time?" There was a strange kind of hope in his voice.
"No, I had a great time, it's just, well it wasn't perfect," she gave him a wry smile.
"Did you want to be kissed by James that badly?" he asked sounding incredulous and slightly sad.
She sighed, "Well no I suppose it's not just because James didn't kiss me. Talking to you has made me feel better, though. Thanks."
"No problem, Lil." After a moment of sitting there in silence he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "That make it better?"
Lily was astonished. He had just kissed her forehead. Scverus Snape had KISSED her–and it was the special place her mom always used to kiss her... "That's what my mother always does when I'm having a hard day..." she started in a slightly emotional voice.
"Will you stop comparing me to your mother!?" Severus said in mock anger, laughing.
Lily burst out laughing with him. Just then, Lucius came down from the boys dormitories.
"Um, are you guys ever going to quiet down? I'm trying to get some sleep up there..." he drawled.
Severus stood up quickly, but was still laughing. "Yea, just a minute. Good night, Lil."
"Good night Sev," she said and they laughed all the way back to their dormitories.
(A/N) Ok so y'all ready for the next chapter where everything comes unglued? Well not everything, that comes much later, but well I gotta make it work with the books at least somewhat ... so next chapter will do some of that.
BTW did you like this chapter? Please review or I don't know what my readers think and...then they could end up hating the story because I'm doing something that really bugs them.
Thanks to all of my reviewers...I love you all! Thank you so much–you guys really are the best!!