A/N: Really sorry this update has taken so long, I've been really really busy! But I swear on every Harry Potter book I own, on every Harry Potter DVD, and even on my LIFE (which is obviously Harry Potter) It will NEVER happen again.

Just, pwease review if you like the chapter, yeah? I'll write more, post quicker, if I know people appreciate it! :-)

*Also looking for a better, PM if you're interested!*

Disclaimer: Clearly don't own Harry Potter. I mean, come on, I don't write like the Queen.

Chapter 11
Or,
Of Feather Boa's, Stalin and Perfection.

The party was very eventful. Everybody, with the exception of Lily, was drunk by eight o clock. Lily had chosen a small spot in the corner where she could observe everybody, but really she was just thinking about her situation earlier; it seems that Lily could not get James off her mind, but she was confused. She didn't fancy James, that would be such a ridiculous thing for her to do, but she did like him- as a friend. She was concerned though, for what his feelings were for her. James had declared his love for Lily several times over the years, but when he was sat on top of her and her on top of him, Lily saw something flash though James' eyes which she didn't understand. And it was really bothering her.

Lily was roused from her thoughts by very drunk Remus wobbling over to her.

"Lily, are you still sober?" Remus asked. He had a bottle of firewhiskey in hand and a feather boa around his neck.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Of course I am! One of the prefects around here needs to be responsible."

"Lily, nobody is going to do anything. The younger years have gone to bed, come on have some fun!" Remus thrust the firewhiskey into Lily's and she timidly accepted it. She had never drunk firewhiskey before, and she did know the effects it had on people; but she didn't want to be the only person who was sober, so she drank it.

By 11 o'clock, she was drunk, dancing on the table with Remus- she also had a feather boa around her neck, and she was wearing a florescent pink tutu. Alice wandered through the crowd to find Lily, and rolled her eyes when she saw her on the table- it was hilarious to see Lily drunk, but Alice needed her to go to bed because they did still have lessons tomorrow.

"Lily Evans, what are you doing on that table?"

"I'm dancing." Lily replied.

"I can see that."

Lily grinned. "Why did you ask then?"

Alice rolled her eyes and persisted for fifteen minutes to get Lily off the common room table, and when Lily blatantly refused every single one of Alice's pledges, she decided to get some help.

"James, come help me get Lily off the table and into bed please." Alice begged James, who was laughing at Sirius- who had now taken it upon himself to join Lily and Remus on the table.

"Alice, she's just having fun!"

"If you don't, she'll wake up with a terrible hangover and blame you." She stated.

"Oh." James ran over to the table and pulled Lily off it; he carried her bridal style up the stairs, and because of the wards surrounding the girls' dormitory he wouldn't be able to get into her dorm, so he took her into his- Sirius and the others would probably end up sleeping in the common room anyway.

"Lily, go to sleep. You'll need it for tomorrow; I'm certainly not going to be in here early." He winked and left the room quickly, Lily was lying on what appeared to be James' bed- she jumped up and stumbled across the room to Sirius' bed- she thought that would be a bit more appropriate that sleeping in James'.

It was eventually the 1st of November. Which meant it was the day of the ball, and it wasn't long until Christmas either- which everybody was really excited about. The Ravenclaws were already down at breakfast when the clock struck 8- they were eager to cram as much information into their brains before they got ready for the ball, they were happy for the ball but they weren't very happy to miss double charms. The Hufflepuffs were just as happy as they usually were; they spent breakfast chatting over dresses and complimenting each other. The Slytherins were pissed off, to put it bluntly. They hated the fact they were being forced to attend a ball which they would rather avoid. And the Gryffindors, they were very, very hungover.

If you were a certain Gryffindor, you were also very confused. Sirius Black had woken up to a bed with a girl it- now that wasn't what he was confused over, Sirius had woken up with plenty of girls before, but this girl wasn't any old girl- it was Lily Evans. And Sirius was, to use a common phrase, shitting himself. Not because of Lily- although she would only add more pain to his banging head- but because of James- now he would be furious to find out that Lily was in his bed.

She was curled up on her side with her face buried into Sirius' pillow and Sirius didn't want to wake her at all- she looked to peaceful, but she probably could still pack a punch or throw a hex around half asleep.

Lily's voice came from the pillow. "Sirius Black, please stop staring at me because I will not hesitate to punch that pretty little face of yours."

"So you think I'm pretty, hmm?"

"Are you always awake this early?"

"Changing the topic, eh? And it's not early, it's half eight."

Lily dived out of bed and ran out of the boys' dorm before Sirius could blink twice. She didn't have time for a shower and she barely had time to find her robes and get ready; she was lucky to get down for breakfast.

And it was the day of the ball! She was a prefect, she had to help out with the decorations today and she also had to get ready, along with attending her lessons and actually paying attention to what the professors were saying. This wasn't going to be an exciting day.

It was first period Muggle Studies, and Lily was bored. It was the first lesson she had ever been bored in. Sirius and Remus were already asleep, James was barely awake and Lily was just about to join them.

"Miss Evans, could you please tell me the aim of Stalin's first five year plan?" Quirinus Quirrell, the Muggle Studies professor, asked sharply.

"Who is Stalin?" James asked quietly.

"It was to build the foundation industries, and James, Stalin was the leader of Russia you prat!" Lily whispered to James, after answering the Professor, smacking him lightly over the head. "And if you dare ask where Russia is, I will hurt you."

James stuck his tongue out at Lily, and she replied kindly by giving him the finger. James chuckled at how innocent Lily normally would be, and how easy it was for him to get a reaction out of her. He was surprised that they had been friends for over a month; Lily Evans hadn't yelled at him in well over a month, and James was so happy; but he was more happy at the fact he got to take her to the ball tonight.

Lily had returned her attention to her text book, and she continued to make notes on Stalin- even though they did have a ball tonight, she did have exams soon and she couldn't afford to waste any note-taking time. This was her career on the line.

The morning flew by, and lunch time had arrived. The students filled the hall for lunch, they ate hurriedly and then practically sprinted up to their common rooms; the ball was close. The Marauders didn't run upstairs, like the five girls did; they started a game of exploding snap and chess.

Lily rolled her eyes when she saw James' brows furrowed, concentrating on trying to beat Remus at chess. "Oi, James. If you're not ready and waiting for me by 7 o clock, I'm taking Peter to the ball."

James' eyes widened, and he immediately lost the game of chess to Remus.

He would not be late. He would be ready by five; to make sure he could go to the ball with Lily.

It was half past six when James walked down the stairs from his dorm, he was trying to flatten his hair with no result; he was scared in case Lily would be embarrassed, or told him to sort it out. He didn't want to mess this up; he had been waiting for this moment since he met Lily on the train. Lily wasn't there, but that didn't worry James- none of the other girls were there, either.

James wasn't the only boy who was nervous. Sirius was pacing backwards and forwards, fiddling with the sleeves on his jacket and re-doing his tie over and over again. Remus, on the other hand, was relaxing in a chair indulging in some last minute reading before the ball- he was going with a pretty Ravenclaw, who he sat next to in some classes, but he wasn't nervous. Peter wasn't even ready yet, he was still trying to decide which shirt went better with his suit, and the three marauders decided that he would probably make it to the ball at the end.

Fifteen minutes had passed. Sirius had re-done his tie twenty times, while doing a total of fifty lengths of the common room. James had been staring at the stairs which the girls would walk down for the whole fifteen minutes, without as much as blinking. And Remus had finished his book, and was now heading out of the common room to meet his date. His hands shook slightly as he checked his tie in the mirror.

Marlene and Hestia walked down the stairs first; Marlene had a neat little pink dress on that floated above her knees, and Hestia was wearing an even shorter piece which was a gorgeous shade of lemon- they managed to pull of the short, revealing dresses, without looking slutty at all.

Marlene grinned and winked at James and Sirius. "Hello boys, you look dashing. Lils and Izzy will be down in a minute."

James swallowed and Sirius decided to re-do his tie again. Then they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. It was Alice, wearing a long ball gown dress that was navy blue. She smiled brightly when she noticed Frank leaning against the wall, he took her hand and kissed her cheek.

"You look beautiful, Alice." He paused. "Do you want to wait for Lily?" Frank asked politely, secretly hoping she would say no.

Alice blushed. "Thank you…" She whispered. "No, no, Lily told me to go on ahead."

Frank grinned, and the cute couple left the common room with no further talk.

The clock in the Gryffindor common room chimed. 18:45. and more footsteps could be heard from the Girls' dorm.

Isabelle was the first to walk down the stairs, and Sirius couldn't stop the grin that climbed its way onto his face, he also could stop the pounding in his chest either.

Her hair was tied up in a messy bun on the side, but it looked perfect. Her dress scarlet red and fit her sexy figure properly. It hugged her slim waist, and puffed out slightly over her curvy hips, coming to an end below the knee.

He loved it.

Her eyes fixed on Sirius. He'd risen as soon as she had entered the room, and Isabelle had never seen him looking so god damn sexy. He was wearing a grey suit, with tight fitted grey pants and a pristine white shirt, with a snug grey jacket. His tie was red, much like Isabelle's dress; but she'd never told him the colour, so he'd clearly guessed. It was cute. His hair was in its usual 'bed hair' style, and his fringe hung delicately over his smoky grey eyes; they were sparkling with delight, and something that looked like shock.

Isabelle wanted to kiss him. But she didn't. She approached him slowly, and smiled when he kissed her on the cheek, then offered her his arm.

"You ready?"

"Yes."

James was now on his own in the common room, and it was getting extremely close to seven. His mind started to play tricks on him, and his brain was repeatedly telling him that Lily wasn't going to turn up- but she did.

She was standing at the bottom of the stairs looking curiously at James. His eyes brightened when he saw her, and he swore his heart stopped.

James stared back at Lily, who was wearing an emerald green dress that brought out the colour of her eyes. There were tiny diamond like sequins which lined the bust of the dress, and t had a sweetheart neckline, and it framed her petite figure perfectly; it hugged the curves that her normal robes would always hide. The dress clung to her miniature waist, and hung neatly above her knee. She was wearing high heels that elongated her tiny legs, and overall Lily now had a sexy body, which would normally be considered as childlike because of her tiny size.

Her beauty didn't just exist in the dress, her flaming hair cascaded down her back in soft waves and she wore hardly any make up at all; except a coating of mascara (which made her eyes stand out even more, James noted.) and a smidgen of pink lipstick.

Lily gasped slightly when she saw James on sitting on the sofa; she had never seen him looking so gorgeous in her life. His suit was black (Lily paid particular attention to how tight his pants were) and his shirt was green, much like Lily's dress- the sight of him in that made her stomach flip- and he didn't have a jacket on, and his hair was tousled in such a perfect way, Lily could have died on the spot and she wouldn't have minded because James would have been the last thing she saw.

He was that attractive.

"Lily, you look…" James tried to find a word that matched exactly how Lily looked, but no word available in the dictionary could match the sight in front of him. He had 'beautiful' on the tip of his tongue, but Lily was walking over to him and his heart was threatening to burst out of his rib cage.

"You don't need to look so nervous, James."

James laughed. "Eh, what can I say? Gorgeous lady like you going to a ball with me, I'm bound to be nervous."

Lily blushed, but smiled and accepted James' arm when he offered it to her. They walked out of the common room together, and headed for the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was magnificent. The weird sisters were currently on stage, screaming out an obnoxiously loud song about dancing until your feet fall off and kissing all night (that was all Lily could make out, anyway) and Sirius was dancing wildly with Isabelle in toe, jumping up and down like hooligans.

James immediately led Lily onto the dance floor, and when the Weird Sisters decided to play a Muggle song- which just happened to be one of Lily's favourites- they went wild.

A/N: Another annoying author note, but I just want to say, if you review, you'll get lots of Jily action in the next chapter and we all wanna read that don't we? yeah!