Chapter 21: A Ball of Love
James laughed and slipped his arm around Lily's shoulders as he looked at Sirius.
"So then we told Snape that his mum obviously didn't love him enough to marry a pure-blood," said Sirius as James and Peter laughed.
"I still don't think it was that funny," said Remus in a scared voice.
"Course it's funny Moony," said James.
"Who ever knew that poor little Snape was a half-blood," said Sirius with a laugh.
"Why does it matter?" asked an upset Lily as she spoke up for the first time in the conversation.
"Because Lily," said Sirius as he leaned forward and looked at Lily from across the table in the common room. "He is a Slytherin and is always putting down people of not being pure-blood."
"It's not his fault though," said Remus as he looked at Sirius beside him scooping mashed potatoes into his mouth. "You can't control who your parents are."
"I know that," said Sirius as he glared at Remus. "I mean look at my parents, neither of them I am exactly proud of."
"I wasn't trying to diss your family or anything,' said a pale Remus. Sirius rolled his eyes even though he looked upset.
"Except you were dissing my family when you said that," said Sirius.
"Guys," said James as he removed his eyes from Lily's face. "Stop it." Remus sighed and got up and stretched his arms.
"I think I'm feeling a little sick," said Remus.
"You look sick," said Lily as she stood up and brushed James arm off her. "Do you need to see the nurse?"
"Yeah," replied Remus as he winked at James. "I'll probably go up this afternoon before dinner." Sirius sighed and stood up beside Remus.
"I feel as if there was something I needed to do today," said Sirius as he yawned and ran a hand through his hair.
"Well, it's December first," aid Peter brightly as he stood up and yawned next to Sirius.
"Course I know it's December first you stupid... I am not the one who forgets the dates," said Sirius as he looked at James.
James laughed and put his chess set back into a bag. He had just finished beating Peter in chess before they headed down to eat lunch. It was a Sunday morning and the sun was shinning brightly into the Common Room. It had snowed last night for the first time that winter and a nice white layer of crystals had kissed every surface outside.
"Let's see... December... What happens in December..." said Remus as he glanced up to the stairway and saw Katie, Alyssa, and Bekka walk into the Common Room.
"Ahh yes," said James as he watched Remus look at the three girls. "The Dance. Our last Dance ever at Hogwarts."
"Who you asking?" asked Sirius as he looked at Remus watching the three girls.
"I'm not sure," replied Remus hesitatingly. "Who are you asking?"
"Silva," replied Sirius. James, Peter, and Remus turned at stared at Sirius with open and surprised eyes.
"Silva?" asked Peter. "As in that girl that helped us with the map?"
"That's the girl... I mean we haven't really done anything in helping her make friends yet other than talk to her in front of her friends.. I think by asking her to the dance she'll make more friends."
"Or less," said Lily as she joined the conversation and waved at her friends as they walked towards her. "I mean you're super popular and a lot of girls will be jealous of her if she gets to got to the dance with you."
"I know," said Sirius with a grin. "But I like her."
"She's like four years younger than you," said Remus in a very concerned voice.
"I know," said Sirius. "She's not yet legal." Remus and James groaned as Peter laughed and Lily rolled her eyes.
"Hi boys," said Alyssa as she joined the group half standing, half sitting at the table.
"Hi Lily," said Bekka. "Did you already eat breakfast?"
"It's almost 11:30," replied Lily. "It's time to eat lunch."
"Well, then do you wanna go eat lunch?" asked Bekka as she began to blush.
"Sure," replied Lily as she kissed James on the forehead.
"Wait," said James as he grabbed Lily's hand and kneeled down before her.
Lily turned around and noticed James was kneeling and her heart began to pound in her chest. Was he going to propose to her now? She looked so bad. She had just put her hair up into a pony tail not really caring about it. Oh, he couldn't ask her now!
"Lily, darling Lily... Lily-flower," said James. Lily rolled her eyes even though she knew she was blushing like a maniac.. Lily could hear Alyssa and Bekka laughing next to her.
"Yes Jamesy," replied Lily as she fluttered her eyelashes in a kidding way. Their friends all laughed at them wondering what James was doing.
"Will you please go with me to The Winter Wonderland Ball?" asked James as Lily let out a deep breath she hadn't noticed she was holding in.
"I suppose," answered Lily as James stood up and kissed Lily on her forehead and their friends laughed and applauded.
"I remember last year when James asked Lily," said Sirius with a laugh.
"I remember too," said Remus as he started laughing. "He had been working up the courage for days."
"And then she just said no and walks off," said Sirius as he began to howl with laughter. James looked out the window as Lily looked at the floor knowing her face was blushing. Her friends were laughing as they remembered Lily telling them about it afterward.
"Gosh," said Remus as he let out a laugh. "I never would have believed it if someone told me that James and Lily would be dating within less than a year."
"Neither would I, Mate," said Sirius.
"Just proves people change," said Lily as she glared at her friends who were all howling with laughter. "James, I'm kind of hungry, care to go eat with me?"
"Anything for my Lily-flower," said James as he held her hand and pushed open the portrait and had Lily follow him out.
*-*-*-*-*
Lily, James, Alyssa, Sirius, Katie, Remus, Bekka and Peter all decided after lunch to head out onto the grounds to walk around on the new crunchy snow. The four boys began to through snow at each other, making Lily and her friends laugh.
After Sirius had accidentally hit Lily twice in the head with a snowball. Lily grabbed some snow from under her, and neatly made a perfect snowball. Sirius Black did not know the Lily's parents were really into muggle sports. He did not know that at the age of five, her dad had started teaching Lily how to through a perfect baseball..
Sirius Black did not know that at the age of 10, Lily had already been talked to by the head Baseball coach at her high school. He did not know, that Lily Evans could throw a mean fastball, or that she was one of the few kids that had ever played Junior Baseball in England at the age of nine, and the only girl to play Juniors before she turned 13, ever.
Sirius began to scream with pain as he leaned over and blood began to trickle out onto his face from where the snowball had hit him.
"You can throw," gasped Sirius as he groaned painfully on the ground and stared at Lily with disbelief.
"Of course I know how to throw," said Lily as she giggled and smiled at James who was beaming with pride at Lily.
"But you're a girl," said Sirius again with disbelief.
"She's my girl," said James as he continued to beam at Lily. Katie, Alyssa, and Bekka all started laughing and tried to cover it up with coughing.
"Do you think you can hit that tree?" asked Sirius mischievously as he stood up and wiped the blood off of his face. Sirius pointed towards a small tree about 150 feet away from them. Lily squinted as she tried to make out the tree. It was quite small.
"Are you sure that's a tree?" asked Lily.
"Course" replied Sirius. "I've walked by it over a hundred times on my way into the forest."
"You've been in the forest?" asked Alyssa with a surprising tone in her voice. Sirius turned and looked at Alyssa with a great look of disbelief, him not going into the forest? Did anyone think that?
"Yes," replied Sirius as he turned away from Alyssa and looked at Lily happily.
"Hmm..." said Lily as she continued to look at the tree, even though it did not look like a tree very much to her. "If I hit that tree... you must do something bad... and if I miss the tree... I'll do something bad."
"Ok," said Sirius cheerfully as he had no confidence in Lily. "I'll go skinny dipping in the lake, BUTT-NAKED if you hit the tree and if you miss, you'll have to go BUTT-NAKED into the lake."
"Not fair," said James. Lily wiped around and glared at James.
"I am perfectly able to make decisions myself, Potter," said Lily.
"That's not what I meant Lily," said James with a sigh. "I meant that Sirius has already been swimming in the lake BUTT-NAKED before... so he should have to do something much worse than that."
"YOU went swimming in the lake with no clothes on!" said Alyssa excitedly as she smiled at Sirius.
"And we missed it!" cried Bekka as she looked close to tears.
"It was not your fault, Ladies," said Sirius as he patted the two girls on the back. "I believe the day I did it, Lily was quite mad at James because he had put a cheering charm on her drink and she couldn't stop smiling and laughing the whole day." Lily grinned when she remembered how James had been very upset that Lily was upset. He had tried to explain that he thought she could use some "cheering" up.
"Oh," said Alyssa with a sad sigh.
"I have a better bet," said Lily. "If I hit that tree... Sirius, James, Remus and Peter all must go skinny dipping in the lake. But you must leave your clothes in your dorm room. You can use a cloak to run outside, but that's it."
Sirius grinned at James to see him laughing and shaking his head. Peter looked a little pale while Remus looked worried.
"When would we have to fulfill this bet. saying you lose of course?" asked Remus.
"Tonight, at midnight, it's a full moon so we'll be able to see you well enough from in the Common Room," replied Alyssa.
"NO!" said Sirius, James, and Peter together.
"Not tonight," said Remus. "Next week, or another time when it is colder, makes it harder to go into the lake." Lily, Katie, Alyssa, and Bekka all raised their eyebrows at each other and then Lily smiled and nodded her head.
"Get ready to go skinny dipping boys!" said Lily as she leaned down and made a very nice large snowball in her hands. She then rubbed it quickly and made it much smaller so that it was the perfect size of a standard baseball.
She closed herself and pictured how she used to win the softball and baseball throwing competitions in track and field. She took a deep breath in and saw the small tree swaying a little in the wind. The wind seemed to have died though all around her. She pulled her arm back and let the snowball swing into the air. It flew straight towards the tree and hit it soundly on target.
A scream came from the "tree" and it began to run towards the eight students standing there, unable to believe what was happening. James was the first to notice that the "tree" was not a "tree" and was a person.
"RUN!" shouted James as he grabbed Lily's hand and began to pull her to the castle. They ran right to the front doors but were stopped when a group of six or seven Slytherins opened the door.
"Well, well, well," said Bellatrix Black as she pushed James Potter back outside.
"Look, what we have here Bella," said a tall man named Lestrange as he strode forward and looked at James and Sirius with a laugh.
"And look what we have behind them," said Malfoy with a loud laugh. His cold eyes swept over and looked at the "tree." James turned behind him, already knowing, who the tree was, he gulped in air uncomfortably and saw Snape wiping blood off of his eyebrow. He looked mad.
"Potter," spat Snape as he glared at the Gryffindors in front of him. "I think you hit me with a snowball." The Gryffindors laughed and Lily's eyes crunched up as she whirled on Sirius.
"You knew," said Lily in a cold ice tone. Sirius' smile and laugh died on his face as a blush crept up onto his cheeks. An uneasy silence filled the Gryffindors as the Slytherins were giving each other surprising and interested glances.
"We all knew Lily," said Remus quietly, breaking the silence.
"IN that case," said Lily brightly as James let out a deep breath he hadn't realized he was holding, "I hope these Slytherins turn you all into piles of slugs. Bella, in case you never knew, Sirius would look charming with large pimples all over his face." Lily began to push past the Slytherin when a hand reached out and grabbed her, pushing her back to the Gryffindors.
"You," said Bella, as if she could hardly believe what she was saying. "You, think I would take orders from a Mudblood?" James, Alyssa, and Sirius all raised their wands in a threatening way and pointed them towards Bella.
"Of course not my dear," said Lily with a bright smile as if she was talking to a first year. "I merely was just giving you advice, even though I'm sure you could find a curse good enough to finish these four off for me, with out my help." Bella and the rest of the Slytherins seemed to not even understand what had just come out of Lily's mouth, she seemed to be talking to them, as if, they were friends.
"I know tons of curses that could turn your face as red as that ugly hair you have on top of your ugly mudblood dirty, muggle face," said Bella. Sirius, James, Alyssa, Remus, and Katie now all had their wands out pointed at Bella, forgetting poor Snape behind them.
Lily raised up her hand to motion for her friends to stop and a large fake smile was plastered over her face. "Well, my dear, I'm glad you know the color of my hair. But, it really doesn't suit me that you should think it's ugly." Lily turned and smiled at Snape standing behind them with his wand in the air pointed at James back. Lily turned back towards the rest of the Slytherins, still smiling and reached her hand in her pocket. She slowly with drew her wand at the same time, that the reaming students raised theirs.
"I've always wanted to be the first in our group to kill a Mudblood," said Bella with a big sneer in her voice.
"I'd like to see you try," said an old gray haired man as he walked over towards the students from the Ground Keeper's house.
"Dumbledore," said almost every student standing their, all with their wands still in the air. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he waved his wand and all the students wands flew towards him. With another wave of his wand, all the wands went soaring into a bag he had conjured into the air.
"Bella, I would love if you came up to the office with me right now. The rest of you may go back to your dorm rooms, I shall give you all your wands back tomorrow at breakfast, let the rest of the day without magic be a reminder to you that you should never fight. And Mr. Lupin, I would advise for you to head up to see Madam Pomfrey for a nice potion, you are looking a little sick." Remus looked up at the sky and saw it was beginning to get dark. The afternoon was almost gone. He said goodbye to his friends and headed towards the Nurse's office.
The Slytherins headed towards the dungeon and the Gryffindors went up the stair case towards their common room.
"I feel so bad for Remmy," said Bekka with a sigh as she twirled her light brown hair that fell pass her butt.
"Oh don't feel bad for him darling," said Sirius as he slipped his arm around Bekka's waist, much to her delight. "He'll be fine by tomorrow evening."
"Speaking of tomorrow," said Lily suddenly. "We have a paper due in Potions!" The girls laughed and Peter let out a rather annoying squeaking sound.
"Maybe you should have finished it last week," said James as he slipped his arm around Lily, the same way Sirius had his arm around Bekka. "You might get a bad grade."
"I did finish it last week Potter, I believe it's you that has to finish yours," said Lily with much exclamation as she pulled open the fat lady and walked into the Common Room.
At once, two owls swept down in front of the group of Seventh years. One, hovered in front of Alyssa as it stuck out his leg and Alyssa removed the letter. And the other one hovered in front of Katie as she slowly removed the letter, looking a little ashamed.
"YES!" cried Alyssa as she began to jump up and down and ran over and hugged Bekka. "Theodore just asked me to the dance!" Bekka began jumping up and down and hugged Alyssa as the two screamed with delight. Alyssa quickly walked up to a third year girl who was studying behind a mound of books asked her if she could borrow a quill. The girl smiled at Alyssa and handed her a small, well used quill. Alyssa quickly wrote a reply on the back of the letter and sent the letter back off to Theodore.
Alyssa turned to hand the quill back to the third year to find the Common Room very quiet as Sirius was kneeling before the third year. Alyssa let out a gasp that was similar to many that were going through the room.
"Silva," said Sirius as he pulled a pink flower out of his pocket. "Will you do me the delight of coming to the Ball with me?" Silva giggled and nodded her head, which sent her glasses to fly down to the tip of her nose. She pushed them back to the bridge and took the flower that Sirius had been holding in front of her and bent her nose down and smelled it. The Common Room began to buzz with excitement, except for a few Fifth and Sixth year girls who looked close to tears and were giving each other hugs.
"Who was your letter from?" asked Lily as she turned towards Katie, and saw her looking quite pale and scared.
"I.. I..." Katie looked up from the letter and looked into Lily's eyes with a look of sadness and pain. She let out a small sob and ran towards the girl's dorm room.
"I need to go help her," said Lily turning to tell James good night, only to find him giving Silva a hug and sitting down next to her. Lily rolled her eyes and ran up to the dorm room to find Katie bawling her eyes out as she looked at the letter.
"What's the matter Katie?" asked Lily in a shocked mood as she leaned down and pulled the letter carefully from Katie's hands. Lily smoothed the letter out and began to read.
"Dear Katie,
I know this may sound weird to you... but I like you... a lot...I wanted to ask you to the Winter Wonderland Ball in person... But I'm afraid if I did you would say no... You know me... and I know you... If you would like to go with me... Please write back on this letter... I think my heart would break if you said no...
With much love,
A Hopeful and Mysterious Man"
"What's so bad about this?" asked Lily with a laugh as she looked up from the letter.
"Isn't it OBVIOUS!" said Katie as tears poured from her eyes. "He's joking... No one would want to date me!"
"What are you talking about," said Lily, taken back. "You are probably one of the best looking girls in our years, and you play Quidditch. And you're smart!"
"So," said Katie as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm not like you Lily. You can stick up for yourself, like today, when Bella and her friends were threatening you... You didn't become afraid or anything!"
"That's because I had you guys, and I knew my friends would be there to help me!" replied Lily.
"Still," said Katie as she began to compose herself. "I wish I had someone like James."
"You could," said Lily happily. "This mystery guy could be The One. And you don't want what James and I have." Lily began to laugh and leaned back against her bed.
"Everyone wants what you and James have," said Katie as she laughed.
"Are you kidding," said Lily as she leaned forward. "What James and I have is fake... you know that! Don't you remember what I told you on the train?"
"Of course I remember," said Katie as she rolled her eyes. "But that still doesn't mean you guys don't love each other!"
"Katie, when James and I kiss... we're just pretending so our friends... and you... think we are really in love."
"Well," said Katie as she began to tease Lily. "If you and James are "fake" then I don't know what real is... I've never seen to people more in love with each other. AND don't say you're not. You love James... and James loves you... All those little smiles you give each other... It's not acting Lily... It's real."
AN: Ok sorry about the delay.. I was going to post this weekend but then i sorta kinda of got grounded! sorry... wont happen again! if you can tell ... this post was originally two post.. and then i made it into one.. trying to make it flow better and not being all FLUFF! so next 2 chapters will be major fluff!! Hope you liked this
Please Review~!
x0x0
Kaci
P.S. as a request from Mister p.J. I made the font a little bigger.. I actually don't know if it'll work.. But if it does.. tell me if you like it better like this!