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Accompany Me to the Yule Ball


Lily hid around the corner in the corridor from the Transfiguration classroom the next day, huddled in the corner by the suit of armor, hugging her textbook to her chest. She could hear the boys down the hall, laughing and talking about stupid boy rubbish, and even the sound of James Potter’s voice made her face burn with anguish. She had dreamed of him all bloody night long - and not in the way that she’d come accustomed to over the past year. No, this was an entirely different sort of dream and it made her flesh turn to goose pimples even thinking of it.

She heard the door open, heard Sirius greeting Albus Dumbledore, who was teaching the classes while Minerva McGonagall was away, and she clutched her books even tighter. She so dreaded facing James Potter (not only that, but sitting next to him!) that she stood there, considering simply not going to class. She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall, wishing she could just disappear.

“Miss. Evans.”

She jumped in surprise and blinked to find Albus Dumbledore himself standing beside her, smiling that benign little smirk he often did that was so unsettling -- was he amused or upset? Impossible to tell!

“Won’t you please come along and join us for class?” he requested gently.

Lily nodded and, feeling as though she had a great weight upon her chest, she walked down the corridor to the Transfiguration room. She made her way to her chair, her head down, and her stomach turning. She saw James glanced at her, saw his face flush across his nose, and he turned away quickly. She could feel Sirius Black’s eyes upon her, could hear Remus whispering leave it Sirius under his breath. She could feel the tension radiating off James…

“Good morning!” Dumbledore said cheerfully.

“Isn’t it though?” Sirius asked, turning ‘round to face the Headmaster. He grinned up at him. “I can’t bare how absolutely spiffing this day is. Can you, James? Can you bare it?”

James mumbled, “Yeah, brilliant.”

Sirius looked quite pleased with himself and Remus shook his head.

Lily wanted to crawl into a hole.

Dumbledore started in with the lesson, reading from the book through his half-moon glasses, which sat at the very tip of his nose, and Lily stared very hard at her copy, which lay upon the desk as she took notes. James reached for his ink pot and his hand brushed hers and she shivered at the contact and looked up at him and he looked at her and his glasses slid down and he pushed them up, quickly turning away, even more red than before.

That day, every class was like that, too.

And it seemed like the gods were messing about, torturing her, because not once - not even twice - but three times she ran directly into James Potter in the portrait hole - one going out just as the other was coming in or vice versa. Fate - and Sirius Black, whose jokes were a near constant stream - was cruel. Lily thought for sure she would simply die if she had to look at him even once more by the time the evening came and it was time for studying with the first years. Sure it was a coincidence (after all, Sirius couldn’t see her mind), but halfway through studying More Than a Feeling came onto Sirius’s stereo and all Lily could picture was James Potter on the stairwell and she excused herself to her bedroom, claiming a headache.

Lily leaned against her bedroom door, holding it shut, as though the embarrassment was a physical being she could shut out. “Oh gods,” she moaned and she slid down the door to the floor and hugged her knees.

She crawled across the floor to her bookshelf, fancying a book to read to distract herself, but when she pulled one out she found something quite disturbing.

The cover had been transfigured.

Instead of a dashing man and a romanticized girl on the cover… it was dashing James Potter and herself.

“Oh my gods.” She threw the book down. Was she seeing things? Had he actually driven her mad? She plucked another book from the shelf… and another… and another… and found that they had all been transfigured.

Lily threw herself onto the carpet, sprawled out rather dramatically, her robes billowing about her, her hair splayed over the carpet as she stared up at the ceiling, feeling rather pathetic. When had she descended to this level? She wondered. When had her life without James Potter become some unbearable, downward spiral? When the bloody hell had he become the only thing she could think about?

And how in hell did she make it stop?

For his own good?




Sirius hugged Remus from behind. They were in the prefect’s toilet, and Remus was brushing his teeth and concentrating quite hard on it. Sirius nuzzled his face against the top of Remus’s spine. “Moonykins.”

“Wuhh?” Remus asked ‘round a mouthful of minty foam.

“Yule Ball.”

Remus groaned and spit into the sink.

“Hear me out.”

Remus stared Sirius in the mirror over the sink.

“I’m aware,” Sirius began, “That you hate the Yule Ball. I don’t blame you. Part of me hates it too. In fact, part of me thinks that we ought not to go at all. Boycott the whole thing and snog in our bed back in the dormitory. But --”

Remus was actively building up patience for this.

“What if… what if we didn’t go together. You and I, I mean.”

Remus hadn’t been expecting that.

“....what?” he asked.

Sirius took hold on Remus’s shoulders and spun him about so they were facing one another and not using the mirror to look at one another. Sirius looked into Remus’s eyes. “You’re my bloody one and only, Rey, you know that - but…”

Remus raised one eyebrow.

“I feel bad for Lily Evans.”

Remus’s second eyebrow went up. “What?” he sounded confused as well as surprised now, the wariness gone from his voice. “What’s Lily got to do with you and I and the Yule Ball?” He was just thankful Sirius hadn’t said something about Anthony Sparks or some other boy, some boy who wasn’t a werewolf, to be honest.

“James isn’t asking her this year,” Sirius said.

“So?” Remus asked. “It’s not as though she’d have said yes if he did.”

Sirius stared at Remus.

“Yeah?” Remus pressed.

Sirius said, “I just think she’d appreciate the gesture.”

Remus stared at Sirius for several beats of time passing. Then, “She wouldn’t have said yes if he asked… right, Sirius?”

“I don’t know,” Sirius said, “She… she might have had better willpower than I’m giving her credit for perhaps.” His reply was vague enough he didn’t feel as though he were betraying Lily’s secret. He cleared his throat. “So… so I was thinking, since he’s not… and… and she’s bound to be… rather upset by that… I thought that perhaps… that perhaps I would, if you didn’t mind, since you hate the Yule Ball anyway. Then… then I take her, and… eventually I could… cut in… on James and whatever boring lass he takes to the dance and… then once I’ve…” he jammed his palms together, “...with Jily, then I could come up here with you and we could celebrate our anniversary properly.”

Remus stared at Sirius. “Okay.”

Sirius smiled. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Remus said. “But let the record show that I’m the best boyfriend ever because I’m letting you go on a date with somebody else literally on our anniversary.”

“Well you’re getting the snogging at the end so you get the best part of the date anyway.”

“Especially on a night that includes dancing,” Remus said with a shudder.

“You have yet to witness my massively impressive dance skills,” Sirius informed him. “I was raised right, Moontail. I know how to ballroom dance, my love.”

“Oh, do you now?”

“Waltz in particular.”

“Really?” Remus actually sounded shocked.

Sirius laughed and took a step back, holding out his hand. “I’ll prove it.”

Remus smirked and turned to put his toothbrush on the counter, then put his hand into Sirius’s.




Lily was at the homework table when Sirius walked over to her the next evening and cleared his throat.

“What is it, Sirius?” she asked without looking up. He reached out a hand and took hers into his. He knelt down beside her, and she turned to look at him, her eyes wide with confusion as the first years (plus Ollie Kent) looked on. Lily asked, “What are you doing?”

“Lilith Jillian Evans --”

“That’s the closest one yet but still not my name,” she said.

“ -- it is with deepest pleasure and great pride that I, Sirius Orion Black, request you please, accompany me to the Yule Ball,” he said.

Whispers went up through the first years and several other people in the room turned to look, including Carly Shaw, whose jaw was practically on the floor from shock. Sirius placed a kiss upon her knuckles.

Lily stared at him in disbelief.

“You’re literally the only person in this castle that’s as beautiful as I am, Evans, so really it only makes sense, doesn’t it?” Sirius grinned.

Lily stared at his hand holding hers. “You’re mad,” she declared.

“As ever,” he answered. “What do you say?”

“What does your boyfriend think of all this?” Lily demanded.

“Remus?” Sirius inquired.

Remus said, “You’ll give him back after spending an entire evening with him anyway.”

Sirius stuck his tongue out at Remus and then turned back to Lily. “Evans, I’d be honored to be the one that takes you.”

Lily glanced toward the fire fleetingly, where James sat, staring over from the chair. She looked back to Sirius, “But what if… he asks?” she asked quietly.

“Then you have my permission to cheat on me,” Sirius answered, equally quietly.

Lily’s mouth slowly curved into a smile, “Sirius.”

“Oh gods Evans, just say yes already,” he said, “My knees are getting tired of kneeling down in front of you.”

Lily’s eyes twinkled devilishly, “Like you don’t have plenty of experience being on your knees.”

He stared up at her for a moment, slowly the dirty implications dawning on him and he said, “You fucking savage.”

Lily smirked.

He bent forward and kissed her knuckles, “I’ll take your award winning quip as a yes.” He stood up and bent forward into a bow, then ducked away, throwing himself over the back of the couch as though it was as natural as anything for Sirius Black to have asked a girl to the Yule Ball.

James watched him as he landed in the cushions and Sirius took up the licorice wand Wormtail held up for him as he landed. James glanced at Lily, who was red as several of the first years were talking excitedly at the big table, and James asked, “You’re taking Evans to the Yule Ball? Are you serious?”

Sirius grinned. “Always, James darling.”