[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Brunches and Balls


Next morning, James was still feeling a bit blue for the loss, but it seemed everyone in the school who wasn’t Slytherin had complimented him on his brilliant flying. It was hard not to feel better when there was so much praise coming his way as he walked down the hallway. One could almost watch his ego reinflating. Lily rolled her eyes when she overheard him telling a first year Ravenclaw a rather harrowing, and entirely fictional, dramatized version of his goals. The Hufflepuff boy questioned nothing of the grandness of the tale.

James, Peter, and LIly were just making their way across the entrance hall when a great hand clapped over James’s shoulder and he turned about to find Horace Slughorn beaming at him, dressed in his tweed suit and tie, his robes left un clasped at the front, a sort of conspiratorial grin about his mouth.

“Mr. Potter!” Slughorn said, beaming, and he patted James’s shoulder as Peter and Lily stopped walking as well to look at James and Slughorn standing behind. Slughorn said, “There he is. Just the man I was searching for!” He said this as though he’d been looking high and low all about the castle, rather than having just waddled out from the Dungeons a moment before.

“Well, here I am,” James said lamely, and he held out his hands in a sort of ta-da!

Horace Slughorn smiled, “You’re quite the man of the hour.”

“Man of the hour?”

“Yes, yes,” Slughorn replied, “Oh what a splendid job at flying you did yesterday at the pitch yesterday, such skill! But, then, you’ve always had excellent precision on a broomstick, haven’t you, my boy?” He clapped James’s back, beaming brightly.

James shrugged in a way that was somewhere between humble and bragging and a light flush went over his nose and he said, “Well, I, mean, I do my best and if that happens to be excellent then…”

Lily rolled her eyes.

James caught her at it and his lips quirked into a grin and he winked at her.

“Why yes it certainly does, it does, my boy,” Slughorn chuckled merrily and he put his arm ‘round James as though they were old friends and he pulled him in to a sideways hug. “You know, you could very well end up a great Quidditch star, the way you’re going! Captain of the Gryffindor team - and in your fifth year! Having such excellent skills as you do… alumni of the grand tourney team as well… Seeker then, weren’t you? Chaser now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Excellent, excellent…” Slughorn smiled and started leading James toward the Great Hall, beaming. He spotted Lily and said, “And Miss. Evans, too, another of my favorites! That potion you brewed the other day - the Fairness Lotion, that was positively brilliant work. My two favorite Gryffindors.” He scooped her up under his other arm and hugged her to him, too, as he walked.

Peter scrambled after them.

“Listen, I was thinking of putting together one of my famous brunches and you’re both invited, of course!” Slughorn beamed. “We’ll have a jolly grand time. Sunday morning, eleven o’clock. Do come hungry, I’m thinking of having the house elves whip up some lovely savory pancakes. Won’t that be lovely? And have you seen Mr. Lupin about? I wanted to invite him as well! Heard he spent the summer with Mr. Newt Scamander, saving a Chakorais Bird! Very rare, those are, and their eggs are very powerful! Used in the making of one of the most incredible substances in the history of magic, they are… I must get a chance to speak to him.”

“He’s been under the weather, sir,” James replied, “Probably upstairs sleeping it off still. I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”

Slughorn beamed, “Just invite him along to the brunch, will you? I’d love to find out more about that bird! You two enjoy your breakfast together,” and he smiled, sending them off toward the Gryffindor table.

“Ughhh,” Lily groaned. “What does he think we’re a couple or something?”

James looked at her, “Aren’t we?” His eyes twinkled playfully.

“Potter.”

“Evans.”

“Bugger off.”

“There it is!” he grinned. “I’ve been waiting for that.”

Lily shook her head. Then she sighed, “Ugh though!! A Slug-Club event. I was hoping those were finished, or that he’d at least forgotten about me and decided to let me off from them.”

Peter had joined them and he looked up at her, “They sound brilliant, though. Savory pancakes? I’d love some savory pancakes!”

“You’ love anything you could shove in your mouth, admit it, Pete,” James accused, smirking.

“I’m just saying, I don’t think these little get togethers sound all that horrible as you lot act like they are! Slughorn isn’t so bad…”

Lily said, “That’s because you’ve never been invited to one of these things. Just one and you’d understand what’s so terrible about them.” She shook her head, then looked over and spotted Slughorn was at the Slytherin table, talking to Regulus Black. “Oh dear,” she murmured.

James followed her line of sight. “Spiffing. We’ll get to meet Mini-Sirius.”

Lily sighed.

Peter was clearly seriously jealous over being excluded by Slughorn, though, for he was very quiet throughout the length of breakfast, shovelling his food into his mouth without much comment, glaring down at his plate with contempt.

Later, after Charms and Transfiguration, Sirius and Remus returned from the Shrieking Shack. Remus was still trembling with the effort of holding up his own weight and Sirius looked pained about the face as he supported him along into the dormitory, depositing him onto the bed at the far end of the room.

“Bad moon?” James asked, looking up.

“About typical,” muttered Sirius, and he tucked Remus in under blankets as Rey curled into the fetal position, clinging pillows about him shakily. Sirius sighed and looked ‘round at James again. “Hey, I’m sorry about the match yesterday, that was a real hard knock, mate.”

James shrugged it off and told Sirius about all the compliments he was getting on his flying skills in leiu of winning, and about Slughorn’s invitation to the brunch. Sirius scowled when he heard that Slughorn had also invited Remus, and Lily and not him, too. “Am I the only one being left out then?” he asked.

“Sorry,” James answered.

Peter cleared his throat, “You’re forgetting me. I’m left out, too. You’re not the only one.”

Sirius didn’t look much comforted by that.

“He asked Regulus, too,” muttered James, raising his eyebrow.

Sirius groaned, “Salt to the wound, Potter. Why in hell did he invite that blighter?”

“Guessing because he made that excellent catch yesterday on the pitch,” James answered with a shrug. “Prominent name, your family, too. Probably a mixture of the lot.”

Sirius rolled his eyes, “It was Meg who spotted the snitch first. Regulus just happened to be closer. It wasn’t that excellent, really. He just got lucky. Little bastard.” He shook his head, “Him and his whole cheatin’ team - all that fuss over him when all he did was help along a load of cheaters. Bah!”

After that, he changed into Snuffles and climbed up on the bed to keep Remus warm and Remus tucked his fingers deep into Snuffle’s fur, clinging on tight as he slept, and Sirius laid his head on Remus’s shoulder, listening with his excellent doggy hearing to the beats of Remus’s heart.




There was a notice that afternoon, announcing that the second Hogsmeade Weekend would be the second weekend of December, one week before the Yule Ball and the subsequent venture home for the holidays. Everyone in the common room was atwitter making plans for the weekend and for the Yule Ball and Lily found even the first years couldn’t stop talking about the ball, even though they wouldn’t be attending.

“Is it very lovely?” asked Vivian with dreamy eyes.

Lily smiled, “It’s nice. They fill the Great Hall with lovely trees and floating candles and there’s dancing and music and great food…” She talked it up a lot better than her experience had really served her. The best part of the Yule Ball the year before had been finding out that Sirius and Remus had gotten together during it… and even that memory had been a bit marred by the discovery that Severus Snape had slashed James Potter across the chest with a horrid spell that had split the boy nearly in two. She instinctively glanced over at James at the thought of it and caught him looking at her from where he sat with the other Marauders by the fire.

James turned red and looked away.

“What kind of good food do they have?” asked Dexter eagerly. “Do they have gingerbread? I love gingerbread.”

“Yeah,” Lily said, distracted.

“Yum,” Dexter hummed.

Oliver said, “It sounds fantastic. I’d like to go to a Yule Ball.” He looked ‘round at the others, “Wouldn’t you?” They all nodded, except for Wally, who stared at his textbook. “Lily, how come younger years can’t go?”

“Dunno,” Lily replied, “That’s just the rules, I suppose.”

“Probably loads of snogging,” said Liam, making a face.

“Snogging?” Dexter asked, “Whoaaa.”

Ollie looked over at Wally and nudged him, “Wouldn’t you like to go to the Yule Ball?”

Wally shrugged, “I dunno, s’pose it would be alright.”

Ollie smiled. “It would be great.”

“Maybe we should have our own Yule Ball!” suggested Vivian, grinning. “I could go with Liam and Marcy could go with Darcy and… well, you lot will have to pair off somehow,” she said, looking at Dexter, Ollie and Wally.

Dexter said, “Well where are we gonna get all the food?”

“Of course Dexter’s only concerned with food,” said Wally, rolling his eyes, “Food can be Dexter’s date.”

“Then I reckon that leaves Ollie as yours, ‘ey mate?” teased Darcy, smirking. “What a grand couple you’ll make.”

Ollie flushed, and Wally rolled his eyes, “Bugger off Darcy.”

Meanwhile, by the fireplace, Remus was curled up on the floor under loads of blankets he’d piled upon himself, and he had his History textbook opened. He shivered. Suddenly Sirius slid off the couch onto the floor beside him and draped himself about Remus’s shoulders. “Hmmm… the Yule Ball, Moony. You recall what happened the night of the last Yule Ball?”

Remus smiled a wobbly sort of smile and looked over at Sirius, “I’ll never forget so long as I live, Padfoot.”

“You were sitting right about in this spot, and I was where Prongsie is…”

“What?” James looked up.

Sirius ignored James, “And I grabbed your hair… like this…” Sirius said, putting his fingers through Remus’s hair and pulling his head back, “And I said fuck it and I kissed you…” Remus breathed deeply as Sirius leaned close, his mouth against Remus’s ear, “Just think how far we’ve come from there…”

Remus closed his eyes, feeling Sirius’s breath on his neck sent shivers down him.

“Oi, get a bleedin’ room,” said James, kicking Sirius.

“Well, we would, but we’ve been told there’ll be no fun and games about the dormitory, remember?”

Remus swallowed a lump in his throat as Sirius turned to James, still holding Remus’s head back the way he’d pulled it, “What’s a boy to do when he wants to snuggle his boyfriend?”

“Will you kiss me already please or else let go of my head before I get a cramp in my neck?” Remus croaked.

Sirius laughed and he kissed Remus’s mouth, then let go of his hair, looking at James, “There I was, being all romantic, asking my boyfriend to our one year anniversary ball and you go and ruin it being all smushy and --” he looked at James, whose eyes were trained on Lily Evans instead of him, even as he was talking to him. Sirius smirked. “Go ask her. I dare you.”

“Sirius, shut up.”

“Do it.”

“No.”

“Dooooo it.”

“No.”

Sirius leaped to his feet. “I’ll do it for you.”

“Wait. What? No. Sirius!” James leaped across Peter, spilling the bowl of popcorn he had on his lap all over the floor, trying to catch Sirius, but his mate had moved far too quickly and James just ended up in a buttery mess on Peter’s lap.

Sirius walked over to where Lily had turned back to the first years’ homework - though Ollie was still pink from Darcy’s teasing and Wally seemed unable to look any of them in the eyes at all - and he grabbed onto Lily’s wrist. “Evans,” he said, “I have this mate… who wants to go to the Yule Ball with this girl and he’s afraid to ask her, thinks she’ll say no.”

Lily raised an eyebrow.

“What’re the odds, you think, of her saying no?”

Lily looked at the couch, where James was scrambling to get off Peter’s lap as Remus looked ‘round and magicked up the spilled popcorn. “Is your mate James?”

“Possibly.”

“Is the girl me?” she asked.

“You’re good at this game,” Sirius said. He leaned against the table, beaming. “So? What do you say? What’re the odds of him getting a no?”

“They’re absolutely 100%, Sirius.”

“You should give him a chance,” Sirius said lowly.

“No.”

“Just one?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“Sirius. I said no.”

“Alright, fine. But you should give him a chance.”

Lily watched as Sirius walked back over to the couch, and James looked up at him hopefully. Sirius shook his head and James, who had allowed himself to actually think that maybe - just maybe - slouched onto the couch with a sort of sad smile, “Told you,” she could read his lips.




It was getting late and outside it was snowing again, swirling clouds of white fogging up the windows. Lily Evans sat in her window seat, staring out at the moon’s rays as they lit up the tree tops of the Forbidden Forest, resting her chin on her knees as she watched the snowfall, turning the grounds white. She could see Hagrid’s cabin, glowing orange and warm from fire down the hill and the smoke billowing from his chimney wafted off over the treetops. She found herself smiling and thinking about James Potter… and a blush went over her cheeks.

Would it really be so terrible to give him a chance? Just once?

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…

And it would be the Yule Ball, there was loads of ways to sneak out of that, loads of ways to get away if she couldn’t stand it once she got there…

Lily went to bed that night with her heart thumping in her throat, nervous, having made up her mind to tell James at breakfast that she’d go with him to the ball.