Undeniable Love

The Christmas Ball

"I told you," Lily said, exasperated. "I'm not going to the ball alone. And no one has asked me!"

Marlene stared at Lily like she had lost her marbles. "Are you crazy? Sophia doesn't have a date either! And she is still going!"

"That's different!" Lily insisted. "Sophia has 'sworn off all boys'"

Sophia giggled. "What can I say? No one would be able to handle all of this," she gestured to herself, "anyway."

Lily laughed, but her heart wasn't really in it.

"But Lils...." Marlene whined. "I don't want to go without you!"

"Wait a moment." Sophia eyes Marlene suspiciously. "You said I was not going with anyone."

"Yeah. And?" Marlene asked.

"You didn't say the same for yourself." Sophia grinned, knowing she had caught Marlene in the act.

"Wha-"

"Come on Mar. Spill it." Alice said.

Marlene groaned. "Somebody may have asked me. And I may have said yes."

Alice and Sophia squealed, but Lily couldn't seem to force a smile into her face. James and the other girl, lips locked, kept replaying on a loop in Lily's mind. Maybe Lily should go. To show that cheating prat what she was made of. And just like that, he mind was made up.

"I'll go." She blurted.

"What?" Marlene asked.

"I will go to the ball. But I'm not wearing some boring dress robes....."

***

James banged his head against the wall of his common room. Lily hadn't come back to their dorm since the incident and every time he approached her, she ignored him and left him standing there, his heart shattered. He had ruined it. He had, had her. Finally. After seven years. And now, in less than seven seconds, she was gone.

The thought of her going to the ball with anyone but him twisted James' gut in an unpleasant way. He needed Lily. She was the one. She had to be. He wasn't going to give up. Not after seven persistent years of trying.

Sirius patted James on his shoulder. "It's okay Prongs. Soon she is going to be begging for you to take her back." Sirius gave his signature smirk. "Well. I'm off to go and find my date."

Sirius swept out of the room, leaving A dejected James in a suit. "I don't need Lily. Every girl loves me!" James straightened his suit jacket and threw on his glasses, and he too, left the lonely common room.

***

"Lils! You look gorgeous!"

"Really?" Lily asked, staring at herself in the mirror.

"Yes! Every boy in Hogwarts is going to be begging you to go out with them!" Marlene tried to convince Lily.

Lily took in her image. She was wearing a floor length, maroon colored dress that shimmered and sparkled when she moved. It was covered in sequins, and fit Lily's figure perfectly. Her shoes though, if you asked Lily, were a bit overkill. They were three inch black heels, that at least, made her a little taller. She felt like a giraffe. She was taller than Marlene and Sophia in them. She also was wearing black earrings and a diamond bracelet she had received from her mother a while back. Alice had insisted that she painted Lily's nails. So now, they too, were sparkly. And finally, she wore waterproof mascara, that made her lashes dark and her eyes pop.

"Look at me!" Marlene said. When Lily turned, she was attacked and sprayed.

Lily spit out whatever the girls had sprayed on her while her mouth was open and turned accusing eyes on Sophia, who was holding a bottle. "What was that?"