Turning Time (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

The Mirror of Erised, pt. 1

During the first weeks of December, James tried to follow Harry’s advice.

The first tip was: No pranks that she might hear about later. If you prank anyone, do it discreetly. 

James followed this easily by focusing on the Marauder’s Map. James had told Remus that Harry knew about it, so Remus kept him updated on their progress. 

The second was: Tone down your ego. 

James had trouble with this, as it was a key part of his personality. The best he could do was to talk about himself a little less. 

The third was: Give her space. 

Lily noticed this the most. She still saw James in almost all of her classes, but he was no longer the part of her day that she dreaded. In class, Harry caught her studying James when she should have been studying the classwork. 

The fourth: Be less of a prick to everyone. 

James only applied this when Lily was around. His snide comments were suppressed if she was in earshot, so as far as she knew, he was nicer than he’d been before.

Harry realized why he wanted to change so suddenly: the Christmas Eve Party. 

The upcoming party had garnered enough reputation to convince more than half of the students to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. Professor Slughorn, who held a Christmas Party on the 20th for the Slug Club, did a poor job of hiding his disdain for the attention the Marauders’ party was given. All anyone talked about was who one person asked to the dance and who another person convinced to stay behind at Hogwarts. Aluria, Florence, and Cheresse followed James around, giving suggestions and making sure he had made up his mind about his date. 

Lily tolerated the girls’ persistence of trying to win over James, but got annoyed when they brought up James in relation to her. Starting two weeks prior to the dance, James began courting Lily more than usual. To prepare himself for Christmas Eve, he practiced dancing in the dorm. Sirius had learned formal dancing at an early age for the Pureblood-only parties his family held. James was more than ready by the time Sirius taught him everything he knew. 

After James asked Lily to the dance for a seventh time, she said yes.

Severus was taking the news much better than Harry would have expected; despite his usual pessimism, Severus had convinced himself that Lily had agreed to James for a reason other than because she liked him. Severus believed she either planned to do something to humiliate James or she just wanted him to stop annoying her. 

James did back off, though everyone in the school knew about their “date” within the hour. When Lily walked between classes, kids would whistle, congratulate her, and try to high-five her. At least, they did until she hexed one Gryffindor who made an obscene joke after she ignored his shoddy effort at complimenting her. 

Remus and Raven weren’t going to the party together, or with anyone else. Florence was going with Sirius, Cheresse with Peter, and Aluria with Lockhart.

On Christmas Eve, the Great Hall was decorated at a level of quality between the previous year’s dance and the Yule Ball. Strings of glowing silver bulbs were hung on the walls. There were five Christmas trees; one behind the High Table as well as one in each corner of the room. In front of the High Table was the band, which seemed to be influenced by Muggle rock. The floating candles were made up like icicles and the tables had been moved to form a square dance floor. The dance floor was colored silver under a layer of gold powder that drifted up whenever it was stepped on. 

Severus, Harry, and Raven sat at the end of the Gryffindor table that was closest to the dance floor. They kept an eye on James for any signs that he was up to something. After a few minutes, James froze, broke into a goofy but nervous grin, and straightened his tie. Severus and Harry turned, following his gaze.