Priori Incantatem [HARRY POTTER FANFICTION]

Chapter 28: New Year's Eve

Chapter 28: New Year's Eve

Lily craned her neck, trying to see her reflection in the mirror over her shoulder. She was quite nervous, actually; she'd never worn dress robes before and she just hoped that she looked all right. Not much help for it now though really. James was due to pick her up in half an hour for the Marchbankses' New Year's Eve party, so if something was wrong with her appearance, there wasn't time to fix it anyway. She'd just have to hope it was ok.

Checking herself in the mirror one last time, Lily looked nervously round her room for something else to do. Not able to find anything immediately, she sat down on her bed, twisting her fingers in her lap nervously.

Tonight she'd be meeting Mr. and Mrs. Potter, who, besides being her boyfriend's parents, were also very well known and influential in the wizarding community. Lily couldn't ever remember being quite so nervous about meeting anyone in her life.

On top of that, Lily was very apprehensive about her first-ever social function in the wizarding world. She just hoped that she wouldn't make some sort of ghastly faux pas unknowingly. Sure, she'd been to parties that her parents and their friends and acquaintances had thrown, but what if some things were different in the wizarding world?

The chime of the doorbell startled Lily out of her thoughts. If that was James, he was fifteen minutes early, she noted with amusement as she checked her clock. Sure enough, she could hear James' familiar voice in the hallway, talking with her parents.

Glancing at her hair and robes one last time, Lily took a deep breath and made her way down the stairs, sincerely hoping that she'd enjoy tonight as much as she wanted to.

*** 

James stood in the foyer of the Evanses' London house, making nervous conversation with Lily's parents and housekeeper, fully aware that he was fifteen minutes early. He'd tried to wait until seven-thirty, really he had, but he just hadn't been able to wait any longer. He would've been a whole half-hour early if he'd come in straight away, but being a half-hour early would just have been silly. So he'd waited around for what had apparently been only fifteen minutes, even though it had felt like forever. In fact, James had been afraid that he was late and that Lily might think he was standing her up, so he'd panicked and rushed to the Evanses' house, unaware of the time until he checked the hall clock. Why in hell hadn't he thought to put on a wristwatch? 

Normally for parties like this, James would've put on his dress robes and attempted, at his mother's insistence, to tame his hair about fifteen minutes before they were due to leave. But James had started getting ready an hour ahead out of sheer nerves, despite Sirius' amusement at his expense and merciless teasing. Ready forty-five minutes early, James had waited about before deciding that it might take a bit longer to get to the Evanses' house than the twenty minutes it had taken him last time, so he'd asked the driver of the Ministry car his dad had ordered for him if they could leave early. And, well, here he was.

James tried to pay attention to what Mr. and Mrs. Evans and Nora were saying, but he was wondering where Lily was. He hoped she hadn't decided to go to Morwenna's without him or something.

"Oh, Lily!" Mrs. Evans exclaimed, breaking off the question she had been asking James about Quidditch. "You look beautiful!" James turned slowly around and almost tripped over his own two feet at the sight. Recovering his balance, James simply gawked at Lily as she made her way down the stairs.

She was without a doubt the most beautiful thing James had ever seen in his life. She was wearing green robes that matched her eyes perfectly and - well - James didn't know exactly what she had done to make herself look even more fantastic than usual, but whatever it was, it had caused the usual gymnastics in James' stomach to escalate to new heights.