ALWAYS

YULE BALL

"Lily, come on! You've been at it for hours" whined James. It was the day of the Yule Ball, and Lily had been getting ready for hours and James was growing more and more impatient by each passing minute. "Coming" yelled Lily from her room. She took one last look at herself in the mirror, the dress Dorea had gotten her was a perfect fit and it made her look good. Her hair was tied up in an elegant bun. Alice and Marlene had done her hair and she thought that they had done a fairly good job. She walked down the stairs to find James standing near the couch, staring at her in awe. She walked up to him and looked at him, waiting for him to say something, but James didn't have words to describe how beautiful she was. So he kissed her instead, saying everything he needed to with that one kiss. "Thanks" she smiled, after they broke apart. "Now lets go" she said, turning around when James stopped her, holding her wrist. She turned back to look at him. He moved closer, his hand snaked across her back and gently touched her hair. She could feel his hand stroke over the clip that was holding her bun together, and the next minute her hair bounced on her shoulders, shock on her face. "James , why did you-", "You look better with open hair anyway" shrugged James as he pulled her into another kiss and gave her a true, happy smile at the sight of which Lily melted away. They interlinked hands and climbed out of the portrait hole and made their way towards the Great Hall where the Yule Ball was being held. 

"Woah" exclaimed James when he saw the decorations. "I know" said Lily who was equally surprised at how well everything had turned out. "You two should be proud of yourselves. Putting together something that looks so beautiful- takes true talent" said McGonagall from behind them and hurriedly rushed away in the opposite direction muttering something about Dumbledore and how careless he was. Lily and James barely had a minute to take it all in before they were engulfed by their friends. They took their seats around the round table near the stage and started joking (and talking) about all kinds of things. Flitwick had just started playing a romantic number when a Hufflepuff sixth year approached them and held out her hand to James. "Care to join me for one dance?" she said, clearly trying to flirt with him. "UH - Sure" he said, shooting an apologetic glance at Lily as she led him on to the stage. 

Ten minutes later he came back and took a seat beside her, plopping his head onto her shoulder. The rest were gliding to the music on the stage. Lily immediately got up and held out her hand, "I think you ought to give me one dance" she said, "I do" smiled James and they danced to more than one song that night. It felt like everyone was looking at them, but they didn't care. Tonight was all about them. James however could swear he heard Dumbledore tell McGonagall how cute their couple looked and McGonagall nodded. They danced for almost an hour and sat down only when Lily winced as she couldn't even bear to stand in her heels. James let out a small laugh, immediately subdued by Lily's glare as he led her to a chair beside Marlene. "Your girl cant dance because of her heels to ?" asked Sirius. James nodded, "Yours?" he asked, " Same" replied Sirius. They looked at each other and burst out laughing, "Girls!". They excused themselves and went to get drinks for the girls. They returned to find Bellatrix talking to Lily in a rather unpleasant tone. Sirius gave her one look and she fled from there. Lily raised her eyebrows as Bellatrix strutted away and with a sigh of relief she picked up a glass of butterbeer beside her and took a sip. 

James was steered away by Sirius. Both of them went to talk to their fellow Marauders. Lily and Marlene started talking about the Yule Ball, the decorations, guys and Alice, who was busy with Frank. Lily laughed hard at one of the jokes Marlene had cracked when she saw James, with a bunch of girls and among them the same Hufflepuff girl who had stolen her first dance with James. All of them seemed to be flirting with him. A Ravenclaw had just placed her hand on James's arm as she laughed. James tried moving away but the girls kept coming closer, trying their best to touch him. With a grunt, Lily got up, rather painfully, and briskly walked towards James and the girls. The Hufflepuff girl had just attempted to touch James's hair on the pretext of brushing off a piece of confetti, when James pulled his head back dodging her hand and himself ruffling his hair so that the piece of confetti fell of. Lily replaced the frown on her face as she came near James with a smile, put her hand on his back. James looked at Lily with a smile as he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer, her head resting on the edge of his chest. Lily joined in the conversation for a few minutes and the army of girls disbanded after a few minutes . A relieved Lily gave Sirius the don't let my boyfriend near girls  look which Sirius seemed to understand and gave her a nod. She made her way to the chair beside Marlene and gave her a smile, because both of them knew what had happened. The rest of the night Lily saw many girls eyeing James and giggling. Every time a girl went too close to him, she would join James and cosy up to him, planting a kiss on his lips as she did. 

"That was one hell of a Yule Ball" exclaimed James as he lung Lily's heels over her shoulder. Lily looked at his child like grin with a smile and gave Mrs. Mary the password. They walked back to their own rooms. James had joined Lily's room already changed. Lily had not yet started changing, but was looking at the sky outside her window, remembering her parents. At the sound of James entering she turned around and saw him smile at her. 

She walked to the dressing table in her room and began removing her earrings and said, "So, a lot of girls seemed to have liked you today." trying to sound casual. James smiled to himself knowingly as he wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder, nestling closer to her, hugging her from the back. "Really?" he asked. "Really. I saw so many girls trying their best to touch you. I mean that's why I kept joining you even with the pain in my feet" she said, putting her necklace down and putting her hand over James's on her waist. "Someones getting possessive" said James, in a sing song voice. Lily blushed as she turned around. "But really Lils the only girl who will ever get this close to me is you, so nothing to worry about because I love you Lily Evans". Lily smiled, an unknown relief spreading through her body as she leaned in to kiss him. 

After what seemed like hours of talking, giggling and James taunting her about how possessive she was of James, they finally fell asleep wrapped in each others warm embrace. That night James and Lily both dreamt about each other, always happy- together. Always.