Promise Me

Forgive and Forget... Almost

The night of the ball had come with a gloomy mood. Valerie pulled out her new dress with a sigh. Lily and Marlene couldn't stop gushing over how beautiful it was, but Valerie wasn't really in the mood for a ball. She covered the dress back up and carried it with her to the Prefect's bathroom to get ready, wanting to be alone for a little while. As she left, Lily and Marlene exchanged sad glances. They knew how much she had wanted to go with Remus.
When she got to the bathroom, she ran herself a lavish bath, using almost all of the bubble faucets. Once she finally got out of her bath, she changed into the dress and did a quick up-do on her hair. She saw herself in the mirror and caught her breath. She had to admit she looked exquisite in the dress. The blush pink tulle shone in the light, and her leg peeked out of the slit in the side. Only one thing could make it better, she thought, and she performed a little charm on it to make live flowers bloom on the bodice.

She tucked her wand away and decided to head down to the ball. When she reached the top of the steps leading to the Great Hall, Remus and the rest of the boys had just reached the bottom. "Great," she thought to herself, "Just my luck." As she descended the stairs, people had already begun to notice her, including Sirius and James. Sirius turned around to face her and gently nudged Remus, who hadn't yet seen. When he finally looked up, he went slackjawed. He couldn't believe how incredibly beautiful she looked. He managed to stutter out an excuse to leave, but he wasn't fooling anyone. James and Sirius exchanged glances as he fled.
"Alright, I have a plan on how we're gonna fix this!" Sirius said.
"Thank goodness, this is getting out of hand," James sighed.
"It involves fire!"
"Never mind, absolutely not."
"Come on, just a lit—"
"No!"
"Fine," Sirius conceded dejectedly.
Once Valerie had reached the bottom of the stairs, they all turned to head into the Great Hall. James then went off in search of Marlene, and Sirius and Val found a seat.
"Ugh, look at us," Valerie lamented.
"Yeah, you without your boy, and my girl off dancing with James." Sirius leaned back in his chair.
"Oh, your girl?" Valerie questioned with a smile.
"Yeah, well, that's assuming that James isn't going after her, or the other way around."
"Well, Sirius, let me let you in on a bit of a secret. See, I told Marlene to ask James to make you jealous, and also I kind of hoped it would make Lily jealous. And speaking of which, here she comes, looking just about as miserable as us." Lily walked over and sat down with a sigh.
"What's up, Lils?" Sirius asked.
"Uh... I think the world is ending...?" She offered up with a shrug.
"What!" Valerie was immediately concerned.
"I just saw Marlene dancing with James and I think I felt something a little like jealousy. But that's crazy because I DISLIKE James very much. Yes. I do NOT like him. It definitely was NOT jealousy, and I definitely do NOT want to ask him to dance and maybe kiss him a time or two." With that, she buried her face in her hands. Valerie and Sirius were open-mouthed.
"Lily, did you just..."
"Confess that she likes James? Yeah, I think she did!" Sirius was giddy.
"Oh, please don't tell him, you guys! I don't think I'm ready for him to know yet." Lily's face was almost as scarlet as her hair.
"You have our word," Sirius replied solemnly.
Eventually, the three of them managed to get out of their chairs and began to dance as a little group. Finally, when the slow songs began to play, they exited the dance floor once more.
"I, um, I think I might go find James and see if he would fancy a dance," Lily said quietly before she quickly walked away.
"Yeah, I think I'm going to try to find Marlene, because something tells me that James is going to want that dance." With a laugh, Sirius disappeared into the crowd. Valerie realized she was now all alone. She also realized that she had not seen Remus since she had walked down the stairs. She peered around and thought she had caught a glimpse of him, but then found her vision suddenly blocked.
"Malfoy." She said curtly.
"Hmm. Are you still going by that filthy Mudblood name or have you conned your way into higher society?" Lucius Malfoy curled his lip into a vicious sneer. His cronies that had gathered around him snickered.
"It's Potter now. And don't you dare call people that!" Valerie drew her wand, and the crowd was beginning to part.
"You know, there's a great many witches and wizards who think society would be much cleaner without that scum." The two began to circle one another.
"Well, I sure hope none of those witches or wizards are here right now," Valerie snarled.
"You watch yourself, Valerie Potter, I wouldn't want to see you end up hurt... or worse," Lucius had an evil glint in his eye, but before he could say more, he was dangling upside down from the ceiling.
"WHAT IN HEAVEN'S NAME IS GOING ON!!!!" McGonagall came charging over, quickly lowering Lucius from the sky. "Miss Potter, what on earth has gotten into you? You will come with me to my office at once."
"Of course, Professor," Valerie hung her head and Lucius gave her a nasty glare.
Once they reached McGonagall's office, she motioned for Valerie to have a seat before striding around to her own chair.
"Miss Potter, I'm sure you are aware that it is not acceptable to hang your fellow students from the ceiling?"
"You're kidding! That rule must have escaped me," Valerie deadpanned.
"Was that sarcasm, Miss Potter?" Professor McGonagall gave Valerie one of her looks.
"Of course not, Professor. It was whole-heartedly sincere."
"Are you completely certain? I will not hold with sarcasm, and it surely sounded like that to me."
"Ah, sorry Professor, slip of the tongue."
"Well, Miss Potter, as I am sure that mister Malfoy did deserve what he got, I cannot let you off of the hook. Detention tomorrow night, my office."
"Of course, Professor," Valerie stood and left the office. She wandered back down to the ball, which had recovered from the incident. Sirius and James quickly walked over to Valerie.
"Alright, that was amazing! You should have seen him once you left. He's probably still sputtering that his father will hear about this," James said, mocking Lucius's voice.
"God, you really know how to pick your enemies, Val. The Malfoys? Did you have to?" Sirius looked stricken.
"Oh come on, what could be so bad about the Malfoys?" Valerie asked, forcing a laugh. She already could imagine what could be so bad.
"They are simply murderous. They believe in the whole blood purity thing, more than any pureblood family I've ever seen, mind you. It's been rumored that they have killed people who support muggles and muggle-borns."
"Well," Valerie tried her best not to look too shaken. "All of that aside, I hear they have lovely Christmas parties! Maybe we should go next year."
"Hm, too bad the party will be hosted by people who probably want you dead. I heard they have a chocolate fountain!" James cut in, trying to lighten the mood as well.
"I'm a sucker for chocolate. Don't tempt me!" They all laughed. Valerie felt someone watching her, and glanced over to see Remus watching her from a distance. When he caught her looking, he turned and walked away. She rolled her eyes and turned back to James and Sirius.
"Alright, Val. What are you going to do about him? You can't just block him out completely!" James began, knowing someone would have to bring it up eventually.
"I am just going to aggressively ignore that part of my life until it goes away," she responded.
"Yeah that— that's definitely not going to work." James sounded exasperated. "You know he still cares about you!"
"Yeah, well, frankly I don't give a damn," she lied, her feelings plainly displayed on her face.
"You give so many damns they're visible from space!" James shot back. He just wished they would talk to each other, work things out. "Please, Val. You don't have to forgive him yet, just hear him out. Let him explain."
"Fine. Fine. I will hear what he has to say, but that is all," she agreed, before going off in search of Remus.
She found him leaning up against the wall in the back of the room. "Remus, can we talk?"
He pushed off the wall. "Of course, Val. Do you want to go back to the common room so we can talk in private?"
"Sure," she agreed and they walked in silence back to the common room. Once they had settled themselves on opposite chairs, Valerie began to talk. "Alright, Remus. I want to know what happened. Who was she?"
"Her name is Lucie. She's in our Transfiguration class. I bumped into her in the hallway that day and she asked me for help with the homework that was assigned over the break. I agreed because I honestly thought that all she wanted was my help. I asked her when she wanted to meet, and she said right after dinner in that classroom, so she could practice without anyone else watching. Looking back at it, I don't know why I didn't see it, but I didn't, honest. I was helping her and then at then all of a sudden she kissed me. I stopped the kiss as soon as I realized what the hell was going on, but you must have missed that part. I really am sorry, Valerie. It isn't what you think it was though. Please, Val, please forgive me?" He raked a hand through his already disheveled hair. Valerie noticed the dark circles and the frantic look that his eyes held. He looked like a broken boy who hadn't slept in weeks.
"Alright," she took a deep breath. "I can see how it was not your fault. I do forgive you. However, I'm not ready to go back to what we were. Maybe one day, but not yet."
"I understand. Thank you, Val." The two stood up to go back to the party, but were met at the door by James and Sirius.
"Ah, thank god! Have you two made up yet?" Sirius asked.
"Yes, but we aren't going back to what we were, not yet anyway," Valerie told them.
"Well, that's alright. At least you're speaking to one another again. And since you are, Val, go change, you're staying in our dorm tonight. We gotta catch Remus up with all of the Lucius drama!" James was delighted that his sister and his best friend were once again on speaking terms.
"Oh, alright." Valerie felt like a giant weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
She changed and then headed to the boys' dorm. Once she arrived, the boys jumped right into the story. Of course, there were lots of laughs when they got to the part about Lucius hanging from the ceiling.
"You know, I really wanted to pull his trousers down and give everyone a free shot of his underwear, but McGonagall stopped me before I could," Valerie said between wheezes. She couldn't remember the last time she laughed like this with all of the boys.
They went to bed not long after that, exhausted after the long evening of dancing. Valerie was no longer angry at Remus and was ready to begin to work on building up their friendship.

The rest of their sixth year passed uneventfully. Valerie and Remus stayed friends and nothing more, not wanting to rush things. They had a feeling that they would know when, or if, the time was ever right to be more than just friends again. Once school was out, Remus was going to be staying with the Potter family for a few weeks while his parents were away on an extended holiday. They were all looking forward to playing quidditch and goofing around for one last summer together. None of them knew what would happen to them after their next year of school, or where their lives would take them. They just wanted to spend as much time together as they could.