Chapter 2
Lily was woken up by Alice, as usual, but this time not normally, she was more excited for some reason. Lily was obviously confused, it was the first ball of the season today yes but Alice was not normally that excited for those kinds of occasions.
‘Miss Evans- I mean Lily, a dress has arrived for you’, Alice said excitedly, ‘Now I know you already have a dress for this night's ball but you have to see this one, it's magnificent, truly!’
Lily, who was half awake before, jumped out of her bed now and sprinted to the hall, where mail would always be delivered.
She opened the box and saw a beautiful subtle light green colored silk dress, she took it out of the box and saw that from the bottom of the skirt, up to the middle of the skirt, lily flowers were blooming, sewn in with white thread. It was so beautiful she could cry.
A note fell out of the folds of the dress, it didn't have any words on it, it was just signed with a pair of neatly drawn antlers.
Lily flew into Alice’s arms, ‘Thank you, thank you, it is the most beautiful dress i have ever seen.’ Lily told her maid happily. ‘Oh but miss Evans, I did not go to the modiste to get it made for you, somebody else did, nobody knows who.’ Alice said, smiling.
‘I know, I am just so grateful that you woke me up to see this work of art!’ Lily replied
A while later, Alice got her ready, just in a normal gown, not in the beautiful dress she received earlier that morning. She would be going out with Mary and Marlene that day anyway.
James Potter POV:
‘Mate, I genuinely can not comprehend how she still does not grasp that I am mad about her!’ James told Remus. Remus was James’ butler, they have had a really good connection ever since Remus was put in the function of being James’ butler.
‘She’s ignorant and you know that yourself too, sir.’ Remus answered, he said the ‘sir’ with a smirk, that made James laugh, Remus was good at that, making James laugh.
Remus and Lily were childhood friends, they watched each other grow up. And James did not know of that until a few weeks ago when Remus told him. He really was not taking advantage of that at all, but it did help him learn about Lily’s interests more.
He had loved Lily Evans since he saw her as an 11 year old girl skipping in the streets with her mother, she had two braids in with white bows at the bottom. That was a moment he would never forget.
James was sitting at the top of the stairs as he often did, there was a window just above the front door of the Potter manor and if you would sit in the spot on the stairs James was sitting, the view was amazing. James loved watching the view from there. Something distracted him, he heard the sound of the front door open, he chose to stay quiet. It was Sirius at the door, something between his best friend and his butler seemed to be going on, but James couldn't quite place it.
Sirius, James’s closest acquaintance since before his brain could comprehend, couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from Remus. Like he couldn’t bear the thought of not memorizing every freckle on his tanned face. While it was most definite that it was unimportant, it was a strangely intimate feeling between the two. James felt a bit uneasy but the thought as to why wasn’t clear.
‘Sirius is here!’ Remus shouted to James from the door to James who was at the top of the stairs.
James, being too excited to see his best friend, ran down the stairs, and jumped over the last 4 stairs. He ran into Sirius’ arms, he knew Sirius needed hugs, all the time, his family was rough.
‘Hello to you too my friend!’ Sirius told him happily.
For some reason, there had always been this awkward tension between Sirius and Remus, but James could never figure out why.
Once James and Sirius sat down in the sitting room James began to talk,
‘Remember how I took a trip to the modiste and got a dress made for Lily Evans?’ He said.
'Yes? Why?' Sirius said, giving James a questionable look.
‘Well it got delivered to her house today, and I left a note with it. I must say I am really proud of myself.’ James said proudly.
‘What?!’ Sirius said shocked, ‘You left a note with it?’
‘Yes, not my name on it obviously, just drawn antlers.’ James said, again feeling really proud.
Sirius laughed, James saw that it made Sirius nervous for some reason when he said that he put a note with it.
They laughed and talked for a while more, until Sirius’ butler, Barty Crouch (who Sirius complained about all the time), called out for Sirius to come back home because they needed to get ready for the first ball of the season, and lovely, delightful Mr Crouch ended this with a loud sigh.
A little while later, James was ready for the first ball of the season. He was beyond excited, normally he thinks balls are just fun, but now, something else was happening. Lily Evans, the love of his life, would be wearing the dress he got made for her.
Oh how he was looking forward to seeing her in those green silks, she would look so gorgeous, like she always did.
After a long carriage ride to the palace (where the first ball of the season would always be held) they finally arrived, James was grateful that Sirius was going to be there, he could rant to somebody about Lily, someone who was not his mother.
He was in the hall where everybody was waiting for the other guests to arrive, he was waiting for one guest in particular.
And there he saw her, the shining of the jewels against her pale freckled skin, her bright red hair that he had always adored, and the dress, oh the dress was perfect on her.
She was smiling brightly, more bright than he had ever seen her, had he made her that happy with the dress? Because she was walking alone.
She was perfect, James was smelling of April and May heavily ever since he had seen her for the first time.
If only she would see him the same.
Lily Evans POV:
Lily never thought she would have such a good time at a ball. She totally forgot about all of her worries, she even forgot that she was the prize of the season, she didn't even notice all the looks from all the men there.
There was one man that she did catch looking, James Potter, of course he came up to her.
‘Miss Evans, may I say that I think your dress is absolutely beautiful and fits perfectly with you.’ He said.
‘You may say that, I do agree I must say, it came in the mail this morning by an anonymous person, the only thing that was with it was a note with a pair of antlers on it.’
Lily said she noticed this made James smile, in an admiring way, and how much she hated him, that smile fit him.
They got to talking, which Lily thought they never would, she still despised him of course, but the only thing they talked about was her dress so it benefited her too.
Marlene and Mary hadn't arrived yet and that was the only reason she was talking to Potter at that very moment.
Lily wanted to walk away to go see the rest of the ballroom but James grabbed her hand and she looked at him surprised (not a good surprised way).
‘What do you think you're doing?!’ She said to him still mad, she had almost stepped on her brand new dress because of this widgeon.
‘Lily please, I would go to the end of the world for you, can you not see that?’ He told her, still holding onto her hand, politely now.
‘Speaking of you going to the end of the world, could you stay there?’ She returned, shot him an obvious sarcastic smile and turned on her heel and walked away, proudly.
A while later Lily was standing in the corner of the ballroom together with Marlene, sometimes Lily was asked to dance and she would. Lily enjoyed balls, Marlene most certainly did not.
Mary just returned from dancing with a lord and Lily decided to tell them about what Potter had said earlier,
‘Ladies, I want to tell you something.’ Lily told her friends
‘Have you finally found the right husband that lives up to your expectations?’ Mary asked, which made Marlene giggle.
‘Gosh, no Mary, you know I am never able to find such a man.’ Lily said laughing.
‘Men are no use, oh well, what did you want to tell us then?’ Marlene asked
And Lily told them about her earlier conversation with James, how she found it weird that he was so eager to compliment her dress.
‘Potter is so desperate for your attention, he always has been.’ Mary told her
‘I have noticed that over the past years, yes, but I do not want to give him that attention.’ She said
The rest of the evening Lily spent dancing with lords and pondering about her earlier conversation, eventually she did decide it was nothing, and let it go to have fun, and she did.