Turning Tables

Chapter 18 - Dancing

(J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L) (J&L)

If he saw one more Halloween decoration he was going to vomit. Actually vomit. He might even consider charming it black and orange in honour of the occasion. He said as much to Lily, who responded by throwing a cardboard bat at his head.

'No vomiting James! Vomiting is what got us into this mess in the first place remember?'

He had to admit she was right. Since term had started the Marauders had been so overworked that they hadn't found time to play a single prank and some of the Gryffindor third years had got it into their heads that they ought to take over the mantle of school pranksters. Unfortunately, they didn't have quite the same levels of talent as he and his friends had, so their attempt at slipping hiccoughing solution into Wednesday's dinner had gone badly wrong and resulted in several students and staff being admitted to the hospital wing with serious vomiting.

This unfortunately included Professor Flitwick, who was now unable to make good on his promise to handle the Halloween decorations; so at some point after breakfast on the morning of Friday 31st October, James and Lily had found themselves alone in the Great Hall with several enormous boxes of decorations and no idea what to do with them. They had been excused from classes for the day in order to prepare for the ball, but it wasn't until they'd arrived in the Great Hall and taken a good look that they realised quite how, well, big it actually was; lunch had actually been served to the students in classrooms to give them long enough to decorate.

And now it was four hours later, and they were almost done. Lily had - in a stroke of absolute genius, he wasn't afraid to admit it - recruited a dozen house-elves from the kitchens to carve the pumpkins for the tables, and the two of them had gotten straight on with hanging streamers and cardboard bats and plastic skeletons and Agrippa only knew what else from every wall. When they were finished with this he doubted he'd have the energy to actually attend the ball.

He sneaked a sideways glance at Lily; he couldn't quite help it, his eyes always found their way to her when she was in the room. She was stood on one of the house tables, hair loose around her shoulders, feet bare and she was wearing scruffy muggle jeans and a t-shirt. Her wand made intricate flickering movements as she enchanted their carefully hung decorations to move and respond to their surroundings; it was such difficult charm work that he couldn't quite follow it all, though he tried to keep track of her work. Not for the first time, he thanked every deity he could think of that she was Head Girl, that it was her that he worked with.

He stepped back and eyed their handiwork. Not quite as good as Flitwick would surely have managed, but impressive none the less given their limited time frame and a certain lack of enthusiasm on his part. He narrowed his eyes as an idea struck him, and he twirled his wand at the thousands of floating candles and turned them black. Lily noticed the candles nearest her change and turned to beam at him.

'Nice touch. Do you think we can charm the doors to groan when they're opened as well?'

'No need. I'll get Filch to stand behind them and moan, no-one would be able to tell the difference.'

She laughed at his joke, rotten though it was, and he thought privately that it wasn't so much the joke that made her laugh as her need to show that all had been forgiven between them. He was thoroughly ashamed of himself for making her cry a couple of weeks ago (whether he'd had a right to be angry with her or not), and he'd been as affectionate as she'd let him get away with since; he couldn't deny that he was relieved that she was willing to accept a hug and then forgive and forget.