Evil's Kiss

Chapter Two

"I can't believe he gave us two detentions! Besides; Lily, Octavia, Remus and Peter were also involved," said James to Sirius on their way to the common room an hour later. "I'm still pissed at Snape! That little bugger is so full of himself, he can't even take a damn joke, and accident at that."

"Well," Sirius said with a smile, "we will just have to get those naughty children back at the Halloween ball."

James smiled dangerously, "what do you want to do?"

"We'll figure it out tonight, won't we? After all, the ball is in tomorrow." With that statement, the boys fell silent and walked. After a while, James spoke.

"Who are you taking, Black?" James asked lightly.

"Taking? Oh, to the ball you mean? I was thinking of taking Octavia," he said half-smiling. "Who are you asking?"

"I really want to ask Lily," James said.

"I knew it! One piece of advice though, mate, just do it quickly. I heard that a seventh year Slytherin wants to ask her too. If anything, do it tonight."

"That's what I was thinking. I know it's tomorrow and should have asked her weeks ago, but I've been trying to work up the courage. Let's hurry up, lessons are in a couple of minutes," James said and broke into a jog. Sirius followed.

~

"Yeah, so I was like, Ginger! You can't date Marcus and Doyle at the same time! And she was like, 'Why not? I couldn't choose between the two if I had to.' Well, I almost smacked her right there. You know that Marcus is like, one of my closest friends. Do you think I should tell him that she's cheating on him?" Octavia asked Lily as they were walking across Hogwarts vast lawn toward Herbology.

"Well, I don't know. It depends on how much she likes one or the other and all that mushy stuff. Not to mention the fact that..."A discreet cough caught Lily off guard

"Lily, may I have a word with you?" A voice behind her spoke up quite close to her ear. Lily turned around and looked into the stormy gray eyes of someone quite familiar.

"What? Oh! Mr. Riddle, you startled me! Er... okay. I'm on my way to Herbology," Lily said.

"I have Care Of Magical Creatures. Would you walk with me?" Tom Riddle asked quietly.

"Octavia, could you go on ahead?" Lily asked her friend and fixed her with a look.

"Um... sure, but Lily, you'd better hurry up, Professor Mackintosh will be really mad if you're late." said Tavia in a worried tone directed at Tom.

"It's fine, Tavia, go on, get out of here!" Lily said, a tad impatient. Octavia eyed the two slowly and walked off.

"Hey Lily, how are you?"

"I'm peachy, and you?"

"I can't complain. Well, as you might have heard along the infamous grapevine of Hogwarts, that I wanted to ask you to the Halloween ball. It was true. I would be honored if I could have the most beautiful woman on my arm tomorrow night." Finishing, he flashed his most charming smile. Lily stopped walking for a moment. She paused with a thoughtful look on her face. Her mouth opened as if she was going to say something, but then she shut it.

"Oh Tom... I would be delighted."

Tom sensed the hesitation in her voice. "But what? What is it?"

"Well, I know our houses haven't... er... gotten along very well, but maybe this is the chance to show everyone that every house could get along," Lily said.

After an awkward pause, Tom spoke up "Oh that is a thought. Um...can I meet you in the great hall at eight p.m. tomorrow? Is that alright?"

"That would be great, Tom." Lily smiled.

"Just one more question."

"What is it?"

"What color are your dress robes?"

"They're black, why?"

"How did I guess?" Lily mused to herself, then she said more loudly, "I just wanted to make sure we're gonna match," Lily said smiling.

"What color are yours?" Tom asked.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out, now isn't it?" Lily said and smiled again. Then after a lingering pause, Lily began to make her way alone, toward the greenhouse.

"Until tomorrow," Tom said. Lily had her back to him when she heard his parting shot, so she turned around and gave him a mock bow.

"I'll be waiting." With that, she disappeared into the greenhouse.

~

"He did what?" Octavia exclaimed in a surprised voice. They were back in the Gryffindor common room after dinner, taking a break from their homework.

"How many times do I have to tell you? He asked me to go the ball with him and I said yes," Lily said with a slight smirk.

Exasperated, Octavia sighed, "James. Does that name mean anything to you?"

"I heard some things, but he waited too long. The ball is tomorrow, for Merlin's sake! I was surprised that I had even been asked! I had all but given up hope. Don't you think that if James really wanted to ask me he would have done it earlier? You saw him in the hallway this afternoon. He blushed just by knocking into me. It all comes down to the fact that Tom asked before James."

"He's going to be heart broken!"

"Oh please. It's not like we were going out or anything...yet." Lily grinned wickedly and both girls giggled.

"Oh Lily," Tavia said in a worried tone, "I hope you know what you're doing. This sounds like Ginger and her predicament. The worst part is that I've heard some bad things about that Slytherin. People in his own house were talking about him. They said he is very advanced in the dark arts. To put he icing on the cake, he knows more spells and hexes then Severus Snape, and you know that has to be the worst thing in the world."

"Octavia! Stop being a worrywart! It's going to be a wonderful, romantic night of laughter and dancing. Nothing can go wrong. Now, enough about me, who are you going with?"

A flicker of amusement shone in Tavia's eyes. "I am going with Sirius. He asked me before you came into Herbology," she said very happily.

"Oh Tavia! How romantic!" Lily said. "But I must say, it's about time," said Lily, knowing that ever since they knocked into each other back in their first year, Octavia was ga-ga over the tall, dark, and mysterious Sirius Black. There was a lull in the conversation so the girls took up the task of their homework. Lily yawned and stretched.

"I'm going to bed," Lily said a couple minutes later. Tavia looked up.

"Lil, you know I'm your best friend. You can tell me anything," she said, looking at her with wide puppy eyes.

"Oh stop it! I'll be fine." Lily could now tell that this thing with Tom wasn't going over as well as she had hoped.

"Oh, I guess somewhere deep inside I know that. I'll see you in the morning. Good night," Tavia called.

"Nite," Lily answered back. On the way up, she spotted James and his friends in the corner. They were in deep discussion about something that appeared serious. James kept looking over his shoulder toward where Octavia and Lily were seated. Suddenly James hit Sirius in the arm and he looked over. He caught Tavia's eye and winked. In turn, she smiled back. When James caught the exchange, he just got up and stalked toward his dorm. Then he slowed and pivoted, coming toward her quickly.

"Hey, Lily! I need to ask you something important," James said before she could retreat into the safety of her four-poster bed.