It Only Hurts When I Breathe

After a couple of weeks of pouting, Grace finally, though not entirely, forgave Remus, James and Sirius, but only because Lily forced her to. It was nearly Christmas, which meant that the Yule Ball was just around the corner. The castle was abuzz with all things Yule Ball related, especially who was going with whom. Lily had once again rejected James' overtures, deciding instead on Andrew Jones, a seventh year and Ravenclaw's star chaser. Antonia and Morgana were attending the ball with two seventh year Gryffindors, Gareth Danner and Theo Martin. Sirius and Carrie were going together, causing her to be wary in the corridors, as several jealous girls had thrown some nasty hexes her way hoping to take her place as Sirius' date.

The day of the ball the sixth year Gryffindor girls were dashing madly around their dormitory trying to get ready on time. Dress robes, hair curlers, and stockings were strewn throughout the room. Morgana sat at the mirror, trying different charms on her hair. Antonia was turning her robes nearly all of the colors of the rainbow trying to decide on which she liked best. She finally decided on a deep indigo.

"Has anyone seen my left shoe?" Carrie asked, waving the right fuchsia slipper of the pair. She had emerged from under her bed, attempting to search for her missing shoe.

Lily, who was partially dressed in her satin emerald robes, brandished her wand. "Accio slipper!" she called out, causing Antonia to duck when a bright pink object shot out from under a pile of bedclothes and nearly collided with her head.

"Thanks, Lils!" Carrie grinned, slipping it onto her left foot.

"Are you nearly finished with the mirror?" Lily asked Morgana.

Morgana nodded, adding the finishing touches to the raven curls piled high atop her head. She rose to retrieve her robes from her bed and Lily took her place at the mirror.

Grace entered the dormitory, her hair soaking wet. "You're just now getting back from the bathroom?" Carrie asked.

Grace rolled her eyes. "I couldn't get past a bunch of giggling little fourth years. Besides, I've got plenty of time, no worries."

Carrie pointed at the clock, which read a quarter to seven. "The ball starts at eight."

"Godric!" Grace shouted, fumbling through her trunk until she found her dress robes: midnight blue trimmed with silver thread in a Celtic design. She pointed her wand at her hair, said a drying charm, and hurriedly changed into her dress robes. By this time the other girls were nearly finished primping, so they helped her get ready. Antonia charmed her hair into a complicated set of loops and swirls held together by a set of Grace's mother's antique hair combs. Lily found Grace's shoes and stockings while she sat at the mirror trying to apply makeup as quickly as she could. All said and done, Grace was ready in twenty minutes, a surprising feat. The five girls took one last look in the mirror and descended the stairs into the common room. Sirius and Remus stood at the foot of the stairs awaiting them. Gareth and Theo were sitting in the far corner, and rose to meet Antonia and Morgana.

"You girls can tell time, can't you?" Sirius grumbled. "We're already late."

Morgana laughed and winked at him. "Then we'll be fashionably so."

The cluster of Gryffindors exited the common room and made their way to the Great Hall. As they went, Grace watched Remus out of the corner of her eye. His sandy hair had been smoothed back, probably with the aid of one of Sirius' multitude of hair supplies. His robes were a deep chocolate color, which set off his eyes nicely. She wondered where he had got the money for such expensive looking robes; it was well known that Remus' family didn't have much.

Remus caught her looking at him and grinned. "The robes are Sirius'. He let me borrow them for the ball."

Grace blushed; he had known exactly what she was thinking. "Sorry, I didn't mean it that way. Your hair looks nice."

Remus laughed again. "James and Sirius tackled me with his hair gel. I didn't stand a chance."

Grace laughed at the thought of James, Sirius and Remus wrestling on the floor trying to fix Remus' hair.

"Where's James?" Lily interrupted, trying to act nonchalant. "Doesn't he have a date?"

Sirius gave a private smirk to Remus. "Yeah, some Ravenclaw, I don't know her name, but from what James said, she's quite a looker."

Grace giggled into her sleeve, and Remus winked at her. They both knew that although Lily refused to go out with James, she was still very jealous any time he started seeing any other girls.

By the time they got to the Great Hall, the Yule Feast had already begun. Lily left to meet Andrew, and Antonia and Morgana sat with their dates at another table. Remus, Sirius, Carrie and Grace started to search for a table, when a voice shouted "Oy, Padfoot, Moony, over here!" They turned to see James waving frantically, motioning them to his half empty table. His date, Raine Eversham was indeed very pretty, and rather smug looking at the fact that she was with one of the most popular boys in the school. Peter sat nervously beside his date, a Hufflepuff fourth year named Amy Frost. He had been so timid about getting a date that James and Sirius had asked her for him. Their small crowd chattered merrily during the Feast, and several times Grace caught Lily watching James from across the room.

After the students had eaten, the tables flew against the wall, courtesy of Professor Dumbledore, and the band, a new one called Gwydion, started up with an upbeat tune. Students flooded the floor with their dates. Grace dragged Remus onto the floor and snickered as he stood there, looking very out of place amongst the mass of wriggling teenagers.

"I can't dance," he shouted above the music.

"Neither can anyone else," Grace said, pointing to a pair of Ravenclaws doing some kind of odd, awkward looking dance. She snatched up his hands and began wiggling like everyone else. Remus laughed and slowly started dancing himself. They danced over to Sirius and Carrie, who were laughing madly and spinning around in circles. Grace waved at Lily, whose date was persistently attempting to lower his hands past the respectable zone. She grimaced and swatted his hands back into place. Grace pointed this out to Remus, and the two of them chortled and left the floor for drinks.

"Don't be surprised if James and Sirius haven't spiked this with Firewhiskey," Remus said, gesturing at the punchbowl.

Grace shrugged and took a deep drink. "Yeah, it does have a slight tinge of it." They chuckled and sat for a moment, but Carrie approached and asked Remus to dance. He looked questioningly at Grace, who waved him on. "Go ahead; I'll just take a breather." Carrie had always been rather smitten with Remus, so Grace was pleased to see them together.

She decided to get some fresh air out in the artificial garden Professor Flitwick had constructed for the Ball. The sky was extraordinarily clear and the stars seemed closer than usual, Grace thought as she sat down on a stone bench. As peaceful as the sky looked, the garden was the opposite. The shrubbery around her was alive with students snogging and groping. Strange muffled noises and loud kissing sounds made Grace think twice about going to the garden for peace and quiet. A large stick was protruding from one of the bushes, and for a moment Grace thought about taking it and running through the garden and poking at the rosebushes, but she restrained herself. It was getting chilly, so she returned to the warmth of the castle and her friends.

She and James danced to the next song, much to the disappointment of his date. He spent the entire time interrogating Grace about Lily's involvement with Andrew.

"So she's not serious about him then?" James asked for the tenth time. "They're not going steady or anything?"

"For Merlin's sake, James, no, they're not together! Get a grip on yourself," Grace said exasperatedly.

James sighed. "You're sure there's nothing..."

"Sirius, care to dance?" Grace interrupted James and wrenched Sirius out of a pretty blonde's grip and steered him to the other side of the floor.

"What was that for?" he asked irritably. "We were having a good time."

Grace rolled her eyes. "James had me trapped in the Lily inquisition again."

Sirius laughed. "Bloody hell, that must have been painful." They danced the next two dances together, snickering at the jealous girls circling them like vultures. The rest of the evening she had multiple partners, with Remus being her most frequent companion.

The Ball finally ended at the stroke of midnight. She and Remus followed the rest of the Gryffindor sixth years up to their common room. Just as they were about to enter the portrait hole, Remus pulled Grace aside.

"I had a great time tonight," he said shyly.

Grace smiled. "So did I. Let's do it again sometime, right?"

Remus grinned and looked at his feet. Suddenly, he grasped Grace about the shoulders and kissed her hard on the lips. Then, the kiss was over, and Grace stood there, completely confounded at what had just happened. He grinned sheepishly, then led her into the common room, where James was having a fit. It appeared that Lily wasn't waiting for them, she was no where to be found.

"I thought you said they weren't serious?" James shouted. "It's nearly half past and she's not back yet!"

"Calm down, mate. She's probably just saying good night," Sirius said, patting him on the back.

It was definitely the wrong thing to say. "WHAT! Oh, he better not or I'll pound him into-"

"Into what, James?" Lily appeared at the door. Her auburn hair was very disheveled and her robes were hanging awkwardly and slightly off one shoulder. She looked like she was trying very hard not to cry or laugh, but Grace couldn't tell which.

"What happened, Lily?" Antonia asked, rushing forward.

She shrugged and pulled her robes back onto her shoulder. "Andrew got a little carried away with saying goodnight."

Grace turned to see James' expression. He grew deathly pale, then slowly turned scarlet. "I'll kill him," he said in a low voice, standing up and starting toward the portrait hole.

"You'll do no such thing, James Potter," Lily said in a commanding voice. "I don't need or want you fighting my battles for me." Suddenly she grew sheepish and her cheeks became slightly pink. "Besides, he's already been taken care of."

Grace knew from previous experience that the next part was going to get interesting. "What did you do to him?

Lily turned a faint rose color. "I slapped him and gave him a furnunculus hex."

The common room erupted into laughter. "Merlin's beard," Sirius said between gasps. "Perfect prefect Lily actually hexed someone? Now I can die a happy man."

Grace rushed up to Lily and gave her an enormous hug. "That was brilliant!" she said as she let go of her best friend.

Lily grinned. "He had it coming to him." She looked over at James, who was standing silently in the center of the room with a very confused look on his face. The two girls burst out laughing again at the sight of James desperately trying to put together the idea of Lily actually hexing someone.

"I don't think he can believe it," Grace said as they climbed the stairs to their dormitory.

Once in their room, the five girls made Lily recount, in detail, the events of the previous hour. They giggled for hours at the thought that Andrew Jones, Quiddich star and complete cad, was somewhere in the Charms corridor stumbling about completely helpless and covered with disgusting boils. James too, was sleepless that night, but unlike the girls, he was racking his brain trying to find a way to get Lily to see how much he loved her before he lost her to someone else forever.