The Dance

James watched Bekki and Melanie walk in, but he didn't really see them. He was too busy focusing on Lily. She was so beautiful. When she walked in, the whole hall seemed brighter to him.
He made his way across the floor to her just as Remus got to the three of them, pulling Melanie aside.
"Hi, Lily," James said, trying to look as though he wasn't staring at her too hard.
"Hey, James," she replied, smiling up at him. When she smiled like that, James just wanted to kiss her forever.
"You look..." James paused, trying to think of a word that might even come close to expressing her beauty. "Amazing." It wasn't enough. But it was the first word that had come to mind.
She blushed faintly and pulled his head down to kiss him gently.
Straightening, James suddenly realized that Bekki was standing awkwardly in the the middle of the doorway she had walked in through, trying to look like she was enjoying herself. He was about to ask her if she wanted to come with him and Lily to get something to drink, when she was asked to dance by a 7th year Hufflepuff. She hesitated, then walked with him to the dance floor. James chuckled to himself as he saw Sirius sitting in a corner scowling at Bekki and her Hufflepuff friend.
"Come on, James," Lily said, slipping her arm through his. "Let's go find a table."
He let himself be steered toward one of the small tables near the wall. He looked up at the front of the Great Hall at the young boy from Ravenclaw who had offered to be disc jockey for the dance. He was actually quite good, choosing upbeat, popular songs to play. James thought his name was Michael. He was a 4th year. 4th years were always conceited. Likely, he would be bragging to his friends about how he had been chosen to DJ for the 7th years' ball.
Just then, Michael decided to make an announcement.
"All right, everyone," he said, his voice magnified to reach the whole Great Hall. "We're about to have our first slow dance. Feel free to dance with anyone you have a special interest in."
James stood up and held out a hand to Lily. "Care to dance?" he asked her.
She giggled and took his hand and they walked to the middle of the dance floor, James placing his hands on Lily's hips, while she rested hers on his shoulders. The song started, it's slow, steady beat booming through the speakers.
"I wonder if everyone's having fun," Lily muttered as they swayed to the beat of the music. A strand of her hair brushed James's cheek as she looked him in the eyes.
"I'm sure they are," he told her. The dance floor was filling satisfyingly.
Lily smiled and they started to lean in for a kiss. A voice interrupted them.
"Excuse me, but may I cut in?"
James recognized Severus Snape's pompous drawl at once and his lips pulled back into a silent snarl.
He glared at Snape, then looked at Lily to see what she thought, but was shocked to find her smiling at Snape. Smiling fondly! James stepped back, dropping his hands to his sides, then spun on his heel so that he wouldn't have to witness this hideous sight. It didn't keep him from being aware that it was happening, though.

Lily watched James's stiff, retreating form, wondering if she had made a mistake, smiling at Severus in the way that she had. She were rivals to the very bone marrow after all.
Thoughts of James were pushed out of her mind as Severus slipped his hands onto her hips. She hastily put her arms on his shoulders, looking into those dancing black eyes of his. She smiled.
"You look lovely," he remarked quietly.
"Thank you," she replied, dropping her eyes to her feet in embarrassment.
"I'm sorry I cut in when I did," he said, almost managing to look it, except for the touch of malice in his eyes. Lily had no doubt as to who that malice was aimed at.
"It's all right," she told him. She suddenly realized his hands were trembling slightly and his shoulders were tight. "Relax," she told him. "There's nothing to be afraid of." She began working out the knots in his shoulders.
He smiled weakly, though his hands stopped trembling. "I'm a little nervous."
She grinned reassuringly at him. He smiled back, all of the previous weakness gone as if drained out of him.

From his corner in the back of the Great Hall, Sirius's gaze shifted from Bekki, now sitting at an empty table fanning herself after her vigorous dance with that Hufflepuff twit, to James, who was sitting at a table alone, glowering fiercely. Where was Lily?
Quickly, Sirius found the answer to his question and a reason for the expression on James's face. Lily was dancing with Snape! The nerve of him! How could he dare! And, they were dancing a little too close for comfort. Well, not if Sirius Black had any say in it!
Sirius stood and marched toward the scene of the crime. He tapped Snape on the shoulder and hurriedly wiped his finger on his robes.
"What?" Snape's face twisted into a sneer.
"May I cut in?" Sirius struggled to maintain a smooth tone and expression. Well, somewhat.
Snape backed away from Lily, then stalked off to a vacant table, shooting heated glances at him occasionally.
Sirius dropped his hands to Lily's hips on she put hers around his neck.
"What were you doing, fraternizing with that low-life scum?" Sirius asked.
Lily opened her mouth furiously, probably to defend that scoundrel, Snape, but then her expression changed. "Sever-" she cut off abruptly. "We were just dancing."
Had she almost called Snape by his first name? Was she on first-name terms with that piece of dung? How could she?! Traitor!! No, he was jumping to conclusions. She was James's girlfriend, therefore, James's responsibility to make sure she wasn't cheating on him.
"So when are you planning on asking Bekki's forgiveness?" Lily asked sweetly, changing the subject.
"Dunno," Sirius grunted. This was not a comfortable topic. Definitely not.

Remus took another sip of his punch as he watched the goings-on of the various 7th years. Melanie, sitting across from him, was eying a cluster of boys standing nearby. Sometimes he worried about her. But so what if she did a little bit of harmless flirting every once in a while?
Suddenly, Melanie's gaze shifted to somewhere on the dance floor, and then she turned her eyes to Remus. He raised an eyebrow.
"I think it's your turn, Remus," she said.
"My turn for what?" he asked.
"To dance with Lily, of course! She started off dancing with James, then Severus Snape cut in, and now she's with Sirius! Go on, now! Shoo," she nudged his leg under the table with her foot.
He stood, setting down his cup. "I'm sure you'll find something to occupy yourself with while I'm gone," he said, smiling at her. She grinned back as he made his way toward Lily.
Tapping Sirius on the shoulder, Remus politely asked if he could cut in. Sirius looked relieved to let go of Lily. He backed away, smiling at Remus with more than a touch of gratitude. For what?
"Goodness gracious!" Lily said, letting her hands fall onto his shoulders. "You're the 4th guy I've dance with, and I just got here!"
"Mel noticed too," Remus said, scanning the dance floor for his girlfriend. He found her dancing with a boy some ways away from him. "She told me to come dance with you."
Lily seemed to read his mind. "She won't cheat, Remus. She just has fun flirting. She really does like you." It was funny how girls did that sometimes, when you least expected it.
"I thought Sirius looked a little uneasy. What did you say to him?" Remus asked.
"I was just wondering about him and Bekki. I don't see why he was so touchy about the topic."
Remus smiled and shook his head.

As Sirius walked away from the dance floor, he looked for Bekki. She was sitting alone, he foot tapping in time with the music. It seemed the perfect opportunity.
Sirius took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, then started walking toward her.
She stood up as he reached her, crossing her arms in that defiant way that girls did.
"Bekki, I-" he stopped, and had to force the words to come out. If he didn't do this now, he might never get it done. "I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."
Bekki's gaze slipped across him, inspecting him from toes to forehead, weighing and measuring. He wasn't sure if she liked what she saw yet. Suddenly, a light sparked into her eyes, making her seem more mischievous. He waited.
Abruptly, she reached up and seized two handfuls of his hair, wrenching his head down so that she could kiss him fiercely. Sirius had almost forgotten how good it felt to kiss her in these past two days.
She pulled away, letting go of his hair and straightening her robes. Sirius stood there, still waiting. "Apology accepted."
Sirius couldn't help grinning.

Severus Snape leaned back in his chair, taking a relatively large gulp of his punch. When he let himself tip forward again, he felt his lips twist into a frown as he looked at Lily, now dancing with Remus Lupin. He gritted his teeth thinking about who Lupin was friends with. Sirius Black and James Potter. Which made Lupin an enemy of his, almost as much as the other two. He would have loved to get just one of them into some kind of serious trouble, just once. For instance, if he could find out the pattern to Lupin's absences. He was sure there was one, but he hadn't been able to figure it out yet. Potter and Black most certainly knew the secret. And, most likely, that creep, Pettigrew.
Severus had disliked Sirius Black ever since he had met him on the train to Hogwarts. And that meant that whoever was friends with Black was an enemy to Severus. But there was more than one reason that Severus hated James Potter.
It seemed as though he was always in Potter's shadow. In their 2nd year, when Severus had decided to try out for the Slytherin Quidditch team and had miraculously made the team, he had been savagely beaten into the ground by James bloody Potter and his team of conceited idiots. That was why he had decided to quit the team. Potter even seemed to get better marks than Severus, overall, at least. Potter had always been weak in Potions and Charms, which were Severus's two best subjects. James Potter, everyone's favorite boy in the school, so popular, so handsome! And now, Potter had stolen the one girl that Severus had taken interest in, whatsoever! On top of that, he was Head Boy, now! Put all of those together, added to the fact that he was chums with Black, and Severus had himself a lifelong, blood enemy.

Melanie let her arms drop to her sides as she was asked by some girl if she would let her cut in. She looked up at the roughly handsome Hufflepuff boy that she had been dancing with. He smiled, and she backed off, grinning.
Mel sighed as she went to sit down. Surprisingly, Remus was no where in sight. That was odd. Knowing Remus, he would sneak back to their table as soon as he saw she was busy, and of course, as soon as he could get rid of Lily. Unless, he was...
Melanie looked to the dance floor, hardly daring to see, and there he was. Dancing with Abby. She had asked him, no doubt. Remus wasn't one to flirt. Ooo, the nerve of that girl! She had liked Remus almost as long as Melanie herself had. But that was no reason for Abby to flirt shamelessly with him when he was dating someone else.
Of course, you seem to flirt enough with other people, even though you're going out with Remus, another voice in the back of Melanie's mind said. Mel frowned.
It was true. She did flirt with other guys, never paying any mind to the fact that Remus was bound to get jealous, sometime. But flirting was so fun! Although, maybe she did do it a little too often and take it a little too seriously. She decided that, for Remus's sake, she would cut back some on the flirting with other guys.
Now that that was taken care of, she could go do something about the little wench, Abby.
Melanie walked over to where Remus and Abby were dancing and nudged Abby with her elbow. Abby's hair brushed Remus's face as she whirled her head toward Melanie. Melanie tried hard not to grind her teeth as she asked to cut in. Abby smiled around clenched teeth, then walked away. Mel smiled smugly at her back, then put her arms around Remus's neck and, just to show everyone that they didn't want to be disturbed, rested her head on his shoulder.
"Hey," he said, kissing her hair. She giggled.
"I saw that you were dancing with Abby," Melanie mumbled. "I decided to come and save you."
Remus chuckled wryly. She knew why.
"And I've decided not to flirt so much with other guys," she said, in defense.
"I'm sure you'll get really far with that," he muttered. She lifted her head to look him defiantly in the eye. He sighed, drumming his fingers on her hips. "I'm sure you'll try. I understand why you flirt so much."
There was sadness in his eyes. "Oh, Remus! It's not like that at all!" Melanie said, aghast. "I flirted even before I became your girlfriend." He still looked uncertain. "Remus, you're the best boyfriend a girl could ever hope to get and that's quite enough for me." She kissed his cheek, and he began to smile, weakly at first, then widened into a broad grin. She put her head back on his shoulder, relieved that she had reassured him without too much trouble. She didn't think that she could have survived without him, but it wasn't something she could voice out loud.

Lily walked slowly back to her table, after her dance with Remus was cut in by Abby. She saw Melanie sitting at a table nearby and was about to go to her, but Mel spotted Remus dancing with Abby and winced. Lily decided to leave her alone to deal with Abby by herself.
Lily spotted James, sitting in a corner, and she decided to go sit with him.
She plopped herself into a chair next to James, who gave her a withering look. She frowned at him. All she did with Severus was dance! Well, that and talk, but what was wrong with that? At least she didn't flirt with him like Melanie would have. And besides, it hadn't lasted long, anyway. Sirius had cut in within a minute. Who had been replaced by Remus, who was now dancing with Melanie. Abby was no where in sight.
"I hope you had a nice dance with Snape," James said, setting down his cup and pushing back his chair.
"Why, yes, I did," Lily said as though he had really meant it. "Where are you going?"
"Somewhere where I don't have to be around people like you," he mumbled, standing up. Lily barely heard it, but it was enough.
Suddenly, she was on her feet as well. "And what is that supposed to mean?" she asked, her voice dripping with poison.
James shrugged causally, not impressed, the nerve of him! Who did he think he was, anyway? Well, Lily couldn't take it, not from her own boyfriend. "All we did was dance, and there's nothing wrong with that!"
"Of course not," he said, not sounding in the least bit sincere. "But can you prove that's all you did?"
Lily reached up and slapped him on the cheek, hard. Her hand stung as she brought it back down. James just stood there, looking down at her, not even seeming to be aware that she had just hit him.
"I'm sorry I hit you, James," she said, and she meant it. James's cheek was beginning to turn pink from her slap. "But you need to understand that I am not your property, and will never be."
He sighed heavily sitting back down again. "All right," he said. "But can you promise me you'll stay clear of Snape without my permission in the future? You can do whatever you like, other than that."
Lily sat down next to him, looking into his eyes. "I promise."
James met her gaze levelly, then smiled, rubbing his cheek. "You do slap pretty hard, though, for one so small," he said. "Remind me in the future to not get in your way."
Lily laughed.

Bekki lay in bed after the dance, small snatches of music and images still flickering through her head. She was glad that she had accepted Sirius's apology so readily, and was proud of him that he had picked up the courage to apologize to her in the first place. She thought about what Melanie had said when they were walking down to the Great Hall and shivered. Mel had been right, that this one little fight could have broken her and Sirius up for good, but that was one of the chances you took while arguing, using the rules of Arguing for Dummies.
It had been a surprise for Bekki that Sirius had known how to argue professionally, and how he knew, Bekki still could not figure out. He seemed to be full of surprises, and who knows how many he still has hidden up his sleeve? The first surprise was when he had asked her out, and she had surprised herself by saying yes so hastily. His second surprise was Remus being a werewolf. It really wasn't his surprise, but since he had known about it before she did, it had been partly his surprise. The third was how well he argued. He had revealed a side that she could only have dreamed of. His fourth had been apologizing. She had known that he would sooner or later, but she hadn't suspected that he would do it so soon. If he had so many surprises already, it was almost a fact that he would have more.

Bekki drifted off into peaceful sleep, thinking dreamy thoughts of Sirius.