Hey there everyone! This is the second chapter of The Longest, Most Convoluted and Absolutely Ridiculous Way to Plan to Eventually Go on a Double Date (The Longest Way to Plan to Eventually Go on a Double Date for short). The first chapter is on my wonderful friend haleyisafangirl's page, so if you haven't read that yet, go check it out because it is AMAZING and set us up for this wonderful adventure. Plus, this could get really confusing if you haven't read that. And she's just an all around fantastic person and deserves some more love. And I could go on and on about how great she is, but you all want to hurry up and read.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

So, without further ado, here is chapter 2!

"Ex-excuse me?!"

These were the first words Lily uttered after a lengthy silence during which Marlene decided it best not to talk. Now, however, she thought it best to step in and explain.

"Lily, please. I know you don't like him-"

"I . . . I don't like him?! I simply don't like him?! I thought you knew me better than that, Marlene! I thought you, of all people, would understand how much I absolutely despise him! Mary maybe not, but you?"

Marlene looked at her incredulously, "You can't seriously still be mad at him after all this time. The guy has practically been begging at your feet for years! If it weren't for his ego, he probably would beg at your feet! And even if you are going to insist on staying mad at him forever, surely you can put those feelings aside for one date! Please, for me." Marlene gave her the puppy dog eyes that had ensured she got her way for almost six years now.

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath, counting to ten in her head before opening them again, "I know this date with Sirius means a lot to you and I really don't mean to bring out my anger on you, or even Sirius, but that . . . that . . . boy," Lily spat the word like a bad taste in her mouth, "is just so infuriating! With his arrogance, his conceit, and his selfish disdain for the feelings of others, he is the last boy in the world I would ever consider going out with!"

"Lily, you're being ridiculous. There are far worse men in the world to date. Or even to know. Death Eaters, for example."

Lily's eyes filled with hurt and she murmured, "I thought we were all done with that."

Marlene's hands flew to her mouth and it took her a couple seconds to say, "You know that's not what I meant."

"Doesn't matter," Lily muttered, turning away and starting to get dressed.

Marlene continued to try and apologize, but the words seemed to bounce off Lily as she finished getting dressed and headed to the door. "Don't wait up for me," were the last words she said before closing the door behind herself.

She was heading down the stairs when she heard the voice of James and panicked. Instead of heading back up to the girls' dorm, she ended up on the boys' stairs and ran through the first open door. It took only a few seconds for her to realize it was the room of the Marauder's however, but with James only stairs away, she did the first thing that came to mind: dive under a bed. Her face was pointed towards the underside of the bed as she tried to be as quiet as possible and control her breathing and pounding heart.

She regretted her decision on this particular bed, however, when it's owner collapsed on it.

It was only when she heard Sirius' voice loud and clear and next to the bed that she started to really panic, because it meant that she, Lily Marie Evans was only separated from James Alexander Potter by a not so thick mattress. Crap.

The ensuing conversation was odd as she could only hear Sirius for most of it (and Remus when he came in), but when James did speak it . . . hurt . . . for some reason. Lily knew she ought to be delighted that James was finally giving up, but she wasn't, and that scared her.

Completely oblivious to Lily contemplating a few of her life choices under his bed, James rose and took the tie from Sirius.

"First off, no we are not because Lily is not going to say yes. Second off, even if we were, neither of us is going to wear this tie."

Sirius pouted, "Why not? This is a perfectly beautiful tie!"

Remus snorted, "Yeah, about as beautiful as your behind."

"Well then it must be gorgeous," Sirius retorted with a smirk.

Remus and James both rolled their eyes but didn't press the matter.

"But back to the real matter at hand, why do you two have a double date?" Remus asked as he grabbed a book.

"Because this bloody prat in front of us finally bucked up (heh, bucked up) the courage to ask Marlene McKinnon on a date. He obviously doesn't have enough courage, however, to go on it alone as he made the requirement that Lily had to say yes to me asking her out and it would be a double date." James gave Remus an unamused smile, more like a grimace actually, and then turned his head to glare at Sirius.

"Alright," Sirius roared when Remus gave him a face somewhere between amusement and disbelief, "Let's get a few things straight here. Firstly, I didn't make it a double date because I don't have enough courage. I'm in Gryffindor for a reason, after all. Secondly, the real reason I made it a double date is because James has absolutely horrid game and should be ashamed of himself for giving up so soon."

James glare turned to incredulous, "So . . . so soon?! It has been almost six bloody years! I have every right to give up! Honestly, the fact that I've chased her this long should be reason enough to give up, not to mention the constant refusals! I can only have my heart stepped on so many times before it's just not worth it anymore."

"More like it's your ego that's been stepped on so many times," Remus muttered from the pages of his book.

Before James could retort, however, Peter showed up.

"Sorry I'm late, McGonagall wanted to talk with me. What did I miss?"

A couple hours later, Marlene was pacing the girls' room, worrying about where Lily had gotten off to. Sure, they had fought, but Lily never took this long to get over a fight, especially one so generally insignificant.

"Stop worrying so much," Mary called from her bed. "Lily will be back soon, she always is. She probably just got caught up reading in the library and lost track of time."

"The library's been closed for an hour," Marlene snapped.

Dorcas rolled her eyes, "Honestly, if you're so worried, why don't you just go find her?"

"She wasn't in the common room when I checked earlier."

"So check again. Better yet, go get some help. You have a right to ask something of Sirius now that he's asked you on a date."

Marlene looked up at her roommate, her mouth open for a moment before she said, "Yeah, I'll go do that," and left the room.

The boys all looked towards the door when they heard a knock. Sirius was the closest, so he opened the door to Marlene's worried face.

"Mar, are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Lily's gone."

James sat up straight from where he had been lounging on his bed. "What do you mean she's gone?"

"I don't know where she is. We fought a couple of hours ago and I haven't seen her since."

Sirius and James glanced at each other for a second before Sirius turned back to Marlene and asked, "Why don't you come in?" as James got off his bed and went for his open trunk, extracting a seemingly blank sheet of paper.

He murmured a few words as Marlene sat down on Sirius' bed and started looking randomly around the paper.

"What is that?" Marlene asked.

"A map," Sirius answered, "It shows the whole school and if Lily is in the school, she's on this paper."

James stopped looking around the map and stared at one spot with a wrinkled brow and disbelieving eyes.

"What? What is it? Where is she?" Marlene asked.

"Lily's right . . ." James looked up and stared at his bed, "There."

Oh my gosh, you all don't even know how much fun I had writing this chapter.

If you loved it too, please let me know by reviewing or favoriting because I love getting messages from people saying they like what I've written and it just brightens up my day and encourages me to keep writing. Seriously, I don't need much. Exclamation marks are a wonderful creation.

And there is something else I was supposed to say . . . oh yeah! The third chapter will be up on Thursday by haleyisafangirl, so don't forget to go check that out and see what she did with this wonderful twist of fate I threw at her. She handles everything like a champ.

Oh, and if you spot the Pride and Prejudice reference, let me know.

See you again next week!

-Katherine