Please, please, please R/R

Where we last left of….

It was a week until the Spring Ball, and, perhaps surprisingly, only Remus and Peter had secured their dates. Remus was taking Camilla McNamee, a pale Ravenclaw with a kind smile that matched his own. I had seen them sitting and laughing quietly together several times this past year. Their flimsy pretense of collaborating on homework fooled no one, mostly because they didn't have any classes together. Remus just grinned sheepishly whenever James, Lily or I mentioned this.

Peter had asked Doris Fagglesworth, a shiny, plump Hufflepuff who appeared highly affronted at his request, but who grudgingly agreed after a week's drought of other offers. Peter pretended not to care about her reluctance, but seemed annoyed by the fact that wherever James and I went, clusters of girls whispered and giggled and craned their necks, and seemed to think that we were dragging our feet just to irritate him.

"How long are you guys going to wait?" Peter prodded James and me for the umpteenth time in his impatient, whiny voice. James was bent over, intently reviewing a book on transfiguration, and just shrugged his shoulders indifferently. He had been behaving strangely ever since the Ball had been announced, so I couldn't help but wonder whether his indifference was sincere.

I knew whom I wanted to ask, of course, but that was the whole problem. How do you ask one of your best friends to a ball without either making your romantic intentions seem so serious you scare her off, or else so offhand that she never realizes how you feel?

Besides this primary worry, though, I had two others. First, I was afraid asking Lily might affect my relationship with James, Remus and Peter. I was kind of confident that none of them harbored romantic intentions towards her (they'd tell me, right?), but I suspected that asking her would nevertheless change the dynamic of our foursome. My only other worry concerned James: since he still didn't have a date yet, I feared he might ask Lily out of either last-minute desperation or a desire for comfortable familiarity before I had had an opportunity to work up my resolve.

And with that, having cataloged and reviewed my worries for the hundredth time that day, the object of my affection plopped down in the chair between James and me with an exasperated sigh, her legs flung over the arms of the chair and twitching restlessly.

"So there she is," James smiled, finally looking up from his book. Lily let her tongue loll out of her the corner of her mouth and panted melodramatically.

"I am so exhausted," she sighed. "I think Professor Wimfobst must drink alone all day in that shed of his. Because, really, how much time can you spend worrying about those silly flobberworms?"

"They're very useful creatures, Lily," James said, his brow furrowed with mock seriousness. Lily raised her eyebrows and sighed again, "Mmmm-hmmm."

"So, Lily, do you have a date yet for the ball?" Peter started in again, James moaning in reply. "Again, Peter?!? You're a man obsessed! You have your date, so what does it matter if Sirius, Lily and I have gotten ours?" Peter flushed and his eyes narrowed at James.

"Yeah, I do," Lily responded softly, her cheeks coloring. "He just asked me in class." James and I spun around.

"What?" he asked incredulously. "Who is he?" Lily's cheeks reddened even more.

"What? Am I such a lump of day-old cheese that my having a date surprises you?" she said with very real, very quiet anger, her forehead creased in a hurt and angry expression.

"No, I just mean…well, I just thought that…we would know, you know? If someone liked you, I mean," he tried to recover, stuttering uncharacteristically.

"I told you, he just asked me. I didn't have an opportunity to tell you guys yet," she said, more calmly now. "I'm going with Amos Diggory."

****

Yeah, yeah. I'm a sucker for falling back on the old and familiar. Some people have indicated that they think this storyline is kind of dumb. Should I continue it or no? I have a kind of good idea where I'm going, but if you want me to continue and/or you have suggestions, I'm all ears. Kisses to my reviewers!