Back in the girls' dorm room, Lily was still pondering James' previous confession, whilst Candace constantly bugged her about the initials H.B.
"Maybe it was a joke? Another prank they have pulled?" said Lily out loud, her head tilted as she stared off into the distance.
Candace, who had been constantly poking the same spot in Lily's arm, stared at her and fought off the sudden urge she had to slap her friend in the face.
"Lils," she said, her teeth grinding together much like James' were a few hallways down, "He really does like you. I can tell. And it was totally obvious anyway. I mean, the lack of girlfriends? All the time you and him spend together? You're, like, meant to be."
Lily snapped out of whatever daydream she had been concocting to stare at her friend.
"What are you on about? James nearly has as many girlfriends as Sirius! Slutty, stupid, brainless bimbos..." she mumbled.
Candace smiled. "Someone a little jealous?" seeing Lily's expression, she continued, "No I mean, like, proper girlfriends. I don't think he's ever had a proper one! You know, who he can talk to and all. Not just a quick fuck."
Lily crinkled up her nose. "Cands, do you have to be so... blunt? Anyway, so what if he hasn't had many 'proper' girlfriends as you call them. He probably just hasn't found the right girl. Did you think of that?"
"Or maybe, he's found the perfect girl already, and she's just within arm's reach," said Candace, grinning, "And she's a little on the short side, with this insane red hair, blue eyes, killer body..."
Candace was cut off when Lily launched a pillow directly at her head. Before the pillow missile reached Candace however, she noticed the smile on Lily's face.
"Ha! You're smiling the smile!" yelled Candace, throwing the pillow back at Lily.
"What smile?!" yelled Lily back, trying to fight the urge to smile.
"The smile where you liiiiiike someone," said Candace, giggling and clapping her hands.
"What are you, twelve?" said Lily, grinning a little as she spoke the words. "Anyway, there has to be a real explanation for this. There is no way that James likes me. And that's that!"
"Argh!" yelled Candace, grabbing the pillow and putting it over her own face to scream into it.
"Would you shut up, woman," grumbled a groggy Sammy from the other side of the room, "Some of us have normal sleeping habits."
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A splash of extremely cold water woke Lily up rather rudely.
"Agh! Wha -! Grah!" she screamed, shivering and sitting upright in bed.
"Sorry Lils," said Sammy, not looking even remotely sorry, "But you wouldn't wake up."
"Yeah," chimed in Candace, bouncing up and down, "And it's breakfast time! Yummy nummy breakfast!"
Lily simply stared at them both, a perfect picture of the living dead.
"Why the hell," she croaked, her voice thick, "are you so excited?" she said to Candace, "You were up as late as me."
"Was not! You were up all last night thinking about a certain bespectacled boy, with this cute messy brown hair..." said Candace, earning a glare from Lily, "Or perhaps, another boy with H and B in his name! Seriously Lils, why won't you just tell us who is so hot that he is stopping you from going out with your one true love?"
Lily simply continued to glare and threw the bed covers off, stalking into the bathroom to ready herself for the upcoming day. "Blargh," she yelled as she shut the door.
"Ah, why didn't we think of that? Blargh," said Sammy, giggling under her breath.
Candace crossed her arms sulkily. "Hmph."
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Meanwhile, the boys were already in the Great Hall shovelling food down like there was no tomorrow.
"Siripassthebacon," said James between mouthfuls.
Sirius reached in front of him without looking, sticking his hand first in the maple syrup, then the tomato sauce, then a bowl of scrambled eggs, before finally grabbing the plate of bacon and sliding it James' way, covered in all of the above mentioned substances.
"Ta," James mumbled, throwing pieces of syrupy, saucy, eggy bacon into his mouth.
Remus looked on in amusement, eating about the same amount of them, but with a few more matters.
Across the table sat Peter, whom was whining.
"Guys, seriously, that was a mean prank. One bit wouldn't come out of my hair and now I have a pink streak! A pink! Streak! In my hair! Now how manly is that. I was going for a real macho look this year, did you see my new pants..."
His three friends tuned out to his babble, Remus nodding and making the occasional "mm" noise so that Peter wouldn't feel too ignored.
It was at the point that Sirius was helping himself to his sixth serving of pancakes that the three girls made their appearances, sitting down next to the boys.
Sirius didn't even bother to look up, as it was obvious he still had a lot of eating to do. Peter continued his rambling to an unfortunate Ravenclaw girl at the next table, and Remus nodded hello as he continued to eat.
James, however, stopped eating completely at a very inopportune moment. His mouth was half open, showing what could have possibly once been a sausage, fork halfway to his mouth with another helping bestowed upon it. He stared at Lily, his face turning bright red.
He mumbled something and then looked down again, shovelling in more food to disguise his face and so he didn't have to actually converse.
Lily pretended she hadn't seen him and began to pile food on her plate, ignoring nudges from Candace and knowing looks from Sammy.
"So James," began Candace loudly, startling James and everyone within a 50 metre radius.
"Yes?" he asked tentatively, his eyes flickering from Candace to Lily fearfully.
But Candace never responded. The entire Gryffindor table had gone quiet. Well, at least, the girls had anyway. Their eyes were all pointed towards the swinging doors at the back of the hall.
James craned his neck to see whom was causing such a distraction, and nearly choked on his eggs.
Jacob Renning was strutting through the hall, head high as he nodded at students, waved to teachers politely, smiled winningly at girls.
All eyes were on him. Girls wanted him, and boys wanted to be him.
As he sauntered closer towards the table James noticed something else. A dirty great shining badge in his chestal area. James began to breathe heavily, gripping his fork so hard that it left an imprint in his hand. That dirty great twatting prat was head boy. Head Boy!
He didn't deserve such a status! He was an absolute idiot, so stuck up and... Wait. And then, something dawned upon James. Renning was Head Boy. Lily was Head Girl. That meant... they would be working together.
James quickly looked to his left, to see Lily with the same dumb lovestruck look on her face as the rest of the girl population.
The fork snapped in James' hand, and he made a completely illegible sound, causing Sirius to finally look up.
Sirius took one look at James' face and the broken fork, then looked to Lily, following her gaze across to Renning, whom was now taking a seat across from the boys.
Sirius slowly put down his knife and fork, painstakingly pushing his food away and giving it an apologetic look, then got up and out of his seat, going to stand behind James.
"Hey Potter," said Renning cheerfully, nodding at James as he grabbed a piece of toast.
James merely nodded robotically before letting Sirius pull him out of his seat and out of the Hall.
"Flerghwehnisperdick!" yelled James once they were well clear of the Hall.
"Yes James, use you words," said Sirius soothingly, patting him on the back.
"Say that to me one more time," fumed James, "And I will break your face!"
"Now Prongsy dearest, I don't think it is my face you want to break, but rather, a certain tall Head Boy's face," said Sirius, grinning a little as James turned an even darker shade of red. James' facial expressions sure did bring amusement into Sirius' life.
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Back in the Hall, the females had recovered from Renning's entrance, and everyone was peacefully eating again.
Everyone except for Candace, Sammy and Lily of course.
Lily was staring lovingly at Renning as he chatted to the boy next to him, tucking her hair behind her ear and sighing every so often.
Sammy was trying to eat her breakfast in peace, but Candace was staring at her and kicking her.
Sammy looked up at Candace in annoyance. "What?" she demanded, glaring at her friend.
Candace began to make different signs with her hands, first pointing at Lily, then Renning, then making a whole lot of convoluted hand movements.
Sammy stared at Candace, then diverted her gaze to Lily, and realised what Candace was trying to say. Lily was gazing at Renning adoringly, a ridiculous smile on her face.
Sammy gasped quietly and smiled, then looked back to Candace, who was making more funny hand movements. She kept making a square over and over again on her... chestal region.
Sammy looked over at Lily and Renning again and then suddenly realised. Renning had a Head Boy badge. H.B.
"H. B!" squealed Sammy loudly, temporarily taking Candace's role as the raucous one.
Lily's head snapped towards Sammy, her expression suddenly feral.
She glared at both Sammy and Candace, warning them to be silent, then turned back towards Renning, who was staring at Sammy.
"Um, did you say something?" he said, directed at Sammy.
"Oh," said Lily over the top of Sammy loudly, "She said she saw a bee. How silly! Ha ha."
Renning nodded and smiled at them, giving them an odd look before turning back to the boy he had been talking to previously.
"Ohmygod," said Lily under her breath, pushing her plate away and putting her rather red face in her hands.
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For both Lily and James, their day had been spent going from class to class with their friends 'suggesting' what they should do.
"But Moony, she doesn't like me! Obviously! Why should I ask her out?"
"No Sirius, I'm not going to propose to her."
"Peter, your hair looked bloody stupid anyway!"
By the end of the day, James was a little frustrated. But he had made a decision. He had to talk to her.
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"But Candace, I don't like James! I don't think, anyway. I like. Well. H.B!"
"No Sammy. I won't go out with James. No, Renning is not a prat! Okay, he's a little stuck up but he seems really sweet..."
And Lily was stuck in a permanent state of disillusionment.
XxxxxX
That night at dinner, James took the plunge.
He walked up behind Lily, cracking his knuckles nervously. He tapped her on the shoulder, trying not to flinch as her eyes met his.
"Lily, we need to talk."