And Chapter 4! I didn't get much of a response on the first three chapters, so I took a bit of a break, but after a few PM's I figured I would give it another go!

FLASHBACK

Lily rolled off one of the couches in the head room and right onto James who was lying on the floor next to her. He made a groan as Lily giggled and placed a soft kiss on his lips. James opened his eyes and stared in awe at Lily and lifted his head to give her yet another kiss. It was a warm Saturday afternoon in late September and the sun was shining through the window and glimmering off of Lily's red hair.

"You are so beautiful," he murmured as he nuzzled her neck. Lily let out another giggle and rolled again so that she lay right next to him. They laid in silence for a few minutes just enjoying each other's presence.

It didn't take time for their forced niceness to become genuine. Once all of the petty pranking and teasing was set aside it didn't take long at all for the two of them to realize how much they had in common. At first, it was hard, then it was fun to joke around with each other, and now they wanted to spend every minute together. It had happened so fast that neither one of them had time to think about what they were doing, and before they knew it, they were a secret couple.

"So, when are we going to do it?" James asked seriously. Lily raised an eyebrow at him questioningly with a small smirk on her face. "Not that!" James recovered quickly, "I know that's coming soon," he said with a wink. Lily let out a laugh as he continued. "I meant tell our friends about us..."

Lily shifted uneasily and sat up. She glanced down at the still laying James unsure of what to say. As much as she wanted to tell her friends, it just really did not seem like a possibility. Their differences as groups ran too deep and she didn't want to deal with the drama that would unfold from both sides as soon as the news of the two of them broke. Not to mention right now their relationship was in a perfect little bubble. Everything that happened in this room was perfect and Lily was pretty certain that if they took it out of these walls the magic would be gone and the strain of their friends' opinion would weigh down on their relationship.

"Well. I mean- Do you think? Uhhmm-" Lily continued to stammer as James lifted himself up so that he was sitting across from her and took both of her hands in his and shushed her.

She looked up at him and knew that he understood what was going on inside her head. He brought her hands up to his perfect mouth and gave each one a soft kiss. Lily stared longingly at James. If someone would have told her a month ago that she would be sitting here with James like this she would have slapped them and told them to never mention the name James Potter ever again.

Now James Potter was the only thing she could think about. Every time she saw him her knees went weak and her stomach did flip flops. His kisses were soft and gentle and his eyes held far more than pranks and games, and she was so happy that she got to see that. She started to notice the things that used to annoy her as little quirks that made her smile like the way his hair was so messy and how he would spend half the day making sure it was perfectly messed up, or when she would notice him and his friends planning pranks, but now that she knew she wasn't a target, it was adorable to see how hard he worked on them.

"Come on, Lil," James started, "If I love you how could my friends not? And I know I could charm your friends." At this, James put on a semi-sarcastic smug look, and then quickly changed to a serious one. "I don't want to hide us anymore. I want to be able to kiss you in front of the whole school instead of pretending like you don't exist. I want the whole world to know that you are mine," he finished quietly and looked down. Lily sat silent for a few seconds.

"James, I want the whole world to know too. It's just that, I mean, even if we managed to get my friends to like you and yours to like me they would never like each other. And I don't want that. If they could be friends on their own terms it would be easier, besides do you really want to go through what you're going to get when they find out that you've been hiding this anyway?" she asked and looked at him.

"It doesn't matter to me Lily, as long as they know. I want to be with you in public. I've already made up my mind. I'm telling them in a week with or without your permission," he said. Lily's jaw dropped and her eyes began to frantically search James' face for a hint that he was joking. There was none. "I'm not hiding anymore, you can decide whether or not to tell your friends but they will find out either way. I'm sure they would rather hear it from you."

"But James that's not fair! This should be a mutual decision not just yours! Besides, it's your fault were not all friends anyways! If you and your friends hadn't played all those stupid pranks on us," Lily half yelled. James looked at her and let out a small laugh. Lily smiled to herself. "Well I may just deny it," she said as she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I've made up my mind. BUT on to a different subject," James sat up very straight and suddenly there was concern and worry in his eyes. "I saw you talking to William today after Transfiguration." Lily shifted uneasily as James continued. "What was that all about?"

"Oh, it was nothing. He just wanted to take me to Hogsmeade this weekend and catch up." Lily looked down at her hand as she finished not wanting to see James face. "No big deal," she added.

"No big deal?" James questioned, "He's your ex-boyfriend. You didn't say yes did you?"

"Well, yes, I mean I would like to be friends with him. He's not a bad guy." Lily looked up to see James looking put off and slightly rejected. She could tell that he wanted to say something as he took a deep breath, but instead he blew it out in resignation and looked up at her. He stood up and headed towards the portrait hole. Lily's eyes followed him in confusion and as he was about to step out he turned around.

"You have one week to decide if you really want to be with me. If you do we tell our friends. If you don't then this has to end. I don't want to be a secret," he said and then disappeared into the hallway.

End Flashback

The next morning Lily was woken up by Janet screaming gibberish into her ear.

"Rise and shine, Lily bumpkins!" she said rather cheerily, "Jill and Farren have already gone down to eat."

Lily raised her blankets over her eyes and rolled over. Janet let out a humph and decided to try a different tactic.

"ACCIO BLANKETS!" Lily's blankets flew from her bed and to the floor by Janet. Lily threw a little tantrum in her bed and then sat up.

"FINE! I am up, are you happy?" Lily shouted rather grumpily. Janet just let out a laugh and threw Lily her clothes. She got ready rather quickly and then the two girls were headed down to the great hall. Before they reached the entrance they ran into Nearly Headless Nick rambling madly. He stopped as he saw the two girls and then turned around to head in the opposite direction.

"What's the matter with you Nick?" Lily asked curiously. Janet took a step back. Even though they all knew the ghosts were nice Janet was deeply afraid of them. Nick turned back around to look at them.

"Oh, it's nothing really. Just that blasted Sirius Black, I swear every day I find him snogging a different girl and frankly I'm quite sick of it," He responded and then went on his way. Lily turned to look at Janet who looked defeated. Lily threw an arm around her friend and pulled her in the direction of the Great Hall.

"I told you it was going to be impossible," Janet said as they walked into the great hall.

"OY! Ladies over here!" Lily turned to see that the source of the voice had been James and everything from the night before came back to her. She let out a small groan, but then smiled as she saw Remus smiling and waving her over. Janet and Lily stumbled over to the boys and saw that Jill and Farren were already sitting with them, both raising their eyebrows as Lily and Janet sat down.

"Good morning," Lily said as she helped herself to some eggs. James smiled at her, but then quickly changed his look into a glare. Lily quickly looked the other direction to see Sirius stumbling through the entrance to the great hall with quite a surprised look on his face to see everyone eating together. As she looked around, she realized they were getting a lot of those looks from all over the hall.

'Oh, grow up,' she thought to herself as she began to eat her eggs. Sirius walked over and took a seat next to James.

"What's going on here?" he asked. Trust Sirius to get right to the point. No one spoke so he nudged James.

"Nothing we're all just eating TOGETHER. You know, as FRIENDS," he said through gritted teeth. Sirius looked absolutely disgusted. In fact, the only person that seemed to be okay with this arrangement was Remus.

"I think we came on a little too strong too early," Janet whispered in her ear, "This is too much." Lily stifled a giggle.

"So, Lily, I was thinking maybe we could leave around 10 for Hogsmeade tomorrow? That way we have plenty of alone time before we have to meet up with the gang," Remus said, receiving a death glare from James that went unnoticed. Lily tried not to wince at the word 'gang' and shrugged off Remus' ignorance as indifference.

"Uh, sure Remus that would be great, but I have to go now," Lily quickly stood up taking everyone off guard. She was quickly followed by Janet, Jill, and Farren. No one was going to sit at that table longer than they had too and they quickly walked to Potions which was their first class of the day and sat down and began to talk seeing as no one else would be coming for at least fifteen more minutes.

"Man, I don't know if this was such a good idea," Farren stated. "They are obviously on to us, not to mention my guy is thrilled to be going to Hogsmeade with Lily." Lily looked at her and couldn't believe what she heard.

"We can't stop now! We have never backed down from a bet or a prank, and this is both. Yes, it is hard but just think of how good it will feel when we do it! I know it seems impossible, but all we really need to do is think small. We should really just try to be friends with them. No funny business until they believe us."

"Yeah," Jill put in, "But at the same time we need to make ourselves more noticed. Make them pay attention to us, but then act like we are not interested in them. You know, make them confused."

All of the girls seemed satisfied with this new tactic and became lost in thought thinking about their men. Before they knew it, the class was full and the lesson was beginning. None of the girls could concentrate on the lesson though. They were all too concerned with the group of guys huddled in the corner.

"Well, maybe they actually just wanted to be friends," Peter whispered to the group of boys making sure no one could hear.

"Yeah, and I'm the bloody tooth fairy," Sirius replied. This brought a smirk to James face.

"Well, actually, you-,"

"Oh, shut up James," Sirius said as he punched James playfully. "I'm just saying, why after seven years would they want to be friends now? They don't care about us at all, they never have."

James felt a small pull in his stomach at these words and thought of a certain red head that he knew at one point cared about him very much, or at least he had thought. He began to wonder if she still did. He hadn't been able to completely get over her. That's why he held on to his anger. As long as he held on to his anger he would never be tempted to go there again.

"Well, they may want to be friends because they feel stupid for not being friends with the hottest guys in school and now time is running out!" James threw out with a cocky smile. Sirius shot him look.

"Maybe," he said disbelievingly. "I just don't trust those girls. But it is too bad we aren't friends. They are all bloody gorgeous."

All four boys turned their heads in the direction of the girls, all of whom were fidgeting with their quills and parchment, and crossing and uncrossing their legs. At that moment, Lily looked over at them and they quickly looked away. All except for James who remained with his eyes locked on Lily's searching for some feeling that might remain in them. Lily gave him a sad smile and turned back to her paper.

"Man, what I wouldn't give to get in those pants at least once," Sirius said looking at the girls. "You know even though we don't get along we could have a better conversation with them than any other girl in school."

James suddenly felt a longing for the days when he and Lily would have day long 'meetings' and just hang out together and talk. He pushed the thought aside and scolded himself. He couldn't go there again. Not after what had happened between them.

Later that night, Janet was pacing through the halls hoping to run into a certain someone. She had transfigured her skirt so that it was VERY mini and unbuttoned a few buttons on her shirt so that some cleavage showed. She was silently praying that she didn't go through all of this for nothing. She didn't usually dress sleazy, but she was desperate to catch his eye in a positive way and apparently this was the kind of thing he liked.

She was trying to convince herself that she could do this. She could pull Sirius Black without having sex with him. She knew she had what it took to get any boy, but this one was tricky and extremely handsome. She wiped her palms on the short fabric of her skirt as she was walking down one of the halls when she noticed that one of her shoelaces was untied. She swiftly bent over keeping her leg straight so that her bum was up in the air and began to tie her shoe. As she stood up she felt the presence of someone behind her and quickly turned around and there he was Sirius Black, looking her up and down with interest plain in his eyes.

"Janet," he said and began walking towards her.

"Sirius," she said as she fought the urge to step backward, thankfully there was a wall behind her. Sirius came right up next to her and looked her in the eyes. Janet's insides began to roll around backwards and forwards, right and left, so hard that, she had to fight to keep her balance.

Finally her brain began to work again and she began to set her plan in motion. She took a step to the right and he blocked her path. She then switched gears and took a step to the left and her path was once again blocked. She sighed and leaned against the wall. This caught Sirius off guard so he took another step towards her hoping to see her squirm, but she did not. She held her cool.

Sirius leaned against the wall next to her and let out and identical sigh as his eyes took in her gorgeous legs in that short skirt. He was looking questioningly down at her legs when she finally spoke up.

"So what is it Sirius?" she asked.

"What is what?" He asked in return. "I just thought I would stop and say hello to my new friend," he said leaning into her a bit more.

Janet let out a small, sarcastic laugh.

"Whatever," she said, "And by the way, I don't need your help in potions. You were right next to Sarah Burke in the class list and I must have got the lines messed up when I was looking at grades. When I looked again I saw that you were failing. Why would you say yes to tutoring me if YOU don't even know what you're doing?"

Sirius faltered the way she hoped he would, but he quickly recovered.

"I figured you just wanted to spend some time with me," he said with a quick smile as he pressed himself up against her.

A jolt shot throughout her body and she tried to remain calm. She suddenly felt the urge to kiss him. She was a teenager with a very gorgeous guy in front of her, even if he was a prick. Sirius lifted his hand and ran it down her left arm feeling the smoothness of her skin.

At that moment, both of their knees went weak with butterflies going crazy in their stomachs. They both had to close their eyes to regain their composure. Neither one could believe that they had just lost control. Janet immediately stepped away from Sirius and down the hall without another word. Sirius, speechless, watched her go rooted to his spot.

Once they were both sure that they were separated by several castle walls they both hit their palm to their foreheads, both frustrated with themselves, neither one believing they had just let their guard down in front of the enemy. Little did they know that the other was completely unaware of the others mistake.

Thanks for reading! The next chapter will involve the Hogsmeade trip and we'll finally find out what really went down between James and Lily! Hope you enjoyed it! Please Review!