A/N: All disclaimers from the first chapter still apply, this doesn't belong to me, only the plot does.

Even If…

Chapter 11

Professor Slughorn's potions classroom

'As you know this time period is for anyone who needs extra help with potions,' Slughorn said, 'now I see several students that are already at the top of the class her tonight. I'm not sure what you plan to accomplish in learning, that you don't already have a firm grasp on. If I could persuade you to work with someone who needs the extra help, perhaps you can be of a help while getting extra experience with brewing.'

'that would be fine professor,' Lilly said, 'if anyone who needs help could raise your hands one of us will be around to partner with you.'

Miah bid Remus and Lilly good bye as she left to go partner with a boy from Hufflepuff. They brewed the Drought of living death. She let the boy do the majority of the work. She would give pointers on how to slice or cut up certain ingredients. She talked about stirring and timing in adding ingredients. All in all the boy did a good job. 'You're good at this,' the boy said.

'Thank you,' she said, 'you've doing pretty good, and all you need is a bit of practice.'

After the session was over Slughorn secured the girls promise that they would attend the dinner the next evening, 'I look forward to chatting with you tomorrow,' he said to the girls, 'feel free to bring anyone you feel would add to our stimulated conversation.'

'Of course sir,' Miah said reassuringly. There were times where Professor Slughorn's collecting of students was quite annoying; but there were other times where she thought that perhaps he was just lonely.

Upon arriving back at the common room they were jumped by James and Sirius, 'how was your study session?' Sirius asked.

'It went well,' Miah said, 'we partnered up with students that needed the help and guided them through making the potion, all in all it was very rewarding.'

'I agree,' Lilly said, 'I hardly did any work on the potion at all, I just gave pointers and suggestions.'

'it was about the same with me,' Remus said, 'I paired with a girl from Hufflepuff, once we got underway she did quite well I think she may have been upset that she couldn't pair up with her boyfriend.'

'Who was her boyfriend?' Miah asked.

'I think she mentioned that he was paired with you,' Remus said, 'I think she's afraid that you were doing more than brewing potions.'

'Ridiculous,' Miah said, 'if they're there next week we could swap partners so she feels less threatened or we can work closer together.'

'I wouldn't worry about it Miah,' Remus said.

'yeah,' Lilly said, 'it was just her way of saying that she thinks you're pretty and smart, she was worried that he would get distracted by the pretty girl helping him and forget about the potion.'

'Oh well,' Miah said with a blush, 'she's got nothing to worry about; he's a nice guy but not my type.'

'Say Miah dear,' Sirius said, putting his arm around her shoulder, 'exactly what is your type.'

'The smart book worm type,' Miah said, busting Sirius's bubble, 'someone who can be serious and get their word done, but knows how to have fun. Someone like Lilly.'

'WHAT?' everyone shrieked except Remus and Lilly.

'Yes didn't you know,' Miah said, like it was nothing. It was like she had said, 'I'M going to the library be back soon.'

Lilly walked over to Miah and put her arm around her shoulder, 'you mean you couldn't tell,' Lilly said, 'bet you thought all those study sessions were actually 'study sessions.'

Their mouths were gaping wide, if it were possible their mouth would be hitting the floor. The girls tried very hard not to laugh at the two of them. Lilly and Miah looked at each other, and smiled.

'Don't forget about our date tomorrow,' Miah said, 'I'll pick you up at 9am, and we'll eat breakfast, and then we'll traipse down to Hogsmeade and be all lovely together.'

'Of course my dear,' Lilly said, in a sweet seductive voice, 'wouldn't skip it for the world.'

Miah gave Lilly a kiss on the cheek, and then sauntered off towards her dorm. She turned around as she got to the stairs and winked at Lilly and Remus. Soon after she departed to common room everyone that witnessed the exchange were laughing except for Sirius and James.

'What on earth?' James asked, he scratched his head dumbfounded.

And even though it wasn't April fools Remus and Lilly yelled 'GOTCHA!'

The two of them looked at Remus and Lilly dumbfounded, and said 'huh?'

'We were just fooling ya,' Miah said coming back into the room dressed in her pajamas and her house coat, 'and how easy it was.'

'You two are just too easy,' Remus said.

'But,' Sirius said, 'it was just a joke?'

'Of course,' Miah said, 'I love Lilly to death but as my sister and best friend.'

'Sorry boys,' Lilly said, 'I don't swing that way.'

'However,' Miah said, 'we do have a date to go shopping in Hogsmeade together tomorrow.'

'Have to find dress robes for Slughorn's party tomorrow,' Lilly finished.

'Have room for a third?' Remus asked, 'since Miah is making me tag along to the party I need a new set of robes as well. '

Lilly and Miah looked at each other and nodded, 'sure,' they said together, 'we'd be happy to have you.'

'What about us?' the boys asked.

'Afraid you're on your own,' Miah said, 'besides you hate shopping anyways. How about we meet for lunch though. We'll meet to at The Three Broomsticks or we could go to the Hogs Head and have a bit to eat.'

'Or we could ask the kitchen for a basket, 'Remus said, 'and we can have a picnic, we can sit by the lake.'

'Remus,' Lilly said, with a sigh, 'that sounds wonderful.'

'Then it's settled,' Sirius said, 'we'll meet you at Honeydukes at 12:30 and we'll walk down to the lake and have a picnic.'

'Sirius and I will stop by the kitchens in the morning and ask for a picnic basket full of your favorite foods and we promise not to forget it.'

'Sounds divine,' Lilly said, 'well we're off to bed, we'll see you gentlemen tomorrow.'

The girls headed off to bed, and the boys watched them go. James couldn't believe they played a joke on them. Sirius couldn't believe that the girls would pretend to be lovers to fool them and then get a laugh out of it; were they really Gryffindor's? Remus started to feel a fondness for Miah that he hadn't felt for anyone before. Would she really accept him for who and what he was without a hitch? He hoped so.

In the morning when the girls woke they had a feeling it was going to be a wonderful day. They couldn't wait for the picnic by the lake. It would be wonderful, everyone hanging out together.

Lilly felt that things were finally starting to go ok between her and James. Sure a few weeks ago she had called him some names and vowed never to talk to him again; but she just couldn't stay mad at him. And although Severus had been a prick, she couldn't help but want the best for him. Miah had the right idea, Lilly just didn't know if she could be as kind as Miah. Miah seemed to take everything in stride, she didn't seem to fret about anything. She had even taken Remus's furry problem graciously and without a negative opinion; hell she had been the one to figure it out.

Sometimes Lilly felt a bit jealous of Miah, here this girl comes in and has so many people bowing to her every whim; but Lilly had the feeling that if she was to voice her feelings to Miah, that she would completely understand. Lilly couldn't help feeling bad about it, she had no reason to be jealous. Had Miah never came, had they never met her, things might be worse off than what they were. Lilly wasn't all that close to the boys before she showed up out of nowhere; and now that she was, she was kind of the glue that held them all together. She was the thing that they all had in common, they all had a friend in Miah.

Lilly walked down to the common room to meet Miah. She wasn't there yet, but then Lilly was a bit early. At 5 minutes to 9am, Miah came down the stairs with a glint in her eye.

'What have you got up your sleeve,' Lilly asked Miah.

'Nothing really,' Miah said, 'but I can't wait to go shopping. It'll be just us all morning.'

'And Remus,' Lilly said.

'I know,' Miah said with a goofy grin.

'You like him,' Lilly said.

'Yes,' Miah said, 'I can't quite describe it, it's more than just a friendly like, perhaps not quite a romantic like. I think I may be on my way to it though.

'I knew it,' Lilly said with a happy squeal,' don't worry I won't tell anyone.'

'Thank you,' Miah said, 'I don't know what I would do without you.'

'You would die a most horrible and miserable death,' Lilly said.

'Probably,' Miah said, as they laughed.

After meeting Remus at breakfast they continued to Hogsmeade to start their shopping venture. Remus was finished almost as soon as they started. It took the girls a little longer to settle on something. After about 2 hours, Lilly settled on a green sleeveless dress that hugged her figure slightly. The neckline went straight across her neck and tapered off at her shoulders. It was really very pretty but a little plain nothing that a little jewelry wouldn't fix, and she had just the thing back in her dorm that would work.

Hermione settled on a light pink number, it was the same style as Lilly's only the neck line was a bit lower and in more of a v. on anyone else it may have been too low, but it worked for Miah, it hugged her figure nicely.

Seeing as they finished their shopping earlier than they had planned they wasted some time at Honeydukes candy shop and then went to Zonko's joke shop to try and find something to prank they boys with at the picnic.

At 12:25 they headed back to Honeydukes to meet up with the rest of the crew. Sirius and James were right on time picnic basket in tow; they also seemed to have brought Peter along.

'Hello,' Peter said, 'did you find everything that you were looking for.'

'Absolutely,' Lilly said.

With all the greetings said they departed for the lake. They found a patch of grass and sat down. They were close to the rocky part of the shore line.

The picnic basket included but was not limited to 3 types of hand sandwiches, some type of ham salad, chips, cookies and a delicious looking pie. They divided up the food between the six of them, the basked itself seemed never ending. It was like someone had put an extendable charm on the basket so that they could shovel a never ending supply of food into the basket.

'How much food did they pack into this basket?' Miah asked, 'I can't possibly eat another bite.'

'Perhaps they're trying to kill us by over feeding us,' Peter said.

'Yes,' Sirius said, 'they then plan to feed our bodies to the Giant Squid.'

'Oh yes,' Hagrid said from behind them. They all jumped about a foot into the air, 'it's what we do with 5th year students.'

Everyone laughed at Hagrid's attempt at a joke.

'Hagrid,' Miah asked, 'why doesn't the giant squid have a name, I mean it's not like he's dangerous, I mean we saw some students play fetch with him just this morning.'

'It's not that he doesn't have a name,' Hagrid said, 'it's just that everyone calls him something different.'

'And he answers to everyone?' Lilly asked.

'Well yes,' Hagrid said, 'although I like to think that he's partial to the name I call him by.'

'And what's that Hagrid?' Miah asked.

'Steve,' Hagrid said.

Everyone started laughing, 'I thought you would call him something like 'Squidward,' or, 'Squiddie,' but Steve?' James said.

Miah was laughing so hard she was holding her stomach, 'Squidward,' she said, 'oh that's funny.'

At her saying the name so loud the Giant squid popped his head a few of his many tentacles out of the water. 'There you go Miah,' James said, 'looks like he'll answer to 'Squidward for ya,'

'I suppose it's better the Squiddie',' she said. She then proceeded to yell 'HELLO SQUIDWARD, HOW ARE YOU TODAY?' the Giant squid then did something unsuspected and flipped himself up out of the water and did something that looked a kin to waving, with all of his giant tentacles.

'Awe, Miah,' Sirius said, 'I think he likes you.'

'Wonderful,' Miah said, 'I now have a giant squid as a friend. Although I suppose you could have come up with a worse name than 'Squidward'.'

'You mean like Mike,' Sirius asked.

'Or Fisher,' Lilly said.

'I wouldn't name him Fisher,' Miah said, 'I would name a pelican at the beach Fisher.'

They continued joking about names for the Giant Squid for a bit, and then they walked back to the castle. They spent the rest of the day goofing off in the common room, until it was time for them to get ready for dinner with Slughorn. Little did the boys know that they were in for a surprise, not only with what the girls were wearing; but with who would be at dinner as well.

A/N: i was going for light hearted here, we won't get into anything major until a bit later. it's only rated M for future events. there won't be any lemons till later, sorry for your disappointment.

So is it worth a review or 2?