A/N: So I feel a little bad, because I said this was a Lily/James story, and it is! I've just been coming to it! And it's here now so I hope whoever is still reading this will forgive me!! Anyway, let me know what you think! Here's the next chapter!

Chapter Ten: Alliance System

Classes started the next day and a familiar blanket of stress covered the students as they strained their minds to remember all they had learned the year before and all they had forgotten over the summer.

Of course, James Potter and Sirius Black were exempt from this uneasy feeling. Even without studying they were the top in the class, something that galled Lily to no end. Still, in one class she could beat them.

"Excellent!" Professor Slughorn complemented Lily's work as he walked through the various steaming cauldrons. "One of the best Babbling Beverages I've seen."

Lily beamed. Her happiness was short lived however as Mary added her fluxweed too quickly and her potion exploded everywhere. Lily ducked just in time, but Mary was completely doused.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked.

Mary starred at her, "I…enjoy serendipitous encounters with toilets."

"Professor, I think we are going to need some antidote over here…"

With all the commotion going on as those who had accidently gotten a drop of potion, (I like pina coladas mixed with Benadryl! Wash my animal farms!) Severus finally got the opportunity to speak to Lily. He never liked to approach her when her Gryffindor friends were around.

"How is your first day progressing?" Severus asked, making Lily jump a little as she was not expecting him.

"Oh! Erm…it's going alright. Poor Mary thought," Lily sighed, "She's always been a bit helpless in potions."

"Well what do you expect? She's—" Severus caught himself just in time, he was going to say 'mudblood.'

"She's what Sev?" Lily asked, crossing her arms.



"Nothing, she's just…she doesn't have the skill that you do." He smiled, thinking he had saved himself. Unfortunately, Lily saw through his words, not to mention that when he smiled he looked so terribly awkward. Lily suspected that this was because Severus did not often grin and his face was unused to doing it properly. This fact had once made Lily sad, but now it rather annoyed her; how long did it take someone to figure out how to smile?

"Is he bothering you Evans?" James Potter's voice interrupted their conversation. The minute he had seen Snape go over to Lily he had wanted to go to her himself. Remus had tried to stop him, but he had been hit with a bit of Mary's potion and all he had been able to say to James was "Beets and lima beans make the world go round!"

"No Potter," Lily said quickly, "Go back to your potion."

"Yes Potter," Severus said, his smile turning into a grimace, "Return to your potion."

"I wasn't talking to you Snivellus," James said maliciously.

From across the room Remus, who was watching his friend, cried out;

"You'll need one hell of a house elf!"

James ignored his advice.

"I was just wondering…I know that if Snivelly was talking to me, I'd be bothered," He heard Sirius laughing.

Severus uttered a string of curses under her breath.

"Go away Potter," Lily said heatedly, "The only one bothering me right now is you." Severus grinned maliciously; something he was rather better at.

James narrowed his eyes, "I don't get how you can be friends with a—"

"James!" Remus had finally taken the antidote and had wasted no time in rushing over and clapping his hand over his friend's big mouth.

James struggled against his friend's grip but Remus hung on.

"James…erm…could I talk to you? Over here? For a minute…about a…thing?" He dragged him off to a corner.

"Potter—" Severus started, but Lily knew what was coming and she was not in the mood.

"I've got to put this stuff away," She said heavily, collecting some of her things and taking them over to the supply closet.

"I thought we agreed you'd cut that out!"



"But—I didn't really do anything!"

"He just thought that git was being annoying."

Lily realized that she was hearing James, Remus and Sirius talking, but with her in the supply closet they could not see her.

"But they're…friends or something!" Remus hissed. "She's not going to appreciate it if you're trying to chase him away!"

"But…but…alright, so I said I wouldn't hex him or call him names, and I didn't!"

"You did call him Snivelly," Sirius put in.

"Oh thanks a lot; you weren't exactly holding me back. Anyway—what's wrong with just checking to see if she didn't want to talk to him?" James asked, "I thought it was sort of…"

Sirius and Remus laughed, "You're not a knight in shining armor James."

"So then what do I do?" James pressed, "Every time I talk to her I get the brush off!"

"I don't know," Remus shook his head, "But I know you won't get anywhere pestering Severus in front of her."

"Alright, alright," James said, "I'll try harder, but you guys have to help! Sirius, next time I want to hex Snape you have to…"

"Hex him first?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Remus said firmly.

"Maybe I'll ask Jordan," James sighed, "She lives with him and she doesn't kill him, so there's got to be a way to do it."

The three boys laughed, moving off again toward their table.

So that's what he's up to, Lily thought. And for the first time, she was not really bothered by his advances. At least he was starting to catch on.

That afternoon Jordan went outside with her three Slytherin friends, heading outside to the sloping green lawns. They knew that the summer was over and there would not be many more days that were as sunny and gorgeous as this one.

"Can you believe it's our first day back and we already have work? I just finished McGonagall's essay from summer!" Cassandra Knight groaned.

"Speaking of which," Amelia Carter said, "How long were your essays? I couldn't get mine to be longer than twelve inches."



"You know, if you were a guy, that wouldn't be a problem," Jordan said, and her friends laughed.

"Hey…Jordan?" Amelia asked.

"Hmmm?" Jordan was laying on her back on the grass, trying to give her skin the last advantage of the summer sun before it was winter and she went back to being pale as a ghost.

"You're…friendly with James Potter now, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, he and his friends are headed this way."

Jordan sat up, seeing James and waving. He sped his pace; he had not been sure it was her before.

"Hey!" Jordan called out a greeting.

James, along with his usually following; Sirius, Remus, and Peter, sat down.

"How was your first day?" James asked.

"Good; James these are my friends, Cassandra and Amelia," Jordan introduced him, "Girls there are…"

"We know who they are," Cassandra said, blushing slightly.

"So what's up?" Jordan asked.

"It's about your brother," James plunged in, and Jordan rolled her eyes.

"What's the wank done now?" She asked.

"Well…" James did not know how to phrase his problem.

"Every time James sees him he wants to kill him," Sirius explained, "And for some reason Lily doesn't like that."

Jordan nodded, "I understand. So what do you need from me?"

"How do you keep from hexing his big hook nose off every time you see him?" James pressed.

Jordan considered, "I guess…I just stopped caring that he was such a big berk."

Sirius nodded, "Sort of like I stopped caring about Regulus."

Jordan wrinkled her nose, "He's a prat to, most Slytherin boys are. Which is sort of why I'm not too excited about this whole dance thing…" She looked at James and her eyes widened. "You're going to ask Lily right?"



"Of course," James said, "But she still hates me."

"We have another plan," Sirius told Jordan, "If James and Lily are talking, and we see Snivelly coming we'll take him out, so he wouldn't be able to get to them."

Jordan smiled, "Sounds like fun! I'll help! Oh and you know who else to watch out for? Baron Williams."

"Who's he?" James asked.

"Ravenclaw prefect. I've heard Lily talk about him; she thinks he's cute."

James nodded, "Right, got it…wait, what does he look like?"

"He'll be the guy with the prefect badge from Ravenclaw," Jordan said.

"Alright, we'll watch out for him to," Sirius looked at James, "You know James, if you two do ever get together, you are going to owe us big time."

"Don't worry," James smiled, "When we get married I'll make you the best man."

Sirius pulled a face, "I don't want to deal with any wedding rubbish."

"Relax, pretty sure that all a best man has to do is take the groom out and get pissed the night before the wedding," Jordan said.

"She's right," Remus said, "My dad did it for one of his mates."

"Alright then, that doesn't sound too bad," Sirius clapped James on the back, "Now all you have to do is get the girl."

After a few more minutes the boys went off to stock up on dungbombs (or rather, make more) to throw at Snape or Baron Williams, leaving the girls alone again.

"Wow," Cassandra said once they were out of ear shot, "Jordan I didn't realize you were that close to them.

Jordan shrugged.

"I mean," Cassandra pressed, "Sirius Black has to be the most handsome guy I've ever seen in real life. I could just get lost staring into his eyes…" She looked off dreamily in the direction the boys had taken.

Jordan looked sickened, "Um Cass, you're going to have to reel it in a little."

"And the way his hair falls down on his forehead…"

Jordan laughed, "You've gone round the bend now Cass," She looked over at Amelia, who was staring stony faced into the distance. "What's up Amelia?"



"Well," She started uncertainly, "Jordan you've always…hated James Potter. Now it seems like you'll do anything to help him out. And you're friends with Lily; why do you want to get her together with this guy she doesn't even like?"

"Because she does like him," Jordan insisted, "She just needs a little convincing, and he needs a little tweaking. Besides, he's really not too bad, and he did apologize for being a berk to me."

"Before or after you offered to help him with Lily?" Amelia said as gently as she could.

"If you must know the whole story," Jordan's voice grew hard, "I had a crush on Kingsley remember?" Her two friends nodded, "And he comes up to me at camp and asks me if I know if Alice is seeing anyone, because he wants to ask her out."

"Oh Jordan I'm sorry," Amelia said.

"I never liked Kingsley anyway," Cassandra put in.

Jordan shook her head, "It's alright, I got over it. Anyway, James was there the whole time and I think he knew I sort of liked Kingsley, so he apologized."

"That's actually very sweet," Amelia said, eyes wide, "Who knew?"

"Exactly," Jordan said, "So what's wrong with helping two friends get together?"

"Plus, you get to throw dungbombs at your brother," Cassandra said wickedly.

Jordan smiled grimly, "This is going to be fun."