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"Yes, I told him last night. He said that he'll pretend to be my -" She searched for a synonym, but couldn't find one. "- date," she finished more quietly. "So now I feel awful for tricking Benjy, and strange to be asking James to pretend to be going with me to the dance - even if it is just as a friend." She wanted to make clear to Mary that this was a friendship thing, nothing else. At least it wasn't as though she was making him pretend to be her boyfriend. She almost laughed out loud at that concept. Lily and James, even pretending to be together was a laughable idea.

Disclaimer:

Not mine. Anything you recognize belongs to the lovely and talented Mrs. Rowling.

-:-

Lily meandered through the corridors. She was happy to be able to have the Head's quarters to herself, so that she could settle down and get some classwork done while there weren't any distractions. However, at the same time she was dreading the total solitude of an empty common room. Having gone to a boarding school for so many years, it was the usual to be surrounded by other people, and she'd always found that comforting. Alone time was nice, but not all of the time.

Finally coming up on the entrance hole, she decided she'd put her dress away before getting straight to work, and climbed into the common room, which was, as earlier mentioned, supposed to be empty. However, a messy-haired boy was sprawled across the overstuffed couch, his glasses on the desk next to him, focused on a book which lay before him. Was James Potter studying?

No, no. Of course he wasn't. As Lily came closer, she noted that it was indeed a quidditch manual that he was focused on so intently. Lily coughed purposefully.

"What happened to tutoring Peter?"

"He catches on quick." James grabbed his glasses and put them on his face before he even looked up at Lily, and gave her a charming smile. One that was so not going to work on her. She sighed exaggeratedly, exasperated, and draped her dress neatly over the unoccupied armchair. He was not about to break, she could tell, but she was tired of being patient. She wanted to know what was going on with the four delinquents. She decided to take a different approach.

"I thought you went to sleep at seven last night?" She asked, tone intentionally sweet.

This finally elicited the desired response. Utter confusion. "Er, yeah ... why?"

"It just seems odd that you have such dark circles under your eyes. You look like you haven't slept a wink in days."

James shrugged, glancing back down at his quidditch manual. "What are you playing at?"

"I want to know what you're hiding!" Lily didn't have the guts to mention that she knew it was about Remus, and immediately regretted even confronting him. She hadn't a drop of evidence that wasn't circumstantial.

"I don't know what you're talking about!

Lily inhaled deeply before continuing, not eager on getting into another row with him. However, she could not back down now that she'd begun. "Yes you do, James. Why can't you trust me?"

James averted his eyes, caught off guard by her sudden calmness, and finally looked back up at her. "It's... complicated. And it's not my business to tell. I do trust you, but this isn't my secret to reveal." There was a pleading note in his voice that begged she let the matter go.

"It's Remus,'" Lily whispered, it wasn't a question, and she felt bad for pushing further, but she couldn't help it, her curiosity had been ignited

James was mortified. She knew. He hadn't told her a thing, but she already knew. His eyes grew wide with panic as the infamous James Potter was again lost for words. Why was Lily Evans the only one who could do that to him? It was beginning to infuriate him.

"Please, Lily, stop. It's none of your business. And just let it go, don't tell anybody whatever it is you're thinking." I'll be damned if I'm the reason Remus has to switch out of Hogwarts.

Lily's expression quickly grew irritated, "Don't insult me, Potter. You really believe that I would go about telling?" Her hands were on her hips in her signature symbol of anger. How dare he think I would ever go running my mouth about Remus!? she seethed.

James jumped up, tossing his quidditch manual on the tea table carelessly. "Just leave him alone, Lily."

He had regained his composure, and was careful not to look at the object of his annoyance as he slammed the door to his room shut.

"Why don't you put some funny shoes on and make yourself an elf?"

Mary was touching up the final touches of her faerie costume for the hallowe'en ball, and looked rather convincing, translucent wings and all. Lily, however, was still standing in front of the full length mirror of the Gryffindor girls' common room, wand held loosely in hand, as she had been for the past hour or so.

"But that's insulting to the house elves." She threw Mary a disapproving glance, which inadvertently morphed into one of awe as she took in her friend's beauty in the perfect costume. "I should just go as an uncreative ginger." She wrinkled her nose and finally turned away from the mirror, unhappy.

"A nymph?" Mary suggested, tugging at her hair in an attempt to decide what to do with it.

"Are those even green?" Lily questioned, trying to remember what exactly they were. "Maybe I should be a tree?" Mary let out a mock of a laugh and shook her head, finally deciding to simply curl her hair and pull part of it up while the rest lay on her shoulders.

"Whatever you decide, you'd best hurry up. You have to be down there in forty minutes and you haven't touched your dress or hair!" Now that Mary had torn her eyes from the mirror she was able to focus more completely on Lily. "How 'bout a gnome?"

"A gnome!? Aren't those ugly little men?"

Lily suddenly saw herself wearing an absurd red hat and sitting on a mushroom. "Not a gnome," She shook her head violently.

"Ooh!" Mary jumped up, curls bouncing. "A pixie!"

"A - Oh. Okay then." She couldn't think of a decent excuse why not and really did have to start getting ready if she wished to arrive to the ball on time - which unfortunately seeing as this was all her idea, was quite necessary

-:-

"What are you?" It wasn't that Lily didn't see perfectly well exactly what he was, it was only that she was embarrassed to even know the boy, let alone be going as his date. It was easier for her to take in the sight if she believed perhaps her eyes were mistaken. "Must you? How do you even know who he is?"

"Remus gave me the idea, isn't it fantastic?" He flipped his hair and grinned ridiculously.

"Remus? Remind me to hit him when I see him next." Lily tore her eyes away, not eager to see any more, and hiding a small amused smile. Standing before her, was a bizarre tribute to Elvis Presley. White bellbottoms and all. And of course the absurd belt and the sequins and Merlin, how embarrassing. It was really an impressive bit of transfiguration, but she'd overlook that in her disgust.

"What are you, a faerie princess?" James questioned, raising a single eyebrow. She couldn't tell if he was teasing her or not, so she simply let an indignant expression cover her face as she shook her head.

"A pixie, can't you tell?" She finally smiled, but it turned sour again when she realized she'd be spending the night walking around with The King.

Just as she was about to have another go at his costume, another king revealed himself from the boys staircase.

"Let me guess, King Arthur?" Mary quipped from behind Lily, finally taking the last step down herself.

Sirius looked affronted underneath his ludicrously frilly shirt. "I," He said dramatically, "am Henry VIII ... He was the one with all of those wives, right?" For a moment he was unsure.

"Not at the same time!" Mary corrected, rolling her eyes.

"Yes, he made sure he beheaded them first," Lily added disapprovingly. That wasn't completely true. Only for a few were actually beheaded - Anne Boleyn leaped to mind presently, but he surely wasn't that well versed in the history of English nobility anyway.

A rather loud banging noise distracted the group as father christmas came bouncing down the staircase, Frankenstein hurrying after him in a comical display.

"All right, Peter?" Sirius managed through his figure-shuddering laughter. He put out a strong hand and dragged his jolly friend upright once more as Frankenstein edged around them.

"Merlin, Remus, you really put in the effort!" Lily managed as soon as she recognized him, which was a difficult thing to do; he had charmed his skin a greyish green and wondered if the screws jutting from his neck weren't really embedded in his skin. "See, that's a costume worthy of the competition!"

-:-

Walking into the Great Hall arm in arm with James (who insisted on entering like this, being the pain in the arse that he has always been) really was not so bad as Lily had dreaded. They were among the first to arrive, but the people who were already there not only paid little attention to the pair, but seemed to be rather enjoying themselves. Lily was elated that their first Head-Student-organized event seemed to be going smoothly. Very few Slytherin students had made an appearance, with the exception of the four Slytherin prefects, who were warned that their absence would risk their position as prefects.

After fluttering about for over an hour to make sure everything was going well and collecting all of the ballots for the best costume, Lily finally allowed herself to relax; it was the sixth-year prefects' jobs to count up all of the votes and announce the costume winners in each category, so her job for the night was finished. She tugged at her pixie costume, wishing she had chosen something more comfortable - she was in envy of Alice, who had decided to dress as an ancient greek, and looked rather comfortable in her dress-like toga.

Sitting at a table next to Isabelle Hopkins, was a rather bored looking Mary, sans shoes. Knowing her friend, Lily figured she'd shed the shoes out of discomfort during dancing, which she had been doing off and on throughout the night. She plopped down gratefully in an empty chair next to Mary, sighing heavily in exhaustion. It was nice to put on this dance, but certainly more work than she had predicted.

"What's the matter?" She asked in a tone soft enough so as not to be overheard by the gossipy Isabelle, who was chatting away with a group of hufflepuffs nearby.

Mary tugged at a mahogany curl, shrugging. "Nothing, I've just had enough of Angela." Her eyes drifted traitorously toward Frankenstein, who was dancing next to Sirius, Peter and James in some ridiculous muggle fashion that Lily had never even understood herself. James caught her eye as she looked but she quickly averted her gaze back to Mary.

"Mary, why don't you ask him to dance or anything? We're all friends, he wouldn't say no," she offered reasonably, wondering if the fear of rejection was stopping her friend. Not entirely surprisingly, Mary was mortified.

"I- I can't!" Her face flushed very quickly and she buried it in her hands. "Isn't that the point though? We're just friends, that's all we'll ever be, I suppose, as I'm too cowardly to say anything, and he hardly likes me at all. He's just polite." She sighed heavily, and Lily made a face; she wanted her best friend to be happy, they were at a ball! She jumped up, pulling her friend by the arms.

"Let's go dance then, we don't need boys anyway," She smiled and Mary couldn't help but smile back in resignation; she couldn't stay unhappy for long.

An hour and several dances later (including a very awkward one with Benjy - why did he even bother?) the two cheerful but very footsore girls made their way back to the table. Quickly, Mary was dragged into a feverish debate that Alice and a girl named Lianne were having, and Lily felt her mind wandering. Mary's boy troubles reminded her of her own. Why didn't she seem to be interested in anybody? She stared blatantly at Sirius for a moment. No doubt, he was a very handsome individual, but why wasn't she attracted to him? Was it because she knew what a goof he was? She turned to another Gryffindor, Jack Wood. He, too, was a fairly attractive boy, why wasn't she attracted to him either?

Frustrated, she rested her head on top of her arms which were draped across the back of the chair in which she sat. This had been fun for a while but now she was just tired and wanted nothing more than to go up to sleep.

"Hey Lily, can we talk?" Lily lifted her head to see Elvis had abandoned his friends to come talk to her. Lily shrugged, unsure of why he was asking if he could talk to her.

"Talk away," She gestured to a nearby unoccupied chair, but James shook his head.

"Can we go for a walk?" His hazel eyes were glazed with uncertainty and it was with a light feeling of worry that Lily got up from her chair, not bothering to interrupt Mary's debate proctoring to tell her friend what she was up to. Perhaps James had decided to tell her about Remus after all.

They left the Great Hall unnoticed, and were heading toward the castle entrance before Lily spoke. "Is something wrong?"

"No, not at all. It was just - loud in there." James ran a hand through his messy hair involuntarily. The music had been a mix of wizard and muggle music and it was nice to hear something familiar to her life back home.

"Oh," She realized that she'd never actually had a real conversation with James, not one that didn't somehow have to do with school or Head duties or Death Eaters, sometimes the occasional small talk, but she wasn't much of a conversationalist, and this felt strange. They made their way outside after a few moment of chatting about the dance and how intoxicated Sirius had managed to get off of bootlegged firewhiskey.

"What are we?" James asked suddenly as they made their way across the empty courtyard, Lily grabbing at her elbows for warmth.

"Er... human beings?" Lily suggested, confused by the question. Not entirely, but she would rather pretend to be confused than deal with the actual answer.

James laughed a little more quietly than usual (which was still pretty loud), and shook his head. "You know what I mean." He stopped, and Lily felt herself becoming oddly uncomfortable. This wasn't like when he asked her out all of those years, it was much different. They were friends now. Good friends even. She didn't want to ruin it.

"It's very cold out here," She pointed out. It was true; her arms were covered in goosebumps and she shivered each time the wind blew. Suddenly, James closed the space between them, and soon his soft lips brushed against hers in a gentle kiss. Just as suddenly as he had closed the space though, he stepped away again, dropping his head. Lily's face was suddenly burning and she no longer felt the cold as a whirlwind of emotions flowed through her. Oddly, a strangely lovely one was among the top, and her stomach flopped wildly.

"I'm sorry; that was completely inappropriate. I just-" he broke off, feeling extraordinarily stupid, for all he had just lived out his most treasured desire since second year. "I meant to say-" Lily wanted to ease his awkwardness, but she could not bring herself to speak. Her mind had yet to process what had just occurred.

"I just wanted to say, I think I might - like you. More than - You know." Terrified by Lily's speechlessness, James lapsed into his most common defense mechanism: humor. "Just thought I'd throw it out there."

Lily dragged words to the fore of her mind, unable still to think clearly. "We should get back to announce the winners," without looking back at him, she walked quickly into the castle, desperate to compose herself. What had that been?

James remained outside for several long moments, kicking himself mentally. What the bloody hell had possessed him to do that?

Shit, I've just ruined everything. She hates me now.