Author's note: I am sooo sorry that it took me so long to update! I have no idea why but I couldn't get into my documents so I couldn't post them! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter, and thank you to the reviewers!

BaRbWiReKiSsEs: Thank-you soooo much for reviewing! And like I promised here is your virtual cookie (:) Enjoy!
Demon Phoenix: Don't worry, my computer is evil as well, it wouldn't let me on my document pages lol. Thank-you for being a loyal reviewer, I really appreciate it! Here's a virtual cookie (:)! I'm actually gonna give you one more since you reviewed both chapters (:)!

Disclaimer: What do I own? Everything you don't recognize. What do I not own? Everything you do recognize.

Chapter 10: Realizing the Truth

1Lily sat alone in the astronomy tower all alone curled up on the window sill staring out at the Hogwarts grounds. She couldn't believe how she felt, she didn't understand it. She was actually jealous of James and his girlfriend. She could feel the jealousy spread through her even though she didn't want to feel it, she did. She couldn't get the image of James and Morgan walking into the Great Hall hand in hand out of her mind.

She had always turned James down, now she wished she hadn't. Why couldn't she have just given him a chance? Why did she always have to be so stubborn? Now it was too late, James was with someone else. He was with someone prettier and probably smarter.

Lily sighed, she hated feeling like this. It was completely her fault though, she couldn't even blame it on anyone, she was the one who told James she'd never date him and to move on, now he had. Lily just had thought she wouldn't care, she had never in a million years believed she could ever fall for James Potter, because that's exactly what had happened, she finally realized that she had fallen for James, but it was too late.

Lily stood up taking a deep breath. She was going to have to go and talk to Jade, she knew she probably freaked her out by abruptly leaving at dinner, but Lily had to leave, she didn't know what else to do and she really needed to be alone to figure out all of her thoughts.

Lily slowly made her way back to the Gryffindor tower. As she went through the hall she noticed people huddled together and whispering with each other. Lily frowned. This was odd behavior even for Hogwarts. Lily continued to walk down the hall but was stopped by a group of fifth year Hufflpuff girl's.

"Hi Lily," Nina Gilmore said happily, smiling at Lily.

"Hi Nina what's up?" Lily asked forcing herself to be polite. She wasn't really in the mood for socializing and hoped that whatever Nina wanted wouldn't take very long.

"We just wondered if you could tell Jade congratulation's for us," Nina said.

Lily looked at the fifth year girls confused, "Congratulation's about what?"

"You don't know?" Jill Meyers asked shocked.

"Know what?" Lily said keeping her voice polite but a little more demanding.

"That Liam and Jade are engaged," Nina explained.

Lily's mouth dropped opened, "Where did you hear that from,"

"It's in Witch Weekly, is it not true?" Monica Garner asked.

"Oh no!" Lily said.

Lily started running towards Gryffindor tower leaving the fifth year Hufflepuff girls to stare after her like she was insane.

Lily burst into the common room and searched for Jade spotting her and Piper in the arm chairs by the fireplace and rushing over.

"Jade, are you all right! I just heard, I can't believe someone leaked the information to Witch Weekly!" Lily said stopping in front of Jade.

Jade smiled, "Lils, calm down, I'm ok. I was pissed as hell before, but I'm all right now,"

"How did this happen?" Lily asked incredulously.

"We think it was one of Liam's friends who leaked the information, later tonight Liam's going to stick his head in the fireplace to talk to Jade, she just got a letter from him telling her that," Piper explained.

"I can't believe someone would do that! Seriously, let's go find the guy and beat him to a bloody pulp!" Lily yelled angrily.

Jade started laughing, "Awe, I have such violent friends, but amazing ones none the less,"

"I'm sorry Jade. I know that you wanted to keep your engagement to Liam quiet,"

"I suppose it was going to come out sooner or later anyways, it just came out a lot sooner then I had expected it to," Jade shrugged, "But you need to start explaining yourself, are you ok?"

Lily sighed, she should have figured Jade wouldn't have forgotten about what happened at dinner even in all of her own chaos. Both Jade and Piper sat there looking at Lily expectantly. Lily sat down and looked at them both.

"I'm ok... I just kind of... freaked out," Lily explained. She had originally thought that she was going to lie to Jade and Piper about what happened, but then decided against it, if she couldn't tell them, then who could she tell? She definitely had to tell someone.

"Why did you freak out? I thought you said you told Jade you diecided you only liked James as a friend?" Piper asked gently.

"I know, I was just... shocked. I didn't know how to react to it, but it helped me realize that... I like James,butnow it's too late, he's movedon," Lily said sitting back in her seat sadly.

"I don't know Lily, I don't think he has moved on, maybe he's only dating Morgan to make you jealous," Jade suggested.

Lily laughed, "Thanks for trying to make me feel better Jade, but not even James is stupid enough to do something like that,"

"Don't be so sure," Jade muttered under her breath.

"What?" Lily said not having heard Jade.

"Um... nothing," Jade said quickly.

"Well if it helps at all I don't think that Morgan and James will last long, they seem like such an odd couple to me, I would have never guessed the two of them would get together," Piper said trying to cheer Lily up.

"Even if they do break up, I doubt anything would happen between us, he's moved on guys, and I'm going to accept it," Lily said firmly even though she didn't believe it.

"Lils, are you sure you're ok?" Piper asked her voice full of concern.

"I'm fine, really I am," Lily lied through her teeth.

"Hey guys," Remus said coming over.

"Hey Remus," Jade said smiling.

"Hey," Lily said forcing a smile.

"Hi," Piper said shyly but smiling widely.

"You ready to work on your History of Magic paper?" Remus asked.

Piper looked over at Lily hesitantly not sure if she should go, "Piper, I'm ok really! Go," Lily told her forcing a smile on her face.

"...Ok. I'll just be in the library if you need me ok?" Piper said as she stood up and walked over to Remus.

"Ok," Lily answered.She watched Remus and Piper leave then looked over at Jade, "What's going on with them?"

"They're dating now, Remus asked Piper to be his girlfriend when they were in the library," Jade explained.

"Good for them, I'm glad that they finally got together," Lily said finding herself smiling a true smile. Even if things were going bad for her and Jade she was happy that Piper's life was going good.

"Hello...Jade?" A voice said. Lily and Jade looked over at the fireplace to see Liam's head in it.

"Liam!" Jade said happily smiling and moving closer to the fireplace.

"Jade! How are you?" Liam asked smiling widely.

"I'm ok, how are you doing?" Jade asked him, she couldn't believe how much she missed him right now.

"Other then extremely pissed off, I'm ok. Hey Lily, how are you?" Liam asked seeing Lily sitting behind Liam.

"Hi Liam, I'm doing good. I was actually just heading up to my room to finish off some homework, I'll leave you two alone," Lily said backing away.

"Bye Lils," Jade said as Lily left.

"How are you really doing?" Liam asked.

"I'm not sure, I'm kind of in shock, I didn't really think that us being engaged would be a cover story for Witch Weekly. Do you know who the insider was?"

"I have no idea, but when I do, they're going to wish they kept their mouth shut,"

"How many people did you tell?"

"Just a couple, I've only talked to Ryan though so far and he swears it wasn't him. Jade I'm really sorry about this,"

"Liam it's ok, it's not like it's your fault,"

"I miss you,"

"I miss you too,"

"I hate that we're so far apart from each other,"

"Me to,"

"I wish you were a year older so you could already be done Hogwarts, this is so hard,"

"I know it is, but we have the rest of our lives to be with each other,"

"That's true. Remember when we were talking about Christmas and I told you I wouldn't be able to come to your house for it because of my quidditch schedule?"

"Yes,"

"Well I talked to my coach and he's going to give me the week off so that I'll be able to spend Christmas with you,"

"Really?"

"Yup,"

"Liam that's great! I'm so excited!"

"Me to, but I have to go now Jade. I love you,"

"I love you to,"

"Bye,"

Liam's face disappeared and just the fire remained. Jade sat and stared at it for a while, she felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach that she couldn't place.

Lily walked into the Gryffindor common room feeling thoroughly annoyed. All day everywhere she went all she saw was Morgan and James, James and Morgan, hand in hand walking around talking, kissing and laughing, making Lily want to throw up.

Lily threw her stuff in her room and grabbed her notebook checking her watch, she had a meeting with James to talk about the Halloween dance in five minutes so she quickly made her way to the heads common room.

Lily stopped when she came in front of a picture of a witch and wizard sitting next to each other on a couch.

"Fire breathing goblets," Lily said wishing that she hadn't let James pick the password.

The heads common room was decorated in all Gyrffindor colours since both the heads were from Gryffindor. It had a large comfy looking arm chair, a love seat, a larger couch, two desks at opposite ends of the room and a large round table at the back of the room with a fireplace and a bathroom at the back.

Lily hadn't spent much time in here, but thought she should, it was very quiet and would be a good place to do her homework. Lily sat down at the round table and pulled out her notebook as the portrait swung open and James came through.

"Hey Lily," James grinned coming in and sitting down next to her.

"Hey James," Lily said still feeling a little uneasy around him.

"Looks like you're ready to go,"James said looking at Lily's opened notebook, "Let's hear your ideas."

"Well I was thinking that since we've obviously already decided that the Halloween ball is going to be a costume ball, that we could award prizes for best costumes, one for each year,"

"That sounds good, but what would we use for prizes?"

"Well what I was thinking was that we could go to business's in Hogsmeade and asked them if they would donate things, or give gift certificates so that students could go pick out something that they would like,"

"Would the business's really go for that though?"

"Well considering that Hogwarts students are their best costumer's I'm thinking that they will. We can go ask during the Hogsmeade trip schedule the week before the ball,"

"Sounds good to me,"

"Also I was thinking that for decoration's we could make the Great Hall into a cemetery theme,"

"Really?"

"Yes, why, do you not like that idea?"

"No, I do, that was actually what I was thinking,"

"Really?"

"Yeah,"

"Well I was thinking that we could have fog covering the bottom of the dance floor with tombstones scattered throughout the hall, have spider webs on the wall and maybe even make the tables so that they look like coffins,"

"I like that idea, the whole coffins thing, that would be really cool,"

"Ok good, then it's decided. We don't have to worry about food or drinks since the house elves already have all of that covered, so we need to decide on music, do you have any suggestions?"

"Yes, I was thinking that we should get... the weird sisters!"

"Um, That's a good idea James, but they're kind of out of our price range and since their extremely famous I don't that they would come and play at a Hogwarts dance,"

"They're not out of our price range if they're free. My mom's best friend is the lead singers mom, she could get them to do it free of charge,"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes,"

"James! That would be amazing! Owl your mom tonight and ask!"

"Ok, I'll be sure to remember to do that. What else do we have left to do?"

"Not a whole lot, mostly just make outlines and proposals for McGonagall and Dumbeldore,"

After two hours of paper work, James and Lily were finally finished. Lily yawned and stretched feeling extremely stiff from hunching over the table. It hadn't felt awkward at all planning things with James as she thought it would have.

"We make a pretty good team you know Lily," James said as she stretched as well.

"I was just thinking the same thing," Lily replied smiling.

"You know about the heads dance at the beginning of the ball right?" James asked

"Oh...yeah. I forgot," Lily said as she felt her cheeks start to heat up.

"We don't have to... if you don't want to..." James offered.

Lily grinned, "Why? Scared I'll outshine you?"

James's mouth dropped, "There is no way you could ever outshine me!"

"Sure, sure. You're all talk Potter,"

"Is that a challenge Evans?"

"It sure is!"

"Let's go!" James stood up extending his hand to Lily who took it and James pulled her up off of the couch.

"What about music?" Lily asked.

James pulled his wand out of his robe pocket and with a flick of it a fast paced song came on.

"You ready for this?" James asked.

"More than you are!" Lily retorted.

Lily put her other hand in James's and when they found the right beat they started to dance. They stretched as far as they could from each other then pulled each other in, then stretched as far as they could again and pulled each other back in. James placed on of his hands on the small of Lily's back and the other still clasped onto her hand and Lily put her free hand on his shoulder and they did an extremely fast waltz with a hop in it and spinning around the room.

Lily stretched out so they were only holding on with one of their hands and then she spun back in and James spun her back out, this time Lily let go of his hand and spun extremely fast in one spot on her own and then stopped with one hand up and one hand pointing down (think John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever).

"Very nice," James commented.

"Thank-you," Lily said smiling widely.

They continued dancing and while they were James easy lifted Lily up over his head and Lily started to laugh again.

Lily stretched out and spun into James again and this time James dipped her but they were both laughing so hard he dropped Lily on the floor falling right after her.

"Lily...are...you...ok!" James managed to say between laughs.

Lily was on her back laughing so hard her sides were hurting, "I'm fine," Lily gasped and continued to laugh, "But I think I just won."

"It was a fluke, that's all!" James said not able to stop laughing.

"Ok, get up!" Lily said energetically bouncing upright, "I have a game we're going to play!"

"Going to play? So I have no choice in the matter?" James asked.

Lily looked thoughtful for a moment then grinned evilly, "Nope!"

James laughed. It was so strange for him to see Lily like this, she was so... hyper. Usually around him he was angry or agitated or serious, it was really nice to see her let down her guard and loosen up.

"What is it then?" James asked.

"It's called..." Lily started then ran to the portrait hole, "Race you to the fat lady!"

"You're on!" James said taking off after her.

Lily ran as fast as she could down the hall. She turned left and continued to race down the hall. She glanced back to see James was started to gain ground on her so she ran if possible even faster.

"I'm going to win Evans!" James yelled.

"In your dreams Potter!" Lily yelled back at him.

Lily turned down another corner and saw the fat lady in sight, but by now James had caught up to her and they were sprinting down the hall at break neck speed right next to each other.

"What're you two doing? Slow down!" The fat lady yelled at them.

Instead of slowing down they sped up racing to be first. When they reach the portrait they crashed into each other and fell hard on their butts.

Both Lily and James started laughing hysterically again.

"I won!" Lily laughed pumping her fist in the air in victory.

"You did not!" James protested, "I did."

"No way!" Lily exclaimed.

"Um—hi," A small voice behind them said.

James and Lily both turned around to see Morgan standing there looking down at both of them like they were crazy.

"Morgan! Hi!" James said standing up and hugging her, "What're you doing here?"

"Remember we were going to go to the library and you were going to help me with my homework?" Morgan reminded him.

"Oh yeah! Sorry, I completely forgot!" James apologized.

"I'm going to go, see you guys later," Lily said feeling awkward.

"Huh? Oh yeah, ok bye Lily," James said.

"Bye," Morgan said dully.

Lily rushed into the common room and up to her dorm. She wished Morgan hadn't showed up, she and James were having such a good time, she still couldn't believe how much fun James was. Lily sat down on her bed attempting to do homework, but she couldn't.

Lily pushed her homework aside and reached under her bed for a box. In the box was a photo albulm. Lily took the photo albulm out and went through it. There were pictures of her Jade and Piper throughout their years at hogwarts but the photo Lily was searching for was at the very back of the albulm.

Last year Gryffindor won the quidditch cup and Lily had gone down to the feild and congratulated Jade, then she she went over and congratulated James because he really did play an amazing game. There was a picture taken as Lily walked over to him and hugged him kissing him lightly on the cheek. James's face lit up as she kissed him on the cheek and he watched her walk away with a huge smile on her face.

Lily had never understood why she had kept this picture, but maybe she did because deep down, she always had a thing for James Potter, she just never let herself realize it... until it was too late.