A/N: Hey guys, this chapters kinda short, but I figured since I haven't updated this fic in almost a month I owed it to you guys to at least give you something. So here it is. It entails Lily's "embarrasing" story, which is truthfully not as funny as the previous chapter would suggest, but rest assured, all will be explained in later chapters. Also, just FYI, I'm not writing this all just to bore your pants off, it's actually quite important to the end of the story, which is coming up fast, predictably within the next two or three chapters, and is going to absolutely rock your world off its axis, guaranteed or your money back. Oh yeah, and thanks to everyone who shared a story for the last chapter. Some of them were quite funny and put a goofy smile on my face;)

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. I sadly, do not. Excuse me while I go hide in my room and cry.

JPOV:

"I guess it all starts with dance lessons," Lily said, beginning her story with a wan smile, "I'd been taking them with my sister since I was four. At first, I'd only joined because of Petunia, but as the years went on I started to really enjoy it. Especially when Billy Sampson joined, and I got to be his dance partner."

"Billy?" I asked, grimacing slightly. I didn't particularly want to dwell on any of Lily's previous crushes, no matter how young she was at the time.

"Yes. Billy." She answered. "He was my first crush. I was nine at the time."

I noticed she didn't smile or even look particularly pleased as she said his name, like most girls would be when discussing their pre-pubescent love-interests. Obviously, there was some sort of unpleasantness lingering over the name.

"He was a really good dancer too." Lily continued, still unsmiling. "He could do just about anything with those tiny little feet of his. When he took center stage on that dance floor, there was no stopping him…"

She trailed off for a second. I took that as an opportunity to try to picture my puny little twinkle-toed adversary, but found I couldn't. She hadn't given me anything to go on really. So instead, I tried picturing what Lily might have looked like at nine years old.

She would have been adorable of course. Possibly even more adorable than she was now, as she stared blankly across the smooth surface of the lake, her hair swaying in the breeze, cheeks slightly flushed from the suddenly cold air, brows furrowed and lips pouted ever so slightly, as she no doubt contemplated this unpleasant memory.

"…He knew it too. That was the unfortunate part. He couldn't resist showing off whenever he got the opportunity to, because he knew how good he was, and wanted everybody else to know it as well…"

Naw, I figured. She couldn't possibly be any cuter than she was now. It was just as well. Billy Sampson sounded like a right prat, he didn't deserve to see Lily in all her adorable glory.

"…He kind of reminds me of you that way," Lily continued musingly, "You're both quite the showmen, actually. Can't resist letting the opportunity slide to show off your skill."

I scowled. I was not like that prat. Not in a million years. "Yeah, well. I don't dance." I said, saying as much.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "I wasn't talking about the dancing. Though I've seen you dance before James, so don't try to deny it. Get a couple firewhiskeys in you and you're liable to dance like a six-legged hippogriff on speed. What I meant is that both of you like to show off a lot. You with the quidditch. Him with the dancing. That's all."

I was about to retaliate, when I noticed that for the first time since Lily had started telling her story, she was smiling. "It's not always necessarily a bad thing James." She said softly, as though sensing my annoyance, "You just love quidditch and want everyone to love it as much as you do. Or at least, that's what I think sometimes. Sometimes, I think you just show off to impress girls, but mostly, I think you do it because you love to."

My breath caught. That had to be one of the nicest things Lily had ever said to me in my life. Screw it, that had to be the nicest thing she'd ever said to me, ever.

Unfortunately though, she was continuing on with her story, seemingly nonplussed, so I didn't have long to dwell on this strange new development.

"So, like I was saying, Billy liked to show off. Which would have been just fine had he been dancing with just himself. But, unfortunately, he wasn't all by himself. He had a partner. And that unfortunate person, well, that happened to be me..."

I wondered if I tried to slip my hand in hers, if she'd mind. Maybe she'd even be so intent on telling her story, she wouldn't even notice? Well, I kind of doubted that, but there was the slightest chance that she'd notice and not mind much. There was a significantly higher chance that she'd notice and hex my hand up my arse, but I was kind of liking my chances.

"…Our annual recital was coming up, and my instructor wanted it to be big. Enrollment numbers had been dwindling, and she was eager to get more kids interested and signed up. She decided she'd go for kind of a cool effect, and have a few kids dancing on a raised platform above the stage. And, what do you know? I was one of the lucky ones chosen for that role."

Alright, here goes. You can do this Prongs. Just take a deep breath, grit your teeth, and do it. If you're lucky, you'll come back with all your limbs still firmly attached.

If, you're not, well, I'm not even going to go there.

"There were going to be four kids dancing at the top, but one kid came down with the flu and another one got scared when she saw how high up the platform was. So, in the end, it was just me and Billy."

I took a deep breath, and slowly began inching my hand towards hers. Closer, closer, closer… almost there, can't back down now… Until, when my hand was barely an inch away from hers, with a light splat, I felt a tiny droplet of water land on my outstretched palm.

I looked up at the sky in confusion. Had that black storm cloud always been there? Then I shook my head. It was just one cloud. Chances are it would blow away within the next few minutes and we wouldn't even get sprinkled on.

"…I was kind of scared to go up there too before the recital, but Billy coaxed me into it," Continued Lily, oblivious to the fluke raindrop, "He promised me that he wouldn't let me fall, and, stupidly, I believed him…"

Plop. Another raindrop. I bit my lip. It would not rain and spoil this perfect moment. I simply wouldn't let it. I'd use my remarkable power of telekinesis to harness the power of the elements and make it rain in Zimbabwe instead. Surely they could use the rain more than us?

"…The production started, and we climbed to the top of the stage and started dancing. It wasn't the first time I'd been up there, we'd had a rehearsal or two, but it was much more daunting this time, what with the lights and the audience and all…"

Dammit. That was another cloud. Go away stupid, ominous looking storm cloud. Get out of here. This is the first time in my life that me and Lily have gotten to have a normal, civilized conversation lasting more than thirty seconds, and you're going to ruin it all!

Yes, I have resorted to having a silent screaming match with a storm cloud to prevent it from raining. And no, I do not think of this as pathetic, but rather a rare display of determination.

Waaah! Go away already! I'll do anything! Please, just go away and leave us alone you moronic, constipated glob of water vapor! Go on, shoo!

Okay, so maybe just a tad bit pathetic.

"…At first, it felt great. Billy always danced his best when he had an audience, particularly a large one. For my part, I was pretty nervous, but fairly excited too. It was the first time I ever got to dance at center stage like that before. It was scary, but that almost made it all the more exciting…"

Another plop! This one a bit louder and bolder than the first. Lily seemed to notice it too now. She swiveled her head from side to side in confusion, as if expecting to miraculously see what's going on. "Was that rain?" She asked.

Yes, I thought. Practically the entire sky is covered with black storm clouds at this point and it looks as though it's going to pour.

"Yeah, but it looks like its just going to be a short sun shower and then pass us by. We'll barely even get wet." I answered instead, bravely thrusting my hand into hers at exactly that opportune moment.

She turned her head in the direction of her hand, but didn't say anything.

I couldn't tell whether I was glad at her unresponsive reaction or a little disappointed. Perhaps a mixture of both.

"Go on," I said, "Keep going with your story."

She shrugged and went on, "Like I was saying, dancing up on that platform was oddly quite fun. I sort of wished it could go on forever. I was just getting used to it and feeling more comfortable onstage when Billy decided it was time to alter the choreography a bit to his liking and show off for the audience…"

I decided not to look at the sky anymore. Maybe if I ignored them, the clouds would go away. It was a pretty flimsy theory, I'll admit, but at this point I was willing to try just about anything.

"We were supposed to each twirl around once and then return to the center of the stage and keep dancing with each other, but Billy had other plans. Instead of just the single twirl, he twirled around about three or four times, and added a bunch of graceful little kicks and jumps in to boot. I figured it must look pretty stupid of me to just stand there while he did all that, so I went back to the edge of the stage and tried to imitate him, but just as I was trying to do a one legged twirl like him, I lost my balance and had to put my foot down to steady my fall, only, the floor wasn't there anymore."

It was drizzling now, but I hardly cared. I was suddenly feeling quite scared for Lily. A part of me knew that this was all just a story, and, whatever happened, she was okay now at least. Another part though, a stronger part even, felt as though I were right there with her as this was happening, and I was suddenly terrified that Lily was going to slip off the edge of the stage and plummet to the ground.

"Well, as you've probably guessed by now, I fell off of the platform." Said Lily, confirming my fears," I managed to grasp the edge as I was going down though, so I didn't hit the ground. Yet."

Yet. That's a horrible word. Implying that something horrible is yet to come. It should be erased permanently from the English vocabulary.

Another fat raindrop plopped on my head. Then another. And another. I grit my teeth and pointedly ignored them as Lily went on.

"Everyone gasped liked they'd just had the wind knocked out of them, and Billy stopped dancing and rushed over to me. I'll give him that. At least he wasn't too absorbed in showing off his superior dancing skills to notice my mortal peril. Well, I guess that's an overstatement. I mean, the platform was only about fifteen feet tall."

Fifteen feet tall! Are you friggin kidding me!? I mean sure, I'd sustained worse falls at quidditch matches, but Lily was just a kid. There was nothing 'only' about it.

"My hands were so sweaty that I was slipping fast." Continued Lily, frowning profusely as she recounted this rather painful memory. "I knew I couldn't hold on much longer. Billy reached out his hand and told me to grab it, he said he'd catch me and pull me up. I should have known he was too puny to do it, but I was panicked, so I let go of the stage and grabbed his hand."

The rain was picking up now, but Lily was on a roll and didn't seem to notice. She began talking faster and faster as the raindrops picked up speed themselves. As though both her story and the storm were eager to be through.

"My weight pulled him to the ground almost instantaneously, and I dropped about a foot. His arm was stretched out as far as it could go, and it looked as though his shoulder was going to dislocate itself. He must have noticed it too, because after a few seconds he got this scared look in his eye, and, instead of keeping his promise to me from before, he squeezed his eyes shut, and let go."

For a moment, not one of us spoke. The only sound to be heard was the pitter-patter of fallen raindrops, which, at this point, was making quite the ruckus. I was already beginning to get soaked. Lily looked pretty wet herself.

I suddenly noticed that our fingers were still entwined and Lily was gripping my hand rather forcefully, as though she were still dangling from the top of that tower, her heart pounding and her muscles taut, terrified that any moment could be the one that she would fall. Who knows, maybe she still was?

As if on queue, the heavens chose that exact moment to let forth a surge of water, plummeting from the sky and piercing my uncovered skin like bullets. I heard a distant rumbling of thunder and groaned.

Sometimes, my life felt like one of those under funded, badly acted, daytime soap operas.

Other times, it just royally sucked.

A/N: Yes, I know the last lines are kind of anti-climatic. What can I tell you, I'm very bad at coming up with clever endings. Next chapter is going to be quite long and will involve James facing his fear of thunderstorms, and while he's at it, learning the true reason for Lily's trust issues. Which is something you might have guessed at already, given the few blatent hints in this chapter, but if not, I hope you won't have to wait long. I really am going to try to get this up before school starts guys. I can't promise anything, but I can try.