'I can't believe you're actually going through with this.' Marlene said, shaking her head.

'What? He's sweet!' Lily sat in front of her dressing table, brushing her hair for her date.

'You and I both know that's not the reason you're going on this date, Lily You're trying to cover for what you told James when he saw your doodles and make him jealous in one go.' Marlene yawned.

They were in Lily's bedroom, Marlene sitting on Lily's bed, watching Lily getting ready. Lily watched her carefully in the mirror.

'No, that's why I'm going on this date because he's sweet. That's the way it's gonna stay.' She said defensively.

'So are you really gonna date this guy or are you gonna must go on the one date? Because you can't keep stringing him along, that's just cruel.'

'Will you stop ignoring what I say? I'm not stringing him along, I think he's sweet!' Lily was beginning to get more and more frustrated. Even if Marlene didn't really believe her, she could at least pretend!

'Sure sure, wathever you say.'

Lily glared at Marlene through the mirror but said nothing. Carefully applying the last bit of eyeliner, she stood up.

'Well, bye. I'll see you later after my date.' She said, walking out the door.

'Good luck!' Marlene called after her.

.o.O.o.

'So what do you do for fun?' Lily asked Jason while they walked along the snowy paths.

'Well, I like to study and read books.' Jason said quietly in response.

Lily felt sorry for the guy. She couldn't tell if he was antisocial or just shy, but he clearly hadn't got attention from girls before. She felt more sorry for herself though, considering she was on this disaster of a date with this ridiculously boring guy. She sighed in self pity.

Jason looked over at her and sighed.

'Sorry, you're not enjoying this at all, are you?' He said.

Lily looked up at him. So he wasn't quite as quiet as she thought he was.

'Well, it's not too bad.' She said, trying to soften the blow. It would clearly be a lie if she said she was enjoying herself, but she didn't want to tell him the outright truth.

'Sorry, my friends told me not to say too much. Apparently girls like to talk about themselves a lot, so I shouldn't talk and interrupt them.' he said apologetically.

Lily looked up at him, shocked. he really wasn't so bad.

She laughed. 'Well, it's true, but you can talk, you know. I won't bite your head off for it.'

'Well, okay then. I'm sorry I seemed to boring then. I'm not really like that, I do talk about other things. So what do you want to talk about?'

'Ummm,' Lily considered. 'Well, we can talk about the Christmas ball. Have you got a date yet?'

'No, I haven't. Have you?'

'Nope.'

'Hey, do you wanna go together? You don't have to say yes, I was just wondering, since neither of us have dates-'

'Yeah, of course.' Finally, she had a date. She didn't have to look like a sad loner at the Christmas ball now.

Jason smiled at her. 'Well, that's great. Do you want to go to Honeydukes now? I could really use some sweets.'

.o.O.o.

Lily walked into her dormitory, throwing her cloak onto her bed. Overall, the day had gone well. She and Jason had spent the rest of the day laughing while shopping. He had told her about how he was studying for the potions exam and they had talked about their similar interests, which included studies, owls, and above all, sugar quills from Honeydukes. They'd even agreed to go on a second date next weekend. She smiled to herself. Even if he wasn't James, he was still really nice to her and she looked forward to the second date. She picked up her hairbrush band started to brush her hair, until she saw herself in the mirror and screamed.

'JAMES CHARLUS POTTER! SIRIUS ORIÓN BLACK! WHY IN THE NAME OF MERLIN DID MY HAIR TURN GREEN WHEN I BRUSHED IT?' She shrieked as she stomped her way down the stairs.

'What?' Sirius asked idly, turning a page of his book. Remus and Peter sat next to him, playing wizard chess.

'Don't you dare pretend to be ignorant, Black.' Lily growled. 'If you thought pretending to read a book was going to make yourself look innocent, you should've known better, since you never read books unless you're trying to look innocent. WHY DID YOU DO THIS?'

'Calm down, Evans!' James said, appearing behind her. 'It'll wear off in about a week.'

'A WEEK?' She screamed. She usually didn't get this angry, but she cared a lot about how her hair looked. It was the only part of her which she liked, for Merlin's sake.

'JAMES CHARLUS POTTER! SIRIU-' Mary screamed as she came downstairs, before seeing Lily. 'They did you too?' She asked, her hair a bright shade of neon pink.

Remus grinned sheepishly. 'Yeah, Marlene and Sally are in the bathroom trying to wash out theirs right now.'

'WHA-'

'You dyed the hairs of all of us?' Mary asked, interrupting Lily.

'Just you four, yeah.'

Mary breathed a deep breath through her nostrils. 'Fine,' she said tightly. 'but the only way I'm leaving this tower like this is if you four dye your hair as well.'

'I second that.' Lily said, with a stab of resentment. Why couldn't she have been the fun one who made James dye his hair? Now she was just the girl who screamed at him, whereas Mary was the cool one who made it all better.

'What? Dye my beautiful hair-' Sirius started.

'Fine.' Remus said. Peter looked at him.

'What?' Sirius said incredulously. 'If you think I'm dying my hair-'

'That's great!' Mary started turning away and beckoned to Lily. 'Now come on, Lily, we need to try to figure out how to make this better.'

Lily followed Mary up to her dormitory, Sirius's protests getting further and further away.

'So how was Jason?' Mary asked once they got to her dormitory, standing in front of her mirror and trying some spells on her hair to make it look nicer. 'Marlene told me you asked him out to make James jealous.'

Lily rolled her eyes. Of course she had. 'He's really nice, actually. We're going out again next week and we're going to the ball together. I think this could become a proper thing.'

Mary turned around to face her in shock. 'You're kidding!' She said. 'After pining after James for so long?'

Lily shrugged. 'Yeah, well I haven't gotten over him, per se, but I think I could eventually if I date Jason.'

Mary sighed. 'Fine, I guess I owe Marlene 5 galleons then.'

Lily raised her eyebrows at the bet, but said nothing. 'So, are you and Remus getting together yet?' She asked. It was always her getting questioned about her love life, maybe it was time Mary got some of the heat.

'Well, we're going to the ball together because you forced us to, but other than that, my love life is practically non-existent. We just hang out as friends.'

'Aww, but would you like it to become anything more?'

'Well, I dunno. I like him, but he's a bit... I dunno. It's complicated.' Mary sighed in exasperation and threw her wand on the floor. 'It's hopeless! They've done this hair enchantment so you can never change it!'

'Well, it's okay. We can just wear something on top of it.' Lily said, grabbing a towel and tying it round her head.

Mary stared at her. 'Lily, you look more ridiculous with that on than you do with green hair.' She said.

'Well, you think of an idea then!'

'We can...' Mary trailed off. There was nothing they could do. 'We could just walk out like this.'

Lily threw herself onto the bed. 'Yeah.' She said. 'Looks like we have no choice.'