ThA/N: Enjoy!

Chapter 20: Successful Times

James's POV

I don't think I've ever been as nervous as I was Saturday morning. It was the first time I was going to be alone with Lily and I wanted to change her perception of me. We were only going to Hogsmeade together as friends, but it was Valentines weekend so there was always the chance something would happen.

Sirius was lounging on his bed, watching as I pulled out all the clothing I owned and cursed myself for not choosing something to wear the night before. He looked completely relaxed in a pair of black jeans and a dark blue top; I envied him for being so calm while I was panicking.

"Relax Prongs," Sirius sighed, exchanging an exasperated look with Peter.

Peter was sat cross-legged on his bed; he too was already dressed in a pair of light blue jeans and a yellow top in an honour of his Hufflepuff date. Remus had left to go to the RoR about half an hour ago once he'd realized I wouldn't be ready for awhile.

"You don't normally care what you wear," Peter pointed out. "Just wear what you feel comfortable in."

In the end, I left the dorm in a pair of jeans and my red t-shirt that had a large golden phoenix decorating the front, its tail feathers curling around to my back. It was the same t-shirt I wore when running from the police with Sirius and it always made me smile whenever I saw it.

Lily, Zoe and Peter's date; Amy, were waiting for us by the doors to the Great Hall. Peter smiled at Amy and they walked off without saying a word, while Sirius went down into an elegant bow and kissed the back of Zoe's hand in an old-fashioned gesture that made her blush.

"Honestly," Lily rolled her eyes, watching as they walked away; Sirius still holding Zoe's hand.

"I'm guessing you don't want a grand gesture then," I teased, my panic from the morning fading once I saw Lily's wonderful smile.

She looked even more beautiful than normal; she was wearing a pair of jeans and an emerald green top that matched her eyes, but to me she looked to be glowing and I was hit by how lucky I was that she'd agreed to go with me to Hogsmeade.

"Definatly not," she grinned at me. "Where do you want to go first?"

"Anywhere's fine," I let her lead the way, silently praying she wouldn't choose Madam Puddifoot's.

Madame Puddifoot's was a very girly place for couples, and while it would mean Lily thought it was a date, Madame Puddifoot's was always worse on Valentines weekend than other day of the year; when it was just bad. Thankfully, Lily led the way to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, murmuring that she needed a new quill.

On the way I saw Sirius and Zoe heading to The Three Broomsticks; he grinned and waved at me, pointing at something behind me. Turning around, I noticed Peter slowly and reluctantly following Amy to Madame Puddifoot's. I burst out laughing and Peter glared at me, sending me a look that was clearly asking for my help.

Lily began giggling beside me and I cheerfully waved at Peter, earning myself an even stronger glare before he disappeared into the pink confetti of Madame Puddifoot's.

"Poor Peter," Lily laughed, continuing on to the Scrivenshaft's.

"He lived a good life," I said solemnly. "And he shall be missed."

Lily attempted to stop grinned and pulled a tissue out of her pocket. "He was such a nice boy!" She fake sobbed, drawing a few curious gazes from the other students around us.

"There there," I took her hand, not even realizing I'd done it. "There's always Remus, Peter and Severus for poor widowed Amy."

Unable to hold it in anymore, we both started laughing, walking through the door of Scrivenshaft's and nearly bumping into one of the quill displays.

"How about we go up to The Three Broomsticks?" Lily suggested once we'd stopped laughing, not bothering to look around the shop.

"What about your quill?" I asked curiously.

"I'll get it another day," she grinned pulling me out the shop by our still linked hands.

"Wait!" I stopped walking outside of Honeydukes. "I need to get some chocolate for Remus; it always cheers him up after an 'animal night'." I explained, conscious of the people who might be listening in.

"When is the next 'animal night'?" Lily asked, following me into Honeydukes.

"The 26th," I answered dully, picking up Remus's favourite chocolate and watching as Lily picked up a chocolate frog.

"But the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw Quidditch match is on the 28th!" She exclaimed, not noticing as I placed her chocolate frog with Remus's chocolate and paid for them both. "Will you be alright to play?"

"I'll be fine," I grinned, happy that she sounded concerned. "I'm going to play even if my arm's falling off."

"Like that time you were hit by a bludger and it broke your arm, but you continued to play anyway," Lily said dryly. "You fainted once the match was over."

"I didn't faint!" I protested. "I passed out."

Lily snickered and then frowned, realizing that we were no longer inside of Honeydukes and instead nearly at The Three Broomsticks door. I handed her the chocolate frog she'd picked out and smiled at the look of shock on her face.

"You didn't have to buy me this," she told me. "I'll pay you back."

"It was one chocolate frog. You don't owe me anything," I said simply. "If anything I owe you for agreeing to come with me today," I added when she looked like she might protest.

Inside The Three Broomsticks, we were waved over by Peter who was sitting with Sirius and Zoe at a table. Sirius was talking happily to Zoe, his hands waving about wildly as he spoke, and Peter looked relieved to see us, no doubt feeling like a third wheel.

"Hey Wormtail," I sat down across from him, pulling Lily into the seat next to me and asking for two Butterbeers from Madame Rosmerta; the pubs landlady. "What happened to Amy?"

Sirius snorted and leaned over to pluck some pink confetti out of Peter's hair. Peter scowled at us both and shook his head, causing more confetti to fall out of his hair and into his drink.

"Laugh all you want, you'll get no pity from me when you're dragged into there," Peter warned.

"No worries," Sirius grinned. "Zoe would never do that to me."

"Well," Zoe pretended to think. "I do like purple."

Sirius put on his best betrayed face. "What did I do to you?" He cried.

"You do still owe her a book," Peter laughed.

"Indeed I do," Sirius agreed, standing up and tugging Zoe up with him. "To the bookstore!"

Snickering at the shocked look on Zoe's face as she was dragged out of the door, I knocked back the rest of my Butterbeer, noticing Lily had already finished hers. From the corner of my eye I saw a girl from Ravenclaw looking at Peter.

"Sorry to leave you Wormtail," I said suddenly. "But Lily mentioned earlier that she wanted some chocolate."

Ignoring Lily's confused expression; I helped her to her feet and took her hand, leading her away from the table. We stopped near to where Alice was sitting with Frank, his arm was around her and they were sat close together, they didn't even notice us.

"What on earth Prongs," Lily frowned. "We can't just leave Wormtail on his own!"

"He's not on his own," I snickered. "Look."

The Ravenclaw girl had sat down across from Peter once we'd left and they'd already started a conversation. Lily smiled and relaxed; realizing why I'd gotten up. Still holding hands, we left the pub and walked to the Shrieking Shack.

"It looks different now I know what it looks like on the inside," Lily commented. "It looks safer, but all the more dangerous."

"That doesn't make sense," I pointed out. "But I know what you mean; it looks different to me too."

When I used to come to Hogsmeade the Shack reminded me of fun nights and the risks we took. Remus never liked it; he said he saw enough of it without visiting during the day too. I realized what Remus meant, seeing it for the first time since being bitten the Shack looked like a prison and it reminded me of the pain I was going to experience for the rest of my life.

"Let's head back to school," Lily tugged my hand, as if she knew where my thoughts had been leading me. "We can sneak back through a passageway."

Cheering up from my dark thoughts, I lead Lily back to Hogwarts through one of the tunnels Sirius had found in our third year. It lead to a mirror on the fourth floor. Deciding to see how Remus and Severus were, we walked up to the seventh floor and entered the RoR.

"Thank Merlin you're back!" Severus exclaimed, rushing over to us, pausing for a second to look at our linked hands. "He's stuck."

Behind Severus was a wolf that looked like Remus in werewolf form except for the few changes that made the animal a wolf and not a werewolf.

"You did it!" I shouted happily. "Great going Moony."

Moony whined and sat down on the floor unhappily. It was clear that while he'd managed to transform into his animal form, he had no idea how to turn back.

"Don't panic Remus," Lily soothed. "There's always the spell to reverse an Animagus form."

Moony huffed and I had to smoother a smile that I knew wouldn't help things. I walked over to him and sat down next to him, trying to think of the best way to coach him through the transformation.

I pulled a handheld mirror out of my pocket and held it up to my mouth. "Sirius."

The mirror was a two-way magical device that allowed me to contact Sirius as long as he had the other mirror with him. Normally, we both kept them in our pockets and I was hoping he hadn't forgotten it.

"Hey Prongs," Sirius's face showed up in the mirror, he was grinning and looked to be back at Hogwarts, stood next to him was Peter. "What's up?"

"Can you two come up to the RoR?" I asked.

"On the way," Sirius winked, shooting a sly grin at Peter. "Race you!"

A few minuets later, after I'd explained to Severus and Lily what the mirror was, there was a bang as Sirius and Peter wrestled their way into the room. Both of them looked like they'd fallen over a few times and had probably tripped each other up.

"I win!" Peter announced happily, detangling himself from Sirius.

Sirius shot a jinx at him, causing him to trip over but Peter grabbed him as he fell. Pulling themselves up off the floor, they finally turned to look at us.

"Ah," Sirius said, looking at Moony. "This happened to Wormtail."

"Not to worry Moony," Peter grinned. "I'm the expert of getting stuck in my Animagus form."

"No kidding," I laughed. "In our first year you got stuck in your rat form five times before being able to change back and forth flawlessly."

Peter transformed into Wormtail and scampered up to Moony, turning back once he reached the wolf. Slowly, Peter began to explain the best ways of turning back while we watched curiously.

After a few tries, Moony successfully managed to transform back. Remus looked tired but I'd expected that since every time Peter had gotten stuck in his form he was always tired afterwards.

We helped Remus back to the Gryffindor tower and Sirius and Peter helped him into the Common Room while I waited outside with Severus and Lily.

"Did you manage the potion you were changing?" Lily asked.

"Not yet, but I'm going to try again later," Severus sighed. "Anyway, I'm going to go back to my dorm and add my notes to my potions book."

I had a feeling that Severus wasn't disappointed about just his potion; when he'd noticed our linked hands, for a brief second there was a flash of sadness in his eyes. Before he turned away I caught his eye, I didn't want to lose Severus as a friend, but I couldn't give Lily up when we were just beginning to get closer. I tried to convey that I needed to speak to him soon and I think he understood.

Lily and I waved to Severus as he left and then climbed into the Common Room. Sirius, Remus and Peter were sat on the seats by the fire and looked up when we walked in. Alice and Frank were sat with them and had a Charms book open between them.

"You coming to sit down?" I asked Lily, unwilling to let go of her hand.

"No, it's getting late so I'm going to go to bed," she declined. "But I had a really good time today."

"Me too," I whispered, suddenly aware of how close we were.

Lily let go of my hand but before I could properly mourn its loss, she leaned closer to me and touched her lips lightly to mine. It felt like a shock of electricity had gone through my body, but I never wanted it to end.

"Good night James," Lily smiled gently at me and walked up to her dorm.

When I finally gained control of my body and brain, I realized the whole Common Room was silent but nearly everyone was grinning. My many tries to ask Lily out and getting turned down were legendary in our school, but especially in the Gryffindor Tower.

There was an explosion of light and noise as Remus, Sirius and Peter threw a firework each into the fireplace to celebrate. All of a sudden everyone was cheering and shouting out how happy they were for me.

I caught Remus's eye and nodded my head towards the dorm, catching on, he said something to Peter and Sirius and I somehow managed to slip out of the room and up the stairs.

"Worth the wait?" Remus asked once we were all in the dorm and the door was locked.

Instead of answering I pulled out my wand and concentrated on my memory of the kiss and the feeling I got from it. "Expecto Patronum!"

For the first time, a silver stag burst from my wand, glowing brightly in the room and prancing around a little as we watched with wide eyes.

Eventually, the stag faded and I grinned widely at my friends, feeling better than I had for a long time.

A/N: Same as usual; please vote on my poll and review. :)