~Jen's POV~

Luckily, my roommates let me dress myself for the next Hogsmeade date. I picked jeans and a pale pink sweater, which they went nuts over. Emma insisted on curling my hair and Kendra wanted to do my makeup. I only let them because I really didn't feel like doing it myself. Over the past week, I'd found myself thinking of Regulus Black more than I approved of. They weren't thoughts of desire, though; they were simply thoughts of confusion. I still didn't understand how he could be so nice to me. I'd always thought that he was part of that group that James and Sirius insisted were Death Eaters.

"All done!"

I stood up from the chair and looked at myself in the mirror. "Oh, thanks, guys. I look nice."

"Nice?" Emma said as if I were crazy. "You look amazing!"

I rolled my eyes and slipped on a light jacket. Fall was in full swing, and it was getting chillier and chillier every day. "Okay. Are you guys all coming to Hogsmeade?"

"Yes," Kendra answered.

Beth gave me a sly smile. "But don't worry; we won't be following you. That's James' and Sirius' job."

"James and Sirius followed you on your last date?" Cassie asked, surprised.

"Yeah," I answered. "Hale didn't see them, but I did."

"Are you really surprised?" Emma asked as she pulled on a purple blouse. "With them being the overprotective brothers that they are."

"True," Cassie agreed.

I vaguely wondered what those overprotective brothers would do if they found out that I kept running into Regulus. He'd never threatened me in any way, but they would probably feel that him being around was threat enough. I was surprised that they hadn't ever seen us in the same vicinity on the map, but then I remembered that it wasn't as though they checked the map every minute. Usually, they only checked it when they were sneaking out or when they were staking out a future target for a prank.

"I'll see you guys later," I said abruptly and moved to leave the room.

"Later!"

"Have fun!"

"Don't mess up your hair!"

"Tell your brother we said hi!"

I rolled my eyes and shut the door behind me before I headed down the stairs. When I reached the common room, I found that the Marauders were all sitting down close to the fire, dressed and ready for Hogsmeade. "Hey, guys."

"Hey."

"Hi, Jen."

"Hey."

"You look nice," Sirius said with a teasing grin. "Is that all for Hale?"

James looked me up and down. "Those jeans are too tight."

"Is that a fat joke?"

He gave me a look. "I'm serious."

"They're supposed to be tight, James," I informed him. "That's the way that they're made to fit. They're supposed to show off long, lean legs."

"Well, they show them off a little too much," he told me. "Go change."

I rolled my eyes. "Not a chance. You may follow me on dates and I know there's nothing I can do about it, but you can't make me change my outfit."

He didn't look too happy. "Guys' minds are always in the gutter, Jen. Take Sirius, for example. If he were going on a date with a girl dressed in those kind of jeans, he'd want to jump her bones."

"And he would," I finished. "Because he's Sirius. But Hale isn't half as licentious as Sirius is. He's never done anything inappropriate."

"Except for making out with you in the corridors!"

For a moment, I just stood there. Then, I asked, "How in the world do you know about that?"

"It was during the after party," he said. "I came to check on you to make sure that you weren't still beating yourself up about the Snitch thing, but I couldn't find you. Then, I ran into Remus and he said you'd been looking for Hale."

I looked at Remus.

He raised his hands in surrender. "I had no idea that he was going to go looking for you. I thought he just wanted to know where you were."

I looked back at James. "Continue."

"So," he said. "I checked the map. And I saw that you and Hale were together in a corridor, completely motionless. What else would two motionless people be doing in a corridor after having escaped from a party where they'd both probably had a little bit to drink?"

"First of all," I said. "Neither of us had anything to drink. Secondly, maybe we were just sitting on the floor of the corridor, talking. Did you ever think of that?"

"That's what I said!" Remus put in.

"And it would be plausible," James said. "If your face hadn't turned so red when I first mentioned you kissing him in the corridors."

I glanced at the clock on the wall. "I'm going to be late. I'm meeting him down by the doors."

"Yeah," James said as he stood up. "Come on, guys. We're going to be late for Jen's date."

I let out a frustrated sigh. "You don't need to come on this date, James. What is it you think he's going to do?"

"I don't know," he answered as he moved for the portrait hole. "And that's what bothers me."

Sirius turned back to look at me. "Oh, and make sure you two go into Honeydukes. I need some more chocolate."

When I reached Hale at the doors, I saw the Marauders all standing several yards away, ready to follow. I groaned.

"What?" Hale asked.

"My brother."

He raised an eyebrow. "What about him?"

We began to walk towards the small village. "He knows that we kissed."

"You mean, made out," he corrected me with a smile that made me blush.

"Whatever," I said. "Anyway, now he's watching us. Him and his friends are following behind us."

He linked his hand with mine. "Oh."

I looked down at our locked hands. "Are you crazy? You think this is good news?"

He nodded. "Actually, I do. Jen, think about it; he knows that we kissed after that party last week and he didn't even say anything about it until today. He didn't hunt me down during the week and try to prank me or threaten me. He may not like it, but he's okay with it."

I considered his words and then nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Hmm…weird. I've never known James to really approve of any guy that I've wanted to date."

"Well, I'm not sure that he actually approves of me, but it's a start."

"A start," I agreed. "Oh, and we need to stop at Honeydukes."

"Why's that?"

"Sirius needs some chocolate."

~James' POV~

"I can not believe that he had the nerve to hold her hand in front of me!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "James, maybe he didn't know you were following him. Because you shouldn't be."

I took another long drink of my butterbeer. "I don't like seeing them together."

"I think it's going to be like that no matter who she decides to date," Sirius told me. "You're her brother; you're always going to feel the need to protect her."

Peter came back and took off the Invisibility Cloak. "They're still just talking about school stuff."

"You sure they're not talking about sneaking off somewhere to be alone?"

Remus reached over to smack me upside the head. "James, come on. She's you sister. You know her better than that. She's not the kind of girl that would give her virginity away to just anyone."

"But guys can be smooth talkers!" I argued, gesturing to Sirius. "Look at him!"

Sirius gave a small wave and then took the Invisibility Cloak from Peter. "Is it my turn to make the round?"

"Yeah," I agreed.

"I can't believe you all are going along with this," Remus said to Peter and Sirius.

Sirius disappeared, but his voice said, "She's my sister too, Moony."

As soon as he patted my shoulder as he passed me, I stood up. "I'm going to go and get us some more butterbeers."

"I don't want one," Remus said as he looked down at his book.

"I do," Peter said.

"Got it."

I passed Diego at one of the tables and stopped to talk to him a little bit about the upcoming Ravenclaw match. He and I were both still seething Slytherin was going to make it to the finals. We had wanted Ravenclaw to beat them. We talked strategy for a few minutes, and then I headed off to get the butterbeers.

Right as I said, "Two butterbeers," someone else said, "One butterbeer."

We both stopped and looked at each other.

It was Lily Evans.

I looked at the waitress taking orders at the counter and said, "Two butterbeers, please."

Lily looked at me and I saw her blush. "You don't have to buy me a butterbeer, James."

It had actually been for Peter, but buying her one didn't seem like a bad idea. He could do without. "It's okay, Lily. I want to."

I paid for the butterbeers and then asked her, "Do you want to come and sit down with me?"

"With your friends?" she asked.

That wouldn't do. I pointed to an empty table. "Or over there."

She looked at me and smiled. "Sure, James."

I had to really focus to keep my mouth from falling open. She had just agreed to sit with me and have a butterbeer. It felt like my whole entire world had just shifted.

But, I kept calm as I pulled her chair out for her and then sat across from her.

And we had our butterbeers while we talked.