A/N: So here's the next chap. It's pretty long, but hopefully still enjoyable.

Plan U: Jealousy

"So how'd it go with Lily?" Asked Sirius, when I entered my dorm later that night.

Remus and Sirius were both seated on Sirius's bed having a swordfight with rubber chickens. However, when I stepped through the doorway they threw the chickens aside and looked up eagerly.

"No go, man." I sighed, plopping down on my bed, "She still won't go out with me."

"Sorry Prongs." Said Remus, "But at least you got to spend the day with her without getting hexed into oblivion.

"Yeah," I sighed dejectedly, "And I thought she was enjoying it too…But no, turns out we're just friends."

"Tough break mate." Said Sirius knowingly.

Just then a sound like a beached whale emitted from the bathroom. "Er- what was that?" I asked concernedly.

"Just Peter." Shrugged Sirius. "He's fine though, been in there like an hour."

I raised an eyebrow at that but chose to ignore the gurgling sounds resonating against the tiled floor. It sounded something like: guphmlup ghuulump.

"So the good news is, now you can go to the dance with like anyone. I mean seriously Prongs, me and you have been the most eligible bachelors at this school for years now… Except now I have Mary so it's just you." Said Sirius benignly.

I groaned, "I'm not going to ask anyone but Lily." I said grimly.

He looked shocked, "Oh c'mon Prongs! You can have practically any girl at Hogwarts you want, and you're not going to ask anyone?!"

"Right." I said, "If I can't have Lily, I'm not just going to go hook up with some random slut."

"Prongs, are you feeling ok?" Asked Remus.

Sirius cut in, "Honestly, you haven't dated anyone in like a millennia. Don't forget we have a reputation to uphold here. If you turn into a dork too, then I'm going to be the only normal one in this group!"

I snorted, "You, normal? Haha. That's funny."

"I'm serious!" Sirius exclaimed.

"We know!" Said Remus and I at the exact same time.

"Oh, very mature guys."

GHULUMP GHULUMP

"Are you sure we shouldn't go help him?" I asked anxiously.

"Nah." Said Sirius, "I'm sure he's just fine." He grinned maliciously, which didn't exactly reassure me, but I wasn't really in the mood to go find out what kind of disgusting situation Wormtail had gotten himself into, so I just shrugged it off.

"I mean, I'd feel guilty going with anyone besides Lily. It'd be like betrayal." I said.

Remus looked thoughtful, "Not really. You asked her first and she said no, so if she gets angry just remind her of that."

"Plus," Added Sirius, "Lily'll probably end up with a date, and if you don't have anyone you'll just look like a complete loser."

I frowned at him, "I don't care."

"She might get jealous." Said Remus.

That caught my attention. I jerked my head slightly in his direction, "What?"

"I said she might get jealous if you bring someone else." Reiterated Remus.

"Really?" I asked eagerly.

"Sure." Said Sirius easily, "She's head over heels for you, anyone can see that, all she needs is a push in the right direction to make her realize it."

I thought about that for a second, "So you're saying… If I were to invite someone other than Lily to the dance, she couldn't get angry since I asked her first, but she might get jealous and realize she has feelings for me?"

"That's the gist of it anyways." Said Remus.

Hmmmmmmm…. I thought, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea after all. "You guys really have to lay off the romance novels." I joked.

"Hey, I resent that!" Cried Sirius indignantly, "I love my Jane Austen!"

I arched an eyebrow, and Remus and I shared a look. "Ok then…" Remus said, awkwardly.

GHULUMP GHULUMP

"On second thought," Began Sirius, "Maybe I should go see what's up in there."

He emerged a few minutes later, covered in fluorescent green slime from head to foot. We both gave him questioning looks as he vanished the stuff. "Portable pond backfired, nothing serious." He said, by way of explanation. "I wouldn't go in there for a bit though, if I were you."

My eyebrow raised even higher, if that was even possible, "And Peter?"

"Transfigured into a giant frog." Said Sirius simply.

"Oh is that all?" said Remus sarcastically.

/-o0o-/

I had transfiguration first thing Monday morning. I sat in the last row, right next to Xenophilius Lovegood. He was an odd kid, with permanently crossed eyes and wiry powder-white hair. His name was kind of a mouthful, so most just called him Xeno when they spoke of his wild antics behind his back.

I didn't particularly enjoy sitting next to him, he was constantly sniffing the air and complaining about invisible pests that apparently inhabited the classroom. He didn't seem that interested in transfiguration either, which bugged me. He'd spend the entire class scribbling furiously in his notebook, crossing things out viciously and usually ending up with quite a bit of ink splattered on his nose. Incidentally, this did nothing to improve his slightly eccentric appearance.

He was doing just that today. I had placed a textbook vertically on the desk to protect myself from stray ink blotches, and was trying to ignore the incredibly annoying scratching sounds his quill was making and focus on the lesson.

Luckily, the bell sounded about five minutes later. I hurried to grab my things and head off to my next class, but apparently Xeno had other plans. I'm not sure exactly what he did, but the end result was that he "accidentally-on-purpose" spilled my inkwell all over my books. Needless to say I was livid. "Xeno, what the hell!?" I cried.

He looked up at me with a mildly surprised expression, "Oh sorry. I'll help you with that." He took his wand out, but he was kind of known for bad magic skills so I stopped him.

"No I'll do it."

I pulled my wand out of my robe and went to clean up the mess, but he caught it when I jabbed, and the only thing that happened was a few sparks emitting from the end. I glared at him.

"Do you want to go to the dance with me?" He asked out of the blue.

I was so surprised I almost asked him to repeat himself. Scratch that, I did. "Excuse me?" I asked.

"Do-you-want-to-go-to-the-ball-with-me?" Asked Xeno, like I was retarded or something.

I didn't want to be rude, I really didn't. Even though Xeno had just dumped my inkwell over, he was usually a nice kid. But that didn't mean I wanted to be seen with him in public. "Er- no thank you Xeno. I don't think I'm the kind of girl you'd want to go with. I'm horrible at dancing, I'd probably crush all your toes."

"I don't care." Said Xeno blandly.

"Oh well… Why don't you ask Nelly Pier?" Nelly was incredibly brilliant and pretty, but somewhat socially awkward.

"I already did. She's going with Remus." He said, looking at me intently, his wild eyes fixed on mine.

Well cudos to Remus, I thought miserably. "No Xeno. I er- just no."

He didn't seem the least bit phased. "Ok Lily." He grabbed his ink-free things and made his way out of the classroom.

I sighed, and flicked my wand. Instantly the ink disappeared. With another flick my books had packed themselves into my bag and I was headed out the door.

When I got out the door, it was to find my path blocked by a tall, blond Slytherin, who looked vaguely familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. She was standing in the doorway, talking to Potter, who was leaning against the wall in a thoroughly flirtatious manner. "Hey Potter." I said, once I had successfully navigated my way around the girl, "What's up?"

He looked up as if surprised to find me here, and maybe a little guilty, "Nothin. Just talking to Stacy."

I spared the Slytherin one quick glance. At least now I knew her name. "Um ok." I said, unsure why Potter was suddenly acting civil to his mutual enemies. "Any particular reason?" I asked.

"Well…" He started, his hand jumping up to his hair, "I was kind of wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the dance with me?"

"I already said no!" I cried indignantly.

"Not you. Stacy." He said.

My jaw dropped, and my insides throbbed as if someone had slapped me on the face. Several times.

"I'd love to." Said Stacy, speaking up for the first time.

I looked form Stacy, who was beaming, to Potter, who was smiling maniacally, stunned. A Slytherin. Potter was going out with a Slytherin!

"Lily, do you mind?" Asked Potter, not unkindly.

It was then that I realized I was standing right in the middle of them. All of a sudden I was an intrusion. I was unneeded. I was unwanted. I quickly stepped back to give them some space, and tried to rearrange the hurt look on my face.

"You don't mind, do you Lily?" Asked Potter politely.

I wanted to scream at him. To tell him yes I did mind. Why was he going out with a Slytherin? I thought he was supposed to be madly in love with me! But I didn't, I just stood there staring at him dumbly. "Still friends, right?" Asked James.

Friends. I thought, Yes friends. That awful, hateful phrase that I had used, now Potter was turning it against me. Well two could play at that game, I thought, as a wave of madness and insanity seemed to wash over me. And in that brief moment of anger and irrational thought process, that was when I made pretty much the dumbest decision I had all year. I went to go find Xeno.

/-o0o-/

I caught a glimpse of his robe just as he slipped under a tapestry, into a well known secret passage. I could tell it was his because it was frayed at the edges, from one of his, for want of a better term, "experiments".

I quickly hurried to catch up with him, he was just rounding the bend in the stairs when I slipped under the tapestry and called out his name. "Xeno wait!"

He halted immediately, and turned towards me. "What?"

"I er- I do want to go to the dance with you."

His face brightened, "Oh good. I'll meat you in the entrance hall at seven then?"

"Yeah." I said, hardly believing what had just come out of my mouth.

He turned around, a newfound spring in his step and kept walking. As soon as he was out of sight I put my head in my hands and groaned. What had I done?

It was in such a dreary condition that Potter found me, when he pulled back the tapestry and walked inside. "Did you seriously just ask Xeno Lovegood to the dance?" Potter teased.

"At least he's not a Slytherin!" I shot back, not knowing why this had become a competition, and not caring in the slightest.

Potter grinned cockily at me, "Somebody's caught a taste of the green eyed monster…" He cooed.

I looked at him quizzically. "It means you're jealous." He explained.

I shot him a disgusted look. "I am not jealous." I said, stressing every syllable.

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Are too."

"Am not!"

"Then if you're not jealous, why do you care?!"

"Oh, well excuse me if I'm just a little offended that the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team, who is a sworn enemy against all things Slytherin, decides to alter his opinion just for some slut with large breasts and bleach blonde hair!"

"Hey, you were friends with that git, Snivillus."

"Yeah, and that turned out real well for me, didn't it Potter? Because of course, it's every girl's dream to obtain a stalker who follows her around during prefect duty and attempts to murder everyone who so much as touches her!"

He took a deep breath. "This isn't about Snape though, is it?"

"Of course it isn't Potter! It's about you, you bloody hypocrite!"

"What did I do?" He asked warily.

"What did you do? What did you do!? You are denser than a blast ended skrewt with an ear infection- you know that!"

"I thought skrewts didn't have ears-"

"You bloody well know what you did, and you bloody well better fix it!"

"How? I can't just cancel with Stacy, that's rude!"

"Since when have you ever cared about being polite!? I was never under the impression that you were a gentleman!"

"Well, you know what? I am! And it's your problem if you're jealous of Stacy! I asked you first, and you said no, so just deal with it!"

I was about to retaliate, but his last comment hit home, and it hurt. Bad. I blinked back tears and shouted at him, "YOU KNOW WHAT POTTER, YOU'RE A FUCKING ASSHOLE! AND I WOULDN'T DREAM OF GOING TO THAT FUCKING DANCE WITH YOU IF YOU WERE THE LAST GOOD LOOKING GUY ON EARTH!"

And with that, I turned on my heel and strode off, leaving him blinking dazedly in my wake, for about the gazillionth time this year, I might add.

/-o0o-/

As soon as Lily left, the tapestry was thrown aside, to reveal that Sirius, Remus and Mary had been standing there, and from the looks on their faces, listened to every word we said. "Library." Said Mary, "Now."

I shrugged and followed them there. The library was a wonderful place to enjoy a whispered conversation without raising suspicion, since it was required that you whisper in there. As soon as we got there, Mary led us to the very back of the gigantic room, and shoved me into a chair behind a secluded bookshelf. I looked at her bewilderedly, but she just glared at me, and then out of the blue, "You are the worlds biggest Prat!" She hissed.

Whoa…I didn't know where that came from. Mary was usually so nice. "I er-"

"No! No excuses James Potter. What you did was cruel on a hundred different levels, and you are going to sit there and hear me out!"

My eyes bugged. This could not be good. "What did I do?" I asked, rather stupidly.

Mary opened her mouth, probably to dis me again, but Sirius put a hand on her shoulder, effectively silencing her. "What she wants to say is that you are an absolutely inconsiderate jerk with the emotional range of a teaspoon."

"Why?" It just sort of came out, I didn't mean to say it.

"Why indeed…" Trailed Remus musingly, "Why, why, why?"

"I'll tell you why-" Started Mary, but Sirius beat her to the punch.

"You weren't supposed to ask Stacy out right in front of Lily, you idiot!"

Mary piped up, "You were supposed to ask her out in front of me, and then I would tell Lily. We had it all figured out."

"Gee- thanks for telling me guys. A little late now." I tried to shrug it off with a joke, but I knew I wouldn't be getting off that easily.

"But how could you do that to her?" Mary practically screeched. "She's my friend and that was so mean!"

"Hey, these two told me to." I said, gesturing to Sirius and Remus.

Remus sighed, "Yes, but think about it. She was standing right there. If you had seen the look on her face… It was going to hurt her anyways, but asking Stacy while Lily was right there, it just adds insult to injury."

I felt my face fall. That was the problem- I hadn't thought about it. I had wanted Lily to know I had asked someone else out, and I had figured that if she saw me do it that would be the best way to go. Apparently this was not the case. And now that I did take the time to think about it, I realized it was immensely cruel, and Lily had had every right to give me the thorough verbal beating I had just endured. However I didn't want to hear it from my friends as well. "I know guys. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it, I just didn't think. I'm going to go find Lily and apologize to her right now."

I went to get up, but Mary pushed me back down. "That's great James, really." She said, "But I think you should give her a little bit of time to cool down. Come back to the common room in a few hours, after I talk to her."

I considered this. It didn't seem like a bad idea. "Thank you Mary." I said sincerely, "You're a good friend."

She looked amused for a moment. "Lily was right about you." she said.

"What?"

"You are such a kiss up."

/-o0o-/

I spotted Lily sitting next to Mary in the common room a couple hours later. Mary looked at me pointedly before getting up and heading for her dormitory so I could take her empty chair. Lily didn't look up at me, she just continued gazing into the flames. "Lily I-" I began before she cut me off.

"Don't apologize Potter. For once in your life you did nothing wrong. I just overreacted is all." She said quickly without looking up at me.

I opened my mouth to protest and then realized that she'd just sorta apologized to me. Holy mother of Merlin! I just won that argument! "Who are you and what have you done with Lily?" I teased.

She finally looked up at me then, and shot me a wan smile. "You never miss a chance to crack a joke, do you?"

I shook my head.

"I love that about you, James." She said.

My eyes bugged. "Seriously Lily. You're starting to freak me out. Are you feeling ok?"

She looked puzzled. "What?"

"You just used love and James in the same sentence!" I exclaimed before I could stop myself.

She blushed chrism and looked down at the carpet. "No I didn't." She muttered embarrassedly.

"Yes you did." I said jovially.

"Well I meant it in a friendly way." She said.

"So we're still friends then?" I asked cautiously.

"I don't see why not."

I grinned. "Awesome Lily. We make a good team, you and I. And I'm sorry about asking Stacy out right in front of you. That was mean."

She grimaced, "Stop being a kiss up Potter. And I don't want to talk about the dance just now."

"All right." I said, "So what do you want to talk about?"

She shrugged, "Actually I'm kind of tired just now James, I think I'm going to turn in."

"Ok." I said, disappointed, as she gathered her books and headed to her dorm.

"Good night!" I called after her retreating form.

She looked around and smiled at me, but there was something hollow about it. I longed to follow her upstairs, to reach out to her, to comfort her, hold her. But I knew she wouldn't let me in just yet. I would just have to wait for now, and be thankful that our fragile peace had been somewhat restored.

A/N: So next chapter is the dance, and then we'll see what happens from there. Reveiws make my day;)