SO, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT TO LILY AND JAMES?

Hmmm Well, here's chapter eleven to give you something to read on.

Yes, James will have to commit strike three before they would actually be together. But when would that be? Well let's just see.

So, I'm having my finals this week and I still have no idea where my thesis paper is going (hopefully somewhere) and my mind is all over the place so please just bear with me if you happen to get a little confused with my writing.

By the way, thanks to all those who submitted a review. I really appreciate them. You have no idea. It's also nice to see new names in the reviews. Thank you thank you thank you. Keep reviewing and maybe you can share them with your friends too. :) Okay, that's just my wackiness starting to get the better of me.

And I haven't done a disclaimer in a while so I'm going to do one this time. So, if this happens to land on JK's lap (like there's even a remote possibility), just know that I have like two dollars in my pocket and that's all I can give her if there's a lawsuit against me. Everyone and everything you recognize are hers and the rest are all mine.

With that, I invite you to read and enjoy!

would i be whining if i said i needed a hug... -- alanis morissette, "can't not"

~*~*~*~

CHAPTER ELEVEN: Morning After

Kiara sat motionless by the windowsill of her dormitory. She had been staring out at the snow-covered school grounds for about half an hour. Seemed like she was waiting for something or someone. Or maybe, she was hiding from someone. The surroundings were so quiet that it seemed like she was the only one who was not in the Great Hall for breakfast.

She distracted herself by fiddling the woodworks of the window frame. It was the first time she noticed the intricate designs of it. The carvings were like vines of flowers crawling unendingly around the structure.

It was only when the door creaked opened that she snapped out of being lost in thought. She turned her head and smiled when Lily came into the room carrying a bunch of food wrapped in table napkins.

"Here," Lily greeted, putting the food down on Kiara's bedside table. "I couldn't carry out more food."

Kiara walked away from the window and sat down on her bed. She began unwrapping the food in a hurry, not realizing how hungry she was now that she could smell the aroma of the freshly baked bread and butter. "This is fine," she said, starting to gobble down the food. She paused for a moment, trying to swallow what she was eating. "So" she began slowly, avoiding Lily's eyes for a while.

Lily grabbed a chair and sat herself in front of Kiara. "So?"

"Well," Kiara shrugged. "Was, uh," she had to clear her throat, "was V-Vince there?"

"Uh, no," Lily replied. She sighed audibly and said, "I think both of you are trying to avoid each other – Kiara, just talk to him."

Kiara opened her mouth to say something, some sort of reason but all she could come up was, "I'm not ready."

"He's your friend," Lily insisted.

"Well–" Kiara began. "You know, I did a lot of thinking last night and"

"And?"

"This is all Sirius' fault," Kiara replied flatly like she solved the biggest conflict in the world.

"What?!" Lily almost shrieked in disbelief. Kiara seemed to be getting lost again. "I'm sorry, but why is this all suddenly his fault?"

"It is!" Kiara insisted. She stood up and started to saunter back and forth in front of her friend. "If he didn't plead on helping him with Toni, I wouldn't be so busy trying to get him noticed by her!" She stopped to take a deep breath and stood to face Lily. "I would be able to have a love life," she said in a tone like it was a solidly grounded matter of fact.

Lily scratched her head, starting to get a little perplexed with all Kiara's craziness that early of a morning. "And what do you call Damon Highfield?" Kiara opened her mouth to talk but Lily continued, "Or Robert Harold?"

"Come to think of it, he hasn't talked to me since he asked Toni to the dance," Kiara babbled absent mindedly, apparently ignoring what her friend just said.

Lily stood up and flicked her fingers in front of Kiara's face. "Get off it!" she said, almost yelling to call out for her friend who was far off outside earth at that time. "If it's any help," she started, calming down her voice. "I don't have a date for the Yule Ball yet, either."

Kiara rolled her eyes, turning away from Lily. Yeah, she could say that, she had Malfoy lurking around her.

Lily grabbed Kiara by the shoulders, making her friend face her. "And please" she said, begging. "The dance is still two weeks away. It's not the end of the world."

"I know," Kiara replied making it seem like it was Lily who was driving her crazy.

"Then stop moping"

"I'm not!" Kiara exclaimed. "I'm" she trailed and then changed the subject completely. "Where's Toni?"

"Listen to you. Your mind's all over the place," Lily told her. "One minute you're talking about Vince, the next minute Sirius, and now all of a sudden, you're looking for Toni." She paused, noticing that Kiara wasn't listening and seemed to be only waiting for an answer to her question. "She's, um, with, um, Vince."

"Yeah, Vince. I have to talk to him," Kiara mumbled, her cluttered mind confusing her friend again.

Lily rolled her eyes at Kiara's nonsensicality that morning. "Good," she uttered instead of lengthening the conversation.

"Yeah."

"Good," Lily said again, walking to the door.

"Yeah. Where are you going?" Kiara suddenly noticed Lily leaving.

"Library. Good luck with Vince," Lily replied before she closed the door behind her.

* * * * *

At the other side of the castle, Vince and Toni were out in the school grounds, being the only two people out in a dead cold winter morning. But it seemed like Vince wasn't the least affected by the snow-covered surroundings. He stood still and lame, leaning by a wall, while staring at nowhere.

Just then, Toni's voice distracted him.

"You know, Vince, you have to talk to her eventually," Toni called to him. She was jumping up and down in order to feel warm in spite of all the layers of clothes that she was already wearing.

Vince didn't answer but only glanced at her. After then, he looked back away, a foolish smile forming around his mouth.

"What?" Toni asked curiously, noticing the way he was trying to hide his grin.

Vince chuckled and shrugged. "The idea of you trying to talk to me about serious matters while doing jumping jacks is ridiculous."

"Huh!" Toni muttered, as she stopped from jumping. She looked at him who went back into his own little world again. She was getting tired of his sentimentality. It was slowly driving her crazy. So she decided to do the best thing she could think of to get her friend out of this sappiness.

"Hey!" Vince exclaimed, turning to look at her. A cold snowball just hit him in the face. "What was that for?" he demanded. He stood straight and started to walk toward her.

Toni giggled as she knelt back down on the ground forming another snowball. "Oh, I'm sorry, drama boy," she said, teasing him. "Did I hurt you?"

And before Vince could even retaliate what she said, Toni threw the snowball, which she formed, at him again. Then, without letting another second pass, she knelt down and started molding another one.

"Hey!" Vince cried out again. This time, he bent down on the ground and began to form a snowball himself.

"Oh, I so love Christmas because I can do this," Toni declared, apparently having fun for the first time since they started hanging out and sulk that morning. She stood up and aimed at Vince. But at the same time, he was looking back at her with a ready aim, too – and an even bigger ball of snow.

They both stood cautiously, watching each other.

"Drop the snowball," Vince joked threateningly, gesturing with his hand while sounding like a policeman ordering an armed man to drop his gun.

"I'm hungry," Toni changed the subject. She lowered her snow-filled hand and started rubbing her stomach with her other hand. "Aren't you?" she asked him.

Vince rolled his eyes and said, "Why do you women always change the subject?" Oof! Toni threw at him again. "Okay, that's not fair," he complained.

"Yeah, I think I'm hungry," Toni said in a thousand miles per second, before she hurriedly ran into the castle.

* * * * *

Lily entered the library and found the place completely packed. McGonagall's assignment was finally due the next day and the students whose expertise was in cramming were starting to write the first few inches of their essays. She had been finished with the essay since last week and she just decided to visit the library to have something to read in order to pass the day.

She found a rather difficult time in looking for a seat so she decided to find a book first then hoped to find somewhere to sit later. She went straight to the back of the library where the 'leisure books' were.

She started to search the shelves located at the back of the room. All the shelves were filled since the other students were more interested in finding references for their essays. While she was searching for something to read, she spotted a glittering mop of blonde hair through the gaps between the books in the shelves. She almost missed it.

Almost.

And just as almost, she'd forgotten that she was supposed to be passing the time by reading a book or a magazine or something and not watching someone. She almost looked like a little child with a crush while sneaking a peek on that blond hair's owner.

Yes.

It was Lucius.

Malfoy.

If only James could see her that time she knew that he'd rather puke than stand by and watch her watch that guy who talked with a snarl like co-existing with him was a mortal sin.

Lucius was sitting by the table in one hidden corner of the room. She saw that he was reading a book. It looked like it had nothing to do with Transfiguration so she figured out that he was there to also just kill time.

She didn't realize that she had finally reached the end of the shelf that she just kept on studying the boy sitting by the corner of the library. Suddenly, she thought that she was looking at him a little intense that she hid back behind the shelf when Lucius unexpectedly looked up and at her direction. Or maybe it was just her imagination. Nevertheless, she felt the urge to talk to him about nothing in particular; since he had probably seen her almost staring at him anyway.

She peeked out again and saw that the table that Lucius was sitting by was full. But just then, the girl sitting across the table from him stood up. As the girl passed by her, she recognized that it was a Slytherin girl, as she recalled. With that, she grabbed a witch magazine and decided to approach him.

"Hey," Lily greeted, smiling, as she sat on the chair across him.

Lucius looked up for a split second and nodded casually to recognize her.

"So," Lily began. "What have you been up to? I haven't seen you since I got out of the hospital wing."

Lucius cleared his throat. "I heard Potter was keeping you company," he said, still keeping his eyes on the book that he was reading. "I had not time to interfere with his business," he added as he turned a page.

Lily looked at him. And although his face tried to remain as emotionless as possible, she thought she just saw a hint of frustration in his eyes. Or maybe jealousy? Or maybe it was all in her imagination?

"Well," Lily tried to spark up a real conversation. "I, uh, I missed talking to you," she looked down on the magazine that she was holding when Lucius looked up at her, seeming surprised. "I guess," she added with a shrug, suddenly feeling flushed. And then, she saw what seemed to be like some sort of smile or a smirk or something that appeared to be like an upward curve of his mouth. "So, uh, what are you reading?"

"Nothing important," Lucius shrugged. "Something to keep me busy for the day."

"Yeah," Lily nodded. "Me too."

* * * * *

Back in the Great Hall, some students decided to hang out for a while after breakfast. During this time, James and Sirius were in some sort of argument about the issue of Emma Creton. James was pleading for Sirius to talk to her about breaking up. And of course, Sirius wasn't at all agreeing with his best friend's plan. And after some time, James finally agreed to talk to Emma personally.

"Fine," James groaned. "I'm going to wait outside. You call her," he said to Sirius.

Sirius sighed audibly. How in the world could his best friend be such a 'man' in hooking up with a woman and be a total coward when it came to breaking up with them? "Alright," he replied halfheartedly. "And remember that I'm doing this because that's the least thing you can do to be fair to her."

And so, as James made for the door, Sirius stood up and approached Emma. She was sitting at her house table surrounded with her friends, apparently too busy with gossiping to spend time with their boyfriends.

Sirius leaned down to whisper in her ear. "Can I talk to you?"

Emma looked at him and suddenly realized the seriousness on his face. "Sure," she said, quite anxiously. She stood up and followed him outside the Great Hall.

"What is it?" she asked Sirius when they were already standing outside the Hall.

"James wants to tell you something," Sirius replied, bobbing his head toward the figure leaning on the corner.

Emma looked at James and approached him, suddenly feeling queasy. "James, what is this about?"

* * * * *

After finishing her breakfast in the dormitory, Kiara decided to take a walk around the castle. Her feet was leading her to the direction of the Great Hall when suddenly, she saw Toni came rushing toward her direction with Vince running after her.

"Vince!" She called out involuntarily that even she surprised herself.

Toni and Vince stopped in front of her. While Vince was apparently uncomfortable by the situation.

"Uh-hi, K-Kiara," Vince stuttered.

"Uh, can we talk?" Kiara offered. She thought that it would be so much more torture if they would further delay the inevitable. "Please?" she added while he was finding something to say.

Vince glanced at Toni who nodded for him to go. "O-okay," he replied.

Toni watched her two friends went off to talk. And, just as planned, she decided to make her way toward the Great Hall for something to eat.

As she was walking, she saw Sirius and realized that they hadn't seen each other since the night before. She smiled when he called to her.

"Toni!" Sirius exclaimed, smiling widely. "Where have you been?"

"Just around," Toni replied as she walked faster to him. "I'd been keeping Vince company. He's a little heartbroken."

Sirius gave her a kiss on the forehead then on the cheek and then on the lips. Well, apparently, he missed her that much. "Well, I missed you," he said. "Have you eaten breakfast?"

"No," Toni groaned. "I'm starved!"

With that, Sirius led Toni toward the Great Hall.

Just then, Toni heard a voice crying. She turned to the direction of the voice and saw two shadow-hidden figures by the corner of the hallway. And as she and Sirius neared the dining hall entrance, she realized that it was James and Emma.

"Tell me, is it Lily Evans?" Toni heard Emma utter in between sobs.

"Emma, it's not – please listen," she heard James reply.

Toni turned to Sirius and asked, "What's going on?"

Sirius sighed. "Let's just say James isn't taking her to the dance," he replied, as he opened the door of the Great Hall for her.

* * * * *

"No, James," Emma interrupted James. "I thought I could trust you and then you turn around and do this to me?"

James ran a hand across his face in frustration. "It's not Lily Evans, alright?" he insisted. "God, why can't you understand?" he finally had to say, having the nerve to get impatient.

"Oh, maybe because this is irrational!" Emma yelled in total infuriation. "You're irrational, James!"

"Why do you even think it's Evans?"

"Oh, I don't know, James," Emma replied, mocking him. "You're the one who spent the whole day with her yesterday—"

"It's not—"

"I looked everywhere for you! I couldn't find you anywhere and then I found out that you were in the kitchen cooking with Lily Evans—"

"Emma—"

"And since when do you cook, James?!" Emma finally burst out angrily. They stood silent for a moment until James broke the calm between them.

"Well, come to think of it, we weren't spending much time together anyway."

"A couple of guys just asked me to teach them to dance, that's all," Emma replied calmly. "For the ball, remember? And you knew about it. You were always there for crying out loud!" Emma shrieked in utter disbelief of his absurdity.

James held her by the shoulders and looked straight into her eyes. "Look, we can still be friends," he said, trying to keep her from avoiding his gaze.

But Emma felt tired of his 'we can still be friends' line. Her friends warned her about him but she still agreed to date him anyhow. And that just made her feel more stupid. She shoved his hands off her with all her strength. "No, James, don't ever talk to me again," she said, before she walked away without stopping and without even looking back.

James watched Emma walk away from him. He watched her until she turned around the corner of the hallway and disappeared from his sight. With that, he went back into the Great Hall.

Inside, he saw Sirius with Toni and Peter with Cherie Walker. Then he saw Remus leave the table and walk straight for the door. Probably feeling like a fifth wheel, he thought.

"You okay?" Remus asked James, as he stopped by the door.

James smiled slightly. "Yeah," he replied. "Where you up to?"

Remus looked back at Sirius and Peter before he turned back to James for an answer. "I'm going to find Lily," he answered, before he went out the Hall.

James was too depressed to even comment on what Remus just said. He made for the Gryffindor table and sat at the back end of the room. He rested his head on his hand as he watched his friends talk and laugh with their girlfriends. That was the first time he actually felt really sorry for a girl he just broke up with. Emma's reaction was still reverberating in his mind. And something told him that he would have to talk to her again eventually.

* * * * *

In one empty classroom, Kiara and Vince sat opposite each other in silence. It had almost been ten minutes and not one of them had said anything, nor even looked at each other.

Kiara breathed out loudly, exhaling the tension that built up inside her. "Look," she heard Vince cease the silence. She looked at him and listened.

"I'm – I'm sorry that I said those things," Vince continued, pausing to take a breath. "I'm sorry that you feel awkward right now. Because believe me," he said, as he looked at Kiara in the eyes, "if I could just take back whatever wrong thing I said I would because I like to have the friendship we had back," he paused, trying to decipher what Kiara was probably thinking about. "This is killing me."

Kiara moved forward to sit closer to Vince. "Look, I'm sorry too. I know we all have our own secrets that we keep from each other," she said empathically. She smiled and reached for Vince's hand. "I just want my best friend back. Just as much as you do," she finished, leaning forward to give him a hug.

Vince embraced her back. Although he should feel thankful that things would probably go back to normal, he couldn't stop having that sinking feeling that at the same time, he should be letting go of all the possibilities that Kiara might one day see him as more than a friend.

But this was better.

Having her as a friend was better

Than not having her at all.

* * * * *

Almost an hour had passed and still Lily and Lucius sat quiet opposite each other by that corner of the library. Some of the students who were sitting with them early morning had already left, since some sun had finally shown.

Lily had finished reading her magazine. She couldn't concentrate anyway since she knew that Lucius was less than two feet away from her. She closed her magazine and sighed audibly, making Lucius take a glance at her. "I'm going ahead," she said. She stood up slowly like she had all the time in the world or like she was waiting for some sort of reply or question

She had only taken a few steps away when she heard Lucius call after her. "Evans," she heard him say, as she heard the sound of a wooden chair slide against the floor. She turned around and saw him standing and looking at her. "I mean, Lily," Lucius added.

"Yeah?" Lily asked, trying to look innocent.

"I know it's only two weeks away" Lucius began, his voice still as stiff as his face.

But Lily looked at him expectantly. Two weeks away? The only thing two weeks away was the

Yule Ball.

"What?" Lily asked, like she had completely no idea of what Lucius was driving at.

"Do you want to go to the Yule Ball together?" Lucius asked.

Lily saw that he wasn't even looking at her when he asked her to the dance but she smiled pleasantly anyhow. Or maybe it was a good thing that he wasn't looking because she felt her cheeks flushed. "S-Sure," she replied after a couple of seconds when she seemed to have completely blanked out.

"Alright," Lucius uttered, while making a face like it was 'no big deal.'

But, Lily still smiled, and together she sighed of relief. Then she trotted back to the shelf to return her magazine.

She found the shelf where she got the magazine.

She even found the empty space from where she picked it up.

But what she didn't find, or notice, was the figure behind one of the bookshelves.

She didn't see Remus standing hidden behind the shadows in the corner of the library.

And she didn't know

That he had heard the conversation she had with Lucius.

~*~*~*~

when you love a woman... tell her she's really wanted... when you love a woman... tell her that she's the one... -- bryan adams, "have you ever loved a woman"

Oh my God! Lucius and Lily are going together to the dance?! No!!

Okay, here's the thing, maybe they will, maybe they won't.

What will happen with Vince and Kiara? Well, you'll find out soon enough.

So, Toni and Sirius are happy together, huh? Well, yeah

Okay, enough of those, review please. Love those who review.

Review, review, thank you.