And a nice big MWAH! for anyone who reviewed. On the cheek of course, but you get the idea.  Love you all! And now, without any further adieu...chapter three. ::bows::

Chapter 3

Confessions and the Third Degree

"Liiiii-ly!" exclaimed Kiara the second they got to the common room. " I saw you standing with James Potter.  And he had his ARMS around YOU!!"  She was fairly bursting with excitement.  "I TOLD you you liked him!"

"And I told you that he liked you!" cried Jordan. "I LOVE being right!!"

"Guys, guys, shut up!" said Lily. "It was a misunderstanding!  When I left the Great Hall, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and I walked into him.  He caught me before I fell over backwards.  That's all there is to it!"

"Liar." stated Jordan matter-of-factly. "You left the Great Hall about 8 minutes before we did.  Do you think we were born yesterday?"

"Well, now that you mention it..." Lily teased.

"Haha." said Kiara sarcastically. "You know perfectly well that we're right.  Why do you have to deny it?"

"And why do you two have to gang up on me like that?" Lily asked.

"Because we know we're right and we won't rest until it's confirmed." Jordan said stubbornly.

Lily cringed inwardly.  She knew Jordan was telling the truth about not giving up.  She had seen her in action before and it wasn't pretty.  "So, hypothetically, what if I was to say that I did like him.  Would you leave me alone then?"

"Um, let me think." Kiara said. "NO!"

"But why?" whined Lily.

"Because this is wayy to precious to just drop. Our little Lily is FINALLY crushing on a guy for the first time in years!  This is big!" hollered Jordan. Lily dropped her face into her hands.

"Jordan, I love you but if you don't stop yelling, not only will the whole school know, but you'll be dead." muttered Lily into her hands, but loud enough for Jordan to hear.

"So it's true!" cried Jordan. "You DO like him!"

"Jordan!" wailed Lily. "Shut. Up."

"Sorry." Jordan apologized and dropped her voice a decibel. "Okay, Lily.  Now we want the details. All the messy, dirty, stinky, juicy details.  What exactly happened between you two in the hall?"

Lily could feel a blush rising up her cheeks.  Again, she cursed being a redhead.  However, partially against her will, she could feel a smile spreading across her face as she told her friends what had happened.  "I think he was about to call me Lily," she said. "but he switched real quick in the middle of it and called me Evans instead.  Why would he do that?"

"Obviously because he feels that calling you Lily, when he's called you Evans ever since you ran into him, would be in some way confessing his everlasting love for you ("Kiara!" groaned Lily) and he, being a guy and therefore rather dense when it comes to the emotions of women, is not sure of your feelings for him and therefore he's not comfortable with that.  That, or he feels that Lily would be too personal for pretty much the same reason.  Perhaps he's afraid to let himself get close for fear of being hurt and his demented little mind ( Lily tensed up defensively at this.) feels that Evans is safer than Lily."

"Thank you, Doctor Mitchells." Lily said.  "That's gotta be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life."

"But you have to admit, in some runaround sort of way, she does have a point." stated Jordan.

"Yeah.." agreed Lily with a ponderous sort of look on her face.

*

Meanwhile, in the boys' dormitory, James was being subjected to the third degree from his now ex-best friends, Remus and Sirius.  "Now tell us, Mr. Potter, where were you on the night of September first at approximately 8:14 PM when you were supposed to be eating dinner with your dear friends?" asked Sirius while aiming the desk lamp at James' eyes.

"Ow! Padfoot! I need those!"

"Sorry, Prongsy old boy, but this must be done!" exclaimed Sirius, fairly bouncing with excitement. "Now answer my question or the consequences shall be dire!"

"Dun, dun, dunnn." came the soundtrack from Peter.

"Consequences?" Remus asked Sirius out of the corner of his mouth.

"It sounded good." replied Sirius. "Now, Prongs! Answer the question!"

"I told you already! I was on my way up to the dormitory!" cried James with more than a hint of irritation in his voice.

"And who did you encounter along the way?"

"No one." lied James.

"Liar." said Remus.

"I'll tickle you!" warned Sirius.

"You wouldn't!"

"Oh, watch me! Now tell us the truth!"

"I did." said James sullenly.

Sirius looked at Remus with a hopeful sort of look on his face.  Remus nodded and Sirius joyfully pounced on James, who was really regretting that day he had let slip that he was ticklish.  So ticklish in fact, that if you had your hand within a 50 mile radius of his rib cage with the intent of tickling, he would immediately start cracking up.  At the moment, he was having trouble breathing, not only due to the fact that when one is dying of laughter, it makes it hard to breathe, but also because Sirius was sitting on top of him.

"Alright!" exclaimed James between gasps and giggles. "I was with Lily!"

Sirius immediately stopped tickling.  Immediately after a kick in the ribs from Remus, that is.

"Now we're getting somewhere," grinned Sirius, rubbing his ribs as Remus helped James up.  "Do you like her?"

"Love her even?" put in Peter's squeaky voice.

James shot all of them dirty looks.  "Some friends you are." he grumbled. "Ganging up on a guy like that.  It isn't fair, you know."

"We weren't ganging up on you, Prongs." said Remus soothingly.

"We were just using persuasive methods of interrogation." grinned Sirius.

James made a mental note to hex Sirius first.

"So do you like her?" pestered Sirius.

"Yes." mumbled James, seeing no other way out.

"Can't hear you!" sang Sirius.

"A little louder would be nice." requested Remus.

"Yes." muttered James, only a little louder than before.

"Sorry, what was that?" asked Peter.

"Still can't hear you!" sang Sirius again.

"YES!" roared James, finally reaching the end of his rope. "YES I DO, OKAY?"

*

Over in the girls' dormitory, Lily looked up suddenly. "Did you hear that?' she asked.

"Yeah, it sounded like a roar." Kiara said, looking towards the door.

"Like a hungry lion." Jordan said, scooting away from the door a bit.

*

"SCOOORE!!" yelled Sirius. "We got him to confess!!"

"Big whoop." said James. "If you tell her, I will feed your broken body to one of Hagrid's pets."

"Now why wouldn't you want us to tell her?" asked Remus. "It's obvious she likes you."

"A blind man could see it." Peter commented.

"You guys are ridiculous." said James, but he was smiling. "I'd rather do it myself, that is, if she feels the same way."

"Don't be stupid." said Remus. "As Peter so wisely said, 'a blind man could see it.'"

"Whatever. Do you guys promise you won't say anything?" asked James pleadingly.

*

Later that night, Lily was lying awake, mulling over what had happened earlier outside the Great Hall. Obviously, it didn't bother me much or I would have said something before.  And obviously it didn't bother you, or you would have let go sooner, she had said.  Dear God.  She still couldn't believe she'd said that.  He must think she was incredibly forward.  And there wasn't even any proof that he did like her.  Except he had held onto her for at least five minutes without noticing.  And he had blushed when he realized he was holding her. And he had been about to call her Lilly, though she still wasn't exactly sure what that could mean.  If Kiara was right...

*Yes! Cliffhangers!! Will James' friends agree to keep their mouths shut or will James be forced to perform a Memory Charm on them? (no that won't happen, but it sounded good while I was typing ::grins::). And the last line does sound like a cliffhanger, but seeing as how you all already know the answer, Lily's the only one who's being...well for lack of a better word, cliffhung.  Review, review, review, review!!*