Disclaimer: Harry Potter 'tis not mine!

Note: Aww... this chapter goes from fluffy, to sad, to funny. Very confusing! And please don't get too angry at Lily... she's just a little confuzzled with all the stuff happening. :)

Hem Hem This, Hem Hem That

Chapter Seven ll Drama Queen With Puppets

----------

"Hellooooo, Lily!" James greeted chirpily at dinner that evening. He came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist and planted a kiss on the side of her head.

Lily batted him away, "Sod off, Potter."

Spending the rest of the day surrounded by her friends and the usual classes had returned Lily back to normal. As she thought about it, she was terrified to realise she had let Potter hug and kiss her many times that day.

And she was so not a slut.

Amused, Meddy was about to say, "Awww, we just know you love him, Lils," but she thought the better of it and kept her mouth shut.

Lily had not told them about the kiss-on-the-lips James had given her, and she intended on keeping it that way. It had meant nothing, so there was no need to blurt it out to the entire wizarding world.

Sirius was trying to get Penny to go out with him to Hogsmeade, but she persistently told him no. Sirius, however, seemed to like her obvious rejections and continued to ask her why she wouldn't go with him.

"Sirius, I am not going out with you!" she finally yelled in his face. Then she abandoned her dinner and got up.

Sirius caught her arm and brought her back, "But why?" he wailed.

"I just don't want to," Penny tried to shake his hand off, but he quickly let go and grabbed onto her arm again.

"Please?" Sirius begged.

"No! Let go--"

"Not until you say yes!" he said in a singy-songy voice.

"Sirius, I'm warning you..."

Many people in the vicinity were watching, amused.

"Say yes, and I'll let go!" Sirius continued to sing.

Penny glared at him as she tried to rub his arm off, "Let go of me!"

"Please, Penny? Pretty please with a cherry on the top?"

"No--"

"C'mon--"

"Let go--"

"I'll treat you really well--"

"Get off me--"

"Err, Sirius," Remus said lightly, as the two continued to struggle, "You better let go before she--"

SLAP.

"--does that," he finished, amused.

Penny breathed a, "Finally!" and walked out of the Great Hall.

Sirius was left sitting there, with Penny's handprint steadily becoming visible on his cheek.

The girls were giggling madly.

A grin slowly unfurled over his handsome face, "Wow! I want her to do that again."

"No doubt she will, Sirius," Emily said, still giggling, "No doubt..."

Lily, smiling over the whole affair, checked her watch and looked back up.

"Come on Potter," she said resignedly, "Detention at six in the dungeons, remember?"

"Detention? At seven? In the dungeons? With you?" James squealed, "Yay!"

And he leapt up, linked his arm with Lily's and marched off cheerfully.

The dungeons were empty when they reached there. There was, however, a note.

A gigantic one that couldn't possibly be missed unless you were blind.

Potter, Evans,

Scrub these dungeons clean. No magic.

James snorted, "Do they really believe we'll clean these dungeons without magic?" He flicked his wand, and all the slime and debri that covered the stone floors and walls disappeared.

"They think we're so loyal and trustworthy that we'd actually obey..." James sighed pitifully, "How sad."

Lily gaped around at the sparkling walls, "Well then... I suppose we can just leave now."

"Oh, no, pumpkin," James grinned, "I definitely would not pass up the chance to spend endless amount of time with you. Alone."

Lily rolled her eyes, but decided to say.

What can I say? She finds him fun to be around with.

"See! You want to," James exclaimed, grinning, "Now, let us poke around Anson's office..."

Professor Anson was their Potions teacher. He was a git, to put it bluntly.

"Potter, don't! That's... what if he catches us?" Lily asked fearfully.

"Tell him it was all my fault," James said obviously, pushing open the office door, "Git... doesn't even lock his office... And that I put you under the Imperious curse and made you do such terrible things."

"That's illegal," Lily said, trying not to giggle.

"Hmmm, I suppose," James said with a smile, "Now, what's in this box...? --Oh, Merlin!"

A box had tumbled off one of the shelves and dropped open on the floor. Several puppets spilled out.

"Puppets?" Lily squealed, "Anson has puppets?"

James began laughing as he slipped a hand under a dog and made it's mouth move.

"Hello, gorgeous," he said in a low voice, whilst ventriloquisting the dog.

Lily blushed slightly. Why am I always blushing around Potter?

"Why, you look especially bea-au-autilful tonight," Mr. Doggie said in a voice that sounded uncannily like James' (wonder why). He moved the dog's mouth to Lily's cheek and made a big, loud, smacking, "MWAH!" noise.

Lily giggled while batting Mr. Doggie away.

"I must tell everyone about this pretty girl," Mr. Doggie continued to say in a singy-songy voice.

James picked up another puppet; this time a frog. Mr. Froggie.

"There's this gorgeous redhead..." Mr. Doggie was telling Mr. Froggie.

Lily giggled again.

"She looks soo beautiful when she smiles," Mr. Doggie continued, "Ever so bea-au-autilful."

Mr. Froggie gasped, "Really?!"

James continued to entertain Lily with the puppets for a further ten minutes. When the "play" finished, James had used five puppets. Lily laughed and applauded while James made the puppets bow and curtsey.

"Bravo, Potter," Lily cheered, still giggling.

James turned to Lily, his eyes sparkling as he watched her laugh.

"Wilt thou call thy James?" he asked grandly.

The redhead smiled and shook her head. The two were sitting relatively close to each other.

"Nope, Potter will do."

James sighed and turned back to Mr. Doggie and Mr. Froggie, "She's a bit of a mean girl, isn't she?" he asked them for an opinion.

Mr. Doggie nodded vigorously, "Yes, she is!" he shook his fist at Lily who giggled again, "Meanie!"

"Let's attack her!" Mr. Froggie yelled triumphantly.

"CHARGE!"

James lunged at Lily and she laughed as she fell backward. She opened her eyes and found James hovering above her.

Her heart froze and then pounded, then froze and pounded again. Her stomach felt like it was full of butterflies.

They looked at each other in the eye for a moment, then James slowly leant down to kiss her.

Lily felt like she was going to explode. Part of her wanted him to kiss her, because the times when she felt most loved was when he was close by, hugging her and kissing her. Part of her knew that it wasn't right to let him kiss her freely. They weren't even going out. And a part of her wanted to run away and have a good cry to let out her jumbled up emotions.

Suddenly, she put her hands on James' chest and pushed him away.

"Don't," she said softly.

James bit his lip, then sighed. He sat back up and (mistake!) rumpled up the back of his hair. Lily looked at it with distaste, while she also sat up.

"Why not?" he asked her a little snappishly.

"Because it's not right," Lily got up from underneath him and stood up.

James also stood up. He looked angry, which Lily found sort of scary.

"How would you know what's right or not? Love could standing right in front of you and you're just ignoring it," he practically yelled.

Lily, who had turned around to leave, whirled back to glare at him, "It is not love."

They left the dungeons together. In silence, they walked to the common-room.

When they reached their destination, Lily was about to climb up the stairs to her domitory without so much as a "good night" to James when he stopped entirely and looked at her.

"What?" she mumbled, looking up briefly but not managing to keep eye-contact. His hazel eyes were narrowed with something Lily couldn't quite put her finger on.

"You know," he said quietly, "Even though someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have."

Then he turned away and walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitories without saying anything else.

Lily stood in the common-room for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Then, blinking tears from her emerald eyes, she slowly turned away and walked up the stairs.

---

"Prongs, what's the matter?" Remus asked as soon as James entered their dormitory. James glanced around and saw him toasting marshmallows with Sirius with a fire that had been conjured up. Peter was sitting with them, eating regular marshmallows as he didn't like toasted ones.

"Lily," he said shortly, "I dunno what's wrong with the girl. She's such a drama queen. I've tried, you know... I've tried and I thought I was really close, but now I'm back to square one. Maybe she's too much of a stubborn witch to get through with."

Sirius dropped the metal tongs he was toasting the marshmallow with, "You're giving up on her?!"

"No!" James almost yelled, rumpling up his hair, "But I'm not trying anymore. I'm going back to usual."

"You mean..." Remus said slowly, poking Sirius because his marshmallow was on fire, "Ordering her to go out with you?"

James sat with his friends and nicked a chocolate-covered snowball, "Yup."

"I'm going to get some real food," Peter announced, standing up, "Anyone wanna come with?"

"Yeah, these are making me sick," Remus said, dropping his burnt marshmallow.

They both left to pay a visit to the kitchens.

"So what happened?" Sirius asked, producing a stream of water from the tip of his wand and putting out the fire.

"I'd rather not talk about it," James muttered, "She exaggerates on everything, that's all I can say. Bloody drama queen."

"Probably PMSing," Sirius said peaceably.

"Mmm... that reminds me. The girls did this Pass-It-On-Period-Questions thing on me yesterday, and I'm supposed to ask someone else the same thing. Might as well ask you."

"Questions?" Sirius said, confused.

"Yup. Padfoot, do you get your period?" James asked.

Sirius instantly burst into fake, hysterical tears, "Oh, J-James, I thought you res-respected my pr-privacy more th-than that!"

James smiled as he tried to remember the questions Lily had asked him, "Do you use Libra or Stayfree?"

"I c-can't say!" Sirius said tragically, still sobbing stormily.

"Do you use tampons?"

Sirius arched an eyebrow but continued with his act, "I already t-told you! I c-can't say!"

"Mini or super?" James laughed.

Sirius rubbed his eyes while sniffing, "Alright, I-I s-suppose I'll t-tell you... I don't use a-anything!"

James burst out laughing, "Oh man, that is so sick."

Sirius dropped his act and smiled, having succeeded in cheering his best buddy up, "Pretty sick, I guess."

They continued to laugh for a few more minutes.

"Oh yeah," Sirius said, after they had stopped, "I forgot to say. I've been doing some thinking--"

James rolled off the bed, going, "Oh Merlin, you thinking? Shock of the millennium."

"Shut up, Prongs," Sirius sad mockingly, "Yes, I've been doing some thinking."

James emerged, "Thinking, you say?"

"Yes, thinking."

"Thinking?"

"Thinking."

"Thinking?!"

"Thinking!"

"THINKING?!"

"THINKING!" Sirius roared, grinning.

"Okay, I'll shut up," James said, taking the hint.

"Yes. As I was saying, I've been doing some thinking," (James threw up his hands in mock celebration), "And I've just realised--" ("You realise stuff?" James exclaimed, shocked) "--that we haven't done any pranks."

"Oh Merlin, you're right," James said blankly, "We haven't pulled any pranks at all this year!"

Sirius nodded, "Yes Mr. Prongs, and we, Mr. Moony, Mr. Wormtail and I, Mr. Padfoot, have got one planned. It's a pleasant prank, too. Well, pleasant for most of Hogwarts. But not really for the EVIL Slytherins."

"Stunning introduction," James said somewhat sarcastically, "Now tell me about this pleasant prank."

Sirius explained it to him, and James nodded. But he kept thinking about detention with Lily, the puppet show, how much of a Drama Queen she was, and the look on her face when he unleashed that very spectacular quote that his mother once told him about.

----------

A/N: I am soooo bored. Yes indeed. Muahahhaa. In fact I was so bored I decided to see if I could get to my bedroom from my computer without touching the floor. (I succeeded! I just broke a few of my furniture cos I stepped on it. Muahaha) Anyways, I hope you liked that chapter. I didn't. I don't like much of my chappies anymore. MuahahahahahAHHAHA. Ok, terribly sorry. Thank you! XDDD

"Even though someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have," belongs to Ruth3, one of my dear reviewers! :) She told me about it, so yay to her. Hehe. --MSQ.