Chapter 8 seemed awfully short to me…….I'm gonna try and cram as much as possible into this one. The Christmas Ball will be in this chapter or the next, I promise! Hope no one's disappointed with it…tell me what you think in your reviews! ;-)

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, bluh, bluh, bluh….Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling except Carly, Isabella, etc, etc.

Chapter 9

After leaving their friends to head to their common room, things between James and Lily seemed awkward and tense. At least for Lily, that is. As they walked along the corridor she kept sneaking glances at him. He was whistling a Christmas song, 'God Rest Yee (sp) Merrye Hippogriff', Lily thought. Since she celebrated a muggle Christmas, she didn't know many wizard carols. *A/N I know some of the words in the song title are wrong, bare with me, thanks! :-D*

James caught Lily looking at him. "What? Do I have something on my face?" He immediately brought his hand to his face.

Lily flushed. "No, there's nothing on your face, James. It's perfect."

He dropped his hand and gave a huge grin. "Wow, such a compliment, Lilith!"

Lily's face turned even redder. "Why in Merlin's name did you say that for, Lily? Like you haven't been staring at him forever!!! Stop it! Get a grip on yourself!"

"Well, I just meant there's nothing on it."

"Good one, Lily!" she thought to herself.

Before James could reply back, they were at the common room door. Lily quickly muttered the password and jumped through. She didn't stop walking until she hit the bathroom. She shut the door behind her and locked it. She crossed the floor and sat down at her vanity table.

"Lily, you've really got to watch what you say around him, now that you're friends. You can't give him the idea that you want to be more than that!" She thought. She stared into the mirror at her reflection and sighed unhappily.

"A girl with a too-big-nose and hideous freckles. And this hair is the color of a rusty old fence. How can James Potter, the most popular boy in Hogwarts, even think of asking me to the Ball? And worst of all, why do I care?" she muttered aloud.

"Lily Evans! How can you even think of such things!"

Lily jumped at the sound of Isabella's voice and she swiveled around quickly on her stool.

"Izzy! What in the world are you doing in here? How did you get in? How long have you been standing there?" She demanded.

Isabella's eyes widened in surprise at Lily's shouting. "Calm down, Lils. James let me in. Carly and Sirius went to the library and I didn't feel like hanging around by myself so I came here."

"Sorry about that, Izzy. You just scared me." She turned back around to the mirror and put her elbows up on the table and rested her head in her hands. She sighed again. "Izzy, look at my nose. Its enormous! How can anybody ask me to the Ball if the can't see my face because my nose is in the way!"

Isabella grabbed a chair that was on James's side of the bathroom and pulled it to Lily's stool and sat down beside her.

"Ok, first of all, where is all this coming from? You've never complained about your nose...or you're looks in general! You've always been the one telling Carly that looks don't matter! Are you feeling ok?"

Lily gave a weary smile. "Yeah, I feel fine. It's just this stupid nose!"

"Lily, your nose is absolutely normal! It's not big at all! You can barely even see your freckles anymore, and your hair is not the color of a rusty fence. I've always been jealous of your beautiful hair!" Isabella gave her a reassuring look. Hopefully, this was helping Lily.

Lily looked back into the mirror at herself. "You're right, Iz. What's with this sudden ditziness? It's like I've turned into Carly! My nose is still huge, though. Well, maybe I'm exaggerating. It does seem a little big though."

Isabella smiled. "Lily, the day your nose is huge is the day that James hates Quidditch!"

Lily laughed. "You know, I think this whole Christmas Ball is more trouble than its worth! There's so much pressure to find a date and look just perfect!"

"I know that a certain tall, handsome, Quidditch player is dying to ask you to go with him!"

"If you're talking about James-"

Isabella interrupted. "Of course, I'm talking about James! Lily, why are you being so naive about him? You know he likes you."

"He might like me, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's going to ask me to the Ball!"

Isabella clucked her tongue and shook her head. "Lily, Lily, Lily. You've got to wake up! James likes you and I'm positive he's going to ask you to the Ball!"

"Do you think so?" Lily asked in a small, shy voice.

"To quote Carly, 'Duh!'. Isabella said in a perfect imitation of their other best friend.

They both laughed.

"Lily…I don't want you to get mad or offended when I ask you this but…" She trailed off.

"What is it, Izzy? You can ask me anything!"

"Well….are you sure you don't like James in that way? Not even a little?" She asked uncertainly.

Lily stood up and went over to the door and peered out. James wasn't there.

"Come on, Iz, Let's go sit in my room." "That way I can put a sound barrier charm on the room." She thought.

When they were in Lily's room, they plopped down on her big, comfy bed. Lily pulled her wand from her robes pocket and quickly muttered the charm.

"Lils, you still haven't answered my question. I swear, I won't tell anyone. Not even Carly!"

Lily started. "Well…its just that he's so different this year! He's nice and funny and not at all conceited. At least from what I see. When Snape tried to-" She stopped, aware of what she was about to say.

Isabella looked alarmed. "When Snape tried to what?"

Lily's eyes darted around nervously. "Nothing. It's nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing at all." She babbled.

Isabella looked unconvinced. "If you say so…" She didn't want to get even more off subject when she was close to finding out if Lily liked James.

"Anyway, James is really different this year. His personality seems really different. He doesn't try to jinx or curse people just because he's bored anymore. He actually listens to me and cares about what I have to say, instead of just teasing me all the time. He's brave and an excellent Quidditch player. And he's got the nicest a-"

"I'm going to ask you one more time, and look me in the eye. Do you like James as more than a friend?"

Lily looked into Isabella's eyes and said very quietly, "Yes."

Isabella looked outraged. "Lily Evans! You mean to tell me that you actually do like James Potter and you haven't told me or Carly?" She practically shouted.

"Yes, I think I do."

Isabella broke into a huge smile. "I knew it."

"How did you know?"

"Oh, just little things. The way you look at him. The way you laugh at everything he says."

"Has it been too obvious?"

Isabella looked serious. "No, I don't think so. Carly and Sirius have been too wrapped up in each other to notice anyone else. Remus might, but he'd never come right out and say it, himself."

"Oh…"

"Well. Now that that's out in the open, we can start doing something about it."

Lily looked confused. "Like what?"

Isabella looked thoughtful. "We'll have to start turning up your game."

"You have GOT to be joking, Izzy. Now you're the one who's starting to sound like Carly! Honestly, even though I kinda like him, I don't want to be more than friends. Eventually, couples who date will break up. I don't think I could handle that."

"Lils, you are one of the strongest people I know. If anyone could handle a breakup, you could. But we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. He doesn't even know you like him yet. If he asks you to the Ball, what are you going to say?"

"Well…..I guess I'd say yes…I'd go with him as friends. And that's what I'm going to say. I want things to stay the way they are between us now."

"Well, I guess that's good enough for now. It's a start!"

Lily smiled. "Yeah, I guess it is. Izzy, You've got to promise me that you won't say a word about this to anybody! Not even Carly. This cannot leave this room!"

"Don't worry, Lily, your secret is safe with me! I won't tell anybody. I promise."

The two girls linked pinkies.

"Thanks, Izzy. I owe you big, ok?

"Ok. Now, come on. Let's go see if we can find Carly if she and Sirius aren't snogging in a broom cupboard somewhere.

Lily pulled her wand out of her pocket and undid the charm she had put on her room. Then, she and Isabella went out into the common room where James and Remus seemed to be having a serious conversation of their own. But theirs was about the upcoming Quidditch match against Hufflepuff. James's face lit up when he saw Lily enter the room.

"Lily! Long time, no see!"

"Yeah, right, Potter."

"Potter? What happened to James?"

"Oops, sorry, Jamsie!" She and Isabella cracked up as they went through the portrait hole.

James turned back to Remus who had a look of confusion on his face.

"What was that all about?" He asked.

"I don't know…but she called me Jamsie!" James had a look of adoration in his eyes.

"You're crazy, Prongs."

"Crazy in love, Moony, She is just so beautiful isn't she." He stated.

"Isabella's just as beautiful, though."

"Sure, sure. But Lily…that's a whole different story."

At that moment, they heard someone's muffled shouting outside the portrait.

James got up and went through to see who it was. It was Sirius. And he had the dreamiest look on his face that James had ever seen. He also had some pink smudges on the skin around his lips.

"Uh…Padfoot? Are your ok?"

"Prongs, I am better than ok." He said in a faraway voice.

"Carly?" James asked him in a knowing way.

"Oh yeah."

"What happened?"

"Well, I'm not one to go around bragging." Sirius said smugly. "But Carly Peterson can make out like there's no tomorrow."

"Way to go, Padfoot! You made out with one of the best girls in the year!"

"Yeah…" his voice was dreamy again. "I think I'll ask her to be my girlfriend at the Christmas Ball, since we're already going together. Did you ask Lily to go with you, yet?

"Not yet. Come on, let's go back in the common room."

****

On the other side of the school, Lily and Isabella found Carly, actually in the library, with a book open in front of her. But she wasn't even looking at the pages.

"Carly, what are you doing here? It's late."

"I don't know."

"Have you been in here the whole time?"

"No, I was with Sirius."

"What were you doing with Sirius?"

"I shouldn't have done it. We didn't do anything, really, but I still shouldn't have done it."

"What did you do?"

"We made out a little bit. But now I'm afraid he'll think I'll do whatever he wants now."

"Carly, Sirius would never pressure you to do anything." Isabella started. "He likes you too much and he's not like that."

"I know, but still."

Lily put an arm around Carly's shoulders. "Don't worry about it. You know Sirius isn't like that. It's not like you to worry about something like that."

Lily and Isabella exchanged looks.

"I don't know. Sometimes I don't know if Sirius likes me for me, or just because he thinks I'm pretty!"

"Carly, he totally likes you for you! Sirius can come off like a prick sometimes but he's really a nice person!"

"I still don't know…."

"Look, its getting late I'll walk you two back to Gryffindor then I'll go back to my common room. We need to start catching up on our beauty sleep if we're going to be going to a Ball!" Lily said, hoping something like that would interest Carly. She perked up right away.

"Lily, you are totally right! How can I let Sirius see me with bags under my eyes? Let's get out of here."

The three girls left the library and headed back to their respective common rooms.

~*~

Well that's chapter 9….this chapter was really hard to write cuz nothing was comin' to me. Definitely Christmas Ball in the next chapter, though. I'll try to write it as best I can….hope ya'll like it! Chapter 10 coming soon!