Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the characters which you recognise in this story.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews once again!! Much appreciated!! I hope you enjoy this chapter!! And don't forget to review!! ^.^

Never Love Again

Chapter Four: Two Mischievous Matchmakers

Lily woke up, feeling refreshed, and for once, happy. The hug that James gave her really did something, she thought.

She quickly showered, pulled on her dreary school blouse and skirt and stared at herself in the mirror.

She examined her clothing. Her school blouse was two sizes too big, and her skirt looked like it was going to mop the floor.

Lets have some fun! She thought mischievously.

She rummaged through her suitcase, and found an old shirt and a grey long skirt. She transformed the shirt into her perfect size, not too loose, yet not too tight; she didn't want to appear as a slut.

Next, she swished her wand and the skirt immediately grew shorter. It reached just an inch or so above her knees. Again it wasn't too long, yet not too short.

Perfect!

She glanced at herself once more in the mirror, feeling satisfied this time. Her hair was still damp from the shower, so she ran her fingers through it to rid all the knots and left it loose to dry. She had successfully achieved the-just-got-out-of-bed look.

Next, she stared at her face in the reflection. She had never really bothered with make-up, but with all the changes she had already made, why not? She thought!

She didn't want to appear too obvious, so she wore a pale green eye shadow to bring out her eyes, applied clear mascara so her lashes looked as up and jumpy as she felt, and finally slicked on some lip gloss to complete the look.

Giving one last glance at herself, she stepped out of the dormitory to meet the day ahead of her.

***

When she reached the doors of the Great Hall, she heard a loud commotion. Curious, she opened the doors, and stepped in.

Most of the noise seemed to come from the Slytherin table, and then she remembered the prank that they had performed the night before.

She smiled a secret smile to James, who had motioned for her to join them at the Gryffindor table and sat down excitedly.

"Hey James!"

"Hi Lily, you- um- you look different today."

Lily frowned and wondered if she had made a mistake with all the changes.

"You look incredibly beautiful!" James finished, earning a playful punch from Lily until she remembered the noisy hubbub.

"Anyway, what's going on over there?" Lily pointed at the Slytherins.

"Well," James began contentedly. "Most of the Slytherins are floating in mid air as you can see, and they all resemble their true selves- wart hogs!"

Lily laughed and surprisingly never noticed the creatures near the ceiling until James had mentioned it.

BANG!

The doors opened, and in stormed Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape. Except they were hardly recognisable, they looked like their female counterpart.

"POTTER!"

"BLACK!"

They both yelled in unison as they approached the Gryffindor table.

As they came closer, Lily saw that they couldn't move apart. That's when she realised that they were joint at the hip ¡Vliterally!

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" came Snape's furious voice, which was rather high-pitched.

Sirius smirked.

"Well we thought you too were close, so we thought we would help you!" he said, grinning at the crowd that had gathered around.

Remus, who had woken up late, entered the Great Hall and advanced to his friends, but when he caught sight of the Slytherin pair, he burst out in a fit to everyone's surprise. It was an uncontrollable laughter that continued for ages and ages and ages and ages!

Not long, Peter joined him, with constant sniggers that were rather unnerving, so Lily thought.

Though Lily couldn't blame them; she, herself had been trying to hide her laughter, for they did look extremely ridiculous. Snape's hair had grown tremendously long and they both had fluttery long lashes, and * ahem * feminine bodies.

When James had 'accidentally' told them that they hadn't changed out of their pyjamas, which consisted of very few garments, they rushed out of the Hall. It was a hilarious sight seeing them both run, constantly swayed by the other, that they actually did look like girls, who were swaying their hips!

The laughter couldn't last for long though, because soon Professor Dedlis entered the Hall. He was a strict teacher, and to make matters worse, the head of Slytherin.

"WHAT IS GOING ON? He stormed.

With a wave of his wand, the warthogs immediately transformed into their human selves, and all landed with a thud on the table. They winced at the thud and were scratching their heads, looking utterly confused.

The laughter immediately stopped, and the Hall was occupied by a sinister atmosphere.

He pointed his long sharp fingers at the marauders, then at Lily, his deadly glare gave most of the people shudders, but Lily and the marauders managed to keep their defiant, determined expressions. I do not like him, Lily thought inside, and everyone in the hall soon felt the same way as he made his loud uproar.

"EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO OPENED YOUR MOUTHS TO LET OUT AS LITTLE AS A TITTER WILL FACE DETENTION!"

Everyone was fuming at Professor Dedlis, but all were too frightened to say anything and hid their angers in themselves.

"What a way to ruin the day" Sirius muttered quietly so only the marauders and Lily could hear him when he departed.

***

Lessons began as normal the following day, and it didn't seem like the start of the school year at all.

The students were all bombarded with lots of homework and every teacher lectured them about how they would be doing the N.E.W.T.s next year. (a/n, they're in their sixth year)

Nothing particularly exciting happened until lunch dawned upon them.

~~~~

"I'M BORED!" James moaned.

"Yeh, I'm too, what is there to do," Remus said thoughtfully.

"Well, that potions homework is due in tomorrow," Peter said quietly.

"Yeh, like I'm really gonna bother with that git, Dedlis' potions homework after he gave us all detention!" Sirius said lividly.

"Um- how about we play Quidditch?" Lily suggested.

Everyone's (except Peter) ears perked up, and immediately grew excited.

"That's a great idea Lily!" James exclaimed. "I haven't had a chance to play Quidditch in the summer," he said, and pretended to glare at Sirius, "because he", indicating Sirius, "wanted to do, er- other things!" (A/n: These other things were going to the pub, like in chap.1!)

Lily gave them a funny glance. "So I guess this sums it up, the two most wanted bachelors in Hogwarts are apparently involved with . . . each other!" she said smiling.

James and Sirius looked indignant, while Remus burst into new fits of laughter.

"NO DON'T START AGAIN!" Sirius groaned at Remus.

"And for the record, me and Sirius are not gay!" James said indignantly.

"But you're not wrong about us being the most wanted bachelors!" Sirius added.

Lily gave him a teasing smack on the arm.

"I know, I know James!" Lily said after seeing the horrified expression on James' face. "I just love seeing you get all angry and flustered!" Lily said, laughing.

"Although," she added, "you two do make a nice pair!"

"ENOUGH WITH THAT!" James said.

"Hey, you seem offended by that fact, am I not good enough for you!?" Sirius said, a small grin hiding in the corners of his mouth.

James looked like he was going to kill Sirius.

"Okay okay!" Sirius said, showing that he was only playing," but don't forget I am one of the most wanted bachelors!"

Remus, who had finished his laughter, spoke, "You shouldn't have said that Lily, now he's gonna become even more big-headed than he already is!"

"Hey!" Sirius exclaimed.

"And," Remus added. "How come I'm not on the list of the most wanted bachelors?" while saying this, he flashed Lily one of his heart-melting smiles.

"Big-head" Sirius muttered, though audibly.

Lily began to laugh. "You guys- you guys are just so meant for each other!"

James, on the other hand was beginning to feel a stab of jealously. Of course he knew that Sirius and Remus were only joking, but he still felt a bit jealous that they were flirting with Lily.

Suddenly, a voice in his head asked the obvious question, why? Why are you jealous?

Sirius and Remus gave each other mischievous grins as they saw fire light up in James' eyes.

Perfect, they each thought.

Peter, who was obviously annoyed because he wasn't involved in their conversation, said, "So, are we gonna play Quidditch or what?"

"Yes, 'course we are!" James said, suddenly angry with himself that he had been jealous over something so petty.

"Oh yeh, how are we gonna chose teams, there's an odd number of people," Lily inquired.

Sirius immediately sided with Remus, and said, "I get Remus!"

Remus, who saw the sadness in Peter's face, spoke up, "Well, since you get James, Lily, I think we should have three people. Peter, you're with us!"

Peter quickly scrambled across to them, delighted. He was furtively glad Lily wasn't on his team.

"Okay then Lily, I guess it's just you and me!" James said, secretly happy.

"Yep, and we're gonna kick their arses!" Lily exclaimed cheerfully.

~~~~

They walked to the Quidditch Pitch and were glad that no one as using it, so they quickly fetched their broomsticks.

James lended Lily his old broomstick, since she didn't have one. (He had originally offered her his brand new broomstick, but she said she would feel bad taking it, and was fine using his old one)

Since there weren't enough people, they decided to play without a Seeker, and the rules were anyone could play any positions.

"Okay, on the count of three, the match begins," stated Remus. "ONE, TWO, THREE!"

James quickly seized forward for the quaffle and Lily was close behind, she was a bit nervous, since she hadn't ridden a broom for a long time, but James had given her a few tips before they began.

Wow, this isn't actually that hard, she thought to herself. She was enjoying herself a great deal.

James passed the quaffle to Lily, and Lily thought she might as well attempt to score. The old her would have been too timid, but this was the new her, so she used all her strength and . . .

"SCORE! TEN-ZERO TO US"

"James flew to Lily and patted her on the back. "Well done!" he praised.

James' words had meant the world to her. His praise had definitely boosted her confidence and for once she felt like she was doing something constructive.

~~~~

The game continued, and grew very competitive, Remus had almost knocked James off his broomstick, and Lily had almost fallen, but James had rescued her just in time. In the end, to everyone's surprise, James and Lily had won the match.

"WE WON! WE WON!" James and Lily chanted.

"Yeh, whatever, we let you win!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Yeh!" Peter added, though his protest didn't have much effect.

Remus however, smiled and said well done to them when Sirius wasn't looking.

This time, to Sirius and Remus' surprise, Lily hugged James. James immediately blushed, but brushed it away. I do not blush, he thought at himself, though he was pleased that Lily was hugging him.

"Thank you," she whispered in his ears.

She didn't know how to express her gratitude towards James, about how she had finally felt like herself for once, and how James and his friends had helped her do so. She knew that James might be a bit confused about her words, but she needed to thank him nonetheless.

When they broke apart, James said, "You're welcome!" and winked at her. This was his way to show that he had acknowledged the true meaning behind her thanks.

Lily blushed this time, but she didn't care, she loved that feeling. James made her belong.

~~~

Not long, lunch was over and lessons continued in the afternoon. All of them were so tired they couldn't concentrate.

When the lessons all ended, they walked together to the common room.

"At last!" Sirius said while flopping onto Remus, who was walking in front of him.

"Hey geroff me!" Remus groaned, and pushed Sirius away, which ended up with him landing on Lily.

Lily blushed, and used all her remaining energy to push him off, though she did not succeed.

James quickly came to her rescue, and Sirius smirked.

"Why is it that you always have to help Lily?" he said, smirking.

"Wha- I-" James racked his brain to think of something, but Remus beat him to it.

"Perhaps he has a soft spot for somebody!" He said, sharing the same smirk as Sirius.

"You two, SHUT UP!" James said, though he was smiling.

When they finally reached the common room, they had to wake the Fat Lady from her nap, so that she'd let them in.

"Flubberdokins" Lily said, and the portrait opened.

"I'm so tired, I'm gonna go to bed." Sirius said and headed to the boys' dormitory.

"Yeh, me too," Remus said.

He did look rather pale, Lily thought, I hope he's just tired.

Peter followed Sirius and Remus and James and Lily were alone again.

"Hey, you realise we are always the one left on our own!" Lily said.

"And is anything wrong with that?" James said, raising an eyebrow, though he was smiling adorably.

Lily looked at his warm face. Is he flirting with me? She thought to herself, she blushed and turned away, but she didn't have much time to dwell on this, as she suddenly heard a soft snore.

She looked down at the couch and James was fast asleep.

"Boys!" she muttered.

She looked down at his sleeping figure, and couldn't help but think he looked cute, like a little child. She took the blanket from the top of the couch and placed it over him.

She got lost looking at his sweet, innocent face, feeling like she was in heaven, and continued to study James carefully.

This is the one of the most wanted boys, she thought. She understood why, since he had handsome looks, though not as obvious as Sirius', nor as subtle as Remus'. He was kinda in the middle. Gorgeous, but gentle, she thought. Although, he did break quite a few girls' hearts, she frowned at this thought, but his personality wasn't brutal, she knew he was a gentle person inside.

Soon, she laid on the couch, fast asleep herself. Their faces, inches from each other, their breathing followed the same restful pattern, and they both looked at peace.

Little did they know two pairs of eyes were spying on them at the top of the staircase. The identical satisfied grin appeared on both these people's faces before they left to go to sleep themselves.

A/N: I liked writing this chappie, and I hope you enjoyed reeding it! Please review, and c ya for now!!!

S2 blue moon~