Chapter 3- Boy/Girl talk

Lily and James came back at nearly midnight the next Friday night. James had taken her to a park to fly around for a bit, then they went to a restaurant that was quite fine, and ended the evening walking along the beach and talking. They got into the beach house and their friends seemed to have retired to their separate places. The boys were all sleeping in the guest bedroom on the first floor and Samantha was sharing her usual bedroom with Lily.

"So," James said. "Do you want to hang out down here for a while?"

"No, I'm a little tired, so I think I'll turn in for the night."

"Oh, alright." James leaned in and gave Lily a peck on the cheek. Lily made her way up the stairs. "Sleep tight!" James shouted up to her. She gave a small wave and a slight grin. James smiled and went off to talk to the boys.

Lily made her way up the staircase, hoping that Samantha would be awake still. She opened the door and her friend was sitting on the adjacent bed with The Scarlet Pimpernel in hands. Samantha had her glasses on, which she only wore while reading, and was well engrossed in the novel when Lily opened the door. Samantha finished the sentence and looked toward her disgruntled friend.

"Hey, what happened? Didn't like the date?"

"Far from it," Lily slumped down onto Samantha's bed. "He took me 'flying'," she told Sam, using the quotation fingers to make a point.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he apparently doesn't realize that Quidditch isn't the center of every person's life, and didn't bother to find out that flying terrifies me."

"So… did you tell him?"

"Yeah," Lily rolled her eyes.

"What did he do then?"

"Showed me the great moves he could make on his new Nimbus 580," Lily said, voice full of sarcasm. "Then he took me to this really nice place for dinner. That didn't go too bad, but the entire conversation revolved around him. How he did on O.W.L.s, what his plans are for next year, and blah, blah, blah. The same happened on the beach. Sam why is he so conceited?"

"Who know?" Samantha put her book down. "With everything he's gotten? That's probably all it is."

"Yeah, well, I hope I don't ever have to endure a date with James Potter again."

"Come on, Lily. It couldn't have been all that bad," Samantha prodded.

"It was, believe me. I was unfortunately there. I tried to keep an open mind, Sam, I honestly did. I just don't think he's my type."

"What is your type?"

"Dark and brooding," Lily looked.

"You're looking for Mr. Darcy? Lily, you really need to get your nose out of books."

Lily grabbed The Scarlet Pimpernel. "Take your own advice!"

In the Boys' room

"It was great! She totally loved it! Lily even let me give her a kiss goodnight!"

"She let you kiss her," Remus asked, skeptical of the actual events of the night before James even opened his mouth.

"Well, at least she let me give her a kiss on the cheek," James shrugged. "That's not the point, though. I think Lily might actually go out with me, you know, if I were to ask."

"Way to go Prongs!" Sirius stood up and gave his best friend a pat on the back. "I knew I had taught you well. So tell us exactly what happened."

"First I took her to the park, you know the one by Godric's Hollow? It has a community pitch. It's not the greatest pitch you've ever seen, but it worked alright."

"Isn't Lily afraid of flying?" Remus asked. He had done prefect duties with Lily for the past two years. Things like that would come up every so often. Remus wasn't absolutely positive, but he was pretty sure on this fact.

"Yeah, but she didn't mind watching me fly around for a bit. I showed her the bomb dive, it was brilliant." Sirius ate up the stories, but Remus grew steadily more certain that James had destroyed whatever chances he might have had with Lily on tonight's escapades.

"What did Lily say?" Remus asked cautiously.

"What do you mean 'what did Lily say'?"

"I mean you've mentioned a grand total of, what is the count, three times. Did she suddenly become mute?"

"She… talked… Lily said…well, she told me that she liked to…to," James attempted pathetically. "What does it matter anyways!" James shouted in his defense.

"You do want to date her, don't you?" Remus remained calm.

"Yeah," James stated lamely, after being unable to come up with anything better to say.

"Then you have to at least know a few things, like," Remus thought. "Like, what's her favorite color?"

"I don't know, we've been on one date," James snapped.

"It's blue, James," Remus said, getting exhausted at being attacked.

"So what?" James began to raise his voice. "You going to date her now? Just because you know her favorite color?!"

"I didn't say that, Prongs I'm just say-"

"That I can't get her? Her favorite color is blue. There, now I know! Does it make me eligible to go out with her? Does it?"

"Come on, mate, he wasn't suggesting that, Moony was only-"

"Don't tell me what he was doing 'cause I've seen it! He knows I like her, and he's still trying to get her!"

"I'm not trying to get any-" Remus attempted.

"I've had enough, I'm going to sleep." James ended the conversation no matter how either Remus and Sirius tried to.

Sirius gave Remus a look of sympathy and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess we can talk to him in the morning." Remus shook his head in agreement and they turned in for the night.

One week later there wasn't much going on. James refused to talk to Remus unless it was an absolute necessity, Sirius was going between the two of them trying to sort things out, and both of the girls had no clue what was going on. It was at breakfast one morning that Cordelia, Samantha's owl, brought all of their seventh year letters.

"Do you guys realize that this is our final Hogwarts letter?" Sirius pointed out with glee.

"Yeah," Remus said, not quite so ecstatic about the topic.

They all opened their letters and started reading the content of what they would have to get that year. Suddenly a small shriek came from Lily as she looked at another sheet of parchment. "I've been appointed Head Girl!" Lily pushed the letter in Samantha's direction. "I can't believe it!"

"Sure you can," Sirius stated. "Who else do you expect to have it? So Remus… where's your badge."

"I don't have one," Remus said casually. He honestly felt that he didn't need anything else like that. He already had a hard enough time keeping up with classes and Prefect duties after full moons.

"Who did they give it to then? If Malfoy has it I swear I'll-"

"I have it," said James.

"You?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, me, is that so hard to believe?" James had been like this since his argument with Remus, but Lily thought it had something to do with the fact that she had declined a date with him a few days after they had gone out.

"Congratulations," Lily said taking the shock out of her voice, and smiling.

"Thanks," James finally smiled for the first time in quite a while.

"I think I'm going to go home and tell my parents," Lily informed the group. "I'll be back in an hour or two. I have to pick up a couple of things anyways." She got up from the table and James did the same.

"I think I will too, I need a break from all this…sun," he said giving Remus a dirty look.

James apparated home and his mother was in the kitchen making cookies for a group of witches that met together every Saturday for tea and to chat. James tried to grab one of the snickerdoodles, his favorite. Kyla made a quick slap at his hand, "don't you dare James Michael Potter."

"But don't you want to give your Head Boy a cookie?"

Kyla stopped in her tracks. "You're Head Boy?"

James smiled widely and nodded. Kyla did a weird little dance and made so much noise that her husband came to investigate. "What is all the noise in here?" Michael asked.

"Our baby boy is growing up!" Kyla said only confusing Michael. He looked to his son.

"I've been appointed Head Boy," James smiled again as his dad beamed with pride.

"Good job, James. I hope you won't abuse the privileges you'll be given."

"I won't," James rolled his eyes. "Guess who the Head Girl is; Lily Evans."

"Who?" Kyla asked. She was able to put the girl she had seen with the girl James had a crush on, but she had never really been informed of the name that belonged to the red head.

"Don't you remember? She has red hair, not too short, not too tall, beautiful eyes," James started to jog his mother's memories.

"Oh, Lily's her name," Kyla finally recalled.

"Yeah, and I went on a date with her last week," James stated proudly.

"Sounds like you're having fun at the beach," Michael said. "How did the date go?"

James stopped smiling. "I had thought it went well, but Lily said no to another date, and I think Remus might be trying to get her."

"What makes you think that?" Kyla asked.

James spent the next ten minutes telling them about the date, and the conversation after. "So Remus thinks that just because I don't know her favorite color I don't have a chance." By this point Kyla felt so bad for James that she had subconsciously let him have half a dozen of her cookies.

"Sorry, son, but I think Remus was right," Michael said, bursting James's hopes of having someone agree with him. Kyla nodded in agreement.

"What do you mean?" James got on his defense again.

"You can't just treat a girl like she should follow your every whim, James," Kyla started. "You have to share some of her interests and find out about her a bit as well. I'm sure by now she knows all about you, but what have you learned about her?"

James thought about this, and realized he didn't know a whole lot. "She likes books," he pointed out the one thing that he knew, even if everyone knew about that.

"That's a start," Michael said. "Why don't you try and let her talk for once, that might be more impressive than all the things you do."

There was a bit of silence as James stewed this all over in her mind. "I don't think Remus is the type to take away a girl he knows you like either," Kyla pointed out. She had had the Marauders in her home several times over the years, and she knew that James was probably blowing this point out of proportion more so than any other.

"You're right," James conceited. He decided that he was going to go back to Samantha's and learn some things about Lily.

Lily apparated into the living room of her house. The lights were out in the room, so she went into the kitchen. No one was there either. Maybe their still asleep, Lily thought. "Mum?" she shouted up the stairs. She passed her cat along the way. "Mum? Dad?" She went to their room and saw that the bed was made and they were gone. "Petty?" she said. Lily went to her sister's room, but no one was there.

Lily sat on her sister's bed and thought about if her parents had made any plans for vacation. Lily went down into the garage and saw that the car was still there. Where could they be, Lily thought, as she became more worried.

Lily went quickly next door to see if they were visiting the Tanners. She knocked lightly on the door. Mrs. Tanner opened the door.

"Hi Mrs. Tanner, are my parents here?" Lily asked.

"Oh dear, you haven't heard?"

"No," Lily was more worried now than ever.

"They went to the hospital three days ago," the lady informed Lily.

"Why? What happened?" Lily's voice was becoming full of panic.

"I'm not sure. The ambulance came and they haven't been back since. Your father called to have me feed your cat, but they haven't been here from what I could tell."

"Thank you, I have to go," Lily stated in a panic and went to get the car.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter is a bit long, but the plot is starting. Hope you all like it!

Thank you to those who have reviewed, and if you haven't please do!!! PLEASE????

Thanks:

Josephine Sawyer: Thank you for your critic. I hope you like this chapter, and I hope that I'm not changing Lily too much from what you think it should be. I of course have my opinions on what that should be, but you're right, she shouldn't be too much of a flirt.

lilyZWnam77: Thank you for your comments. I am a big plot person, so the first two chapters were more set up than anything. You'll see the plot unfold as you read more! Please review, and if you like it get others to as well! And I will read your story =)