A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews, guys, especially to Loraliant Angelina Snape, who actually went to the trouble of making up an acronym for HOT STUFF. XD Also, I'm sorry for the delay in between chapters; I blame the fact that my computer decided to eat my floppy disk.

Chapter Three

Hooogssmeeeade

"Hosmeade, Hogsmeade, Hoooogsmeeeaaaade today!"

Sirius' voice crashed into James' skull. He tried stubbornly to fall back asleep, scrunching his eyes up and rolling over to smush his face into his pillow.

Peter and a laughing Remus joined in the 'song', if one were kind enough to term it as such. "Hoooogsmeeeaaade today!"

"Shut up!" James finally mumbled, his voice muffled from his pillow. When you had roommates like the other three, it was a lot harder to sleep in, he reflected bitterly. He felt the weight of someone plopping onto his mattress, and groaned. He lifted his head-- to see Sirius' face, alarmingly close, beaming beatifically at him.

"Hoooggssmeade today, Prongsy!"

"Wait, what's today?" he replied sourly. "I didn't quite catch that."

Sirius, gleefully ignoring the sarcasm in his friend's voice, trilled, "Hooogssmeeeeaade!"

"Yeah, yeah." James shoved him right off of his bed. He groped for his glasses, ignoring Sirius' indignant yelp, and put them on, stifling a yawn.

The other three were already dressed. Remus was leaning against his bedpost with his arms crossed, and Peter was gazing dreamily out of the window. Sirius was, James noted with vindictive pleasure, picking himself up off the floor, rubbing his posterior and grumbling under his breath.

"Up you get, James," Remus said cheerfully. "Just last week you were going on about how you needed to visit Zonko's."

"Zonko's..." Peter murmured happily. "And Honeydukes..." Unlike most of the students in seventh year, neither Peter nor Sirius had outgrown their excitement about Hogsmeade weekends. Nor had James, really-- he was just feeling much more subdued and grouchy than usual, for some reason. He yawned and sat up in bed, running his hand absently through his hair.

Sirius had relocated to his own bed and was watching James curiously. "What's up with you lately, Prongs? Usually you'd be singing right along with the rest of us."

"It's nothing," he mumbled.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other. "It's Lily," they announced together.

"Wormtail, do me a favour and whack them both with pillows, would you? Only my aim has been off lately."

"Don't you dare!" Sirius shouted threateningly. "I only just got my hair the way I like it."

James observed Sirius critically. "It looks exactly the same as always. Messy."

"Yes, but artfully messy," he explained patiently. "A distinction that you've never been able to grasp, judging by your unfortunate hairstyle."

James raised a hand to his head defensively. "My hair is not unfortunate!"

"Well, it's definitely not fortunate."

James gave a despairing groan and threw his covers back over his head. "Forget it," he announced. "I'm not going. I'm not in the mood, and Lily will be there and she's probably been laughing at my unfortunate hair for years and I never knew it! And the Slytherins will be laughing at me as usual and making barking noises and you know what? I'm never coming out from under here again."

"You can't stay under there forever," said Remus patiently.

"Why not? Okay, I'll have to leave once in awhile to go to the loo, but other than that I don't see the problem. You three can bring me food and I'll be your deranged, anti-social friend who refuses to leave his bed. It would work splendidly."

"Don't be silly," Sirius' voice said briskly. James winced as his blankets were pulled off and Sirius again sat on his bed-- carefully at the foot of it this time, though, obviously keen to avoid being pushed off again. "What happened to not caring about what the Slytherins thought? And Lily has not been laughing at your hair for years." He studied James for a moment. "You know, I make fun, but your hair works for you. You're really rather attractive."

"Okay, we're getting into weird territory here, Padfoot," said James fervently. "I'll go if you promise to never say anything like that ever again."

"Deal," Sirius replied cheerily.

By the time the three of them had arrived in Hogsmeade along with the other students, Sirius was complimenting Remus on his 'delicate bone structure' and Peter on his 'lovely smile' which 'lit up his face.' This was interrupted by a group of approaching Slytherins, and James found himself with the odd feeling of being quite grateful to them.

"Hey, Potter," shouted one of them, a bony girl whose name James had never bothered to learn. "Thought we'd let you know-- Evans is in Madam Puddifoot's." She paused dramatically, then added with relish, "With Lockhart."

"What?" he yelped. His stomach dropped to his knees. It was quite well-known that Madam Puddifoot's was strictly for dates. "There's no way. No way would she go out with that little twit."

She shrugged smugly. "Believe it or don't, it's all the same to me." And, smirking in a maddening way, the Slytherins moved off past them, several of them bumping the Gryffindors roughly with their shoulders. James barely noticed that he was being buffeted back and forth.

There really was no way that she could be on a date with Lockhart. Lockhart was a year younger than them and notorious throughout the school for his cheerful arrogance, which was matched only by his complete incompetence. He had started several fires in his time at Hogwarts, and even once managed to turn himself into a fish. He had flopped helplessly for a bit, until one of his fellow Ravenclaws had had the good sense to grab him and toss him into a toilet. A few of the younger girls actually fell for his dubious charms, but there was no way that Lily could have. She was just too smart for that.

"No way," he said aloud, and began to stalk down the street-- but was somewhat impeded when his friends grabbed him by the arms.

"Whoa, James. What do you think you're doing?" Remus asked.

"I'm going to see if it's true, obviously," he growled.

"James, don't!" said Peter worriedly. "She's just going to be mad..."

He shook himself free of their hands and turned to glare at each of them in turn. "I won't cause a scene like last time, okay?"

"I think we should let him go," said Sirius. "Because, I mean, Lockhart? Is she mad?"

He nodded firmly. "Exactly. I'm going." And with that, he began his march towards Madam Puddifoot's. After a moment, he glanced over his shoulder. The other three were following a few meters behind him. Remus offered a sheepish smile.

"What?" said Sirius, who looked utterly unabashed. "I'm your Official Romantic Advisor! I have to be there!"

"She's probably not even going to be there," said Peter thoughtfully. "Betcha anything the Slytherins made that up..."

Remus suddenly blinked, staring at something over James' shoulder. "No, I don't think she will be there."

James whirled around and stared. Lily was meandering down the street, hand in hand with none other than Gilderoy Lockhart, the sun glinting off his impossibly golden hair. They paused outside of Dervish and Banges and spoke for a moment before separating, Lockhart heading into the store. Lily waved, then turned-- and jumped upon noticing the four boys watching.

James stalked over to her, rudely elbowing anyone who got in his way. "Are you going out with him?" he demanded immediately.

She gazed at him coolly. "And what if I am?"

He stared at her, rather disgusted. "Lockhart, Evans? Of all the people who you could have, you pick him?"

Lily frowned; She was turning rather red in the face. "Well, what's wrong with him? He's good-looking, and nice enough-- which is more than I can say for you!"

"I am nice!" he yelled, throwing up his hands in exasperation. A few people on the street glanced at him, but ignored this. "Look, Evans, I'm not the same person I used to be. Sure, I was a jerk, but you're being worse than that-- you're being so close-minded! You don't even notice that I'm different, because you don't want to. You don't want to see that I've changed, you don't want to admit that maybe you're wrong. You're just as arrogant as I am. Maybe more."

Her mouth dropped open. She looked as if she had just been slapped. Fleetingly, James felt regret; He'd certainly never have a chance with her now. And sure enough, without another word, she whipped around and stalked into Dervish and Banges, ignoring him completely.

*****

Half an hour later, James could be found slumping at a table in the Three Broomsticks, his head on its wooden surface, gazing dully at his near-full tankard of Butterbeer. Remus, Peter, and Sirius had given up on murmuring comforting things, as they obviously had no effect on his mood, and had taken to simply staring helplessly at him.

"She hates me," he mumbled.

"I'm sure she doesn't hate you..." Remus said gently.

Sirius sighed. "I've failed," he admitted glumly, "as your Advisor."

"Wasn't your fault," James said. "I'm the one who went up and yelled at her like that. I'm sure you would've stopped me if you realized what I was going to do."

"Well, probably. It was pretty stupid."

Peter punched Sirius lightly on the arm. "It wasn't stupid, it was just... not smart." James gave a mirthless laugh.

"Hey-- Potter--" a sudden, decidedly familiar voice said. James blinked and raised his head. Lily had entered the pub and was weaving through the crowd towards him, and she looked angry, or perhaps determined. James stared-- why on earth was she approaching him? Maybe to yell at him. Probably to yell at him, in fact.

She reached their table and glanced at Sirius, Remus and Peter edgily, as if rather wishing they weren't there. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and turned back to James, green eyes narrowed, and flipped her hair back over her shoulder. "I just wanted to tell you that I broke up with Gilderoy."

James blinked. "Oh...?" he said feebly.

"Yes." She gazed at him critically for a moment longer, and James felt himself fidgeting under her eyes. Finally, she took another deep breath with the air of someone steeling themselves to do something horribly difficult, and said, "And I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me sometime."

Peter sprayed Butterbeer all over James. Who barely noticed.

"Fnegle," he said intelligently. "I-- I mean... What?"

Lily glanced at the others. Peter was hurriedly mopping up the mess and blushing. Remus was watching with a small, knowing little smirk. Sirius looked utterly flabbergasted.

"You heard me," Lily finally muttered, turning her gaze to studiously examine the tabletop. "So? Do you want to?"

"I... Yes?" he said weakly.

"Okay," she said. "Um... I guess we can decide on a day and everything when we get back to school." She paused. "Bye." And with that, she turned and slowly left, exiting the pub. James stared at the door long after she had gone.

Sirius suddenly raised his fist into the air. "And thus my failure becomes a triumph!"

"But how...?" James said. "I mean, why? I mean... I'm not entirely sure what I mean, actually, because my brain has become quite suddenly strange. You see, I could swear that Lily Evans just walked in here and asked me out after I told her off."

"She did!" Peter said excitedly.

"Looks like you actually succeeded in getting her to open up her mind," Remus murmured with a smile.

James looked at him. "I have a date with Lily Evans."

"Yes," he agreed.

"A date. With Lily Evans," he repeated wonderingly. "She doesn't hate me. She wants to go out with me. On a date. James Potter and Lily Evans. Going out."

Peter and Remus laughed slightly. Sirius gave a wicked grin. "I think this calls for a celebration tonight, don't you?"

*****

The night was lost to James in a blur of Butterbeer, music, pranks, and an overall feeling of supreme bliss. The best part, though, was definitely when he caught Lily's eye from across the common room and smiled at her-- and she smiled back. It seemed a little weak, but it was better than nothing.

He made his way over to her, carefully avoiding his cavorting house mates (Sirius had actually convinced Remus to stand up on a couch and perform a sappy love song with him, much to the general amusement of everyone else). "Hi," he said.

"Hi," she replied quietly.

"So... You really meant it, then? You want to go out with me?" He settled carefully into the armchair next to hers.

She nodded. "I really did. I mean..." She gave a frustrated sigh. "You were right, much as I hate to admit it. I... I figured I should give you a chance, at least."

"Oh." He pondered this for a moment. She didn't seem overly enthused at the prospect of going out with him, but it was definitely progress, so his thrilled mood wasn't dampened much. "Well, I-- I was thinking we could go for a walk around the lake. After hours-- adds an element of danger, which is always romantic." He waggled his eyebrows, and her mouth twitched.

"All right, then. How about tomorrow night, about ten o'clock?"

He nodded, trying not to appear too victorious. "Sounds good. I'll meet you at the lake then."

He strode off, feeling practically buoyant with elation. "Got me a date tomorrow night," he announced to Peter, sliding into the chair next to his.

Peter blinked. "Tomorrow night?"

James nodded, grinning in a way that he was sure looked as satisfied as he felt. "Yeah. Ten o'clock, we're going to sneak out and take a walk around the lake. Nighttime, moonlight, a lake... what could be more romantic?"

"But James," Peter said. "Tomorrow's the full moon."

James blinked, then slowly turned to watch Sirius and Remus, who had their hands clasped together as they reached the supposed moving climax of their song.

"Oh," he said blankly. "Damn."