Staying in Hogsmede was one of those "maybe if I had any sense I wouldn't have" things. These are things that are pointless meditating on because I have no sense and so end up doing them anyway. At any rate, the first Hogsmede weekend I was around for caused more than a few close calls.

I'd ignored the first couple of Hogwarts robes I'd seen— after all, what were the chances? The population of this village had to have swelled by several hundred at least, after all. Actually, I probably would've gotten by completely if I hadn't run into Lily at the Three Broomsticks.

It was around noon, and I was attempting to flirt with Rosmerta— the woman was busy, and besides, she may have figured out what I was doing after two weeks, and so she brushed me off. It had also registered, vaguely, that I was older than she was now, by ten or fifteen years. Lily wandered in alone. Rosmerta made the final step of brushing me off by wandering off to ask her what she wanted. After the woman was gone, she turned to me with the half grin that proved to me she recognized it all. "Bad luck? I take it you're head's better?"

"Well, it doesn't hurt if that's what you mean, but there's still definitely something wrong with it," I quipped, nodding. "Lily Evans."

She started, staring oddly at me. "I don't seem to remember telling you my last name."

Damn— slipped again. I just knew too much about that girl not to. I shrugged, trying to recover. "I think I know you from before. I mean, what are the odds of my knowing two green-eyed redheads names Lily Evans?"

She shrugged, playing with her butterbeer. "Well . . . you're right, but I don't remember you from before, Scott."

"You might not. It's been years," I said honestly, shrugging.

Lily seemed to accept this explanation, at any rate she turned to another point. "You told me you didn't live in Hogsmede."

"Up until about two weeks ago I didn't."

Lily accepted that, too, and she glanced over at Rosmerta with a grin on her face. "So you got blown off by Rosmerta, did you?"

"In my defense," I said loftily. "She wouldn't have stood a chance back in my prime. Unfortunately, it's been a while and I'm rusty. Give it two weeks and she'll listen to me. Attentively."

Lily chuckled. "Sure, Scott, sure."

"What, you don't believe me?" I asked, absently casting my memory on a series of failed lessons on charm I'd given to James. They'd failed because Lily was apparently immune to them, and they had greatly amused both Remus and Peter. James had sworn until the day he died that it was not operator error.

"I know enough men who think so much of themselves in that line and have watched them fall flat on their faces, so yeah," Lily answered.

Undoubtably James is on that list, and maybe me, too, I thought absently. "Any particular reason you're alone?"

"Sam and Alice both had dates," Lily answered with a shrug. "I mean, Frank's fine but I don't want to interrupt, and I told Sam this was not going to make me like or speak to Roger."

Roger— he'd been the Gryffindor Keeper, and Sam Walker was another Chaser. That stood to reason— Lily'd thought half the Quidditch team were jerks, and Sam had been the exception. By Frank and Alice I assumed she was talking about the Longbottoms— they were a year ahead of us, but I remembered seeing Lily and Alice around from time to time. "And you don't have a date?"

"Um, no. For some reason all the boys don't seem to want to tread on James Potter's ground, despite the number of times we've been through the idea that I'm not his girl; he just thinks that. Eventually even he should have enough sense to cut it out."

"I wouldn't be so sure," I murmured. "Guys can get pretty stubborn."

"So can girls," Lily announced, glaring at me like I might challenge it.

"Sometimes I think you girls have no idea how stubborn you actually are," I muttered, something like a grin absently crossing my face.

"What makes you say that?"

"You sure you aren't just playing hard to get with James Potter?" I asked.

Lily looked affronted, and predictably she almost shoved me off my chair. "What on earth gave you that idea? Merlin, no! I wouldn't date him if he were the last man on earth," she added absently.

"You're sure?"

She shoved me again. "You're thinking like he is, Scott! I was under the impression that you were capable of more sensible behavior."

"Just because I'm capable of it doesn't mean I do it," I told her with a shrug. "Besides, to a certain extent all guys think alike. It's how you girls claim we're so predictable."

Lily snorted. "You're predictable because you are."

"That's teen logic right there, alright," I muttered with a grin. Lily appeared to consider shoving me but decide against it, which was good as my shoulder was beginning to hurt.

She shook her head. "You know, if Sirius Black ever used that sense Remus claims he has, he might be a lot like you in thirty years."

On one hand, I choked on butterbeer. On the other, I managed to recover in a way that might not have seemed so weird to her. "Thirty years? Lily, I'm not that old! Maybe in around twenty. Maybe."

She snorted. "And my mother claims its only girls who worry about their age."

"We're usually better at hiding it," I told her with a grin. "Now, what's going on with you before you get me to divulge my actual age."

Quite a lot, apparently. McGonagall, she'd apparently decided, must be in a bad mood with the number of detentions she'd given last class (I was willing to bet I could guess the number— four). She was having some trouble in Potions, and Sirius Black's abhorrent (her word, not mine) aim with Expelling Charms had caused him to hit her in the back of the head with his Transfiguration book. James was still being a thorn from time to time, and this morning he'd cursed Snape again for calling her a Mudblood without giving her so much as half a second to react. She shoved me again when I suggested chivalry.

"Anything remotely resembling cheerful?" I asked.

Lily laughed. "Of course; I'm just trying to figure out how I'd forgotten it. Frank Longbottom finally called up the courage to do what everyone but Alice knew he'd do eventually for several years now. He proposed to her. Alice's face was hilarious; she'd never guessed."

I kept her talking on that line for about fifteen more minutes— it was one of the few things we weren't likely to pop up in, as we were involved in just about everything but romance— even though I knew the details of Frank and Alice's marriage better than she did at the moment. Eventually, however, I glanced at the clock. "Wow, I've gotta get back to work."

As always, Zonko's attracted a crowd when Hogwarts students were here. David glanced up from the counter when I came in. "Good, you're back. I'm going to see if we're not completely out of Dungbombs, then I'm taking my break."

I shrugged in reply to that. Frankly, it stood to reason to me that the one day we were busy we'd run out of Dungbombs— Filch was always pestering Dumbledore about banning them from the halls.

David came back, announced that we were very close if not out and that he wasn't going to search very hard if I wanted to, and left. I shrugged again and turned back to what was going on.

I had just finished explaining to a girl where the vanishing ink usually was when I caught one of the voices it occurred to me I'd run into eventually— Peter's. "Excuse me?"

It being Peter's voice instead of any of the other three, it took some effort to turn and face him, with the other three of us with him, actually. "Hello, boys."

Author's Note: Please don't kill me about the cliffhanger . . . and please review. Actually, I write A/Ns looking at reviews just before I put them up (somebody made comment), and I just realized I've got two that don't really bother telling me about the story, which is, to a certain extent, my pet peeve (Sirius: Second only to stupidity, actually. It even beats the Malfoys and Snape! Me: Do shut up, Padfoot). My inability to be completely sane in A/Ns is another matter. . . . Oh, and before anyone points it out, I found out recently that the room in which the viel is in is actually called the Death Chamber, so I guess this is definitely AU. Anyway, please tell me what you think; I promise I'll get into the boys later! Cheers! — Loki