"So what went on last night at the prefects meeting besides your little run in with Potter?" Meg asked Lily reaching for the pumpkin juice. The three girls were enjoying a peaceful breakfast, before their first class, under the cloudless sunny sky that the enchanted roof was depicting.
"Oh not much, you know just hallway patrol, plans for the upcoming Halloween feast and Hogsmead visit, which will be on the weekend before Halloween. Oh and by the way I wanted to run something by you guys," she said.
"Yeah?" said Ashleigh who seemed to be more interested in the large stack of pancakes in front of her.
"Well…" she began slowly, oblivious to her friend's lack of interest, "One of the prefects had the idea of a ball, and I was just wondering what you guy though and weather you had any ideas."
This proposition snapped Ashleigh back to reality, her face lit up and she started to talk very fast and excitably, "Yes please have a ball that would be so great you know we could have it on Halloween and we could make it a fancy dress ball, oh you are the best head girl ever they've never had a ball before!" Ashleigh paused to draw breath and during this time Lily took her opportunity to speak.
"One problem, there is only one month until Halloween, not enough time to prepare."
"Damn" she said screwing up her nose and rubbing her forehead as though the thought of missing out on her Halloween ball pained her.
"I know, we could have it over the Christmas holidays" said Lily thoughtfully.
"Not a good idea, most people go home for Christmas, it's family time. You are the only one out of the tree of us staying. Hey I've just had the perfect idea…" Meg said pausing for effect, "… a valentines ball!"
Lily and Ashleigh looked at each other with raised eyebrows and then back at Meg. "Corny!" they both cried in a fit of laughter.
"Fine you think of something better," she said sulkily.
"I know, how about we hold it after the quidditch final! That will give us plenty of time to prepare, it will be a good cause because Gryffindor will definitely win now that I am on the team," the other two girls rolled their eyes at this boastful company, "plus the whole school will be here and it's not corny." Ashleigh finished apparently pleased with herself.
"Ah, NEWTs," said Lily.
"What about them?" Ashleigh said shrugging.
"They are pretty soon after the quidditch finals and people will be stressed out of their brains." She replied sensibly.
"All the more reason to have it then, it will be a good stress relief for everyone. Besides if we don't have it then, when else? There is no other possible time to have it. Unless of course you would like it on Valentines Day!" at this thought Lily crinkled her nose in disgust.
"No!" she said quickly causing Meg to give her a dirty look, "I'll bring it up at the next meeting, but I can't promise anything."
All three girls looked positively thrilled at the idea of a ball that it was all they could talk about the rest of the morning.
Lily and Ashleigh were in the common room waiting for Meg. They had finished their last class for the day and were waiting for her so they could go to dinner together.
"If she doesn't hurry up I'm leaving without her or else I'll be late for quidditch practice," said Ashleigh drumming her fingers impatiently on the armchair. Just then the portrait hole opened admitting Meg who looked slightly flushed and was grinning like an idiot.
"What took you so long?" ask Ashleigh apparently oblivious to her friends ecstatic appearance.
Meg closed her eyes and drew a deep breath as though she was trying to calm her excitement then she burst out "Remusjustaskedmetogotohogsmeadwithhimthisweekend!"
"Oh that's wonderful," cried Lily hugging her friend.
"Am I missing something because all I heard was 'emustskedeogotogsedithimiseeknd!' and that means nothing to me."
"Remus asked her to go to Hogsmead with him," Lily practically sung in excitement.
"Omigod!" cried Ashleigh flinging her arms around her friend "that is so exciting considering you have liked him for two years!"
Lily and Meg stared at Ashleigh in disbelief "How did you know?" asked Meg while Lily cried "Two years?"
"Oh come on it was so obvious," she replied
"Then why didn't you say anything?" asked Meg eyeing her friend suspiciously.
"Because I knew Lily would when she found out, I just didn't think it would take her so long," said Ashleigh.
The girls made their way to the great hall on their way, something struck Lily and she asked suddenly "If he only asked you out then why were you an hour late?" Meg turned bright red and ran ahead of her friends to get away from their teasing smiles and yelled back that it was none of their business.
That week was to pass surprisingly for Lily. It would pass well because she would manage to stay on top of all her commitments and it would pass surprisingly because at least twice a day James would carry out some sort of gentlemanly act towards her.
"I don't know what is going on!" she said to her two friends at the end of the week, "First he is flirting with me after years of teasing, then he is accusing me of being friendless and trying to fit in, next he is apologising to me and talking to me as though we are on good terms and now he is opening doors for me and lending me his quills. I just don't get it! Is this all-just part of some elaborate prank or is he being sincere?"
"Maybe he meant what he said to you in the prefects meeting maybe he is trying to repair the damage" Meg reasoned.
"Yeah, maybe he took you seriously when you told him to prove that he has changed," agreed Ashleigh.
"People don't just change over night," Lily said shaking her head.
"He hasn't, he's had over three months, you don't know what happened to him over the holidays." Said Ashleigh
"But he was still the same arrogant pig as he always as he always was the first day back, no I think he is trying to make me fall in love with him so that he can humiliate me in front of the school."
I don't believe anyone could be that evil," said Meg
"You are way too trusting of people you don't know that well."
"I'm just telling you not to jump to conclusions."
"But what if I'm right?"
Meg sighed and said "Ok let's pretend for a moment that you are right. It won't affect you because you aren't stupid enough to get involved with him. You've prepared yourself for the worst so I don't know what you are worried about. Just don't go telling everyone what you think because if you are wrong you are going to hurt someone doesn't deserve it."
The next morning Lily sat by the lake gazing out unseeingly, thinking about what her friends had said to her last night, when the person of her thoughts made his presence know.
"May I sit here," James said gesturing to the ground beside her.
"Sure," she replied dully.
Just as he sat down she got up to leave but James grabbed her by the wrist and turned her to look at him.
"Please don't go, I really need to speak with you," he pleaded.
Resigned to the fact that he wouldn't let go of her until she agreed to stay. She sat herself back down on the grass. A few moments passed in which there was silence.
"I'm not going to stay here unless you start talking," Lily said flatly after some time.
"I know it's just that I want to apologise but I can't find the words. No matter what I say I know you will never fully forgive me for what I have done to you and truth be told I don't blame you."
Lily sat there in silence unable to believe what she was hearing. "What makes you what to apologise now why not last year or the year before that?"
"I wanted to but I was too immature, too worried about ruining my reputation. I've changed this year and I want to make things better," He said.
"I'm finding it hard to trust you, how do I know your not just apologising because I'm not overweight this year, because you have no ammunition.
"I understand and I guess in a very small and insignificant way that is part of the reason."
"I knew it!" Lily said angrily "How could I possibly think you'd changed? You're the shallowest person I have met!"
"Don't you think that's a little unfair, you haven't heard my explanation."
"I don't need too, you just said the reason your apologising is because I'm not fat anymore!" she all but yelled at him.
"That's not what I said, don't twist my words, that was only a tiny part of it, extremely insignificant. Can you let me explain what I meant?"
Lily's expression was still of utter disgust but she nodded slightly and James continued.
"I would never tease someone solely because of the way they look, I'm not that swallow. If I was wouldn't I tease Peter, but I don't, he's one of my friends. Your being… slightly… larger than other wasn't the reason I teased you it was just something to tease you about. Do you understand what I mean? The reason I teased you was because I was threatened by you, for once in my life I had someone, who wasn't Sirius, who challenged my intellect, someone I had to work hard to stay ahead of. So I started teasing you to make you look bad and myself look better to others, to an extent it worked because some others followed my lead. I teased you about your weight because as far as I could see it was your only flaw, you had good friends and you were smart in a way that wasn't nerdy.
"Then in fifth year you became a Prefect and back then it was my favourite hobby to undermine authority, so the teasing got worse. I guess that is one of the main reasons I feel the need to apologise, I've developed empathy for you. I now know how hard it is to try to enforce the rules when there are idiots like me around, who will do just about anything to break the rules." James was looking at Lily anxiously to see her reaction.
"That's all very well," said Lily "but you still haven't explained how my losing weight had anything to do with this."
"As I was saying it only plays a tiny role, it made me remember why I was teasing you about your weight. Now that you are thin you're perfect, even if I wanted to still tease you I would have nothing to tease you about, you're perfect. I now realise how much of an arsehole I've been for teasing you about something that is so delicate. There is just one thing left to ask you, do you think we would be able to be friends? Put our differences aside and work together as a team?"
"I still don't fully trust you," she said slowly "I can't be friends with someone I don't trust."
"I understand, but the offer is always open," and with that he stood up and walked away with his hands in his pockets.
Lily slumped back into the grass and almost cried, her whole world was turning upside down.