IX – Suspects of Attack . . .

On Boxing Day, Lily wobbled blearily down the Head Girl's staircase and out of the door, just as James was exiting his own door across the Hall.

For the first time ever, the first thing that hopped into her mind was not utter revulsion and downright disgust at the sight of him, it was the memory of everything that had happened the day before, because she had had a lot of fun last night, until that whole 'mouth to mouth' incident, that is.

Which, she reminded herself, wasn't all that bad. It was quite funny the way James had assumed muggles regularly kissed cataleptics.

"Morning," muttered James, who looked just as tired as she felt.

"Morning," she muttered back.

"Breakfast?" he asked, too sleepy to string more than two words together.

"Eehe," she made an affirmative noise, too sleepy for concrete consonants.

They strolled down to the Great Hall in silence. It wasn't a companionable silence, or one filled with a new sense of personal enlightenment, or even an awkward silence contemplating new found feelings. They were simply too bloody tired to make any conversation.

Sitting down at the late breakfast table, Remus bid them a good morning and returned to battling with the Boxing Day crossword puzzle in that day's issue of the Daily Prophet. Sirius grinned to himself as he caught the drooping eyelids and the sluggish movements of the Heads.

"You two look worn out," he commented suggestively, with a shrewd smirk. "Yes, very worn out indeed."

In less than half an instant, both Lily and James were wide awake. James went as red as a ripe English summer strawberry, while Lily's head jerked up and she narrowed her eyes dangerously at Sirius.

Great Grindylows, thought James from beside her, such a look this early in the morning was liable to cause a few traumas.

"Are you implying what I think you're implying?" she asked lethally. Sirius returned hastily to his scrambled eggs.

"No, ma'am, not at all, apologies for the inappropriate implications, ma'am."

"What's a four letter word for 'endearing'?" asked Remus.

"Lily," answered James, without hesitation.

" 'Cute', you moron," she told him, shaking her head.

"You should have thought of that, Moony," Sirius scolded him.

"Well, maybe he has my problem," shrugged James suggestively. "Maybe all that comes into his head when he hears the word 'adorableness' is a six letter word that begins with a 'V'."

Remus coughed and hitched the paper higher to hide his face while James, Sirius and Lily sniggered. Sirius nicked the sports supplement off Remus, if only to expose his bright face for a moment or two, before scrutinising the headlines over his eggs.

"Oh would you look at that," he said breezily "That Greyman bloke from the Kentucky Kites got sacked."

"Why would that be on the headlines?" asked Lily.

"Up to the neck on drugs," James told her. "Most of them from the brand of Pumpkin juice that sponsors their team actually. Oh, hey, Lily! I completely forgot!"

"What?" asked Lily slightly worried. Knowing James, he had probably forgotten to give her a message about some Head Girl report or assignment of some kind and it was most likely due in that morning.

"I forgot to give you your Christmas present!"

"Oh, good grief, it's not another pair of hideously tasteless shoes, is it?" Lily asked, remembering the hilarious (har-har) joke the Head Boy had made with the nine-inch heeled, nauseatingly pink shoes. James grinned.

"That was good," Remus commented.

"Bloody funny in everyone's Christmas," agreed Sirius.

"No," James said, "it's better." And he shot off towards the Heads' Dorms.

"Better than the shoes?" Remus asked Sirius, as Lily contemplated making a run for it. Shortly, James returned with a square box in his hands. The sight of this caused several of the students who had remained at Hogwarts to turn around in their seats and watch.

"Oh, sod it, it's another pair of sodding shoes, isn't it?" Lily said in horror.

"I told you," James said, sitting down next to her again, and presenting her with the box, wrapped in a curly ribbon and emitting the odd decorative red spark every now and then, "it's better."

"It's a more expensive pair of sodding shoes, then," Lily surmised, regarding the box as if it were a portkey straight to the Sahara.

"Just open it," insisted James, holding out the box to her.

Lily gave him one of her dangerous looks and then, slowly reached out to pull on the red ribbon. Sirius looked around at the small audience they now had watching the Heads.

"And the tension mounts," he muttered sideways to Remus.

The bow undone, Lily lifted the lid of the box, and frowned.

"What in . . ." she began to say, because the box, turned out not to be a box at all. The inside of the box was much taller than the outside, the result of some careful magic on James's part, and in the inside of the box, was a wooden handle.

Curious beyond all reason, Lily tugged the handle upwards and out of the box. Like a lamp out of Mary Poppins's carpet bag, came the long wooden body and the smooth, twigged tail of a broomstick. Sirius's fork clattered onto his plate as he dropped it in shock.

"Is that . . .?" he stammered, "is that . . .?"

"A broomstick," Lily said, looking at it in surprise.

"That's not just 'a broomstick'," Sirius said, feverishly shuffling through the pages of the Daily Prophet Sports supplement until he came to the page he was looking for. "Look!"

Lily looked up from her gift and saw that the entire page was taken up by an advertisement. There, diagonally across the page, was the very broom in her hands, and above it, in magically shiny letters: Nimbus 1000. Available at Quidditch supply and broomstick retailers wizarding-worldwide. Price on request.

Price on request, thought Lily. That meant the thing was ridiculously expensive, and the retailers wanted to wait until they could blind you with all the broom's glory face to face before they attempted to persuade you to hand over a crippling amount of money.

"A Nimbus 1000," Sirius declared, awe in his voice, and there was a hiss of amazement over the students in the hall.

"Do you like it?" asked James quietly, more than a little conscious of everyone watching them, and not too comfortable with it, to tell you the truth, "I know you'll find it useful and all, but . . . do you like it?"

"How much did pay for this?" Lily asked, equally quietly, "you didn't dirty your hands with less than legal methods, did you?" James grinned.

"No," he chuckled.

"No?" she said, disbelievingly, "no pirated merchandise? No mafia connections?"

"Well, I can't say I wasn't tempted," James teased. Lily regarded the stick in her hands again and raised her eyebrows.

"In that case," she said, "I may finally have a use for one of your Christmas presents, Potter."

"Excuse me for a moment," James said, holding up his forefinger. He turned his back briefly to Lily and raised his fist, screwing his face up in victory and doing a little punching motion in the air.

"What were we saying?" he asked, as soon as he was facing Lily again. "Oh yes, I'm glad."

"I'm glad too," nodded Lily, placing the broomstick on the table, all the better for their little group to look at. "I'm glad it's not a pair of shoes," she added, and the boys sniggered.


Lily was finishing some holiday homework in the Heads' Dorms (Explain, as fully as you can, why the tidying charm has multiple uses, using the words: 'wand form', 'wrist movement' and 'tool shed', giving examples wherever possible,)when there was a knock at the door. Abandoning her futile attempts at her essay, Lily got up from the sofa and moved to the door, opening it to reveal Verity, who jumped on her as soon as the door way was wide enough.

"Hola!" Verity cried through the hug she had laid on Lily.

"I'm assuming that means 'hello'," Lily smiled, pulling back and grinning at her friend.

"Yeah, how did you guess that?" asked Verity, grinning back.

"Lingual intuition," Lily teased.

"Well, I didn't really need to learn much else," Verity said disappointedly, "apart from 'dos cervezas, por favor'."

"What does that mean?" Lily asked.

"Two beers, please," Verity informed her.

"Well, that gives me a big idea of what you did on holiday," Lily said.

"Indeed it does," smirked Verity.

"Well," came a voice from behind Verity, "I hope you didn't get too pissed to the point of no return, because we have another two matches ahead of us."

"Hola, James, como estas?" asked Verity. Considering she was speaking in Spanish, her accent seemed very British.

"Wot?" asked James, blankly.

"Verity wouldn't fly under the influence, would you, Veri?" Lily asked her friend against James's earlier implications, "because that wouldn't be very responsible now, would it, Potter?"

"I was completely sober in that match against Hufflepuff after that party we had the night before," James told her, matter-of-factly.

"Of course, Potter, and that clear liquid you brought back form Hogsmeade in Firewhiskey bottles was just water, I'm sure," Lily nodded kindly.

"Well, we still won," muttered James dismissively, looking at the wall.

"So, James," Verity said to him, "have you been keeping Lily . . . occupied?"

"I'll say," grinned James, "she had a hard time avoiding me, so I caught up with her in the . . ."

"He bought me a broomstick," Lily interrupted, inspecting her nails.

"You bought her a broomstick?" Verity asked James.

"A Nimbus 1000," Lily said, tilting her head to the side.

"A Nimbus 1000?" Verity demand of James.

"No shoes this year," Lily added.

"No shoes?" Verity queried.

"'Fraid not," James shook his head.

"Well, that's the last time I go abroad without you lot," Verity said resolutely. "Typical, I leave and everything interesting happens."

"Oi! Hooch! I thought I heard your voice!" The three of them turned to spot Sirius (shouting), Remus and Peter coming down the corridor.

"How was Spain?" asked Remus, as they neared.

"Spain was a right bore compared to what's been happening over here," Verity replied, "Did you know that James bought Lily a broomstick?"

"We were there," Remus nodded. "She seemed pleased."

"Oh good, otherwise I would have beaten her over the head with it," Verity declared.

"Learn any handy Spanish phrases?" he asked.

"Er . . . dos cervezas, por favor," Verity said proudly.

"Nice," Remus chuckled.

"Cheers," she said, "oh! And . . . los jugadores de Quidditch Espanoles no me gustan, prefiero las comentaristas Ingleses."

Remus grinned. Verity smiled.

It was about five seconds before they realised that everyone else had begun to go down to lunch.

"Hey!" Verity yelled, as she and Remus ran to catch up.

"That wasn't very nice," Remus hissed in a whisper to Sirius.

"You looked like you were having an interesting conversation," Sirius whispered back.

"So James," Verity said, sliding up to him "what does a girl have to do to get a free Nimbus 1000 around here?"

"Hm . . . let's see," James mused, glancing at Lily. "She has to play Quidditch, of course.'

"Right," nodded Verity.

"She has to have a lovely disposition," James said, smiling slightly at Lily. She gave him an odd look. "She has to be interesting beyond belief . . ."

"Shut up, Potter," Lily told him.

"She has to be extremely clever," James continued, "genius level compulsory."

"Potter," Lily said dangerously, wishing dearly that she hadn't left her wand in the Heads' Dorm.

"She has to be hard working, and determined. Oh, and very successful," James grinned.

"Potter, I'm warning you," Lily said, quickening her pace when he began to walk faster.

"She has to be benevolent and righteous, yet able to enjoy herself," James said teasingly.

"Shut up!" she said, smacking him on the arm.

"Compassionate, generous, spontaneous and fearless, sparkling . . ." he rattled off Lily's talents and qualities as Lily began to hit him furiously.

"Potter! Say another sneaky, devious, underhanded word and I'll . . ."

"And drop-dead gorgeous."

Lily jumped and clamped her arms around his neck, trying to shut his wind pipe, but she had a suspicion it wasn't working very well because he was laughing and still talking, even with Lily clinging to his neck, her feet a good ten inches above the ground.

"Marvellous, amazing, fantastic, brilliant . . ."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

James was unable to continue because he was laughing so hard. He bent over so that Lily squealed as she slid sideways off his back. He caught her and swung her round so that they were facing, her arms round his neck.

"Put me down, you stupid arse." Grinning, he kissed the freckles on her nose and she struggled, straightening her robes when he set her down again.

"I should have you arrested for sexual harassment," Lily muttered.

"Who would help you maintain your tyrannical rule over the student body?" he teased, and she chucked a fist at his arm.

"Who indeed," came a sickly sweet voice from in front of them. James turned to see Rita Skeeter coming out of the Great Hall. She'd come back from the Christmas Holidays even more tanned than before (if that were possible). She looked like a terracotta vase with a mop of blond hair. "Hello, James," she greeted him. "Lily." Lily looked at her in faint disgust.

There was a brief silence where the Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw looked each other up and down in the Entrance Hall.

"Er, no," James told Rita, before she had a chance to say anything else. "We're going to go this way." He put an arm around Lily's shoulders and guided her past the Ravenclaw. The rest of the Marauders and Verity swept her up into the Great Hall. James was about to follow them when Rita clamped her talons around his arm.

"Do I know you?" he asked, digging up the tone in which he used to ask this question at least twice a day during his fifth year.

"James, Hogwarts Hearsay still needs an interview, and I still need a date to this weekend's Hogsmeade trip."

"Right," nodded James in a disinterested voice, "well, good luck getting either." He tried to free himself, but she had a quite frightening death grip on his arm.

"Perhaps I've not been clear enough about how I feel about you, James," she said, and James was beginning to feel sick from all the syrup she was pumping into her voice.

"Oh, you've been perfectly clear," he told her, feeling a little unnerved by the way she was manoeuvring him around to face her, "crystal clear, undoubtedly, unquestionably, undeniably, inescapably clear, in fact."

"Good," she said sleazily.

In his defence, James could honestly tell you afterwards, that he should have seen that disgusting, squelchy, awful-tasting kiss coming . . . he should have seen it coming, but he didn't.


Lily was just about to sit down at the Gryffindor table, when she noticed that their party was one short. Grudgingly, she admitted that James wasn't stupid, he couldn't have gotten lost within the three metres that it was from his previous position to the entrance of the Great Hall. Sighing, she told Verity and the rest of the Marauders that she was going to look for him, and re-traced her steps back to the door.

Huffing with indignation, she turned into the corridor and froze at the sight before her eyes.

To her disgust, Lily could honestly tell you afterwards, that she should have seen that repulsive, nauseating, revolting sight of James and Rita coming . . . she should have seen it coming, but she didn't.


The pure feeling of horror that spread through James was quite useful, really. It seemed to give him some sort of superhuman strength, because once he had gotten over the sheer abhorrence of his situation, he was able to throw Rita off himself and his face, and wipe his mouth of a strange, clear gunge that had accumulated on his lips.

Rita was about to say something when she seemed to catch sight of someone in the entrance to the hall. Wanting to know who had witnessed this crime to humanity, and fully intending to silence the person forever, James turned and saw Lily leaning against the thick doorframe. Apart from a raised eyebrow, her face was expressionless.

"Having fun?" she asked. James only gaped at her in horror.

"Oh, yes," Rita said, smirking, "brilliant fun."

"I'm glad," Lily told her, unsmiling, and turned to walk back into the Great Hall.

"Lily!" he shouted, as he sprinted after her. He caught her in the doorway, and the people nearest to them turned to see what the Head Boy was shouting about. Word spread as soon as the Head Girl began shouting back.

"Don't!" she yelled suddenly, and a few people jumped. Then her voice lowered to an extremely hazardous hiss, much like the one a rattlesnake may use when it is about to devour some poor small rodent. "Don't say my name with that mouth, do not even speak to anyone with that mouth. Do not befoul the English language with that mouth!"

She sat down on the Gryffindor bench with a face like thunder and James threw himself onto the bench next to her, but before he could open his mouth to try and explain, Sirius demanded,

"What is going on? Prongs, what in the name of arse have you done now?" James turned to his best friend, but before he could open his mouth to try and explain, Lily interrupted,

"He snogged Rita Skeeter," she said breezily, as if she couldn't care less. The assembled company reacted in very quick succession.

"Holy . . ."

"What?"

"Where?"

"Why?"

"When?"

"Urg."

James had had enough, and took charge, not caring who he interrupted.

"Lily, listen! I didn't snog her! She just . . . threw herself at me! It was like being in the path of a herd of charging Hippogriffs. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever experienced in my entire life! I was just . . . It was just . . . one second I was standing there, trying to escape her claws and next . . ."

Curiously, James's mouth kept moving, but no sound was coming out. After regarding this strange sight for a moment or two, Verity realised that the feeling of her wand in her back pocket was gone, and found it in the hand of the Head Girl, who had just cast a silencing charm.

"Prongs, Prongs!" Remus said, waving a hand in front of James's face, who was apparently babbling away, but wasn't making a sound. "Prongs!"

James mouthed something that looked like an impatient 'What?'. Remus jerked a finger toward Lily.

"Silencing charm, can't hear a thing you're saying," he explained.

James sighed very obviously, and could only sit there next to Lily until the silencing charm wore off. Meanwhile, Lily enjoyed her dinner in peace, while James fidgeted violently with anything that came to hand, but did not touch a crumb himself.

He could see by her face that she obviously didn't care whom he snogged (or whom he was attacked by) in the hallways, but, due to his affection for her, he seemed to feel it was absolutely imperative that he make it perfectly clear he had nothing whatsoever to do with anything Rita Skeeter said or did. Predictably, when she stood up to leave, he stood up with her.

Lily sighed in a tortured way as the rest of the group watched them leave. The only thing she could hope for now was that the spell would not wear off before she had a chance to barricade herself in her dorm.

Of course, there was no such luck.

James's voice started to come back, first in a whisper, then in that interesting tone that nasty people use when they want to seem like they're whispering, but actually want the entire room to hear their conversation.

At last, on the stretch of corridor that led to the Heads' Dorms, James heard his volume return to where it usually was, except slightly higher, as is often inflicted by a bit of stress and emotional trauma.

"I just want to make it clear that she attacked me, Lily, that's all I want to say," he said.

"Loopy Loo," Lily said to the door, then to James she said testily, "Yes, thank you, you've made that clear."

Entering the Hall, he still wouldn't drop it.

"I mean, why on earth would I go and voluntarily snog Rita Skeeter?" He shuddered. "It doesn't bear thinking about it . . ."

"Yes, Potter, I can imagine," Lily gritted out through her teeth as she crossed the room to her staircase.

"Because, number one: she's horrid, number two: she's horrible to you, and number three: I fancy you . . ."

As a result of following her across the room to her door, James almost walked into her when she stopped dead and spun round to face him. The look on her face was so frosty, it could have kept yoghurt fresh for years.

"For the sake of sod, Potter," she hissed with her fingers raised and contorted into claws, as if she were thinking of strangling him, "don't you understand? I couldn't care less who you snog . . ."

"Get attacked by," James amended, pointing a finger briefly.

"Whatever," Lily cried, "the point is, if you had snogged her voluntarily, it would have only confirmed my suspicions that you are a sad, sick excuse for a moronic twat." James's face brightened as he brought his finger up to point at her while putting forward his argument.

"But I didn't snog her," he said reasonably, "therefore, your suspicions that I am a sad, sick excuse for a moronic twat, are still only suspicions." Lily rolled her eyes.

"Good grief, Potter, I don't have time for this . . ."

"Why are so angry anyway, Lilo?" he asked curiously, and quite daringly, really.

"I don't know!" she shouted, going a little red in the face, "I don't know why I'm angry, all right? Maybe it's because the sight of you and Rita Skeeter disturbs me so much that the image will be imprinted onto my eyes forever! Or maybe it's because when any of this gets out, I'll be made such a fool of, and people will say 'Oh, poor, sad Lily Evans, not even James Potter likes her any more.'" Her voice went a bit quiet for the next bit.

"Or maybe it's because I don't like seeing you kiss anyone else," she muttered sullenly, as she realised he'd weaselled it out of her at last. James grinned.

"Now we're getting somewhere," he said cheerily.

"Oh, shove off," Lily said sourly, "I still hate you, and I hate you even more for making me say that." She turned back to the door, said her password and opened it to go inside and climb into bed. Maybe she would stay there for the rest of her life.

"Lily," James called her back just as she was about to shut the door, "just to point out; I didn't kiss anyone else, I was attacked." Lily only just stopped the smile inside her from sneaking its way onto her lips. Instead, she said,

"Potter, do not speak of it again, if you do, I shall attack you myself, and it shall be entirely different than the sort of attacking Skeeter did.


a/n

"Beta-riffic: YES! Fluff! And, we're finally getting somewhere!" – courtesy of my beta, Rose who is lovely.

Hello again, everyone. Thank you all so much for my lovely reviews and that. I'm really sorry about how late the chapter is. This is going to sound really odd right, but ever since exams finished, I have had absolutely NO TIME to write at all. Most of this chapter I typed at two in the morning, knowing I would be knocking back the herbal tea the next morning. (I am officially off coffee. Go me.)

Anyway, things just kept coming up. I had to make people stuff for their birthdays, I had to plan my own birthday party, I had to do some art again, (brand new theme, weh-hey!) So . . . yeah. I'm just a bit dead at the moment. I hope this chapter makes up for it though. Drama, drama, drama. Hurrah for drama!

Sushinase: Oh, holy fluff, you are so amazing to have given such lovely, amazing reviews for each and every chapter of my fic. I officially love you. Congratulations. And giving your favourite lines from each chapter is completely fine by me. It's thrilling to see which parts you like the most. Making people laugh makes me happy. You thought I was twenty? Twenty is an age I should like to be actually. Then I could get into all the gigs I want to go to at the Barfly. Queens of Noise are playing and it's over 18s only! (cries) People who are being sarcastic laugh like James does. It's like 'Har-de-har-har, it's funny for you, but not that funny for me'-type thing. Thanks you so much again.

SnakeEyesHannah: Sadly, I'm not free of school for the next four months. However, I don't have exams for the next four months, and that's a good as anything. Wow, I'm so glad my chapters put you in a good mood. Now I am pleased, well done. Stalker James is fun! I love him! Now why didn't Lily remember she was witch before going straight in for the mouth-to-mouth? That's very interesting . . .

FrighteninglyObsessed: You're right, Christmas is an over used plot point, but I am writing a story that spans a year and I couldn't really leave Christmas out. It is kind of important. Although, it might have been quite funny if I had just skipped from one term to another. Thank you so much for the review, love.

Phillippa of the Phoenix: A lot of people are apparently feeling quite hostile towards Rita Skeeter. Yes, I seem to be getting that quite a lot. I think maybe when the story is finished, I might throw her to the mercy of the reviewers so they can have their blood thirsty revenge on her. Would you like to take a swig at her if I provided long flat plank of wood and maybe some baseball bats? RSVP and we'll make it a Rita-beating party! What larks.

LostConscience: I hope you've got to this chapter by now. Indeed Diggory is a bit of a twat, but never mind, he won't come up that much in later chapters. Joy. Thank you very much for the review!

GlassBroomstick: Haha, I'm glad you liked the whole mouth-to-mouth incident. I had much fun and larks writing that. It's was great. I'm also kind of glad you like the other story but kind of worried at the same time. Thanks for the note!

soccerchic1989: Oh, poor you, you should at least have gotten some time off school for it. Never mind. My birthday was great, thank you very much!

sirius'girl4eva99: Thanks so much, I hope I updated soon enough.

Tsusetsu: Thank you, dude. Isn't prose what I'm doing now? I'm confused, or do you mean like . . . original stuff?

Aliane: The Sandlot? Um . . . I don't know what is. Now I feel stupid. :D I'm glad you liked the song; my friend has started singing it randomly while walking down the street with me. She gets really hilarious looks.

Miss Lady Padfoot: Thanks for the happy birthday. I hope I updated soon enough for you. Thanks for reviewing too!

shortywithbrains: I wanna go to Italy too! My friend and I are thinking of going to live there for like, 6 months after we finish school before we go to university.

The ORIGINAL Meathead: Yeah, James is the sort of person who sees the funny side of almost dying. Hmm, will Lily every test the theory? (Sniggers because she knows the answer.) You're very flattering and thank you very for reviewing (yet again)!

Victoria87: Haha! I love that you sing the song! My friend was singing it as well. In public. We got a grand total of 24 weird looks. We had to stop shopping we were laughing so hard. That's how serious it was. I'm sorry your sixteenth year was all that great. I'm having quite a good time of it to tell you the truth.

breziebear-is-2-lazy-2-login: Haha, honey, in my book, any review is a good review. How do you know Lily and James are gonna kiss at all? I could NEVER make them get together. (Laughs manically.)

Red-Emerald: Thank you so much for the review, honey. I'm very glad I entertained you. D'you know? I never used to do the counting thing, but ever since I wrote the last chapter, I've started doing it. Weird, huh?

Littleone: Wow! Happy birthday to you too! Thanks for the review, luff, and have a good sixteenth year on this earth.

Anne-Janet: I've just gotten into herbal tea. Now I am obsessed and I love it. French really annoys me. I mean really annoys me. Thank God I gave it up three years ago. I have fond memories of burning my notes at a garden party that summer. Fun times. Cheers for the review, and good luck at uni!

The Big Dance: Oh, don't worry about exams, it's fine! They don't matter! Haha. I love stalker James too, he's great!

Tracey: Whoa, that guy sounds way scary. I had an experience like that once. This is how mass murders are made, I'm telling you now. I am ashamed to say that I have never even heard of the Sandlot. Sorry about that. I think someone else was remind of the movie from the mouth-to-mouth bit and I think I should at least know who I've been plagiarising! Did it snow in the end?

siriusforeva: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it.

Natalie: Thank you so much. Keep reading!

MissMrprk:D –k

Norwegianchick101: A snog session? That depends how flexible Lily's willing to be. :D You may not get one at all. (Grin)

Call-Sugarhigh-Police: I'm glad you liked that bit. Thanks for reviewing!

Laney-Wood: I think she is a bit crazy, but I guess you'd have to be a bit mental not to give James a chance, eh?

Violets-in-Spring: Thank you muchly for the note. Unique is a very good thing to be. Cheers.

limbo-gal: He really is sweet to Lily, isn't he? He's lovely.

Raj: A great stand up comic, eh? I should say that when people ask me for my career plans. Thanks very much for the compliment, I hope you keep reading.

ArkMage: Cheers!

sisterwhitehorse3: I'm sorry, I have no clue what you're talking about. Sadly, I've never seen an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Please elaborate.

helloshanti: Yes, Lily always falls into the lake. I turned the tables! Haha. Thank you so much for the review!

Alcapacien: Thanks very much. I hope you read more soon!

mika-mitch: Thank you! I had a very good birthday. 4th April. I hope I remember that. Thanks for the review, luff.

charbar: Oh, James is made of strong stuff. I mean, let's face it, he's been putting up with Lily hating him for years. No exams! Weh-hey!

shadowed.phoenix: Thank you so much for keeping with the story, I know completely what you mean about getting bored with stories, I usually get bored with my own after the first chapter, so there you go. And thank you for pointing out to me your favourite bit, I rather like it when people do that. :D Your reviews were very flattering and lovely. Thanks again!

kiwislushie: Thank you, my luff. Keep reading!

drumer girl: Aye aye, c'ptn! Cheers!

naidel: Talking like Yoda rocks, my love. I very, very, very glad you liked the story because you could be my harshest critic if you tried. But of course, that would require effort. :D

Next chappy:

Rita wreaks her rejection revenge. (Always avoid annoying alliteration) Haha, Sushinase.

James turns stand up comedian and gets one laugh out of the crowd. Fortunately, it's quite a significant one.

And presenting: Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw, The Musical!

Lots of luff, your stressed and tired author