A week has passed with people getting to know each other, and it seemed the Hogsmeade visit just happened to hit them in the face, since no one really kept track of when it was. Suddenly, the whole school knew that Lily and James were going together. Lily had been greeted with girls saying "good luck" or "you're soooo lucky" while boys had been giving James the thumbs up and one even said "if it doesn't work out, tell her to call me." which ended up in a very awkward "um...right." from James, who wanted to disappear and run away.

After breakfast, Lily met James in front of the school building, and went off to Hogsmead together. They had made sure that their old and new friends don't follow them, by bribing them with chocolate frogs.

"So what do you want to do first?" James asked Lily.

"Um...let's go look around in the shops, and then we'll go to the Three Broomsticks for a drink. How's that?" She said.

"Sounds great." said he.

They entered the main shopping district of Hogsmead. First they visited Honeydukes, and bought Sirius some everyflavored beans. Then, they went into Zonkos, where a nose-bitting tea cup became the reason the two quickly ran out of he store. Then they went into Gladrags Wizardwear.

"That reminds me. I'm suppose to meet the girls at Madame Puddifoots at 2 o'clock. We're going shopping for Robes." Lily said.

"Why do you need to shop for robes?" James asked.

"For the ball." Lily said with a hint of 'duh'.

"That's not till Beauxbatons leaves." James said.

"You don't know?" Lily said surprisingly.

James just shook his head. "know what?"

Lily said in an informative tone "Dumbledore pushed it up, it's now on Christmas. Actually, he said that since it looks like they'll be here for a while, we might as well have one on Christmas anyways, and since that's only a few weeks away, and this may be our last chance before Christmas, we're going robe shopping."

"Well, alright then. But it's only 11, so we still have plenty of time." James said, when the entered.

Gladrags was THE place for all your fashion needs, with everything from dress robes, casual robes, uniforms, odd socks, to jewelry and accesories.

"I think I should get Petunia some earrings as a christmas present." Lily said.

"You mean your nasty sister?" James asked.

"She's a bit...off, but she's alright, really." Lily said. "Ooh...look at this." She had seen a necklace. It was a pearl necklace with bits of emerald in between, sparkling like stars.

"Try it on." James suggested.

"What?" Lily said, laughing at the crazy idea.

"Try it on." James said seriously.

Lily had realized that he really was serious. "I cant."

"Why not?"

"It's twenty galleons, what if I break it."

"Then we'll run out like nothing happened." James joked.

Lily looked at it for a while and thought about it. "Alright then."

James helped her put it on, and after he did, she looked at her reflection in the mirror.

"It looks beautiful." James said. "Really brings out the sparkle in your eyes." He said sweetly.

She sighed and took it off, placing it back to where it was before.

"Who am I kidding, I can't afford something like this." She said, and walked out of the shop. "Shall we go get a drink now?"

They were about to go into The Three Broomsticks, when Ruth and Remus, who were now dating, walked out with Sirius and Peter.

"I've been looking everywhere for you, James." Remus said.

Then Sirius said "We need to talk to you."

Lily knew that James had to leave now, so she said "that's alright, you go with them. I'll be alright with Ruth."

"Thanks." said James, and he gave her a peck on the cheek. "I need to make a quick stop." He said to Remus, and they were off.

Ruth and Lily entered the three broomsticks, and took a seat at the back of the room. Lily liked to have her back face the rest of the costomers, because it gave her a feeling of privacy, while Ruth, a gossiper, liked to see everything that was going on, so she sat right across from Lily.

"So how are things going with you and Remus?" Lily asked.

"Alright, I guess. What about you and James, we've waited a long time for the two of you to finally go out on a date." Ruth said.

"Well...he's a great guy, but everytime we get together, something always happens that stops us from doing so. Like right after the ball, we got together, but then we didn't really talk much after that. And just then..." Lily kept going, but that was about all Ruth had heard, because just then, she noticed something.

Across the room in a little corner was Kate, but who was that sitting with her? The person was dressed in a dark cloak, and his back (Ruth assumed it was a he becaue of the broadness of his shoulders) was facing towards her, so she couldn't see his face. Ruth couldn't believe she didn't notice a mysterious looking stranger and her friend sitting in there when she was with the Mauraders looking for James.

She said "un hun." and "yup" a couple times whiles Lily was talking to make it seem like she was paying attention, but really, she was watching Kate. She watched them exchange packages before the mysterious stranger got up, shook hands with Kate, and left. Ruth quickly sipped her butterbeer and pretended like she was paying full attention to Lily talking, because Kate was looking over at them. Her eyes were open big, like she was either surprised to see them, or afraid Ruth had seen something, because she quickly left the shop pretending like she hadn't noticed them.

"So anyways..." Lily was still talking, but Ruth interupted.

"I need to talk to you about something." She said.

"What is it? Are you alright?" Lily asked, because Ruth was not looking like her usual happy self.

"Well..." Ruth was very reluctant to say anything, but did anyways. "How well do you really know Kate?"

"Well..." Lily began, surprised at Ruth's random question. "I mean, I haven't known her very long, but she's become a pretty good friend."

"Yes I know, I mean, she's like part of the group now. But I do have a little concern."

"Yes..."

"Have you noticed anything strange about the way she's been acting lately?"

"No...why?"

"It's just that...well I've noticed certain things about that that make me...suspicious."

"suspicious....of Kate? Why? She's perfectly nice."

"Yes I know she's nice, she's very nice, and she's become a VERY good friend of mine, but...there are just things that I don't trust about her. I know it's wrong for me not to trust a friend like that, but I have perectly good reasons why not to."

"What reasons...."

"I would rather not say." Ruth quickly tried to steer away from that direction, because she would not want to tell Lily about what she saw happen between Kate and Lani. "Maybe I'm just being delusional."

"Maybe..." Lily said, sipping her butterbeer slowly, and still keeping an eye on Ruth, because she could feel there was something she wasn't telling her.

"Its just that we don't know that much about her family, or where she came from, or whatever. Just...don't put all your trust into her is what I'm saying. If there's anything you need, anything at all, come to me first."

"Of course." Lily said. "I always come to you first, you're my best friend. And I understand where you're coming from. You're just trying to look out for me."

"Exactly!" Said Ruth, happy to see she got her point across.

"It's almost time to meet Kate." said Lily, looking down at her watch.

"Ok. Don't mention any of this to her...ok?" Ruth said.

"Don't worry, I won't." Lily said, and they paid for their butterbeers and left to meet Kate.