A/N: J.K Rowling has finally decided to take pity on her poor, suffering fans and FINALLY announce a release date! For those of you without any access to the Harry Potter world, J.K's publishers have announced that Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released on June 21st!

And I had to change the rating of this chapter to a light PG-13. There's a lot of scene-switching here as well, so I hope you don't get confused.

Lily tried not to yawn as Donald Ferguson, Head Boy, droned on. Next to her, James had sunk into a stupor, as had many of the other prefects. Donald unfortunately noticed and started glaring at James.

Lily hastily nudged him. "James, wake up," she hissed out of the corner of her mouth.

"Huh? Wha-" James groaned.

"Glad to see you could join us," Donald said sarcastically.

James flashed an irritated Donald his most innocent smile. "Just getting a little sleep. Winning a match can really take a lot out of you."

Donald, who was in Hufflepuff and had been very upset over Hufflepuff's spectacular defeat- (rumor had it he'd lost 57 Galleons on a bet)-scowled at James.

"You were just lucky," Donald growled.

Mary Pendragon, a 7th year Hufflepuff prefect, said lightly, "Oh, come off it, Donald. Gryffindor won, fair and square. End of story."

Lily mouthed, "Thank you," to Mary, who smiled and nodded at her.

"Moving right along," Francine Worthington, Head Girl, said quickly, "There will be a ball this spring."

Lily perked up at this, as did several others.

"Now," Francine continued, "I don't want this information to leave this room. At the first meeting of the new year, we'll discuss names for the ball. Come up with your own ideas over the holidays and be ready to share when we return to school." She banged the gavel. "Dismissed, and happy holidays."

The prefects left, talking excitedly among themselves.

Lily closed her eyes for a moment, allowing herself to fantasize-

-Sirius's blue eyes glowed as they looked at her. "You're amazing," he said softly as he led her out to the dance floor-

"Lily?"

She opened her eyes, flushing slightly, to look up at James. "Oh, sorry, guess I blanked out for a minute there. What were you saying?"

"I was just asking if you were planning to go home for the holidays."

Lily nodded, then sighed. "Yeah, even though I'm positive that Petunia's sure to make it a nightmare."

"Petunia?"

"My sister," Lily elaborated. "Let's just say we don't get along all that well."

"So, she's evil, then," James said, walking with her through the hallways.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "How do you know?"

He shrugged. "I've never seen you not be nice to someone-"

"Except for the Slytherins," Lily corrected.

"They don't count. Nobody likes the Slytherins," James said, grinning.

"Well, except for themselves," Lily added.

"What do we have here?" an oily, unpleasant voice said behind them. Lily and James turned and saw to their displeasure that Avery, a Slytherin prefect, was standing behind them.

"What do you want, Avery?" James demanded in a tone that Lily had never heard him use before.

"Oh, I just wanted to congratulate you on your win against Hufflepuff," Avery said, smiling nastily. "And to warn you…rest assured, Slytherin will be a much more challenging team to beat. No matter how large your ego may get."

"We can handle it," Lily cut in, grabbing James's arm to keep him from cursing Avery with the nastiest thing that came to mind.

Avery looked up her up and down maliciously. "Yes…I'm sure you could." With a nod to James, he walked off.

Lily glared after him. "Have I mentioned how much I hate the Slytherins?"

"Not as much as I hate them," James said.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So what are you doing?" Lily asked. "For the holidays, I mean."

James shrugged as he walked through the portrait hole. "Staying with my dad."

Lily nodded, and then asked, "What about your mum?"

"Um…she died. When I was six."

"Oh, I'm sorry-"

James shrugged, brushing off her apology. "S'alright. Happened a long time ago. Anyway-" he stopped, frowning slightly.

"What?" Lily asked.

"D'you hear that?" James asked.

"What are you-" Then suddenly she heard it.

"I was just minding my own-"

"I can't believe you!" a female voice shrieked. The portrait opened and an outraged Arabella whirled in, followed by an equally irate Sirius.

"It's not my fault you decided to have a quick snog with that prat in the hallways!" Sirius roared.

Arabella glared at him furiously. "Oh, that's rich. You've gone out with practically every girl in Hogwarts!"

"At least I have the decency to stay out of the hallways!"

"Well, at least Liam is a gentleman, which is more than I can say for you, you chauvinistic PIG!" Arabella screamed at him.

Sirius laughed mirthlessly. "It's a miracle you have enough breath to stand there and yell at me, seeing as how McAllister's tongue was practically licking your liver!"

SMACK!

Sirius's cheek was red from where Arabella had hit him. "I hate you," she snarled, and stormed off to her dormitory.

"Well, same to you!" Sirius yelled after her.

Shooting an alarmed glance at Sirius, Lily followed after her.

Sirius glared at the open-mouthed crowd. "What are you looking at?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You went too far," Lily declared, her hands on her hips.

Arabella glared at her friend. "Are you saying he didn't deserve to be-"

"I'm just saying that since I joined the team you have to be at least civil with him-and what were you doing kissing Liam in the hallways, anyway?"

"He made it sound worse than it was!" Bella wailed, sitting up on Lily's bed.

"And what was it, exactly?" Lily asked.

Arabella flushed. "We-we were just-just trying a new way of kissing!"

Just then, Karen and Denise stormed in. "WHAT were you thinking!" Karen shrieked.

"You could've disfigured him for life!" Denise wailed.

"And that would have been such a tragedy," Arabella said sarcastically.

"Well, duh."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Padfoot, you're an idiot," Remus told his friend.

"What the hell were you thinking?" an annoyed James asked. "You know she's one of Lily's friends…d'you realize how awkward this is going to be for her-"

Sirius snorted. "It's not my fault I couldn't have a nice walk in the corridors without walking in on Figg and McAllister swapping spit-"

"Well, did you have to announce it in front of the entire house?" Peter asked. "I mean, you completely humiliated the girl-"

"She humiliated herself," Sirius said firmly. "Anybody could have walked in on those two…what if it had been a first-year? They'd have been corrupted for life!"

Remus snorted at that. "So it has nothing to do with the fact that she's the one girl here who doesn't worship the ground you walk on."

"Hah! I wouldn't go out with that girl-"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"-if he was the last man on the planet!" Arabella yelled.

"You're insane," Karen replied. "Everyone knows that Sirius Black-"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"-that Figg's one of the hottest girls in school," Peter said. "Well, except for Lily Evans…"

James glared at Peter, who quailed. "Watch it."

"Oh, sure she's attractive," Sirius said sarcastically. "If you like nagging, shrewish-"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"-chauvinistic, arrogant prats!" Arabella snarled.

Lily sighed. "You're really going to hate him-"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"-for the rest of your natural lives, aren't you?" James asked.

"Of course," Sirius said, folding his arms.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Well, of course I am," Arabella agreed, folding her arms.

Lily sighed and shook her head. "Both of you are-"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"-completely and totally insane," James stated.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The next day, as she got off the Hogwarts Express, Lily ran to where her parents were waiting for her, with a grumpy Petunia.

"Darling, you look lovely," her mother declared as she hugged her daughter tightly.

Her father then pulled her into a bear hug. "We missed you, sweetheart," he said.

Lily smiled as she hugged her father. She loved coming home for the holidays…even if she did have to deal with Petunia…

Coming out of her father's embrace, she said tightly to her sister, "Hello, Petunia."

Petunia gave her sister a nasty look, then turned to her parents. "I'm hungry," she said loudly. "Can we go yet?"

Lily sighed and her parents looked disappointed.

"Hey, Lily!" a voice called out. Lily turned to see James waving at her. "See you when we get back!"

Lily smiled and waved back.

"Who's that?" Mrs. Evans asked curiously.

"A friend from the team," Lily explained. "Come on, we've got to go into the car-" here she gave her sister a dirty look, "-and of course Petunia's got to eat-"

"Oh, girls, I wish you two could get along-"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

James stifled a sigh as he saw the car his father must have sent to pick him up. "Hullo, Greeves," he said to the driver.

Greeves bowed respectfully. "Your father sends his regrets that he could not be here to pick you up, sir, but he's terribly busy what with the Ministry in the state it's in these days-"

"Yeah, I know," James said softly, having heard it a million times during his childhood. "He's always busy."

Taking one last look at where Lily was with her family, James got into the car and drove away.