"James!" Lily called out, waving a piece of parchment in the air.

James turned and smiled at her. "Lily."

"You said you needed my History of Magic notes…" Lily said, handing them to her.

James looked down at them. "Oh, yeah…thanks."

"James," Lily started, "you know about my crush on Sirius…"

"Yeah…" James said slowly. Unfortunately.

"Well, I've been thinking about telling Arabella about it. She's my best friend and I usually tell her everything, and I hate the fact that I've been keeping this from her. So, what do you think? Should I tell her or not?"

James looked at her, one eyebrow raised. "Depends," he replied. "How good are you at warding off hexes?"

"James!" Lily lightly smacked him. "Be serious…and don't say it," she warned, warding off the well-worn pun.

James smiled. "Who said I wasn't? Honestly, though, Lily…if you can't be honest with your friends…what kind of friendship is that?"

Lily nodded, knowing he was right.

~*~

Lily glanced nervously at her friend. "Um, Arabella? Can I tell you something?"

Arabella looked up from her book. "Sure, Lily. What is it?"

"Well...you see, there's this boy that I sort of fancy...I mean, I've fancied him for a while and-"

"Is it Potter?" Arabella asked, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

Lily was thrown. "What? No, of course not-why would you think that?"

Arabella shrugged. "Dunno, you just...you seem to get along with him really well, that's all." Then she returned to the important issue at hand. "So who is it then?"

Lily swallowed, looked away and said quickly, "It's Sirius."

There was a very long pause.

Finally Arabella said in a strangled voice, "I'm sorry...I thought you just said you fancied Black."

"I did."

There was another long pause. Arabella looked stunned. "I've got to go and see the Headmaster," she said finally. "Obviously they're putting something in the pumpkin juice-"

"Bella!" Lily cried out. "I knew you were going to take it badly-"

"Well, how did you expect me to take it?" Arabella demanded. "I find out that you're interested-romantically interested-in that…that wanker...Lily, how could you be attracted to him?"

"He's-he's cute-and he's funny-and he's nice and-"

Frank walked into their dormitory. "Hey, I was wondering if you-" he faltered when he saw their faces. "Is something going on?"

"Other than the fact that Lily is madly in love with an insufferable prat, no," Arabella told him.

"Oh, you mean Sirius Black?" Frank inquired coolly.

Lily and Arabella gaped at him. "You knew?" Lily gasped.

Frank shrugged. "Wasn't that hard to figure out." He shot a look at Lily. "You told her?" he asked incredulously, jerking his head at Arabella. "And she hasn't killed you yet?"

Arabella whacked him on the arm. Rubbing his arm, Frank said in defense, "You have to admit, Bella, you are a bit...well, unreasonable when it comes to Black."

"I am not!" Arabella insisted, tossing her hair. "Is it my fault that no one else can see him for the arrogant, obnoxious, loathsome creature that he is?"

"He's not like that!" Lily protested. "You're just unwilling to admit that you might have been wrong about him-"

"And you're just unwilling to admit that he's always been an despicable freak all along!"

"Will you two just be QUIET?" Frank roared.

Both girls stopped and stared at him. "All right," Frank said more calmly. "Bella, Lily, can't you two just agree to disagree about this?"

They looked at each other, then Lily shrugged. "I do like Sirius and I'm not going to apologize for that…but I'm also not willing to ruin a good friendship over it either."

Arabella sighed. "Agreed." She paused. "So…how long have you…" she choked, apparently unable to continue.

"How long have I fancied him?" Lily finished for her, and Arabella nodded, looking slightly sick. "Well…I'm not quite sure when it happened actually…probably during the end of fourth year, I guess."

Arabella nodded, but looked troubled. "Just don't-don't drool over him too much, all right? I'll try to be a good sport and everything, but there's only so much I can take…"

Smiling, Lily said, "All right."

Frank breathed a sigh of relief. "Now that that's been taken care of...Lily, aren't you supposed to be at a prefect meeting?"

Lily's eyes widened. "Oops."

~*~

"How nice of you to finally join us, Evans," Donald said acidly as Lily ran into the room.

Lily flushed. "Lost track of time," she muttered as she sat down next to James.

"It's a good thing she was," Francine commented. "She missed everyone arguing over the name for the ball. Since we can't seem to agree, we're drawing a name out of a hat." She held an old, tattered witch's hat towards Lily. "Any ideas?"

Lily shook her head. Francine reached in and pulled out a slip of paper. "And the name of the ball is...The Spring Ball," she read.

There were a lot of groans. One girl called out, "But it's so unoriginal!" Lily had to agree.

Donald held up his hands. "That's the name picked out of the hat, and that's the name we're going to have." The grumbles quieted somewhat. "That's better. Now, on to our next agenda. As you all know, Valentine's Day is coming up. The headmaster wants to let everyone know they are free to do whatever they wish to celebrate, as long as it does not interfere with classes. Understood?" The prefects nodded. "Good. Pass this on to your houses, along with the news of the dance. Dismissed." He banged the gavel, and the prefects started to disperse.

James leaned over and whispered to Lily, "Why were you late?"

Lily shrugged. "I took your advice and told Arabella."

James's eyes widened and he looked her up and down. "Well, all your limbs are in place, so I take it things went fairly well."

"Yeah, sort of," Lily agreed. "Basically, as long as I don't drool over him too much, she's all right with it."

"That's surprisingly reasonable of her," James observed. He took off his glasses and wiped them on his robes. "Not to say your friend's a lunatic-"

"Can I see those?" Lily asked on a whim, pointing at James's glasses.

James shrugged, took them off and handed them to her.

Lily looked through them and grimaced. "Ugh," she complained after she took them off. "They make my head hurt."

James grinned at that.

Is it Potter?

Lily blinked her eyes again and shook her head slightly. Why on earth was she remembering that now?

You just seem to get along with him really well...

"You all right, Lily?" James asked.

Lily smiled at him. "Yeah, I'm-I'm fine." She looked at James for a moment. "James...we're friends, right?"

James grinned back at her. "Of course we are. You're stuck with me, Evans, whether you like it or not."

"Good."

~*~

Later that night, Lily dreamed. Not a strange thing in itself, Lily dreamed often. What was strange was what her dream was about. Well, the little part that she could remember.

She had dreamed about Sirius. Well, she thought the dark-haired boy in her dream was Sirius, at least. But that was impossible, of course.

After all, Sirius didn't wear glasses.

~*~

Author's notes: First off, thanks to all the people who have reviewed. Your comments and encouragement are appreciated, believe me.

Second, I'd like to clarify a few things.

1.) James as a Chaser/Seeker. While the movies have James as a seeker, J.K. has specifically said that James was a Chaser when he was at Hogwarts. So I decided to make him a Chaser here.

2.) James's relationship with his dad. Obviously, these two have issues. Basically, I added this because I was worried that I was making James out to be this perfect person with a perfect life. I promise I'm not going to abandon this plot and you ARE going to find out about this later on.

3.) Arabella and Sirius. Yes, there is definitely something going on there. Neither one of them is willing to admit it, of course. Besides, it's fun to watch them fight.

4.) Lily and James. Also something going on there. (Well, DUH. How else would Harry be around?) Lily of course, is clueless. Poor Jamesie. Things are getting better though, I promise.

5.) The 5th Harry Potter book. Basically, there is simply no way I can get this finished before June 21st. So, if there is information in the book that conflicts with this story, this story will just become an AU. I will still finish it, though, in case that happens.