Chapter 20

(A/N) Hi! Note to one of my reviewers, Wolf Moon: You're sure I haven't said anything about Lily being a Seer? I could have sworn that I mentioned it in chapter 18, and a short reference to it in chapter 19. I didn't want the whole story to revolve around that one thing. But if you're sure I didn't… There'll be further mention of it in future chapters, I promise.

Eurgh, last chapter was choppy and blech, because I hadn't written in a month… more than that, almost two months. So I started this just two days after I uploaded the last one. Yay!

Disclaimer: I own the plot. "Can't Help Falling In Love With You," belongs to Elvis Presley.

*~*~*~*~*

"Wise men say only fools rush in,

But I can't help falling in love with you.

Shall I stay, would it be a sin?

If I can't help falling in love with you…"

Lily put the record to a stop as she sensed the entrance of someone else in the room.

"What, Potter?" she frowned. It had been the middle of the night, and she hadn't been able to sleep. Deciding even the Gryffindor Common Room wouldn't be safe from prying eyes, she had donned a bathrobe and walked over to the Heads' Common Room to think… or whatever. Suddenly aware of his bemused expression, she snapped, "What are you doing out of bed at this ungodly hour, anyway?"

James Potter grinned as he took a seat across from Lily in the Heads' Common Room. "Elvis," he said amusedly. "Elvis Presley."

Getting annoyed at his presence, she snapped, "Yes. My mother and father had an uncanny fondness for his music, enjoying it to no end. He was right up there on their list with Frank Sinatra."

"And… let me guess, you share the same uncanny fondness for it?" James smiled as Lily squirmed uncomfortably. He noted that she was wearing a fluffy pink bathrobe, perky pigtails, and bunny slippers. The sight was too amusing for him not to laugh.

Lily heard. Glaring at him, she said nonchalantly, "Yes, I am wearing fluffy, pink, bunny slippers. Christmas gift from my crazy Aunt Ellis. What of it?"

"Nothing," James suppressed another laugh, lest he made her angry.

Lily sniffed haughtily. "You're laughing at me," she accused. "I can see it in your eyes right now. Just because a person chooses to wear bunny slippers-"

"I'm not laughing at you," James denied. Lily bristled. "I just find it slightly… amusing."

At this, he found his head a target for pillows.

*~*~*~*~*

"Good morning," Lily greeted her yawning friends as she worked on her embroidery. Wait… Lily Evans, embroidery?

Evelyn yawned, obviously not fully awake. "Lily, how on earth you can wake up so early is simply beyond me. If I can stay in bed all day, I'd stay in bed all day."

"Yes, and if your head weren't attached to your body, you'd lose it," Lily answered, frowning. "Now, up, up. It's the start of a brand new day!"

Evelyn shuddered and curled up in a tight ball as Lily threw off the bed sheets. "Wake up!" she shouted in her ear.

Bella groaned. "And this was the girl we couldn't get out of bed on Christmas Eve," she complained as Evelyn tried to hex Lily away (she succeeded in only conjuring her sheets out of the window) unsuccessfully.

"Well?" Lily asked expectantly. "Come on, up, up. We've a whole hour to snooze in Professor Binns' class. Now, get up!"

*~*~*~*~*

Indeed, Evelyn, Bella, and Leslie had a "whole hour to snooze in Professor Binns' class", as Lily had put it.

Fortunately, lunch was after the class, to "revive their senses", Sirius had said. Quite right, he was.

James and Sirius had excused themselves from the table to discuss quidditch tactics for the next game against the Ravenclaw, one that would determine whether or not they made it to the Inter-house quidditch finals.

Evelyn and Bella had gobbled up their one course lunch consisting of salad, fat-free salad dressing, and mineral water, then rushed from the table to receive their dresses that had been delivered for the ball.

Thus leaving Lily, Leslie, Remus, and Peter to eat their lunches together.

"You can't be serious," Leslie cried, her lunch forgotten. "I'm leaving the day after the ball? Well, that sucks."

"Language, dear," Lily replied cryptically, while placing a bread stick on Leslie's plate. "Eat."

Leslie pouted. "Oh, and I was getting used to this, too," she gestured towards Lily, who was taking a sip of water before attacking her with food ("You must have lost ten pounds since I saw you last!") again.

"Leslie, we still have two weeks before that," Lily answered, while shoving the bread in her friend's mouth. "Don't worry about the future in the present, or else you'll never enjoy the present."

"Don't get all philosophicablelical on me now," Leslie complained through bites.

"Philosophical," Lily corrected. "Come on, eat up. Quit dilly-dallying."

*~*~*~*~*

"Like a river flows

Surely to the sea,

Darling, so it goes,

Some things are meant to be…" a breathy voice sang lowly in her ear.

"If I turn around, and you are there, James Potter, I will personally kill you," Lily answered, her eyes squinted closed.

James grinned. "Hey, my mother had the same strange little fondness for the song. If I had to endure listening to muggle sap playing on the records when she was home, I have the right to make fun of it."

"You, Mr. Potter, could be reported for such activities," Lily turned around, hands on her hips.

James's eyebrow raised in mockery. "And you would report me for…?"

Lily sighed. She could rattle a list of over ten things that was wrong with the picture at the moment, but why try? The boy was impossible; not an ounce of reason that trickled into his mind that wouldn't end up trickling out.

Instead of telling him off, she chose to sniff haughtily with an air of disdain and reply, "Mr. Potter, I do believe I should change my taste in music now."

James chuckled as she made a move to leave the gazebo. "Am I that spiteful?" he asked.

"Indeed," she answered. As they walked towards the school, she continued with fervor, "The very summer after I met you, I tried to convince my mother to throw out everything in the house that was associated with your name. You wouldn't believe how much money I made selling pottery at the garage sale we had that summer. Though I was still… a thousand off. My father grounded me for a long time. According to my calculations, I should be let off the hook in seven years."

"Really?" James laughed as they reached the portrait hole. "My interest is piqued."

"I suggest you un-pique it, then," Lily said crisply as they arrived at the common room. "As this conversation is clearly over. Goodnight."

With that, she gathered up her books and left the still laughing James Potter, not throwing a single glance behind.

While, on contrary, the several eyes on her were throwing many glances, jealous glances, actually.

*~*~*~*~*

The next morning came in the form of fog, creeping over the rolling, large, hills that bordered the Forbidden Forest, forewarning foul weather to come. As the early morning mist settled in with the fog, creating a thick, smoky, screen, for anyone traveling in the forest, the students of Hogwarts began to wake.

A few, however, had beat the sun (which had decided it, too, was sleepy, and crawled back behind a cloud), to enjoy the outdoors before the forewarned weather could ruin their day.

Inside one little hut where a single, threadlike, ray of the sun, found its way through the window, and contented itself with the safe little sanctuary within the "ordinary" little hut, and fell back to sleep behind its cloud, a few bustling figures interrupted the sleepy little beginning of the new day and guaranteed it an exciting, or at least, youthful, spent time, of its short lived morning.

"G'dmornin', Lily," Hagrid greeted, whistling as he went about his work. "Jus' hammerin' a new box fer Snuffy."

Lily smiled, and gestured towards his red, blistered, fingers. "Worth the pain?"

"O' course!" Hagrid said, in a big, booming laugh. While continuing to hammer in nails (though he missed and hit his thumb a few times), he grunted, "Yeh see, Snuffy's growin', an' 'e needs a new home. O' course, I'd see ter it that li'l Snuffers gets what 'e's wantin', eh?"

Lily laughed, and at the same moment, the hut opened to reveal Sirius, Remus, Peter, and James.

"Morning, Hagrid!" Sirius cried cheerily. "How's Project Habitat going?"

Lily stared at him. "Project Habitat?"

"Sirius likes to give things names so he can use them for future reference," Remus sighed as he removed his scarf and placed it on the… unique coat rack, which, in place of hooks for hanging, were carved snakes, badgers, lions, and ravens, each head extended like a hook (A Christmas gift from Dumbledore his first year as gamekeeper). "Like the Marauders, that was all his idea."

"So, Lily, where are all your friends?" Peter asked tactlessly, as he looked around the room, as if expecting Evelyn to pop out of the toolbox suddenly. He edged away from the toolbox.

"Asleep," she laughed. "They don't wake up anytime before ten on weekends… I highly doubt they even know Saturday has a morning."

"So they should be up in…" Peter squinted, trying to do the math.

"Two hours," James supplied helpfully. "Yeah. Ten minus eight is two, Peter…"

"Oh!" Peter cried suddenly. "I get it! I think I learned this in primary school, but then mum wanted me to go and study some magical things. So, I said to her, 'But mum, all the other kids'll be ahead of me!' But she said, 'Peter, you go there and study your little heart out, but when it comes to magic, you'll top 'em all!' Well, that sounded good at the time, but halfway through, in third year, she changed her mind when I chose to look up some mathematics for class, and said-"

"Peter," James interrupted impatiently. "Let's not get carried away, shall we?"

Peter nodded quickly and clamped his mouth shut, following the other four to Hagrid's workbench, acting fascinated with the monkey wrench ("Lily, what's this do? A monkey wrench? It wrenches monkeys? Why?").

Hagrid continued to whistle; though the swelling of his fingers was beginning to become alarming.

"Hagrid, are you sure your fingers are alright?" Lily asked.

"Sure, sure," he answered, still whistling as he continued to pound fairly hardly at the nails on the box. The box was now indented with missed hits by the hammer. "The pain's gone, by now. Yeh know, yeh shoulda ben 'ere a coupla hours ago, when it was real bad, yeh, know. Now, I los' the feelin' in 'em, so, well, can't 'urt if yeh can' feel."

Sirius chuckled, raising a mug of coffee he had found by the workbench. "Cheers, Hagrid."

"Don' drink that-"

Too late. In five seconds, Sirius had gulped it all, and in five seconds, Sirius had spit it out with a look of extreme distaste on his face. "What is that?" he asked incredulously, as he charmed his taste buds back into his mouth. "It tastes like wax and sand mixed with pepper."

"Eh, tar I use on me fingers when the swellin' stops."

*~*~*~*~*

"Today is a lazy day," Peter announced happily. They had left Hagrid's hut (each silently vowing never again to eat anything in the hut again) a while ago, and at the hint of foul weather later on, chose to take their time outside. "No homework, no quidditch, no tests… Living in the present, not worrying about the future."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Yes, and we will return to reality in forty hours."

Peter stretched, dangling his legs over the bridge that ran across the Lake. "You know, we should have more days like this."

"Then you'd get bored of it," Remus answered. "And you'd want the hectic hassle of life back again."

"But not now," Peter smiled. "Today is the type of day where we can all sit back, relax-"

"Terrorize Evans's friends," James put in, as Evelyn, Bella, and Leslie approached them.

"Nah," Sirius joked. "I thought of it more as a 'get-yourself-high-on-lemonade' type of day."

"Is that possible?"

"No, Peter."

"Oh."

James chuckled and skipped a rock. Or tried to, at least, as it sank on the second skip.

"Ha," Lily said half-heartedly, "My rock would probably skip further than yours."

"No way," James shook his head.

"You wanna bet?" Lily asked childishly, not bothering to get up from her position at the edge of the bridge.

"Sure," James pulled her up and dragged her down right below the bridge (evoking a squeal from her) as their friends watched on with slight amusement. Cupping his hands, he yelled to their friends above, "Ladies and Gents, I present to you Hogwarts' first ever Rock Skipping Contest!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Score to beat: two. Very easy," she said, as her rock skipped three times. She stuck her tongue out. "Anything you can do, I can do better."

"Ha! There's a laugh. I still have second round and third round and fourth round and…"

*~*~*~*~*

A few minutes later, the standings stood Potter: 2; Evans: 22.

"They are so into each other," Evelyn announced in a bored manner as they watched their two friends below.

"They're in denial," Bella agreed, watching Lily squeal in protest as James created a large splash on both of them by deliberately sinking his next stone. "Just look at them."

"That, my dears, is clearly only in the minds of women," Sirius responded dryly. "Our friends are just, for once, acting their age, which may come off as flirtation. Am I right, Moony, old pal?"

"Right you are, Padfoot, old chap," Remus nodded. "The two have decided to take a holiday from the pressures of life and travel back to the leisure and comfort of childhood. Consequently, they both chose, shall we say, the 'same vacation spot'."

Evelyn shrugged. "I say they're into each other. Besides, if your theory were right, it would prove that they think the same way, as well."

"How can you tell?" Peter asked crossly, not at all liking the direction this conversation was poised.

"Look at them!" Leslie gestured towards the two, who were, at that moment, laughing at some witticism said by James as Lily jokingly pushed him towards the water. "Can you not see obvious I N T E R E S T E D signs flashing in their eyes?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Peter, not to fear, ol' buddy, we don't see it either. Clearly, these young ladies cannot see the fine line between love and hate. Let's define it for them, shall we?"

"Erm…"

"Right," Remus agreed, stretching lazily. "James, our close, personal, friend, has a reputation for sweeping girls off their feet. Lily, your close, personal, friend, has a reputation for bringing gravity back to those girls. James likes to joke. Lily likes to study. James likes to prank on Lily. Lily likes to catch James in the act of pranking on her. James-"

"Is totally in love with her," Bella supplied the missing verb. "But, sadly, they're both in denial."

"Besides, opposites do attract," Evelyn added. "And the two have a chemistry. Can't you tell?"

"Sorry, Padfoot, I must say, they do have a point," Remus shook his head. "Could our Prongs have… gasp, feelings for the Miss Lily Evans?"

Sirius pretended to gag. "No, Moony, don't let them fool you with their trickery and feminine wiles ("Hey!" Leslie protested, ever the feminist). After all, without you, I just have Peter on my side!"

"And Gilderoy Lockhart," Remus pointed out.

"And Gilderoy Lockhart," Sirius added thoughtfully.

*~*~*~*~*

"For how long do you think they'll keep going before they find out that we're listening to them?" Lily whispered from her spot underneath the bridge, away from the prying eyes of their friends.

"Knowing Sirius, never," James answered. "If you ask me, I think this is by far the most interesting conversation they've had since their debate on whether or not that big cloud was a bunny or a chipmunk."

"Hey, Leslie had a good argument with the whole acorn looking thing," Lily said.

"Yeah, but Sirius was better, since that was too long and skinny to be an acorn, so it had to be a carrot," James whispered back.

"They don't realize that clouds shift from time to time, do they?" Lily muffled a laugh.

James chuckled. "Whatever. If you ask me, I say it was a bunny."

"Well, then, I suppose you'd be wrong, then, wouldn't you?" Lily huffed. "As it is clearly a chipmunk."

"Shhh… listen…" James placed a finger to his lips.

"… I mean, isn't it obvious that they're both in denial? What with him kissing every girl to satisfy himself when we all know that she's the best one for him, and her, chasing off ever potential suitor. It's obvious they're into each other."

"I wasn't aware that my secret affections for you were so obvious," James said sarcastically.

"Oh, yeah, and I so want you," Lily scoffed. "Yes, I want you so badly that I might just succumb to temptation one of these days. My secret temptations."

"I know," James answered. "But you'll have to wait in line."

The two rolled their eyes and continued to listen.

"… And what makes it even worse is that I think they both honestly don't see it. I mean, can you believe it? Something that's as plain as day… She's the best thing that's happened to him since he received his letter to Hogwarts!"

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that…" James muttered.

"Whoa, whoa, wait," Sirius's voice sounded. "Hey, it's not like James is so terrible, either. I mean, without him, Lily would be studying in her dorm instead of shrieking down below us and living for once."

"Come to think of it, where are they?"

"That would be our cue, Miss Evans," James grinned.

*~*~*~*~*

A few minutes later, the sleepy air began to lift and come to life as a slight drizzle began to form a sleet. Of the few students who had wandered away from the safe haven of the warm school, nine of them were in an upset over who-knows-what.

"That wasn't funny," Evelyn insisted, crossing her arms as Sirius's towering figure held an umbrella to shelter her from the developing sleet.

"Yes it was," Lily said simply. "You should have heard yourselves. I mean, honestly, do you listen to yourself when you speak?"

"Lily, you better conjure yourself an umbrella," Leslie frowned. "You don't want to catch a cold, do you?"

Lily laughed. "I love this weather! Gray and drab, to be sure, but it's refreshing!"

"To think, this was the girl who was patronizing me and admonishing us to get out of bed this morning," Bella tsked. "Tsk, tsk, tsk, Lily, a person would think that you'd have much more sense than to prance around in the rain."

Lily stopped, not out of surprise, but, rather, out of glee. "Bella, you need to enjoy life! Enjoy your youth while you are a youth!" she added hastily, "Most people don't, you know."

"Yes, ' 'tis true, 'tis pity, 'tis pity 'tis 'tis true," James agreed.

Lily glared at him. "You're quoting," she accused. "Shakespeare. Out of context. Hmm."

"It seemed like a proper moment," James said truthfully. "What's wrong with Shakespeare?"

"Nothing," Lily answered decidedly. "You're just getting on my nerves."

"That's my life's goal, Miss Evans," James whispered in her ear.

Lily batted him away. "You smell like rain."

"So do you. Besides, you like rain, remember?"

Their friends exchanged knowing glances.

*~*~*~*~*

By the time it was ten, the rain had already turned into a steady snow, dashing everyone's hopes of a day outdoors, as few had woken up early enough to enjoy the… early morning rain.

Thus, sprawled in random positions over the Gryffindor Common Room, the Gryffindors, years three through seven (first and second decided to go to the library), were left to use their own resources to find something interesting to do.

"Lily…" Evelyn whined. "This muggle puzzle you got me for Christmas… it's not working."

Lily raised a brow. "Evie, dear, I gave you that for Christmas three years ago, and you're telling me it's not working… now?"

The three hundred, eighty-six piece puzzle was laid out in front of Evelyn, Bella, and Leslie, nowhere near completion. It was a three-dimensional puzzle of the Eiffel Tower, which Lily had gotten in France during winter holidays in fourth year and owled over for Christmas. Funny, how it had all but disappeared from their view until then.

Evelyn sighed helplessly. "Lily! This darned muggle contraption… I laid it out nice and politely, and it does nothing!"

"That's because you're supposed to do the puzzle yourself," Lily laughed. "You know… that's the whole concept of a puzzle."

"But in magical puzzles, they assemble themselves if you ask them nicely," Bella interjected.

"And, that, my friends, is why witches and wizards are lazy," Lily smiled. "Puzzles were created to test your cognitive skills. Not your etiquette skills of asking politely."

Leslie smiled sheepishly. "Thanks."

Lily rolled her eyes and continued her embroidery.

Sirius frowned at a crossword puzzle. "Lily, what's a five letter word for stupid that begins with 'i' and ends with 'e'?"

"Inane," Lily answered from across the room.

James sighed and read over Sirius's shoulder, bored with the latest issue of The Daily Prophet. "Eh… Sunday's yesterday's tomorrow's three days ago's fortnight and four days ahead."

"What?" Sirius asked, puzzled.

"They want you to figure out what day of the week it'll be," Remus answered.

Peter glanced up from his math textbook and took the time to answer, "Monday."

"Remus, how does he do that?" Sirius demanded. Remus shrugged. "James, how does he do that?"

"Beats me," James shrugged. "He's allergic to practically everything, has every common phobia, then a few uncommon ones, can't get muggle mathematics, and yet he's the third best at chess in the school, and can figure that out in seconds."

"Isn't there a word for that?" Sirius frowned. "A mentally defective person with an exceptional skill or talent in a special field, two words, eleven letters?"

"You didn't come up with that definition, did you?" Lily asked, walking over.

"No, of course not," Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's a word in the crossword puzzle, and I thought it might apply to our friend Petey."

Lily let out a sound that sounded like a cross between a groan and a laugh. "Idiot savant, Sirius. And Peter's not an idiot savant; he's not autistic."

Sirius let out a cough that sounded vaguely like, "Know-it-all," before penciling it in.

From another corner of the room, Evelyn sighed at what they had accomplished.

"There," she put in another puzzle piece. "It sort of looks like the Eiffel Tower now, right guys? Guys?"

Bella let out a muffled groan and decided that a crossword puzzle would be less agonizing as a three-dimensional puzzle of the Eiffel Tower.

Leslie, similarly, decided that the Eiffel Tower was an evil, evil, structure, and why did they have to have a tower, anyway? She, too, abandoned Evelyn and joined the group solving a crossword puzzle.

*~*~*~*~*

About five hours later, with empty stomachs (due to the growing snowstorm, a few third years with bottled up excitement had pranked the kitchens, and lunch had been canceled since several house-elves in charge of cooking had been too disturbed from the interruption and hadn't been able to cook) and only half a crossword puzzle done to show for it, they quickly dropped the crossword puzzle at the sight in Lily's hands.

"Alright, people, hot, piping, cookies, straight from the oven," she announced.

So that was where the Head Girl had disappeared to for three hours.

"Cookies!" Sirius cried gleefully, beating a few third years out of the way ("Out of my way, munchkins! Those cookies are mine, mine, all mine!").

James rolled his eyes as he watched his friend tackle Lily to the ground (in a hug) and inhale (sort of) three of the cookies into his mouth.

He couldn't be that hungry… it was only two o' clock. Alright, so Sirius went crazy without food for more than three hours, so perhaps he was that hungry.

Lily let out a muffled groan. "For that, Sirius, you get none of the other food I salvaged from the kitchens."

Sirius gave an indignant cry. "You- you- you…? No! You wouldn't do that to me, would you? You would? No! Woe is me, woe is me!"

Lily extracted herself from Sirius's grip ("Gerroff me, you prat!") and brushed the cookie crumbs off her hands as she set the other trays on the table.

*~*~*~*~*

About an hour later (when the cookies and their crumbs were devoured), the snowstorm qualified as a blizzard. And the conversation wasn't much.

"I wonder if fish have ears…"

"Sirius!" Evelyn rolled her eyes. "Please shut up!"

Sirius ignored her as he popped a cookie crumb from his cookie crumb stash in his mouth (he had decided reducing the cookies to crumbs would make them last longer), and continued. "I mean, can you hear under water? And even if you could, I mean, for a little bitty fish, would it matter? They can't talk or anything. Or can they?"

Lily groaned.

For the past hour, they had endured these mindless, pointless, questions, such as, "If an eraser could speak, what do you think it'd say?" or "Hey… can germs and parasites think?" which led to, "If a parasite can think, would the host think the same thing? Or would the parasite think the same thing as the host? Or can they both think separate thoughts?" which soon was dropped and changed to, "How do we think if we're composed of so many individual cells? Do the cells make up thoughts? Or do thoughts just come from our brain… which is made up of cells… huh?" which became "What's the difference between your brain and your mind? Is your mind something in your subconscious?" which became "Where is your subconscious?"

Goodness, the boy asked too many questions. Everyone shuddered to think what he'd been like at that five-year-old stage of constant questioning.

"Sirius… on behalf of everyone in the room… shut up," James said as he hit his head on the chessboard. (He had been playing himself and had been losing terribly on both sides)

"Maybe only fellow fish can hear them," Sirius wondered aloud. "Or maybe they're like merpeople, and they-"

"Sirius, shut up!"

Sirius glared at Leslie moodily as he stuffed some cookie crumbs into his mouth. He opened his mouth again to speak, starting with an, "I wonder if-"

"Shut up, Sirius," the entire group yelled, giving second years a display of seventh year behavior patterns.

The exhibit left many second years scarred with the thought of what would become of them in five years.

*~*~*~*~*

By the time it was five in the afternoon, the common room was completely dead of the livelihood so usually provided by the students.

"Lily, what're you doing?" Evelyn asked in a bored, I-really-don't-actually-care-but-tell-me-anyway manner.

"Writing a letter to my Great Aunt," Lily replied. "She wanted to know how I was coping and how I was doing."

"Tell her you're dying of boredom," Bella supplied helpfully.

"She's not the type of person that would appreciate that type of humor," Lily answered blandly. "Your remember my Great Aunt, the one you met over the summer?"

"The crazy one?" Remus wrinkled his brow.

"No, that's my aunt, on my father's side, Ellis. This is the rich one, on my mother's side," Lily answered. Fluttering her eyelashes and acting dramatically, she continued, "Great Aunt Liatria is of fine, aristocratic lineage, and never, for one day in her life, let anyone in our family forget it. She was devastated in finding that her sister had actually allowed her daughter to marry such riff-raff as Richard Evans, and decided to take matters in her own hand by supplying her niece's children with the proper breeding of a Corollari, not an Evans."

Evelyn, who had heard the speech many, many, many, times, continued, "Thus, she began teaching her niece's daughters proper, lady-like things, like how to play the proper musical instruments-"

"Such as the violin, piano, flute, and harp," Bella added.

"And the proper, lady-like, hobbies of-"

"Tennis, embroidery, singing, ballroom dancing, and horse-back riding," Bella supplied.

"And, of course, the proper basic, day-to-day things a young lady of today as well as last century should know-"

"Writing a letter, shopping for gifts, spending money, saving money, calculating how to tip the servants, memorizing poems, verses, and lines, choosing gowns, choosing suitors, and establishing oneself a place in the Corollari family tree," Lily, Evelyn, and Bella finished together.

Lily shook her head laughing. "Goodness, she's a real headcase, I tell you. Petunia learned it all and then she forgot it all, so she positively stamped it all into my mind as to not let the same thing happen to me. I remember her throwing a fit when my father taught me the improper, un-lady-like musical instrument, the harmonica. She had another fit when my parents let me come here."

"She and my father would get along pretty well, I should think," James remarked dryly, stretching his long, cramped, legs out from the couch.

Lily shook her head. "She'd be disgusted by how I behave and act around here. I can hear her now… Lily, what on earth is that doing in your room? A contemporary book? You know what I think about those filth-writing contemporary authors. And where on earth is your edition of Emily Post's Etiquette? I had hoped to find it positively falling apart from readings… not that you should, considering I taught you the proper caring of a book, and- what is this? A picture of you and your friends? What did I tell you about personal items on your desk, Lily? As flattering as it is for your friends to see that picture, you wouldn't want to seem unprofessional to your fellow peers, would you? Why, they'd lose all respect for you!"

"I remember her!" Remus shot up from his seat suddenly. "Yeah, I met her over the summer when…"

"Eurgh, my debut," Lily gagged. "Sorry I had to put you through that, Remus, but you should have seen who she'd have had to be my date… blech, it was a carbon copy of Potter."

"Hey!" James protested. "What's wrong with me?"

"Do you really want to know?" Lily asked as she continued to write. "Because I could tell you, but then I'd have to write it all down, since I'd get a hoarse throat the next morning from speaking so much."

"Not funny," James answered sulkily. "I'll have you know, that was a major blow to my ego."

"It could use some deflating," Lily answered crisply. "Besides, you never took my insults to heart before."

"Mean."

Lily shrugged and waved her finished letter in the air to dry the ink. "Whatever you say, kiddo."

"Kiddo?" James asked. "I'm older than you are!"

"But you don't act it, now, do you?" Lily smiled as she sealed the envelope. Turning her attention back to her letter, she shook her head as she looked out the window and said, "I suppose I'll have to wait till the weather lets out to mail this."

Evelyn sighed heavily. "There must be something to do!"

Lily shrugged. "Good luck finding it. I, personally, can't stand sitting around here and listening to Sirius breathe for another minute. I'm off to my dorm to go over the Valentine's Day plans."

"I'll join you," James stood up as well.

"In my dorm?" Lily raised an eyebrow. She remembered vaguely that the last time James Potter had been in her dorm was with his friends, in third year, as they prepared a prank. She, Evelyn, and Bella had all woken up to find all their uniforms and clothes missing, the bathroom walls smeared with toothpaste and some other sort of pasty-like substance that would swell up the skin in a big bubble and explode (she found out later it was a cream middle-age witches used on their faces to rid themselves of wrinkles, acne and zits for younger witches, and warts on older witches. It had an odd reaction when applied to areas of skin where it was unnecessary; in place of the popped bubble, acne would appear, on top of the acne, a large zit with a wart on it, wrinkles and folds all over the wart and zit.).

"Sure, why not?" James shrugged, a mischievous glint in his eye.

Lily turned the other direction, towards the portrait hole. "If you insist on tagging along, we will be going to the library."

"Easy on the italics, there, Evans."

Lily glared and turned on her heel.

James shrugged at his friends and followed the Head Girl out of the Common Room.

*~*~*~*~*

"You have to be kidding me," Lily said finally.

"You have to be kidding me," James retaliated. "This is a good idea!"

"Quidditch players getting their own dance?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me, but it shouldn't matter how far up the social ladder you are; popularity isn't something we factor in when there's a dance."

James glared. "It's not a matter of popularity or social status, it's the fact that all the quidditch teams of every house has worked extremely hard, and they should get some… recognition."

Lily raised her eyebrow again, drilling her fingers against the clipboard. "You mean the entire school showing up at quidditch matches, having your own fan club, being idolized and lionized, and having your name go down on a plaque in the trophy room isn't enough recognition?"

"The quidditch teams are the second hardest working groups in the school, if you count the prefects, who, I might add, not only get their own dance, also get their own ball. So what's one measly little song that the rest of the students have to sit out on so their hardworking quidditch players can enjoy the fruits of their labor?"

Lily stared at him, he who was currently tapping his quill against his chin in thought, and leaning on the back legs of his chair. James Potter was persuasive, she would give him that, possibly how he had managed to negotiate his eighty-five percent Charms essay grade to a full two-hundred. And, she had to admit, his points were good ones… But then, the yearbook committee, the House newspaper crews, and the House band would want their own dance or "special recognition". It wasn't a matter of treating everyone deserving specially; it was a matter of treating everyone equally.

"And that, Miss Evans, is how communism started," James answered dryly, upon hearing her rebuttal.

"I wasn't speaking of possessions, I meant people, there's a difference," Lily answered. Of her seven years at Hogwarts, James Potter had been continually sarcastic, rude, and disrespectful towards her. It was getting annoying. Very, very, very annoying. "Perhaps, using your example of quidditch, as the Slytherins have worked so much harder than all the other teams, they should have their own dance?"

James glared at her. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what, exactly? If you ask me, I'm being perfectly normal… So it's very difficult to decide why I do what when I don't know what is," Lily drummed her carefully French manicured nails along the edge of the table. "What is it that I… do?"

"That. You try so hard to make my life miserable, I think it's making you miserable as well," James said thoughtfully as he observed her. She didn't like it. He was giving her a piercing stare- the kind that no one calls a piercing stare because it's not a piercing stare until they find themselves under it- as if he were trying to see the back of her skull. "Why do you go out of your way to make my life miserable, anyway? In the past few years, you've repeatedly stated that I'm not even worth the breath it takes to tell me I'm not worth the breath. So why does it matter, anyway? You know, I can be very enjoyable company. Compatible, for many people, in fact. So why do you do that? Why… do… you… hate… me?"

During his speech, he had been leaning dangerously close, a little too close. Goodness, being in such close quarters with that boy was enough to make a person an extreme claustrophobic.

Lily stopped leaning back and stared back coldly. "I dislike you for obvious reasons," she said, as she stood up from her chair and gathered her books. "You're rude. You're sarcastic. You've shown disrespect to teachers and peers. You have an extreme disregard for all the rules. I find the manner you treat girls demeaning. You are an idiot. You have yet to prove my accusation wrong."

She pushed her chair back in its place and walked out of the library.

*~*~*~*~*

(A/N): You didn't really think Lily would hold a grudge against James just because of a stupid prank, did you? She has better things to do with her time than brood over how a prank seven years ago ruined all admiration for James Potter.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was GREAT!!!! But, you know, I think that though Tom Riddle looked the part, he also looked a little like what the younger James Potter should have looked like. Not especially good looking, but not really hard to look at, either.

To Come: Who cares? I was considering abandoning this fic, since it was taking so long, but I decided not to; I like the plot, and have become attached to the characters. But once I finish this (in fifteen to twenty-five chapters, to make a guess…), I'm taking a break from writing and I'll just be reading… unless, oh, the horror, PLOT BUNNIES ATTACK! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Okay. Weird moment.

To Come: (the other one got a little too crazy) Amazing Grace, a funeral, and the return of Gilderoy Lockhart… What will happen????? The funeral will actually probably start around two or three chapters later, but Gilderoy will definitely be there, and the Ball will take place a few chapters after the funeral.

And…

Favorite chapter to date? *Cringe, Least Favorite chapter to date? Don't forget to tell me in your reviews! Please r/r!!!