A/N: Yes! Another chapter up today! Woo! Anyhoo, this chapter is dedicated to the asshole that invented yellow lights. thos tricky bastards caused my accident today. Sigh, i was rearended and now i'm very sore, and I'm still updating again today. Now that's dedication! Hee. You should all feel sorry for me and review..ow! my neck..

.As always, please read and review. And may I suggest listening to "Good Time" by Counting Crows while reading the last bit of this chapter. I find it very fitting.

Chapter Twenty: Love and Slumber Parties

"Where did you get all of this Honeydukes chocolate and butterbeer from anyways?" asked Ellie between mouthfuls of chocolate.

Lily lay down a card. "You've been eating it for nearly an hour and you are just now asking?" she laughed.

Allison looked at Lily curiously. "Where did you get it from?"

Lily blushed slightly. "James brought it…he knew I was having a sleep over here, and he was getting some stuff for the guys tonight…and well he just brought me some."

"He sure is nice." mumbled Allison. "Are you sure you aren't dating him?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "It's your turn."

Ellie giggled, making the other two girls look at her.

"What?" asked Allison.

"Sorry, chocolate always makes me giddy." she explained.

"She has a match." muttered Lily to Allison. "She always gets excited when she has a good match. I bet she has four aces."

Sure enough, as Ellie's turn came around she lay down a set of four aces.

Allison groaned. "I hate Rummy."

Lily laughed. "Only because you're rotten at it."

"So?" she asked. "I'm not very good at Muggle card games, magical ones are so much better."

"Except you usually end up either covered completely in soot or you end up missing a vital body part." laughed Lily.

"It adds excitement." defended Allison folding her cards on the floor of Lily's room. "All card playing is boring and old maidish…let's stop."

"Okay, but you better have thought of something else to do." agreed Lily, folding her cards as well.

Ellie groaned. "You two always do that when I'm winning."

"Yes, it's a well thought out scheme we have, you are never going to win at anything." teased Allison, collecting the cards into a deck. "At least Muggle cards get cleaned up quietly."

"You're being won over after all." laughed Lily.

Allison rolled her eyes before popping another caramel into her mouth. "Okay, I have some ideas….we could do tarot cards…palm reading…tea leaves…"

Allison was cut off with Ellie's complaints. "No, just because you're brilliant at Divination doesn't mean me and Lily want to suffer through it…we suffered enough with that crazy old bat, Professor Garner."

"She's old enough to retire…I doubt there is any Inner-eye in her at all." agreed Lily.

"Of course there is!" defended Allison. "And I don't like Divination that much…but it is rather fascinating if you do it right."

Lily and Ellie rolled their eyes.

"Okay you can read our palms, but don't expect the favor returned." resorted Lily, holding out her hand to Allison.

Allison smiled excitedly and grasped Lily's hand. She studied it for a moment and traced the lines of Lily's hand with her pointer finger, tickling Lily.

After a few minutes she looked at Lily happily. "Alright." she pointed to a line on Lily's hand. "You will have a long life…you're career is undeterminable…and you will have many pretty babies with James Potter!"

Allison squealed excitedly and Ellie burst into laughter. Lily pulled her hand away and stuck out her tongue.

"Now I know Divination is a wooly subject if you're seeing that." she replied harshly.

Allison and Ellie continued to giggle. Lily shook her head and grabbed a chocolate frog.

"Yes, eat the chocolate lover boy has provided for you." giggled Ellie.

Lily made a face and continued to rip the chocolate frog open.

"What exactly is going on between you?" asked Allison, slowly resuming a serious poise.

Lily shrugged. "Nothing, he's just a friend and we have Head Duties together."

"That brings you chocolate for a slumber party he allowed you to have." added Allison.

Lily threw the wrapper at the wastebasket, missing completely. "We are just friends."

"How long before the wedding, do you think, Allison?" asked Ellie teasingly.

"Oh, I'd say by the end of this year at least." replied Allison, just as teasingly.

"I can't date James." defended Lily, in complete earnestness. "It's just not right."

Ellie and Allison exchanged looks, as the conversation began to take a turn to actual seriousness.

"Why not?" asked Allison. "You can't tell us you don't like him, that you're not attracted to him…that you aren't perfect for each other."

Lily let out a long sigh. "I just can't…I can't explain it…just drop it, alright?"

Ellie and Allison shared a nod.

"Let's read Ellie's palm now!" tried Allison, as the mood began to revert right back to utter silliness.

"No!" squealed Ellie, bursting onto carefree giggles as she rolled back and knocked over her butterbeer.

"Thanks for the firewhiskey, mate." said Sirius before belching loudly. "You still haven't mentioned the occasion."

James shrugged. "Lily was having a slumber party tonight and I decided to have a guys night here."

Sirius looked at James like he was completely mad. "There's a group of hot girls in cute little pajamas, probably having pillow fights…sharing girly secrets…in the same dorm as you, and you're here with us."

James nodded. "Sounds about right."

"Are you mad? You're absolutely raving!" exploded Sirius.

James shrugged. "Have you ever been in a girls sleep-over…they do make-overs to guys! And besides, two of the girls in there are taken, and its Lily…she'd be completely berserk if she caught me spying or anything."

Remus nodded in agreement. "I think you made the right choice."

Sirius shook his head. "Someone needs to get their priorities straight."

"Next time they need a model for a makeover I'll be sure to drop your name, then." replied James.

Deciding to change the subject, Peter spoke up. "So what do you guys want to do tonight?"

"We haven't had a good prank in a while." suggested Sirius, James's supposed insanity forgotten. "People will think that the Maruaders have completely vanished."

"Or grown up." muttered Remus quietly so only James could hear.

James smiled in quiet agreement as they listened to Sirius give off ideas.

"When's the next Hufflepuff match, Prongs?" he asked.

James raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to prank Burton? Lily would skin me alive if I let you…she's all about wanting to forget him."

Sirius shook his head. "No, Prongs, I simply wanted to go to the match and see if Tina Birch is as good a Chaser as they say she is." he smiled devishly at James.

James laughed. "Right, mate. It's the first weekend in March, they're playing Ravenclaw."

Sirius smiled, before gracefully changing the subject.

"Let's get Snivellus…you should have seen him this morning."

"When did you see him this morning?" asked Peter, as he and Remus were both oblivious to Sirius and James's whereabouts that morning.

Sirius cast a glance to James who slightly nodded. If this was supposed to be a secret, he knew he could trust it with Remus and Peter.

"Prongs, Lily, Snivellus, and I." started Sirius. "Have been picked by Dumbledore to do a little extra classes, so to speak. Prongs has to be tutored by McGonagall, Lily by Flitwick, and I get the joy of spending my free time with Snivellus and Professor Jareb."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "What kind of extra classes?"

James started to speak. "Like doing magic without wands sort of classes…no one is really supposed to know that we are taking it…but we can trust you guys. Everyone can do magic without wands, Dumbledore has just sort of selected us to take some advanced courses…he's been watching us, or something."

Remus nodded his head somewhat numbly, his slight ego had been hurt at the idea that Snape could get an advanced class before him. Did Dumbledore not trust him? Sirius and James? They were the biggest troublemakers Hogwarts had ever seen…at least James had reformed, but not until this year. Remus gave a small smile and Peter clapped idiotically.

"It's a waste of time." went on Sirius. "To be paired with Snape…his stupid comments." Sirius was slowly building up with anger. "You'll never be an Auror, Black. I'll tell Regulus hello for you…"

James and Remus exchanged a look. Sirius's career and relationship with his brother were too of the most sensitive areas to address him with since he ran away from home.

"He's just trying to get a rise out of you." consoled James. "He'll end up dead in a year or so, I bet Voldemort will personally kill him for being a useless prat."

Sirius gave a gruesome laugh and shook his head. "He wants to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."

James couldn't help but laugh. "Against? Who's he trying to fool? Dumbledore will never buy that."

Sirius nodded. "That's what I told him."

"At least he has hope for a career." mumbled Remus, who had slowly grown sullen over the course of their conversation.

James, Peter, and Sirius looked at Remus sympathetically. Being a werewolf would certainly count against Remus in the future, and there was nothing they or he could do about it.

"It'll be okay, mate. Dumbledore won't let you be unemployable. He'll find something for you, he'll put in a good word." tried James.

Remus just shook his head. "Not a million of Dumbledore's words would make anyone want to hire someone as dangerous and evil as me."

"Now don't go talking like that." started Sirius. "You are going to be just fine, Moony. Don't worry."

Peter jumped up from where he had been sitting on his bed. "Let's go down to Three Broomsticks or Hog's Head. I think we could all use a good drink."

James nodded, sitting up himself. "Excellent idea, Wormtail. We should all get out of here."

It was Thursday evening, and James and Lily were making a late patrol shift around Hogwarts castle.

"So Quidditch practice was good tonight?" asked Lily as she smelled the grass from the Quidditch field coming from James's dirty robes. He had to have made a mad dash from the pitch to have been there on time.

"Yeah, we're looking fairly good." smiled James as they walked. "We're looking excellent, Ravenclaw shouldn't be a problem when we play them in February."

"That's good." conversed Lily, yawning slowly, it was nearing twelve and their shift was almost over.

"So your sleep over was alright?" asked James.

Lily nodded. "Yes it was fine, and you're right, it certainly was more exciting that Dumbledore didn't know."

James laughed as he studied the side of Lily's face. She was so beautiful, her red hair had been put up in a loose bun so that several loose strands rebelled around her face. Her few, light freckles dotted her face just under her eyes…her emerald, almond eyes…

"James?"

James was shaken out of his daze. "Yes?"

Lily laughed. "I was trying to thank-you for the Honeydukes and butterbeer and you weren't saying anything…are you sure you're alright?"

James smiled. "Yes…I'm fine, and you're welcome."

Lily nodded, still studying him curiously. "What were you thinking about?"

James stopped walking abruptly as he raced for an answer to her question, and Lily stopped as well.

"I was thinking about…I was thinking…Lily, what…what would you say if I asked you out?"

Lily's eyes were lit up in shock, her mouth dropped slightly open, but she closed it quickly.

"Um, James…I…I don't think so." she answered, although she felt a horrible jolt on her insides while doing it.

James looked down at his shoes, suddenly finding his laces fascinating. "Oh…why? I mean…I thought things were going alright between us…and you know I love you."

Lily looked at him sympathetically. "I…I know you do, James…and that's why I can't date you."

James raised his eyebrows and looked directly at her. "Forgive me if I don't think that's a good enough reason."

Lily let out a breath. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." he replied desperately. "Please, try me, Lily."

They shared a moment where they just looked into each other's eyes before Lily began to speak.

"James you love me, and care about me so much…and I'm not going to try and lie…I like you, I'm attracted to you…but I can't jump into a relationship with you when I know you have this amazing love to offer when I'm not sure that I can return it."

James took her hand. "I don't need you to love me yet…we can start slow, I…I think I have enough love for the both of us for now."

Lily pulled her hand out of his tender touch and looked away. "James…that's not fair to you. I can't let you love me like this…and me not be able to return anything."

James nodded. "I…I guess I understand."

Lily looked at him. "Do you really?"

"Yes…I can wait for you, Lily." he replied. "However long it takes."

Lily shook her head. "I can't ask you to do that James….your seventh year…the rest of your life, waiting around for me…and I can't let you do that. Move on, please…for now."

James also shook his head. "No, Lily. I'm not moving on, because I know you love me. All's I am waiting for is your realization."

"How can you know?" asked Lily, quietly, almost in tears.

James tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her hair. "The same way you know that I love you. You just feel it."

mello80: yes, those darn typos. sorry about them...i proof my chapters a couple of times, then after i post I go and reread them, and by george there's always a few that miss my eyes. Anyhoo, yes, Emerson hasn't made an appearence for quite a while, but assume that it's because he's scared of James, and that he's been spreading rumors about Lily and that he's avoiding Lily and her friends, thus I'm not writing about him much. He shall return, so don't fret. Thanks for reviewing, and please continue to read.

stumble till you fall, Lily Evans 4 Life, chikichiki: Thanks for the reviews and continue to read!