A/N: Hola. Here's the chapter you've been waiting for. I think. This chapter is dedicated to the asshole that pushed me in the pool, I landed directly on my side, allowing a ton of water to go in my ear. Now I think I have swimmer's ear. Thanks a lot, Roger. Well, anyways. Read the chapter, love the chapter…please, then review…please?

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Return to Hogwarts

Lily Evans was nervous.

It was the morning they were to board the train back to Hogwarts from the holidays, and she hadn't seen James since she had told him about her love for him. No, she hadn't changed her mind. She meant what she said, and she still wore the ring with the heart upwards, but their notes had been quick and not much revealing in the last few days after New Years, and she didn't know what to expect. "What now?" was the question that kept coming into her head when she packed and thought of James. Were they going out? Not really, she told herself. James hadn't asked her, and she hadn't asked him. Nevertheless, she was nervous, but also excited when she boarded the train, looking for the compartment her friends were crowded in.

She found Ellie, Jacob, Allison, Remus, and Peter right away, but to her disappointment, James hadn't arrived yet.

Taking her seat, it crossed her mind that James might be avoiding her, but knowing James, she shook it off and called it nerves.

Five minutes before the train was due to leave, James and Sirius came bounding in.

"Sirius was running late this morning." James explained as he caught his breath. Sirius shook his head.

"You took forever."

"I took forever? You were the one talking to Charlotte for over half an hour when you should have been getting your things in the car." James replied, smiling teasingly at his friend.

"Sod off, Prongs." Sirius retorted lightly as he took a seat next to Lily.

James also took a seat. "Gladly."

Sirius just shook his head.

The Hogwarts Express blew its whistle and started for the trek back to the castle.

Twenty minutes later, which was filled with explaining the rest of each other's vacation, a knock came to the compartment.

To everyone's surprise, but especially Sirius's, Grace Melbourne stood in the entrance of the compartment.

She smiled weakly as she felt everyone's eyes glaze over her.

"Sirius, could I speak to you for a moment?" she asked timidly.

Sirius nodded and stood up and followed Grace out the door.

The remaining friends looked around at each other in confusion and amazement. James slid over next to Lily and whispered. "What do you think that's about?"

Lily turned to James with a smile on her face. "I don't know, last I knew, Grace still couldn't stand Sirius."

"Sirius likes Grace?" Jacob asked, loudly, clearly overhearing James and Lily's conversation.

James laughed, as well as the rest of the Marauders and Lily.

"Well, he sort of fancies her, yes, but she doesn't exactly think of him highly." James replied, chuckling somewhat.

"Oh no!" Remus exclaimed. "He's caught the James Potter Syndrome."

Everyone turned to Remus for an explanation.

He smiled as he rubbed Ellie's hand. "Becoming smitten with a girl who will never fall for him."

The group, including Lily and James began to laugh.

"I thought that was just called hopeless." Peter replied, followed by another round of laughter.

In the middle of the laughter, Sirius reappeared, looking quite perplexed. He walked over to James and bent down, whispering in his ear.

James stood up. "Excuse us—I'm just going to go talk to Sirius."

Sirius pulled James into one of the empty compartments, shutting the door behind him and running a hand through his short, but still shaggy black hair.

James studied his friend, with a worried look on his face; usually Sirius was pretty easy going and didn't get too stressed out.

"Bloody hell, Prongs." he started. "I don't know what to do."

"About what?" James asked, watching Sirius closely.

Sirius kicked the seat across from him. "About Grace!"

James raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were still really, after her. I thought you gave that up."

"I've been trying to talk to her, I…I sent her a Christmas present." Sirius mumbled in confession.

"Really?" James started, somewhat shocked. "Is that what that conversation was about?"

Sirius moved his head somewhere between a shake and a nod. "She said thank-you, and, she said she liked me—a lot, actually. But that she didn't want to date me, because she didn't think of me that way. She started talking to me about someone more her type, Prongs."

James gave Sirius a comforting pat on the back. "I'm sorry, Padfoot."

Sirius shook his head. "Well I don't really care that much, honestly. She wanted me to change, to be more responsible, mature, and sensible. And I don't want that yet. She wasn't worth it, I sort of knew it was a lost cause. But she is just so attractive—you've seen her." Not waiting for James to reply, he continued. "I don't like being rejected, and I thought maybe I could make her reconsider."

"I know exactly what you mean." James replied with full empathy.

"That's not even the confusing part of the situation." Sirius added. "She described her type—and she didn't fully say it, Prongs, but…I think she likes Moony."

James's jaw dropped. "But she knows Remus has a girlfriend."

"I know, I think that's why she didn't say his name. But I think she really, really fancies him. She thinks he's perfect for her." Sirius continued, letting out a sigh. "And I know it's not fair to Ellie or anything, but I think she might be right."

James stared at his best friend in shock. "What do you mean? You see how happy Remus is with Ellie!"

"I know, I know." Sirius quickly replied. "But he can't even be honest with her! He can't tell her what he is! Obviously something's not quite right if he's uncomfortable with being honest!"

"He's scared she'll run off, I mean, how would you feel if you were dating a potentially dangerous beast? He's scared of hurting her!" James retorted just as quickly.

"Don't you think there's something missing if he thinks there's even a chance that she won't accept him?" Sirius countered, staying calm, and trying to reason the situation out.

"Well he is what he is, Padfoot. He knows how he is viewed in society. He has a right to be scared, hell. I would be."

Sirius took a deep breath. "I'm not saying they're wrong for each other. They might be perfect. I'm just saying Grace might be the girl for him. But I like Ellie, and I respect their relationship. I just, don't know what to do."

"About what?" James asked, putting a hand through his hair and messing it up out of habit.

"I should tell Moony." Sirius replied. "He has to know."

James raised an eyebrow. "Don't Padfoot. It will only confuse the relationship, he's happy right now, let him be happy."

Sirius shrugged. "I don't know what I'll do. I think he deserves the right to know."

"Do what you think is best." James replied slowly. "But I'm not going to say anything about it."

"Alright." Sirius concluded. "Let's head back."

"Ok." James agreed, opening the compartment door and heading back to where their friends were.

"So are you all done with your private conversations, now?" asked Ellie, smiling playfully at the two boys.

"Of course." James replied, grinning as he took a seat next to Lily.

Sirius nodded. "I ran into Regulus with his usual rant about mother, after talking to Grace, and I just wanted to talk about it."

As Sirius sat down he caught James's eye and an understanding passed between them.

"I do hope the food trolley comes around soon." stated Peter, unknowingly sending the group into laughter at his usual oblivious behavior and desire for food.

"I am so glad to be back!" Lily exclaimed as she finished with unpacking and walked into the common room of the Heads' Quarters. James smiled at her from where he was sitting on the couch by the fireplace.

"I didn't think the holidays were too bad this year." he replied, continuing to scrawl on a paper Lily could only assume was Quidditch plays.

Lily took the seat beside him and opened her book. "Well it was better than most, but now that my sister is getting married and all the attention is being focused on her—all the time, being in that house was becoming unbearable."

"I understand." James conversed. "My father and mother were driving me absolutely nutters."

"Are they still on you about a career?" Lily asked earnestly.

James sighed and put down the plays he was working so diligently on. "Of course. That was the main topic of every meal conversation, and my father called me into his study to 'council' me."

He made a face and Lily laughed. "I'm sorry, but I guess we do need to be looking to the future. We only have months left till we're out there."

"Yeah, I know." James replied. "But I want to be able to enjoy these last few months we have, I don't want to think about 'out there', All the evil and darkness that goes on out there, Hogwarts is such a haven."

Lily nodded as she put down her book. "I know exactly what you mean. I want to enjoy my last carefree months here too."

"Lily?" James stated, making sure he had Lily's attention. Her green eyes danced around his face and she smiled brightly.

"James?"

"Will you go out with me?" James asked, a wave of energy passing through his veins as he held his breath.

Lily was still smiling at him.

"I was wondering when you were going to ask." She replied, in her smooth, cheerful voice. "Yes."

James smiled broadly as he let out the breath he had been holding. "Really?"

Lily laughed. "Yes, I'd love to go out with you."

"OK." James said, as his body became relaxed and his heart acceleration slowed. "There's a Hogsmeade date this weekend, we could go get a butterbeer or something."

Lily picked up her book and flipped back to the page she was on. "That sounds great."

"Good" James replied, still in amazement and wonder. He picked up the parchment several plans were drawn on and continued to study them.

They each stared at the work in front of them, although neither was comprehending anything but what had just taken place, with huge contended grins on their faces.

"You said yes?" asked Allison after breakfast, she, Lily, and Ellie were leaving the Great Hall together on the invite that Lily had some news for them.

"Yes!" Lily replied, excitedly, joyfully.

Ellie gave her red haired friend a hug. "That's great, Lily. I just can't believe it's happening."

"I can't really either." confessed Lily. "I never thought I'd see the day, but, here we are."

"Here we are." repeated Allison, smiling at Lily.

"I've got to get my Transfiguration book, I left it in my room." Lily remembered out loud. "I hate that class."

"At least you have the most brilliant student in the class as your private tutor now." Allison said, laughing.

"Oh, shut up!" Lily laughed. "I've got to go."

"See you in class. You are still sitting beside me, aren't you?" Allison asked. "Of course, I could finally sit with Jacob, now that you have a man friend to sit with."

"I don't know." Lily replied honestly. "We'll just see."

"Lily Evans said yes to you?" asked Sirius in bewilderment. "Well damn."

"What?" asked James as he danced on the balls of his feet from utter happiness on their way to Transfiguration.

"I owe Moony five galleons." Sirius replied, shrugging. "Oh well."

"You were betting on me?" James asked, shocked, but not too surprised, he was friends with the Marauders.

"Of course." Remus explained. "It was a good bet. If you would get Lily by the end of the year."

"Well I'm glad to see money was made off of this." James smiled. "Oh damn it."

Sirius, Remus, and Peter turned to look at James.

"What?" asked Peter, as he chewed on a piece of toast.

"I forgot my Transfiguration book. Be back in a few minutes. Thank Merlin we were going to be early today."

"You better hurry. McGonagall is always testy after holidays." Remus warned.

"Right." James replied, sprinting back to the Head's Dorms.

Lily looked around her room, desperately looking for her Transfiguration book.

She found it stowed under her desk. As she looked down, she saw a note left on the floor.

The neat loopy handwriting was one Lily recognized, it was Dumbledore's.

Meet with your extra curricular instructors Wednesday night, same place, 9:00.

Lily put the note in her pocket after deciding the owl must have dropped it since no one was in.

She checked her watch to see that she had approximately seven minutes to get to Transfiguration. Figuring it would take at least ten if she didn't start sprinting, she began to run, only to collide head on with James as he rushed through the portrait hole.

Laughing, James stood up, and offered Lily a hand. "Sorry, I guess we we're both in a rush."

Lily got up and brushed off her robes. "Yeah, I forgot my Transfiguration book."

James raised an eyebrow. "Really? Me too."

Lily smiled. "Yeah, we've gotten notes from Dumbledore, we have a meeting with our private tutors Wednesday—oh darn. We've got to go. We only have a few minutes to get to class!" Lily panicked, picking up her things, before she could go, James touched her arm to stop her.

"Wait, I'll grab my book—I know a few shortcuts that will have us there in seconds."

Lily reasoned, and as she knew James would have shortcuts, nodded in agreement and decided to wait.

They reached McGonagall's class with two minutes to spare, and there was only one table left.

"Would you like to sit with me?" James offered as they walked through the doorway.

Lily beamed. "It looks like I have no choice."

Thanks to BornTooSlow, taiora-itis, chikichiki, Lily Evans 4 Life, hpgirl7777, whitecamellia for reviewing. Please continue to read!

Zippy-Wings: It's really alright, thanks for the review and continue to read!