TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY

Part I

Thrill of the Chase

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the famous characters or the world of Harry Potter. I'm borrowing them from JKR's fabulous writing. I just own the characters you've never heard of and the ideas. ;P

A/N: It's been a really long time. Like REALLY long time. I've only found this from the dusty depths of my bedroom and computer and decided, hey, why not? It's summer vacation and I have loads of time to do absolutely nothing. Ummm... The only problem is that I knew I was in the middle of revisions, though now I don't remember what the revisions were, so I'm trying to wing it and write and revise, hoping things will come to me but, it's kind of hard. I'm hoping for the best though. I don't think there was anything done to this chapter... but I could be wrong ;P

Chapter 6 The Power of Imagination

Recap

----

"Time's ticking," James replied, turning to the fire and taking a step closer. "I can stop it all if you go out with me. Go on Lily."

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath before slowly releasing it. She could feel her friends' stares and their shock at her answer.

---

"No. I won't go out with you Potter." It took Lily a second before her own words hit her and she realized the full force of them.

Maybe now she was doomed. Maybe now she would lose any chances of becoming Head Girl next year. It didn't matter. As long as she didn't give in to Potter. She could hear her friends' gasps. They never thought that she'd ever say no and stand up to Potter at her own expenses. And risk her goals...

McGonagall came striding in and Lily could see Black's face contorted with laughter as he tried to hide his amusement. She closed her eyes as the dungbombs exploded all over McGonagall and McGonagall exploded herself, furious. The horrendous stench settled into the Professor's clothes and coated her skin. It slowly drift about, filling up the room and Lily couldn't help but stop breathing in the foul air for a moment. To top if off, James, true to his word, threw the bag of fireworks into the fire. Lily watched in horror as chaos erupted and sparks of red and gold flew all over the room, leaving a trail of smoke in its wake. She ducked as a particularly loud whistling one zipped past her head. She stood up and slowly, reluctantly, trailed her eyes over to where McGonagall was standing and watched in dismay.

McGonagall slowly turned red and glared at Lily, her eyes full of rage. "What is the meaning of this Miss Evans!" she yelled. "How could you let this happen? Have you lost all responsibility!"

Lily closed her eyes again as she silently kissed all her chances of being Head Girl goodbye. When she opened them James was standing there smirking and Sirius was still trying to contain his laughter. Then, to Lily's amazement, McGonagall turned to Remus and started to have a go at him.

"And you, Mr Lupin, could not have exercised a bit of responsibility on your friends either? This is preposterous! I expected better from the prefects of Gryffindor, my own House!" She turned back to Lily. "Miss Evans, if you are still working for the position of Head Girl you must also exercise much more control and responsibility. At this rate, your potential for Head Girl is becoming slimmer by the moment, if being considered at all by past recent events. Please exercise more authority, both of you!"

McGonagall then turned towards James and Sirius. "Mr Potter and Mr Black. Detentions for both of you, although they will probably not make much of a difference."

She then stormed out of the portrait hole, so absorbed in her own rage that she was temporarily unable to smell the stench wafting off of her or the whizzing of dangerous fireworks in the common room. Lily stared after her, incredulous at how easy it was for Potter and Black to get off the hook. It seemed to her as if she got the worst gist of it.

"Well, that check went over fairly well," Sirius commented cheerfully as he glanced around the room at the fireworks. "Nice work James." Lily stared at him as he strode over to James and slapped his back.

Lily then diverted her glares to James, still standing there, completely unaffected by the fact that he might as well have ruined her entire life or even got detentions. His stance was defiant and his smirk was enough to make Lily boil over (again).

"You had your chance Evans."

"You!"

Before Lily could register what had happened she threw herself onto James, and James, unexpecting it, fell to the floor. She found herself pounding her fists against his chest and the distant cheers of "Fight, fight, fight," from Sirius. Her groping hands soon found their way to James' shoulders and she shook him, banging his head off the floor, trying to release her anger and frustration.

"This is all your fault. You wrecked my chances. You are so, I can't even find the words to describe you! How could you do this?"

Then, Lily would wind her fingers around James' neck and strangle him. His head would grow bigger and bigger from her strangling him and from his huge ego and then he would float away out of the window never to be seen again.

All pictured in Lily's mind and her little fantasies of a James-less world. It was nice to imagine and dream, wasn't it? She only wished that would happen. All in all, it would have ended up very badly still.

Maybe some of the un-fantasized parts would have occurred if Lily said no. IF Lily had the guts to say no. It was what should have happened. But of course, Lily couldn't let her chances or dreams go like that. Even if it meant swallowing her pride for the time being and giving into Potter. He may have won the battle but the war was still on...

The sound of James' swishing robes pulled her out of her fantasy and back to this harsh bit of reality. She blinked, all the past events of the thirty seconds returning to her like a rock in the face. She glared at James and took another breath.

"Fine," Lily said very quietly, so quietly it was barely audible. The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I don't have time for these childish games."

"I'm sorry?" James said, a smile so wide it covered most of his face. "I'm sorry Lily Evans, I didn't quite catch that bit."

Sirius had stopped grinning now and was watching intently. Lily could still feel her friends' stares at her answer and she stiffened.

"FINE."

"Fine what?" James asked innocently.

"Fine I'll... you know!"

"No, I don't know," James replied, playing dumb. "Fine what?"

"I won't say it!"

James shook the bag. Lily glared at him stubbornly and he shook the bag again, louder and more carelessly this time.

"Fine what?" he queried impatiently.

"Fine, Potter, if you're so thick headed and dumb I'll say it. Fine, I'll go out with you. But only ONE date!"

James' smile widened as he considered the altered proposition. "Done."

He shoved the fireworks in his robes and flicked his wand. The dungbombs disappeared and the portrait hole swung shut on a surprised Sirius. James' eyes roamed around the common room as he took in everybody's stares.

"What!" James shouted at the audience. "Show's over. Back to whatever it was you were doing!"

Lily couldn't help but marvel at the immediate effect of James' words. The whole common room erupted into the usual chatter and everyone returned to their homework or what they had been doing previously. He would make a good Head Boy... WHAT! Lily shook her head, trying to clear it of the thought. She didn't need any nightmares of that...

The portrait hole swung open moments later and Professor McGonagall and Sirius both entered, Sirius looking extremely sour faced at the actions of being shut out of the common room with an advancing McGonagall down the corridor.

Lily quickly took a seat on the sofa and James quickly sat down beside her, both hoping that they did not look too suspicious and hoping that the drama earlier would go undetected. However, the sight of both the incompatible two sitting beside each other was more than enough to rouse suspicions, as McGonagall clearly displayed as she glanced at them curiously, an eyebrow cocked. She did not say anything about her suspicions however as she took in the room to make sure everything was in order and no one was out of line. There was no trace of the dungbombs floating earlier or that the presence of fireworks were hidden in someone's robes.

She nodded at Lily and James and it was only then that Lily realized she was holding her breath. She wasn't use to feeling so guilty and wondered how James and the Marauders always managed to pull off pranks without giving themselves away. She stole a glance at James, who had grabbed his DADA textbook from the table before McGonagall entered and looking as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened as he gazed intently at the textbook.

She then noticed her friends all staring at her and she averted her gaze to the floor. Noticing how close she was to James, she scooted over a bit, and then realizing she had nothing to do she stood up and strode over to where her friends were sitting, all of whom were still staring at her, mouths gaping and eyes wide.

After about ten minutes of McGonagall strolling about the room and briefly talking to a couple students, she left. Lily let out a sigh of relief and then looked up from her homework that she had been gazing at blankly. Her friends were all still staring at her and she wished that her over exaggerated imagination of the above scene had happened the way she dreamt it would in her mind and that Potter really had floated away out of the window never to be seen again.

Before she could get their comments or questions, or even worse, a word out of James or any of his friends, Lily hastily stood up, gathered her things and practically ran up the stairs to her dorm disappearing from view. Her friends stared at each other, mouths still gaping and eyes wide.

James was grinning so widely now it looked like he had made the cover of Witch Weekly or something. Sirius was sitting on the sofa with his arms crossed and looking a bit peeved. Remus and Peter had conjured up a game of Wizard's chess in hopes to make everything look more casual. Latisha glanced after Lily and then looked back at everyone else at the table, their homework completely forgotten at the time being.

"What the hell just happened?"

---

"I can't believe you - aahhhh, oh Merlin Lily! A date with James Potter!" Jade pretended to swoon and grinned at Lily. "He is pretty cute huh?"

"Oh stop it will you? It's nothing to rejoice over," Lily cried, burying her head in her arms. "I can't believe I gave in to Potter. What is everyone going to say? What will happen to my reputation?"

"You must really want to become Head Girl and not have any of your chances ruined or even tarnished to give in to Potter," Latisha commented. "I thought for sure you were going to say no, that you hated Potter more than that."

"You never know," Ashlynn piped up. "You might enjoy the date." She smiled mischievously and Lily stared at her in disbelief.

"I can't believe you guys!" Lily wailed. "My life is slowly being ruined by a big-headed prat with whom I've got a date with and you guys are sitting here laughing at me!"

"You could always make a no-show," Julie suggested very quietly so that only Lily was able to hear. Lily glanced at her curiously.

"I wonder what he'll do," Jade continued dreamily. She was always the hopeless romantic of the group. "A stroll on a moonlit night along the lake. Oh, a room full of rose petals..."

Lily glared at Jade in disgust and laughed. "He'll probably make me listen to all the good points he has and give me a hundred reasons why I should go out with him."

"He honestly doesn't seem that bad," Ashlynn said thoughtfully.

"You always say that," Julie remarked, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah well, I believe in giving everyone a fair chance. And anyways, from what I've seen of James, he doesn't seem that bad."

"He isn't," Latisha agreed.

"That's because you guys play Quidditch with him and Latisha, you're friends with him."

Latisha shrugged as Jade continued mumbling about how the date could turn out and how romantic it must be to have a date with James Potter or any of the Marauders.

"I'm actually afraid of what Potter could have planned," Lily groaned before turning her attention to her homework. "Is it even worth it?"

---

"You just got a date with Lily Evans!" Sirius sang happily, slapping James on the back. "Nice work Prongs!"

James smiled back, still dazed at the fact that yes, he did get a date with Lily Evans, the one he had been pursuing for so long. Maybe there was a chance after all.

"You could have been a bit more polite," Remus stated, glancing over the top of his book briefly to look at his friends. "That was a sly way to get her to date you James."

James felt a bit hurt at his friend's words, but shrugged them off slightly. "It's not like she's actually dating me," he defended. "It's only one date. And my idea worked, did it not?"

"Don't get defensive," Remus replied. "I'm just saying, I hope it doesn't make her resent you anymore than she does."

James sat down and slowly turned his head, gazing in Remus' direction. "What's that suppose to mean Remus?"

Remus sat down his book and looked at James with the air of someone explaining something simple to a two year old. "You and Lily aren't really on good terms to begin with. You sort of - I don't know - well sort of forced her into a date, didn't you?"

Sirius and Peter had turned their attention onto the scene between James and Remus and were silently hoping and praying that a fight was not brewing between them. Although they were all best friends, James' temper was a bit nasty, and James and Remus did not always see eye to eye on all things. And Remus was the type of person to see issues from all sides. From both sides of the story.

James said nothing to this statement and Peter jumped in suddenly, trying to relieve the tension and change the subject.

"James, do you even have any plans for this date?"

"Oh, I have plans alright."