Disclaimer: I don't own Lily, James, house-elves, Sirius, Peter, Remus, Alice, Hogwarts, or anybody or anything else in this story. I do own Sparky and will keep her! Bwah-ha-ha. :::insert evil laugh:::

Author's Note: Hey! Wow. So many pretty reviews! You guys have been great. You keep me going at this. Honestly, I don't think I'd still be going without your encouragement. I know it bugs some people that I do this every time, but here it is anyway. I've got six pages of reviews (thank you!). I figure you all want to get on with the story, so I'm just going to list name and just answer if anybody had a specific question. The chapter is good and long this time. Over 2800 words! If anybody is waiting for chapter 71 of Harry Potter Six, that'll be my next update (probably), I'm just having trouble with that chapter. Well, maybe that'll be second to next update. I'm almost done with Regulus's sorting! Forgive the formatting this chapter, I don't what's wrong with it.

PS—If any guys were reading the last chapter (you're probably scarred for life now), aren't you glad that doesn't happen to you?

THANKS TO EVERYBODY:

Lyriaoftheravens

Radioactive Bubblegum—forgiven. Forgive me for not updating? :::looks guiltily at Artemis Fowl:::

Sassy-black

Painterchica

Analise

Orlandosgirlfriend

Starborn

Lordess-voldemort—Sorry, I don't have Msn messenger. My computer freaked out when I tried to download it. I've got AIM though.

Victoria87

Zayne

Iris

Nikki

Hazen

Ron-lover-for-life

Artemis Moonsong—My friend's little sister thinks she wears a bikini top to school under her shirt everyday…

Leha—Thanks for adding me to your highly recommend list!

????

siriusforeva

apsychonamedRachelwholovesravens—Never been to Yellowstone. I think it's in CA though, isn't it?

icriedwhensiriusdied

CoPaCaBaNa

Allie

Luvsirius

praesul femella

Pherhyandoiel

Katie Lupin Black

DOJ

Loraliant Angelisa Snape

Miss Lady Padfoot

Agloechen

FrighteninglyObsessed—Hey, Marie! I swear I'll come back to the Habitat soon. Tell the others I'm not dead. I don't feel sorry for him either!

Teri

Certified-weirdo

Feline-go-meow

Xirleb70

CrYsTaLtears

Sarah—exactly! That's why I had to make the fight about him not needing her help.

Moggy-is-cool

J.E.A.R.K.Potter

FlamezFlyer

Rowan the Green Eyed Cat

Queen of Zan

Frankie Beeblebrox—Hehe. That line sounded just so Lily and James, I had to write it. Hehe. I think if I do a fic when Lily and James are married and Lily is pregnant, there should be some sort of simulator charm for James to have to experience it too. But I won't have to go through any of that for many years, so it'd be harder to write. Anyway, I swear I'll email you soon! Tech stuff for the play starts tonight. Eek, we open on the 14th! A Midsummer Night's dream.

Gwendolyn James

Professor D. S. Silvers—Yay! I made it on a Favorites list! —Thanks. Hope that chapter lived up to your expectations!

On with the show! Er, story.

Chapter 15: Ice Cream

Lily and James entered the kitchen and found most of the house-elves were away. "This time of night a lot of them are taking care of the laundry," explained James.

"Mister James Potter, sir!" squeaked one of the house-elves, coming over and hugging Lily around the knees.

James whispered to Lily, "Her name is Sparky. Ask how she is."

"Hey, Sparky. How are you?" asked Lily.

"Sparky is doing well, sir. Is this the Miss Lily Evans that sir is always talking about?" the elf asked, looking at the red-haired human. "Normally sir comes with his friends. Or alone."

"We were walking back from patrol the corridors," Lily said.

"While we're here, why not some ice cream?" asked James.

"Oh, yes. Sparky will get you ice cream."

James said, "I'll have a strawberry sundae."

"I'd just like a scoop of mint chip. If you have it," Lily said.

"Of course, of course, Sir. Sparky will get everything." Sparky led them to a little table and sat them down. "Sparky will be back with ice cream."

Lily looked at James, "Just how often do you come down here?"

"That's one of my many secrets."

Sparky brought them their bowls of ice cream and spoons.

"Thank you, Sparky."

"Yeah, thanks, Sparky."

"You're welcome, James Potter sir and Miss Lily Evans. Can Sparky get anything else?"

"No, I think we're alright, Sparky. We'll put the bowls in the sink when we're done," James said.

"Sparky will take care of everything, Miss." Sparky went back over to the other side of the kitchen to do her work.

"Just how many secrets do you have? I already know about the invisibility cloak."

"If I told you, they wouldn't be secrets anymore."

"What's the story behind your nicknames then? Is Prongs some kind of wisecrack about your hair, Porcupine?" she asked, with a little humor in her voice.

"That's confidential information."

"Like your dancing ability?" she asked innocently, taking a bite of her ice cream.

"Wh-what are you talking about?"

"A little birdie told me about all your dance lessons."

"Was it Frank? Is that what you two were talking about?"

"No," she smiled complacently. This was fun.

"It's not my fault. My parents made me do it. They said they wanted me to be civilized and have manners. They wanted me to be a gentleman. I only finally agreed because I had no other choice and they said it would help my coordination skills later for Quidditch. When I was younger I was kind of a klutz." James had no idea why he was telling her all of this.

Lily wondered why James would tell her all of this. "They must be sorely disappointed."

"What do you mean?" he asked sharply.

"You're not much of a gentleman, and you hardly seem civilized."

He grinned at her. "A gentleman I may not be, and civilized company is not my strong suit, but I can dance."

"I doubt that, sir," she mocked with a smile.

"Oh, really? Would you care for a dance, milady?" he asked, standing and putting out his hand to her.

"I'm not supposed to accept offers from strange men," she teased.

"Just this once. Your mother isn't home, and this is my favorite song." He winked at her.

"I suppose…if mother won't find out." She stood up and took his hand. "I hear no music."

"No? No music? How can you possibly miss the charming waltz that the band his playing?"

Lily had never learned the old fashioned ballroom dances. She'd have to let James lead and just follow along. "You must ask the conductor to have his musicians play a little louder."

"Of course." He started to hum.

"I don't remember how this starts."

He smiled at her and showed her how to position her arms. "Just follow me." He started to hum again, slowly, allowing her to follow his steps without much difficulty. He realized quickly that she was a fast learner.

She in turn realized quickly that James was a very good dancer. Awkward as it was to be dancing with herself and to be the tall one of the pair, Lily was enjoying herself. She was almost sorry when James stopped humming.

"The band seems to be taking a break. Shall we go back to our refreshments?"

"Oh, yes, let's."

They sat down again at the table with their slightly melted ice cream.

"You are a fine dancer, sir."

"You as well, madam." He grinned at her and took a large spoonful of ice cream and shoved it down his throat. "Worked up a bit of an appetite."

"I can see that."

"We really ought to figure out what to do about the next four days. We can't keep fighting. Hurting each other won't make our lives any better."

Lily marveled. Not only was James right for once in his life, but he was being mature too. It certainly seemed out of character as far as Lily was concerned. She couldn't quite bring herself to tell him straight out that he was right, so instead she just conceded, "That's true."

A minute passed with no sound but the work of the house-elves and two people eating ice cream.

"Thursday. What's your Thursday schedule?" James asked.

"Surprisingly nothing this week. Except that we've got to remedy that situation with Nikki and Alex. Or, I suppose you have to. You'll have to speak to their Professor about make up work and volunteer to help them study. What about you?"

"Quidditch practice. When you're done with practice and I've finished with Nikki and Alex, we ought to start going over our stuff for Monday."

"Right. Otherwise we'll look like even bigger idiots." She was silent for a minute. "You don't think anyone suspects us, right?"

"I don't think so. But we'd better be on our best behavior, just in case, Potter," James said with a wink.

"I suppose we'd better get back to the common room," Lily said, almost regretfully.

"Yes. It would look a bit suspicious for the two of us to be out late like this. Could mistaken for a romantic rendezvous. A moonlit walk along the lake…"

"I already told you, under no circumstances are the two of us pretending to be a couple. Is that clear?" Her good humor had vanished instantly.

"Crystal, Potter," said James. He picked up the bowls and spoons and put them into one of the many sinks.

Lily watched as a scrub brush began to work on the bowls on its own.

"Come on," James said, pulling Lily by the wrist. "Ooh, speaking of lake…I thought of something I've got to do tomorrow. I've got to meet Remus by the lake. Chess club. The tournament winners." He felt bad lying to her, but he was too interested in finding out what was going on between Remus and Lily to tell her at the moment.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Why d'you ask?"

"There isn't one scheduled."

"He just told me tonight."

"Oh."

"Is there anything going on between you two?" he asked suspiciously.

"Why would you ask that?"

"Just got the impression…you two are closer than you and Sirius, or you and Peter."

"That's because we're Prefects together, so we know each other more."

"If you say so."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

James shrugged.

Lily elbowed him as they turned the corner and appeared in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady.

"Mister Potter, not unusual for you to be returning late. But you, Miss Evans, you usually only come back late with—"

Before the Fat Lady could finish, Lily said, "The two of us have been patrolling the corridors. Head Boy and Head Girl."

"Hmm…Password?"

"Screaming ice cream."

Once inside, James said mildly, "Care to finish her sentence? You usually only come back late with…?"

"It's nothing."

"It's not nothing."

"Yes, it is. You're making too big a deal out of this."

"I don't think I am."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. Because if it were nothing, then you'd just tell me. You don't want me to know."

"I don't have to tell you every aspect of my life. There's no law that says I'm not allowed to have secrets."

"Well there should be."

"That is so immature. You've got lots of secrets you refuse to tell me."

"That's different. They aren't always my secrets."

Remus, Sirius, and Peter were waiting on the stairs, listening to Lily and James bicker.

Sirius whispered, "Is it just me, or does James have a secret girlfriend Lily is jealous of?"

"Sounds like that to me," agreed Peter.

"Why wouldn't he tell us?" asked Sirius.

"Maybe he doesn't trust us anym—" started Peter.

"Shut-up. I wanna listen," whispered Sirius.

Remus almost smiled. From the sound of things, he was on the right track. If he was right, what he'd said at practice ought to have James going crazy right now. He was so overprotective of Lily.

Lily's voice came floating up to them again, "Look, I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning."

"Same." The person who looked like James was coming toward the stairs and Remus, Peter, and Sirius all hurriedly stood up so it looked as though they were just on their way down.

"Hey, Jamesie," said Sirius. "Where you been?l"

"Out," replied Lily.

"We're going to the kitchen for ice cream. Why don't you come with us? It'll take your mind off your spat with Lily earlier."

"No, really, I'm fine," Lily started.

"Come with us!" Sirius said jovially. Sirius and Peter each grabbed one of Lily's arms and forced her backward down the stairs, Remus following behind the three of them. He waved at "James's" angry face.

Not really wanting to, Lily went all the way back down to the kitchen with Sirius, Remus, and Peter. When they got there, Sparky looked at her in surprise. "Back again so soon, sir? Was you not just here with Miss Evans?"

"Er…"

"Dancing and eating ice cream. Do you want more mint chip ice cream?"

"Er, sure," said Lily. More ice cream was the last thing she wanted.

Sparky turned her attention to Remus. "You were here 2 hours ago. Another brownie, Remus Lupin sir? Double chocolate, fresh baked."

Sirius blinked. Now Moony was hiding secrets too? What was this world coming too? "Sparky, James was down here earlier?"

"Oh yes. James Potter and Miss Lily Evans. The girl with the apple color hair."

"Did you say they were dancing?" asked Peter.

"Oh, yes. Very good dancers," beamed Sparky.

"What about Remus here? Is Remus a good dancer?" asked Sirius.

"Remus wasn't here with them, sir. Remus came earlier."

"Thank you, Sparky. Could I have a double scoop of Rocky Road?"

"And Vanilla for me?" added Peter.

"Yes, yes, everyone sit and Sparky will get it all." She ushered them over to chairs and a table and left to go get the food.

Remus tried not to smile. Mint chip was not James's favorite ice cream. James couldn't stand mint chip.

Sparky and couple of other house-elves brought the ice cream and (in Remus's case) brownie and everybody dug in. Lily only ate half-heartedly. She wasn't hungry at all.

"So, James, you and Evans were in here dancing?" Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Shut-up," Lily said. She'd already come up with a good cover story while waiting for the ice cream she didn't want. "We were practicing for that ridiculous glee club thing we have to do on Monday at dinner. The whole song and dance thing. Luckily our last official meeting is over. This stuff it just on our own."

"Glad to be spending time with her?" Peter asked slyly.

"She's nice. Friendly and smart. But we get on each other's nerves way too often."

"Oh really? I thought you were the perfect couple," Sirius said innocently.

"We're not a couple. You all know that. We're like the farthest thing from being a couple."

"No, the farthest thing from being a couple is the loathing I have for Snivellus. We haven't played any good pranks on him in ages. Wanna sneak into the Slytherin common room and set something up?"

"Not tonight. I'm tired."

"Tired? You left practice early and are having your second bowl of ice cream. You should be hyper on sugar right now."

"Well I'm not."

"You must be sick then. We'll take you to Nurse Lily and she can make it all better for you," Sirius said cheerily.

"Knock it off."

"Fine, James, you can be a good little boy and go upstairs and go to bed. Pete, Remus, you in?"

"We don't have anything with us."

Sirius grinned manically. "Oh don't we? We've got anything we want down here. I think a cream pie levitated above Snivellus's head would be lovely. Or maybe just a knife above his head."

"Sirius, nothing lethal," warned Remus.

"You spoil all my fun. I can think of something at least. I got the Slytherin password this afternoon from a reliable source. I have to do something before it gets changed, or I'll have kissed a Slytherin for nothing," Sirius whined.

"Well, I'm a Prefect and I've got appearances to keep up. I'm going back to the Tower. Coming, James?" Might as well mess with somebody's mind. Whoever it belonged to.

"Sure. I'm wiped."

Sirius rolled his eyes at them. "C'mon, Wormy. Those two have given up fun in favor of their pretty badges. We'd better get going before we're blinded by them."

"You're right. It's a good thing we're not in sunlight or we'd already have lost our sight," agreed Peter lamely.

Peter and Sirius got up and left then, Remus and Lily stayed to drop all the bowls in the sink.

"We'd better get back."

"Yes, we should," agreed Lily. They walked back in fairly comfortable silence that Lily didn't mind. She got along well with Remus. In fact, she got along very well with him.

After about ten minutes, Remus spoke. "I'm meeting Lily tomorrow," he said in a would-be-casual voice.

"I think she said something about that. A Chess club meeting?"

"Is that what she told you?" Remus asked, with his eyebrow raised.

"What do you mean?" asked Lily, confused. She and Remus did meet sometimes outside of Prefect duties and activities they were involved in, but James said it was Chess club. Why would James lie to her?

"Well, James, I hope you're okay with this, but I still like Lily. I'm not giving up on her. Why should you be the only one of the four of us allowed to ask her out? At least she tolerates me. She can't stand you. She tells me that all the time."

Lily wondered if she really complained about James that often. Since 6th year, especially this year, James had gotten a lot less annoying.

Remus didn't quite dare a glance at the person he was walking next to. He wasn't sure he could quite trust himself to keep talking so smoothly if he did. "Lily and I are meeting at the Lake tomorrow night after dinner."

"But what about Quidditch?" asked Lily, wildly.

"You know that tomorrow's practice is in the afternoon before dinner. The Hufflepuffs have the field after dinner."

"You can't go chasing after Lily."

"Why not? You've done it for seven years now. Why shouldn't I get a chance too? You haven't had much luck getting her to agree to go out with you."

"Because…because—"

"See, James," Remus said cheerfully. "You can't think of a single good reason why not. So it's settled. I'll ask her out tomorrow. If she says 'no' you can go back to chasing her all you'd like."

"But I've got a good reason why you can't ask her!" Lily said desperately.

"And why is that?" Remus asked, wondering if he'd get what he thought was the truth.

"Because we're dating. She doesn't want anyone to know. Thinks it would damage her reputation."

"Since when?"

"This week."

They approached the portrait of the Fat Lady. "Screaming ice cream." As they stepped inside, Remus and Lily headed for the stairs. "Well, we'll see what she says about that tomorrow. I know Lily wouldn't lie about dating James Potter."

Lily was trapped and she knew it. She changed quietly into pajamas, facing away from Remus, and said a melancholy goodnight to him.

Remus analyzed what had been said, trying to decide what conclusions were right.

Sirius and Peter tiptoed back to Gryffindor Tower, quite pleased with their work. When Snape sat up the next morning, he would find a pie (summoned from the kitchen) waiting to smack him in the face. It was the best they could manage on such short notice. That, and he would step on Dungbombs getting out of bed (Sirius always had a couple spare in his pocket). Both of them were a little disappointed that Snape wouldn't be facing any public humiliation, but that would have to wait another day. At least they'd be getting Snape mad at his roommates and punishing the lot of them with that horrible Dungbomb stench.

James stared out the window of the dormitory, looking longingly at the Quidditch pitch. He wanted so badly to go out there and fly. But he couldn't. He had to stay inside and be good. Where was the fun in that? This week he was Lily Evans. Lily Evans did not going flying in the middle of the night. He sighed. When would this bloody week end?

END OF DAY 3

Author's Note: Pardon the pun in the last sentence. I don't know where the line about Snivellus and Sirius came from. This is revised from the first time I posted it, I fixed a few sentences and some grammar.

Next Chapter: Well, I don't know what'll be in it. Honestly. That lake thing isn't supposed to happen until 7 at night, so maybe you'll get to see some mealtime and classroom stuff again. I don't know yet. Hmmmm…

Next update: Conversations With A Hat and Harry Potter 6. After that, who knows what order. I'll give you a hint though, I've already started working on chapter 11 of the Fashion Choices of Miss Evans.