Lily's plan wasn't so much a plan as it was an idea she'd had with her mothers help. She had realized that the way she and Alex had reacted to seeing James and Sirius kissing other girls was quite pointless considering that the boys obviously didn't care about them that much anyway, otherwise they wouldn't have been doing it in the first place, would they?

On breaking up with Sirius, Alex had sunk into a state of depression. She didn't eat, and when she did it was the bare minimum. She barely slept; she no longer took any notice of her appearance and was, as Narcissa so elegantly put it, "a scruff and a disgrace to wizard kind."

Lily was doing a lot better than Alex, perhaps because she had never been going out with James and so never knew if he had liked her that way. If only for the time they had been together, Sirius had liked Alex, this made the whole situation harder for her, though it was still affecting Lily.

Where Alex had thrown herself at her school work and cleaning, Lily had become unfocussed. Her work didn't matter to her, and she had taken to disrupting lessons. Somehow, she hadn't got a detention yet. She had taken to comfort eating and had put on quite a bit of weight lately, though not enough to be considered "fat". She, also, had stopped looking after her appearance. Her once wild hair had become so unmanageable it was like an overgrown jungle, and the vivid red it had once held was lost.

Her mothers written words had caused her to think. What she and Alex were doing, it wasn't healthy for either of them. And at the end of the day they were the only ones who were suffering. No, they both needed to get themselves sorted, to show James and Sirius that they didn't matter. It was going to be a lot of hard work.

--------

As shocked as James had been at Alex's appearance the day before, he was, perhaps, more-so by it the next day. She and Lily had spent the evening casting spells and using muggle tricks Lily's sister had taught her before she stopped talking to her. Now, Alex's appearance had turned pretty much back to normal, and in some cases had improved.

Her face was still gaunt looking, and would be for a while, but it had a fuller, less sickle, appearance and had returned to its pale but rosy complexion. Her hair had not only achieved its sleek, shiny appearance, but Lily had cast a spell which trimmed it by two inches, changed the colour to a light chestnut and took on curls spaced evenly around her head on the top layer. Her hazel eyes, no longer sunken, shone brightly, in contrast with her hair.

He saw her first in Potions. She was sat beside Lily, who had managed to tame her hair so that it looked a lot better than it had to begin with, and who turned around as she saw him heading towards them.

Though he had given up trying to work out why it was Lily was ignoring him, he still found her dismissive behaviour odd and couldn't help but frown at her before turning to talk to Alex.

"Hi, how've you been?" he asked friendlily.

Alex looked at him and, to his great surprise, smiled.

"I'm doing good James," she said sincerely. "In fact, I'm doing great. Thanks to Sirius I've got this great new hairstyle and, oh James, guess what? I've got a new boyfriend."

James looked surprised, 'A boyfriend, already?' he thought stunned. Though this isn't what he said.

"Well that's great. Who is he?"

James frowned, "Andrews? Isn't he the guy you were flirting with? The same one you and Sirius were arguing about before you…"

"Before we split up. That's right," Alex smiled, looking truly happy at the fact.

"Oh," was all James could say. There was a moment's uncomfortable silence before he spoke about what he had actually come over for.

"We're still friends, right? Even if your not with Sir any more. I mean we have been friends for such a long time, it'd be a shame to throw it all away."

Lily turned around at this point and was giving Alex a questioning look.

Alex looked at her, and then smiled at James, hitting his shoulder playfully.

"Of course we are, silly. Why wouldn't we be?"

He smiled now, "Well, good." He turned to Lily who was still looking at Alex, her expression having changed to something unreadable. "How about you? Are we still friends?"

Lily looked at him for the first time in weeks. He couldn't help but gasp inwardly. Even at that minute, as she looked at him darkly, he could tell she was, and would grow to be more-so, beautiful in a way different to the other girls. He was reminded of seeing her two months earlier, seeing her face, liking her instantly and thinking the same thing. He didn't hear her words.

"Sorry, what?" he asked stupidly.

Lily rolled her eyes; she looked as though she wanted to kill him, but stopped when Alex shot her a glance. "I said "I don't make friends with arrogant users, so no'."

James looked surprised, 'what was she talking about?'

"Arrogant users? Lily, wha…"

He was cut off by the icy tones of Professor Jenkruss, "Mr Potter. As fascinating as it is to see you gat insulted, I do not tolerate students talking when there are potions to be making. Now kindly sit down before I am forced to deduce points."

"But, I…" He tried to object.

"Potter," she warned dropping all formalities. "Sit down, right now. In silence, and five points from Gryffindor for ignoring me."

Grumbling silently James walked to his seat, glaring at two Slytherins who were laughing at him.

"I'm going to kill them," He whispered venomously to Sirius as soon as he sat down.

"Who? Malfoy and Snape?" Sirius asked back. "Just ignore them, they're gits anyway." James nodded so Sirius continued, "What were you doing over there anyway?" He gestured his head toward where Alex and Lily were sat.

"I was just…"

"Detention Potter." Professor Jenkruss commanded.

"Finding out about Alex's new boyfriend." James continued ignoring his professor.

"Would you like that to be a week cleaning the dungeons Potter?"

James looked at her. "Huh? I mean no."

Jenkruss smiled, "Then I suggest you stay quiet."

--------

At lunch that day Alex and Lily were sat in the Great Hall.

"Don't you think you were a little hard on James before?" Alex asked Lily cautiously as she helped herself to a sandwich.

"No," Lily said disbelievingly. "What makes you think that?"

"'Arrogant users'" Alex recited mimicking Lily's tone from earlier that day.

"Oh well maybe I was, but he deserved it, and I'm not going to go easy on him."

"But Lil, he doesn't even know what he's done."

Lily sighed, "So I'm quite enjoying the thought of making his life Hell."