Acting the Hero

'Stir three times to the left' James said silently as he stared at his spell book with his cauldron in front. The Gryffindors and Slytherins were in potions with Professor Slughorn. Severus Snape, a favourite of Slughorn was doing something completely different than the steps in the book however was getting the proper results. 'How does he do that?' whispered James. Sirius looked over to Snape,

'Snivellus?' Sirius asked, James nodded. Sirius rolled his eyes, ' Who knows? All he does is study potions and the dark arts.'

At the end of class James put his imperfect potion in a flask and labeled it with his name. He walked down the aisle as Lily and Kaycee Handley; a Slytherin did also.

'Excuse me' Kaycee said frustratingly trying to push through towards the front with her flask. She shoved Lily causing her flask to fumble from her hands. The flask was as quick as a snitch and James dived down and caught it just before it hit the ground. The distraction allowed Christina Flemming to walk over to Lily's cauldron and pour some of her potion into her own flask undetected. Kaycee looked over to Christina and winked as Christina nodded. James handed the flask back to Lily,

'Here you go,' he said as he ruffled his hair.

'Thank you,' she told him as she worked her way to the front.

'I have a way you can repay me' he said speeding up to catch up with her.

'How is that?' Lily asked without turning around.

'Come to the ball with me' he said as a statement, a friendly order but not as a question.

'No' she told him as she set her flask down on Professor Slughorn's desk.

'I caught your flask,' he reminded her while placing his own flask beside hers.

'I could have easily filled another one,' she turned with a jerk and headed back towards her table to clean up.

'Good catch,' Chloe told him, 'that was nice of you.' James smiled and returned to his own desk where Sirius stood.

'Why do you like her so much mate?' he asked, 'look at how she treats you.'

'I don't know Black,' James told him and he thought for a moment, 'there's just something about her. She's smart and confident and sassy and beautiful and…'

'and she's the one girl who can say no to you' Sirius told him and walked away with his books and James followed him off to Herbology.

'I got myself a date' Sirius told James as they walked back up to the common room.

'Katie?' James asked as they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady who was turned away talking to another portrait of a pair of wizards playing a game of chess.

'Avada Kedavra' Sirius said dead-panned.

'Oh my goodness!' the Fat Lady screeched turning towards the boys, 'Oh Sirius Black!' she scolded. Sirius loved scaring the Fat Lady.

'I'm empty handed! No wand! Besides why would I want to kill you?' Sirius asked with a sly smile. The Fat Lady laughed,

'What's the passwords boys?'

'Phoenix' James said and the Fat Lady allowed the boys to pass through, 'Well good for you mate, Katie's a fun girl'

'Ya, she'll be good for now. Give her a shot and see how it goes right?' Sirius said casually.

'Well I don't know what to do,' James told him, 'Lily still hasn't caved.' Sirius was appalled at the idea that James would go dateless to the ball if Lily did not agree too.

'Take some other girl!' Sirius said, 'Half the girls are in love with you!' James smiled at Sirius's remark. Sadly enough he knew it was true, he could walk up to almost any girl and ask her out and they would agree, he knew that.

'Who?' James said asking Sirius for advice.

'How about Campbell?' Sirius asked.

'Chloe? Her best friend?' James asked as if Sirius must be joking. They walked over to a couch and sat down.

'Ya!' Sirius said, 'She's a sweet girl. Loves quidditch and is a pretty damn fine player. She's pretty enough too. Also might make Lily jealous!'

'Evans jealous?' James thought aloud. It could not be possible but if he was to invite anybody else he wanted to invite Chloe. Remus sat down beside them with a stack of books.

'Ancient Runes' he said as he put down a stack of books, 'the load Professor Tester is giving us is bloody unbelievable!' Lupin took a few extra courses than James and Sirius including Ancient Runes, Astronomy and Arithmancy.

'Hey pal you got a date to the ball?' James asked.

'It's full moon mate, I can't go' Lupin told them.

'Sorry 'bout that Moony' James told him. He was looking forward to spending the night surrounded by beautiful girls and his two best mates.

'Not your fault,' Lupin said obviously a little upset. He had learned to accept the fact that he had to miss out on a few things.