AN: Okay, back I am! Thanks to my reviewers for last chapter: Alanpatty07, Heba Star, dux, yay, Lancetree80, and one of my friends whom I begged and pleased to review: becauseumademe.

Chapter 2: Something?

Lily stood as far away from James as possible once they were in front of the Headmaster's desk. Whereas her eyes still had anger in them, James was calm and expressionless. She knew she would get blamed for this. She just knew it.

"Miss Evans, please, explain to me what happened," said Professor Dumbledore.

"Well, Professor, I was sitting in the Great Hall talking to my friend, then Potter comes over and starts taunting me, then he…" Lily hesitated, and then decided that the Headmaster probably saw it anyway, so she continued, "then he kissed me, and… you know the rest." She wasn't a tattletale. She wouldn't complain to Professor Dumbledore about what James did to her every weekend. She could handle it well enough.

"Miss Evans… Mr. Potter… this is very unscrupulous behavior for the Heads to be demonstrating. If it ever happens again, I will be forced upon the decision of revoking your privileges as Head Boy and Girl."

"Yes, sir," responded the two teens.

"I am also going to take fifteen points from each of you from Gryffindor house."

"Yes, sir," they replied again.

"Are we all in understanding about this?" asked Professor Dumbledore. Lily and James nodded.

"You may go," he said.

Margo, who had been sitting in the Great Hall since Lily and James left, had been carefully watching the hourglass that marked how many points Gryffindor had. Sure enough, after about ten minutes of them being gone, around thirty gems were removed. She simply shook her head.

Lily was deliberately calm only until they were back in the corridor leading away from the Headmaster's office.

"Potter! You, you arrogant idiot, just caused Gryffindor to lose thirty points! Thirty!" said Lily loudly.

"Don't forget about the fact that we nearly had our badges removed," reminded James coolly. Lily glared at him.

"This is your fault. This is all your fault, and you know it!"

"Well, Lils, I don't know… for a second there I thought I felt you kissing me back…" said James slyly. Lily could take it no longer. She stopped where she was, faced him, and slapped him hard across the face. He seemed slightly taken aback.

"Don't you ever, ever, call me 'Lils' again," she growled, and she walked off, leaving James standing there in the middle of the hallway, frozen in shock.

Lily didn't bother going back to the Great Hall, as she wasn't feeling hungry anymore. Instead, she went up to her dormitory in Gryffindor Tower and flopped down on her bed. She simply stared at the ceiling, thinking. Why did James always want her in trouble? Why did he always want himself in trouble? Why couldn't all guys be more like… oh, say, Remus Lupin? It's said that opposites attract, and Remus Lupin and James Potter couldn't be any more opposite. How did they end up friends? On one hand, you have Remus: kind, good-hearted, and studious. Then, you have James: selfish, arrogant, with no care for rules. How did two people so completely different end up so inseparable? Come to think of it, there were many admirable qualities in Remus…

"Lily?" came a tentative voice. Lily did not move from her position on the bed.

"Yeah, Margo?" she said.

"I thought you might be up here, since you didn't come back down to the Great Hall. What happened with Dumbledore?" asked Margo, sitting down next to Lily on the bed. Lily sat up and leaned against the headboard.

"Well, the first thing he asked was what happened. Thankfully, I was able to tell the story, because you know that if Potter told it, it would have been all in his favor," started Lily. Margo nodded. "Then, he gave us this big long statement about how what we did was not appropriate behavior for the Heads to be showing and that it was wrong of us…" Margo laughed.

"And he thought you didn't know that already?" she asked.

"Well, I think he knew that I knew it was wrong, but he had his doubts about James, I'm sure," replied Lily.

"Anyway, go on," said Margo.

"Then he said that if it ever happened again he would revoke our rights as Head Boy and Girl, and he docked thirty points."

"Well, that isn't too bad. It could have been worse. He could have given you detention or something," reasoned Margo.

"Yeah, I'm surprised he didn't, actually, making a disturbance that big at breakfast. I'm just glad he didn't."

"James Potter, you are an idiot," scolded Remus Lupin, as he and James walked around the grounds.

"You've only told me that about a hundred times this past week, Moony," said James dully.

"But this time I really mean it, James: you are an idiot."

"So you mean you didn't mean it all those other times?" said James with false happiness. Remus glared at him.

"James, be serious for a minute," said Remus. "I mean, look, we all know you're in love with Lily—"

"I am not!" protested James. Remus just rolled his eyes.

"Sure, right, whatever you say, Prongs. Anyway… just because you want to have Lily doesn't mean you need to go to such drastic measures! Because of you, thirty points got taken away from Gryffindor, and you know howLily hates being the one to cause points being taken from her house!"

"She doesn't mind taking them away from other people…" muttered James. Remus glared at him again. "Okay, keep talking, I'm listening," said James.

"James, look," said Remus, stopping and turning toward James. "Lily is a wonderful girl. You know it, I know it, Sirius knows it, practically the entire school knows it. But, if you really want her, you've got to try a different tactic… something that can really win her over. She's not easily impressed, and you know it."

"You're right Remus… but I'm just trying to win her over the only way I know how…" said James.

"Have you ever heard of the phrase, 'If at first you don't succeed, try and try again'?"

"Yeah, and that's what I'm doing, Remus," said James.

"I know, and the phrase is useless. So, I've modified it a bit."

"To what?"

"If at first you don't succeed, try something else," said Remus with a smile.

"But I don't know any other ways…"

"That's why you have to learn a different way, Prongs," said Remus simply.

Later, as Remus was sitting alone under a large beech tree on the grounds, he started thinking about Lily. He would never tell James, or any of the other Marauders, or any living being, for that matter, but he had always admired Lily. He had admired her in a way that wasn't like anyone else. If given the right of way, he's might even go as far as to say he had a crush on her. She was so nice to everyone (except James and all other troublemakers), she almost always had a smile gracing her lips (unless she was face-to-face with James), she laughed at every joke she heard (save when James told one), and she was pretty to boot (with the exception of when she was berating James, as then she looked rather scary). Lily really was a wonderful girl… but he knew that James wanted her to be his girl, and he wouldn't deprive his best friend of the thing he wanted most.

Unless, of course, the opportunity was just too good to pass up…

"Margo?" asked Lily a couple hours later, when they were in the dorm after returning from lunch. Lily was again lying on her back on the bed.

"Yeah, Lil?"

"Why does he do this to me?" she asked, more to the ceiling than to her friend. Margo didn't reply immediately.

"Well… Lily, I would think you know why," she responded slowly. "Remember back in fifth year? Right after our Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.?"

"You mean when James flipped Snape upside down out by the lake? How could I forget…" said Lily.

"You protested against James and told him to put Snape down. Remember what James said?"

Lily thought for a moment.

"'I will if you'll go out with me, Evans,' I think he said," said Lily. "So are you saying that Potter still has that stupid crush on me?"

"It's possible, isn't it?"

"Something tells me, no," said Lily.

"Come on, Lily, anything is possible."

"Yeah, and Voldemort's going to be defeated my infant child someday…" said Lily sarcastically. Margo laughed.

"Just forget about it. Think about something else," said Margo.

"I have been."

"Really, what?"

"Remus Lupin."

"Say again?"

"I've been thinking about Remus Lupin," repeated Lily.

"Oh, so now you've got a crush on him?" said Margo playfully.

"I don't know Margo… I just don't know…"

"Hey Jamsie!" said Sirius cheerfully as James plopped down in the common room. James replied with a blank stare.

"So… how did it go this morning? I was sleeping so I didn't see the show," continued Sirius.

"You've heard, have you?" replied James.

"Of course, I have, Prongs! If the entire school knows, surely I must know!" said Sirius in that still cheerful voice.

"Then you know 'how it went' obviously," said James.

"Pretty bad, huh?" said Sirius, sounding more sober as he lowered his voice slightly.

"She slapped me," said James simply. "On the way back from Dumbledore's office."

"She what?" said Sirius with false astonishment.

"She really hates me, Sirius… there's nothing else to it. She truly, honestly, hates me," said James.

"But we all knew this already…" said Sirius.

"You aren't helping at all," snapped James.

"Sorry, sorry… just don't want to tell you lies, is all…" said Sirius innocently.

"And you haven't lied to me before?" asked James cynically, looking at Sirius.

"Why, surely not I!" replied Sirius, gasping and widening his eyes in fake amazement. James just rolled his eyes.

"You know, Padfoot, if you wanted to give encouragement, I don't think joking around was the proper way to do it…" said Remus, who suddenly appeared next to James and Sirius. He sat down in an empty chair.

"Where have you been?" asked Sirius suspiciously, eyeing Remus.

"Just walking," replied Remus.

"And doing what?"

"Thinking."

"Thinking about what?"

"I really think that's none of your business," said Remus.

"Ooh, touchy, are we?" teased Sirius.

"Leave him alone, Padfoot," said James. "Clearly he doesn't want to talk about it. He's allowed to have private thoughts."

"Thank you, James," said Remus. The truth was that if James knew what Remus had been thinking about he would probably disown him for all eternity, and that was the last thing he wanted. There was a short silence that was broken quickly by Sirius.

"Well, I'm hungry, who wants to join me on a journey to the kitchens for a snack?" he said, standing.

"We just got back from lunch!" said Remus.

"So? I'm hungry. Come on, let's go, all three of us. That was, James, you can get your mind off Lily and Remus can get his mind off of… well, whatever he was thinking about," said Sirius. Remus and James agreed and they walked out of the common room.

Little did Sirius know that James and Remus had been thinking about the same thing.

"You know, Margo, I think we need to go for a walk… let's go out by the lake," said Lily, getting up from her stupor-like state on the bed. Margo, who had been lying on her bed reading a book, looked up.

"Sure, we can do that. I need the exercise anyway," said Margo, marking her place in her novel and standing. Lily and Margo walked into the common room only seconds after James, Remus, and Sirius left it. Lily walked over to the window and looked out.

"It so gorgeous out there, and I haven't been outside all day…" said Lily.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go!" said Margo, taking Lily's arm and pulling her out of the common room – just as James, Remus, and Sirius vanished around the corner up ahead.

AN: Finally done! I'm sorry it took me three and a half days but the weekend was rather busy… review people, as they stimulate me to write even more even faster!

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