I'm mak'n a small change 2 the Hogsmeade meetings. Instead of a prefect/per group, Lily and James are going to supervise them together. This way, there can be some 'James and Lily time.' So I'm just say'n, nuth'n 2 worri 'bout. 'Kay, on w/ the storE!

Ch 4: Where is James?

"So Prongs, did you two love birds have any quality time together last night? 'Cause I think that something odd is happening between the two of you?" Remus teased as the group sat down to eat their breakfast. Sirius looked at James expectedly, who answered with a sincere smile.

"In fact Moony, yes we did. And do you want to know what we were talking about?"

"Sure why not?"

"We were talking about…O'Bryan."

"O'Bryan," Sirius spat, pieces of egg and beacon flying out of his mouth. Some nearby students groaned of disgust and moved their plates as far away from their mouths.

This caught the attention of four certain girls.

"I wonder what happened, over there," May asked, looking over at the Marauders suspiciously.

"Oh, who cares with them? So Lily what ever happened to meeting Eric?" April asked, looking at Lily. Lily stopped for a moment from drinking her orange juice and sighed,

"Didn't happen."

"What!"

"Yeah, I waited there for him, but he never showed. I hope Filtch didn't catch him. He almost had me, but luckily James got us out of that one."

"Wait just a minute, there missy. I thought you were meeting Eric, not James?"

"I was, but like I said, he never showed. I'm not sure what had happened, I mean, he says wait there and I wait, and you guys got off earlier then I did so he should've been there before me."

"Most definitely, but my question is, how did James get roped into all of this?"

"Do you mind, I don't really want to talk about James."

"Oh…and why is that?"

"No comment."

"Oh, come on Lily. Tell us. June help me make Lily tell." April begged to her sister, making her blue crystal eyes as huge as golf balls.

"If Lily doesn't want to tell, I have no objection to that." June said, not looking up from her book, making April pout her bottom lip and glared fiercely at her sister. Then, she turned to May with interest.

"You'll help me, won't you May?"

"April, I admit, I'd love to know, but I'll have to go with June on this one." May said, suddenly taking an interest at the windows. April looked at them and whined,

"But I'm dying to know. Lily Evans you will tell me what happened or I will be forced to get my information from other sources."

"Oh, and what sources may that be, exactly? No one else knows." Lily teased, knowing April couldn't back fire at her this time. Lily took a sip of her orange juice again, as a smirk crept along on April's face.

"Oh, yeah, watch this," April teased and stood up on the bench, "Oy, James! Could you please come here for a mom-, hey," April screamed, but Lily and May pulled her down.

"What the bloody hell, do you think you're doing," Lily spat, looking over her shoulder.

"Just going to another source, that's all," April smiled, making her voice sound innocent.

"That's all, what," asked a voice behind them. The three looked up to see the Marauders looking down at them, in confusion.

"Hey, guys. What's up," April asked cheerfully. Lily sighed, and turned away, letting her back face them.

"Nothing, so April, what did you need," James asked, looking from Lily to April.

"I was wondering, what went on between you and Lily, last night." April answered.

"Yes, I'm sure we'd all love to know, Potter," added a sneering voice. The group looked to see Eric slide in and sit himself next to Lily. Making sure James was watching, Eric sneaked his arm around Lily's waist and placed his hand right on her hip. Everyone, including June eyed Eric with disgust although Lily, felt uncomfortable in her position with everyone eyeing her, but she didn't move from Eric's hold.

"So, Potter. What were you doing with my girlfriend last night, since she didn't come to meet me? I mean you didn't try anything did you, anything, inappropriate."

It took James to hold Sirius back from punching O'Bryan, but he felt awful for restraining his best friend, when he knew himself he'd do it first.

"Eric, stop it. James wouldn't do anything like that, right James," Lily defended, looking at James with trust. James felt his heart skip a beat when he heard Lily defend him, it made him sure that he had earned some points from last night.

"Exactly, wouldn't even dream about it," James smiled, but it didn't get past Eric.

"Anyway, Eric what happened to you last night? Lily said you didn't make it," May noted.

"Oh, got caught by Peeves. He nearly went ballistic when he found me," Eric explained.

"Really, so where did he find you?" April asked.

"Where we were supposed to meet," Eric said, looking at Lily.

"Well, I've got to go. Got some business to take care of," Eric said, giving James a smile that only fooled Lily. As he got up the Marauders glared at the back of his head.

"Oh, and Potter, almost forgot, I've got a riddle for you," Eric sneered, turning to James.

"First, this item's color is a friendly bright yellow.

But for this I must say it is quite the sour fellow.

Second, it is something that is surely well known.

But only to muggles, and Dumbledore, alone.

Third, this object is both sour and sweet

Some call it a trick, but others call it a treat."

James starred at Eric expectedly. That riddle seemed strangely familiar, too familiar.

"Give up? It's a lemon drop, in case you didn't know. Later Lily," Eric waved and walked off.

"What was that git playing at? And how does he know about the riddle? Not to mention the password?" James thought desperately. If O'Bryan had the password to the heads' common room, he could come and go whenever he liked.

"That was odd," May said, looking at the group who seemed just as confused.

"No offense Lily," James started teasingly, "you've got a pretty weird boyfriend."

"Oh, shut up." Lily snapped, but a hint of laughter was heard in it.

"Well we better be off to class or we're going to be really late," Remus said, and the group separated to their classes.

"I better change the password after lessons. I don't know how O'Bryan got it, but I'm not letting him in that easily," James thought to himself.

The next few days flew by quickly, without any disturbances. Just like he said he would, James changed the password, although had some trouble explaining it to Lily.

"Um… one of my fan club people found it out… and I just didn't want them snooping around. That's all," James lied. It didn't feel good, but he knew if he didn't, he'd hate what could happen. So things went pretty smooth for the first month at Hogwarts, until first Quidditch game of the year was announced. And much to everyone's interest, it was Gryffindor against Ravenclaw. James' blood boiled during their Quidditch practices, for he knew O'Bryan could do anything during the game behind Lily's watchful eye. But James wouldn't let him. He had thought about what April had to say at the Sorting Dinner, about O'Bryan wanting to make James jealous.

"He could want me to get distracted, and not play my best in the game tomorrow," James said to Sirius as they walked back to the castle the evening before the game. (In my story James, Sirius on the team)

"But you aren't, right Prongs," Sirius asked.

"Of course I'm not Padfoot," James snapped.

"So, it won't bother you at all that Lily will be cheering for Eric throughout the whole game," April pointed out. She and May had come to the practice to leave Lily and June to study. James didn't answer this, for he couldn't trust his own words. Of course it'd bother him, but he had to just forget about it. He still needed to tell Lily something wasn't right about Eric, but he knew it was too soon into the game.

"But of course we'll be cheering for you James. All the way," May added, seeing the mixed expression on James' face. James smiled, but Sirius pouted,

"Hey, what about me, won't you cheer for me?"

"Of course, we will, just not as loud." April giggled, as they walked into the Great Hall and found their seats.

"I think I've lost my appetite," Sirius moaned as he looked down the table. James followed his gaze and saw O'Bryan whispering something to Lily who in return blushed. James shot his eyes away, but he too had lost his appetite. Then, to make it worst, he noticed O'Bryan walking up to him and said,

"Hey, Potter. My girl, Lily, wants to talk to you later. Says to meet her in the dungeons around seven, and don't be late." And he left.

"You know what," May said, her voice sounding distant.

"What," James snapped, feeling the pressure in his veins increase.

"I don't think I've ever seen Lily and Eric snog," May answered, looking pleased. April spit out her juice and cried.

"You're right, May. You're absolutely right. So that means it's not official."

"What's not official? That O'Bryan is so ugly that Lily doesn't want to snog him," Sirius laughed, with James joining him.

"No, and he's not all that ugly. He's actually quite handsome," April admitted, solemnly. The two stopped laughing immediately and looked dumbfounded.

"Whose side are you on April," James hissed.

"Yours of course, but I have a right to say that, seeing as I dated him five years ago. And of course you all know I would never date a guy who isn't good looking."

"You dated that slime ball, when?"

"In our second year, big-brother," April said, adding a harsh tone to the last two words.

"Anyway, what isn't official," James asked.

"Them?"

"Them, who?"

"Lily and Eric."

"What about them?"

"They're not a couple."

"They aren't?"

"Why not?"

"Because they've never snogged, at least not in public."

"So what does snogging in public got to do with being a couple? I think O'Bryan's made it pretty clear." Sirius asked, his mind too confused to try to understand.

"Of course, Eric has made it clear, but he hasn't made it official. I mean everyone knows that when two are a couple the first time they kiss in public, make it official to everyone that they're a couple, right?" April explained, but James had had enough.

"So what, what if they never snogged in public, that doesn't mean they've never snogged in private," although this idea made James' heart tighten.

"James, if they did, you, May, or I would know about it. I mean you've been watching Lily a lot lately, seeing as you two share a common room to yourselves, and Lily tells us everything," April hesitated, for May coughed, "okay, almost everything, but we'd probably be able to tell."

"So what, maybe she just isn't interested in snogging, maybe she just wants to have a true relationship with this guy and not have the whole school know about it, like we do. Maybe she's really happy to have it like that, a relationship without any snogging or any other stuff. Maybe…maybe she's happy to have a relationship….with him," James sighed, leaning forward on the table. His head rested on his arms. He had been thinking about this for a while and it had been eating at him non stop.

"What if Lily is happy to have a boyfriend who truly cared about her, I mean, apart from me, he seems to be the only guy, who liked her, that actually tried asking her out, but if he's not who she thinks he is, that'll just crush her to know he never liked her and only used her to get to me. Plus, she'd probably never go out with another boy, including me, for afraid she might get hurt again. So it's either let her live a happy lie, or tell her the hurtful truth. Oh, what does it matter, it's not like she'll even believe you. Just because you've finally got on her nice side, doesn't mean she'd choose a friend over her boyfriend." James thought to himself.

"Cheer up, Prongs," Sirius said, patting his best friend on the back.

"James, you know as well as I do that you don't want to believe that. Look I know it's hard to see Lily seem happy with Eric, but believe me, she isn't," April admitted.

James and Sirius looked extremely shocked.

"She isn't," James asked, making sure his ears heard perfectly.

"She isn't." May assured, giggling at their expressions.

"Why not," Sirius asked.

"Because…"

"Because, why?"

"Because she just isn't okay, so let's leave that there. Plus you've got to be somewhere in the next ten minutes." May reminded. James shot up and noticed Lily was gone from her seat.

"Oh, you're right. I wonder what she wants, though," James asked.

"Who knows, probably about business? Just try to control yourself, Prongs," Sirius teased.

"I've got better control than you Padfoot," James chuckled as he left.

"I still can't believe you dated him," Sirius growled, getting up and walking back to the common room, leaving May and April confused.

"That's odd. What could she want to talk about in the dungeons," James thought as he walked down the dungeons. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from behind, and twirled to face O'Bryan.

"What are you doing here," James hissed.

"Making sure, my little Lily flower won't wilt from the likes of you," Eric spat.

"She knew you'd probably get lost, knowing too well from what happened on our first night back." Eric sneered, leading James darker into the dungeons.

"How do you know-," James started.

"Please Potter. Unlike you Lily trusts me. She told me everything that happened. We both found it something to laugh about." Eric said, smirking at James. Then he stopped in front of a large brass door.

"Here we are. You better watch yourself Potter. If you do anything-," Eric warned.

"Anything…like what O'Bryan," James asked, challenging.

"Oh, just go in and get out of my site Potter," Eric spat and stomped off. James watched him as he walked around the corner, and opened the door. It was dark, as James placed his hands on the wall to feel around for a lamp.

"Lumos," James said, and a bright light shone from James' wand.

"Hold on, this is-," but next moment, James felt a solid object hit him in the back of his head and everything went black.

"Black, please inform Potter the game is in an hour." Professor McGonagall instructed Sirius as he exited from the Gryffindor common room.

"Of course Professor, I bet he's already eaten and ready to go." Sirius assured her.

"He better be, for my sake. Oh and Black, please win."

"Will do Professor," With a warning look, she swooped off.

When James woke up, he moaned out of pain and rubbed his neck and the back of his head. Having a flashback about what happened, James realized where he was. Although, it didn't help lessen the nerves for he could tell it was morning, because sunlight shone through the dungeons' window bars. James hoisted himself up and tried to open the door. It was locked, so he tried, 'Alohomora' (I'm not sure if I spelt it right, sorri) but it didn't work. Panic ran through James' body as he began pounding on the door, and shouted,

"HELLO! SOMEONE! ANYONE! HELP!" but no one answered. James couldn't believe it, the first game of the year and he was locked in a dungeon cell like a prisoner.

"Say, April, have you seen Prongs, lately," Sirius asked, as she and her sisters sat down to eat breakfast.

"No, I haven't Sirius. I was thinking he'd be with you, getting ready for the game," April answered, confused.

"Well, if you see him, tell him the teams down at the field warming up," Sirius said, continuing his search for his team leader. (For those smart 1s out there, Sirius had thought to use the Marauder's Map, but James kept it in the heads' common room, and Sirius didn't know the password. Ha.)

"Where the bloody hells are you, Prongs," Sirius half thought, half growled.

"SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! GET ME OUT OF HERE!" James continued to yell, but no use. It had been fifteen minutes and still no one heard him. James looked out the window's bar and saw students rushing to the Quidditch field. It would be time for the match to begin and he still needed to get changed.

"Oh, if I don't get out there, we'll have to forfeit the game."James thought desperately.

"PEOPLE! OVER HERE! COME ON! OVER HERE! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME OUT THERE?" James tried again.

"Sirius, where is James, the games about to begin," Remus asked, catching Sirius as he ran out of the team's tent.

"I don't know! He was suppose to be here half an hour ago, but no one can find him," Sirius spat, out of frustration. Remus shook his head in disbelief, as he spotted Lily come out of the castle.

"There's Lily! Maybe she knows," Remus suggested. At the sound of Lily's name Sirius shot toward her.

"EVANS!" Lily looked at Sirius in confusion.

"Hey, Black what's going on? Where's James," Lily asked, looking behind them and toward the field.

"I don't know you tell me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't play me right now Evans. You said you wanted to see him, last night."

"WHAT! Where did you get that? Plus if I wanted to talk to him, I'd talk with him in the heads' common room."

"Now Padfoot, I'm sure Lily is telling the truth-."

"No she's not. That pretty boyfriend of hers came over to us last night and said-."

"I never said that and don't rope Eric into this. He has nothing to do with this."

"Of course he does, he was the one who sent the message!"

"What bloody message?"

"Are you deaf woman? The message that said you needed to talk to Prongs. He said for him to meet you in the dungeons."

"Nice try Black, nut you're the one who's playing! Don't think for one second I don't know how you guys look at Eric, and think that he's some kind of git!"

"THAT'S BECAUSE HE IS A GIT! ARE YOU THAT BLIND EVANS?" Sirius hollered.

"DON'T CALL MY BOYFRIEND A GIT, BLACK! AND I AM NOT BLIND! I CAN SEE YOUR JEALOUSY QUITE CLEARLY!" Lily screamed, her face becoming red. Remus couldn't tell if it was form anger or embarrassment for he noticed a couple of students were starring at them now.

"JEALOUSY? HA! DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!"

"THEN, DON'T MAKE ME HEX YOU!"

"OH, PLEASE DO! SPARE ME THE SHAME OF SURRENDERING!" Sirius hollered, and stomped off, leaving Lily in a state of complete shock.

"Surrendering?" she asked Remus, but it was Madame Hootch who came to explain.

"If Gryffindor cannot play with the required players, right this very instant, then they must surrender to Ravenclaw." Lily gaped as she looked at Sirius, Remus, and Madame Hootch in confusion. Everything was coming too quickly, but the bigger question was running threw Sirius', Remus', and Lily's heads.

"James where are you?"

It seemed like time was the most tortuous thing to James as he sat in the dungeon cell. It seemed like an eternity had passed when it really was two hours. He had listened closely to the game, but all he could hear was the commentary making comments and soon cheers filled the area, which didn't cheer him up. (LOL)

"I guess those must be the Ravenclaws. That means we surrendered," James thought, as he felt a huge rock land at the bottom of his stomach. It wasn't until the sun went down that something good finally happened to James. It seemed to be around seven, and James could began to see stars, when the dungeon door swung open to have a very upset Remus and a furious Sirius standing in the door way.

"You better have a good reason to be here of all places James," Sirius growled, dangerously. After, he stormed off and James couldn't blame him. It was their first game of the year and he was team captain. The worst next to losing was surrendering and no one knew that better than him and Sirius. James knew Sirius was disappointed, by the way he said James' name.

"Look Padfoot, I'm sorry. I didn't know this would happen honest," James tried to apologize, but Remus stopped him.

"Leave it, James. He wouldn't even let me talk about it." The rock that James felt in his stomach had just grew ten times its size, as he walked to the Gryffindor house. Just as they were outside the portrait, Sirius raised up his hand and warned,

"Be careful. No one will listen to what you have to say. They won't hear you because they don't want to listen or they can't hear you over Professor McGonagall's crying."

James felt even worse, if that was possible. He had let down not only his own house but his head too. As Sirius said the password, James tried to image what would have happened if he had been there, people cheering, confetti flying around the room, someone dumping a whole barrel of butterbeer on him.

"Brr, that's cold," James thought, gloomily.

………………………….

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL!" James shouted, as he really did feel butterbeer soaking him, through. But that was only part of it. Everything he had imagined was real. People were cheering, and confetti was flying around the room. And believe it or not, Professor McGonagall was crying, but she was smiling too. James was in complete shock. He turned to Sirius and Remus to find them smiling as well.

"What is all this?" James demanded, trying to be heard over the loud singing of students.

"Celebrating, what's it look like Prongs?" Sirius hollered, grinning from ear to ear.

"But why?"

"Because we won!" Remus answered.

"Won what?"

"The game," the two answered in unison. James was still confused, but he smiled all the same.

"How?" he yelled.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"How did you win?"

"How did we what?" Remus asked.

"HOW DID YOU WIN THE GAME?"

"LILY!" the two shouted, happily.

"LILY?" James asked as he walked to a nearby chair and sat in it, letting all the confusion rush through him, but another voice answered.

"Yes?"

So what did u think? I'm sorri if I scard u guys. Also, I got the 'dumping butterbeer on James' thing from asoccer game I went to. We all threw freezing, ice, cold, water on the team coach at the winning party. So if u'r all wonder'n how all this celebrat'ng has to do w/ Lily, stay tun'd 4 my next ch. Also, I plan 2 heat the 'james+lily+eric' 3angle. So r+r. I'll b wait'n. Again I'm sorri if I scared anyone, 'bout the 'Gryffindor surrendrd' scene. please send all of ur c3(comments, compliments+ complaints) straight 2 my e-mail.2

'kay luv ya, bye. KT