Chapter 8: Finishing Up

James sat up that night, reading the note Peter had picked up. He hadn't gotten a chance all that day, because his friends kept him busy. James decided not to go to sleep any way, because he and Lily had patrol ateleven.

'It could go up or down. It's up to Potter.' James thought over that sentence. Lily really thought it could be more?

'Or, her friends seemed to have weaseled it out of her. That's happened to me many times...' James got out of bed, folding up the note as he went. He got dressed, fixed his badge onto his chest, and pulled on his watch. Checking it, he had only 5 minutes til eleven.

"Hey, Lily, shall we get going?" James said as he stepped into the common room. A disheveled red head sat up suddenly, on the couch.

"Sorry, must have nodded off." Lily yawned. James looked at her, and said, "I can go this patrol alone, you know. I can see you're exhausted."

"No, I'm not, and I can't skip my Head duties!" Lily said, still yawning. She cast a spell to neaten herself up, and they left the tower.

James had aplan to either make Lily confess, or hate him for the rest of the night. "So, Lily, what were you talking to Alanna about?"

Lily jumped, and seemed wide awake. "Nothing!" she said, defensively. James grinned.

"Well, if it was nothing, you wouldn't be so defensive, and you would be twitching." James said, half laughing.

"I'm not twitching!" Lily exclaimed, and her hand twitched. James laughed, and Lily cracked a nervous smile. She had not one idea why she was so nervous. Yes, well, the note was very... sensitive in some areas, but why couldn't she just act normal?

"And, Lily, I found a very interesting note..." James said, making a move. Lily started coughing, trying not to freak. James looked at her, and said, "You okay, Lily?"

Lily looked at James, and gave him a thumbs up. "I'm fine."

"That was sure an interesting reaction to me finding a note..." James said. Lily sighed, and decided to take extreme measures.

"Accio Note!" Lily said, smiling. As the note zoomed into her hands, James grabbed for it and said, "Hey!" Lily grasped the note, and stuck out her tongue.

"James, James, James. If you're going to embarrass me, make sure there's nothing I can do with magic." Lily grinned, and tore the note down the middle.

"But, dear Lily, you forget I am a capable wizard. Accio note pieces!" Lily felt the note tug out of her hands, and James grabbed the note as soon as it was out of Lily's hands.

"Reparo!" James said, and the note looked as though it had never been torn. "Now, Lily, let's see! Ooh, here's something!" James teased.

"'Potter and I are not dating!' 'But you want to date him!'" James read, holding the note high enough for Lily being unable to reach it.

"Now, who is this lovely note talking about?" James said, grinning. Lily glared at him. James felt a twinge of giult, and sighed.

"Guess I won't say." James said, and handed the not to Lily. Lily took a step back, and grasped the note. She grinned, and said, "James, this is... so..."

Lily was going to say 'So unlike you.' when she saw the look in his eyes. The teasing, malicious look. "So stupid! You obviously know what the note says!" Lily started scowling.

"But, Lily, I don't want to, well, embarrass you!" James said, desperate. Lily looked at him. "It said 'It's up to Potter'. Up to you!" Lily then stomped off.

James slid down the wall. 'It's not like I didn't expect that. Goddamn stupid plan it was, from the beginning!' James noticed their patrol hopur was up, and he started back up to the tower.

He walked into the common room, and saw it was empty. He hoped Lily had gotten back safe.

As he settled onto the couch, the portrait hole opened. James was hidden from view behind the couch, and Lily sneaked into the room, looking around. James got up, and snuck around her, and put his hands around her eyes. She shrieked.James laughed, and Lily turned around, glaring.

At the sight of James rolling around on the ground, laughing, Lily grinned. "Potter, get up." James hoped up, and saw her now stern face.

"Okay. I take it you're still pissed at me." James said, inching toward his door.

"Yeah, true." Lily said, casually. James smiled, and opened his door. "I'll be going to bed now."

"Good night James. Oh, and I'd watch your back for the next few days or so." Lily stared at him so evilly, and James shuddered.

"Lily, I'm really sorry!" James said the next day, as they were walking to breakfast together.

"You've said that almost 100 times, and not once have I believed you." Lily said, obviously still angry.

"Lily, I-" James started, but Lily held up her hand.

"James, don't even say it again. I forgive you, if only to get you to shut up. But, unless you want our friendshipto go down the loo again, forget about the note, and leave me alone about it."

They reached the Great Hall, and Lily walked over to her friends, while James walked over to his. He hd a lot to tell them.

"Why were you and James walking together?" Anya asked.

"I was threatening him." Lily said, smiling widely. Alanna groaned, and Anya laguhed.

"What'd he do?" Anya said, curiously. LIly smile. "I can't say, because then you'd say I was being unnecessary." Alanna rolled her eyes.

"But you gotta tell me! We're best friends, aren't we?" Anya pleaded. Lily grinned, and said, "You look so much like a kindergartener. Would you like a lollypop?" Any scowled, and Alanna laughed.

"Hey, Lily, are you excited for Saturday's Hogsmeade visit?" Alanna asked, ignoring Any. Lily noddded.

"Hey, Lily, don't you have Head duties with James on Saturday?" Anya said, smiling. Lily sighed.

"Unfortunately, yes." Lily grabbed sometoast, and stood up. "Anyone ancy a walk around the lake before classes?"

"No, Lily, not all of us are fitness freaks like you." Anya said, with her mouth full of kippers.

"Hey! Look who's talking, Quidditch nerd!" Lily retorted. She then walked out of the Great Hall, smiling.

"Wonder where Lily's going?" James asked, looking at the red head's retreating figure. Remus sighed.

Sirius said, "She just threatened you, and you're still wordhipping her? Good god, Remus, I think St. Mungo's released him a bit too soon!" James rolled his eyes, and finished up his breakfast.

"Uh, I'll see you guys later. I have to... get my Charm's book." James hopped up, and walked out of the Hall.

After walking around a bit, James decided to go outside. 'Man, I am not looking forward to Head duties tomorrow...' he thought.

James sat down underneath a tree, checking his watch. He still had about a half hour til class.

He yawned, and took out his Transfiguration essay. He only had the conclusion part left, so he finished that up.

When his watch said it was only ten minutes until charms class, James stood up and stretched. He set off up to the castle, and tripped over a figure underneath another oak tree. He was lying on top of Lily Evans.

Lily had been sleeping peacefully under the tree. Her watch alarm was set to go off in about five minutes, so she would wake up in time for class. (she wouldn't dream of being late.)

Lily was rudely awakened by someone heavy landed across her stomach.

"Sorry!" James Potter cried, struggling to get up.

"What the bloody hell!" Lily yelled, standing up and brushing herself off. James smiled a bit and said, "I tripped... On you legs."

"Thanks a lot, James. And now we'll be late to class!" Lily said, holding out a hand to help him up.

The two 7th years took off running toward the charms classroom. They still had about 5 minutes, so they slowed down.

"What were you doing outside?" Lily asked James. James answered, "Nothing. I actually was just sitting under a tree, finishing the last bit of my essay.

"Leaving homework til the last minute! You really haven't changed, have you?" LIly accused. James grinned, and said, "Nope, not really."

"Yeah, well, I never expected you to." Lily sighed. James looked at her sideways, and said, "You sound disapointed."

"Well, I'm not." Lily said, dryly.

They entered the Charms classroom as about four others did, so they knew they weren't late. Lily sat down next to Alanna and Anya.

"Where'd you go, Lily? You spent all that time outside?" Alanna asked, while trying to make her desk dissapear and appear four feet away (harder than it looks.)

"Actually, I did spend all that time outside. I fell asleep under a tree." Lily answered, succeeding immediately at moving her desk.

"Well done, Ms. Evans!" Professor Flitwick squeaked. Lily smiled. "Thank you, Professor." The professor walked away and began to inspect the otherstudents.

"Hey, Lily, did you finish the Transfiguration essay?" Anya asked. Lily turned to look at her, and said, "Anya, I did finish, because it's due today!"

Anya grinned sheepishly, and said, "But I just have another foot left of parchment to fill!" Lily rolled her eyes and turned to help Alanna with her desk-moving.

James sat down at his desk in the Head's common room. His work pile had grown, with the upcoming Halloween feast and costume contest.

"Hi James." Lily said, passing through toward her room. James looked up breifly, and said, "Hey, Lily, should we have the contest before or after the feast?"

Lily walked over and looked at his plans. "Well, after, of course! That means we'd have to schedule the feast an hour or so earlier than normal." Jams nodded, and began to write down the ideas.

"Well, never thought I'd see the day." Lily said, laughing. James turned. "What?" He asked.

"Well, you're actually sitting down, and working." Lily said, still grinning. James rolled his eyes.

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me.." James said, getting up. "Like, I actually do work, especially since this needs to be finshed by next weekend."

"Yeah, we should finish soon." Lily looked over James's shoulder at the plans. "Wow, you've really done all this?" she asked, in amazement.

"Yeah. Remus helped a lot, though. I wasn't ever that good at organzing things." James said, handing the plans to Lily.

He yawned, and said, "Well, I'm going to bed. If you want, you can look over those plans and get back to me tomorrow." Lily nodded, silently, and James headed to bed.

Lily woke up the next morning, energized and wide awake. It was about 8 a.m.

Standing p, she went into the bathroom and took a shower. Coming out, she heard a thump in the other room. Curious, Lily pulled on her clothes and peered into James's room.

James, apparently, had fallen off his bed. Lily giggled slightly, and walked over to James's spot on the floor. She leaned over, and gave him a nudge on the shoulder.

"Hey, James, get up or you're going to have one sore back." Lily said, laughing. James jerked up suddenly and said, "Is it time for breakfast?"

James looked at Lily, and jerked back. "why are you in my room?" he asked.

Lily smiled. "Because you fell off your bed, and we have to get started on the Halloween plans." James stretched and stood up.

"Would you mind leaving while I change?" James asked. Lily started walking to the door and said, "No need to ask. I'm already gone!"

Lily went to collect her different papers. When she was done finding them all, she sat on the couch, waiting for James. He stepped out of his room about a minute later, and sat down next to her.

"So, have we got most of this planned?" Lily asked. James nodded.

"Except for the judges." James said, thinking hard. Lily smiled. "How about the heads of houses and Dumbeldore?"

"But that's a lot of judges, and won't they be a little... biased?" James pointed out.

Lily sighed. "Well, true. So, how about just us two?" James nodded. He said, "I wasn't planning on entering, any way."

Lily nodded. "Same with me. So, shall we hand this out to the common rooms? All the posters, and such?"

James looked at her. "We have posters?" LIly nodded.

"I designed them last night." Lily handed him the orange poster, and he nodded.

"Looks good. So, does that mean we're good to go?" he asked.

"Well, after we hand out the posters, yes." Lily said, standing up and grabbing the posters.

James also got up, and they walked out of the room into the corridor.

"How about I take the Ravenclaw and Slytherin common rooms, and you take the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor?" Lily said. James nodded, then stopped.

"Wait, I'm not letting you go into the Slytherin Common room alone!" James said loudly.

"Why not?" Lily said, angrily. James sighed, and said, "Unless you haven't noticed, the slytherins mostly hate you."

"Hey, I have noticed." Lily said sarcastically. James sighed.

"I'll take the Slytherins, you take the Hufflepuffs. Okay?" James said, and LIly nodded reluctantly.

They set off in their seperate ways, deciding to meet back up in the Entrance Hall (though Lily didn't know why.)

Lily finshed handing out the posters faster than she had thought. After walking down to the Entrance hall, she saw that James was waiting for her.

"Want to walk down to Hogsmeade together? I'll help you find your friends, seeing as your friends are kind of dating my friends."

"What makes you say that?" Lily asked, stepping onto the grounds with James.

"Well, I saw Remus and Alanna sitting with eachother on the couch... holding hands. And Anya keeps trying to ignore Sirius, but doing a REALLY bad job of it." James pointed out. Lily nodded.

"Yes, well, that's Anya and Alanna in a nutshell. A very insane nutshell, as it is." James laughed, and Lily smiled.

"Well, Lily, I never knew you had a sense of humor." James said, laughing slightly.

"Well, James, there are a lot of things you don't know about me." Lily pointed out.

"Hey, that's my line!" James said, pretending to be offended.

"Yeah, so?" Lily said, smiling. The two 7th years entered Hogsmeade laughing, and they began the search for their friends.

Hi! Hope you guys like this chapter!

pandas rule the world: the HBP was reallly sad. Glad you like the story!

Emma Barrows: Thanks!

Killerstorm: Thanks!

the-power-of-love: Thanks!

always-blond- jesus. you are so right! Why sirius? why dumbledore? J.K. Rowling is sooo evil right now. But, like Luna said "It's not like we'll never see them again." (I hope that quote was right, hehe) thanks for the compliment, too.

Countess Jackman: Thanks!

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weirdpeopleandthepickle: Thanks! (nice name hehe)