Hi! Here's the next chapter!

Thanks and infinite brownie loaves to: zippyfox and webling-girl05 and also to those of you who put my story on your favorites list!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter stuff, JK Rowling does!

Chapter 2: Torn

"Get up, Lily!" Abigail shook her friend awake. "Time for breakfast!"

"Go away," Lily moaned from under her comforter.

"You'll miss breakfast…"

"I'll starve," she replied grumpily. "It's all cool."

"Li-ils!"

Lily threw an extra pillow over at Karise's bed, mumbling, "Karise? Do you want to get up now?"

"No…" she replied, throwing the pillow back.

Lily peered out from under the covers at a frustrated Abigail, "We seem to have reached a consensus."

"Fine!" Abigail hurriedly walked downstairs into the common room.

-----in the common room-----

"What's going on?" Abigail asked a fourth year, gawking at the massive crowd forming at the bulletin board.

"I dunno," the fourth year replied squeakily before hurrying over to the mass.

"Gee, thanks," Abby muttered sourly and tried to peer over the shorter students.

Suddenly the students all heard ear-splitting screams coming from the girl's dormitory and turned just in time to see Lily and Karise sprinting down the stairs with two pillows flying close behind them. Lily spotted Abigail in the crowd and glared as her pillow began to catch up and thumped her on the back.

"See you at breakfast, Abby," Karise called bitterly.

"Whatever," Abby said, smirking that she had gotten them out of bed successfully.

After a slight pause, she called out to the two girls now running down the corridor, "You're still in your pajamas!" The students all listened intently.

"Oh bloody –" Lily came running back into the common room, but started at the sight of all the underclassmen staring at her. "– Heck."

-----Charms class-----

"Class!" Professor Flitwick shouted from atop his pile of books, cushions, and what seemed to be unwanted mail. "Take your seats!"

The class took its time in quieting down and eventually all of the students, even the Marauders, had made their way back to their respective tables.

"Alright," Flitwick continued unfazed. "Today we will be working with memory charms." A fluttering of "ooh"'s went through the classroom.

"Now, seeing as we can't possibly train on each other," he cleared his throat and looked pointedly at the Marauders, who gave him a jocund wave. "We will be working with these birds, who are all trained to fly to me when I snap my fingers. Now everyone take a bird and get to working."

Lily grabbed her bird and begrudgingly sat down between Karise and Abigail. She still had pieces of pillow fluff in her hair and stared sullenly down at her bird.

"How do we do this?" Abby asked, looking rather harried. Karise just prodded her bird with her wand and looked expectantly at Lily.

"Just point and say 'obliviate'," Lily glanced at their tired faces. "Come on, it's not that hard…"

"For you, maybe," Abby began to poke her bird as well.

"Watch," Lily swiftly erased the birds memory and it sat like a rock on her desk.

"Now, let me see how all of you have done!" Flitwick's voice came wafting over the classroom. He beamed at all of them and snapped his fingers. In a horrible rush of wings, nearly every bird in the classroom flew directly at Professor Flitwick, successfully knocking him off of his perch. He got up disgruntled and shooed the birds back to their owners.

"I see only three students have actually completed the task," Flitwick attempted to climb back up the stack. "Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin – well done. To the rest of you, I will be walking to each of your desks and testing your birds… individually."

"Oh no," Karise slumped in her seat and looked hopelessly at Lily. "Individual testing?"

"Good for Professor Flitwick, bad for you," Lily supplied carefully.

"Uh, yah."

"Well, let's get to work," Abby grumpily pointed her wand at her bird, who decided to make a run for it and tried to leap off the desk.

"Oh no you don't," she quickly stunned the bird and placed it firmly in front of her.

"Obliviate," she said sharply. "Obliviate… Obliviate…"

Lily cleared her throat and rested her head on her desk.

"Miss Karise Greeley and Miss Abigail Staunton," Professor Flitwick made his way jovially over to their table. "Show me your memory charms."

"Obliviate!" they both said in unison.

Flitwick, looking doubtful, snapped his fingers cautiously and held out his arm, ready to receive the birds. Lily, however, coughed gently and surprisingly, the birds merely seemed to hover on their toes before settling back down onto the desk.

Professor Flitwick looked unsure for a moment before glancing at Karise and Abby then at Lily, "Well done."

After he had walked away, Abby gushed, "Thanks Lils! You're the best!"

"Seriously," Karise added. "We would've been dead if Flitwick found out we couldn't do yet another charm."

"You guys just need… practice, that's all," Lily began to pack her things.

Across the room, the rest of the Marauders, even Peter, had somehow managed to pass the test as well.

"Sure…" Abigail trailed off.

"I need food!" Karise rushed off towards the Great Hall for lunch.

-----the Heads' Meeting that night-----

"Alright, settle down!" James stood up and glanced at his watch.

"Has anyone come up with any ideas?" Lily asked, hoping for reasonable responses.

"The Weird Sisters!" someone shouted from the back as a wave of agreement went through the group of Prefects. A few started clapping and whispering excitedly.

"Now, do we want to take a chance on a relatively new band?" Lily said, looking apprehensive to cave in.

"YES," came the reply.

"But what if they cancel on us at the last minute or – "

"Lily," James interrupted. "Give the band a chance."

"Yeah! Come on, Lily! Ple-ease?" the room erupted into pleads coming from all directions.

Lily looked at James, unhappy that he had goaded them into pressuring her. He quickly took the hint and piped up, "Well, then again, Lily has a point, you know… I mean, what happens if the entire school wants entertainment and the Weird Sisters bailed?"

"Ja-ames!" came the protests.

"Just because you have a crush on Lily and want to please her – "

Both Heads turned noticeably red and wrote "Weird Sisters" on the chalkboard in bold letters.

"I think for everything else, we should make committees and James and I will oversee the process," Lily turned to face the group.

"When I read your name and committee, stand in your respective corner of the room and wait for further instruction," James began to read the list. "Paisley Torrington – decorations, Darius Wellsboro – food, Rebecca Easton – publicity, and Kaleb Parry – music. You four are the committee heads and will make sure your group runs smoothly." The four went to the corners and created four small circles of desks.

As an afterthought, Lily snatched the paper out of James' hand and said, "You may choose the rest of your groups." A good many cheers came from the Prefects as they rushed about the room to find their friends.

James, surprised that Lily would give them free range, had only time to add, "But don't leave anyone out!"

The committees assembled, and soon there came an outburst of thoughts and ideas throughout the room.

"I think we should do an all orange and black setting!"

"Or a Bewitched theme!"

"A what?"

"Bewitched… Never mind."

"Let's put candy corn everywhere – bowls and bowls of it!"

"Gross! I hate candy corn!"

"Fine, we'll stick to plain old wizard food."

"Well, it is Halloween."

"Fliers, singing suits of armor maybe?"

"How about a Marauder prank to get everyone interested?"

"Well, word of mouth always works too."

"This is going to spread like wildfire!"

"Only if we make it good," Lily reminded and smiled at the thought.

"Make sure you've all got your ideas on paper and ready to be put into action!" James called out over the racket. "We'll be setting the Hogsmeade trip for the weekend before… as well as the weekend before that."

An explosion of cheers and whoops came from the Prefects. They had never had two Hogsmeade trips in a row. And the award for best Heads in the history of Hogwarts goes to…

"Alright, quiet down!" James called out once more.

"We're only doing this to give you some extra time to find the perfect set of dress robes and maybe grab some Butterbeer to calm your nerves," Lily said, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Goodnight!" James dismissed them and began erasing the chalkboard. Again the two Heads were alone in the classroom.

"Nice idea about choosing their own groups, Evans," James said with his back to her.

"Well, it was a spur of the moment thing," she looked distractedly out the window.

"So, are you going up to our Heads' dorm?"

"Yeah," Lily replied, stuffing the last of her books into her bag.

"Can I walk you there?"

"Umm… I guess so."

"Great."

They both stood there looking at their feet and waiting for the other to say something.

"So, are we going or not?" Lily asked, a trace of annoyance in her voice as she realized that she was going to walk with James –bloody- Potter.

"Oh, right!" he jumped up and held the door open for her.

Once they were in the corridor, James and Lily turned a left and walked straight into a group of giggling seventh year girls.

"James!" they all squealed at once and rushed forward to greet him.

Lily, looking a bit disconcerted, stepped backwards and watched as they engulfed James, sweeping him down the path to the Gryffindor common room.

"Wait! Lily!" he called, unable to sneak through the girls' barricade.

Lily, unabashed, yelled, "It's fine, Potter, I understand."

James finally managed to break free and ran over to her. "Wait, I wanted to walk with you…"

"It's okay, Potter."

"Jamie!" came the calls from the fangirls as they realized that they no long held possession over the handsome quidditch star. They all rushed to his side, begging him to come back with them to the common room.

"Jamie-poo, come on!" one said distractingly. "I'm getting cold out here."

"Sirius is there already, Jamie," another tugged at his sleeve. "Just follow us."

"Jamie, I demand that you don't go back to that dorm all by yourself!" a third stamped her foot in half-meant impatience.

"Okay, okay, girls," James said, putting on his smooth-talking side. "Just give me a moment. I promise, loves. I'll be right there… So, Lily – "

With that, Lily turned on her heel and walked off in the opposite direction going up to her private dormitory.

"Lily…" James sighed, torn. Finally he wrenched his disappointed eyes away from her direction and ran a frustrated hand through his jet-black hair.

"Ja-mi-e…"

"Fine," he said, defeated, and turned to go to the common room.

A/N: Well, there you all go! Another chapter! I hope all of you like it – even those of you who aren't reviewing:-) Well, I appreciate it all the same.

If you don't mind, though, Please Review – It Would Make My Day!