Chapter 5: The Showdown

Lily and Kerri were surprised when they found the Common Room empty except for Penny and Carine.

"Where did everyone go?" Lily asked.

"James said they had to go meet the Ravenclaw girls so I guess we're just gonna meet them there," Carine said.

"Alright, so let's get going," Penny said.

"Wait, what about Ally and Sirius?" Lily questioned.

"I wouldn't worry about them," Penny said. "I'm sure they'll find us if they want to."

Once they had arrived in Hogsmeade they headed towards Zonko's Joke Shop where James had told them to meet. They wandered through the shop looking at the various prank items but soon grew bored. Lily stayed in the front of the store keeping an eye on the door. She soon saw Janie and two of her friends enter the shop but James, Remus, and Peter were not with them. Lily quickly looked down and pretended to be fascinated by a prank Wizard's Chess board. The girls however spotted Lily and walked over to her.

"Hey, you're James's friend right?" Janie asked.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," Lily said. "I'm Lily."

"I'm Janie and these are my friends Sara and Christyn."

"It's nice to meet you," Lily said trying her best to sound friendly. "Any idea where James is? I figured he'd be coming with you"

"Nope, he just told us to meet him here. Him, Remus, and Peter came to meet us right before we left and that's when he told us we were meeting up with you guys too. Then they just kind of disappeared. We thought it was weird that we didn't just all walk over together, but I guess you never know what's really going on with those guys, right?"

"Yeah, James certainly has always been a mystery," Lily said. "Let me go get my friends and I'll introduce you." She was eager to get away from the overly friendly Janie. She was someone who Lily wanted to hate regardless of how nice or friendly she was. Lily found Penny, Carine, and Kerri in the back of the shop.

"Guess who's here," Lily said.

"Hopefully James and them, but I have a feeling that's not the case," Penny said.

"Yup, Janie and her friends are here and they are just as clueless as we are as to the whereabouts of the boys," Lily said.

"Well that's just wonderful," Penny said sarcastically.

"Come on, let's at least pretend we don't all have grudges against them and be social," Kerri said and started walking towards the front of the store.

"Who has a grudge against them?" Carine asked, confused. Lily and Penny chose not to answer and followed Kerri.

After about ten minutes of the two groups of girls awkwardly trying to make small talk the door to the shop opened and James and Peter walked in.

"Where the hell have you been?" Penny asked James.

"Yeah Prongs, we've been waiting forever," Janie said. Lily cringed when she heard Janie call James by the name that she knew only Sirius, Remus, and Peter called him.

"Geez, calm down ladies. I know how much you desire my presence, but you couldn't have been waiting that long. And just so you know we're late because it seems that Remus has fallen ill. We were on our way over and he had to turn back, he didn't look well so we decided to walk him back to Madame Pomfrey's."

"Oooh," Janie said acting as though everything made perfect sense now.

"Alright," Penny said. "Well I certainly hope he feels better. Now where should we head first?"

"Hey, we're not going anywhere. Wormtail and I have some shopping to do right in here." James and Peter began to wander away from the girls looking at the various pranks. Lily rolled her eyes as Penny took off after James. Janie gave Sara and Christyn an annoyed look and then headed towards James also.

"Hmm, does it look to anyone else like there's some competition towards James?" Christyn said.

"I was just thinking the exact same thing," Carine said. "I had no idea Janie still liked him. She was the one who ended things wasn't she?"

"Yeah, but I guess she realized how much she missed him over the summer," Christyn said.

"She would send us letters every week asking if we thought he would take her back and complaining about how she regretted ending it," Sara said.

"Wow, I had no idea," Kerri said. "This certainly makes things more interesting," she glanced towards Lily who was starring at the floor. Lily looked up and saw Kerri watching her.

"I'm gonna go and find Penny, I don't want her punching out Janie or anything," Lily said. She headed towards the other side of the store where James, Peter, Penny, and Janie were. James and Peter were browsing through trick candy while Penny and Janie looked like they were sizing each other up.

"Hey Penny can I steal you for a second?" Lily asked. She grabbed her by the arm and brought her outside the shop. "Listen, you can't keep doing this."

"Doing what?" Penny asked.

"Competing with Janie for James," Lily said.

"She is trying to get him back right? I mean she's the one that left him. She broke his heart and now she just expects him to go running back to her?"

"No one's saying he's going to get back together with her," Lily said trying to calm her friend down.

"Yeah, I know. I'm not going to give her a chance. I need to let him know that he has other options, namely me. There's no way he would pick that tiny pansy over me. She seriously looks like she's twelve."

"So what do you plan on doing?" Lily asked.

"Oh, you'll see," Penny said and marched back into the store. Lily hurried after her. Janie and James were now talking and Janie was giggling at something he had said. Lily watched as Penny walked right up to him and, to her astonishment, kissed him. James kissed back for a second, but then quickly pulled away. He turned back towards Janie who immediately ran out of the store. James started after her but Penny pulled him back.

"If you chase after that little twerp than you can say goodbye to the best opportunity that'll ever happen to you," Penny said arrogantly.

"Penny, you had no right to do that in front of her, how insensitive can you get?" James said and walked away. Peter followed him out of the store.

"Great plan," Lily said as she approached Penny.

"Shut up Lily," Penny said and walked away. Lily went to find the rest of the girls. "Well you just missed all the excitement," she said. "Penny kissed James right in front of Janie."

"What!" Carine exclaimed. "I can't believe she would do that!"

"Wow, where's Janie?" Christyn asked.

"She just ran out of the store," Lily said. "I'd say you two should probably go look for her. She looked pretty upset."

"Yeah, thanks for letting us know," Sara said, as the two of them walked away.

"Wow, that was really low of her," Carine said. The girls decided to head back to the castle hoping that they would find Penny in their room, but both Penny and James were nowhere to be seen. When they entered the Common Room they did however find Sirius and Allyson cuddling together on a couch.

"Well, what is this?" Carine asked.

"Oh, hey guys," Allyson said. "Sirius was just helping me with my Astonomy homework. Why are you back so soon?"

"Well, you sure did miss some excitement," Lily said.

"Let's just say there was a bit of a clash between Janie and Penny," Carine said. "They both had their eyes on the same guy and Penny decided it would be a good idea to kiss James right in front of Janie."

"Oh my God," Allyson said. "What did James do?"

"Well Janie ran away, and when he started going after her Penny told him not to, then he told her she was stupid for kissing him and left after Janie," Lily said. "Then I talked to Penny for a second and she snapped at me and left too."

"Wow, so basically you have no idea where anyone is?" Sirius said.

"Right," Carine responded.

"Alright, I'm gonna go try and find Prongs," Sirius said. "We all have plans for later so I should be able to find him. I'll catch up with you tomorrow, ok Ally?"

"Yeah, sure" Allyson said. Sirius gave her a quick kiss and then ran out of the Common Room.

"Okay, what happened with you two?" Carine asked.

"I think we're officially together!" Allyson said smiling. "You don't think Penny will mind will she?"

"Are you kidding, James is definitely the only guy she's focused on at the moment," Kerri said.

"Okay, good," Allyson said. "So what should we do about her? Should we try and find her?"

"I don't think we have any ideas as to where she would've gone do we?" Carine asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she just wants to be alone right now," Lily said. "When she wants to talk to us she'll come to us."