Disclaimer: Maybe in an alternate universe. Not here and now.

Chapter 23: Planning

Previously: 'Yes, Miss Evans,' replied McGonagall to Lily's unasked question, 'the reason I want to speak to you is so that you can arrange this disco. I know it is a long way off, but it's always nice to know in advance about these things, don't you agree?'

'Uh… yes. Thank you, Professor McGonagall. It will be great fun, I imagine.'

'James! Karaoke?' asked Lily, excitedly. Although McGonagall had promised that it wouldn't, the planning for the disco was taking up quite a bit of their spare time. Lily had suddenly shown her perfectionist side.

'Karaoke?' asked James, tired of the whole thing. 'I suppose. So, we've got The Greymalkin coming for the general music, right…'

'Yep. We'll have some tables around the outsides with chairs, and…'

'The table with the food on it will be at the back of the hall…'

'But we need decorations. I'd like streamers and balloons and things.'

'Yes, you've said so. But what d'you mean by "things"?'

'A disco ball. I really want a disco ball.'

'Why?'

Lily hit him lightly on the arm. 'Because it's a disco, you idiot!'

'Oh. Right,' said James. 'Look, can we please take a break? I've got homework to do!'

'Did I just hear James Potter asking to be allowed to do homework?'

'Yes. Yes, you did. Please?'

'I'm so gobsmacked I'll just have to let you go. Do you mind if I keep planning? I've finished my homework, and I have some ideas I want to get down.'

'Well, I'm hardly going to stop you, am I?' said James. He stood up, gave her a light kiss on the lips, and went off, waving. He headed to the Gryffindor Common Room, where he found the others.

'Hey,' he said. 'Who's done that Charms essay already?'

'I have,' said Remus, holding it up. 'But if you're planning on copying it, you can't look at it.'

'Meanie,' pouted James, and he grabbed some parchment and set to work. Caroline and Sirius were making out on a sofa, their homework, or rather, blank parchment, forgotten. Suzie and Peter were helping each other with their essays, and Remus was reading over Sarah's essay and correcting it, just like Lily used to do with her. James continued working for a while, each sentence making him feel even more bored, until a welcome distraction came in the form of Lily entering the common room. Having greeted the others, she came over to him and slipped her arms around his neck from behind, looking over his shoulder.

'That's two feet already,' she said. 'You don't have that much more to do.'

'It's supposed to be four feet, and I've already said everything I can think of several times in different words,' said James despairingly.

'Ah well. I'll help you,' said Lily, and she sat down next to him, and started flipping through the textbook. 'By the way, I thought of a place to buy it.'

'Buy what?'

'You know what,' said Lily, glancing warily at the others. 'You know, for the…'

'Yes, I gathered that. But what for the…'

'OK, what is the "the…" and the "it" which you're going to buy?' asked Peter, confused.

'It doesn't matter,' said Lily hurriedly.

'No, tell us,' encouraged Sarah.

'It doesn't matter!' repeated Lily.

'Well obviously it does, or you would tell us,' pointed out Remus.

'No, really, it's between us,' insisted Lily. 'Please drop it. We'll tell you when we're ready.'

Everyone seemed to accept this answer, and most of them returned to what they were doing. Caroline, however, did not. Instead, she looked at them shrewdly,

'You're not sleeping together, are you?' she asked, bluntly.

Lily started sputtering and the others, including James, burst into laughter.

'N… n… n… NO!' she finally let out; looking dismayed that Caroline would even suggest such a thing.

'OK, fine, whatever Lily, it's your loss,' said Caroline, laughing.

'You do believe me, right?'

'Yes, I do believe you. I only said it to see your reaction.'

'Vile cow,' said Lily, hitting her lightly. Caroline grinned and then resumed kissing Sirius.

Sarah, Remus, Suzie, Peter, Caroline and Sirius watched as Lily and James' backs receded into the distance, as they made their excuses and went into Zonko's.

'Does anyone know what their secret is?' mused Suzie aloud.

Sarah, Peter and Remus shook their heads as Sirius said, 'nope'.

'You do, Caroline?' asked Remus.

'No. I just felt like thinking, instead of saying.'

'Right,' said Sarah, drawing the word out. 'I think that they're buying things.'

'No, really?' asked Sirius, sarcastically. He then said thoughtfully, 'I think they're buying fish.'

'Fish?' asked Peter in alarm, 'Why on earth d'you think they're buying fish?'

'Because Prongs won't tell me when I ask him, which is a sure sign that fish have taken over his brain.'

Caroline thumped him. 'I still think they're sleeping together.'

'Caroline, they're not. Think about it – why on earth would they be doing it in Hogsmeade?' said Suzie.

'Because they felt like it. They're not going to do it up in the dorms, are they?'

'There are beds in the dorms,' pointed out Sarah.

'Yes, but there are also other people.'

'Oh, Caroline, this is gross. I don't really want to think about Lily and James' sex lives,' said Suzie. 'I think they're buying "it" for a "thing". No innuendos, please.'

'When I'm right, I shall laugh. I shall laugh at you,' said Caroline, but she did not press the matter, and instead continued, 'Let's go to the Hog's Head.'

'The Hog's Head?' asked Peter, looking unsure.

'Fine, the Three Broomsticks. Wherever,' said Caroline, and the six of them set off to go there.

James and Lily arrived back at Gryffindor Tower, surprisingly early compared to the rest of the school, carrying several large bags, shrunken so that they could hold them. Lily restored them to normal size, and started looking through them.

'You know, I think we've got almost everything,' she commented. 'We still need that disco ball though. As I was trying to tell you yesterday, I know where to get it.'

'Where?'

'There's this shop near where my parents live,' she explained. 'It's called All Kinds of Everything, and it sells things for discos and parties and stuff.'

'Near where your parents live?' asked James. 'But that's in Muggle London!'

'I know,' sighed Lily. 'Do you think Professor Dumbledore would let us go there if we asked him?'

'Well, maybe,' said James. 'Let's go ask him once we've hidden this stuff.'

The couple moved all of the supplies, now shrunken again, into a box in Lily's trunk, and then headed off to Dumbledore's office. They arrived outside the gargoyle and stared up at it.

'How are we supposed to get in?' asked Lily.

'Just a second,' said James. He took out a random piece of parchment, muttered something, squinted at it, muttered something else, and said, 'Acid Pops!'

The gargoyle moved out of the way, letting them onto the staircase. Lily asked suspiciously. 'How did you know that? What was that parchment?'

'I'll tell you, er, later,' said James. 'But not now, we need to go up.'

'Fine. I won't forget!' replied Lily. The two soon arrived at the top of the staircase, and James knocked on the door.

'Enter,' came Dumbledore's low voice from inside the room. James entered with confidence – Lily was almost astounded, but it seemed that he had been up to the Headmaster's office several times before. Lily smiled, and followed James.

She gasped. The room was beautiful: circular, in a warm red colour, with gold edging high up on the walls, above which were the portraits of Hogwarts' previous head teachers, all of which were snoozing in their frames. There were many spindle-legged tables, with puffing, whirring silver instruments on them, a large fireplace, taking up one side of the room, wide, high windows, with a glorious view of the grounds, including the Quidditch pitch, and wooden cabinets below the edging. On one of these cabinets was a wooden perch, with a splendid red and gold bird on it – a phoenix, she suddenly realised, and the Sorting Hat was also there. Dumbledore himself was sitting behind a majestic wooden desk, covered with papers, which had one visitors' chair in front of it.

'Miss Evans, Mr Potter,' he said, 'Would you care to sit down?'

James offered the chair to Lily, who accepted, as Dumbledore drew another chair in the air, which he offered to James.

'Is there any particular reason for this unexpected pleasure?' Dumbledore asked, jovially.

'Well, yes, Professor,' said Lily, nervously, 'you know the disco?' Dumbledore inclined his head as if to say, yes, he did, 'well, we really wanted to buy a disco ball for it, but we can't find anywhere in Hogsmeade, so we were going to ask if we could go to Muggle London, just the two of us, at some point, to buy one… is that alright?'

'Miss Evans, I will gladly let you and Mr Potter go to Muggle London, but only for a short while, to lessen the likelihood of any danger. I think, therefore, that it would make the most sense to go next Hogsmeade visit – the one on the first weekend in June. Miss Evans, I hope that you will be able to make sure that Mr Potter does not break too many Wizarding Secrecy laws,' Dumbledore replied, with a twinkle in his eyes.

Satisfied with this personally reasonable answer, the two students took their leave, and returned to the common room, where they were once again bombarded with questions from their friends, which they refused to answer, as to where they had been all afternoon.

This chapter was written by both Hepsa and Larka, random bits each. Thanks to Lamia for Gammaing.

Review replies:

Pyrotechnic – then how would I get to the computer? I've updated now. Sorry for being picky, but I had a thought. How long would you wait before you started cutting off my limbs?

Review topic: Disco balls. Just… yes.

Larka :)