Sorry, frequent update people, but it looks like longer chapters won. I'm going to update every 3 days. This isn't 2000 words coz I haven't got into the swing of it yet. Now, are there any betas around? Coz when I was updating every night, I didn't want to waste time posting it off to a beta, but now it looks like I can have one after all! Anyone offering? (I think you might need to be an Imac user, documents on my comp don't convert well to PC)

Lily wasn't having a particularly good time at the ball that night. Although their presence together was required, James hadn't really shown much interest in her, shrugging if she asked a question and not initiating any conversation. She'd spent a lot of time with Joseph, but he'd started to get clingy, talking non-stop and refusing to leave her side. Alice had been ignoring all of her 'Help Me!' signals, being far too busy gazing starry eyed at her boyfriend, Frank.

"Great," she thought dully, "I'm stuck with a Ravenclaw with the personality of an ant in a coma, James Potter is ignoring me, and Alice has given up being sane. Nice to know I put so much work into this stupid ball for a good reason."

"Lily?" asked Joseph anxiously, "Are you alright?"

Lily forced a smile.

"I'm great thanks, you?"

Joseph looked slightly confused, and went back to prattling about his Muggles Studies NEWT.

"He should just bloody well go and live with Pet and dear Vernon, they're about as muggle-ish as they get."

She was thinking of her sister's baboon-like fiancé when she felt a light tap on her shoulder, and saw James Potter standing behind her. He gestured with his head vaguely at the other side of the hall.

"Potter wants to talk to us. Head business."

Lily pretended to look apologetically at Joseph, and hurried off with James.

"What did he want to see us about?"

James grinned,

"He didn't. I just thought you looked bored out of your mind over there with Hallburn, he isn't a bundle of laughs, is he?"

Lily glared at him,

"Not everyone has to be funny, Potter," but she relented after a brief pause, "But, alright, he was driving me insane. Always going on about how fascinating Muggles are. Stupid git, it didn't occur to him that I'm Muggle Born and know bloody everything there is to know about muggles,"

James laughed at the grumpy expression on her face, and she laughed too, knowing that he wasn't laughing out of malice.

"Oh, I completely sympathise. He once cornered me and Remus and spent an hour telling us about Arithmancy, even though we've been top of that class forever."

He wasn't bragging, just showing that he empathized with her.

"But seriously, d'you fancy a chat with Potter and Weasley? They're really good fun."

The two head students shoved their way through the thronging masses to the small table where the two teachers sat, Butterbeers in hand, apparently deep in conversation. As they came closer, they could hear their casual chit chat easily.

"But 'Mione's just like that, isn't she? I mean, she's in touch with her emotions and all that crap, but she's obviously in denial."

"Probably annoyed that she fell for my stupid brother instead of some Order of Merlin candidate."

"Ron has an Order of Merlin, remember?"

"Yup, and I still don't know how he managed it."

"I could say the same for you."

"Oh, my job was easy enough,"

"Yeah, right. Does 'seventy nine stunned and bound Death Eaters' ring any bells?"

"A few, but they aren't very loud, and for some odd reason they seem to be ringing in the tune of 'Night Fever'."

Lily saw James grin beside her as Harry cried in mock tenderness.

"Aw, dats pwobably the nasty old Marauders affecting your ickle baby bwain, Gin-Gin,"

"I thought I told you quite explicitly what I'd do to you if you ever called me that again."

"Good point. I'll take this opportunity to inform you that I quite like my toes where they are."

At this point James coughed loudly, and Harry looked up and smiled at them.

"Look, Gin-Gin, it's my two favourite Head Students come to rescue me from your evil clutches!"

James laughed and flopped down into a chair.

"Fraid not, it's far too interesting watching Miss Weasley whip you, Professor. We just came over to escape from a dull admirer of dear Lily's."

Harry looked outraged,

"Ginny does not have me whipped!"

"Yes I do," said Ginny casually, absentmindedly ruffling up Harry's hair,

"I feel for you Lily. Remember how Ernie Macmillan used to corner you and ask you how many hours of revision you'd done, Harry."

Harry nodded grimly, shuddering at the memory, as Ginny continued, "So you came over to have an intellectually stimulating conversation with us two old fogies, am I right?"

Lily shrugged,

"I suppose."

"Hmm, you don't sound too convinced. Well, if it's any consolation, I'm having a lousy time too. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing."

Harry snorted.

"Ginny, you aren't a day over…Oh, shit, it's your eighteenth next week, isn't it."

Ginny smiled sweetly.

"Why, yes it is, Harry. Of course, you already knew that, didn't you?"

Harry gulped, then nodded.

"Course I did, I was just, ah, testing you,"

Ginny rolled her eyes at his lousy acting.

"And I thought Ron was bad at pretending he'd remembered my birthday!"

James chose this moment to cut in,

"Who's Ron? You keep talking about him."

Ginny took a swig of her butterbeer.

"He's one of my six older brothers. I'm the family baby, hence the nickname ickle Gin-Gin,"

Both students looked interested, so she elaborated,

"There's Bill, who's thirty two and lives in Egypt, Charlie who's twenty nine, he's a dragon keeper, Percy, who was killed by Voldemort about six months before I came here…" her face clouded over slightly as she remembered Percy's horrific part in the final battle, but it quickly cleared, "Then there's the twins, Fred and George. Bloody definitions of 'Double Trouble' they are, you'd get on well with them, James, most devious pranksters that lived in my lifetime,"

James looked outraged, but Harry smiled at him sympathetically.

"Don't worry, young Jim. They aren't quite in your league,"

James brightened again, and Lily looked irritated.

"And finally there's Ron, also known as ickle Ronniekins. He's a year older than me, and he's Harry's best friend. He's also totally in love with their other best friend, Hermione, only he's too dim to see it, and anyway, they're usually too busy bickering"

Lily nodded,

"I hate it when people can't see that they're perfect for each other and they fight instead."

At this unwitting comment, Harry and Ginny both burst into explosive laughter, which they quickly turned into hacking coughs when their pupils looked at them oddly.

"Would you look at that, Ginny!" said Harry quickly, "Collingwood is draped all over Stevenson. We'd better go and separate them before the job has to be done surgically, wouldn't you agree?"

Ginny hastily nodded, her face seeming to swell slightly with suppressed

The two teachers hurried off, leaving two mystified students behind them.

§

Behind the enormous enamel punch bowl, the two teachers were bent over with laughter at the memory of Lily's comment. Ginny stopped giggling long enough to say solemnly,

"It must be love." which sent them both straight off again.

Once they were both calm enough to emerge from behind the punchbowl, Sirius had captured the dance floor and was doing some extremely wild solo dancing, often hitting nearby dancers in his abandon. He had added a pair of leather trousers to his fairy tunic and had styled his long-ish hair into a pink Mohican. He looked like a punk-rocker fairy, complete with glittering dragon hide boots. What seemed to rather upset Harry was that he was doing extremely vigorous hip thrusts.

Harry closed his eyes, muttering "I'm scarred for life," repeatedly under his breath.

"Who south of the North Pole didn't know that?" asked Ginny softly, flicking his fringe gently. She traced the outline of his scar with one long finger.

Her touch felt odd to Harry, so light he could barely feel it, but how could something so light trigger such explosive emotions? And it was Ginny, for Gods Sake!

"Ginny?" he asked, his mouth dry. Ginny leaned back against the punch bowl, surveying him teasingly with her deep brown eyes. How on earth could he think straight when they were fixed on him like that?

"Neepo," said Harry clearly.

"What?" Ginny sounded faintly amused.

What the bloody hell was that?

"Neepo the happy pixie," Harry explained.

Where in the name of all that is magical did that come from?

"Talking rubbish isn't very attractive, Mr Potter."

I agree, what the bloody hell am I talking about?

Harry didn't have much time to contemplate this, however, as Ginny leaned forward and gave him a very brief, very soft kiss.

I know what you're thinking. One, you're thinking, "Who is Neepo?"

Well, when Harry gets nervous around girls, he tends to speak rubbish, (See books 4 & 5, look for Cho Chang)

Secondly, I reckon you're thinking "Were the hell did that come from?"

Well, I want it to appear that Harry has always liked Ginny in my story, and she has shown displays of attraction to him, but at those times he was so caught up in his thoughts that it seemed natural to him, and nothing to get emotional about, but now he's actually in a position where it is ideal for him to be a tad confused.

Don't worry, the Marauders WILL achieve something! And the next chapter WILL be a meeting, I was just too tired to do it now, and it seems like a good place to end the chapter.

Cheesecake to my reviewers (blueberry or plain)