A/N: Chapter seven is here!

Disclaimer: I own nothing... especially not Harry Potter

Happy Reading!


Way Six: When in doubt, play hard to get

James sat in the hospital wing with Sirius, waiting to get his nose repaired. Madame Pomfrey healed James's broken nose quickly and sent them on their way. James and Sirius strolled down the corridor with no intention of going back to the common room, for they could just lounge around outside. Sirius was talking excitedly about the latest prank that he had planned.

"And then I'll take the rope and I'll use it to –" Sirius started, but James cut him off sharply.

"Oh no, my dear friend!" James exclaimed, getting rid of the blood on his face with his wand, "Not after that tutu incident. I had marks for weeks!"

Sirius paused in the corridor and James stopped as well, looking upon his friend.

"Oh yeah, I forgot all about that," Sirius mused, a small smirk on his face.

James laughed coldly.

"Well I haven't," James replied as they began walking again, rubbing his neck as if he'd been injured there before.

The two men stopped in front of the one-eyed witch statue and turned to face each other again.

"I fancy a butterbeer," Sirius said thoughtfully.

James grinned.

"Yeah. I've run out of sugar quills, actually," James said, "And Fizzing Whizbees."

"And acid pops. And cockroach clusters…" Sirius said, idly tapping the hump of the witch with his wand.

The back of the hump opened and Sirius climbed through. Just as James was preparing to hoist himself through the hole as well, he heard footsteps coming down the corridor.

"Close it, someone's coming!" James hissed down to Sirius hurriedly.

James instantly turned and blocked the passage with his body just as Remus came into view. James sighed in relief, but heard the hole close from behind him. James leaned against the statue and coolly ran a hand through his hair.

"Fancy seeing you here, Remus," James said, trying to sound conversational.

Remus rolled his eyes.

"I know what you're up to, Potter, and I don't care. I was just looking for you."

James, momentarily taken aback by the way Remus had addressed him, quickly regained his composure. He raised his eyebrows in sarcasm.

"And what do you want, exactly?" James said with a hint of cruelty mixed in with his sarcasm.

"Professor McGonagall wants to talk to you tonight," Remus said in a rehearsed way.

"What time?"

"Five."

James sighed and ran his hand through his hair again. James did this quite often, and Sirius often wondered aloud how James's hair could be so clean when James constantly had his hands in it.

"Okay." James said, and Remus turned away without another word.

Feeling slightly bemused, slightly annoyed, and slightly hurt, James opened the hatch again and lowered himself down. Sirius, who had heard the whole conversation through the statue, said nothing. The duo walked in silence down the passage, ducking slightly to avoid hitting their heads on the low ceiling.

"What do you think McGonagall wants to see you for?" Sirius asked gruffly.

James shrugged moodily.

"Dunno. Probably just extra Head duties or something."

Sirius sighed and they didn't speak again until they were out and about Hogsmeade. By that time, James was so wrapped up in the splendor of the wizarding village that he hardly remembered his less than desirable conversation with Remus.

James and Sirius, now loaded down with shopping bags, decided to take a quick stop at the Three Broomsticks before heading back to make curfew. James shouldered open the door and a chime went off. Madame Rosmerta looked up from wiping a glass and smiled. She set the glass down on the counter next to her rag and placed her hands on the table.

"Hello gentlemen," She said, "What can I get for you?"

Sirius smiled his award-winning smile as he and James took their seats on barstools.

"Ahh, just the usual today, Madame," Sirius said lightly, "We're not really supposed to be out, you see?"

Rosmerta smiled and fixed James and Sirius two butterbeers. They chatted with the bartender as they sat, and had her laughing rather hard in about five minutes. After that, however, a group of goblins came in and ordered a large order, and Rosmerta left James and Sirius alone.

"So…" Sirius said idly, his eyes wandering around, "What about that step six?"

James accidentally inhaled his butterbeer and coughed for about thirty seconds before he could reply.

"What about it?" James replied, feeling slightly alarmed.

"Are you going to take it?"

"Of course," James said with an air of dignity, "Don't be a prat. Step five worked like a charm. Well, kind of."

Sirius raised an eyebrow at his friend.

"How does it 'kind of work like a charm'?" Sirius asked, amused.

"Well, I'm not with Lily, am I?" James said, risking another sip of his beverage. "I suppose step six is the way to go. I mean, it's kind of like taking a step backwards, though, isn't it?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, I've got her interested now, for sure," James reasoned, "Does it make sense to play hard to get now? To push her away after getting her?"

Sirius laughed and took a long swig of his drink. He wiped away the foam from his upper lip and smiled.

"James, I understand women," Sirius said, causing James to chuckle darkly, "No really, I do. They always want what they can't have. Take my mother, for example." Sirius paused as if he was collecting his thoughts. "She's obnoxious, rude, prejudiced, and greedy. If she can't have it, she wants it. She almost bought a dragon just because it was illegal."

"Why didn't she?"

"Well, she nearly burned down the house with a fire crab, for Merlin's sake, so she knew not to trust herself with a dragon. Besides, where would it sleep?" Sirius said, then added, "Nevermind; I'm sure she'd love to give it my room."

James laughed out loud into the rim of his glass. Madame Rosmerta returned after dealing with the goblins and chatted with them for a while longer. James and Sirius made jokes and performed some magic that caused the goblins across the room to be rather disturbed.

They finished their drinks and left after leaving a generous tip to the curvy Rosmerta. She waved them out the door, still chuckling to herself.

o0o0o

"Someone should write a book about why women do the crazy things they do," James said as he, accompanied by Sirius, walked into the library and took seats at a table.

Madam Pince shot him a glare and pressed her forefinger to her lips in signification for James to shut his mouth. James and Sirius leaned their heads closer together and Sirius took out their Potions homework. James and Sirius had just returned from the trip to McGonagall's office. James had been merely warned that the fifth-year Gryffindors and Slytherins were getting rather violent and it was James's responsibility to try and stop it.

"Cheers," Sirius said, adding a line to his essay, "Once this whole thing is over and you're with Lily, you should write it."

James chuckled darkly.

"Maybe," James replied, "But for now, I have more important things to… ahh… focus on."

Lily had just walked into the library, obviously in search of something. She peered around the room, her green eyes narrowed slightly. Her eyes landed on James and James reddened, turning to his paper and hoping Lily hadn't caught him staring.

"Tell me when she's gone," James muttered to Sirius, and Sirius seemed slightly nervous all of a sudden.

"Erm, well, she's coming over here, I think, so I'm not going to say anything."

James froze with his quill a half-inch away from is parchment. James heard footfalls and then suddenly, Lily was standing beside him. Her voice was slightly shaky as she spoke, as if she was nervous.

"Hello James."

Sirius poked James in the ribs from his other side. James reddened and nodded once, acting as if he was more interested in the essay than the pretty redhead beside him. Lily gingerly sat down on the edge of a chair and leaned against the table, staring at him all the while. James's mouth went very dry all of a sudden, and he couldn't seem to remember how to play hard-to-get. Was he just supposed to ignore her? Or was he supposed to be kind of snappy? James wasn't sure.

"James?"

"What do you want?" James said briskly, scratching out a line on his essay as if Lily had been the reason for his mistake.

Lily blinked once but otherwise showed no other sign of offense. In fact, she didn't seem surprised at all.

"James, I was wondering if you'd like to –" Lily started, but James cut her off.

"Are you asking me out or something?" James asked sharply.

Lily placed her hands on her hips.

"You're quick to assume," Lily retorted with venom penetrating every syllable she spoke. "For your information, I was coming over here to apologize for the way I've been treating you. But now it seems that you deserve it."

James looked up at her and felt his heart screaming protests. No! No, I don't deserve it!

"I…uh…" James said, then turned and faced his paper.

Sirius poked James hard in the side again and James sighed.

"Just – just leave me alone, Lily. I don't want to talk right now."

"Fine," Lily replied in a slightly hurt, slightly angry whisper, and rose from the table.

With one last menacing, rather upset glance at Sirius, who cowered under her stare, Lily turned and flounced from the library. When Lily had disappeared, James let his head fall onto the table with a thump. He groaned softly, feeling rather upset.

"Sirius, this is the worst day of my life." James said quietly, as to not disturb the sensitive librarian.

"You're halfway there, Prongs," Sirius said in what he must have imagined was an assuring voice, "The next step is guaranteed to work."

James looked up at Sirius, who resisted the temptation to laugh out loud – James had ink smudged on his forehead.

"Remind me what step seven is, Sirius," James said dully, "I seem to have forgotten."

"Love potion!" Sirius sang.

James gave another groan and let his head fall back onto the table with an earsplitting noise.

Madam Pince gave an agitated yelp and strode over to take care of that dreadful Head Boy and his foolish companion.


A/N: Sorry if some things don't seem to make sense at the given moment. I promise things will begin coming together soon.