A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, guys! 200 hits! If only all the readers would review…Haha. Well, feel free to leave any advice/ideas, and a review!
I am seriously really bad at hiding my emotions. Really. When I'm happy, it shows. When I'm mad, it shows (believe me). And right now, I'm happy.
And it shows. Honestly, I'm positively prancing all over the place! Prancing! Like last night! I mean, it's okay for some things to prance. Like… bunnies. They prance. Horses prance, Bambi prances, but I do not prance. Lily Evans and prance just don't go together.
But here I am, prancing. And I can't stinking stop! I tried to early, and I ended up trampling a Hufflepuff first year. Which isn't good. And Andra and Eliza are noticing. Good for nothing observant friends. I need new friends.
"So, Lily, how'd patrols go last night?" asked Andra, smirking, as we ate our dinner in the Great Hall. I don't like the way she put emphasis on patrols. I mean, we were patrolling. Well, only for about five minutes, but still!
"Fine," I said, as indifferently as I could manage (which wasn't very good, if you didn't get the idea from my whole prancing situation).
"Just fine?" pressed Eliza. "You seem to not mind James as much this year."
You think? "Yeah, well, we'll have to get along, with all our Head duties to do together," I say. Woohoo! Ten points for Lily! I sure am good at coming up with defensive… stuff.
"You never seemed to make any effort to get along before," said Eliza, raising her eyebrow, while Andra nodded in approval.
Negative ten points for Lily. Er. "Er," I say. "Well. I suppose I could have been wrong about James."
Eliza's eyebrows were in danger of disappearing into her hair. What! What's so gosh darn surprising about me admitting I was wrong! Huh! I'm not that stubborn.
"Whatever, Lily," said Andra, rolling her eyes. Finally Eliza mercifully lowered her eyebrows back to their normal position. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear that you liked James." She paused. "You don't, do you?"
Dang, my friends know me too well. Note to self: Get new friends. Well, they'll have to know sometime, but I really don't think the Great Hall would be the place to tell them. How to work myself out of this one… I suppose I could pretend to faint. Or… something to do with that bread pudding… I'm not sure what, but when you include bread pudding into a plan, it just sounds successful.
Wait! Sirius is coming over here! Darn, I love that boy.
"Lilykins!" said Sirius. I look around confusedly, expecting to see the house elf. Oh! He's talking to me.
"Yes?" I asked Sirius.
"Jamesy just wants me to remind you about your patrols tonight. Said he had a damn good time last night, what with the---"
"Yes!" I said, interrupting Sirius. Did I say I loved that boy? Scratch that. I renew my idea about the bread pudding distraction. "Well, thanks for giving me the message, Sirius. Tell James I'll see him tonight at 9:30."
"My pleasure," said Sirius with a mock bow. "Eliza, would you like to accompany me back to the dormitories?" He asked, offering his hand. Eliza laughed and took it, and with a small wave, they were gone. I turned around to find Andra staring at me intently. Gosh. I thought we'd gotten past that barrier. Guess not.
I sighed. "I suppose you don't want to go and work in the library?"
Her face broke into a smile. "Nope. Come on, Lily, let's go."
"Where?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. There's something suspicious about that smile of hers. Her smile widened, and she motioned for me to follow her. She led me up to the common room, up to the dormitories, across the room, and…
Over to her closet. Well, this isn't what I'd expected, but maybe instead of getting interrogated, I'll get a new pair of shoes! Score! Mine are getting small anyway, and Andra's feet are one size bigger than mine, so that would work out nice---
"Lily? Are you coming inside?" Called Andra from… inside her closet? What? I don't fit in my closet.
Holy crap! This closet is huge! That's not fair! She must have put an engorgement charm on it… why didn't I think of that?
Andra was grinning. "Like it?" she asked.
"It's awesome!" I say, in awe. "How come you didn't tell us before?"
"Oh, I don't know," said Andra offhandedly. "It was just my place to be alone, you know. When I wanted to get away from everyone…" Her face turned serious. "Now, about you and James…" Dang. I'd forgotten why we were here. Maybe I can joke my way out of this… I could… bread pudding… Pubert! ... Okay I got nothing. I braced myself for the worse.
"So," started Andra, "do you like him?"
"Well," I started hesitantly, "I think so." I didn't know I could talk that quietly. Maybe she didn't hear.
Her face broke into a smile, and she laughed. (She laughed!) "HA!" ('Ha'! What! What does she mean by HA?) "I knew it. I always knew it. I always knew there was something more to what you thought of him. I knew from day one."
Did she really? That's odd. I mean, even I didn't know… not until yesterday, at least. Gosh. Way to be the last one informed, Lily.
"How'd you know?" I asked. (Maybe I'll learn tips on finding out stuff like this… so, you know, next time, I'll figure it out earlier.)
She rolled her eyes. "Don't act like it wasn't obvious!"---Didn't seem obvious to me---"I mean, the way that only he could get you so wound up. And he'd be the only one who could get you to defend Snivellus. It was obvious that there was something there, and that you were just hiding it." Chyeah. Hiding it from myself. So everyone knew! Gosh. Way to boost my self esteem, Andra. Note to self: Still get knew unobservant, self-esteem boosting friends.
"I---" I started blushing. "I didn't realize it until yesterday."
Andra raised her eyebrow. People sure seem to be doing that a lot likely. Maybe I have some "raise-your-eyebrow-at-me" sign on my back. I felt around my back. Nope, nothing there. Hm…
"It's true," I said, half defensively, half indignantly.
"I guess that's possible…" she pondered, more to herself than me, I think. "Maybe you were hiding too far under that act to realize… that must be it…"
Gosh, my friends are so deep.
Looking at my watch, I see that it's 9:35. Crap, I'm late! "Crap, I'm late!" I say. I am so good at speaking my mind. "I trust you'll pass this onto Eliza, if she ever gets back from her date with Sirius?" Andra grinned and nodded. "Though she probably already knew," I muttered in disgust as I turned to leave the closet.
I bounded down the stairs--- not like there's anything to hide anymore--- and saw James sitting on the couch. He stood up, beaming, and said. "Good evening, Miss Evans." Wow. How corny. I smiled, nonetheless. He took my hand, and we set off out the portrait hole.
…
A/N: Alright, not too much longer than the last one, but still I'm doing pretty good. (: Sorry that there wasn't any Lily/James interaction, but I had to make sure Lily's friends knew that she was on good terms with James before they bounded into a new relationship. Stay tuned guys! REVIEW!
