D/C: I don't own Harry Potter…does owning the books count, though? Nah; guess not.

I'm back!! Thank you all for the nice reviews! I really didn't expect to get that many! Oh, and about Valentine's Day being in November…sorry, that was my mistake…call it weird, but I always mix up between November and February, and I really dunno why! I fixed the error, anyway. And I did intend to make this a one-shot, but changed my mind…

Anyway, happy reading!

WILL YOU BE MY VALENTINE?

Chapter 2:

'Potter, James…and Evans, Lily…is that right?' Filch said gruffly, looking at them over the top of his clipboard. The pair nodded quickly, and he stepped aside to let them pass. 'Don't come back covered in filth and mud…I have enough cleaning to do without you messing the castle up for me!'

James and Lily hurried away from him. James could hear Sirius struggling to keep up with them in the Invisibility Cloak. 'You ought to be really grateful for this, James!' he fumed. 'It's not everyday that I do such favors for people!'

'Yeah, yeah,' James muttered, rolling his eyes.

Lily frowned at him. 'What?' Lily said, and he quickly shook his head. Still frowning, she looked back at Filch, who was now telling off a small first-year. 'Oh, he's horrible,' she said viciously. 'I wonder why Professor Dumbledore keeps him.'

'Well, some one has to clean the castle,' James remarked. 'Did you know he's a Squib?'

Lily gawked at him. 'Really?' she said, looking surprised. 'Well, that explains why he hates the students…they can do magic and he can't.'

'Yeah,' James agreed.

'Ask her where she wants to go,' Sirius instructed him.

'Er…where do you want to go?' James asked, looking sideways at Lily.

'Wherever, I really don't mind,' Lily said, smiling at him. When she saw that he was looking a bit at loss, she laughed. 'Well, why don't we have a look around or something? And then go into the Three Broomsticks for a drink?'

James grinned. 'Good idea,' he said, sounding relieved.

'Thank your luck she didn't tell you to take her to Madam Puddifoot's,' Sirius muttered from behind him. 'A girl I once dated took me in there, and the place was full of kissing couples…it was horrible!'

James tried his best to stifle his laughter at this. He and Lily wandered off into Hogsmeade, talking as they walked. They first stopped at Deverish and Banges; there they came across Remus and Peter. Remus was helping the later pick out instruments which would help him in Astronomy.

'Have you seen Sirius, James?' Remus asked.

'Er…no,' James said, and there was some kind of truth in that; since Sirius was invisible and James really couldn't see him. 'He...erm...said something about wanting to finish off an essay...or something like that.'

Sirius snorted with laughter. Remus and Peter, on the other hand, looked highly surprised.

'Sirius wants to finish an essay rather than visit Hogsmeade?' Peter said incredulously. 'Is he okay?'

'Yeah, he's fine,' James assured him, and glanced at Lily, who was standing next to him. 'Well, I'll see you later, guys.'

Once they were out, Lily turned to look at him. 'Did Sirius really skip Hogsmeade to do homework?' she said, surprised. 'I thought he didn't really care about doing homework, and that all what he felt like doing was bullying people around.'

'Hey!' Sirius protested.

'C'mon…Sirius isn't like that,' James said hastily. 'You'll find out he's really good once you get to know him.'

'Yeah, you tell her, James!' Sirius said angrily. 'Honestly! What does she know about me to start judging me like that?'

'Really?' Lily said, sounding doubtful. 'Well, you always seemed like an arrogant bunch to me…I mean, Remus is okay, but…'

James flushed. 'Don't you think you're being a bit harsh here?' he said angrily. 'And if you think I'm so arrogant, why'd you agree to go out with me, anyway?'

Lily didn't flinch. 'I agreed to go out with you so you'd get off my back later on,' she replied, coolly.

'Ouch!' Sirius said, worriedly. 'No, no, no…this is going horribly wrong…drop the subject, James! Drop it!'

James tried to control his anger. 'Let's skip the sight-seeing and hit the Three Broomsticks,' he muttered.

'Okay,' she agreed, a triumphant smile hovering on her lips.

Sirius sighed. 'That's not exactly what I had in mind, but at least it worked and prevented a catastrophe,' he said wearily, and went after them into the Three Broomsticks. They found a table in a corner. James pulled out a chair for Lily, and sat down on the other. He let out an impatient sigh. 'Draw me a chair, will you? You don't expect me to remain standing the whole time, do you?'

James sighed in exasperation, pointed at a nearby chair and muttered, 'Mobiliarbus!'. The chair hovered a few inches above the ground, flew over to their table and landed on the ground with a soft thud.

'Thanks!' Sirius said, plopping down on the chair.

Lily was now frowning at the chair, and for a moment, James thought she was actually able to see Sirius. 'You just can't resist, can you?' she said.

'Huh? Resist what?' he asked, confused.

Lily waved an impatient hand at the chair. 'You can't resist showing off! You have to keep showing people that you can do this spell and that spell!' she snapped.

'What?' James cried, baffled. 'But I wasn't…I didn't mean…I just drew it incase some one came and wanted to join us!'

'Where you waiting for a handicapped person?' she asked, her eyes narrowed.

'Handicapped…? What?' he said.

'I meant…' Lily said, speaking slowly. '…that unless the person was handicapped, they'd be able to draw a chair for themselves, don't you think?'

'But that wasn't what I had in mind!' he protested.

'Exactly, so you were just showing off,' Lily said.

'I wasn't…' James said, and glared daggers at Sirius, who was just humming softly to himself now. 'Forget it! Listen, what do you want me to get you?'

'A Butterbeer would be nice,' Lily said, smiling sweetly.

'Alright, two Butterbeers, then,' James said, getting up from the table.

'Three,' Sirius corrected him.

'If you want one, come along,' James muttered.

'Huh? Did you say something?' Lily said.

'Er…I was just saying I'll be back quickly,' James lied.

'Oh, okay…take your time,' Lily told him.

James walked away from the table, and he could hear Sirius trudging behind him. 'Listen, James, cool down, it could've been worse,' he said, soothingly.

'It can't be worse!' James hissed. 'Lily already thinks I'm a down-right freak! And we've only been together for fifteen minutes! And in case you haven't noticed, you aren't helping me in the least! She thought I was showing off just because I drew you a chair!'

'Ah…well, sorry about that, I didn't think of the consequences,' Sirius muttered apologetically.

'Forget it,' James said dismissively. 'Just make sure you do better during the rest of the date.'

'Relax, I promise everything'll go smoothly from now on,' Sirius told him.

'I hope so,' James muttered. He got to the bar, and Madam Rosmerta came up before him. 'Hello.'

'Well, hello, James,' the woman said cheerfully. She looked around him. 'And where might Sirius be? You never came in here without him!'

'Oh…Sirius is around here…somewhere,' James said quickly. 'Er…three Butterbeers, if you may please.'

'Oh, yes, of course,' she said. 'Three Butterbeers coming right up!' Madam Rosmerta poured out three foaming tankards of hot Butterbeers, and slid them across the shiny surface of the bar towards him. 'Six Sickles, please.'

James rummaged around his money bag for the Sickles. He extracted the money, and handed them to her. Then he carried the tankards and headed back to the table. He slid the third tankard

under the Cloak to Sirius before he got there. 'Here you go,' he said, handing the tankard to Lily, and sitting down on his chair.

'Thanks,' Lily said gratefully. She took a sip from her tankard and sighed. 'I've always loved this stuff.'

'Yeah, me too, it's really good, isn't it?' James said, after taking a swig from his own tankard.

'You know, Prongs…that's what your friends call you, isn't that right?' she said, and he nodded. 'Why do they call you Prongs, anyway?'

'Uh…just a random nickname,' James said hastily.

Lily nodded, although she didn't seem entirely convinced. She took another sip from her tankard. 'Well, anyway, I wanted to tell you that I really admire your Quidditch skills,' she told him, not quite meeting his eyes.

'Really? You do?' he said, surprised. 'But I thought you considered my skills in Quidditch as a way of showing-off too.'

'No, I don't, actually,' she replied, shaking her head. 'I considered the way you keep ruffling you hair to make it seem like you had just got off your broomstick as showing-off…but I don't deny that you're good on the pitch.'

'Thanks, that means a lot coming from you,' James said, grinning.

'Your welcome…oh, and good luck on your next match with Slytherin,' she told him. 'I really hope you win.'

'Thanks,' James said, yet again.

'This is going great,' Sirius congratulated him, and James jumped; for a moment, he had forgotten that Sirius was there. James slopped some Butterbeer on his robes and Sirius winced. 'Damn! I spoke too soon!'

Lily frowned as James furiously started wiping the Butterbeer of his robes. She pointed her wand at the stain. 'Scourgify!' she muttered, and the stain vanished instantly. 'Is there something wrong?'

'N-no,' he stuttered. 'Just got a bit of a cramp, sorry.'

'And you would, it's really cold in here, even with the fire blazing,' Lily said, nodding at the fireplace.

'Uh-huh,' James said, not sure of what he should be saying.

'Excellent!' Sirius suddenly exclaimed. 'Look, James, there's Snivellus!'

James would never miss a chance to get at Severus Snape, but seeing as Lily hated it when he picked on people, he preferred to remain silent. Lily had seen Snape coming into the bar too, and her eyes were flicking between him and James; she obviously wanted to see whether James was going to pull another of his arrogant stunts in front of her. James wasn't about to do anything stupid; he was determindedly avoiding looking at Severus.

'C'mon, James! You can't let Snivelly walk away like that!' Sirius urged him.

'What are your preparations for your NEWTs?' Lily asked him.

'I haven't started studying yet…Remus has already drawn us some schedules and time-tables, and Peter has already starting memorizing his books…' James said, resolutely ignoring Sirius's nagging. 'Er…what about you?'

'I haven't started studying either, I've got too much homework,' she said. 'I could use some of these time-tables.'

'Sure, I'll tell Remus to make one for you, or I'll give you mine, or…' he said.

'Impedimenta!'

They heard a loud thud as someone fell onto the ground, and then several bursts of laughter. James and Lily looked around and saw that it was Snape who was on the ground, and he was struggling to get up against the spell which bound him.

Snape's eyes fell on James, and his face turned into a crimson mask of anger. 'You!! I had to know!! You're the one who did this!!' he bellowed, and followed this with a jumble of curses and swearing.

'James!' This time it was Lily. He looked around to see her glaring angrily at him. 'Leave him alone!'

'What? But I didn't do anything! That wasn't me! It was…' James yelped, and broke off as he heard Sirius laughing.

Lily got up to her feet and slammed her hands against the surface of the table. 'What do you mean it wasn't you? You're the only one around here with enough arrogance to curse some one even when they didn't do anything to you!!' she said angrily.

'But it wasn't me! I…' he protested, but he wasn't allowed to complete his sentence.

Snape had gotten up to his feet, pointed his wand at James, shouted, 'Expelliarmus!', and James was pushed off his chair and to the ground. Fuming, James scrambled up to his feet, thrust his wand in Snape's direction and bellowed, 'Petrificus Totalus!', and Snape capsized, looking incredibly stiff.

James looked around at Lily, but saw that she was already heading towards the door. 'No, Lily! Wait!' he shouted after her. He looked around at Sirius before running after her. Sirius had pulled off the Cloak, and was sitting there, holding his tankard and looking sheepish. 'Look what you've done!'

'I'm sorry, mate!' Sirius said. 'I just couldn't resist!'

'You were supposed to help me with Lily! Instead, you screwed up everything!' James said furiously.

'Well, I tried…' Sirius started.

'I'm going after her and see if I could fix the damage, and you just stay away, okay?' James said.

'James…' Sirius started.

James was already walking away. 'You're not coming!' he said firmly. He got to the pub's door and walked out.

'At least tell me what the counter spell is so I can talk to other people here!!' Sirius called after him, but James had already left. '…or don't.'

-

'Lily! Lily! Wait up!'

James caught up with her and he doubled over, panting. She rounded on him, and glared down at him, with her arms folded against her chest. 'What you did back there was foul, James!' she snapped.

'I swear it wasn't me!' James said. 'I didn't curse Snape…I didn't do it!'

'Who was it, then? The curse came from our table…or somewhere near it, and you were the only…' Lily said.

'I don't know, okay?' he interrupted her. He sighed. 'Listen; could you give me one more chance? And if anything happens, you can walk off and I won't follow you, alright?'

Lily hesitated for a moment. 'Okay, but just one chance,' she agreed.

James nodded, relief flooding his chest. 'Thanks,' he said, smiling.

-

A/N: So, how did you like my second chapter? Was it good? If it was good, would you please send a review? I want to know what you think! And wait for my next chappie!!

- S. N. B.