"Ok, where to go first?" Aiden asked, grinning at Lily and taking her hand.
"Well I was thinking the thre…" Lily started to say.
"Oh wait! What a coincidence, I have a table booked at Madam Pudifoot's" Lily couldn't hide her total disgust at that place "What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, nothing" She smiled falsely, immensely disappointed inside.
As they entered the bright pink restaurant Lily glanced around at the mass of frills and the golden cherubs above the table.
"You love this stuff right?" Aiden asked, clearly clueless.
"Umm, yeah! Totally" Lily out on a false sweet voice "Always wanted to come here, truly"
"Well you're in for a treat" He pulled Lily over to a reserved table right by the window and called over Madam Pudifoot.
"Aiden!" She beamed, sweeping over. Lily couldn't help but cough because of her sickly sweet rose perfume. She was slightly suspicious as to why she knew him so well "Another beautiful lady friend I see" She winked at him, placing menus down in front of them and flouncing off.
"What did she mean by that?" Lily raised her eyebrows at him.
"Haha, just kidding clearly" He laughed awkwardly "Been here once as a dare"
Lily didn't believe him but carried on anyway "Did you ever sort out your Quidditch team trial?"
"Nah, Potter's got the captain under his little finger, no-one's budging him out of the seeker spot"
"Shame, that the whole Quidditch team's run by a dictatorship of popularity" Lily sighed, about to ask something else before Aiden pulled her hands onto the table.
"I can't stop thinking about you Lily" Not comfortable with how quickly this was moving Lily shuffled backwards slightly "Seriously, I don't want to make you uncomfortable, I know what Potter did to you, but I need you to know. I think I'm falling for you"
Awkwardly looking up at him, Aiden looked dead serious "Really?"
"I've never been more certain" He started leaning forwards but was cut off my Madam Pudifoot turning up again.
"Have you chosen?" She asked, smiling knowingly at the both of them.
"Yes, I'll have the In Love Chocolate Dove pudding, with the I'll be yours yellow plum smoothie, and Lily will have My heart's bouncing banana split and Instant love lemon and lime juice" He winked at Lily as he ordered hers.
"Actually I hate bananas and lemons" Lily piped up, watching as Pudifoot angrily crossed out the entire order.
"You told me you loved them!" Aiden pointed out
"I never mentioned anything?" Lily looked confused, and changed her order to a 'Butterflies in my stomach blueberry muffin' and 'Slowly falling for you Strawberry smoothie'.
"Crap wrong one" Aiden thought to himself, smiling nonchalantly over the mistake.
At the end of what may have been the most awkward date Lily had ever been on, Aiden led her back onto the street and to the gate.
"I've got to go meet up with some friends now" Aiden made a poor excuse "But I've really enjoyed today"
"Yeah, um, me too" Lily smiled back. Looking down at her Aiden took her hands again and pulled her into him, pulling her face towards him and planting his lips onto hers. Speechless Lily grinned up at him and watched as he wandered off towards the Three Broomsticks
Lily spent most of the rest of her Saturday sat in the kitchens talking to Winky the house elf and doing her homework, she liked it down there because no-one went near it and she could have some peace and quiet.
After packing up her stuff and shoving the rest of some pizza into her mouth, Lily exited the kitchen to the dark, empty corridors that surrounding it. That part of the school was like a ghost town because most of the lower years didn't like being around house elves. This was why Lily was confused to hear people talking around the corner.
Sneaking round, ready to bust some first years doing graffiti on the paintings, Lily jumped out at them, reeling back when she found Aiden making out with some Ravenclaw girl from the year above.
"Aiden?" Lily looked completely betrayed and furious at the same time.
"Lils, I didn't mean to hurt you…" He tried to argue but Lily stopped him going further.
"Get over yourself, I'm not hurt, just pissed off. Kindly never look at me again you pathetic cheater" She was almost shouting.
"Em means nothing really" The girl he was with also stood back, slapping him in the face "This isn't going well" he moaned.
"No it's not" Lily and Em shouted simultaneously.
"I'm assuming you love banana split?" Lily asked Em.
"And you love Little Woman?" Nodding at each other they both turned, slapped Aiden again, just as the Marauders came laughing down the corridor on the way to grab food for an all-night feast they were planning.
"What's going on here?" James immediately jumped forwards, waggling his finger between the three of them"
"This little shit's playing both of us" Em explained before storming off.
Lily watched the rage build in James eyes before it boiled over and he leapt on Aiden, punching him repetitively in the face until Remus dragged him off him, without the help of Sirius who was cheering him on.
Once James had got up and brushed himself off he turned to Lily who burst into tears and ran away before he could say anything.
"Ok, what's going on, James just pulled Sirius away mentioning something about flying?" Peter asked suspiciously, walking up to Remus, Kara, and Sasha as they sat doing Potions homework in the common room.
"How are we supposed to know? It's probably boring Quidditch practise anyway. What we're doing is trying to get James and Lily together" Remus explained, putting down his quill as he was tired of pretending to do homework.
"And we're telling him that it's not going to work because James has been doing it completely wrong!" Sasha argued.
"Well Lily didn't exactly make it easy! You know, if she wasn't so high maintenance he probably would have got somewhere!" Remus argued back.
"Well, we'll see whose right then, because I have an idea. Whoever can get James and Lily together first is right, and the loosing team will have to do a forfeit, which will obviously be you and Remus" Kara taunted.
"Sure, so the looser has to run down from the common room to the grounds, and jump into the lake"
"Oh no, I'm trembling in my boots!" Kara remarked sarcastically.
"Naked"
"Now it's getting better. But we get to gather a crowd beforehand, you know, to make it more fun to watch."
"What makes you think you're going to win Remus?" Kara raised her eyebrows
"I don't think, I know, plus we will shortly have Sirius Black on our side and, as much as I hate to admit it, he's somewhat of a woman expert"
"More of a woman expert than woman?"
"We'll see"
"So it's a bet?"
"It's a bet!"
Lily was lying on her bed with her face buried in her pillow when she heard muffled shouting from below, so being the nosy person she was she stuck her head out the window to see James and Sirius fighting with a broomstick below her, so she pulled her head back in quickly and listened to their argument.
"No Prongs, that's never going to work!"
"It will, I promise, now get ... broomstick or ... but worse this time"
"Fine, but I bet the magic Dumbledore's got on this place … and we'll end up dead or in detention"
"I don't care ... so upset … now come on!"
And that's where it ended so Lily leapt back on her bed, grabbed Sasha's magazine, accidentally holding it upside down, and pretended to read.
Just as she realised it was upside down a dark silhouette of James Potter came crashing through the window and ended up in a heap on the floor and got up just quick enough to muffle Lily's screams.
"Shhhh! It's just me, James!" he whispered as Lily looked around frantically.
"God Potter, you'll be the death of me!" She hissed as James climbed up onto Lily's bed, forcing her to shuffle up. "Don't make yourself comfortable I want you out of here as soon as possible"
"Just let me help" James insisted, sitting down on Kara's bed.
"I don't need help from someone who's just going to brag about how they told me so" Lily muttered
"I'll never do that Lily, it's Aiden I want to attack, not you" James tried to catch her eye but she looked away every time.
"I don't need you to look after me" she mumbled, turning away, I think its best you leave"
Looking heartbroken James got up and jumped back onto his broomstick, flying back to Sirius.
Deciding not to let James Potter get to her again Lily threw on her flannel Pyjamas, pulled on her bunny slippers, and settled down in bed with little woman.
Just as she got comfortable Kara and Sasha came crashing through the doorway with strangely determined looks on their faces.
"Uhh, Lils, hey! How are you? Spoken to James lately?" Sasha babbled plonking herself down next Lily.
"No? Is everything all right Sash?" Lily slowly edged away from her deranged friend and giving her a concerned look.
"No, no everything's fine, just thinking we should go and meet up with James now, he's such a great person isn't he" Kara smiled oddly, throwing open Lily's wardrobe and routing through it for an outfit before trying to force Lily into jeans and a jumper
"Get off you nutter!" Lily cried as she shoved Kara into Sasha and sat in protest on her bed refusing to budge. "What's with the sudden interest anyway?"
Kara and Sasha glanced at each other, pushing the other one to come up with a good excuse.
"What on earth would make you think we didn't in the first place?"
"Uh, maybe the fake yawning, or tutting every time I even try to start ranting about what an idiot James Potter is? Or maybe the annoyed looks every time I try telling you how cocky he is when ruffles his hair, or does that stupid marauder grin?" but she just got fake offended looks from her friend, so seeing she was clearly getting nowhere Lily just rolled over, switched off the light, and pretended to be asleep until Kara and Sasha had given up and moped off to their own beds.
"Oh God have you read the daily profit?" James exclaimed slamming down the newspaper he was reading on the table.
"No, what's happened now?" Remus leaned over cautiously scanning the front page which showed a burnt down house with smoke pouring out of the roof, flowers lining the pavement.
"Not again!" He gasped, reading the rest of the article which read 'VOLDEMORT STRIKES AGAIN'.
"How could they do that? It's sick. We really need to do something about this" James burst out.
"Yeah and what are we going to do to the greatest dark wizard of all time?" Remus retorted "Transfigure him into a mug?"
"Hilarious Moony. No, what I was thinking was we should become Aurors, you know? Really make a difference, we can't just let them murder innocent muggles!" James declared passionately, thinking of how Lily's father was murdered by them.
"I'm in Prongs, fighting till the end" Sirius added, determined to prove to his family they're values were disgusting and wrong.
"Where's he struck now?" Remus tried to peer at the article.
"Central London, right next to the entrance to Diagon Alley" James read "We'll be lucky if we make it to seventh year" He bit his lip as he read over fifty people were killed by the mob of Death Eaters that had charged through.
"I don't know if I'd want to fight, I'd rather be a doctor" Sasha said thoughtfully
"What, with your caring personality and amazing wand skills" Sirius referenced their last potions lessons where Sasha had almost blown up the classroom, but shut up pretty quickly after Sasha hit him in the head his her charms book. "Oww! Why hit me with that deadly weapon!"
"You've got to stop being an idiot when I'm in possession of heavy objects!" Sasha snickered, dumping her book back in her bag "Anyway, I've got to find some use for it!"
"Yeah, and what better use can you find for a heavy object then hitting you with it?" Peter laughed.
"Great, so I'm just going to sit here and be offended by my mates?" Sirius moaned looking helpless.
"What else are you good for?" Kara joked at her old friend.
"Well, let's not forget my dashing good looks, hilarious sense of humor, never ending knowledge, or my amazing skills on the quidditch pitch!" Sirius claimed, with a comical flick of his hair sending everyone into hysterical laughter.
For the whole time Lily was just perched on the edge of the bench looking anxious in deep thought about James. She'd been shocked to find out how matey they and Kara and Sasha had got when she went down to breakfast that morning and was forced to sit next to them.
"Shouldn't we be getting to care of magical creatures?" She asked quietly.
"Yeah, suppose so. Just a shame we have to have it with the Slytherins!" Kara groaned as they prised themselves from the bench and shuffled down to the outskirts of the forbidden forest. On the way down to the forest Remus yanked Sirius to the side and explained the bet with Kara and Sasha to him.
"That makes absolutely no sense, however it involves the possible nudity of girls, so I'm in!" he grinned before they finally reached the class with Hagrid stood in front of them.
"Hagrid? Why are you teaching us today?" Remus questioned, looking around in case they'd gone to the wrong place.
"Mr Dumbledore knows that I have something that would be useful to you to learn about" Hagrid explained as he tried to lure something towards him with a dead rabbit. "You're teacher was totally against it, but they're a very important species so I'm teaching you today"
"Umm, Hagrid, I'm not sure" Kara said anxiously, they were all used to just studying finger eating shrews, not things that are big enough to eat rabbits.
The rest of the class had now showed up and where looking worried about what Hagrid was going to do as well.
"This, Kara, is a very rare Acromantula, a gigantic spider breed from Norway," Hagrid explained, and as soon as he did the whole class took a step back.
"Yeah right, Hagrid, you're not even a real teacher, like you would be trusted by Dumbledore to get an Acromantula" Regulus remarked, but still looked pretty worried.
"Shut it Regulus" Sirius warned. He and the Marauders were good friends with Hagrid, and didn't let anyone mock him.
"Ohh, I'm so scared, what are you going to do? Get one of your boyfriends on me?" Gaining a laugh from all of the Slytherins.
"If you mean us then yes" James stepped in front of Sirius and got out his wand.
"Now, now you three, calm it down and come and see Aragog" Hagrid cut off James as he was about to hex Regulus.
"You named it?" Remus asked confused.
"He's a friendly spider, ah here he is!" From the depths of the forest a huge hairy figure emerged and snapped the dead rabbit from Hagrid's hand. "Come and show yourself Aragog!"
At the sight of the huge spider a lot of the class backed off quickly leaving the marauders and Lily stood there confused.
"Ah, you five! Come and say hello to Aragog!" Hagrid was trying so hard they forced themselves towards the looming figure.
"Oh God we're gonna be killed!" Lily murmured to herself. As they got closer to Aragog he raised his head and spoke. Luckily everyone noticed that he was tied to a chain for safety so they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Ah, Hagrid, you've brought me some fresh meat!"
"No Aragog, these are students, we're teaching them about Acromantulas" Hagrid was starting to look worried by his comment.
"Of course, of course, they need to study magical creatures, and there's none more mighty then the Acromantulas, my family have lived in these woods hunting woodland creatures for fifty years"
Hagrid began to relax and pointed out Aragog's large fangs.
"How quickly do you think Aragog could kill a rabbit with the poison from his fangs?"
"Five seconds" Lily piped up, not even her growing fear could stop her proving she knew the answer.
"Exactly, well done Miss Evans" Hagrid beamed at how well it was going "Now who else wants to come up and take a look at Aragog?" Slowly everyone in the class stepped up and circled Aragog, making notes of his size and features.
"Aragog is the largest an adult Acromantula can get, so this is a very rare opportunity for you"
"This is stupid" Regulus muttered, but Aragog heard and started to stir.
"Now, now Regulus, you need to appreciate what you're doing at the moment"
"What I'm doing at the moment is looking at a stupid overgrown pest" Regulus kicked a stone at Aragog and he snapped.
"NO ARAGOG!" Hagrid yelled as aragog bit the chain straight in half and lunged at Regulus. He quickly dived out of the way leaving Lily directly in his path. She didn't have enough time to move and suddenly Aragog was on her.
"Lily!" James yelled, running to her.
"James Potter, don't go near him!" Hagrid ordered, but James just brushed his orders away, desperate not to lose Lily, no matter whether she hated him or not.
James ripped his wand from his pocket and shouted a hex at the spider throwing it away from Lily who was out cold on the floor with blood pouring from her head, but James threw himself next to her and tried to wake her up.
"Lily, come on! Please!" He cried, picking her up in his arms and running out of the forest and to Hagrid's hut closely followed by the marauders who had finished scaring Aragog back into the forest, and James carefully put Lily onto a tattered couch whilst Sirius and Remus searched the cupboards for bandages and water, and Peter ran to the infirmary to get Madam Pomfrey, during this Hagrid just stood frozen to the spot in horror.
"He's a good spider, Aragog would never do that" He spoke to himself in shock "Regulus Black" He finally bellowed "Make your way to Professor Dumbledore's office now" before making sure the other students were safely in the castle and going to Lily.
James spoke a healing spell and the wound on Lily's head sealed itself leaving a bright red scar on her pure, flawless skin, her bright red hair was sticky with blood, then Remus moved in to wrap it in a bandage. They were used to dealing with serious wounds because of all the times when Remus would lash out at them as a werewolf.
While they left Lily to recover, and waited for Madam Pomfrey to come and look her over James knelt next to Lily's still body and traced his fingers over the bruises covering her arms and neck, wishing it was him lying there not her.