All right, guys, here's chapter 2. To any of you who may have read this before I deleted it, I am switching the story up a bit from last time. I hope you all liked the first chapter, and please remember to leave a review!

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Lily groaned as Madam Pomfrey began poking and prodding her again. She was so sure that last time she stopped, she would leave her alone, but the woman seemed like she wanted to find something wrong with her. First she had prodded her with her wand, then made her take a steaming ten minute shower, drink a mug of hot chocolate, and had begun questioning her again.

"Madam Pomfrey," Lily said, narrowly avoiding another hard poke in the stomach. "Can I go now? Really, I feel fine."

She gave her a hard glance. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. I'm absolutely right as rain!" To prove this, Lily gave her the biggest smile she could manage without breaking her jaw.

"Well… I suppose if you feel better-"

"Thanks, Madam Pomfrey! Bye!" Lily said, cutting the woman off and practically sprinting out of the Hospital Wing.

When she was a safe distance away from the madwoman, she slowed and took a deep breath, then glanced at her watch. Damn, she thought bitterly. I was so sure I missed History of Magic. It was only 8:30, which gave her plenty of time to eat breakfast, go tell off Phoenix, and then get to History of Magic before Professor Binns even got there.

Sighing, she set off towards the Great Hall.

She was almost there when she saw Remus walking in the opposite direction.

"Remus, where are you going?" she asked him.

He looked up and smiled when he saw her. "I was looking for you actually."

She raised an eyebrow. "Really? Were you going to ask me about this morning, or do you not know what happened?"

"I know what happened, actually. Alice told me all about it." Lily could have sworn she saw some sadness enter his eyes when he said that.

"What did she tell you?"

"She told me you were drowning in the lake and James saved you. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Potter wouldn't have had to rescue me either if Alice hadn't left me. I can't believe her! She knows I can't swim!"

"Um, Lily? Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Aren't we already talking?" Lily teased.

He grinned at her. "I meant could we take a walk around the lake?"

"Sure. Just let me grab some toast."

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After Lily got her toast (with strawberry jelly, of course), the two best friends headed down by the lake. They walked a good distance around it, then found a shady tree and sat down.

"Okay, Moony, what's up?" Lily asked, using a name she'd learned from Sirius and Alice.

"Well, I was talking to Alice, and um, she had an um interesting thought about you."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "And what would that be?"

Remus hesitated for a moment. This could go two ways: One, Lily could go completely ballistic and go hunt down Alice for spreading such a rumor, or Two, Lily could break down and admit she liked James. Or there was a Third option: Lily could break down and admit she liked James, and then go hunt down Alice for spreading such a rumor. Selfishly, Remus was hoping for Number One.

"Alice thinks that, well… that you like James."

She smiled. "Is that all? I'm warming up to James of course; he did save my life this morning."

Remus sighed. "Not like that."

Comprehension dawned in her brilliant green eyes. "She said what? Is she mad? Where would she get that idea?"

"I dunno," Remus said shrugging, relief warming him on the inside. Lily didn't like James – there was some hope left in the world.

"James? Are you serious?" Lily laughed, hoping she wouldn't give herself away. She just wasn't ready to tell Remus that yet. After all, James was one of his best mates, and that would just be kind of awkward.

"Yeah, that's what I thought when Alice told me that," Remus said, smiling widely.

Something suddenly occurred to Lily. "Wait. Phoenix didn't say that to anyone else, did she?"

Remus shrugged.

"I'll kill her!" she shouted, and immediately ran back to the castle.

Remus laughed. "Alice is a dead woman."

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"Oi! Jamesie!" Sirius called from across the Common Room, and ran over to him.

"What?" James asked. He wasn't really paying attention. He was too busy thinking, and his thoughts were pretty much this: How the hell am I going to get Lily Evans to go out with me?

"Any luck with Evans yet?" he asked grinning.

"No. Unless you think saving her life counts."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, your weirdo friend tried to drown her this morning and I saved her," James shrugged.

"Alice? As in, my childhood buddy? As in, Lily's best friend, Alice? As in-"

"YES, Sirius, that Alice!" James exclaimed. "How many other Alice's do you know exactly?"

"Well…" Sirius started.

"Oh shut up," James said irritably.

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Alice screamed as she ran out of the Great Hall.

"Alice Isabella Howard! Get back here!" shouted a voice behind her angrily.

Her response for this was to speed up. She peeked behind her and her pursuer had sped up also. Damn that girl was fast.

People stopped in surprise as they ran by, quickly jumping out of their way.

"Alice! I'm going to kill you!"

Alice shrieked again as she was finally caught. "Lily – Lily, breathe. Don't be mad."

She thought Lily's green eyes were going to pop she was so upset. Lily pointed into a deserted classroom. "You. In there. Now."

Alice obliged, mostly because she was terrified of her best friend when she got like this. And she had seen it before.

"What the hell is wrong with you? First you leave me in the lake to drown, and then you tell Remus that I like James Potter?!"

"Well, don't you?" Alice asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

"No!"

"Yes you do."

"No I don't!"

"Yes you do."

"No I don't!"

"Yes. You. Do."

"No. I. Don't!"

"Do."

"Don't!"

"Do."

"DON'T!"

Alice looked at her hard in the eye. "Yes, Lily Marie Evans, you do. I know you better than anyone else, except maybe Remus. You DO like him, and you need to admit it."

Lily however, didn't back down. "Well, even if – and this is hypothetically, mind you – I did like him, it isn't your place to go around telling people. You told Remus! Why? I would have when I was ready. And did you tell anyone else? Because I swear I will kill you right now."

" Well, on that note," Alice said sarcastically. "I had to tell Remus because of the plan. And, no, I didn't tell anyone else. Your overwhelming confidence in me is touching."

"Wait. What plan?"

"Wellll, when we were at the lake this morning, I saw James flying around, so I figured I'd leave you, he'd save you, you'd admit your undying love for each other, and everyone would go home happy."

"Wait. He likes me?"

"Um… I dunno about that one. Maybe. I was just guessing."

Lily didn't say anything.

"Well… don't you feel better now that you've admitted it?" Alice asked in her best I-Knew-I-Was-Right voice.

Lily blew up at her. "I haven't admitted anything! I bloody well told you that was hypothetical!" With that she stormed out of the classroom and gave an angry shriek in the middle of the hall.

Alice followed her out the door, smiled and shook her head at the confused students around her. "She is so in denial," she told them brightly, and continued on her way.

JAMES P.O.V.

Forty minutes later, James and Sirius were on the hunt. The Evans hunt.

"Alright James, this is it. Go for it," Sirius coaxed when they found her.

They were crouched behind the bookshelves in front of Lily's usual table in the library, where she looked extremely mad.

"Are you sure? She looks pretty mad about something," James observed doubtfully.

"Do you want to win the bet?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah."

"Then go!" Sirius said, and pushed him out.

Lily looked up in surprise from her homework as she saw him.

"Er… hey Evans – I mean, Lily."

"Hey um, James," she said, obviously catching on that they were using first names.

He motioned toward the empty chair across from her. "Can I sit here?"

"Sure," she said shrugging, and went back to her book.

James sucked in his breath. "So… feel better?"

"Yup," she replied, not looking up from her parchment.

"That's good," he said, trying to break the awkward silence. "Hey Evans? Er, sorry, I mean Lily?"

She looked up, her green eyes flashing. She was obviously still very upset about something.

"Are you okay? You seem kind of upset."

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." She sent him a rare smile. "It's just Alice. You know. The usual."

James did know. The two of them bickered constantly but they were still best friends. "That's kind of funny, isn't it?" James asked suddenly.

"What?"

"That both of our best friends are best friends."

"Yeah."

He surprised her again with his next question. "Are we friends?"

She looked up at him confused. "Um… I suppose."

"Lily?"

"Yes?"

"I have something to ask you."

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Remus walked past the library feeling better all the time. Until he looked inside. Lily was sitting with James and she looked rather flushed, Remus's heart pounded as he saw his best mate lean over the girl he'd been pining for.

In an effort to get away the werewolf knocked over a girl whose hair appeared to changing color. "I'm so sorry, I'm always bumping into things," Remus felt his throat constrict. She was a pretty fourth year who always seemed to be moving and had a lot of friends. A distant cousin of Sirius' actually.

"Tonks, Nymphadora actually, my mum had an odd sense of humor,"

"Remus Lupin, " He was blushing something awful now.

"Ohh, you're friends with Sirius then are you?"

"Yeah, he's one of my best friends actually,"

"You're Moony, the smart, calm, quiet, NICE one,"

He'd never been complimented by a girl except for Lily and at the last adjective he thought his head might spin right off of his shoulders. "Yep, that's me," Why couldn't he think of something cool to say????

"I'll see you around then Remmy, yeah?"

Remmy, she already had a name for him. Not that he liked it very much………