Chapter Two:

First Date Back

Lily smiled as she woke up. The sun was streaming through the curtains of her four-poster bed and a friendly group of faces were crowded around her. Along with Roxy, three others were waiting for redheaded, sleeping-princess to awaken.

Vicky Lewis was the first to wish Lily good morning. She had long, wavy-brown hair, pale blue eyes and a welcoming smile. The last two were twins, named Andrea and Ren Paine. They were identical; each had shoulder-length black hair, brown eyes and the same cheeky grin.

"Morning," Roxy said to her friend. It had been her who had drawn the curtains from her bed.

"Sorry we didn't wake you sooner, Lily," Vicky began. "You just looked so tired," the four girls backed away from their friends' bed and allowed Lily to swing her legs over.

Lily yawned. "That's okay—I needed a lie-in," she giggled and looked around.

"We'll see you, Lily—at breakfast," Ren told her.

"Yeah. I'm starving. Just can't wait," Andrea informed Lily and with a friendly smile the two twins left the three girls to finish their wake-up call.

"Unlike that pair," Vicky began with a giggle, "I can think of things other than my stomach. I'll wait for you," she said kindly.

Lily got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. Usually, she would get dressed in the room but she felt that her privacy had been invaded enough. She smiled as she thought about what Vicky had said.

Lily had always been confused by Vicky and although she was not as good of friends with Lily and Roxy as they were with each other, she often tagged along with them.

As Lily got dressed, she hummed to herself. It wasn't a distinctive or known tune. It was just a couple of notes she had strung together. She made her way back into the dormitory—a smile on her doll-like face.

"Ready?" she asked Roxy and Vicky—who had been amusing themselves with a friendly game of rock-scissors-paper.

Roxy nodded and they both stood up, following Lily to the door. "Yep."

"I forgot to tell you. James is waiting at the bottom of the stairs-- I don't know why," Vicky began to inform Lily with a distressed smile. "He was adamant that he waited for you."

"I can only guess," Lily complained. Roxy began to open her mouth to give some kind of explanation but Lily raised her hand. "I don't want to know."

The three girls began to walk down the twisted steps that led from their dormitory. One behind the other—Lily in front and Vicky at the back—they made their way to the bottom and just as Vicky had said, there was James, leaning against the door with a superior grin on his face.

"Hiya's, Lil," he made no effort to move and his back hunched down lower as he stepped back, as Lily made an attempt to pass him.

Sirius was standing close by, half sheltered by one of the Common Rooms towering bookcases and half watching with interest. Sirius never had problems with the ladies. Sitting, on one of the run down couches, was Remus. He tried to make no eye contact with the girls and mumbled something under his breath.

"Move out of my way," Lily looked behind herself and saw Roxy, "James," she finished exhaustedly. Her efforts to make him move had been worthless.

"Say the magic word," James attempted to be clever.

"Which hex would you prefer?" Lily snapped back and both Roxy and Vicky made an, ah sound—very much like when a fight is about to begin.

"I don't know—one that makes me smarter?"

Lily ignored the comment. "Maybe one that reduces the size of his ego?" Lily enquired her friends. "Or perhaps one that makes his head bigger than it already is?"

"Lily, don't," Roxy began to warn her. James was looking too cheerful about what she was saying, to not have something planned.

"Maybe I should give you a present in return? To show my gratitude," James began, tucking his hand into his trousers. "You can have yours first—sorry girls," he added.

A mass of chalk powder filled the room and a few seated students began to cough, as well as James' and Lily's friends. As the mass of cloud began to clear, Lily could see Vicky pointing at herself but nothing more than a finger. Her arm seemed bent.

"What did you do, James?" Roxy asked him, her jaw dropped at the site of what had happened to Lily and the unknown Vicky. "How did you do it?"

"A little prank we've had up our sleeves since fifth year," James said proudly.

Roxy pointed out the effects to Vicky, who squealed. Roxy seemed un-changed by the powder. Both Lily and Vicky were standing on one leg, had one arm bent behind their backs and were linked together.

"You're lucky, Roxy," James said, his smile growing larger by the second. "If there had of been four of you—you'd be like that too," he glowed as certain Gryffindor's looked at him with disgust.

"I'll kill you!" Vicky screamed and she made a jump for James.

She toppled over and took Lily over with her, making a desperate attempted to unwind herself it seemed, as though she would never manage to tug herself away. James and Sirius began to laugh but Remus tried to keep away from the action.

"Stop it," Lily managed to shout at her friend. "You're making it worse," Vicky instantly stopped. "James undo whatever the hell you did!" she scolded him.

"Oh, I love it when a posh bird talks dirty!" Sirius shouted.

Lily growled. "I am not posh. You can shut up, Black. I'm sure you had something to do with this!" she tried to look up at James, as she and Vicky managed to stand with the help of Roxy.

"Er, well," James began and sent a glance at Sirius. He tucked his hands into his pockets and Sirius slipped away. "I don't know how," he said truthfully.

This time it was Lily who made a dash for James, Vicky managed to balance herself for a few moments but failed to keep it that way. Lily toppled onto James and the cold, hard wooden floors met Vicky.

"Ouch," Vicky muffled from her squashed position.

"So, this is a date then?" James added with a grin, trying hard not to laugh as Lily made an effort to roll onto the floor.

"Ouch," Vicky moaned once again, as Lily rolled onto her free leg.

"Sorry," Lily muttered into her ear. "You'll be hearing from my solicitor, James," Lily hissed as Roxy and Remus—who had come over to help-- pulled up Vicky and herself. She spat out a loose strand of hair from her mouth.

"You'd better go down to the hospital wing," Remus said in his quiet voice. "If you can?" he watched the two hopping girls with slight bewilderment.

"What about the time-tables?" Lily almost cried.

"I'll make sure it's sorted out," Remus assured her.

For a couple of moments, Lily looked as though she were about to disagree. Remus was trustworthy though and she knew that she could leave him for a while—it wasn't her fault.

"I'll help you down," Roxy began and the three girls hopped—Roxy tried to join in—over to the portrait hole and with some difficulty, passed to the other side.

"I don't believe him," Lily shouted as they tumbled into the hospital wing several minutes later. "Why—on the first day of school—did he have to do something so stupid? After yesterday. I honestly had begun to think he had changed. It's like he doesn't want me to be Head Girl!" she cried.

"I don't think that's it," Roxy said, as the two girls sat on the hospital bed. "I think he's just trying to get some attention," she finished. She then added, "or impress you," Lily glared.

"It worked," Vicky moaned. "Why'd he have to get involved?" she sighed and waited for the Matron, as Roxy called for her.

"Well, if he thinks for one moment that he's," Lily was cut short.

"Well, you are in a pickle," the Matron smiled from behind a curtain. "Don't worry. I'll have you fixed in minutes—and you'll still have time for breakfast," she added with a faint smile.

"Good," Roxy and Vicky said in union but breakfast seemed to be the least of Lily's troubles.

"What about James' punishment?" she glared furiously.

"When have you ever known them—yes, it's obvious Sirius was involved-- to get in trouble and care. It would be pointless—you have to admit though. You do look funny."

Lily stared in gawk. "You're taking their sides?" she said sadly.

"Well, they did give me some lovely chocolate biscuits last night," she handed them each a potion.

Lily raised an eyebrow suspiciously. James was being nice? Herself and Vicky both drank down the potion and the effects reversed instantly, with a small gurgle in the pits of their bellies. They clapped their hands together happily.

"Well, you'd best be going—so should I," the Matron turned and Lily slapped her hand against her mouth. Vicky suppressed a giggle with her hand and Roxy snorted. The back of the Matrons hair was changing colours like a rainbow.

"Innocent chocolate cookies," Lily mumbled.

The three girls left for the Great Hall. All praying that their first lesson would be something calm and quiet—for instance, the History of Magic or perhaps Divination for Vicky, as she took it and the others didn't. Just nothing with the Slytherins; James not being there would be a bonus.

The three girls jogged down the hallways down to the first storey of the school. Roxy told some kind of a joke, in which Vicky had laughed heartedly and Lily gave a pleasant chuckle, to try and make out that she had been listening. She was rather pleased to now be a lone human again, as all three of them hustled into the great hall.

James trotted over to the three girls and out of the corner of her eye, Lily saw Remus shake his head. Winking, James handed them all their timetables, balancing Roxy's on her head. Lily sighed slightly and ignored James' efforts to get a thank you.

"I guess we missed Andrea and Ren," Roxy said, as she scanned the seated students but her words were ignored.

"Does this mean that I am getting the silent treatment," James asked her as she went to sit down. He quickly pulled the chair out for her to sit on and she moved along to the next seat, making large arm movements as she sat down.

Lily poured herself a goblet of milk. "I hadn't realised that I spoke to you anyway," she held her nose firmly in the air and Roxy clenched her hands slightly. Vicky accidentally elbowed Sirius as she sat down and he yelped with pain, slapping her jokingly around the back of the head.

"Ah, come on, Lils," he cooed, "it was a harmless joke," he pointed out.

"Oh—I'm sorry," she replied, turning to face him and wiping her milk-moustache mouth. "When you say, harmless, does that mean we weren't supposed to make a trip to the hospital wing?" she glared at him, failing to notice that Roxy was tugging on her sleeve and ogling at her timetable.

"Well—it wasn't going to last. Supposed to anyway," he began. "Sirius said it would only be temporary anyway," he added in his defense.

"Oh. That's right," he growled slightly. "Blame your first and best mate," he grinned and went back to buttering what must have been his fifth piece of bread. Remus shook his head but was obviously smiling.

"Lily—lovers squabbles can be left until later—look at your timetable," she insisted.

Lily fumbled about at the paper. "Roxy. The day that I love him, snow will fall from the sky during summer," she huffed. Her eyes scanned the paper for a moment and she held her head back in horror. " No," she mumbled. "What is this world coming to?"

Everyone hates the first lesson of the day, especially on a Monday because then you have that added shock of the first lesson of the week. Nobody wants to suffer a double lesson, in a stuffy classroom with a dozen or so Slytherins—with the exception of James and Sirius, who could probably get some pleasure out of it—Lily was no exception.

The students began to leave their plates and cups and stream out of various doors in the halls. Lily kicked backwards into her chair and stood up. Her two friends and the three boys shortly following her, as she wasted no time in storming down to the dungeons.

Peter shortly joined them and for a moment, Lily was genuinely surprised, that he was bothering to continue the subject. The only reason he had passed in the first place was because Remus had tutored him. Good old Remus.