A/N: Yes, we can all worship me now, since I ACTUALLY updated sometime vaguely close to when Celia did. Oh, and PRONGS! (whips out Prongs shirt and skips off singing the Prongs theme song and plotting how to get a picture of Mr. Livsey, fellow Prongs worshipper doing the official-Prongs-worshipping-hand-thing)

While her friends were sitting in Potions, being bored out of their minds, Ashley was planted in the Gryffindor common room, quill moving frantically over a piece of ink-splattered parchment. Despite the fact that the essay she was working on had been assigned over a week in advance, Ashley was definitely the definition of a procrastinator.

And that is why she was alone, working hard, while everyone else was busy applying themselves in a situation that actually mattered. Ashley figured that at least one of the Marauders would come up with some ingenious excuse to explain her absence, and therefore hadn't bothered to inform them. Oh well. She would catch up with them after class and find out what she had missed. Remus would be more than happy to help with that...

"Done!" The last rather fragmented sentence was punctuated with a grand flourish and a resulting large black splot on the parchment. Ashley studied it dubiously for a moment, then decided that Slughorn would probably write it off as "a display of the spectacular enthusiasm for such a fine art!"

As chance would have it, this all occurred at just about the same time at which the Advanced Potions class was coming to an end. Gryffindor students of all years began filing into the common room, creating a much noisier atmosphere than Ashley would have liked. She shrugged, figuring that once James and the others got there, things would be more enjoyable.

At the thought of the jaunty Seeker, Ashley's stomach flipped over as a wide grin appeared on her face. She was so busy musing as to the nature of his innate ability to look like he just stepped off a broomstick at all times that she nearly missed Peter's greeting.

"Oy, why did you get to skip Potions?" the chubby blonde boy pointed an accusing finger in her direction. Ashley's eyebrows shot up.

"Because-" - she coughed lamely - "I was sick."

This seemed to be a good enough response for the cretin, who shrugged and turned around to go up the staircase to the boy's dormitory. Once he was gone, Ashley surveyed the now-crowded common room, only to discover that the object of her affections was not there. Come to think of it, neither was that slimy pig she called her ex. Her gaze fell on Remus, who was watching her shyly.

"Hey, Remus," she started, crossing the room to stand closer to him. "Where're James and Sirius?"

"Well," Remus suppressed a grin, "Sirius apparently decided that it would be entertaining to sock Snape in the face after Potions and is now sporting a quite lovely-looking peacock tail. James accompanied him to the hospital wing."

Ashley blinked at him in shock for a few moments before responding.

"What? You're... you're kidding, right? Are you seriously telling me that that asinine fool decided it would actually be fun to cause serious bodily harm to the person who is quite possibly the most accomplished spell-caster in our year?" Remus nodded. Ashley rolled her eyes before muttering. "Never mind, I shouldn't be surprised..."

There was a moment of silence between the two as they both watched a couple of second years fight over what looked like something a cat threw up.

"So," Ashley said finally, turning away from the bout looking slightly green, "Did I miss anything important in Potions?"

Remus moved to open his mouth, but was quickly cut off.

"And by that I mean my definition of important, not your school-loving one."

"Well, in that case, then no." Remus grinned. "But we do have a foot-long essay on the properties of Scandinavian Blue Tailed Newt intestines outside of potion-making due at the beginning of next class."

Ashley stared at him.

"Huh?" came the highly intelligent response. Remus sighed in mock-annoyance.

"Would you like me to help you with it?" he asked, gaze suddenly no longer on Ashley's face.

"Yes!" Ashley hopped up and down excitedly before throwing her arms around him. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

Remus, who was slightly taken aback by the sudden display of affection, was caught off-guard for a moment. When he recovered (which was relatively quickly, as this sort of event took place pretty much every time something was assigned), he responded with a slightly-strangled "You're welcome."

Ashley released the boy and smiled widely.

"Great!" she exclaimed, quickly gathering up her things that were still spread out over the entirety of one of the tables. "So, when do you want to do it?"

"Would now be too much to ask?" Remus questioned, already knowing the answer.

"Why yes, as a matter of fact it would. We both know I don't do work on the day it's assigned." Ashley struggled to fit yet another book into her already-stuffed bag. "Tomorrow, okay?"

"I suppose." Remus had a downcast look, which Ashley failed to notice.

"Great. I'll see you later, then." she heaved the bag onto her shoulder and made to exit the common room via the painting.

"Where are you going?" Remus called after her, despite the fact that he could already surmise the response.

"Hospital wing." There was a slight pause before she continued cautiously, a consternated expression plastering itself on her face. "Hey, did anything... unusual happen either during or after class today?"

"Other than Sirius's new addition? No, not that I noticed." Remus thought for a moment. "Oh, that Slytherin girl - what's her name? Celia? - wanted to talk to James privately after class. I believe I overheard something about the ball."

"Whaaaaat!" Ashley's grip on her bag strap tightened. "He didn't say yes, did he?"

"No, but-"

"Great, thanks, bye!"

Before he could question why in the world she would want to know something like that about someone she hardly knew (as far as they knew), Ashley was gone. Remus stared somewhat wistfully after her for a moment before lifting his own bag and moving to the recently abandoned table to start on his assignment.

Once Ashley had left the common room, she determined that her bag was much too heavy to be lugging around and decided to drop it on the ground below a painting of two wizened wizards deep in thought at a chess match ("Young people these days, they have no respect for anything!") before continuing on her merry way.

She hadn't gotten very far when it occurred to her that the hospital wing was in the complete opposite direction of where she currently was.

"Oops..."

Twenty minutes and a trick staircase later, Ashley was on the right track. Her hand was on the handle to the heavy oak door to the hospital wing, about to open it, when it swung inward. The momentum caused Ashley to lose her balance and fall forward, right into a very surprised-looking James.

"Oh! Hello there!" James blinked a few times in astonishment.

"Hullo, James." Ashley was quite sure that her face was bright red by this point. This, however, did not stop her from taking note of the his delightful scent - like freshly mowed grass, broomsticks, and a very faint touch of cologne. "Um... how's Sirius doing?"

"Well, he has a tail." James stated knowingly. "Madame Pomfrey can't seem to remove it at the moment, either. I suppose it's a good thing he doesn't play Quidditch." He winked at Ashley knowingly, causing her to flush even further.

"Ye-Yeah." she stuttered, sounding ever-so-intelligent. Damn it, Ashley, what are you DOING? You talk to this kid on a very regular basis and you can't even seem to ask him ONE question? What the hell is wrong with you? "Um, James? Can I ask you a question?"

"Well, you just did," he responded, flashing a winning smile, "But I'll give you another."

"Uh, thanks..." Ashley couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at his last comment. "I was just wondering... if... um... do we have Quidditch practice tonight?" Stupid stupid STUPID!

"Of course! We always have Quidditch practice!" James looked at her worriedly. "Why, is there some reason why we wouldn't?"

"Huh? No, no, of course not." Do it, you idiot, DO IT! "Um, that wasn't what I wanted to ask you."

"No?" James said with a knowing air.

"No. I mean yes. I mean..." JUST DO IT! "Wanagotoballwime?"

James blinked.

"Excuse me?"

"I said," Ashley took a deep breath to relax her nerves. It didn't help. "Would you go to the ball with me?"

"Aw, I would, but I'm already going with someone."

Ashley's interest was piqued.

"Really? Who?" she asked, trying not to sound too interested.

"Evans," James responded proudly.

Ashley stared at him in disbelief, knowing how the other girl felt about him. "Did she actually say yes?"

"Well, no, not exactly, but I know she'll come to. Nobody can resist the Prongs." James proclaimed, ruffling his hair as if to prove his point.

So true... Ashley thought. "Oh, well, then, I guess I should be going and getting started on that Potions essay."

James regarded her skeptically. "That's right, you weren't in class today. Where were you and why was I not invited to skip with you?"

Ashley couldn't help but blink blankly at him. "Because I was finishing the assignment for that class so it wouldn't be late." She spoke slowly and clearly, as if explaining it to a small child. "I figured you wouldn't want to sit around and actually do work."

"So true." James said loftily. "But we could have always played Quidditch instead."

"I...suppose..." Ashley didn't bother to point out that, had they done that, someone would have noticed that there were supposed to be in class, and when that happened, that someone tended to be a teacher, who actually cared if you were in class or not.

"Well," James said after a few seconds of dead silence. "I must go prepare for Quidditch. I'll see you at practice." With that, he strode off down the hallway as Ashley gazed fondly after him, wondering how in the world it takes somebody three hours to prepare for Quidditch.

"See you..." she echoed, somewhat delayed. Once he was gone, she debated actually entering the hospital wing just to make fun of Sirius, but decided that moping was so much more worth her time.

As Ashley headed back in the direction of the Gryffindor common room, a thought occurred to her. James isn't going with Celia! she thought elatedly. Which means I don't have to beat the crap out of her! Considerably happier, she continued down the hallway, daydreaming about what Quidditch that night would bring.