Chapter four

"Um. Lily?" 'Operation Win Sirius Back', as Lily called it had been going on for almost a week.

"Hmm?" she answered, absently as she added a few finishing touches to her Potions essay.

"Do you wanna maybe go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?" Lily looked up.

"James! Thats perfect! Why didn't I think of that?" James frowned, confused.

"What?" he asked.

"We could go to Hogsmeade together! That's the perfect thing to make Sirius jealous!" This answer stung James. He had been so close to going on a real date with Lily Evans and she had shot him down again. This time without even realizing it. "And we can go to Madame Puddifoot's and...James are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, fine," Lily raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, you were really asking me weren't you?" James' face flooded with color as he nodded.

"I thought that we went over this already. This relationship is no strings attached. No emotions other than friendship. Which we have acquired already," Lily said the last part with a smile. James looked away and nodded.

"It was worth a shot," he muttered. He stood up and Lily watched as he disappeared into his room. She felt a pang of-regret? Did she wish she had given him another answer? No of course not. They were just friends. Nothing is ever going to happen between them. And anyway, she was in love with Sirius. Lily told herself all of these things. Once she had convinced herself that she wanted Sirius and no one else, she went upstairs to bed.

Lily shot up in bed breathing hard. 'What the hell?' she thought. Her dreams were filled with naughty thoughts of her and James. Together. 'I thought I had already been through this, I don't like James as more than just a friend!' she scolded herself, trying to force herself to believe that it was true. She looked over at the clock, 5:30 am it read. She climbed out of her four poster bed and trudged to the bathroom. 'Well since I'm up I might as well get dressed. And since I have so much time, I can look especially nice for Ja-Sirius.' Lily smacked herself for thinking James' name before Sirius. What was wrong with her? 'Seeing Sirius' face should make things right,' she thought as she turned on the hot water.

When she emerged from the shower, it was 6:15 and she heard noises coming from James' room signaling that he was awake. Lily got dressed and performed a drying spell on her hair. She had an extra forty five minutes so she decided to straighten it. She hadn't done it in a long time. She pulled her straightener out of the bottom of her trunk and plugged it in. She didn't like what the straightening spell did to her hair so she preferred to use the muggle appliance. She picked up the straightener and clamped it over her curly auburn locks. Twenty minutes later, her long hair was pin straight. She tossed it over her shoulder as she examined herself in the mirror. She opened her bedroom door when she heard James calling her name. She opened the door.

"Hey are you-whoa!" James' eyes widened when he saw her appearance.

"You like?" she asked. James nodded goofily as she grabbed his hand and pulled him from the dormitory. On the way down to the Great Hall, Lily got a lot of stares. Mostly from the male population of Hogwarts. One pair of these eyes included Sirius'. He watched as they took their usual seats at the end of the table. James looked around and noticed all the stares Lily was getting.

"Take a picture it will last longer!" He shouted, causing many eyes to turn away. But one pair remained fixated on the "couple" as they always were.

"Thanks, they were starting to scare me," Lily said.

"No problem. Anything for you," Lily blushed and hoped that James hadn't noticed. He hadn't.

The next weekend was a Hogsmeade weekend as James had mentioned earlier in the week. Lily and James went together. But to James' dismay, it was only part of 'Operation Win Sirius Back'. The two walked hand in hand through the small wizarding village admiring little shops and going into some of them, just as a couple would. They did many of the things that Lily had suggested but James blatantly refused to go into Madame Puddifoot's. He had been in there once with some random girl and he vowed never to do it again. When Lily asked him why he told her it was too "pink". Lily laughed at this and they went into the three-broomsticks instead.

A pretty pointless chapter. A few feelings revealed. Longer than most, yay!