AN: Oh my gosh it's been like two months! I'm so sorry but I promise I will try to be quick with my updates now. I hope that I still have a few readers left. So those of you that are left enjoy Chapter 8 and tell me what you think!!

Chapter 8: Please Listen To Me

Lily turned… "AAAAAAAAHHH!"

There standing in front of her was a human-sized yellow jellyfish with some sort of cushioning around the body. It was exactly as Lily had pictured it as a child; it was even carrying the wilting bouquet of petunias!

"Lily, I'm sorry I'm late!" It tried to present Lily the petunias

"Conjunctivitis!"

The Jellyfish's eyes contracted and he reached out trying to find Lily

"Get away from me! I ate all my vegetables at dinner tonight!!"

"Lily!" cried Remus

"Remus help me, please Merlin someone save me!" Lily was in hysterics.

"Lily, I think it's James…"

"James?" Lily glanced up and oddly enough, she saw markings around the jellyfish's shuteyes that resembled glasses, "JAMES POTTER YOU BASTARD!"

"Lilllllllllllllllllllly pleeeeeeease heeeeeeeelp meeeeeee"

"Figere!"

James transfigured back into his normal form and sheepishly tried to hand Lily the bouquet of flowers. Lily glanced at him as if to say 'are you being serious?'

"Lily I can explain."

"Right, everyone I think that's all for this evening. I'll see you all next Tuesday. I'll hand out the patrol schedules tomorrow so patrolling starts from tomorrow. Good night."

"Wait I want to say something," cried a desperate James

"As I said you're dismissed," Lily said ignoring James

The prefects were confused and frankly frustrated by the behavior of their so-called "mature" Head Girl and Boy. "Oh just leave!" said a defeated James

The prefects got up and left, giving James and Lily "grow up" looks. This left Lily and James behind. Lily gathered her papers and turned to leave the room.

"Lily please listen, I was trying to make it up to you!"

"By being an hour late? Or was it the part where you scared me to death?"

"Lily please… I can explain…"

"I'm sure you can Potter, and I think the walls would appreciate listening to the whole story… if you would excuse me good night" Lily promptly left the room shutting the door behind her.

James didn't know what to do. Gone was James Potter, woman extraordinaire, who would suavely win his woman back. Right now he didn't know what the hell to do and Lily, he was convinced, wasn't a normal woman… she was more like the devil in disguise ready to shatter James' pride into a million pieces.

So he did the only thing he could of right now, he ran after her. "Lily, Lily!"

James skidded along the hallways trying to bump into her. And he did, he bumped right into her and the two fell down a staircase and onto the dark stone floor of the third floor.

Lily got up and turned to look at James with a glare, "You idiot! Please can you just stay out of my way? That way maybe I could get to the common room in one piece every now and then." She got up and turned to leave. Oops… She had no clue as to where she was. Well that didn't matter, she would walk around for years searching for the common room but she would never stoop to asking James Potter for help. Confidently she turned and walked into a wall. With a disgruntled sigh, Lily carried on feeling her away across the wall and stumbled into a knight.

Ouch that must hurt thought James, he chuckled quietly. Lily heard it and turned around angrily forgetting that she couldn't see anything and blindly reached out for James. She managed to grab him but at same time, she tripped and let out a screech. Coincidently Mrs. Norris walked past them and her malicious eyes were ready to betray them to Filch. She let out a soft purr.

"Oh shit," Lily quickly reconsidered her decision not to ask James for help – he was after all a marauder, "Potter can you get us out of here?"

"Only if you promise to hear my side of the story"

"Sure Potter whatever, just please get us out of here!"

"The lady gets what the lady wants," he pulled her behind her tapestry and pulled her close. Lily felt quite uncomfortable but strangely it felt right and this scared her so she did what seemed obvious – she pulled away. James wasn't having it though and he held her tight breathing in her scent. Lily stopped trying to resist his grip, she felt a sense of protection wash over her, and oddly when James did finally let go she didn't want him to leave her. She wanted to feel safe and loved again.

"Lily its safe," whispered James. He looked into what were probably her striking green eyes and he guessed that they were filled with outrage at James. He was wrong, terribly wrong. Lily's eyes were filled with love and a tenderness that she didn't know she possessed. She felt his gaze on her and she looked away, scared that he might feel the depth of her emotions.

"We should go back now," she whispered.

Slowly the two of them walked back to the common room with James leading the way. As soon as they got to their dorm, Lily told James goodnight and walked up the stairs to her room.

"Lily wait!"

Lily wearily turned back towards James, "What?" she asked bluntly

"You promised you would hear my story."

Oh that stupid story, Lily didn't particularly care about it very much. All she wanted right now was to get away from Potter and have a nice dreamless sleep, "Potter maybe some other time, I'm really tired."

"Lily please, I can't sleep till you've forgiven me."

"I forgive you, good night" Lily walked into her room and heard the door click.

James collapsed on a sofa, it was actually quite an amusing story if Lily had stopped to listen……….

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"Done, now I can go to the prefect meeting. If I hurry I can be there just in time."

"Why you so eager?"

"I don't want Lily to be any angrier with me."

"Take flowers then, all girls love flowers."

"Great idea, where will I get flowers though?"

"You're a wizard bright spark! Let me do it," Sirius muttered an incantation under his breath and then gasped.

James turned to look at himself in the mirror, "Sirius you idiot!" he looked in the mirror again to make sure he wasn't hallucinating – he wasn't, "You idiot!"

"I'm so sorry…" Sirius was in hysterics, "I guess I must have been practicing the spell for too long." He burst into uncontrollable laughter again.

"FIX IT!"

"I… I… I'll fix it," he managed to gasp out.

He turned towards James and before he said the incantation, he wilily asked, "Do you mind if I take a photo of you… for the grandkids you know," and before James could answer there was a bright flash.

"SIRIUS!" roared an infuriated James, "When you change me back you are so dead"

"Dead… I don't like the sound of that… Hmm I don't think I'll change you back then," Smiling he stowed his wand back into his robes

"Oh fine, you'll mess it up anyway." James turned to reach for his wand but found that he couldn't grip it properly because, realization dawned on his face, he was a jellyfish with many slippery arms. "Dammit!" He stumbled around trying to get his wand, He couldn't, "Sirius, if you don't change me back now I will come and give you a lovely slippery hug." He smiled sweetly.

"You play dirty Potter, alright I'll change you." Sirius grabbed his Transfiguration textbook and muttered, "verto pulvinus"

James felt himself swell up and suddenly he felt quite padded. He could no longer down at himself to see what he looked like there was too much "stuffing" in the way. He looked in the mirror fearing the worst… his fears were confirmed.

"SIRRRRRIIIIIIIIUS!!!!!!!!!!! I'M A PILLOWFISH!"

"Well actually it's more like a pregnant jellyfish."

"Sirius you idiot how am I going to explain this to Lily? I'm already late!"

"Tell her Aunt Einstein sent you a yellow jellyfish suit as an early Christmas present and you promised to wear it?"

"What idiot would believe that?"

"Oh I've got one! You met Voldemort in the hallway and he transformed you into a yellow jellyfish?"

"Much better Sirius"

"Oh I've got the best one! You were kissing Jessica and she has an oral disease that you didn't know about and now you've turned into what she really is… a foul jellyfish!"

"Sirius, she's my girlfriend!"

"Because you can't have Lily."

"You know what I'm leaving and I'll tell Lily what really happened so she can come and crucify you."

"No! James she'll murder me!"

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Precisely a week had passed since that day and Lily had skillfully avoided James. Everyone knew she was avoiding him, the group had given up on trying to reconcile their differences, and things had slowly settled back into the slow lull of Hogwarts life.

It was Tuesday again and Lily could no longer avoid James. She walked into the Prefect meeting hoping that James would be late again or, if fate was on her side, he would miss the whole thing. So she was extremely surprised to find him sitting and waiting expectantly for her.

James had done a lot of thinking over that week and he had decided that he wanted to be Lily's friend and nothing. He had Jessica, she was a good girlfriend to him, and he had been an awful boyfriend to her lately. He promised he would make it up to her over Christmas Break.

"Hey Lily, I was wondering if you understood what some of this stuff meant? I'm so confused"

Lily looked at the piece of paper James was pointing to; he was doing paperwork! "Uh yeah sure you just have to fill out the requirements there and describe any problems there," she pointed to a blank space on the parchment.

"Thanks Lily, I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up to date with Heads duties but I think I've caught up," he motioned towards a wad of paper on the desk.

Lily was flabbergasted. She didn't understand what James was doing but she hoped he didn't stop.

The prefects started to arrive and the meeting went without a hitch. Everyone felt a change in atmosphere around the two Heads but no one knew what had changed. The meeting ended and the prefects left the room.

"Lily I know that…" "James I'm so glad…," they said at the same time.

"You go first," they said together

"Okay well…" together again

"Ha ha ha Lily you go," said a smiling James

"Well, I'm really happy about this sudden change in your behavior Potter and well I hope it stays this way," Lily was surprised at her words, was she complimenting the boy who had plagued her for the past seven years.

"It will Lily, I promise. I'm tired of fighting with you all the time and I really hope we can be friends now?"

Friends. Friends with Potter. Friends with James Potter. Friends with… James.

"I think that can be arranged," grinned Lily

The two of them strolled back to their common room and Lily started walking towards her room, then stopped. "Goodnight… James." She into her room and before she shut the door she heard a shriek. She stuck her head out to find Jessica and James wrapped in a hug. She felt her heart drop. Oh god, this was going to be a long night…

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AN: Chapter 8! Yippeeeeeee!!! Haha I'm sure I'll write the next chapter soon. Hopefully by like tomorrow or the next day? I dunno… Anyway, review and tell me what you think!

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