Disclaimer: I would like to inform you… It's snowing outside, and I am not JK Rowling.

Lily noticed their friend's eyes and quickly dropped James' hand.

"Why do you do that?" James asked, staring at her hand. "Now my hands will get cold."

"Then maybe you should have brought gloves." She pointed out. "But I let go because they're staring." She nodded toward their friends.

"Let them." James said, grabbed her hand. "My hands are cold, and if they don't understand that, then they probably aren't intelligent enough for Hogwarts."

Lily laughed and pulled her hand away from James. "I wasn't worried about they're intelligence. Our holding hands might give the impression we're dating, even if we're not. They would be able to put the fact we've spent the entire morning together, and that we were holding hands, even though, technically, I was making sure you didn't catch frostbite, and come up with the conclusion that we're dating."

James eyes took a mischievous glint. "But what if we are?"

"James, we're not." Lily said, looking at him strangely. "We're simply friends. I thought I had made that perfectly clear when you brought an Evans Christmas to Hogwarts for me. I don't fancy you, but I no longer hate you."

James then grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the Great Hall and around the corner until they were no longer in view of anyone sitting down to lunch.

"I don't know, Evans." James said, rocking on his heels. "With they way you kissed me last night, and the fact you grabbed onto to my shirt and wouldn't let go this morning, I can sense that maybe there is a little more going on her than you want me to know."

"I told you, those were mistakes. I had to kiss you last night so we could get unstuck and I was having a lovely dream about someone else when I kissed you this morning."

"Really? And who was this lovely dream about, if not me?" James asked, cocking his eyebrows.

Lily turned a light shade of pink. "It…it was about…. " She racked her brain for a believable 7th year boy, but her mind was drawing a blank. "Well, I wouldn't tell you, now would I?" She said, finally.

"Obviously." James smiled.

"Now, since we both know there is nothing going on, why did you drag me around a corner?"

James faced turned mischievous again.

"Because, it's time for lesson three, I think."

Lily stiffed. "What's lesson three?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"We're going to fool everyone. It's almost like a prank, but so much better, because no one knows, not even our friends, except us." James said, leaning against the wall. "And we're going to make them believe we're dating."

Lily stared at him for a few minutes before finding her voice. "No. No. No. Absolutely no."

"Alright, then. We've got a Hogsmeade visit on Valentine's day, we'll have our date then."

"No." Lily repeated. "No, I won't let people believe we're dating and I won't actually date you."

"Lily, you agreed to a deal." James said. "Think of it this way: you can either fake-date me for a few weeks, or you can actually date me."

Lily sucked in her breath, silently scolding herself for agreeing to such an absurd deal. "I refuse to do that."

"Fine. We'll meet around ten in the morning Valentine's Day, then." James smiled at her and began to walk away.

"Wait!" She called as he began to round the corner. "What would this entitle?"

James smile grew wider. "Do you agree, then? It won't be hard. It would actually be the easiest of all the things I've made you do so far."

Lily sighed. "Yes. I agree. Now, what does fake dating entitle?"

"We'll obviously spend a little more time alone together, and we might have to kiss a few times, but I don't think you'll mind those. We'll hold hands and walk to classes together and what not. Things that couples do. Like going to breakfast together."

He held out his hand and smiled at her, expectedly.

She reluctantly took it and let him lead her into the Great Hall. That sat with friends and James announced that yes, he and Lily were now an item. Aira and Charlotte stared at her as Remus and Sirius congratulated them. She everyone a weak smile, and began to eat so she could avoid speaking with them.

The rest of break went without Lily's notice. Her time was divided between spending time with everyone, and trying to telepathically tell her friends that they weren't really dating.

Lily was sitting in the common room on New Year's Eve when James walked in.

"What are you doing?" He asked, his face twisted in confusion. "It's New Years Eve, there is a party in the Gryffindor common room."

"I'm finishing an essay." Lily said, simply. "I need two more inches and I can be done."

"The great Lily Evans doesn't have all her homework complete? And with only four days left before we go back to school." James tsked.

"Everything else is finished, but I was to distracted by you and everyone else to find time to do this." She would have kept writing, if James had not taken her essay.

"Lily, it's New Year's Eve. I have loads of homework I need to get done, but I want to celebrate a little more. How about tonight, we go and enjoy a party, and tomorrow, we finish all the homework we've, well I've, been putting off?" James said, tossing her essay aside and taking her hand and pulling her out of them common room.

For the rest of the night, the six Gryffindor students spent the last hours of year talking, eating and laughing. When the Grandfather clock began it's twelve chimes, James sauntered over to Lily.

"Happy New Year." He murmured, before kissing her.

For the first time since Christmas, Lily kissed him back.

That was an awful chapter. I'm sorry it sucked so much.

But it had to done and I was lost as I should keep going or just wait until the next chapter to bring everything out.

I'm waiting, and it should (hopefully) be much, much better.

Oh on a side note, I was checking my traffic and WOW. This story has gotten an amazing number of views and hits. I want to thank all of you for reading it so faithfully. I never expected anything like it and it is so amazing.

Anyone who took the time to review, here's a double dose. It blows me mind as to the number of people who like this story. I really appreciate all of them, you guys are totally awesome! And please, keep them coming. They help motivate me.