Disclaimer: Yes, yes, I know. I'm not JKR. You don't need to tell me that. I'm not that stupid. :P

4 – Going out

"You ain't nothin' but a hound dog, cryin' all the time. Well, you ain't never caught a rabbit
and you ain't no friend of mine!"

"Hey Lily!"

Lily screamed and jumped up from her warm chair in the sun. "Alice!" she said shrilly, and grabbed a t-shirt from her chair, pulling it over her head. "Why do you have to scare me like that?!"

Alice grabbed her from her shoulders and gave her a pull. "Don't know. Who's the weirdo singing?"

Lily raised a finger menacingly. "Don't you dare insult Elvis like that! He's the Muggle King of Rock n' Roll!" She turned off the radio.

"He is?" Alice asked, frowning. "Uh, let's have some more girl time and go to one of his concerts sometime!"

"Yeah, Alice, he's dead," Lily said and sent Alice a short sarcastic smile.

"Oh," Alice uttered. "Well you should tell me a bit more about the Muggle world then!"

Lily showed the white of her eyes. "Anyway… What are you doing here?"

It was mid September, but as it had been very warm, Lily had found time to wear her bikini and get some color on her skin outside. Alice had simply surprised her as she was laying, nearly asleep and in her own thoughts.

Alice shrugged. "Well, I wanted to ask you out to dinner with Frank and George. Tonight."

Lily looked at Alice for a few seconds. "Just them, right?"

"Yeah," Alice said and nodded. "Only those. No reason to be afraid."

"Okay, fine," Lily mumbled. "It's just-"

"Yeah, I know," Alice interrupted and smiled.

"So is it formal or just…?"

"A simple dinner. Nothing fancy."

"It's a date! So how's it going with the wedding? A month to the big day?"

Alice sat down on a chair next to Lily's. "It's okay. I'm not nervous yet, but it'll all come when there are only two weeks left, I think."

Lily smiled. "You'll do fine. You're like the perfect person to be calm."

"Yeah," Alice said and sighed. "I know I shouldn't worry, but I feel like there's something I've forgotten."

"I think that's normal," Lily said. "It's just because you know how important it all is. I'm sure you won't forget a thing. Anything to drink?"

"No thanks," Alice said and shook her head. "I just can't get the thought out of my head…"

"The chairs?" Lily asked and Alice shook her head again. "Table plan? You do remember that I have the dress? Flowers? Napkins?"

Alice shook her head again and again. "No. Nothing from all that."

"Then I'm not sure I can help you… And to be honest… I don't think you've forgotten anything, Alice, you're the most organized human being I know of. There's a bigger chance for the Chudley Cannons to win the Quidditch league than of you forgetting something. You should relax a bit more."

"What about you?" Alice shot back. "You haven't been much out since you…" Alice stopped, seeming to think about what to say. "Since you returned from school," she ended firmly.

Lily suppressed a smile for Alice's attempt to avoid the 'James Potter'-topic. She noticed Alice looked at her to see if she had said something that could make her sad, but Lily ignored it.

"Then how about we push our date a few hours into the night and go out to party?" Lily snapped.

Alice's eyes started gleaming at once. "I'm so in! I haven't been out since… I really don't know! But we should. I'll talk to Frank and George about it."

Frank and George agreed to go out so they arranged that Lily would pick them up at nine to go out for a late dinner and then dancing. Lily enjoyed herself all the way through the dinner, which they finished at eleven. From there, they continued to a local small discotheque. A smile spread across Lily's lips as she heard the bass pump. It had been a year since the last time she went out, and even longer since she had been out with Alice.

"You know something?" Lily laughed as she returned from the bar with four drinks. "It's really nice to be outside again. And even though we haven't been here for more than five minutes, I'm having the greatest time I've had for months!"

Alice smiled. "I'm glad you found life again."

Lily laughed. "'Found life? Aren't you being a little overdramatic?"

"You've really been down, Lily," Alice said with a shrug.

"Let just… let's have a good time," Lily said and smiled.

"I agree!" George grinned as he raised his glass. "Cheers!"

They all laughed and bumped the glasses together before they all sipped from them. Lily looked up towards the bar, spotting a tall guy with black messy hair. Extremely messy hair. The next second she landed under the table, with her drink in her hand. The others stopped talking and Alice stuck her head beneath the table.

"Err, Lily?"

Lily blushed and stuck her head up over the table again, looking at the black haired guy at the bar. As he turned she could easily see his face and he wasn't the one she had been afraid to see. They all looked to where Lily had been staring.

"Honestly," Alice sighed.

"Lily it's just a black haired bloke," George said.

Lily blushed. "Well… I just thought…" She trailed off and shook her head. "Doesn't matter."

"This is one of the thousands of discotheques in England and the chance of James being here is about one to one billion," Alice said. "Try to be a little more paranoid."

"Sorry," Lily mumbled.

"It's okay."

Silence fell over them. At last Frank got up.

"I guess a dance would be in its right place?" he smirked and grabbed Alice's hand.

Alice giggled and followed him out to the dance floor.

George got up too "I'll be back," he said and headed for the toilet, leaving Lily alone.

Lily sighed deeply and studied the black-haired guy a little more. After taking a closer look at him she could easily see that there wasn't the slightest chance that he could have been James. James' hair was longer, even messier and somehow darker. This guy also looked more muscular than James and had grey eyes. Lily first became aware that she was staring at him when she spotted the guy next to him looking at her. He was not very tall but not small either, had brown hair and eyes that reminded her of James'. She quickly looked down and blushed, but it was too late. The guy had seen her and now was heading toward her table.

He sat down at Alice's chair next to Lily. Lily looked up, meeting his eyes.

"Hey," he said and stretched out his hand. "I'm Roland Harrison."

Lily took his hand politely. "Lily Evans."

She noticed he smelled of alcohol and sweat. She wrinkled her nose.

"Nice to meet you," he said.

Lily forced a smile upon her lips. She noticed he hadn't yet let go of her hand and could now feel his fingers slide over the back of her hand.

"So where do you come from?"

"Northern England," Lily mumbled and pushed herself a bit away as she thought he was way to close by now.

"What would you-?"

"Excuse me!"

Lily looked past Roland to a tall blond guy with blue eyes. Roland turned too.

"Yeah, what?" he snarled.

"I think the girl would like you to stay away from her," the tall blond said.

"And why do you think that?"

"Seeing as she's my girlfriend I think I know that."

Roland looked at the blond for a few more seconds before he got up and left the table. Lily's heart skipped a beat.

"Thanks!" she breathed as soon as he was gone.

The blonde guy sat down. "You're welcome. You looked like one who could use some help."

"Right on that," she mumbled and he laughed. "I'm Lily Evans."

He grabbed her hand. "I'm Archibald McCord, but you can call me Arch. Nice to save you."

Lily laughed. "Nice to be saved by you."

"You're not here alone I guess?"

"No, no," Lily hurried to say. "My two friends are out there dancing and the third is on the bathroom. You?"

"My two friends are over there." He nodded towards two guys in a corner

"Okay."

"Look. Maybe I could buy you a drink."

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but she caught a glimpse of the black haired guy in the bar. She sighed, closing her mouth.

"No, but thanks," she mumbled.

"Oh," Arch uttered, and looked slightly disappointed.

"I'm sorry," Lily said, "but I've just gotten out of a serious relationship, and I don't think I'm ready to start meeting guys and all that stuff already."

He nodded. "I understand. Can't blame a guy for trying, can you?"

Lily smiled, shaking her head. "But thanks for the help with the idiot. I'll let you know if I need more."

Arch nodded and got up. "See you around Lily."

Lily nodded her goodbye and took a sip of her glass in the same second as Alice and Frank joined the table again.

"Who was that hottie?" Alice grinned.

"Oi!" Frank exclaimed.

"I still love you honey, you're very handsome, but that guy was really good looking."

Frank seemed satisfied with the answer.

"Just someone," Lily mumbled.

"Why did he leave?" Alice asked. "You don't tell a guy like him to leave."

Lily shrugged. "I'm not ready. I was just about to say yes to a drink but then I thought of all that has been going on and about to go on, and I'm not sure it's the right time."

"But-"

"I agree with Lily," Frank interrupted Alice. "And you should respect her wish as well as I respect you looking at other blokes."

Alice sighed. "Okay, fine."