Mrs Claire Potter – Oooups, tiny little detail. Changing it as we spea- er, as I write this, though.

Thanks to everyone who has reviews & thanks to beta. As usual.

Chapter 6: Monday's Child is Fair of Face

Lily's muggle alarm rang at seven o'clock on Monday morning. After hitting the snooze button, she yawned and flipped her pillow over to feel the cool side. When the alarm sounded for the second time, she turned it off and got up; as did Elisabeth. Lily headed off for the bathroom to freshen up and returned to find Elisabeth dressed and ready.

"Hurry up, get dressed," Elisabeth said, "I want to look through my Transfiguration essay once more before handing it in."

Lily glanced at Aurora's bed; its hangings were drawn, but left ajar. Lily could just barely catch a glimpse of Aurora, who was sleeping..

Elisabeth sighed and said in an accusing tone, "You aren't going to wait for her to wake up, are you? If you are, you might as well wait until lunch."

"You guys still fighting?" Lily asked in a tired voice.

Elisabeth shrugged. "I'm afraid I might have been a bit harsh on her yesterday," she admitted, "but I also thing she was quite as mean as I, so she should also apologize…"

"Just apologize," Lily said, "and then she'll apologize, and it'll all be fine…"

Elisabeth shook her head. "No."

"Don't tell me you're going to wait for her to apologize?"

"I don't like admitting my mistakes," Elisabeth said, "I still believe I'm right, you know."

"SOD OFF," Aurora, apparently aroused by the talking, shouted from behind her bed hangings. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"Class starts in one hour," Elisabeth coolly informed her, "you might want to be there."

"Mind your own business!"

"GIRLS!" Lily cried out. "I'm sick and tired of your fighting and I hate having to choose one side. But you know what? This time I'm just going to stay out of it; I don't really want to be around either one of you two right now!" And with that, she stormed out of the dormitory and headed off to the Great Hall for breakfast on her own.

She sat down in the middle of the Gryffindor table and began filling her plate with sausages, toast and the rest of her favourite items from Hogwarts's breakfast buffet.

"Oi," said a familiar voice.

She looked up. "Po – er, James," she said. "Um, good morning."

"Where are your friends?" he asked.

"Where are your friends?" she replied, as she had noticed that he was unusually alone.

"Well," said James, "mind if I sit, by the way?" he asked and on Lily's approving nod he sat down opposite her and began filling his plate with various foods. "Remus is… ill and Peter is keeping him company. Sirius is snogging that friend of yours."

"Who?!"

"Um, her name just slipped my mind… she's… the one with the biggest boobs?" James said and grinned. "Her name is…A something?"

Lily glared at him. "Men! All you think about –"

"Sorry," James said. "But true."

"I'm going to let that one slip," Lily said, "but only because I'm not in the mood for arguing."

"Fine."

"But it does sound like Aurora."

"Yeah, right! That's her name!"

"Snogging Black?"

James nodded. "Seriously, I don't think you need to worry… Sirius isn't as bad as he seems. Really."

"He's a man whore," Lily said. "No offense –"

"I don't like it when people insult my friends, but I'm going to let that one slip," said James, "only because I'm not in the mood for arguing."

Lily giggled, which was weird. She wasn't normally the giggly type – the giggly type was Aurora and she was upstairs snogging Sirius.

"He's a man whore," Lily repeated, "and she's a slut. I don't know why I didn't see it coming."

"Me neither," said James and smiled. It wasn't his usual sheepish grin, but more of a genuine smile that sent chills down Lily's spine.

Oh no, she thought and glanced into the sky in the ceiling, dear God, why are you doing this to me?

"What, did I say something wrong?" James asked curiously.

"What? No, I was just… thinking."

"Well," he said as he scraped his plate, "I'd better get going. Want to drop in to see Remus before Transfiguration starts. See you in class."

Lily merely nodded as her eyes followed James as he walked out of the Great Hall. Please, H, hurry and write back. I need you.

As the second class of the day – Defence Against the Dark Arts – ended and it was time for lunch, Lily was even more sick and tired of her friends not speaking. Aurora and Sirius seemed inseparable so Lily allowed herself to hang with Elisabeth without feeling guilty – though Aurora kept throwing her angry glances during the two lessons, which was annoying Lily so much that she, as the professor announced the end of the class, quickly made up her mind to reunite her friends. She grabbed Elisabeth by the arm and hurried after Aurora and Sirius.

"Hey! Aurora! Hey! Wait up!" she shouted.

Sirius stopped resolutely and Aurora hesitated but brought herself to a halt anyway.

"If you'll excuse us, Sirius," Lily said, "may I borrow Aurora over lunch?" As Sirius nodded approvingly, Lily grabbed Aurora by the arm with her own free arm and dragged her two best friends off to the first deserted corridor that came along.

"Okay, so we're going to have a little talk," she announced as she let go of her friends. "Here's the deal: I'm sick and tired of you two not speaking, and it has only been half a day. I know that neither one of you wants to be the first to apologize, so I'm thinking we could skip the apologizing. We are all different and our opinions will divert from time to time, but that is not reason enough for anyone to break this friendship off. We've been friends for more then five years and not one of us would be where we are today without the others. Anyone who breaks up this friendship over such trifles will have me to deal with!"

Elisabeth and Aurora stared at her in silence. Finally, Aurora spoke. "Wow," she said. "What an… inflammatory speech."

Lily took a deep breath and continued, a bit calmer. "So, friends again?"

"Group hug," said Elisabeth and the three girls dived into a good, old group hug.

"Lunch anyone?" Lily asked innocently as they emerged from the hug and her friends nodded.

"But seriously, Lily," Aurora said as the three of them headed off towards the Great Hall, "it was only a little quarrel, no need to get that upset… Not that your speech wasn't great, though," she added quickly.

"Yeah," said Elisabeth, "you've seemed a little tense lately. Is everything alright?"

Lily shrugged. "Everything's building inside of me," she said. "Lot of things going on right now. Loads of homework, and the whole letter thing, I'm worrying about what H will think about me when he gets to know me; I'm worrying that it will all be some weird prank. And…" she trailed off.

"And?" Elisabeth urged softly.

"And I'm confused by James Potter," Lily muttered.

"What?" Aurora asked curiously. "Something going on with you two?"

"No," Lily said.

"I thought you were friends."

"We are."

"Are you having feelings for him?" Elisabeth asked.

"No!" Lily exclaimed. "But I'm surprised by how… nice he has become. I can actually talk to him. It just feels… weird."

"People change," Aurora said.

"Speaking of… boys," Lily said, "you and Sirius? Seriously?"

Aurora shrugged. "I don't know what happened. All of a sudden we were… yeah."

"You like him?"

"He's nice."

"I wonder how long it will last this time," Elisabeth said jokingly.

"Dangerous grounds, Lis, dangerous grounds," Aurora replied.

The girls laughed as they entered the Great Hall.

"Oi, Prongs," Sirius called as he hurried after James after the afternoon's classes. "What's the hurry?"

"I'm curious to see whether Harry has gotten any reply," James explained. "I'm beginning to think that mystery girl might not have fallen for him."

"That would be a shame," panted Sirius.

"Speaking of girls," James said, "you still haven't explained how come you're all of a sudden dating the Aurora girl."

Sirius shrugged. "She's cute, isn't she?"

"Hasn't she got a bit of a slut record?"

"Haven't I?" grinned Sirius.

"I guess you're right," James said, "when one comes to think about it, you two are like, the perfect match. Are you serious about her?"

"I dunno," Sirius shrugged, "I'm just gonna go with the flow."

"She seems nice," James said. "It's about time you had a relationship that lasted more than two weeks…"

Sirius slapped him playfully on the arm. "And I'm taking love life advice from you? Yeah, you've been so lucky lately…"

"Dude! I'm just over Evans. I'm looking for a new object as we speak."

"If you want, I could fix you up with someone. I know a really nice Ravenclaw girl."

"What do you mean, know? You slept with her? Dude, I don't want your cast-offs."

"No, I did not sleep with her," Sirius said, "I tried, but she refused and threw a tantrum and we've been friends ever since. Bit like you and Evans, especially now that you guys are friends."

"We have the funniest ways of making new acquaintances," James mused.

By now they had reached not only the Gryffindor common room, but also the boys' dormitories. James looked underneath his pillow, where the letter would be as they had used him as exposure when writing the reply. And what was there, if not an envelope marked with 'H'.

Dear 'H',

What can I say, you did catch my eye. You left me wanting more and I'm curious about you. I have tons of questions, but I wouldn't want to fire them off or it would seem like some sort of interrogation, and that wouldn't be how I want to start this relationship off.

I should also be telling you something interesting about myself, I believe, but as you said, it's hard to present oneself in a proper way. I'm not quite as interesting as I tried to sound in the ad, I suppose, but I expect you to already have that figured out. In my free time, I enjoy just being, hanging out with my friends in the school yard, listening to music or reading, especially muggle books. What about you?

And what does 'H' stand for?

Love,

Me

"We caught her eye!" James grinned satisfactorily. "You reckon we should wait for Moony to write the replay?"

Sirius nodded. "Well," he said slowly, "you'll have to admit – neither you nor me, is anywhere near as good with words as him."

"I'll just write a draft, then," said James, and he rummaged about in his trunk, looking for a quill and a piece of parchment.

"You're really thrilled about this."

James shrugged. "It's kind of exciting, don't you think?"

"Yeah," said Sirius. "Listen, I'm going to meet Aurora before we head off to the Shrieking Shack. I'll meet you and Wormtail in the common room in an hour?"

James nodded absently and began scratching on the parchment.

Author's Note: On Saturday I'm off to Spain, I'm planning on having a lovely week and returning all tanned and happy. Thereafter I'm starting full time at my job, meaning less time to write, though I'll probably be able to find the time if I feel inspired enough. Which I do if you review. wink, wink