A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed they make me want to write! Oh and I would've had this chapter up for you on Friday but woulnd't let me and then I went to Vermont for the weekend, but it's here now!

Kristin

Please read and review!

Chapter 4: Ball Plans

The next morning Lily and James walked down to breakfast together laughing, their arms linked. Everyone stared at them as they walked into the Great Hall. It was public information that James and Lily had been in a fight, and it seemed that the news saying they were friends again was traveling fast.

Most people were happy that the two were friends again, it threw the whole Hogwarts ecosystem off when two such prominent people in the population were fighting. One person, however, was not happy about this turn of events. Her name was Jenny Harrison and she was a sixth year Ravenclaw, with strawberry blonder hair and light blue eyes. It was known around the school that Jenny liked James and had for almost two years but never made a move on him because it seemed that he and Lily was an inevitable couple. For one fleeting moment, when James and Lily were fighting, she believed that she had a chance with him.

Jenny stared at the duo as they sat down with their friends. She watched as Sirius grabbed a piece of bacon off of Leah's plate, and watched as Leah slapped his hand away. If anything, Jenny was an observer, and for the first time she saw something different in James. Normally when he was around Lily he would act like she was one of the guys, but now, after whatever happened between them, he was treating her differently. It seemed that he was more reserved and careful around her, a sure sign that his platonic feelings towards her had changed to those of romance. On the other hand, Lily wasn't acting any differently towards James.

Jenny sighed. Why couldn't James see that Lily just wasn't interested in him that way? Why couldn't he open his eyes and realize that there were so many other girls pining after him (namely her), why did he only see Lily?

Jenny turned back to her eggs and continued eating in a defeated manner.

"Well hello there Head people!" Sirius said enthusiastically.

"Hello there moron." Lily answered with a smile

"Hey Padfoot." James said slipping into the seat next to Sirius and Lily.

"So are you guys okay?" Sammy asked from across the table.

"Yeah we're fine." James said brightly and Lily nodded with a smile.

"Oh good I was tired of hearing about how terrible your life was James." Peter laughed.

"Shut up guys!" James said turning a reddish color.

"Oh don't worry James, Lily's been a terrible mess too." Kate said with a smirk.

"KATE!" Lily whined loudly.

"Guys stop." Remus said soothingly.

"Yeah he's right, all that matters is that they're friends again." Leah cut in.

"What class do we have first?" Lily questioned, feeling happier than she had in almost a month.

"Potions." James responded.

"Oh goody I love Slughorn in the morning." Lily said, beaming.

"That's just because you're his favorite and in his Slug Club." Sirius said mockingly.

"Shut up, you're just jealous that you weren't invited to be in the club." Lily said defensively.

"Pftt! Like I'd want to be in a club called the slug club. Besides, I get invited to all the parties because I'm Mr. Popular." Sirius said proudly, puffing out his chest.

"And he's so modest!" Remus muttered. Lily giggled.

"We should head to class now." Sammy interrupted.

"Yeah, ok." The others agreed.

The day went by quickly and Lily soon found herself doing homework in the Heads common room that evening. She was just putting the finishing touches on her Defense essay when James walked into the room, having been outside trying out players for the Gryffindor quidditch team. He was made captain in his sixth year, and he took the job very seriously. He thought that Dumbeldore made him Head Boy because he proved himself hard working and a good leader as quidditch captain.

"Hey." James said as he took off his quidditch robes and threw them carelessly across the couch.

"Hi." Lily replied, still writing her essay. "How was quidditch?" She asked, still not looking up. It amazed James how Lily was able to do two things at once, and do both of them so well!

"It was fine, I think I know who I want on my team so it's all good."

"Mmm." Lily agreed. When she finished her essay she said, "You know, we should probably start planning the Halloween Ball that Dumbeldore wants us to throw, are you busy now?"

"Nope, not busy, let's do it now." James said with a smile.

"Great." Lily responded, grabbing a blank piece of parchment and a quill.

"Okay so theme…" Lily muttered.

"Well that's easy, Halloween." James said with a smirk.

"Well obviously", Lily said, rolling her eyes, "but is it going to be a costume ball, and do you go with dates or is it more like a dance?" She asked.

"Costumes! Let's do costumes I'm gonna be a cowboy, no Batman, no a PIRATE! Can I be them all?" James asked like a little kid.

"No. Alright costume ball." Lily wrote down. "Now dates or no dates?" She asked, peering over her paper to look at James. He was sprawled out on the floor, his chin resting easily in his hands.

"Dates, it can be a couples costume ball, you've got to match your date." James decided.

"Sounds good. Is that it?" Lily asked.

"I think so, we don't get to decide on food do we?" James asked.

"I don't think so, I mean we can probably request to have pumpkin juice and candy or something but I don't think we're allowed to tamper with the feast…" Lily cut off.

"Damn! And I was hoping that we could have Mexican food." James said sadly.

"You don't even like Mexican food, the last time you had it you burnt your mouth on the salsa and then you had a stomach ache for the rest of the night." Lily said, giving James a strange look.

"Oh… right… well maybe Hogwarts Mexican food will be better?" James said hopefully.

"I don't know why you'd want to eat something that made you sick! I mean I don't like ginger ale because I associate it with being sick, you know? It's what my mom gives me when I'm sick." Lily responded.

"I only think about my stomach." James said with a huge smile. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Yeah? Well if you think about your stomach so much then you should only think of nice foods to put in it, and for you Mexican isn't one of them so it will not be served. Besides, I thought we already stated that the feast wasn't to be tampered with!" Lily said loudly.

"Yeah I know! I was just saying, maybe the house elves will make me Mexican food if I ask them nicely, not for Halloween but just sometime…" James trailed off.

"I'm sure they will, but I'll just sit back and laugh when I see you feeling so sick…" Lily said with a warning tone.

"Can we talk about something else now? I think we've discussed me and Mexican food long enough." James said with a chuckle.

"Yeah sure. It's nice having these conversations again, isn't it?" Lily asked pleasantly.

"Yep, it sure is." James responded. "Well, I'm off to bed, it's been a long day. Night!"

"But what about your homework?" Lily asked with disapproval.

"Does it have legs?" James asked in all seriousness.

"Um no?" Lily said looking at James as though he sprouted three heads.

"Well then good, it won't walk away. It'll still be there tomorrow if I should decide to do it then. Good night!" He called.

Lily shook her head and said goodnight back. She then collected her essay and went to bed as well.

The next day Lily and James went to Dumbeldore with their Halloween Ball plans and he told them to start spreading the word about the ball. James had started to ask Dumbeldore about Mexican food, but Lily kicked him in the shins so he stopped talking all together.

Dumbeldore conjured up some posters and Lily and James went to find the prefects to help hang them up.

Lily had just finished hanging her last poster in the Great Hall when a good-looking bloke from Huffelpuff named Ryan Adams came over to where she was.

"A Halloween Ball, spooky!" He said, a mischievous twinkle in his bright blue eyes.

Lily laughed, "Yeah, but it should be fun, it's going to be a costume ball." She told Ryan.

"Cool. So are you going with anyone?" Ryan asked Lily.

"Not at the moment, no." She said, gazing up into his eyes.

"Good, 'cause I was wondering if you'd want to go with me." He said almost shyly through his thick lashes.

"I'd love to!" Lily said with a huge smile.

"Great! So we'll meet in front of the Great Hall at eight O'clock this Friday night?" Ryan asked.

"Sounds perfect." Lily replied, beaming.

"Great. I'll see you later!" Ryan said before placing a kiss on Lily's cheek. As soon as his back turned, she put her hand up to her cheek and sighed. She's never had a crush on Ryan, but he was a really handsome boy and it was so flattering to be asked to the dance by someone as fit as him.

Lily found Kate, Leah, and Sammy and pulled them into the nearest girls bathroom before telling them about Ryan asking her to the ball.

"That's great Lils!" Leah said enthusiastically.

"Yeah it is, he's so hot!" Sammy added.

"Tell me what it feels like to run your hands through his hair." Kate asked. Lily laughed but agreed.

"So do you guys have dates?" Lily asked her friends.

Kate and Sammy looked at Leah who was staying quiet.

"What am I missing?" Lily asked slightly upset that her friends didn't tell her something.

"Leah, are you going to tell her or do we have to force it out of you?" Sammy asked with a sly smile.

"Fine. Sirius asked me to go to the ball during breakfast."

"Black?" Lily questioned.

"How many Sirius' do you know Lils?" Kate asked with a sly grin.

"Well there's Sirius Black, and err the constellation!" Lily retorted.

"You thought I was going to the ball with a constellation?" Leah asked, a teasing tone to her voice.

The girls laughed.

"Oh shut up, the lot of you! I was just shocked that you'd say yes to Sirius, that's all!" Lily said.

"Yeah, well he made it really hard not to say yes to him, I mean he was all gentlemany about it and he kind of caught me off guard. Plus I mean if I'm going to a ball with anyone I'd want it to be a friend who's funny, and Sirius fits that quota perfectly." Leah concluded.

"Well then good for you!" Lily smiled. "Now, what about the two of you?" Lily asked looking at Kate and Sammy.

"I've had my eye on that boy Rob, he's a sixth year Huffelpuff, you know the one with the brown hair and brown eyes…" Kate trailed off.

"You just described every guy in the school, well except for the blondes and red heads." Sammy said with a chuckle.

"Rob Jones?" Lily asked helpfully.

"Yeah." Kate responded.

"Oh, he's cute!" Leah said.

"I know. I think I'm going to ask him, he's really shy, but I know him from muggle studies so at least we know each other." Kate said happily.

"Well good luck. Now Sammy, what about you?" Lily asked.

"I was sort of asked by Snape…" Sammy trailed off. The other three girls made faces and Sammy quickly added, "Don't worry I didn't say yes. But I feel bad for him, I men he's all yucky and weird and stuff so I didn't want to say no, so I was like, oh well I was supposed to go with Remus, but if that changes I'll let you know." Sammy said, and all the girls started to laugh.

"So are you going with Remus?" Leah asked with interest.

"Not yet, but I plan on begging him at lunch, actually we should go to lunch now anyway, and if we leave now, I'll have more time to beg and grovel." Sammy finished.

The four girls walked out of the bathroom together happily. Once they were around the corner, Jenny came out of one of the bathroom stalls.

So James wasn't going with Lily! And it looked like all of James' friends who were girls were taken. Maybe she did have a chance of James taking her to the ball after all! And maybe she'd be able to show him that Lily Evans wasn't the woman for him. With that thought in mind, she walked out of the bathroom and back to her common room.

After lunch, Lily and James walked back to their common room for their free period. Lily had nagged James until he agreed to do some of the homework he hadn't done the night before. The two were sitting quietly working on their essay's when James said,

"Do you want to go to the ball together?" He said it casually, not even looking up from what he was writing.

"Oh, um, I can't James." Lily said, not looking at him. In the past they'd always gone to balls together if neither was dating anyone.

"Oh. Okay just wondering. So who are you going with?" James asked trying to remain, cool.

"Ryan Adams." Lily replied.

"Oh, he's nice. Good at quidditch." James answered.

"Oh, is he? Who knew?" Lily replied with a smile.

James grinned, "well anyone who ever went to a quidditch match would know…" James responded.

"I don't understand the ruddy game, so sue me!" Lily said with a roll of her eyes.

"You know, if people could sue other people for not liking quidditch, that would be awesome!" James said, an odd gleam shining in his eyes. Lily threw a pillow at him.

"That wasn't very nice, and seeing as I'm a very nice person I am going to not throw a pillow back at you. Instead I am going to walk up to my room, turn off the lights and sleep because I am tired." James said as he stood up and began walking up the stairs.

"Night James!" Lily called.

"Night Lils." He responded.

Once he was safely in his room, he let out a sigh. Lily was already going to the ball with someone else. It sucked so much, and now James didn't know whom he'd go with. The only person he really wanted to go with was Lily but that was obviously out of the question, and he'd found out at lunch that Sammy was going with Remus and Leah was going with Sirius, and Kate was after some sixth year. James sighed. He needed to get over whatever it was he felt for Lily because it was driving him mad. It was a stupid little crush and it was hard for him to be around her anymore because everything she did drove him wild.

James flopped back on his bed and fell asleep quickly. He'd ask someone to the dance tomorrow.

Lily went up to her room a little after James left. She felt a little bad about ditching James for Ryan, but it wasn't like she and James were dating or something. Plus Ryan was really cute and she liked him a lot, he seemed like a nice guy and she couldn't wait to dress up and get to know him better.

The next day James woke early and went down to the Great Hall. On his way he ran into Jenny Harrison, a nice, pretty girl.

She smiled and said, "Hey James."

"Hey Jenny." He responded with a smile.

"Why are you up so early?" She asked him.

"I couldn't sleep, what about you?" He asked her.

"I had to finish some homework." She replied. James suddenly had an idea.

"Hey, are you going to the ball with anyone?" He asked her.

"Oh, no not yet, why?" She asked.

"Well I was wondering if you'd like to go with me." He said.

"Oh, sure! I'd love to." She replied sweetly.

"Great, So we'll meet at eight outside of the Great Hall?" James asked, running his hand through his hair.

"Sounds great." She replied.

"Well bye" James said as he reached the Gryffindor table.

"Bye." Jenny said. She walked over to the Ravenclaw table with a huge grin on her face.

James smiled contently. He had a date, and she was pretty. Maybe getting over Lily wouldn't be so bad after all…

A/N: read and review!