The morning of the Hogsmeade trip dawned bright and sunny, if a little brisk. The atmosphere outside was beautiful and serene.

Inside the castle, however, there was utter turmoil occurring in the Gryffindor seventh year boys' dormitory. Sirius was lounging on his four-poster, watching amusedly as James and Remus ran back and forth across the room preparing for their dates.

James was looking in the mirror, messing with his hair.

"Hey Pads, can I borrow some product?"

"Oh hell no!" Sirius responded. "I love you like a brother, Prongs- more than my own brother, actually- but there is no way I am allowing you to use my product, especially on a lost cause like that!"

He had to duck quickly out of the way to avoid James' shoe, which came pelting at him after he said this.

Remus was frantically laying out all of his shirts and trousers, mixing and matching them with each other trying to find the perfect outfit. He had been doing this for at least twenty minutes, and Sirius was getting fed up with it.

"Merlin's saggy ballsac, Moony, go with the bloody blue!"

"But what about the red?"

"One, she sees you wearing red all the time. Gryffindor colors, remember? Switch it up a bit. Two, blue gives the impression of loyalty and trustworthiness, both of which are qualities birds are looking for in a man. Plus it will contrast nicely with your eyes. Go with the blue."

"What about me, Pads? I need help, too!" James whined.

"The green, and would you stop mussing up your bloody hair?"

The situation over in the girls' dorm wasn't much better. Lily was trying (and failing) to hide the fact that she was excited about her date with James, and Hermione was still trying to master the hair charms that the other girls had taught her. Despite being dubbed the brightest witch of her age, she had always struggled with household and vanity charms.

"Lily, could you please help me with this?" Hermione asked for the sixth time in as many minutes.

"Yeah, just a minute" she replied.

"You said that five minutes ago."

"Okay, fine, fine, I'm coming!"

Lily quickly whipped her wand around Hermione's head, and in a matter of seconds both her hair and makeup were done.

"Thank you," Hermione sighed. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Yeah, which dress should I wear?"

They all met down in the common room, then headed down to the entrance hall together.

"You look, uh, you look really nice," said Remus as he walked next to Hermione.

"Thank you," she said shyly, "you do, too. The blue suits you really well."

Remus looked back at Sirius, who winked and mouthed "you're welcome" in a smug way.

Up at the front of the group, Lily and James had yet to talk. Lily was silent because she didn't want to accidentally let James know that she was secretly as nervous and excited as he was. James was still in shock that she had agreed to go on a date with him.

The group split up when they reached Hogsmeade. Sirius and Peter headed to Zonko's Joke Shop, Hermione and Remus went to the book shop, and Lily and James to Honeydukes.

"We'll all meet back up at Noon for lunch at the Three Broomsticks, yeah?" Lily called after them. Everyone agreed, and went on their way.

Hermione loved the book shop. It was very much the same as it was in her time, except for the selection. It was quite a lot smaller, since the shop was on the new side, and the books that were new bestsellers in this time could be found in the bargain bin in hers.

After spending some time looking through books with Remus, Hermione discovered that they had very similar taste in reading material. They both preferred nonfiction, because they both loved to learn, and she found that he too enjoyed almost every subject so that he could be more widely learned.

They finally left the book shop after browsing for over an hour.

"We've still got some time before we need to meet up at the Three Broomsticks. Want to go check out Honeydukes?" asked Remus. His chocolate supply was getting low, and he needed to restock.

"Sure, what is Honeydukes?" asked Hermione, trying to keep of the façade of ignorance to her surroundings.

"It's the local sweet shop. It's amazing; they've got almost every kind of sweet you can think of!"

AN: Hello, dear readers! I would just like to take this time to thank all of my reviewers. I am glad that you're enjoying the story, and your tips are really helpful.
Keep them coming! They make me feel happy, which makes me write faster (as well as guilting me into writing if I've been slacking off)!

Lots of love!