Author's Note: This is chapter six. I included so little of Jamesie and Lilykins in the last chapter that I thought that I'd drown this chappie in lots of fluff. Let me know if it's not enough. So read and review.

"Mr. Potter, now that you and Miss Evans have bothered to grace us with your presence, would you please kindly sit down and be quiet?" Asked McGonnagal sharply, nostrils flared as she took her seat besides Dumbledore.

"Sorry Professor." James replied cheekily, "We got distracted."

"By what, dare I ask?"

"Uhhhhh..."

"A violation of rule 265 in the Head's Handbook, Professor," piped up Lily, who had already seated herself and was glancing slyly at a slack-jawed James, "it's so hard to keep those 5th years off each other and I apologize for being late, but James insisted that we give them detention. He's such a stickler about the rules."

"Oh. Well, in that case, you are free from a lecture, but don't do it again Mr. Potter." McGonnagal shot, looking at him with mock contempt.

"Yes, Professor." James replied dumbly before sitting across from Lily at the table in Dumbledore's office.

Lily felt a hand squeeze hers under the oak table and squeezed back. To her and James, it was simply an exchange of a 'thanks for saving my ass' and 'your welcome and you owe me', yet they both felt the subtle jolt when their hands touched.

Is it normal to be this happy when with a guy friend?

Probably not, but seeing as you are bloody in love with him, Evans, it's alright.

Ummm...no. I resent that! Okay, so maybe I'm staring at his backside and front side a little more than usual. And maybe I'm noticing how utterly gorgeous his eyes are, but so what? I bet both Gracie and Em think that James is attractive, but it doesn't mean they are in love with him.

If you're not in love with him Evans, then tell me, who do you dream about every night?

Uh...Paul McCartney?

No you imbecile. James Potter.

Go away. I don't like my best guy friend. Go to hell evil voice.

Suit yourself, but you know it's true.

Lily was able to get away from her thoughts just as Professor Dumbledore began to speak, his blue grey eyes twinkling over his half-moon spectacles.

"As you know, every year a dance has been held at Hogwarts open to 5th years and above. Originally, it has been mine and the House Head's responsibility to plan the dance, but I believe that with such a large graduating class this year that we should have our very own Head Boy and Girl plan the ball. Here is a list of things you need to plan and sort out. You have a spending fee of five hundred galleons for this dance, including hiring a band, decorations, and prizes for the dancing contests. I trust you will not spend this money on anything else but the outcome of this dance."

"Of course Professor." James said, smiling at Lily as she continued to pull her befuddled thoughts together.

You like him.

Do not!

Do too!

Okay, I'm not going to argue with myself. It's pointless.

Either you do or you don't Evans, make up your freaking' mind.

Lily tore her eyes away from James' face, taking the list of things to do from Dumbledore and shoving it in her bag.

"We will meet in two weeks time. The ball will be in four weeks. That is all." Said McGonagall, curtly nodding them out the door.

They scampered out after the goodbyes, Lily's eyes firmly concentrated on the floor as opposed to James' arse.

The next day, almost the entire school stood around the eastern wall of the fourth floor corridor. Even some of the teachers had bothered to see what was going on.

It really was quite a chaotic scene. Paintings were leaning out of their frames to get a better look, ghosts were gliding through students to get to the front, and even Professor Sprout brought her pet Tentacula to enjoy the event.

"PLACE YOUR BETS HERE! BET ON THE MARAUDERS! BET ON THE MARAUDERESSES! PLACE BETS HERE!" Shouted a small third year behind a booth, eagerly taking the bets.

"Wow, I never thought we would make it this far, my friends." Said Sirius, wiping a mock tear from his eye.

"We don't even know what the score is, though we know we will win." James said, puffing out his chest.

"You can't be too sure, dear Jamesie." Said Gracie, walking over to the group sporting a tank-top and jeans.

"The girls might win." Said Emma, flipping her black ponytail over her shoulder.

"Gracie, I didn't recognize you without your purple coloring my dear!" Shouted Sirius over the crowd, flouncing towards her.

"Where's Lily?" Said James, looking over the many heads for a certain red one.

"Doing homework." Emma replied quickly and easily, though no one noticed the quickening of her heart at the thought of telling a flat out lie.

"Why?"

"Because she forgot to finish that Charm's Theory essay." Emma lied again, scanning the crowd for the red head as well, knowing she had a job to do other than homework.

"But wouldn't she wanna come and support the Marauders?" James asked, looking rather put out.

"Missing her much?" Inquired Gracie, once she had extracted herself from Sirius' perverted advances.

"No." Blurted James a little too quickly to not notice.

"You love her. You know it, but you can't admit it to yourself." Said the brunette, giving him the most downright open stare of a lifetime.

James muttered something nasty, to which she replied, "That's what you want me to think, James. You'll thank me someday for giving you this talk." And then she sauntered away, talking quietly with Emma.

"Wait! Gracie, don't you want to give me a victory snog once we get done with the judging for today?" Sirius called.

She turned and gave him the middle finger, to which he blew her a kiss.

"Give it up, Grace. He's never going to stop trying to win you over. It's just like Lily and James." Said Emma, nudging her best friend in the stomach.

"No its not. He's Sirius and I'm Gracie, two negatives do not attract. And speaking of Lily, where the hell is that girl?"

"I'm over here you ditz!" Lily joked form behind a tapestry.

"Do I need to ask?" Said Gracie, gesturing at the hiding place.

"I'm just going over the incantations for the judging." Lily said, brushing an auburn wisp behind her ear, "All the results are in the score box up there, but I have to activate it to calculate everything. This spell will update every time someone places a vote, but will expel more than one vote from the same person. It's a fool-proof system, but I'm almost afraid to see the results."

"Oh, just do it, you ninny." Emma laughed.

"Ok, One." Began Lily.

"Two."

"Three."

"Diribito!" She whispered, pointing her wand at the box on the wall.

"You are sooo amazing." Crooned the blonde as she combed her fingers eagerly through Sirius' hair.

"I try, I really do." Said Sirius, "Don't I try Jamesie?"

Before his friend could answer, a commotion began at the front of the crowd (our Marauder friends were in the middle of it).

"The board! It's changing!" Shouted a fifth year.

"Were all going to die!" Screamed a second year hysterically, as she fainted and fell to the floor in excitement.

Though the Marauders did disagree with the beside herself second year, the fact the board was indeed changing was accurate.

What was an empty, blank board about ten feet up on the wall, became doubled in size and divided into two colors. Silver and Gold. The Gold side bore the word "Marauders" on the top and the Silver bore the word "Marauderesses" on the top. There was also a clock below the board, counting down to the final day of the Prankwar by the second.

The corridor went silent, every student in it nearly dying from the wait and anticipation. Then after almost a minute, numbers began to fade into each column.

Marauders: 23

Marauderesses: 35

"NOOOOOO!" Screamed Sirius, falling on his knees in defeat.

"Impossible." Muttered Remus, feeling deflated that their fool proof scheme had failed.

"That can't be! It has to be a fluke!" Cried James, yanking at his hair in agony.

"Who's up for food?" Asked Peter.

"How could I ever eat again after this?" Sirius asked himself, gripping James' shirt as James attempted to lift him off the floor as the crowd began to disperse.

A small, delicate hand wrapped around James's shoulder. He looked up to find Lily smiling down.

Lily, the only thing that made losing this week worth while.

"Hey." She said, bending down to get a better look at Sirius, who had fallen on the floor again, groaning, "I'm going to die. Die a lonely and horrid death. Someone just kill me now!"

"That can be arranged." Said Gracie, raising a foot over his unmentionables.

Sirius sat up and ran off before Gracie had a chance to lower her foot.

"Hey." James said back, oblivious to everyone else.

"Sorry I couldn't come." Lilly smiled, "I had to finish an essay and it took me four bloody hours to edit the damn thing."

"It's alright." Said James, lost in her eyes.

"Well, we'll just be going." Emma said, taking Remus, Peter and Gracie off to catch Sirius.

Before Lily could do anything to stop it, her and James were alone in the corridor. On the floor. Next to each other.

"So, hungry? It's about time we had some lunch." James said.

"Yeah." Said Lily somewhat breathlessly.

Her eyes are the most beautiful shade of green. He thought.

His eyes look like the honey I put in my tea every morning. She thought.

Absolutely amazing. They both agreed.

"Umm...I thought of a, um, theme for the dance." Lily said, trying to bring her eyes away from his.

"Really?" He asked, not really caring as long as he didn't have to look away from her.

"Yeah, we can discuss it over the meeting tonight." She said, standing up and welcoming a James free atmosphere for a few seconds.

But he soon stood up as well, and her thoughts were once again water logged with the boy.

She made a mental note to search for diseases with these kinds of symptoms.

The three boys sat in the Common room. No one was feeling hungry after the loss against the Marauderesses.

"I can't move. The feeling of extreme subjugation is bringing me to an end." Remus said melodramatically.

"I know the feeling." Sirius said, though he had no idea what subjugation meant.

"I'm not even hungry anymore." Peter said.

"Wormtail, my friend, you may never be hungry again because the loss of this round has nearly killed us all." Sirius said sadly, combing his hair for comfort.

At that moment, the door banged open, making the three boys jump, as Gracie and Emma stalked in.

"We need to talk." Said Gracie, sitting in front of Remus.

"About what, Doll-face?" Sirius said, sitting up with new vigor, "Our future? Our present? The fact that you want to snog my face off? My--"

He was silenced as Gracie flicked her wand at him, temporarily taking his voice.

"About what?" Asked Remus, leaning forward in his reading chair.

"We were just in the Great Hall grabbing a snack. Guess who we saw?" Said Emma, her violet eyes boring into Remus' brown ones.

"Students?" Piped up Peter, earning a 'why are you so stupid?' glare from Gracie.

"Lily and James." Emma finished, sitting next to her brown haired friend.

"And? They are friends." Said Remus indignantly, though bursting out laughing when he saw Sirius silently cussing Gracie out.

"What about James' undying love?" The purple eyed girl shot back.

"Supposedly replaced with strictly platonic feelings." Remus said doubtfully.

"So he's still head over heels for her?" Gracie asked eagerly.

"More or less so. Why? What were they doing in the hall?"

"Nothing major or life changing, but the signs were everywhere. Whenever they touched, she looked down and blushed like a cherry and I don't think James' eyes ever left her face."

Silence from all three boys.

"I think Sirius has something to say." Peter whimpered, looking fearfully at Grace.

"He can keep it to himself." She growled.

But Remus had already taken off the spell and Sirius was already asking, "Why is this so important?"

"Because..." Emma began, looking hesitantly at Gracie for an approval of continuing, "We have reason to believe that Lily likes James back."

More silence.

"Why would you say this?"

"Because Lily is usually a very controlled person, but lately, since getting to know James more, she's been a wreck. Talking to herself about nothing at all, actually bothering to fix her hair in the morning and, I caught her looking at a make-up add in Hogsmeade." Gracie said, as if this was a horror story instead of a romance.

"Okay." Remus said, "But why tell us this?"

"We want to...well, we have a plan." Emma fidgeted.

"A plan to?..."

Gracie ran her cautious eyes over the Marauders, pondering whether she should trust them or not.

"Promise not to tell?" She whispered, leaning forward with a quirk of the eyebrow.

"Pinky swear!" Said Sirius, grabbing Gracie's hand and intertwining their pinkies together and not letting go.

"Alright." She said, yanking her hand from Sirius'.

"We want to get Lily and James together." Emma said resignedly, ignoring the bewildered faces she received.

"And we seem outta line, I know," Gracie supplied, "But they have chemistry and I know they are both too thick to know what's good for them. So we'll just have to make them see it."

"And you plan to do this how?" Asked Sirius.

"Well, that's where you come in. We need to find a way to get them alone in a room together, or stuck by the hand or something."

"Hold your horses, Miss Thang." Sirius said, "If you even think we are gonna consider sticking our Mate with that crazed bitch, then you are off your rocker."

"We'll do what we can, but if we get caught, we blame you." Concluded Remus, ignoring Sirius' angered look.

"Fine. Meet back here tonight at nine o'clock."

"Why?"

"Because there is a Head's Meeting tonight and Lily and James will be up in their dorm for it."

And with that said, the two girls left. Emma cast Remus a sweet smile, at which his cheeks flushed.

"I cannot believe we are about to hook our friend up with the most harmful girl on campus." Sirius said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"Are you kidding me?" Lily asked, nose crinkling up as she giggled at James.

"I'm not kidding! Next thing I know, we are all lying on the ceiling and Sirius was all 'it was an accident'." James confirmed, his pace quickening at the sight of Lily's mirth filled face.

"Wow. I never knew Sirius to be that stupid!" She said, looking down at her finished essay.

"I know, it's sad. On further notice however, may the meeting commence, Head Girl Lily?"

"Why, of course Head Boy James."

"Alright. First things first, what will the theme for the ball be?" Said James, taking out a notepad and quill while moving his glasses down the bridge of his nose so as to look more intelligent.

"I was thinking that we should do a compatibility masquerade." Lily said.

"Huh?" Said James, suddenly losing all persona of looking well educated.

"Well, first off, the ball itself is a masquerade, but before the ball, all people going have to take a quick quiz. We match them up boy to girl and you'll meet your most compatible match up at the ball, where you will share at least one dance with them. We can tell people who their partners are through a delivery system. Of course, it would take longer than a normal ball would to set up, but I'm sure Professor Dumbledore would be fine with that and--"

"Lily," said James, interrupting her never-ending babbling, "I'm all for this, but why don't we take this into slower detail so I can actually take notes. And it sounds like a great idea, Lils."

She smiled at him and yawned, stretching her arms up so high that her shirt pulled up just enough to reveal an inch of her pale midriff, something that James had to pinch himself to keep from staring at.

"Tired dear?" He asked, engaging in playful banter.

"Very much so. Now, ask a question about the the theme of the ball and I'll answer." She said, tipping her head to the side as she watched his movements.

As she explained the idea to him, she was completely infatuated with his actions. The slight smile that crossed his face whenever she spoke, the way he always wrote down her words letter by letter, to avoid making mistakes, and the way his brow creased when he was writing a long word out.

There he was, sitting in his jeans and long sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He always did that, rolled up his sleeves an inch past the elbow. It gave him such a comfortable look that Lily couldn't help but feel relaxed when in his presence. His hair was as messy as ever and it looked like he hadn't shaved in a week, for a dark shadow of stubble covered his jaw-line.

He tapped the pen on the edge of her foot, knocking her out of her daze.

"Lily? Not to break up the lovely meeting, but I promised the boys I'd sleep in the dorm, we've gotta plan for next week's pranks."

"Can I help?" She asked, sleepily packing her bags and shoving them under her personal desk.

"Maybe, but I'll have to talk to the guys about it." He said, grinning at her.

"James?"

"Yes Lily?"

"Can you give me a piggy back ride into the normal common room? Pretty please?"

As if I would give up a chance to have you touch me and wrap your arms around my neck. James thought, as he hoisted Lily on his shoulders and carried her into the common room through the adjoining passageway.

When he entered the room, he nearly forgot about Lily, dropping her. Thankfully, she landed gracefully and didn't get hurt.

Both James' friends and Lily's friends were sitting by the fire talking. Talking as if they were getting along just harmoniously.

"What are you guys doing?" Lily asked, walking over to them.

"Gracie was just explaining to Wormy over here how to kiss properly, and he practiced on Remus." Said Emma, cracking up when James' looked at his friends rather disgusted.

"No, really." Said Lily, not noticing Gracie slip a piece of parchment into her text book.

"Nothing, I'm serious." Emma said, laughing at the weird look Peter was giving her.

"No, I'm Sirius." Padfoot whined, "Good Grace!"

"No, I'm Grace, and I'm not that good." Replied Gracie, laughing at her own witty pun.

"Alright then, let's go girls. It's manicure night." Lily said, racing her friends up the staircase to their dorm.

"Sometimes, I get the feeling that you guys plan things behind my back." James said, walking up to his dorm to rest his "aching back".

"That was a close one." Sirius said, winking at his friends.

"Operation Lily-James starts tomorrow." Said Remus, shaking his head as he sauntered up the stairs behind James.

A/N: Well, phew, that was a hard chapter and I really had to fit a lot into that, so I hope it payed off after the last crappy chapter. Okay, I need at least ten more reviews if you want another chapter. 10 reviews at the least please!