Author's Note: Chapter nine! I actually think I wouldn't get this far! Okay, so a few things to mention before we begin. Gracie is going to be acting like a child. Her behavior will be justified later on in the chapter and you will find there is more to her than meets the eye.

By the next week, the entire school knew that James Potter and Angelina White were going out. They acted like a couple and Angelina constantly stated her claim over him to all the girls in school. Though everyone understood he was her possession, while talking about the relationship in hushed whispers in the hallway, many students agreed that it was truly Lily Evans they were rooting for. But because of Angelina's threats, most girls were afraid to even look at James anymore, minus the Marauderesses of course. The three girls were as fearless as ever and now, they had the privilege of dealing with the unfortunate, ever-growing presence of Queen of the He/she (as Gracie and Emma now referred to her as).

Lily's Marauderess friends were actually very worried about her. They saw that she acted normal, but now and then (when James was cuddling with Angelina) she got a boiling, pissed off look in her eyes. She acted tough and confident but Emma said that the jealousy was tearing her apart obviously. Gracie said that if Lily ever saw Angie and James kissing, that she'd probably kill the blonde. As a reply, Sirius said he always liked cat-fights, at which Gracie kicked him fiercely from under the table.

As for James, he was miserable. Yes, he was dating the most popular girl in school and yes, the girl, of his dreams was his best friend, but if only he could stop thinking about his fellow Head that way. When she was in the room, he didn't see anyone else but her. Lily shone with a warmth and pulchritude that made him even happier then when he was flying on his broom.

The Prankwar had been pretty low-key for awhile. The Marauders and Marauderesses were now tied 199-199. Fan-mail continued to pour in for both teams, including bribes for forfeiting, poems, potions, and even some proposals (so Sirius claimed, as he unsuccessfully attempted to woo Gracie over).

Truth be told, each side was waiting for the other to make a move. But the school was getting tense with anticipation and the stress levels were escalating; a prank was bound to happen any day now.

On top of a raging prankwar, plans of a ball, homework, and ever growing hormones, the student body of Hogwarts School was about to have a new kind of tension...

Quidditch.

The first match of the season was set for a cool day in late November, Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff. There was no dirty tricks like there always were when the opposing team was Slytherin, but the glares and curt nods the Gryffindor team received as they entered the hall on the morning of the match were enough to make them clench their fists.

James, whose hair was looking especially unkempt today, sat down next to Gracie, who was trying to push Sirius' lips away from her face.

James ran his eyes over the table, making sure every one of his team members was there, and then dropped his head dramatically into his plate of eggs.

"Are you really that worried?" Someone asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He raised his eyes and settled them on Lily, who was clad in a sparkling gold shirt that read 'Go Gryffindor' in scarlet lettering. Her hair was tied up in the usual bouncy ponytail, but her bangs were pulled back today, revealing the letters P-O-T-T-E-R written across her forehead. Pretty, but sporty. He liked her all the same.

"No, I'm just nervous. If we don't win Lils, well...let's just say you might want to say goodbye just in case I kill myself right after we lose."

"Oh, stop being a baby." She said, lifting up his chin to face her, "You know your team kicks ass without and doubt and you've got me, your lucky charm."

He looked at her, with her bright eyes the color of lucky four-leaf clovers, and knew she was absolutely right.

"Okay, Lucky Charm. I seem incapable of feeding myself. Will you?" He asked, offering her the fork and a pitiful face.

"Alright ickle Jamesie darling," Lily teased, scooping up some egg. "Open wide."

She continued to feed him bit by bit, occasionally collapsing in a fit of giggles. They didn't even notice the conversation going around them.

"So naive." Remus said, shaking his head with a smile.

"I agree. I mean, we're sitting here talking about them and they are so far off in lala land that they don't even realize it!" Emma replied, taking a dainty bite of her scone with lemon butter.

"Do you think they'll eventually realize it?" Remus asked, turning a page of his copy of 'Pranking: A smart and safe guide'.

"I believe so. I think that despite the many opportunities we've given them to get together, that they'll do it when they want to. They're too blind to see it. I think it'll just happen, and they won't be able to stop it. Fate is funny that way. I- I think that they just need some time to get used to the idea of liking each-other."

"I think it's strange that all three of you girls know so much about relationships, yet neither of you have been in one whatsoever."

"Oh, we've dated. Except Lily, I mean. In third year, Gracie went out with this one Hufflepuff guy for two days and then I dated a muggle buy last year. It...um...didn't work out." Emma mumbled, her purple eyes dimming as they slid from the focus of Remus' face to the floor.

"What happened?" Peter asked, clearly listening in on the conversation.

"Peter, it's not polite to intrude." Remus scolded, although inside he was kind of dying to know.

But before Emma could say anything more, Gracie stood up, screaming at the top of her lungs. It obviously was something major that was bugging her, because she was so loud that Lily and James even covered their ears.

"What the hell happened??" Shouted James through the beside-herself-brunette's tremendous yelling.

"HE PUT HIS HAND DOWN MY SHIRT!" She wailed, "WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU PULL SUCH A STUPID MANEUVER??"

Sirius looked back a Gracie blankly and the raised his shoulders in a shrug.

He obviously gave the wrong answer.

Gracie threw herself at him, clawing, kicking, and punching every square inch of his body that she could get to, knocking him on the floor in the process. For a moment, their friends let them alone to fight it out, but when Gracie started to tear up in rage, Lily and Emma managed to pull her off him.

"NO! Let me rip his face off! I hate him!!" The brunette fumed, trying to jerk herself out of her friend's hands.

Sirius stood, brushing some blood from his lip. "What is your problem Gracie?" Sirius yelled, attempting to lunge at her as his friends grabbed him and restrained him.

"MY PROBLEM??" Gracie shrieked, as students in the hall began to turn their heads and look at the scene. "You're the one who treats me as if I'm your personal slut! Let me make one thing clear, I'm not your slut! I'm not even your girl! I'm no-body's girl; no one has control of me. Just leave me the hell alone!"

Tears were coursing down Gracie's cheeks and she was shaking with fury. Her face was red and her brown hair was skewed.

"I never said you were my personal slut! Or girl or whatever! Stop thinking you are the only thing that exists in this world! Get off your high horse and stop treating people like they're below you! You might even want to take that stick out of your arse and live some more!" Sirius yelled back, who continued to strain against his friends his friend's grasp.

"If you insist that I'm not your girl, then why do you drive me insane all the time?" Gracie screamed, her voice breaking with hurt.

Lily looked at Gracie and felt that Gracie was in one of those phases in which she had every emotion pouring from her. Grace Harlow was a girl of many speeds and altitudes. Most of the time, she took everything with stride. But when faced with the jeopardy of her heart, she became nasty, defensive, and angry. For some reason, Sirius invoked these emotions in Gracie more than Lily and Emma had ever seen anyone else do.

By now, the teachers were making their way to the crowd and starting to break it up.

Sirius looked up at Gracie and then down at the floor and then back at her. He stopped trying to get at her. His recently angry, grey eyes were soft and hurt. He looked raw and vulnerable.

"Maybe I want you to be my girl." He said, just loud for only the Marauders and Marauderesses.

Lily looked at Gracie's cold-looking composure and watched it all but melt away. Her grim expression remained set, but if Lily looked close enough, she saw that the hard glint of brown in her friend's eyes had become a warm, sensitive, pool of chocolate at Sirius' words. Another tear slipped down Gracie's tan cheek as she struggled with herself. Her lip quivered for a second, and they thought she was actually going to let her barrier down for once.

But, after a moment of shaky breathing and a clearing of the throat, in a firm and resolved voice, she whispered, "Just leave me alone, Sirius. That's all I want is for you to leave me alone."

James almost felt like crying at the disappointed and agitated look on his friend's face. Gracie wrenched herself out of her friend's hands and, with one last contempt look at Sirius, stormed out of the hall. She kept her face straight and Lily saw that she was no longer crying. But the evidence that she was in emotional pain was written in her eyes. Her eyes said everything about how she was feeling.

Sirius stormed out after her, shouldering his broomstick like a miner would a pick-axe, but they went in separate directions. As the remainder of the Gryffindor team left, chatter broke out again ands the students began to file out towards the Quidditch pitch. Lily gave James a last minute good-luck hug, right before he received his good luck snog from Angelina. Emma and Lily both agreed that they would wait till later to deal with Gracie, and hopefully (if she was still emotional by then) they would find out why she was acting like this.

The game was a clean out win. Gryffindor 150, Hufflepuff 0. James had caught the Golden Snitch on less than two minutes. But while everyone claimed that the 'James Potter Genius and Skill' were what won the game, he insisted that it was his good luck charm, who had been cheering him on from the left corner of the stadium.

Though the school was disappointed in such a short game, they still threw a tumultuous party in the common room after dinner that night. James was personally glad he had ended the game so early, because he could tell by the infuriated look on Sirius' face that he was in too foul a mood to play well. But now however, as James passed a butter-beer to each of his friends, he spotted Sirius shamelessly flirting with a sixth year and Gracie sitting with Emma and Lily, laughing and chatting as if nothing could be better. She even acknowledged Sirius when he started to attempt belly dancing in the middle of the room (though the acknowledgement was seen as a scoff of disgust). Neither of them seemed to even remember the shouting match they had had that morning.

I swear, Lily and I have the most spontaneous best friends. James thought, sitting down and laughing at the stupidity of Sirius.

At the thought of Lily, he let his eyes travel over to where she was sitting with Emma and Gracie. Her face was alight with laughter as she clutched at her sides. The painted 'POTTER' on her face was smeared and illegible. She caught him looking over at her and stared right back. A telepathic message seemed to pass between them, something that only they could understand. He nodded and together they snuck out the portrait hole into the dark, empty corridor.

"Hey." She said, wiping the remainder of the scarlet paint form her face on her sleeve.

"Hey." He said back, rushing up to her and giving her a needed (and most certainly wanted) hug.

She hummed with pleasure, almost unconsciously, completely lost in his tender touch. She could always count on James' hugs to make her feel light and free. Being cooped up in a common room for hours made Lily restless and worn, practically itching to do something unpredictable and crazy, but when James was there, she just wished time could stop and he would hold her forever, the craving for daringness gone.

And he felt the exact same way.

"I forgot to thank you for being at the game, my Lucky Charm." He murmured into her hair as they rocked back and forth.

"Well, it was the least that I could do. Is ummm...Sirius okay?" She asked, concern dousing the light of happiness in her emerald eyes.

"Yeah. Is Gracie?"

"I'm not sure. After the game, Emma and I found her in the dorm, staring out the window with a bowl of pudding in her hands. She wasn't fuming and claimed that it was just a PMS spell. But when I walked into the bathroom, there were used tissues everywhere, as if she had been crying for hours. I really have no clue." Lily said, letting go of James and sinking to the floor.

James sat down next to her, running a hand through his hair and sighing deeply. "So what do we do?"

"James, Sirius and Gracie are two of the most paradoxical people I've ever known, but if they both fight, how will they ever realize they are meant to be?"

"Well, what do you mean?"

"Why does Sirius like Gracie?"

James thought about it. Sirius did talk about the brunette quite a lot, actually. He always compared other girls with her, always spoke constantly of her 'hot bod' in a fascinated tone.

"He thinks she's independent and carefree...and he has this weird idea that she's got a lot more to her then she lets on. I know he thinks she's beautiful, but he also says when he's around her he doesn't know whether he hates her guts or loves her."

"Wow." Lily said softly. "I think that, like Sirius, Gracie gets feelings about people like a really strong sixth sense kind of thing. I think we should just let things unfold."

"Lily, you are so smart, I swear I could--."

"JAAMMESSSIIIEEEE!!" Came a squeal from the portrait hole. "I've been looking for you everywhere! C'mon, we have to go back to the party! The Yearbook, like, wants to take a picture! I think we might be runner up for this year's best couple!"

Before either Lily or James could protest, Angie swooped in, grabbed James' hand and dragged him into the common room after her, Lily following sullenly behind. The red-head found it odd that Emma had disappeared and Gracie was in the center of the room, gulping from a bottle of Firewhiskey. Lily sat down next to Sirius, who was watching Gracie with a rather perplexed look on his face.

"What happened?" Lily asked, nudging Sirius in the ribs and knocking him out of his stupor.

"Nothing." Sirius said innocently. "I simply said no girl could handle more than a mouthful of Firewhiskey and she comes up and chugs the entire bottle right then and there."

Lily raised her eyebrows with amusement. She knew Gracie wasn't one to get drunk, but then again, when faced with challenge from one of the opposite sex, she never thought twice about taking it.

They sat for a while, chatting amiably about nothing particular. Lily searched his face for signs of being especially attracted to Gracie, but Sirius Black turned out to be quite the actor. She decided to bring it up as a topic. At a peculiar time when Gracie was singing rather off-key into a bottle.

"You really like her don't you?" Lil asked.

"Do not." Sirius answered automatically, his eyes betraying every hint of an alibi.

"Do too. Why else would you flirt with her constantly?" Lily asked, relishing the guilty look in his face.

"Because I flirt with everyone. Except you Lils, you're Prongs' girl." He said cheekily, giving her a toothy smile.

"And why did you put your hand down Gracie's shirt?" Lily asked, shoving him at the 'Prongs' girl' comment.

"Because she dared me."

"She did WHAT?"

"I'm honestly telling the truth." Sirius said, throwing his hands up in the air as a means of giving up. "We were talking; she said I was a coward for making nothing but perverse advancements towards her. I said she was sexy. She said that real men were daring and sacrificed their dignity. So I reached down her shirt and poked her boob."

Lily let out a guffaw of laughter, "You really are thick. What Gracie meant was for you to leave her alone."

Sirius' face darkened, "Well, she doesn't have to worry about me now. I'm leaving her alone for good."

"Don't." Lily said, placing a hand on Sirius'.

"Why? That's all she's ever wanted me to do." Sirius said, his hair swinging forward as he hung his head miserably.

They watched in silence as Gracie drunkenly stood on the table and began dancing crazily. Lily prayed that she would forget this ever happened.

"But in Gracie language," Lily began, squeezing Sirius' hand, "Go away means being near you brings to much emotion on her. She can't handle it."

"So, she wants me?" Sirius asked hopefully, rising from his seat to go and talk to Gracie.

"No. It means she's trying to get you out of her head, but is having trouble." Lily said, "Don't stop trying though."

Sirius looked at her for a moment, and then over at Gracie, who was trying to get Remus and Peter to dance with her. "You know, Evans, a year ago, I would never think that we would ever have this long of a conversation. But it's nice to know that the Marauder charm is unbeatable."

"In your dreams, Black. As long as there are those who speak out against you, there will always be resistance to the Marauder charm."

The two smiled at one-another, happy that after six years of arguing, they had reached the stage where they could relate. Sirius held his hand out, and Lily shook it, though each of them tried to crush each others fingers. In a friendly sort of way.

Sirius began to walk towards his friends, but turned and said, "Oh and another thing. James might not wait forever."

"What?" Lily asked sharply, confused at the random notation.

"Lily, the guy may love you, but no one can wait that long."

Lily's eyes widened and she said, "Sirius, James doesn't love me. And I don't love him. Do the words 'just friends' mean nothing to anyone?"

He gave Lily a cocky grin and suavely replied, "Yeah, they mean something. But then again, you and James have always been the worst liars."

And with that, he walked off, leaving Lily more bewildered than ever. She plopped down on the sofa again and watched Gracie on her drunken swagger around the room, flirting outrageously with boys and mocking the girls cruelly in a slurred voice. But after a while, Lily couldn't help but let her eyes wander over to James. He was sitting on Lily's favorite reading chair, Angelina in his lap, cooing over him and raking her manicured fingers through his hair. And despite the monstrous wave of jealousy coursing through her, Lily only looked at James.

He really is a remarkable man. She thought, tipping her head to the side to get a better view. His face looked tired, but in a pleasant way. His hazel eyes brilliantly reflected the flames in the common room fire, making them more endearing and tender. To her that is. Everyone else probably only saw his eyes as cheerful and humorous, but to Lily, those eyes of various flecks of brown, green, amber, and blue were what made them all the more emotional.

Setting her head tiredly on her palm, she imagined herself sitting on his lap, pulling teasingly at his onyx shaded hair, and maybe planting a few kisses on his velvety lips. She would gaze at him for hours and tell him every minute that she loved him.

Wait, do I love him?

Yes, Evans, you most certainly do.

I don't love my best friend.

Yes you do.

Will you stop pestering me?

You started it.

Did not. I never even thought about being attracted to him.

Then why are we even having this conversation Evans?

"Uhh...Lily?"

The red-head's neck snapped around and she exhaled to only find it was only Emma.

"Sorry, I um...dozed off."

"While staring at James?" Emma said, grinning devilishly.

"No. My eyes were staring at the wall behind his head." Lily defended, blushing as she glanced over at James.

Emma glared suspiciously, but said nothing more of the matter, as she sat down next to Lily and began reading. As discreetly as possible, Lily tried looking over at James without Emma noticing. It was near impossible.

Thirty minutes later, the party began to disassemble and Gracie had gone from loud and obnoxious to giggly and cheery, though still outrageously drunk. She lumbered over to her friends and fell over on her arse, hiccupping and laughing insanely. She lay down and stared up at the ceiling for a minute, and then looked up at Lily.

"You're Lyle, right?" She asked, looking at Lily confusedly, "Lilo? Lula? Lola?"

"It's Lily. C'mon Gracie, lets get to bed." Lily said with a sympathetic smile.

"I'm Gracie." Gracie said, as if confirming it for herself.

"Yes dear." Said Emma soothingly, "Now get up so we can go to sleep."

"But the party's not over, Emmaleenie!" Gracie cried sluggishly, giggling spastically.

Lily simply looked at her friend, waved her wand and whispered, "Wingardium Leviosa."

Gracie cackled with childish laughter as they levitated her up to the dorm. But as they entered the dorm, Lily dropped her wand, sending Gracie crashing onto the bed.

Lily and Emma sat down, exhausted, as Gracie began to tipsily sift through Lily's belongings. She pulled out a photo album and began go through it.

"Gee, Loo-loo, you sure do look funny with glasses." She hiccupped.

"That's my mum, Gracie." Lily said, acting as patient as possible.

"Lily, you were a fat kid."

"Emma, your skin is sooooo pale."

"Lily, why do you have a picture of James in a bathing suit?"

They were about ready to hit Gracie with a stunner, when the brunette suddenly stopped laughing and criticizing. Her giddy smile was gone and the laughter in her eyes was replaced with a sad sort of melt. The chocolate-pool eyes were back.

"Wh- who is this?" Gracie asked, her voice emitting a small hiccup, her eyes wide and innocent.

Lily looked over Gracie's shoulder and said, "That's Sirius Black, Gracie."

Gracie looked back at the picture, in which Sirius was leaning on a black and white version of herself, batting his eyes as she scrunched her face up disgustedly. Emma came and sat next to Gracie, taking her hand and squeezing it.

"Sirius?" Gracie whispered her eyes round and shiny.

"Yeah Grae, it's Sirius." Lily said, seating herself on Gracie's other side.

Vulnerability was written all over the brunette's face. She touched the picture and smiled painfully, as if going over a sad memory. It had only been two weeks ago that Lily had taken that picture with her muggle camera. Gracie ran her hands over the picture, her face contorting in quiet emotion.

Finally, after a few minutes, she gave a soft, defeated laugh, "I think I love him." She said, almost confidently, with a wary smile.

An astonished look passed among her friends, but they stayed silent. Gracie took the photo from the album and walked lie down on her bed, putting it next to her head.

"Isn't fate a bitch?" Gracie asked rhetorically, yawning deeply and curling up in the four-poster like a cat about to nap. She mumbled something that they couldn't hear, and then fell instantly asleep.

Lily reached over and pulled Gracie's hair tie out, letting her long, sienna locks hang down.

"It's a pity that Gracie can only be emotional in times when she won't even remember it." Emma said, coming up to stand next to Lily.

"Yeah, I don't think we should tell her what she said, especially if she doesn't remember. I'm going to the Head's dorm. G'night, Em."

"Goodnight Freckles." The ebony haired girl said, giving Lily a firm hug.

Lily smiled and after blowing Gracie a friendly kiss, walked down to the Head's common room.

Nothing prepared her for what she saw when she opened the door.

Angelina was lying on top of James Potter, snogging the life out of him. She was straddling him while his hands encircled her waist. It made Lily sick just looking at it. Her heart clenched painfully and her skin became hot and prickly.

James wasn't very happy either. As much as he loved kissing girls, he found Angelina's technique rather...slobbery. He told himself that it was Lily he was kissing, and that seemed to make him feel a little better.

Lily, as quietly as possible crept up to her room, taking extra care to slam the door as loud as possible. She smiled grimly at the sound of Angelina's squeak of surprise as James sat up and knocked her to the ground.

The red-head closed her eyes and leaned against the wall of her closed dorm.

It's been a long day, she thought, laying down to a restless sleep.

You can say that again...

"Are you absolutely sure they were snogging?" Emma asked over the yelling of the Marauders, who were playing a game of exploding snap in the corner of the common room.

"I'm positive. Unless James had spinach in his teeth and Angelina decided to clean it off with her tongue." Lily said, taking down notes from her book. She occasionally glanced over at the Marauders, smiling at their triumphant shouts as the cards blew up again and again, singeing their eyebrows.

"Did Gracie take her hangover potion?" Emma asked, transfiguring her pillow into a cat.

"Yeah, but only the first portion I gave her. She's not going to be happy about taking that again." Lily answered, transfiguring the cat back into a pillow.

Emma looked around and then lowered her voice, "I'm glad she doesn't remember anything, about what she said and all."

Before Lily could agree with her friend, a piece of parchment popped up on her lap.

My dearest Head Girl,

Would you like to send the quizzes off now? For the personality thing at the ball? Just say the incantation and everyone will have one, it's all set up. Thanks Lucky Charm.

much love,

Your Jamesie

Lily smiled at the familiar scrawl, raised her wand above her head and cried, "Expertus Alumno!"

Instantly, a small scrap of paper appeared on every 5th-7th year in the entire school with three questions on them. Lily grabbed her quill and began to write.

"I have a feeling this dance is going to be rather nice." Emma said, smiling as her quiz vanished after she finished it.

"Only one more week!" Lily exclaimed nervously, stealing yet another glance at James, who was bent over his quiz, his dark eyebrows creased as he scribbled. Lily would have given anything to read what he was writing.

But the quiz vanished before she could ask to look. He stuck out his tongue at Lily in a teasing manner and as a response; she blew a raspberry at him.

"Do you want to go see how Gracie's doing?' Emma asked, interrupting Lily's silly face contest with James.

"Sure." Lily said with a smile, skipping up to the dorm. They opened the door.

"AGGHHH!! TOO BRIGHT!! CLOSE THE DAMN DOOR!!" Gracie screamed as the entered, looking unhappily at them through her sunglasses.

"Sorry Gracie." Lily whispered, knowing the brunette was sensible to noise at the moment.

"How are you feeling?" Emma asked, seating herself on her bed.

"Terrible." Gracie croaked, "I feel sick, sensitive and oddly remorseful...Did I kill someone last night?"

"No, Frown." Lily answered, "You just...let go for a while."

"I wish I could remember what happened last night," Gracie said. "I have this feeling that I cried some. And I think I went through your photo album because there was a picture of Sirius on my bed this morning."

Her friends exchanged looks of slight panic.

"Well, we lost track of you. But I can assure you that you did drink." Emma said carefully, avoiding her friend's eye.

"I guess I can honestly say that getting drunk sucks." Gracie said, taking a swig of her hangover potion with a grimace. "I sent that quiz by the way. It was dumb and I couldn't read the questions."

"Speaking of things that are sucking, I checked the scoreboard and the Marauders are ahead by one point." Emma said gloomily.

"But don't have to worry we've got plenty of pranks going on this week plus the big prank at the dance." Lily supplied confidently, grinning at the thought of what they had in store.

"I'll drink to that." Gracie said, downing the rest of her potion.

In less than twenty seconds she was asleep.

"Did you check the fan-mail?" Lily asked Emma, slipping a sweater on to go outside with.

"Yeah, nothing from the Marauders so far, but you never what they're up to, do ya?"

"Ain't that the truth."

"So... are you sure they were snogging?"

"Emma," said Lily firmly, "Don't make me hex you."

"Okay okay! Did you say anything to them?"

"No I just...walked into my room as quietly as possible. I mean, I hate hate hate Angelina, but I have to accept that she's James' girlfriend and has a higher spot on the food chain than me."

"Oh don't say that. James will always care for you, you guys are best friends. It'll never go wrong with you two."

"Thanks Emma. I'm going to ask James if he wants to go to the library. We have to plan some last minute things about the ball."

"Alright, see ya." Emma called, lips twisting in a knowing smile as her friend walked out of the room.

"No, I don't think we should do that." Lily said, shaking her head, "I like the idea of a wintry setting, since this dance is two weeks before Christmas, right before break, but James, we can't possibly have the dance outside!!"

"Why ever not? Lily, just think, we could have a colorless dome keeping warmth in around the dance floor. It'll be set up to only admit wizards and witches of ages fifteen and up. We'll have the sky before us and Professor Sinstra said the weather that night will be crisp and clear! Please Lils?" James begged, giving her his most pitiful, innocent, adorable look.

Lily considered it for a minute and then nodded acutely.

"Good. Now that that's settled, would you care to help me put these fliers up?" He asked, giving Lily a stack of multi-colored paper.

"Wanted: Marauderesses. Reward: A night with the Marauder of their choice." She read aloud, guffawing after she finished.

"What?" James asked, looking rather affronted.

"This isn't going to work." Lily said, wiping hysterical tears from her eyes.

"Is too!" He defended, looking at Lily as if she was nuts.

"If you want the Marauderesses to come out, why don't you just ask them to?'

"How?"

"Write them a letter." Lily stated simply, taking out some parchment and a quill and handing them to him.

"What do I start with?" James asked in a babyish tone, making his eyes widen at Lily like an owl's.

"How about, Dear Midnight, Freckles and Frown." Lily prompted. He wrote for a minute.

"Okay, now what?"

"Compliment them. Girls in business like it when their technique is enjoyed."

"How about, I liked the trick you played on Angelina two weeks ago?"

"You liked that?" Lily asked abruptly, an odd fuzzy feeling spreading throughout her body.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, but any group of girls that decide to turn another girl into a he/she is truly genius." James said, writing another sentence down that Lily couldn't make-out.

"But...she's your girlfriend." Lily blurted, not believing that she herself was defending her sworn enemy.

"Yes, but everyone should be able to laugh at something funny, even if it happens to someone you care about or yourself." James said as he continued writing furiously. "I mean, remember that time you were staring at someone as you walked into the Great Hall, tripped over your untied shoe, fell on your arse and laughed yourself silly? It's things like that that people should be able to laugh about. I think that Angie just didn't like getting shown up by another girl."

Lily was amazed at James' sudden insight-fullness at the moment. He was so spontaneous that every conversation with him was like thrill ride.

"I finished the letter but I'm ripping it up and throwing it away." Said James, carrying out his promised actions.

"Why?" Lily asked, wishing she could have read it.

"Ummm...I think I should write it with the rest of the guys." James lied, though Lily believed him whole-heartedly, "Do you wanna go grab a snack in the kitchens?"

"Cookie dough ice cream is involved, yes?" Lily asked, standing up and putting her bag on her shoulder.

"Oh, you know it." James said, placing an arm around her shoulder.

Name: Lily Evans

Year: 7th

#1) What is your favorite food and why?

Cookie dough, because whenever I eat it, I'm with James Potter and he's eating it along with me.

#2) If you were a song, what would you be called?

Voices in my Head

#3) If you were stuck in a basement for the rest of your life, who would you want to be stuck with? Why?

James Potter, because he will always have a way of entertaining me and making me snort milk out of my nose in laughter, he is my best friend in the world, and we will always be cookie dough monsters for as long as we live.

Name: James Potter

Year: 7th

#1) What would your life story be called?

How to drive a girl crazy for six years and then become her best friend, while falling in love with her.

#2) What do your dreams usually involve?

Lily suddenly hating me because I blurt my feelings out at her.

#3) If the world were ending in ten minutes, what would you do?

I would run to Lily and consider telling her my feelings, but then chicken out. Then I would take her to the kitchens and we would eat cookie dough together as a final farewell. And after that, maybe as we were all incinerated, I would kiss her as a final reassurance that she is truly the only girl that has ever mattered to me.

A/N: Okay, that was a long chapter. I hated writing it. I don't like this chapter at all. So I won't be mad if you hate as well. At first, I liked it a little, but now that I'm reading over it, its sucks. It's lacking humor and is full of angst (for character development) and I'm horrible for writing it. Just for fun, I'm going to be writing a chapter 10 completely dedicated to humor and laughs. This was hard and angsty so I think you guys deserve some light-heartedness. By the way, those question and answer things from Lily and James were their quizzes that they took. For the ball, which I am so excited to write about by the way. And, last but not least, please review. I BEG YOU!