Disclaimer: If I was JK Rowling, I would not be writing fanfictions, I'd be writing book 6. Therefore, I don't own any of this and I also have not committed identity theft. Thanks for playing, try again.

A/N—from the last chapter: the lord of the rings characters were not dressed from the movie, they had just made up their own costumes—because the movie would not have been around yet when Lily and James were alive.

CHAPTER EIGHT He loves her, he loves her not

Lily woke up late (by her standards, which meant 8:00) on Sunday morning. Mel and Kaye were still asleep. She considered waking them up, but wasn't really in the mood to be evil. She grabbed a book off her bedside table and read for about an hour. Becoming bored with just reading, she decided that it was late enough to awaken Mel and Kaye.

She got up and went over to Kaye's bed. "Kaye," Lily whispered, lightly shaking her. "Kaye," she said a bit louder. All Kaye did was mutter and flip over.

Lily rolled her eyes. She was about to go attempt to awaken Mel when she had an idea.

"Kaye!" she said quite loudly. "Sirius is here—he's demanding that kiss!"

"WHAT? TELL THE BASTARD TO GO THE FUCK AWAY!" Kaye shrieked, sitting up.

Lily shook her head. "Language."

Kaye scowled at her.

"Who's fucking bastards?" Mel asked groggily, woken up by Kaye's screaming.

Lily and Kaye burst into laughter at this. Mel gave them a questioning look. Lily shook her head in a way that said 'never mind'.

"Lily! It's nine o'clock! It's still early!" Mel exclaimed when she was fully awake and had had a good look at the clock.

"No… it's late," Lily countered.

"Whatever, it's morning. Should we get breakfast?" Kaye asked.

Lily grinned evilly. "Sirius might be there… and you know what you owe Sirius," she tormented Kaye.

"AAH NO! Let's not have breakfast. I'm not hungry anyway," Kaye said hastily.

Mel grinned as well. "Ah yes, that little matter of the kiss."

"I… I'll get out of it!" Kaye exclaimed desperately.

Lily shrugged. "What's the big deal? It's just a kiss."

"Yea, but it's with SIRIUS!" Kaye moaned.

Mel raised one eyebrow. "He doesn't have cooties."

Lily laughed. "The way you're going on about it I'd say you were secretly embarrassed because you actually like him."

"HELL NO!" Kaye yelled.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know… you're complaining so much… really, it's not like you have to kiss Snape. What's so bad about Sirius, anyway?"

"Well, he… um… I think that… He's so—he's just…" Kaye stumbled and stammered.

Lily pointed at her. "AHA! You can't think of anything!"

Kaye scowled. "Why are you tormenting me about it?"

"Because you torment me about James!" Lily said. Mel laughed. "You do, too!" Lily accused Mel.

"But now I have someone new to torment you about! That knight!" Mel said triumphantly.

"I don't know his name and I've never seen his face," Lily pointed out.

"So? It's looooooooove at first… conversation!" Mel fake-swooned.

"James will be so jealous," Kaye exclaimed (laughing inwardly at the fact that both Lily and James would kill each other when they found out who exactly they'd been talking to at the masque.)

Lily frowned. "James shouldn't care one way or another. Remember, I'm not speaking to him anyway."

"Oh, you yearn to speak to him, just as he pines to hear your sweet voice," Mel teased.

Lily wrinkled her nose. "Mel, lay off the romance novels, will you?"

"What romance novels?" Mel asked innocently… a little too innocently…

"THOSE!" Kaye screamed, diving off her bed and under Mel's and yanking out a box of romance novels.

"HEY!" Mel screamed, grabbing her pillow and whacking Kaye on the head.

"OW!" Kaye snatched up her pillow and hit Mel in retaliation.

Lily laughed. Mel turned on her. "It's your fault for bringing them up!" she yelled, as Lily grabbed her pillow and tried to use it as a shield.

They pillow-fought for a while, after which they talked some more about the masque. Before they knew it, it was lunchtime.

"I'm hungry," Kaye whined.

"Yea, me too," Mel agreed.

Lily got up from her bed. "I'm going to change, we should go to lunch."

Kaye and Mel agreed, and the three were soon in the Great Hall for lunch.

As they were helping themselves to food, the Marauders walked in and sat down with them.

"So, that was completely awesome last night, right?" Sirius asked them.

"Yea," Lily said. She glanced at James. She was actually surprised how long they'd avoided talking to each other. They even managed it at Quidditch practice. But there was a game next weekend against Slytherin (she figured it would be done before her date with the knight), and she knew that she and James would have to talk then.

"What did you guys go as?" Peter asked the girls.

"NO!" Sirius and Kaye exclaimed at the same time.

The rest of the group looked at them.

"Um…" Kaye started. "Um… it's not fun if we just tell you… do you have any guesses?" she stalled.

"I don't wanna guess, that's dumb," Peter mumbled.

Sirius gave Kaye a wide-eyed look that said 'is that the best you could come up with?' Kaye gave him a look back that said 'it's not like you helped me!' Sirius rolled his eyes and went back to his food.

Lily wondered what that was about. Why didn't they want us all to say what we'd dressed up as? Then she figured it was just something to do with the whole bet that Kaye and Sirius had—and the fact that Kaye still owed Sirius a kiss.

For a moment, the conversation stopped. Sirius didn't want to give anyone time to think about that near-disaster situation, so he said the first thing he could think of.

"Kaye, you still owe me a kiss."

She looked up, her fork half way to her mouth. She pointedly glanced at him, at the fork, and put the fork back down on her plate, coughing. Then she made a face.

"Ok," she sighed. "Let's get it over with."

Sirius smiled and put up a hand. "No, not right now… I'm not in the mood for kissing. I'll tell you when I want it."

Kaye crossed her arms. "Oh? And why do you get to choose?"

"I won," he stated simply.

Kaye narrowed her eyes as she went back to her food.

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"James, you have to talk to her sometime," Sirius said to James later that day.

"Padfoot… I can't. She hates me, it's pointless," James explained. The Marauders were sitting in the boy's dormitory.

Sirius tried again. "But you—"

"Sirius, I think you should drop it," Remus warned him, seeing the look on James' face.

"Yea, fine, ok," Sirius reluctantly consented. Then, "Hey! Next Saturday night is a full moon!"

"Don't you have a game with Slytherin on Saturday?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," James said. Suddenly his eyes grew wide. SHIT! He thought. I can't meet with that girl! I've gotta owl her and reschedule. But how do I find her… oh! That flower!

"Um, Prongs?" Sirius asked at James' wide-eyed expression.

"Hold on—I forgot about something!" He grabbed the flower (which had been sitting on his bedside table,) and his bag and ran out of the dormitory.

When he got to the door to the owlry, he hastily scribbled a note to the girl. At first he wasn't sure if she'd know who it was because they'd never exchanged names, but he just scribbled what he'd been at the masque and they'd met and talked there and planned to meet up. He then wrote down Remus' most used excuse: that his mother was sick and he had to go see her on the weekend. He closed with could they please postpone meeting until the next weekend?

He went to his owl, tied the letter to its leg, and then showed it the flower, hoping that it would be able to find the person by the scent or something… He wasn't sure if it would even work, but the owl didn't protest or anything, so he sent it off.

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Lily was in the common room doing potions homework with Kaye and Mel when a beautiful owl scratched at one of the windows. The few people in the common room turned to look at it until finally Kaye got up and let it in. The owl flew over to Lily and stuck out its leg. Lily untied the message and expected the owl to fly off, but it stayed.

"What's that?" Mel asked as Lily scanned the message.

"Aw, I was supposed to meet that knight from the masque next Saturday, but his mother's sick, and he has to go visit her," she said. The owl pecked at her hand. "Ow!" Lily exclaimed.

"I think you're supposed to reply," Kaye said.

Lily grabbed a piece of parchment and wrote down a note that said it was fine—they could do it the next Saturday at the same time and place. She said also that she hoped his mother got better soon.

As soon as the owl was out of the window she mentally kicked herself for forgetting to tell him her name and for not asking his. Oh well, she thought, I'll find out some time.

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The next night, there was Quidditch practice. Lily and James still managed not to talk to each other—James only talking to her when he was addressing the whole team. Practice went well—but they were all training hard because of the game against Slytherin.

They were finishing up and heading to the locker rooms when James finally talked to Lily.

"Hey, Evans! Can you wait a sec?" he yelled across part of the pitch at her.

She was surprised that he'd finally talked to her. "Um, sure," she yelled back, and waited for him to catch up to her.

He ran over to her. There was an uncomfortable silence for a second. Finally, James spoke.

"I'm sorry about the game—and I'm sorry that it took so long for me to apologize…" he said nervously.

Lily smiled slightly and looked at him. "Thanks. I'm sorry too, it was as much my fault as it was yours."

He smiled. "No problem."

Just then Sirius stuck his head out of the locker room and yelled "JAMES!"

James rolled his eyes. "I wonder what he wants now," James muttered to Lily before running over to the boy's locker room.

As she watched him run away a thought occurred to her. James and I just spoke without arguing or anything. He just apologized to me! On his own! She thought that maybe Remus had made him—but if Remus really had forced James to apologize James would've done it in front of Remus, and he would've done it days ago.

Amazing.

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The next day at breakfast the Marauders sat with Lily Kaye and Mel again. Sirius was across from Kaye, and Lily was next to her.

"Sirius, when are you going to stop torturing me and let me get that bloody kiss over with so that I can move on with my life?" Kaye demanded.

Sirius shrugged, pouring syrup onto his pancakes. "When I feel like it. It's fun to have something to hold over your head," he commented nonchalantly as James walked in late.

James sat down beside Sirius, which meant he was across from Lily.

"Hi," he said quietly to her.

She was surprised. "Hi," she said back.

Kaye (momentarily forgetting that she'd like to strangle Sirius,) glanced across the table at Sirius and gave him a questioning look.

Sirius winked in response and mouthed 'tell you later'.

James and Lily didn't talk through the rest of breakfast, but more than once Sirius caught James sneaking glances at Lily. He had a feeling that James wasn't quite ready to give up on Lily.

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They had Transfiguration after breakfast, so they all walked together to the class.

Kaye yanked Sirius back for a minute when everyone else was very engaged in a conversation about Quidditch.

"Okay, tell me when they became friends," Kaye demanded, leaving out names incase someone heard them.

"They're not exactly friends. He apologized to her after practice yesterday," Sirius whispered.

"And she didn't smack him?" Kaye asked.

Sirius shook his head. "No, I was watching and listening from the locker rooms. It was actually cute," he said. "AAA! I just said something was cute! What's happening to me!?!?" he exclaimed a little too loudly.

"What's cute?" Mel asked, turning around to Kaye and Sirius.

Sirius grimaced. "Um…"

"A picture of my cat," Kaye covered quickly.

"Oh," Mel said.

James smirked and ruffled Sirius' hair. "Awww, I thought doggies didn't like little kitties!"

Sirius glared. "Shut up."

When James was turned around Sirius looked at Kaye and raised his eyebrows, still slightly glaring.

She shrugged, indicating it was the best she could come up with.

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Later that night the Marauders were again sitting in their dormitory discussing what they were planning to do that Saturday night during the full moon.

"We could… um…." Peter tried. "There's nothing left to do! We've done everything!"

Sirius laughed. "That's not true, we could… we could…"

"HA! You can't think of anything either! You were wrong!" James yelled triumphantly.

"Kiss my ass!" Sirius yelled in response.

James raised his eyebrows. "Speaking of kisses…"

"Oh no… on no…" Sirius said, putting his hands up in defense.

"Yea, Sirius… when are you going to get that kiss from Kaye?" Remus asked.

"And… why'd you make the stake a kiss anyway?" James questioned.

Sirius laughed nervously. "Um… because I knew it would piss her off—and postponing it is pissing her off, too."

"No… you want a kiss from her," James said.

Remus nodded. "And you're not taking it yet because it gives you an excuse to talk to her."

"No! That's not… it's just… no!" Sirius protested.

"It is," James, Remus, and Peter exclaimed at once.

"You're ganging up on me!" Sirius whined.

"Admit it, you like her," James commanded.

Sirius shook his head. "Not until you admit that you're head over heels for Lily!"

"Come on, I don't like her that much!" James defended himself.

Sirius smiled. "Yes you do!"

"And you like Kaye!" James said.

"No I…" Sirius stopped. He suddenly had an idea… "I'm not the one in denial here!"

"In denial about what?" James demanded.

Sirius smirked. "About your feelings for a certain girl."

James scoffed. "I'm not in denial!"

"You're in love with her," Sirius teased.

"No! I'm not! But you like Kaye, so you're the one in denial!" James responded.

"I'm not admitting it until you do," Sirius smirked.

"I'm not admitting anything to you losers," James growled, clearly getting angry (at nothing).

"Come on James…" Sirius prompted.

"Yea, James…" Peter added.

"You know you like her a lot more than you let on…" Remus put in.

"FINE! ALL RIGHT? I LOVE HER! THERE ARE YOU—" James yelled. As soon as the words were out of his mouth his eyes widened and his hands went up to clamp over his mouth. "SHIT!" He exclaimed, before trying to cover. "I mean… I only said that to make you shut up… I'm not really…"

Sirius was laughing. "I knew it I knew it I knew it!" he crowed triumphantly.

"Aaaagh," James moaned, burying his face in his pillow.

"James, that's not fair to that princess," Sirius said, getting another wacky idea. He wanted to know what James thought of Lily when James didn't know it was actually Lily.

"What fucking princess?" James asked, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Aww… you've already forgotten! The girl you met at the masque!" Remus informed him.

James rolled his eyes—though nobody could see it seeing as he was still laying face first in his bed. "She… she…" he began, but he realized he didn't know what he thought about that girl.

He hadn't even seen her face, and he'd only talked to her for an hour or so, and he didn't feel anything like the way he felt for Lily, but he felt something… something he couldn't name… she was just…

He figured it would all sort itself out when he met her.

"I don't know—I've never seen her face and I've barely talked to her. I'll tell you prats after I've met her," James muttered, lifting his head a bit from the pillow so they could hear him.

Sirius grinned. Oh, but you already have, he thought.

James was now lost in thought, and the other three decided not to bother him—since he wasn't sitting up from his bed.

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Do I really love her? James wondered later that night as he was falling asleep. But he knew it was true. Sure it had started as just a stupid crush in fifth year, but… he didn't even know when it changed. That was barely even a crush, he'd just milked it for all it was worth and used it mercilessly to his own advantage. And then… the beginning of seventh year their battle had all just seemed so stupid… that is, until they played that damned Quidditch game.

But… she hates me, he said to himself. But… she hadn't been cold or argumentative when he'd apologized to her about the Quidditch game.

He had to figure out a way to end this stupid competition they'd been engaged in since first year. There was no way they could be friends if they were constantly trying to beat each other. He had to prove that he could be more than just an adversary….

-----end chapter eight!------

A/N—I tried to make it long (didn't really work though)… review and I'll write faster and I'll make chapter nine longer than this one was!