Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. I just finished HSC trials and I have two major works due on Monday so it's been pretty hectic. Oh, and did I mention that I'm writing 3 fanfics at once. Well, I am. Because I can't stick to one at a time. Anyway, this chapter is longer than the others. Please review, whether you love it or hate it I'd like to know! My stats say that lots of people have been reading it, but I'd like some feedback if possible! Obviously I'm not perfect, and this is actually the first fanfic I started writing, and I need ideas as well. If anyone has any concerning Anna or Remus, let me know. Maybe together, maybe with other people. I want there to be a subplot involving them, just to lessen the tension/dramatic atmosphere/emotional turmoil. I was also thinking Anna could be in love with Sirius, although that's too depressing I think, cos obviously, he's in love with James, they could never be, and so on and so forth.

In other words: don't just read, REVIEW!

Luva Rose 3.14: I hope this is soon enough!

Messrs Padfoot and Prongs: I put some more James POV in. I like it too. I will definitely have Sirius talk to James about his...feelings...which will be awkward for me I must admit, but it has to happen. And after that, whenever that happens, Lily can talk to James and stuff and all will be good! Because all stories have to end on a happy note in my opinion.

Chapter Three: A Conversation Overheard

Lily and Anna are sitting in the Heads common room.

"Argh! I hate Charms! It's just so utterly confusing, I can't seem to do anything."

Anna indicated she'd given up on her Charms essay by means of ripping the piece of parchment cleanly in two.

"Well, now you're just going to have to start over," Lily shook her head.

"I'd only written about an inch anyway. You're great at Charms, how about you do mine for me?" She gave Lily a charming smile.

"Anna, that might get all the guys but I'm afraid it won't work on me," Lily smiled.

"Some friend you are," Anna retorted.

Lily was about to reply, but at that moment James Potter entered the common room, fellow marauders by his side.

"James, you can't just start a party in here you know," Lily rolled her eyes.

"You got Smirnov in here, I can bring friends too, you know. I just happen to have more of them."

"Yeah but I'm better than all three of yours put together," Anna smirked. "So Lily wins."

"Smirnov, you are clearly mistaken. Can you not see who is before you?" Sirius spread his arms in a gesture that clearly said I am the hottest person in this room.

"Oh you think you're the hottest person here, do you, Black?"

"Smirnov, we both know I don't think. I know. And have been told, over and over again."

"Well I don't know about the others, but I personally don't want to hear about the girls you've slept with," Anna retorted.

Remus and Peter nodded in agreement.

"And," she continued, "you know I have better hair than you do."

At this, Sirius, who was casually making his way over to sit next to Lily on the couch, stopped in his tracks. He turned to Anna, his eyes showing no sign of the usual mischievous spark.

"Oh no, you did not just say that…" James grinned.

If there was one thing Sirius Black couldn't put up with, it was being insulted about his hair, his pride and joy. But then again, Anna could certainly give him a run for his money. She had long, flowing golden locks that sparkled in the sunlight, and which streamed behind her in the wind. Lily often called her Goldilocks, a nickname Anna had never taken a liking to.

"You're going down, Smirnov," Sirius growled.

"Take it outside, will you?" Lily pleaded. "I really need to finish this Charms essay…"

"Fine. Smirnov. Outside. Now." Sirius gestured harshly towards the doorway. It was all Lily could do to suppress a giggle. She knew Sirius would only end up putting a spell on Anna so that her hair turned purple. No, wait, he'd already done that. Maybe it'd be blue this time. He seemed to like doing that to people. Especially Remus.

As Anna, rolling her eyes, was dragged out the portrait hole by Sirius, James came to sit next to Lily. Peter and Remus sat on the floor near the fireplace.

"Only five more inches to go…" Lily muttered, gritting her teeth and scrunching her face up in concentration. "Now, what was that new spell they discovered in 1687 in Romania…"

"Lily…" James prodded her with his elbow.

"Mmm?"

"We need to talk to you about something."

"Mmmhmm."

"It's important."

"…"

"It's about…it's about Sirius."

At this Lily frowned, but she didn't look up.

"Lily, he's been acting kinda strange lately…" Remus piped up.

Lily sighed. She obviously wasn't going to get this finished any time soon.

"Sirius is strange. I thought you guys would have figured that out by now."

"No, this is weird, Lils, wait till you hear this," James said seriously.

Lily looked at the three suspiciously. The Marauders weren't really the type to be concerned about anyone. Sirius must have done something drastic. Like stopped combing her hair. Or eating. Or making lame jokes.

"Natalie Atwood asked him to that dance thing this morning," Peter commented.

"Oh, wow!" Lily grinned. "That's…wow." Natalie Atwood was a seventh-year Ravenclaw. She was tall with long black hair and bright blue eyes, but she wasn't just a pretty face. Despite being one of the most popular girls at Hogwarts, she was incredibly smart, and she worked hard. In fact, she pretty much had it all. And everyone knew she'd been eying Sirius for months. There was an up-and-coming dance that weekend for the seventh-years, a sort of last chance to relax before the NEWTs.

"He said no."

Lily raised her eyebrow at James.

"He said no? Who's he going with, then?"

"Well, that's the thing," said Remus. "He's not going with anyone."

Lily began to see what they were getting at. Although none of them would have known what she knew. Things like this happened every now and then, and Lily would have to cover for Sirius without letting on that she knew more than she did. Mentally sighing, she pretended to think a little about the matter.

"Did he tell you that?"

"Yeah, he did. He said he 'wasn't interested' in going with anybody this time. You're really close to him, Lils, do you know if anything's up? He wouldn't normally reject someone like her. You know him," James asked concernedly.

Yes, she did know him.

"No, he hasn't mentioned anything to me, I didn't hear about that. How about I ask him?" She suggested.

"Thanks, Lils. He's not the sort of guy to go into his innermost secrets, not even for us. But he'd probably talk to you. It's really out of character for him," Remus shook his head in bewilderment. "I sure would've gone with her if she'd asked me," he sighed.

"Aw, don't worry Moony, I'll be your partner!" James grinned.

"No thanks, I'll be right. It's not exactly 'out of character' for me to show up without a date," Remus shrugged.

Lily smiled at him. She didn't feel sorry for him. In fact, she had a lot of respect for Remus. He wasn't the sort of person to take someone to a dance just because he felt he had to. If he took someone, it would be someone he genuinely liked.

"Well, we'd better head back," Remus said, "it's getting late."

"Yeah, and we still have that Potions essay to do as well," Peter sighed.

"But we got that weeks ago! Honestly, don't you ever start things in advance, Peter?"

"I…had more important things to do…" he said, getting up and shuffling his feet suspiciously.

"Alright…" Remus raised an eyebrow, but decided to ignore it for the time being.

"Seeya James, Lily,"

Lily yawned and stretched her arms above her head.

"James do you think you could move to the other couch? I really need to stretch my legs out…"

"Oh, anything for you my lady," he grinned and reluctantly moved over to the other couch, sprawling on top of it.

"Charming," Lily muttered.

"Oh, you love it."

"Perhaps if I was an ape of some kind."

"You're practically doing the same thing!"

"No, James, I'm reclining. What you're doing is…slumping, lounging, sprawling…whatever you want to call it. Lying down in an un-gentleman-like fashion."

"Did anyone ever say I was a gentleman?" He grinned.

How she loved that grin.

No, stop it, Lily, you can't think like that, remember?

But it's so adorable, Said a voice in her head.

I know, but if you keep thinking that, then one thing will lead to another and someone's going to get hurt.

He's going to ask you to the dance, you know.

I know.

And you can't exactly say no…

Yes, I can!

And what's your reason? Who else are you going to go with?

I can't! Dances involve…dancing. And dancing involves being close to someone. And I can't be close to James because I like him. And Sirius…

Ah, yes, Sirius. But there's no harm in going as friends, right?

I guess not.

Sirius won't mind. Just tell him first.

Yeah, he will. And he's my best friend. Ah, this is so complicated!

You've been too hard on yourself, you know. It's time you had some fun. Besides, James deserves a bit of your attention. You've been spending a lot more time with Sirius recently.

Lily groaned audibly.

"What's up?"

"Oh, nothing! Just this Charms essay, you know…"

"You were staring out the window…"

"Yeah, thinking about Charms."

"Sure you weren't thinking about me?"

Dammit, that grin again!

You know you love it.

"Not everything I do revolves around you, James," she rolled her eyes.

Yes, but a lot of things do.

Shut up, voice in my head, shut up!

"Oh, how I love it when you say my name."

"Give it a rest. No more of your sexual innuendos, I need to finish this."

"Okay."

"Okay, that's it? You're giving up already? You only made two!" Lily put on an exaggerated look of astonishment.

"Well, this is something else."

"Right."

It's coming.

"Um…well, I was wondering, since you and I both have no one to go with, if you wanted to go to that dance this weekend with me? As friends, of course."

Say yes.

Say no.

"Uh…"

Yes.

NO!

"Yeah, okay."

James broke into a genuine smile, his eyes lit up as though he had just won the Quidditch house cup.

"Awesome!"

Lily smiled back. It was just as friends. It would be okay. Sirius would understand. She hoped, anyway. Desperately.

"I promise I won't try anything, Lily. I just want to go as friends."

He's so nice.

Yeah, and sexy as well.

Mmm. Hey, no! You made me say that!

You know it's true.

"Sirius?"

"Oh, hey Lils, I was just about to go to the kitchens to grab a bite to eat. Wanna come?"

"Oh, uh, actually I wanted to talk to you about something. Is it okay if we just go into the common room for a bit?"

Sirius looked at her suspiciously.

"What's up?"

Lily looked around, seeing James walking down the corridor towards them.

"Let's just talk in here, okay? Padfoot is a stupid git," she whispered and the portrait hole swung open.

"Hey! Who made that the password!"

"I did! Like it?" Remus gave him a wolfish grin.

"Oh you little..."

"Remus, would you be able to give us a minute in private, please?" Lily asked him.

"Sure thing, oh how convenient for me," and he practically ran up the stairs to the boys' dorm, Sirius glaring after him.

Lily sighed, deciding to come straight out with it. Looking around, she made sure there was no one around. Luckily, it was quite late, so everyone was in bed.

"James asked me to the dance this weekend," she whispered.

"Who?"

"James."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"And you said no, right?"

"No."

"Oh, good."

"No, I meant no I didn't say no. As in no I meant yes."

"You said yes?"

Lily felt tears welling up in her eyes as she saw the hurt embedded in Sirius' face.

"Sirius, I'm so sorry, I couldn't say no. What did you expect me to say? I mean, James is, after all, my friend. And, well, he would've thought there was something wrong if I'd said no. You know I'm not good at coming up with excuses…" she trailed off as Sirius sat down on the nearest couch, his head in his hands.

"Don't give me that, Lily," he mumbled. "What about what we talked about when…when I told you…"

"I haven't forgotten, Sirius. Trust me, it's just as friends. There are no feelings there at all. I won't even dance with him or anything. I'll just make some excuse or whatever, I'll do it. Sirius, look at me…"

He shifted his hands and she could see the tears glistening in his eyes. She sat down next to him, putting her arm around his shoulder. It was quite difficult for her, seeing as his shoulders were so broad, and her arm was quite small. Sirius noticed, and couldn't help giving a small smile.

"Sirius?"

"Mmm?"

"You're my best friend, you know that, don't you?"

"Yeah. I know."

"You have to go with someone, you know. The rest of them all think something's wrong with you."

Sirius tensed.

"Of course there's something bloody wrong with me, Lily! You're going to the dance with him! James! What about me? What about everything I've told you? You say it's just as friends, but you and I both know you like him. I see the way you look at him sometimes, Lily, and I can't stand it, because I know he likes you too. And sooner or later, you're both going to realise it and I…I…"

Lily knew that she would upset him, but she wasn't expecting him to react quite like this.

"You know exactly why I'm not going with anyone. And you're just going to flaunt it in my face that I can't get what I want by going with him! Do you have any idea at all how that makes me feel?"

Lily couldn't help herself now, the tears started to course freely down her cheeks.

"No, Sirius, do you have any idea how I feel? You're my best friend, and I've stuck by you all this time. All this time while I've liked James. Yes, I admit it. I like him. But I've rejected him, I've argued with him, I've ignored him, I've stopped myself from getting too close to him because I know how that would make you feel. But inside, it's killing me. And you're not even letting me go to the dance with him. As friends. The reason I came to tell you was to make sure you didn't think I was going behind your back. I'm not. I'm not betraying you, I've told you I won't even bloody dance with him if you don't want me to!"

She paused to take a breath. Her cheeks were red and hot, and the tears continued to fall.

"You don't understand, Lily."

"I've been trying to understand, Sirius. I've tried really hard. But right now, you're the one who has to understand. When you think you can, let me know."

And Sirius just watched as she walked out the portrait hole.

James' P.O.V.

Wow. I asked her to the dance and she finally said yes! I know it's just as friends, but I'm just glad that I can be friends with her. Well, we've always been relatively good friends, but for some reason she doesn't let me close to her. But my happiness didn't really last all that long.

I decided that as this was an event of great significance in my life at Hogwarts, I would celebrate by going to the kitchens and, well, pigging out, if I must say so. I was walking towards the Gryffindor common room when I saw Lily standing outside, talking to Padfoot. She saw me, but I think she pretended not to, and dragged him inside. Well, seeing as I'd just asked her to the dance, I thought she'd be going to tell her good old pal Sirius all about how excited she was. So…being me, I decided to listen. I love the good old invisibility cloak.

I wish I hadn't now. I thought I'd hear her telling Sirius about how excited she was that I finally asked her. Maybe even how much she liked me. And I thought Sirius would at least have been supportive. But he was angry. Angry that I had asked her.

Trust me, it's just as friends. There are no feelings there at all. I won't even dance with him or anything. I'll just make some excuse or whatever, I'll do it.

I just wanted to get out of there. I wanted to pretend I wasn't hearing it and that I'd get back to the common room and Lily would be there and she'd tell me how happy she was that we were going together.

You're going to the dance with him! James! What about me?

I couldn't take it anymore. Dammit, I should've known. They'd been spending so much time together lately. Why didn't I see it?

You know exactly why I'm not going with anyone. And you're just going to flaunt it in my face that I can't get what I want by going with him!

So, he wants her. Well, he can have her. What was she playing at, saying yes to me when she's with him. Or will be. Sure, they seemed to be arguing but I'm sure they'll get over it. I went upstairs to the boys' dorm, not really hearing what the hell they were yelling about. I'm over this. I have liked her for so long, and she's rejected me so many times, I don't know why this time hurts so much more than the others. Perhaps it's because it's him. My best friend. Sirius and Lily. Lily and Sirius.

I don't know what to do. I'm not stupid enough to let them know I overheard their conversation. Lily said she'd practically ignore me at the dance anyway, maybe I should just go with her and do the same. Although I don't really feel like going now.

"Prongs, you okay? You seem a bit…stressed."

Remus.

"Yeah Moony, I'm fine. Just really tired, damn that potions essay! Has Peter finished it yet?"

"What do you think?"

I look over at Peter, asleep by the fire.

"Uh, James, why aren't you in the heads common room?"

"Oh, well I was just downstairs a minute ago and Padfoot and Lily were arguing. Thought I'd come and get myself some more…friendly company."

Remus knows something's up. Damn him, always so perceptive. But he doesn't say anything. Just asks if I want to sleep in Peter's bed tonight. No thanks. I'll sleep on the floor instead.

When Sirius comes up to the dorm I pretend to be asleep. I know he'd be surprised to see me here but I obviously don't feel the need to give him an explanation. I know I won't be able to do this every night. Then I'll have to admit that something's wrong. I'll think of a good excuse in the morning.

God, I love that girl. And I'm going with her to the dance. But I'll just be there as some decoy so she can pretend she's not with him. And I'm going to have to pretend that I don't know. And it's killing me.

Okay, I know this chapter was a little...angsty and dramatic. But it was necessary. I wanted a way for James to think Sirius and Lily were together, because it's really the only way that Sirius will ever be able to tell him how he feels. And by the way, this is not a slash fic, because I like writing ones that are close to the actual novels, and well, James and Lily obviously got together, didn't they. But I'm thinking I could use this Sirius loves James thing as a reason for the whole changing secret keeper business.

Now that you've finished the exciting part of READING, now comes the even MORE exciting part of REVIEWING!

Moony: yeah, come on. you can't just read a story like this and not comment on it.

Padfoot: particularly one involving me. Feel free to comment on the fact that I am not getting enough action in this story. Honestly, making me gay? What was she thinking? No offence, Prongs -

Prongs: None taken, Pads.

Padfoot: - but I need some excitement here! The only girl around here is Lily and

Prongs: she's mine.

Padfoot: Exactly.

Moony: Well, there's also that Anna. She's pretty cool. I think you should review and tell her that we need subplot together.

Padfoot: Now that's not fair. Moony getting more action than me?

Prongs: Hey, what about me! I'm the one who can't be with my one true love because you're in love with me.

Padfoot: I am not in love with you.

Prongs: Well, you are in this story.

Alright Padfoot old pal, I get it. Once I finish this one, I'll write a story where you get some more action. But for now, you're totally and completely in love with James.

Padfoot: This next story better be good...

Moony: Now review!

Prongs: yes, review!

Padfoot: oh go on. you know you want to...just click that little button down there...