Disclaimer: I own nothing. And it kills me inside sometimes. Not really.

So far: Marlene and James are getting it on, Mary and Sirius are getting it on, and Alice and Frank are a thing. Now that James has stopped asking Lily out constantly and isn't being an asshole all the time, Lily doesn't seem to mind his presence as much, though she hasn't really spoken to him yet.

Chapter 11

Or

Of a Hogsmeade Weekend and Friendship

Summer had been gone for quite a while when the first Hogsmeade weekend came along, and the memory of Halloween was, thankfully, fading. Lily worked extra hard to finish all of her homework so she could be free to hang out with Alice and Frank, something she hadn't done properly since last year. Alice had been on vacation in Egypt for the entire summer, and Lily never really hung out with Frank without Alice, so it simply didn't work. But as she didn't really care what Tally was doing, Dorcas had planned on using the quiet sleep and then catch up on some work, Marlene was planning to go on a date with her newfound boyfriend, and Mary – whom they were hanging out with a lot more lately – was going to spend time with Sirius – apparently making out while drunk had not been part of the agreement, and they were rethinking the whole dating thing – she really had no choice but to hang out with her slightly neglected friends.

Thank God.

The morning of the Hogsmeade weekend she woke early, though by no means on purpose. The three of them weren't meeting until noon, so she found herself deciding to walk around Hogwarts grounds alone. She noticed the Quidditch pitch was being used, and remembered the first match is scheduled for the week after next. But as she grew closer, she realized there was only one player actually on the field: None other than James Potter, of course.

He really is a bloody good flier, she thought, sitting in the stands.

Rather suddenly, James turned to her, and for some reason, it surprised her that he noticed her; it shouldn't have, but she had found herself in a daydream, not really thinking of anything in particular, just watching him fly.

"What's going on, Evans?" James yelled as he got closer to her. He then landed right near her and took off his headgear, so his hair looked even more wild than it usually was. "I'd think you'd be in bed," he said, his tone accusing.

"Woke up early, so I took a stroll. And I'd think the same about you," she said.

"Couldn't sleep," he shrugged. "Decided to get some solo practice in before the big game. Only two weeks away – I'd have scheduled a practice anyway if it weren't for the Hogsmeade weekend."

She shrugged. She didn't ask why he couldn't sleep.

James Potter was a strange creature, one she hadn't cared to examine this close before. She'd always shied away from him, escaped him as quickly as she could. James Potter was a dangerous creature she couldn't afford to talk to in a civil manner – before today, before the past few weeks, before what happened with Severus all those months ago. She'd been delaying this conversation for as long as she could, but one of her best friends was dating him, and she couldn't, after giving them her "blessing", keep things hostile with him. It simply made no sense. And so she knew she had to talk to him – but she never did.

And now he was in front of her, and she really had no excuse anymore. They were alone, and there was literally nothing else for her to do – she had finished every single piece of homework they had received from the professors that week, practiced every spell until she mastered it, worked on every essay until she had no more words left in her.

"So," she said somewhat awkwardly. "You're a good flier."

James took a step back and placed a hand on his chest, as if his heart stopped beating from faux-shock. "Evans, have you just given me a compliment?" he said, sarcasm practically dripping from his voice. "I thought you were incapable of doing such an act."

"Shut up, Potter," she said, blushing. "I was trying to be civil."

He grinned. "That's more like the Evans I know and love."

More like despise, she said. That had been the only explanation she could come up with for the last five years, and it stuck with her: he must have either hated her or wanted her in the most childish way possible. And as James Potter couldn't have wanted her, considering the cold shoulder he'd been giving her since term started, he must hate her.

"… But you know what I mean," he continued. "Anyway, you enjoy flying?"

"Not particularly," she said. "I'm terrible at it. Prefer to swim, any day."

"Really?" he said, and muttered something to himself as she nodded.

"Huh?" she asked. "I didn't catch that."

He grinned. She was really getting sick of his constant smiling, like he didn't have a care in this world. But he was James Potter, and that meant something, and that something was that he didn't worry about anything. He just breezed through anything and everything.

James Potter was the most frustrating thing in her life.

"Nothing," he said finally, slumping his shoulders and running a hand through his hair. "Hey, I'm gonna walk back to school. You wanna walk with me?"

Though she felt that she had definitely managed to fulfill her friendship-mandated quota, she found herself saying "Yes." She didn't know why; it just sort of slipped out, and then it was too late. She couldn't change her mind without seeming rude, and the whole point of this conversation was to be civil.

And that's how Lily Evans found herself walking back up to the castle with James Potter, and they weren't even fighting. They were just walking, in silence, actually, and in a pleasant pace.

It was about five minutes to the castle when James said one last thing. "It's going to be a nice day," he said, looking skyward. And then they said nothing else, until, finally, they went their separate ways.

He wasn't wrong.

"Alice! Frank! Wait up!"

It wasn't, as Alice had been expecting, Lily. Lily, who was never late, was now at least fifteen minutes late. Instead, Marlene was the one running towards her, her once-again growing blonde hair swinging slightly from side to side, like a scene from a movie. Though neither of them knew what a movie was, of course.

"Marlene!" said Frank, surprised. "What are you doing here? Don't you have a date with James?"

"Yeah," said Marlene, breathless. "It's just – Lily told me to tell you – she's going to – to be late. She said – " she tried to regulate her breathing. "Sorry, I ran here so I wouldn't be late too – uh, she said that you should – you should go on without her, and she'll meet you in – in - in Honeydukes." She exhaled loudly, and added, "Do I look decent? This is our first real date, you know."

"You look beautiful," assured her Alice. "Go on, dazzle him."

And Marlene left, leaving the confused couple behind her. Alice had never, as far as she could remember, witnessed Lily being late before; neither had she ever seen someone quite so nervous before, at least as far as she could remember, and she stood there for a second, feeling slightly sorry for Marlene. Then she remembered how she felt on her first date with Frank, and realized, maybe she did remember someone being that nervous. She only hoped it work out with James, for everyone's, not just Marlene's sake; the poor girl was so full of life, it would be a shame for –

"You ready to go?" asked Frank, tugging on her arm.

"Yeah," she said, a smile tugging at the edge of her lips. "Let's go."

Lily did, in fact, join them in Honeydukes shortly, explaining that she had woken up early and then fallen asleep again. "I'm sorry," she apologized. Repeatedly.

Lily Evans was never late. Never. Not even fashionably. She found it to be inexcusable.

"C'mon," she said when they left Honeydukes with bags of sugar and chocolate. "Let's go get a Butterbeer."

"I'm glad you didn't want to go to Madame Puddifoot's," said James as they walked into the packed Three Broomsticks at last. "I hate that place."

"Me too," confessed Marlene. "It's so sticky. Gross. Pink." She shuddered.

James laughed and said, "Choose us a place to sit. Private is preferable of course." He grinned. "I'll get us something to drink. Butterbeer okay?"

"Yeah," she said, and started scanning the room for an empty, preferably small table.

"Marlene," said a voice on her right. It was Mary speaking, sitting next to Sirius. Neither looked like they were enjoying their time together particularly, and Sirius looked rather focused on his nails.

"Mary, hi," she smiled. "I can't find a seat for James and myself – can I sit here?"

Mary nodded, a little too enthusiastically. "How's your date going?" she asked as Marlene cleared a couple of chairs, deeming them fit for human butts to sit on them.

"Quite good, actually," said Marlene. "After years of being best friends with Lily, you sort of get used to thinking of him as the devil. He's sort of okay, though. I mean – I wouldn't be dating him if I didn't like him, but I didn't know how it would be - being on an actual date with him. How's – well, how's yours?"

"Awful," said Sirius.

"Black!" said Mary. "Not true!"

"Oh, yes it is," he said bitterly. "MacDonald. You're a great snog – fantastic, actually – but we just don't fit together. We don't have anything in common. I'm not relationship material, as I've said before, and we've been sitting here for an hour, doing nothing but glare at each other and wish we were somewhere else. I'm glad you're enjoying your date with my best mate," he said to Marlene, "but I'm not going to spend another minute with Mary if it doesn't involve snogging – or more. So I'll see you – I guess – but I'm going now. Hi, James," he said, as James had finally made his way back from Madam Rosmerta, just in time to see Sirius leave.

"What just happened?" asked James, sitting down next to Marlene.

"I think I just got dumped," said Mary.

James winced. "Sorry, he's an ass."

"Yes, he is," Mary said. "But he's a damn good snog, and we really already knew it wasn't going to work. I'm going to go to the loo, so – "

"Oh, I'll come with," piped Marlene. "I'm sorry, James, I'll be right back."

"Oh, okay," said James, looking down at his Butterbeer. "I'll just wait here then."

Sirius Black was, at times, a bit like a hurricane, in the sense that anything that came in his path was sucked into him. Lily was like him in that regard, in a way: but while people were drawn mainly to her kindness, people couldn't help but be affected by whatever and whichever mood Sirius was in. He was just simply too charismatic, too much of a natural phenomenon, to be ignored. And so, when he walked straight into Frank, looking as if the world had personally wronged him, Lily, Alice and Frank couldn't help but all feel like somebody had ruined Christmas.

"Sirius, is everything okay?" asked Frank, looking worried. "You – "

"Bad date," he grunted. "Really bad. I need to spend money on unnecessary things that are actually for me." He marched on.

Frank looked at Lily and Alice, then behind him, at Sirius. Then back at Alice, then back at Sirius. "I can't just leave him alone in that sort of state," he said. "And I mean, he doesn't have an inheritance anymore, he can't afford spending money on unnecessary things in the first place."

"Go," said Lily. "He's my friend as much as he is yours. I'm worried about him."

Frank nodded, and just as he leaned in to give Alice a forehead kiss, she said, "I'll come with you. You could use back up." Alice blushed, but Lily understood.

"It's okay," she said, hiding her disappointment. "You know what – I'll just sit with Mary while I have that Butterbeer. She's probably alone and annoyed as hell, knowing Sirius."

Alice and Frank nodded gratefully, and without another word, dispatched to find Sirius, and Lily walked into The Three Broomsticks.

She couldn't locate Mary. She found James within two seconds, though. His hair was such a mess, she couldn't have possibly missed it.

"Where's Marlene?" she asked.

He turned so fast, he practically heated up the air around him. "In the girl's loo," he blurted. "Why – uh, Marlene said you were out with Frank and Alice?"

She nodded. "I was, but Sirius distracted us, and they split – to see if they can help. I trust you know why he's in such a foul mood," she said in a questioning tone, raising one eyebrow.

"They – Mary and he – fought," he said simply. "Bad date. Are you going to sit down?"

"Uh – yeah. I'll just wait for Mary, then."

They sat there, even more uncomfortable than Mary and Sirius before them, silent. They sat there. And sat there. And then ten minutes had passed, and neither Marlene nor Mary had returned from the loo.

Instead, a woman neither James nor Lily could identify came up to them. "Are you James Potter?" she asked.

"Yes?" James sounded hesitant and looked as confused as Lily felt.

"Two girls – well, one girl – asked me to tell you – well, your date has fallen on her head, and the two of them are currently on the way to the castle to get some treatment. I happened to be there at the time – the floor was slippery, but perhaps your date should have been more careful? In any case, she said that you would probably want to come with, but that they're already gone – and my, it took me over five minutes to find you in this crowd, so they're definitely already gone – and that she's sure that your date would want you to just keep on with your day and come visit later. And that's what I had to say." The talkative woman disappeared, not before Lily said a faint "thanks", and James started gathering his things.

"I better go after them," he was saying. "You can have the Butterbeer, if you want; nobody's touched them yet."

"I actually agree with the strange lady, Potter," said Lily. "I mean, Marlene really can handle a couple of unconscious hours without you. And she has Mary, too."

"Oh," said James. "Are you sure – "

"Just sit down already, James," she sighed.

"You just called me James," he said, a grin tugging at the end of his lips.

"No I didn't," she said. "I said Potter. I always call you Potter."

James finally let the smile cover his features, take over the concerned parts in him. "Are you sure Marlene's going to be alright?"

"Positive. And we can both go visit her later, anyway."

James nodded and sat down, pulling the chair closer to her. "Yeah, alright then. Want a Butterbeer?"

"So, Evans," said James a short while later. "If the end of the world came now, who, in this room, would you kill, and why?"

"Well, that's a cheerful way to start a conversation," she said and sipped on her Butterbeer. "Besides, what does killing people have to do with the end of the world?"

"Does it have to make sense? Answer it anyway."

"You," was the quick response.

"Except for me."

"That guy," she said after a thought, pointing at a slightly obese man. "He's staring at a bunch of third year girls, and I don't like the way he's doing it."

"Okay," said James in a tone suggesting otherwise. "Poor guy, though. You don't even know his name – he might just be staring into space… thinking about his girlfriend… and he might not even be a pedophile. In fact, he might be gay."

"He might be," she agreed. "But I'm going to choose him anyway, just in case he is. Your turn."

"So now I have to choose who to kill?"

"Yes."

"Except for you?"

Lily smiled. "Except for me."

James' eyes scanned the room. During the half hour they had been here, it had cleared up considerably. There were the aforementioned group of third years and the slightly obese man drinking alone; two women gossiping over a purple drink; a group of five twenty-or-so-year-olds, which consisted of three men (a blond wearing a Muggle suit and two dark-haired wizards) and two women (a redhead and a brunette) – as he looked at them, two of them high-fived; and another group of Hogwarts students, which seemed to consist of Hufflepuffs and Slytherins, not an uncommon occurrence.

"That one," he said, pointing in the general direction of the suited blond. "The one wearing Muggle clothing. He bugs me. Why is he wearing that in the only all-wizard town in Britain? Seems a little ridiculous, doesn't it."

Lily laughed. "He looks rather sharp, in my opinion."

"Oh, so I guess we should all change from sensible wear to that Muggle rubbish?"

"Hey, I like the so-called 'Muggle rubbish'. I love pants, and robes are just too long sometimes." She laughed. "You know, in Egypt don't wear them – wizards don't wear robes, that is. It's just too much for the desert. They wear more modern clothing, traditionally." She winced. "That sentence was bad. Traditionally modern? Talk about oxymoron."

"Were we talking about oxymorons?" asked James.

"Do you know what an oxymoron is?" replied Lily.

James huffed. "Of course I do. All I did for years when I was home was read."

"Oh," said Lily. "I thought you had a family?"

"Yeah," James nodded. "But no young relatives, at least, not around my age. Technically, Sirius is my third or fourth cousin – but we don't talk to Dorea, she believes in the whole anti-Muggle propaganda – in fact the Potters and the Blacks never really got along, but because we're both purebloods," he said with a look of disdain, "we have some ties here and there."

"Oh," said Lily. She didn't like where this was going.

"But of course, nobody cares about that shit anyway," said James bitterly. "As long as you're pureblood, it doesn't matter right now if you're talking to a branch in the family or not. As long as you're not a blood traitor or 'worse'…" His tone made it clear he didn't consider being a blood traitor or anything "worse" to actually be bad. "If we make the wrong move, the entire wizard community could turn against us."

"Yeah, I wonder what it's like, being hated," Lily wondered aloud. "Being careful about every move. I wonder."

James' hazel eyes bore into her, and she had to fight not to claw his eyes out. What was he looking for? "Exactly my point," he said. "Nobody should have to live like that."

Lily blushed and looked down at her Butterbeer. "I've been thinking…"

"Yeah?" he said, his expression betraying nothing.

"Things are hard," she said, changing her mind as she spoke. "Times, and stuff. But you – you, and Sirius, and Peter and Remus – you guys make it slightly more bearable."

"What are you saying?" he asked clearly, still expressing nothing – not amusement, not condescension, nothing.

Lily took a sip from her drink and took her time swallowing it, remembering somewhat fondly a trick they had pulled on McGonagall last week. "Just that – your pranks haven't been that awful lately. I still don't support it –"

But it was too late. James had broken into a wide grin and started waving his hands in the air, crying out: "LILY EVANS SAID SHE LIKES PRANKS!" Once he felt she had been embarrassed enough, he calmed down once more, relaxing his hands on the table, dangerously near her hands. She refused to move them; it was a matter of principle. He eventually leaned back, and his hands went with him.

"So," he said. "What made you admit it?"

"Just trying to be nice." She shrugged a chill off as the door opened behind her, letting both wind and people in. "I miss the summer."

"Why summer?" he winced.

"Didn't you have Sirius over? I thought you would have loved it!" Lily exclaimed.

"I did," he said. "I also sorta hated it. Try living with him for over a month. You'll figure it out."

Lily chuckled, and took another sip out of her drink, silently fighting the urge to ask him anything more – she didn't want to be friends with him. She wanted to be friendly with him. But then he surprised her – though really it shouldn't have – with a question. No, a request.

"Wanna go to Dervish and Bangs? I haven't been there today yet."

And really, the most surprising thing – though really, she shouldn't have been surprised at all – was that she said: "Sure, why not."

The first thing Marlene saw when she woke up was very white.

It happened to be the ceiling, but Marlene hadn't figured that one out yet.

"Marlene? Oh, thank God," said a familiar voice to her right. With some effort, she looked at the speaker. The brunette looked familiar… oh, it's Mary. Makes sense, they were just talking –

Why the bloody Hell was she in the Hospital Wing?

"What – " she began, but was interrupted by Madam Pomfrey, who rushed towards her.

"How are you feeling? Does your head hurt? Can you feel your fingers? What about your toes?"

"What about them?" she asked irritably, trying to sit up. Madam Pomfrey kept pushing her back down. "Yes, I'm fine. What happened?"

Both the caretaker and Mary hesitated, but the latter eventually said, "You fell. Hit your head pretty badly – a woman down in the village helped us, and then I brought you here. Don't you remember?"

"The village…" she murmured. "I think I remember…"

"Yeah, we were in The Three Broomsticks – "

"I remember… JAMES!" Marlene cried. "I left James alone, he's probably worried – "

"It's fine," assured her Mary. "Really, like really. I made sure he found out, before we came up here. I bet he's worrying his head off – or at least, most guys would, I don't really know what or how Potter will react – but he'll be to see you later."

"You should rest," added Madam Pomfrey. "It's good you don't have that Potter here – your blood pressure would go through the roof! The boy can't keep still for a second!" Both of the teenage girls chuckled, and Madam Pomfrey said, "MacDonald, you have another ten minutes before you must go – Ms. McKinnon must rest. Soon."

Then she was gone, and Mary and Marlene both burst out laughing, for no reason at all.

"You know, it wasn't too terrible hanging out with you today." James kicked a pebble down the path.

"You too," Lily admitted. She had been surprised, but she really shouldn't have.

There was a short silence and she contemplated whether to say something. It was a hard decision – she wasn't sure she even wanted to hear his reply. It could ruin everything that happened today – and it was such a good day, too. Marlene hitting her head was terrible, of course, but except for that…

"Why did you ignore me these past months?" she blurted. The words fell out of her, like an uncontrollable mess, one she had just made up her mind not to make.

"Oh, I don't know," he said, running his hand through his hair nervously. "Because… because I didn't know how to apologize."

"Apologize?" she said, surprise ringing in the cool air, though it shouldn't have.

"Yeah, no need – well, actually, there probably is a need for surprise, now that I think of it." He sighed. "I need to apologize – for being an asshole basically since we met. But I was afraid. I was – well, I was thinking of last year, on the train – "

"Sorry about that," she interrupted.

"Yeah, me too," he said. "It's just – I mean, asking you out like that all the time, and the like… I mean, it's not like you were the nicest person when turning me down – " she made a face – "but I should have still apologized sooner. And truth is – " he sighed. "I was a little bit jealous of Sirius, too. Like you'd chosen him over me."

"That's ridiculous!" she exclaimed. "Sirius was forced upon me – he forced himself upon me – we were forced upon each other. There was no choice in the matter at all."

He grinned. "I know, I know. But I still felt that way." He kicked another pebble, and there was a short pause, before Lily said, slowly, "Yeah, well, after today… I'm willing to choose both of you."

James' grin became impossibly wide in an impossibly short amount of time. "Does this mean that we're friends now? Are we friends now?"

She nodded. She'd been doing it a lot today, and her neck was beginning to hurt. "Yeah. Friends."

And so Lily Evans changed her mind about James Potter for the first time – but don't be fooled. This is just the beginning, the very beginning, of their story.

We haven't gotten to the juicy parts yet.

A/N: Okay, before anything else, go here . It's an RP/music blog that I've been addicted to and I think is perfect. My favorites are Lily and Moony, but everything about it from the music to the characters is perfect. I stayed up till five am listening to it song by song the night I discovered it.

Sorry I've been gone for a while. I was in Rome for a couple of days (I know. It was a last minute thing, though) and then I did GISHWHES (we didn't win. They haven't tallied the points yet, but we didn't even complete fifty items. Had fun though) and now that that's over, I finally did some writing - and deemed my progress to be enough to allow a chapter to be posted. So here you go.

Parts of this chapter were written before I even got to chapter five, so we're talking about months and months ago, sometime around the middle or end of May. Parts of it were edited heavily, others very little. James and Lily almost wrote themselves; Mary and Marlene were harder. I've wanted to get some Frank and Alice in for a while, so I did my best to sneak them in but now we actually have them as real characters who say stuff, instead of just sitting on the floor of a train! Hopefully I'll manage to sneak them in a bit more before I actually give them a storyline, because sadly they're secondary characters here. What can I do, I'm not Jewels5 (ps. goreadthelifeandtimes).

twilightstargazer - OMG THANK YOU YES that's one of my biggest pet peeves too! I actually consider Peter to be my second favorite Marauder, which is weird, I know, but hear me out. He started out as a lonely, pathetic, probably bullied boy, joined the cool-guys-gang, became so close a friend with them that they'd die for them, and then, after making the worst mistake of his life, repented by saving the Boy Who Lived's life! I know, I know, his betrayal was terrible, but I love him nonetheless. I mean, I love all four of them, and they're all my babies, but Peter is so mistreated in the fandom and I just want to hug him and say everything's going to be okay. Or at least beat him to a pulp kindly. And thank you for all the compliments! Bloody is my favorite curse XP.

Useless-information alert: Originally, this was set around Christmas time. By the time I got around to actually writing most of the chapter, however, I realized that my perfect vision was ruined by the fact that not enough had happened. So this happens just shortly after the school-year starts - not anywhere Halloween, even, and definitely nowhere near the time where one would celebrate Christmas.

(I celebrate Hanukkah, actually, but that's even more irrelevant.)

So, what did you guys think about this chapter? (There are so many of you now, and every time I get an email that says that someone followed it, it makes my day!) Is this too soon? Is it too late? Is it perfect? How did you like the James/Lily interactions? Any thoughts or suggestions? Leave a review, I read and respond to all of them! (Again, unless this gets TLAT famous, I will probably continue doing that.) You're also welcome to favorite and share, of course.

I hope your summer's been going great! I've been dying of heat, but we've bought ice cream multiple times, so it's all good.

JustGail