A/N: Chapter 26 has arrived! I hope you like it! I nearly started crying during part of this. Can you guess which part? Did you like the bonding at the end (won't say who, read to find out!)? What do you all think about James asking Lily out again? Who/where do you think Gracie get them Fireworks from? Read and review, favourite and follow! Thank you!

-CONVERSATION OF THE CHAPTER-

ME: Hey Gracie!

GRACIE: Hello!

ME: So how have you been lately?

GRACIE: Erh, alright. Need to visit dear Trixie soon though.

ME: Agreed.

GRACIE: What about you?

ME: Alright. Just want to get this story finished.

GRACIE: WHAT? You- you- want to get rid of me?

ME: NO! I just want to write some other small stories then do a sequel! (A/N: That's right, a sequel!)

GRACIE: YAY! I'll have 2 books about me!

ME: Erm… there sort of based around James…

GRACIE: Oh…

ME: Yeah sorry. I'll try and include you as much as I can okay?

GRACIE: …

ME: I'll give you some chocolate? And let you say the 'ON WITH THE STORY!' bit.

GRACIE: Okay! ON WITH THE STORY!

26

2 weeks passed. During those 2 weeks, Lily's 12th birthday passed, Remus visited his sick mother again, Gracie had a 'talk' with Bellatrix Black (both of them ended up in the hospital wing with minor injuries) and Ravenclaw lost to Hufflepuff in Quidditch, 170-60. The kitchen had been visited by them twice, which delighted Toby the house elf.

At that moment in time, on February the 13th 1972, James, Sirius, Remus, Peter and their other fellow housemates along with the Ravenclaws in their year were sitting in a Charms lesson, taught by Professor Filius Flitwick.

"From everyday uses such as fire-lighting, to igniting the occasional Christmas pudding the Fire-Making Spell is one of the most useful spells around the wizarding household." Professor Flitwick said behind his desk, from where he stood on a tower of large books.

'Christmas pudding…' James heard Sirius mutter and saw him lick his lips.

'The indication is 'Incendio.' Repeat after me, no wands at first. Incendio!' Professor Flitwick said loudly.

'Incendio!' the class repeated.

'Good. Now the movement is quite simple, wave you wand like this…' Professor Flitwick showed them the movement. 'Wands out and have ago. Remember, we're setting fire to the parchment in front of each of you and nothing else. A bucket of water is next to each of you for you to use to put the fire out, as well haven't learned the Water-Making charm yet. Try to not be too enthusiastic.'

The whole class began working.

'Incendio!' James said, steadily pointing his wand at the parchment that lay on the table in front of him.

All that happened was that a small flame lit up at the end of his wand.

'Incendio!' he repeated.

The same thing happened again.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair in frustration, adjusting his new glasses. He still hadn't really gotten use to them.

'Having trouble mate?' Sirius asked from next to him.

'Yeah. You?' James shrugged.

Sirius shrugged.

'Hey mate, I was thinking the other day, where are you going to ask Lily out?' Sirius said.

'I don't know. Any ideas?'

'Nope, sorry mate. I've never really asked a girl out before.' Sirius mumbled.

'Really? You?' James teased.

'Hey!' Sirius protested. 'Lily was the first girl you've asked out.'

James had nothing to reply to that.

'Incendio!' Sirius said suddenly, pointing his wand at the parchment.

To James's amusement nothing happened.

'What about in the common room?' James asked.

'Yeah. Why not? But how are you going to get everyone to leave so it's private?' Sirius asked.

James sighed in defeat.

'Hey, hey, hey. Don't give up that easily. You could do it at night or at breakfast, lunch or dinner.' Sirius suggested.

'How would we get Lily to wake up and come down into the common room in the middle of the night?' James asked.

'We make something up. Get Gracie to help.' Sirius said.

'Yeah, but what if she's afraid of the dark? Or what if the Fireworks wake everyone up?'

James could just imagine it now. It was early in the morning on valentine's day, Lily came downstairs in her night clothes and robe. Gracie had made up a lie about her being afraid of the dark and had left her book downstairs. Gracie had said to Lily it was important to her and she couldn't go to sleep knowing it was 'alone' downstairs. So she woke up Lily and asked her to go downstairs and get it for her. Lily would spot him in the common room and ask him what he was doing there. James would tell her how he 'couldn't' sleep. They would chat for a little while then he would ask her the big question. She would answer him; Gracie's fireworks would go off. It would wake the whole house up and somehow, he didn't think hundreds of sleepy Gryffindors would appreciate being woken at that hour during the night. It would certainly not end well. Lily would ask why there were fireworks, he would say Gracie set them up and had sent her downstairs so he could ask her out, privately. Lily would get angry with Gracie for lying to her and how it was obvious Gracie had lied to her, saying that Gracie didn't read unless necessary and was clearly one that wasn't afraid of the dark. Lily would slap him and he would have to deal with an angry Lily and hundreds of Gryffindors while Gracie, Sirius, Peter and Remus laughed at him.

'Good question mate.' Sirius replied.

'I'm not going to ask her at night.' James said.

'Why not?'

James shuddered.

'Okay… ask her at dinner. Then it gives time for Gracie to set the Fireworks up before.' Sirius said, being serious.

'It's a plan.' James confirmed.

He knelt down and pulled a spare bit of parchment, quill and bottle of ink out of his bag. Checking Professor Flitwick wasn't near them or looking, James began scribbling out a small not.

'What are you doing?' Sirius asked, trying to see what James was writing.

'I'm sending a note to Gracie in case we don't get a chance to speak to her before.'

Sirius nodded his head.

Gracie,

Just decided to ask Lily out during dinner on tomorrow. Can you set up the fireworks before then and set them off after I ask her?

Cheers,

James

'Wingardium Leviosa.' He swished and flicked his wand as he said the spell, making the note rise and float over to the direction James's wand was pointing to. Towards Gracie.

She caught the note in her hand and opened it.

James saw her scan the note them she saluted him.

To his and Sirius's (who had been watching) surprise, she pointed her wand at the note and set it on fire.

'Just in case.' She mouthed, pointedly looking at Lily next to her.

James nodded.

'Hello boys. Can you show me how far you have progressed?' tiny Professor Flitwick squeaked, nearly making him drop his wand.

'Yeah sure.' Sirius said hastily.

Sirius did the wand movements and said the indication, the parchment was engulfed with flames.

Sirius gave a happy cheer and grabbed the bucket of water next to him.

He poured it over the parchment quickly, making the flames die out, leaving him with only half burnt parchment left.

'Good, good! Now your turn Mr Potter,' Professor Flitwick clapped and turned his gaze towards James. 'When you're ready.'

Right. He could do this. If Gracie and Sirius could. He could as well.

'Incendio.'

Flames of fire shot out of his wand, hitting the piece of parchment.

James grinned and poured some water from his bucket onto the parchment, half of it had burnt away.

'Congrat-'

Professor Flitwick was cut off by a roar of flames.

They spun around the see Peter's not just parchment but the whole desk he shared with Remus on fire.

It was quickly spreading, somehow reaching a neighbouring desk and chairs.

Smoke began to fill the air, getting thicker and thicker.

'Mr Pettigrew!' Professor Flitwick scowled, while the class ran away from the fire in panicked.

James thought he even saw some Ravenclaws crying.

Peter looked to be on the verge of tears as Professor Flitwick put the flames out with water pouring out of his wand.

Remus comforted Peter as this happened.

Finally, the fire was put out and everyone stopped panicking.

'Mr Pettigrew, I did warn you not to be too over enthusiastic, didn't I?' Professor Flitwick said as he mended the 2 desks and chairs that had been burnt.

'Yes Professor.' Peter trembled. It was obvious he was in shock.

'We're all lucky nobody got hurt,' Professor Flitwick said sternly. 'Fire can be very dangerous. Accidents do happen, so I'll let you off this time. But next time, please try and be more careful. Alright?'

'Yes Professor.' Peter repeated solemnly.

At that moment the bell rang, signally the end of class.

Sirius whooped in joy (earning him a look from Professor Flitwick).

They gathered up their bags and left the classroom, comforting Peter.

The next day came too quickly for James. One moment it felt like he was just leaving Charms class, and the next he was waking up the next day. The day was February the 14th. Also known as: Valentine's Day. The day James was dreading and looking forwards to at the same time.

He got up and got dressed, heading downstairs with his friends to breakfast.

When they reached the Great Hall, they stopped dead in their tracks. The Great Hall… looked horrible. Pink and red had been splattered everywhere. Where it was on banners on the walls, on the hearts floating in the air or on Professor Dumbledore's robes, it was disgusting.

They began walking towards the Gryffindor table, where some wore the same looks as them, nut others (mainly girls) were beaming and giggling at the newly decorated Great Hall

'It's vile isn't it?' Gracie asked as they passed her.

They nodded in agreement.

They sat at the table and began helping themselves to breakfast when the owl post came in. James was dreading this.

Hundreds of owls flew in the hall, more than usual, and dropped valentine letters or presents at people.

To James's surprise he was given a few same as Sirius.

'Reckon one of these is from Gracie?' Sirius asked hopefully, eyeing the cards that lay before him.

James shrugged and turned to find Lily, who further down the table had two cards. One from him and another. He had a sneaky suspicion who had sent it.

'Well Lily got my card and another. Let's all guess who from?' James said sarcastically.

'Snape.' Sirius, Remus and Peter answered.

'Well it also looks like Gracie got my card. Oh, and about 20 others. Maybe more.' Sirius said angrily, stabbing his fork into his piece of toast over and over again.

Sure enough when James looked down the table, a pile of cards and letters were in front of Gracie. She was carefully opening them, sometimes pulling weird faces. Mary, Marlene, Lily and to his shock, Molly were reading them as well, giggling. Fabian and Gideon were watching Gracie protectively, glaring at the pile in front of Gracie furiously. They glared daggers at anyone that even glanced at her. Fabian and Gideon's eyes met his. They nodded slightly to him, as if asking: 'Did Sirius…?' he nodded in reply. Fabian and Gideon both glanced at each other, then at their sister and then at Sirius (neither of them seemed to notice. Gracie was too busy reading her cards and Sirius was too busy stabbing his toast still). They both returned to look at him further down the table with expressionless faces. 'Look after her.' They mouthed. It was almost as if they knew something would happen. That they were predicting the future. That they wouldn't be there for Gracie. 'I will.' he mouthed back.

He made a promise to himself then. He would always look out for Gracie, especially when her brothers couldn't.

(A/N: This seemed like a great place to stop. But I decided not to… you're welcome!)

Dinner time arrived quickly. After a quick discussion after flying lessons (which James excelled in), they decided that Peter, Remus and Sirius would go to dinner normally, but Gracie would stay and hide behind a couch, so she could set the fireworks off.

They returned to the castle and split up. James and Gracie going upstairs to the common room, everyone else going to dinner.

'Wait. You go ahead. I need to get Lily to come upstairs.' Gracie hissed, turning around and going back down stairs.

He shrugged to himself and told the Fat Lady the password (Frog hopper) and climb in.

He sat down on an armchair and anxiously waited for Lily and Gracie to enter.

'I don't understand-' he heard Lily say as she walked in.

'I'm getting something. I didn't want to be alone.' Gracie explained.

Lily sighed, shook her head and closed her eyes.

That gave Gracie the perfect chance to slip behind the couch.

Lily opened her eyes and immediately spotted James.

'What are you doing here?' she asked harshly.

James stood up, slightly stung by her words.

'Look Lily, I know you might not be completely happy with me at the moment-'

'Correct.' She cut him off.

'Well I was hoping,' James said nervously, as he picked up the rose that had been placed on the table for this reason. 'Would you be my valentine?'

He could literally see Gracie muffling her giggles as she set the fireworks off.

These weren't like the ones she had used last time. Instead of being big and bold, they were themed. Red and pink. Hearts and flowers surrounded them. To be honest, he had to look on in awe. James saw Lily watch them in shock as they went off. Hope swelled up in his chest.

Thank you Gracie.

A minute or so later, when the fireworks stopped, her eyes narrowed.

'No I won't,' she huffed. 'But nice fireworks.' She added, as she stormed out of the common room.

He sat down on a couch nearby.

'Oh James.' Gracie said quietly.

She crawled out from behind the couch and got up.

She took at seat next to him and hugged him tightly.

'Thanks Gracie. I needed that.' James said quietly.

She nodded.

'She'll say yes one day James. I know she will. Don't give up hope.' Gracie said so firmly, James almost believed her.

Not wanting to argue, he just nodded.

'If it makes you feel better, I love you.' She said.

'What?' he asked, his eyes grew wide.

'Ha! You should have seen your face! No, what I really mean is that I do love you- just not in that way. More like a brother.' She said.

He sighed in relief.

'Thank Merlin. Sirius would have killed me.' He mumbled.

Gracie fortunately didn't seem to her him.

'But for the record,' he said loud enough so she could hear. 'I love you like a sister as well.'

She chuckled a little and hugged him again.

Both sat there on the couch, watching the fire. Both of them seemed to have forgotten about dinner.