Disclaimer: Not mine in any way shape or form and never will be.

A/N: I am so sorry that this took so long. I had it finished ages ago but we had a virus on the computer so I couldn't even type this up. We got it fixed just before we went on holiday to the land where computers don't exist but when I got back I types it up as quickly as I could so I hope you like it and the next chapter should be up in a much shorter space of time. Sorry!

I would just liketo thank AmericanPoet for the idea of Melissa you rock!

And another thank you to my contestant reviewers you're the reason I haven't given up.

Well enjoy!

Melissa

Dear James,

I feel like I haven't written o you in ages although it's only been 2 months since you left to go back to Hogwarts.

Although most of my letters are just meaningless ramblings there is a point to this one. I'm not staying at home right now, I'll be living with your Grandma for a while. Naturally I'm sure you're wondering why. James, I know this is never the way anyone wants to hear bad news but your father and I are going through a rough patch. Jamie I've been really ill, the healers aren't sure what's wrong with me and they fear it might be serious. They say that they have a new kind of medical care that they think might help. Your father want me to try it but I think not we cant help but constantly argue over the situation so I've decided to take some time away. Now don't panic, I'll only be away for a couple of weeks and I promise that I'll be home for Christmas so please come home to visit. Why don't your bring that Lily girl, your girlfriend, to stay for the holidays? I liked her very much, she's like the daughter I never had, and you two made a very handsome couple. I would like it a lot if I were to meet her again.

Your brother, Mark, has just been promoted! We're all very proud of him. Well I realize that I shouldn't write such long letters because you should really be spending your time studying for your NEWT's. Your father and I are expecting a long list of O's just like Mark so don't let us down. And your father has asked me to tell you to ensure that you lead your Quidditch team to victory this year. I don't think he could handle the embarrassment of you coming in last place last year but you weren't captain then and I'm sure that'll make all the difference. Make us proud and for goodness sake every time you're about to do something just stop and think like mark then stop whatever the ruddy prank is you were planning on pulling. He made us proud, be like him and you will too.

Lots of love

Mummy

James looked down at the letter in shock; he could not believe what he was reading. His mother was ill, she wasn't living at home, his father and she were fighting and most importantly he had to be like Mark to make them proud! What crap!

James screwed up the letter and threw it into the fire watching the flames engulf the small piece of paper mesmerized by the dancing flames.

"Hello pyromaniac." Said Sirius sitting next to James on the sofa.

"Did you swallow a dictionary?" Asked James shocked by Sirius's use of a word containing more than 5 characters.

"Just because I don't talk smart doesn't mean I can't."

"Right." Said James non-plussed. "What do you want?

"To remind you of the date and time."

"November 3rd 10:15." Said James feeling confused.

"Very good." Smiled Sirius "Now think."

"Shit! Head duties." Exclaimed James jumping up and racing to the Gryffindor conference room.

He ran the whole way and stopped just outside the door to catch his breath before pushing open the door to see Lily sitting on the burgundy couch with a disapproving look on her face and mountains of parchment scrolls piled on the desk in front of her.

"Nice of you to turn up." Said Lily cynically.

"Sorry I was too busy planning my suicide."

"Well hurry up with it would you. I'd rather you be dead and have no option but to not turn up than for you to turn up three minutes late."

"For god's sake you're getting yourself all uppity about three minutes" Said James taking a seat in the armchair adjacent to the couch Lily was sitting on.

"That's three minutes of time wasted James! Gone! Do you want to have to spend even more time here than necessary? Do you?"

"Wow, it must be that time of the month again."

"Just because I'm temperamental it does not mean that I am……"

"Ok, ok. Cool it."

"I've sorted out all the letters we've got to answer form all the students." Said Lily hading James a massive pile of parchment. "All of that is addressed to you, I've got a pile addressed to me and that one in the middle is for both of us."

"Thanks." Said James drawing his quill from his bag and beginning to read the first of many letters.

'Dear James,

My hair is really boring and plain. I think it's the reason girls don't like me too much. Your hair is always really full and windswept and girls seem to like you. I'm pretty sure there's a connection there. I was wondering how you style your hair in the morning and if you used any kind of products to keep it in place.

From

Danni Duvall'

James looked at the letter and fought the strong urge to laugh. He smiled at it shaking his head incrediculously before scrunching it up and throwing it into the fire.

"James!" Exclaimed Lily. "You can't so that, you're supposed to answer them."

"Yeah but it was asking me how I styled my hair." Explained James. "That's just stupid."

"Yeah well I just answered a letter that said:

'Dear Lily,

My friend Julie said that green is the new pink but my other friend, Claire, said that black is the new pink. That was bad enough without my other friend, Sally, saying that blue is the new pink. What do I do? I can't just wear pink when there's a new pink. I can't be caught in the wrong new pink and I just might die of shame if someone saw me in the wrong new pink. Help me!

From

Callie Adams'"

"What did you say?" Asked James.

"I told her a load of crap about how if their all the new pink then their all in colors." Replied Lily.

"Fine I'll answer all the stupid letters I get too." Sighed James picking up his next letter and reading:

'Dear James,

Will you go out with me?

Lots of love from Penny Partridge'

"Do I even have to answer the ones from desperate girls just asking me out?" Asked James in false hope.

"Yes." Lily replied. "And you can't just say no either."

"But that's like 50 of my letters I have to answer with sympathetic no's and soft let downs." Groaned James.

"Deal with it." Smirked Lily.

"Here's a good one." Said James taking one out of the pile and reading aloud:

"'Dear James,

I hear that you and Lily broke up. What a shame. Apparently it was because Lily was a vampire and you didn't want to have mutant children with her. Through saying it in this letter you may safely assume that I am a strong believer in this rumor. I can understand that you would want to deny it but I am writing to see what you have to say on the matter.

From

Rita Skeeter.' "

"No way!" Exclaimed Lily. "Let me see."

James walked over and sat next to her on the coach before handing her the letter.

"How are you going to answer it?" Asked Lily.

"Look on the back."

" 'Dear Rita," Read Lily. "I am afraid you are sadly misinformed. Lily is not a vampire, I am. She did not want to have my children out of fear that my vampire blood would mix with her banshee blood creating a mutation in our babies. Just like the child of our she had last year that strangely enough turned out to be a werewolf.

From

James (the vampire) Potter"

"What do you think?" Asked James.

"Very nice." Said Lily smiling at him.

"This is a good one." Said James picking up a second letter:

"Dear James,

I know for a fact that you are one of Sirius Black's closest friends and so I hope you don't mind me asking you a rather personal question about him. I hear from quite a reliable source that his 'thing' is over 40cm long! Could you please tell me if this is true?

From

Rosie Camden'"

Lily's eyes widened as James read on and she burst into fits of giggles once he had finished.

"Can I answer it please!" She asked her voice shaking with laughter and her eyes watering.

"Yeah sure." Said James handing her he parchment.

James watched as Lily picked up her large ostrich quill and brushing her long, red hair out of her face she scribbled down and answer; a big smile spreading across her face as her quill darted across the page. She eventually stopped writing and put down her quill then picked up the page and studied it admiring her handy work. She then rolled up the parchment and put it on the replied pile of letters.

"What did you say?" Asked James.

"Nothing." Said Lily in mock innocence.

"Lily Antoinette Evans if you don't tell me right now I'll tickle it out of you." Threatened James.

"James Potter if you lay a finger on me then so god help me god I will….."

"Then tell me what you wrote."

"Fine:

'Dear Rosie,

If only this rumor were true but alas it is not. His 'thing' as you put it, is most certainly not that long. He has in fact entrusted me with the fact that it is little over 2cm long. So I wouldn't get too excited if I were you.

From

James (35cm long) Potter

xxx'"

Said Lily grinning as she read and then bursting into a fit of laughter as she finished.

"Oi!" Exclaimed James. "Now it's on."

James drew his hands and wrapping Lily around the waist began to tickle Lily's ribs causing her to scream with laughter.

"James stop!" She screeched squirming uncontrollably and hitting his arm.

"What's the magic word?" Asked James cheekily tickling her even harder.

"Please!"

"Aw. I'm afraid not." Mocked James.

"Quidditch." She squealed hopefully.

"Ok then." Sighed James letting go of her.

"Your password is Quidditch!" Said Lily turning to look at James.

"Yeah."

"You sad, sad person."

"Maybe I am." Said James drawing closer to Lily.

"James I….." She began but unfortunately there was an interruption.

Sirius burst through the door with a worried look on his face.

"What do you want Black?" Snapped Lily giving him one of the coldest looks James had ever seen.

"James…erm Remus needs you." Explained Sirius.

"I'm busy."

"No. He really needs you."

"Fine." Said James getting up.

"James potter if you leave then on your own head be it." Snapped Lily eyeing him up.

"I'll take that risk." Decided James beginning to walk away.

"Potter get back here." She shouted.

"No." He answered simply.

He opened the door and moved just in time to see a knife dig into the wooden door where his head had just been. He turned to Lily a look of shock upon his face.

"Ws that you?!" He asked.

"I missed!" Said Lily in disbelief. "How could I miss your giant head?!"

"Bye." Said James quickly closing the door and rushing out into the corridor to join Sirius.

"So where is Remus?" Asked James.

"He's locked up in our dorm."

"Why?"

"Because he's drunk."

"Drunk!"

……………………

They walked up the stairs to their dorm and Sirius drew his knife out of his pocket and ran it down the crack in the door unlocking it so they could enter. Sirius slowly pushed open the door and entered, closely followed by James, to see Remus lying spread eagled on his back on the floor.

"Come join me guys." He said drunkenly. "Just look at that night sky. And look at the prettyfull stars." He continued pointing upwards.

"Erm….Remus." Began James. "You're looking at the ceiling."

"Yeah but that doesn't mean that I can't see out the window."

"Yeah but it's only 11:00, there is no night sky."

"You always put me down." Slurred Remus standing up and pointing a lazy finger at James.

"Ok then Remus. Why don't you tell me what happened while you drink this." Said James sitting Remus down and handling him a potion, that he had just conjured, to sober him up.

"Well there was this party." Began Remus. "And there were bowls with pretty little ponies on them. They had these chocolate in them. They were yummy James. But I'm beginning to think they had some kind of firewhisky in them."

"Or something a bit stronger." Muttered Sirius.

"You must have eaten a hell of a lot!" Exclaimed James.

"I only had one……..

Or two……….

Ok 5!" Said Remus.

"Just five little chocolates, only five……….

Five packets…………

Ok six……….

Seven packets.

I mean boxes!...

7 boxes……………..

Fine I had 11 boxes. But that's all."

"Good god Remus!" Shouted Sirius in shock.

"I just love chocolate." Said Remus innocently before falling back onto his bed.

"When he wakes up he should be sober." Said James.

"Right. Well I'm glad that was quite 'cause you've got a date in 10 minutes."

"Oh Sirius!" Groaned James.

"Now come one we made a deal."

"Fine."

"By the entrance hall. Go."

"I'm going. Bye."

James left the room and walked into the common room to see Lily storm in.

"James Potter!" She yelled catching sight of him. "How dare you leave! I had to spend extra time going through all my letters, all the letters you were supposed to answer together and the ones for you which funnily enough you were supposed to answer."

"Your just jealous because I have a social life and actually have better things to do than spend my time with you."

"I have a social life I'm just also dedicated to my studies which something you will never understand."

"Oh, so you're not socially inept. You're just boring."

"Look who's talking! I'm not the one whose only interests are girls, his hair and Quidditch."

"I have more subjects that that!"

"I'm sorry I forgot about your love life with Sirius Black."

"I'm not gay!"

"I wouldn't be so sure. So what was the big emergency today? Was Sirius's hair not sitting right? Did he loose his eye liner? Oh my god! Did he chip a nail?!"

"Remus was drunk!"

"Great. He's becoming more and more like you two everyday, which is not a good thing incase you didn't know. Now he's just another looser to take care of and a burden to everyone. You're all pathetic." Said Lily with spite in her voice before walking off without a backwards glance.

"Bitch." Muttered James before continuing on his journey to the hall.

He walked in to see a tall girl, around his height, with an inch below shoulder length curly, dirty blonde hair that was half up and half down. She had deep brown eyes and pale skin with rosy cheeks. She was dressed in tight, dark blue jeans and a pink, flouncy, strappy top with matching stiletto's.

"Hi I'm Melissa." Said the girl as James arrived.

"Hi I'm………."

"Late."

"Sorry?"

"You're late."

"Oh sorry I just…….."

"Oh no don't be sorry. This is most likely because you've been hurt in the past and don't want to seem too egger in case you get hurt again."

"Erm actually…….."

"Your problem is that because of past experience you are now mistrusting of all women."

"No, I was just………."

"Of course you were James." Said Melissa sweetly patting him on the arm and smiling softly.

"Ok then. I didn't know we had a date until, like, 10 minutes ago so I don't have anything planned. What would you like to do?"

"Ah, my choice. I bet you don't often make choices for yourself, you just pass that baton to the nearest soul. This is most likely because you've made wrong decisions in the past, and you realize that, so you're too scared to choose a path just incase you make those mistakes again."

"No…I actually….."

"Your problem is that you're too hung up on the past, and it's holding back your future. But you know James; the past is often the key to the future, you just have to set it free."

"No, I just….."

"Of course you did James."

"So you're in Gryffindor." Said James attempting to change the subject.

"Yes I am." She replied smiling.

"The best without a doubt."

"Aw James."

"What?" He asked feeling confused.

"It's such a shame to say this….."

"Then don't say it." Muttered James.

"……….but you obviously have the insane need to make yourself seem bigger and better than everyone else. Tell me do you have any overshadowing siblings?"

"Look, Melissa….."

"You see your problem is that because you don't feel like you get enough attention at home you need to grab every moment and make it all about you."

"But……"

"I am so sorry that you're like that."

Sorry that I'm like what?! Thought James. I'd rather be an egotistical, attention seeking jerk (which I'm not." That a stupid, bimbo, psychoanalyzing freak (which she is.)

"So Gryffindor common room it is." Said James leading the way up the stairs.

They walked up the stairs in silence Melissa seemed unkeen to start conversation and James did not want to hear the reason he mumbled was that he had a serious fear of bananas.

When they got to the common room there was hardly anyone there. A pair of girls gossiping at the speed of light on the central sofa, a young 2nd year curled up in the far armchair scribbling manically on his parchment, a 4th year couple who James believed to be Poppy D'baise and Liam McCarthy, and a girl called Lesley Cane sitting by the fire engrossed in the Withes Weekly. Other than that James and Melissa were on their own.

"So……" Said James unable to remain silent any longer. "Would you like to play chess?"

"Hmmm…….a game where violence and anger can be let out through tiny little games pieces. James, your obviously bottling up some strong feelings inside which I must advise you not to do, it's bad for your health." Said Melissa voicing the very things James feared he would hear. "But to answer your question yes, I would like to play chess."

James smiled fakely and sat down at a small table and conjured up a wizard chess set.

"What colours?" Asked Melissa.

"I play white." Said James his small white figurines whizzing out of his wand and taking their place on the battle field.

"Ah….always wanting to go first an opportunity that, I can tell, you rarely have." Said Melissa now conjuring up her black pieces.

James was the first to take a piece starting with Melissa's rook. He gloated considerably which Melissa took to mean that he was rarely a winner and therefore he made every small victory much bigger than it actually was. 'Incase she didn't notice', thought James 'I am star Quidditch player, I always win, I don't need to make more out of my victories because their bloody massive without me doing so.' Though James had to admit her statement did get him to shut up.

Melissa won the game which was a result that James was not happy about and he didn't bother hiding it.

"James," Began Melissa in that infuriating tone that a three year olds therapist might use. "You obviously have some real competitive issues. This is most likely due to trying to meet the standards of an overshadowing sibling and therefore you have become accustomed to always wanting to win."

James could tell that if she said one more thing remotely like what she had just said he would blow a fuse.

"Melissa," Said James deciding that the best way to get rid of her was to beat her at her own game. "You seem to feel the need to constantly interpret everything people say to you and tell them what their problem is. I hate to say it but this is most likely caused by your own insecurities that you project onto other people."

"Are you calling me fat?!" Gasped Melissa.

"So you think you're fat." Began James. "This obsession with your weight has most likely occurred because you have been dumped by someone who you really liked for someone who was skinnier than you and you assumed that it was because she weighed less."

"Stop psychoanalyzing me!" Whined Melissa beginning to freak out.

"Ah! So you obviously have a fear of psychoanalysis and people understanding what your really trying to say." Said James feeling that if he pushed it just a bit further he might get lucky and she would leave. "And I know exactly why this is. It's because you're afraid; afraid to see what you really are, and this is it. This is what you are. A stupid, fat, psychoanalyzing freak."

"Your so mean!" She squeaked before bursting into tears and running out of the room.

Peace at last thought James thought it didn't seem to last for long Melissa's seat was almost instantly occupied by Sirius.

"So how did it go?" He asked.

"Not too good." Said James.

"I know, I just saw her crying."

"Then why did you ask?"

"Conversation starter." Replied Sirius simply. "Shame I thought she was quite nice."

"Wow! Hold the phone! You actually thought!"

"Shut-up!" Said Sirius. "Look James, I know Christmas isn't for like another month but do you mind if I go to your house over the holidays you parents will both be there right?"

As Sirius spoke these words James's mind flickered back to the letter he had read that morning and the current situation they were in. If he had been left a little longer James was sure that tears would have begun to fall but he began to hear Sirius's voice in the back of his mind checking that he was still there. James looked up at Sirius who smiled.

"Someone got a bit lost in la la land." Joked Sirius. "I said is that ok?"

James nodded and smiled sadly then said "That would be fine."

A/N: Well I hope you liked it. I did my best though I know that's not too good. I know I asked for ideas for dates last time but now I would really appreciate some ideas of what some of them could do on their dates 'cause I'm running low. Well PLEASE REVIEW! Thnx!