Tell Me What Your Best Friend Knows

That night in the common room, Lily and Annabelle were looking through dress catalogues for the Ball. Being that it was still very early in the year, the girls weren't yet too worried about their NEWT classes.

"I was thinking…maybe…magenta," Lily said to Annabelle, who nodded in agreement.

"Doll, I'm sorry, but pink is nawt you color. It'll clash with your hair," Sirius said as he sat down on the couch next to Lily. She glared daggers at him.

"Though I refuse to think going to the Ball with you would be worse than going with Potter, you might just give that experience a run for its money," Lily said angrily. Annabelle rolled her eyes and left the common room to go to dinner. This left the room empty, except for Lily and Sirius.

"Touchy, touchy sweetheart. I thought you were supposed to be a nice girl," Sirius said airily, flipping through the catalogue. "Maybe you would have been better off going with James. He really likes you. A lot. And I think he's upset." Sirius chanced a glance at Lily to see her reaction.

"Yeah, right," Lily snorted. "Potter maybe 16 biologically, but he has the emotional capacity of a teaspoon."

"Whatever snookums. Let's go to dinner, shall we?" Sirius's eyes looked dull and unhappy. Maybe that was because they were grey. Maybe there was another reason.

"Sure," she said. After a few moment's consideration, she continued speaking. "Black? Are you upset you're going with me," Lily asked. The two of them got up from their place on the couch and made their way toward the door.

"Eh…well, no per se, it's just that…well, I suspect James is a bit mad at me right now," he said. They walked down the first set of stairs and made a left before Lily picked up the conversation again.

"If it has to do with me, I'm sorry, but you have to understand that…" and Lily trailed off.

"I get it, I think," Sirius said, sadness in his tone, but a mischievous smile gracing his lips. Lily smirked and gave him a hug outside the Great Hall.

"See you later…" she said, arms still around his neck. James and Peter chose that exact moment to come across the pair of them. Sirius didn't notice, but Lily did. Peter whispered something to James, who looked pretty upset. He trudged off toward the stairs. "Er, bye," she muttered in Sirius's ear, running off in James's direction. Sirius entered the Hall.

xxxx

"Potter," Lily gasped, out of breath, when she came upon him at the top of the stairs. James leaned back and forth on his heels awkwardly.

"So…I guess…you and Sirius are an item then," James said.

"Uh, no, no we're not," Lily replied quickly. "I was just hugging him goodbye, you know, as a friend."

"I don't think girls and boys can really be friends," James said though. "Not at our age, anyway. And I wasn't necessarily talking about the hug. I meant more the fact that you're his date to the ball."

"Yeah well, we are, me and Black and friends," Lily said, purposefully ignoring his last remark about the ball. James pretended not to notice and shrugged.

"Are we friends Lily," he asked, avoiding eye contact.

"Uh…" she took a moment to answer. Truthfully, she didn't know if she and James were friends. The honest answer was probably "no."

"Nah, it's okay, I think we both know the answer to that," James said dryly. "Look, I know you think I'm an arrogant prick, and…well, you're kind of right. But I've been trying to change, Lily." He looked down at his shoes.

"I…James, we may not be friends, but," and she squeezed her eyes shut, "There might be something here. I think I have feelings for you." But when Lily opened her eyes again, hoping to see James's laughing hazel eyes, he was gone.

xxxx

A while later, Lily and her friends sat in their dormitory, rehashing the gory details for the thousandth time.

"And I said that to him, and then he was gone," Lily wailed, pulling at the ends of her red hair in desperation. The girls shared looks of sympathy.

"Lily, I'm so sorry," said Karin. She rose from her bed to sit with Lily on hers.

"Yeah me too Lils. Let's castrate him," Katelyn said.

"Well, this is James Potter we're talking about; what'd you expect," Morgan asked, tugging on her bangs.

"Well, I would expect you to shut it, Pettrigrew," Katelyn snapped at her best friend. The two tended to clash on issues of the heart, though they agreed on many other things.

"I guess he couldn't handle it…I guess he never really wanted me at all," Lily sighed, drawing her knees to her chest.

xxxx

"I don't know what's going on with Lily and James," Annabelle admitted. Remus nodded his head. "She might like him, I don't really know. It's a lot more complicated than it seems, I think."

"Yeah, I know. Frankly, their seem to be a lot of ulterior motives whirring around here," Remus said, taking a spoonful of soup into his mouth. Annabelle nodded.

"I think Peter might be up to something," Annabelle said, casually slipping her hand into Remus's. He blushed fervently, but tried to focus on the conversation.

"Um…yes, I got that impression too. But I'm not sure yet what exactly is going on. Do you have any insights," he asked.

"He was talking to Morgan about something this morning in hushed tones, and well, they don't usually talk much," she said. Remus nodded, taking the information in. He glanced around the table, looking for his friends for the first time that night. He'd been a bit preoccupied with his girlfriend. But upon perusing the area for his friends, he realized none were there, except Sirius, who was gloomily spooning porridge into his mouth, ignoring a bunch of chattering female admirers, and scanning the table for someone who apparently wasn't there.

"Ah, he's not here," Remus murmured. "I've got to go find some of my friends, excuse me," he said, tilting his head to the side and kissing Annabelle's cheek. He gestured for Sirius to come with him, and the two of them walked up the Gryffindor Tower.

xxxx

Hours after dinner, the Marauders were reunited in the boy's dormitory.

"I better go talk to Lily now," James said. He and his friends were doing homework (a rare occurrence) so they'd have time for some fun after detention that night.

"Prongs, are you mad at me," Sirius asked.

"No, Padfoot, why would you think that," James replied.

"Err…dunno, it's just, you seemed kind of upset when you saw me hugging Lily today," he answered. Remus looked up and arched an eyebrow before continuing to scrawl out some notes on his parchment.

"Well, I was at first, but Lily and I talked, and then we didn't talk, because Peter here decided to throw the cloak over me, use a silent-silencing charm on my person, and then drag me off," James said scowling.

"Nice work, Wormtail m'boy," Sirius said, in laudation for a prank-well-executed. "You should go see her mate, and explain yourself." Peter grinned widely. Remus looked rather less pleased.

"You're right Padfoot, I will," James murmured, slipping out of the room.

xxxx

"Um, hello," James called up to the girl's dorm from the bottom of the steps. He knew, after having tried to see Lily up there many times, that it was impossible to scale those steps if you were of the male gender. His voice carried through the door, and the girls heard him faintly from their room.

"Hold on a sec, Lils, I'll be right back," said Katelyn. Lily sniffled and nodded. She marched out the door and walked straight down the stairs, not surprised to see James at the bottom of them.

"Long time no chat, James," Katelyn said evenly, a small smirk on her full mouth. James blushed crimson, noticing the girl who'd answered his call. Observing this, Katelyn crossed her arms and tossed her long mane of golden hair. "What, James, embarrassed to see me in this capacity?"

"Uh…no, I just…would think that…well, I thought you were very mad at me, and you have every right…" James murmured.

"Listen up, James, I don't care that you used me to get to Lily. I've put those feelings aside for the sake of the team, as you well know. My concern now is that you've crushed my best friend by taking off when she was trying to confess her feelings to you," said Katelyn smoothly. Even with these assurances, James felt quite nervous. She had a commanding physical presence, and wasn't that much shorter than James himself.

"Well…alright, and well, I'm sorry for what I did, and you should know that none of that influenced by choice to make you Seeker," James said. She nodded in a business-like manner.

"Do you want to see her," she asked brusquely.

"Yeah…" he replied.

"I'm guessing something inexorable occurred which caused you to run off," Katelyn said, all the while applying an incantation to the stairs to allow James to pass up them.

"Yes," James said.

"Okay then. Good luck," she said, eyeing him warily. The two entered the dormitory at the same time.

"Uh…Lily…uh," James stuttered uncontrollably. Her head, which had been bent down, hidden behind a curtain of red hair, shot up the moment he said her name. She seemed to consider him for a moment with a quizzical brow.

"Potter. Get. Out. Of. My. Room. Now," she said, rising to her feet and picking up her wand.

"Look, Lily, I can explain," James began, but she cut him off. Lily approached him, looking mutinous, and he began to back out of the room.

"JAMES POTTER, IF YOU DON'T GET OUT OF MY SIGHT THIS MOMENT, I AM GOING TO HEX YOU INTO OBLIVION, YOU ARROGANT WASTE OF SPACE," Lily yelled at the top of her lungs. Something in James, who had appeared nervous until that instant, snapped.

"LILY, IF YOU'D JUST LET ME EXPLAIN…PETER PULLED A PRANK ON ME AND--"

"HOW BIG OF YOU TO BLAME PETTIGREW FOR THIS, JA--POTTER! CLEARLY YOU'RE A COWARD WHO TAKES ME FOR A FOOL. I WARNED YOU," she shrieked, hexing him into oblivion as promised.

xxxx

"What were you thinking, actually letting him in there to see Lily, without warning no less," Sirius demanded of Katelyn. The two of them stood outside the doors to the hospital wing; their friends were inside visiting.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Sirius. Anyone would've done it," Katelyn said smoothly. She looked into his handsome face with a hard expression on hers.

"Come off it, Katie. I know you," Sirius said coolly.

"Oh really? I think James knows me better, why don't we ask him what my motives were," Katelyn replied.

"James knows as well as I that you resent what happened between...you two, and now you're just using Lily--"

"I would never use a friend Sirius, unlike you," she said with a sneer. The two of them had drawn their wands when Lily herself approached the two of them.

"Put down your wands," Lily commanded in a calm tone. Both complied, but now without hesitation. "How's James?" As she said this, Lily looked shameful.

"He's going to be fine…but he may be in their for a few days," Sirius replied.

"I feel terrible, what was I thinking…" Lily sighed, dropping to the floor. "I mean, I hate him, I hate him, but then I don't…"

"Lily it's not your fault. You wouldn't have talked to him in the state of mind you were in, or let him in the room, if you'd been given a proper choice," Sirius said, patting Lily's shoulder and glaring at Katelyn.

"But you would come onto the girl your best friend's bonkers over outside his hospital room," Katelyn snapped bitterly.

"Now that's rubbish," Sirius began to protest, but as he was speaking, Remus and Annabelle opened the door to the hospital wing, hitting Sirius's head. Katelyn burst out laughing.

"Serves you right, Sirius! Karma's a bitch," Katelyn cackled. Remus rolled his eyes and Annabelle stifled a giggle. Lily looked mortified, but it was hard to say at what.

"Funny, the only bitch I see here is you," Sirius spat, recovering swimmingly.

"Be quiet you guys, James is resting in there," Lily said, and with that she disappeared into the room. Peter was sitting in there, laughing, as James had just told him a joke.

"Hi Lily," James said, addressing only her, even though many people had entered the room.

"James…hi…I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, but you should know, I was trying to tell you the truth…"

"Uh, okay--sure," Lily said, but she didn't sound entirely convinced.

"Honestly, I can't remember everything, it seems that lovely hex you used on me wiped out a bit of my memory…" James said. Peter giggled, barely audibly.

"Oh…so…you don't remember what I said to you on the stairs," Lily asked.

"Not really," James said mildly. "But I'm sorry for whatever happened."

"Oh. Well. Right." There was awkward silence for a few minutes.

"Yeah, so anyway, I was wondering…"

"Uh, well, I best be going," Lily said. "Sirius, we need to discuss some stuff, so come meet me later or something." She stuck her head down, facing the floor, and had been and still was so preoccupied with James and pretending she didn't care about what had happened that she didn't bother to notice that Sirius and the others had left the room nearly 10 minutes before.

"I can't believe this all originated from that moronic idea of date tryouts…bugger…" James muttered, turning on his side to sleep, and pondering the question of who he would take to the ball…

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

AN: So, hope you liked it! I really, really would like at least 5 reviews for this chapter before the next update. Please tell me what you thought of the additional characters (Lupin, Katelyn, Sirius, Annabelle, etc), and of course, the LilyxJames interaction! Everything is about to get a bit more complicated. Title of chapter taken from the All Time Low song of the same name. : ) PLEASE REVIEW. Much love. ~Gabby