Chapter 8

Disclaimer: How many times do we have to say this? We do not own the characters that our lovely Ms. Rowling wrote, and that's all there is to it. We do not own them. We can always wish, but somehow that never seems to work...

Author's Note: Thank you so so much to out lovely reviewers! We totally appreciate it! Thanks! Right now we eagerly await whatever comment you lovely people might have on our little story. We love reviews. In fact, we absolutely adore your reviews. We will try to keep up a general update time of about once a week, but in case things get hectic, do forgive us. :) Love you all-

"Lara!" a very flustered Lily screamed as they walked from the Room of Requirement to the Gryffindor dorms. "I don't know how to cook!"

Lara glanced at Lily, "Well, figure something out, because having Sirius as my slave is just too good to skip out on! If you lose, you take full responsibility of course."

"Well, tough luck, then, because I don't know how to cook!"

Nadia looked at Lily. "Lily, please. Stop whining for a moment, and think. Think of what to cook, and cook it."

"Fine!" Lily huffed. "But what should I cook?"

"Oh, I don't know! Make a stew, a cake, a tart, I don't know, pretend you're making a potion for Professor Slughorn or something."

"But, I don't like stew."

Lara looked close to her boiling point.

"Okay, well, for once, why don't you put that party planning side of you to good use and pretend you do."

Lily looked offended. "People like my part-" she was cut off by a sea of heads shaking in unanimous disagreement.

Lara gave her a sympathetic look, "Sweetie, your parties are kind of... innocent. People go off and party real hard later so they won't offend you."

Lily groaned. "Fine," she said grumpily. She opened a cookbook, closed her eyes, and pointed to a random food item. "There. I'll make this one. It looks the easiest, anyways. Its a-"

"Wait, weren't you not supposed to tell us what you were making?" Lara said, stifling Lily with her hand.

"Get this thing off me!" Lily yelled, except that it was muffled, so it sounded more like, "Mef miff mifff mff mee!"

"Huh?" Lara stared at her, then finally noticed her hand. "Oh," she said, sheepishly, quickly removing her hand.

Lily breathed deeply a couple times and glared at Lara.

"Sorry! I just don't want you to go against the rules or anything!" Lara said, backing away and bumped right into none other than Sirius.

"Ow!" yelled Sirius, but his lips had broadened into a smile as he held tightly onto Lara.

"Hey!" Lara wriggled out of Sirius' grasp.

"How's the cooking coming around?" asked James, winking at Lily.

"Of all the people to meet right now..." Lily muttered.

"Lily! I missed you so much!" James continued, reaching out to hug her fondly. Lily kicked his shin not so fondly.

"Not discussing what to cook, are you? You know that's not allowed..." Remus said, looking around. "Hey, er, where's Nadia?"

"She went ahead to the dorm," answered Lara.

"Oh." Remus looked crestfallen.

Lily silenced them all with a scream. "Ateeeennntiiooon!"

There was a brief moment of golden quietness.

"Ooh, someone seems upset..." said Remus.

"Lily, darling, what's the matter? Has Lara been bothering you?" James glared at Lara accusingly.

"We gotta talk," Lily started.

Sirius shrugged. "So what are we doing right now? Sleeping?"

Lily ignored him completely. "I want to be judged by people-people that can make a fair judge."

"That's why you and James aren't allowed to tell anyone," reasoned Remus.

Lily shook her head. "I know that you and Sirius know James too well, as do Nadia and Lara know me well enough. They can really tell which one is who's. And that really is not fair. It is biased."

"So, you're saying indirectly that we should be able to tell our friends what we're making?" James said after a moment, messing up his black hair even more that it already was.

"Hmph, surprising, he can calculate stuff like that in that slow mind of his..." Lily mumbled, and Lara jabbed her with her elbow.

"Ow! Why'd you do-oh, ooohhh!" Lily said, finally realizing what she had said, then tossed her auburn hair and twiddled with her earring.

"Ah-ha! I knew it was that! You don't think you can make the food so you want your friends' help! That's it!" Sirius sniggered, earning a shove from James and a painful poke with Remus' wand, which was smoking thick, black clouds.

"Lily...?" Lara asked questioningly, cocking her head.

"What! No, no, well no, yes, no, no, actually yes-NOT! That's not it, no!" Lily was yelling.

Her friends stared at her suspiciously.

"Geez! Fine then! Whatever!" Lily huffed. "Fine! Do what you want!" She stormed away.

"Dang, she's so adorable when she's mad!" James stared down the hall lovingly.

"Hey, don't you guys feel sorry for her?" asked Lara. "I mean, she wasn't exactly volunteering for this, you know..."

"Yeah..." Remus agreed, thinking back. "Come to think of it, she's been saying all along she couldn't cook, and we just kinda forced her into this."

"Aw, you two with your kind souls...it's only a life or death cooking contest! What's the big deal?" said Sirius grinning. "Stop feeling guilty!"

Lara punched him.

"OWWW!" Sirius screamed. "Why is it that you always get to do that and not me?" he asked.

"Cuz I'm the girlfriend," answered Lara in an innocent voice. "So, what are we gonna do? Hey, James! What do you think?"

James just continued staring down the hall absently, smiling faintly.

"Hey!" Sirius jabbed him.

"Huh? Wha...?" James turned to them.

"Earth to Prongsie!" said Remus.

"What do you think? Should we let Lily get her way?" asked Lara impatiently.

James nodded. "Definitely. Whatever Lily says, goes!"

"Okay then, it's decided! We can get the food judged by some other people, so we can take part in Lily's and James' cooking contest!"

"YESS!" yelled a voice down the corridor.

"Hey...that was..." James started as Lily bounded up the hall back to the group.

"Yes! Yes! Yeahhhh! Awesome, Lara! I knew I could count on you!"

Lara stared at Lily. "You were hiding there that whole time?"

"Yep!" answered Lily brightly. "Come on, we've got lots to do before the cooking. Tomorrow lunch, right?"

Remus nodded dazedly.

"Ok, then! See ya!" With that, Lily pulled Lara back down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

"So this is what I chose!" Lily said, pointing at the cook book. She was lying on her bed, happily flipping through the step-by-step recipe.

Lara went over to Lily to see what peculiar item Lily had chosen. Her eyes widened slightly.

"Lily," she began. " I don't think this is the easiest thing for amateurs-"

Lily had puffed up indignantly at the word "amateurs". If Lara could have done anything to make her want to make that food, that was it.

"I'm making this food and there's nothing you can do about it." she told Lara coolly, and walked away with what would have been a cool exit, had she not tripped over thin air and stumbled onto the newly washed floor of the dorm.

Nadia, who was lying on her stomach, trying to get Death out from under her bed, burst into a fit of laughter. Lily glared at her menacingly.

Nadia quickly returned to her task. "Nice Death! Come on out..."

Death promptly slid out from under the bed and jumped onto Lily, who was still flat on the floor.

"Get the stupid cat off of me!" Lily growled.

"Apparently you are a nice, comfortable seat!" Nadia giggled louder, and Lara joined in.

"URGH!" Lily roared.

Just then, Alice came waltzing to the girls' dorm and, not even bothering to ask about what had happened, picked up Death, placing it in her own lap as she sat down next to Lara. Lily stood up and walked back to them, trying to keep what little pride she had not injured in her fall.

"Greetings, minions of mine," Alice said dreamily. "I heard about the cooking contest that might just get me someone to collect the creatures a the bottom of the sea for me. What's Lily making?" she asked Lara.

Lara picked up the book and showed the picture to Alice.

"This." she said gloomily, and for a brief moment there was silence.

"Oh." said Alice disappointedly. "That doesn't look so easy. Lily-doll, I want a slave, so pick something that is not quite so creepy and that you will invariably mess up." Then her face lit up. "Oh, well, worst comes to worst, I'm sure the thestrals will eat it!"

Lara shook her head. "Not by the time Lily's done with it."

Lily glared at both of them. "I love your confidence in me."

Nadia looked at Lily. "Just do your best, Lily-doll."

"If you lose, I'll kill you." Lara glared at Lily.

Nadia snickered. "Yeah, no pressure there. Just, try your best."

"But, if your best isn't good enough, consider yourself dead already," Lara tried to sneer at Lily, but the effect was ruined with a smile tugging at her lips.

Lily sighed. "I hate you guys. A lot, let me tell you."

Alice giggled. "Oh, Lily, I never knew you had a dark side!"

Lily glared at her. "Alice, there are a lot of things about me that you do not know."

Lara snorted. "I should hope so!"

Nadia snickered. "Eeew, Lara. That's disgusting."

Alice shrugged. "I don't know much about you, Lily, that's true. I just know the exterior you. And Lara, why is that a good thing?"

Lara looked away. "Never mind," she mumbled, controlling a smirk.

"Whatever," Nadia said, rolling her eyes. "Forget it."

Alice smiled. "All right, then, darlings. I should go, now, to get to my dorm. As I'm sure you guys know, I'm in Slytherin, and my dorms are not your dorms, and I need to get to my dorms. That means, my dear friends, that I need to go. Farewell!" And with that, each friend gave their separate goodbyes, and Alice danced down the hall to the left, laughing her unusual laugh, and finally disappeared into her Slytherin common room.

Lara laughed. "Oookaaay, then. Hey, I wonder why the hat placed her in Slytherin..." she said, absently.

"Maybe she has hidden talents or something? I mean she isn't the bravest, the smartest, and I haven't come to see her as someone who always works hard and never gets any results..." Nadia commented.

"Hey! That was mean!" Lily screeched.

"Okay, okay, chill! I was just kidding!" Nadia giggled, sharing a meaningful look with Lara.

"I saw that!"

Sirius chuckled. "Merlin, I can't wait until you win! You'd better win!"

Remus laughed. "You don't have anything to worry about. James's cooking is the best."

"Cool, now I'd better get thinking about what to cook...Though, having Lily as my slave...Don't you think that would make her hate me more?" James asked, with a note of concern.

"Don't worry about that," Remus said, stifling a laugh. "Just cook as you normally do. All will be fine, watch and see."

"Ya, mate, you'll be fine." Sirius said.

James sighed. "Yeah, I'm sure you're right. Well, I'd best be going, then."

"Ya, we all should go." Remus said, standing up.

The three of them made their way out towards the Gryffindor dorms. James was still so worried about what Lily would say when he beat her (being the egotistical guy he was, he expected to have total victory).

When they reached the dorms, he was still so worried that he didn't join Sirius in the usual pillow fight. Sirius, feeling lonely (as you can only have a pillow fight with two or more people) began to sulk in a corner, muttering something along the lines of "...no one likes me...they're all big mean bullies...always liked Prongs better than me, didn't they?"

Even Lupin was vaguely concerned, as he didn't have to apologize to the entire male Gryffindor dorm for keeping them awake until 1:00 AM in the morning, which had become a common occurrence in the lives of the males. In fact, many of the 7th year boys had tried several times to sleep in the girl's dormitories, but didn't manage to get up the stairs. So they gave up and slept on the floor of the common room. The entire dorm experienced an eerily quiet night and some were actually beginning to hope someone would cause some trouble.

The next morning, James sat up with a start, he had woken up periodically that night thinking about what he was going to cook, he knew that picking something totally fancy that no one knew about would just kill his chances of winning.

"Hmmm... Pie sounds good... yeah... No! Cake! No! Pie! No!Oooooh, PASTA!" James jumped off his bed in elation, he had finally found the perfect food that could please all (A/N: no offense intended to those who don't like pasta).

"You okay, mate?" grumbled Sirius groggily.

"PASTA!" cried James once more in triumph.

" 'k... You go with that..." grumbled Sirius as he turned over and pulled the covers over his ears.

"James?" came a sleepy voice that sounded vaguely like an irate Remus.

"Yeah?"

"Out. Now."

"Wai- What? Whyyyyyyy?"

" 'Cause it's 4 bloody o'clock in the morning!"

"...So?" James did not manage to get much farther as Remus had taken the initiative to get up and kick him out of the room and lock the door. Jams sighed in frustration and made his way to the common room only to see the outline of a figure in the chair.

"Potter?" cried Lily in surprise.

"Nooooo, only Potter's ghostly spirit."

"Ah. Figures. I knew that eventually your friends would kill you for the way you were yelling."

"Oh crap, could you hear me from here?" questioned James, slightly flustered.

Lily chuckled, "Yeah. Getting up and yelling 'pasta' at the top of your lungs isn't very... un- conspicuous."

James tousled the back of his head anxiously, "Ah, yeah... So what are you gonna cook?"

"An appetizer of chestnut soup with cream fraiche, a main dish of cognac shrimp with beurre blanc sauce and lemon rosemary chicken, and a dessert of chocolate souffles."

"...Oh...It sounds complicated. You must be really good to be able to make that," responded James with a fond smile. In his mind, Lily could do anything.

"Y..Yeah. I guess," said the distressed girl.

"Hey, don't stress out too much, okay? This is just for fun. C'mon, where's that competitive Lily that I know, always ready to kick my ass into next year?"

"Language, Potter. And be careful, I might have to kick you and your pathetic pasta out of the show with my brilliant cooking!"

"Better. But you can do more."

"Potter."

"What? And I thought we were on first name basis?"

"James."

"Yes, love?"

"Get the hell outta my face."

James stuck out his tongue, "Language, Lily darling. I'll be off then, goodnight."

"Nite, and James?"

"Yeah?"

"You suck at cheering people up."

"Love you too." and with a grin and a wink he was off.