A/N: Fun fact – this is the longest chapter of the story so far! Just thought you'd like to know. As requested, a bit more L/J development here – even more to come in the next chapter!

At eleven o'clock in the morning on the following Saturday, I was lying on my bed reading a book – or at least, trying to, whilst simultaneously ignoring the distracting thoughts of James that kept trying to worm into my head. It was during one such state of non-concentration that I was shaken out of my stupor by the sound of the doorbell ringing. I leapt off my bed energetically, and put the book in the huge open rucksack at the end of my bed, which held the things I would need for my week at Alice's house. I heard the front door being opened, followed by Mum's voice.

"Hello, Alice," she said cheerfully. "How are you?"

"Fine thanks, Mrs. Evans," replied Alice. "Lily here?"

"She's upstairs, I'll just call her down. Would you like to stay for a while, or do you have to dash off?"

"We need to go to Em's house, I'm afraid, her parents are expecting us in about an hour, and it'll take us that long to get there," said Alice.

"No problem," said Mum, before calling up the stairs, "LILY! Alice is here!"

"Coming!" I responded, running down the stairs as fast as I could whilst carrying the heavy rucksack. I deposited it at the bottom of the stairs and dashed to hug Alice.

"Hey Lils," she said, laughing at my enthusiasm. I stood back and beamed at her. Turning to Mum, I said, "Everything okay, then?"

She nodded, smiling. "Well, I suppose you girls had better be off. Have a good time!" She walked forward and hugged me, saying, "Bye, love. See you next Saturday." She kissed me on the cheek, and helped me hoist the rucksack onto my back.

"Bye, Mrs Evans," said Alice, leading me towards the front door. I followed her outside, waving at Mum as I closed the door behind us.

The first couple of days at Alice's house passed almost exactly as I had expected them to; we spent the daytime playing various games or exploring the Muggle village in which Alice's house was situated, and the nights talking about anything and everything, into the early hours of the morning. As Alice had said in her letter, the main topic of conversation was, of course, boys. Predictably enough, most of this revolved around Emmeline and Alice questioning and teasing me mercilessly about James.

"So, come on then, Lily. Out with it," said Alice, just after the lights had been turned out, the first night we were there.

"With what?" I grinned, feigning ignorance. I wasn't going to make it easy for them.

"James, of course!" said Emmeline, impatiently.

"Not much to tell, really," I said, truthfully. "I mean, obviously I haven't seen him since the end of term, so…"

"Have you written to him?" asked Alice.

"No," I replied.

"Has he written to you?" said Emmeline slyly.

"No!" I repeated. "I haven't had any contact with him since the end of term!"

"Oh," said Alice, sounding very disappointed. "How come?"

"Well, why should I have done?" I demanded.

"Because you fancy him, Lils," said Emmeline, and I could almost see her rolling her eyes.

"So?" I said, thankful that it was dark, and they couldn't see me blushing. The truth was, I had been on the point of writing to James a number of times, but could not work out how to express myself in a way that didn't seem to make my feelings really obvious to him. "I don't see why that means I should write to him. I mean, I've only recently become friends with him, and I don't really know him that well."

"True," admitted Alice, "but you're going to have to put in some effort if you want to change that, aren't you?"

Before I could reply, Emmeline smirked, "Blatantly not true, she's just been too busy brooding about him to actually put the effort into writing a letter!" I threw my pillow across the room at her, and the three of us erupted into fits of giggles and a furious pillow fight.

On Tuesday morning, the three of us awoke to the sound of Alice's mum knocking at the bedroom door.

"Letters from Hogwarts are here! They're on the table waiting for you," she said.

"Thanks, Mum," Alice called back sleepily.

A few minutes later, we entered the kitchen to find three envelopes to find three envelopes lying on the table. Alice reached them first and threw mine across to me. I caught it and slit it open. Expecting to just see the usual reminder about term beginning on September 1st, I received a shock as I read the first line.

Dear Miss Evans,

I am delighted to inform you that you have been appointed Head Girl for the current academic year.

I let out a shriek, and Alice and Emmeline jumped and looked at me in alarm.

"I'm Head Girl!" I said delightedly, waving my letter at them.

Alice rolled her eyes and said, "Course you are. Who else was it going to be?" Both her and Emmeline then laughed and hugged me. I read the rest of the letter. It outlined the duties I would have to perform, told me that I would have my own private room rather than sleeping in Gryffindor Tower ("Cool!" said Alice; both she and Emmeline were reading over my shoulder), and told me to make sure I was in the front carriage of the Hogwarts Express at eleven o'clock on September 1st, to give the prefects their instructions. Reaching the bottom of the letter, I read the last line:

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me. The Head Boy will be James Potter.

Yours sincerely,

Prof M. McGonagall

My mouth fell open. I was stunned. After a few seconds, I said, "James is Head Boy?"

Emmeline, who had been buttering herself toast, dropped the knife onto her plate with a clatter and hastily moved around me to read it for herself.

"Wow," she said, grinning. "Even McGonagall is trying to get you two together!"

As I opened my mouth to utter a witty retort (although admittedly none had come to mind), an unfamiliar barn owl landed on the outside windowsill and began tapping to come in. I moved past Emmeline to open the window. The owl landed on the table and held out its leg, to which a letter was attached. I saw that it had my name on it, scrawled in an unfamiliar hand, and moved to pick it up. It read,

Dear Lily,

James here. Congratulations! Well, obviously, everyone knew you were going to be Head Girl. Definitely did not see myself as Head Boy though! Thought it would be Remus for sure… Not sure exactly what Dumbledore's playing at to be honest, but he probably has his reasons. I hope he knows what he's doing.

Sirius and I were going to go into Diagon Alley tomorrow, to get all our books and stuff. Want to meet us there? I think Remus is asking Emmeline to meet him there too, so you won't have to put up with just us all the time!

Hope to see you tomorrow,

James
x

I stared momentarily at the tiny x at the bottom of his letter, feeling slightly light-headed. Then I looked up at the other two.

"Em, I think Remus is going to be asking you to meet him in Diagon Alley tomorrow," I said, smirking.

"What makes you say…" began Emmeline, but just at that moment, another owl flew through the kitchen, and this time I recognised it as belonging to Remus. It settled down beside James' owl, which hooted in greeting. Emmeline looked from the owl to me.

"Lily, I swear you dropped Divination a year ago," she said, confused.

I laughed, and said, "It's from James," indicating the second letter I had received.

"Ooh!" said Alice, whirling round and attempting to snatch it out of my hands. I was too quick, though, and held it out of her reach.

"Aww, come one, Lils…" she moaned.

"No," I said firmly, but grinning nonetheless. "He says he and Sirius are going to be in Diagon Alley tomorrow as well, though, and wondered if I wanted to meet up with them." Alice squealed with delight.

"He blatantly fancies you…" she teased.

I simply smiled, and said, "So, shall we all go tomorrow, then?"

The other two agreed. I grabbed a piece of parchment and quill lying on the table, and wrote back a response to James.

James,

Don't worry! I'm sure you're going to be a great Head Boy. Congratulations to you too, I think you really deserve it.

I'd love to meet you in Diagon Alley tomorrow; I'm at Alice's house with Emmeline this week, and Em just got her owl from Remus. So yeah, we're all going. Shall we meet you in the Leaky Cauldron, say at about eleven?

See you tomorrow,

Lily

I hesitated for a second, then added a small 'x' after my name, as he had done. I tied the letter to the barn owl's leg, and watched it fly out of the window. My eyes drifted back to James' letter, and rested again on the cross after his signature. After a few seconds, I tore my eyes away, folded the letter and put it in my pocket, then busied myself with making breakfast.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Free virtual hugs for all reviewers ^_^