Thanks to my reviewers, hope you enjoy :)

The Problem with Dating

It was the first weekend in May, an opportunity for pumped-up males to woo the objects of their affection in the form of a date to the village of Hogsmeade. Of all the wacky schemes that Lily had found herself involved in, it was clear that this one was causing her the most regret. Sirius and James were still annoyed at each other. Sirius and James were still not talking, but had come to a grudging understanding that the fighting would stop, at least temporarily. This understanding was due to the fact that, thanks to Remus and Peter's combined pleading, Lily Evans was on a date with James Potter. James had, at this point, probably forgotten that Sirius even existed.

"You look gorgeous, darling," Jennifer said cheerfully. Her encouragement was not welcomed; Lily's eyes met hers with a look of utmost loathing.

"You did this," Lily accused, hissing under her breath. It wasn't hard to understand what she meant; Jennifer had taken to the task of preparing her friend for a date with extreme enthusiasm, from hair styling to make-up, to a green dress that showed off slightly more than perhaps necessary while still managing to look tasteful. Jennifer was proud of her creation, and the happy, slightly dazed look on James' face showed that he approved just as much, but the redhead was looking like someone had just committed a murder – or was about to. Some people were never happy.

The girls were walking slightly behind the two boys as they entered Hogsmeade. The plan was that, by allowing the two to walk together, they might begin to talk to each other and actually start to sort the problem out. This plan was not going so well; the boys were walking together, but their minds were clearly elsewhere – James' perhaps on how to woo Lily on this date, and Sirius' most likely on what would happen after the date, if he was very good and very lucky.

Inside the village, the foursome decided they would split up, meeting back at the Three Broomsticks in two hours to have a drink together before heading back to the castle.

"Where would you like to go, Lily-petal?" James asked, offering his arm with a grin.

"Just Lily is fine," she replied dryly as she was lead off. Apparently, James' had interpreted her speech as "take me for some tea and cake", as she was being whisked in the general direction of Madam Puddifoot's tea shop.

"Let's go to Spintwitches," Jennifer said in answer to Sirius' questioning look. "I'm out of broom polish."

"How romantic," Sirius snorted, leading the way.

As they walked towards the sporting shop, Jennifer's eyes travelled up to the outline of the Shrieking Shack in the distance, slightly raised from ground level by the hill it rested on. "Apparently the ghosts and ghouls were at it again on Tuesday. D'you think it really is haunted?"

Sirius replied absently, distracted by the broomstick servicing kit in the window from her question. "No, of course it isn't."

"Last time I asked, you said you thought it was," Jennifer replied, frowning and raising an eyebrow.

Sirius turned to face her, catching up on the conversation he was having as he did so. "Oh, you mean the shack. Yeah, it's haunted alright."

Jennifer just blinked at him. "But you said-"

What followed was what would probably be referred to as a 'shut up kiss'. After several seconds, Jennifer pushed him away, prodding his chest accusingly. "Did you seriously just kiss me to get me to drop the subject?"

"Did it work?"

A beat of silence, before Jennifer laughed. "Alright, alright. Fine. I don't see what your problem is, but whatever."

Sirius looked smug, then, suddenly, he was laughing too. "Can you imagine what Evans would do to Prongs if he tried that?"

Lily and James were, actually, getting on reasonably well. He had bought her tea, as well as some shortbread, and the two were currently discussing how this place was far too warm and cramped for any sort of human comfort.

"At least the tea's good," James said, finishing his cup. "Watch as I read my fortune." He surveyed the leaves in the bottom of the cup, putting on an appropriately mystical voice as he did so. "I see...a gorgeous redhead in my future...she's realising that I'm not so bad after all...she's falling madly in love with me! And now we're getting married...having little bespectacled children that are the spitting image of their devilishly handsome father..."

"I think Professor Kalani would give you a D for that prediction," Lily replied, but James was pleased to notice that there was gentleness to her usual scorn.

"Dumbledore's this away from taking the subject off the curriculum, anyway," James replied, shrugging. Both were now on their feet, leaving the tearoom. The couple – what a phrase, what a wonderful phrase for James to be able to think! And it would be true, in the official sense, soon enough, he knew it – began to walk towards Honeydukes, where Lily intended to buy various wizarding treats to send to her ever-wondering mother for Mother's day the next day.

They spent a good twenty minutes in Honeydukes, leaving with considerably lighter money bags than when they entered. Lily was laughing at some terrible joke that James had made – she was so pretty when she laughed – and James' hopes were soaring as Lily allowed him, without event, to take her hand.

Outside the Three Broomsticks, however, was where it was all about to go wrong. In the window, they could see Sirius and Jennifer, already at a booth, waiting for them to join them. And that would have been fine, if James hadn't caught the eye of a certain Slytherin boy who was walking past, a Slytherin boy who was the cause of pain for Lily and who had recently hexed Peter in a way that had, as of yet, gone without vengeance.

Severus' eyes darted from James' face to his hand, to the hand it was connected to and to the back of the head of the girl whose hand he was holding. His face drained of the little colour it had. The black eyes were darting more quickly between James and the girl who had not yet noticed him.

James had seconds to decide what to do. Inside the pub, Jennifer and Sirius were leaning their heads close together, giggling and whispering about whatever couples – volatile as that pairing were – whisper about. Beside him, Lily was smiling at him in a way that she'd never smiled at him before; the look in her eyes, of trust and happiness, was not one that he associated with her gazing at him, and was stirring his soul (and other places, if he wasn't careful). Snape's eyes were narrowed as James caught his eye again, and James was filled with a million irresistible emotions at once: hatred for Snape and attraction to this beautiful woman who was holding his hand the two strongest, and because of these, he kissed her.

Time seemed to stop as James allowed himself to be overwhelmed by her, and a spark of joy lit up his brain as her stiffness seemed to melt away and she put her arms around his neck, and they were kissing, and she was filling his brain, and he had wanted this for so long, and-

They broke apart, looking at each other, speechless. Inside the Three Broomsticks, their friends had clearly noticed what was going on; both were staring, slack-jawed, out of the window at the scene.

Lily's mouth curled into a small smile. She opened her mouth to speak when a loud bang suddenly interrupted the tender moment. Lily whirled around to see the source just in time to catch Severus running in the opposite direction from the angry scorch mark his wand had left in the ground. Her expression changed, from a smile, to shock, to hurt as she put two and two together. She spun back to face James, her eyes looking fiery. "James," she asked steadily, desperately trying not to let her voice shake. Inside, Sirius and Jennifer were on their feet, hurrying out to diffuse the situation. They were unsure of what had been going on, but the bang followed by the expression on Lily's face, was enough that intervention seemed necessary.

"Was that intentional?" Lily asked him, her voice a low whisper. "Tell me it wasn't intentional. Please."

James hesitated. He didn't want to lie to her, but he didn't want her to think that he had only kissed her because of that.

Lily clearly took his silence as an answer. "How could you, James?" she demanded, her eyes brimming with tears of anger and distress. "I thought this was going so well. How could you...use me? Is that what I am to you? Some trophy, some...some thing? I will not be used as your weapon, James Potter! You arrogant, smarmy bastard!"

"No...Lily, I..."

"Save it, Potter." Lily turned on her heel and stormed off. Jennifer, who had been standing in the pub doorway with Sirius, glared at James.

"Way to mess up," Jennifer said coldly, before following Lily. She paused, turning to Sirius. "Are you coming?"

"Hang on a minute," Sirius frowned. "He didn't do anything that bad. He would have kissed her anyway, and it's not like Evans wasn't enjoying it."

Jennifer rolled her eyes, muttering some cross between "men" and "pigs" as she hurried to catch up with her hurt friend.

Sirius and James stared, before turning to each other. There was a moment of awkwardness before Sirius spoke.

"Women, mate. I'll never understand them."

"You're telling me," James replied, the tingly feeling on his lips at odds with the weight in his stomach. "Fancy a drink?"

Sirius nodded, and the two friends re-entered the pub, where James and the remainder of his money would drown his sorrows.

Lily had been silent the whole way up to the castle, only making sounds in response to Jennifer's many attempts to start conversations. She had ranted about James, asked about the date, talked about the weather, but to no avail.

The two girls sat in the common room, which was still relatively empty due to the third years and up being, for the most part, still in Hogsmeade. Lily stared passively out of the window, to the point where Jennifer was almost feeling uncomfortable. In the corner, bent over a ton of books, were Remus and Peter. Peter had to stay away from Hogsmeade due to needing to study for a make-up test, and Remus had agreed to stay back to help them. Both seemed focused, but as Jennifer struggled with Lily, she suspected they were paying more attention than they seemed to be, trying to find out why their friends hadn't returned with the girls and how the plan had went.

"So didn't your mum say Petunia was moving to Surrey with that creepy fiancé of hers? They'll be married soon, I guess, so at least you won't have to put up with them during the summer anymore," Jennifer said, desperately reaching for conversation topics as far from James and Snape as possible.

"Vernon is exactly the kind of person who will make Petunia worse," Lily said sadly, taking to the topic of her sister with the wistfulness that she always did. "He's even more judgemental than she is, and she's been bad enough since we were kids when..."

"When you got into Hogwarts, yeah," Jennifer interrupted, but Lily's mind was already in a bad place. 'When I met Severus', she had been about to say; quite possibly the last thing she should be thinking.

"I'm going to bed," Lily said abruptly. "I need to sleep."

"Its six o'clock, sweetie."

"I'm aware," Lily replied, "Goodnight."

Jennifer watched as her friend walked unsteadily up the stairs leading to the girl's dormitories.

"What happened?" a voice asked at her ear. Jennifer turned to see Peter, who had clearly abandoned his studying for gossip. Remus, too, was approaching.

Good. Jennifer would tell them the story and they could deal with it.

"Well," Remus said dryly once she was finished. "At least the plan worked."

Reviews make for a happy bunny =D