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Chapter 14 Hogsmeade

Lily woke up early on Saturday morning and began dressing more carefully than she normally would. Although she kept insisting that she was only giving James a chance because it was the fair thing to do, part of her wanted to look nice for her date. 'A very small part,' she kept telling herself. 'I'm only doing this because it's fair. Just because nothing will come of it doesn't mean I shouldn't put in the same amount of effort as on any other date.'

By the time Lily was ready to go so were, surprisingly, all four of her dorm mates. The girls all headed down to breakfast. They had all agreed to go shopping together as they all needed dress robes.

"So where are we going to go shopping for dress robes?" Lily asked.

Lily was slightly worried about buying dress robes as up until now she had not needed them and actually had no idea what they looked like.

"Gladrags Wizardwear?" Abby asked with a shrug looking at the other girls.

"Yeah, Gladrags is probably the best place to start," Marlene agreed. "They'll have the biggest selection. That's where my mother buys most of her dress robes. Sometimes she goes to Madame Malkin's of course, but as that's in Diagon Alley and not Hogsmeade…"

Katie and Mary nodded in agreement. "I get a lot of my dress robes from there too. They're always nice and a bit cheaper than Madame Malkin's anyway. I only get dress robes from Madame Malkin's if my mother is paying," Katie said grinning.

"Why?" Lily asked.

"Because a lot of Madame Malkin's dress robes are specially made for her shop, so they're more unique, but that also means they're more expensive."

"Oh, I didn't realize that," Lily said surprised.

"Yeah, I mean not all of them are of course, but the nicest ones are. Like our school robes certainly aren't hand made," Katie explained.

"Yeah, I kinda figure that," Lily said pretending to glare at her friend.

Katie just laughed and poured syrup on her pancakes.

Lily saw the boys come in but James led them to seats at the other end of the table. He smiled at Lily as they walked past and she couldn't help but smile back.

The rest of the girls giggled resulting in the other three Marauders to look at them strangely. But by then James had led them too far down the table for them to say anything to the girls.

"What's up with them?" Peter asked.

James just shrugged.

Shortly after the Marauders' arrival the girls finished they're breakfast and headed over to get in the line of students going to the village, waiting somewhat impatiently for Filch to check everyone's name off on the list of students with permission to go to Hogsmeade and then pass the secrecy sensor over them.

"Finally," Katie said in exasperation once Filch had finally let them through the door. "I swear it is that guy's mission in life to make all our lives as difficult as possible."

The other four girls laughed as they walked down the road to the village. There weren't too many students heading down to the village yet. The girls had left fairly early to make sure they had plenty of time to finish their shopping before one o'clock. Lily wasn't the only one with a date, Mary was meeting her boyfriend, and a Ravenclaw named Mark Diggle had asked Katie out.

The girls walked into Gladrags and headed over to the women's dress robes section. Lily was immediately overwhelmed. There were so many dress robes to choose from.

The girls began to go through the racks of clothes pulling out robes that they liked or that they thought would be good on one of their friends. After two hours of searching and trying on everyone had dress robes, except Lily. Katie had chosen lilac dress robes, Marlene, a very pale grayish blue, Abby light pink, and Mary's were a dark red rose color.

It seemed to Lily that no matter what she tried on it wasn't right. All the robes she'd tried on either didn't fit quite right or clashed horribly with her red hair. Normally Lily loved her hair, but it was times like these that she wished it were a boring color like brown or blonde. She had tried on a pair of green dress robes that matched her eyes and didn't clash with her hair, but the green and red combination made her feel like a gaudy Christmas decoration.

"How about this one?" Marlene asked holding up a cream dress robe.

Lily looked at it critically. "I don't think I like it. I mean the color is nice, but the robe itself…"

"You at least have to try it on, Lily. My mother always says that you should never judge clothes by how they look on the rack, whether they look amazing or horrible, what matters is how they look once you put them on." Marlene said this as if it settled the matter.

"Besides we need to find you something soon or you'll be late for date with James," Katie added in a devious tone that suggested she knew Lily would give in all along.

"Fine, fine, but it's going to look terrible," Lily grumbled.

Lily walked out of the dressing room a few minutes later.

"Oh my," Katie said when she saw her.

"See I told you it would be awful," Lily replied.

"Have you looked in a mirror?" Katie asked in disbelief.

"No," said Lily looking at Katie oddly.

"Well, perhaps you should," Marlene suggested.

Lily turned around to look in the mirror behind her.

"Oh," she stated. "Marlene, the next time you see your mother, if I'm not around, tell her she gives wonderful advice," Lily said staring at her reflection in the mirror.

"She'll be happy she was able to help," Marlene said grinning.

Lily looked more closely at the dress robe she was wearing. It fit perfectly in all the right places. She didn't think she had ever owned a muggle dress quite as perfect as these dress robe. What's more this one was on sale.

Smiling happily the five girls went to the counter to pay for their purchases.

Once the boys finished breakfast they headed for the village. James still hadn't told his friends about his date with Lily. He was hoping to be able to give them the slip while they were in Zonko's. They would be completely distracted, especially Sirius, and would not notice if he disappeared. It took them a bit longer to get of the castle than the girls because by the time they left the majority of the students were starting to leave as well.

When they arrived in Hogsmeade Sirius made a beeline for Honeyduke's declaring that his stock of sugar was running low. James took advantage of their stop to buy a box of Honeyduke's Chocolate that Lily had mentioned she liked. He told the Marauders that his mother had asked him to send it to her. As his mother was very fond of chocolate the Marauders didn't question his story.

They spent quite a lot of time in Honeyduke's and when they left James suggested they go to the Three Broomsticks for a butter beer. James wanted to get that trip over with because he was concerned that they would spend so much time in Zonko's that his friends would be ready to go to the Three Broomsticks when it was time for him to meet Lily and, love his friends though he did, he didn't fancy bringing them on his date.

Thankfully the other three quickly agreed. Once they had chatted up Rosemarta and enjoyed a pint of butterbeer each, the boys headed over to Zonko's. Thankfully it was a little after 12: 30 by this time and James knew that his friends would be thoroughly distracted for at least an hour giving him time to slip away unnoticed.

At 12: 50, with his friends thoroughly distracted by Dr. Filibuster's new line of Wet Start, No Heat Fireworks, James slipped out of the store and headed over to the Three Broomsticks. He was a few minutes early and so he got the last open table, which was a bit closer to the window then he like, but oh well, and ordered two butterbeers.

James was very nervous and slightly worried that Lily wouldn't show up but his fears where assuaged when Lily walked in at exactly one o'clock. She looked around and as soon as she spotted him she headed over and sat down.

"Hey," James said smiling nervously.

"Hi."

"So, how was the shopping?" James asked.

"Stressful," Lily said with a smile. "It took me forever to find dress robes. Stupid hair. Sometimes I just can't stand it"

"There's nothing wrong with your hair," James said confused. "It's a good color on you."

Lily laughed. "Oh I like it most of the time, but sometimes it makes buying clothes a pain. It clashed horribly with certain colors."

"Oh," James didn't quite understand.

Lily laughed again. "It's a girl thing," she said knowingly.

Just then Rosemarta came over with their butterbeers.

"James Potter, weren't you in here less than half an hour ago?" she asked smiling.

"Yeah, but I liked it so much I thought I'd come back," he replied grinning.

"I see you have different company though," Rosemarta grinned at him.

"Hi, Rosemarta," Lily said smiling.

"Lily, I didn't realize it was you," Rosemarta said, her smiling suddenly growing.

"Has this boy dragged you here against your will? Because if he has, I'll just throw him out."

Lily laughed at Rosemarta's question. "No, no, I'm simply suffering from a bout of insanity. But it's okay, I don't mind. I can handle him if he gets out of line," Lily replied unable to suppress a laugh.

"Well congratulation, dear," said Rosemarta smiling at James whose neck, to Lily's surprise, turned slightly red.

"I'm glad to see you finally gave him a chance, dear. He really is quite the catch."

It was Lily's turn to blush this time, though she noticed James neck turn a slightly darker red as well.

"Well, here are your drinks," Rosemarta said smiling.

James handed over four sickles grinning like a fool.

Rosemarta just laughed as she walked away, mumbling, "Who'd have thought, he actually did it."

James looked rather sheepish and Lily couldn't help but grin.

"So what did you do today?" Lily asked. "Besides come here twice of course."

"Well, Sirius insisted he needed sugar, which I really don't think he does, but oh well, so we went to Honeyduke's. Oh, and I got this for you while we were there, I remember you said you like them," he said pulling the box of chocolates he had bought out of his bag and handing them to her.

"You didn't have to do that," Lily said stunned that he had remembered such a trivial piece of information from one of their first nights of patrol.

James just shrugged.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

James was starting to relax. Everything seemed to be going well. He was having a great time and Lily seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself.

"He's got to be around here somewhere!" Sirius declared. "It's not like him to just disappear without telling us."

"I'm sure he's around here somewhere Sirius, we'll find him," Remus said sounding like someone dealing with an irrational toddler. Remus had his suspicions about where James had disappeared off to and if he was right he wasn't eager to help Sirius with his mission.

As the three friends walked up the High Street they spotted Marlene and Katie.

"Hey you two!" Sirius called. "Have you seen James anywhere?"

"Lost him have you?" Marlene asked with a grin.

"Yeah, we can't find him anywhere."

Katie just laughed.

"Do you know where he is?" Sirius asked again slightly annoyed. She seemed to be toying with him. "Come on Marlene."

Marlene continued to grin, but unfortunately her eyes twitched momentarily over towards the Three Broomsticks and even more unfortunately, Sirius saw it. He turned to look at the window.

"Ha! I saw that. But what is he doing at the Three Broomsticks, we already went there…" Sirius trailed off as he looked in the window and saw Lily sitting with James.

The rest of them turned to see what could possibly have made Sirius stop talking.

Remus smiled and Peter looked mildly surprised, but Sirius, being Sirius, had a much more overly dramatic reaction.

He stared at Lily and James through the window and pointed. Then he looked at Remus and Peter with his mouth hanging open and bringing his hand suddenly to his chest and making a gasping noise, pretended to faint. Remus just rolled his eyes at him.

"So," Lily said. "I take it you didn't tell your friends about our date?"

"I…what…did Marlene tell you that?!" James asked suddenly worried. Would she be mad he'd kept it a secret. He thought she wouldn't want it spread all around school that she'd said yes to him.

"Marlene, oh no. I was basing my assumption on the Sirius's reaction," Lily stated pointing out the window.

James turned around just in time to see Sirius fall backwards in a very dramatic fashion. Remus made eye contact with James and gave him an apologetic look. James in turn gave him a look that said, get rid of him, before turning back to Lily.

"I'm really sorry I didn't tell them," James said quickly wanting to explain before she got angry. "I just didn't want them giving you a hard time about it, and by them I mean Sirius. But I couldn't tell Moony, because then Sirius would be upset that I left him out and he just stopped being mad at me. And I couldn't tell Wormtail cause he might have cracked and told Sirius," James explained.

To James's great relief Lily just laughed at him. "Well, I guess I should appreciate that you risked making your friends angry to try and make me happy. Thanks."

"Eh, they'll get over it. Remus will already have pointed out everything I just said to Sirius before we get back to the castle."

Lily drank the last of her butter beer and smiled. James finished his to and asked, "So would you like to go for a walk around the village or something? We still have some time before we have to go back."

"Sure, that sounds like fun," Lily said.

James looked out the window to make sure his friends were gone and then the two of them left the pub and spent the next hour and a half walking around the village and talking. James had to fight the urge to try and hold Lily's hand the whole time.

They arrived back at the Gryffindor Common Room at about four and James once again had to exercise great restraint to resist the urge to kiss her goodbye. He couldn't rush things and kissing her if she didn't want him to would definitely ruin the day and his plans to ask her to the ball.

"James," Lily started as she went to go up to the girls' dorm to put her new dress robes away.

"Yeah?"

"I had a good time this afternoon, thanks."

James grinned, "Anytime."

Lily smiled at him and ran up the stairs.

With that James turned and bound up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Upon entering he found his friends waiting for him. He was pleased to see they were grinning at him, not looking the least bit angry.

"Prongs, mate," Sirius said as soon as James entered, "How'd you do it?"

"I won her over with my natural charm," James replied.

"In other words, you stopped acting like a total prat around her," Remus replied.

All four boys burst out laughing.

"So, was it everything you dreamed of?" Remus asked with a laugh as James flopped down on his four poster bed.

"Better," James replied grinning.

"Did you kiss her?" Peter asked.

"Nope, didn't even hold her hand," James replied still grinning.

"You didn't even hold her hand?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Nope, this was a trial date, I didn't want to do anything that would risk making her angry. I wanted to show her that I'm not such a bad guy. Hopefully, she'll agree to go to the Halloween Ball with me."

"Does it look like the ball will be any good?" Remus asked.

"Oh yeah, should be great," James said. "Lily and I have been helping McGonagall and Dumbledore plan it. They wanted our opinion on music and stuff."

"Will there be good music?" Sirius asked grinning.

"Yeah, we're getting a band, it should be excellent."

"Which band?" Sirius asked excitedly.

"You'll just have to wait and see," James said grinning.

"I hate you, you know that right?" Sirius asked sulking.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, mate," James replied grinning.

Sirius rolled his eyes, "Is it time for dinner yet?"

"Almost," Remus replied.

"Hey guys," Lily said as she entered the dormitory smiling happily.

"I take it your date went well?" Marlene asked.

"Yeah, actually it did. He was really sweet, surprisingly enough."

"This is what we've been telling you for years; took you long enough to figure it out," Katie said with a look of superiority on her face.

"Oh, shut-up," Lily said sticking her tongue out at her friend.

"So, are you going to go to the Halloween Ball with him?" Katie asked.

"He hasn't even asked me yet," Lily said rolling her eyes.

"But he will," Marlene said knowingly. "He just wanted you to see that he's not such a bad date before he asked you to the ball. So when he asks what will you say?"

"I don't know," Lily shrugged. "I mean sure I had fun, but still…"

"Still what?" Katie asked giving Lily a look that clearly said, 'you're mad.'

"I don't know," Lily tried to put what she was feeling into words. "It's just weird is all. I mean its James Potter."

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, denial is not healthy," Katie responded.

"I'm not in denial. I'm just not sure I want to go out with him again is all," Lily said.

Somewhere in the back of her mind Lily knew she was lying. She really wanted to go to the ball with James, but she was stubborn and she wouldn't let herself admit it.

"Uh-hu," Katie replied.

"So, speaking of the ball," Abby inserted, "should we expect to enjoy it?"

"Oh yeah, should be a great time. James and I have been helping McGonagall and Dumbledore plan it."

"Wait, how long have you known about the ball?" Marlene asked.

"Since we got back to school. James and I weren't sure if we were allowed to tell so we didn't say anything. I was surprised that you guys didn't ask about it sooner though after McGonagall asked James and me to meet her to discuss Halloween in front of you."

"Oh is that what she was talking about? I just figured she was talking about decorating for the feast or something."

Katie nodded in agreement.

"You didn't think it was odd that she wanted to talk to us about the Halloween feast in the beginning of September?"

"She said she was busy, we figured she was just worried about finding the time later to talk to you about it."

Lily just laughed.

"Well it should be fun."

"I hope the music is good," Mary said.

"Oh, don't worry, it will be excellent," Lily said knowingly.

"As long as Filch isn't the D.J," Katie said with a laugh. "He's not right?!"

Lily laughed again. "No Dumbledore has booked a band."

"A good one?" Katie asked curiously.

"They're decent," Lily replied carefully.

"Who is it?" Mary asked.

"Oh, I can't tell you that would spoil the surprise."

"Come on Lily," Katie begged.

But Lily just smiled at them.

The girls spent the rest of the time until dinner and a good bit of time afterwards trying to get Lily to tell whom the band would be, but it was trying to get concrete facts from J.K. Rowling. Eventually they had to concede to the fact that Lily would simply not tell them; she wouldn't even give them a tantalizing hint. She just grinned and said, "You'll see."

After dinner Lily decided that she was going to head down to the library to try and get some work done. She was still having trouble in Transfiguration and despite the fact that it was Saturday night she wanted to get at least an hour of studying in before relaxing with her friends.

As she turned the corner someone suddenly grabbed her arm and pulled her down another hall and into an empty classroom.

"Severus!" Lily exclaimed. "What in the name of Merlin is wrong with you? You scared me half to death!"

"Sorry," Snape said sounding agitated.

Lily folded her arms and glared at him. As children she and Severus Snape had been best friends but ever since an incident at the end of fifth year when Snape had called Lily a Mudblood in front of the entire fifth and seventh year class, and half the sixth years, Lily had refused to speak to him unless it was absolutely necessary.

"What do you want Severus?" Lily asked again annoyed.

"What were you doing today in Hogsmeade with Potter?" Snape asked his agitation becoming worse.

"Is that really why you dragged me in here?" Lily asked in disbelief. "To interrogate me? What I do in my free time and whom I spend it with is none of your business, Severus. You lost that privilege in fifth year."

"But what were you doing there with him?" Snape asked clearly distressed now.

"Well, if you must know, James asked me out and I said yes," Lily replied still glaring.

"You…you went on a, a date …with him?" Snape asked almost incapable of speech.

"Yes, I went on a date with James Potter," Lily replied in exasperation. "And you know what else?" She continued. "I had fun. He's a really nice guy."

"You fancy him?" Snape said sounding simultaneously shocked, angry, disgusted, and hurt.

Lily felt her face flush.

"Yeah, I think I do," she said quietly.

An emotion that looked a lot like hurt and disappointment momentarily flashed across Snape's face before he was able to suppress it.

"What could you possibly see in that arrogant toe rag?" Snape asked in disbelief.

"He's really not like that," Lily argued. "I'm not defending how he treats you. I'm just saying there's more to him than that. He just holds very firm beliefs about right and wrong. And that's an area, Severus, where you are severely lacking," Lily told him. "He may not always react in an appropriate way but his heart is in the right place."

Snape just snorted with derisive laughter in response.

"Think what you want Severus you're entitled to your opinion but that doesn't mean that I have to agree or even that your opinion is right. You made your choice. You chose Voldemort…"

Snape flinched.

"Don't say his name!" he hissed.

Lily rolled her eyes.

"Do whatever you want, Severus just leave me alone."

With that Lily turned around and stormed out the door. She went to the library and tried to study but quickly gave it up as a bad job.

She returned to the common room to spend the rest of the night with her friends but she spent most of her time lost in her own thoughts.

She had tried so hard to make Severus see reason. To realize that Voldemort's side was the wrong side. Yet he had continued to be drawn to the dark side. The day he called her a Mudblood she knew he was a lost cause and that it was time to move on but that didn't stop her from occasionally wishing she could have saved him from himself.