This would be a disaster, Remus decided. It really would.

Not only had he seen Lily look at James and James look at Lily, but he had seen that Sirius had seen it too, and he could tell by his grin that he was planning something.

Oh crap.

This couldn't end well.

They'd only been in the Great Hall for a moment, but that was really the longest amount of time you could be in there and just stand there without doing anything.

Remus coughed lightly. "Um, Lily, would you like to dance?"

James glared at her, and Lily looked lost for a moment, before smiling and saying, "Of course."

He saw Mary drag a still angry looking James onto the dance floor and Sirius scanned the room for a girl who didn't have a date.

"So, um, Lily, how's life?" he asked uncomfortably.

"Is that how you make small talk?" she asked.

"Well, not usually," he admitted. "But at the moment that's the best I've got."

She laughed. "You don't know much about girls, do you?" she asked. He shook his head and she laughed again. "Alright," she said. "I'll help you. Compliment something."

"Um, your necklace is very pretty."

"And then I blush and say thank you," she told him. "And you ask me how I got it."

"How did you get it?" he asked, feeling rather foolish.

"It was my grandmother's," she said. "She gave it to my mother, who gave it to me. Petunia was incredibly angry the next month."

"Petunia?" he asked, but he knew the name sounded familiar.

"My sister," she clarified.

"Ah, of course," he said. Then there was a pause. "Now what?" he asked pleadingly.

"Say the first thing that comes to your mind. Keep it flowing. I said something about my sister, as me a question about her."

"Do you and your sister get along well?" he asked.

"Not since I got to Hogwarts," she said sadly. "She's a muggle, you see, and more or less hates anything to do with magic."

"And how do you feel about Hogwarts?" he asked.

"I love Hogwarts," she told him. "It's the most amazing place I've ever been."

"Me too," he said. "Uh…what's your favorite class?" he blurted out.

"Charms," she said without missing a beat.

"Oh really, why?" he asked her.

"I don't really know," she said. "It's just so fun."

"Uh-huh," he said.

"You did great!" she said enthusiastically. For a moment he forgot what she was talking about. "Now," she said. "Go try it on that Ravenclaw over there who's alone."

"W-what?" he asked, realizing he was losing control of the situation. He didn't want to go talk to a Ravenclaw girl!

Then he realized that he shouldn't want to stay here with the girl his best friend was in love with. So he went over to the girl willingly.

*****

"You should ask her to dance," Mary said conversationally.

"Excuse me?" James asked, confused.

"Lily," she said, as if it were obvious. "I can see that you don't want to dance with me," she told him.

"But I-" he started, but she cut him off.

"Listen, of course I want to dance with you, I mean, you're a great guy, but you obviously really like her, and I don't want to stand in the way of that."

"But you…" he said, then he stopped and began again. "Thank you," he said, smiling at her. "But honestly, I don't think she'd want to."

"Ask her," Mary said. "I think she'll surprise you."

James grinned and began to make his way over to Lily, but just then a very lost looking Peter stumbled over to her and they walked over to the dance floor together.

Aw crap.

*****

"I have to what?" Peter asked, shocked and confused at the task Sirius had just given him.

"Dance with Lily," Sirius said slowly. "So that you can find out why she wouldn't go with James when she clearly wanted to. And why she came with Remus."

"I-oh alright," he said, walking over to Lily.

"D-do you want to, uh, d-dance?" he asked nervously.

She laughed. "Why not?" she asked, standing and taking his had.

He was a horrible dancer. They both knew that, but she was nice enough not to say anything.

He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came out was a small squeaky noise.

"I'm not going to attack you," she said. "You can speak you know."

"I, uh, well I was, um, just wondering why you came with Remus?" he said carefully, posing the whole thing as a question.

"And not James?" she said, raising her eyebrows. He nodded sheepishly.

"I don't really want to talk about that," she said, not looking at him.

"Oh, I-I'm sorry," he said, looking at his feet.

"No, it's alright," she said, sighing. "It's just that I know you'll go back and tell them what I say."

"You're probably right about that," he said.

She laughed. "Sirius sent you to dance with me, didn't he?" she asked him. Again, he nodded sheepishly.

"Well, go tell him I'm not saying a thing."