Chapter seven! (Finally!)

Of envious errands and 'sticky' situations


With the sunlight slowly drifting into the room from the slightly peaking curtains in the common room, and the birds chirping away lightly in the background, none of which disturbed the sleeping forms of the two seventeen year old students in the slightest, were Lily and James, sleeping away to glory.

"Guys!"

"Goodness, Padfoot!" Remus whispered. "Not so loud!"

"Sorry!"

"Padfoot!"

"Sorry!"

Remus chuckled. Honestly, some things would never change.

"Do we wake them up?" Eva asked.

Mary opened her mouth to reply but Sirius had already walked over to the curtains and shoved them aside, letting sunlight hit the common room.

James stirred slightly, instinctively reached his free arm round Lily, pulled her closer to him and neatly tucked her under him, but otherwise kept sleeping. Lily sighed in her slumber, and snuggled more comfortably into James' shirt. He smiled in his sleep, resting his cheek upon hers.

The rest of the group was watching the two Head's sleeping with small traces of smiles, before Sirius, as usual, thought it prudent to ruin the moment.

He leaned over James and Lily, so much that his nose was probably two or three inches apart from James'. James opened his eyes slowly, only to find a face, somewhat humanoid('Hey! I hadn't had a bath!' Sirius had protested later on) staring down at him.

"Gah!" he all but screamed.

Lily woke up with a start.

"Who's dead?"

"My hearing," Sirius muttered, hands still clasped firmly around his ears.

"Padfoot-" James started calmly...a little too calmly,"-are you mental?"

"Oh, well...that's gratitude for you!" Sirius complained.

"Gratitude for what, exactly, Sirius?" Lily asked, rubbing her ears.

"Yeah...gratitude for what, exactly, Sirius?" Remus asked, smirking.

Sirius seemed to be thinking about it, when suddenly he exclaimed, "For waking you two up, of course!"

James and Lily were about to open their mouths but suddenly Sirius grinned slyly.

"Not that you didn't seem to be all...comfy...of course," he winked.

James, who free hand was still around Lily's abdomen, turned an interesting shade of red. Lily seemed to notice the weight around her stomach for the first time. James removed his arm quickly, while Lily got up, obviously carrying James along as well, with some difficulty.

"Off to breakfast, big boy," she muttered, ears slightly pink.

Sirius grinned happily. "Yes ma'am!" he saluted and shot out of the portrait hole.

The rest of the group chuckled.

"Um," Peter broke the silence after a moment, "is he going to have a bath or not?"

Remus sighed. "Only time will tell, Pete."

They all laughed.

"See you guys down, then?" Isa asked.

"Sure," Lily said.

And so the rest of them, barring Lily and James of course, made their way out of the portrait hole. Lily turned to James and muttered an incantation, swishing her wand effortlessly, effectively changing his clothes to their uniform. She then proceeded to do the same with hers.

After they had summoned their bags, they started making their way out of the portrait hole, when James suddenly stopped Lily.

"You've been thinking about that hound, haven't you?" he asked her concernedly.

"No, of course I haven'-I-yes. Yes, I have," she sighed.

He cupped her cheek with his free hand. "Don't worry, okay? I admit that it's coming right after us was freaky...but we'll think of that later. I don't want you to take any stress, alright?"

She smiled at him and nodded lightly. "Alright," she said softly.

He smiled back at her, and they started making their way towards the Great Hall.


"Merlin's dirtiest left sock, Sirius! What are you doing?" Lily exclaimed.

Sirius grinned from his position, upside down, right in the middle of the Gryffindor table, his head on squashed eggs; but he seemed to be unaware of the fact.

"Completing a dare, of course! What do you think, LilyFlower? I'm stupid enough to do something like this on my own?"

Silence. Complete silence.

Sirius huffed. "I hate you guys," he mumbled, and started to climb down from the table. He straightened up and sat on his seat, and soon enough his plate was completely invisible under his-uh-breakfast.

There was still silence. Sirius looked up and saw every face turned towards him. And then, after a moment, everyone started laughing.

"What?" he asked through a mouthful of food.

"Nothing," Mary gasped, trying to regain her breath.

Sirius' hair was completely covered in eggs. No, squashed eggs. Well, yes, not a rather pretty sight.

Eventually they all calmed down and sat for breakfast. Lily filled James' plate for him, since his right hand was currently of no use. The rest of the group gave each other knowing smiles.

"You know," Lily started casually, "you people really should learn the art of subtlety."

Everyone chuckled.

"Oh and Padfoot, you can't call Lily LilyFlower." James added.

Sirius smirked. Under normal circumstances that would have been enough to make any girl go weak in the knees, but given his current 'hair situation', the effect didn't really come out.

"Why? Possessive, are we?"

James shrugged. "Whatever. No one is allowed to call her that."

"Except you, of course," Isa put in, winking.

"Except me, of course!" James replied, grinning.

"You people seem to have forgotten the fact that I'm still here, or are you just choosing to ignore it?" Lily asked dryly.

"The latter," Eva said, munching on her Yorkshire pie.

Lily rolled her eyes. "You people are impossible."

"But that's why you love us, eh?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, that doesn't even begin to cover it, Sirius," she replied, rolling her eyes.

Sirius barked a laugh. Everyone else looked at Sirius and sniggered.

"Alright, what's the matter?" Sirius asked.

"Nothing," Eva said nonchalantly.

James snorted. "Yeah, nothing at all."

Sirius scowled. "I hate you lot."

Finally Remus took some pity on the poor boy. "Padfoot...you hair is-"

"What?" Sirius asked frantically. "What about my hair?"

"Nothing," Remus smirked, "It just seems to be covered in eggs-"

But he didn't get to complete the sentence. Sirius had shot out of his seat as though it were on fire, and dashed out of the Hall, probably to the nearest boys' lavatory.

"Where did he go?" Peter asked.

"Three guesses where," James smirked.

The rest of them laughed.


"Shh. It's McGonaga-hey, what's she doing here?" a seventh year Gryffindor said.

Professor McGonagall entered the DADA classroom, with another man in her wake. The guy looked like he was in his early twenties. He was, indeed, a rather good-looking man with light black hair and chocolate brown eyes.

"Good morning. Professor Grumblyface is on a temporary leave, so I would like to introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts' teacher, Professor John Gregory."

The professor smiled. No denying that more than half the female population present in the class sighed.

"This will be it, then. Professor Gregory, on to you," said McGonagall and left the classroom.

"Well, well, good morning then," Professor Gregory said cheerfully.

Nearly ninety nine percent of the female population present in the class sighed dreamily. Barring Lily Evans, of course.

"Very well, good morning. I am Professor John, and, as Minerva already told you, I will be substituting for Professor Grumblyface-" he chuckled lightly, invoking laughter from the entire class- "till he's fit to join us again. So, let's start with today's lesson, shall we?" He smiled widely and looked around.

He looked in Lily and James' direction a little longer than necessary, making James scowl. He had a very good idea who their new professor was looking at.

Lily looked up and noticed Professor Gregory looking at her. He smiled, no doubt a little coyly, and she straightened up in her position, breaking eye contact.

James pulled Lily closer, so much that her shoulder was touching his. She looked at him; he was busy glaring at the professor who had decided to extract his books from his bag; and smiled, only slightly.

"Well, let's get started then. Page number two seventy six, if you will, students. And-" he looked around deliberately-"Ah, Miss Evans, is it not? Head Girl, yes Dumbledore told me. Well, yes if you'd read the first two paragraphs to the class..."

"Sorry Professor, but I have a sore throat," she replied, faking, rather poorly, to the amusement of the class, a prolonged cough.

Remus and Eva sniggered. The rest of them smirked.

"Well, no matter, no matter," he said, and gave her a flippant smile, to which she rolled her eyes; yes, on his face. "I'm sure, ah, and what would be your name?" he asked a a Ravenclaw with strawberry blonde hair.

"S-Samantha, Professor," she stammered.

"Very well, Samantha. Why don't you read out the first two paragraphs of the chapter to the class?"

She came to the front of the class and started speaking, well, starting droning to be precise, about something which the seventh years just could not bring themselves to take interest in.

"-a great ancestor of James Mc-g-" Samantha broke off and started giggling, batting her eyelashes in James' direction, and then continued with the rest of the history. Though Lily's interest had been successfully averted from the text. She was a little preoccupied glaring in the girl's direction.

"Honestly, how pathetic can you get?" was all she said, scoffing, though at the same time, resting her and James' joined hands on the table. It was quite remarkable that their hands were in straight line of vision of the the blonde in the front of the class.

James hid a smile.

"So, Lily," he said, casually bumping her shoulder with his.

"What?" she rolled here eyes, but didn't push him away.

"Noting," he grinned.

She rolled her eyes.

Just then Sirius burst in through the room, bits of egg crumbs still visible on his head.

"Sorry Professor-uh-"

"Gregory."

"Yes, sorry Professor Gregory," he smiled apologetically, making more than a few girls sigh, "ran into some trouble on my way."

"Why, have a bad hair day, Sirius?" Eva asked.

The entire class laughed, Sirius included.

"Just something like that, Hansen," he winked. Eva laughed.

"Well well, whatever it is, I hope I don't see you barging through the door after half the class is over next time, I hope. Please take a seat."

"You couldn't have told me my head was on squashed eggs, Moony?" he whispered as he sat down next to Remus.

"Would you have told me if it was me?" Remus asked.

Sirius thought for a moment. "No."

"There you have it Padfoot."

Sirius smirked. "You're evil, mate."

Remus scoffed. "Yeah, that coming from you."

Sirius just grinned. And so, the class went on more or less uneventfully. As the bell rang and the students started filing out of the class, however, Professor Gregory stopped Lily.

"Excuse me, Miss Evans, yeah right, well, I wanted to give these-" he stopped short at James' expression.

"Well, hurry along Potter, Miss Evans will join you shortly." And then he smirked.

"Well, sorry sir, but you see our hands are-" he brought Lily close to him in one swift movement and raised their interlocked hands- "stuck together."

"Oh, I see." It was James' turn to smirk.

"Well in any case, Lily, take these papers and distribute them to the rest of the children in your class," Gregory said and smiled widely.

"Yeah sure," she replied in a drawling voice.

He extended hi hand to give her the papers, but James snatched them, quite literally, from his hands before they were even halfway towards her direction.

"Sorry Prof, gotta run. Lily and I-" he cleared his throat meaningfully and turned towards her slyly and winked, almost inconspicuously, and she grinned- "have some business to attend to. So if you don't mind..."

He didn't wait for Gregory's answer. He and Lily walked out of the classroom at full speed and Lily burst out laughing as soon as they were out of earshot.

"Merlin! His fac-face-" she wheezed. James joined in.

Lily sobered up slightly after walking for a little while, though.
"Thanks for, you know, back there. I might have punched him if he'd gone on any longer."

"Oh trust me, I would have punched him long back," he grumbled, as they made their way towards the Great Hall.

Lily grinned, pleased, at what even she didn't know.


"Come on! Is that what all you can do? Is that all Quidditch has given you?" Lily asked the students assembled in the Great Hall.

"Hey! I don't even play Quidditch!"

"I'm not even allowed to play Quidditch!" a first year mumbled.

James looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here...midget?"

"James!"

"Sorry Lils."

"Come on kid, run along." Lily said.

The first year shrugged and skipped away. Lilly sighed and turned back towards the prefects.

"Okay now look. I'm not having the time of my life here, and I think I can gather from public opinion that you guys aren't either. So let's just get this over with!"

The prefects laughed, barring the Slytherin ones who were, as usual, sulking away in the corner.

"Yeah, and you expect us to take orders from the idiot Potter and yo-" the Slytherin didn't get to finish his statement as James had whipped out his wand and pointed it directly at his face.

"I'm warning you, Duncan, just shut that good for nothing mouth of yours and do the work like the rest of us. And say whatever the hell you want to about me, if I hear a single thing you say about-anyone else, I promise you that might as well be the last think you ever say."

The rest of the prefects all smirked. Everyone knew whom he was was talking about, naturally. The girls smiled dreamily, and albeit, jealously. Lily smiled slightly; softly.

"Enough, James," she said gently to a still irate James. "Right, and as to the rest of you, let's begin with the decorations. Discuss and tell us what you think should be the most appropriate items to decorate the Hall for the Christmas Ball, and we'll note down the best suggestions." She sighed and mocked an exhausted face. "That okay?"

They all chuckled. James shook his head and grinned.

'She has to be the cutest person I've ever seen,' he thought fondly.

"Okay, so anyone has any ideas for a theme?"

"Uh, James?"

"Yeah Lils?"

"Isn't it already like...a Christmas Ball?"

He rolled his eyes. "Yes. But, well...I was thinking if we could have something slightly different-"

"Touche."

James smirked and opened his mouth but Lily cut in again.

"Sarcasm. Total sarcasm."

Everyone sniggered.

"You done yet?"

She smiled widely. He grinned, despite himself.

"So, as I was saying, the Christmas Ball and the rest of the blah blah can go on just as it is, but that doesn't mean we can't add a touch of...something else you know? The normal Christmas decorations? Everyone will be expecting it. Why not do it a little differently?"

Lily smiled bemusedly. "Well, finally the boy is talking some sense."

"Hey!"

Everyone chuckled. "Right. So, well...anyone any ideas?" Lily asked.

Anna, a sixth year Hufflepuff prefect spoke in her clear, slightly french accent.

"Well, I've always wanted to attend a bal masqué!"

"A what?" said everyone in unison.

She rolled her eyes.

"It means a masquerade ball."

"Ooh! You mean one of those in which you have to wear masks and costumes!"

"Uh, yes Eline. That's just it. Right, well how many people for it?" Lily asked.

"Just for extra information, are partners supposed to match their costumes and stuff?" James asked.

"Well, yes of course they have to!" Anna said.

James looked down and his and Lily's intertwined hands, smiled gleefully and raised his hand.

"Alright, all those for it?"

Lily rolled her eyes.

'Honestly, he has to be the most amusing person I've ever seen,' she thought, shaking her head.
But then why was she-wait-was she? Yes, she was but, why?
For all she knew, Lily Evans could not fathom why she was smiling.

All the other prefects raised their hands, surprisingly few of the the ones in Slytherin as well.

"All right. That's decided then." Lily said, scribbling it down on her parchment.

James took over from there. "Now coming to food..."


"Lily?"

She turned around and came face to face with Amos Diggory, their fellow seventh year Hufflepuff. Amos had light blue eyes and blond hair. He was indeed, among the most popular guys in their year.

"Oh, um, hello Amos."

"Hullo! I just wanted to ask if you were doing anything tonight."

"Uh, right, well I am-"

"Helping me in my Charms assignment." James cut her.

"Come now! Homework can be done anytime! I'm sure you can take out some time for fun, you know." he winked.

Lily felt something shaking, then realized it was her hand...the one that was attached to James'.

"Extremely sorry, Diggory, but it's important." James said through gritted teeth.

"Of course, but-"

"Look Amos, I'm sorry but there's a lot to discuss for the Ball as well, so there's no way we can make it, alright?"

"We...?" he asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Lily raised their joined hands and, quite literally, waved it in front of his eyes.

"Yes. We. And now if you'll excuse us."

And with that she turned on her heels and walked away with James, who seemed to have half made up his mind to throttle Diggory then and there, as fast as her legs would carry her.

She kept on steering them quickly until they reached the library, in relative silence, ignoring James' one-sided "grumbling to himself" conversation, of course.

They entered, with James still "talking" to himself. The librarian spoke suddenly.

"Hey!"

"Wha-" James broke out of his trance and stared at the thin, strict-looking, slight grey-haired librarian standing with her hands on her hips, fixing him with a look of disapproval.

"Sorry about him, Madame Librosamas." Lily started, grinning. "He very...disturbed, you see."

"Well, that's no reason to disturb others as well!" Madame Librosamas said and walked away, huffing.

James started at her retreating profile for a minute before turning towards Lily, wearing a confused expression.

"What's wrong with her?"

Lily laughed, making James chuckle.

"Who was that?" came the librarian's voice from somewhere ahead of them.

"Not m-urrr!"

"James!" she whispered frantically in a reprimanding tone.

"Bhwaa?"

"Merlin!" She turned towards him, and then looked forward. "Look."

And so he did. Two Slytherins, namely Avery and Rosier were lurking about near the potions section, talking in hushed tones.

"What d'you reckon they are doing?" Lily asked, whispering.

"Not browsing for the recipe of pumpkin juice," he said, frowning slightly.

"Come on," Lily mumbled and together they made their way towards an old-looking dust clad shelf, just behind the potions section.

Lily peered through two books and saw their lips moving. They craned their necks slightly and caught a few words.

"-but he was very clear in what he said, Rosier!"

"I know but-"

"As it is, you've always wanted her, haven't you? What better oppertu-" Definite sneering could be made out from his tone.

"Shut it, Avery! You know well enough-"

They couldn't catch a few of his next words due to the shifting of books.

"-but, well...you never know."

Creak!

Some shifting again.

"-and it might even silence him...forever."

And then the slight maniac, though hushed laughter.

Lily and James looked at each other. Avery and Rosier finally walked away from that shelf, a thick and battered copy of some book in Rosier's hand, and walked out of the library.

They waited a minute or two and then stepped out from behind the shelf and sat down in a secluded spot, near the restricted section.

"What the hell was all that about?"

"I dunno, James. But..."

"Lils? You alright?" he asked concernedly.

"Yes...yes, I'm fine. But...things look pretty weird now. First that hound in Hogsmede, now these two talking as though they're planning something evil-"

She stopped mid sentence and faced James. His expression mirrored her own.

"I know! And the way they were saying things...especially that part when Avery said something about Rosier always wanting someone-I-" he hands balled into fists and he closed his eyes tightly. He knew quite well just who it could be Avery had been hinting at.

Unconsciously, his hand tightened around Lily's.

"Come on, that could mean anything."

"And what about the silencing thing, though?"

"I-come on James we'll think about it later." She looked troubled.

James opened his mouth but Lily cut him.

"Anyway, we can't concentrate on that right now. It could be anything they were talking about. Probably some prank or something."

"Yeah, maybe."

Neither of them were convinced.

Suddenly Lily groaned. James looked at her.

"What? Are you alright?"

"I just remembered-I-ugh! We have detention at seven!"

James laughed.

"Honestly, Lils. I thought you would have been used to that by now."

She rolled her eyes.

"Besides, it's actually fun!"

"I don't know what particular fancy you have towards cleaning toilets or scrubbing trophies, but I most certainly do not see the appeal," she said dryly.

He laughed.

"Well, what if I make you see the appeal, huh?"

"Ah. And...how exactly do you propose to do that?"

"Well, the answer's quite simple and straight-forward, really."

"Oh, is it?"

"Yep."

"Pray tell then, James."

"You'll be serving detention with me, won't you?"

"Oh my Merlin! How very foolish of me! How could I forget?"

James grinned and opened his mouth, but once again, Lily cut him.

"Again. Sarcasm. Total sarcasm."

He grinned widely, making her roll her eyes, but chuckle slightly nevertheless.

"You know you're the cutest person I've ever seen, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" she clapped her hands together! Well, hands in the sense all three hands, including James' one attached to her own. "Now let's get going, shall we? I'm not cleaning a hundred extra trophies because we were late."

James smiled fondly and got up along with her, as they made their way out of the library. Not before receiving a dirty look from Madame Librosamas, which James reciprocated with a cheesy smile.


"What's the time?"

"Six fifty, may-whoa!"

"Hurry up James! That bloody Pringle will keep us there for more time as it is and I don't want to further add to the long torturous hours we already have to spend in there!"

James laughed, but quickened his pace.

They reached the Trophy Room on precisely a minute to seven and came face to face with Pringle.

He seemed to be rather unhappy with the fact that they had managed to reach on time.

"Get inside, you two. Two hours. No magic. Your wands, if you please?" he smiled smugly.

They handed over their wands, albeit reluctantly.

The caretaker steered them inside the room and shut the door, giving them a last flash of his dirty yellow teeth.

"Well, this would be fun." James said brightly.

Lily groaned. "Great!"

And with that they made their way over to the first shelf occupied by various trophies, won by students of many by-gone eras...and maybe even the previous year.

"Why do even have to clean these bloody trophies?" Lily grumbled, while scrubbing a rather dusty looking trophy. "As if anyone even looks at them!"

"Well, I most certainly don't!" James said and winked. He started coughing a second later because of a huge amount of deposition of dust right below his nose, while trying to scrub with his left hand-the only free hand.

"Lily? Uh, would you mind?" James said, a dirty cloth still in his hand.

Lily sighed and moved her hand just above his chin and gently wiped away the dust particles.

Their eyes met, just for a second, before that turned away and started again with their work; but it was enough.

About an hour later, they had finished all the trophies in that particular room. They made their way over to a tiny room joined to the main one, when they could roughly make out about ten or fifteen trophies kept.

"Well, here's another treat," James grumbled as they shuffled inside. As they were about to turn, however, they lost balance and toppled over some trophy that had fallen on the floor. the rest of the few trophies in that room, due to the next to no a mount of space, fell down as well, leaving absolutely no place for any movement at all.

They were lying in the same position that they had found themselves in many times since their hands' predicament. James above Lily. No scope for movement. Stuck together.

"Merlin!" Lily groaned. "How did we even get inside? No, wait. Why did we even get inside this place?"

"Yeah, I've been trying to figure that out myself." James said, trying to move, with Lily doing the same. Not to any avail, though.

Lily stopped suddenly, staring at one particular trophy which had fallen directly on their right side.. James noticed she had stopped moving and turned to look at what had caught her attention.

"Potions mastery, dated hmm hmm hmm...to Tom Riddle, for showing-" He stopped mid sentence. "Is that-"

"Voldemort, yes." Lily said, pure contempt evident in her voice.

A cold wave enveloped the room like a suffocating blanket. And suddenly, James thought he knew why there was so much vehemence in he tone.

"He tried to recruit you, didn't he?" he asked her quietly.

Her face showed signs of faint surprise.

"Dad works in the ministry. I heard him talking about Voldemort wanting to recruit students. He tried to recruit Frank as well."

"Yes," she said. "Yes, he did. Nearly killed my sister too after I refused. Mum and dad weren't at home, thankfully. Tun-Petunia was. One minute we were rowing about something and the next about ten of them appeared in the lawn. Voldemort was there too. Petunia-she...she didn't know who they were. She thought they were probably some people I knew. She realized something was off the minute he started speaking, though. After I refused, he-well, he wasn't particularly happy. Said some crap about coming back and making me change my mind or something. I-well, I might have said something along the lines of seeing to him before he did." James, who had been listening in shocked silence, grinned now, admittedly a little proudly. She closed her eyes, as if remembering a very painful scene. "All ten of them took out their wands but he stopped them. I don't know what he signaled to them but the next moment they all disapparated. I got a bit distracted and that's what just he wanted. He attacked Tuney. She-" she choked- "she fell back and didn't move. I-" A tear escaped, despite her will. "I didn't know what to do. And then he laughed. And I don't know what came over me, but I attacked him. He disapparated though. Petunia-she wouldn't breathe. And just then my parents came back. It took about half an hour to fix her back completely."

Another tear went streaming down her face.

"And it was all my fault."

James was still shocked. Not much at what he'd heard; he knew Lily was brave, one of the bravest people he had ever seen. But that's precisely why he was shocked. To see her cry. He'd never seen her cry before.

He looked at her, cupped her face with his free hand and said gently. "It's not your fault Lils!"

She sighed. "You can understand how she hates me even more than she did before- if that's even possible."

James moved his free arm around her and brought her even more close, if that was humanly possible.

"Well, then that's her bad, isn't it?"

She looked at him and smiled slightly trough her tears. She closed her eyes and laid her head on top of his. He tightened his arm around her.

She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"Thanks."

"What for?"

"Just like that."

"Well, you're welcome. Just like that."

She grinned, but it turned into a slightly curious smile after a moment.

"Your eyes, they're hazel, not brown. I never noticed," she whispered.

"Hmm?" he whispered back.

Their eyes were closing slightly and they were leaning, slowly towards-

BAM!

"What are you two doing?"

"You should be asking yourself that," James told Pringle.

"Excuse me?" Pringle said in a dangerous tone.

"Exactly! What do you think you're doing stuffing these things in this rat hole?"

Pringle looked about him for a second or two, then grumbled and bent over to pick up the fallen trophies, creating enough space for the two to get up.

"Move along, you troublesome kids."

While he was busy fussing over how to arrange the trophies, Lily and James ran out of the room, before he could change his mind.

"That was fun." Lily commented.

"Sarcasm? Total sarcasm?" James teased.

She laughed.


"Prongs! LilyFlower!" Sirius bounced up and down.

"Padfoot, old dog, how have you been?" James asked dramatically.

"Just fine, Prongsie-poo. But where have the two of you been, eh?" He winked.

"Detention, Sirius." Lily yawned.

His eyes lit up. "Ooh, where?"

"Trophy room,"James said, wincing slightly.

His face fell a bit. "Oh, that isn't so much fun."

Lily patted him on the shoulder consolingly.

Eva smirked. "Good thing you guys came. He's been eating our heads for the past whole hour!"

"Hey!"

James laughed as they made their way towards the couch by the fire and promptly sat down.

"So what did you guys do today?" Lily asked, yawning again.

"Oh." Sirius smiled wickedly. "You'll find out in the Great Hall tomorrow morning."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Do I want to know?"

"Yes, I know you do!" Sirius winked.

"I can't believe you guys actually planned a prank without me!" James said, outraged.

"Well, you were busy with the Head duties or whatever it is, weren't you? And this couldn't have been postponed. So we had to, Prongsie-"

"Call me that one more time, Sirius Orion Black."

Sirius smirked. Mary rolled her eyes.

"Remus are you done with the book yet?"

"No Mar. I just got it this afternoon, remember?"

"Yeah but...couldn't you like, read it faster?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'm doing the best I can."

"Which book are we talking about?" Lily asked.

"Some book on Potions Remus got from the library." Said Peter.

"Yeah and there are apparently only two copies in the school library, or so it's said," said Isa.

"And someone already took the first copy before we went," grumbled Mary.

"I'n not particularly interested in potions, but there was this recipe of brewing this concoction of Veritaserum, which Slughorn can ask us to make any day now. So I thought I'd read something in advance. But the book seems interesting. Uh...leaving the few um, dangerous potions aside, that is." Remus said.

Lily and James looked at each other.

"Well," Sirius yawned, "I'm off to bed. Special day tomorrow. Gotta save some energy. Night, folks."

"Yeah I'll be heading off too," Eva said.

"Yeah me too," Remus and Isa said at the same time.

"Well, looks like we'll meet you guys tomorrow morning then," Mary said to Lily and James as the group slowly shuffled out of the Heads' common room.

"What do you reckon is there in the book?" James asked, once everyone had moved out.

"I dunno. We'll just have to borrow it from Remus and see." Lily said.

"Yeah," he yawned.

Lily conjured their sleeping bags and changed their clothes into night wear. They lay down for several minutes, tossing and turning(not quite literally, given their hands' situation) both not being able to sleep.

"Lils?"

"Hmm?" she said drowsily.

"What are you thinking about?"

She looked at him.

"How do you know I'm thinking about anything?"

"Because I know you."

"Well, I was-" she sighed. "I was just thinking about the days when Petunia and I could stand each other for more than five minutes."

"It will be alright one day, you know. She'll come around. See you for what you are. She's just jealous. But it will all work out, one day. Really."

She look at him and smiled softly.

"Thanks, James." She yawned. "Good night," she said, as sleep finally overcame her.

"Anytime." He closed his eyes. "Goodnight, Lils."

And they slept, facing each other with their hands joined together safely, right between them.


A/N: Aaaah! Okay, how do I even apologize? I've lost track of the number of months it has been since the last update, now. :P

Alright, first and foremost, I am EXTREMELY sorry! But my computer, writing specifically, got banned. First terminals have just ended and I've just been given permission to write again! :(

So I am truly, very sorry for the extremely late update.

Also, coming to this chapter, well I just started writing it yesterday! So this chapter is basically what I could write in a day and a half! :P But, well...it had already been toooo long, so I had to update!

So I had to really rush with this chapter so I'm not sure if I did it any justice or not.

But well, I'll leave that for you guys to decide! :D

PLEASE REVIEW! You know, it's really disappointing to see that you put so much of time into writing and then just a handful of you guys actually leave a review. People ARE reading, I've checked the stats. So please, if you liked it or hated it or felt something was missing or anything, please leave a review and let me know. :) So many of you put it on alert subscription or favorite it, but hardly any of you bother to review. It really makes you loose interest in writing and posting, because people don't really give much feedback. So, whatever it is, positive review or negative, please do give it. It all helps, really. :)

Also, feel free to suggest any ideas for Sirius's upcoming prank in a review. ;)

As to why Voldemort would like to recruit a muggle born, well, wasn't it given in the book that Lily and James both defied him three times? He had tried to recruit both of them once before they had left Hogwarts. So that's why he was trying to recruit Lily. And even though she WAS a muggle-born, she was an extremely powerful witch. And don't worry, the recruiting James part will come up in due course. :D
And, well...I'm not entirely sure about the recruiting DURING school thing, but the book did say three times...well anyway I've tried to stick to canon as much as possible. :P

So that's it for now, I guess. :P

REVIEW! Please? :3 The Butterbeer offer still holds!
Cheers,
RainHolly