Unofficial Portkey Archive

Two weeks later, the Hogwarts Expressed steamed its way back north to Scotland, carrying a load of well-fed and well-rested students who, if they were not exactly glad about returning to school work, were at least excited to be returning to the castle. Lily Evans was no exception to this, although her reasons for excitement about being back at Hogwarts were drastically different from most of the students'. Lily was not excited about returning to the castle, per say, but shewasvery glad to be back in the company of one particular inhabitant of the castle.

While she had enjoyed spending time with her parents, Lily had been surprised by how much she had missed the companionship of one particular tousle-haired Gryffindor, particularly in light of the fact that their friendship over the last few weeks of the fall term had been rather stunted. This was not to say that her Christmas holiday had been boring and uneventful. The Evans family certainly hadn't lacked for company. They had spent Christmas with Betsy Evans' parents, and Petunia's fiance, Vernon Dursley, had visited almost every evening. In fact, it was during one of these evening visits that Lily had had the startling realization that was the reason for her current eagerness to see her co-Head again.

She had been sitting around the front parlor with her parents, Petunia and Vernon, pretending to be listening to another one of Vernon's long-winded, abysmally boring descriptions of his latest triumph at the office, when in reality, she had been wishing for the hundredth time that James were there. Somehow Lily had known that, if James were to be taking part in this conversation (if it could even be called as much), he would find a way to make it entertaining. She had been listening silently while mentally composing a list of Vernon's flaws when the realization hit her like a charging Hippogriff. She was comparing Vernon to James, just like she had compared Ewan Forrester to him back in September. And, like Ewan and every other male of her acquaintance (with the exception of her own father and Headmaster Dumbledore), Vernon fell very short of the high standard James had somehow set in Lily's mind.

If she stopped to think about it, there was no one else whose company she preferred more. James was good-natured, unfailingly optimistic, intelligent, interested in what she had to say, not to mention extremely attractive. Hadn't she spent every day since she had returned home wishing he were there with her? There was no other explanation for it. She was harboring a massive fancy for James Potter. Why else would she be wishing so desperately that she had an owl so she could correspond with him over the holiday? Or wishing they were already back at Hogwarts so that she could see him again?

Although this revelation had initially been startling, as the holiday progressed, Lily had become more accustomed to the idea and even more eager for her return to school. She very much wanted to talk to Marlene and Mary about this, and she especially wanted to see James again. She was confident that, now that she'd finally realized what her actual feelings for him were, it wouldn't take long before they were dating. A few flirtatious comments, an extra dose of smiles, and a casual mention of the next Hogsmeade weekend on her part, and he would ask her out again. After all, hadn't he been after her for years? This was the moment he'd been waiting for.

It was with this hopeful attitude that Lily boarded the Hogwarts Express and wound her way through the crowded corridors to find Marlene and Mary. She peeped into the first compartment of the second car and was pleased to see Mary, who was the most punctual of the three, waiting for her. Sliding the door open, she flopped down on the seat beside the brunette and embraced her enthusiastically.
"Mary! Have I got a story to tell you! Just wait until Lena gets here."

"A story? About what?" Mary asked, her curiosity piqued.

"You'll never guess," was all Lily would say. Despite Mary's pleading, she managed to distract her friend until Marlene finally arrived, breathing heavily as though she had been sprinting.

"Almost missed the train," the blonde explained, taking a seat on Mary's other side. "Somehow I managed to sleep through all three alarm clocks."

"Well I'm glad you made it," Mary said. "Lily here apparently has something very important to share with us, and she wouldn't tell me anything until you arrived."

Marlene suddenly sat up straighter and her blue eyes sparkled in anticipation of some secret about to be revealed.
"What's happened?"

"Welllll....," Lily began, drawing out the first word as she was suddenly plagued with a bout of nervousness. "I um... sort of realized something over the holiday. About James."

Marlene's eyes widened and she grinned, asking, "You realized that all you've ever really wanted to do to the boy is snog his pants off?"

Lily's jaw dropped.
"How did you- No! That's not- well yes Idowant to kiss him, but that's not- I just...," she stammered.

"Lily, it's okay," Mary said gently. "You can admit that you fancy James Potter."

"Yes, that's what I wastryingto say,Lena," Lily responded, glaring at her best friend who was doing a poor job of hiding her giggles behind her hand. "And not just because he's a highly snoggable individual, but because-" She stopped and glared again, for Marlene had now given up all pretense and burst into fit of laughter. "Marlene," Lily whined, feeling her cheeks beginning to flush.

"I'm sorry, Lily," Marlene apologized, in between giggles, "It's just.. your face when you said it- I never thought I'd see the day when you admitted it-"

"What she means to say," Mary interrupted, "is that we're both very happy for you. We've always thought you and James would be an adorable couple."

"Yes we have," agreed Marlene. "And now that you've admitted the truth about your feelings for our illustrious Head Boy, the only question is what are you going to do about it?"

"Er... do I really have to do anything?" Lily asked. "Besides flirt with him, I mean."

"Oh. True," Marlene agreed, then she smirked. "I bet you're really going to look forward to patrols now, aren't you?"

Lily flushed scarlet.
"Shut it, McKinnon."

"All that time alone, in darkened corridors, with the oh-so-snoggable Head Boy," Mary said, joining in on the good-natured teasing.

Lily glared at them both and stood up in an exaggerated pretense of offended sensibilities.
"If this is all the quality of conversation I can expect from you two, I'm going to go find myself some better company," she said.

"Would this company's last name begin with 'P' and rhyme with 'otter'?" asked Marlene.

Lily blushed again, but answered, "Yes, actually. I need to find him anyway. We have to plan out the Hogsmeade weekends and stuff for this term."

"Hogsmeade weekends? Now that's a convenient topic of conversation," Mary teased.

"Well we really do need to discuss it," Lily defended herself, "But yeah.. I'm sort of hoping if I drop a few hints, then.."

Marlene gave her a thumbs up, and exclaimed, "Go get 'em, Lil!"

Grinning, Lily slid the compartment door open and stepped out, "See you girls later!" Sliding the door shut behind her, she headed down the corridor to find the the Marauders' compartment. After a nine minute search, the next compartment into which she peered did indeed house James, Sirius, Remus and Peter, all of whom were gathered around what looked to be a school trunk, though she couldn't see what was on it. She paused in the corridor just long enough to check her reflection in the glass and ensure that her hair, which she had worn curly today, looked all right and that her clothes were wrinkle-free, then she slid the compartment door open and poked her head inside.
"James? Can I have a word?" she asked.

At the sound of her voice, James' head snapped up. He was so startled by her sudden appearance in his compartment that he dropped the card he was about to place on the castle on the trunk in front of him, causing the whole thing to blow up in all four boys' faces.

"Oi! Prongs! You lose," Sirius exclaimed, while Remus coughed and began waving the smoke out of his face. Before it could fill the compartment with its acrid odor, he pulled his wand from his pocket and began vanishing the streams of grey smoke billowing from the charred stack of cards.

Lily's face fell when she saw the minor chaos her arrival had caused, and she immediately apologized, "Sorry! I didn't realize you were playing."

"Oh.. No, it's.. it's all right," James said, glancing towards the door and then back at Sirius, who was gazing meaningfully at him. He was not exactly sure how to react, having been entirely unprepared for Lily's arrival at his train compartment. Over the holiday, James had come to a very different realization than had Lily. Encouraged in large part by Sirius, and by Remus and Peter to a lesser degree, he had finally admitted that he had no chance of getting his favorite redhead to date him and that, for his own sake, he ought to devote the rest of the school year to getting over her. It had been his New Year's resolution, in fact. However, he was now finding that it was much easier to follow through with this resolution when he was not standing two meters away from the objective of his unwanted affection.

"Er.. all right then," he said after a few seconds' pause, then stood and stepped over the trunk on which they'd been playing.

"I'll get the next set out and ready for you, mate," Sirius said, giving James another meaningful look. As he was currently doubtful of James' ability to actually forswear any hopes of romance with Lily, he thought it would be wise to remind his best mate to keep their little tete-a-tete short. Unfortunately, subtlety was not one of Sirius' many talents, and after his comment, Lily was left feeling very awkward about the whole scenario and wondering why it was so quickly going wrong.

Still, she remained resolutely optimistic as she stepped aside so that James could step out into the corridor with her. Rather, she stepped aside just far enough for him to be able to pass her by, but not far enough away that he could pass by without brushing against her. James, of course, did not realize this difference until he had gently knocked against her on his way out.
"Oh, sorry," he instantly apologized.

Lily, of course, did mind in the slightest that he had bumped into her, so she smiled sweetly and assured him, "It's all right."

Fighting to keep his thoughts on the right track, he turned around to face her and asked, "Er.. everything okay?"

"Everything's fine," she responded. "I just wanted to see if we could meet sometime before the term starts, so we can plan things out properly. Just in case we need to change up the patrol schedules or something."

James returned her brilliant smile a little less certainly.
"Oh. Yeah, whenever. I spoke to the Ravenclaws, and they all said they're good for the same rounds schedules as last term," he said. "But...er... we said all this before, you remember... In the Prefect's carriage..." He trailed off, completely confused as to why she would bring this up again.

"Yes well... I just thought we should erm.. check to make sure everything was still working smoothly," Lily said, realizing as she spoke just how lame her excuse sounded. "We do need to decide on Hogsmeade weekends for this term, though," she added, watching him carefully as she spoke.

"Erm, all right then..," he replied, thinking it was really quite unfair for her to be this pretty, standing so close to him and talking about Hogsmeade, when she was still entirely unattainable. The jarring of the train jerked him out of his pensive thoughts, and he asked, "Are you sure we need to do this now? I haven't got a writeup of the schedules on me."

Lily's face fell ever so slightly.
"We don't have to now. I just thought we should get that bit of business out of the way before things get busy with classes again," she said, a faint note of despondency in her voice. "You can go back to your Exploding Snap, if you want." Even as she spoke, she wished fervently that he would decline and inform her that he preferred to spend the rest of the train ride in her company, because she'd forgotten what a warm, inviting shade of hazel his eyes were and how much she enjoyed just hearing his voice.

James, who was currently of the opinion that time spent alone in Lily Evan's presence was dangerous for his shaky resolve, took the rope she had just thrown him and said, "Oh. Well all right then. I'll catch you at the feast tonight, I guess? Have a good rest of the train ride, Lily."

Lily fought hard to keep her expression as bright and happy as it had been a few minutes earlier. "Sure! Thanks. Er.. you too," she said. For a moment, she stood smiling up at him, then she remembered that she was supposed to be letting him get back to his friends and she turned and walked down the corridor while James stepped back inside his train compartment.

"What did she want?" Sirius asked as soon as the door slid shut behind him.

James shrugged.
"Haven't the foggiest."

"Well, what did she say?" asked Remus curiously.

"She asked me about patrols and Hogsmeade weekends.. which is what we've already gone over in our first ever meeting."

Peter shook his head and chimed in, "Weird. Girls are mental. Always forgetting things."

Privately, Remus thought it would be uncharacteristic of Lily, who was an organized and responsible young woman, to forget something like this, but he was not sure he ought to go pointing this out, so he kept silent.

"Pretty much, Pete," Sirius agreed, then looked over at James. "Forget Evans. It's your resolution, remember?" He gestured towards the Exploding Snap cards he had already dealt out and asked, "Ready for me to whoop your arse again?"

James climbed back into his seat and answered, "Yeah. To be fair, I got distracted last round. We're playing forrealnow."

"Uh huh," was all Sirius said as all four boys resumed play.

Meanwhile, Lily had now reached her compartment and stepped inside to be greeted with anxiously curious expressions on Marlene and Mary's faces.
"How'd it go?" Marlene asked.

Lily sighed and slumped against her seat.
"No such luck."

"What?" Mary exclaimed.

"I don't believe that for a second. What happened?" Marlene asked.

"He hardly even wanted to talk to me," Lily explained. "Apparently his game of Exploding Snap was more important."

"Were his mates there?" queried Mary.

"Yeah. All four of them were in the compartment playing."

"Wait, you didnt askhimout, did you?" Mary asked.

"No!" Lily exclaimed. "I wouldn't- I don'tdothat."

"Okay, good," said Mary, relieved. "Cos if you asked him out and he turned you down, I would definitely have to go and have a word with him."

"Honestly," Marlene agreed.

Lily shook her head and sighed dejectedly.
"I didn't expect him to, you know, ask me out right away or anything, but.. it's like he didn't even want to talk to me."

Marlene frowned a moment, searching for an explanation for this behavior.
"Well.. Maybe he's tired, or something," she suggested. "Or hungry. You know how cranky boys can get when they havent eaten.."

"I guess..," Lily responded, lapsing into despondent silence.

"Sit with him at the feast, or something!" Mary suggested, and Lily considered this suggestion.

"He did say 'see you at the feast tonight'," she mused and reached a decision seconds later. "Yeah! I will." Sitting up a bit straighter, she glanced between her two friends and asked, "What else can I do, though?" She bit her lip anxiously as a new thought occurred to her. "He still..likesme, right?"

Marlene fought the urge to laugh at the preposterous nature of this question.
"Oh, Lily. The boy has been hung up on you since he realized you were a girl. He wouldn't ditch you like that."

"Then why would he-" Lily began, but she stopped and shook her head. "Maybe he was just being fussy." Determined to remain optimistic, she added, "It's not like I could have expected the first words out of his mouth to be, 'Hey Lily, go out with me?'"

"Exactly," Mary agreed, smiling encouragingly. "Cos I mean, it's been weeks. And you didn't write him or anything? Just give him a bit to warm up."

"You're right," Lily said, returning the smile. "So anyway! What's new with you two?"

With that, the girls' conversation turned to lighter topics, and before any of them knew it, the Hogwarts Express was easing to a stop at Hogsmeade Station, and they were descending onto the platform amid a throng of excited students. An hour later, once all the students had had the chance to unpack their trunks and settle into their dormitories, they trooped downstairs to the Great Hall for a sumptuous feast to mark the beginning of the winter term. Lily accompanied Mary and Marlene into the Great Hall but, as they had discussed earlier on the train, she parted ways with them when they reached the Gryffindor table. Mary and Marlene took seats with the other Gryffindor seventh year girls, while Lily continued on down the table to sit with the Marauders.

To her delight, the seat to James' left was still open, as Sirius was on his right and Remus and Peter were seated across from the black-haired duo. Taking a deep breath and mustering her courage, Lily fixed a bright smile on her face and settled herself gracefully into the open seat beside James.

"Hullo!" she greeted him. "How'd you fare with your next game of Exploding Snap?"

James looked up from his plate of ham and potatoes and gave her a half-smile, "Hm? Oh, I lost."

Sirius grinned. "Too right, you did. I've told you before, Prongs, that I am an unstoppable force!" he said. From his seat across the table, Peter eyed Lily, wondering why she had chosen to sit with them when James wasn't even flirting with her.

"Oh. Well, if you ever feel like winning, you can always play me. I'm rubbish at it," Lily told James, oblivious to Peter's stare. Reaching forward, she began serving herself a plate of potatoes, ham and asparagus.

James' only response was to nod and reach for his pumpkin juice. There was an uncomfortable beat of silence, and then Remus piped in, attempting to cover for James' current lack of social skills.

"So, did you have a good holiday, Lily?"

She looked across the table at him and answered, "I did. Not very eventful, though. What about you lot?"

Again, the boys' responses were atypical. Peter accidentally sucked a bit of tea down the wrong way and broke into violent coughing. James shrugged again, and Sirius' grin faltered. Remus reached over and thumped Peter on the back to clear his lungs, then said carefully, "Wales was awfully gloomy. Really cold weather, you know. And I had a cold on Christmas and utterly sucked the happiness out of the group."

"Yeah, he did," Sirius continued, grateful for Remus' tact. "Bloody Moony passed it all to the rest of us, and James here has only just got his voice back, poor sap."

Lily glanced nervously sideways at James, who was silently grateful that his friends were covering for him. Although all four boys already knew the reason for his dour mood, he did not yet feel like sharing this with anyone else in the castle.

"You were sick on Christmas? That's awful!" Lily said, looking back at James.

"Yeah..," he responded sluggishly. "Glad you had a good one, though."

Lily shrugged.

"I'm glad to be back at Hogwarts, though. Home is nice, but I always miss my friends while I'm gone," she said, flashing him a brilliant smile while she pronounced the last bit.

This smile was entirely lost on James as he turned back to his food, wondering why Lily was laying it on so thick today.

It was Remus who, once again, came to her rescue. "Oh, I agree, completely," he said. "I would have gone stir-crazy without this lot here all holiday."

"Aw, Moony, you're so sweet," Sirius cooed, earning himself a laugh from Lily.

"Do you lot behave as poorly as you do at Hogwarts when you're guests in someone else's home?" she asked, envisioning the Potter household being turned upside down by all four boys unleashed upon it.

"Nah, we were on our best behavior at James'," Peter assured her. "He'd havekilledus if we were goofing off at-" But whatever he had been about to say was cut off as Sirius kicked him under the table.

James shot Sirius another grateful look for preventing Peter from revealing what had really gone on at his house over the holidays. He took another bite, chewed, swallowed, and said, "Yeah, it was good. Everyone was grand."

Silence descended on the group for a few moments as Lily tried to think of something else to say. In the end, she settled for the over-done conversation starter of, "So erm.. did you lot get anything good for Christmas?"

Sirius perked up at the mention of gifts. "I got James a pair of Chaser bracers!" he said, referring to the wrist-guard paddings that all Chasers had to wear.

Lily, whose Quidditch knowledge was minimal, had no idea what Sirius was talking about. She quirked an eyebrow and asked, "Chaser what?"

But Sirius continued with his list of gifts, "And I got Re-moose here a massive thing of toffee! Peter got a new set of gobstones! And I gotmea motorbike!"

Since Sirius did not plan to explain his earlier comment, James took it upon himself to mutter in an undertone to the redhead beside him, "Wrist bracers. For Quidditch."

Lily leaned in a bit more than necessary to hear what he was muttering to her, then nodded and beamed gratefully up at him, "Oh. Got it." Then her attention was caught by the last item on Sirius' list. "You got yourself amotorbike?!" she exclaimed. "Did you bring it to Hogwarts?" She was fairly certain that objects like that were not allowed on the castle grounds.

Sirius rolled his eyes at what he considered to be a typical female question. Whether or not it was allowed at school was so obviously beside the point. "No, of course not. But Ihavegot one, now."

"Do you even know how to drive one?" she queried, still skeptical.

Sirius brushed off her question with a wave of his hand. "Everything's eventual, Red."

"Just warn me before you get behind the wheel, so I can make sure to stay off the roads," Lily replied, rolling her eyes at his male bravado.

Sirius glanced across the table at Remus and smirked, "Roads."

His comment was ignored by Lily, who turned back to James and asked, "What about you? Any favorite gifts?"

"Er... No, not really. I didnt ask for anything this year," he responded.

"You.. didn't?" she asked, unable to mask the surprise in her expression. "Why ever not?"

"I don't want anything. Or need anything," he responded dully, his attention still focused on his supper.

Lily was once again silent, taken aback by the morose attitude of the usually optimistic Head Boy. She glanced across the table at Remus again, unsure how to proceed.

"Well, I think that's a good philosophy, Prongs," the sandy-haired boy said, smiling encouragingly at both of them.

"I suppose so..," Lily agreed warily.

Before she could say anything more, Remus changed the subject, asking, "And what about you, Lily?"

"Me? Well... let's see," she replied. "Mum and Dad got me the latest few Beatles albums. And I got this adorable new pair of boots. And a brand new pair of Jordache jeans!" She realized belatedly that her male, wizarding audience was unlikely to recognize any of these items, so she cut her list short.

However, Peter recognized at least one of the items she had named. He smiled and said, "That's cool. I like the Beatles."

The stilted conversation was briefly interrupted as the five tables in the Great Hall suddenly wiped themselves clean of their dinner offerings and presented the students with their dessert. Lily's face lit up in a smile at the plates of treacle tart that now lined the center of the table.

"Ohhh this is one of my favorites!" she exclaimed, helping herself to a serving. "You do?" she asked Peter, resuming their earlier discussion. "D'you have any of their albums? I've only got the last three."

"Rubber Soul is my favorite," the blond boy replied. "Prongs lent it to me last summer."

Meanwhile, James' reaction to the dessert choice was vastly different. He looked down at the plate of treacle tart in front of him and suddenly felt ill.

"Ick, I've head enough of this, eh James?" Sirius said, looking down at his dessert and giving his friend a little nudge.

James managed a very small smile and said quietly, "Enough to last a lifetime, mate."

Deciding that a bit of distraction was in order, Sirius asked, "So have you been planning out training for this week?" His trick succeeded, and both boys were soon immersed in the discussion of their mutually favorite topic.

By this point Lily had noticed that James was not paying her nearly as close attention as he usually did. She was not exactly pleased that he had become engrossed in conversation with Sirius, but as she didn't know exactly how to contribute to their Quidditch discussion, she settled for talking to Remus and Peter. Addressing the latter, she said, "I don't know if I could pick a favorite, but Rubber Soul is rad."

Remus busied himself by meticulously selecting one of the candied apples that were arranged artfully on a tray.

"You don't like treacle tart?" Lily asked, curiously.

"Eh?" Remus asked. "Oh.. er, not my favorite, no," he said, glancing at the offending dish. "Ah!" he said triumphantly, selecting a shining apple. "Perfect." He dropped it on his plate and began to cut it into pieces with his knife.

Peter laughed. "You're the only person I have ever met whocutsa candy apple!" He took a piece of chocolate cake, also giving the treacle tart a look of reproach.

Lily laughed along, though found herself again distracted as she attempted to listen in on James and Sirius' conversation. It occurred to her that she might actually have something to offer, and her bright demeanor returned.
"So, James," she said, shifting slightly in her seat to speak to him, "have theCatapults made any progress in their quest for the League Trophy?"

James turned and blinked, a smile lightening his features. "Yeah," he answered, "if you call losing to Puddlemere United 'making progress'."

"A scandal!" Sirius interjected.

Lily smiled. "I take it you're a fan, as well?" she asked, amused.

Sirius nodded swiftly."Puddlemere United got lucky!" he explained. "The seeker's damn curly hair snagged the snitch as she was flying past! Shemissed!"

Lily was not entirely sure what to say to this pronouncement. "Well.. That sucks. Better luck next game?"

"A total snitchnip," agreed James, pounding a fist on the table. "I mean, theyneedto set regulations on women's hair in the matches."

"Well, doesnt a snitchnip mean it's been caught by another player other than the seeker?" asked Remus from across the table.

Sirius waved his hand as if to brush away Remus' proffered explanation. "But that's not thepoint. Gretchen Murdoch'shairis not a member of Puddlemere United."

Lily was very quickly being drowned in a flood of Quidditch terminology. Though she had lived the past few years of her life in the Wizarding World, it was difficult to assimilate all the words for fouls and gear. "Why don't they just say that female players have to wear a ponytail or something?" she asked, offering a solution. "Wouldn't they want to anyway? I can't imagine you can fly well with your hair blowing all over your face. AlthoughÉ" she trailed off, grinning in Sirius' direction. Sirius shook his hair out of his eyes and grinned back at Lily.

"And," Remus continued, "you have to admit there had been foul play on both sides during that match. I mean, yeah, it was eight hours long, but fair's fair."

The boys were very quickly getting sucked into an extremely heated debate about the merits of fouling, and James was scarcely paying Lily much attention at all.

"Flannery hadn't even gotten close to the snitch. He wasmilesbehind Murdoch!" she heard Remus exclaim plaintively as she once again tried to keep up with the comments flying back and forth between them.

"You didn't see it, though!" James interjected, defending his favorite team.

"Neither did you, mate," Remus countered.

"Couldn't, really, cos of where Iwasduring the match," James said pointedly.

There was a beat of awkward silence, and all the boys looked at James.

"Yes, well," Remus said uncomfortably.

"Listening to the wireless and yelling at the thing wouldn't have changed a bit, mate. Can't very well coach from your front parlor," said Sirius, a hint of gentleness in his tone.

James sighed. "I know. But the season was so promising!"

While the boys had been engrossed in their lively Quidditch discussion and Lily had been busy trying to make herself a part of it, another contender for the Gryffindor Captain's attention had been sauntering her way down the aisle beside the Gryffindor table. Leslie Olcott paused on her way out of the Great Hall, stopped just behind James' right shoulder, and jumped into the conversation.

"Whose season? Surely you're not lamenting Gryffindor's performance so far," she asked

James looked up, startled to find Leslie standing so close to him, and answered, "What? No! The Caerphilly Catapults."

"Yeah, and the way they trounced those bloody Harpies... I thought the thing was in the bag, for sure," said Sirius, continuing with their conversation as though Leslie had never arrived.

"Well, there's still a bit of time, you know," James replied. "As long as the Catapults are sure to take down those damn Ballycastle Bats next month, we'll have it."

Leslie struck what she assumed to be an alluring pose and beamed down at James, "I didn't know you were a Catapults fan, James."

James looked up again, surprised to find that Leslie was still hanging around. He was even more surprised to notice, when he turned around, that she was leaning towards him, which meant that her ample cleavage was now exactly at eye level.

"Oh! Er.. yes!" he responded somewhat dazedly, while Sirius snickered at his reaction. "Have been as long as I've known Quidditch."

Sirius was not the only one to have noticed where James' gaze had gone. Leslie smiled, proud of herself for having so quickly and effectively captured his attention.

"Really? You know I've always like the Catapults myself. Their Keeper is fantastic!" she said. This was rather a stretch, as she had only ever heard a Catapults match in the background, while her father was listening to the broadcast on the family's wireless, but she had no intention of admitting this to anyone present.

As Leslie made this pronouncement, Lily was seized with a sudden urge to go and research everything there was to know about the Caerphilly Catapults, just so that she would have something to contribute to future conversations like this one. Since she could not dart off to the library right this minute, she settled for stabbing roughly at her tart with her fork, her mood having turned very sour indeed. She did not appreciate Leslie's presence, especially in light of James' odd refusal to pay Lily any attention tonight, and she especially did not appreciate the blonde's simpering, preening demeanor or the sickly sweet way she pronounced James' name.

James, however, had no such qualms about bragging on the Catapults with a fellow fan. "Definitely," he said, grinning, "I mean, the only person who could do a better job ismaybeSawyer Pritchett, and that's amaybe."

Leslie had no idea who Sawyer Pritchett was, but she snorted derisively nonetheless and agreed with James' opinion, "No way."

At this point, Lily could not help herself. Looking up from her dessert, she raised an eyebrow and asked sardonically, "Do you even know the Catapults' Keeper's name, Olcott?"

"Well I.. I-," the other girl blustered, "Why does his name matter? All I need to know is he's the best Keeper in the league."

James glanced over at Lily and asked, "Do you?"

"No. But that's not thepoint, is it?" she answered, glaring at him. Ugh. Boys were so incredibly dense sometimes. Couldn't he see that Leslie was just saying what she thought he wanted to hear?

He merely raised his eyebrows in response and, in that moment, Lily wished dearly that shedidknow the name of the Keeper in question so that she could simultaneously impress James and make Leslie look bad in comparison.

"Oh Lily! You're hilarious!" the blonde tittered nervously.

James grinned and turned back to her to ask, "Did you see last year's final?"

As she was ignored, once again, in favor of Leslie Olcott, Lily returned her attention to her tart. Deciding she could not stand another moment of this, she hurried to finish off her slice so that she could leave the table.

Meanwhile, Leslie decided to continue with her little charade. "Oh no, I didn't. But my dad 'n' I listened to it on the wireless."

"Ah, that's too bad," James answered, quickly losing interest.

"It sounded like it was an exciting game though! Were you there?" she asked, desperate to retain his attention.

James grinned again. "Wish I had been, but it was either the Arrows or the Wanderers, neither of which I care enough about to shell out gold for."

"Oh.. yeah," was all Leslie could think to reply.

Sirius tapped James on the shoulder, eager to continue their earlier discussion. "But the match on the wireless! Me and Moony thought you were going to do your head in when Gemma Bladgely got called for flacking."

"I was terrified," Remus agreed solemnly.

Peter frowned as he tried to remember the moment in question. "I think I had fallen asleep by then," he said.

Remus laughed, remembering this moment vividly. "Right into your pudding, yeah."

Lily, who had now finished her dessert, stood up and addressed the group, "I've got to be off. Promised Marlene and Mary we could all show off our Christmas haul tonight."

"See you, Lily," Remus said, smiling at the redhead, and Peter echoed with a, "See you tomorrow, Evans!"

To her great disappointment, James' only response was to glance briefly at her and say, "Bye," before going back to discussing Quidditch with Sirius.

Resisting the urge to sigh or, worse, cry from disappointment, Lily bid good-bye to Remus, waved to Peter, then turned and walked dejectedly towards the doors of the Great Hall on her way back to Gryffindor Tower. Leslie managed to stick around a couple minutes longer than her rival, but she too soon bored of the constant Quidditch talk. With an exaggerated yawn, she said, "I think it's bed time for me. See you boys later." Standing, she gave James a simpering smile and all but ignored the other boys bidding her goodnight.

James' response to Leslie was identical to the one he had given Lily, however, and the blonde flounced away just as disappointed as the redhead had been.

As soon as he was certain Leslie was out of earshot, Sirius leaned toward James and said, "Mate, I think that chit is scheming on you.."

"Who? Olcott?" James asked, glancing over his shoulder at Leslie's retreating figure. "Merlin, I hope not." She might have been pleasant enough for idle chatting, but he could certainly never imagine himself dating her.

"You haven't realized by now?" Remus asked dryly, "Why do you think she keeps coming over here to talk to you?"

James looked rather taken aback by this question. "Well, I mean, I haven't- I haven't given her any signals or anything, have I?"

"I don'tthinkso," Peter answered, barely concealing a smirk, "But shedidlet you look down her shirt."

"And you dotalkto her. Apparently that's enough to set her giggling," Sirius added. Then he grinned as an idea occurred to him, "Hey! You know.. maybe you ought to ask her out. She's pretty foxy. Might get you over Evans real quickly."

James looked mildly apprehensive at this suggestion. "Yeah.. but she's.. you know," he said and tapped his temple.

"Empty?" Remus offered.

Sirius smirked and mimicked his best mate. "Yeah, but she's got.. you know..," he pointed out and tapped his chest.

Remus grinned wryly, "Her cups runneth over."

At this comment, Peter nearly choked on his last bite of treacle tart. James merely rolled his eyes and said, "I'mfine. Evans was over here for thirty minutes, and I didfine.I told you lot, I'll be fine. I'm getting over it."

"All right," Sirius said, shrugging and taking another swig of pumpkin juice. "I just don't want you forswearing all birds just 'cause you've sworn off one."

"Speaking of fine," Remus added, "How are you doing with.. you know?"

James sighed. "It's just weird. Weird how I'm not getting any more letters, and things. Weird how she won't be at graduation."

"Maybe your da will write to you now," Peter suggested.

Sirius dropped his voice so that only the four lads could hear him, and said, "It's been a rough bit, Prongs. But you'll pull through, and everyone here knows it."

Remus nodded and offered an encouraging smile, "Anything you need. Any time."

Finding that his throat was getting a bit scratchy, James said, "Er, yeah. Thanks. Let's.. er.. head up? If you are all finished." As much as he appreciated the encouragement and support of his friends, right now he merely wanted to forget everything that had happened over the holiday.

"Ready!" Peter responded, scarfing down his last bite of tart and jumping to his feet.

Remus pocketed the rest of his candied apple and stood as well. "Sure," he said.

As the four boys made their way back to their dormitory, James commented sarcastically, "Well at least we canalllook forward to N.E.W.T. Transfiguration tomorrow. Did any of you finish the essay?"

"Ohno!" Peter moaned. Evidently he had completely forgotten about their holiday assignment.

Remus sighed and said, "Nearly. Got distracted, what with all that happened."

"Guess it's a good thing we left the feast early then," James said.

"Wait, did you finish yours, Prongs?" Sirius asked.

"Er.. yeah," James replied. "I sort of.. needed something to do after.." He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence, but the other three immediately understood what he meant and nodded in understanding. "Which means I'm free to help you out, Padfoot," he added, mustering another half-smile.

"Excellent!" Sirius responded. "Maybe we'll finish in time for me to beat you at another game of Exploding Snap."

"You never know," James warned him as they reached the base of the steps leading to Gryffindor Tower. "I might surprise you one day."

Sirius' response was to scoff at this suggestion, and the boys continued their banter until they reached their dormitory room, where they were forced to pay homage to their homework. James managed to keep his spirits buoyed by devoting his full attention to revising his own essay and helping his friends write theirs. They did not, however, finish in time for another Exploding Snap match. By the time all four essays had been written, their authors were too exhausted to do anything but fall into bed.