*Disclaimer*- Messrs. Fuzzbutt and Fantail do not now, nor will they ever, claim to be J.K. Rowling. They own none of the characters or situations presented by Ms. Rowling in any of her brilliantly written books.

Authors’ Notes: Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing! We’ve now got over fifty reviews at both hpff.com and mugglenet.com! Thanks so much!

Chapter Nine- Strange Indeed

The next few weeks seemed to pass in a blur, as all of a sudden the day of Halloween had come.

Lily and James had been slowly getting more comfortable around each other. They were sitting next to each other, in fact, at breakfast, with the rest of the Marauders, Marlene, and Emmeline nearby. Marlene found this situation very agreeable.

"What are we going to do today?" Sirius asked.

"Go to Hogsmeade," Remus replied.

"I know that! I meant what are we going to do in Hogsmeade?"

"Buy things," Remus said.

"I know that! Where are we going to go in Hogsmeade?"

"Stores," Emmeline said, catching onto Remus's game.

Sirius pouted and grumbled. "I want to go to Zonko's," he stated.

"Oh, me too," Emmeline seconded.

James shrugged. He really didn't mind where they went, as long as it wasn't the Hog's Head; that place creeped him out.

"Can we go to The Three Broomsticks in the morning?" Marlene asked.

"Why?" asked Emmeline.

"Oh, well, Remus and I were planning on spending the afternoon together," Marlene said, still with a hint of shyness.

Sirius raised his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

Marlene flicked Sirius in the ear.

"Ouch," Sirius said, clutching the assaulted ear and glaring at Marlene. "Remus, your girlfriend is vicious."

"James, don't we have to see Dumbledore about the Hogsmeade trip and how to watch over the younger students?" Lily asked suddenly.

"Oh yeah," James said, as if just remembering. The two got up to leave. "See you in a bit," James said.

As soon as they were gone, Marlene looked around. "I think this is the perfect opportunity to help Operation: Flower for Prongs," she said.

"How so?" asked Emmeline.

"We can abandon them," Marlene stated, as if it were obvious. "Remus and I will go at lunch, and you and Sirius can sneak off whenever you get the chance."

Sirius grinned. "I get to sneak off with you, Emmeline," he said.

Emmeline blushed. "It'll work, I think," she said.

Remus nodded in agreement. "The hardest part will be those two," he pointed at Emmeline and Sirius, "sneaking off without James and Lily noticing."

"What about Peter?" Sirius asked.

"As far as I know he's not coming with us. He said he had somewhere else to be. He wouldn't tell me where, though," Remus said.

"Maybe he's got a date," Sirius suggested.

There was a pause. "Nah," Sirius said with Remus, Emmeline, and Marlene simultaneously.

"Alright, so how can they sneak away?" Marlene wondered aloud.

"We can say we want to go to Zonko's. Lily won't want to go there," Emmeline said.

"No," Sirius said, "but James will." He paused to think. "We can say we want to go to the Hog's Head. James hates that place."

"No, that won't work," Emmeline started. "Lily will want to stop everyone from going there."

"You could say you want to go to Honeyduke's," Remus said.

"No, that won't work--" Emmeline was saying when Lily cut in.

"What won't work?" she asked.

"We were discussing excuses to use on Professors when we don't feel like finishing an assignment. Marlene is convinced that, 'my boyfriend vanished it,' will not work. What do you think?" Emmeline lied on the spot.

"Of course it won't work," Lily said. "It's easier to just do homework than make up excuses, anyway."

“I think it’s easier to make up the excuses,” James, who was behind Lily, said.

Lily gave him a look and he shrugged. “Well, are we going or not?” she asked.

They stood up and made for the exit. It was a beautiful day as they walked towards Hogsmeade village, and there was only a hint of a chill to the air.

Walking along, Marlene and Remus seemed to be in their own little world, hand in hand.

James and Lily, however, were not so lucky, as they were being endlessly teased about something that just wasn't there by Sirius.

"Hey, Emmeline," Sirius said in a loud whisper that James and Lily could most certainly hear, "have you noticed how close Prongs and Lily are getting?"

Emmeline nodded and grinned.

"I wonder how close they really are. You know, behind closed doors."

"Certainly not as close as I am to smacking you," Lily said to Sirius, scowling.

"Oh, c'mon, Lil, it's all in good fun," Sirius said, smiling.

"For you," Lily pointed out.

"We're just giving you a push in the right direction, Lily," Emmeline said.

"If that's the case," Lily said, turning to James, "hey, James, how close do you think Emmeline and Sirius are behind closed doors?"

“I’d say almost on top of each other,” James replied.

"I wish," Sirius joked with a wink towards Emmeline. This, of course, brought on another blush from the blonde girl.

"You are too cruel, Lily Evans," Emmeline muttered with a playful glare, "too cruel."

"You don't like your own medicine, do you?"

"What?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Muggle phrase."

The group reached the village and decided to first go to The Three Broomsticks, as there was only a couple hours until Remus and Marlene were due to break off from the rest of the group. While there, they chatted about this and that, happily enjoying a day off from the pressures of classes.

When Remus and Marlene left, the four remaining sat and pondered where next to go. "I want to go to Quality Quidditch Supplies," Emmeline, being a beater on the House team, said.

"So do I," Sirius said. He was the second beater.

Lily made a face. She wasn't into Quidditch, although she did go to every game to support Emmeline and the rest of the team.

"I don't really need anything," James said, seeing the look on Lily's face. "So if you two want to go, that's fine."

"Great," Emmeline said, clapping her hands together and dragging Sirius off before Lily could protest at being alone with James.

The two being gone, Lily looked at James. "Was it me or was that just odd?"

James' eyebrows were furrowed in confusion. "It was odd," he agreed. And almost like they wanted us to be left alone, he added mentally.

There was an awkward silence. Desperate to break it, James asked, "So, Lily, where do you want to go?"

Lily, not knowing where to go, shrugged. "Want to just walk around until we find somewhere to go?" she asked. She still felt a tad awkward.

"Sure," James agreed. He stood up and held his hand out for Lily. She took it and stood up, letting go of his hand as soon as she stood. Where are these silly butterflies in my stomach coming from? Perhaps it was something I ate... urg, that would be disgusting.

They walked out of the door, which James held open for Lily, and into the bustling streets.

"I love Hogsmeade," Lily commented suddenly, grinning as they made their way down the street. "It's so full of life and magic."

"It is an all wizarding village," James pointed out.

"The only one in Great Britain," Lily agreed, "but it has more of a magical feel than Hogwarts, don't you think?"

James had to agree. "Yeah," he said.

"Oh! Look, Honeyduke’s! Let's go!" Lily exclaimed, suddenly grabbing James' hand and pulling him into the store. James laughed as he followed.

When they were inside, Lily smiled widely, her eyes twinkling. "I love this store," she said.

Dropping James’ hand and excitedly stepping over to the chocolate display, Lily was like a child in a toy store, or rather, a child in a candy store.

James laughed at her antics. He also made a mental note that Lily loved chocolate. Just in case, of course. "You're like Remus," James noted aloud.

"How so?" Lily asked while grabbing a good few bars of Honeyduke’s Finest.

"He's a chocoholic as well," James said.

Lily grinned. "I love chocolate," she said. "The other girls complain that it ruins one's complexion, but I don't think that that's worth not eating it. I love it too much."

James smiled and continued to watch her as she paid for the mass amount of chocolate that was sure to last her a good few days. When she turned around to leave she smiled again, and James found himself partially mesmerized by that smile which she used to never give him.

"Where to next?" Lily asked, snapping him from his thoughts.

"Wherever you want to go," James said.

"We already went where I want to go. Where do you want to go?"

James pondered for a moment. "We could just walk," he suggested.

"Alright," Lily agreed.

As they walked, the awkward tension seemed to disappear. Lily told James of what her family was like, how she loved her parents, and how she loved her sister, although her sister hated her. James somehow refrained this time from telling Lily that her sister was an idiot, and told her instead about Marauder pranks gone wrong.

"Sirius didn't forgive Peter for a full week," James laughed.

"I don't really blame him. I had wondered why Sirius had been wearing pink robes that day," Lily said, laughing at the memory. "I had thought it was just another joke."

James shook his head. "No, it wasn't meant at all. Sirius just acted like it was to spare himself the humiliation."

Lily smiled. She was having a remarkably good time. "You're a lot more fun than I thought you were," she said.

James frowned slightly. "You thought I was no fun?" he questioned.

"No, I thought you were all the wrong sort of fun," Lily admitted.

"Oh," James said dumbly.

Lily cleared her throat. "So, I told you about my family, what's your family like?"

"I'm the only child, so Mum and Dad are a bit over protective, but I don't mind. They still let Sirius and I pull pranks and such, because they love to laugh. They don't mind as long as nobody gets hurt."

"Is Sirius over at your house a lot?"

"He's lives there now, when we aren't at Hogwarts. He couldn't take living with his family anymore, since they aren't like him. You've met Bellatrix and Regulus. You can see why he was disowned; he‘s nothing like them."

"So you let him live with you?" Lily verified.

"Well, yeah," James said. "Not even Mum and Dad would let him stay with his family."

"I don't blame them, if only by judging his family by Regulus and Bellatrix." She shuddered. "I don't like them."

"They don't like you, either, Lily. You have to be careful around them."

"I can take care of myself," Lily protested.

"I know. But they don't play fair. I don't want to see you get hurt."

Lily couldn't help feeling that James was being adorably sweet. She didn't know how to reply to this, however, and so they walked on in companionable silence.

"It's getting late," James said a little while later. "We ought to get back to the castle."

"Yeah," Lily agreed. Again they lapsed into silence, this time walking towards the school. Lily loved the side of James that she'd seen today- the side of James that took care of his friends, and that loved his parents, and cared for her. She didn't know why the part that cared for her suddenly wasn't obnoxious.

When they reached the common room, Lily turned to James in front of one of the couches. "Thanks, James," she said.

"For what?" he asked.

"I had fun," Lily replied, quickly kissing him on the cheek before turning around and going towards the staircase to the girls' dormitories. "See you at the feast," she called.

James stood, shocked, for several minutes. He was surprised when Sirius came down the stairs leading from the boys' dormitories and waved a hand in front of James' face. "Hello? Earth to James. Feast in five," Sirius said.

James shook himself mentally and grinned. "Yeah," he said. When Sirius had turned around and bounded towards the portrait hold, James put his fingertips to the spot on his cheek where Lily had kissed him. He still felt a tingling sensation. Had that really happened?

Lily came down the stairs, chatting with Marlene and Emmeline, and blushed when she saw James. James dropped his hand and saw her blush. Yes, it had happened.

James smiled at Lily and she returned a shy smile.

Sirius stuck his head back into the common room. "James, are you coming? Remus and Peter are already down there, and I told them we'd be there in five minutes. Come on, we haven't got all day. It's a feast, and we need to be there!" Sirius’s love of food could not be stopped.

James nodded and hurried over to the portrait hole.

Lily, Marlene, and Emmeline followed not far behind. "I swear I saw the weirdest thing a few minutes ago," Emmeline suddenly remarked.

"What did you see?" asked Marlene. "I saw something odd, as well."

"I saw Lily Evans kissing James Potter's cheek. I'm thinking I was seeing things."

Lily blushed furiously.

"No," Marlene said, "I definitely saw it, too."

"How strange," Lily commented.

"Strange indeed," Emmeline said with a grin.

----------

Authors’ Notes: Awww. Please review. :D