A Reason in Madness

"There is always some madness in love. But there is also some reason in madness."

Chapter Eight: The Giraffes

"Well?"

Sirius grinned cheekily and put both arms around Lily, who was still on his lap. "Well, you see, late last night when everyone else was asleep, I wondered down to the Common Room where there sat none other that-" Lily didn't hear anymore. She was still staring at James, who was staring back at her. "And so here we are. James? James? Prongs?"

James shook his head a bit and said, "Is that so?" At Sirius's accord, he continued. "Congratulations, Sirius, Lily," with a nod to each of them. When he looked up from his nod at Lily, their eyes met. His eyebrows went up a fraction of an inch. Even a movement as small as this caused Lily's brain to function again. James turned to leave. Lily's mind was trying to stop him, but all she managed to get out of her mouth was, "Bu-"

She sighed and hung her head. "Please let me up, Sirius."

"Are you alright, Lil?" he asked as he released her.

"Yeah, I just have to go get my books before class starts."

"But, we have forever-" She kept walking. She took the most direct route to Gryffindor Tower, without any detours.

"French Vampire," she told the Fat Lady.

"Of course, dear," she replied. The password had been an idea of Lily's after reading the novel Interview With a Vampire. When she reached the Head Girl's dorm, she said, "I hate to kill you." This password, too, was one of her ideas- one she had gotten from The Princess Bride. On the wall next to her bed was a calendar, which sported the dates and times of her meetings, Gryffindor quidditch games, and the due dates of her class assignments. Out of habit, her eyes scanned the page for the current date. She almost groaned when she saw that she had a Prefects and a Head students meeting that night. "Go figure," she mumbled. Lily found everything she needed for Transfiguration and Arithmancy, her first two classes of the day, and headed downstairs. She took her sweet time going to McGonagall's classroom, because, as Sirius had said, she had forever.

¤

Lily had carefully avoided James all day. She didn't understand why she was so nervous about encountering him, but the fact remained that she was. The Prefect meeting was over, and Lily had managed to not speak to James. Why did they have to schedule the Head meeting for today?

"So, Lily," James's voice jerked Lily back into reality. She allowed her eyes to flicker to his for a split second before fixedly staring at his shoulder. "A bunch of people have been asking if there can be a Hogsmeade night the evening that the WWN in sponsoring that concert. And a bunch of muggle-borns -no offense- have asked if there can be a trip to Dunfirmline to see that muggle band...The Giraffes or whatever they're called the night before the WWN concert. Now, the Hogsm-"

"You know what they're called, James," Lily sighed, looked at the floor, and continued, "the muggle band."

James continued to stare at the parchments in his hands but also sighed and said, "Yeah. I do know. They're called The Monkeys."

"James-"

"Okay, the Hogsmeade night I, personally, think would be cool, but Dunfirmline is just too far away to take over half-"

"James-" her voice was getting louder.

"-school, especially to a muggle event. What do-"

"James, look at me!" Lily yelled. James looked to the right of Lily's face before fixing his gaze on her. His visage was expressionless. "There is nothing between me and Sirius."

James's eyes grew wide. "N-nothing?"

"Nothing."

James dropped the parchments he was holding. "Oh, God," he muttered, barely audible. His face broke into a grin. "Thank you for telling me, Lily flower."

Lily smiled back. "We should ask Dumbledore about the concert in Hogsmeade. You're right: Dunfirmline is way too far away."

"What?" James looked genuinely confused before comprehending. "Oh, sure, whatever. C'mon, let's head back to Gryffindor Tower." He stood up and, still smiling, offered her his hand. She took it and he pulled her out of her chair. He bent down and gathered the scattered parchments before they left the Heads' study room in silence.

*~¤~*

"Lil!" As soon as Lily and James had entered the Gryffindor Common Room, Sirius had bounded towards them- well, Lily. "Miss me terribly?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulders.

She shrugged it off. "Not really. 'Night everyone." Lily discreetly winked at James before going up to her dorm.

James turned to Sirius. "I hope you realize how lucky you are that I don't kill you here and now. If you put your hands on her again, Padfoot, I might just do that!"

In reply, Sirius grinned cheekily and shrugged his shoulders.

James clapped him on the back. "You prat," he laughed and headed upstairs, closely followed by Sirius.