He-ey! Well. It's been… awhile, hasn't it? grins Ha. LoL, I'm glad you liked it! Here's another chapter. Hopefully the next one won't take 11 months… LoL. Thanks for all the reviews! Song, once again, belongs to mister Robbie Williams. Yeeeeah, still love him. Here you go!

As my soul heals the shame
I will grow through this pain
Lord I'm doing all I can
To be a better man

Once you've found that lover
You're homeward bound
Love is all around
Love is all around

I know some have fallen
On stony ground
But Love is all around…

X

James grinned, glancing at the picture in his hands. "'Cause this year… I'm so going to get her to go out with me."

"Yeah? And you plan on doing that by…?" Sirius smirked.

"Minor detail," James answered, waving a hand dismissively. "I just need a plan, that's all."

x

The next day found the two boys still in James's room. They were in silence, but comfortably so. Sirius was flicking through a Potions book, and James was tossing a Snitch up and down, in thoughtful silence.

"You know what I have to do?" James suddenly said to Sirius, who was lay across his friend's bed, for once doing homework.

"Get the hell away from me whilst I'm actually concentrating on schoolwork?" Sirius replied smoothly, not looking up from his Potions book.

"Padfoot; this is serious."

"Prongs; so is this."

"Sirius!" James said warningly.

"Oi, don't get all aggressive," Sirius laughed, tossing his book aside. "Go on, then. What's so important?"

"Right. So I came up with a way to get Lily to like me, right-" He was cut off when Sirius groaned and placed his head in his hands.

"What?" James asked, indignantly.

"James… She doesn't like you!" he growled. "Okay? Get over her!"

"No!"

"Oh, for Christ's sake…"

"So, anyway, I decided I really need to find something to sort my bloody hair out. 'Cause never mind her, it annoys me to no end, so…"

Sirius shook his head. "I don't think it's your looks that she has a problem with, mate."

James, who had been rambling on, stopped and looked at him happily. "What? You think she thinks I'm cute?"

"Did I say that?"

"Yes."

"No! No, I didn't. I said I think it's your personality she doesn't like… Not your stupid hair."

James frowned deeply.

Sirius sighed, and rolled his eyes. "Why do you even care anyway, Prongs? It's only Evans… She's not that special, you know. Sure, she's a bit of a looker, but there are better looking girls…" He suddenly sat up straight and snapped his fingers, grinning. "Like that Cherise in Ravenclaw! I mean, bloody hell…"

"No, no it isn't about that, anymore…" James muttered, shaking his head impatiently.

"How do you mean?"

"I mean… Of course she's gorgeous. But Merlin Sirius, do you really think I'd be after her for so long just because of the way she looks? Even I'm not that shallow. No, she really interests me… She's got this… this passion. Y'know? This temper. But she's also so sweet, when she doesn't know I'm there. And so smart, and stuff…"

He trailed off thoughtfully, and sighed. He sat staring into space for a few moments, before he blinked and looked up at his best friend.

Who was looking absolutely revolted.

"Too soppy?" James said.

"Totally. Evans is hot. Stick to that reason."

"Will do."

"So… You were saying something about your hair?"

"Yeah," James murmured, looking at himself critically in the mirror. He wrinkled his nose and ran his hand over his face. "Do I look really pasty to you? I could do with a tan."

"It's December, you moron. Everyone looks pale."

James eyed Sirius enviously. "You don't," he replied.

"Well, I'm special."

"Yeah, yeah. Well! I need a tan as well."

"Aww, James you big girl. You're getting a makeover to impress your crush. I could've sworn boys and girls are meant to do that the other way around."

x

The rest of the Christmas holidays passed with James trying to improve his appearance, much to the amusement of his father and Sirius.

Christmas Day also brought a letter to Sirius from his parents, but no one except the young Black ever found out what was written in that. All anyone else could guess was that it wasn't good, as when Sirius had read it, his face fell into a scowl and the letter had been hurled into the fire.

Everyone thought it best not to ask.

So, James and Sirius continued on with their latest mission… 'Make James Better Looking'.

True, the only reason Sirius was involved was for a laugh, but James let him help anyway.

The first thing James had done was gone out and got a hair cut. This had… Not helped at all. In Sirius's words, James's hair was a lost cause.

The tanning thing had also been acted upon. After consulting his mother – who, of course, had laughed – James found out there wasn't any spells he could perform, so only had a few options in that area. The first, fake tan, he refused flat out. He decided the whole 'make over' thing was girly enough, and putting fake tan on every few fays was too much.

This left him with 'sun beds'. Apparently, these were dangerous or something… He'd tuned out during this part of his mother's lecture. He tended to do that whenever she didn't really want him to do something.

So! He'd gone ahead and hired a sun bed for a week.

The first time he went on it, it had been quite relaxing.

But for every time after that, it had completely bored him to tears. And it was boiling hot. And… sweaty. And he could hardly move.

But still. Hopefully, it would be worth it.

Sirius had also decided that James was "too skinny" and that he wanted to get him some muscles. This had not impressed his best friend, especially as he seriously doubted he could make any drastic changes to his body in the time before he went back to school.

Still, he tried. And by trying, I mean he absolutely killed himself in the gym his parents had had installed in the mansion years ago.

The things people do for love, eh?

x

"So?" James demanded to Remus impatiently, the minute he met his friend.

It was January 4th, and the Hogwarts students were all congregating on Platform 9 and ¾, waiting to go back to school.

Remus, having just seen his friends for the first time in two weeks, raised his eyebrows slightly in return to his dark haired friends greeting. "Erm… so, what?"

"Do I look any different?" James asked exasperatedly.

"Oh! Er…" Remus frowned, looking James over. And couldn't find a thing any different. Well, except his skin tone. "You look slightly orange," he gave helpfully.

James glared at him.

"But… in… a good way?" Remus tried, trying to correct his mistake.

James rolled his eyes, and turned his head to see Sirius looking towards a small group of people with pure hatred written across his face. The cuts and bruises from the fight with his family had since faded, but it was obvious that the memory hadn't.

"Something wrong, Pads?" Remus asked, throwing his luggage onto a trolley.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," Sirius replied, tearing his eyes from his parents and brother, and also hurled his own luggage onto a trolley. "Ready to get on the train?"

"Yeah," James nodded, his eyes lingering on the Black family, who had noticed there other son, and were hurriedly walking away to avoid him.

"Good. Let's just go then, Peter can just meet us in our compartment," Sirius said, making his way towards the Hogwarts Express.

X

The next morning, James raised his eyes from the cereal he was eating, watching as she breezed into the Great Hall for breakfast with her friends.

Sirius smirked as he watched his friend's expression soften as he caught sight of Lily Evans for the first time since they had finished for the Christmas holidays.

Her dark red hair flipping out behind her as she walked… Her eyes bright with amusement, as she laughed with the girl next to her…

"Ugh, I want her," James whined, never taking his eyes off the girl.

In his opinion, she was gorgeous. Some may have said she's good-looking, or cute, or fit… But they're all wrong.

Lily was beyond beautiful.

The only slight problem was that… She hated him. Loathed him, actually. He wasn't even sure why. All he ever tried to do was get her to like him.

Sure, he might have done some stupid stuff to get her attention, but he was only trying to get her to notice him…

"Think I should go speak to her?"

"You're going to anyway, aren't you?" Remus replied flatly, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," James admitted with a quick nod of his head.

"May as well get your rejection over with, then."

James threw a sneer in Remus's direction, then cleared his throat loudly and ran a hand through his hair as he stood.

As he began to walk towards the red headed girl of his affections, Sirius turned to Remus.

"Think he's ever going to get her to like him?"

"Not a chance in hell."

X

"Hey, Evans," James greeted her, trying to sound casual, as he dropped into an empty seat on her right.

Lily exchanged a look with one of her friends, then looked witheringly at the boy beside her.

"Potter," she greeted him, nodding her head slightly.

"So, um… Have a nice Christmas?" he asked, concentrating on making his voice sound more mature.

"Well, I was away from you for two weeks, so… Yes, thank you."

James blinked, but chose to ignore that comment.

Lily sighed heavily, and decided to be polite. "Did you?"

"Me? Oh… erm…" he cleared his throat, and ran a hang through his hair. "Yeah, it was good. Spent most of it… y'know… Working out, and stuff…"

Lily arched an eyebrow. "Working out?" she repeated, sounding unimpressed. "Over Christmas?"

"Yeah…" James answered uncertainly.

"So you were in a gym over your holidays, even though your parents hadn't seen you since September?" Again, she sounded very unimpressed.

"Oh! No, it's okay… The gym's in the second floor of my house," he explained.

"Ah," Lily said, wrinkling her nose slightly. "I get it."

"Get… What?"

"That you're just trying to let us all know how rich you are, again."

"What? I didn't say-!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever, Potter. I'm trying to eat. See you around," she finished their conversation suddenly.

James frowned as he stood up, trying to wonder why every single conversation he had with Lily went wrong.

Then he turned back to her suddenly.

"So… Fancy going out sometime?" he chanced.

She didn't even turned to look at him, but continued eating her jam and toast.

"I'd rather wake up dead," she replied smoothly.

X

"Don't worry," Sirius consoled, as James repeated what Lily had said to them when he returned back to the table. "She's obviously losing it."

"How do you mean?"

"I mean… She should realise you can't 'wake up dead'. You either wake up, or you die. You can't do both. So like I said, she's losing it. Which is good news for you, mate! You never know, she might one day agree to go out with you."