Lily met James in the Room of Requirement for their Heads' meeting; she didn't particularly approve of the location but she let him have his way sometimes. It had been like that since the beginning of their seventh year at Hogwarts. A friendship-truce had been formed. James had been very respectful of Lily; he still loved her and would always want to be with her, but he had grown up and accepted the fact that Lily Evans would never date him.

Lily, on the other hand, had started to grow rather fond of James. She would never admit this, even though her best friends Alice and Marlene would try to tease it out of her. She liked his easygoing nature and his quick charm, so different from her structure and self-discipline. He was fire: irrational, blazing passion, and destructive. She would be water: calm, consistent, necessity. She knew that they balanced each other perfectly. He never questioned her odd quirks, like setting up ink bottles before prefect meetings and making diagrams before school functions. He understood her so easily; he made her feel alive and happy. Lily was more aware of James than she ever wished to be: mentally, she thought about him all the time; emotionally, all her emotions centered around him; physically, she noticed his toned and muscular body more than ever. He was like a drug to her, but she would never admit that she had an obsession with her fellow Head student. It would negate all the insults she had sent his way in the past six years.

James walked through the door, still dressed in his Quidditch robes and drenched in mud, and sent a small smile at Lily. "So sorry that I'm late. Practice ran long, Sirius decided it would be fun to start a mud fight during strategy."

Lily stood up and immediately began to fret over James. "Take of your robes."

James' eyebrows shot up and he looked at her.

"Not like that, you pervert. The Room can provide us with soap and a bucket to clean them… unless you want to stay this dirty."

James immediately relaxed and began to blush. "Right, of course, sorry." He fumbled with the buttons, too nervous in front of Lily. Lily stifled her giggles, James Potter blushing and nervous. She walked over and reached out her hands.

"Let me help you with those."

Lily quickly unfastened the buttons, one by one, while James stood still. This was the closest proximity Lily and James had ever experienced and James could feel the heat radiating off her body, could smell her strawberry shampoo in her auburn curls. Without thinking, James reached out to her hand that was unbuttoning the last button and enclosed hers in his. The look in her eyes was indecipherable; eyes wide and lips slightly parted, she stood up on her tiptoes and kissed James. Their first kiss was sweet and innocent; their second kiss, however, James took control. He bent his head down low to meet her and their lips met, passionate and urgent. James pulled her closer to him, hands on her hips and she pulled his head down closer to her with her fingers grasping his hair and neck.

A minute later, Lily pulled apart and gasped. She pushed herself off James and momentarily forgot why… He was so tone and muscular. Stop Lily, she told herself. She kept backing up from James, until a sharp pain in her back made her realize that she had hit the door.

"Lily?" James looked at her concerned and confused. "Lily, what just happened?"

"Nothing," Lily whispered, more to herself than James. "Oh Merlin, this can't be happening. No, no, no…"

James raised his eyebrow at her and took a step towards her. "I don't know about you Lily, but that certainly didn't feel like nothing."

Lily held up her hand to protest what he was saying. "That never happened. It can't have happened."

James took a step closer to her, with an unfathomable expression on his face. "Can't have happened? Really, Lily? Are we back to this already? Come on Lil, look at me. Tell me why we can't be together. I care about you so much, damn it Lil. You think it's all one big game or it's a challenge. I love you. I love everything about you: your smile, your laugh, your hair, you eyes, the way you set up ink bottles before meetings, the way you still care for Severus even though he hurt you, the way you accepted my apologies and let me prove to you that I have changed. Lily Evans, I love you. Please look at me."

Lily looked up at James and quickly looked back down. "I'm sorry James."

James took a step back and dropped his hand, which had grabbed her. "Just tell me that you don't care, Lily. Tell me you don't and I promise to never bring this up again."

Lily shook her head and looked up at his face. He looked hurt, confused, and angered. "I can't be with you."

James nodded his head in understand. "You know what's the worst part Lily? I know that we will be happy together. I've been waiting for years for you to realize that you care. Now you do care and you still won't give us a shot. So I will respect that Lily, but I am not going to sit around and wait any longer. It hurts me too much. I will see you tomorrow, I guess."

James quickly walked past Lily, opened the door, and slammed it shut before Lily broke down and started crying. She sat hunched over, with her back against the wall for thirty minutes before she realized how ridiculous she felt. Lily Evans did not break down over boys. Quickly standing, she soaked James' Quidditch robes and cleaned the mud off in the bucket that appeared. Folding them over, she walked slowly back to the Gryffindor common room.

When she walked in the common room, she felt eyes staring at her. Looking around, she found the Marauders, minus James, sitting there and staring at her. Sirius glared at her, hatred apparent on his face. Peter looked confused and uncomfortable. Remus shot her a sympathetic smile but shook his head at her. Feeling more guilty than before, she kept her head down and walked towards the staircases. She placed the robes at the bottom of the boys' stairs and headed up to get some much needed sleep.

Once in the safety of her own dormitory, Lily looked up and saw her two best friends, Alice and Marlene. They both looked at her worried and stared to say something.

"I'm fine. I promise.. I just need some rest," Lily said quickly, cutting them off.

"We are both worried for you. James came in like an hour ago, visibly upset, talked to the Marauders, then stormed up to their dorm. We knew that you were meeting him tonight. Then Sirius started yelling at Marlene about how rude and selfish you were… then Marlene got into it with him and it was just not normal. We thought you two were getting along," Alice finished quietly.

"Honestly, it's okay. I'm okay. Yeah, I am alright," Lily sounded like she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. Tear tracks marked her pale face as she sat down on her bed, quickly curling up into a ball and pretending to be asleep, dreading the morning.