James's POV

"Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily, Lily—OW!" I exclaimed furiously, rubbing my head where Sirius had lobbed a bezoar at it. "What'd you do that for?!"

He raised in eyebrows innocently and shrugged, denying all knowledge of the projectile. Beside him, Peter was stifling giggles. I glanced at Remus, who was my Potions partner for the day, and he smiled.

"I would guess that it had something to do with your invoking the name of Lily far too many times for any normal person to consider it anything but annoying."

I sighed. Was it my fault that Evans hadn't responded to any of my manifold attractions? No. And if I sought refuge in singing her name to myself, did that entitle Sirius to attack me from behind? Extra no. With a side of pickles.

Slughorn peeped over the edge of my and Remus's cauldron.

"Excellent! My dear Remus, you have outdone yourself!" he exclaimed, patting my partner on the shoulder before drifting off to admire someone else's concoction. I stared disbelievingly at his back before flinging my arms out in vexation, accidentally knocking over Sirius's cauldron as I did so. As he and Peter leapt out of the way of the scalding contents of their cauldron, I turned to Remus.

"Am I invisible, Moony?" I demanded. He gave me one of his…looks.

"I think you've done all you can in the past five minutes to prove that you aren't."

I grinned.

"Thank you for acknowledging me, Moony—it means a lot."

"Thank you for acknowledging that I was acknowledging you."

"Will you two stop flirting and help us?!" Sirius yelped as a blob of the stuff exploded and covered him and Peter in orange goo. I glanced at them and scoffed.

"I'm pretty sure no one can help you when your potion looks like that," I informed him, watching Peter fall face-forward into a large glob on the floor. "Even I know it isn't supposed to be that color."

"Wow, Black," came a voice from behind me, "you know you've reached an all-time low when Potter knows something you don't."

I whirled around, but Evans had already left, her lavender-vanilla scent lingering behind. I watched as she walked back to the table she shared with Marlene McKinnon. Oh, woe—Oh, woe was me. Did the Fates seek to crush me with their—Merlin's saggy left bum cheek, did she just smile at me?!

My hand instinctively raised to my hair to try and tone down the mess that was up there. She had definitely smiled. It was just a small grin, almost to herself, but it was definitely a new development. One that I actually liked this time. And now she was kind of sort of blushing!

"Moony," I hissed as we left the room, as per Slughorn's instructions to 'please take Black and Pettigrew to the hospital wing, since they clearly can't do anything for themselves.' "Psst. Moony."

"Prongs," Sirius said through a mouthful of tentacles that had apparently sprouted due to the potion coming in contact with his skin, "you don't have to be furtive about it. We all saw Evans smile. Also, we are no longer in the classroom."

Well, that's what he said he said—we couldn't really understand him then. It was only later that he was able to tell us how he'd been right all along. As per usual.

"Are you about to tell me that Lily smiled at you?" Remus asked wearily as he tried to stop Peter from picking at the bulbous blisters that were budding all over his face. I gulped some air before nodding. This was a huge deal. This was a huge deal. This was A HUGE DEAL.

"It's not a big deal, Prongs." What. "She was probably just laughing at your expense."

"But—no, it wasn't—it wasn't that kind of Evans smile!" I protested as we entered the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey came bustling by us.

"Mr. Black, Mr. Pettigrew, find a bed—you'll be staying the night. Mr. Potter—" She sighed. "Find another girl."

I stared in outraged silence at the nurse as she continued to hover around all the sickly students in her ward. Remus patted my shoulder.

"Relax, mate. She's right. You just need a change of scenery."

"I can't just take a break from Hogwarts, Remus!" I scoffed as we walked the path to the Great Hall for dinner. Remus rolled his eyes.

"I kind of meant scenery in a metaphorical way. Like, you need to be around different girls."

"Oh." Different girls. Hmm. "Would that make Lily jealous?"

"Um, I'm not sure. Probably not. I meant that you should get a girlfriend or something. You can't just chase after Lily forever."

I gave a small sigh. I didn't want to admit it, but he was absolutely right. A small smile flickered on my lips.

One day, Lily Evans would chase me back.