A/N: Hello again everyone, I'm back! A brief reprieve from work means that I've been able to write most of this story over the summer holidays, although I go back to school within a week, so updates may not be particularly frequent. However, I'll try to keep them regular at least (remember, there is a difference between regular and frequent!) Anyway, I hope you enjoy this, the first chapter: many thanks to my beta, AnnaSmiles, also known as Hat as a Madder. Um… I think that's everything. Enjoy! :-)

I held the sprig of peppermint above my potion, hesitated for a split-second, and then dropped it.

BANG!

I stood, ashen-faced, over my cauldron, with an expression of pure shock on my face. A few people gave cries of alarm; then, the dungeon classroom exploded with laughter.

"Oh, dear!" chuckled Professor Slughorn, beginning to amble over from the other side of the classroom. I looked towards him, and caught sight of the student he had been talking to in the far corner, who was now roaring with laughter and pointing directly at me. I felt my face turn the colour of a tomato, but with Slughorn in the way, I couldn't so much as make a rude hand gesture without the Potions Master's knowledge.

Slughorn reached my cauldron. Everyone else had stopped laughing, except the boy in the far corner, who was still roaring his head off.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, get OVER yourself, Potter!" I yelled.

That shut him up.

He ceased laughing immediately, and looked rather hurt. Serves him bloody well right, I thought, with a sense of grim satisfaction at the look on his face. What an arrogant git.

"Now now, Lily, calm down. What happened here?" asked Slughorn.

"I was... experimenting, Professor," I replied, slightly sheepishly.

"Naturally, naturally," he beamed. He did not mind these regular mishaps; in fact, he encouraged them. He was always willing to let me run free, and was sympathetic when things... didn't go quite as planned. On these occasions, his advice and correction was always constructive, and I admired him deeply for it. "So," he said, "what did you try this time?"

"Well, Professor, I thought I'd try to counteract some of the side-effects of this potion," I explained, showing him a page in my textbook.

"An Elixir to Induce Euphoria," he murmured aloud. "Occasional side effects include excessive singing and nose-tweaking... so, what did you add?"

"Peppermint, sir," I replied. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Severus listening intently, occasionally making a note in his textbook, as he so often did when I discussed my 'experiments' with Slughorn. I didn't mind; at least he never acted as though he knew everything already. Not like James bloody Potter...

"Ah, Lily! Take another look at the list of ingredients, and tell me why it went wrong," said the Potions Master. I looked down at my textbook, and cursed myself.

"Syrup of hellebore," I said quietly.

"Exactly," smiled Slughorn genially. "Very volatile reaction with certain... unorthodox ingredients, Lily, including peppermint. Whilst peppermint would do the job, you'd have to find a substitute for the hellebore."

The bell rang, with Slughorn still advising me on substitutes for syrup of hellebore, Severus still scribbling in his copy of Advanced Potion Making... and James Potter, still chuckling at my misfortune. I felt anger rise up inside me once more.

Everyone exited the classroom, eager to get to lunch. I was walking up the stairs, still thinking about Potions, when I heard a despicably smug voice behind me.

"Could have fried an egg on your face, Evans," it said.

That was enough. I snapped. I whirled around, flame-red hair flying, and smacked a very surprised-looking James Potter around the face.

"Ouch!" he yelled. He looked stunned. Remus, the only other Marauder that took Potions, stood there, looking between us in a calculating fashion.

James stood there for a second longer, then laughed again, pushed past me and strode off up the stairs. I felt my anger rise; and then, to my horror, tears began to form in my eyes.

I felt someone take hold of my hand. Looking round, I saw Remus looking at me, nothing but concern in his eyes. I sobbed harder, and buried my face in his chest. How could such a decent, warm-hearted person have fallen in with such a crowd of arrogant gits?

He led me up into the Entrance Hall, up the marble staircase, through many secret passages that I would have been surprised to discover if I'd been paying full attention to where we were going, and eventually up to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Climbing through the portrait hole, he led me across the Common Room, ignoring the looks of many shocked Gryffindors, and up to the sixth-year boy's dormitory. As we left the Common Room, I heard the murmuring begin in earnest, and was sure I heard many voices whisper the name, "James Potter."

He sat me down on his bed, pulled up a chair, and sat facing me.

"Lily?" he said, tentatively.

I was still crying. I could not bring myself to meet his gaze.

"Lily, look at me," he said.

Reluctantly, I looked up. His eyes stared into mine, and I felt a slight sense of comfort. Remus was always a good friend to me, despite... well, what one might call 'conflicting loyalties'.

"I know he's a real prat sometimes," he began.

I cut him off. "Understatement of the century," I sniffed bitterly.

He pressed on. "He only does it to... to get your attention."

"To get my attention? To get MY attention?" My voice rose, and I stood up, trembling with fury. "Don't kid yourself, Remus! He doesn't care about me, not really! I'm just the only person who's ever turned him down, and he can't stand that!"

"He does care about you, Lily. He really does," said Remus, calm as ever, trying to placate me. But it didn't work.

"NO HE DOESN'T!" I yelled. "He doesn't care about ANYONE except himself!"

"That's not true," pressed Remus, still infuriatingly calm. "He cares about you, he cares about Sirius, and Peter, and me... despite... what I am."

"So why doesn't he act like it?" I demanded. "Why does he always go around hexing everyone in his way? 'To get my attention'? Bollocks."

"Lily, you know as well as I do that whenever he tries to be civil to you, you still brush him off," he reasoned patiently. I began to open my mouth in protest. "I know you've got good reason, I really do," he continued hurriedly, forestalling my interruption. "Look, just give him a chance. I'll talk to him, try and make him see what an idiot he's being... but when he's being civil, you have to give him a chance. Otherwise he'll just go back to hexing people to get you to notice him."

I was still hesitant. Admittedly, it was true that, on the rare occasion when Potter wasn't acting like a total git, I was still, at best, indifferent towards him. But only because of what he was like the rest of the time! It seemed to me, whatever Remus might say, that the arrogant, hexing-people-for-the-fun-of-it James was the real James, and that the polite, Go-out-with-me-Evans James was just for show, to try and get me to go out with him because I was the only one who ever said 'no'.

However, I trusted Remus. Unwillingly, I nodded. "I'll try," I said, looking up at him, "but only if he does." He looked satisfied. He stood up, and I hugged him, tightly. "Thanks, Remus," I said, sniffing.

At that moment, the dormitory door opened, and three people walked in. The one in front, who had been talking loudly and animatedly, stopped at the sight of Remus and me.

"Wondered where you'd got to, Moony," he said coldly.

Remus motioned for me to go. I did so, looking back as I left. Remus looked composed, but resigned to the argument. James, on the other hand, was incandescent with rage.

A/N: Free interwebz for anyone who spots all the references to the books/movies in this chapter.

Also, the speed at which I upload the next chapter is directly proportional to the number of reviews I get. That's a hint, people. :P