"Morning Lily-dearest."
Lily shook herself out of her early-morning daze and focussed on the figure unfolding himself from the wall.
"Morning Potter," she muttered as she brushed past him on her way out of the portrait hole, hoping he'd get the hint. Lily had slept in that morning and would be lucky to get any breakfast at all before she had to be at potions, so she really didn't have time to deal with Potter. Then she heard footsteps following her down the corridor and knew she wasn't lucky enough to escape him that morning.
"So Lily-pad, it's Hogsmeade this Saturday." She stopped to glare at him.
"Don't ever call me Lily-pad unless you want me to hex your mouth off."
"Sorry darling." This earned him another glare.
"What do you want, Potter?"
"Hogsmeade? You and me on a date?"
She stopped, turned and with a surprising amount of strength shoved him up against the cold stone wall of the castle. When she spoke one hand was around his throat while the other pushed her wand into his stomach, and her voice was quiet but dangerous.
"Let me make this clear once again so you don't need me to repeat myself every day. You are an irritating, immature, stupid, bullying git and I will never, ever go out with you!"
James recoiled slightly, gasping for air, but he was soon smirking at her.
"You know, Evans, we're close enough that we might as well be kissing right now."
She groaned, and pulled away from him.
"You disgust me."
"Oh come on Evans, one little kiss?" He grabbed her arm as she turned to walk away. She quickly swivelled her wand at him and muttered 'Petrificus totalas', grinning as he froze with a pathetic lip-puckered expression on his face.
" Over my dead body, Potter."
"Psst, Wormtail," Sirius leaned over the gap between their desks to mutter as Slughorn entered the potions classroom.
"Mmm?" Peter looked up distractedly from the picture he was drawing of a rat sitting on a girl's shoulder.
"Where's Prongs? Slughorn is going to skin him alive for being late!"
Peter looked around, realising that his friend was right and James was absent. "He wasn't at breakfast either, said he'd wait for Evans but he never showed up. Maybe they're still fighting?"
"Nope," Remus joined in. "She's already here," he pointed out the red haired girl in her usual seat near the front of the class room. Their conversation was cut off as Slughorn announced the beginning of class. His gaze swept over the room and noted the empty seat next to Sirius.
"Black, where is your friend Potter today? Decided not to grace us with his presence, or is he simply late again?" The Professor asked. Lily looked around suddenly, feeling guilty as she realised it was her fault he was late. She had thought the spell would wear off as soon as she stopped thinking about it, but it had obviously been stronger than she was expecting. Sirius stared at Slughorn for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't get his friend in trouble when Lily piped up form the front of the room.
"Potter said he isn't feeling well today, I think he was going to the hospital wing Professor."
"Ah. Well, not much to be done about that I suppose. Thanks for letting me know Miss Evans," he smiled as his favourite student and began the lesson.
"What the hell was that?" Sirius muttered to Remus and Peter at the back of the room.
"Dunno. Surely she wouldn't cover for him, might be he's actually sick?" Peter suggested.
"He seemed fine when we left the dorm this morning," Remus pointed out. Then Slughorn turned to glare at the three of them and the issue was dropped.
