Lily stood at the doorway, suddenly nervous. Butterflies filled her stomach as she looked down at the paper in her hand. It's nothing too bad, an A- on the thesis essay. With all the time she spent on it though, she thought she deserved more. But that wasn't why she was here- she would be fine with the grade in the end. She just wanted to hear what Professor Potter really thought about her paper- not all the stupid generic comments he wrote on the page.

With one last deep breath, she summoned up the confidence to knock on the door. "One moment!" Professor Potter called from the inside of the office. Lily quickly checked her outfit- well, her school robes- to make sure everything was correct. When Professor Potter opened the door, he looked slightly shocked. "Evans!"

"Hi Professor" Lily smiled, slightly embarrassed. "I just wanted to talk to you about my essay-" she spat out the words quickly, but Potter still cut her off.

"Evans, I'm sorry to tell you that your grade is-"

"Oh no! I'm okay with my grade. Happy, even. I just wanted to talk to you about the content. To see if you really did agree with everything I said…" She was, if possible, more embarrassed than she started. What a freak he must think she was! What student actually cared about what their teacher thought of their essay!

But Potter just smiled, said aside to let her enter his office. "I'd love to go with it through you, so you know what parts are good, and what parts are bad," Lily smiled, relieved. She slipped past him, into the room. He shut the door behind her and pointed to the seat across from his at his desk. Lily handed him her essay and sat silently. The office, which she had been in before, was exactly the way she pictured it. On the walls stood all his favorite teams' posters, pictures of his family and friends, and even some with the Aurors he'd trained with.

"Werewolf rights…" He smiled to himself, settling in his chair. "Something both you and I feel very strongly about."

Lily smiled again, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Good. I thought you and I were going to fight again." Potter laughed, something Lily loved to hear.

Ever since he agreed to fill in a year as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching post, Lily and Potter have had both good and bad discussions. Werewolves, they both agreed needed more rights. House-Elves… not so much. These discussions about everything under the sun entertained the class, and they were perfectly willing to sit back and let Lily fight with her teacher. Potter welcomed it too. Ever since they started, he loved to see the passion Lily had for everything she did. He was still young himself, leaving Hogwarts while his students now where still 4th years. Then, he barely knew any of them. Just regular kids, nothing that his 7th year self noticed. Lily remembered James though- how he walked through the school and demanded the respect of all by simply entering the room. It captivated her every thought in class. All her friends noticed too- the way she worked harder on his essays than any teacher they had had before. How she stayed after class to mock him. Or how he'd sometimes find her in the hallway, just to tell her a story about a ridiculous conversation he had with an ignorant person.

Here though, in his office, it all seemed easier. She could be herself with him here. She was comfortable enough to tell him her hopes and dreams, but… she'd stick to werewolves.

"It's disgusting- the ignorance people had installed in them. They don't even bother to fight it. Same with the whole 'Mudblood' thing. "

"But Lily, you have to consider it outside the box. I mean, some parents raise their children that way-"

"That's an excuse." She looked away from him, down at his desk. "Everyone makes a moral decision to stay ignorant. They see the way the words hurt people, and they continue doing it. It's their choice then- not their parents." Hurt covered Lily fast like a bad Halloween mask. James instantly felt a tug in his stomach. Sure- he'd admit it- his relationship with Lily ran deeper than teacher/student. He'd considered bringing her to meet his friends, really. She was so interesting, once you got her started. But now, it was harder. To her hurt by those idiots that judged her so quickly… he felt himself slipping.

"Okay here", he quickly pointed out a random portion of her essay. Anything to distract himself. "Here, you have the beginning development of the Wolfbane Potion. And then you explained what it did for the werewolf. But you never related it to the text." Lily stood up, walking to the side of the desk to see what he had pointed out. She leaned down, reading where his finger was.

Intoxicating. James thought, taking a whiff of her hair. He watched her as she read, as he often did in class. She pouted her lip a little, a sure sign she knew he was right. She had dropped her robes in her seat- his office always seemed to be hot- and was now in her button down shirt and her skirt. She sighed, turning to sit on his desk next to him.

"Yea, yea, yea" she mumbled, smiling.

James rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair. Lily sucked a breath in. He too, was in nothing but a button down shirt and a pair of dress pants. When he reached up to put his hand behind his head, Lily saw the trail of his hair… and it was driving her crazy.

"Your ability to avoid me being right amazes me." Lily laughed, and James joined her. They fell into a silence, James sitting up in his chair, centimeters away from her thigh. He looked up at Lily, still smile as she bit her lip. "Look Lily-"

And she couldn't stop herself. It was something in the way he looked at her. After months of catching him looking at her in class, sharing eye rolls and silent laughter- she couldn't help it. It had been months of repressed heat the spilled from her.

She bent down and kissed him.

It wasn't like he was going to stop it either.

He knew she was younger than him, and yet years older at the same time. She understood things he believed in better than Sirius or Remus could. She even fought with him! After years of never backing away from an argument, Sirius and Remus had given up fighting with him. But Lily never did. He found it annoying and so god damn sexy at the same time.

Lily had moved to sitting in front of James, on top of her long gone paper. He put his hands on either side of the desk, barely pushing himself to meet her kiss. It took them until they had to breathe to realize what they were doing. Even then, they could do nothing but stare at each other.

James spoke first, breaking the silence. "Lily. Maybe we should-" but Lily cut him off.

"I can go if you want." Rejection hit her like a brick. She stood up quickly, feeling beyond ridiculous. She grabbed her essay and her robes, and was halfway towards the door before James stopped her.

He pulled her back into his arms, his hands cupping her face. She slowly dropped the items in her hands as he whispered, "I was going to say head up to my room…"

Lily stood, shocked. But she didn't need to be asked twice, quickly pulling his face down to meet hers. He pulled her along, stopping their kiss to run up the stairs to his room. In the landing of his staircase, she made her final offer to end it.

"Are you sure you want to do this..?"

James thought about it for a second. After this year, he'd be done here at Hogwarts- why did it matter if he wasn't going to continue? Sirius and Remus would understand their relationship- and they're the ones that really mattered to him. And it wasn't like Lily wasn't worth it…

"Are you okay with this?" She had much more to lose- if this got out, she'd have the black spot of 'whore' on her records for years. But simple talking to James gave Lily's feelings beyond what she had ever felt in her life. She wanted to keep it that way.

So to respond to him, Lily grabbed James hand and turned the knob to his room.

Disclaimer: I don't own James or Lily.

I've considered expanding this so that there's another chapter... probably rated differently... but I'm not quite sure.

Please review!

Thank ya!

FadedMoon