As she walked down the hall back to the gryffindor tower at the end of the day, Lily Evans found herself thinking of James Potter, as she so often did nowadays and, as usual, she immediately kicked herself once she realized that she was doing it. It annoyed her to no end that she liked him. No, she did not like, like him. Oh, bloody hell, she might as well admit it, she may have a crush on him. But crushes go away. That certainly did not mean anything.

But Lily was half-surprised that since the day she had absolutely exploded at him down by the lake, he seemed to have started shaping up. at least a little bit. He was still the same sarcastic, arrogant James that had been swaggering around the halls since first year, but he wasn't mean anymore. There were still many pranks being pulled, by Remus, Sirius, and Peter as much as him, but they were aimed more toward good humor. Things like enchanting teachers' teacups to scream merry christmas at people even though it was barely september. No more cruel hearted pranks like what the four of them used to do to Severus.

Ugh. lily didn't want to think about Sev. He had started being really distant lately. And another thing he had picked up, was bigoted opinions on half-bloods and "mudbloods". There was nothing wrong with being a mudblood. Lily herself was one and she was top of her class. It certainly didn't affect skill level. But try telling Severus that. They had been fighting a lot lately, which is why she was starting to rely on James. They were becoming friends mainly because she found her days so often drained of humor after being around Severus. He was exhausting and James helped get her mood back up.

It was late. She had been out at the library studying, but her brain could hardly take it anymore. She had decided it was probably best to resign for the night when she working on the topic of creating a volubilis potion, opened her scroll to take notes from a library book and forgot how to spell the word "festering".

Lily heaved a heavy sigh as she muttered the password (frolicking hippogriffs) to the portrait of the fat lady and stepped into the common room. She hadn't expected anyone else to still be up, yet James was laying there, propped up on one elbow by the fire, once again toying with a golden snitch he had managed to snag from the equipment room. He would let it fly as far as a foot or so above his head of unruly black hair before reaching an arm out and catching it effortlessly.

He turned a head towards her as she stepped through the portrait and immediately moved to put her stuff down on the table in the corner of the common room. She felt as if her arms were about to fall off from lugging all those heavy books all the way from the library. Of course, this was just a cover. She turned pink when she saw James just sitting there. He always gave her a sort of warm feeling. It was wonderful, but a little embarrassing all the same.

"Hey, Evans." James greeted her when she walked in.

"What are you still doing up?" she asked turning around to face him, her cheeks still slightly pink.

"I could ask the same about you." he let the snitch get so far away from him this time she would have thought it was a goner for sure, but he still reached out and grabbed it like it was nothing.

"Studying. Ever heard of it?"

"Heard of it. never a huge fan." he didn't even look in her direction. His recent attitude towards her both pleased her and annoyed her. On the one hand, he wasn't being a flirtatious jerk anymore. Well, he still flirted sometimes but Lily could tell that it was all in good fun. But on the other hand, now that she was starting to fall for him he was completely over her. And that was certainly not fair.

"No, but really," Lily walked over to one of the cushy armchairs by the fire that James was leaning against "what are you still doing up. What time is it even?"

"I believe," James said checking his watch "that it is nearing two AM."

"Good grief." Lily muttered. She had been studying for a very long time.

"And, to answer your other question, i just couldn't wait to tell you…" he smirked a sloppy smile and then launched into a grand tale of the great humiliation Sirius had suffered off a prank-gone-wrong earlier that day. Lily threw her head back and laughed as James made dramatic gestures along with the story.

And that's how they fell asleep nearly an hour later. Lily still curled up in the armchair by the fire, and James sitting by her feet with his head resting against her knee.