Lily was 16, and she was curious. Her muggle friends back home all had boyfriends, and were telling her things that probably would have been best kept between the sheets. But that retrospective view was not practical in any way, because her curiosity had already been peaked. Her inability to keep a stable boyfriend between the hijinx of Potter and the plots of Snape was seriously curbing her development on a sexual front. There was no way she was going to pick either of the two, childish as they were. No; if she was going to get anything done she would have to do it herself.

Now something she had heard from one of her single friends was actually the spark of her pet project for the year.

"Lily, don't tell me you've never heard of a dildo!" Her friend Margaret gasped, her eyes rolling beneath a thick layer of brown fringe as she watched Lily's blank expression. Lily smiled and shrugged at her friends excited reaction to her ignorance. Margaret's eyes bulged in surprise, and she wasn't smiling. "Lily, what do girls talk about up at that boarding school of yours? If you don't know THAT, it must be SO BORING."

Lily's smile became broader, and she tried to hide it under the cover of her long auburn hair. Hogwarts being described as boring could only be done by a muggle who didn't know any better; or maybe her sister Petunia. Thankfully, Margaret took her gesture as embarrassment and took pity on her.

"Lily, I'm sorry, it's nothing to be ashamed about. I was just shocked. Look at me, seeing you for the first time in almost a year and then yelling at you about dildos." She laughed heartily at this, and Lily smiled at her friend, still not fully comprehending. "Dildos are. . . well. . . they're like fake penises that women use to. . . you know. . . " She giggled, her sixteen years showing through the spark in her eyes. Lily blushed almost as red as her hair. For all of the years she spent with her nose in magical books, no knowledge had shocked a blush out of her.

That knowledge from the muggle world she took with her back to the Gryffindor tower, where she mustered up all her supposed bravery and wrote an inquiry out anonymously onto the common room message board.

Because, you see, there was one problem Lily had with simply smuggling in a dildo. No electricity worked at Hogwarts. So, she was determined to find a magical alternative. Or invent one.

Other Gryffindor's were shocked, and some were tickled pink, by what they read on the board the next morning; "Does anyone know how to make a magic Dildo? Place answers in envelope below and a reward will be sent." Lily winced along with the other, more prudish girls, because in her excitement in the wee hours of the night she really didn't pick the best wording. Although she was hopeful, because some of the seventh year girls were whispering and laughing amongst one another, and writing things down. She decided she would check the envelope that night, although she had planned to wait. Since she was eagerly watching the crowd and thinking about what results she might get, she didn't notice that someone else was watching her.

James Potter had his eye on Lily for various reasons. At first, it was because it pissed of his enemy Snape. Then, he realized that she had nice. . . skin. Yes. It was her complexion he was after. Nothing else. Mind your own business!

So him watching her was nothing new, only if you would've mentioned it to Lily she would have scoffed and said he was probably zoning out or contemplating a new prank to ruin her studying, or even more likely daydreaming about Quidditch. Those who are confronted with Lily's reaction all snigger at this reply, which never fails at revealing how much she knows about him, and how well she's paid attention to him too. Although none would guess that she could tell you more about Severus Snape.

Severus, throughout the course of another monotonous day at Hogwarts, had overheard the news from louder first years.

"Did you see what was written on the message board this morning!?"

"No, I was too short to see over that group of fifth years. . ."

"Some girl wrote about a Dildo! I have no idea what that is, but by the way some of the older boys and girls were lookin, I don't think I should know!"

"Which obviously means we're going to find out?"

"Not until after we go to the Great Hall. I'm starved."

Severus was not very interested at first, as he was quite confounded by the information as well as other students who did not have such lusty muggle friends. Yet through word of mouth he learned quite a lot, and he thought of Lily. Would she want such a thing? He hoped not, because it sounded intimidating at best and made him feel things he did not want to dwell on between Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Lily heard the talk too and was anxious to see results. She had not come up with an appropriate reward yet, but she realized she could have gotten her answer without it. But still, the message promised reward, and she would deliver. Hopefully.

By the time everyone went to bed the envelope was sufficiently stuffed and she was especially fidgety as she waited to hear all her room mates drift to sleep. Once she heard Beatrice the next bunk over start snoring, she pulled on her robes and some slippers and silently made her way to the door, closing it silently behind her. As she scouted the common room for any stragglers, she cautiously approached the message board. What she didn't know was there was one Gryffindor unaccounted for in the boy's Sixth year dormitory, and that he owned an invisibility cloak.

"So, Lily you're the one." He said after removing and concealing the cloak. It wouldn't do for Lily, a near prefect, to find out how he'd been breaking rules for almost six years. She jumped partially out of her slippers. James couldn't suppress his grin. "Are you hoping I won't know what a Dildo is?"

Found out and furious, Lily shoved her feet firmly back into her slippers. "No, James, I'm not as naïve as you think. You probably have one of your own." She knew she wasn't being graceful, but why did it have to be him? James laughed.

"You know Lily, despite all your bark, I'll still let you in on the secret I stayed up to tell whoever put up that message." Lily blanched. Help? From him? About this? She almost turned around and dove headfirst through one of the tower windows, but as she turned from him and started to march away she heard his dash of pursuit and then felt his warm hand on her arm.

'It must be so warm because he was standing so close to the fire,' she thought absently as he twirled her around to face him. Actually, heat was radiating from him, and it didn't have anything to do with the common room fire.

"I know how to make what you want." He said, meeting her eyes. She was stiff with shock, and her doe eyes staring incredulously back at him made him lose his nerve. James let go of her arm and backed away from her towards the staircase. "Let me know if you need me." He said, and he ran up the steps without a backward glance at her. This was the first time Lily thought of James as cute, as he dashed to his dormitory and shut the door. Lily soon shook herself, and remembered the envelope. She told herself he probably wanted the information himself, to give to some of those other girls that snog him senseless. Or to share with his group of "Marauders." Well, she would not be fooled. This was her project.

She read what she found late into the night, and was barely able to get herself back into bed for some sleep before she would have to wake herself for charms. Lily missing meals wasn't unusual, but she always made sure to at least get two out of three.

James, on the other hand, didn't sleep for another reason. He waited until Lily went to bed to go and retrieve his cloak, which he spent half the night kicking himself over because he left it in an idiotic place, and he knew Lily was going to read the night away. And while he waited he thought about her face, and how she looked at him when they were so close, and the heat. But he also thought about Quidditch, and the potions paper he didn't finish. He was only a boy of sixteen. In the morning many were shocked once again, but for a much different reason. Unlike Lily, it was unheard of for James to miss a meal, and while breakfast was served in the Great Hall, both were fast asleep.

It wasn't hard to see why Severus Snape would begin to suspect something.