A/N: Apologies in advance; this is written in 3rd person, there may be a few errors where I have switched to 1st person as I am also writing a chapter for Love Is Lily and it's all getting a bit muddled. I read through it and I think I've caught all the mistakes, but just a prior warning :)

Throwing Caution To The Wind

Lily Evans was stressed. The rickety piles of dusty books and stacks of parchment gave the overall effect of a make-shift fort, from which a mess of red hair could be seen protruding.

If you were around on the rare occasion that she lifted her nose from one of her textbooks you would see the bags so dark beneath the eyes that she looked to be recovering from a broken nose, you would see the crumpled clothes and the tangled mess of hair, and if one sat too close, you would definitely smell the stale reek of someone who found showering at such a pinnacle point in their school career to be a laughable matter.

Of course, Lily Evans hadn't laughed in over 8 days. The exact amount of time, in fact, that she had been squatting in the library making full use of its 24 hour exam opening times for 5th years and above.

Lily was not a complete slob. She set aside time every morning to visit her dorm room where she would wash quickly with a flannel, brush her teeth, decide whether her hair really needed to be washed or whether it would suffice for one more day (along with the t-shirt she was wearing, knowing that trousers lasted for at least 3 days) and go to the bathroom.

Obviously Lily Evans knew these simple hygiene's were necessary, she just found their ranking of importance slipping lower than studying and power naps during this exhaustive exam period. Food was in there somewhere as well, but seeing as attendance at meals was compulsory and overseen by Heads of Houses, she knew that she had to make a quick stop at the Gryffindor table 3 times a day, every day.

She was also aware that her friends were worried about her, but in all honesty, if she had any extra room in her head to fret about anything right now (which she doesn't) she would be feeling more worried about them. Her friends were clever, but a couple hours of revision a day was nowhere near enough to get O's. Yes, that lack of commitment was good enough for OWLs, but NEWTs stepped the game up to an entirely new level. And being tanned from 'all' the Scottish sunshine they'd been soaking up has no effect what's so ever upon your ability to reel of information about human to animal transfiguration. The annoyance of revision would last only a few weeks but she knew that her grades would follow her around forever.

The girls from Lily's dorm had at first tried to study with her in the library, but their constant need to chatter had driven Lily insane and she'd relocated further into the sanctuary of the restricted section, where no one visits unless they're looking for something in particular. This lack of thoroughfare suited Lily perfectly; it was quiet enough to concentrate, but the scratching of nearby quills and the fresh air being blown in through the window above her seat stopped the quiet from becoming eerie.

Lily had become rather attached to her little corner of the library, and with no clock in view she wiled away the hours beneath her towers of books, scratching out notes and telling herself that she didn't have time to pee, and crossing her legs a little tighter.

Lily didn't hear the approaching footsteps as she was taking a quick nap on her potions text book, a small pool of drool forming over one of the ingredients lists. Her quill was still poised above a roll of parchment and the ink was leaking out and staining her shirt where it was running along the wooden table top.

The footsteps stopped and the chair across from Lily's squeaked as someone dropped themselves into it. Still, Lily did not stir. Her eyelids were just too heavy to move, and as for the rest of her body, well, that wasn't going to be shuffling off anywhere any time soon. Lily found it amazing that some clever folk hadn't thought up the initiative of having everyone sleep on textbooks instead of pillows. When it came down to it, of all the naps Lily could recall the ones taken on top of hardened textbooks or wooden desks were the best, most recuperating ones. The way Lily saw it; wooden pillows were an untapped bedding product goldmine.

Lily Evans sniffed and caught the smell of something tingling in the air before her. She sniffed again, long and hard. Her eyes snapped open although her head did not move. She took a peep out of a small, make-shift eyehole she had constructed earlier for exactly this kind of reason, and saw a black haired bespectacled boy leaning back in the chair across from her. Her eyes drooped shut for a moment and when she opened them again there was a hazel eye pressed up to her peephole and staring straight back at her.

'Good morning Evans!' James Potter announced cheerily, lifting his head back up from the table when Lily shot upward in fright. She slapped her hand to her chest and felt the flutter of her heart.

'Morning James.' She attempted to respond but it turned into more of a mumbled jumble.

James, however, seemed unfazed by this and instead scooched himself closer to her holding a plate of jam smothered toast in front of him like a sacrifice. 'I brought you some breakfast.' He grinned. Lily looked at the toast then narrowed her eyes at him before they stayed against her will back to the toast.

'What do you want?' She asked.

'Just wanted to make sure you weren't starving yourself up here.'

'I'm not hungry.' She snapped. Lily's tummy decided now would be a great time to interrupt with a huge rumble and she lowered her eyes, her cheeks turning bright red. 'Much'. She amended.

James chuckled and slid the plate down to her and she took a slice tentatively. She sniffed it and nibbled warily at the corner. When nothing seemed to be amiss she took a gigantic bite and nearly swallowed the thing whole. James's eyes widened in shock but Lily could not care less about what James Potter thought of her right now.

He however, was rather impressed by the way she had torn through 6 slices of toast in under 2 minutes. Sure, he had actually intended to eat some of them himself, but clearly she needed them more than he did. He reached into his cloak and silently pulled out a bottle of pumpkin juice and nudged it down the table toward her.

She glanced at it suspiciously and then up at James. She stopped chewing immediately as if finally remembering where she was and who with. Her cheeks were still filled with food giving her the overall effect of a squirrel preparing for hibernation.

'Thanks.' She said carefully around her mouthful of toast and took the pumpkin juice. Swallowing loudly she wiped her mouth on the back of her sleeve and sat awkwardly, not quite knowing what else to say.

James Potter however, was not a boy who would let such an opportunity to be alone with Lily Evans escape him and he ignored all her subtle hints for him to go away.

'Whatcha doing?' he asked conversationally, peering over the top of her books and into her makeshift den.

'Nothing.' Lily snapped defensively, feeling strangely protective of her little study area.

'Not napping, I hope. Wasting time like that could be critical at this stage in the exams.' He joked but from the worried look on Lily's face it appeared she was taking the marauder a little too seriously.

'No, I wasn't napping.' Lily lied, patting down her bed hair.

'Mmhmm.' James raised his eyebrows sceptically and reached across the table and softly rubbed Lily's cheek. She froze and revelled in the warmth of human touch. James pulled back and waved his fingers in front of her face, displaying the ink all over them. 'You just thought printing the textbook page onto the side of your face would be the most subtle way to cheat?' James laughed, reaching back over to wipe away the rest of the ink stain.

For the first time Lily stopped to consider whether perhaps she had been in the library for too long; when James Potter's touch made your insides tremble, you knew there was a problem.

Coughing to hide her discomfort Lily swiftly changed the subject.

'How's your revision going?' If James had any thoughts about Lily's abrupt subject change he didn't comment upon it, though Lily had a sneaking suspicion that he had long ago learnt to just go with the flow when around her.

'Hmmmm.'

'Not going at all then?' she summarised.

'It's sunny outside.' James grinned like this was a legitimate excuse. Lily just shook her head. 'Talking about sun, when was the last time you went outside?'

'When you say outside, does looking outside count?'

'No.'

'Ah, well, you say that, but, I ask you to just consider how close I am to this open window.' Lily tried to negotiate, turning toward the window. Her argument collapsed when she realised that it was shut and the curtains drawn.

'…no.'

'Well, then, a couple of days I guess.' Lily replied, squirming under James's intense gaze.

'Come on, then.' He said, pulling himself up from his chair and looking down expectantly at her.

'Huh?'

'We're venturing into the wilderness…' James said mysteriously, waggling his fingers in front of Lily's confused face. 'Come on' he laughed when Lily sat there staring up at him. 'We're just going for a walk around the lake.'

James Potter was not someone who took no for an answer, and while Lily Evans had many years of practise of doing just that, today she found herself simply too exhausted to argue with him. She allowed herself to be dragged by the hand from the library, sparing an anxious glance at Madam Pince was grinning widely from ear to ear and preparing to move in and restack all of Lily's books. Madwoman.

Lily had to admit to herself that walking through the castle with James was always a fascinating experience. Yes, it had to be said that whenever she had done so before she had either been bickering, or full out arguing with him, or he had just taken up the whim to follow her around. Taking the time today to fully appreciate the experience, Lily realised that she had been missing out on a lot. For one, the idle chit chat was not half bad, and second, it was a hell of a lot quicker walking from the library to the entrance hall when your tour guide knew every tapestry and secret pathway in the entire place.

Lily was happy to be pulled along this way and that as James wandered seemingly aimlessly through the maze of hidden passageways that weaved themselves though the schools walls. James was loping along, taking the time every now and then to smile pleasantly back at her, his eyes lingering as he did so on their clasped hands.

When they reached the entrance hall, it was empty. In fact, now that Lily came to think of it, the entire castle was strangely silent. There was no laughter, no cries of pain from misaimed spells, and no toads being chased down hallways.

It was all explained when James pushed his way through the main door and they both stepped out into the warm darkness of dawn.

'What's the time?' Lily asked, scratching the back of her head in confusion.

'About five in the morning.' James replied nervously, his unoccupied hand jumping to his hair.

'Where did you get the toast from?' Lily asked the first thought that popped into her head.

James burst out laughing and dropped Lily's hand to wrap his arms around his convulsing stomach. Lily stood to the side and crossed her arms across her chest.

'Why's that funny?' This only made James laugh harder and he only sobered up when Lily moved to return to the castle.

'No, wait!' He called. 'I'm sorry. Really. Just, come for this walk with me?' He asked, holding his arm out toward her.

'I have a condition.' Lily stated confidently, although her tummy was doing flips.

James grinned indulgently. 'And that would be…?'

'You need to promise to tell me where you can get toast at 5 in the morning.' James had to visibly clamp his mouth shut to stop from laughing, but nodded his head in agreement.

'Okay.'

'Good.' Lily sang skipping forward and, surprising them both, automatically took James's offered hand. Once she realised what she had done she thought it would be too rude to just drop it. What she didn't know however was that James was waiting for her to do just that and would have harboured no ill feeling if she had indeed decided it was too weird and let go.

As it was, both walked along perfectly content with the handholding, both worrying about what the other thought of it.

Once the couple had passed through the courtyard and out into the ground the fresh air hit Lily in a rush, and the cool, predawn air revitalised her dull senses. It snapped her out of her stupor, and she realised belatedly that she was walking alone with James Potter, holding his hand and, most importantly, enjoying it.

The sun was beginning to rise, casting a glorious red glow across the lake and they sat down together under the beech tree, their backs pressed against the trunk and watched the sun rise in a peaceful silence. Lily tentatively laid her head on James shoulder and waited for a reaction. He made none, having frozen in place afraid to move in case he disturbed her. After a few minutes both began to relax, and feigning a yawn, James managed to wrap his arm around her shoulder and when she made no objection, pulled her into him.

'How in Merlins name did you manage to get her out of the library?' A female voice demanded from above the teenagers heads. Lily jumped away from James as if he had dragon pox and both of them swivelled their heads up to see Mary and Sirius looking down upon them with matching looks of astonishment.

'I'm her best friend and she wouldn't even move for me!' Mary complained loudly, crossing her arms angrily across her chest.

'Guess I'm just amazing.' James said modestly.

Sirius grunted but made no comment.

'I mean imagine how I feel when I come around to feed her this morning, and she's not there!'

'I'm not a house pet!' Lily objected, but Mary paid her no mind.

'No note, no books, nothing. Just a clean table where you've been squatting for the last week, with madam Pince hovering behind me. I'm telling you, she could smell the croissant I smuggled in. Bloody woman can sniff things out like a dog.

Lily did not miss the way Sirius and James grinned knowingly at each other.

'What are you doing down here?' Mary asked suddenly, looking wildly around her as if she had only just noticed where she was.

Lily glanced at James. 'Just taking a stroll. Thought I'd air Lily out a bit. Her little slice of the library was beginning to smell a tadge.'

'Hey!'

'Is that you?' Sirius asked whirling around and sniffing Lily's hair. 'Jeez, I just thought it was a smell coming off the lake.' He grimaced, taking a couple of steps backward.

Lily crossed her arms indignantly and looked to Mary for backup but she just shrugged. 'Sorry Lils, but they've got a point.'

'Humph.'

'Hey, it's not so bad.' James chimed in. 'It's not like we've ran away or anything.'

'Speak for yourself' Sirius called out over his shoulder as he sauntered off. Mary shot me one last look and then hurried off after him.

'Great.' Lily announced to the heavens before giving her hair a sniff. She was unhappy to realise that it was smelly a tad musty.

'Hey, I prefer it this way.' James grinned, reaching out and pulling Lily back down onto his chest. 'I am more than happy to put up with the smell if I get you all to myself.' He grinned.

'Shut up.' She chuckled, elbowing his chest.

'So, missing all those textbooks yet?'

'Not in the slightest.' Lily answered truthfully. It had hit her just as the sun rose above the lake; she was wasting her time here at Hogwarts. It was the end of 6th year and she had only just discovered where to get early morning snacks for Merlins sake! Sticking to the rules had gotten her nowhere, and now she was determined to enjoy her last year at Hogwarts. And if that meant throwing caution to the wind and breaking a few rules then she was only too happy to oblige.

Turning her head up toward the messy haired boy she launched herself forward before she lost her courage and kissed him full on the lips.

A/N: What do you think? Good, bad? Criticism and helpful suggestions welcome

Love, Anna-Cate xxx