"Don't touch me," she whispered harshly, throwing his hand off her shoulder as if it burned her. "I don't want you any where near me, don't talk to me, don't look at me, don't even think about me. Just… get away from me" she sighed defeatedly.

"But-"

"I said go!" she yelled, her back to him. She couldn't and wouldn't look at him. Her throat was burning as she tried not to cry, she was too angry to cry, too embarrassed and humiliated.

"I'm sorry," he said before sighing and walking away.

She took a deep breath, sorry looses its effect after the hundredth or so time she thought bitterly to herself. She clenched her fists and tensed her body, taking a deep breath in she then let it all relaxing her muscles and blowing the air out of her mouth. She stood up straight, smoothed her dark red hair out of her face and wiped away the one or two tears that had fallen on her pale cheeks. Shaking herself out of her self-pitying thoughts, Lily Evans left the classroom in which she had just caught her boyfriend of five months with his hands under some other girl's skirt… again.

"You knew this was going to happen. You let him walk all over you. You knew he was a jerk and you just couldn't stop yourself could you? Nooo, of course not… people can change, everyone deserves a second chance… even an 11th chance… my ass" she muttered angrily to herself, mocking the very words she had used to defend him to her friend. She walked slowly back to the Gryffindor tower. "Stupid boy, stupid… stupidness, stupid… stupid inability to think of things that are stupid!" she huffed angrily, stamping her foot a little in frustration. She didn't realize that she was no longer alone.

"Aw, is little Evan throwing a tantrum like the baby she is?" someone chuckled.

Lily's head snapped in the direction of the insult, rolling her eyes and sighing tiredly when she saw it was James Potter, the only Gryffindor should couldn't stand.

"Rain check Potter? I'm really not up for another bout of humiliation, give me a few hours to recover" she sighed. Usually bashing Potter was what she did best but right now, she was just hurt and tired and she just wanted to go to bed.

"Who is it who knocked the high and mighty Lily Evans off her high horse, I must meet this person, we are destined to be best friends" Potter chuckled. "Or are you still reeling from our last encounter, I know your delicate female sensibilities have trouble handling someone who doesn't adore you but I didn't think you were this much of a wuss."

Lily ignored him and kept walking. Nice, way to kick a girl when she's down… what a low life prick she thought to herself as she tried to get to the common room before she started to cry. She couldn't deal with the salt he was rubbing into her gaping wounds. Her pride had been severely cut down today and she wasn't sure she could handle much more without a major breakdown.

"What did you get less that outstanding on a paper? Did little Miss Perfect slip up? You gonna go cry now? Poor Evans… isn't as perfect as she wants everyone to think she is…" Potter leered as he followed her to the common room.

"Really Potter, not tonight, okay?"

"Come on, what is it? Did you break a nail? Find a split end? Lose your favorite quill? What small thing ruined your life this time? Merlin forbid you ever have a real problem like the rest of us" he scoffed at her. Lily clenched her teeth. He always did this, belittled her life to meaningless things because his life was so much harder, she thought sarcastically.

"Oh! I know, you scuffed your shoe didn't you!" he said with mock enthusiasm.

"Yeah Potter, that's it, my life is so full of meaningless trivialities that I can't handle the slightest difficulty, that's it, I scuffed my shoe and now my life is over, I guess I'll just go jump out a window" she said angrily as she spun on him, glaring through the tears in her eyes. "Fuck off Potter" she sighed tiredly, "just… leave me alone."

She didn't know what it was about James Bloody Potter that miffed her so much but he just knew how to rub her the wrong way. The slightest insult from him was jarring and even after all these years he could still get under her skin like no other. She thought it must have been because they had been friends once upon a time. Before he started noticing that she was a girl and that she wasn't a bad looking girl. Ever since he had asked her out in their third year and she had turned him down, wanting to keep their friendship, he had started to be distant, then cold and then just downright mean. If she had known that their friendship would have deteriorated anyways, she would have said yes. She missed having him as her best friend but fate didn't have that in her plan for the two of them. She had much more cruel intentions.

Lily had been friends with all four of the boys, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter before she and Potter had their falling out. Sirius had mostly sided with James. He didn't outright insult her the way James did but he did help James play pranks on her. Remus had stayed neutral. He and Lily still talked and hung out, they were still friends. Peter only talked to Lily when James wasn't around, he didn't want to anger the unofficial ringleader of their group but he also liked Lily a lot and Lily seemed to understand this and didn't hold it against him. Remus however went so far as to defend Lily to the others as well as warn her about pranks they planned to pull, which is why the others stopped telling him about the pranks they pulled on Lily.

Lily managed to choke the password out when she reached the portrait and stepped into the common room to find it mostly empty. It was dinnertime and Lily had left early to get some work done when she stumbled upon her boyfriend trying to remove someone else's knickers with his teeth.

The sobs she had been holding back burst forward then and it was all she could do not to collapse right there in front of the entrance. She sat at one of the tables near the entrance and cried. Her heart hurt… it sounded stupid but it hurt and she just wanted it to stop. Lily knew that Charlie wasn't the love of her life but she had cared about him and despite his cheating, she thought he had cared for her too… the first time he had apologized and blamed it on too many firewiskeys and she had forgiven him. The second time he said that the girl had kissed him and Lily had just walked in at the wrong time. This time, he was out of excuses. All of the nice things he'd done for her and said to her played in her mind as she tried to cry the hurt from her chest.

"Lily?" someone whispered tentatively.

Lily's head shot up from its position on her folded arms and she hastily wiped away the tears, sniffling to try and clear her nasal passages and turned around with a bright smile on her face to greet whoever it was behind her.

"Hey Remy, what's up?" she asked, trying to sound like nothing was wrong but her puffy red-rimmed eyes, red nose, and the tell tale crack in her voice gave her away.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked gently as he put his books on the table and sat down next to her.

She thought about playing stupid but Remus knew her better than that and she knew there was no way she would be able to get away with it. She blew out a watery sigh before smiling and giving a halfhearted bitter chuckle.

"He cheated on me again" she said, her voice wavering. She looked up at Remus, giving him that "I'm being brave and pretending I don't care" smile which pushed the tears out of her eyes and she sniffled again, taking a deep breath to try and stop her tears and calm herself down.

"Oh, Lils, that sucks… he's a jerk. He doesn't deserve you, your better than he is" Remus said, feeding her the standard lines that friends always say to friends who have just broken up with someone about whom they still care.

Lily laughed bitterly "yeah, but if I'm so much better than he is, then why am I the one crying?" she asked, giving him a look. He smiled gently down at her and gave her a hug.

"Because he's too stupid to see a good thing when it's right in front of him"

Lily started to cry again, quietly this time when the portrait hole opened.

"Speaking of which…" Remus muttered when he saw James walk in.

Lily laughed quietly and pulled out of Remus' arms and whipped away the tears.

"You alright?" Remus asked, looking at her skeptically.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm alright. I just need to get some sleep is all. Thanks Remy, I'll see you later" she smiled and stood up. She gave Remus a quick kiss on the cheek and left without acknowledging James at all.

James watched her climb the stairs to the dorms and sighed. She looked… so small, so exhausted and fragile. He ignored the pang in his chest and walked over the where Remus still sat.

"What the hell was that?" James asked irritably. Remus looked at him and shook his head slightly.

"Rondins cheated on her… again," Remus explained with a sigh.

"What do you mean again? He cheated on her before and she didn't pitch his sorry ass?" James asked incredulously.

"Yeah, this is the third time. I guess she got tired of it" he said with a shrug.

"That jerk" James exclaimed. "The nerve of that guy, he's got a great girl and he goes and fucks around on her? What the hell is wrong with him? He's a disgrace to wizards everywhere!" James said, starting to get worked up.

"Since when do you care what happens to Lily?" Remus asked.

"It's not Evans, it the principle of the thing. He gives all blokes a bad name. As soon as this gets out it's going to make it then times harder for the rest of us to get a bird. They are all going to be thinking 'if Lily Evans can't even keep a bloke, what shot do I have?' Great, this is just bloody great!"

"It's not like you date anyways, so it won't matter for you. Besides, Lily isn't that great of a catch" Remus argued.

"I could date if I wanted to and now it's just that much more difficult. And what are you talking about she's not a catch? You're friends with her, you've seen her. She may be a downright bitchy know it all but she's certainly a looker and I don't doubt she knows how to make a guy happy from what I've heard. She's smart too, maybe too smart for her own good. Any guy would be lucky to have her, the stuck up little priss that she is. I'm not so prideful that I can't appreciate a fine looking woman when I see one, however annoying she is when she opens her mouth." James explained.

Remus gave him a knowing look and rolled his eyes.

"What's that look for?" James asked angrily.

"Nothing, nothing at all" Remus chuckled. They sat in silence for a few seconds before… "Prongs fancies Lily!" Remus sang happily, ducking at the hand that shot out to hit him over the back of the head.

"I do not!" James exclaimed. "I just think she's good looking, can't blame a guy for that, it's a fact"

"Prongs and Lily sittin' in a tree!" Remus sang as he danced away from James who was trying to hit him.

"I do not!! Now shut up before someone hears you and thinks it's true! That's the last thing I need"

"K-I-S-S-I-N-G"

"Moony! Shut UP!" James laughed throwing a pillow at his friend. Remus ducked and a distinct oomph! sounded when the pillow sailed past Remus and into the face of whoever had just walked into the common room.

"First comes love" Remus continued, a huge grin on his face.

"Oi, Padfood!" James said as Sirius face appeared from behind the pillow, "Would you bang Evans?"

"Hell yes! She's hot" Sirius said, throwing the pillow back at James who caught it and flopped back on the couch giving Remus a pointed look.

"See, she's hot, that means nothing!" James said decisively, a smug look on his face.

"You also said she was smart" Remus argued

"She's bloody brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed. "I kinda' looked at her exam once in charms, I got a near perfect score! The girl's got brains"

James laughed at his friend; laughing harder when he saw the look of disapproval Remus gave Sirius.

"See?" James asked Remus.

Remus shook his head, "I still think you fancy her" he said, sitting down next to Sirius.

"Evans? And Prongs?" Sirius said, looking at Remus in surprise. "I thought you were the smart one! Where have you been!? Prong's is bloody in love with the girl! Merlin, you're slow"

"WHAT!" James shouted, looking at Sirius with a look of outrage and shock. Remus laughed and smiled triumphantly at James.

"I do not like Evans!" James yelled. "I can't stand the little wench!"

"Come on Prongsy-boy, we know you better than that, you can't hide it from us, you fancied her since day one. Never stopped," Sirius explained as he pulled a cookie wrapped in a napkin from his pocket and started to eat it.

"Your daft! You're both insane! Have you ever seen us around each other! She nearly bites my head off every time I'm within a five foot radius of the blasted woman"

"We didn't say she fancied you back" Sirius said, giving James a look that said "you poor confused little boy"

Remus burst out laughing at the look on James' face.

"It's alright James, we don't hold it against you. You never had a shot… can't help falling for your best friend when she looks like that. It's just a shame you mucked it up the way you did, you would have had some cute James Jr.s running around" Sirius said, chuckling at the look on James' face as well.

"I don't like her!" He said slowly as if he was talking to imbeciles and he was beginning to this he was.

"Okay Prongs, whatever makes you happy" Remus said.

"I don't!!"

"Okay"

James sighed in annoyance and stomped up the stairs to the dorm.