Author's Notes: Why do I like James/Lily fics? Because JKR never got around to telling her wonderful readers why they even decided to get together in the first place.

Disclaimer: I think I would simply die with pleasure if I owned Harry Potter… but I don't.

It's Just a Transfiguration Book

"James is right behind you."

"I know."

"Lily, he's staring at you."

"I know, Alice."

Despite her mild annoyance, Lily Evans couldn't help but smile a little in spite of herself. She could easily feel the eyes of the Gryffindor chaser trained intently on her back… or more likely – as she reminded herself – her bum.

Rather than getting worked up, however, Lily decided to continue her progress on a tricky transfiguration essay as she sat across from her fellow Gryffindor roommate at one of the tables in the common room. Stumped, she reached absentmindedly into her bag for her textbook only to find that it wasn't there. Knowing she probably left it in her dorm room and was otherwise too lazy to go and retrieve it, she merely stood up and leaned over the table to borrow Alice's copy.

"Lily!" the other girl hissed. "What are you doing?"

"What?" The head girl was momentarily shocked, and justifiably so, as she picked up the book from Alice's side of the table. "You're not even using it!"

"Not that," Alice stressed, looking at her friend in exasperation. When Lily remained looking just as confused as she was at first, and still standing up, the other girl finally got her point across. "Don't you realize you're just giving him an easier chance to look at your butt?"

Lily sat down abruptly, although she had the textbook firmly in her clutches. Her face turned red enough to rival the color of her hair. "Why didn't you say something sooner?!" she whispered, casting a rather hasty glance to her left and right, but avoiding looking at James as determinedly as she could.

"I tried! I didn't want it to be too obvious!"

Before the head girl could bicker back, she heard someone cough behind her. Turning around nervously, in case James had decided on that precise awkward moment to speak to her, she was relieved to only find Sirius standing there with a look on his face that clearly said "what the hell?"

"You know, if this is a bad time I could always come back…" He made a move to turn around and retreat nearer to the fireplace, and Lily immediately cast a weary glance over to the spectacle-wearing boy on one of the common room's many sofas, only to find him engaged deep in conversation with Remus Lupin, who had closed his book in favor of discussing a topic of study. Had he even really been looking at her? She immediately felt stupid for getting so bent out of shape…

"Look, Evans, if you want me to leave just say so." She nearly jumped out of her skin; when had Sirius shown up again? She averted her eyes from James, realizing she'd been staring for a good few seconds, but it didn't quite escape Padfoot's notice. He followed her gaze with his eyes, which landed on his best friend, and smirked at her. "If you want, I could just bring him over here for you. I'm sure he wouldn't mind. Unless you'd rather go sit with him on the couch."

"Oh, be serious, will you?!" Lily seethed, kicking Alice under the table, as she had begun to snort with laughter.

Sirius looked as though she had mortally offended him, but his facade fooled no one. "I am serious!" he said. "In every sense of the word," he added as an afterthought.

"Ha ha," Lily replied sarcastically. "Now what do you want, Black?"

"I need help…" He took a rather lengthy pause, during which he walked around Lily's chair, nudged her a bit to make room for him to sit down beside her on said chair, and draped an arm around her shoulders casually. "With my potions homework." He flashed her a cheesy smile and wiggled his eyebrows.

"What makes you think I owe you any favors?" She shoved his arm off of her back but let him still sit on her chair, though pushing him away several inches until he was literally hanging off the edge of his seat.

"I was hoping it would be out of the kindness of your heart, actually."

Lily scowled at him, still somewhat angry about his disgusting statement of having her sit on the couch with his fellow marauder… whatever that statement entailed. "I'm not in the mood! Just go!"

Sirius pursed his lips, trying and failing miserably to look angry. "I see I'm not wanted here." He ignored Lily and Alice's attempts to agree with him. "I mean… obviously this spot was saved for James, right? Or maybe you were hoping to sit on his lap? I guess I'll just – "

"SIRIUS!"

"Yes?"

"Leave already!"

Lily missed his head with a poorly aimed eraser as he retreated back to the fireplace where his buddies were waiting for him. Unconsciously, she zeroed in on the mouth of the Gryffindor chaser as it curved into a grin when he was rejoined by his best friend. She watched them share a laugh, and the head girl felt her face turn red in anger. Are they laughing at me?

Alice, apparently, took the flush of her friend's face to mean something else. "You know, Lily… maybe you should go over there and sit on the couch with James. Or… – what was it Sirius said? – bring him here to sit on his lap."

It took Lily a grand total of two seconds to register what her friend was saying. "With Potter?! Are you completely insane?!"

Alice paused as though not sure exactly how to argue her case. "No…" she began slowly, "I don't think so." At a glare from her friend she hurried to come up with a more reasonable answer. "It's just… you've been doing nothing but looking at him since I told you he was behind you."

She's got a point… "I have not!" the redhead argued back, somewhat lamely.

"Yes you have!" Alice's grin was getting bigger and bigger. "And you're blushing about it now!" Lily wanted nothing more than to hit the girl for making such obscene accusations. Instead she took her anger out on her transfiguration essay, which was laid out on the table, and clenched it tightly in her fist.

"So what?" she hissed, aware that if she kept arguing at such a high volume the whole common room would know what they were talking about… including James, the subject of the conversation. "It's not like I was staring at him lovingly." Lily spat out the word as though it was bad for her health. As if to prove her point, she reversed her position in her chair to turn around and glare at the offender. Green eyes met dazzling hazel for a moment. He smiled briefly, and the redhead turned back around with a face even redder than before.

"You like him!" Alice said this so loudly that Lily had to shush her. Amazingly, no one else seemed to notice it. "You want to kiss him!"

"I do not!" By this point, Lily had crumpled the piece of parchment in her hands so much that the still-wet ink was beginning to bleed through. Taking notice of this, she immediately released the paper, which bounced off her side of the table and onto the floor. Scowling, she bent down to pick it up. "I absolutely resent that!" she added upon reappearing.

"Well, don't." Alice overrode her friend's next attempt at speaking, choosing to defend the dark haired boy, though she refused to make eye contact and pretended to begin a new paragraph of her essay.

"Why shouldn't I?" Lily spat in frustration, sounding unjustly upset as she smoothed out her own piece of parchment. "Why are you sticking up for him? You're supposed to be on my side!"

"I am on your side!" The Gryffindor seventh year paused, contemplating her next statement. "I'm just… pulling a Benedict Arnold on you."

Lily, who, being muggle-born, knew exactly who Benedict Arnold was, let out a strangled cry. "What?!"

"Lily, come off it. Potter's not stupid. I mean, when it comes to schoolwork, right?" Both girls were perfectly aware of his more than acceptable grades, as he had gloated more than once.

"Yes…" Lily responded hesitantly, as she was more concerned of his stupid tendency to get into trouble at any given turn. Though, she frequently had to remind herself, it was probably mostly Sirius's fault. It was only this notion that prevented her from beating the living daylights out of Potter whenever she found him in a suspicious situation. So, Alice had already proved one point, but there were plenty of other reasons to dislike such a character.

"And you can't deny that he's far from ugly; most normal people go around calling him hot. Though I guess you're not exactly normal…" Alice waited for her friend to catch the jab, but Lily didn't seem to notice it.

"Well, I guess…" That was definitely true. It was something that the head girl had taken into account the first time she saw him. It took all of her willpower to not comment on her new revelation of noticing his capturing eyes, lest she make the other girl giggle with glee. Instead, Lily managed a small pursing of the lips. Okay, so there were a few decent attributes Potter possessed, but she doubted whether her friend could find any more endearing qualities about him. After all… he was a bit of a git.

"And he hasn't pulled any funny business on you lately."

Lily was forced to vividly remember an incident about a year ago that involved the whole group of boys, though she had no idea how they did it, nicking her clothes and her wand while she was in the shower, where she was forced to freeze for hours before Alice finally came in looking for her. She had been on the verge of cursing James out of anger and embarrassment until Sirius confessed that it had been his idea. This again supported Alice's first act of defense for James. "True…" She nailed that one…

"And just admit that he's finally deflated his head a bit since last year. If you ask me, he is rather sweet once you get him away from Sirius." Alice looked pointedly at Lily and jerked her head in the direction of the marauders, where a hearty and unnecessarily loud guffaw met their ears.

Bleeding Sirius… "I suppose, but – "

"So just go out with him already!" Lily had to endure a look from her friend that clearly told her she was out of valid objections, but the stubborn girl refused to back down.

"Alice! You don't get it! He hasn't asked me out once this whole year!" She shouted, as if the statement made any sense.

"So?"

"'So?' That means if he doesn't, then I would have to!" Lily looked as though this action would be one of ultimate shame, and she obviously expected her friend to react in the exact same way.

Alice, however, merely snickered. "What's the big deal?"

"That means I can't like him!"

"What do you mean 'you can't?'" Alice was laughing quite openly now at her friend's pitiful attempts to dispute her. "What's wrong with him?"

"Are you kidding me?! It's because he's… well, it's because he's Potter!"

"I can't believe you'd go and refuse to like someone because of their last name," the round-faced girl said in exasperation, trying and failing to look annoyed; she grinned instead.

"You know that's not what I meant! After years of hating his guts, can you imagine what he would say if I asked him out and he knew I caved first?" Lily covered her face with her hands and chanced another look in the direction of the marauders, peering through her fingers. She scowled when Sirius was the only one to notice. He waved at her and all but screamed at her to go over and join him and his friends.

Alice twitched the corners of her mouth upwards, witnessing her friend's attempts to catch James's eye. "It's not caving if you both like each other."

"Wrong! Look, forget Potter." Lily made a motion in midair of wiping a chalkboard clean as if to emphasize a clean slate. "I've always told you that there has to be a perfect guy out there for me somewhere, and I'm completely willing to wait until I find him!"

Alice, who had been sucking thoughtfully on the tip of her quill, stared at the girl sitting opposite of her with a mixed look of pity and enjoyment. "I hate to break it to you, but he's right over there." She removed the writing utensil from her mouth to point it obviously at James, who, as if he knew he was being watched, ran a hand through his wayward hair and carried on with his conversation.

Lily was not amused. "I'm going to bed," she said in a tone expressing disgruntlement. Clearly tired of the subject at hand, she stood up and, without pushing in her chair or clearing away her things, trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

--

When Lily woke up the next morning, she felt nothing short of exhausted. After deliberating for several moments whether to wake up and face the world or to stay snuggled in her warm four-poster, and leaning toward the latter, Alice positively ripped open the scarlet hangings around her bed, letting in a rush of blinding sun. Groaning, sitting up, and rubbing sleep from her eyes simultaneously, Lily was given little chance to yell at her friend, for Alice spoke first.

"Well, did you at least think about it?" she asked, as though continuing the conversation from the previous night and pretending it hadn't been stopped short by the head girl's sudden retreat upstairs.

"Think about what?" Lily croaked, hoping to shake the topic of herself and her nonexistent attraction for a certain hazel-eyed marauder.

"You know perfectly well 'what.'" It seemed her friend just wouldn't be swayed. In response, and as an excuse to avoid talking, Lily ducked under her covers once again with an audible groan of discontent. Alice appeared to take pity on the girl and said, "Oh, never mind right now. It's time for breakfast. I'll just meet you in the hall, yeah?" When she didn't get an answer, she took it as a yes and made her way downstairs.

Lily was strongly tempted to just fall back to sleep for several more hours. She had gone up to bed at a decent hour, but, for the life of her, could not fall asleep until past two in the morning. For some reason, she hadn't been able to forget the last few moments of her conversation with Alice.

"I've always told you that there has to be a perfect guy out there for me…"

"I hate to break it to you, but he's right over there."

What did that even mean? Potter was nowhere near perfect. And so she'd spent half the night pondering a question that, to her, seemed completely irrelevant until she was left feeling frustrated and depleted.

Half of her, the more rational half, told her that she had class the next day and that it was stupid to lie awake all night for no reason. The other half, which was somewhat curious, couldn't help but wonder if there really was a future relationship between her and James; since last night, her feelings had almost totally changed, and she couldn't help but wonder if she'd liked him all those years without really knowing it. Though there was no way she'd admit these feelings outright to Alice.

But this left her with another problem: what if he didn't ask her out? Or, more importantly, what if he was no longer interested? Would she have to find a way to ask him out without actually doing so, or would she just take those feelings to the grave with her? And, if he did ask, how could she accept without sounding uninterested while at the same time not overeager?

After lying still in bed for several long minutes, the redhead got up grudgingly, dressed in her school robes, and headed downstairs for a well-deserved meal, grabbing her book bag from the common room on the way out. Dodging around Peeves who was chucking owl pellets at a portrait on the staircase, Lily arrived in the great hall and settled herself next to Alice, who was munching on a piece of toast and opening a letter from her mother. "Morning, Lily," she said when the head girl sat down; she grunted in response.

"Evans, you're looking a little tired there." Lily looked up and was dismayed to find James and Sirius walking toward the Gryffindor table. She got even more annoyed when they both sat down across from her. Rather than respond to Padfoot's statement, she busied herself with the orange juice jug, hoping he'd get the hint that she wasn't up for an argument that morning. "I guess I would be tired too… especially if I had a little tryst going on with Prongs here."

Lily set down the orange juice so forcefully that it splashed over the edge of the container, sending drops of the liquid flying several feet in every direction; Alice had to quickly pull her letter out of harm's way. Lily opened her mouth to yell, her green eyes blazing, but before she could say anything, James took the initiative and hit Sirius upside the head.

"Ow! What the hell?!"

"Give it a rest, will ya?" he said, spooning scrambled eggs onto his plate. When he looked up at Lily to see her reaction (or maybe it was to seek her approval), she couldn't help but smile at him gratefully.

"Thank you, James."

Apparently Lily's expression of gratitude just gave Sirius another excuse to keep talking. "Woah! You just called Prongs James!" He gaped at her, but she chose to ignore him, reaching across the table for the eggs rather than asking him to pass the bowl. She didn't miss James's attempts to catch her eye.

"So," she asked Alice, making a conscious effort to avoid talking to the annoying teenager in front of her. "What'd your mom say?"

"Oh, just that she visited my Grandma yesterday, and – "

"Hey! How about some scrambled eggs, please?" Lily jumped in her seat, fork halfway to her mouth, only to find that Sirius had thrust his plate under her nose. Fixing him with a beady stare, she spooned an unnecessarily small portion onto his plate and glared as if daring him to ask for more. He just frowned at the pitiful meal in front of him rather than demanding more, but that just might have been because James kicked him under the table.

"Really, is everything okay? I mean, you do look a little pale…" James looked intently at the girl in front of him, his brow furrowed in concern and his hair sticking up in several different directions.

"M'fine," she muttered, not bothering to look up. "I just couldn't sleep last night. I was thinking about things…" At this, she couldn't help but flush a little bit.

She looked up just in time to see James's face split into a rakish grin. "If you really have been thinking of me, I think you should know that you're welcome in my dorm any day of the week, Evans."

Lily glowered at him for his sudden display of arrogance, wolfed down her eggs, and snatched a bite of toast before leaving the great hall, Alice on her heels.

"Lily, he was just kidding!" Alice was practically jogging to keep up with her friend's quick strides.

"No, Alice, I don't think he was!" Lily was too tired and irritated to even bother listening. "You know, I actually gave it a lot of thought last night, but right now I don't want to deal with him!"

"You told me you liked him!"

Unwilling to admit it, Lily merely said, "I can't take all those comments in public, and I don't want him to want me just for attention!"

For a few minutes, neither girl spoke. It was only as the general populace began exiting the great hall that Alice voiced her opinion again. "He really does care for you… and I think he might actually ask you about it soon…"

Unsure of how to respond to that, the head girl changed the subject. "We have transfiguration in twenty minutes."

Her friend frowned at the sudden change of direction; she had clearly hoped to force some sort of confession from her fellow Gryffindor. "I think I want to go finish my breakfast," she replied curtly, leaving Lily alone in the entrance hall before she could protest.

With nothing else to do, Lily decided to use the restroom to wash up and then just meander to class before everyone else. The bathroom on the first floor was surprisingly empty. Upon entering, she took a look at herself in the mirror and noticed that she did look a bit peaky. She splashed her face with cold water, inevitably wetting her hair in the process, and leaned over the sink with her eyes closed.

"… perfect guy out there for me… he's right over there."

She let the water just slide down her face for several minutes before finally realizing that she had to get to class. Rather than use a towel to dry her face, she just rubbed it on the sleeve of her robes and then exited the room. This all happened so quickly that Lily crashed into someone just outside the bathroom door with such force that she sent both of them sprawling backwards onto the floor.

"Geez, watch where you're going, Evans!"

Lily, who had just simply chosen to lie on her back after falling down, snapped her head up at the sound of the voice. "Potter?"

"Last time I checked, yeah." James, who had either not taken as much of the impact as Lily had or who was just a bit faster at returning to his feet, readjusted his glasses and ran a hand through his disheveled hair as he surveyed his love interest keenly. "What's wrong with you today? You're not acting like yourself."

"Oh, as if you're perfect over there, Potter!" she snapped, not making much sense and declining his offer of a hand to pull her back to her feet and instead standing and stumbling ungracefully to maintain her balance.

Several years ago, James might've responded by saying boastfully "Why, yes I am, actually," but instead he suggested to Lily that they both get to class, and the two of them proceeded up the marble staircase together; it was essentially isolated, as most of the students were still at breakfast. After walking up several flights of stairs, the quidditch player seemed to think it was too quiet, an obvious side effect of having Sirius as a friend. "Sorry about breakfast," he said, obviously thinking along the same lines as she had. "Sirius just gets a little too excited sometimes."

Lily looked James in the face and let out a short laugh. He smiled at her crookedly, obviously glad that he'd at least made her momentarily happy, and his hazel eyes sparkled with pleasure behind his glasses. "I don't care about Sirius, not when he's with you anyway."

"What does that mean?"

"Sorry, let me rephrase that," Lily mumbled, aware of the jealous edge that James suddenly had to his voice. "I don't particularly like Sirius at all. Doesn't he ever annoy you?" she asked as an afterthought, amazed anyone could put up with him.

Now it was James's turn to laugh. "Honestly, what friend doesn't? But we get over it. And don't pretend it's not the same way with you and Alice," he interrupted, as Lily had been on the verge on interjecting.

"I think you know me too well."

"Oh, you know you love it." He took his arm and hesitantly wrapped it around her and pulled her close. For the first time since the two of them met, Lily didn't push James's arm off of her shoulders when he draped it there on the way to McGonagall's class; it felt strangely comforting to have him so close to her, and she even leaned her head against him briefly.

By then the two of them had reached the transfiguration classroom, but it was so early that the room was nearly empty except for Professor McGonagall, who looked at the two of them and pointedly motioned to the empty desks in font of her as an indication for them to sit down for the few remaining minutes before class.

Transfiguration, to sum it up in one word, was hell.

Faced with the in-class task of reading up on the chapter of transfiguring large mammals in preparation for the wand work the next day, Lily had again dug her way through her book bag in search of the illusive advanced transfiguration textbook. That was when she realized, with a groan of dismay, that it was probably still locked in her dorm room several stories up. So, apologizing profusely, Lily had begged Professor McGonagall to allow her passage up to Gryffindor tower. Permission was granted to the girl, though somewhat reluctantly, and the head girl couldn't help but feel rather fortunate.

However, twenty minutes later, she had returned to the classroom empty-handed, thus earning her a brief reprimand from her teacher, who suspected that she had just wanted an excuse to get out of class early. Lily would normally have ignored the incident completely, until she found that she was forced to share a book with the person next to her. As fate would have it, it was none other than Sirius Black, who possessed a textbook thoroughly torn and tattered, but unmistakably present. When she asked him if he could borrow it, and in the sweetest voice she could muster, he refused her, obviously still peeved about her endeavors to starve him during breakfast.

Well then what was she going to use to do her homework?

So, for the remainder of class, Lily sat. And when she didn't feel like just sitting, she thought. For the most part, these thoughts ultimately lead to a certain seventh year Gryffindor boy with spectacles and unkempt hair; she still hadn't decided whether or not she would accept an offer to go out with the boy. More than several times she found herself just staring at him, drinking in his dishy appearance, and, more than once, she had to endure several provoking laughs and hints from Sirius about how James was planning to ask her to the next Hogsmeade visit until she'd had enough and promptly summoned a wastebasket to upturn over his head.

After this, Professor McGonagall kept Lily after class to wipe down the desks in the classroom after the bell. She snapped at James to shut up when he tried to tell her something on his way out, and she left only after being late again for her next class.

Professor Sprout gave her a verbal warning for being tardy to double herbology, and she was again forced to stay after class to sweep up potting soil from the floor of the greenhouses long after everyone had left for lunch. She had been so angry that she had completely ignored James when he tried to talk to her again.

So, stomach growling, head steaming, and hands smelling strongly of dirt, Lily just made her way to the next class, ignoring her gut's protests as she caught a whiff of chicken on the way past the great hall; lunch was already halfway over.

All of a sudden, she heard someone call her name from behind her, someone who was obviously running to catch up with her. Lily turned around, although she was quite sure she already knew who it was behind her.

"Hey, Evans! Wait up a sec! I've been trying to talk to you all day!"

Lily positively turned around and sprinted in the opposite direction, only mildly aware that she was just going away from her class. Furthermore, she was still hungry. To her dismay, she found that she had unceremoniously run herself into a corner. To this, she scowled darkly as James caught up to her.

"I wanted to ask – " he began, his hand searching for something in his bag as he spoke.

"Yes, Potter, I will." Lily sighed in defeat, finally deciding to give in to her newfound feelings.

"Er… what?" He was going to ask her about her transfiguration book, but for some reason her answer didn't seem to fit his question.

"Pot – James," Lily began, completely serious and businesslike, realizing that it wouldn't be very endearing to call him by his surname. "I've been doing some thinking, and I've decided, after extensive deliberation, that because you're intelligent, attractive, and… somewhat tolerable, I will go out with you." She was only vaguely aware of the spontaneity of the situation… and also that she probably looked and smelled quite filthy.

"Well I was just gonna give you back your transfiguration book, but if you'd rather go out with me instead…" James trailed off, taking a few moments to relish the rather awkward situation he had put her in, smirking in a cocky manner and shaking some loose hair out of his eyes.

"I wasn't going to say 'yes'!" Lily responded immediately out of pure instinct, completely and blissfully unaware of the fact that she'd already agreed to court him and that it was now a bit of ancient history.

"But you just did!"

"Did not!"

"Don't bother denying it!"

"Denying what?"

"Oh, never mind!" James relented, choosing to change the subject. "Do you want your book back then?" he asked, running a hand through his hair.

"My… book?"

"Yeah, Sirius found it last night in the common room, and he told me that he was going to tell you about it… but I guess he didn't."

So that's why he was telling me to go sit on the couch… He couldn't've just told me? Lily held out her hand mutely and took the book that was offered to her.

"Why didn't you just give it to me before class?"

"I guess I just forgot about it. I mean, you were actually talking to me. I didn't want to give you a reason to get angry." James merely grinned when she stayed quiet and turned around to walk back to the great hall after several minutes. "See you around, Evans." He waved casually.

"Wait, Potter!" Lily yelled after his retreating back before she could stop herself.

"Hm?" he questioned, turning around.

"You mean you're not going to ask me out?"

He stared at her with an unreadable expression on his handsome face. "You said you were gonna say 'no.'"

"No! I said I would say 'yes'!"

"Well, which is it, yes or no?"

Lily huffed, "I'm not answering until you ask me first!"

James paused, taking her request into consideration. Already knowing what she would say, he asked, "Do you fancy me?"

"Yes!" Lily yelled before bothering to hear what the question was. Realizing this, she turned red. "That's not fair! I thought you were gonna ask me out! You bloody tricked me!"

But James only grinned at her, ignoring her threats to hit him. "Well, since you're obviously head over heels – "

"I am not head over heels!"

"I suppose I could ask you to Hogsmeade this weekend. What do you say, Lily?" James asked, as though he had never been interrupted.

Oh, shut up you great prat! For pulling that you deserve to be turned down! "Yeah… okay," she said eagerly, breaking into a wide smile.

"It's a date then." The Gryffindor chaser grinned attractively, pecked her on the cheek, and then turned to walk back to the great hall to finish his lunch.

Standing there, only just beginning to absorb what had happened, Lily brought a free hand to her cheek where he'd kissed her and found herself smiling. Suddenly, she brought her gaze back down to the textbook in her hand and frowned.

Bleeding Sirius.

Author's Notes: Well? It can't've been that bad for a first attempt. :D Review, por favor?