Yes, another two-shot. But really, we love James and Lily and their cuteness, yeah?

Swearing and obviously not mine, but I wouldn't mind a review?

I do not fear a lot of things. Really, I don't.

I'm pretty robust. I can handle dark places, spiders, clowns (why on earth anybody is even afraid of one in the first place baffles me), heights, you name it. I am not afraid.

There are the things that you kind of fear because, well, its terribly hard not to. Death Eaters, Voldemort, acne. Those things.

Of all the girls in my dorm, all my fellow female 7th years, I'm probably the one who would rise to the occasion if say, a wasp or a beetle were in our room. In fact, just last week Alice found a minuscule spider and enlisted my help through incoherant shrieking and wailing. If somebody was dying, I would be there. If somebody had to climb something or do something extremely dangerous, it would be me. I guarantee you.

"Lily?" Oh look, there's the spider hunter now. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" I ask her with raised eyebrows, twisting away and looking innocently up at her.

"Don't tell me you still suspect something big and hairy and threatening is going to come out of there," Alice drones from behind me. I can hear the little smirk in her tone. I hate her a little. "You're batty."

"I am not."

She noisily exhales. "Well, Frank and I are going for a walk." Thank god, I don't think my cherished green eyes could stand the sight of those two sucking face again. "You won't report us, will you, Head Girl?"

"Obviously not. Go, let him squeeze your bosoms."

I watch her wander away off towards her boyfriend Frank Longbottom (greatest last name ever), who is standing awkwardly by the portrait, entirely endearing in his pudgy sort of way. He's a nice boy, treats her well, buys her things, pays attention to her... who am I kidding. They'll get married and pop out kids and I'll be the babysitter who lives down the street with eight five crazy cats that leave my outdoor-toilet-sized house reeking of urine.

Muttering about how much my life is going to suck, I watch Mrs. Longbottom peck Mr. Longbottom on the cheek before they traipse out of the common room. Alice doesn't much like it when I call her that, but she blushes so strongly that I have to keep using the nickname.

"Calls me batty, who does she think she is..." I go back to what I was doing before she rudely interrupted and berated me.

I turn in my armchair and press my nose against the cool glass of the window, peering suspiciously out at the grounds of Hogwarts. My eyes are glued to the outskirts of the forbidden forest, because I swear to whatever higher heavenly power there is, something will come out of there.

I might fear it just a bit, the forest. Maybe a tad.

Alright, it scares the living bejeezers out of me and I will be caught DEAD near it.

I don't think I've ever been within spitting distance. Even when I join my friends on leisurely walks around the lake on Sunday mornings I stay well away from the edge of it (I have willingly soaked my shoes in the past).

I reiterate; I will be caught DEAD near it. I'm positive its full of monsters and dead stuff and slime-producing creatures and other things of definite terror. The Marauders probably have their headquarters in there, the more I think about it. Sirius Black certainly has the potential to produce slime. Ew, mental image.

I blink hard for the first time since Alice left, my reflection blinking hard back at me. I hate the Marauders. Alright, maybe I don't hate them. They annoy me. Or did; Sirius still does annoy me and I refuse to sit near the boy because I have anxiety about catching a disease, deadly or sexual, both very likely with that strange Gryffindor.

James Potter doesn't annoy you, my mind taunts. Shut up, yes he does, he's Head Boy and he should not have been Head Boy. Even though he seems to be taking his duties very seriously and not fucking up.

He's also really nice to look at. Really, really nice. I imagine one day I'll be staring dreamily at the back of his head in class and a rainbow will sprout out around him. Alice bothers me about it, which is okay because I keep calling her Mrs. Longbottom.

James has this head of really thick lucious black hair (I touched it when he bent down to retrieve a pencil and my hand happened to be in the vicinity, I told him it was accidental but I'm a good liar, ha) and these brown eyes that seem to somehow have hints of amber in them. His glasses are so very cute. I just called glasses cute.

Maybe I am batty.

He's tall and lean and enjoys Quidditch and causing mischief and grief towards the teachers and he's sweet and MY GOD, WHAT IS WITH ME?

I shut my eyes tightly. Lillian Paige Evans, grab a hold of yourself! Stop obsessing over Potter and refocus all your attention on the fact that the forest is going to sprout feet and attack you.

"What are you doing?"

For crying out loud, is that the question of the day or something?

I whirl around in my chair and come face to face with the abdominal area (not to groin region, kill me now) of James Potter.

He's ditched his robes and has loosened his tie, letting it hang loosely around his neck. The white oxford shirt is untucked, unbuttoned slightly and rolled up his arms a little, the arms that are crossed over his chest. He's eyeing me with raised eyebrows.

He looks so attractive, I am so doomed.

For the second time in ten minutes, I ask, "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Absorbing yourself into the window," James answers smoothly. I glare. "But that's completely impossible, so really, I'm at a loss as to what you're doing."

"Go away," I manage to get out.

He raises his eyebrows high above his glasses, slightly affronted but really he's not because he has an ego encased in steel and then pillows. "Go away?" he repeats. "Why would I want to go away?"

I go into six year old mode and give him one final withering look before turning back to the aforementioned window and squashing my nose back against it. I expect him to declare me insane and walk away, but I feel him move around the plush armchair to my side.

Daringly, my eyes slide to the right to try and see what he's doing without relenting up on the window. James Potter crouches down beside me, oddly at the same height now (he's tall, have I mentioned that?) and peers out the glass.

"Is there something out there?" he asks, curious. "Or do you just like the sunset? You know, the sunset reminds me a lot of you."

"If you say something like it hurts the eyes when you look directly at it..."

James barks out a laugh, leaning away from the window to look me dead on. "Of course not."

He points out the window. "Its kind of orange and red, like your hair." I feel his other hand come up, his fingers brushing very gently, a ghostly touch, against a few tendrils of hair that have escaped my messy ponytail.

"And its very pretty. Natch, you are very pretty. Well, more like gorgeous. You kind of outshine the sunset. Sunset versus Lily Evans, you would win. Hands down."

I pull away from the glass, eyeing him. "You.." I try to find the right words, but I can't. "Shut up, James."

"Oh ho," James is suddenly beaming like I've just given birth to his child. "You called me James!"

"Did you change your name or something?"

"You never call me James. Its always 'Potter' with a certain level of distain."

"Go away."

"Only if you tell me what in Merlin's name you're doing over here in the corner of the common room, by yourself, staring out the window with your cute little button nose smushed up against the glass."

As if he just refered to my nose with the words 'cute little button'. I take a deep breath, glancing from the window to Potter's adorable expectant face.

"I'm waiting for the forbidden forest to unleash its fury."

Silence. He stares at me for a full couple of moments, not moving a single muscle until I see one twitch by his mouth. Oh, for heaven's sake, here we go. Its Alice all over again.

"You're... you're what?"

"Call me insane," I find myself shrieking at a higher decibel, "but there is something in that forest!"

More silence. Go ahead, James. Whisk me away to the hospital ward to be examining thoroughly by the nurse. Do it. Or better, take me to St. Mungo's where they can extract my brain and see what on earth is causing these feelings of panic towards the forest and attraction towards you which are utterly -

"Well, let's go investigate then."

Wait, what? What the hell does that mean, investigate? Go look at it? HA. Lily Evans and investigating the forest do not sound even remotely good in the same sentence. No way.

"Are you idiotic?" I hiss at him, eyes wide and full in shock.

James laughs, arching an eyebrow in return. I see it coming and I'm not all that surprised when he replies, "Do you really want to have that conversation? You, who has been trying to melt through the window?"

--

The forbidden forest is a lot more intimidating when you're ten feet away from it. I am going to shat my knickers.

"Lily?" James' voice jolts me out of my debate between crying and running for the hills. "Are you.. are you afraid?"

"Nooooo," I drawl out slowly, albeit my voice is wobbly. "Its just cold."

"Its June," he replies. "How do you react in December?"

Glare mode is in full force again. That little twat is going to get himself whacked upside the head by a branch if he doesn't shut up soon. Though, a branch would mean I would have to venture a few steps closer and I don't really want to so I might settle for my hand.

"Ow!"

Yes, that did just fine.

"What on earth was that for?"

"Let's get this over, Potter." I make sure to stress his last name; the first name thing was a slip of the tongue. Pure accident. "Just a few steps in and we'll see if there's.. something.. and y'know, then go back."

That sounded really lame outloud, didn't it. He's smirking but he doesn't say anything and instead grabs my clammy hand and tugs me closer. Moses part the Red Sea, I am going to die!

"Evans."

We stop walking because I've dug my heels into the ground and dragged a good couple of pounds of grass and soil with me. That, and I'm shaking like a leaf, sweating and whimpering slightly. Damn, he must have caught on.

"You're shit scared, aren't you?" His voice is kind, gentle, soft. Not teasing.

I glance at a large tree that lines the outskirts, large and angry-looking. It might eat me up. "Yes."

A smile tugs at his lips and I try very hard not to grin bashfully in return, but like usual nowadays, I fail dismally. "Alright, alright! Lily Evans is terrified of the forbidden forest. She has a completely irrational fear of it, even during the middle of the day when its nice and sunny outside and you can see further in. I'm scared. Go ahead, James, laugh it up."

"I'm not laughing, Lils." He's right, he's not - wait, Lils? Did he just call me Lils?

This time, its a smile on my lips rather than his. "What did you just say?"

He's blushing. James Potter is blushing in the prescence of Lily Evans, because of something Lily Evans said. Where is a piece of paper and a quill when you need it.

"Ha!" I laugh loudly, pointing somewhat rudely at his face with my free hand. "Did you get into woman's makeup or are you blushing, James Potter?" I wiggle my finger at him mockingly.

He rolls his eyes, grabbing my wiggly finger and holding it tightly. I grimace and twist slightly, half laughing and half cursing his ancestors before him.

"Let go, you big tosser! You're going to break my finger! Uncle! Uncle!"

I'm not entirely sure how I managed to get myself there, but surprisingly I'm closer to James than normal. Real close. Close enough to see the flecks of amber in his eyes. His breath is heavy on my face, fanning it, and I suspect mine on his is doing the same. Our hands are still joined and James is still clutching my index finger, though the grip has faltered quite a bit.

He's leaning forward, oh Merlin. Our lips are less than a fingernail's width away. What am I doing, what am I doing, what am I DOING?

I'm snapped back to reality when the giant squid off to our right lazily flaps around the surface of the lake with one its tentacle thingies. Panic mode (I have lots of modes) kicks it and I step away hurriedly. James doesn't hide the disappointment in his shoulders or eyes and its like a physical punch to the stomach. What am I really doing?

"Did you still want to investigate?" James clears his throat.

"Not really," I answer, detaching our hands, turning myself back towards the suddenly inviting looking castle. "But thanks anyways. You coming?"

I'm remarkably well put together despite the awkwardness that just occurred.

James stares at me for a second before shaking his head. "I'm going to stay out here for a while, go ahead." He puts his hands in his pockets and gives me a strained smile.

As I cross the grounds, arms tight across my chest, I try to decipher what just happened, what I'm doing, what he's doing. Maybe I'm not afraid of the forbidden forest. Maybe its not what it seems.

Maybe I'm afraid of exploring things.