"Evans! Come back, please!" I called desperately after her. She disappeared around the corner, her long red hair which I so admired swung behind her as she vanished without looking back. I sighed deeply. She still hates me. A summer apart changed absolutely nothing.

"Still after Evans?" said a familiar voice behind me. "Yeah, she's good-looking, but if it were me I would move on. There are still all the other attractive girls, it's not just Lily than can make a guy look back twice."

Sirius appeared next to me, his hair longer than ever. For the first time, I was annoyed to see my best mate.

"Well, it's not you, is it?" I snapped. "And Evans isn't a girl I can just cast off because she doesn't like me back. What she doesn't know is that I am just as determined to go out with her as she is at avoiding me at all costs."

Sirius snorted next to me as we made our way up to the Gryffindor common room. "What you don't know is that it's obvious you practically drool over Evans."

Now he was really ticking me off. I could feel the anger rising inside. "Will you just DROP IT?" I snarled, walking faster.

"Perseverance," I said shortly to the Fat Lady, and the portrait swung open to reveal the common room. 'Ironic that the password was perseverance,' I thought. 'Especially since we had just finished talking about Lily….'

Despite my sudden anger, I was calmed to see the crackling fire, the bulletin board, and the spiral stairs leading up the dormitories. The common room was usually empty due to the fact that everyone else was at the still at the feast.

"So good to be sixth years, isn't it?" asked Sirius. He immediately sat in one of the armchairs by the fire that we usually occupied. Sirius seemed unconcerned that I had lost my temper with him not five minutes ago.

"Yeah, I guess," I mumbled, leaning back on the chair, eyes closed. Maybe if we waited here long enough we would catch a glimpse of her before she went to bed. The thought if it made me smile faintly. What would it feel like to run his hands through her beautiful hair, or feel her soft lips on his…?

"Where's Wormtail and Moony?"

Sirius obviously didn't get the fact I wanted to be left alone.

"It's the first day of term, obviously Wormtail is still eating and Moony has prefect duties," I responded. Raising my head, I could see that Sirius looked worried. He leaned forward, hands clasped together and hair falling in his face.

"What's wrong with you James?"

Reluctantly, I explained what happened with Lily in the Entrance Hall. I vividly saw her green eyes flashing as I gave her a small wave, then I saw her angry expression as she turned away and walked with her friends into the Great Hall. After I got done speaking, I felt strangely better. 'After all, Sirius is my best mate,' I thought. 'He nearly always makes me feel better when I'm down.'

Sirius seemed to consider what he was going to say. Lily was always a delicate subject between them.

"I… I been thinking, and I believe I know why she doesn't like you," he said cautiously, scanning my face for signs that I was getting angry. I gave him a curt nod and he continued.

"Well, I overheard her talking to one of her friends, and she said that she didn't mind you when you weren't being arrogant and big-headed."

She had told me the same thing multiple times, so this didn't surprise me. However, the fact that she talked about me...

That was something.

There was a distant rumbling of hundreds of feet as they made their way up to their separate Houses. My stomach growled, and I thought of the savory food that I had ditched, all for Evans, all because she made me upset…

Maybe she was right. No, she was right. For the past five years, I had been a show-off and a prankster, but now it didn't matter how many people thought I was funny, it didn't matter how many people admired my wit or Quidditch talent.

And suddenly I knew. I knew by the end of the year I would have what I so desperately craved for, the one person who was always on my mind.

Because, sitting in that armchair, making those realizations I had matured into a more serious man rather than the coincided boy that arrived here exactly five years ago. And it felt good; it felt good to know I was changing. It was like the first step to Lily.

I got up, stretching.

"I'm turning in early tonight," I said. Sirius looked a little crestfallen.

"But I thought we were going to nick some food from the kitchen…?" he asked. I had forgotten that we had planned on having a party after the feast. But that had seemed so long ago.

"Nah, that's something we would have done in the fourth year. But we're sixteen now, next year we come of age and we need to start acting like it."

Sirius looked abashed, but didn't have time to respond because the Gryffindor had started pouring into the common room, talking loudly and laughing.

I gave Sirius a small wave, turned, and marched up the spiral staircase to the boys' dormitories with a warm feeling spreading from my hands down to my toes.