James was patrolling the corridors. He was the Head Boy of Gryffindor and he had to patrol the halls at night. Lily was supposed to be with him, but she said she'd be late and try to catch up with him. If she didn't find him they'd patrol by themselves. He hoped she would find him.

"One… two… three… four," James said, for he was bored and had resorted to counting his footsteps.

"Quiet down, some of us are trying to sleep," a portrait said. James rolled his eyes and continued to walk the halls.

"James!" he heard. He spun around and saw Lily. He smiled at her and she ran up to him.

"Hello, Head Girl," he said.

"Hey," Lily said, slightly out of breath.

"How'd you find me?" James asked as they began to walk. Lily held up the Marauder's Map and James almost had a heart attack.

"I used this," she said.

"Where'd you get that?" he asked.

"Remus lent it to me. He said he figured I would be looking for you," she said. James took it from her.

"Well I'll be taking it back now," he said.

"What? Why? It's Remus's," Lily said. James stopped walking and looked at her.

"You think that it's Remus's?" he asked.

"Yes," she said. "He gave it to me to borrow, it must be his. Also, he's probably the one who bought it. It really is interesting…" she reached to take it back from James but he held it out of her reach.

"Lily, Remus, Sirius, Peter and I made this map. We're the Marauders!" James said. Lily winced and he realized that he was being harsh.

"Well thanks for telling me," Lily said. She started to walk away and James didn't know what to do.

They had started to become friends this year. Also, he still liked her very much and he was starting to think that she didn't like him back. Lily turned around and walked back toward him. James hoped she would continue to patrol with him.

"I'll be taking this," Lily said. She grabbed the map and then stormed off again. James just watched her go.

An hour later he returned to the Gryffindor common room and he heard a voice.

"Why didn't you guys tell me about it?" Lily asked. James slipped in quietly and watched her as she ranted and Remus sat on the couch, looking calm.

"James didn't think we should," Remus said.

"Well why not?" Lily asked.

"He didn't want you to think badly of him," Remus said.

"Well I do! I… I hate him," she said.

"I'm sure that's not true," Remus said; he had noticed James was in the room. Lily, however, still had not.

"It is!" she exclaimed. "I can list at least… seven things that I hate about him!"

"Well why don't you then?" James asked, walking toward her with his arms crossed and an eyebrow quirked.

"I'll just leave the two of you alone," Remus said. He got up off the couch and went up to the boys' dormitory. James still stared at Lily.

"Fine," Lily said. She sat down on the couch and stared into the fire for a moment.

"Any day now," James said, hoping that the delay was due to the fact that she couldn't think of anything.

"I hate your ego," Lily said. "It's larger than all the combined egos of the all students and teachers of Hogwarts."

"That's one," James said.

"I hate how pushy you are," she said. "And that victory dance you do after winning a game of Quidditch. You've won, we get it. At least have some class!"

"Three," he said.

"And I… hate how you're always trying to fix your hair. It's always going to be messy, no matter how much you try to fix it, so deal with it!" she said.

"Are you serious?" James asked.

"Yes I'm serious. I also hate how you act like you're the king of the school. You may be popular, but you don't have to flaunt it so much," Lily said.

"That's five, Evans," he said.

"I hate how much you ask for help with assignments," she said meekly.

"Well that's not a very good one, Lily. If you hate it so much, just stop helping," James said smugly, "one more."

"I-I…" Lily said. James sat down next to her. So close that their legs were almost touching.

"Yes?" James asked.

"I hate that… that," Lily said, staring at him, at the fire and then at him again. "I hate that you…" She mumbled the last part and James didn't catch it.

"Come again?" James asked.

"I hate that you make me love you!" Lily exclaimed. James stared at her.

"Really?" he asked. She looked at him and nodded. He smiled, leaned in and kissed her. She kissed him back, but soon she pulled away.

"You know," she said. "I only said that I hated you because I was mad. There are things about you that I like too."

"Oh really?" James asked. He was feeling giddy from kissing her. He had waited for it for so long.

"I can list seven, if you want me to," Lily said.

"Sure, might as well cancel out the others," James said.

"The way your hair falls in your face when you read," she said. "How you make me laugh."

"That's two," he said.

"The color of your eyes," Lily said. "How after doing that victory dance you go and shake every hand on the other team. I like how you complain about how your parents never let you breathe, but send them a letter once a week."

"That's five," James said, in awe that she noticed all these things about him.

"I like that you care about my opinion of you," Lily said, looking at him and leaning a little closer. "And I like that I'm falling in love with you."

That time she instigated the kiss. When she pulled away James smiled at her and said, "Does this mean you'll go out on a date with me now?"

"We'll see, Potter," Lily said and with a smile she stood up and went to the girls' dormitory. James watched her go and smiled, apparently she didn't hate him so much after all.


I hope you all liked it. I wrote a James and Lily story the other day about their first kiss. But this morning I was in the car on my way to the gym and '7 Things' by Miley Cyrus came on. I not a huge fan of her, but it got me thinking. So when I got home I sat down and wrote this. I hope you all liked it. I don't own Harry Potter, sadly. Please review, and thanks for reading. If you'd like to read my other story about James and Lily, it's called 'I Bet'.

~EM~