He'd been staring at her since the moment she sat down for breakfast. She could feel his eyes boring holes into the back of her head; it was making her blush.
Her friend, Emmeline Vance leaned in and muttered so only she could hear. "He's looking at you again."
"I know." Lily Evans replied, stabbing the sausage on her plate with a measure of unnecessary force. She hated this feeling; it was a mess of vulnerability, embarrassment and just a dash of anger to boot.
Emmeline rubbed Lily's back, "come one, we've only got one more exam today and then we're done."
Lily mustered up a weak smile for her friend.
Mary McDonald came rushing suddenly in to the Great Hall. She looked entirely disheveled, her cloak was falling off one shoulder, her hair was being held in place by her wand and about five great textbooks were stuffed under her arm.
"Transfiguration can go straight to hell." She proclaimed as she dumped her belongings on the table, causing a third year on her right to jump. "I've been up all night revising. Damn OWLS. Do you remember what we used to do before our only hobby was studying? Because I don't." She stuffed a piece of toast in her mouth.
"Hey, wash Snape wooking wat." She garbled before either Emmeline or Lily could respond to her previous remarks. She too had noticed the Slytherin across the hall making a study of the exact spot on the Gryffindor table where they were sitting.
Emmeline rolled her eyes, "really Mary, could you be any more tactless?"
She grinned and swallowed "sure I could, wanna see?" She made a move to get up, clearly armed with the intention to confront the boy. Lily grabbed her and pulled her back down to sitting position.
"Don't Mary, I've said all I want to him. I don't want to give him the satisfaction of another interaction."
"Alright. But you have to tell me what he said to you last night. You didn't stay long in the common room after you went to talk to him."
Lily shrugged noncommittally, "I went to bed."
"So?" Emmeline prompted. "What happened?"
Lily set her fork down with a clash. "He said he didn't mean it."
"Rubbish!" Mary exclaimed. "That word doesn't just slip out of a civilized person's mouth. He's said it to me enough times." She sniffed.
Lily's head shot up, "I know that he's a hypocrite, Mary. I told him I'm not interested in his apologies. I'm through."
She turned around to find Snape still fixated on the back of her head. There was a greedy look in his eye. His face was paler than usual. He looked sickly. Good Lily thought. I hope he feels awful.
Her bright green eyes narrowed even further. There was something about his manner that bothered her. How dare he look at her like that, like she was something to eat, something to be won, possessed.
Emmeline nudged her in the side and out of her train of thought, "reckon Potter and Snape should start a bet, who can stare at Lily Evans the longest before getting hexed." She gestured to a few places down the table.
Sure enough James Potter, along with his friends, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin were holding court over the scrambled eggs. Lily could see Potters' eyes shifting frequently over to where she sat. At least he had the decency to be a little subtle. Truly, she thought, it was a properly rubbish day.
"Hey."
Lily groaned.
"Hey, Evans."
She took one of Mary's books and began riffling through the pages.
"Evans, I know you can hear me."
She flipped a little over half way through the book and found what she had been looking for. She held it out, pages facing towards the current subject of her annoyance. "Your choice Potter, would you like me to transfigure you into a teacup or a flamingo?"
Sirius was wearing a smirk while Remus was looking up apprehensively.
"I think pink would suit you, personally." She continued, looking over the book at the illustrations.
James's hand shot up to his head. "C'mon Evans." His voice was deep and not all that unpleasant to listen to. He was earnest.
But Lily wasn't listening. She snapped the book shut and rose from the table. "I don't know about the rest of you but I have a test to get ready for." She grimaced at Emmeline and Mary. "I'll see you at the theory exam." And walked off with only an icy glare at both James and Severus in parting.
James shook his head as he watched her flounce past. "I didn't even say anything!"
Sirius clasped him on the shoulder. "Witches mate, they're no use."
The messy- haired boy looked up from his plate and caught a glimpse of Snape, now - in Lily's absence - pouring over a book and turning his water goblet into various crawling insects.
"Slimy git." James muttered. "On what planet am I as bad as him…" The events of the previous day played heavily on his mind.
"You do hex quite a lot of people, Prongs." Remus said, entering the conversation.
"So?" Sirius said, brow furrowed, "we've never used dark magic and there's never any lasting damage. It's all just a laugh."
Remus sighed, "I don't necessarily think that's the point."
"I'll never understand her." James moaned, he had retrieved the little golden snitch from the inside of his pocket and was fiddling with it.
Sirius nodded in the direction of the snitch, "didn't she call that stupid?"
"Right." James said and shoved it back in his pocket. Peter looked thoroughly disappointed.
"Cheer up Wormtail, reckon there's going to be a bit of a party tonight once transfiguration is done." Sirius said, eyes gleaming.
"You think?" Peter grumbled, he didn't know in how much of a party mood he'd be after transfiguration. For the life of him, he couldn't remember the definition of a switching spell.
Sirius leaned back in his seat, "course," he shrugged, "last exam of the year, in a little under 8 hours, we will have officially completed our OWLS and the ministry can no longer destroy our wands if we get expelled. I'd say that's reason enough to celebrate."
"I really hope you're not going to get us to test that one out." Remus said, "come on." he announced. "We have an hour till the test and you," he pointed a finger accusingly at Sirius, "still need to help me revise. You're not a sufficiently competent wizard yet"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "8 hours Moony! Fine but I'm telling you, we better all get Exceeds Expectations at the least." He stood to follow Remus, "three bloody years in the library learning how to become animagus better count for something."
"Would you shut up?" Remus asked, eyes darting to see if anyone heard, "I swear sometimes I think you're trying to get us all expelled"
Sirius clasped an arm around his friend, "lighten up Moony, we're not getting expelled."
"Which is why you've memorized the laws surrounding wand destruction."
"I have a casual interest in the subject."
The remaining two marauders got up and joined their friends in sauntering out of the hall.
James hadn't heard much of Sirius and Remus' conversation. He was still wrapped up in his earlier exchange with Lily. How could she be so upset? He'd seen her yesterday; she'd wanted to smile when he hung Snape up by his ankles. What was stopping her? It's not like he'd really hurt him, for God's sake, he'd saved his life not 6 months ago!
He looked up over the expanse of lawn they'd now reached. He could see her sitting in the same spot by the lake she'd cooled her feet off in yesterday. Only this time her shoes were very much on and her brow was furrowed in concentration. She was turning daisies into roses. It was simple magic, not likely to come up in the exam but James didn't think the strain on her face was the result of tricky transfiguration.
Truly, he didn't understand her. Hadn't they talked just last week in the common room about charms exam? He'd feigned ignorance on the proper way to conduct a cheering charm and they'd spent half an hour in magically induced laughter together.
And what about the snitch? He'd had it all of two days and she'd noticed, she had payed attention to him. He kicked the grass. She'd come round. He looked back over at where she was sitting. She'd have to come around – eventually.