In the summer between Lily Evan's sixth and seventh year at Hogwarts, the war against Voldemort was becoming more and more deadly. On June 18th, she received word from her friend, Marlene McKinnon, that another one of their classmates, Alexia Snippet, and her entire family had been murdered. Alexia had been sorted into Gryffindor house the same year that she and Marlene had also been sorted. She was also a Muggle-born witch, too.

Lily immediately wrote back to Marlene to tell her that she would in fact being staying with her next week, to go to the funeral. As she called her owl, Elshia, she saw a letter attached to her leg. She took the letter, gave Elshia the new one, and a treat before she sat down.

When she opened it, she immediately noticed the writing of James Potter.

Evans,

As I am sure you have heard, Alexia Snippet and her entire family were murdered yesterday by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. If you had not heard this yet, then my apologies for being so brutal in the delivery that message.

I know that Alexia wasn't that close to you, but I know you will want to pay your respects. Which brings up the main reason I wrote to you. (Besides the fact that I just want to know how you are.) I realize that it will be hard for you to come to the funeral. Especially with the same target on you and your families back that the Snippet's had on theirs. If I can in anyway help, please let me know. I will come pick you up if you need me to, you can stay at my place, I will even help you find a place to keep your family safe. I just wanna help so that you can come pay your respects to a friend.

On another note, how are you? I haven't written to you in a while. I am good, so is Sirius. (Although, I think he misses Marlene more than he is letting on.) He misses you, too. We met up with Remus and Peter last week. Remus took us to a concert for some strange Muggle band.

Let me know what I can do.

Yours,

Potter

Lily smiled. James Potter was many things: arrogant, cocky, a bit of a flirt. But, caring, sensitive, and compassionate? This was not the James Potter she knew. Or was it? Years ago, when Severus Snape called her a mudblood, he immediately defended her. When she caught her boyfriend at the time, Bertram Aubrey, snogging Mary MacDonald, he cast a jinx that made his head grow twice its size, after of course he made sure she was okay and brought her four boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean. Perhaps this was the James Potter she knew. She had grown so used to his romantic advances on her that she failed to see how kind he actually was.

Lily stopped. Was she literally thinking about James Potter, in a romantic way.

"Hell no." She uttered audibly. Shaking her head to bring her back to reality, she sat down to reply to James, letting him know she was grateful but didn't need his help.

The funeral for the Snippet's was the largest that Lily had ever been to. (Which was a lot considering what was happening in the world.) Lily had worn a simple but beautiful black dress and had worn her hair down in the back. She arrived with Marlene, who was dragged away by a Ravenclaw boy that Lily didn't know. She continued to make her way towards the front, towards the coffins. She passed the mother, father, and brother of Alexia Snippet before she reached Alexia's body. There was no visible harm done to her. Evidently, Avada Kedavra had been used on her and her entire family. Immediately, Lily thought of her own family, her mother and father, even Petunia. The subtle tears that had already started to form in her eyes began pooling out heavily. Lily looked around for a place to sit, but found no seat empty. Placing her face in her hands she continued to cry, trying to get all of her tears out before she ran into someone she knew. Lily Evans was no crier.

A gentle hand touched Lily on her back. She turned around to see James Potter, looking handsome in his dress robes, with a sad smile on his face.

"I -I'm sorry. I didn't even really know her. I just kept thinking, what if this was my family? What if this was me? I- I-" Lily was shushed by James.

"Evans, you have nothing to be sorry about. Of course you're feeling that way." James wrapped her in a hug, which she normally would of pulled away from but the tears had only become heavier, so she buried her face into James's neck and continued to sob. Lily noticed how good James smelled. His arms were wrapped around Lily so tightly, yet comfortably that she could of fallen asleep in them. Lily finally pulled away and looked into the eyes of James. He smiled at her.

"Your hair is all messed up, Potter. Come on, you won't get any attention like that." Lily reached up and ruffled his hair, making the unkempt hair even messier and somehow hotter. James laughed and pulled her hands away. He led her to a seat, far away from Remus, Sirius, and Peter. Lily was grateful, it was bad enough that James had to see her like this, but the rest of his crew, what would they have thought? He left to go sit at the seat they had saved for him after making sure she was okay.

At the end of the ceremony Lily stood up to leave and walked towards Marlene. She was talking to Sirius, and James was there, too. The bored look on James face vanished when he saw Lily come over.

"Hey, Evans."

"Hey," she said with a slight blush and a smile. Marlene looked at the two suspiciously.

"Well, we better be going. We'll see you lot at Hogwarts, then." Marlene made to leave, and Lily started following her. "Oh shoot, I think I left my purse at my chair. Wait here! I'll be back." Lily stood awkwardly, hoping not to draw the attention of James.

"Beautiful service, don't you think?" James asked her.

"Oh, yes. Where did Sirius go?"

"He said he was gonna go help Marlene find her purse, but I saw him follow her into the bushes over there, so I don't think she actually lost it." Lily laughed along with James. "But, I can't blame them. A bit of snogging at a time like this makes sense. You don't know if you'll ever get to do it again. Or if you'll ever get to see that person again." James looked thoughtfully at Lily.

Lily didn't even realize what she was doing until she had grabbed James by his collar and pulled him closer to her. As soon as their lips touched, James lost all sense of shock and grabbed Lily by the waist and pulled her closer to him. Lily didn't know how long she kissed him, maybe a minute, maybe twenty, maybe an hour. All she knew was James and his skin and the way he was touching her. She only pulled apart from him by the cheers of literally everyone around them. She took her arms away from his neck and fixed her dress to find what felt like the entirety of Hogwarts cheering at them. Lily blushed, and so did James a little, but he mostly looked proud and completely happy.

"Way to go, Prongs!" She heard Sirius shout at him. Lily looked around awestruck. Why were all of these people cheering. Even some of her professors were cheering. No one more loudly than Dumbeldore himself. The crowd cleared almost as quickly as it had formed, and Lily was whisked away by Marlene. She wasn't sure what she was saying, she only heard a lot of squealing.

"I should leave you two alone more often!" Lily punched her. She wanted nothing more than to run away from this place. On their way out, Lily heard a voice calling her. She saw James half-running to meet up with her, his hand subconsciously fixing his hair.

"I'm so sorry about all of that. It was Sirius, he started shouting first, and everyone just kind of joined along."

"Oh. Don't be sorry. I was the one who kissed you remember?" She said with a wink. James frown immediately turned into a grin.

"So, Evans? How long have you known?" He asked a put a muscular arm around her, walking her to the car.

"Known what?"

"That you are completely in love with me? I mean, I hoped you would figure it out on your own eventually. And I though you were supposed to be smart," He said, his smile growing larger. Lily threw his arm off of her, trying to hide her smile.

"I don't know what your talking about," she said, as she grabbed for the door handle. But before she could open the car door, James had spun her around and placed his hands on her back pulling her close to him, her body now against the car. She breathed him in, kissing him, running her hands through his hair. When they finally pulled away, James was the one to talk.

"I hope I don't have to wait till the start of term to see you again," he said, his hands still on her waist. Lily smiled.

"We'll see, 'Prongs'," she said with a flirtatious grin, "There's still a lot I'd like to know about you." She leaned in close, going in for another kiss, but stopped herself inches from his face and whipped around into the car. James nearly fell into the car.

"Not funny, Evans." He said, laughing. Lily laughed, too. It seemed silly to be laughing at this time. One of her classmates had just died. However, now seemed the only time that she should be laughing and kissing. She didn't know where she would end up tomorrow or the next day. Lily rolled down the window and looked back up into James's eyes. He knelt a little bit.

"Write to me?" She asked softly, piercing him with her green eyes.

"Nothing would stop me," he replied, kissing her once more, slower and softer than the previous two. "Goodbye, Evans."