They were all sitting in the common room, revising for their NEWTS - Lily, Dorcas, Marlene, Alice, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter. The four girls had the arm chairs, Sirius and Peter were sharing the sofa, Remus was sitting on the coffee table and James was on the floor. So far the evening had passed without much interruption, just a few quiet whispers between the girls. Everyone was conscious of how important these exams were, and what the consequences of failing them were. Even Sirius was bothering to study.

"I've left my potions notes upstairs," groaned Lily, "I'll be back in a sec."

"You're welcome to borrow mine," said James, as Lily began to walk over to the stairs. Without even bothering to look over her shoulder, she replied harshly,

"I'd be better off studying my herbology notes, given the state that yours will be in." She stomped up the stairs until she reached the uppermost dormitory. She opened the door, and walked over to her bed. She searched through her bedside table, but had no luck in finding her notes. She nearly face palmed when she remembered that she had taken her notes to the library to study in peace earlier in the day. She glanced at her watch, but without even seeing the time properly, she knew that the library would already be shut.

"Shit!" she exclaimed. She stamped over to the door and kicked it open.

She stormed back down the stairs, cursing to herself under her breath. She was making such a noise, that by the time she had arrived at the bottom of the stairs, Dorcas was already there, peeking around the doorway to find out what was going on.

"What's wrong, Lils?" she asked cautiously. The red-head was scary in one of her better moods, let alone a mad rage.

"I've only gone and left my bloody potions notes in the library!" Lily shouted. "And it's too late to get them know." Her eyes were beginning to water, "And my exam is tomorrow, Cassie, tomorrow!" Lily collapsed onto the stairs, her body shaking with suppressed tears. "What do I do, Cassie?"

"Shh, Lils. You're going to be fine. We'll find you someone else's notes to borrow. Don't worry," Dorcas reassured her.

"But... no one else is... doing... potions." Lily just managed to get out between sobs.

"James is. You can borrow his." At Lily's evil glare (which scared Dorcas even with Lily's tear streaked face), she rolled her eyes. "Lily," she began sternly, "he is the only one of us who is doing potions. There's no one else in Gryffindor who can lend you notes. It's his or none."

Lily groaned and put her head in her hands, but she knew that Dorcas was right. She stood up, wiped the tears from her face and put on a brave expression. Suddenly, her eyes open wide and she gasped.

"Cassie, they'll all have heard me crying!" Dorcas almost laughed at her stricken expression, but managed to hold it in and replied gently,

"I cast a silencing charm over the stairs when I came over." Lily grinned brightly and hugged her tightly.

"I knew that I was friends with you for some reason!"

The girls linked arms and walked back over to their friends, or in Lily's case, friends and her so called 'enemy'. As they approached the semicircle of chairs and sofa, Lily noticed a black-haired man sitting on the furthest chair. A closer look showed that it was, in fact, James.

"POTTER!" she yelled, running over, "THAT IS MY CHAIR!" She was just reaching him, when he began to laugh. She crossed her arms grumpily. "This is no laughing matter, Potter. You are sitting on my chair."

"Your chair? Your chair? You left, so now it's mine." He replied, happily.

"Potter," she said in a measured voice, "get out of my chair. This is your last warning."

"Hmm..." He pretended to think carefully, stroking an imaginary beard that rivalled even Dumbledore's. "No, I don't think so." He crossed his legs and folded his arms. "Sorry."

Lily gritted her teeth. "Well, Potter," she spat, "I'm afraid that I'm sitting here whether you like it or not, so if you're not out of that chair in three seconds, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to sit on you."

"That won't be too bad, I guess." He replied with his trademark smirk.

"I warn you, Potter, I'm very heavy."

"No you're not, you're perfect." He muttered under his breath.

"What?"

"I said," He said loudly, "That you're not quite as heavy as Toby Midgen. Yet."

Lily glared at him, before saying quietly, "One...Two...Three..." He didn't move. "Fine then." She sat down on him, not comfortably, but right on the end of his legs, almost on his knees.

Lily was very uncomfortable with her current position, but there was no way that she was backing down to Potter. She glanced quickly towards Dorcas and Alice, who were trying, and failing, to repress giggles. A quick glare sorted that out. Then her gaze moved to Sirius and Peter. They didn't seem to be doing anything suspicious to her, so she left them alone. They were, in fact, discussing this new turn of events in very quiet voices. A year ago, Lily wouldn't have put up with being ten feet away from James, but their both being heads had made both of them grow up a bit, and put up with each other.

Lily's gaze drifted from Marlene, who was quietly continuing with her studying, oblivious or uncaring to her current predicament, to Remus. He shot her a grin, before saying cheekily,

"Have you given up on studying, then Lils?" Lily could feel her cheeks turning red, but still managed to get out,

"I was trying to work out how to get my potions notes from the library without getting killed."

"I thought that I offered you mine, Lily?" James said carefully. She snorted sarcastically, before replying,

"Potter, if I wanted your notes I would have asked for them." Behind her, James was turning a pretty shade of pink, but Lily couldn't see that. "Has anyone got any bright ideas?" she asked the group.

"Lily," Marlene said cautiously, lifting her head from her notes, "is there any particular reason that you don't want James' notes?" Lily glared at her, "It's just that I really need to study, and I can tell that you two are just going to argue the whole night."

Lily silently turned to James, her face still burning red. He reached over her to pick up her stack of notes from beside his messy pile on the floor. As he did this, she could feel the muscles under his shirt tensing. He passed them to her without a word, and neither of them spoke as their finger touched, although both could feel the spark when they touched.

Lily quickly looked over to Remus and Peter, who had kicked Sirius off of the sofa, and were now discussing their history of magic. Lily glared at them until they had both shut up. With a sigh, Remus said to Peter,

"Come on Wormtail, let's go upstairs. No one will get disturbed then." After about ten minutes, Sirius decided that he was bored and went upstairs to annoy them, as opposed to getting killed by Lily. After a while, Alice and Dorcas went up to bed too, with a quiet and tired,

"Night Lily, James."

Although Lily maintained that she hated James, she was beginning to wonder whether her being uncomfortable was actually for another reason. She was suddenly super aware of how close she was to James. With every breath he took, she noticed how he moved slightly underneath her, and that worried her for some reason. She had to resist turning around to look at the expression on his face.

"Hey, Lils," Marlene said with a yawn, "I'm heading up to bed. You coming?"

Lily shook her head, "No, I don't think so. I'm nowhere near finishing these notes. Don't wait up, I'll come up when I've finished. Good night."

"Night." With Marlene gone, Lily and James were left alone in the common room.

As the evening went on, and Lily became more and more stressed about her forthcoming exams, she eventually asked James if she could borrow his notes. They were surprisingly well written, and Lily managed to study vaguely well. But she was only halfway through them when she really began to feel tired. She could feel herself literally nodding off; her head dropping as she fell asleep, before waking up again.

Lily could feel herself swaying from side to side, but she knew that she had to keep studying. How else was she supposed to pass her NEWTS. And without good results, she would not be able to do anything with her life. She would not be able to become an auror and fight Voldemort. She had to pass. And so she kept on studying.

Slowly, James wrapped his arms around Lily's waist, holding her carefully to stop her from falling. She unconsciously leaned back into him, breathing in his scent. After a while, she reached down and put her notes onto the floor, before leaning back into James. Sensing that she was nearly asleep, and wouldn't object, he pulled her closer to him and rested his chin on the top of her head. For the first time in months she slept without a worry. In James' arms she felt safe, loved and as if nothing could ever happen to her. It was with that courage that she finally drifted off to sleep, ready to wake up in the morning with the power to do exactly what she wanted. She felt as if she could change the world, but that was tomorrow. For now, she was perfectly content lying there in James' arms.

As she fell asleep, James whispered a quiet,

"Sleep well, Lily," before pressing a gentle kiss on the top of her head. He held her close and let himself fall into the land of dreams, but not before muttering an almost silent,

"I love you."

A/N I do have an idea for what happens the next morning, but I 'm not sure if I'm going to write it, so this will be marked as complete anyway. Please review