Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling does.

Denial

Lily Evans rolled out of bed feeling sore and unrested. The dormitory was empty. She supposed her roommates were all at breakfast, since it was now Christmas Holidays. She stood up and walked to the mirror hanging on the wall.

Her bright red hair stuck out at odd angles, messy from a restless night of sleeping. Her freckles stood out against her pale face. There was no other way to put it. She looked terrible. In fact, the only aspect of her appearance that was as it should be was the bright, cool gaze of her emerald green eyes.

Lily sighed as memories of the previous night came back to her. How she wished she could erase what had happened… if only the use of time turners was legal for rewriting the past. Maybe she could convince Professor McGonagall that the situation was severe enough. After all, she did make a huge fool out of herself.

As much as she wished she could change it with a time turner, she knew that could never happen. She would just have to deal with it and deny fervently that it had meant anything.

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Last night

Lily sat on the floor of her dormitory in a circle with her three of her fellow Gryffindor roommates, doing something none of them had done in ages. Truth or dare had been a weekly tradition in the girls' dormitory up until their fifth year. Studying for the OWLS had definitely taken up all of their free time.

But now, in their final year at Hogwarts, during their Christmas Holidays, the girls decided it was time to bring back the long standing tradition.

"Truth or dare, Lily?" Catherine, Lily's brown-haired best friend, asked from across the circle.

Lily bit her lip in concentration, and then decided, "Truth."

"Alright," Catherine began to giggle. "Do you fancy James Potter?"

Lily knew she should have expected this question. After all, it was the question they had always asked to start any game of truth or dare. It had always been a big joke, considering Lily had always despised James. But for some reason the question took her by surprise.

She felt blood rushing to her face even as she gave her traditional response. "I never have, and I never will."

Her friends stared at her, flabbergasted. "Oh. My. Gosh!" Nancy exclaimed from next to Lily. "You fancy him! You actually, finally fancy him!"

"No I don't!" Lily cried out, in what she told herself was outrage.

"Yes you do," Ella said, grinning on Lily's other side. "You're blushing!"

"As if I've never done that before when I didn't fancy someone! Anyways, why would I deny it if I fancied him? After all, I could have him if I wanted."

"Look who's being cocky. But still, it's obvious why you're denying it. You've hated him for so long that now you feel like its wrong to fancy him," Catherine said, insightfully.

"You are so off target," Lily said, standing up. Her temper was starting to rise, and she did not want to play this awful game any longer.

"I don't think she is," Nancy said.

"You know, I'm in the mood to play this any longer. You are acting immature, and I should have known better than to play such a silly game. When you three grow up, come get me." Lily stormed out of the room and practically ran across the Gryffindor Common Room.

Catherine, Nancy, and Ella followed her, and Ella shouted after her, "We are not the one's being immature here! Just because you're embarrassed by the truth doesn't mean you can talk to us like that."

"You shouldn't assume that I was lying! I have accepted the truth. I do not fancy James Bloody Potter!"

The room had gone quiet when they first entered it, but now it was silent. Lily's fury soon turned to horror when she realized that James was sitting by the fire, gaping at her with his mouth wide open. She could tell that her face was still bright red, and not just from the yelling.

Before she could say anything else stupid, she turned and ran out of the common room. She ran to the edge of the Hogwarts grounds and collapsed in the snow. She hid there for hours. When she finally returned to Gryffindor Tower she was soaked from head to toe and freezing. But no one was in the common room.

She snuck into her room, changed into her pajamas, and lay down to sleep. However, her dreams would be plagued with unwanted images of a certain messy, black haired boy.

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Yes, Lily though. It would be much better to pretend the whole thing and never happened. She was mad at her friends, but it wasn't worth it to be angry if it would draw more attention to her embarrassing actions.

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James Potter felt incredibly twitchy. Last night Lily had practically spelled out that she fancied him. But now James sat in the Great Hall and worried why she had not come down for breakfast yet.

"Where is she?" he exclaimed vehemently.

Sirius looked up from his eggs and bacon to give James a dark look, but James didn't have time to worry about whatever was wrong with him.

"Moony, you heard her last night!"

"Yes, I heard her say she does not fancy James Sodding Potter," Remus said, in what James thought was a quite unhelpful way.

"It was 'bloody.' And she obviously didn't mean it. Her face was as red as a Quaffle she was so embarrassed!" James insisted.

"If I were you I'd let it alone," Remus suggested. "Pushing the issue with only make it worse for you."

"You are so wrong," James replied. "Isn't he wrong, Petey?"

Peter looked up from his breakfast long enough to say "Mmhm," and nod in agreement.

Remus just rolled his eyes. Everyone knew that Peter would agree to anything James said.

"You'll see," James insisted again. "You're all wrong. I'll show you." James was annoyed that his friends had no faith in him, but he was too anxious for Lily to come down to pursue any more arguments.

Finally, after what seemed like years, James saw a glint of bright red hair at the entrance doors. He watched as Lily headed to the Gryffindor table, and when she was close enough he called out "Hey Lily!"

She paused, looked at James with an unreadable expression on her face, and said coldly, "Hello, Potter."

James was stumped. He looked around and saw a nasty smirk on Sirius' face. "Bugger this," he said, and left the Great Hall to try and figure out what was going on.

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Lily took a seat next to Catherine and piled breakfast onto her plate. Catherine looked up, confused as Lily began to shovel food into her mouth.

"Are you feeling alright, Lily?" she asked timidly.

Lily looked at her. "Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, it's just… last night—"

Lily laughed in what she hoped was a lighthearted way. "Last night was just a misunderstanding. No big deal."

"So you're not angry?"

"Of course not!"

Catherine still looked a bit confused, but she just said "Alright," and continued eating her breakfast. So far Lily's plan on ignoring the game of truth of dare gone awry was working perfectly.

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However, later that day Lily's plan would be tested. James cornered Lily after lunch and said he needed to speak with her in private.

"What do you want, Potter?" she said, in the most annoyed tone she could muster.

"I just wanted to talk. After last night—"

"What about last night?"

"Well," James continued, "You did kind of allude to having feelings for me."

Lily tried to snort in repulsed laughter, but instead it sounded like she just choked on something rather large. "I did no such thing."

"Yes you did," James accused. "You said you didn't fancy me, but you turned bright red. Even an idiot could figure out what that meant."

Lily wished that he didn't have to look so adorably confused as he tried to put together what was going on. No, she quickly caught herself. He did not look cute. He looked stupid. Lame. Anything but cute. "Obviously an idiot could not figure it out," Lily replied. "You just demonstrated that. I said I didn't fancy you because I don't. I'm sorry, but you interpreted wrong."

Lily turned to walk away, but before she was out of earshot, James called to her "We'll see who the idiot is. You're just in denial!"