An edit every few years seems to be tradition with this story :) maybe one day it'll be just right.

Hope you enjoy,

E.

She had never been so embarrassed in her life before, and that was saying a lot when you combine all the moments she had goo dumped on her head in first year, the times when fireworks had been placed in her bag in second, and when her hair turned a disgusting shade of green in third year. In fourth year there had been the stink bombs thrown down her blouse, and fifth had consisted of constant rows with James Potter in the Great Hall, the middle of the fifth floor corridor, and the common room after every one of his half witted attempts to ask her out. Then, as though his attempts at romance weren't embarrassing enough, in sixth year there was the humiliating experience of being ignored. Completely, maddeningly ignored, as though they had never talked, fought, or hated each other.

But nothing that James Potter did, or could do ever again, would top this moment. It felt like her world had just crashed down around her and the prospect of crawling into a dark hole somewhere and living out the rest of her days in solitude didn't seem like such an unreasonable idea.

To make matters worse Lily had been graced with being a carrot top; a fair skinned completion with a sprinkling of freckles. Due to these wonderful traits she had also been blessed with the ability to look like a tomato in an instant without much prompting. So not only was she mortified but everyone in the vicinity knew it.

But this was far beyond the point of the tomato level of redness. Lily was quite sure, at this moment, she looked even more flushed than when she was twelve and had fallen asleep on the beach with no sunscreen on holiday — her cheeks had the same feeling of inferno as they had then as well.

And the worst part about it was that she thought that the embarrassing moments had been over. Now that she had accepted, although with a knot in her stomach, that James Potter wanted nothing to do with her, she was going to go about this year without the paranoid feeling that something was about to happen. Then, as soon as the year began her senses went haywire.

He was no longer ignoring her. He was talking to her, not yelling, or laughing at, but talking. She didn't know what to think, so she just smiled and nodded her head, waiting for something bad to happen. Though when nothing did happen she became even more nervous, but never letting on about it. So she just watched where she was going and checked behind every pillar (casually or course) as she passed.

Two months into the year and she was slowly letting her guard down. She was finally realizing that maybe he was just trying to let their past be water under the bridge, that maybe he was maturing and wanted to let it go. Lily was in no position to argue because while she had been tormented by the boy for years the thought of her life completely void of his presence was unsettling.

So she started to talk back and found that she enjoyed their conversations. She laughed when he told her about some of the adventures that he and his friends had been on and she shook her head disapprovingly at all the right moments. They would tease each other, but not like before, no, it was as if they had started to become friends.

She started to cheer for him during quidditch matches and hug him when they were over. She celebrated with him in the common room after the games or console him. When he snuck butterbeers into the common room, she no longer got mad at him for breaking the rules, but she, not-so-grudgingly, took one and sat down with him and their friends.

When the weather stared to get colder and autumn was in full swing they spent some time together in the library. They finished essays in companionable silence and when she had a transfiguration question he would make a small crack at her not being as smart as everyone says, then she would take a small crack at his arm.

She had become used to him. It seemed not a day went by that they weren't together. She enjoyed his company more than she thought she ever could. And even when they fought, which they still did, a lot, because he was still an extremely arrogant ass sometimes, they eventually would make up by a simple exchanging of words a day or two after.

So she smiled and thanked him when he started to carry her books for her to class, and she blushed slightly when he would bring her a chocolate frog back from one of his unofficial outings to Hogsmeade. Then when he asked her on one of these unofficial visits for the first time she had been positively giddy. He had laughed at her and asked where the rule abiding Lily gone to? She smiled back and said that she was surrounded by bad influences anymore. He only wiggled his eyebrows and counter with, "So I'm influencing you now Ms Evans?".

A blush had swiftly made its way to her cheeks.

Then at dinner his hand would brush hers and she wouldn't move it away. Their feet would touch accidentally under the table in the library. For weeks they would play a sort of game, he would pass so close to her that she could feel his breath on her neck for only a second and then he would be gone. She would reach across the desk to grab a book and graze her body lightly against his.

His heated gaze would stop her in her tracks on the way to class, and then the feeling of his eyes on her during lectures would make her stomach twist into knots. It was the most nerve wracking thing that ever happened to her, also, the most thrilling.

So after all of this time, all these months, weeks and days together, she thought that he would never embarrass her again like he was right now.

He had cornered her in the empty adjacent hallway to the Griffindor common room. He had slowly walked toward her and she had taken a few steps back when he didn't slow. Her back hit the wall and her breath hitched. She had seen his eyes light with fire during a match, she had seen them flash with anger before, or brighten up a room when he smiled, but she had never seen his eyes like that before – filled with molten, tangible emotion. It made the girl in her want to run away but it had the opposite effect on the woman.

He placed both of his hands on either side of her head, trapping her there. Her heart began to beat so loudly it was thunder in her ears. She was sure that he could hear it — how could he not?

He grinned at her with that delicious smile that had recently been doing mind boggling things to her self-control. She all but melted.

His head descended down to hers and their lips finally touched. His slightly chapped lips moved over hers, it was sweet and innocent, just what a first kiss should be. When he lifted his head and smiled at her, she could only beam back. His head fell down to hers and the second kiss wasn't so innocent but it was still perfect, heady and passionate and everything that she felt for him, nothing could have ruined the moment.

"What are you two doing?!"

Her head flew back and smacked against the wall. Her gaze whipped over to the left where a very shocked Professor McGonagall stood.

That's when it happened… her face started to redden and her chest tightened painfully. She had just been caught snogging James Potter in the middle of a hallway. The two Head students pressed together in plain view for any little first year to walk by and see, for any professor to walk right by. She wanted to die.

And the bastard didn't make things any better. All he did was look down at her and smile. He chuckled slightly and simply stated.

"Sorry Professor, I've been waiting six years for this, you can yell at us later," He grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hall and into the common room, brushed past everyone in there and dragged her up the stairs to the boy's dormitory where they could continue right where they had been interrupted.

He left a shocked McGonagall in the hall, a common room stunned, and Lily absolutely mortified.

But even if it was the most embarrassing moment in her entire life, she couldn't let herself get too mad at him because she was Lily Evans and she was in love with an arrogant ass named James Potter.