DISCLAIMER: Not JKR, don't own any of the characters, settings, or stuff like that. It all belongs to her.

A/N: Okay, this is the new fic I'd promised. I don't think it's gonna be very long, though I'm not sure yet. It can be read as a parallel to 'First', since I'm using the same OC's (Helen, Darcy, Alice), and I'll throw in here and there some references to it. However, it's a different story, which takes place in seventh year before Lily and James get together. You don't have to have read 'First' to understand this one. That said, enjoy!

Lily knew perfectly well that students were not supposed to run in the corridors. Especially seventh year student. Especially the Head Girl. But she also knew that if she didn't reach Green House Five in less than four minutes and forty-eight seconds, life as she knew it would be over.

Let me explain. Every year since third year, Professor Sprout had given her classes specific projects with particular plants. Every year she would let students pair up and assign them their work. And every year since third year, Lily always had to race to the Green House to make sure she arrived earlier than someone else.

James Potter wasn't your average seventeen-year-old. He was bright (but he wasted his brains for hexes and pranks), arrogant, spoiled, and stuck-up. A real nightmare. And he was in love with Lily.

Every year, whenever one of said projects came 'round the corner, the two of them would run to the Green House: if Lily succeeded in preceding her enemy (because that's how she considered James: a horrible and possibly lethal enemy), then she would get to pick her partner first and pair up with one of her friends (usually Helen Thomas or Alice Henderson); otherwise (though this case had fortunately never happened), it would be Potter to take the first pick, and Lily knew she'd be spending over a month of her life in the sole company of the one person she despised the most.

As Lily hurriedly ran through the great oak doors, she checked her watch. Three minutes and two seconds to go. Goody. She could still make it. Potter was probably still pigging out on some cakes for breakfast. Lily smiled to herself at the prospect of a Potter-free month.

Not that even if they weren't paired together she could actually hope to see less of him. Because of reasons way beyond Lily, she (a responsible and intelligent young woman) and that idiotic toerag were co-Heads of Hogwarts. Which meant that, because of stupid Head Duties, she had to see a lot more of Potter than she thought she could bear. And even when they weren't involved in any particular activity, Potter always made it his job to come badger her at every hour, asking her out or … or some other stupid thing. Potter did have a lot of creativity for those.

She could finally see Green House Five in the distance. Victory! With two minutes to spare! She stared ahead in the distance, but, to her luck, Potter was nowhere in sight. She couldn't believe she had avoided for the fifth year running such a torture…

And yet… it felt wrong. Things were going way too smoothly. Could it be humanly possible that Potter had actually forgotten that partners were going to be picked today? Or maybe… maybe he didn't care about pairing up with her any longer… Maybe he had realized he didn't really like her, and he had moved on to a new prey (poor girl, Lily felt sorry for her)… But she'd better not get her hopes up.

And, anyway, what use was it thinking about it now? She had almost reached the Green House, with one minute and a half to go… Nothing was going to go wrong… Yes, this was promising to be a wonderful day!

Or not?

Diffindo! yelled a voice from behind, as Lily's bag tore and her belongings fell scattered on the grass. She instinctively bent down to collect them, and only as she heard a loud noise did she look up.

James Potter was flying top speed on his new broomstick toward the Green House, his wand still in his hand. As he zoomed past her, Lily didn't even have the time to say anything, though she distinctly heard him mutter, "See ya inside, partner."

"You — you — evil, foul, blasted — argh!" yelled the redhead, though she highly doubted he could hear her. She broke into a run, perfectly aware that she would never catch up with him; she was quite fast, but she was no match for a Nimbus.

As she finally reached the Green House, she noticed it was completely empty except for Professor Sprout and — obviously — Potter.

"Er, Professor," began Lily hesitantly, hoping against hope that stupid Potter hadn't yet told her anything about pairs for the project. "Er, about partners for the–"

"No need to say anything, Miss Evans," interrupted Professor Sprout raising her hand. "Mr. Potter here's told me everything."

"He — he has, has he?" she asked, her heart sinking.

"Oh yeah," the boy jumped in, "I already explained to our understanding Professor that due to our current Head Duties, we have already agreed that working together on this project will be quite agreeable… and not to mention entertaining," he added, winking.

"About that, actually," said Lily, "I thought about it, and I don't think it would be absolutely necessary to pair up together, you know," she added, glaring at Potter.

"Did you?" asked James serenely. "I think it would be best to do this thing together, but if you don't think you'll manage then I understand…"

Lily's glare intensified. She wasn't afraid of Potter. And she wasn't a coward. And the last thing she wanted to do was leave him the satisfaction of her running away from a challenge. "Well," she finished, smiling, "if you think it so crucial, then yes, partner, we can do this." It couldn't honestly be worse than have him as fellow Head Boy, would it?

"Good," said Sprout. The rest of the class had filed in, in the meantime. "Now, settle down everyone. As you should remember, we shall be starting today with Project R." She turned her back on the students before turning to face them once more, holding what looked like beans. "These," she explained, holding them up for everyone to see, "are going to grow up to become beautiful Magnolicae Veneficae" (only Lily seemed to know exactly what that was; Potter could bet it was some cuss word in an unknown language) "and they will do it thanks to you. We have been studying these types of shrubs" (aha! So they were shrubs!) "for the past three months; it is now time to take the matter in your own hands." She paused dramatically at this. "You will now divide into pairs; each pair will be given a seed and a pot. You are to take care of the Magnolicae Veneficae by doing all the things we have studied. You will have a month's time to make sure your seed grows into a plant, becomes a flower, has fruits and is ready to produce more seeds. You will also write a research paper on how you are taking care of it, listing all the problems that will undoubtedly occur, and how you solved them. Remember that this project will count as half of your final grade in this subject: I would therefore warn you to pay particular attention to it and make sure you don't set fire to it or things like that." At this final statement, she stared significantly at James and Sirius, who were playing a quick match of Exploding Snap (clearly paying rapt attention to Professor Sprout and her precious plants). At this glare, James was strongly reminded of Professor McGonagall. "And now please pair up and come over here for your seed."

At this, there was a general scraping of chairs as everyone started looking for a partner, possibly nice and smart enough to get them a high mark. Helen Thomas, Lily's best friend since first year, came up to her. "Wanna pair up with me?" she asked.

Lily sighed heavily. "I wish. But thanks to that dratted cousin of yours I will be spending the next month of my life side along side with him." She shuddered at the thought.

"What?" asked Helen, surprised. "James beat you out here? But you woke up at the crack of dawn, Lils! How could he have gotten here before you?"

"He cheated, the foul —"

"Hey, partner," said the one voice Lily was not particularly keen to hear.

"Potter," she spat venomously. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to show you our baby, my dear," said James, winking at his cousin in the meantime. James and Helen looked very much alike: they were both tall and thin, with raven-black hair and handsome features (handsome features? Helen had handsome features, while Potter was just plain horrible!).

"Our baby? Ew, Potter, don't bring these negative images to my mind, please!" answered Lily, shuddering still.

"Well, don't want to interrupt the happy couple!" said Helen brightly. "I'll go see if there's still someone available to pair up with me."

Lily turned her attention to the brunette (a better sight than Potter, anyway). "Why don't you ask Alice?" Alice Henderson was another very good friend of the two girls.

"Are you kidding me? Ever since she and Frank started going out when do you ever see them on their own? They'll be working together, of course," answered Helen offhandedly.

"You might ask Sirius. He was rather shocked when I told him I was working with Evans, so unless one of his fan club members has already scared him into pairing with her, he ought to be still partner-less," said James.

Helen grinned as she made her way toward the good-looking boy. She had had a secret crush on Sirius since always, but she was forced to keep it… well, secret, because with how Lily felt about James, Helen highly doubted she liked Sirius any better.

"So," said Potter once he and Lily were left on their own. "How do we name him?"

Lily stared at him. "How do we name what, exactly?"

"Him," said James, looking fondly at the seed he was holding.

"It, you mean," said Lily. "And no, I don't think naming it would be a good idea." The less she got involved in this stupid project, the better. And she definitely didn't want to think as that Magnolicae as hers and Potter's. She knew she was going to have to make a couple of things clear to that prat. "Now listen up, Potter. I know you're used to not working at all, especially during team projects, but don't expect me to do all the work for you."

"I don't want you to," said Potter hastily. "I want to help you raise our —"

"Project," interrupted Lily. "Now, what we'll do is this: I'll look after the plant, while you can do the paper…" She trailed off. Nope, that couldn't work: the research paper was just about as important as the shrub itself. And plus, since when did Potter even know how to read? No, she'd have to do the paper herself. But she couldn't leave that poor tiny creature in the hands of that idiot.

James could see Lily's brain working under her fiery red hair. "O-kay."

"No," interrupted the redhead, "no, it's not okay. You can't write the paper."

"And why not?" asked Potter, affronted.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Do you even know the alphabet?"

Potter scoffed. "My name's James, not Sirius. I only get a little confused sometimes on which letter comes first between Y, X, and W." He shook his head, blushing slightly. "But that's beside the point, I know how to write, and I could borrow Sirius's Quick-Quotes Quill, anyway."

Lily still looked unconvinced.

"Fine! If you don't trust me to write your stupid paper, then you write it, and I'll look after our baby!" said Potter angrily.

"And you'd think I'd leave this poor tiny shrub in your hands for more than five seconds? Are you joking?" asked Lily.

"Then how's this? We work together, we both look after the plant and we both write the paper!" finished the boy.

"I know!" said the redhead. "Why don't you go play with your stupid broomstick while I take care of the project?"

It was James's turn to raise an eyebrow. "I thought you wanted me to do half the work?" He paused. "And plus, I was actually looking forward to help you raise Harry."

Lily stared. "Harry?"

"Our plant. That's how I called him," finished James proudly.

Lily was left rather speechless by this announcement. It was going to be a long month.

A/N: Okay, first chapter done. What do you say? Do you like the idea of this new fic? I'm more than anxious to know what you think of it so… reviews?