Lily Evans was sitting at a table covered with scattered papers of complex diagrams, scribbled notes, and a half dozen books.

James Potter was sitting across the common room, staring as Lily frantically searched for the right paper. James had been watching her out of the corner of his eye for the last several hours as he sat talking with his best mates: Sirius, Remus, and Peter, or Padfoot, Moony, and Wormtail. In this span of time, James was able to conclude that Lily looked worn out and tired. The weeks of always going and never stopping were finally beginning to catch up to her. Between Head Girl duties, studying for N.E.W.T.s, and the coursework for all of the classes she was taking, there wasn't much time for her to enjoy herself. As far as he saw, she never once took a brief moment to relax. Not so much as a single second to stretch her legs or crack her back. He knew she hadn't gone down to dinner and was about to see if she would go down to the kitchens with him when he remembered he didn't have any control over the matter. It was highly unlikely that she would accept to go anywhere with him. She detested him.

As the weeks progressed, James watched as Lily spent her evenings in the same way. She didn't eat dinner, she hardly talked to her friends, she did nothing but study. Her emerald eyes had lost their wonderful, magnificent sparkle, and had gained dark purple bags beneath. He decided he didn't care if he didn't have the right to make her take a break. He was going to force her to.

James got up and walked over to the working red head. Several people watched him as he did so, expecting to see another infamous James Potter/Lily Evans row. Lily didn't look up as his shadow fell across the book she was reading. He cleared his throat. She still didn't look up. Lily didn't seem to have heard him, because she was so immersed in her book.

"Lily," James said.

"Hmm?" she replied, still without looking up. She obviously hadn't registered whom it was, or she wouldn't have responded quite so calmly... or at all.

"Uh, Lily? Do you think that maybe you need to take a break?" he awkwardly suggested.

Lily ignored the question. Whether it was because she didn't hear, or because she just didn't want to answer was unknown. Figuring it was the only way to attract her attention, James yelled at the top of his voice, "Lily! You need a break!"

She jumped out of her chair from fright and glared at James.

"Potter, I'm trying to concentrate," she said, blowing her hair out of her face. "I know this might be difficult to comprehend with such a miniscule brain, but please try," Lily enunciated slowly, as if talking to a three-year-old.

"Darling, I know what it means to concentrate. That's not what you're doing. You're wearing yourself ragged. Take a break, it's one night. It's not going to kill you!"

"It very well may, James Potter. I take one night off now and pretty soon I'm taking one night off every week. That's hundreds of hours lost by the time N.E. are here! Then, I go into my N.E. unprepared and fail them all. Nobody will want to hire me, so I'll have to live on the streets, begging for knuts just to get by. After a time, this takes its toll, and I die a slow, excruciating death by starvation because I wasn't able to scrounge up enough sickles to buy myself a sandwich. And when that happens, you can just blame yourself! I hope you can bear having my death on your conscience," she ended dramatically.

James bursted out laughing, causing several girls in the crowd watching them to sigh with longing. When he had regained his control he said, "You cannot actually think that. You already know it all anyway. If you were to die, it'd be more likely to be from studying all night and day," James said. "Or," he added darkly, "at the hands of Voldemort."

At the mention of Voldemort, Lily visibly paled, along with many of the people listening in on the conversation. Voldemort was steadily gaining power, killing people left and right.

James immediately realized his mistake in mentioning Voldemort and said, "Hell. Lily, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you frightened."

Lily started picking up her things. "Don't worry about it," she said as she walked calmly up to her dormitory room.

"Piss. Piss. Piss. Padfoot! Piss, what should I do? I really messed that up. Piss!" James exclaimed.

"Start with stop saying piss. I believe it's the swear word of choice for first years. At least try mixing it up a bit. It's embarrassing to be seen with somebody who can't say "fuck" without blushing," Sirius proclaimed.

"I could say fuck if I wanted to," James replied, a telltale pink tinge creeping up his face. "It's just that my mother says it's uncouth and not acceptable in proper company."

"Since when have I been proper company? I reckon you're just too much of a ninny to say it," Padfoot said.

"Ninny? Honestly? I can't believe you just called me a ninny. Of all the insults out there, you choose ninny? I believe that's the insult of choice for a four-year-old. Seriously though, mate. Should I go apologize to Lily? I need your advice here!"

"I dunno, Prongs. I suppose. What could it hurt?" he supplied, turning to watch an intense game of wizard chess between Remus and Peter.

"Yeah! Exactly! What could it hurt?" James said, encouraging himself.

They soon found out precisely what it could hurt when James came back from yelling up the girls' staircase. It took a moment for Sirius to realize what was causing everybody to fall silent as James passed. Until he noticed that James' eyebrows seemed to be growing exponentially fast.

"Padfoot! Make it stop! Fix them!" James bellowed.

Sirius jumped up to help his friend, toppling Remus' and Peter's chessboard as he did so. By the time Sirius reached James, he was stumbling around, unable to see due to his massive eyebrows.

"Sirius?! This is NOT funny! Help me!"

"Hold on! Do you know the counterspell?" Sirius asked.

"Do I LOOK like I know the counterspell? Do you think I would not have performed the bloody counterspell if I knew what it was?!" he yelled.

"Moony!" Sirius said, looking to Remus. "Do you know the counterspell?"

Unfortunately, Remus was too busy rolling around on the floor, hysterically laughing, to help.

"Piss! Prongs, I think I'm going to have to lead you to the Hospital Wing," Padfoot said.

"Piss? did you truly just say piss after berating me for using the word?" James questioned, his head bent from the weight of his eyebrows.

"James! We don't have time for this!" Sirius said pressingly. "Your eyebrows will be past your knees if we don't hurry up. I doubt Lily will find you very attractive then!"

"What are you waiting for?! Lead me!" James demanded.

"I'm trying to! Oh, COME ONE!" Sirius said, yanking on James' arm, causing him to stumble over the rug.

"You're supposed to be my mate, Padfoot! This isn't funny!" James said. The people in the Gryffindor common room obviously disagreed. The majority not only found it funny, but immensely hilarious.

"We would be there if you weren't such a dunderhead!" he informed James while pulling him up.

Once they were out of the common room, the journey to the Hospital Wing went rather smooth. Well, aside from Sirius hexing a passing fifth year for laughing at James.

As soon as as they arrived, Sirius explained the situation to Madame Promfrey, because James' eyebrows were well past his collarbone, inhibiting his ability to speak. Thankfully, Madame Promfrey was able to restore James' eyebrows right away. As James was leaving, she told him, "Don't worry, Mr. Potter. Miss Evans will come around eventually."

A.N- Thanks for reading! I'll (hopefully) be updating soon! This story could be better, but hey! I'm working with what I've got! I love compliments and critiques equally, so please tell me what I'm doing right/wrong. ;D

On a different note, I had to edit it to fix my page breaks. Hopefully the format is better now!