There's a little psychology joke in here. Points if you find it!


Morning. I didn't want to open my eyes and leave the comfortable spot I was in. It was still dark out, but I knew it was morning, and everyone would be waking up soon.

All was quiet. Not a thing was heard.

"See!" The one word jolted me awake, causing me to lose my balance and fall onto the floor. "I knew they weren't lying!" I blinked to focus my eyes to see Potter's friends, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, staring at me. Well, sort of staring at me. They were also looking up. I followed their gaze up to where my feet still lay and saw a tousled-haired groggy Potter staring back at them with an annoyed expression on his face.

Sirius quickly jumped on the couch and sat on my feet. ...Wait. Couch? Potter? Immediately, I racked my brain for what happened last night. Arguing, dancing in circles, dancing literally, and Potter kissing me - ...what was that last one? ...Wait. WHAT!? I glanced up in shock to see a smiling Sirius and an emotionless Potter.

"You're lucky it's early. Someone could have caught you together. Well, John Watson did and his friend...you know...the little one...the shrimp..."

"Albert?" Remus offered.

"Yeah. Albert. Well, they found you guys and immediately went to tell us to save you from any more embarrassment."

I about died from embarrassment right there. I groaned, hitting my head on the couch and glared up at Remus who was just standing there, looking out of place.

And Sirius just sat on my legs so I couldn't possibly walk away...or run away, more like it.

"So, what happened last night? I want all the details..." Sirius exclaimed, leaning back on the couch, making himself comfortable on my legs.

I decided just to glare at him. Potter rested his head on his hands and didn't answer either. Sirius glanced back and forth between the two of us. Remus just stood there, looking uncomfortable.

"Maybe we should leave them alone for now," Remus suggested. That's why I like Remus most out of the four of them. He's the most...logical I guess.

Sirius frowned. "But I wanna know!" he whined and I frowned to match his. "Fine, but I want the details later." And with giving us both a look that said "you'd better tell me", he basically skipped away. Remus calmly walked out. Potter and I stared at them as they left.

Potter sighed, turning to look at me. I looked up at him with an unreadable expression. Inside, I was hoping that he wouldn't start talking about the night before. I really didn't want him to gloat or to talk about it at all.

"So..." he said, leaning forward to talk to me. I realized I still was in a weird position from my fall. I moved my legs off the couch and sat on the floor in a more comfortable position...and less awkward.

"So..." I repeated.

"Umm...last night...what was that about?" Potter asked, almost too innocently, staring me down.

"You started it," I said quickly, giving him a look that told him not to mess with me.

"You sound like a little kid," he retorted, doing that thing with his eyebrows again.

"You should know what last night was about, Potter. You're the one that started it," I explained to him. I didn't have any answers for him.

He shook his head. "I initiated it. You kept it going."

I stared at him, mouth agape. "I did no such thing. It was all you, Potter and I officially now have no part in this." I swiftly got up from my spot on the floor and started packing together my homework from the night before.

He was watching me with a confused look on his face. "So, you're telling me that last night basically never happened?"

I whipped around, holding my things to my chest. "It's easier that way."

"Lily, that's crazy. Why can't you admit that it happened?"

I shook my head at him. "Potter, if it happened, then our whole "push and shove" relationship becomes all screwed up and personally, right now, I can't deal with that with our NEWTS and everything. I don't like you that way. Last night was a lapse in judgment and just that." He stared up at me, hurt flashing across his face. "I'm sorry if I mislead you. If it never happened, we can go back to the way it was."

Potter frowned. "That's the easy way out."

I sighed. "It may be but it's the only way that will work. Goodbye...Potter." I strode across the room to the girls' staircase as I heard a shout of "Lily!" behind me. I turned around to say one more thing. "Don't call me Lily." I pulled myself together and left.


"What happened last night?"

I turned around to see my roommate, and evil conspirator, Ellyn Hatcher, walking toward me. I turned back to the food on my plate and waited until she sat down next to me.

"Nothing," I said simply, taking a bite of my toast. Ellyn gave me a look that told me that she thought I was lying. Or knew I was lying. "Ellyn, nothing happened. Just never do one of those spells ever again."

Ellyn grinned and leaned forward, excitement glittering in her eyes. "Did it work?"

I gave Ellyn an exasperated look. "I'm not going to gave you any details, Ellyn, so it'd be better if you stopped asking now."

She stared at me for awhile, not even grabbing anything to eat. Just...stared. I stared back, a weird look on my face. She continued staring, and I started to wonder if she'd ever blinked.

"What are you doing?" I finally asked.

Ellyn still didn't blink. I began to worry for her. "Staring you down," she answered, opening her eyes even more.

My roommate is strange. "Why?"

Ellyn sighed, leaning forward even more. "Because you're lying."

We began a staring contest. "No, I'm not," I basically sing-songed.

"Lily, I've lived with you for six years. I know when you're lying. It's pretty obvious."

I huffed. "Thanks for that. I'm not lying by the way."

Ellyn crossed her arms and turned toward me, never even taking her eyes off of me. "I will find out, so it's easier if you just tell me now."

Part of me wanted to tell her, to tell somebody, just to sort everything out. But the other part of me didn't want anyone to know that I had given into Potter in a moment of weakness. I was supposed to hate him. What would everyone think if I suddenly liked him? I sighed, turning away from the staring game.

"Ellyn, if I tell you this, this is confidential and you can't tell anybody, ever," I warned her.

"I won't tell anybody, I promise." She really did look interested. And ready to give advice.

Ellyn's a good person to tell things to. I learned this through the many years of complaining to her about Potter. She gives good advice, unlike my other roommates. Kady once tried to give me advice and, unfortunately, I followed it, and ended up with detention. But I won't go into that. Ellyn sort of knows what I go through. Sirius Black likes to hit on her from time to time, but unlike me and James, she got used to it and doesn't even care. She even came up with her own responses to his lines.

I took a deep breath and whispered, "Your spell made us dance together last night."

Ellyn nodded. "That was the plan."

I gave her my exasperated look again. "I don't even want to know why you had a plan but anyway, he kissed me."

Ellyn's eyebrows shot up. "Really?" she asked, trying to hide her smile and look serious. But I saw it.

"Don't smile at that," I scolded her.

She frowned, though it was a fake frown. "Just a little kiss?"

I couldn't look at her. "No, more like...umm..."

"No way," Ellyn said, the excitement in her voice almost making the words inaudible.

I looked up and muttered, "Sirius and Remus found us on the couch together this morning." I really hoped I wasn't blushing.

Ellyn's hand flew over her mouth, and I knew she did that to cover her huge grin that I could see even without the hand. "That sucks," she said through her hand.

"Ellyn, it's not grin-worthy. What if someone found you and a guy in a compromising situation like that?" As soon as I asked her, I knew what her answer would be. "Wait, don't answer that."

Ellyn removed her hand. "Okay, yes, it's embarrassing for you. I hope they don't tell everyone in school."

My heart stopped. I swear I felt it. "...What?"
Ellyn knew what she said was wrong. The look on her face said everything. "I mean-they won't tell anyone. I'll make sure of it." Even though she was covering up what she just said, I knew she meant it. She'd probably threaten Sirius and Remus, to think of it.

I sighed really loudly. "Great. Now I have to avoid Potter for the rest of my life."

"Just for the rest of this year. Then we'll be out of Hogwarts and it'll be easy to avoid him. Now, you sort of have to work with him."

Ellyn's advice did not help at all.

I walked into Potions twenty minutes later to see Ellyn talking to Sirius, Remus, and Peter in the back of the classroom, in whispers. I could only guess what she was threatening them with. I tried walking by them indiscreetly, but I didn't get very far.

"Oh, Lily-kins!"

I almost died. Turning around slowly, I looked at Sirius who was grinning at me.

"What?" I snapped at him.

He grabbed me into the little group and I saw Ellyn looking at him with a glare. Sirius probably wasn't heeding her warning.

"Ellyn here told me that we were sworn to secrecy about the...act...we saw this morning."

Sirius acted like he caught us in the throes of passion or something. I frowned. "Good for her," I said.

"But-" Oh no. That meant something bad was coming up. "She failed to mention that we couldn't talk about it with you."

"It's part of our agreement, Black. Can't talk about it with anybody," Ellyn explained.

"Didn't clarify that Hatcher. That means it wasn't part of the agreement. And now I have to catch up with my dear old friend!" Sirius basically grabbed me and threw me into a seat. He quickly grabbed the seat next to me, and grinned. Ellyn and Remus watched this, then Ellyn sighed, running off to find a seat on the other side of the room and Remus muttered something about how Sirius is strange and walked off too. I looked around and saw that Potter wasn't even here yet and class would start in a minute.

"So, Lily-kins-"

"Why are you calling me that?" I suddenly asked, turning my attention back on Sirius.

Sirius shrugged, leaning back in his chair. I found myself wishing he'd fall out of it. "Nicknames are my thing."

I rolled my eyes and saw Kady, the blonde bad-advice-giver in my dormitory, walk in and basically stop in the middle of the doorway when she saw me talking to Sirius. Because I would never do this normally. I actually don't even know why I'm doing it now.

"Details, Lily-kins."

I stared at Sirius for a second, and then said, strongly, "no". I pushed my chair back quickly, getting up and turning around for a fast exit. But instead of open air, I hit something and almost toppled to the ground. Something caught me before I fell and I held on for dear life.

"Watch where you going next time, Evans."

The phrase would have normally been said by a Slytherin. I expected to see a Slytherin. But I knew it wasn't by the voice.

I looked up, almost regrettably, to see Potter staring back at me, with no expression on his face. "Sorry, I just-" I couldn't go on. His words still rang in my ears.

With a stony expression, he let me go and sat where I was previously sitting, not even acknowledging me again.

I just stood there, mouth open in shock. Potter just basically blew me off. He hated me.

"Ms. Evans, can you go find a seat?" I focused to see Professor Slughorn talking to me. Without a word, I glanced back at Potter, who didn't even flinch when he heard my name.

In shock, I walked over to where Ellyn was sitting and flopped into the seat next to her. She looked at me sympathetically and I ignored her.

Whatever happened to the old Potter? Just last week he would have said a lame pick-up line if I had crashed into him. Probably something like "fallen for me already?". It was the opposite now. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

I didn't know why this was upsetting me so much. I went over all the facts at lunch. I didn't even like Potter. I had a moment of weakness and snogged him, yes, but that didn't mean I was magically supposed to like him and go out with him the day after. I was just...concerned. I don't like it when people are angry at me. Potter always took my insults and refusals quite nicely, making jokes and smiling after them. I could take that. It was a nice exchange. Now the whole system was screwed up.

"LILY!"

I looked up quickly, almost getting whip flash. "What?" I asked.

The whole table was staring at me. "I was...asking about Potions," Kady said.

"Oh," I murmured, then shook my head. "I don't know."

Kady exchanged a confused look with Ellyn. "I didn't ask anything yet."

I frowned. "Right."

Ellyn switched the subject quickly, knowing what I was thinking about. "James is being an idiot today." I followed her gaze down the table to where they were sitting. Potter was listening to whatever Sirius was rambling about and Remus was working on some essay. Peter was eating, though that wasn't a surprise. I looked back at her.

"Potter has always been an idiot," I said, "He's just really being a idiot today."

I couldn't elaborate because Kady was here and she didn't know the whole situation. And I really didn't feel like telling her now.

Ellyn nodded. "Free period after lunch. Maybe we can work on our essays for Potions in our dorm." I understood. Ellyn would tell Kady for me and we wouldn't actually work on our essays.

Ten minutes later, lunch ended and we got up to leave for the dormitories. Sirius ended up following us to the Great Hall, randomly interjecting our conversation with questions and phrases. I think he was trying to be annoying on purpose. But I was thankful that Potter hadn't followed him.

"You guys have free period now, right?" Sirius asked, walking in front of us and backwards at the same time. I found myself hoping he'd fall for the second time today.

"You already know that," I said.

"You know who also has free period? James!" Sirius said as if it were the best thing in the world.

"I'm not on speaking terms with him right now," I exclaimed, which was sort of true. If he wouldn't talk nice to me, I wouldn't talk to him at all.

"But I know he'd like it if you guys talked."

I gave Sirius a weird look. "Sirius, I doubt that. I don't think he'd ever want to talk to me again."

Sirius sighed. "It's James. He'd love it. He's just being moody."

"Are you trying to play matchmaker or something?" I questioned him, "Because there's a couple problems with that. First, it won't work. Second, it's weird. And third, I think Ellyn already has that role."

Sirius grinned. "First, maybe. Second, it's not. And third, I don't mind. We'll work together. We work great together. Don't we, El?"

Ellyn looked at him, and said, with a sigh, "Nope."

See what I mean about how Ellyn just doesn't care? I wish I could do that.

Sirius shrugged. "Well, my work here is done. Until Ellyn and I come up with an awesome plan to get you two together. Say, nine tonight. My dorm? We can plan." Sirius had on his famous smirks that made girls melt. Well, most.

"I'll make sure I plan something tonight so I don't have to come," Ellyn said calmly, and we left Sirius in the hallway by himself.


"What?!" Kady almost screamed.

I can't believe we told her. By tomorrow, everyone will probably know.

I was lying on my stomach on my bed, my Potions essay in front of me. Of course, I wasn't working on it. But I wanted to. I was sick of all this Potter talk.

I glanced up to see Kady looking at me incredulously. Great.

"Thinking about it, it's all your fault, Ellyn," I said, offhandedly.

Ellyn shrugged. "Yeah, but I didn't make you guys have a snog fest in the common room."

I frowned at her. "Everyone has a moment of weakness. That was mine."

Ellyn twirled a quill between her fingers and looked up at the ceiling. "Why was James so angry at you today?"

It was then I realized I didn't tell her about what happened this morning. I cringed. "I sort of told him to forget it ever happened. And that I didn't like him."

Ellyn almost fell off her bed. "What!? Lily, are you crazy?"

I shook my head. "It was the truth. I had to tell him the truth."

"Just tell me you weren't so brutally honest with him. Tell me that you let him down easy."

There was a pause as I thought of what to say. "Couldn't you tell by the way he treated me today?" I finally said, with a sigh.

Ellyn and Kady sighed too. "So, what are you going to do?" Kady asked.

I took about it for a second. "Nothing," I decided, looking up at the confused faces of Kady and Ellyn.

"Please explain," Ellyn said slowly.

"I'll just leave it alone for now. Maybe it'll work it out by itself." I picked up my quill and started on my Potions essay.

"You know that just means I have to come up with a plan to get you together since you won't do anything."

I grinned at Ellyn. "You know that means that Sirius is going to find out and invite you into his dorm again."

Ellyn shrugged. "Oh well." Kady and I grinned at each other and got to work on our essays.

And it worked. I had two classes with Potter after lunch and ignored him the entire time. Didn't say even one word to him. And he ignored me back. Okay, maybe it didn't work. He was supposed to say he was sorry and he was being a jerk. I felt even worse than I did before.

It was night and everyone was in the common room, working on essays and other various bits of things. Lily was sitting with Ellyn, talking about Potions.

"James is sitting over there," Ellyn suddenly said.

I put down my quill and looked over to where she was looking. "No, I'm not talking to him." He was sitting on the couch, yes, that couch, talking to Sirius occasionally, and then working on something that had to do with writing. Maybe his Potions essay. He looked calm, normal. Which was a nice change from his expression this morning. But I knew as soon as I would walk over there, he'd change his expression and cause me to feel bad all over again.

Ellyn tilted her head at me. I hate it when people do that. It's like they're trying to act inquisitive...but fail. "Lily, you have to talk to him sometime. He's Head Boy."

"Yes, but I can also delay talking to him until I absolutely have to," I explained.

This whole situation was really ironic, come to think of it. Usually, this whole thing would have been opposite. I would have done something to James and then he would try to find something to make it up to me, but, instead, he would make himself look even worse and end up asking me out again. And then I would yell at him. It was a vicious cycle. But it was also comforting. We both had gotten used to it.

"Talk to him," Ellyn basically ordered me.

Sometimes Ellyn gets on my nerves. "I don't want to. I'm not talking to him, and that's final."

Ellyn glared at me. Glared. "I'll make you."

She's good with threats. They just don't work on me. "Try me." I glared back.

"There's a lot of ways for me to get you to talk to James," she said, still holding that glare.

I held it too. "Fine. It's almost nine. Why don't you go find Sirius and meet him up in his dorm?"

Ellyn stood up quickly, startling me. "Maybe I will," she said defiantly.

There was a pause as I just processed what happened. Did Ellyn just- "Are you saying that-"

Ellyn grinned, sitting back down. "I'm kidding. Honestly."

I started laughing, realizing it was her plan to stop the argument between us. "You really scared me for a second there."

Ellyn grin faded quickly, and saw she was looking behind me. I slowly turned around to see Potter standing behind me. So I just stared at him.

"Umm...Evans, can I talk to you?" Potter finally asked.

Ellyn looked at me. I looked at her. Then we both looked at Potter. "Okay," I said quietly.

I got up, leaving Ellyn with a shrug, and walked over to a remote corner with Potter.

"I was thinking about what you said this morning," Potter announced.

I nodded, hoping that he wouldn't start saying awful things to me again.

"And, well, maybe you're right."

I raised my eyebrows. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, and since we have to work together this year, maybe we can just be friends and keep it at that."

Potter was offering to stop asking me out. I almost started jumping out of happiness. "Um, sure," I said out loud, but inside I was dancing. "Does that mean I actually have to be civil to you now?" I joked.

Potter grinned. "I hope so. Friends don't really yell at each other."

"Or dance in circles," I muttered under my breath. Potter raised an eyebrow, and I realized he must have heard something. "So, when's the next meeting?" I asked him, trying to cover up the comment.

"Next Monday. It's mainly for the prefects but we have supervise it." I nodded. "So, since we're friends and all now, does that mean we can call each other by our actual names? Cause this Evans and Potter thing is totally "I-hate-you" material."

I rolled my eyes at the comment, and chuckled. "Sure, James."

"All right, Lily."

It was different. But I kind of liked it.