6 MONTHS EARLIER

Lily huffed, annoyed, as she looked down at the couple of first years she was supposed to look after for the next hour. "I mean, seriously, who in their right mind would try to pass notes in McGonagall's class? First years," she answered herself. "First years with a death wish, obviously."

"Right. You sit over there, separately, and you're supposed to work on Transfiguration…" She nodded when one of them, albeit a little condescendingly, waved his textbook in the air. "Yeah, that'll do it."

She waved them off and sat down on the teacher's desk, quickly warning them to be quiet; she was hoping to at least get some work done herself, especially since-

"Evans!"

The redhead groaned, ignoring the amused look on the first years' faces as she turned her head to the door, which a rather flushed James Potter was just trespassing. Her eyes scanned the Head Boy up and down: his hair was even messier than usual (something that in itself she would've considered a rather impossible accomplishment), his glasses slightly crooked and a rather pronounced blush covering his cheeks; his uniform seemed to be put on in a rush – his cloak was nowhere to be seen, his tie hanging rather loose around his neck and his shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, allowing her a perfect view of his quidditch toned arms and-

She mentally berated her hormonal teenage girl side, which, like every other in Hogwarts at one time or another, was fazed by all things James Potter related. He was a git, sure, but an extremely hot one, if she was honest with herself – which considering she was Lily Evans, was not very often.

Instead, the Head Girl turned back to her notes, attempting to look superior and unabashed by his presence as she spoke in a clipped tone. "You're late."

He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled loudly, apparently frustrated with himself, before coming to a full stop in front of the desk, dropping his bag on the side opposite to hers "Yes, I… I know. I'm sorry."

She raised a brow, surprised that there was no smug comment about how he could bet ten galleons she'd missed him, but let it slide as he sat down beside her, cleaning his glasses with the end of his white shirt.

Directing a stern look at the pair of younger students who'd stopped their work to stare at them, Lily cleared her throat and settled back in her chair, twisting her hair up in a ponytail. It wasn't exactly like James didn't take his duties as Head Boy seriously; in fact, this was the first time she could recall him being late – much to her surprise, James Potter appeared to have matured, and it was certainly showing in their 7th year. Granted, it had only started a little over a month prior, but to her surprise she found herself giving him credit for it; he hadn't even tried to ask her out yet, although his flirty comebacks were still going strong.

She would never tell him this, but she was actually growing fond of their newly found playful banter routine. She wouldn't go as far as calling them friends, but they were, well, friendly with each other – which was really saying something considering that they now shared a dorm –, and she had started to rather enjoy his company instead of loathing it. Dang. Was she actually friends with James Potter? When the hell had that happened?

Sneaking a glance at the boy in question, apparently deeply concentrated in his schoolwork, she frowned. There was a gash on his cheek, starting right beneath his eye and running down to his jaw. It looked fresh, and she was fairly certain he didn't have it the night before when she'd bid him goodbye in their common room.

Unconsciously, Lily reached out with her finger and touched the cut lightly; his reaction was immediate: flinching away from her, his eyes widened as they looked at her for a fraction of a second before taking a small square mirror out of his pocked, eyeing the gash. Lily would've made a joke about how only someone as vain as him would carry a mirror in his pocket, but instead cringed when he himself placed a finger on the cut, running it along its length as he murmured something. To her surprise, the wound started healing. After one swipe, it turned pink; another one, into just a faint line; at the third swipe of his thumb it completely vanished.

Pocketing the mirror again he sighed and shook his head. "Bloody idiot." He then turned to Lily, who was eyeing him with a mix of surprise, awe and suspicion. He shot her a smile that seemed more like a grimace as he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Must've cut myself shaving."

She narrowed her eyes at him as she moved closer, pointedly ignoring his sharp intake of breath as she did so, to eye his cheek a little closer. There was no sign of the cut. Looking back at the two students behind them and ignoring the way he smelled because good god, smelling this good should be illegal, she reached up and whispered in his ear. "I know you shave using your wand, Potter. And that was not a razor cut."

He snorted good-naturedly, but she could feel the tension in his voice as he retorted. "Stalker much, Evans?" When she didn't reply, he pulled back and rummaged through his papers, not looking at her as he added. "For your information, I was running late this morning and I couldn't find my wand. Padfoot let me use his magical razor. Should've known better than to trust that git."

His laugh didn't fully convince her, and she was about to press further into the matter when she recalled her earlier reflexion . She wasn't friends with Ja- Potter. She shouldn't care about what he'd been up to last night, or where he'd got that cut. She certainly shouldn't express her admiration for both his healing and his nonverbal spell abilities.

With another annoyed huff, Lily turned back to her own schoolwork.

A.N. - So? What did you think? I will be covering the events from this point on until the scene from the first chapter, then a couple more days. It's a muchbigger project than I initially had in mind, and I have cooked some great ideas up and am fully commited to it - I'll be paying a lot of attention to this story, mostly because I'm just having so much fun with it ^.^ I hope you stick around, because hopefully this will be a long one.

IMPORTANT: This is mostly a Jily story, but I'd like to include some Blackinnon... thoughts?

Oh and I'd also like to thank my brand new beta, sweetly-secret, for looking this over for me ^.^

Reviews make everyone happy and bring faster updates *wink wink, nudge nudge*

Bad Ass Blye