Lily Evans sat upright in her bed in the hospital wing. Her auburn hair was sticking up and frizzy while her face was covered in great flappy things. Earlier she had been walking through the halls with Nat, hand in hand (which was the most affection she ever got from him since Madam Puddifoot's). Francine walked by them, scowling, and when she was behind them she set the Bat Bogey Hex on her. While Lily was screaming because she could barely see through the great big flaps, Nat was hollering, "I got twelve OWLs in my fourth year!" to impress Francine.

Thankfully, Remus was walking by and kindly guided Lily to the hospital wing. Unfortunately on the way there a bucket of water that had been charmed into the air was dumped onto her. Remus did a spell to dry her off, which worked until it got to her hair which immediately puffed out.

Madam Pomfrey walked up to Lily's bed, sitting on the edge and began dabbing her face with a fish smelling liquid. "Your skin should be back to normal in about an hour," Madam Pomfrey assured her. Lily nodded to show that she understood, afraid that if she opened her mouth a flap would go into to and she wouldn't be able to get it out.

"It's a shame, really," Madam Pomfrey continued. "You'll be missing the first Quidditch game of the year. Your friend plays the keeper for Gryffindor, right? She's good, I expect. Gryffindor's clearly the best team. I'm not a big fan of it but when I do watch it, Quidditch is a great sport." Lily grunted. "I'll give you a sleeping draft, then. I'll only have you sleep an hour though." Lily grunted again and Madam Pomfrey opened her lips, pouring some the sleeping draft into her mouth (she, luckily, didn't get one of the flaps in too). Lily fell back into her pillows and began to snore immediately.

○○○

"We all know that our usual seeker, McLaggin, is off on leave because of his grandmothers passing so, naturally, I'll be substituting for him. Taking my place as chaser we have Ashley Spinnet," James Potter, the Gryffindor team captain, spoke to his team. It was the first and possibly most important game of the season. Gryffindor was playing Hufflepuff and James wanted Hogwarts to see what his team was made of. He looked around at the team staring up at him. But there was one person missing. "Where's Francine?" he asked. And when nobody answered, "Where's my keeper?" he bellowed, causing the tame to jump.

Lucy Cabaret, a beater, began saying, "I think I saw her snogging—" but stopped when a much disheveled looking Francine Newborton walked in—her robes put on slightly wrong.

"Where've you been?" James snapped. Francine giggled, pulling her robes back on properly.

"Wotsammater? I was just having a bit of fun," she replied lazily. "And can we ease up on Hufflepuff? Nat's rather nervous."

"What?" James asked as if what she said was the most horrible and absurd thing which, to him and the other Gryffindor Quidditch team, it was. "Nat Diggory asked you this? Nat Diggory—Hufflepuff team captain? Nat Diggory—Hufflepuff seeker? Nat Diggory—Lily Evans' boyfriend?" Francine scowled at the last one.

"Yes, that Nat Diggory," she said.

"The only reason you'd want us to go easy on him is because you've been snogging him nonstop behind Lily's back," Frank Longbottom, the other beater and a witness at Madam Puddifoot's, spoke. James clenched his right hand into a fist. For some reason it bothered him that she was purposely letting Lily's boyfriend cheat on her, even if they weren't very close anymore.

"Well there's no chance in hell we're going to 'ease up' on the Hufflepuffs," he said furiously. "And if you ease up on them, I'll have you resign. Come on, Gryffindor." James directed everyone out of the changing rooms but stayed behind for a moment with Francine who was last. "You know, you were right in Madam Puddifoot's. In every circle of friends there is a whore." With that he left—Francine a ways behind him.

"Shake hands, captains," Professor McGonagall, who was refereeing the match, told them. Nat clenched James' hand in a friendly manner while James pretty much tried to break his fingers. "Now I want a nice, clean game," Professor McGonagall stated particularly looking at James who had prolonged the handshake, leaving all the fingers on Nat's right hand sore.

"The Quaffle is up. Gryffindor's Spinnet's got it. She goes through a bunch of Hufflepuffs. A Bludger hits her. Hufflepuff in possession," a very monotone voice flooded through the stands. James looked over to see Severus Snape doing the commentary. Whoever was hiring the commentators must have been really desperate, thought. But he saw Sirius Black heading toward Snape (Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew close behind), hexing him, and prying the microphone from his hands.

"AND THE GRYFFINDOR KEEPER EVER SO CARELESSLY LETS THE QUAFFLE THROUGH THE RIGHT HOOP! THAT'S 10-0 HUFFLEPUFF!" Sirius' voice boomed through the pitch—the change causing the spectators to cheer and an arm-bounded Snape to look upset. "Jesus, James. I knew she was hot but Quidditch is about talent! That's now 20-0 to Hufflepuff after a point from Amos Diggory, the seeker's younger brother!"

"Hey James," Nat Diggory greeted, stopping beside James on his GoldBroom98. "Thanks for easing up. I knew Franny-pie could talk you into it."

"Franny-pie?" James asked, clearly unimpressed.

"Well, yeah, that's what I call her."

"So you think that 'Franny-pie' asked me to ease up on you and I agreed?"

"Well, yes. I mean, we're up twenty points and it's barely five minutes into the game."

James stared at Nat intently for a minute, figuring out what he should say. He though to correct Nat—which was the evident thing to do. But, no. James clenched his right hand into a fist and punched Nat right across the face.

"AND GRYFFINDOR CAPTAIN AND SUBSTITUTE SEEKER SOCKS HUFFLEPUFF CAPTAIN AND SEEKER ACROSS THE FACE! Good punch though. Ooh, he's coughing up blood. Very good punch."

The whistle blew and Professor McGonagall flew up, rather awkwardly, on her broom. "This is a warning, Potter!"

"I-I thought I saw the snitch!" James protested.

"THOUGHT HE SAW THE SNITCH? LIKELY STORY," Sirius bellowed (how he heard, James wasn't sure).

"Shut up, Padfoot."

"Hufflepuff chaser, Melanie Stewart, takes the penalty! Oh and that's 30-0 Hufflepuff, scored through the middle hoop. Newborton actually flew away from that one!"

James looked down a Francine who was happily flying in circles around the three hoops on Gryffindor's side. "Francine!" he bellowed. She stopped and looked up at him. "Step it up!" But in response she merely waved and continued. James would have liked to punch her across the face, even if she was their keeper and a girl, right then and there but something distracted him: a streak of gold right by his eyes. He turned around and caught sight of it streaking toward the Gryffindor seats. He began to fly forward on his SweetSweep2002, picking up speed with every second.

"AND FINALLY POTTER'S DONE SOMETHING GOOD FOR THE TEAM AND SPOTTED THE SNITCH!" At this announcement, Nat Diggory, who had flown opposite James, was going toward the snitch as well, his hand stretched out. The snitch was flying right to him! 'Come on,' James egged his broom on, wishing it'd go faster. The snitch was right in between him and Nat, Nat with the advantage of it flying to him. But James hated losing and he was most certainly not losing to a woman-stealer (did he just think that?). He pulled himself to the end of his broom and, when he reached the tip and was close enough, dove on top of the snitch. He felt it pressed against his stomach by his forearms just before banging heads with Nat and everything going black.

○○○

James opened one eye and then the other. His head was severely bandaged and he had a horrible headache. 'Where am I?' he asked himself. 'The hospital wing,' he answered himself. But where were Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail? Surely they'd come to see him.

"So how's it going with that Nat Diggory?" a familiar voice asked.

"Good," another familiar voice said, sounding bored.

"Can we get into detail?" It was Sirius! James recognized Sirius as the first voice. "Like, maybe, how flat his personality is?"

"He doesn't have a flat personality!" James recognized the second voice as Lily's. But what was she doing in the hospital wing? And why was Sirius visiting her?

"Yeah, Lils, let's be specific." 'Lils?' he thought, a dam of anger ready to burst, he wasn't sure why, in the pit of his stomach.

"Well," Lily began, "he's smart…and older…" Sirius laughed.

"Smart and older? That's it?" he asked. "Has he visited you yet?" Clearly Lily had shaken her head. "No? How often do you snog?"

"I think that's a rather personal question."

"No! It isn't!" Sirius protested. "Anyways, snogging's what keeps a lame relationship going. So…?"

"He hasn't even pecked me since Madam Puddifoot's," Lily replied hesitantly, yawning. "But I'm not breaking up with him. I don't really have any other friends."

"Oh, okay, I'm not your friend," Sirius said sarcastically.

"That's right…you are my friend. And Remus too, I think. I forgot about you."

"Well that's nice to know," he replied, once again sarcastic. "And James is your friend too." Lily grunted at this, causing James to feel slightly ashamed of himself. He wished he had a relationship with her like Sirius or Remus.

"So what happened to him anyways?" Lily asked after a moment of silence.

"Oh, James? Well he—" Sirius had turned to face James' bed, which was next to Lily's. "Speak of the devil! He's awake! Anyways, Prongs, I was just about to tell Lily how you got hurt. Nat and James were both going for the snitch and collided. James fell onto the ground unconscious when Nat grabbed the snitch." James flew up—Gryffindor had lost! But he had to lay back down just as fast—his headache not nearly better to sit up just yet, no matter how angry he was.

"Oh, that's too bad," Lily said. A blush rose to James' face, surprisingly. She actually cared. But then she continued, "It would have been cool if Gryffindor had won the first game. It's a bit silly, really. They were playing Hufflepuff!" Now anger, sadness and regret etched into his soul and he rolled over, refusing to face Lily or Sirius.

"Oh, James, I should go," Sirius said suddenly (directed at James even though he wasn't sitting with him). James grunted this time. "Bye James. See you, Lily."

"Bye, Sirius," Lily responded and when the door was shut behind him, sighed. "Potter? What do you think of Nat?"

James decided not to answer. He was sure Lily didn't want to hear that he was a stuck-up, lying, cheating prick who stunk at Quidditch. Lily sighed again.

"Figures you won't answer. You know, you're so—" At that moment the door burst open revealing Francine and Nat mid-snog. James had turned around when the door had opened, knowing Lily was watching and most likely mortified.

Francine and Nat pulled apart—a satisfied look on her face and Nat with a dreamy one. Nat looked at Lily and opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Francine gave him a little push on his back—that seemed to do it.

"Hey Lily," he said casually. Lily didn't answer. "Well, I guess you saw that." James thought he was the only one to hear Lily mutter, "Damn fucking right I did," although her voice wasn't like her usual one—it was cracked and sad. "I don't think us going out is a good idea anymore…we can still be friends, though…" Nat turned around to leave. Lily threw the sheets off of her, unaware that Francine was watching her every move and also unaware that James saw part of her lacey red underwear which made his heart beat slightly faster. Lily got off the hospital bed and stormed up to Nat.

"No, we will not be friends after this you-you cunt-sucking, son of a bit—"

"Impedimenta!" Francine hollered, pointing her wand at Lily. Lily flew back and slammed into the wall.

"Come on, Nat," Francine said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him out of the room, slamming the door behind her. For a moment the room was completely silent until Lily's small sobs echoed the walls. James flung himself out of his bed, not caring about his pounding head, and went to help Lily up. But she refused to do so, slumping like a rag doll and sliding back down the wall. James, not wanting to force her to get up or be standing up himself, slid down next to her. He looked down at her and waited, not exactly sure what to do. Her auburn hair had been fixed to its natural silky texture during the Quidditch game. She had her hands covering her face and wore the hospital wing pajamas, like him, but for girls was a night gown that went to knee-length and for boys a pair of pants and a button-up shirt.

Lily's cries because to stop until she was merely sniffling. "S-sorry," she stuttered, moving her hands from her eyes and wiping away the left over tears.

James smirked, not entirely sure if it was the right thing to do, and said, "Well, drama seems to follow you around everywhere."

Lily laughed. James jumped inwardly—he hadn't said the wrong thing!

"No, drama doesn't follow me," she paused. "It rides on my back."

○○○

"Lily, what's that on your shirt?" Remus Lupin asked, looking at her oddly.

"Oh," Lily groped the wet splotch that covered her middle, slightly hidden by her black robes. "Wendy nudged her ink bottle off of the table and into me in Transfiguration—on purpose, of course."

Remus sighed and pulled out his wand. With a swish and flick, the ink was gone when he muttered, "Scourgefy."

"Thanks Remus," she said gratefully. "I should remember that one."

"It's nothing, Lily," he replied. "But I definitely don't agree with what they're doing. It's just a (stupid) boy. Though, I am surprised that you have yet to break down." Lily grunted. James was the only one who had seen her break down and she made him promise not to tell. "I'm surprised at Wednesday the most, she usually doesn't care." Lily nodded.

"Francine has a lot more power over Wednesday than I do. They're a lot closer because they've been friends since…forever, really."

"Hey guys," Sirius walked into the library where Remus and Lily were studying, as usual. "What's new?" He took the seat next to Lily.

"Wednesday picking on Lily, but that's it," Remus said casually with a hint if anger in his voice showing that it really wasn't so casual.

"Jesus, what are those bitches problems?" Sirius said angrily.

"I brought it on myself by going out with Nat," Lily said. "It's fine."

"No, it is not fine, Lil. A guy liked you better than bitch-Francine, so what? Now she has a reason to try and ruin your life?" Sirius put his hand on Lily's and gave it a little squeeze, sending bolts of electricity up her spine. "It's definitely not fine."

"Hey, Lily? What can cure any poison again?" Remus asked, off topic. Sirius scowled at him.

"A beozar, Remus. Found at the bottom of a goat's stomach," Lily replied with ease. Remus wrote it down and stood up, packing all his books.

"I should go back to the common room and do the rest of my homework. Thanks for the potions help Lily," Remus waved goodbye and left. Sirius looked at Lily and Lily, feeling his eyes on her, looked up at him and smiled.

"Want to go for a walk, then?" he suggested. Lily nodded in agreement and shut her Transfiguration text book.

The sky was blue and cloudless, while the weather was reasonably warm. It was the perfect early autumn day at Hogwarts. It seemed that only a few people had a free period as there weren't many people outside.

Lily and Sirius walked down the steps from the front door and took in the scenery.

"It's a beautiful day out," Lily commented. Sirius smirked down at her.

"Perfect for a quick snog," he said suggestively. Lily laughed.

"And, of course, you're the expert on this."

The pair found themselves heading toward the Quidditch pitch. In the middle of the luscious grass were two people. From afar, Lily recognized who they were.

"Er—why don't we turn around, Sirius?" she said nervously, taking his arm to wheel him around. But it was too late—he had already seen them and they had seen Sirius and Lily and jumped on top of eachother into a deep kiss.

"Good Lord, the Quidditch pitch isn't the place for a good snog!" he said angrily and then mumbled, "It's the broom cupboard—the less space, the more you touch."

"Oh, Lily! What a surprise!" Francine gasped when she withdrew her mouth from Nat's.

"Do we have a new boyfriend?" Nat sneered. Sirius pulled out his wand and shouted "Levicorpus!" Nat's body propelled into the air, right foot first.

"No," Lily scoffed. "But I see Francine likes the used ones. So sorry I couldn't give him to you cheaper, Franny."

"You take that back you slut!" Francine yelled, pulling out her wand.

"And what if I don't?"

"Eat slugs!" An olive green light shot from the end of her wand, hitting Lily square in the stomach. Lily bent over immediately and several large slugs fell from her mouth.

"Undo it!" Lily heard Sirius yell over her retches and belches. A large pile of slugs slid around in opposite directions at her feet.

"No thanks, I'd rather not," Francine said happily. "And I don't even know how to—I heard it on the radio once. And don't bother going to the hospital wing, they'll just tell you to get it all out, not that you're really having any trouble there," she paused and looked down at Lily. "And don't tell either or there'll be more where that came from."

"Whatever," Sirius said, eyeing her down as he helped Lily up. "Good luck getting him down. Not sure anyone—except a few—can help you there."

"You take him down right now or—" Francine stopped. To add effect to her order she had been marching up to Sirius, getting close to Lily as well. When she was saying her sentence Lily had hurled some more slugs and they splattered all over her. Francine stood frozen for a moment. Only a moment. When that was up, she opened her mouth and screamed. Sirius laughed openly at her and Lily did too, through the constant slug-hurling.

"You clean that up now," Sirius chuckled holding Lily's forearm and leading her away, toward the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

Falling down into the crunchy red, gold and orange of the fallen leaves, Lily continued to vomit slugs.

"This—is—disgusting," she said in between upchucks. Sirius patted her back.

"Yeah…it really is," he scrunched up his face.

"You—don't—have—t-to—to stay."

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Well, what if this is a serious danger to your health and while vomiting slugs you submit to…slug…poisoning and collapse? I'll be here to carry you to the hospital wing!"

"Oh, okay…" Lily retched out some more slugs. "I—really don't like—slugs…"

Sirius looked at her more closely. Her skin was pale white and she looked so exhausted. "Lily…you're not looking so good…I mean, yeah, you're vomiting slugs but—" Lily had fallen to the ground into the pile of slugs. Sirius shook her by the shoulders. "Lily? Lily? Lily!" She didn't respond. Sirius picked her up, holding her with her legs over his left arm and her back supported by his right, and ran to the castle. All the classes had been let out the moment he ran in. People stared at him as he ran past. He saw Wednesday staring from a corner outside of the crowd, her face pale and scared. He passed by James who, once seeing Lily, ran with Sirius.

"What happened?" he asked loudly over all the voices that echoed the halls about homework, classes and, for the people who had seen, them.

"Francine did this weird spell on her and she started vomiting slugs and then she went pale and collapsed," Sirius explained as quickly as he could. "So I have to take her to the hospital wing…I mean, what could I have done for her?" James didn't answer Sirius' question. His face was contorted with rage.

"I'll go by and see her later…I have to talk to someone," he said and ran in the other direction toward the Gryffindor tower.

"Piggly figgly!" he shouted at the Fat Lady's portrait.

"Goodness! Don't need to be so rude!" she said angrily and swung open for him to enter.

"Francine Newborton!" he bellowed, scaring a group of first years doing homework by the fire. There was a thudding down the steps to the girls' dormitories and Francine came into view.

"What do you want, Potter?" she snapped.

"You're off the Quidditch team. I'm getting a new keeper."

"Well I figured that'd happen, after that spectacular game I played," she said sarcastically.

"You shut up!"

"What? Does winning really mean that much to you? Because I don't care."

"It's not about that!" James hollered. "It's Lily! It's what you did to her!"

"It serves her right," Francine smirked. "That'll be the last time she gets smart with me."

"Sirius had to take her to the hospital wing."

"I told him not to do that, once she's finished getting all those slugs out it'll be done."

"It's not the slugs! She's collapsed and I'm bloody blaming you!"

Francine looked at him searchingly. "You're lying. I wouldn't do that to Lily if I knew she couldn't take it."

"Well, obviously, you don't know Lily well enough," James said angrily.

"What? And I suppose you do? You of all people, the one who Lily can't stand and won't say one good thing about? You who is constantly playing practical jokes on her? I honestly can't say you know her any better than I do," Francine said furiously. She turned to walk back up the steps but didn't move. "If she is really in the hospital wing…I…I'm sorry." With that she disappeared up the stairs. James looked to the ground. Lily really did hate him. He shook off the feeling of disgust with himself and ran out of the common room toward the hospital wing. Whispers surrounded him as he passed. The school was talking about what had just happened. Some people, he heard, were saying that Lily was close to death. He didn't believe it though, he wouldn't. He needed to convince her that he wasn't all that bad. There was a crowd of people by the hospital wing door. James pushed past them and opened the door, closing it behind him quietly.

"Why are they doing this to me?" Lily whispered.

"I don't know, Lily," Sirius replied. The two of them had been alone before James entered silently. Lily was in the hospital wing bed with her arms around Sirius and her face on his chest. Sirius had his arms wrapped tightly around her.

"I didn't do anything mean to them, not like this," she sniffed. Suddenly she hiccupped. "Oops, slug," she laughed a bit, but it wasn't a really happy laugh.

"It's fine," Sirius chuckled. "I knew slugs were gross, but I didn't expect you to faint from them."

"They were coming out of my mouth, Sirius," Lily reminded him. "But I didn't expect to faint—"

"Or get a fever," Sirius added.

"Yes, that too. I didn't expect to faint and get a fever from them either. I'm glad it's over," she breathed in heavily. "You smell good."

"Thanks," he smiled. "You do too, surprisingly—not that you normally don't! I mean, surprisingly after throwing up slugs."

"Why thank you."

James decided to speak up now. "Lily? Are you alright?" Lily pulled herself from Sirius when her name was said.

"Y-yes, thanks, James," she said sadly and then flung her hands up to her mouth. "I meant Potter!" James merely nodded, flattered that she had called him by his first name as she normally didn't but at the same time disappointed because she had corrected herself.

"So who did you have to talk to?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, it was Francine. I kicked her off of the team," James replied. "I had to do it sooner or later anyways; I threatened her at the game. I also told her that Lily was in the hospital wing."

"You idiot!" Lily said loudly. "I don't want her to know that! She'll bother me even more…if I pretend not to care that it happened she'll stop but now that she knows she's gotten to me…"

"Relax, Lil," Sirius said calmly. "James was right. If she knows that you're here, the stuff she does will probably start to stop because she'll feel guilty."

Lily thought about it for a moment and then nodded. "I guess you're right, Sirius," she said. James' mouth fell open. It was him who had told Francine. Wasn't he the right one? At that moment the door burst open. Standing at the threshold were Remus and Peter. Remus' facial expression showed sheer anger and Peter was trying to copy, only coming up with a look of constipation.

"Remus!" Lily exclaimed, ignoring Peter.

"Are you alright, Lily?" Remus asked, storming up to her bed and kneeling beside it.

"Yes, much better, thanks," Lily said, hiccupping and another small slug popping out.

"Thank God," Remus said, relieved. "People were saying you were close to death and I know I shouldn't be listening to rumors or anything but that was serious and if you were actually about to die I'd hurt Francine with the strongest and most dangerous curse I could think of." James had never heard Remus threaten anyone before.

"Wow, calm down, Moony. Don't go doing anything unforgivable," Sirius said looking at Remus, smirking.

"Oh, of course not," Remus said quickly. "It's just, they would have taken her life if those rumors were true and Lily were close to death…well I'd say that's pretty unforgivable anyways."

"Thanks, guys," Lily said looking at all of them (well, everyone but Peter—her eyes skipped over him). "Really…I'm so lucky to have friends like you…" Her eyes filled with tears but she didn't let them fall. She was determined not to look anymore hopeless than she had managed to already. Sirius held her tighter. James looked to the ground. Something inside of him didn't feel right when he looked at both of them. He didn't like it either. He had never really felt that way before.

"I should—er—go…" James stated turning to the door.

"James," Lily's voice said quietly. "Thanks…I think I misjudged you…" James smirked and continued out the door, pulling the snitch he had nicked out of his pocket and letting it escape in the air, catching it with ease.

○○○

"Hey Lily!" James called to her after Transfiguration.

"Hi S—oh," Lily said, her face falling slightly. "Hey Potter." James pretended not to notice that she had mistaken him for someone else, there were a lot of people around and it would have been easy to get confused.

"Did you understand everything in class?" he asked. Lily shook her head.

"Wendy was sleeping…as usual."

"Oh, I see." An idea popped into his head. "Hey, I could help you out…like a tutor?" Lily snapped her head to look at him. 'Did I say the wrong thing?' were his immediate thoughts. It was just an idea—a way for Lily to get better marks ('and for her to like me more. WAIT, no. To flirt with her and…you know…er…tap that…'). But, surprisingly to James, she smiled at him.

"I'd like that, thanks James," she said kindly. "When should we meet?"

"Um, this coming Saturday at six o'clock?" James suggested.

"Oh, jeez, that's so far away. It's Monday today so I can't really make any promises," Lily said looking to the ground. James' face fell. Why wouldn't she be able to make any promises for Saturday? But then, "Actually, never mind. Yeah, I'll definitely be there." James beamed at her. "So, we're off to Potions now, right?"

"Yeah," James said, looking forward. "I hope I don't do too badly. I suck at Potions."

"Sit with me. I'll help you," Lily said. James looked down at her, surprised. "I mean to return the favor. It's only fair."

"Alright class," Professor Slughorn said loudly when every one was at their tables. James was sharing a table with Remus, Sirius and, as suggested, Lily. "Turn your copies of Advanced Potion-Making to page ten. We will be making the potion the Draught of the Living Dead. You have an hour—read the instructions carefully. The person with the best potion will get a treat. You may begin."

The sounds of people flipping through their text books and pulling out ingredients filled the room. Lily went and got everyone their ingredients while the others waited at the table.

"Should I go help her?" Remus asked.

"She'll be fine," Sirius assured him. "She knows what she's getting."

"No, I didn't mean that, I meant the amount that she has to get, will she need help?" But at that moment Lily came walking over with the ingredients charmed above her head securely. Sirius turned to Remus and smirked as if it was obvious that she would use magic instead of carrying the ingredients the Muggle way.

"Alright, let's begin," Lily said, tying her shoulder-length auburn hair. The four of them went to work, silently readying their ingredients.

"Lily," James began, looking over at her. "The book says that you should be chopping the Sopophorus Beans, not crushing them."

"I know what the book says," she replied, still crushing the beans. "But the juice is getting out a lot better, isn't it?" James looked down at his chopped up Sopophorus Beans. It was true. The juice was oozing out of the ones that Lily was crushing. Lily, seeing his expression, took his chopped up ones and began crushing them for him until a pool of juice was around it.

"Just add that in."

"Wow, thanks Lily."

Lily scribbled something in her book. Remus looked at her, his eyes widening. "Hey, you're writing in that book!"

Sirius scoffed. "Calm down Moony, it's not gonna kill anyone."

"I'm writing for future reference. In most Potions classes I try out new things. It was Sev—" Lily stopped and looked longingly across the classroom to Severus Snape who was, coincidentally, in the middle of crushing his Sopophorus Beans and writing into his book. "Yeah, well, I like to remember how to do things. I've done it since the second year. I'm going to keep this copy anyways; it'll be a nice school memory." James and Remus exchanged glances. Sirius, however, thought this not to be weird at all.

"Good idea," he said and peered down in his book, writing down something. "What I wrote to try out is, 'Listen to Lily, she's good at Potions'." Although what Sirius wrote was extremely lame, Lily laughed anyways. James hoped it was out of pity or the girl he like—wanted to 'tap' had a very bad sense of humor.

The whole class continued to work and not a word uttered out of anyone's mouth. Professor Slughorn's prizes were often interesting. The last time they had him his prize was Felix Felicis, which Snape had won (not to Lily's liking). Most of the time the prize would be invitations to the Slug Club parties, which the people who won were already part of and were going anyways, but apparently they were really fun so the others would try really hard to get in.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven…one, two, three, four, five, six, seven," Lily counted quietly after a while. James looked into her cauldron. The lilac, which was the shade the potion should be, was definitely lightening. But Lily was stirring wrong. She'd do seven stirs counter-clockwise followed by a clockwise stir. Noticing his eyes on her potion, Lily whispered between 'two' and 'three' "Trying something new." James copied her; his potion which was a not-quite-lilac began to lighten to a bluish-clear.

"Done!" Lily exclaimed in a whisper and wrote down a note in her text book again. James continued to stir but the color did not change.

"As done as I'm going to get," he mumbled, moving away from the cauldron. Sirius and Remus finished soon after and finally Professor Slughorn announced that they were all finished and began walking around the room to inspect each student's cauldron.

"Good, good," he'd say every few moments. "Oh my, Avery! Are you sure you read the right page? This looks more like the Poison of Narcisscia with its viscous-looking texture and golden-white color. Yes, I'd say it is. Good effort though." Slughorn moved onto Rodolphus Lestrange's cauldron. "Wonderful, as usual—you're nearly there Rod! Oh, and now we have Severus." He looked into Snape's cauldron. Sirius mocked him quietly but in an inappropriate voice ("Oh! Severusss!"). Their whole table laughed behind their hands.

"Perfect, of course," continued Slughorn, who had not heard Sirius' comment. He moved onto the last table, which was theirs. "Remus…it's okay. Purple though, are you sure you put enough Sopophorus Bean juice in it? Sirius, yes, quite like Lestrange—almost there. James, this is an improvement. Yes, very close as well and Lily," he looked down into Lily cauldron. "Amazing! Yes, yes, I do believe that it is a tie between Lily and Severus. My prize is an invitation to my party but, as you two are already attending, I will give the invitation to someone else—Mr. Potter. Your potion would be third-best. So yes, you win for today!" James beamed. "Oh, and to those of you attending, you may bring whoever you like. It is on Saturday at six o'clock in my office. Oh, and you are all dismissed—slightly early with all the hard work and nearly-perfect potions." Everyone collected their books together and walked out of the dungeon.

"I can't believe I actually did it right!" James beamed. He put an arm around Lily. "Thanks, really." He withdrew his arm as quickly has he put it there. Lily's cheeks were a little red from the gesture—James had never been so friendly before!

"It's no problem. But there is another problem," she said.James looked at her quizzically. "You were going to tutor me in Transfiguration."

"Oh," he said. "Well, we can do that at noon!"

"Sounds great, a study group!" Sirius butt in. "I was hoping if you could help me out with my Muggle Studies assignment, Lily—we're learning about electrikirty or something and I don't quite understand."

"Alright, sure," Lily replied.

James shot a glare at Sirius, who didn't notice as he was staring at Lily with a smile stamped on his face. Lily smiled back at him and then looked forward, the smile vanishing at once. Quickly looking forward, he noticed Francine coming up.

"Oh hey, Lily. You look great! A little sluggish though and I don't think it's because of Potions," she smirked. Pulling out her wand, Francine pointed it at Lily's books and they fell to the ground. "Collapsed my ass."

"Why do you have to be such a bitch, Francine?" Sirius asked as Lily went down to the ground to collect all her books. He went down to help her and bumped his forehead into hers.

"Oops, sorry Lils," he said, picking up her Charms text book and notebook.

"It's okay," Lily giggled, why she giggled was a mystery. They both sat squatted on the floor staring into each other's eyes until Remus coughed.

"Oh, right, here you are," Sirius smiled, handing her the books.

"Thanks," she took them and added them to the pile in her hands. James looked from one to the other. Something was different.


A/N: Bonjour! Thanks for reading the second chapter—took a little longer to get this done(okay, a few hours but I apologise anyways!). Before you correcting-reviewer-demons go and correct me for something, I'll explain one of the ones you might correct because this is the only thing I know you're going to correct. JAMES POTTER WAS A CHASER. J.K. Rowling stated in an interview that he was and if you check up his profile on Wikipedia you'll see that too. I wasn't going to change it at first when I found out but thought against not changing it. In my other story I screwed up the fact that everyone in the Black family was named after a constellation and that pissed me off because I found a really cool name but as I had already posted the first two chapters it would have been weird to the people who had already read it. But I can't imagine James as anything else but a seeker so I improvised and made him a substitute for McLaggin who I made up but recall someone with the same or a similar last name to him in the book.
Haha, when Remus got rid of the stain on Lily's shirt I was so tempted to write 'Tide-to-goius!' but since I knew the right spell (or at least I'm pretty sure that's the one, maybe they have a list of spells on Wiki? The spell may change...) I used it.
I was suffering from a bit of writers block on Saturday and Sunday so I finished it today—whoot! Yeah. I feel really accomplished even though I only wrote three more pages to finish it.
MY INSPIRATION FOR THIS CHAPTER: was the actual song. Though its been that way since last chapter. HARHAR. So yes, download There's A Class For This by Cute Is What We Aim For and while you're at it, download Newport Living too. I'll tell you to download the song every week and you will listen to it and ENJOY:)

COMMENT BIATCHES - der you goes.

And, as promised...
Fun fact: In the draft of this story, Francine's name was actually George. I changed it afterward because George and Wednesday don't sound like duo kind of names to me. And if you want to know why I chose these names, Wednesday: The Adams Family as I pictured her originally to look like Wednesday from that but now she looks more like Emily the Weird. George: Nancy Drew! I don't know, I always found that to be a cool name. Francine: Arthur because, damn it, who doesn't love Arthur? And who doesn't imagine Francine and Arthur getting married someday and having children? If it weren't for the fact that Muffy was actually normal looking, Francine might today be Muffy. :)
Line from song: I have written, "No, drama doesn't follow me," she paused. "It rides on my back." The line in the song I was using is "drama doesn't follow me it rides on my back". Yeah, these'll change from being exact to the song in a few chapters—NEXT CHAPTER IN FACT.
Shpank ya for reading. Pass on the story to your little Harry Potter obsessed friends.
Posting a story sometime next week/end,
Itazu.
17/09/07