Disclaimer: Anything you recognize belongs to JKR, not me.

A/N: I'm having a lot of trouble with formatting. How do you get paragraph indentions to show up and how do you get your lines/paragraphs to space out more? I can't seem to get it right now matter how many times I edit and upload the document.

When Lily agreed to be friends with James Potter three weeks ago, she didn't realize how difficult that proved to be. When she saw how different he acted that first night back, how nervous and sincere, she thought that maybe he had changed. She was wrong.

"I swear every time I turn a corner I see him picking on someone! Honestly, hasn't he got anything better to do?" Lily said exasperatedly. She and Alice were heading down to the dungeons for their Double Potions class and Lily had just caught James dangling a first year Slytherin in mid-air while Sirius turned his hair red and gold. He claimed to have been defending some unseen first year Ravenclaw, but Lily wasn't buying it.

"He has gotten a little better you know. You just refuse to acknowledge anything good about him. Remus told me that James has actually been turning down prank ideas lately," Alice said matter of factly, "Just give him a bit more time before you jump to conclusions. He might surprise you."

The girls finally made it down to the dungeons and made their way into the classroom. Lily noticed that Severus was already there, scribbling furiously into the margins of his copy of Advanced Potion Making. The Gryffindors always had Double Potions with the Slytherins and usually Lily partnered up with Snape; but that was before. Plucking up all her Gryffindor courage, she walked straight past Severus, and sat in the seat behind Alice. She knew it was a small feat, but being able to even subtly stand up to her former best friend was a big deal to her.

She pulled out her books and began to set up her cauldron and supplies as the other students filed in. Marlene was one of the last to come into the classroom and of course she was with the Marauders. Well, the Marauders minus Peter. He and Mary didn't get high enough O.W.L.s to continue taking Potions so they decided to take Arithmancy together.

Marlene took her usual seat next to Alice, which only left three open seats; one of which was next to Lily. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed James' line of sight lock onto the empty chair to her. She weighed her options; she knew that they were trying to be friends so telling him to shove off probably wouldn't help, but she also didn't think she was ready to have to sit next to him for a full class period just yet. She needed to take baby steps, so she said the first thing that popped into her mind as he reached the empty chair, "Sorry, seats taken." She hoped that James wouldn't make this difficult.

"Uh, Lily, in case you haven't noticed, everyone is already here. That is, unless you have some sort of invisible Potions partner, and if that's the case then we have a whole new set of problems to deal with, love," James said pulling the seat out and making to sit down.

Lily tried to protest, but couldn't seem to make her mouth form the words. "Actually Prongs, Lily was saving the seat for me. We have some Prefect things to discuss," Remus interjected. James looked from his friend to Lily and back again before taking a step back and sitting next to Sirius instead, looking very unhappy.

"Thanks for that," Lily said turning to look at Remus, "You didn't have to lie for me you know, I could have thought of something"

"Well it wasn't completely a lie," Remus said. Lily looked at Remus quizzically. "Seeing as you've been dodging our dear Amelia the past few weeks, she has given me the responsibility of tracking you down to let you know when our rounds are."

Feeling slightly embarrassed about being caught avoiding the Head Girl, Lily gave Remus a meek smile. "Well my mother always told me that if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say anything at all. So I chose to not say anything at all. Well, I guess I chose to not see or say anything at all. You get my point though."

Remus chuckled and shook his head. "In any case, we have patrols the next two Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although I put in a request to swap next Thursday for Sunday," Remus then added, "I have to visit my mother again, are you alright with switching nights?" Lily muttered her indifference as Professor Slughorn entered the classroom. Lily knew that the full moon was the real reason Remus needed to switch, but she knew better than to voice those thoughts. He would tell her in his own time.

"Attention! Attention, class! Today we will be working with a very dangerous and complicated potion, so I expect nothing but the utmost diligence from all of you!" he stepped over to a large cauldron that was covered and lifted the top, "Amortentia, it is the most powerful love potion of all. It, of course, cannot replicate real love, just strong infatuation. Everybody smells something different, something that shows your hearts true desires, even if one is not consciously aware of said desires—"Professor Slughorn stopped talking as he noticed the dazed look on the faces of the students in the front row. Quickly, the professor covered the potion. "Well, the instructions," he flicked his wand at the blackboard behind him, "are on page 297 of your text, you all may begin. Do not forget to take a sample of your completed potion and put it in a vial for grading. Good luck!"

The sound of students rustling through bags and flipping through pages filled the room as everyone prepared to make the potion. Lily read through her ingredient list and went to the cupboards to gather some things that she didn't have.

"So, did you and Remus discuss your oh so very important Prefect duties?" James said from behind her. Lily grabbed the items she needed, took a deep breath, and turned around to face him.

"Not that it is any of your business, Po—James, but yes, we did."

"Well isn't that just peachy," James said stepping towards Lily. He leaned over her to grab a few herbs that were on the cupboard shelf, brushing his arm against her shoulder.

Lily shuddered at the contact and quickly ducked around him in order to get back to her seat. As she made her way back to her table she mentally scolded herself. It was just Potter, why does he always make her so jittery?

James also noticed her odd reaction to his touch. He frowned at her back as she walked towards her table with the traitor, formerly known as Remus Lupin. James went back to his table with the needed potion ingredients and tossed them in. Potions had never been his best subject and he didn't care. He used to try so that maybe he could understand why Lily seemed to love it so, but it never clicked for him.

"Oi, Prongs, how about some fun, eh?" Sirius said gesturing towards Snape with his wand. James mouth broke into a grin.

Just as he was about to pull his wand out, Slughorn walked up. "Behaving yourselves boys?"

"Why of course Professor," Sirius said innocently. Slughorn looked unconvinced. He leaned over the boys cauldrons, both of which were very pink in color instead of the mother-of-pearl shade that it is supposed to be.

"Well, I suppose not everyone is a potion connoisseur. No matter! By the way, how are your parents doing Mr. Potter?" the professor asked.

"Very well, they're still working at the Ministry. I'll send them your regards, sir," James said automatically. Slughorn has said the same thing every class for the past five years so James had a response memorized in order to cut the conversation time down.

"Good, good, keep up the good work boys! Ah…Ms. Evans, what do we have here?" Slughorn said moving towards her table, "Perfect, as usual no doubt! I have to say I do think you would have done well in Slytherin house with all this talent!"

Lily snorted, "I'm afraid that I'm not overly fond of snakes." She said nonchalantly. "Or pure-blood mania come to think of it," she added cheekily. Slughorn laughed heartily, as if Lily didn't just insult his entire House.

"My dear girl, you sure have a way with words. Let's take a look at your potion, shall we? Should be almost completed correct?" Slughorn took a look into Lily's cauldron, "Perfect! The color is impeccable, the texture is exact, and the steam is even swirling into hearts! You have truly outdone yourself Ms. Evans!" Lily felt her cheeks heat up from the praise. "I must say, I was rather disappointed to see that you changed Potions partners this term. I enjoyed having my two best pupils working together!"

Snape looked up from his completed potion to see Lily's reaction. He was disappointed to see that her face was set into a grimace. He didn't understand why she was being so resistant, they were clearly meant to be. All of the signs pointed to it. So what if he slipped up and called her a—that name—it was just an accident. If only she could see all that he was doing for her.

"Now that you are all finished up, it's time to test out the potions!" Slughorn said clapping his hands merrily.

Maggie Parkinson, from Slytherin, raised her hand and said, "We aren't going to be actually tasting the potion, are we Professor?"

"Merlin no, my dear! We are just going to smell the potions to determine their potency. If you don't smell anything discernable, well, then your potion is far from correct, if you only smell one scent then it's slightly better and so on. A perfect potion can have anywhere from three to five distinguishable smells. I expect most of you will only be able to smell two scents," Slughorn explained, "I'll be coming around and you'll smell your potion and let me know what scents you have. I'll also be double checking by smelling them myself when I grade your vials that you will turn in momentarily, so don't think about lying!"

Slughorn began at the opposite end of the room from Lily and her friends. Since she was finished with her potion she moved to Alice and Marlene's table to talk while she was waiting for her turn.

"Um, Marlene, why is your potion that color?" Lily asked eyeing the dark, bubbling concoction in Marlene's cauldron.

"I have no idea. I swear I followed the instructions in the book," Marlene said pointing to her open textbook. Lily furrowed her brow and looked at her friend's textbook, she immediately saw the problem.

"Marls…this is the wrong page. Amortentia is page 297, not 207. This is supposed to be the Draught of Living Death…no wonder it turned out so horribly. That's an extremely complicated potion. I don't even know if I could make it."

"I'm sure you could make anything my dear Lily flower," said James from behind her. He walked around the girls and stood in front of Marlene's failed potion. Lily wasn't sure if James was being sincere or sarcastic, so she just eyed him warily.

"Well, I for one cannot stand Potions. Remind me why I chose to take this class?" Marlene said to the group.

"You wanted to be a Healer, remember?" Alice said smiling. Marlene changed her career path on an almost daily basis, the girls usually steered clear of talking about after Hogwarts for fear of making Marlene change her mind yet again.

"Oh well, I've changed my mind. I think I'll just stick to Quidditch. You don't need to know how to brew bloody love potions for that," Marlene said grumpily.

Eventually, Slughorn made his way to Marlene's table, so James and Lily went back to their respective tables to wait their turn. Unsurprisingly, Marlene did not smell anything in her potion. Alice on the other hand, smelled three scents, one of which Lily was certain sounded an awful lot like the cologne that Frank Longbottom wears. Remus was up next and smelled chocolate, old books, and woods. Lily had never thought Remus to be the outdoorsy type, she wondered if it had anything to do with his lycanthropy. But why would that be in his Amortentia?

Before she knew it, it was her turn to test out her potion. She felt as though all eyes were on her. Marlene and Alice had both turned around in their seats, James was all but breathing down her neck; even Remus and Sirius were listening. She chanced a look at the desks on the other side of the room and even saw Severus trying to discreetly eavesdrop. She was beginning to get nervous, what if she smelled something embarrassing?

She leaned over her potion and took a deep breath in through her nose. The effects were immediate; her mind felt light and fuzzy, she could barely hold a coherent thought. Her senses felt as if they were being overloaded with pleasure. "I smell books…definitely the smell of crisp, new pages, that have yet to be read," she breathed in the comforting smell and turned her focus onto another, "I also smell butterbeer and freshly baked cookies." Lily savored the smell in her nostrils, butterbeer always comforted her in the wizarding world, but her mother and father always made chocolate chip cookies together when she was a child, she loved to watch them joke and play. It reminded her of what she loved about being a Muggle, all the simple things that she didn't get to be a part of anymore.

"Wonderful! Anything else, Miss Evans?" Professor Slughorn asked hopefully. Lily's potion was by far the best and he seemed to be glowing with pride.

She took one last sniff of her potion and froze. She knew that smell anywhere. It was a hard smell to describe; it made her think of flying in the wind during a clear, starry night. The fresh, outdoor smell was prevalent, with hints of something distinctly masculine, a sort of musk that was specific to only one person.

"I…uh…smell wind, sir. That's all," Lily said quickly pulling herself away from the mind-numbing potion. She sat down hastily and stared down at her lap, her mind racing.

Professor Slughorn did not seem to notice any change in Lily's behavior, but Marlene and Alice definitely did. The professor moved on to the next table over and continued the process with the other students. Lily was so engrossed in trying to process what had just happened she didn't even hear Remus talking to her.

"Lily? Hello? Earth to Lily?"

Her head snapped up, "Huh? What? Sorry Remus, I didn't catch what you said."

"I just asked if you wanted me to take your vial up to Slughorn's desk," he said looking at the small vial sitting next to her cauldron. Lily handed him the vial and went back to her thoughts; that is until Professor Slughorn made it to the table behind her.

"Well, I smell the oak my broomstick is made out of…uh, I also smell cranberries and vanilla. I think that's all. I can't really make out anything else, sir," James Potter mumbled, seeming to be embarrassed by his second scent.

"How odd…I can't say that I've ever had two students have such a specific scent in common, how curious," Slughorn said as he moved on to the last couple tables.

James frowned when Slughorn said this and looked around the room. He searched for someone that he thought might have the same scents as he did but no one jumped out at him. That is until his gaze rested upon Severus Snape. Of course, James knew exactly which of his scents Slughorn was talking about now, the one that was Lily's hair. James followed Snape's gaze to Lily, Lily was quietly cleaning up her desk, preparing to leave and seemingly had no idea she was being stared at.

Sirius, who had noticed James' angry glare, grinned. "Want to have a little fun Prongs?"

James had been trying to tone down his pranking and mischief making for the sake of his friendship with Lily, but his temper was beginning to flare out of control. How dare Snape claim to love someone that he insulted and treated like hippogriff dung? Before he knew what he was doing, his wand was out and pointed at Snape.

James muttered a string of curses and spells towards his nemesis. He managed to vanish Snape's hair and transfigure his robes into a rather embarrassingly short night gown before other students started to take notice. Snape quickly drew his wand and the two started firing spells back and forth. James managed to dodge most of Snape's curses due to Snape's limited range of motion for fear of revealing too much in his new attire.

Just as James hit Snape with a bat-bogey hex and a leg locker curse, Professor Slughorn intervened.

"Wands down this instant! Detention Mr. Potter! Detention Mr. Snape! I cannot believe someone of my own house would be involved in such tom-foolery! Class dismissed! Potter, Snape, follow me!" Slughorn shouted, red faced. He stomped back to his office, the two boys following, neither dropping their heated glares from one another.

Lily was furious. This was the last straw; she had been trying to give James the benefit of the doubt in the beginning, but he simply cannot go more than two days without causing mayhem. As mad as she was, she couldn't help but feel disappointed in him. She had really hoped that he would be the bigger man when it came to Snape. She expected this petty behavior from Sev, but she knew in her heart that James was better than that.

She grabbed her school bag and stomped out of the room, Marlene and Alice still trying to gather their things. Once out of the dungeons, Lily practically ran to the Entrance Hall and onto the grounds. She needed time to think; her mind was racing with the events of today's Potions class and she needed to wind down.

She had an odd habit of always going to very high places when she needed to think, whether it be the top of a tree, the Astronomy Tower, or the Quidditch Pitch, she liked being up in the air, away from the commotion of the people on the ground. The weather today was perfect for the Pitch.

She made her way to the highest stand and the uppermost bench and laid down on it, staring up at the peaceful, fluffy clouds above her. She knew that her friends would be looking for her, but she would catch up with them at dinner and hopefully she could avoid any run-ins with Sev or Potter.

"For someone so small she sure does move fast," Sirius remarked, looking around for his red-headed friend.

"She's probably on the grounds somewhere, especially after a class like that. I mean did you see her face when she figured out what her last scent was?" Marlene said, "She looked like she was going to pass out!"

"I wonder what she smelled. It couldn't have been that bad if it's something that she loves," Alice said thoughtfully.

"Well, like the professor said, sometimes you smell things that reflect feelings you aren't consciously aware of," Remus pointed out. "My guess is that she smelled a guy, and seeing as she doesn't have a current boyfriend, it probably wasn't what she was expecting."

"Of course Remus has a logical explanation," Sirius said rolling his eyes. The group made their way up to the seventh floor, and finally made it to the portrait of the Fat Lady. Well, they made it to where the Fat Lady should have been.

"Damn, I hate it when this happens. Whoever's bright idea it was to make portraits able to leave theirs was a fool," Marlene complained. She sat down next to the painting with a resigned huff. Alice followed gracefully and pulled out a quill and parchment to start on her homework.

"This has happened to you before, I presume?" Remus said, joining the girls on the floor.

"Every so often the Fat Lady likes to go and visit her friends around the castle. It's bloody irritating. We just have to wait for someone to come out or for her to come back. It doesn't usually take too long," Alice replied, not looking up from her essay.

They waited and waited and the Fat Lady still hadn't returned. Alice had finished her essay long ago and was now absentmindedly braiding Marlene's gold locks. Marlene was entertaining herself by making colored puffs of smoke shaped like various animals come out of her wand. The boys had long since gone to search for the Fat Lady and returned, not being able to find her.

"Well, no luck in locating our large woman. You would think that someone called the "fat lady" would be easier to spot," Sirius joked as he sat down next to Marlene. "So, Marls, how about you accompany me to Hogsmeade next weekend?"

Marlene's wand suddenly stopped spouting out colorful creatures and she turned to face Sirius. She stared at him for a minute or so, as if studying him. "That's the best you can do?"

Sirius shrugged and said, "Is that a yes or a no?"

"Eh, sure. As long as no one more interesting asks in the meantime that is," she said nonchalantly going back to what she was doing before.

"Well, then you better be prepared to spend the day with me, because there is no one more interesting than Sirius Black, my dear," Sirius boasted, nudging Marlene in the ribs. Remus laughed at his conceited friend and looked down the corridor to see the other two Marauders making their way over to the common room entrance.

"What are you lot doing out here?" James questioned as he and Peter walked up to his friends. "Where's the Fat Lady?"

"Would we be sitting out here like a bunch of idiots if we knew where she is?" Sirius responded irritably. James put his hands up in surrender and sat down next to them.

"Have you all been out here since class ended?" James asked amused, they all nodded. "And not a single person has come out of the common room since?" He began to laugh, but was silenced when all four of his friends glared daggers at him.

"You know, there's an easy solution to this. Just yell," Peter said, grinning.

"Yell?" Alice questioned.

"Yeah, yelling. You know that thing you do when your voice gets louder?" James teased.

"We know bloody well what yelling is Potter, what we don't know is how it would help us," Marlene said as she got off of the ground.

"If we yell then someone in the common room is bound to hear us. I'd also bet all the galleons in the world that Frank Longbottom and Sam Wood are both in the common room right now and would be able to open the portrait for us," James said, discreetly smirking at Sirius and Remus. He and Peter had been looking at the Marauder's Map and knew exactly who was in the common room.

"How do you know that it would be them opening the door?" Alice asked, eyeing James.

James shrugged, "Just a hunch. Now, hop to it, I for one would like to change before dinner."

The group began to yell at the closed portrait hole. Sirius even began banging on the empty painting. After a few seconds, the portrait began to move. They all stepped back and saw a very confused Frank standing in front of them.

"Why in Merlin's name are you all screaming like banshees out here?"

Without pausing to explain, the six students scrambled into the portrait hole and up to their dorms, leaving Frank even more confused.

A little while later, Alice and Marlene came back down to the common room and explained their situation to Frank, who couldn't believe that they didn't think to yell for help.

"Well, excuse me for not being a noisy and rude person! I honestly didn't think that the Fat Lady would take so long to come back!" Alice exclaimed defensively. Frank laughed and put his arm around his girlfriend, pulling her closer. Alice pretended to resist, but eventually gave in and kissed Frank sweetly on the cheek.

"You two are nauseating," Marlene said scrunching up her nose. "I'm going to dinner."

Lily had no idea how long she had been laying on the stands, but judging by her growling stomach, it must be close to dinner time. Collecting her things and standing up, Lily began the trek to the Great Hall. She still had no idea what to make of her Amortentia, but decided that dwelling on it would only drive her insane. Well, more insane.

She arrived to dinner a little early, hoping to have a few more moments alone before being bombarded with questions from her friends, but it seems that fate had other plans.

"Where have you been? We were starting to get worried!" Marlene scolded her friend. Lily looked pleadingly at Alice, hoping that she would make Marlene stop.

"Oh no, don't you look at me! I'm a bit peeved at you as well. You smell Amortentia and then practically bolt from the classroom and then you aren't seen for hours? I'm on Marlene's side on this one," Alice said calmly. Lily pouted, she hated being ganged up on.

For the next ten minutes, Lily picked at her food while being lectured by Marlene, who definitely knew how to hit where it hurt. In the beginning, Lily tried to defend herself, but soon realized that her efforts were futile.

Lily noticed that the Marauders hadn't arrived yet; she wondered what they were up to. They were almost never late for a meal. She looked towards the entrance doors and saw Benjy wave at her as he walked in. She smiled and waved back happily, much to Marlene's dismay.

"Stop looking so happy! I'm trying to lecture you! Are you even listening?!" Marlene huffed. She glared at Benjy as he sat down across from her, right next to Lily.

"Hey Alice, hey Marlene; mind if I steal Lily away for a moment?" Benjy asked politely. Marlene scowled.

"Why? What do you want with her? Why can't you just talk to her here? We were kind of in the middle of something," Marlene growled, staring Benjy down. Benjy looked tentatively at Lily, who simply shrugged and went to stand up.

"Well I would hate to interrupt," Marlene scoffed, but Benjy continued, "I was just wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me next week? You know, just as friends, so we can catch up and stuff?" Benjy asked nervously. Lily was taken aback; she was definitely not expecting Benjy to ask her out.

"Oh…uh…okay, sure. Sounds great," Lily said smiling. Benjy's grin widened.

"Brilliant! Well, I'll talk to you girls later! See you later, Lily," Benjy said as he bounced up from his seat next to his new Hogsmeade date. Lily watched him walk back to his friends at the Hufflepuff table and then turned around and saw two very expectant faces.

"What?" Lily said confused.

"Don't you what me. What was that? You and Benjy Fenwick? Since when?" Marlene said.

"We're just going as friends, it doesn't mean anything," Lily replied, wishing she had stayed on the Quidditch Pitch.

"Are you mental? No one goes to Hogsmeade as "just friends" as he so quaintly put it," Marlene said cynically.

Alice tutted. "Well, Marls, if I recall correctly, you yourself have a "just friends" date to Hogsmeade."

"That is so not the point! Black isn't Fenwick. Black hasn't been pining over me for the past three years!" Marlene shouted.

"Aw, poppet, I thought you knew about my undying love for you!" said Sirius Black dramatically from behind Marlene and Alice. Lily hadn't even noticed him and the Marauders arrive. They all sat down next to the girls and began piling food on their plates.

"So, what does me not pining after the lovely Miss McKinnon have to do with anything?" Sirius said through a mouthful of food. The girls grimaced.

"Lily seems to be under the impression that a certain Hufflepuff really only wants to take her to Hogsmeade as "just friends"," Marlene said disbelievingly.

James practically choked on his food as she said this; he gulped at his drink trying to clear his windpipe. "You're going to Hogsmeade with Fenwick?" James cried out accusingly.

"Yes. Is there something wrong with that, James," Lily said, purposely enunciating his name, as if trying to remind him that they are friends and friends don't get jealous.

"Yes there bloody well is—"James began before Sirius swiftly kicked his best friend from under the table and shook his head subtly at him. "I mean, no, nothing wrong. I hope you have a lovely time," he finished through gritted teeth.

The rest of the meal went by relatively normal, although everyone avoided the topic of Hogsmeade and Hufflepuffs for James' sake. The girls finished eating and bade the boys goodnight and they headed up to their dormitory.

James watch Lily walk away, unaware that his friends were all staring at him stare at her. "Oh for the love of Merlin Prongs, why don't you quit your pouting and just go ask her out," Sirius said exasperatedly.

"I've already told you before, we're just friends. I'm not interested in Evans' like that," James said, still staring at where Lily was before she left the hall.

"If you don't fancy Evans then why did you ask her out last term? Hmm? Thought I forgot didn't you Prongsie," Sirius teased. James glared at his friend; he knew that Sirius was talking about after the Defense O.W.L., when Lily had publicly berated and humiliated him.

"I've had enough rejection for one lifetime, thanks," James said, hoping they would change the subject off of him.

"Enough girly talk. We still need to finalize our plans for Moony's next "furry little problem"," Peter pointed out. James gave Peter a grateful smile, who in turn, shrugged his shoulders.

"Right you are Wormtail!" Sirius said standing up. "Well come on! This adventure isn't going to plan itself you know!

"Okay, spill," Marlene said plopping down onto the end of Lily's four-poster bed. Lily groaned, she had hoped that she would be able to get a peaceful night of sleep. As she sat up, both Alice and Mary joined Marlene on her bed.

"You haven't started without us have you?" Mary exclaimed. She had missed most of the events of the day, and was curious to hear all about it.

Lily sighed, she knew it was easier to give in than to resist. So she started from the beginning; Potions class. When she got to the part about her final scent she faltered.

"Well don't stop now! What did you smell?" Alice pressed.

Lily knew that the girls would freak out if she told them the truth, but she didn't want to lie to them. Conflicted, she took the safe approach. "Well…I sort of lied about the wind, although that was part of it…the rest of the smell was most definitely a guy."

All three girls shrieked with excitement. "Do you know who it was?" Mary asked excitedly. Lily nodded her head.

"It was James wasn't it?" Alice said hopefully. Lily opened her mouth, but Marlene cut her off

"Oh don't be daft Alice; Lily would never fancy James that much! I bet it was Benjy, right?"

Lily was torn, she knew lying to her friends was wrong, but she felt that the knowledge of who she smelled in the potion was very personal. She hadn't even really figured out what that means for her yet, and until then she knew she wanted to keep it a secret.

"Uh..yeah, it was Benjy," Lily lied. Alice looked unconvinced, but both Mary and Marlene jumped with excitement. Finally getting what they wanted out of her, the other girls left Lily's bed for their own, except Alice.

"Lily…I know we've only just become close, but I hope you know that I'll support you with whatever it is that you're feeling, and I happen to know that those feelings don't involve Benjy Fenwick," Alice began, Lily tried to protest but Alice silenced her, "Don't worry about it, I won't tell the others. I just wanted you to know that I'm here for you."

Lily smiled gratefully at her friend and said her goodnights to the other roommates. As Lily pulled her curtains shut around her bed, she couldn't help but let her mind wander to the scent of a certain raven haired Quidditch player…

A/N: let me know what you think! I think some people might be a tad confused about James. But in my mind, it goes like this: he loves Lily, but after being so publicly turned down his ego won't allow him to admit that it actually bothered him and that he actually does want to go out with her, so he tries to play it off (not very well) as though it doesn't bother him that she doesn't like him (or so he thinks)