Lily awoke to an alarm going off. It was her wireless, going off exactly when she'd charmed it to. She pointed her wand at it, and it went silent. She was rather good at nonverbal spells now, having started them with Sev in their fourth year. She swallowed; why did she always do that? It still hurt to think about Sev. He'd been her best friend for years, and apparently none of that really mattered in the end. She was a mudblood. The word itself wasn't particularly offensive to her because she hadn't grown up with the term, but Alice nearly cursed Sev into oblivion when he'd shouted it at her. She shook herself mentally. She didn't want to think about him this early in the morning. It tended to put a whole damper on her day.

She got up and started dressing for school. She pulled her PJ shirt over her head and heard a wolf-whistle. She laughed and turned to her friend, Mary.

"You like that, Mary?" Lily joked.

"Oh yeah I would if you weren't the one weirdo in Gryffindor who sleeps with a bra on" Mary teased back.

"So I'm not the only one who finds it comfortable in Hogwarts, then? Just Gryffindor?"

"I heard Eunice Bates sleeps fully clothed"

"I don't even want to hear where you get your information" laughed Lily.

She continued dressing, and waited on Mary to finish putting her make-up on. Lily only liked to wear minimal make-up. Too much and she thought she looked rather tart-ish. She glanced over at Alice, wondering if they should wake her. Alice never liked eating breakfast, saying that anything she digested before noon upset her stomach. Lily shrugged off the idea, and walked with Mary to the common-room.

Of course Potter would be there. Lily and her friends were seemingly never thirty feet away from Potter and his obnoxious band. Lily didn't know how Sirius and the group could stand being corralled constantly around Lily's schedule. It must get irritating. Though she was pondering about the groups' habits, she didn't let them know it. She constantly abused the ability girls had to look without really looking. Though ashamed to admit it, she mostly looked at Potter.

Obnoxious and loud and callous though he was, he was amazing to look at. He had eyes of flecked hazel, just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-I-know-it-and-don't-care hair that looked godly when he wasn't being bigheaded and messing it up, muscle-tone that just barely showed through his robes, and he was tall and broad-shouldered. It was so unfair that he had the personality of a toe-rag.

"Morning Evans! Love the hair" Sirius called out to her.

Lily's hand automatically jumped to her hair, which to her horror, she'd forgotten to take a brush to. Her mouth went into a scowl while Mary dug in her bag to retrieve a brush. She quickly combed through it until it felt as sleek and shiny as her hair was normally; not frizzy and mussed up like it was every time it didn't see a brush for an hour.

"I like it either way" said Potter as Lily started walking toward the portrait-hole.

"I bet you like seeing girls' hair messed up, Prongs!" Lily heard Sirius crack before she closed the portrait behind her.

Lily was almost through done eating when her meal was unceremoniously interrupted. The four morons decided to grace her with their presence. She was about to get up and leave the table and just get a heavy lunch, but Mary shot her a look from across the table that told Lily she was more than content to stay put. Lily found this peculiar until she saw Mary's eyes dart over to Sirius' lounging figure two seats down.

She sighed inwardly; she guessed she could endure a few minutes of Potter's endless hormones so that Mary could maybe make a move on the infamous Padfoot. Lord knew she'd fancied him for ages, and he might have been as incredibly handsome as Potter if he wasn't literally stuffing his face with everything he could reach. Lily snorted. It wasn't like she meant to, but he was funny…sometimes. Potter, who of course chose the seat right next to her, noticed, and goggled at her.

"Holy Mother, Evans actually laughed. Like. Really laughed" he said, almost in awe.

That touched a nerve. She could laugh! He shouldn't say it like he was amazed she even had the ability! Surely he'd seen her genuinely laugh before. He must have, having followed her around like a sad puppy-dog most of this year and last.

"Hey, I can laugh. I only laugh when things are funny, though" she said sniffily.

"I know, and you have a great laugh, but I've just never heard you laugh at something one of us did"

"I never saw you do anything funny" she retorted.

"Look at Lily the smoking gun" laughed Remus as Sirius and Peter oooohhhhh'd dramatically.

"I'm funny!" said James, half laughing, half defensive.

"Of course you are, Prongsie" said Sirius as he reached over and patted James on the cheek.

"Ah, Padfoot, don't call me 'Prongsie' in front of Evans"

"Can I call you Prongsie?" laughed Lily.

"You can call me anything you want, baby"

"Potter is fine for now. Or 'big-head'. I like 'big-head'" Lily said after pretend-deliberating for a moment. Potter's friends laughed.

"Don't worry, my sweet little dumpling, she'll call you Prongsie one day" teased Sirius in a girly voice. This cued banter between James and Sirius, not unlike the banter she and Mary had done this morning with the shirt.

"You owe me ten galleons from third year, Lily" laughed Mary as James and Sirius started play-wrestling over the table.

"How so, Evans?" asked James slightly breathlessly, as Sirius had his throat in his hand.

"Oh, nothing, nothing. It's just, we made a bet that you two would turn gay for each other eventually" said Mary casually, but with strained laughter under her calm.

"What?" they both yelped at the same time.

"We don't swing that way - " began James.

"But if we did - " Sirius continued.

"Then he'd be all I ever needed" they said together in sing-song voices.

Lily and Mary were laughing with Peter and Remus. Lily couldn't remember ever having a breakfast like this, where she actually kind of enjoyed this lot's company. At least it made for a funny breakfast. Potter wasn't asking her out, for once. The group ate in silence for a moment or so. Or rather, the girls finished their food while the boys stuffed their tasters with everything they could fit in them. Lily noticed a lot of students looking at them rather strangely.

It was true that she and James never really ate together, or even sat down peaceably near each other, and she could see why that would be a bit odd that they were doing so now, but what was with all the staring, really? While looking around, she caught the eye of somebody who she'd never thought she'd make eye-contact with again. Sev.

She felt her expression turn to that of a relaxed sort of smirk to an expressionless mask. He was staring at her with intensity, like he was trying to communicate something to her with his eyes alone. She didn't even try to read it, but turned her head away. Unfortunately, she'd unthinkingly turned it in Potter's direction. He looked up from his plate and at her face, which was no longer expressionless. She could feel the hurt spread across her features. She saw out of the corner of her eye that he looked up and around, and heard his tight inhalation. She felt Potter's body move, and then his arm was around her shoulders, rubbing the top of her arm. She straightened up immediately.

"Potter - " she began angrily.

"Sorry, Evans," he began roughly (he was having trouble swallowing his mouthful of muffin) as he withdrew his arm, "but Snivellus is a creep. He didn't deserve to be your friend, and you didn't deserve anything he said to you"

"That was…nice of you to say, Potter. I…thanks" she finished lamely.

"Only telling you the truth" he said quietly, having cleared his mouth. Just then the bells sounded and it was time for the first class of the day, Double Potions with Slytherin. The student body flooded the halls, crowding every hallway. Lily was technically walking with Potter and his friends, but she didn't really want to think about what people would think about that. Just because they were friendly for one meal didn't make them friends, right? She was trying to maneuver her way through the halls, when she grabbed Mary's hand. This was custom, because Lily was slightly shorter and could wind her way through crowds better, so she always lead the way. She got all the way down to the Potions hall when she let go and glanced behind her.

"Potter!" she yelped, clutching her hand to her chest like he'd burned it.

"What? You grabbed my hand!" he countered.

"You could have let go!" she whined.

"Why would I? I like you" he said pointedly. Lily grumbled, and turned away from Potter right as she saw Mary and Potter's friends emerging from the fray into the more-deserted hall.

"Thumbs up, my man" Sirius said as he held up his hand for a high-five. Potter shook his head at him and shot him a look. Lily turned around to get in line for class and wait for Alice. For the second time today, she locked eyes with her out-of-earshot former best friend. But this time, she understood the look he was giving her. The look on his face was pure agony. Unadorned and plain.

"Why is Snivelly looking at us like that?" Mary piped up. Lily's friends had passionately taken on Sev's more common nickname after he'd bashed her publicly fifth year.

"What's up Snivellus?" shouted Potter.

"Potter!" she hissed, but he paid her no mind.

Sev pulled out his wand because years of torment from Potter and his friends had taught him well. Uncharacteristically, though, Potter made no such move, though Sirius did, stepping in front of Mary as his did so. The crowd got quiet as they watched the scene unfold.

"Anything you want to say to my new pal, Lily?" Potter taunted. A look passed over Sev's features where it looked like he really did want to say something, but Lily saw the look Muliciber and Avery gave him.

"I have nothing to say to it. It doesn't concern me" he said in a defeated voice.

"Good, because if you ever hurt her again I'm going to have to hex you into next Thursday" Potter said menacingly.

"Oh, now I'm scared. Now that I've offended Potter's favorite slut by looking at her, I'm sure to be in trouble!" Sev said mockingly.

Potter drew his wand with a flourish, and Snape tensed, prepared for the sure-to-come onslaught. Sirius backed down, but clearly kept his eye on Muliciber and Avery. Lily's thoughts were scattered. Mary was looking like she could throttle Sev and enjoy it. Sirius looked entertained but angry at the same time. The crowd was tittering and ooohing softly, the air thick with excitement over the coming duel. Lily looked at Potter's face, finally. He looked…frightening. She shivered slightly at his demeanor; she'd never seen him look so angry, even when Sev had called her a mudblood last year. He was shocked, then. But he was purely angry now, his glasses flashing white in the light of the torches.

"You don't ever, ever, call her that again" he said softly, menacingly. He began to raise his wand as Sev raised his.

"James" she whispered. She reached out and grabbed his arm just above his elbow, tugging him toward her, stepping between him and Sev as she did so. Shock was what probably caused him to falter. His mouth popped open and he looked down at her, now that they were less than a foot apart. But Lily turned to face Sev before he could take advantage of Potter's distraction.

"Listen, Snivelly, I don't ever want to see you look at me again. I don't even want to hear your voice ever again. I don't even want to be in the same classroom with you, but unfortunately that's required. Now shove it, you pathetic toe-rag" she snarled as she swiped her wand once. A cut appeared just between his shoulder and his collar-bone. It wasn't deep, as it was a spell used to chop vegetables, but it was still humiliating and worked well enough, she thought.

"And thanks for teaching me nonverbals" she snorted, "they work like a charm".

The shock on his face was quite worth it. She knew she shouldn't relish in his anguish, but if he was going to keep taunting her why not throw some back?

"Come on, James, let's go to class" she commanded loudly, wanting to be out of the central focus, to not be the one everybody was gawking at. Was Potter's whole life like this? Is that why he seemed so used to being in the middle of everything?

And with that she grabbed him by the arm and practically dragged him to class. His mouth was still open, as were Mary's and Potter's friends. Lily suppressed a laugh; like she couldn't dole out the pain. She sat down in her usual spot in the front, expecting Mary to take the seat next to her. Mary was her usual Potions partner, and Frank was Alice's. So she was kind of surprised, but then again not really, when Sirius caught a look from Potter and literally tugged her away to his normal back-of-the-classroom station and Potter took Mary's spot instead.

Slowly the rest of the students filed in, most either whispering about what just happened or laughing about it. Potter was still quiet, and still gawking at her. Luckily though, he'd closed his mouth.

"What?" she asked somewhat impatiently.

"You totally just handed it to Snivelly!" he said in an amazed tone.

"Yeah, and? I don't need boys to look after me all the time, you know. I'm a big, tough girl. I tie my own shoes and everything" Lily responded in a teasing tone.

"Oh, well, I know that you can, err, well, take care of things, but he had no right – completely out of line – I mean, like I wouldn't say anything - "

Lily snorted.

"I get it, Potter. You were trying to be gallant"

"Whoa, wait. Potter? I thought I was promoted to James now"

"Well. Err. You called me by my name! Why wouldn't I call you by yours? But now that that's over, we can switch back to surnames. Temporary switches are…fine from time to time. Depending on the situation" Lily stammered.

"Oh no, Lily, I like the terms we're on now"

"What, so one slip-up and it's a done deal?"

"Why is it such a big deal? It's just our names" Potter said in a slightly surly tone.

"Friends call each other by first names" she tried to explain.

"Well, friends or not, no take-backsies" Potter said cooly.

There was an awkward moment where Lily really didn't know what to say. The reason she hadn't wanted Potter calling her by her name was because he used to come up with the most obnoxious, though generic, nicknames for her. If she wanted to go around being called 'Lilykins', she'd have stitched that name into her robes and bag instead of plain 'Lily'. That, and she was so used to calling him 'Potter'. She'd never bothered to call him by his first name; she'd continually mess up even if they did go back to first names.

The door to the dungeon opened, and a very tired-looking Alice stumbled into the room. She slowed when she saw who Lily's partner was, and threw Lily a 'what in the bloody hell?' kind of look. Lily shrugged, and looked at the desk.

The Professor Slughorn came ambling in shortly after, late as usual. He smiled at Lily, and raised a brow at Potter, but did nothing more. He started with the lesson, which was supposed to teach one how to brew antidotes without having a book nearby based on the ingredients in the poison, given one could recognize them. Lily had already practiced this over the summer, having bought her sixth-year Potions book halfway through fifth year. Potter, on the other hand, was stumped.

Potter understood the working backwards from the ingredients, but his weakness was his recognition. Lily identified the antidote about five minutes in, and tried to help Potter for the rest of the hour and fifty minutes.

"James, we've gone over this four times. That pepperminty smell really isn't peppermint, it's actually just the soapwart reacting with the boomslang skin. Very tricky to smell out, but once you remember that unless you're using it in a Euphoria Inducer, peppermint won't ever smell like peppermint"

She looked up at Potter's face to see if he got it, but he was looking at her with a smile on his face.

"What?"

"You called me James"

Lily exhaled impatiently.

"Was that all you got out of that? Dammit Potter you'd better pay attention. I won't always be your partner!"

"Didn't anybody ever tell you that 'damn' is a naughty word, my little flower?"

"I – what?"

"It's bad, Lily-Pad" he smirked.

Lily stared at him for a moment. He just told her the same thing that the apparition last night had said. She felt her intuition roar into being.

"Well if you don't learn this procedure then you'll never learn this procedure" she said slowly, repeating herself on purpose.

"You need to work on your redundancy issues, Lily" Potter said, still smirking at the desk.

"How did you hear that conversation, Potter?" she demanded, feeling embarrassed for really no reason at all.

"Ah, Lils, why would I go and tell you that?"

"Potter, for the last time, don't call me by any nicknames!"

"Don't call me Potter, then. For every surname you use, I use a nickname" he said seriously, but with a hint of actual emotion lingering behind.

Lily sat, stumped. Then, a conclusion dawned on her.

"It hurts your feelings when I use your surname, doesn't it?" she asked tauntingly.

"N-no, not exactly. That's not really what I'd - "

"It hurts your feelings when I don't call you James?" she asked, incredulous.

"It doesn't hurt my feelings! I just…I just really like it when you call me James. Makes me feel like I'm…like I'm making progress" he responded quietly and quickly.

They looked at each other for a good few minutes, the air growing thicker and thicker with tension. Lily honestly couldn't tell him whether he was wrong or not. It was when Lily realized that they were sitting with their knees an inch apart that a blush rose to her face, cuing one of Potter's. They both turned forcefully away from each other at the same time.

"Uhm, right. Anyway, the conversation?" she asked the desk, like it might know the answer.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Potter told the ceiling, "but it doesn't matter right now".

In light of the current situation, Lily was prepared to let it go for now. She sighed, and was about to try to question Potter about the assignment, when the bell sounded, signaling a half-hour break until her next class. Both teenagers pushed away from the desk like it had done them a personal wrong. The both tried to head in the same direction, but ended up cutting each other off. Lily looked up at Potter, and Merlin's Pants he was tall!

"See you at lunch"

"Yeah…er, see you…James"

"Later, Lily" he smiled at her.

And with that she watched him nearly run to his friends who were waiting for him in the hall. She watched them ask him about a million questions at once, though she couldn't hear what they were asking, and saw him start to speak. And then they walked away.

She shook her head; was she really watching Potter go? What was the world coming to? She turned to find Mary and Alice, and saw them huddled in the back of the room. Alice looked up from a hunched-over Mary, said something to her, and strode over up to the front of the classroom to speak to Lily.

"Ok, Lily, you're going to have to spill in Charms later about what just happened there, but I think we need to get Mary to the dormitory ASAP"

"Didn't she tell you the grand event that was today?" asked Lily, slightly irritated.

"Well no, as she started crying the minute Sirius left class"

"Oh, no…not today"

"Oh yes, today. She apparently asked him out to Hogsmeade, and he said no"

Lily had had enough for one day, and it wasn't even 10:30. First Potter not being a complete waste of time, then Snape randomly returning in a hurtful way to her life, and now no Mary and Sirius? It's not like Mary hadn't been hoping for that for months.

She groaned, and told Alice to mop up Mary and skip Charms if she needed. When Alice asked where she was going, she replied:

"I'm going to have a nice conversation with that stupid Padfoot"