"Hey People!" James came in and sat down beside Sirius. He saw Peter and Remus sitting on the opposite couch looking utterly bored. This became clear when James saw Sirius talking to them.

"… and so I told him that Merlin's beard was just as long as his and that he was Merlin. He just chuckled and told me that I was kind but I insisted. I also told him that his intelligence and magical abilities proved that he was Merlin incarnated. Then he told me that he was not Buddhist and he was in fact…" James had enough.

"Sirius shut up" James said bluntly. Peter and Remus thanked him. Sirius just look mortified.

"Prongsy! Hello my dear boy, now you missed my little run in with Dumbledore. You see I was going down to the kitchens wanting to nick some food and I met him coming down the other staircase. Of course I had to tell him I was looking for you because you know students aren't allowed to go to the kitchens, I also told him that it was still ten minutes before curfew and that I was allowed to be out and about. So anyway he joined me to start looking for you and we got into a conversation…" James shook his head while Remus and Peter regained their bored position.

"Sirius, quite frankly I don't want to know." He said again in a blunt voice. Sirius huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Fine, be mean. See if I ever talk to you again." James smiled. His best friend was joking, he never managed to stay quiet for more than five minutes.

"So Prongs, what's up with you?" Remus asked.

"Well while I was doing rounds, Evans and I split up to search different corridors. Five minutes hadn't passed and I heard someone shout 'help'. I ran to the person and saw that it was Lily. I tried to wake her but she wouldn't. So I took her to the Hospital wing. Apparently she gets migraines and faints on occasion from the pain. So I left her there. She should be out and about by tomorrow." James finished telling them about his night when Maeve Smith, Lily's best friend, shot out of nowhere.

"In the hospital wing you say Potter?" James looked around wildly and found her sitting in a chair in the corner.

"Yeah. Who are you?" Maeve reddened at this.

"I'm Maeve, Lily's best friend?" James looked at her. She had purple hair and an athletic body. She looked familiar but he couldn't place her.

"Um… yeah… she's fine though. Nothing serious."

"All the same, I should go visit her." Maeve got up and went to the portrait hole. She disappeared behind it.

"What did she say her name was?" Sirius asked James.

"Maeve Smith. I think I know her…" Sirius paled at the sight of her name.

"Damn! She's the girl I dated in fourth year. Remember? I dumped her kind of badly, well really she found me kissing another girl. Oops." His friends sighed at him. They remembered that break-up. They didn't speak to him for a week. Sirius had learnt his lesson but Maeve never spoke to him again. She was weird girl. Sirius had ended up with green boils and red skin with blue nails and yellow body hair. When Professor McGonagall asked for an explanation for her behaviour she merely just stated that 'Black is showing his school spirit'. Professor McGonagall hadn't given her detention nor taken away any points; she did in fact give her ten points for making her smile for the first time that day. Sirius raved on about how she got away and how Maeve must have put on the 'Imperius' curse on her. Remus and James shut him up, after and hour of hearing him rant on non-stop, with the 'Silencio' spell.

"Damn she's still as hot as ever" Sirius remained quiet for the rest of night, which was very not like him while Remus and James played chess.

The next morning James got up early because he had a nightmare. His was playing a Quidditch match against Slytherin and his broom had suddenly turned into a jelly broom and he fell from a height of fifty feet. He put on his school robe, took down one of his favourite books and sat down on a couch to read. He wasn't reading very long when the portrait opened. Lily came in showered and dressed.

"Hey Evans." Lily looked at him and came over. She sat down opposite him.

"Hey Potter." She looked down at her lap.

"How're you feeling?" James asked.

"I'm fine."

"So, um…" Lily cut him off.

"James, thanks for taking me to the hospital wing. I shudder to think if some Slytherin found me first." James smiled inwardly, she had called him James.

"Oh no problem. As long as you're fine I'm happy. Look, I kinda told my friends what happened. Hope you aren't too mad." Lily shook her head.

"Bye James" and she went towards the stairs. James couldn't hold himself. He twisted his body so he faced Lily.

"You called me James." He stated. She halted on the first step and smiled at him. It wasn't a forced smile and it wasn't a watery smile. It was a genuine Lily Evans smile.

"Well it is your name." She said.

"Ok. See you later, Lily." James smiled back. Lily, still smiling, sent him a questioning look. James looked at her all innocent. "It is your name? Isn't it?" Lily laughed and she went up the stairs. James punched the air.

"One point for James Potter!" Lily heard him from the top and smiled to herself.

He might be babyish but that's so cute what he did.

Lily flung the door open.

"WAKEY WAKEY EVERYONE!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. Small timid faces looked over the blankets. Lily froze, she had gone into the wrong dormitory. The first years looked at the head-girl with a perplexed look on their faces.

"Uh… sorry… I would have told you that you can sleep but unfortunately you can't. Again sorry for disturbing you." She closed the door and let out her breath. This time she made sure that it was her dormitory and kicked the door open.

"Rise and shine girls!" She flung open the curtains and the circular room flooded with sunlight.

"Lily!" four voices were heard. But where was the fifth.

"Maeve! Where are you?" Lily went to her best friends' bed and saw that Maeve was still asleep. 'She could sleep through a hurricane', Lily had said many times.

"Maeve! Wake up!" Lily shook Maeve violently. She screamed in her ear, took off her covers and yet Maeve remained asleep. Lily threw cold water on her; Maeve though still remained asleep and pulled her blanket out of Lily's hand.

"This calls for desperate measures." Lily murmured. They only had three more minutes until breakfast started and thirty-three minutes until class started. Lily grabbed her friend by the ankles and tugged. She dragged her friend until Maeve was a heap on the floor.

"Maeve Smith if you do not wake this instant I will call Sirius Black up here." Lily hissed in her ear. Maeve bolted up banging her head with Lily's head.

"Ow! Now get dressed we have two minutes left." Maeve saluted Lily.

"I have to shower though." Maeve ran into the bathroom and locked it before Lily could get angry at her. A minute later Maeve was out and showered.

"So fast?" Lily raised and eyebrow.

"I had a little help" Maeve said tying her hear in ponytail. "Come on let's go! We're going to be late!" Lily sighed but nevertheless she took her book bag and ran after Maeve.

"Hey Lily, sit here!" James said patting the seat next to him. Lily and Maeve groaned because the only remaining seats were near James and near Sirius.

"Out of the whole Gryffindor table the remaining seats have to be near them." Maeve groaned.

"Well if you woke up on time." Lily scolded.

"You could have used the method I woke up with before torturing me while sleeping." Maeve took the seat near James and opposite Sirius. Lily sat opposite James, near Sirius.

"So, how come you're late?" James asked with his mouth full.

"Maeve here is very hard to wake up." Lily answered buttering her toast. Maeve grunted.

"So, Smith, did you do Defence Against the Dark Arts homework?" Remus asked Maeve.

"My name is Maeve and yes I did do it. Why?" Remus looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing, I just wanted to make a conversation." After a while he added, "Maeve" Maeve smiled as she bit into her toast.

Half an hour later they were all seated in their classroom. Lily looked into her book bag and saw a book glowing green. She opened it as not to attract people to look at it. Maeve sat next to her yawning. Three desks behind her sat James and Sirius, who was staring at Maeve.

Hey baboon

Hey! You in DADA now?

Yeah

Lily looked around to see a boy writing in a book but everyone was paying attention to what the teacher was saying.

Don't try to look for me, cause if you do I'll never talk to you again.

Lily didn't look up again because her mystery man was important to her.

Pay attention as well, this is an important lesson.

So what? It's all about the unforgivable curses. I know them all

You do?

Yeah. An old buddy of mine taught them to me. We practised on mosquitoes.

That's horrible! Severus taught them to you right?

Yes he did. What's so horrible about that?

The 'Crucio' curse? It should never be used. The Imperius curse is just as bad and Avada Kedavra, don't even get me started.

You seem passionate about what you're saying.

Yes I do. That was a horrible thing, what you did. What did the mosquitoes ever do to you?

I was just learning

Well sometimes theory should stay theory and should not be practical.

I'm sorry

Whatever. I have to pay attention. Bye.

Hello?

(Five minutes later) You can't keep ignoring me for ever you know. It's rude.

They didn't speak for the rest of the lesson. Lily paid attention and James was lost in thought. Class finished and the students filed out to go to their next class.

"James?" James turned to the source of the voice. It was Lily. He continued walking but at a slower pace. Lily soon elbowed her way and caught up with him.

"James!" She said again.

"Yes?" Lily looked at him weirdly. Usually he greeted her in a friendly way. Maybe it was the impact of the class. No one felt good when they saw what the spells did to the spiders.

"We have a head meeting today. Seven o'clock in Dumbledore's office." James nodded and left without saying a goodbye. Lily stopped and waited for Maeve to elbow her way through so she could catch up with her. She told Maeve of James' weird mood. Maeve just said it was probably his day of the month. They went to their next class, Transfiguration. She opened her book bag and saw the book glowing green.

Sorry

For what?

For, you know, ignoring you

That's ok

So how are you?

Well now I'm fine. The weirdest thing happened today though. I was coming out of class and told Potter that we had a meeting and he answered so curtly. Wow.

He hurt you

No!

I didn't mean physically

No, not in that way either. It was odd. So how are YOU?

ME is fine ;p

Hehe. Can I ask something?

Fire Away

Why where you so… like that with the curses?

Well my dad was once tortured with that spell. He was in Bulgaria on honeymoon with my mum and you know Grindelwald was big then he, well his supporters, tortured them. They didn't like foreigners you see. They had a tough time having a kid. That's why I'm an only kid.

Poor you! I'm soo sorry. If you want a sister I can always trade ;)

Petunia? From what you told me she's a nightmare.

She is! Merlin, she's so annoying!

Ok change subject. You should be paying attention you know.

I can always ask you for help ;p

Plus I read about this and tried the spell upstairs. I was bored

You nerd! You study the spells

Thanks for the nerd, real charmer

Sorry, I mean, you practise the spells in your free time?

I get bored easily and it takes such a long time for my owl to bring me back muggle books from my parents.

Your owl… Isn't it black?

Yeah, I was practising a spell and it went wrong… poor Bludger

Bludger?

Yeah, he's small and black and really annoying. Like a bludger

Haha!

Don't laugh, poor Bludger. He didn't see what was coming to him.

Haha!! I can't stop laughing. (James was going red in the face as not to laugh in the middle of Professor McGonagall's speech.)

Can't hear anything

I'm going red 'cause I want to burst out laughing but then McGonagall will kill me

The bell rang and Lily closed the book. She packed her things and followed Maeve out the classroom.

"I'm hungry." Maeve said patting her stomach.

"So am I. Let's go see what's for lunch" They entered the Great Hall. Lunch was served. Maeve attacked the mashed potatoes and chicken.

"Eat much?" Said a new voice. Maeve looked up and saw Sirius Black standing above them ready to sit.

"Get lost Black." Maeve said with her mouth full. Sirius tutted and sat down next to her.

"It's a free world Smith." Sirius piled his plate sky high with food. Lily lost her appetite.

"Hey people!" James said happily as he sat down on Maeve's other side.

"Hey James." They heard a fork colliding with a plate.

"James?" Sirius said spraying Lily with mashed potatoes.

"Yeah, I decided to be civil to him." Lily said smiling. James smiled back. A nagging feeling in Lily's head was trying to tell her something. His smile was familiar and so was his voice. Lily shrugged the feeling and started a conversation with James.

"So, how's the Quidditch practise coming along?"

"Fine, we have two new chasers since Kooks and Poles left. They're really good and I've got big hopes for the team."

"Oh, how about the seeker. I think you should change him."

"Bam, why?"

"Well he's always showing off what a good seeker he is, even though he's not. And he's bragging how he's the captains' favourite."

"Believe me. Bam is not my favourite. We do have to change him. Yesterday he threw the Quaffle and broke my nose. All because I told him he had to catch the snitch this time."

"And last time he threw the Quaffle real hard and gave Grey a black eye."

"You were watching?" James asked, his fork halfway through his mouth.

"Yes I do. I like to take a walk in the night." Lily tore off a piece of bread and shoved it in her mouth.

"Ah so what do you think of my team?"

"It's really good. Grey is an awesome Beater. He has good aim and a strong hit. Bloor has excellent aim but he needs to work on his hitting. He's good but with an aim like that he could go for a national team. Told you what I thought of Bam." James looked impressed at Lily's observation.

"That's really good. I'll tell them what you said." Lily smiled at him and ate more bread.

"Oh by the way on my night walks I see the Slytherin team practise. They're getting really good but their strategy is all violence. They'll want to knock you off your brooms. They think it's better to play against no one and win. So be careful. Their Beater, Pykes, has horrible aim but it's dangerous 'cause he hits really hard and could injure someone you don't want injured. Their captain yells at them and makes them work a lot so maybe on the day of the game they'll be tired out." Lily shoved some chicken in her mouth.

"I'll keep that in mind." James said grinning. He was glad he had an actually conversation with Lily as James not as her 'mystery man'. He ate until he was full. He looked at his best friend sitting next to Maeve. He didn't look very happy. He was trying to make conversation with her but she kept ignoring him. Once she cleared her plate she got up, without a word, put her bag strap on her should, without a word, and left the Grat Hall, without a word. Lily looked at her best friend and her half empty plate. She looked at her friend and sighed. She picked up her bag and followed her but first she turned to James and said,

"See you tonight for the Heads meeting." James nodded and filled in Maeve's empty chair. He looked at his friend.

"I dunno what I should now. I said I was sorry a thousand times but she still won't listen to me. What can I do. Prongs I think I like her." With his last sentence he looked at James. His black eyes were wide and darker than usual.

"Padfoot…" Sirius continued as if James hadn't spoken.

"She listened to me when I told her about my parents. She comforted me and told me about her parents. We talked so much. She wasn't like my other girlfriends." Sirius took fork and started playing absent-mindedly without taking heed to what he was doing. James looked at him not knowing what to say. Sirius got up suddenly and left the Great Hall as well. James sighed and followed him.

"Padfoot! Wait up!" Sirius hadn't heard him because he continued to walk. They waited outside the potions room until Professor Slughorn came.

Class ended and so had the good weather. The sunny sky was filled with angry clouds. Despite the horrible weather there was a Quidditch practise going on. James was yelling over the rain.

"Maybe if you hadn't made us practise at eight o'clock in the bloody evening!" Bam yelled at him. James flew to him

"Look here, Bam. I want to see the trophy with our name on it. It's my last year so if you don't like my strategy you know where the door is. If you want to stay you hear me and you obey me. Do you read me?" James said fiercely to his seeker. His seeker nodded without uttering a sound. The team practised until James was satisfied.

"Well done team. Now work on the things I told you and get some rest. Tomorrow we're kicking some Slytherin butt!" The team cheered. Everyone flew inside. James stayed a bit flying before he noticed someone walking. He flew and saw that it was Lily. He flew in front of her and stationed himself a few centimetres away from her.

"Hey Lily" He smiled. Lily looked up and crashed into James.

"Oh, hey James." She smiled back.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine, taking my walk as usual. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Hey you want a ride on my broom?" Lily looked at him curiously. It hit her. James had the same broom. His smile, his voice.

James is my mystery man. I can't believe it. The broom is the same. His smile has the same warmth.

"Uh…. Lily?" James asked. Lily shook herself out of her trance.

"Wha- Yeah. Sure. Just don't go too fast." James smiled at her.

"Hold tight." Lily obeyed and James kicked hard off the ground. He did loops and swerved dangerously.

"James?" Lily pleaded.

"What's wrong?" James turned and smiled at the pale Lily. Lily hid her head in his back. James laughed. Her grip was getting tighter and tighter. They rode for half an hour until it was curfew time. James descended and they both got off. Lily was holding on James' shoulder until she could stand on her own two feet. She turned and faced him, her eyes flashing with anger.

"It was you!" She screamed.