Lily awoke after a peaceful sleep and stretched. It was her first day of classes, and the thought excited her. She wasn't like her giggly friends- she enjoyed class, and, while most of the girls looked forward to boys, she looked forward to books. She slowly got out of bed and walked into the common room, heading for the bathroom, hoping Potter was out...
To her surprise, when she walked into the common room, Potter was sitting on the couch, fully dressed and busily scribbling something down on a pad of paper. "Morning, Evans," he said, grinning. "You've got about ten minutes until Potions."
"What?" she said, staring at him in disbelief. "Well, why didn't you wake me up?"
"That's a violation of what- rule number five? I'm not allowed to go in your room." She gave him an exasperated look.
"Okay, I changed my mind, you're now allowed to walk freely into my room." She ran into the bathroom and slammed the door. Idiot, she thought, even though she didn't really mean it. She hopped in the shower quickly and rinsed off. She wrapped a towel around herself, and flew out of the bathroom, praying that Potter wasn't looking at her. To her relief, he didn't even look up.
She changed quickly and pulled on her robes. She looked at her watch and her heart sank. She was five minutes late for class already. She grabbed her schoolbag and headed out to the common room. Potter was still sitting there.
"We're five minutes late!" she exclaimed, pushing back a stray hair. She had used a drying spell on her hair, and it had left it quite frizzy.
"I know," said James calmly, putting his papers back in his bag.
"Well, why haven't you left yet? And what are you writing? Probably holiday homework, knowing you..." she said, rolling her eyes.
"No, actually, they're Quidditch plans."
"Oh," said Lily feeling quite stupid.
"And we're Head Boy and Head Girl, Evans. I knew you would be late, so I stayed behind so you could have a good excuse for why you're late."
"Oh," said Lily again, and again feeling quite stupid.
Lily followed him out of their dormitory. The halls were empty, and Lily assumed everybody was in class. She began to get worried. "James," she stuttered. "I don't want to get detention for being late..."
"Honestly, Evans, have you ever heard of a Head Girl getting detention?" She, once again, felt quite stupid. He turned around. "Are you hungry?"
Lily, thinking he had brought a muffin back for her from breakfast, nodded. "Okay," said James. He led her towards the opposite direction of the dungeons.
"Wait," said Lily. "Where are we going? I thought you may have just brought me something from breakfast."
"Nope," said James. "I don't eat breakfast. We're going to the kitchens." This made Lily nervous. They were definitely going to be very late for Potions. They walked down a large staircase and headed down a hallway Lily had never known before. James, however, seemed to know exactly where they were going. He led her to a large portrait of a bowl of fruit. James reached out, and tickled the pear.
What the hell is he doing? thought Lily. The portrait swung open, and Lily's eyes grew wide. She realized immediately where they were: The Hogwarts Kitchens. Hundreds of house elves were cooking on giant stoves and slicing vegetables in the dark, dreary kitchens. Four tables were lined up the center, and Lily noted that they were in the same position as the tables upstairs in the great hall.
A tiny elf wearing a tea towel stamped with the Hogwarts crest ran up to James. "Hello, James Potter," it tweaked harmoniously. "What can Leafy get for you?" James turned around and looked at Lily.
"What do you want?" he asked her. Lily couldn't possibly take food from these little elves that probably didn't even get paid. However, the house elf's eager look up at Lily reminded her that she was especially hungry.
"Er, I'll have a muffin, and a glass of orange juice."
"Certainly!" the elf squeaked, and he bolted off to get her muffins.
"James," Lily muttered, moving especially close to him. "I mean, Potter... we're now twenty minutes late... class will be over soon..." She looked up into his deep eyes and realized they were just inches from each other. A bit frightened, she took a step back.
"Okay, okay... as soon as Leafy comes back with your muffin, we'll go. Don't worry, we can just say we were telling a student off or something... trust me, I'll make up a believable excuse," James said, looking quite relaxed. Lily, on the other hand, had never been late for a lesson, and was feeling a bit panicked- could she really trust James Potter?
To her relief, the elf called Leafy soon came back with a blueberry muffin and orange juice. Lily and James left the kitchens and sat on one of the steps at the bottom of the stairs. Lily began to eat, but felt very uncomfortable eating in front of James, who hadn't eaten anything all morning.
"Potter, would you like some of my muffin?" she asked, with a kindness that surprised her. James shook his head and just continued watching Lily eat. "Potter why don't you eat?" she asked him, this time with a gentleness that surprised her.
"I don't know... I guess I just don't like food." Lily cast him a sarcastic glance. "Okay, well, I just need to stay in shape for Quidditch." "Oh James," she said quietly. She finished her muffin and juice and looked at James. "Well, are we going now?" James stood up and offered her a hand to help her up. Lily hesitantly obliged. She tried to refrain from any physical contact with him.
James led her down the long, unfamiliar hallway, until they turned a corner and Lily realized they were down by the dungeons.
"Okay," whispered James. "We're just going to run in, and pretend to be out of breath. Then I'll do the rest... just go along with it, okay?" Lily nodded. They were precisely thirty three minutes late now, but she joined James in jogging down the rest of the hall and into the Potions room. As they entered the entire class turned to look at them. Some, like Sirius, Peter, and Remus, grinned. Others, like Severus Snape, scowled at them. Professor Harrington, the red-haired Potions Master, looked up from his cauldron at the front of the class, which was now omitting blue bubbles.
"Mr. Potter, Miss Evans?" he said sternly. Lily thought she was going to be sick. What would her parents say when they found out she'd been given detention? James however, was perfectly calm, panting slightly, but looking up mercifully at Harrington.
"Oh, Professor," said James, in a voice that made Lily wince. He would never come off as believable, his voice sounded just like he was lying. "Professor, I'm sorry, but we thought we had a meeting with Dumbledore this morning, so we headed over to his office... then it turned out we didn't... oh, and then there was a first year Hufflepuff who was lost, so we needed to take her to one of her classes, except she didn't know which one because she lost her schedule... We're really sorry, professor."
While the entire class could most likely see right through James and tell he was lying, Harrington nodded in forgiveness. "It's all right, Mr. Potter and Miss Evans. I was Head Boy in my day, and oh, what hard work..." he started rambling on about how he had to rescue half the school from a troll. Lily and James took the last two open seats- a table in the very back row.
"Thanks," Lily whispered after they were seated as Harrington continued to ramble. She was quite grateful to have made it into the class without getting a detention. She looked up at James, into his dark hazel eyes. He grinned at her, and then she realized it was James Potter and dropped her gaze... but what if James had changed? He hadn't asked her out once since they arrived, he'd just tried to make peace... he hadn't pulled any pranks during his first night here, which was a first... and Lily couldn't deny the fact that he was gorgeous...

James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all huddled between the narrow aisle of the library that contained books beginning with the letter P.
"So," said Sirius, turning to James after the Marauders had clarified the date of the full moon to be in two weeks. "What's it like, Prongs, to share a room with Lily?"
James shrugged. "I don't know. Most of the time she shuts herself in her room." Sirius had a twinkle in his eye, and James knew some kind of crude comment was coming.
"So, you haven't seen her naked or anything?"
"Sirius!" exclaimed Peter, Remus, and James. But they couldn't help but laugh.
The Marauders each did a bit of their Care of Magical Creatures homework (well, Remus did, the rest of the boys copied his) then headed down to the Great Hall for dinner. Just as they took the stairs down to the Entrance Hall, Peeves the poltergeist lunged at them from one of the walls. He chased them down the hall and into a little room, screaming, and bolted the door shut.
"Damn Peeves," Sirius cursed. They turned around and noticed a greasy haired boy sitting in the corner reading a very old, tattered book. The boy looked up and gave them all cold stares from over his book. The Marauders gave him the same cold, hard stare back, recognizing him as their greatest enemy, Severus Snape.
"Hello, Snivellus," James sneered. "Expelliarmus." Snape's dark wand flew out from inside his robes. Sirius leapt up and caught it. James walked toward Snape and picked up the book he was reading. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the title: The Dark Arts: Learning Their Uses and How to Use Them. James tapped the book with his wand, and the book burst into flames and suddenly disappeared. At this Snape leapt up and started muttering curses James recognized as the unforgivable curses. James grew red hot in anger and shot out red sparks from his wand, hitting Snape square in the chest.
The Marauders were forced to break down the door because apparently passerbys couldn't hear the loud banging of them from the other side. As soon as they got out, Sirius looked at his watch and groaned- they'd missed dinner. Remus, Peter, and Sirius flew down the stairs towards the kitchen, while James decided to skip dinner, and he retired to his private common room.
He started to jot down some of his Care of Magical Creatures homework. It was difficult; the assignment asked for the uses of five different creatures. He was also unable to concentrate- where was Lily? He wished desperately for her to just come back to the common room, just so he could see her...
After what seemed like hours, the door to the tiny hallway flung open to reveal Lily. "Hello, Potter," she said, with a tired expression on her face. She sat down on one of the couches near the fire and took out some parchment and a quill and began to do homework. After about ten minutes, of silence, James distinctly heard an unusual sniffle. He looked up and saw, from the firelight emitting from the dancing flames, a single tear reflecting off of her pale skin. James pretended not to notice and returned to his work, finding it even harder to concentrate. After a few more moments, the sniffling became more pronounced, however. James tried not to notice, but soon the sniffles broke out into earsplitting sobs, and James had to take heed.
"What's wrong, Lily?" he said gently, trying to caress her with his gentle voice.
"Nothing," she said, sobbing even louder. James decided to make a daring move- a move that he was sure he would be slapped for, but under the circumstances... He strode over and took a seat beside her, and patted her back gently.
"Lily, it's okay... what happened?" There was no answer, and James assumed she didn't want to answer- her head was in her hands, and James couldn't see her face. But after what seemed like ages, Lily looked up at James with tear stained cheeks. James noted that, even with a red flush and wet eyes, she was still beautiful.
"They all spent the entire summer together," she said, in between sniffles, not dropping James's gaze. "All of them... but I wasn't invited. Oh, James..." she said, throwing her arms around James's neck and sobbing into his shoulder. "Nobody likes me! No one!"
James, who was slightly startled at the thought of the object of his affections that seemed to hate him with the deepest loathing was now clutching his neck literally using him for support, begged to differ. "That's not true," he said softly. "I like you." She took her head off his shoulder and looked back up at him, still hugging him. "Much more than any of those other Gryffindor girls..." he continued. "None of them are as gorgeous, smart, and thoughtful as you are." He felt like this was something a father might say in one of those moments when his daughter was feeling extremely insecure. However, what Lily did next made his paternal feelings completely drain.

True, she was feeling like crap... after all, it was a rude awakening to find out your only friends had all frequently visited each other and decided to exclude you. Lily really did consider these girls her only friends... and if they didn't like her, no one really did. Except, as James had just reminded her, he liked her...
Lily was not aware of beginning to kiss James. She simply looked up into those gorgeous dark eyes and planted her lips on his. She new he was startled; she supposed she would be too. But a windswept confidence suddenly took over her, and as she deepened the kiss, she felt James beginning to kiss back. James was very gentle, she could tell, but Lily didn't care about being gentle. She threw in a fiery intension that danced around James's mouth, especially when she began to throw in her tongue. At this James began to pull away. Desperate for attention, she tightened her arms around his neck, but he broke through her grip easily, and stood up breathless. Lily looked up, feeling slightly angry, but her heart sank as she stared up at James, who was looking slightly hurt.
"Lily..." he started searching for words. "Why do you do this to me? I know you'll get up tomorrow, still hating me, and trying to forget all about... well, all about this." He turned and left to his room, shutting the door tightly behind him.
Lily felt her eyes gain heat, and began to feel torrid tears sweep down her cheeks. Now James didn't even like her...


A/N: Well, I hope you like it so far. Sorry this chapter was a bit short... Please review! More on the way! Oh, and just a little side note: Lily's friend Alice (who is dating Frank) is Neville's mother. You'll be seeing much more of her soon. One last thing: I'm writing another fic, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Army. It's a novel length fic about Harry's sixth year, with some Ron/Hermione and an on/off relationship with Harry and Cho, then Harry finding someone else... there's also a lot of Voldemort things in there too. Please check it out! It's listed under Harry/Voldemort, so not many people have read it.