One sunny day after Transfiguration, James packed up his books and headed outside to do his homework. He was alone; Sirius and Peter were in detention, and Remus was in the library. Normally James would have joined Sirius and Peter in their detention, not willingly of course, but he could hardly do that today, seeing as he was the one who had put them there.

When he approached the Beech tree where he had planned to sit, he noticed that the grass beneath the tree was already occupied. He sank fluidly down to the ground next to Lily Evans. "Hey, Lily."

Lily jumped, overturning her books and ink well. "Merlin, Potter! Could you not do that?" she exclaimed, trying to clean up her mess. James apologized and then waved his wand over the spill, and muttered a spell. Her books flipped back open to the correct page, her papers were placed back in the correct order, and the ink drained from the parchment and back into the ink well.

Lily looked on with wide eyes. "Er, thanks," she said uncertainly.

James waved it off with a flick of his hand. "Not a problem," he replied, and Lily noticed his voice lack the usual arrogant, snide edge it had. "My mum has taught me all sorts of more advanced house-hold spells like that one. I guess she got tired of having to clean up behind me." He laughed, and bent his head over his Potions essay. Lily peered at his parchment, and saw that he was struggling with the properties of dragon's blood.

She grabbed his paper out of his hands, and began scribbling down the answer. When Lily handed him back his parchment, he discovered he only needed two more inches to be done. "Thanks." He gave her a warm smile that had her feeling like melting into a puddle of mush at his feet. She found herself smiling back at him and repeating his earlier words, "Not a problem."

James couldn't believe his luck. He was sitting with the object of his affections and the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts and they were actually having a civil conversation! Lily, too, was shocked, but pleased, nonetheless.

They sat in silence, enjoying the sun's warmth for a while. Lily had finished all her homework and decided to catch up on her pleasure reading. All James could determine from the cover was that it was some sort of sappy romance novel. Lily read with a slight smile on her face, her eyes twinkling, and James wondered why the book was making her so happy.

He decided to break the silence. "You remember all that stuff Sirius was saying in the common room the other day?" James began in a polite, conversational tone. Lily nodded, but kept her eyes trained on her book. "I'm sorry about that. I know it embarrassed you, and I just want you to know that it wasn't my idea. I didn't tell him a thing about what happened down there." Lily finally looked up at him, flabbergasted.

"Are you joking?" she asked seriously. He had never spoken to her in a way that was so…human.

James shook his head , meeting her gaze. They stayed locked in each other's eyes for several moments before Lily looked away. To her intense pleasure—no, not pleasure. Discomfort, she reprimanded herself—James continued to stare. She cleared her throat and said, "Well, thank you, even though I should be the one apologizing." She could feel a warmth rise in her cheeks, and kept her eyes averted.

"For what?"

Lily looked up then and saw that his eyes had returned to his essay, so she continued to look at him. " For jinxing your broom. I—I didn't mean for you to fall…I just thought that you would come back down—well, I didn't really think at all, I suppose." To Lily's surprise, James snorted, and began chuckling. "What?" she demanded.

James just shook his head at her. "Honestly, Lily, you worry too much. To be perfectly honest, I would've done the same thing myself. Perhaps for a different reason though." He laughed again and ran his hand through that blasted hair of his.

Suddenly Lily jumped up, looking out over the lake where the sun was setting. "What?" James asked, alarmed. He pulled out his wand and stood up, scanning their surroundings. But Lily just gathered her things and said, "We're going to be late for dinner!" James raised his eyebrows at the mention of 'we', but grabbed his things and joined her.

They walked hurriedly back up to the castle, chatting and laughing about Lily's overreaction to being late.