Millie sat in a corner of her favourite coffee shop on campus. There was hardly any competition, since there were only two on the grounds themselves, and the other one had been undergoing renovations since her first day of freshman year over three years ago. No one ever saw any workers at the building, but vague construction sounds poured out into the quiet surrounds on a semi-regular basis.

She took a sip of her almost-tepid long black and peered out over the top of her textbook into the store, the early afternoon sun pouring through the window to her right. People watching was one of her favourite pastimes, something she could do anywhere at any time. No smartphone required.

It was unusually quiet at this time of the day. It was the first week of midterms, and this was a popular place to study, as the management didn't mind if you sat there with the same empty takeout cup for three hours straight. Although, since it was a Thursday, Millie assumed that people were either in class or eating lunch at the Great Hall with their friends. The Great Hall was really just a fancy word for their dining hall, but in typical Hogwarts fashion, everything had to sound grander than necessary. She supposed it was part of the baggage that came with being one of the oldest educational institutions still standing in the country.

"Want a refill, Millie?" Millie looked up at the sound of that familiar voice. Lily Evans' long deep red hair was pulled back today into a high ponytail. The bangs that she'd procured over the summer break were probably overdue for a trim, but somehow, she managed to pull it off, looking put-together and sophisticated.

Millie nodded, holding out her large takeout cup. "Aren't you supposed to be on break now?" she asked.

It was a measure of just how well they'd gotten to know each other over the past three and a bit years that Lily wasn't fazed anymore by such strange comments. Despite feeling vaguely inferior in appearance to her, what with her own hair in a messy bun, and wearing her standard uniform of sweatshirt and jeans, Lily Evans was possibly the closest thing to a friend Millie had here.

Lily smiled, "I was just about to take it." A slight pause, faint awkwardness colouring the air. "Do you mind if I sit with you for a bit?" she asked hesitantly.

Millie hid her surprise – and an unexpected bolt of delight – at the request by burying her face in her cup of coffee.

"Of course not," she murmured, speaking into the warm liquid. She felt a bubble pop against her lip. Slightly grossed out, she lowered the cup hastily, and was almost blinded by the dazzling smile Lily gave her.

Lily dropped herself in the seat across from Millie, and smiled encouragingly at the girl sitting across from her, her tall paper cup, sans lid, raised back to her mouth.

She and Millie had struck up what she liked to think of as a friendship of convenience over the last three years. They'd shared quite a few classes over the years, especially since Lily's major was Potions and Millie seemed to have a surprising love for the subject despite being an Arithmancy major herself. And, of course, there was always this coffee shop.

However, this was the first time Lily had taken the step of furthering their acquaintance. She got the distinct impression that Millie didn't really have any close friends, since she only ever saw her studying with someone else when it was for an assignment. She couldn't understand why. Whilst Millie was a little quiet, she didn't seem to have any apparent character flaws that would suggest that she would be a horrible friend.

"How are your midterms going?" Lily decided to open with a safe subject, tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear. She needed to buy more bobby pins before her bangs got the best of her.

Millie shrugged in reply. "Can't complain. I'll be done by tomorrow afternoon. How about you?"

Lily sighed and leaned her forearms on the table, the scarred wood sun-warmed under her skin. "I have two left next week."

Millie smiled sympathetically, running the tip of her index finger over the coffee-stained rim of her cup. "I have no idea where you get the time to study. You're doing that internship with Slughorn, too, right?"

Lily nodded. "It's not so bad. Just a matter of planning my day a little more strictly than some of our fellow students are used to, I guess."

Millie nodded, her lips quirking in amusement, and opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment, the door swung open, bringing in the sound of raucous laughter.

Lily's lip curled in distaste without volition as she watched the four boys traipse into the café, completely obliterating the busy quiet with their hoots and guffaws. Two of them – Remus and Peter – headed to grab a table at the opposite side of the room from where she and Millie were situated, whilst the other two went up to the register to place their order. The taller of the two spoke to the barista, and from the blush that was spreading across the girl's cheeks, there was probably a lot more flirting than ordering going on.

The other boy, messy black hair sticking up out of his head at dangerous angles, glasses balanced somehow jauntily on the bridge of his long nose, glanced around.

Their eyes met for an electrifying instant, before Lily broke their unwanted connection and returned her attention to Millie.

Her eyes narrowed when she caught the small smile that Millie didn't quite manage to hide behind her cup. "What?" she asked, perhaps a little too sharply for a person with whom she'd only just begun her befriending campaign.

"Nothing," Millie replied quickly, but her smile grew wider. Lily was struck by how her face softened when she smiled like that, quiet mischief dancing in her light brown eyes.

"No, say it," Lily insisted.

Millie shrugged. "You're still not giving James a chance?"

Lily sniffed. The aforementioned boy with messy black hair and wicked hazel eyes, otherwise known as the bane of her existence, was the one to whom Millie referred.

"There's nothing between us to give a chance," she replied, straightening her back and injecting as much indifference as possible into her voice. "He's a git."

Millie nodded. "Agreed. But he's also sort of in love with you."

"He's also an arrogant, privileged ass who doesn't understand the meaning of the word 'no'."

Millie leant back in her chair, her eyes measuring Lily across the table with surprising steadiness and acuteness. Quiet and a little distant she may be, but Lily came to the realisation that Millie probably missed very little about what went on around her. "He hasn't asked you out this year, though. And it's obvious to anyone with a drop of empathy that he's still into you."

Lily opened her mouth to argue, but abruptly shut it again when she realised the truth in Millie's words. Not the part about Potter still liking her despite her continuous rebuffing of his suit, but the part about him not asking her out even once this year. "How… do you know that?" It wasn't as if all the times James had asked her out had been at her place of work.

"We're on the same Quidditch team," she shrugged. "We talk sometimes." Her lips quirked into a self-deprecating smile. "He's not a horrible person, you know. And he seems more… centred this year. Mature. Although he seems to be under the impression that we're friends – I suspect that's the reason he chats me up every now and again."

"I hope we are friends," Lily replied seriously. There was something about her tone that struck a chord in the vicinity of Lily's heart.

Another beat of silence as Millie watched her intently, before offering her a shy smile. "Of course," she replied softly.

Lily returned her smile, satisfied for the moment with that.

"Buddy, stop ogling Evans so obviously," Sirius said, lounging against the edge of a table as they waited for their order to be made. They were standing a little farther away than necessary, but he knew that this was the best vantage point from which Prongs could look at Lily discreetly – or as discreetly as James Potter was capable of being.

"I'm not ogling her," James muttered, his eyes flicking off to the side every few seconds to take in the "luminous beauty of Lily Evans", as he'd once put it one drunk night. Whilst Sirius agreed that Evans was an attractive lady, he wouldn't go that far.

Especially when he noticed that Evans was sharing a table with his incredibly hot neighbour.

He couldn't help the grin that spread across his face at the sight of her. His back straightened of its own accord, and his heart gave an unexpected leap as he remembered the efficient way in which she'd rescued him from certain death in the dead of the night last week. She hadn't noticed him staring at her, thank Merlin. Otherwise he was sure that he'd be consigned to the same category of 'creepy stalker dude' as Prongs.

The afternoon sun gilded her dark brown hair, and the slow grin with which she was gracing Evans almost knocked him off his feet. He wanted to make her smile like that at him – he wanted to make her smile at him in every way possible.

Merlin's dirty underwear, he sounded like Prongs. Crushes could be horrible.

"Sirius?" the barista finally called out, their orders ready.

He felt Millie's eyes snap to him as he made his way over to the counter. Sirius steadfastly avoided her gaze; he didn't want her finding out that he'd been watching her.

"Thanks," he said, picking up the tray on the counter and giving the barista a dazzling smile. She rolled her eyes, but blushed.

As casually as he could, Sirius glanced over in the direction of Millie's corner table. Her smile was gone, a faint line in between her dark eyebrows as she looked at the space just to the right of him, where the barista had been moments before.

Her gaze drifted to the left, catching his before he could look away. The frown line deepened as their gazes met, tangled, enmeshed. It was as if time held its breath… before she blinked at him in what could only be termed as indifference, snapping the electrifying connection.

The whiplash came and whacked him right in the heart. Not what he was hoping for, but at least she'd acknowledged his presence, if only for a moment. He'd got the distinct impression that she'd been avoiding him since the spider incident of last week.

He grinned, winking at her before turning to head towards their table. He was going to have fun playing with Millie White.

Lily raised her eyebrows at the retreating back of Sirius Black. Of the four Marauders, who thought they ruled supreme over the campus, Sirius Black was definitely the most notorious. He came from a rich old family, although it was an open secret that he'd been disowned not too long after starting at Hogwarts. That grin had broken the hearts of many girls in and around campus, and now it seemed that he had his sights set on her new friend.

Great. What were the two biggest dickheads in a hundred mile radius up to now?

"What was that all about?" she asked Millie, turning back to find her still frowning in the direction of a retreating Sirius.

"Hmm?" she asked, pulling her eyes away and directing them at her, the frown slowly melting off her face.

"You and Black. What was that about?"

Millie looked at her, bemused. "Nothing. Why?"

"Well, he winked at you." And you were staring at him, she thought.

"He winks at everyone, I'm pretty sure," she replied, completely calm once again. "I think it might be a nervous tic."

Lily laughed at the deadpan way Millie had delivered that last line. "That seemed like a special wink, though," she teased.

Millie rolled her eyes. "We're neighbours. If the wink seemed different from all his other ones, it's probably because it was his friendly neighbour wink."

Lily was almost certain that Sirius Black didn't want to be Millie's "friendly neighbour", but she kept her mouth shut. There was something definitely between those two, but their friendship was too new to push for details. "I should get back to work," Lily replied. "Let you get back to studying or whatever."

"Oh," a flash of fleeting disappointment, before it was hidden behind a polite smile. Again, something in Lily's heart hurt at the sight. "Well, it was lovely talking to you. Thanks."

Lily grinned. "I'll see you in class tomorrow?" she asked.

Millie nodded.

"Great. We can have lunch together afterwards at the Great Hall." If she had to steamroll Millie into being her friend, then so be it.

Millie's eyes widened, before she nodded again. This time, she was smiling.