A/N: Here's chapter two… hope you like… please remember that I love you… R & R!

Disclaimer: I like so many others, have attempted to fill the shoes of the Great and Powerful Author of Awesomeness… And I, like so many others, have found that they're too big… **Sighs**

Chapter 2: Staring & Smiling

I sat in the compartment, my head swirling with mixed emotions. On one hand, I was overjoyed that I finally have the chance to get back at Sev, without technically breaking the rules. But on the other, I was concerned, or at least surprised, that Potter and I actually had a civil conversation. What has the world come to, when Potter and I talk, and I mean a real conversation, without getting angry at each other? Well, at least until the end there, that was depressing.

With my thoughts all in jumbled mess, I made my way through the train. I looked in most of the compartments along the way, looking for Sara, Kali and Alice. Without success, I might add. Where could they be? I checked everything but the Slytherin compartments, which, no sensible Gryffindor would enter, unless they were spying on the enemy of course.

It was almost dusk when I found them. They were in the most unreasonable place imaginable. With the Marauders. Oh, how I could have slaughtered them then and there. Although, I don't know who I was more

"Hello Lilyflower! How are you doing on this lovely, sparkling, enchanting evening, sweetheart?" Sirius was too happy for his own good. And I mean way too happy.

I glared at him. "Sirius, why don't you run along and go find another girl's heart to break, I'm sure there are some left who either don't know about, or don't care about you're 'reputation.'" Potter gave me a look that was something between admiration, hatred, and maybe a little fear. Sirius clutched his chest in mock hurt.

"Lilyflower! How could you hurt me like this?" I glared at him again. "I mean, did that night last year have no impact on your opinion of me? I'm heartbroken!" I gave him a look of pure revulsion. Potter looked confused. Remus rolled his eyes. Peter was asleep and drooling, as always. Kali and Alice were failing miserably in their attempt to hide their smirks. Sara was bewildered. Sirius, seeing everyone's reactions, quickly changed his demeanor. "Okay, maybe playing chess wouldn't affect your opinion of me, but it was worth a try… maybe…" He sat down, obviously disappointed. I shot the girls a look, Is he going crazy? I mouthed.Sara shrugged. Kali giggled. Alice nodded.

I burst out laughing. The Marauder's all looked confused, oblivious to our silent agreement. My outburst must have woken Peter up, because he was now looking utterly bewildered.

I looked around the compartment, searching for a place to sit. Unfortunately, the only spot was right next to Potter, and I mean 30 centimeters between him and the wall. He must have noticed me looking, because he attempted to make a little more room for me, and I reluctantly, sat down.

The eight of us sat in silence for a while, staring at each other. Remus broke the silence. "Geez Lily, why'd you have interrupt us," he said jokingly. I leaned forward, to look at him, around Potter.

"I'm so sorry, Remus." I pulled out my girly voice. "I could leave if you would like." I batted my eyelashes playfully. Everyone else, minus Peter, who had surprisingly, or maybe not, fallen asleep, and was drooling again, busted out laughing.

I felt the edges of my mouth turn upwards, towards a smile. I glanced at Potter to find him staring at me with a grin upon his face, also. I found I couldn't look away. We sat there staring at each other, smiling.

Both of us where oblivious to the fact that Sara smacked Sirius on the leg, at which he yelped, and jerked her head at us. He notified Remus, while Sara showed Kali and Alice.

Peter chose that moment to wake up. "Hey James! What you staring at Evans for?" We were jerked back into reality when everyone else in the compartment started slapping him. "AHHHH!" He opened the door and ran out down the corridor.

I shoved Potter over. He looked at me, offended. "What? Peter's gone, so now Remus can scoot over, and so can you." I responded lightly.

He looked at me out of the corner of his eye. "What if I don't want to?" He said, in the same tone.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not giving you a choice!" I pushed him harder. "Why do you have to be so strong! Ugh!" Everyone laughed at me as I fell off the seat.

"Looks like I'm getting a lot more room than I would've thought. Scoot over Remus, I need more room." Remus looked at Kali for help. She stood up and pushed Potter off the seat too.

"That's better," she said as she and Remus stretched out on the seat. He grinned.

"Okay, now this really isn't fair." I said grumpily, glaring at the pair.

"We both would still be sitting on a comfortable seat right now, if you hadn't been greedy…" Potter noted icily.

"Now it's my fault?" I defended bitterly.

"Yes." He replied simply.

I held back the retort that was on the tip of my tongue. I did not want to get into an argument with him right now. I couldn't think straight. I needed fresh air. "I'm going for a walk." I got up, stepped over Potter, and walked out of the compartment.

In Fifth year, after having an extreme 'disagreement' with Potter, I'd discovered that there was an open balcony at the end of the train. I went there. I needed to be alone with my thoughts.

I don't know when I realized I didn't hate him anymore. I don't know when I started to enjoy his company. I don't know why I'd suddenly thought of him as a friend.

Why did he have to change? Why couldn't he have stayed the arrogant, annoying prick who asked me out every five minutes? At least then, I knew what to expect of him. Now, I have no idea what he's going to do next. He's totally unpredictable. It's unsettling.

I looked around and saw that we were maybe 2 minutes from Hogsmeade Station. I took some deep breaths and went back inside, preparing for a night in hell.

"Firs' Years!" I heard Hagrid call. "Gather 'round, Firs' Years!" He smiled and waved me over.

I walked up to him. "I don't have to help you get the First Years up to the castle do I?" I asked jokingly.

"No, jus' wan'ed ta see a friendly face for a while." He smiled. Hagrid was a, well, let's just say he's a… big man. Intimidating to say the least. In First Year, I was so scared of him; it wasn't until Sara told me her brother said he was really nice that I walked up to him. He got on my 'friends list' when he told off Potter for almost pushing me into the Black Lake while we were on the boats.

"Have fun," I said with a smirk. "I need to get up to the castle. See you around, Hagrid."

"Bye Li'y."

Whenever I was yelling at Potter, I always felt a deep sense of completion. I never knew why. When I told Alice about it in Fourth year, she said "Maybe it's because it's your goal in life to make his a living hell." I replied with a simple shrug and a slight nod of the head, wondering why I was stressing myself over this.

For some reason, that memory came rushing back to me as I saw Potter helping a little Third Year get the mud off her robes after a boy pushed her down. She smiled at him and ran off to join her friends in the carriages. "Kind of reminds you of us, don't you think?" I asked as I walked up to him.

"What?"

"Remember, in Second Year," I prompted, "You pushed me into the lake, well, Sirius pushed me into the lake, you just laughed."

"Oh! Right. I totally forgot all about that day. That year!" He sounded a little exasperated.

"You okay?"

"Huh, oh, yeah, I'm fine." I wasn't convinced, I raised my eyebrows, as if to say really? "Seriously Evans, I'm fine!" He stalked away.

Wow, I thought. That's new. Usually it's me stalking away from our conversations, but he's done it twice in the last day! I never, in my wildest dreams, would have imagined it. I sighed, and walked over to my friends, who, to my great relief, had freed themselves from the hands of the evil Marauders. I went over to where they were standing while waiting for a carriage that could hold all four of us.

"Well, that was awkward." We all looked at Alice with confused expressions. "What?"

"Alice, sweetheart, you're awkward." Alice glared at Sara, while Kali and I burst out laughing.

"I'll show you awkward" Alice said, trying to sound threatening, which, coming from her, was just plain pitiful.

"Al," I said politically, "you can't threaten someone. It always backfires in your face. Or it just simply doesn't work."

"I'll take the latter!" Sara mocked.

"Uh, Lil, I don't think your last sentence was proper English." Kali stated simply. "Just and simply can mean the same thing."

"Uh, Kal," I imitated her, "I don't really care about my grammar. Unless I'm talking to a teacher, writing an essay, or trying to sound smart, I don't use proper English. And I don't care either."

"Well, that wasn't insulting."

"Glad we both agree on that then!" Sara and Alice shared a perplexed look.

"Oh, look!" Alice interrupted the staring match between Kali and I, "The carriage is here!"

I saw who was in the carriage and immediately stopped, grabbed Sara's arm and pulled her back. "We're not going on that carriage!" I whispered urgently. She glanced up at the cart, I saw understanding dawn on her face.

"Lil, you're gonna have to face him sooner or later, why not now? Why not get it over with now?"

"Sar, unless you've gone completely blind, you'll notice that in that carriage, is my HUGE crush. The one person, I CAN'T TALK TO!"

"Well, I guess you're just gonna have to wait here, all by yourself, 'cause I'm not waiting with you. Wait, no! Not by yourself, you can wait with Potter! They're coming up the lane right behind you!" I glanced over my shoulder, and saw she was telling the truth. Potter was in an adamant conversation with Remus, while Sirius was trying to get Peter to do something.

"Oh God, let's go." I heard her snicker.

"What took you guys so long?" Kali asked once we had sat down in the carriage.

"Oh, Lily suddenly had something to tell me, but I told her to wait until we were in the carriage, but she insisted on telling me right there." Sara smoothly covered up our entire conversation.

"What'd you tell her?" Alice asked.

"Funny you ask, Al, right as I was about to tell her, she told me Potter and his band of thugs, were coming up behind me, so we made a beeline for the carriage. And I totally forget what I was trying to say." I pretended to try and think hard.

They shrugged it off as reasonable, and soon started discussing who they thought the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was. Thanks, I mouthed to Sara. She nodded in reply, and joined Kali and Alice's conversation.

Every year we've been at Hogwarts, there has been a new DADA teacher, unfailing. Every year, the teacher was attacked, ridiculed, became suddenly ill, turned out to be a Vampire, the list goes on and on. When I asked Professor McGonagall about it, she said that for over 20 years, they haven't had a DADA teacher last more than a year.

They hoped that we would have someone younger than last year. Professor Kinderfeild, who was, like, 80, suddenly, during our class, dropped dead from a heart attack. It was all very sad, but no one really liked him, so it wasn't too depressing. The only thing that really creeped anyone out, was the fact that now, pretty much the entire 7th year could see the thestrals.
Thestrals are bony, demented, unicorn-ish-looking horses. You have to see someone die to be able to see thestrals, so everyone thinks they're evil. But they're not. Unless you threaten them, they'll walk up to you and nuzzle you. They're very funny.

After I'd seen my mum die the summer before third year, I'd discovered that I could see them. Curious, I asked Hagrid about them, he told me he had raised an entire herd of the creatures. Later that year he showed them to me. Now, every once in a while, I go and visit them. No one ever knows that it's there that I go, because no one but Hagrid knows that I know where they nest.

I was so lost in thought, that I didn't realize that Alice, who was sitting next to me, was elbowing me in the side. When I looked up to glare at her, she nodded towards the other end of the carriage. I followed her eyes and saw that he was staring at me. THE one. The only person in the world who could quite possibly be perfect. Andy West, was staring at me. I was shocked. Before I realized what I was doing, I was smiling. Ugh! Why is life doing this to me! Suddenly embarrassed, I looked down at my feet, which were suddenly very interesting.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the wheels of mischief turning in Sara's head. Crap, that can't be good.

"Hey Andy," I heard her say. Crap. Why is she doing this? "I was just wondering what you thought was so interesting about Lily's Robes. They're the same as everyone else's."

Bulls-eye. Only Sara could make someone like Andy squirm in his seat like that.

"Uh, um. Well, it's just, I, um. Sorry." He mumbled, and stopped trying to dig himself out of a hole that he kept digging himself deeper into. I tried to stifle my chuckle. Needless to say, it didn't work.

"You have something to add Lil?" Sara asked me. Dang! I never knew she could be so professional.

"No. I think you pretty much covered everything." I somehow pulled off my superior, Head Girl Voice. You know, the one that makes the younger students cower in fear and the older ones do what I say. Yeah. It's pretty awesome.

I saw Andy shrink back.

I found myself leaning back and making myself more comfortable. I smiled, and thought despite how crazy the day had been, it had been fun.

Yep. This is going to be a good year. I mean a really good year.

A/N: Well, um… I had fun writing this one. Is Lily playing 2 guys? Oooh… bad girl.

Please review… I'll love you forever, and ever, and ever, if you do…