A/N: I cannot begin to tell you guys how sorry I am to have taken this long for this chapter. School's been crazy, I know it's no excuse, but at least this chapter's done! I'll try to update more quickly next time, but I can't guarantee anything.

"Lily! James! Petunia! Come down for dinner!" Janine yelled up the stairs.

"Coming!" Three voices shouted back.

Lily arrived downstairs just after James and Sirius. "And who is this?" Janine asked as she emerged from the kitchen, raising an eyebrow at Sirius.

"Oh, Mum, this is my… friend, Sirius Black," Lily said sweetly. "I invited him to dinner. That's okay, right?"

"Yes, of course," her mother replied. "I'll go tell Petunia to set an extra place at the table."

"Is Dad home from work yet?" Lily asked.

"Yes, he just got back."

A few minutes later, they could hear Petunia slamming around in the kitchen, muttering furiously. "One freak was more than enough, and two was too many! Three! Three freaky little…" They didn't hear the rest.

"Charming girl, your sister," James commented. Lily ignored him.

Dinner was, to say the least, tense. Janine was wondering if one of the two boys there was Lily's boyfriend (From the way James was acting, she would've guessed him to be the jealous boyfriend. From the way Lily was acting, Sirius would be a good guess too). Petunia was fuming over all the 'freaks' in her house. Sirius was a bit nervous from all the attention, thought teasing James was fun. Lily was trying to balance torturing James and keeping her family form being too suspicious, and James was wondering why life had to be so unfair as to make the girl he liked fancy his best mate.

After eating, Lily was sent to clean up the kitchen while Sirius said he had to go home (which meant invading James's empty house). James went to 'his' room to think. Since when had Lily liked Sirius? And was Sirius really telling the truth when he said he wasn't interested in Lily? He didn't say he wasn't interested, said a treacherous voice in James's mind. He just said he wasn't flirting. James shook his head. Sirius is my best mate, he told the voice. I've got to trust him, at least. He wouldn't do that to me. No way would he take the girl he knows I'm in love with. I hope.

Down in the kitchen, Lily was smirking to herself as she washed dishes. By hand, even though she could've done it by magic, since she was finally seventeen. But she wasn't thinking about dishes, she was thinking of how much fun driving James crazy really was. It was even more fun than driving her friends Alice and Mary crazy, and that ws saying something. She didn't dwell to much on why driving James insane was so enjoyable; probably because he'd tortured her for six years and it was her chance to get even. She was not having fun for any other reason. No way. A single thought crept into her head, one that she had to banish fast: What if you like driving him crazy because you can see that he hates even the thought of you liking someone else? What if you like that because it makes you know that he really does like you? What if you like that feeling, the feeling that he makes you belong?

The next morning, Lily leaned on the porch railing, watching the sun inch it's colorful way into the sky. She wasn't normally up this early, but she had had trouble sleeping, and gave up around four in the morning.

"So, you and Sirius, huh?" The voice from the door startled her; she spun, but it was James, looking less cheerful than she had seen him since he'd been told he was too young to participate in the Triwizard tournament four years ago.

Maybe it was his expression. Maybe it was because she was too tired to bother thinking up stories. Maybe she didn't have an excuse. But she told the truth. "Not really." Lily turned her back to him, facing the sunrise again.

"What?"

You deaf? She thought. "I said, not really." Now, go away so I can enjoy my morning.

"Then… wait a second." There was a pause. Then- "That was so mean!"

"Wow, took you long enough. You really are an idiot."

"You are unbelievable!"

"When have I heard you say that before?" Lily muttered sarcastically.

"Yeah, but then, it was a good thing! I cannot believe you would do that to me!"

"You know, Potter," she hissed, spinning to face him, "in the past seven years, I have said that to you so many times, I can't remember them all. Now, it's your turn."

James had a hurt puppy look on his face. "I never purposefully toyed with your feelings," he pointed out in his most wounded voice.

"That's because I have no feelings," Lily said regally. "And you humiliated me."

"I told you I loved you! How is that humiliating?"

"Have you ever had the most annoying girl in your life stand up in the middle of the Great Hall and declare her love to you? Trust me, it's humiliating!"

"Actually, I have, and it's not that bad. It just makes people laugh at her."

"THAT'S BECAUSE YOU ASSUME NO ONE WILL LAUGH AT YOU, SO THEY DON'T!" Lily was more than a bit fed up. She took a deep breath and continued more quietly. "And that time? They were definitely laughing at me."

"Wait a second!" James said quickly. "Did you just call me the most annoying boy in your life?"

"Not as if I haven't called you that before, Potter."

"Excuse me, Lily? I am seventeen years old now. Even if I am annoying, I am a man now."

"And yet," Lily said sweetly, "you still act like you're six years old. So I still get to call you a boy, because no man I know could ever be that immature."

"That, Love, was harsh."

"That, idiot, was the second time in two days you have said that, and it had better be the last."

"If you were nice to me, it would be."

"If everyone else was dead, I would not ever be nice to you."

"If everyone else was dead, you might start to appreciate me."

"If I ever appreciated you, it would be a sign of the apocalypse."

"If you ever bothered to try to know me, you would appreciate me."

"If I bothered to try to know you, I would hate you even more than I already do."

"If you hate me so much, why are we even having this conversation?"

"Because I've told you I hate you for seven years and you still don't believe me!"

"I've told you I love you for seven years, and you still don't believe me!"

"Well, I wonder why that would be!"

"Yes, actually, I do wonder why that would be!"

"Hmm, this is a hard question."

"Yes it is! Why do you refuse to believe that I'm in love with you?"

"What is going on out here?"

Lily had never been that happy to have a conversation interrupted by her mother in her life. "Nothing," she said quickly.

"Well, if you're going to keep doing nothing, can you please keep your voices down? Petunia is still asleep," Janine scolded them.

"No problem, sorry Mum, I was just going inside anyways."

Lily made her escape, leaving James alone on the porch, the sun blazing brilliantly behind him in a pink and gold sky.

A/N: Again, sorry for the delay, please review! Maybe I'll update faster if I get more… :-)