A/N: First of all, I'd just like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone that reviewed this story. I never expected this fic to receive attention, and it's very encouraging, especially since this isn't my normal casual writing style.

Oh, and disclaimer for this chapter: there is a little bit of sexual tension stuff/thoughts from James, but not too bad. But, that said, the rating for this may change to "M" just because of swearing or more sexual tension (and y'all know I love me some sexual tension).

I'll try to update with the next chapter as soon as I can, but this was already written (that's why I updated so fast)

Although I'm exhausted from school and work and rehearsal, I wanted to give you guys a new chapter. So, read!

Day 2

Lily woke up feeling rested, and (begrudgingly admitting it to herself) rather excited for the day.

She wondered what it would bring, knowing Potter's taste for adventure. She was curious to see where he'd be taking her today.

At the end of lunch the previous day, James had bade goodbye to her, saying that he had some things to do and that he was sure she was sick of him already. It seemed more like he hadn't wanted to push his luck.

But today was a new day.

Extracting a clean pair of jeans and v-neck, she shimmied on her clothing. After pulling her warmest gray-button up sweater over it, she combed her hair through and applied a hint of lip-balm after seeing that her lips were chapped. Opting for a pair of fur-lined boots to keep her feet cozy, she gathered the latest book she had been reading, she walked down to breakfast.

Cracking open the pages once seated on the bench at the Gryffindor table, she glanced around at the people present. Over by the left there were clusters of a few students here and there, but no Potter.

It's true that he didn't specify when they would be meeting, or if they were even doing anything today, Lily inwardly hoped that he would be waiting down in the common room when she entered it this morning.

At around nine, just as breakfast was ending, she saw the male individual that she'd been anxious to see enter the hall.

A smile fell on her face automatically, but Lily quickly fought it down.

Yeah, so you had a good time with Potter yesterday, big deal! She told herself. That doesn't you can nearly piss your pants in anticipation to see him. Merlin.

His hazel eyes landed straight on her, and she watched as he made a beeline to where she sat.

"Hello Evans." He said, an arrogant edge to it.

"Hi Potter." She said, reverting back to the old tone she would take with him when she couldn't be bothered.

She turned her attention back to her book. He sat, smiling at her for what felt like minutes.

Finally, she put her book down and looked at him expectantly.

"Well, aren't you going to ask what we're doing today?" He prompted, fidgeting a little.

That was one of the things that annoyed her greatly about him. Much more when he was younger, he had this tendency to be unable to sit still, mostly when he was excited or planning something.

And his current fidgeting made her slightly nervous.

She moved the leftover crusts of toast around on her plate, feigning disinterest. "Ok, I'll bite. What are we doing today?"

He smiled at her like he knew a secret. "It's a surprise."

She rolled her eyes. Merlin, this boy could be so incredibly cutely annoying sometimes.

Whoa. Did you just say Potter was cute?

She darted her eyes down to her plate.

She'd just called Potter cute. Well, she'd thought it. But that didn't make it any less alarming.

It was hard enough that she'd let herself admit that she enjoyed Potter's company. But it was a completely other thing to think that he was…

Cute.

"Aren't you going to take any breakfast?" She said, hopefully leading her mind away from its previous train of thought.

In response to her question, he began loading up his plate with whatever leftovers he could rustle up from the now-deserted tables.

Sitting with him as he finished his breakfast, Lily firmly avoided his eyes.

He finished quickly, and then led her out of the castle and into the cold.

"James, why are we outside? It's fucking freezing." She commented, pulling her sweater tighter around her and sticking her hands under her underarms.

Still, he persistently led her across the field.

"Where are we going?" She asked.

He smiled at her again in that secretive way.

"Stop doing that!" She insisted.

"Doing what?" He asked innocently.

"Smiling like that. You look like the Cheshire cat."

His face contorted in confusion. "A what?"

"Never mind." Lily said, realizing her mistake. "It's just creepy."

"Aren't you going to ask again what we're doing today?" He asked impatiently, poking Lily in the stomach playfully.

She smacked his hand away. Annoyed at his figurative and literal poking, she replied. "Why? What are we doing today?"

He smiled at her smugly. "I'm taking you flying."

She froze, and laughed a humorless laugh. "Funny." She said sarcastically.

He pulled a serious face. "I'm completely serious." He said.

Her face dropped. "Whoa whoa whoa. No you're not."

"Yes I am." He insisted.

"No –"

"Lily. The conditions." He said, the complacent grin stretching across his lips.

She opened her mouth to protest, but she knew she couldn't do a thing about it.

"To think I was actually beginning to like you." She muttered. The boy walking in front of her froze, and turned slowly around to face her, a dumbfounded look on his face. She realized that he'd heard, and scrambled to reply.

"Not like that." She insisted. The look turned into a large, self-satisfied grin. She rolled her eyes and scoffed at this, bringing her gaze from the ground up to him. "J-just that I can tolerate you."

He didn't say anything. He merely took her hand in his (which she tried not to react from) and led her to the small wooden shack located near the Quidditch pitch.

"If you're bringing me in here to snog, you know that's not happening." Lily said irritably, still annoyed with herself that she accidentally clued Potter in about her changing feelings for him.

He still didn't say anything. He picked up a dark-mahogany-looking racing broom from the left side of the shed.

He held the broom with care, but firmly, like it was truly his. The broom seemed to mold itself against its master's hand, like it was made for him. She couldn't help staring at it.

When he turned back to her, he smiled again.

"Lets go." He said, moving past her and out of the shed.

From the moment he took up Quidditch, he'd wanted to fly with Lily. Having darling Lilykins sitting on his broom with him, her body up against his, her hair flowing behind her and her tinkling laugh in his ears…

And then yesterday, when Lily insisted that she just "didn't fly"… well, that just put his list of to-dos in the coming five days on hold.

At the moment, he was watching Lily stare nervously from the broom to him.

"Evans, get on the damn broom. Stop being such a chicken." He said, hoping to provoke her.

Her eyes narrowed as she glared at him angrily, and he knew he'd gotten her.

Gingerly, she threw one leg over and moved to straddle the broom.

The motion was not lost on James.

Swallowing his heart (which had jumped up into his throat) he mounted on the broom behind her.

He slid up close to her until she felt his chest on her back, warranting a little squeak from her.

God, the noises she made were so adorable.

Settling himself on the broom, he pushed up from the ground, and felt the broom lift off into the air.

They weren't more than six feet above the ground before he heard Lily scream.

Fearing that she'd felt off balance, his arm instinctively darted out and wrapped around her waist.

Any other time she probably would have pushed it off, but instead, she merely slid farther back on the broom. In doing this, the back of her arse slid against James.

He bit back a groan at the contact.

Merlin, how could he pay attention to flying when he had Lily's body pressed up this close against him? He felt his stomach churn as he held on firmly to the broom with the one hand Lily wasn't holding.

Bloody hell, she feels so warm… He thought as she gripped his hand. He could smell her hair… it smelled like sweet honeysuckles. He, unfortunately, could feel his pants starting to tent.

He gulped, trying to think of anything, anything, that would stop his reaction.

Errrr… Getting hit in the face with a quaffle… Peter getting sick all over Mum's favorite carpet… er… Snape in a dress!

The higher he flew, the more chilling the air got. He decided to dip lower then he usually did, not wanting to freeze the girl seated in front of him.

As they skimmed above trees and around in the white-gray sky, Lily thankfully began to relax her death grip on his hand (not that he minded Lily touching him, though he was starting to lose circulation). If he was correct, he almost thought he saw her smiling.

She still held onto his hand though. Maybe it wasn't much of a responsible act, only flying with one hand while the very beautiful warm body touching him slightly mentally incapacitated him, but he couldn't bring himself to tear it away. Instead, he aimed to fly in easy circles.

And then she looked back at him. It felt like he saw it slow motion. Her red hair billowed around her face as she turned quickly. It was just a glance, but her emerald eyes held happiness and her pink lips were curved into a genuine, gleeful smile. In the midst of the white-lighted sky, Lily stood out like a splash of color against a blank canvas.

It made his breath catch in his throat.

But her head turned back in front of her quickly. Her lips admitted a sort of breathy laugh.

After a while, he began to dip lower and lower until he was finally almost floating above the pitch.

Touching his foot to the ground, he steadied the broom as Lily's shorter legs stretched to make contact with the solid earth as well.

Finally stepping off, Lily stumbled away from the broom, one hand clutching her heart, wearing a smile.

James felt like he could cheer for joy.

"Now, that wasn't so bad was it?" He asked smugly, holding his broom in his left hand and walking over to her current position on the pitch.

She rolled her eyes, though a natural smile still played at her now-bluish looking lips.

"I guess not." She said. Her eyes shifted to the ground. "Sorry for the death grip though." She said softly.

Ah, so she'd noticed. He thought. This, however, meant she also might have felt his hormonal reaction. He hoped not.

"It's alright." He said, shrugging it off. "Come on, you look like you're freezing your extremely sexy arse off. Let's get inside."

"Cheeky." She said, swatting him on the arm. He laughed.

"I'll admit it, though." She said. "That was actually fun. Thanks, Potter."

He could not hold back his smile.

He'd flown with Lily Evans. And she'd liked it.

They walked back to the castle for lunch, all the while James taunting her about admitting she liked flying.

Lunch was delicious, as always. Although Lily was starting to dread the end, fearing that he'd leave like he did yesterday. And she didn't want that.

As if she could sense this, his head tilted up from his meal and he asked, "You haven't got anywhere to be after this, correct?"

She looked around the almost deserted hall.

"Look around Potter. Unfortunately, I have nothing to do." She said.

"Good. I want to show you one of my favorite places." He said, grinning wryly.

At the end of the meal, they both stood up.

"However, we've got to nip up to the dorms before we go, I've got to get some supplies."

Her brow furrowed. "Supplies?"

"Well, see, Hogsmeade is fully open on Saturdays, which means the shops that were closed yesterday are open. But since we're still not technically allowed there, you and are going to play dress up." He explained.

Her eyebrows shot up. "Play dress up?"

"Yeah." He said. "Put on something besides Hogwarts robes, obviously. But something warmer then what you've got. I could tell you were freezing out there. Something that makes you look older."

They walked to the Gryffindor dormitories in silence. Lily could not help the blush creeping up over her cheeks.

He'd noticed I was cold. She said in her mind. That was actually quite sweet.

"What?" He said, sending a sideways glance her way.

She tried to cover her blush, and looked away. "Nothing."

She rushed up to her dorm as soon as they walked through the portrait hole.

As she looked through her closet, her thoughts settled on James.

The feeling of his body against her sent her heart rate into overdrive. She could still feel his firm chest against her back, his arm wrapped across her side to keep her from falling. And in his embrace, she'd felt so… safe.

And when she'd taken a peak behind… just seeing him staring at her, unkempt black hair made even more messy by the cold wind, hazel eyes staring at her through his glasses with such intensity her grip on the broom almost slackened.

She shook her head, as if trying to shake out these thoughts.

She couldn't think this way.

It's not like I have feelings! She reasoned with herself.

Oh yeah? Then why did you react that way to Potter rubbing himself up on you like an impatient cat? A voice in her head countered.

She snorted aloud at the mental picture. He wasn't doing that. And I don't have feelings, per se. More like… half-feelings. Semi-feelings.

She'd only spent a total of one-and-a-half days with him, and look at where she was. The thought of him knowing these things, about these semi-feelings angered her greatly. He'd been so cocky… so arrogantly confident when he'd made this stupid bet, like he'd just known that no one could resist falling in love with James Potter, King of Hogwarts.

King prat was more like it.

No. She decided. No more thinking that you want to touch his wind swept hair or that his eyes stare at you with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns, or especially that Potter is cute. Stop it before it gets worse.

She breathed easy now, now that her priorities were set and her behavior dealt with.

But now the only problem was… she was about to spend an afternoon with him.

Most likely doing something fun and exciting.

Bugger.

She huffed, and exited her dorm. Walking with purpose, she ascended the boys' staircase, and stopped in front of the worn wooden door.

Underneath the gold plate reading, "7th Year Boys Dormitories", there was "The Marauders" scorched into the wood.

Lily rolled her eyes. She steadied herself, and knocked three times briskly on the door.

"Padfoot, what're you knocking for? I'm not tossing off in here like Wormtail last month." James' muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

Holding in the laughter bubbling in her chest, she replied, "It's not Padfoot!"

The next thing she heard was urgent footsteps, and the wooden door sprang open.

His eyes widened in surprise. "Shit. Uh, sorry Evans." She couldn't help herself from glancing past him and into his bedroom.

She emitted a loud snort. "It's alright. But listen, Potter, I'm feeling kind of sick. I don't think it's best for me to go outside right now."

From what she could see, there seemed to be a lot of dirty clothes on the floor, and trash on the few surfaces visible. On the wall, there were two different posters of topless witches, blowing kisses and winking.

"You trying to ditch me, Evans?" He asked blatantly, bringing her away from her inspection.

She feigned an annoyed face. In reality, he'd seen right through what she was trying to do.

"Potter, I'm feeling sick. You're welcome to stay with me, coughing and blowing my nose and such in the common room, but –"

"I'll stay." He said.

She wasn't expecting that. Though she probably should have. She felt like giving herself a face-palm.

"It's ok Potter, you run off and do… whatever you do." She finished.

He wasn't budging.

"No, really Lily. I want to spend the day with you." He smiled, irritating her greatly. "And the conditions are that I get to do –"

"Whatever you want with me, yeah yeah." She finished through gritted teeth.

Stomping her way down the stairs to the common room, she threw herself angrily on the couch, before taking the book she was currently reading, To Kill A Mockingbird, off the side table.

No less then a few moments after she opened the front cover, she felt a weight push into the couch. Looking over her book, she saw Potter's body sprawled out next to her.

He was still wearing the jeans from the morning, but he was wearing a warm-looking dark blue sweater with what looked like a deer silhouette sewn in with white wool. His hair was still slightly more messy then usual, purely from this morning.

She tried to train her gaze away from him.

"So." He started. She felt him shimmy closer to her, so that his hair was almost touching her shoulder. "What're you reading?"

"To Kill A Mockingbird." She said, tilting the cover toward him.

His face twisted in confusion. "Is it about taxidermy?"

She couldn't help but laugh out loud at this.

"No Potter, it's not. It's just a metaphor." She explained.

He shivered. "Good. Because that is just bloody creepy."

"How do you know about it?" She asked curiously. She knew that it was an obscure muggle thing, and she seriously doubted that any wizard brought up in pureblood community would know what it was.

"It's one of the only things I remember from Muggle Studies." He said sheepishly.

"You took Muggle Studies? Why?" She asked surprisedly.

Although, now that she thought about it, she did remember vaguely Marlene saying something about it. Marlene was a pureblood, but her family wanted her to also learn about Muggles. Lily remembered sometime in a previous year when Marlene came running in, ranting about something Black and Potter had done during the class.

His gaze looked up at her from his position next to her arm. She looked down at him, his eyes meeting hers.

"I took it to understand you."

An awkward silence filled the air.

What she supposed to say? She fretted for a few moments, before James decided to thankfully continue.

"Though it was quite confusing. Particularly Muggle technology." He said. "Especially… what was it called? Those things that you talk through. Sort of like through Floo –"

"Telephones?" Lily supplied.

He nodded his head vigorously. "I just don't get them! How are they all connected, how can the pick who to talk to?"

"Well, it's all connected by a network, just like Floo. And the numbers correspond with certain others. Muggles use it a lot, actually, since we don't use owls." She explained.

After this, James seemed to quiet down. For a while the two sat in companionable silence, as James read along with Lily. She'd managed to read many pages until she felt a weight drop completely on her shoulder.

Looking down, she saw that James had indeed fallen asleep, choosing to use her shoulder as a pillow.

His glasses were only half on, and his face was smashed unattractively up against her shoulder. His black hair splayed across her upper arm.

She should have moved him. She should have shook up, or said, "Wake up, Potter! My shoulder isn't your pillow!"

But she didn't. She couldn't bring herself to move him, for he looked so innocent and boyish that she didn't want to interrupt his sleep.

Going back to reading her book, in vain, she tried to ignore the warm, sleeping boy next to her. The warm sleeping boy who managed to smell like something she couldn't quite place, but strangely made her want to cuddle into him.

No! You do not want to cuddle with Potter!

Oh yes you do. This is the closest he's ever been to you, and you're already snuggling closer to him.

No I'm not!

Well, what are you doing now?

He fell asleep against my shoulder. That's hardly cuddling.

She shook her head lightly, wishing to be rid of the bothersome thoughts. It wasn't her fault his body was so deliciously warm!

A change in the weight on her shoulder roused her from her mental battle.

James had slowly lifted his head up, coming out of his previous sleep state. He took off his glasses, and started rubbing his eyes.

Putting back on the spectacles, he blinked once, then twice, and then looked at me.

"Alright Evans?"

She nodded cagily.

Stop it. Potter is a horrible, arrogant prat! And you definitely do not want to touch him!

That's such a lie.

"I didn't fall asleep on you, did I?" He asked, casually scratching the back of his head.

She could feel the anger bubbling up inside her. She hated this boy, the only person who possessed the ability to get under her skin. With a few words, he could either make her seethe with anger or fall apart in sadness. Around him, all her senses and emotions felt magnified to the point they were difficult to control.

"You did, you awful prat." She spit out.

James looked at her, quite alarmed at the sudden change of tone. "Hey, sorry! You could have woken me up! You could have moved me!" He said pointedly.

"Well… well… I'm not rude!" Lily said defensively.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but before he could, she stood up angrily and stalked out of the room, leaving a slightly bewildered James Potter, confusedly ruffling his hair.

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