A/N: Sometimes I make believe that I'm JK.
"We broke up." Lily said glumly, when Kassidy and Jodi demanded to know why she was so gloomy.
"What?! Why?" Kassidy exclaimed. "I thought you loved him!"
"That's why we broke up… I didn't."
"But you might later!" Jodi interjected.
"No. I can't." Lily wouldn't admit it, but she had kind of developed a thing for James Potter in the last couple of weeks. He was so much nicer now.
"Can't? As in physically impossible?" Kassidy questioned. "Or do you mean won't?"
"Can't, won't, what's the difference?" Lily said despairingly.
"Can't implies you are in love with someone else."
"Well I don't, so I guess I meant won't." Lily said sharply.
"Lily!" Jodi whined. "You're not telling us something!"
"I'm going to bed. See you girls in the morning."
They broke up! Because she didn't love him. I wonder if she'll go out with me… no, we have to be friends first! She'll never forgive me if I ask her out in her moment of 'weakness'. Plus, she probably needs a friend more than a boyfriend right now.
"Prongs, mate, what's up?" Sirius asked as he walked into the sixth year boys dormitories.
"Lily broke up with Diggory."
"How would you happen to come by this piece of information?"
"I was spying on her date with him a few weeks ago, and he told her he loved her… but she said she didn't love him yet. He told her she didn't have to yet, he could wait, and I left. Well, anyway, last night, I ran into her, and I asked what was wrong, because she seemed a little down, and she had been brooding over not loving him. She told me about her disastrous anniversary with Diggory, and how he loved her, but she didn't reciprocate. So I asked if she could ever love him, and she said no, like she had just realized it. I told her that he deserved to know, I think I said something about her not wanting to string him along, but I might have just been thinking that part."
Sirius stared at James open-mouthed.
"Prongs, you broke them up!"
James grinned. "Yeah, and it does give me a better chance with her…"
"Definitely. So are you going to ask her to Hogsmeade?"
"Are you mental?!"
"Huh?"
"She'd kill me! Plus, I bet she needs a friend more then a boyfriend at this point…" James even shocked himself as the words came out of his mouth.
"Who are you, and what did you do with my best mate Prongs?" Sirius managed to say, though still somewhat in shock.
James grinned. "He's in the closet."
Lily was depressed.
I did the right thing, didn't I? What if I would have fallen in love with Amos? Was what went through her mind most of the time.
She was in the owlery, crying, when James enetered.
He had a letter in his hand, but he didn't seem surprised to see her there.
Merlin, she looks so miserable. I wish there was something I could do. Maybe I should leave… But acting on instinct, he moved closer.
"Are you okay Lily?" He asked, concerned, but not in an over-bearing way.
"Just peachy." Lily replied, bitingly sarcastic."
"That was a stupid question, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was."
Yet another thing I love about her. She never wastes time beating around the bush!
"Is there anything I can do to help?" James hoped that he hadn't said the wrong thing. It would not be pretty if he had.
"No."
He sat down next to her.
She smiled, faintly, before bursting into tears.
"Lily?" James asked quietly.
"Potter?"
"Do you need a friend?"
She nodded, and put her head on his shoulder. Tears streamed down her face, and James patted her back comfortingly, and unassumingly.
"Did I do the right thing James? Breaking up with Amos?"
He responded with his own questions. "Could you have loved him, loved him enough to see past his quirks? To forgive him for anything?" Could you love him like I love you? "Would you, could you, ever love him at all?"
"Thank you James. I've always been horrid to you, and yet, you're still willing to comfort me."
Lily asked the most childish question she'd asked in years.
"Do you want to be my friend?"
"Does Sirius have like he's twelve?"
Lily grinned, remembering the way Sirius had jumped around the couches of the Common Room, singing 'Celebrate good times, come on!' when he had gotten a certain Chocolate Frog card.
"Which card was that anyway?"
"I honestly don't know. Thank you Lily, for being my friend."
"All it took was less arrogance, bullying, and all-around-prickyness." Lily smiled weakly as she spoke, showing that she no longer believed that stuff.
"So you're forgiving me for being 'a bullying toe-rag of a prat!'?"
Lily giggled. "Sorry 'bout that."
"It's okay. It's true, although you do seem to catch me at my worst." James sighed. "But then again, my worst shouldn't be that bad…"
"It's not true anymore though. You changed, for the better. You're much more mature now. I'm actually rather surprised you didn't ask me out the moment you found out that Amos and I had broken up."
"You would have killed me."
Lily giggled again. "Yeah, probably. A boyfriend is the last thing I need right now."
"That's what I told Sirius!"
"Mind me asking why?"
"He asked if I was going to ask you to Hogsmeade."
"What did you say?"
"I asked him if he was mental, and he said 'huh?'"
Lily sniggered. "That sounds like Sirius. You know, sometimes he reminds me of a dog. Silly, a little immature, caring, and slightly dopey. Anyway, what did you say?"
"'She would kill me!' I think I also said something like 'Besides, I think she needs a friend more then a boyfriend right now', so then Sirius asks 'Who are you, and what did you do with my best mate?' and I said, 'He's in the closet.'"
Lily laughed, leaning on James for support. "That sounds about right." She said when she could speak.
"Yeah, I guess it does." James said wryly.
"Oh, stop beating yourself up about it James. What's done is done."
"We should probably go to breakfast."
"Probably." Lily
giggled when her stomach growled. "Wait, I take that back… we
have to go to breakfast, immediately.
James laughed when his
stomach growled too. "You okay now?
"I feel better." She gave him a swift hug, smiled and said, "Thanks."
Then she grinned mischievously, and took off down the corridor, yelling "Last one to the Great Hall is a rotten egg!" after her.
James grinned, and ran after her.