Lily walked into Hopper's a little before one, with Marlene in tow. She had her trusty notebook with her, so she could take note of his questions if she felt the need to, because even if she didn't particularly like James, she was a professional. Especially when it came to the show. He said that he had questions, so she was going to do her best to answer them.

"Does he know that I'm going to be here?" Marlene asked, twirling a curl around her finger and taking a seat next to Lily at a table near the counter. They always sat near the counter as it was easier to go back for seconds. Also Marlene worked here a couple days a week, and so their table had to be close enough for Lily to be able to hold a conversation with her when she was behind the counter.

"Yes. I told him that you and I were having lunch here."

"And after you told him that, you invited me to lunch." She nodded, giving Lily a look. Lily couldn't tell what the other girl was thinking, and Marlene wasn't exactly known for being predictable. However, Lily couldn't really think of anything that Marlene could do that would be too out there. After all, this was a meeting about the show.

"Well Mary suggested that he might be stalking me, so I didn't want to meet him alone."

"He's not stalking you." She rolled her eyes.

"We'd been drinking. I don't actually think he's stalking me."

"I mean, I'm sure you have a stalker, but it's not James."

"I don't have a stalker." It was Lily's turn to roll her eyes and then she stood up to go and get their drinks.

"You probably do." She called out across the café. When Lily turned around to walk back toward the table, she saw James walking in. He smiled rather brightly, and Lily found it (like so many other things he'd done in the last four days) jarring. She smiled back, though more polite than friendly, and waved him over to the table that Marlene was seated at.

"Thanks for meeting with me," He said, "I'm very excited about all of this."

"Well that's good to hear," Marlene said. "Everyone is pretty excited to have you. I mean, anyone is an improvement over Amos' icy glares and pompous attitude, but most of the crew are all big fans of yours." She took her coffee from Lily and then tugged at another one of her curls.

"Thanks." James grinned, "I'm a fan as well. Of the show, not myself."

"Yeah, Lily mentioned that you told her that you watch the show. That seems unrealistic, but pretty cool if it's true."

"It is true," He nodded quickly, "I was surprised to hear that not that many people watch it."

"I told you, if you put 'UCL News'around anything, it's rendered invisible." Lily shrugged a shoulder and flipped open to a blank piece of paper. "So, you said that you had questions? Or did you want to get something first?" She asked, nodding toward the counter.

"It won't be invisible for long," He grinned and then shook his head. "Just water for me," He said, pulling out a fairly large purple water bottle with the school's mascot striking a funny pose on the front.

"You know, you're probably right. With you on the show, people might actually watch," Marlene let her curl spring back into place as she leaned forward in her seat. She looked over at Lily and bowed her head in a serious fashion. "Not that they shouldn't watch to see you, because they should, but they don't. I'm sure they'll tune in at least a couple times to see you though," She said, looking at James again.

"I am quite popular around here these days."

"That's because you keep winning," Marlene grinned.

Lily bit her lip. Annoyed seemed to be her constant state of mind lately, but she had just realized that she really was going to be the only person on the crew who wasn't thrilled to have a football star as an anchor. Sure, it would be nice to have the show noticed, but she'd rather they get noticed for how good the show was, not that James Potter was suddenly on it. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that none of this had actually happened yet and she couldn't start getting worked up over things that hadn't even happened yet or she would drive herself mad.

"You're being quiet," Marlene said, and Lily realized that she'd zoned out and missed part of the conversation.

"Sorry, I was just thinking how strange it would be if people actually started watching the show." She said, shaking her head and reaching for her coffee. She was glad that Marlene was taking the lead on this meeting, or whatever it was.

"You're really good at what you do," James said, looking at her. "They should already be watching."

"I told you, most people on the show are doing it just for the experience. I'm not sure why you're doing it, since you told me you wanted practice getting interviewed but…"

"I did say that, but I'm a fan of the show and when you suggested that I audition, it sounded like a good idea."

"Lily suggested that you audition?" Marlene asked, looking entertained by that even though Lily hadn't denied or confirmed his claim yet.

"I didn't suggest that you audition." She argued, keeping her gaze on James.

"You said that I could leave, or audition." He shrugged.

"Okay, but that sounds like she invited you to leave." Marlene laughed, though her voice had gained a clipped quality about it that had Lily sitting up a tad straighter. She'd seen Marlene when she used this voice and she had no idea what was about to happen now.

"I mean, Lily's good at being polite, but you're not a dolt. Are you a dolt? A few of us have been wondering lately." Lily blanched, though she should have expected her to say something like that since she wasn't known for her tact and Lily hadn't given her much of a choice when she 'invited' her to lunch.

"Marlene," She hissed, but then she looked at James to see how he would react, because in all honesty, she had been wondering if he was a bit thick in the head.

"Um," He narrowed his brow, his smile disappearing for the first time since he'd walked into the café. "No, I know that she wasn't actually suggesting that I auditions, I was just-"

"You were trying to be cute?" Marlene shook her head. "But that's the other thing. A lot of blokes are sweet on Lily, and a lot of blokes flirt with her-'

"Marlene," Lily repeated, but she didn't stop.

"Or try and chat her up, but is that even what you're doing? We can't tell? And by we, I'm not including Lily. I mean, I'm sure she's confused too, but I'm talking about myself and her roommate Mary, and Mary's girlfriend Emmeline." She paused and looked over at Lily. "I haven't met her, but Mary had me on speaker the other night and she seems great." She looked back at James. "Anyway, we think that you tweeting out that picture of the two of you was pretty strange."

"That's because it was," Lily muttered, taking a sip of her coffee.

Marlene gave Lily the side eye and shook her head. "So, what's the deal, Potter? Why have you suddenly appeared in our orbit?"

Lily could feel that her face was red, and that wasn't because Marlene had embarrassed her, but because she suffered from very acute second-hand embarrassment and she could tell before she even looked at James that not only had he not been expecting this, but he was mortified.

He actually looked pale when she did work up the nerve to look at him. He ran a hand through his hair and then pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"I- well…" He shook his head and started fidgeting in his seat. He looked over at Lily, almost as though he was asking for her help, but she wasn't going to help him. She actually wanted him to answer. She wanted him to explain what the hell was going on. "Maybe I've been coming off a bit… strange." He said, using Marlene's word. "But I didn't mean to. I watch the show, I follow you on twitter, I guess I just- it's weird to actually talk to you now when I feel like I know quite a bit about you. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. I didn't realize I'd given your friends anything to talk about behind your back."

Lily raised her brow slightly, almost agreeing with him on that front. They should have included her in their musings about James, so she could complain some more. She really enjoyed complaining sometimes.

"But I don't really know why we've started seeing each other. I just saw you at the pub and wanted to talk to you, then I went in on Sunday because I'd misunderstood you because I'd been drunk when you were talking to me. And that's it really."

"Why did you audition?" She asked again, reaching out to pick up her pencil and she started tapping it against the table.

He sighed. "I really do watch the show and I think it's great and I think it'll be a lot of fun. I'll get practice talking in front of a camera. And I'll get to do something that isn't football related. I love the game, but I do have other interests." He shrugged.

Lily nodded, "Alright." She needed some time to think all of this over, but she supposed it had explained a lot. Between the show and her twitter, a lot of her information was out there. And maybe he had felt like he'd known her more than he had because of it. And he had seemed genuine in his interest of the show when he'd first talked about it. Maybe she had been looking at it all wrong. Maybe she'd been remembering the night two years ago and letting it cloud her judgment of who he was now. People changed in the course of two years, right? First year football players who weren't used to local fame, weren't the same as third years.

She still thought he was pompous of course, but maybe she didn't have to be annoyed with him constantly. That would be nice. It was exhausting being annoyed all the time.

"Alright," Marlene agreed, taking a sip of her coffee and reaching back up to her hair to pull at another curl. "And I was being sincere when I said that the crew was all excited to have you. Just wasn't including myself. I don't watch football." She shrugged.

James nodded, not making any comment about that or anything else she said.

"No hard feelings?" Marlene asked, "I had to suss you out a bit. You understand."

"I mean, yeah. I do understand." He nodded, popping the top off his water and taking a drink.

"So," Lily took another deep breath and looked at him. "You said that you had questions? I think we better get them answered before four thirty. That when we have our run-through and do last minute edits."

He was definitely shaken, but he did start acting like a normal human being after that and Lily felt herself re-balancing.

OOoOoOo

"We're making an announcement beforehand, right?" Emmett asked as Lily walked into the production room. She raised her brow, not knowing what he was talking about since he hadn't added any context. "James, we're making an announcement that he's going to be on the show before we're actually live, right?"

"Why would we do that?" Lily asked. "That'd be a stupid reveal."

"Because no one watches our show, so no one will know if we don't tell them." Emmett said.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I feel like people will figure it out."

"I'm sure they will," James as he walked into the room. If lunch with Marlene had had any lasting effects, he didn't show it outwardly. Other than the fact that he wasn't trying to blind her with a smile, she couldn't tell that anything was different about him. "I did tell my mates, I figured that was okay."

"Of course that's alright," Lily nodded, glad that he didn't seem upset or shaken, as they were going on air soon and that would be a terrible first impression to make.

"My friend Sirius said that he was going to live tweet the whole thing."

"Sirius Black?" Emmett asked, and James nodded. "Kid was in my astronomy class. Said he was taking it ironically since he is a star." He chuckled and shook his head. "Anyway, I'm Emmett Dackery. It's nice to officially meet you." He held out his hand and James took it.

"Nice to meet you too." He grinned, though this was the first time that Lily felt as though his smile was somewhat guarded. "Sorry if I don't remember your name right away, I've been approached by about twenty people so far. How many people work on the show?"

"Way more than is necessary since you get credit towards about four different programs." Emmett grinned, "And not a problem. I answer to pretty much anything,"

"Oi, beanstalk!" Marlene called out, walking towards the three of them. Lily didn't know if she had somehow heard Emmett say that he answers to everything, or if that was just good timing.

"Including that, unfortunately." Emmett sighed and turned around. "Are you mad at me, or just trying to embarrass me in front of the new guy?" He asked, walking off to meet her in the middle.

Lily shook her head at the two of them and then turned back to James. "Alright, well we're going to head to the conference room and start going over the script with the writers. Amelia is one of the students in charge of the writing, you probably remember her."

"I do remember her," He nodded, pulling out his water bottle and fidgeting with it. She'd seen him do that back in the café and figured it was something he did when he was nervous or uncomfortable. He needed to be doing something with his hands.

"The nerves starting to get to you? Remember, twelve people." She grinned, feeling that it was alright to be a bit kinder since Marlene had completely embarrassed him a couple hours ago. And on the bright side, he probably had no interest in pursuing her any longer.

"I know, twelve people. But this is all new and so I'm… I'm reasonably nervous. It'd be weird if I wasn't, right?"

She chuckled and shrugged, "I suppose it would be. Though, you do manage to play football in front of how many people ever weekend?"

"That's different," James waved off her comment.

They got to the conference room and James introduced himself to the writers, though there were quite a few extra people who didn't normally bother with the read-throughs. She couldn't blame them though.

The next hour and a half flew by and soon it was time for the show to start. James had done very well in the writer's room, as she had expected him too after his audition yesterday. They got dressed and everyone took their places, and final sound checks were completed. Everything was in it's place when the light turned red and Lily opened the show.

It all went smoothly, and when they cut to a pre-filmed piece that they'd made the week before, Lily took a deep breath and reached for her water. "You're doing well," She said, looking over at James, who smiled at her.

"Yeah?" He reached for his own water. "Thanks. That means something coming from you."

"You know I'm not a professional at this, right? I could be wrong. Professionals could think that you're doing terribly."

"I'm not really trying to impress the professionals." He shrugged, and Lily tilted her head.

"You're trying to impress me?"

"You're the old hat at this." He said, "You know what you're doing and how you want all this to go. I've got a lot of expectations to live up to."

"Not really." She said, though she supposed he had a point. She did want other people to take this as seriously as she did, she did want them to do what they could to perfect all the different aspects, but she couldn't exactly expect that from them. It wouldn't be fair of her. "All I need you to do is be nicer to everyone than Amos was and not mispronounce words on camera."

"Well I think I can do the first one, and can anyone really promise the second?"

"Okay, no mispronouncing simple words that you've known your entire life." She amended.

"I can promise to try my best."

"I suppose that's all I can ask." She chuckled, shaking her head. So far, so good. She was glad that he'd thought to meet up before the show, and she was glad that she'd thought to bring Marlene along. And and she was glad that Marlene had thought to interrogate him. Because this was working. She could talk to this James who had been humbled and taken down a few pegs.

"Lily!" Marlene hissed and ran up to the desk that she and James were seated behind. "Look at this!" She shoved her phone onto the desk and slid it over to her. It was twitter, which Lily was only just starting to enjoy again.

brightest-star: You'll never guess which wanker somehow managed to wind up as an anchor for the school news

There was a picture attached, again, Lily was included, but it was mostly of James. Whoever tweeted this had taken a picture of a television screen in the opening.

"I told you my mates were going to tell people," James said, peering over at the screen.

"Okay, sure, but it's been favorited and re-tweeted thousands of times. And it's only been fifteen minutes. There are a lot of people watching right now." She said, sounding nervous, even though she'd never once been behind the camera.

Lily felt the palms of her hands start to sweat and pushed the phone away. "That seems like something that you should have told me after the show was over. Not something you should have told me when I have about two minutes to collect myself." She shook her head.

"It's the same show it was a moment ago," James said.

"I've never done well in front of a crowd. I started doing this because no one watched." She shook her head. "I'll be fine, I just need a moment."

"Donut?" Emmett called out from next to the camera man.

"I said I need a moment, not a donut." She sighed, "But yes, of course I want a donut." Emmett nodded and jogged off to get her one.

"Is that his job?" James asked. "Getting you snacks?"

Lily chuckled, "Yes, but that's not what he does for the show."

"That's not all he does for the show. You get ornery when you haven't had sugar." Marlene took back her phone and turned around to go back to the sound board.

"Are you going to be alright?" James asked, straightening his jacket.

"I'll be fine." She nodded, "Are you going to be alright?"

"I perform in front of thousands all the time as you've already pointed out." He said, running a hand through his hair.

"Yes, but you don't speak in front of thousands all the time, as you pointed out, it's different." She shrugged, somehow making herself feel better by thinking that maybe he should be nervous.

"I did have a point there," He said, pushing his glasses up his nose as Emmett ran up and placed a donut in front of Lily, giving her the 'a-okay' sign as he walked backward toward the camera, almost running into one of the crew. Lily chuckled and broke a small piece of the sweet off, popping it into her mouth as someone let them know that they had thirty seconds left.

"We've got this," She said, feeling the nerves drain out of her as the seconds ticked down. She'd been doing this for years. She had nothing to worry about.

OOoOoOo

"That was amazing!" James practically jumped out of his chair after the red light shut off and the director said they were clear. Lily laughed at his enthusiasm. "I mean- I made a million mistakes but this is so much fun!" He looked over at Lily and waited for her to agree.

"It is fun, yes." She agreed. "A bit more nerve wracking with more people watching, but maybe a bit more fun too." She said, looking out at the crew. They all looked thrilled to have more than twelve people watching all the hard work that they'd put in. Before the end of the show #uclnews was trending locally on twitter for the first time in history. Of course, #jamespotter wasn't far behind, but Lily couldn't be bothered to be bothered by that.

"That was a great show," Marlene pushed her glasses up into her hair, where they instantly disappeared. "Which means that we're going out for pancakes!" She shouted, and an enthusiastic cheer went around the room. Lily smiled at every and then looked back over at James, thinking she should explain.

"We go out for pancakes after a good show. We can't go out for drinks on a Monday when most people here have eight am classes- I mean we could but we choose to celebrate with breakfast food instead."

"Breakfast food is wonderful." He grinned. "I can see why you would want to do that instead of setting yourself up for a Tuesday morning hangover."

"Are you coming?" Emmett asked him as he walked up to Lily and put his arm around her, and a lot of people turned to look at James.

"I don't want to intrude on your thing."

"We're celebrating because of you," Marlene said, narrowing her brow. "We were all pretty sure that whoever we got to replace Amos was going to be awful. But you are not awful so we're getting pancakes."

"You're okay with me coming?" He asked, looking at Marlene skeptically.

"If I wasn't, don't you think I'd say so?" She smirked, since she had done nothing but speak her mind at lunch earlier.

James looked over at Lily, who should have expected it, "And you?"

"You're part of the crew now, James." Lily shrugged. "It'd be pretty rude to exclude you." She said, offering him a smile.

And so, he agreed, and they all headed to a nearby pancake house that was open late. Lily sat with Marlene, Amelia and Emmett. James got roped into sitting more in the middle of the room and talking with everyone for at least a few minutes. He seemed to be taking it in stride though.

"So how many people watched?" Lily asked, looking around at her friends.

"17,432 people were watching when you signed off. And that is 17,420 more people than Friday's episode." Marlene grinned, all of her teeth showing as she danced in her seat.

Lily shook her head. "That's so many people."

"It is." Amelia agreed, "It's a good thing our show is virtually flawless, so we don't have to do an overhaul now that people are going to watch."

"Virtually flawless?" Lily quirked a brow. "Well that's just not true."

"Agree to disagree," Amelia shrugged.

"Lily is never going to be satisfied with anything." Emmett said, taking a break from shoveling pancakes and eggs into his mouth to join the conversation for a moment.

"That's not true. I'm satisfied, I just know that there's always room for improvement."

Marlene shook her head. "What did your parents do to you as a child?"

"Nothing. My perfectionism drove them nuts too." She said, pressing her lips together. "I'm going to get more orange juice, anyone want some?"

"Me please," Emmett said, scooping up more eggs and a bit of potatoes.

She nodded and started towards the counter. James must have followed her, because he appeared in line directly behind her. "Everyone is being very friendly." He said, looking around.

"Everyone is very friendly." She nodded, looking over the menu, just in case she wasn't completely familiar with it already.

"Your boyfriend seems very friendly too." He said, and she turned to see him looking back at Emmett. She narrowed her brow. "And not at all the jealous kind. Which is a shame since I was kind of hoping his was." He turned back to look at her.

"I'm sorry, but why were you hoping that Emmett was the jealous kind?"

"You don't seem like you have the patience for someone who gets jealous." He shrugged.

"Oh," She nodded, acting as though something had just dawned on her. "I see. You're still flirting with me even though you're under the impression that I have a boyfriend who is less than five meters away." Perhaps Marlene hadn't scared him enough.

"Under the impression?" He, of course, latched onto her specific wording.

"I'm not dating Emmett." She shrugged, though saying that she was would be an easy out here. He would still flirt with her apparently, but he might back off a bit.

"Oh." He looked surprised to hear that, but then his surprised was replaced with a smile. "Well alright then."

Lily shook her head and turned back toward the menu. There were only a few people left in front of her and then she could go back to her friends.

"So, do we meet up tomorrow to go over Wednesday's show?" He asked, pulling her attention back to him with an actual question.

"The writers will meet up for a couple hours tomorrow." She nodded. "But as an anchor, you don't have to do anything more until Wednesday at four thirty."

"Right. But you'll be at the meeting tomorrow?"

Lily shrugged. "I try and go to them, but that's not because I'm an anchor."

"It's because you love this show, right." He nodded.

"Right," She agreed, "But I have class for the first hour that they meet. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my busy days for class."

"Me too," James grinned, looking happy that they had that in common. Lily just pressed her lips together and raised her brows a bit before turning back around.

She'd already decided somewhere between lunch and the run through of the show that she was going to be friendly with him. She didn't want to be in a situation where she dreaded doing the show because she would have to spend hours with him. She'd rather they were on good terms. So, she was trying to look past all the strange things that had happened that weekend. She was trying to give him a clean slate. But again, this was more for her own sanity than for him.

The line moved up and James stepped up more than the line moved, so he was more next to her than behind her. "Would you be alright with me posting about the show now?" He asked.

"Why wouldn't I be alright with that?" She asked.

"Well because if I post a clip from the show, both of us are going to be in it." He shrugged. "And you didn't like the last time I did that."

Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head, "That's completely different." She said. "You posted a photo of the two of us that I didn't know existed without my permission before. If you post clips from the show, well I've already given my permission to be in the public eye for those clips seeing as how it's a public broadcast. It wouldn't be weird for anyone to post clips from the show, but it would be weird for people to just take pictures of me and post them without me knowing. You see?" He had to understand that, right? One was bordering on an invasion of her privacy and the other was just something people did with clips they liked online.

He nodded for a moment and then ran a hand through his hair. "Alright, I get that, but I still wanted to ask for your permission. I figured it'd be a good rule of thumb to have from now on." He said. "As your mate pointed out earlier, I've not really been thinking straight when it comes to you lately."

Lily narrowed her brow. "What does that mean?"

"I'm still flirting," He grinned.

She sighed and stepped up in line again. And he stepped with her. "It just sounds like you're blaming me for you being stupid." She said, "And honestly, I'm tired of that line of thinking. I've done nothing to influence how you behave."

"Oh no, I'm stupid all on my own," He assured her. "And it's not just when it comes to talking to girls that… well- I'm also stupid in plenty of other ways. My mates and I have very little self-control when we all get together, and we also think that we're really good at pranking people. And while now, we mainly prank each other, we used to try and prank everyone around us. Especially back in secondary." He chuckled.

"Your mates from secondary all go here now?" She asked. Mary was the only friend from secondary that she talked to anymore. The norm seemed to be that you came to uni and then you made friends that would last a lifetime.

"Yeah, we were a bit too co-dependent to all go our separate ways." He chuckled. "I've known them for most of my life. I guess saying half would be more accurate. But yeah, when it came time to decide where we were going, we kind of picked a school that would work for all of us."

"How many friends are you talking about?"

"There are four of us." He said.

"Remus and Sirius?"

"Yeah," He nodded, "And Peter. We all have a place off campus together down by the river."

She nodded, "Well it's nice that you all get to do that."

"It is. We've even managed to slightly grow out of our co-dependency." He motioned around the room. "None of them are currently here."

"Well I'm glad that you all don't feel the need to follow each other around anymore." She chuckled. The line moved up again and it was her turn. She ordered her orange juices and another order of pancakes and then stepped off to the side. James ordered a coffee and stepped to the side with her.

"Did you all meet through the show?" He asked, nodding back at her table of friends. She nodded.

"Yeah, my roommate Mary, it was her idea to join the show. She changed her mind a couple of weeks in, but I was stuck. I loved it and I loved all the people. It's how I worked out what I should study."

"It's nice when you just accidentally fall in love with something, isn't it?"

"Serendipitous." She agreed, smiling slightly. Her order came, and she was handed a tray. "I'll see you on Wednesday." She said, giving him a nod before she turned to walk back to her table.

"Yeah," He nodded, his hand going back to his hair. "I'll see you Wednesday."

AN: Again, reviews are wonderful and I sort of need them.