Disclaimer: The plot is mine, Lily's friends (some of them) are mine. Nothing else is.

Lily and James have some serious conversations, leaving Lily with something to think about.

'Lily!'

She kept walking.

'Lily! Please stop! Listen to me!'

She started walking faster, hoping to reach the Great Hall as soon as possible.

'Lil-ly!

She spun around quickly 'What?!'

'You need to listen to me! Can you please -?'

'Listen to what?! I don't want your excuses or apologies. It's done!'

'But Lily - Wait!' she'd spun around to keep walking, but was stopped by a hand catching her arm.

'Is there a problem here?' Another voice interrupted.

Lily looked around to see the intruder. 'Oh thank Merlin!' she exclaimed.

The 'intruder' raised an eyebrow.

'Lily, please listen to me' the first voice pleaded.

'No, Snape' she spat out his name. 'I'm going to lunch' she wrenched her arm out of his grip, and because of the third person there, he didn't attempt to catch her arm again.

'He's still bothering you?' The intruder asked, once they'd walked out of earshot.

She sighed. 'Still. He can't take that I don't want to talk to him anymore. He just doesn't get it.'

'I can understand that.' She looked at the 'intruder' curiously. 'You kind of do that to people' the intruder continued as an explanation.

'Did I do that to you, James?' she asked, almost sounding like a little girl; curious, innocent, concerned.

A smile spread across his face. 'Only a little bit' he used his fingers to gesture a little bit, talking in a joking tone 'And only for a short period of time - two or so years - nothing big.'

She smiled, apologetically. 'Sorry'

He waved his hand dismissively. 'It's all in the past. Forget about it.'

"James...' she started, seriously.

He held up a hand to stop her. 'It's ok.' He said with finality.

She bowed her head, letting a strand of hair fall in front of her face.

His mouth twisted, almost painfully, then he smiled; albeit a slightly fake smile, but a smile nonetheless, which made her feel more at ease. They'd been avoiding anything serious, not sure that their friendship had progressed far enough for that kind of thing. 'Anyway - I heard this rumour about Slug horn - and McGonagall' He said in a conspirators tone.

She laughed heartily, and they disagreed about the likelihood all the way to lunch.

They reached the Great Hall and stopped just outside the doors. 'Lily?' James asked, nervously.

'Yes?' she asked, confused about what he could possibly be asking.

'Do you - uh - want to - um - sit with - us - for lunch?'

She looked at him, surprised.

He continued speaking, worried that she'd say no. 'Your friends could sit with us; all of you - if you want to.'

She smiled. 'I'll talk to them' she gave him a winning smile, then turned and walked into the Great Hall.

She walked quickly, and reached where her friends were in no time 'Hey guys' she said, only a hint of nervousness in her tone.

They looked up. 'Hey sugarplum!' Katie said, cheerily.

The others just nodded and said 'hi' simultaneously.

She smiled at them with affection, standing looking at them.

Katie raised her eyebrows 'Aren't you going to sit down?'

'Depends'

'On what exactly?' Katie asked suspiciously.

'Whether you guys would mind sitting with the Marauderers or not' she replied, cheekily saying it with pretend nonchalance.

'Oh really?' Katie questioned, raising her voice mockingly.

'Just answer the question with no mocking, please.'

'What question?' Susan asked, acting confused. 'You didn't ask a question.'

Lily frowned. 'Why are you all so mean to me?! Why can't we all just decide whether or not to sit with them and get it over with?'

Katie smirked. 'It's more fun this way.'

Alice and Susan nodded.

She pouted.

Alice sighed, being the only one, as always, who couldn't stand against the pout. 'Fine, we will. Right guys?' She turned to the others for confirmation.

They nodded. 'Fine' Katie said, pretending to be annoyed.

Lily smiled. 'Thanks, my dears.'

'You owe us' Katie warned, threateningly.

She smirked. 'Don't worry. I'll get you all some of my mother's death-by-chocolate cake as compensation.'

'WOO!' Katie jumped into the air. 'We wins!' she ran around in a circle, punching the air.

'Weirdo' Susan muttered, getting up gracefully. 'Thank you Lily' she added.

They walked calmly together to sit carefully next to the Marauders, the girls, apart from Lily, slightly on the edge of their seats, having been victims of the boy's pranks many times before.

Sirius smiled charmingly at them 'Don't worry ladies, you're under our protection now, we cannot, with any honour, attempt anything on you.' He almost frowned; but then his eyes lit up suddenly. 'Unless, of course, you start it, then it will be an all out war.' He turned to Katie, the victim of most of the pranks amongst the girls (and the instigator of most of the pranks against him that the girls had done). 'Keep that in mind, Stevenson'

'Whatever Black' she said, tossing her hair.

Lily saw her glance around, hopelessly for Jeremy, her boyfriend.

She sighed, and pointed to the end of the Ravenclaw table that he was sitting at.

'Thanks, Cherry' Katie whispered, before gesturing to Jeremy, who was in fact looking her way; he always was, to join her.

'Glad you could make it' James leaned over to whisper in her ear. She gave him back a small smile, still watching Katie who was watching Jeremy make his way to the table.

'Oh look, lover boy is coming over here. Everyone, get ready to vomit!' Sirius Black commented upon seeing the arrival of Jeremy.

Lily frowned. 'I don't suppose you could do something about Black?' She asked James quietly.

His lip upturned into a grin. 'I've tried. Nothing works'

Lily looked pensive. 'Why is he so annoying to her?'

James shrugged. 'Only girl who's ever pranked him back I guess.'

'That's silly.'

James laughed. 'He's a silly guy.'

'Too right!' Lily said with conviction. She stopped thinking 'Alice always swears its because he loves her'

James visibly had to stop himself from laughing.

'Yes well, Alice is the queen of romance. How is Frank by the way?'

'Quite well. He got into Auror training, so he's happy. Alice isn't.'

His lip twitched. 'I bet. How was she when she found out.'

'Livid. Crying. Well - I suppose hysterical would be the most accurate word.'

'Well that's understandable' he replied. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he continued explaining. 'She's in love. Love does crazy things to you.'

She nodded, understanding what he meant, she'd seen enough of her friends before, during, and after relationships to know. 'That's why I never want to fall in love.'

He looked at her, shocked. 'Never? Why in the name of Merlin would you -'

'I never want to be that affected by someone else. I never want my all life to be about someone who might not feel the same way.' she explained, hesitantly. She wasn't sure if she should be talking about this to him; they'd only been friends for 2 and a half weeks, she wasn't completely comfortable with him yet. But somehow, somehow she wanted to tell him.

'So you're scared?' he asked, a serious tone in his voice that she'd never heard before.

'Merlin yes! Aren't you?' she exclaimed.

He shrugged. 'I guess. But what's life without a certain amount of risk? And for something thats worth it as much as love. I would give my life to know what it felt like to be in love' he stopped looking at her intensely, before looking away and adding softly 'with someone who felt the same way.'

Her heart clenched painfully, as she realised what he was trying to say. 'James' her voice came out, low and pleading.

'Lunch has ended' he said shortly, before standing up and picking up his bag.

She watched him walk away; all the way out of the hall, before she even thought about picking up her bag and going to class.

'I'm sorry' she whispered, even though she knew he wouldn't hear. She blinked, displacing a few tears, and wondered to herself how that little revelation could affect her so much.

AN: I really didn't mean this chapter to end like this, but the second I wrote it, I just knew it was the right place to stop. I'll have to put the next section that I had worked out in the next chapter.

Thank you for all your reviews.

Planeteer-rach: Sorry you think the friendship is going too fast. I'm just writing it the way I would be with a new friend (even/especially someone I had a bad history with); I always try to be as lighthearted and joking as possible to make things less awkward. And then more serious conversations can happen later. But I probably should have thought about that fact that quite possibly very few people do that. I'll keep that in mind for later stories. I read your story (you said it was similar, and it is, which was kind of weird. But it was really good, and I hope you update soon (which reminds me, should add story to subsciption... thanks for reminding me).Thanks for the feedback!

Kiley 1 09: I'm updating! You make me super happy (squee!) by saying it's brilliant! I do try but I'm never sure what everyone else will like, so it's great to know that there's someone who seems to like all of my stories. Thanks!

appleeater123: Good to know that there weren't any huge grammatical mistakes. I went through later and found one thing that I really didn't like, change it, so I think its all fine now. Thank you for letting me know, I was getting vaguely concerned (especially since no one had said anything, I thought it really was horrible and everyone wanted to spare my feelings).

FishPonysRock: Cute is what I aim for =P, yeah, I think its pretty cute for something I randomly thought up one night when I was supposed to be going to bed because it was late and I had an early uni start the next day (why is it that the best ideas happen when you're no where near paper, or want to sleep? So not fair)

IWantAWerewolfToImprintOnMe 2: Glad to hear you think it's funny! I thought it was funny too, but I could always have been wrong =P. I'm updating as quickly as possible, I have a lot of uni homework, but I always make some time in the day to do some more writing (and this story will have my top priority now that I've finished my oneshot 'What is wrong with me' which was taking up most of my brainspace.

Hope you enjoy this chapter

R&R