Author's Note:

I'm so sorry this chapter has been a while in coming. If you are a fan of Harry and Ginny I suggest you read my story Anything but Ordinary! If you aren't a fan of those two, and prefer James and Lily, then now you know why I haven't been updating as often, that story takes up a lot of my writing time. Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter!


James looked around with his eyes wide, trying to pretend he was innocent. Was it just him, or did Lily seem to be growing in height? Maybe that was just the impression she gave when she was very angry.

"This isn't the boys bathroom!" James said in mock outrage, as he made an attempt to run for it.

You can make it, you can make it!

In his haste, he forgot that he really shouldn't turn his back on an armed, angry witch. Seconds after he took off, he heard Lily shout a full body bind spell, and felt himself fall to the ground.

Probably should have expected that...

Although he couldn't move his body, James' eyes frantically looked back towards Lily. He knew he was in for it, there was no escaping.

Lily walked two steps closer to him, her wand raised high in the air. She muttered something quietly and waved her wand, and suddenly James was able to move his mouth muscles.

"How did you do that? I've never heard of someone being able to move their mouth under the full body bind!" James exclaimed immediately, trying to distract Lily from the reason she had placed the body bind on him. Besides, he was curious.

"I'm good at charms." Lily said through clenched teeth. "Now, I'll ask again. Why the bloody hell are you in here, and why were you hiding under a...is that an invisibility cloak?"

"Um, yes." James said. There was no way to hide it.

"So that's how you always get away with those pranks." Lily said, more angry than interested.

"As a matter of fact, it is." James said, once again trying to distract Lily. "Would you like to have a look under it?" If James weren't immobile at the moment, he would have been wiggling his eyebrows. As it was, he had been binded with a very nervous look on his face, which made the question seem rather ridiculous.

"In your dreams," Lily muttered.

"Actually, I frequently dream of scenarios like that." James said, completely serious.

Lily suddenly got an angry look on her face and shook her head. "Stop distracting me! Why are you in here, and why were you hiding?!" she asked loudly.

"Um, well, I...got lost?" James said, wishing he could melt into the ground.

"I don't think so," Lily said, just as she placed a tickling charm on James.

She hadn't been kidding, she was good at charms, James realised. Tickling charms were bad enough, but a tickling charm when someone was in the full body bind was torture. Well duh, she's trying to torture the answer out of you...quite ingenious really, although a bit scary, James thought with a mix of admiration and despair.

He tried to hold off as long as he could, but it was a lost cause.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you everything! Just take this bloody curse off!" James shouted desperately.

"It's not a curse, it's a charm," Lily said happily as she lifted the tickling charm. She kept James body binded however.

"Sure, tell that to the victim." James said dramatically.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Would you get on with it please?"

James took a deep breath. "Well you see, I've known about this room since my third year, and about a week ago, I was trying to escape Filch so I ran in here. I was under my cloak because I had been...well never mind. I was under my cloak, so you didn't see me when I came in. I saw you though..."

James' mind drifted off to how beautiful Lily had looked the first night he saw her dance. Her hair was shining in the moonlight, and she had floated across the...ARG!

Lily had placed the tickling charm on him again.

"Take it off, take it off! I'll tell the rest, I'm sorry!" James shouted.

Lily removed the charm and looked at James innocently. "You were taking too long," she said with a mischievous smile.

Normally James loved that smile, but not after what she had just done to him.

"Anyway, I saw you dancing, and I would have left had it been anyone else, but you were just so beautiful." James said sincerely.

Lily blushed a little, but her eyes looked suspicious. For some reason that was completely beyond James, she never believed him when he complimented her. He suspected it had something to do with the fact that he was never really serious, a fact that he was trying desperately to change for her.

"When you had finished, I wanted to see more, so the next night, I decided to follow you. You have to believe me, I never meant to stay the whole time or anything, I just wanted to see you dance again. It didn't really work though, I mean, once I came I couldn't leave. Then I started coming every night. I tried to not come once or twice, but the only thing I could think about was you dancing." James said quickly in case Lily decided to "charm" him again.

Lily waved her wand again, and within seconds James could feel his body unbind. Unfortunately, he fell flat on the floor before he realised he could move.

He looked up into Lily's eyes, and saw that she didn't trust what he had said.

"Don't you believe me Lils?" he asked.

"No, as a matter of fact I don't, and don't call me Lils" Lily snapped. "How do I know your not making fun of me behind my back with your stupid friends?"

"Lily, I would never make fun of you. You've got to know by now that I love you," James said with a smile.

Lily rolled her eyes. She stomped past James and into the hall.

James followed, but Lily had already rounded the corner. He assumed since it was so late that she had gone back to the common room. Hoping to talk to her before she went to bed, he sprinted the rest of the way back.

When he walked in through the portrait, James saw Lily sitting in front of the fire. Breathing with relief, he went and sat down on a couch near her.

After a few moments of silence, Lily started, "I'm...I'm sorry I put the tickling charm on you, that was probably awful."

James grinned. "Ironic really that its called the tickling charm when it hurts so much,"

Lily's lips twitched, and she smiled slightly.

Taking this as a sign that he was mostly forgiven, even if Lily thought he was mocking her when he said he loved her, James decided to ask her something that had been bothering him.

"Hey uh, Lils?" James started, using the nickname she hated out of habit. "Can I just ask you something?"

Lily had rolled her eyes at the use of the name, but when she saw how serious James was, she softened. "I guess..." she said noncommittally.

James continued. "I can understand that you would want to practice dancing once in a while, especially since your so good, but why are you dancing every night? It seems like a lot of effort for a hobby."

Lily bit her lip. She really hadn't planned on telling people this because it wasn't there business, especially James, but he was being so nice about the whole thing. He hadn't made fun of her yet...at least she didn't think he had. She decided there was no harm in telling him.

"There is a reason why I'm dancing so much, but if I tell you, you have to promise that you won't go blabbing to the whole school." Lily said, glaring into James' eyes.

James was thrilled. She was going to tell him her secret, and she was trusting him not to tell anyone else. This was a good sign right?

He nodded his head eagerly, and Lily was reminded of a puppy. She held back her laugh and made herself more comfortable on the couch.

"Before I found out I was a witch, I was really serious about ballet. I was positive I was going to be a famous ballerina, so I took a lot of classes and practiced all the time. When I did find out about this world though, I didn't really care anymore about ballet. I quit about the same time I started Hogwarts." Lily began.

James knew that Lily was from a Muggle family, but he seemed to have a better idea about her childhood from this new information. He loved it.

"Before I quit, I had been a part of this intense summer program for teenage dancers. Once your a member, you can't really get out unless you leave the group, and my parents made me stay in the group." Lily paused to breath.

"Why did they make you stay if you don't want to be a dancer anymore?" James asked confused.

Lily sighed. "They seem to think that this magic thing isn't going to work out. The group is really hard to get into, so they have it in their heads that if I decided to come back to the Muggle world after all of this, I could still have a career as a dancer. I would have refused a long time ago, but I don't want to upset my parents. They are pretty clueless when it comes to this world, and besides, I love to dance, so it wasn't a big deal...up until now."

"So what happened?" James asked curiously.

"The stupid group decided that they were going to gather all of the ballerinas in the group together and put on a performance this winter of the Nutcracker...it's this really famous Muggle ballet," Lily said for James' benefit.

"Yeah, I've seen it once actually." James said cockily.

"Oh," Lily was very surprised by this. "Anyway, the instructor of the group asked my parents if I was going to be available to perform, and my parents said yes, thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal for me to leave school and be in the show for a week," Lily said with a grimace.

James understood. Lily couldn't refuse her parents, but they had no idea what Hogwarts was like. She couldn't just leave for a week, she would be swamped with make-up work!

"Is it even worth it, I mean, do you have big part?" James asked.

"They're making me the lead," Lily said with a sad smile.

For some strange reason, James suddenly felt proud of Lily. From what he saw, she deserved to have the lead role.

"So that makes you the little girl, doesn't it?" James asked trying to remember the plot of the ballet.

Lily once again looked surprised. She smiled and said, "Yes, I'm Clara."

James smiled back for a moment before his face fell. "How are you going to do this though? You can't miss school."

"Luckily it worked out that the ballet performances will be during our winter break." Lily answered.

"That's good," James agreed. "One more question," he said, "how did you find the room of requirement?"

"My parents contacted Dumbledore in October because they knew I needed to practice. Dumbledore knows about the room, and he taught me how to use it." Lily said with a smile. "How did you find it though?" she asked slyly.

"Well um, that's not really important." James replied nervously.

Normally Lily would have pushed the matter, but she knew better with James. She would never get a straight answer from him when it came to his pranks, which she was sure were a part of his story.

Feeling suddenly tired, Lily stood up from the couch and stretched her arms up in a yawn.

James watched coyly from his seat. When Lily opened her eyes again and caught James looking at her, she scowled.

"You just remember, this gets out to no one." she said threateningly.

James knew he wasn't going to betray her trust. "Lily I promise, this will just be between you and me," he said.

Lily gave a curt nod, and headed off gracefully to the stairs that led to her room. When she was halfway up, she heard James call out a "goodnight".

"You know this doesn't mean we're friends now, right Potter?" Lily said from across the room.

"Give it time Evans, you can't resist me much longer!" James said back with a large cocky grin.

"You wish," Lily muttered.

"True," James said back. Apparently he had heard her.

Lily rolled her eyes and walked into her room, closing the door tightly behind her.

James watched her empty doorway for several minutes before he shook himself and headed off to bed as well.