"Um, Potter? I though we were going to practice in the library?"

"Like I said I don't trust you practicing in a public place. Don't you think our rooms would be safer?"

"Yes and no," said Lily. James raised his eyebrow again in question. They stopped in front of the mermaid and James released Lily.

"Potter, I think we should have that talk now, in our common room. I don't want you getting the wrong idea. Cappuccino."

Lily went down first and James followed her, unsure of what to expect.

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When Lily reached the common room she took off her heavy schoolbag and set it on the floor beside the sofa. She sad down on the sofa and smoothed out her skirt in a nervous motion. James entered moments after her and moved to take the seat on the sofa next to Lily, but upon seeing her raised eyebrow he decided on the chair opposite her. He conjured up some lemonade and biscuits, pouring them each a glass and shoving some biscuits into his mouth.

"Alright Potter, I'm going to be honest with you; I don't like to beat around the bush. I believe in sharing my thoughts with others, especially if my thoughts concern the person I am talking to so…well; I…I don't think I hate you anymore," she said reluctantly.

James looked at her with wide eyes and a few pieces of his half-eaten biscuit fell into his lap, he didn't even notice.

"Yes that's right; I don't wish to see you ground into a bloody pulp…anymore," she said, but upon seeing the eagerness in James's eyes she quickly added, "But just because I don't hate you does not mean that I even remotely like you; this just means that I'm willing to give you a chance to…to earn a chance…understand?"

James raised an eyebrow and shook his head with a smirk on his face. He then took another biscuit and his glass of lemonade and sat back in his chair, gesturing to Lily that she was to explain.

"Oh, I'm not even sure if I understand," groaned Lily. "Ok, well…I have decided that I won't turn you down, immediately, and if things go well for a while, then…then maybe I'll give you a real chance."

"Seriously?!" said James, washing down his biscuits with the lemonade, "But love, what made you change your mind? Don't get me wrong I'm ecstatic that you did, but what happened?"

"Well, love, you seemed to have changed a bit from the boy I used to hate; you seem more…mature and level-headed. If this change is for real, then maybe you'll get your chance, but until then, remember that I can change my mind very easily," she said in a haughty voice.

"Well then I'll just have to work very hard to turn your mind towards my favour," said James and he moved onto the sofa next to her.

Before Lily could even object, James had reached around her head and brought her lips to his. Her pouty, pink lips were the perfect cushion for his abrupt move. James gave her a quick, hard kiss right on her lips and then moved to the corner of her mouth, her cheek, her jaw bone, her ear, and then to her pulse point under her ear; at this Lily shivered and closed her eyes. James pulled her tighter and kissed her on the mouth again, this time he gently licked her lips, begging her for entry. She simultaneously granted his request and fell limp into his arms. At this James made sure to pull her body tight against his, pressing every inch of her skin against his. He plunged his tongue into her mouth, making sure to explore every corner of it, while he could. She wrapped her arms around his neck and played with the short hairs on the back of his neck, while he placed his other hand around her neck and started to make gentle circles on the back of it. When James gently bit her bottom lip and moved the hand that had been around her waist up to her breast, Lily let out a soft moan that did more to James than she knew.

James abruptly pulled away and pushed her from him slightly. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply for a few moments.

"What's wrong?" said Lily. "I'm sorry; did I do something wrong?"

"Lily, God no," he whispered, looking her in the eyes. "We have to stop here or things are going to start going a lot faster than you would like them to."

Lily blushed and turned away. "If that is going to be the way of it, I fear you have an unfair advantage on me Potter. You seem to be able to change my mind rather rapidly, while I have no idea how to un-change it," she laughed. Lily moved over to him and moved a stray piece of hair from his forehead, but it just fell right back a moment later.

"Lily, go on a date with me…just one little date?" said James.

"No Potter. I haven't yet decided to give you a chance," she said and turned away from him.

When she heard James sigh in a mixture of disappointment and frustration she turned around and did her cute little half smile. "Although I suppose that I could be persuaded to go to a Head's meeting with you to, say, Hogsmeade this weekend," she laughed.

"Oh yeah?" said James, raising his eyebrow and moving closer to her. "And um, what type of persuasion did you have in mind?"

"Well I do like flowers and jewe-" but she was cut off by James.

He had grabbed her around the waist again and had then proceeded to flip her over on the couch so that he was now on top of her and she had no way to escape.

"Potter, what are you doing?! I said flowers!" she said in protest, but he just kissed her squarely on the mouth.

Half an hour later, a blushing and slightly dishevelled Lily emerged from the Head's common room and sped off to Muggle Studies, while James sauntered out after her and practically skipped off to Divination with a stupid, lazy grin on his face that seemed to stay there all through the day.

Throughout the rest of the day Lily's mind was constantly focused on James. In Transfiguration, when she was supposed to be changing her frog into an ottoman, his face kept popping into her head. She ended up with a lopsided ottoman with snitch patterned material and pieces of fabric sticking up in the back. In Charms she ended up giving herself black hair and hazel eyes in a cosmetology spell gone wrong and in Muggle Studies, their reference book of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, had the annoying habit of constantly portraying Mr. Darcy as James H. Potter!

By the time she got back into her own room in the Head's Rooms she felt as though she was going crazy. She threw herself onto her bed and buried her face in a pillow. "Arggg! What is the matter with me?!"

There was then a knock on her door that made her jump. Half expecting it to be James, she fixed her hair quickly and called for them to come in. It was Imogen, Lily let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey, James let me in as he was going out. I just wanted to check up on you, you looked as if you were going to be sick when you left Muggle Studies," she said, sitting down on the bed. "So what's up?"

"Uggghh, I don't know!" said Lily, resting her head in Imogen's lap. "I just can't seem to stop thinking about him!"

"Who, Voldemort?" said Imogen.

"Eww, god no!" said Lily sitting up straight. "Potter…er James."

"Whoa, when did you stat calling him that?" said Imogen, surprised. "And since when have you not been able to stop thinking about him!?" she said with a mischievous look in her eyes, almost like the once Sirius had in his at this very moment.

"For more than half an hour!" shouted Sirius from the boy's dormitories. "With Lily? The girl, who just a few days ago was about to bite your head off, is now your newest acquisition?!"

"She's not an acquisition! I have been after this girl for three years! And now that she is finally starting to stop hating me, I might just have a chance!" he said with a blissful smile on his face as he layback into Sirius's bed.

"Well be careful mate, it is easy to make a wrong move with a girl like Lily. She knows your reputation better than anyone else, and if you so much as smile at another girl she will get pissed."

"What do you mean? Lily isn't like that about me, yet; right now I bet she wouldn't even care if I was dating another girl-"

"Which you are, may I add. And, if I were you, I would break up with Laura before anyone finds out. Lily obviously has some feelings for you, which means that she must have some protectiveness over you; I mean how would you feel if Lily was even hanging out with another guy, let alone dating him."

James's eyes widened and he sat up. "Shit you're right!" and he got up and went for the door. "Geez Padfoot, where did all of this insight come from? You are starting to sound like Moony."

Sirius sighed and leaned against him pillows. "I know I know, I think it had something to do with a full night's sleep, Mandy didn't show last night, mixed with a proper breakfast; must remember not to do this again!"

"I have not been able to stop thinking about him ever since this afternoon!" cried Lily. "We uh, sort of…made out for a little bit."

"What! How long is a little bit!?"

"Um, half and hour, maybe more?" said Lily shyly.

"Holy crap Lily, this is huge! You have finally seen the light!" she said hugging her. "One of the hottest men in the school has adored you for three years and you have finally started to adore him too!"

"Well I wouldn't say adore, maybe just appreciate."

"I don't know Lily, from what you tell me about you not being able to stop thinking about him; it sounds like someone is in love!"

Lily hit Imogen over the head with a pillow, knocking her off the bed. "I am not in love with James Potter and don't you ever say it again!" she said smiling as her friend picked up the other pillow and fought back.

Once the two girls had succeeded in beating every last feather from their pillows, they did a spell to return them to the casings and made their way down to dinner.

The boys were already sitting down and filling their mouths full of the steak and potato dinner before them. Imogen took the empty seat on one end next to Sirius and Lily went to sit down by James. He didn't even notice her, so focused on his food he was, so that when she ran her fingers up the back of his neck he started to choke a bit on his food. Lily laughed and handed him a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Whoa, don't do that when I'm eating!" he said, but then laughed after.

"Sorry," she said, her cheeks going a little red. "I just thought that…"

But James just smiled at her being nervous in front of him like that and grabbed her by the back of the neck and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "No worries love; I just mean give me a bit of warning while I have food in my mouth."

She quickly pushed him away and her eyes went wide while her face turned crimson. "James! Not in public!"

Lily started to eat her meal, not noticing the mischievous glint in James's eyes. He decided that it would be fun to tease Lily at little bit, so she know how he constantly felt. He started by grazing her thigh, blowing in her ear, etc., and though Lily jumped every time he did so and sent him a glare she didn't do anything to stop him. He then ran his hand up her inner thing, to which Lily let out a little squeak and everyone look at her. Again her face went crimson and she simply glared at James.

By the end of dinner Lily was incredibly pissed off at him, yet disturbingly turned on. She took a deep breath as she stood up from the table once diner was over. "Potter," she said in a low.

"Yes love," he said coming around behind her and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Come on, lets go back to our rooms, now," she said anxiously.

A look of pure joy came across James's face as he giddily followed her. I meant to get her excited, but this is more than I expected.

When they reached the common room Lily whipped around on James and pushed him against the wall. She reached up to place a gentle kiss on his lips and slowly traced his lips with her tongue. With one hand around his neck, playing with the little hairs on his neck the other was slowly working its way to the front of his pants. She gave one little stroke before James tensed and let out a strangled moan. From there he tried to take control of the situation and swung Lily around to the wall, but she wasn't about to let him win, and she quickly pushed him onto the sofa and straddled him. He pulled her to him and started to play under her shirt. She first pulled his shirt off of him and then made sure to press every inch of her body against his. Lily then started to work kisses from his mouth, to his neck and the soft spot under his ear, all the way down to his chest and abdomen. James was still playing under her shirt and was about to unclasp her bra when she pulled his hands away and went to whisper in his ear.

"Don't think that I'm just here for a physical purpose. If you think that by trying to turn me on at dinner like that is going to help your cause with me then you are sorely mistake, love," she said standing up and composing herself. She looked down at James, who was breathing heavily and staggered just how she had wanted him to be. "Now we are even, Potter," she said, kissing him on the cheek and going off to bed.

James composed himself, grabbed his shirt and headed off to the bathroom. Looks like I'm going to be having a lot of cold showers this year, he though to himself and laughed.