A/N: Hey guys... I'm back...(Dodges Avada Kadavra Curse). Yes, I know it's been months since my last update. I could get into excuses (School, swim team, personal reasons) but I won't bore you with all the details. All you have to know is that now that swim team is winding down a little, the first semester at school is nearly over, and all the personal drama in my life is kind of fizzling out, I've suddenly found myself with free time- I know, right, I thought that was a myth- and so I've taken up this fic again. I really want to try to keep up with steady updates from now on, probably about once a week or so. No, stop rolling your eyes, I really mean it this time. Again, I'm really sorry it's been so long. I know you're probably sick of apologies, but I'm the type of girl who runs into a doorframe, gets rushed to the ER for stitches, and then apologizes profusely about ten gazillion times because she's worried she put a dent in it. So sorry. I promise if I ever drop this fic again I'll at least write an AN to let you guys know.

A/N2: Don't worry, I'll make this quick. I just wanted to say, concerning this chapter, its going to throw you for a loop. It's short, its strange, it's confusing. You're not really supposed to understand what's going on. Hopefully you'll find it kind of intriguing, but if you think its boring or just way too bizzare that's ok too. Either way, I'd love to know what you think.

2 o'clock AM. Everyone in the Leaky cauldron pub and Inn was asleep. Everyone that is, except for a certain red-haired witch, tossing and turning in her bed, unable to calm her racing thoughts enough to get any sleep.

Sighing, Lily turned over one last time before grudgingly opening her eyes and sitting up in bed. She could blame the lumpy mattress and musty sheets all she wanted, it wouldn't help. She knew the real reason for her insomnia. In fact, he was sleeping in a room just adjacent to hers.

James Potter. It wasn't enough that he haunted every waking moment of her life at Hogwarts, now he was intruding on her sleep too. Honestly, that boy was insufferable. He hadn't even said a word, just kind of wobbled a bit and fell on top of her, but it was enough. More than enough actually, to ensure that those memories she'd fought all summer long to suppress came racing right back to the surface, at just one glance of his panic-stricken face.

Slowly, so as not to wake her slumbering friends, Lily swung her feet onto the floor and padded across the room. She reached the door in a few strides and hesitantly put her hand to the knob. It didn't creak, though she'd expected it too. Perhaps it was still a bit sore from its encounter with Potter's unfortunately thick skull earlier on that day. That impact would send anyone out of commission for awhile.

When Lily reached the hallway, she couldn't help but wrap her arms around herself, as the curtains on the open window across the hall swayed in the unnaturally chill summer breeze. A slant of moonlight slivered through the gap in the curtains, briefly illuminating the room in an eerie glow, before the curtain slid back into place, and the relative darkness prevailed. It was interesting how stark the contrast was; from light to dark, seen to unseen. In the darkness, she might not have been able to make out the door to the boys room. Now however, she'd seen its relative location, and could just discern its obscure outline.

Slowly, methodically, Lily took the last few steps to the boy's room and pushed open the door. They were all sleeping, their faces blank, their breath even. James lay on the bed on the far side of the room, underneath a partially open window. Lily walked up to his bed. Her steps were not dreamlike, on the contrary, they were quite purposeful, and yet, still not entirely deliberate.

When she reached the open window, she reached up and pulled it shut. She could see James shivering in his sleep, and, oddly enough, felt something strangely like pity stirring inside her for this arrogant, egotistical teenager. Weird…

She stood at his bedpost then, and studied his slumbering form carefully. His forehead was creased, and his eyes were squeezed tight. Obviously, whatever he was dreaming, it wasn't pleasant.

Lily noted, with some amusement, that James' hair appeared just as wild and messy in sleep as it did during his waking hours. He also seemed to have that same pouty-puppy dog look on his face she'd come to associate with his disappointment over another failed attempt to woo her; perhaps he was dreaming about that now. About her. Ugh… Don't want to think about that… Thought Lily, suppressing the urge to gag. James Potter's fantasy world, not something she quite wanted to contemplate.

She'd finished studying him now. It hadn't given her peace of mind, quite the opposite really. Oh well… She had to get back to her room anyways. If she stood around in this chilly room any longer in her tank top and shorts she was sure to catch a cold.

Lily was just turning to go, when her eye caught a stray ray of moonlight dancing across the windowpane and into the room. For a moment, only a brief, fleeting moment, the moonlight caught James' skin, his hand to be exact, and Lily saw it. The thin, crescent shaped scar. On his right hand, just above his thumb. That small bit of imperfect skin tissue, that tiny, innocuous injury, that same defection that had relentlessly tormented her sleep all summer, it was still there.

She stared at the scar, she couldn't even really distinguish it now, but that made little difference. It had already been embellished in her memory forevermore. As she stared, memories raced across her mind, most particularly, his eyes. Those chestnut orbs, glazed momentarily in panic, in fear, in confusion, and then perhaps something else, something Lily could never quite place. She'd revisited the memory countless times before, and it always came down to this, his eyes.

Lily was torn between the urge to cry and punch the kid senseless. Wouldn't any other self-respecting wizard have had that thing magically removed by now? Did he want to torment her?

The answer was quite simple. Of course he did. He was James Potter. That's what he did best. He wheedled and prodded, and, when all else failed, he tormented. It was just a game to him. All of it. That night had been no different. It had started as a game. It hadn't ended that way. No soirée, it certainly hadn't ended that way.

Lily shook her head. What the hell was she doing here anyways? Staring at some pitiful, God-forsaken teenage boy. That's what. This was complete, utter, resounding madness. She had to get out of here.

Screw the scar. Screw the pitiful, chestnut-colored eyes. Screw everything about that magnetic, enthralling, infuriating kid.

Screw James Potter. He wasn't worth her guilt.

That damn kid so wasn't worth sleep loss.

He wasn't even worth another minute of her time.

And yet here she was.

Standing by his bed in the middle of the night.

Damn James Potter.

Damn.

A/N: Well, you can't say I didn't warn you... Anyways, if you have any thoughts/questions/comments just hit the little green review button and drop me a line. It's my B-day today, any reviews (not flames) would make my day;)

A/N2: I'm about half-way done with the next chapter, so hopefully that'll be up in the next few days. Just an FYI.