I tweaked this one a little bit, there were just some things I wanted to reword, so that's why it's being submitted again. I'll probably end up doing that a lot actually, because every time I go back and read my work, there's always something else I want to fix. Even when it's been edited about sixteen times... So, sorry 'bout that!

Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling


Alice covered her ears as she entered the common room upon hearing vicious shouts of emanating from the center of the room.

" –ONE more time Potter and I'll hex you into next Thursday!"

Scrunching up her face she headed over to where Mary and Raven were sitting a ways from Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

"What's happened this time?" she drawled, nodding toward a fuming Lily. Lily faced a chuckling Potter with all eyes trained on them. Alice saw Sirius excepting bets from the corner of her eye.

His eyes lit up and he turned toward her excitedly. Before he could open his mouth however, he was interrupted by a rather loud, "Look Evans, I know we've had our differences, but anyone can plainly see you've had your heart set on me since we've met. I know - it's rather difficult to resist me - but you've put up a good fight. Now that you've proven yourself, you can just let out all your emotions. I'm here for you."

"Best row they've had all month!" Sirius half shouted over Lily's frustrated screeches. "All year I reckon. James kept transforming her essay into a folded lily flower. Some nonsense about actually caring about homework while he slacks off. Care to make a wager on your friend Levily?"

Alice looked at him evenly and slowly raised an eyebrow.

"No? You're betting on James to win? And here I thought you had some loyalty to ya. How much'll it be then?"

"Sirius, leave her alone," Remus said tiredly. Then he quickly added, "But you can put me down for two Galleons on Lily."

Alice and Mary exchanged smirks as a noise rang out, originating from the general direction of the fighting couple. The cupboard in the far right corner wobbled dangerous as one of its legs hung splintered into pieces.

"See what you did now Evans? It's all that pent up emotion, waiting to be unleashed. Too bad my Qudditch reflexes are far superior than your own, otherwise you might've actually gotten me that time."

"Shut up Potter! That leg'll be your body parts next. And I'm sure you can guess which one it'll be."

Mary looked at Remus. "You think they'll ever change?"

"Hope not," Sirius interrupted as four more students handed him coins.

They all tuned back in as Potter amusingly replied, "Aw, c'mon Evans, we both know I could take you in any duel. No amount of book work can change that."

The stout, thirteen year old red head glared venomously at the boy, knowing full well he was right. Her cheeks burned scarlet with damaged pride and rage.

Bang!

Potter was suddenly sprawled on the ground with a wild smile on his face. Because even though Lily had hit him with a full thrown hex, he had managed to magic the carpet underneath her feet to slide out and trip her as well.

But instead of bothering to take the time to straighten herself as Potter was, Lily aimed her wand from her position on the ground.

Dud-a-dud-a-dud-a-dud-a-dud-a! . . . WHACK.

A full force cushions lined up and pounded Potter onto the floor, followed by a grand finale of his potions scroll smacking him smartly across the face.

Sirius groaned and handed some money to Remus's waiting hand. Lupin smirked contently and watched as Lily stormed out of the room. He turned back to Mary and answered her previous question.

"I wouldn't count on it."

Lily made her way down to Care of Magical Creatures (Hagrid was loaning Professor Kettleburn his immensely boring flobberworms for the lesson this afternoon) after having just bade goodbye to Sev. She frowned; they hadn't seen each other in nearly two weeks outside of class and they'd only been able to steal a few minutes together before separating again. Having a best friend in a different house was hard. It seemed like they grew apart with each passing year.

She looked up at hearing McDonald giggle with a blushing Raven as they steered toward Hagrid's.

"What'd I miss this time?" Lily asked. Knowing Mary, she had just been informed of some frivolous gossip and couldn't wait to tell the next living soul who happened to pass by.

"Not sure if you'd want to hear Lils," Mary gave her a sly look that Lily didn't much care for. When Mary McDonald had gossip that you didn't want to hear, something was up.

"What? What is it?" Lily asked warily.

"Oh hush Mary," Raven scolded, she dipped her head in an attempt to hide her deepening blush.

"C'mon Raven, it's just Lily," Mary persuaded. "She's bound to find out sooner or later with you turning red every five seconds anyway."

This of course made Raven turn scarlet and she tried to escape the world by hiding behind her lush black hair.

"Oh all right," came a mumble behind a curtain of curls.

"Well go on then, spit it out," Lily coaxed Mary. Despite her usual disinterest in rumors, her curiosity was getting the better of her. Plus if it involved Raven then it couldn't be anything too ridiculous.

"Well Raven has now officially joined the James Potter Fan Club," Mary replied smugly. When Lily only gave her a 'Are-you-seriously-worked-up-about-that?' look, Mary frowned.

Lily turned to her other roommate. "Really, Raven? What could you possibly see in him?"

They resumed their pace down the hill, which gracefully forced Lily's penetrating gaze off of Raven.

Raven looked away. "I, Well . . . you know. He's got that smile . . . a-and that messy hair . . ."

Lily scoffed.

"Oh come off it Evans, leave the poor girl be. Just 'cause you're resistant to Potter's charms, doesn't mean the rest of us haven't noticed."

Lily looked up at Mary.

"Rest of us?"

Mary looked at the green-eyed girl incredulously. "Hello? Practically the whole female population of Hogwarts has started to grapple over James. Wake up already."

Lily's scrunched up her nose at the use of Potter's first name.

"I even heard some fifth years drooling over him in the bathroom yesterday. Where have you been? With you hiding under all that school work nobody actually does, you can be so oblivious sometimes." Mary sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes upward, her best friend being an obvious lost cause.

"Why would anyone 'grapple' over Potter?" Lily smacked her lips distastefully at the word.

Mary looked at her like she was playing dumb again.

"Gee, I don't know. He's hot, plays a mean round of Quidditch, is good looking, doesn't care about what anyone thinks, looks amazing, is a daredevil, and, did I mention how incredible he looks?"

Raven nodded on her every word.

Lily rolled her eyes. "If that's what you're going for. . . I for one would like someone who actually tries for what he wants. All Potter does is take the easy way out of everything and shows off."

They had almost reached Hagrid's hut now, but Mary stopped short to look Lily squarely in the eyes with one eyebrow raised.

"Tries for what he wants, eh? What do you call the flowers he sent you on your birthday?"

Lily shifted uncomfortably. "We never actually found out if that was him. They just landed on my head."

"And that wouldn't be something he would do? Besides, we all saw that smirk he gave you afterwards."

"It's true," Raven piped in.

"Oh we all know Potter is just messing with me. He's a pea-brained twit, and I still don't know how he found out when my birthday is," she added rather irritably.

Mary's eyebrows practically disappeared into her hairline.

"Three years of 'just messing with you'?" she asked in a disbelieving voice. "Then what about the singing cherub on Valentine's?" she challenged.

Lily's anger boiled up and her face visibly darkened at the memory. Potter had somehow transfigured a cupid-like statue to follow her around all bloody day singing stupid love songs and reciting corny poems, conjuring up roses to throw at her in the middle of her classes. It had been completely humiliating! Severus had been practically livid and even though neither of them could prove it was Potter who'd conjured it, Sev had gotten into another big hexing fight with him. Which of course Lily yelled at him for, insisting she could take care of her problems with Potter herself.

All the teachers had apparently found it quite amusing until McGonagall had the saintly grace to make it disappear. She claimed it was only because of the disruption it caused in class, but Lily thought the Professor secretly liked her and wanted to help the poor girl out. The feeling was mutual of course, Lily admired anyone who didn't go about wasting time, and the stern-faced witch was one of the few who actually yelled at Potter when he disrupted class. The other teachers had all but given up on his and Black's continuous disruptions, merely ordering them to stop in exasperated tones. Although, McGonagall had seemed rather impressed with Potter's handiwork which still left a thorn in Lily's side. He always seemed to do so bloody well in that class without trying, while she struggled constantly, practicing every day after lessons just to get one simple spell right.

But at least she had him beat in charms, where he almost never got anything right. Or at least didn't bother trying to. Which was rather ironic if one thought about it, considering how charming Potter thought himself to be.

"Or what about all the things he does to grab your attention?" Mary continued on, completely oblivious to Lily's growing irk.

"Yanking your hair, magicing paper wads to shoot at you across the room constantly over the years, always messing with Snape to get you angry, 'tripping' into you, winking at you, shooting water at you, sneaking up on you, saving you, obnoxiously following you –"

"OK, ok I get it!" Lily snapped. "But all those things he does are just to be the arrogant, immature toerrag that he is. Potter is nothing short of a bully who hexes people for no good reason other than his own amusement. It's sick. He just likes being the center of attention for goodness sake; it's all just a cry for attention so people will notice him. He thinks he's so popular and cool that everyone should love and adore him."

"People meaning you," Mary gave her a pointed look and Raven nodded solemnly again. As they finished the distance to Hagrid's, Mary pulled up ahead of them and called over her shoulder, "All the rest of us can only hope that his little crush on you will one day just . . . disappear over the next floating wind."

Always the poet.

"Then maybe one of us will have a chance with him one of these days," she finished.

"It's true," Raven added grimly.

Lily sighed exasperatingly as she heard laughter. The three girls turned to watch as a small crowd of giggling girls – ranging from first years to indeed fifth – following Potter and Black, gazing longingly.

Lily scoffed softly again.

"Speak of the devil and he shall arrive," she added bitterly.

Mary glanced sideways at her.

As Black chatted up some poor, brainless brunette who kept flipping her hair noticeably over her shoulder, Potter turned to the rest of the group and gave a cheeky wink. In an explosion of squeals the girls all turned red, exchanged meaningful glances with one another, and then scattered in all directions, heading for class. Potter ran a hand through his muddled hair and smirked conceitedly.

Mary turned smugly toward Lily. "Told you," she sighed in a sing-song voice.

Lily eyed the dispersing group of girls with disdain. "Ugh, they disgust me. They put a bad name to the female title." She scrunched her nose up and added, "Come on, Professor Kettleburn is starting."

Twenty minutes later, Lily chewed her lip, deep in thought. Wait, when had that become a habit? Bloody Potter, she realized. It all started when he disruptively shoved his fat head into my life.

Lily looked up from the ground and drew herself out of her thoughts. Her eyes instantly fell on the cause of her troubled mind, only to see him tearing his own intense gaze away from her working lips and turned a soft shade of pink, seemingly embarrassed at whatever his own thoughts were.

Potter? Turning red? What the - ?

For the rest of Hagrid's lesson, Potter seemed to be almost avoiding looking at Lily. He seemed lost in a deep world, appearing confused and . . . troubled, almost? What on earth could trouble Potter?

When class ended, Mary and Raven headed in the direction of the greenhouses to ask Professor Sprout a question about their homework assignment and Lily made sure to lull behind the Marauders, barely close enough to hear, so she wouldn't be suspected of eavesdropping. Unfortunately for her, this proved out of her favor, catching only snatches of their conversation as Potter repeatedly ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

". . .Telling you Sirius, I don't know what to do abo - . . . Can't bloody concentrate. . . s'getting worse. . . don't think it's just temporary this time- . . . three years, so it can't just be . . . doesn't even notice . . . thinks I'm not being serious abou-. . . What if you and Remus were wrong . . . stay that way . . . forever?"

Whaaaatt? Lily's mind raced a thousand thoughts a second, racking her brain as she trudged up the hill.

By now she was struggling to keep up, weighed down by her boatloads of books. Stupid boys and their long legs, she silently cursed. She took a few sprints forward so she could tune back into their conversation, closer than her previous position.

"Look James, with your head in the clouds you may not have realized that you're not exactly the only person who's noticed," Sirius' voice was actually, well, serious for once, instead of his usually joking manor.

From her side angle, Lily could just make out Potter's contorted face and the sharp look he gave Sirius.

Boy, if looks could kill, Sirius would definitely be joining Nearly Headless Nick right about now. . . In her thoughts she started lagging behind once more and tried to catch up. Unfortunately they were in the steeper part of the hill, nearing the castle. The two Gryffindors strutted easily towards the doors as Lily started panting with effort, starting to loose bits of their discussion again.

"Who?" Potter asked with a steely voice of determination. "Who else's noticed? I practically claimed . . ."

Sirius shifted uncomfortably and avoided looking in is best friend's direction.

"-ell . . . s'not lik-. . . exactly spoken for . . . I-I'm just saying mate . . . People, people are turning their heads . . . –sonality is pretty unique too . . . spirit an' all. . ."

"Who Sirius? I want names. Now."

My, my, Potter is certainly getting defensive. What are they going on about? Lily was dying to know. Whatever it was, if Potter cared about it, then this couldn't be good.

They were turning into the corridor now, and it wouldn't be long until other students separated Lily from the boys.

"Well. . ." hesitating, Sirius finally gave a pained look at Potter, and some sort of recognition dawned on his friend. He stopped sort and gaped open mouth at Black, a look of betrayal written on his face. Sirius turned away with the same pained expression.

"Sirius, how could you? You know. You know what it means to me!"

"Look, James, I'm sorry, alright? But I, I can't help it man. I mean, you know what it's like! I-I'm sure we can work som-"

Potter didn't bother waiting for him to finish as he turned and walked to Divination, leaving a guilty appearing Sirius behind.

What were those boys doing that caused James easy-breezy Potter to mark a frown on his face?

Something wasn't right. And Lily was determined to find it out.