As Lily and Remus approached the Great Hall, she heard a multitude of voices—lunch had already started, of which she was extremely grateful. This would save her empty stomach the wait for precious food. Both students took their places at the table, where they typically sat with their friends. James looked up as he heard them approaching, and eyed the two skeptically, but said nothing. Marlene, one the other hand, spoke up.

"Where were you two? I tried finding you so we could study together, Lil. What happened?" Lily really felt sorry for standing up her friend. She knew that it mustn't have been easy to study alone, especially since Marlene had the attention span of a gnat.

"Sorry, Mar. Really, I am."

"Sorry from me, too," Remus chimed in. "On the walk to class, Lily twisted her ankle on the stairs, the wonderfully graceful femme fatale that she is. I, being the wonderfully fantastic knight in shining armor that I am, helped her to Madame Pomfrey."

Lily was in shock. She had no clue that Remus could lie so easily and make it look so effortless. Although right at this moment, she was just unbelievably thankful that he could, because she certainly had no excuse as to why they were gone.

"Did it hurt that bad?" At the sound of James' voice across from her, she whipped her head to him so fast she thought she might have given herself whiplash.

"Sorry?"

"I just asked if the pain was that bad. Your eyes are red, like you've been crying. I didn't know that a twisted ankle could hurt that much." Bugger. Now what?

"Oh, well…" she scrambled for something, anything. "It was partially that, but mostly because I was just freaking out way more than I should have. It was pretty painful, but I think I was honestly more concerned about how I was going to miss studying for the one class that I desperately needed—everyone knows I'm crap at it."

Her friends, save James, all laughed. He just smiled a bit, but it didn't reach his eyes. Lily prayed to Merlin above that he bought it. She didn't want him pestering her with questions that could be potentially dangerous. It was just then that to the left of James, Sirius was sitting there, frantically writing a note. She was just about to ask him about it, when Peter beat her to it.

"What are you doing, Padfoot?" The only response was a grunt. In return, Peter just rolled his eyes and went back to ignoring him.

Lily, on the contrary, kept watching him. She saw him stop, hold up the note has if to examine it, and then with a nod and a grunt of satisfaction, he placed it back on the table and tapped it with his wand, making it vanish. After this, he looked right at her, like he knew she had been watching him the entire time. His eyes narrowed at her for a brief second, although she couldn't discern why. Was there something wrong with her face?

Uncomfortable under his stern gaze, she looked away as Alice started talking to her about her family's upcoming vacation for the Christmas holiday. Apparently, they were headed to their home in France to visit family.

Lily wasn't sure how, but somehow her eyes were inexplicably drawn to James; which was a terrifying thing, considering he apparently felt drawn to look at her, as well. Their eyes locked, and she was hypnotized. She literally thought that her heart, in a split second, would beat right out of her chest. Her stomach was currently trying to digest itself due to all the flipping it was doing.

Then, she heard a sound coming from the spot next to James. It was Sirius coughing. She looked him dead in the eye, knowing that he had caught her staring and "coughed" on purpose. James asked him if he was all right, but Lily knew better. What did Black have against her looking at James? It wasn't like she was ogling him…wait, was she? For a brief moment, she forgot that the person at whom she was shooting daggers was afraid of absolutely nothing and no one, so it shocked her that he didn't immediately back down under her penetrating glare and go crawl into a corner somewhere. Once again, she had to tear her eyes away; she didn't want her friends thinking that something was up. But she could still feel him studying her. Although still, she had no clue why. After a few minutes of suffering through it, she decided she just couldn't deal with it anymore and excused herself—she made up some lie about wanting to get to class early.

Unfortunately, she didn't get very far. Right as she went to turn a corner, a strong, rough hand grabbed her tightly by the arm and dragged her into a dark corridor—one that was not really well traveled. As she felt her back slam into the wall and a big, dark shadow pass in front of her face, she knew then that it could only be Amos.

"Where the hell were you in your free period?" he spat.

"What the bloody hell are you talking about, Amos?" she spat back at him. "You had a Divination exam. How would you possibly know where I am throughout the day? Do you have a camera following me around?"

"A what?"

"Never mind. It's a damn Muggle thing. Who says I wasn't in Transfiguration?"

"Marlene's a loudmouth. If she tried to whisper, I'm pretty well sure people would still be able to hear her in China."

"Well, then. If you heard her, I'm almost positive that you heard the reason as well. I twisted my ankle going up the stairs and Remus helped me to Madame Pomfrey."

"That's funny, considering my friend was sick and was with Madame Pomfrey all morning—and didn't see you at all. Please, offer me up an explanation for that."

Fuck. Bloody hell. Merlin's beard. How the HELL am I supposed to do anything without this guy finding out?! Lily thought. She was in mid panic mode right now. What was she going to say to him?

Then all of a sudden, it just rolled out of her mouth before she could stop it. "Look, I actually was with Remus Lupin. He said he wanted to talk about something pretty important, friend to friend, and he thought I'd be the best choice."

"Bullshit, Evans. Do you really think I'm stupid? He's got three best friends to go to. Why would he ever come to you?"

"He needed a girl's advice. I'm the only girl he trusts, and he didn't want anyone to know what we were talking about."

She wasn't sure how, but he managed to buy that. Thank Merlin. When he finally released her, she could feel the pain in her wrists where he had been restraining her, and in her shoulders, where she had been practically thrown against the wall. That was certainly going to leave a mark.

As she began rubbing her wrists, he grabbed her chin and forced her to meet his eyes. He said, "I want you to think long and hard about tonight. I'll be by at the time I said to get your answer." She jerked her face from his hand so he wouldn't be touching her, but in the process she smacked the back of her head against the wall she was pinned against a minute ago. It hurt so badly, and she felt hot tears begin to sting her eyes. She was really starting to get sick and tired of crying almost every single time he was in her presence. He laughed at her, and then leaned down to whisper in her ear, "I can't wait for tonight."

With that, he walked off back down the hall. As the tears finally flowed freely, Lily thought she was going to vomit.


A/N: Hey y'all. I normally HATE author's notes at the end of chapters, but I just wanted to say, thanks for those of you who have been leaving reviews! Please keep reviewing, and if you haven't reviewed yet, then let me know what you think. That's all!