A/N: AH! Sorry about this taking so long. I'm horrible about updating, but I promise I had a really good reason this time! I was in Korea for about a month and I couldn't work no the story and I couldn't update. I'm sosososso sorry!

DISCLAIMER: I didn't create Harry Potter because I'm not JK Rowling, I don't have any legal rights to any of the merchandise, yadda yadda yadda. Everyone knows that drill, right? Good.

He lifted one of his strong, warm hands to gently cup Lily's face. He placed the other on her waist and gently pulled her toward him. She willingly took a step closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck because he was so strong, so safe…

All of a sudden she felt her back come in contact with the wall of the stairwell. He had somehow managed to switch their positions—not that Lily minded. She was quite content with where she was. As he pinned her body under his, Lily made a small noise at the back of her throat. In response to that, the hand on her back tightened its grip. Lily's own hand became twisted in his messy mop of hair that felt like James' looked like it would feel…

Crap.

Her eyes suddenly snapped open and pushed James away slightly. They were both breathing heavily and with his hot breath on her cheek, she found it very hard to concentrate. But, trying her best, she took a deep breath and found that she couldn't say anything. Their close proximity was getting to her head and the heat radiating from her cheeks seemed to render her completely mute.

So instead of doing the most rational thing—which would have been to explain what had happened was a mistake and gracefully apologize, or maybe just going in for another tongue-tangnling makeout session—she spun on her heel and ran as quick as she could to her dormitory.

The last thing she heard before slamming her dormitory door shut was James swearing rather loudly.

"Oh, bollocks," she muttered under her breath as she frantically paced her room. She tried to get her wits about her, but she really wasn't achieving anything. "Okay. So, let's evaluate what happened, shall we?" she said to herself. "Well, James Potter kissed me. And then I missed him back. And then we snogged and I wanted to tear his clothes off of his body and then, and then… ARRRRGH!" she cried in exasperation. "Bugger, bugger, BUGGER!"

Lily took a deep, calming breath and walked into the adjoining toilet. She splashed come cool water on to her face in hopes that it would calm her down a bit. As she towelled off her face, she glanced into the mirror and noticed that the colour of her cheeks was rather like when a birch tree turned red in the autumn.

That didn't bode well. Birch trees weren't a good omen for her at all.

But then again, being green like a pine tree usually signalled some kind of sickness, and that wasn't too good either.

"I'm going insane!" she screamed and buried her face in her hands.

After tearing around her room and pacing the floor for another ten minutes, Lily decided to take a long nap. Hopefully, she thought, it would refresh her mind and answer some of the many questions running through her head. Unfortunately, she didn't make it past crawling into her four-poster bed. McKenna came back from breakfast and entered the dormitory with a worried expression on her face.

"Lily?" she called upon her entry. "Are you okay?"

"Bloody brilliant! Just fan-freaking-tastic. I'm on top of the world here!" cried out Lily with killing sarcasm.

"Er, are you PMSing?"

"You know, normally I'd take offence to that," said Lily sitting up straight.

"Normally you don't swear a lot," McKenna pointed out. "I don't think you're normal right now."

"Excellent point."

McKenna went to her trunk and started to look through its contents and Lily flopped back down onto her bed.

"I'm insane," moaned Lily. "I've gone completely and utterly insane!"

"Tell me something new," muttered McKenna, head still buried in her trunk.

Lily tell her something new, something scandalous along the lines of…

"I snogged Potter."

"WHAT?" screeched McKenna, dropping whatever she was holding. She slowly and cautiously made her way over to her best friend. "WHAT?"

Lily didn't really want to delve any deeper into the topic. After all, she herself didn't know exactly how it had happened or why it had happened. It was all very new and very confusing for her.

Unsure of what to say, she smoothed her thick, red covers down. What would be the best way to explain it? 'Um, I know you know that everyone knows that I hate James Potter despite the fact that he's not bad looking and he's excellent at Quidditch and all that jazz. Well, anyway. I kissed him. Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that he kissed me and I kissed him back. And then we stood there for a while snogging the brains out of each other.'

Yeah, okay. That would work if she wanted to seem even MORE freakish.

"I don't know what happened," admitted Lily dolefully. "It was like… BAM! We were stuck together at the mouth."

Wide-eyed with confusion and wonder, McKenna asked, "But… Lils. You kissed James Potter?"

"You think I know?" replied Lily helplessly. "If I had to guess, I'd say it's because of you."

"Me?" McKenna blinked in surprise. "Why me?"

"You and your stupid bet. It's all your fault! If you hadn't challenged me to snog a stupid boy I wouldn't have been consumed with my overwhelming failure. If I hadn't been consumed by my overwhelming failure, I wouldn't have made out with the first person I could!"

"Don't blame your uncontrollable lust on me, Lily Evans!" countered McKenna.

"Uncontrollable lust? What are you talking about?"

McKenna's face showed the beginnings of a smirk. "Remember? The sexual tension Henry Wolsten said you and James had. It must have overtaken your mind and reconnected you with your primitive, animalistic instincts."

"I'm not an animal, though! I'm a pine tree!" Lily exclaimed punching her white down pillow.

Her best friend gave her a look that clearly insinuated that she thought she was very strange.

"I don't think I'm going to ask."

"A very sound decision," Lily said quickly. "If I were you, I wouldn't want to know either."

"Well, if you were me than I'd be you and if I were you I wouldn't be so distraught over kissing James Potter because you fancy him."

"No I don't!" gasped Lily. "I would never fancy him!"

"That's not what you told me yesterday when you were piss drunk."

"I did not!"

"Would I lie to you?" McKenna asked, sounding rather exasperated with Lily.

"Yes," stated Lily, tossing her hair over her shoulder defiantly.

McKenna laughed. "Yeah, I would. But I'm not lying now. You said – and I quote: 'James can be poopy sometimes, but he's pretty great'."

Lily blushed to the very roots of her hair. Could she have said that? Could she have actually said the word 'poopy'? It wasn't even a real word!

"Shut up," she snapped at her friend. "As my best friend, you're not allowed to use anything I say when I'm drunk against me. Got it?"

"I don't see why you're so snappy, Lily. You won the bet and all that jazz, didn't you?"

Lily's face brightened slightly. "I did, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you did," McKenna continued, trying to cheer her friend up.

"I didn't even mean to. It just happened!"

"And you did it with only a few days to spare. Now all you have to worry about is talking to him and sorting through it all and whatnot."

Lily couldn't resist rolling her eyes at the comment. "And that's not going to be very awkward at all, right?"

Her friend just laughed in response. Of course she laughed, Lily mused. She didn't know that Lily had something else to worry about. She didn't know that Lily secretly enjoyed the kiss she shared with James and kind of sort of almost wished that it could happen again.