Chapter 10: In Which There Are Scars And Aerosol Cream.

A/N: this is dedicated to Cathy who is going to the Gaeltacht tomorrow! Have a good time, you baby-eater!

Thanks to everyone! And sorry about this chapter: writers block! But I'll be grand, I'm on holidays.

On with the chapter!

I'm away laughing on a fast camel (which is a quote from one of my favourite books: Georgia Nicolson, or Angus Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging!)

Love Caroline xx

James grinned. "You like it?"

Lily laughed and nodded. "It's class!"

"Master Jamesie! Master Greedy not here tonight with you?" a small voice tinkled.

"Hey Connie! No he's not, so I brought Lily here instead!"

The house-elf glanced at Lily, and then grinned. "Ahh! Lily! The beautiful Lily Evans, who according to Master Greedy and Master Fatty-Food, is Master Jamesie's mortal enemy! On one side only, though!"

James blushed. "Not anymore?" he looked hopefully at Lily.

Lily grinned at Connie the house-elf, who was wearing what all the other elves seemed to be wearing: a pillowcase.

"Actually, I think we're friends!" \Lily laughed.

James beamed. "Hey, Connie, can I get some..." he looked at lily.

"I'll have some strawberry pavlova, please Connie!"

"And I'll have the same, thanks!"

"Sure thing," Connie smirked at James as she led them over to a fireplace with two armchairs. "There yee go!" she brought over two bowls and some aerosol cream.

"Fantastic!" Lily exclaimed, jumping out of her seat and lunging for the cream. James watched her curiously as she squirted it all over her pavlova. She caught him looking.

"Want some?"

He grinned and reached for the can. "You're a strange one, Lily."

"How?"

"'Cos any other girl would have a fit at the amount of calories in that."

She grimaced. "I couldn't care less. And James?"

"Yes?"

"Im not any other girl.

"You can say that again," James muttered to himself. She didn't seem to have heard him.

"By the way, who is Master Greedy? Master Fatty-Food? And that's a direct quote!"

"From who?"

"Me."

"Greedy is Sirius. Fatty-Food is Remmy because he-"

"Probably meets his daily energy requirements by eating nothing but chocolate?"

He peered at Lily, who was laughing. "Actually, yes. How did you know?"

"You have never seen him in the library, have you?"

"I've never been in the library. Why?"

"Cos he has a secret stash of chocolate in the Potions section that he thinks nobody knows about. He used to 'sneak-eat' when we were studying. I let him have his naivety and his fun."

James was full-on choking on his laughter. "That may actually convince me to go to the library. Just to see him scurrying about with his chocolate. Once, when Sirius ate one of his Chocolate Frogs he threw a cauldron at his head. I tried to stop them and got a scar on my face for my trouble."

Lily was shaking in silent laughter, with tears running down her face. James was happy to see her happy with him. He sat there just smiling at here.

"Where is it?" Lily had recovered enough to speak.

"What?"

"The scar."

"Just above my left eye," he pointed to it.

Lily leaned in, and extending her forefinger, traced it. James sat perfectly still.

"It suits you."

He looked at her, astonished. "How can a scar suit you?"

She laughed shyly. "It just does. I can imagine you with it, but not without now. Like you without playing Quidditch, kinda." Lily leaned back and continued to eat. The spot above James' left eye was burning. He cleared his throat.

"Or like you without red hair?"

"Really? I thought, maybe brown?"

"NO,"James said straight away, horrified. "You are not to touch one hair on you head, Lily Evans."

She glanced up at him. "Okay..."

"promise?"

"Well...," she blanched at the look James was giving her. "Yes, yes, I promise."

He breathed an inward sigh of relief. "Thank you."

She acknowledged this with a nod. "Hey... you finished?"

"Yeah, just about."

"''Kay, shall we go?"

"Let's head!"

They walked to the door and thanking Connie and the other house-elves one last time, they left.

"So," Lily began, eager to initiate conversation. "How was your Christmas anyways?"

"Cool in places. The guys came over, which was the good part. But we all had to suffer through a 'sophisticated' party where nearly everybody was old and danced to 'modern' songs all night. I was mortified. And that was before my parents joined in."

Lily chuckled, and then laughed outright at his comical face. His mouth wads pulled down into a grimace, and it looked terrible on his mournful face.

"How was yours?"

Lily stopped laughing and muttered something like "uneventful".

James looked sympathetic. "That bad, huh?"

She flared up defensively. "No!"

"why didn't you go home?" James knew she didn't get on with her sister from what Marlene had told them, but he thought she was exaggerating.

"Not everybody is adored at home, James."

"But surely if you apologised to your sister? What did you do wrong?"

Lily full-out glared at him. "I came here."

James was taken aback. "You mean-"

"JUST KEEP OUT OF IT POTTER!" she yelled in a whisper.

"Jeez. Fine."

They walked along in silence.

When they reached the portrait hole, Lily whispered the password and stepped through the hole. James followed her through. She had sufficiently calmed down by now, so he chanced talking again.

"Eh...Lily?"

She sighed. "Yes?"

"You've got some cream..."

She rubbed at her face. "Where?"

He pointed to it, careful not to touch her. "Just there."

"Here?" she rubbed on the wrong side of her face. "Gone?"

"No...here."

James sighed and put his hand on her face and wiped it away. His hand lingered. He bent down and inhaled. She smelled like strawberries. And aerosol cream. And something else...was it lime? Lily stood still, closed her eyes and put her hands around his neck. James leaned in and-

Suddenly, Lily was pushing her away.

"What the-"

Lily looked at James. He looked really hurt.

"I'm...sorry. Just... sorry, James."

James watched her run up to her dorm. He thumped down heavily on the ground. He wondered what was going to happen now.