What the hell was she thinking? Doing that to him was horrible, it was downright cruel. After standing in the middle of the hallway for several moments, James finally went back into the library to grab his books.

Now where was he to go? He still had a whole day of classes ahead of him that he didn't feel like attending. He did the only logical thing he could, crawl into bed. And he stayed there, lying in bed, thinking about Lily, about that kiss. What the hell was she thinking?

Lily, on the other hand, went to her classes for the day. She mentally slapped herself several times for her actions once she reached the conclusion it had been an exceedingly stupid thing to do. Harping at him had been fine; she'd had every right to. But that kiss? Bad idea. This, she mused, was why she so disliked emotions. This was the sort of trouble they caused. Indeed, you were far better off without them.

She considered going to him to apologize, but decided it a bad idea. He probably thought she was absolutely insane now and wanted nothing more to do with her.

It had been bound to happen, she supposed. Better now than later. She considered going to Remus and asking his input on the situation, but decided against it. He'd be cross she hadn't already told him about it, and it increased the risk of it getting around to the rest of the school. No, this was a battle she'd have to fight herself.

James was running towards Lily, and she was running towards him. She was screaming about how sorry she was, about how she never meant to hurt him.

"I'm the one that should be sorry." James said somberly once he reached Lily and now held her in his arms. She rested her head against his chest, and James was certain that she was listening to the rapid beating of his heart. Being in her presence was causing it to slow somehow, something about her always calmed him, making his heart beat at a steady pace.

James took his hand, and placed it under Lily's delicate chin, slowly lifting her head up so that his eyes met hers. He gazed into those emerald windows, which looked straight into what she was feeling. James saw nothing but love, admiration, and desire in those eyes.

"I love you Lily." He said, barely above a whisper. He then lifted her head slightly further, and lowered his down to meet hers. He closed his eyes, and with one last glance at her shockingly green eyes, he places his lips upon hers in a tender, gentle kiss. Lily began to kiss him passionately, digging her hands into his already violently messy hair. She pushed him towards the ground, and he obeyed, not daring to go against what this fiery red-head wished.

James held her tightly as she lay next to him. Their kiss was full of a passionate innocence, that James didn't even knew existed.

It was then that James rolled over with Lily, and began to fall. Lily was no longer in his arms, her lips no longer with his. She was gone.

James hit the floor, and woke up instantly.

It was a dream.

"Bloody hell…" He murmured as he rubbed his head which had struck the floor. He slowly stood up, thankful that there was no one else in the room to see him. With a look outside at the dying sunlight, he realized that it was probably dinner time. He walked into the bathroom, removed his glasses, and turned on the cold water. It took three handfuls of water to help him regain complete consciousness.

He tightly gripped both sides of the sink, water cascading off his ebony hair. He glanced up to see his blurred reflection in the mirror. He couldn't take this anymore; Lily was driving him utterly mad.

Lily, oblivious to what extreme plight she was causing him, halfheartedly stirred at her soup at dinner. He'd been gone all day. She felt just dreadful about it all. He'd taken her words and actions harder than she'd thought he would, apparently. Deciding she wasn't hungry, she pushed her bowl away, and got up, debating her options.

Well, she could go and find him and try to explain herself, but she strongly doubted he wanted to so much as hear the mention of her name at the moment.

On the other, she didn't feel like she could just leave him alone, as the thought of him was gnawing annoyingly at her and driving her up a wall.

Well. There was always sulking around the school until she made up her mind on exactly what to do. Indeed, that sounded like a good course of action at the moment.

Once dried off and out of the bathroom, James stood in the Common Room debating whether to go down for dinner or not. He was extremely hungry, having not eaten anything all day, but he didn't want to run into Lily after what she'd done. She obviously didn't mind toying with his emotions and playing with his mind, so why should he give her the time of day? After thinking this, James felt a wave of guilt crash over him. He couldn't ignore her, he couldn't even be angry with her. Love just didn't work like that.

Eventually, James' stomach won out, and he headed down for dinner. James turned the corner, making his way towards the Great Hall, but guess who he saw already coming out? Lily, with a broken look on her face. James immediately felt sympathetic, immediately wanted to run to her and comfort her, because in his mind this was all somehow his fault.

Lily glanced up and felt her heart skip a beat. Apparently fate had made up her mind for her. Her lips parted slightly as she drew a sharp breath, feeling her toes curl a bit in her shoes as her eyes met his. She gulped lightly. "James." she said quietly to acknowledge him. Her gaze fell to her feet and she began to toy with her hair, as always. "Listen. I'm really sorry... I shouldn't have..." she tried to string words together, but found it very difficult. She sighed, smiling weakly at her incompetence. "I acted rashly today. I'm sorry." There. Good enough.

"Erm... have a nice dinner..." she added, starting to walk his way, being sure to stay on her side of the hallway."Remus and the others were looking for you earlier. They're still eating, so you should catch them..." She began to quicken her pace. She needed to leave him alone and quit pestering him.

James ignored her comment about friends and food, they were unimportant to him right now. He had a question on his mind, and he wasn't going to let Lily walk away without answering it.

"Lily…" He softly called after her. "What's…what's going on?" He asked, his facial expression was one of a little boy who had just had his new bike crushed, and needed an explanation.

He wanted to walk towards her, but he was scared she would start yelling. So he stood his ground. The gap between them seemed like miles, and the urge to close it was almost unbearable.

"Excuse me?" she said at first, looking at him with a cocked brow. Curious. Replaying his words, she ran a hand through her hair and searched the ground, as if it would supply her with an answer. "I was going to go do some homework, and then head down to the dungeons to work on potions, I suppose..." she said quickly.

He didn't appear angry. Upset, rather. She thought she'd have preferred him look angry as opposed to this look he was giving her now. It shook her, and she wanted to console him and make it go away. "You?"

"That's not what I meant." He said simply. "I mean, what's going on between us?" His voice became strained as he posed the last question. How could she possibly ignore the tension between them? It was so obvious that only one thing would make that tension simply disappear.

Lily sighed. Damn. There was no beating around the bush with this boy, was there? "James, to be perfectly honest, I don't know." she sighed. "Walk with me? I don't think it a particularly good idea for us to give half the school heart attacks by walking in together, discussing 'us'." She gazed at him expectantly. Moment of truth. If he were truly angry with her, he'd decline and go eat dinner with his friends. If he wasn't too upset, he'd walk with her until they figured this out.

James followed her, like a lost puppy. He didn't know where they were walking, and he didn't care. He was simply there with her, and that was more than enough for him. He decided to leave it up to her to start explaining all that was going on, so he stayed quiet.

He looked straight ahead as they walked, but often stealing glances at her out of the corner of his eye, trying to see if he could read what was going on inside her head. He desperately wanted her to say that she had come to realize her love for him, obviously, but even more than that, he wanted her to say what she really felt, and if that was that she didn't love him, then so be it.

Moment of truth indeed.