A/N: Whoot! Update. Get excited people, get excited!

Chapter 9

"You aren't supposed to add the shreds yet!" Lily hissed, swatting James' hand away from the steaming cauldron. James dropped the shredded tongue on the table and rubbed his hand.

"Would you stop slapping me?" James hissed back. "That's the third time you've done that this hour."

"Well you keep trying to add ingredients at the wrong time!" Lily said back, trying to keep her voice low. "I personally don't feel like messing this up and then having to redo it which will take even longer. I'm not entirely sure I can stand being around you that much longer."

"And you think I like being around you?" James asked, glaring down at her. Lily looked up at James, glaring at him, and wishing for once that she was tall so she could look him straight in the eye.

"So how are the lovebirds doing?" Professor Slughorn asked amidst their glaring contest. He swooped in behind them and looked down in the cauldron.

"We aren't lovebirds!" James and Lily snapped at the teacher without thinking.

Slughorn raised at eyebrow and both students looked down in shame. "I'm going to ignore that for now and instead I'm going to look at your potion which doesn't seem to be on the same track at everyone else's."

Lily looked down in their cauldron then looked at Remus and Jill's cauldron, noting the obvious difference. "Look what you've done now James! You've distracted me!" Lily said, slapping him on the arm.

"What?" James exclaimed. "You're the one who keeps arguing with me! We could've had this done if you would just shut your mouth!"

"Ahem!" Slughorn said above the din the two were creating. "I suggest you two work diligently if you want to fix this potion by the end of the class and still get a decent grade. That or you can come in tonight to work on it."

"I assure you Professor, we will finish it this class period," Lily said, glaring at James one last time before turning back to the potion.

James just rolled his eyes with a scowl on his face before turning back to the directions for the potion.

"I was right! We were supposed to add the tongue then," James pointed out with a triumphant look on his face.

"No, we weren't. You have to add the tongue when it's a milky-white color. Does this look milky-white?" Lily asked, gesturing to the ugly brown color of the potion.

"Obviously not but then we did something wrong earlier because you add the tongue after stirring the potion twenty times which you just did," James argued.

"We? We did something wrong? I have been following the directions, thank you very much. You," Lily said, poking James in the chest, "added something behind my back when you weren't suppose to. You messed the potion up."

"Oh, of course," James said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "It's always my fault, isn't it? Prefect Lily could never do something wrong, it always has to be my fault."

"That's because it always is your fault!" Lily said. "You mess everything up!"

"Lily! James!" Professor Slughorn shouted. "If you two don't quite down-"

"You're the one who can never admit that you're wrong!" James said, ignoring Slughorn. James took a step closer to Lily so he was towering over her but Lily didn't back down. Instead she just stood up straighter and shoved him away.

"Why would I admit something that I never did?" Lily asked, also ignoring Slughorn.

"Why can't you open your damn eyes and look around, Lily? You're in the wrong. You messed this up and you know it."

"James!" Professor Slughorn tried again. The two students continued to ignore him though. The rest of the class seemed to have forgotten about their potions and were instead staring the duo.

"This isn't my fault," Lily said quietly after a moment of complete silence. "You're the one who ruined this."

James shook his head and turned away. "I grew up Lily, now it's your turn."

"Both of you has detention," Professor Slughorn said once he was sure the two were done arguing.

"What?" Lily shrieked. "Detention?"

"Yes, detention for disrupting my class. You will also have to come in tonight in order to finish the potion. For now just clean out what you have made and sit quietly," Slughorn said, walking back to the front of the classroom. "And I mean quietly. The rest of you finish up the potion and bring it up to my desk when you are done."

"I hate you," Lily said between clenched teeth as she flopped down in her seat.

"Yeah, well you aren't exactly on my Top 10 list either," James replied, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away from Lily.

"I've never gotten a detention in my life," Lily moaned, laying her head down on her arms on the table.

"Well there's a first time for everything," James sneered. Lily lifted her head and glared at James.

"This time it really is your fault," Lily said.

"So you're admitting that the potion actually might not have been my fault?" James asked, his eyebrow raised and a smirk on his mouth.

"No, I'm saying that you can't talk your way out of saying that my detention wasn't your fault," Lily clarified.

"No offense, guys," Jill said, leaning forward toward the two, "but can you shut up? Some of are trying to finish a potion for a grade."

Lily glared at Jill but then turned away in a stony silence. Jill smirked then turned back to James.

"Looks like we can't do anything tonight, James, thanks to Ms. Prefect over there," Jill said, gesturing toward Lily. Lily narrowed her eyes but pretended to ignore the comment.

"Yeah, well, we didn't finish the potion. It was both of our faults," James said as he continued to face forward.

"Weren't you just saying a second ago that it was all Lily's fault?" Jill asked.

James remained silent though. Jill looked between the two students sitting in front of her. They were both seated the same way, with their arms crossed over their chest, but were looking in opposite directions. And by what she could see, they also had the same scowl and narrowed eyes on their face.

She couldn't understand them. As hard as she tried, she really just couldn't understand the couple. They weren't an official couple, they never would be, and Lily and James both would probably kill her if they found out she was calling them a couple, but that's what they were; a couple. Their fight almost proved it. There was something more under what they were saying. Maybe they didn't know it, but Jill sure did; and she was an expert on relationships.

"Jill! Earth to Jill!" Remus said, waving a hand in front of Jill's face.

"What?" Jill snapped.

"We kind of have a potion to finish," Remus replied.

"Oh, right," Jill replied, cursing herself for forgetting about the potion.

Jill glanced back at Lily and James with narrowed eyes. Who cared about what went on in their lives? James was hers now. He was over Lily and Lily has never wanted anything to with him. They were never going to get over that little fact. Their relationship was doomed before it even began.

James was hers.

"Hello Rebecca," Sirius said, drawing out the hello.

"Hi Sirius," Rebecca replied as he took a seat next her at lunchtime.

"So how is my beautiful flower today?" Sirius asked, helping himself to some cold pasta.

"Lily?" Rebecca asked, confused.

"No not Lily," Sirius said. He clarified "I meant you, duh."

"Oh," Rebecca said, looking down at her potato soup. "People don't usually call me a beautiful flower, it's always Lily they're talking about."

"Psht, well what do they know?" Sirius asked.

"Are you saying Lily isn't pretty?" Rebecca asked, looking at Sirius with her an eyebrow raised.

Sirius looked up nervously. "No! No, no, that wasn't what I was saying. I-I meant that you're also pretty so, I mean, you should be called a beautiful flower too. That's what I meant."

"Why are you always so awkward and quick to correct yourself? God Sirius, relax," Rebecca said, rolling her eyes and turning back to her soup. While she was looking down, though, her eyes caught someone else coming toward them. "Remus!" she exclaimed, her face brightening up. "Hey!"

"Hey Rebecca, hey Sirius," Remus replied as he sat across from the two.

"Where's Lily? Aren't you in Potions with her?" Rebecca asked as Remus helped himself to a buttered roll.

"Yeah, her and James were partners for the potion we were making today and they couldn't do it," Remus said in between bites. "So they had to stay after to talk to Professor Slughorn about when they could come in and redo it."

"What do you mean they couldn't finish the Potion? Lily and James are some of the top students in that class," Sirius asked.

"They fought, big time. At first they were just arguing about the directions and when to put in the ingredients but it turned into more. And there were some definite underlying meaning in their comments."

"Really?" Rebecca asked, learning forward. "Like what?"

"It was just stuff about their relationship or whatever they call it," Remus replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Just ask Lily when she comes. She should be here soon."

"Here she comes. Lily!" Rebecca shouted over the Great Hall to get Lily's attention. Lily turned toward her friend, waved, and quickened her pace. Sirius, Remus, and Rebecca weren't sure, though, if it was to get to her friends or get away from James who was following her with Jill in tow.

"I swear if he talks to me tonight, I will hex him so hard," Lily said, leaving the threat hanging.

Rebecca looked at Sirius and Remus then back at Lily. "So Potions class was good?"