A/N: Well, I got this chapter up quicker than I expected. It was pretty easy to write, but nothing much happens… or so you think! Wait until later chapters, dear readers! Muahahaha.

By the way, that's pretty much an empty promise. There's not a lot from this chapter that'll transfer to later chapters. Blah blah blah. I'm sleepy.

Anyway! You guys should TOTALLY check out my other story, The Hogwarts Hearsay. It's just a fun little idea I had in my head and I really like the concept. So you should read and review that, and read and review this! (Like how I snuck that in there?)

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.

It was a beautiful day. The breeze was crisp and cool and the leaves were a mix of fiery red, gold and orange. The sky was a blue reminiscent of the bottom third of a rocket popsicle and the sun was a golden yellow. It was the perfect, clichéd autumn day and the Gryffindor quidditch team was flying high in the air furiously smacking, throwing and chasing balls. Lily Evans, on the other hand, was being dragged across the grass toward the quidditch pitch against her will.

"McKenna! Let me go now!" she protested as she tried to get her arm free from her friend's grasp.

"Why don't you want to go see James practice for the big match? I bet it'll be sexy. And besides, you guys are friends now. You can watch him practice and it won't even be awkward," McKenna said with a cunning smile on her face. Behind her, Lily stopped dead in her tracks with her mouth agape.

"Not awkward?" she echoed. McKenna attempted to start moving again but Lily remained firmly rooted to her spot. "How won't that be awkward?"

"I think it has something to do with your being friends with him," she replied and tugged at her arm again.

Lily rolled her eyes and said, "We're not friends yet. We're friendly."

"Same difference."

"They're two totally different things!" cried Lily, straining to get away. "And besides, 'same difference'? That doesn't even make sense!"

"I don't know what you're talking about. You're loony," scoffed McKenna. Ignoring her friend's cries and pleas, she marched off toward the quidditch pitch.

"I can't believe you're making me do this," fumed Lily as she reluctantly followed her friend to the looming pitch. "This is absolutely ridiculous. I hate you, did you know that? I really hate you. I think you should go drag your stupid little boyfriend off to some random place instead of me. Actually, I don't think you should do that unless you're using protection. I hope you are, McKenna, even though I hate you. I really do. You better let me go or else I'll… I'll… I'll give you a detention! Why aren't you letting me go? Honestly, sometimes I think you're really psychotic. How can you make me do this? Don't you feel any sort of embarrassment – oh," she trailed off as she walked into something that felt like a person.

"Um, hi," that something that felt like a person said.

Lily felt her cheeks redden. She felt her ears redden. She was so embarrassed she even felt the tips of her fingertips redden. She looked up slowly and mentally cursed her luck because the thing she walked into was none other than her ex-boyfriend, Thomas.

"Hello," Lily said, quickly backing away from his taut, quidditch-toned form. She noted that McKenna still hadn't let go of her arm and was beginning to tug at it.

"Why're you here? I didn't know you liked quidditch," said Thomas. He ran a hand through his wavy, thick locks and just looking at his hair made Lily go weak at the knees.

"I – I don't," she stammered.

"She's here to see James," interrupted McKenna. She stood off to the side, looking rather impatient. Her grip hadn't loosened on Lily's arm and it was becoming rather painful.

"James?" Thomas' eyebrows shot to his hairline and Lily cringed inwardly at his look of surprise.

"Not really," she giggled nervously. "Er, McKenna dragged me here."

"To see James," stated McKenna. "Didn't you hear, Tommy-boy? They're friends now."

"Friends?" Thomas raised his eyebrows even higher.

"We're, ah, friendly," said Lily, squirming under his scrutinizing gaze. She wasn't being very pine-y. Her confidence was withering away and she was just a pile of mush.

"You're friendly?"

"Ah… I guess…"

"So, Thomas," said McKenna, effectively inching her way into the awkward conversation, "how's the girlfriend?"

The girlfriend. Thomas' girlfriend. The girl he was fooling around with when she so happened to stumble upon them. That wretch with the mismatched buttons and the crazy sex hair.

That was so not cool.

Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder and stood up straighter. She looked Thomas square in the eye and said, "I don't know why you care so much, McKenna. It really doesn't matter to us, does it?" With that, she walked away, dragging McKenna behind her and leaving Thomas alone with his raised eyebrows.

"What are you doing?" questioned McKenna as she ran to keep up with her friend.

"I," began Lily, "am being assertive. I'm becoming more pine-like. I don't want to be near him."

"Well said!" cheered McKenna.

She stomped around aimlessly, her mind working over-time. How dare Thomas creep up on her and pretend like they were friends? How dare her express interest in her well-being? It was annoying how close he came to making her forget his meanness and dumbness and only remember his Thomas-ness. He was annoying.

But at the same time, Lily had to admit that he smelled good. Kind of like… good memories. And cookies. Nice, warm, freshly baked cookies that were still kind of gooey with melted chocolate…

Lily loved cookies. She could have gone for a cookie right then. She probably would have turned back to the castle and headed straight to the kitchen if James Potter hadn't materialized before her with his posse.

"Heeeeeey, Evans!" Sirius called out with his hands cupped to his mouth. "Where are you going?"

Lily stopped and stared at him, unblinking. It was as if she couldn't quite process where she was and how she got there when all she really wanted was a damn cookie.

"What are you doing? Go and say hi," whispered McKenna. She tactfully nudged her forward by freeing her arm and jabbing her elbow into her back.

"Hi, Sirius, Peter," she said, nodding at each boy. She took a deep breath before saying, "Hi, James," and merely glancing at Remus because she was still mortified at the fact that he rejected her.

And then there was silence. It was sort of as if the bees stopped buzzing around and the trees stopped rustling and people stopped moving just because Lily had said the word James.

"Hey," he said easily. He seemed to be pretending to not notice that his friends were staring at him with their mouths wide open. Lily could even see Sirius' uvula – a sight she could stand not seeing for the rest of her life.

"Um, how was quidditch practice?" she ventured, still aware of the fact that the world was eerily quiet.

"Not bad," he said and hoisted his broomstick over his left shoulder.

"So you're ready for your big match?" she said, finally meeting his eye. She was pleasantly surprised to find that they were full of warmth and… was that amusement? Was he amused at her awkwardness, or did he relate to it? She would have to ask him later. After all, they were becoming friends.

"Eh, I guess. We could use some fine tuning, but I'm not complaining. I'm pretty sure we've got the best bloody team in the school."

"Right. So then when you lose I'm going to remind you that you said that and make you eat your words," she teased.

"You're rooting for us to lose?" he gasped with mock surprise. "Where is your house spirit?"

"I have plenty of house spirit and I've plenty of faith in Gryffindor. I'm just not sure I have all that much faith in you," she smirked. She couldn't believe it. She was participating in witty repartee, with James Potter no less. She felt comfortable teasing him. Maybe, she mused, they could forgo the whole snogging thing and become witty-bantering buddies.

Except for the fact that she couldn't get their electrifying and life-changing kiss out of her head.

That and the fact that when he reached out to playfully push her shoulder her skin burned with his touch even though she was wearing a cloak and her robes.

It wasn't possible to be friends with something who could send shivers down your spine with the lightest brush of their fingertips. Well, it wasn't possible to do that and still be sane.

"Pushing people around is a little juvenile, James," she informed him. "Although I think I should be glad you didn't hex me something horrible."

He grinned. "Yeah, you probably should be. I've got loads of charms and hexes and spells I could've used…"

"And then I would've given you detention."

"You can't give the Head Boy a detention. That's against the laws of life! Only the Head Boy is allowed to give detentions."

"So is the Head Girl," she shot back.

"Not to the Head Boy!"

"Yes, she is."

"None of the Heads can get detentions because they own detention giving rights."

"No, they don't."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure they do."

"They don't! But let's just be glad you didn't use any of your spells, so we don't really have to find out," she said, negotiating peace.

She felt some of the bees fall down out of their hives and the trees drop some of their leaves. She was also pretty sure that somewhere, a person fainted in shock because she, Lily Evans, had just avoided an argument with James Potter. It was a monumental event. Sirius and Peter seemed to think so because they both made a strange gargling noise. Lily glanced at them and seemed to suddenly remember that she and James were not the only ones outside.

Lily grabbed McKenna's arm again, suddenly feeling extremely awkward. "Well, we were taking a walk. We should, er, finish it before… later. So, I'll see you around."

"Okay. Bye," said James. His friends were still too gobsmacked to say anything, and Lily rushed off before they had a chance to recover. But as she walked away, she heard James' friends ask things like, "Did she just call you James?", "You two talked with killing anything or exploding anything. Pinch me, because I think I'm dreaming," and "What in Merlin's name just happened here?"

McKenna grinned at Lily. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Not really."

"It wasn't awkward, was it?"

"Are you kidding me?" exclaimed Lily. "That was probably one of the most embarrassing things I've ever lived through."

"Well, it sure didn't seem like it."

"That's because I'm a good liar."

"Not really."

"I'm an excellent conversationalist."

"Nope. Why won't you tell me the truth?" McKenna asked in a sing-song voice. Lily arched her eyebrows. What did McKenna want to hear?

"I don't know what truth you want me to tell."

"Oh, I think you do. It has something to do with you and James and love."

Lily blanched. "Love? I don't think so. But… I guess I kind of like talking to him."

"That's what I want to hear!"

"It's a lot of fun making fun of him; it's way more fun than I thought!"

---

News that Lily and James were actually civil to each other spread like wildfire. But somehow, the actual events that took place got distorted. The rumours began to become crazy. So crazy that it lead to Lily's dorm-mate Heather marching up to her bedside and demanding to know if she was pregnant with James' baby.

"What?" shrilled Lily. "What?"

Heather shrugged. "That's what I heard. People are saying that you're only being really nice to James and vice versa is because you want your child to have parents that can stand each other."

"That's ridiculous!" cried Lily. "I've never even had sex before, much less with James Potter!"

"Really?" asked one of Lily's roommates. "You're a virgin?"

"THAT IS SO BESIDE THE POINT," she yelled. "THE POINT IS THAT JAMES POTTER AND I DO NOT HAVE A LOVE CHILD. We're friends. What's wrong with us being friends? Why do people find it so weird? Am I not allowed to have friends?"

"Not friends named James Potter," said Emmeline.

"Why?" she fumed. She flopped back against her pillows and stared up at her ceiling. "My life sucks. People think I'm preggers."

"Who cares?" McKenna called out lazily from her bed. "All that matters is what you think and know and stuff like that. Let people think what they think… most of the people talking smack about you are people who wish they were friends with Potter anyhow."

"So you guys are actually friends?" Heather asked, perching herself on the edge of Lily's bed.

"Yeah," replied Lily, still burning holes in the ceiling with her eyes.

"Really? Just friends? Nothing more? I'm only saying this because you two seem to have a lot of passion. And sexual tension."

"Again with the sexual tension?" said a frustrated Lily. "What is with people and thinking that our loins are burning for each other?"

"Maybe you just need to get laid, Lily," snickered Emmeline.

"Oh, sod off," replied Lily, throwing a sock in her friend's direction. "This is serious. James and I have a baby and burning loins. I've never had burning loins before!"

Except, Lily reminded herself, that wasn't exactly true. She thought that maybe her loins burned when James kissed her before. She knew that they were supposed to be taking things slow and that they were only friendly and not friends, but she didn't think she minded when he touched her like that.

"This is awful," declared Lily. "I'm going to bed."

She shoved an unsatisfied Heather off of her bed and shut the drapes. In the darkness, she groaned into her pillow. First she hated James, then she was friends with James and supposedly having his baby. Plus, more than one person thought that they had this odd sexual tension between them. What was worse was that Lily was starting to believe it herself.

Her life was so very over.