It took nearly a week; six days in fact, after the game of truth or dare that had scarred Lily (and quite possibly most of the others) for life, before Lily really had to talk to Potter again. She was heading towards her Charms class alone, as she had had to drop by the library after breakfast to pick up a forgotten text book. Seconds after she left the library she heard her name being called in a familiarly heart-breaking voice.

"Lily?" She braced herself and spun to face the black haired boy.

"What do you want, Severus?" Her tone was tight and clipped, giving away her emotions far more than she had wanted it to.

"I just wanted to talk. Lily, I miss you."

"I miss you too, Severus," Lily's voice softened slightly. "But I don't think we have much to talk about anymore."

"Please, Lil, I'm sorry. I never should have called you that – never should have said what I did. It's been a year and a half now, can't you forgive me?"

"I could forgive you if it was just the name. But I think we both know it's more than that. I'm not an idiot, you know, I know what's going on out there," she gestured vaguely towards the windows, alluding to the outside world. "I know there is a movement of blood purists rising, and I know their leader has been recruiting inside Hogwarts. In fact, I know he's trying to recruit you. So you see, Severus, it's not just the fact that you called me the name. It's the fact that you believe in it."

"Lily, please, it's not that simple. He wants me, Lily, wants to use my abilities. And he'll reward me so well. I don't believe in his pureblood mania; you know I'm a half blood myself. I won't hurt anyone, I just want to be useful."

"Are you even listening to yourself? Just because you won't be the one murdering and torturing 'mudbloods'," Severus winced at the word, but Lily continued. "You'll still be fighting for that cause. Fighting against me." Lily couldn't quite hold back tears as she stared at her former best friend, willing him to see how wrong he was.

"I – I don't want to, Lily, that's never what I wanted," A haunted look appeared in Snape's eyes. "But I can't pull out now, it's too late. If I had a timeturner, I'd change everything, you have to believe me!"

Suddenly James Potter appeared around a corner. "You know what I'd do, if I had a timeturner, Snivellus?" James asked cruelly. "I'd go back to fifth year and take back that night when I fought the wolf off. I'd let you run straight into the shrieking shack to die."

Snape winced, but quickly replaced it with a sneer, spun on his heel and disappeared down the corridor.

Suddenly everything made sense in Lily's head. She'd heard the story from Snape; somehow she'd never picked up on the vital piece of information he'd left out. Fifth year, when the Marauders had been so mad at Sirius for telling Snape to go to the Forbidden Forest, knowing full well that Remus would be in werewolf form, James hadn't simply told Snape why he shouldn't go; he had physically stopped Remus from hurting him. James was staring at her in concern, worried that her state was due to Severus' insults.

"Evans? Are you ok? You shouldn't listen to him, you know, he's a lowlife idiot. And all that blood purity bullshit is just that, you're a better witch than anyone I know."

"I know, Potter," Lily told him coldly. "But that 'lowlife idiot' was once my best friend. And you have no right to speak down to him like that, that makes you just as bad as he is." With that she turned away from him into their Charms classroom. Somehow, her anger had been less biting than she intended after her realization that James Potter had saved her former best friend's life.

Over the next two days Lily slowly felt her anger at Potter wane and the more she thought about his implication that he had saved Severus, the more her guilt grew. She had been hurting over the comments Severus made and taken it out on the wrong person. Eventually she decided she needed to apologise –but every time she saw him a strange nervous feeling settled in her stomach, and she fund some reason not to. However, on Thursday evening Lily returned from prefect rounds to find James alone in the common room, and figured she couldn't put it off any more. Lily came to sit in the armchair opposite James, and his eyes flickered from the fire he had been staring at drowsily to her. A smile spread across his face, and Lily couldn't help but smile back, though she fidgeted with her hands nervously.

"Hi," he said softly.

"Hi," Lily returned. The two of them lapsed into silence, and Lily was so busy trying to figure out what to say next that she didn't realise he was staring at her strangely.

"Are you alright Evans? Did you want something?"

She blushed, and fiddled with her robes. "I – yeah, I just wanted to – well to say thank you. And sorry. The other night, with Severus, I know you were just trying to help me. So I'm sorry I snapped at you. And thank you for looking out for me."

James stared in shock for a few seconds. "Don't worry about it Evans. Not everyone is willing to stand by while the Slytherins justify their vile beliefs and behaviour." Lily felt a small jolt as she processed that. He hadn't been standing up for her, or at least not just for her. He'd been standing up for his beliefs. And for some reason, she respected him a lot more for that.