Puzzlement was etched in her features, but something else too. Something he couldn't figure out in the few seconds that her eyes were connected with his.

"Lily?" Sirius queried, interrupting James' own thought, Sirius looking as surprised as James felt. He stupidly let his eyes shift to Sirius, and then looked back at Lily, but her bright red hair was whipping around like the rest of her.

"Lily!" he felt his own voice carry after her, before his feet realized that they needed to move. To follow her. All his rage was forgotten, completely and totally gone. He wanted to discern the features, the inexplicable look in her eye. And he had to catch her.

Behind him he didn't hear Sirius' low oath as he slid his wand back into his pocket as the ten o' clock bell rang over head.

She was so confused. All her life she'd thought James was only a skirt chaser, a person without dedication or principal or- anything. She had known he was loyal when it came to friends- but girls? He was as fickle as they come. And now here he was doing something totally and completely outrageous, for her. Was it all for her? Was it a show? Or had she won that loyalty? That loyalty that she'd craved from any relationship that she'd ever wanted.

She heard him catching up. She'd disregarded the fact that her feet were taking her away from the confusion, like a doe in muggle automobile's headlights after they slammed to a stop and waited for the wide eyed creature to move. Now she wasn't sure if she wanted to stop dead and question the life out of him until not even verita serum could tell her more, or if she was too afraid that it was all a lie and wanted to pretend that it wasn't. So, her feet ran faster, her fear greater than her curiosity.

But he was a Quidditch captain, and she, even though she considered herself less than a weakling, wasn't going to be faster than him.

She gave in.

She skidded to a stop at the Fat Lady. And waited.

James was not surprised as at her endurance as he sprinted to keep up with her as he was to see her stop. Again he had to wonder how much strength the girl really had hidden inside as he slid smartly to a stop, twisting himself around her to meet her face.

She was looking at her shoes, panting, as he was.

Now that he was here he didn't know exactly what to say to her. They waited in an excruciatingly long silence, James so intent to hear what she had to say.

She glanced up at him, and opened her mouth, wordlessly asking a question. A question that was easy to read in her face as well as the anxiety and the fear and the look he didn't understand.

She looked away when no sound was emitted to the silence.

"It's yes," he whispered to her.

Her head whipped round, with a new puzzled expression.

"Yes, yes, and yes again. You think that'd I'd have waited around this long for something as trivial as-." Here he paused, and she turned as red as her hair. "Lily Evans, yes."

She was not biting her lip again, but suddenly her hand reached out, and her expression was antagonizing indescribable. He closed his eyes, wondering what was going to happen. Was she going to hit him?

But instead he felt her hand brush his cheek. In a moment it was gone but her fingers left a searing mark that was oddly cool.

He opened his eyes, and his stomach twisted at her amazing smile.

"What are you lot doing out here so late at night?" The new caretaker barked, and they zapped apart like he'd cast a hex between them. Almost as menacing as a troll (and as bad smelling too) Argus Filch strutted up to them.

"That's righ'. You lot are in trouble now. Wha'll it be? Detention?"

"We're Heads, Filch, if you didn't get the memo," James said, angrily. He was having a moment here, a ground breaking, no, ground shattering moment with the person he loved and this squib was totally unwelcome to it.

"Really?"

James rolled his eyes and showed him his badge, Lily copying him with a smile that glinted beautifully in her eyes.

The caretaker grumbled irritably, and left, walking stiffly.

As soon as he was gone, James turned back to Lily, who was still smiling.

The air caught in his throat. She was so beautiful, her hair wind blown from the run, and her eyes sparkling in the castle torchlight and she was smiling at him, and a little red at the same time, making her few freckles a tad too invisible for his liking.

He allowed himself to be led passively back into the common room, the whole escapade from before totally lost from his mind for the time being, with Sirius tailing behind the both of them at a much slower pace. Later, James thanked him for the privacy.

"Like I gave you any of that!" he laughed at James as he made to pull the curtains around him that night. "I was watching from the corner the whole time."

"What?!"