Authors note: I own nothing, Happy easter!

Chapter 10 - Encounters

The load of homework that was piled on the seventh years was so high it was almost inhumane. Lily spent most of her free time in the library, she rarely had any trouble concentrating when she was in there, she simply focused on what she was supposed to do and voila she was in another world and only her homework bothered her. At least that's how it usually was.

Lately there were occasional moments when she suddenly snapped out of her homework trance and had a hard time getting back into it again, those moments all involved James Potter. He kept appearing behind her, he would comment on something or offer her a piece of advice, but the moment she looked away he would vanish. She couldn't understand, most of the time there was no place for him to go or hide, and he wasn't being rude so she didn't understand why he kept disappearing. At first she didn't mind that much but as it went on she found herself wondering more and more about it.

It wasn't until the first week of December that she realised there was a pattern. She was sitting at a table at the far end of the library doing research for a potions paper when James interrupted her.

"You know, Lily, there is a much better description of Wormwood in this book." He dropped the book on the desk in front of her. Lily looked up at him.

"You know, this is getting a bit annoying." She said.

"I bet it is," he said casually "It only took me an hour to write my essay after I found that book, I'm sure it will help you." Lily was determined not to loose sight of him this time.

"I... um... er, thanks" She stuttered.

"Lily! There is a spider on your desk!" He warned her. She spun around, and sure enough there was a spider there. But she spun back again so as not to lose James but he had already gone. She felt a short light breeze on her face, but then she remembered the spider on her desk. She magically levitated it and sent it zooming out the open window. She looked at her watch, only half an hour till lunch, she'd better study fast. But then she remembered that every time James showed up that's how it had been, she looked at her watch and tried to cram in half an hours worth of studying but always ended up giving up and going 5 minutes early to lunch. There was only one day a week she had the last period before lunch free, so he was coming "every Thursday!" She had said the last two words out loud, she smiled to herself, next time she would be ready.

The week couldn't pass fast enough, she found herself constantly thinking about James, and with every day that Thursday came nearer the more difficult it became for her to concentrate. On Thursday she hurried down to the library in the empty period before lunch only to realise when she got there that she had forgotten her books. But she decided to sit down anyway and wait for him to come. But she waited, and waited. She kept checking her watch, when there were only 5 minutes till lunch she was going to give up, but then he suddenly appeared from behind a bookshelf.

"Hello Lily, not studying?" He asked.

"No, I, um, am having trouble concentrating," she said truthfully.

"Well, don't let me hold you back." He said and turned to walk away, but Lily suddenly found herself stopping him.

"Wait!" she cried out to him.

"Why?" He asked.

"Err," she started, but the truth was, she didn't know why she didn't want him to leave. A few months ago she hated James, what had changed? Why had she come to the library to wait for him? But in the few moments she had stopped to think, James had vanished again.

"...she is isn't she?" the girls giggled and Lily snapped out of her thoughts,

"What?" she asked, they were sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, Alice, Emma and Mary had apparently been talking and giggling about her.

"Who were you thinking about?" Emma asked.

"Um, No one!" Lily answered a little fast.

"Yes you were! It's a boy isn't it?" Alice giggled.

"Lily's in Luuuv!" Mary said mockingly.

"Girls stop it!" Lily said, blushing.

"Who is it?" Alice asked.

"No one, what makes you so sure I'm thinking about a boy anyway?" She said.

"The look on your face, gave everything away, dazed, dreamy, you even sighed." Mary said and the girls started to giggle.

"Well you're wrong, I wasn't thinking about a boy, I was thinking about Arithmancy!" She stood up, irritated.

"Oooo, it's that Lupin boy isn't it?" Emma asked.

Lily paused, "Very funny girls." She said coolly, and headed towards the portrait hole. Her tone had shut up the girls, of course her last sentence had been very convincing, because she hadn't been thinking about Remus. In fact she had been thinking about James. She had caught herself thinking about him quite often these days, but she hadn't faced the fact that she might be falling for him, not before now. The girls had suddenly opened her eyes to that. She was out in the corridor now, standing in front of the fat lady, she looked at her watch. Half an hour to curfew, she thought she might as well take a walk in the castle before going to bed. She hadn't walked very far though when James appeared smiling. She couldn't help it, she smiled back.

"Nice to see you Lily, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"I'm taking a walk, clearing my head." She answered truthfully.

"May I join you?" he asked.

"Sure, if you promise not to vanish on me. It's rude you know!" she answered and they started to walk side by side. Lily didn't know what to say. She suddenly became shy, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable.

"So, what are you going to do after Hogwarts?" James asked after a while.

"I'm not positive yet, but I'm leaning towards Auror training, whatever I do I'm going to join the Order of the Phoenix, I have to do what ever I can, for my family's sake."

"Not to mention your own, Lily, it's not easy being muggleborn in these times." James said, and Lily thought she heard concern in his voice.

"Yeah well, I can take care of myself." She said laughing.

"I don't doubt that, but please be careful!" There was no mistaking it this time, he was concerned, her heart leapt at the thought and her smile widened.

"So if you come to Auror training too, then there will be four of us, you, me, Padfoot and hopefully Moony if they let him in."

"Oh they have to let him in! It's so stupid this grudge against werewolves!"

"Shows just how flawed our community really is! There are only a handful of people who know better than to fear werewolves once you get to know them"

"Speaking of Remus and werewolves. Last June you promised that you'd explain why Remus is so grateful towards you."

"That's true, what did I say again? That I didn't know if I could trust you, right?"

"Yes and that's really unfair because you haven't given me any chance to prove myself!"

"I'll tell you what, come to Hogsmead with me and afterwards I'll show you!"

"All right, when's the next Hogsmead trip?" She asked.

"No, now. Come with me to Hogsmead now."

"Wait how?" She asked suddenly afraid and taken aback. James had stopped.

"Will you come?" He asked.

"How..?"

"Yes or no?" He asked gravely.

"Alright!" She finally said, wondering if she was finally going to find out what Remus had meant by "maybe we've got a few tricks up our sleeves" last May. And sure enough, James took out his wand and turned to an ugly statue of a humpbacked one-eyed witch, he tapped the statue and said "Dissendium". The statues hump opened and James pointed towards it.

"Ladies first." Lily eyed him, reproachfully. "Trust me!" He said, she gave in, and thrust herself into the hole. She felt herself sliding down what felt like a stone slide and land on cold earth. She then heard James following her. She stood up. They seemed to be in a stone passage, it was large enough so she could stand there. They both lit their wands, and started walking down the passage.

"What is this tunnel anyway?" Lily asked.

"Well, it's a passage that leads to the Honeydukes cellar. But we wont go all the way, we'll just apparate when we get far enough from the school grounds."

Lily didn't have any thing to say, she knew she was supposed to be ashamed of breaking the rules like this, but somehow she was just really exited to spend more time with James. She was walking in front of him, but he warned her beforehand every time there was a bump in the path floor. It was obvious that he had gone through here very often. Suddenly he took her arm and stopped her. She shivered from his touch.

"This is far enough." And without another word he spun on the spot. Next thing she knew they were standing outside The Three Broomsticks. "Butterbeer?" He asked and led her into the pub.