Eye contact can last forever. 

Lilly came out of McGonagall's office, she slammed the door behind her. It wasn't hard to see she was furious. She put a piece of paper in her pocket before she slammed her hand into the wall, it didn't seam to hurt her at all. The door opened and Snape came out.

"It won't help you to fire off at a professor like that, mudblood." It looked like Lilly was going in for a kill.

"It doesn't help you to kiss up to her like that either," Lilly snarled.

"It's better than looking like a bomb about to go off."

"Well, I am, so you'd better get out of my sight."

"It's not like I'm planning to stick around here looking at you, you aren't that much to look at, mudblood." Lilly turned and walked toward the great hall, first the meeting with McGonagall and then this date. Now she was on her way to meet Tom, Alex and James. This was not a good way to start the evening. Lilly was suddenly not so sure everyone would come out of this date alive. 

James looked at Lilly and Tom at the end of the stairway. She was still pale, but she'd finally gotten some sleep, thanks to Remus. James could see she stopped talking when she saw him. Her hair was pulled back in a loose bun. She smiled gently, a shy warm smile, but just for a second before it disappeared. She didn't want this date more than he did.

"Hi," Tom said.

"Hi." James' eyes went to Lilly, "you'll freeze to death." James had a point. Lilly was wearing a thin emerald shirt and black jeans, at least she'd found her winter cloak.

"Maybe I'm better off that way?" James looked at her in surprise. Lilly rolled her eyes, looked at James, then over at Tom before she looked back at James.

"Bad day, baby?" Tom looked at her.

"That's one way of putting it." She sounded cold, but her eyes didn't have her I-don't-care-if-the-world-goes-to-hell-look. Her mind was occupied, she was thinking.

"I still think you should get a sweater."

"If I want to freeze, let me, ok?"

"If you want to be stubborn and stupid; fine, what you do isn't my problem."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Have you seen Alex?" James kept looking at Lilly.

"I'm not here to baby-sit your girlfriend." Lilly snarled. Tom looked at her in surprise.

"Calm down tiger, God, you are like a cat defending her territory. "

"Then let me, and leave me alone."

"What do you think I am, a stalker? This wasn't my idea, don't forget that." There was a glow in James' brown eyes. He looked deep into her eyes, she had to smile, his eyes were so beautiful.

"Can't you two try to be friends, at least tonight?" Tom seemed confused.

"We aren't friends!" Lilly said, she had to pull herself together. She was here to go on a date with Tom, not to admire James' beautiful eyes. Hopefully nobody had seen her smile.

"If you say so," James said, the smile he'd just seen had to have been an illusion. 'Nice, now she has slipped back to her old self and hates me'.

"If you two can try not to kill each other for 5 minutes, I'll go and see if she's in the common room."

"Do that," Lilly said and kissed Tom on the cheek.

"Don't kill him, would you." He looked over at James and snarled "and don't you touch her." James lifted an eyebrow and watched Tom head towards the Ravenclaw common room. James looked at Lilly, 'she'll have my head for this' he thought.

"Do you mind if I touch you?" Lilly blushed and looked down. He could see a smile on her lips. "It sounds to me like you mind me walking the earth."

"I'm sorry if I sound harsh, it's just… it's nothing. Do you think I mind you touching me?"

"How do you expect me to know what you mind or don't mind?"

"James, what about last night?" She looked at him, her voice was soft.

"You were ill, you said it yourself, that spell messed with your head."

"What about the other day? The night before full moon? Or the library?"

"You weren't sane, you broke down and cried, and in the library you told me to go away, stop and take my hands off you. You are never sane when you let me touch you." There was anger in his eyes, she couldn't keep leading him on and then pulling away from him.

"I'm never sane, James. I'm sorry if the way I talked to you offended you, it's just…" she stopped. "It's nothing, you heard the way he talked to you." She looked down again, he put his hand on her upper arm.

"Lill, what are you hiding from me? What is it you don't want to tell me?" she looked down at his hand and smiled carefully up at him.

"I kind of like your touch." Their eyes met, there was something special about the way their eyes met. There was some kind of warmth between them. None of them would ever forget the connection their eyes made.  

"Potter," Lilly heard Tom's voice but she wasn't ready to break off from James' eyes yet, and it was obvious James wasn't either. "Lilly?" she broke off the intense eye contact and felt James' hand slide down her arm. She looked over at Tom and Alex.

"So you finally decided to show up for your own date," Lilly said. Her voice was cold, but her eyes were soft.

"What was that about?" Tom looked at her.

"What was what?"

"You and Potter."

"You told him not to touch me, so he had to show that you have no kind of power over him." Lilly looked at Tom. "When you say 'no', James starts to think 'aha, that sounds like a good idea'." Lilly's voice was sharp. How could she turn on and off like that? One second she was warm, the next she was cold as ice. And what was it she wouldn't tell him, if she wouldn't tell him when they were alone there was no way she would tell with Tom and Alex around.

"Right as always, Lilly." James tried to lure out a smile, but it didn't work.

"So, Potter, what have you planed?" Tom put his arm around Lilly.

"Where?" Alex asked as she took James' hand.

"Hogsmeade."

"Are we allowed to go to Hogsmeade?" Alex asked.

"If we get permission from a teacher," Lilly answered, Alex looked relieved.

"Who said anything about permission?" James asked.

"I didn't say we had permission, I just said we would be allowed if we had one. I never thought you would actually have one. That would take the fun out of it, wouldn't it?" James smiled at Lilly.

"What if we get caught? We'll get detention until the summer holidays." Tom said. 

"Sirius said we would only get a couple of nights if we get caught. But we won't get caught, would we?"

"We never get caught," Lilly said and grinned.

"At least not this far, and you never get detention anyway." Lilly's grin disappeared.

"Let's go then." Lilly said. James could see she had closed herself again, but that was just Lilly.

A/N: hope you liked this and I hope everyone will take the minutes it takes to review my story. I'll try to get another chapter done soon, my writing is getting slower and slower so give me a wake-up cale and I'll finish faster.