Chapter Ten

"Severus?" Lily asked upon seeing the dark circles under his eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Yes, fine," Severus waved his hand. "I just studied late last night is all."

"Oh," Lily smiled, pecking him lightly on the cheek. He jerked a little at her touch. "What's wrong," She demanded with her hands on her hips.

"Nothing, maybe I need to go lay down some more," Severus said, giving a little yawn.

"But you'll miss potions?" Lily said.

"Just this once," Severus kissed her warm cheek. "I am not feeling well."

Lily sighed. "Alright." She wasn't happy about it, but what could she do. Severus began to walk towards the dungeons; his black school robes twirled behind him. Lily stood there for a while, thinking. She began to drag herself towards the dungeons as well, dreading every step she took alone.

She reached the classroom in the damp dungeons and could smell the odd mixtures they would be brewing for today's session class. Only a few of the Hufflepuff students were as early as she. Lily took her normal sit near the front. Students slowly began to file into the room.

"Where is Snivellus?" Lily knew that they would ask, but that still didn't mean she wasn't annoyed.

"None of your business, Potter," Lily spat without turning around to face him.

"It's James, for the millionth time."

She just ignored him, feeling as though her thick, red hair would shield her from James's pompous nature. Professor Slughorn entered the classroom, bouncing with joy. "Today will be an exciting lesson," He announced at the front, near the ancient chalk board. "We will be brewing a shrinking potion."

The class began to chatter in excitement. "I will be dividing you up into partners though, because this potion is a very serious matter and there shall be no 'playing around'," Slughorn shot a glance at table behind Lily, which she knew sat James and Sirius. The class groaned at the idea of not being able to work with there friends. Slughorn started pairing up the students near the front. When he came to Lily's table he questioned the empty sit.

"And Mr. Snape is where?"

"He wasn't feeling all that well."

"Ah, pity, making this up will de difficult," Slughorn frowned. "Mr. Potter would you come be Miss Evans partner?"

"With pleasure," Lily groaned quietly as James came to sit next to her in Severus's chair. She moved her own chair as far away from him as possible, but this did not stop James from talking.

"So how are you doing today Evans?" He seemed to have forgotten all about the snow fight defeat or he just wanted to ignore it.

"Hmph," Lily made an irritated noise.

"You will need the following ingredients," Professor Slughorn wrote them on the chalk board with a flick of his wand. "You may began…"

"I'll go get us the ingredients," James stood and went with a few other students to the smelly, old supplies closet. Lily wished she had not felt well either. James emerged with an armful of ingredients.

"Here we are," James said cheerily. "Everything we need."

"Thank you," Lily said bitterly, but took the first ingredient away from him and began to process it. "Can you hand me the knife, Potter?"

"Here you go, Lily," He emphasized on her name, which angered her. She yanked the knife from his hand and began to cut the flaky green bulbs. Her eyes started to water from the overpowering smell.

"Do you want me to cut them?" James asked with a snicker. "I, too, know how to make potions."

"Only love potions, no doubt," Lily shot back at him rudely.

"What is that suppose to mean?" James raised a black eyebrow above his slim sliver glasses.

"I wonder why such a great deal of the female population here at Hogwarts fancies you. Is it possible you bewitched them?" She asked sarcastically.

"No, it is because I am a good Quidditch player," Lily was pleased to see that James was blushing. She put the first ingredient in and snorted in disgust.

"Whatever makes you feel better," She rolled her eyes.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"What?"

"You heard me, Lily," He whispered it this time, while she added the cleaned brown roots to the cauldron.

"I think you know, Potter," She furiously began to chop up a plant, juice oozed out of it.

"No, I don't," His voice was deep and curious. His eyes piercing hers in a way that made her skin tingle. He took a few of the freshly chopped, oozing plants from the cutting board and dropped them in the cauldron. She continued to stare at him.

Finally she spoke, "You are cruel."

"Cruel—" But he never got a chance to finish his sentence. Their cauldron began to overflow, splashing the unfinished purple potion everywhere.

"You git!" Lily cursed, jumping out of the way as some of the bubbling potion splashed not to her robes. "You were only supposed to put the juice of the plant in; not the whole plant!" All the students ran to the back of the classroom. Where the potion had hit her robes began to turn a hideous shade of pink. Little amounts of the potion had splashed into James's thick hair, which was also turning pink. The top of his robes were covered in the potion. His glasses were spotted and fogged up. Lily was fuming with anger.

Professor Slughorn hurried over, his large belly bumping into a few people. "Everything appears to be alright," He said, looking over Lily's robes, than he turned to James and shook his head. "You will need to go to the hospital wing and have Madam Pomfrey patch your hair up. Also ask her to fix your glasses. I would do it but I am horrible at that sort of thing."

"Oh no!" Lily cried. "My book!" Her potions book, which had been in the middle of the table was now destroyed, having had most of the potion poured on top of it. This was the final straw for Lily.

"I'll buy you a new one," James said, trying to play it cool.

"No, don't even bother, Potter. I don't want anything from you," Lily snarled, starting at her once-useful book.

"Alright you two," Slughorn nudged them towards the door. "Go see Madam Pomfrey."

Lily left with James. She was fuming at his stupidity. Not only had he ruined her book, but now she had to walk with him to the Hospital Wing because his glasses were ruined and he couldn't see very well. The halls were quiet and so was James Potter for once. They reached the stair cases, Lily directed James in the right direction so that he wouldn't fall.

"Lily?"

"What!"

"I am sorry," All the arrogance in his voice had vanished.

"Sorry?" Lily questioned.

"For ruining your book," He sounded sincere. They rounded the corner to and stopped just outside the Hospital Wing's doors. He had taken his glasses off and now his hazel eyes stared directly at her. She could feel herself for the second time today feel strange under his gaze, and for one split second, Lily wondered what it would be like to have those eyes always staring at her. Heart beating fast, she glared at him as she came back to reality and realized who those eyes belong too.

"Don't worry about it," She said and stomped off to the bathrooms.

Professor Slughorn had given Lily and James an essay on the shrinking potion, seeing as they would have to start completely over the next time and this would help them understand how to do it properly. Lily sat in the library, waiting for Severus, and staring mournfully at her destroyed potion book.

"What happened?" Lily looked up to see Severus now seating himself and staring at her book. His dark circles were still there, but they had faded slightly.

"Potter," Lily spat.

"What did he do?"

"The dunderhead blew up our potion," She frowned. "And now I have a report to write on the stupid potion and no book."

Severus sat quietly for a second than slowly pulled out his tattered book. "You can borrow mine, if you really need it." Lily opened it up to the shrinking potion's page, which was near the middle of the book.

"I write a lot of notes in there, but just ignore them." Severus said.

"Thank you so much!" She beamed at him.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait. I have been really sick, plus I just finished High school! Yippy! Okay, so read and review on this chapter. I want to know what you think of it. I am going to try and post more often.