Lily Evans was sitting silently on her bed, fuming. She had come to the conclusion that she hated Severus Snape. He was evil, she decided, just like his friends. In fact, he had probably been evil for a very long time, but she was so blinded by her friendship with him that she didn't notice.

She stood up and began pacing the room, wondering what to do next. She didn't want to leave her dormitory, but it was only noon and she was bored. Besides, she thought grimly, I might see him if I leave. With that thought in mind, she flopped back down on her bed.

Lily hadn't noticed the hours passing as she lay in a stupor on her bed, but it was nearly nine o' clock when her friend Mary MacDonald opened the dormitory door and slipped in.

"Lil?" she asked cautiously, approaching the bed slowly. "Lil, I've got some... Well, sit up."

Lily eyed her warily and puled herself into a sitting position. "What is it?" she asked flatly, her voice dull.

"There's someone waiting for you outside the portrait hole. They want to speak to you."

"Who?"

"Severus."

"No," Lily said firmly, laying back down.

"He said he's going to sleep there if need be, but he has to talk to you," Mary protested, pulling Lily back up.

"I refuse to speak to him. I hate him."

"Come on! Just go down, tell him you never want to see him again, and he'll leave you alone."

"No."

"Lily." There was now an edge of warning to Mary's voice, and with memory of Mary beating Sirius over the head with a broomstick in mind, Lily grudgingly stood.

"Right, I'll go," she informed her. "But it's only because I don't want to be beat over the head with a broomstick."

"What?" Mary asked, extremely confused, but Lily had already left the dormitory.

Lily was not surprised, when she pushed open the portrait, to see Severus sitting on the floor near the passageway, leaning against the wall. He scrambled up when he saw her, his apology etched all over his face.

"I'm sorry," he said quickly.

"I'm not interested."

"I'm sorry!"

"Save your breath" Lily said coldly, crossing her arms. "I only became out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here."

"I was. I would have done," Severus said. " I never meant to call you a mudblood, it just-"

"Slipped out?" Lily said coldly, taking a small step backwards in an attempts to distance herself from him. She couldn't believe she was even speaking to him, she loathed him now. "It's too late. I've made excuses for you for years. None of my friends can understand why I even talk to you. You and your precious little Death Eater friends-" Severus bowed his head silently. "You see, you don't even deny it! You don't even deny that's what you're all aiming to be! You can't wait to join You- Know- Who, can you?"

Severus opened and closed his mouth, and in a happier time Lily would have teasingly told him that he looked like a goldfish, but those times were long gone. "I can't pretend anymore," Lily continued. "You've chosen your way, I've chosen mine."

"No," Severus said, sounding distinctly heartbroken, "listen, I didn't mean-"

"-to call me mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?"

And then, before Severus could say anything else, Lily turned on her heel and sprinted into the common room. Ignoring everyone who was looking at her, she threw herself into a chair and stared intently at the fire.

"Lily?" a quiet voice to her right asked. "Are you alright?"

"Go away, James," she said through gritted teeth. "What you did today was disgusting."

"That may be," James said, "but not nearly as disgusting as what he gets up to everyday of his miserable little life."

"You aren't helping," Lily told him, putting her head in her hands.

"Alright, I'm sorry about everything, then," James said, pushing her over to make room for him in the large armchair she was occupying. "I never meant to hurt you or make you mad, or anything."

"Whatever."

The two sat in silence for a while, James staring at the fire and Lily with her head in her hands, until the common room cleared out.

"What can I do to make you feel any better?" James asked suddenly, putting his arm around her. Lily was so miserable that she didn't even have the will to shrug him off.

"Nothing."

"Want to go visit Honeydukes?"

"No."

"Want to go visit London?"

Lily was about to respond with the negative, but her curiosity got the better of her. "How on earth do you plan on getting to London?"

"Take the tunnel to Hogsmeade and Apparate."

"You're too young to Apparate. You're only fifteen, you don't know how."

"Sure I do."

"Liar."

"No, I do. I swear."

"Yeah, right," Lily scoffed.

"I taught myself how to do it last summer," James grinned. "Bit difficult at first, but after I'd had my dad explain the basics it was pretty simple. I told him I had to write a paper for some class about Apparation, asked how it was done." James was laughing by now, and Lily was smiling weakly.

"So you know how to Apparate?"

"Yeah. I'm pretty good at it, too."

"Won't you get in trouble if the Ministry finds out?"

"Why would the Ministry find out? Besides, with everything I've done, I don't think Apparation would be the top of their worries if they ever found out about me."

"You've never done anything illegal," Lily laughed. "Save for Apparation."

"Wanna bet?" James challenged her, leaping from his seat and going to stand in front of her. "Prepare to be amazed," he told her seriously.

"I'm prepared," Lily nodded in mock solemnity. And then, James Potter was not standing in front of her. Rather, there was a very large stag in his place.

"What the...?" she questioned aloud, standing up and walking over to the stag. "Who're you?" The stag responded by pushing against her. She laid her hand on it's back and stared into it's hazel eyes. Hazel, she thought. Bit of a weird color for a stag's- "Oh!"

Lily stumbled backward in shock. "James!" she gasped, and then the stag was gone and James Potter was casually strolling towards her.

"So you see," he laughed, "there are a few other illegal things I could get in trouble for."

"You're an animagus?"

"Just perfected it recently."

"I was wondering why your nickname was 'Prongs.'"

James laughed and sat down next to her in the chair again.

"Thank you," Lily said suddenly.

"What for?"

"Being here, I guess. And trying to defend me earlier."

"I'll always be here," James said quietly, feeling like a prat for saying it. "And I'll always defend you against Snivelly." Lily let out a quiet laugh.

"Thanks," she said, and she leant forward and pressed her lips to his.