5.

"Shit… Shit!"

There was a loud yawn followed by the sound of Emmeline rolling over in her bed. "Wassermaer?"

"My face!" Lily responded frantically, staring at herself in the dorm room mirror. "I've got some kind of rash on my face!"

"On your face? Are you sure it's not just spots?"

"No!" Lily cried indignantly. "It's a real rash! Oh God, it's awful! Do you think Madame Pomfrey will be able to fix it?"

"Why are you all yelling?" Cecily, another of the girls' roommates grumbled sleepily from her bed. Ethel, their fifth dorm member, was known to sleep like a rock.

"Lily's got a rash," Dorcas spoke up, rolling out of bed and shuffling lazily across the room for a better look.

"Yuk," Cecily muttered, pulling her bed sheets up to her chin as though they might protect her. "I hope it's not contagious."

Dorcas snorted as she inspected Lily's face in the early morning light from the window. "Not likely."

"You know what it is?" Lily asked hopefully.

Dorcas looked as though she were trying not to laugh. "Lil, you have pash rash."

Lily's horrified expression must have been enough and both Dorcas and Emmeline burst into hysterics.

"I don't get it," Cecily spoke up again.

"Pash rash," Dorcas repeated, still giggling. "It's when you've been snogging a boy for so long that you actually chafe the skin around your mouth."

"Oh, gross!" Cecily cried, clearly disgusted. Dorcas and Emmeline laughed louder.

"Oh shut up, you two," Lily muttered, frowning at her reflection. "What am I going to do about it?"

After a rather embarrassing visit to the hospital wing Lily scurried to Transfiguration as fast as she could, having spent far longer than necessary being interrogated by Madame Pomfrey. Lily had feigned innocence at first pretending she hadn't a clue what the rash could be from but apparently Madame Pomfrey couldn't treat her unless she knew the cause of the problem. Lily had a sneaky suspicion the woman had known all along but was trying to teach her some sort of lesson by embarrassing her. Unfortunately Lily knew she'd probably end up needing another cure before long and made a mental note to visit the library that day and find the formula for that particular potion.

Thankfully she was not faced with another interrogation by Professor McGonagall as she arrived late to the class and was merely fixed with a disapproving stare as she quietly slid into her usual seat beside John. He gave her questioning look but she shook her head and he returned to writing notes. Sensing the Professor's eyes on her again she quickly flashed another apologetic look before rustling through her book bag for a scroll of parchment to do the same. Had she forgotten to pack some? A quill caught her eye and she quickly grabbed it, storing it between her teeth before it was lost to the never ending depths of her book bag as her parchment had appeared to have done.

She turned desperately to John. He shrugged apologetically knowing what she was after, mouthing the words my last piece.

"Are you quite ready, Miss Evans?"

Lily looked up suddenly and felt herself blush as she realised Professor McGonagall as well as half the class were watching her and hearing her scuffle about looking for parchment as they tried to continue the lecture.

"Sorry," she muttered sheepishly, hastily removing her quill from her mouth and dropping her bag to the floor, hoping she'd be able to copy from someone else's notes at lunch. The Professor resumed her lesson with a notable eye roll and Lily tried to shrink down in her seat not wanting to attract any more attention.

As the class ended the Professor looked as though she might want a word about her tardiness, so Lily quickly darted out the door and into the corridor with John following closely behind her. She felt terrible for being so unprepared for this class – everyone took their classes very seriously now they were at NEWT level – and she hated letting herself down, never mind the teachers. But now it was also her worst class because it was the only one she shared with John and there was never any escaping him.

"Hey," he said, ducking to kiss her on the cheek and wrapping an arm around her waist as they started off down the corridor. "Where were you earlier?"

"Oh, um, the hospital wing," she replied hesitantly, wracking her brain in an attempt to think of a reasonable ailment besides pash rash.

"The hospital wing?" he said, stopping abruptly in the middle of the busy hall and looking over her as though to see an extra leg growing from her armpit. "Are you okay?" She hated that he could sound so genuinely concerned about her.

"Fine," she replied, taking his hand and forcing him to continue walking so that he wasn't staring at her anymore.

"Then why did you visit the hospital wing?"

"Don't worry about it," she told him playfully, trying to ease the awkwardness. She knew he knew she was lying. "It's no big deal, okay?"

He paused before replying, a small line having formed between his eyebrows. "You'd tell me if there was something really wrong though, wouldn't you?"

Would you tell me if you were cheating on me?

"Course."

He appeared satisfied for the time being and released her hand to wrap his arm around her waist again as they descended a flight of stairs. This was their routine – had been for the past six months. After Transfiguration on a Thursday, John would head off to Ancient Runes and Lily was blessed with a free period in which she would always, without fail, make her way down to the library to begin her Transfiguration homework. They would walk together until they reached the portrait of the drunken monks, where upon John would go one way and Lily would turn the other. John would stupidly (but adorably) walk backwards, blowing her kisses and Lily would wave until he had rounded the corner at the end of his hallway, because it always seemed like such an eternity until they would be able to meet again the following day.

It used to give her butterflies in her tummy.

Today she hoped he would trip.

"How about I skip Runes today?"

Lily looked at him in surprise as they came to a halt in front of the portrait. "Skip? But Ancient Runes is your best class."

"So I can afford to miss one or two," he shrugged, smiling down at her. "Come on, let's go for a walk outside or something. I feel as though I haven't seen you since we got back." She had wondered how long it would take him to realise she'd been avoiding him.

"I don't think so, John," she told him as apologetically as she could. "We're seventh years now; you really can't afford to miss out on anything."

He smirked. "Says she who just spent the entire hour of Transfiguration picking at her nails."

She gave him a stern look. "That wasn't intentional. Besides, now I need to use this time to catch up"

He gave her a pouty look – the one that used to work on her all the time – stepping closer to her and nuzzling her neck. It took all of her self-restraint not to push him away. "When are we going to catch up?" He subtly sneaked a hand into the pocket of her robes, massaging her upper thigh through the material.

"Stop it, John!" she hissed heatedly, shoving him off her at last. He looked mildly surprised, glancing over his shoulder at passing students to gauge their reaction. It was minimal. "That's all you ever think about these days. I've had enough of it." Turning on her heel she began to march in the direction of the library.

"Come on, Lily!" she heard him call, running up behind her and grasping her arm so that she was forced to a halt again. "Look, what do you expect?" He looked rather desperate, his hand fixed around her arm as though fearing she would run away again. "You're gorgeous! I get within ten feet of you and I can't control myself."

"Well you're just going to have to try harder, aren't you?"

"What's going on, eh?" she said, giving her a searching look. "Is there something you're not telling me? Before your birthday I thought we were – you know – and now you seem off every time the subject comes up."

Now, she realised, would be the perfect time to break up with him. He knew something was wrong. Right now she could turn around and say 'look John, I just don't feel the same way about you anymore' and that would be it. He wouldn't argue – she couldn't see any reason why he would now he had Judy – and the whole thing would be over rather smoothly and confrontation-free. He'd walk off to Ancient Runes and she'd continue to the library as though nothing had ever happened between them.

But he didn't serve anything so simple.

"I have a rash," she said suddenly, twisting the truth in attempt to give him some sort of reasonable excuse for not wanting to sleep with him anymore. "That's why I went to the hospital wing this morning – I had to get a – a special ointment."

He finally released her arm but still looked a bit confused. "Obviously it's not contagious because Madame Pomfrey would never have let you out."

"I know," she said, crossing her arms over her chest in an attempt to look helpless. "But it's ugly and – and itchy. It's embarrassing; I don't want you to see."

"Lily," he said quietly, taking a step toward her and brushing her face gently with the back of his hand. "You're beautiful – do you really think a rash is going to stop me from thinking so? I'll help you apply your ointment," he added, wiggling his eyebrows. "That'll be fun. Has it spread to your chest yet?"

He sniggered but she pursed her lips, hating that she always had to embarrass herself in these situations to make him see her way. "Not that kind of rash, John," she said quietly, even though the corridor had almost cleared. He gave her a puzzled look. "It's - it's down there."

His nose turned up in exactly the same way it had when she'd told him she had her period. "Oh."

"Yeah."

"Well," he said, obviously trying to get the image out of his head as she shook it momentarily. "Did she say how long it'll last?"

Lily shrugged.

"Right," he said contemplatively. "Right."

"Sorry."

"Hey, it's not your fault I suppose," he said, though he sounded thoroughly disappointed.

"You might want to hurry if you want to make it to Ancient Runes on time."

He nodded, leaning in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek in parting. "See you later then, Lily. I hope you, err, feel better soon."

He did not blow her kisses on his dash down the hall.

She did not mind one bit.

"Have you got a free as well?"

Lily physically jumped as the deep voice of James Potter sliced through the dead silence of the library. He had not spoken loudly but she had not seen another person walk past her aisle in over twenty minutes and had quite forgotten she wasn't entirely alone.

"Sorry," he said, continuing down the aisle of books toward her. "Didn't mean to startle you."

"It's alright," she replied, pushing her hair behind her ears and trying to regain her composure. She went to push the book she had been reading back onto the shelf, not wanting anyone to see what it was she was looking up, but upon glancing up at him from her knelt position she cracked a small smile and opened to her page again. "Perhaps you need some of this too." The skin around his mouth was very red and chaffed. He licked at it sporadically as he leaned closer, looking at the book.

"Don't do that," she said. "You'll make it sore."

Instead he took to rubbing at it with the back of his hand as he read over her shoulder. She felt an awkward silence take over them and found she couldn't concentrate on the words anymore. This was the first time they had spoken since their practice. It was strange to think that she hadn't had a proper conversation with this person for years and yet just the other day they had spent over an hour in a rather intimate embrace. She had never ended up with pash rash from a snogging session with John before - things had gotten rather heated - almost exciting. But now she felt he was standing far too close for comfort.

"You're not embarrassed?" Lily asked, discreetly putting some distance between them as she spun around and landed on her bottom with her back to the case.

"Should I be?" he replied, slumping down opposite her and leaning his back against the shelf of books.

"Well," she said, avoiding eye contact as she turned another page of the book in her lap (but not reading it). "Now everyone knows what you've been up to."

"Doesn't matter. Unlike you, I'm not cheating on anyone."

She glanced back up at him momentarily, narrowing her eyes. "I'm not cheating though." He shrugged and she looked down again, fishing a quill from her bag as she found the correct formula. "Do you have any parchment?"

"What happened to that notebook you used to carry around everywhere?"

"Dunno. Lost it back in sixth year."

"Hm," he replied noncommittally before she heard him rustling in his own bag. She looked up briefly as he handed her a small scroll, flashing him a small but thankful smile before jotting down the recipe. He continued to watch her as she wrote.

"Was there something you needed?" she finally asked, storing the quill and parchment into her bag and slotting the book back into its space on the shelf. "I don't usually see you hanging around the library; are you skipping?"

For some reason he smirked, scratching the back of his head as he let out a long sigh. "No, I have a free period. Usually go for a fly." He stared at her again.

And then Lily got it. "You want to know when we're going to practice again," she said knowingly, pushing herself to her feet. She really should have known better. He was far too eager to help her out. This was going to end badly, she just knew it. "James, if this is going where I think it's going then maybe we need to had a sit down and talk about a few things because I think it's about time you realised that I don't-"

"Lily," he said, cutting her off. "Get over yourself, okay?"

She looked at him blankly, completely taken aback by his words, because his tone remained quite even.

"I can't fly," he continued calmly. "'Cause it's raining, and everyone else is in class. I saw you sat back there so thought I'd say hello, and maybe see if you needed these."

She glanced down to see him extending what looked like the Transfiguration notes from last period. She felt herself flush slightly and gaped wordlessly before finally managing a small, "Oh." She just wanted the ground to open and swallow her up. This was utter humiliation.

They each averted their eyes as awkwardness washed over them again and Lily finally reached out to take the papers from his hand. "Thanks, I'll have them back by rounds tonight."

He nodded. "See you later then. Hope your rash clears up."

Wide-eyed and red faced she watched him disappear down another aisle. Then she remembered that she did in fact need to schedule another time to practice. Humiliated beyond comprehension she fled the library.