Since about the autumn of second year, James had become attuned to Lily's movements. The boys had known of his crush on Lily since its inception. They knew him well enough that his subtle (which, let's be honest, fourth years never were) attraction did not go unnoticed. His friends had noticed his head whip around every time as soon as she had walked into a room, and had taken the mickey out of him for it. Time and time again, Sirius had attempted to talk him out of his infatuation with the enigmatic redhead usually sitting two seats over and three rows in front of him, but reason was no match for the fallen heart of a fourteen, fifteen, and now sixteen-year-old boy.

Thus, James had learned to be more subtle about his awareness of her, and merely glanced in the general direction of the door to the greenhouse as he felt her breeze through, arm in arm with Alice. Remus, sitting next to him, chose not to notice.

James' and Lily's fresh and tentative acquaintanceship felt fragile to him, as if a small breeze would blow them apart. But James was determined to stay on the straight and narrow, and was committed to his new leaf he had been slowly but surely turning over since the bitter conclusion of the last school year. Even with the added endorsement of a potential friendship with Lily Evans, James was keen to right some of his previous wrongs for his own sake.

Ever since he was a child, his parents had been on at him about taking responsibility for his actions, and all of the mayhem that his mischief had caused over the years. McGonagall had taken over that role since he'd been at Hogwarts, and she dished out three times the trouble his parents had ever given him. He'd always dismissed their concern as their being too uptight; Remus had even claimed that his most-used phrase all of last year was "It's only a laugh, don't worry about it". That had been another thing slowly gnawing away at his conscience as well. His pranks could never have been as harmless as he once thought; no one liked to be made a fool, especially those to whom pride was a most sacred commodity.

Through his summer reflections, he had come to realise that some of his actions had unintended consequences, and his antagonism of the Slytherins (even if he believed it was a harmless prank, or just a laugh), fuelled the divisions which they should all be fighting, now more than ever.

James decided he wanted to be more responsible (Sirius would nearly faint if he ever heard James say that out loud), attempt to do his bit at mending some of the unintentional wounds that may have been caused by him or his mates, and hopefully do his beloved parents proud in the process.

Professor Sprout bustled into the greenhouse and begun the lesson, drawing James from his musings. Lily had taken her usual seat, next to Alice, yet still in his direct eyeline, and he could see her taking out her parchment, textbooks and quill. Honestly, he couldn't tell you why he chose to continue with Herbology past OWL level, only that listening to Professor Sprout was infinitely more bearable than sitting through Professor Binns give another History of Magic lecture until three in the morning.

Professor Sprout, always producing some herbological curiosity, pulled a smouldering, smoking bush out from behind the leg of the workbench at the front of the classroom. The bench, which was supposed to be Professor Sprout's desk, was covered in all kinds of magical flora, ranging from the intricately interesting to the frankly dangerous. James rather thought that it was becoming a kind of jungle, with the mis-matched species all growing over the top of one another.

The bush Professor Sprout was now holding let out another puff of smoke as she announced

"I'm glad to see all of you still here after the class-drop period has expired. You all worked wonderfully hard for your O.W.L.s and I expect you all to work even harder in preparation for your N.E.W.T.s. Herbology is an infinitely interesting, but difficult subject, and I now expect your one hundred percent commitment and participation! This fascinating specimen I am holding, which I'm sure you have all noticed, is a Fire Seed Bush. Despite the fact that it has no leaves, it can produce fire-seed, which can be used in various potions (but we all know that's not really my area of expertise). This one was kindly gifted to me by our very own Hagrid, I believe he grows them in his garden. To set us all off on the right foot, your very first assignment will be in pairs, and you will be working on an essay on the life cycle of a Fire Seed Bush."

At the array of quizzical and rather appalled looks reflected in her students' faces, Professor Sprout continued, assuring them;

"Now I understand that I am maybe throwing you all in the deep end a little bit, but many other species are relevant and indeed vital to the life cycle of a Fire Seed Bush, so this will be a gorgeous introduction to much of your N.E.W.T content! But, never fear children, I have decided to be generous to you all this year, and you will be given six weeks to complete this assignment."

Soft murmurs of delight rippled around the classroom as the bubbly Professor turned her back to them to place the now incinerated Fire Seed Bush on her jungle of a desk. She turned back to face her class;

"Now, to prevent any mishaps on our first assignment, I thought I would choose your partners. It's always easier this way; less tears."

The Professor pulled her patched and battered hat from atop her mop of curly hair and waved her wand twice, and twenty five pieces of parchment, each reading one of the student's names, sorted themselves into pairs in the air at the front of the room.

James stood from his chair in search of his name, craning over the heads of the students in front of him to discover who he would be working with for the foreseeable six weeks. Before he had even found the piece of parchment with his name on it, a certain redhead was walking in his direction, supplies in hand, and was sliding herself into the desk directly next to him.

"I suppose we'll be working together then." She said by way of greeting.

James could do nothing but stare at her, stunned. He could hardly believe his good, or perhaps bad, luck. The next six weeks would help him figure that out. He quickly scanned the ordered slips of parchment floating in the air again, searching for a 'Lily Evans' adjacent a 'James Potter'.

"Don't you believe me?" Lily questioned him, a slightly mocking tone edging her voice, softened only by the subtle grin on the corners of her mouth.

"Of course I do" James said hurriedly, sitting down and dragging his chair in behind him. He hoped he would get to see a lot more of those sort-of grins over the course of this project, hell, maybe even a full-blown smile or two, and if he was one lucky bugger, maybe he could even make her laugh.

It was at this point that he caught Remus' eye from across the greenhouse, finally noting that Remus was in fact, not sitting in the seat now occupied by an already working Lily Evans. Remus had been paired with Connor Gallagher, a kind but rather simple Hufflepuff who had little talent in any subject, but would be nonetheless awfully willing to participate in the project. Remus could hardly complain.

After giving James a reassuring shrug upon noting each others' partner, both boys returned their focus to their companions, and the impending six weeks' work ahead of them. Lily had already begun to draw up a deadline schedule, working backwards from the due date, and was now allocating the work between them.

"So, would you prefer to take the introduction or conclusion of the essay?" Lily questioned him, still scribbling notes and plans over the ruled parchment in front of her. Although James knew, by the diligent way that Lily noted every deadline on a pristine sheet of parchment she always carried with her, and by her careful, neat handwriting, and her exemplary schoolwork, that Lily was a planner. She was what one would call well-organised, Type A, systematic, a control freak, what have you. But James was sure all that micromanaging wasn't healthy for her mental state, and it certainly wouldn't be healthy for his.

"How would you feel about giving ourselves a couple of weeks to complete the research, and then we can start on the essay plan? We can reconvene again next week to check in, and then continue from there." James suggested, preparing himself to be put in his place.

Stunned by his willingness to participate more than her slight annoyance at his rejection of all her painstaking organisational work, Lily found herself agreeing. She supposed that if she was going to give this whole 'trial friendship' a go, she may as well give him a chance to prove himself (or fail, she thought belatedly,) but they would have to wait and see.

Lily's organisational skills and practice would most certainly be coming in handy with the inordinate amount of content they would be introduced to this year. If she thought the O.W.L.s were tough, she would have to prepare herself for N.E.W.T.s, and preparation started this year. She already knew that they would be learning to apparate soon, and cast any number of difficult charms, and brew incredibly complicated potions, and that was just the beginning. But she was confident she could get through it, and she wasn't about to let James drag her down in one of their very first assignments as sixth years.

Nevertheless, she knew that group projects were about negotiation and teamwork, and so proceeded to allocate the subtopics of the research requirements between them, and two dates over the next week for them to work together in the library, as a compromise with James' play-it-by-ear plan. To her surprise again, James was willing to comply with the modified schedule.

Each pulling out their textbooks, they got started right away, and James found himself immediately invested in the life cycle of a Fire Seed Bush. Whether that was due to his desire to impress the girl sitting next to him, in front of whom he judged had only messed up so far, or genuine attention to the subject, was something he was not yet willing to examine.

When the booming bell sounded to signal the end of class, James was pleasantly surprised by how well they seemed to work as a team. For two people who had little to do with each other past public arguments for the last five years, they seemed to bounce off each other remarkably well. His penchant to 'cross-that-bridge-when-we-come-to-it', and her 'must-plan-every-detail-down-to-the-last-micrometre' made a surprising and pleasant combination, and James was grateful for that. Maybe this project could be fun after all…