"Remus?" Hermione whispered, and Remus's heart nearly stopped.

"Hermione! What are you doing down here?"

"I--"

"Couldn't sleep?" Remus and Hermione said at the same time.

Hermione laughed softly and nodded. The two started at each other, and then Remus walked over to the couch and motioned for Hermione to take a seat, too. The two sat in what should have been an awkward quiet, but was more of a companionable silence. Remus yawned and decided he might as well get back upstairs when Hermione laid her head on his chest and he looked down and realized she had fallen asleep. Smiling, he wrapped his arms around her and stroked her hair, when suddenly he stopped. He should not be doing this. It really was nothing, yes, but if she didn't like him in the way that he liked her, then this was just wrong.

She liked you enough to fall asleep in your arms, one part of him thought almost smugly. Then again, she likely didn't know she'd fall asleep at all, the more logical side of him deduced. With that, he stood up and gently laid her head on a scarlet and gold fringed pillow and wrapped a blanket over her, then walked softly to his own common room. Needless to say, Remus did not get very much sleep that night.

**************************************************

Hermione woke up suddenly to beams of sunshine hitting her eyelids. She sat up with a jerk, and with horror realized she was lying on the couch in the common room. Luckily, no one was down there or they would wonder what she was doing there instead of in her own dormitory. Apparently, it was still early in the morning. Then she remembered the events of last night. She had been having nightmares, and the dormitory was getting a bit stuffy, so she had decided to enter the more spacious common room for a fresh breath of air. She had only been there a minute, deciding whether or not lighting the fire would wake everyone up, when suddenly the fire had been lit and she had not even taken out her wand. Turning around, she had spotted Remus and nearly jumped out of her skin. After that, she didn't remember much, except she must have fallen asleep on the couch. She hoped she had not said anything embarrassing before that, but try as she might, she couldn't recall if she had or not.

Yawning, as she was still tired, she dragged herself up to the fifth year girls' dorm rooms, and lay down. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was fast asleep yet again.

**************************************************

Harry listened to the laughter and smothered sounds coming from within the dormitories, and decided the Marauders and Ron must be having a pillow fight. He sighed and rolled over, lost in his thoughts. He had thought coming here would be some great adventure, actually being with his parents, Sirius, Remus and even Peter. Now, he began to rethink his decision. He knew that it wasn't until near the end of fifth year that they would be discussing career options, but every time he thought of his parents in the future, his heart fell through to his stomach. Harry knew that his parents would not have much of a future, and it pained him to even think about it. Although Sirius would have a longer time than his parents would, he would be spending most of that time in Azkaban, and Harry had a burning desire to tell him to avoid Peter after Hogwarts that he had a hard time quelling. Surely if he just hinted that if they ever needed a Secret Keeper, they should use Sirius? No, if they did not think he was mad or talking ludicrous, they would just agree with him right away. Sirius had even said that they wanted to use him, and it would do no good betraying his word to Dumbledore to give his parents useless information. It ripped at his heart just to see them, and when he spoke with them, his heart was tearing right out of his chest. He just wanted to leave and have Dumbledore put a Memory Charm on him so he could forget about the whole ordeal. The only thing was, despite what Remus had said, there had to be something going on between him and Hermione, and Ron appeared to be enjoying plotting with the Marauders. What irony. His friends were enjoying their time here more than he was.

"Wake up, Harry!" Sirius shouted and jumped through the canopy to smother Harry with a pillow. Seconds later, Harry felt four other pillows on top of him, and attempted to enjoy himself.

"Get off of me!" Harry yelled, laughing despite the fact that he could hardly breathe. As soon as they backed away a bit, Harry grabbed his own pillow and threw it at Sirius, finally joining in the fight. They were busy all putting their pillows down and sitting on top of James's head when all of a sudden the door flew open.

"WHAT ARE YOU CHILDREN DOING?" Lily shouted.

"Who are you calling 'children', Evans?" Peter asked.

"ALL OF YOU! NOW MAKE YOUR BEDS IN THIRTY SECONDS OR I'M GIVING ALL OF YOU DETENTION!"

"But the house elves will do it!" James protested.

"One, two,…."

Sirius waved his wand and in seconds all the beds were made. He then looked smugly over at Lily, who scowled and stormed away, her posse on her heels.

"Honestly, James, the woman's a nightmare," Sirius spoke, shaking his head.

"Really, Prongs, I don't understand what you see in her," Peter sighed.

"You wouldn't," James snapped, and when all his friends started at him, he apologized, "Look, guys. I'm sorry…it's just that…oh, never mind." James smiled and threw a pillow hard at Harry, and their pillow war started up again.

***********************************

James followed Harry, Ron and the rest of the Marauders into Transfiguration and contented himself with staring at the back of Lily's head. She was so beautiful and intelligent. The fact was, he loved getting her angry. At least she paid attention to him then, as the rest of the time, he might as well have worn his Invisibility Cloak. All the times he had tried to engage her in "civilized" conversation, he had failed miserably. He had even stopped hexing people in the halls. Well, unless they really annoyed him, of course. Or if their name happened to be Severus Snape. Nevertheless, he wished she would just look at him. He didn't understand it. Nearly every other girl in the school did. Maybe that was why he wanted her. Because she was the only girl in the school who didn't look at him. But that was just ridiculous.

Looking down at the small wooden box in front of him that they were supposed to Transfigure into a cockroach, James easily performed the spell and amused himself by prodding it with his wand back and forth. Mr. Ollivander had said his wand was good for Transfiguration, after all. Lily had to know he was good at magic, as well, because he got almost every spell correct the first few times he tried it, but she never seemed to notice.

Deciding he was bored, he picked the cockroach up and stuck it into Emberlynn's frizzy hair and waited for her to notice. All of a sudden, she froze, and James knew his handiwork had taken hold. Sitting back in his chair, he pretended to engage himself in deep conversation with Peter, who had only proceeded to Transfigure the box into a wooden cockroach while looking at Emberlynn out of the corner of his eye. She started breathing in short rasps and let out a loud shriek, in which the whole class turned to stare at her. She was shrieking over and over again, as the Marauders had realized what James had done, and were laughing hysterically.

Professor McGonagall looked around for the source of the problem, and spotted James.

"Mr. Potter, where is your box that you are to be Transfiguring?"

James looked around, feigning confusion. The class was still cracking up, more and more just by looking at James and Emberlynn. James was loving it. He scratched his head.

"I don't know, Professor. It was here just a minute ago."

The class burst into thunderous hysterics. James made his way up to Lily, pretending to look under desks as he went along. He walked up to Lily, who was glaring at him, and reached behind her ear, and started to search through her hair.

"Nope, not in there!"

Before Lily could open her mouth to yell at James, Professor McGonagall shouted, "Mr. Potter! That is enough! Twenty points from Gryffindor, and get that cockroach out of Miss Lirampla's hair, or I shall have to give you detention!"

Such was James's popularity that the laughter only died by a notch. No one wanted James to think they did not think his pranks were funny. James walked over to Emberlynn.

"There it is! Now why didn't I think to look there before?"

As McGonagall quieted the class down, James shot a chance look at Lily. Her green eyes sparkled with anger, and James thought of how beautiful they were, and what a privilege it was to have such bewitching eyes laid on him.

After class, Emberlynn, who was usually one of those girls who could not take her eyes off James, turned around and proceeded to haughtily ignore him. It was a feat only women could accomplish. Not paying any attention to his friends, who were all slapping him on the back and congratulating him, James couldn't help feeling a bit ashamed. Emberlynn had never done anything to him, and he shouldn't have taken out his frustration on her. He thought he should apologize, but no one would ever catch James Potter apologizing for one of his "brilliant" jokes.

After Transfiguration, the Gryffindors all headed outside to Professor Kettleburn's Care of Magical Creatures class. A man with a permanently frightened look on his face, he only had three fingers on his left hand, and his right hand had been half-severed. Needless to say, he had quite lost his liking for rare, exciting and dangerous creatures, and for the last two years had his classes feeding flobberworms lettuce till they puked. It was an easy class, but James had been looking forward to it third year, only to find it was a great disappointment. Expecting something incredibly boring this year, the Gryffindors walked to class without their usual zeal.

Eyeing what Professor Kettleburn had in cages sitting in front of him, James did not recognize the creatures inside. They were rather cute, and he heard squeals of delight from the girls behind him. He didn't look back to see if Lily was cooing at the creatures, however. His friends had noticed him staring at her in Transfiguration and had been watching him intently to see if he would look at her again. So intent were they in their close examination, James thought they would notice if he so much as thought about Lily.

"Good afternoon, class," Kettleburn squeaked in a voice much too high for a male. At a half-hearted reply from his students, he did not seem to notice their lack of enthusiasm, and went ahead, "These are nifflers. Now, before I let them out, I would ask all of you to please remove anything shiny, and put it in the pile over here." He motioned to a bucket next to him. James removed his watch, and after all the fifth years had put their items in, to the class's horror, Kettleburn waved his wand, and everyone saw their valuables go flying throughout the grounds. Ignoring the cries of outrage, Kettleburn explained to the class what they would be doing.

"Don't worry, class, you'll get your things back," few people relaxed until Kettleburn continued, "Now, each of you will get a niffler. If you haven't guessed now, nifflers are attracted to the luster of certain metals. Gather as many items as you can, until the nifflers do not find anything else, then come back here. Make sure you don't get your own item, and I will explain the rest when you finish."

The lesson was his first enjoyable one as far as Care of Magical Creatures went, because each student got a niffler, and headed out to search. James was forced to run after his niffler, as he seemed intent on something in the far distance. Panting, James saw that no one else was out here, and thought his niffler might be trying to run away. Reaching out to grab him, as he had finally stopped, James picked him up, then looked down at the ground, seeing what looked like a necklace. He had seen the same necklace on Lily, and looked at it for closer inspection. It was made of gold, and had little heart shaped beads going around the golden chain. James considered bewitching it to say "I love James Potter", with a heart bead in between to separate the words, then thought better of it. He saw that most of the students were heading back to Kettleburn, and James ran all the way back, thankful that he was in shape because of his Quidditch training.

"Now, I want you all to find which of your classmates has your valuable. Once you have done that, return the object to its owner. The owner will then have the chance to ask one favor of you. It can be anything, as long as it is appropriate," Kettleburn fixed the class with a stare with as stern an expression his face would ever possess.

James searched the crowd for whoever held his watch, and his heart skipped a beat as he saw that Lily had it. His jaw dropped in the realization, and his hazel eyes shone with delight. Lily realized at the same moment that James had her necklace, and her jaw dropped, only her face displayed horror.

She snatched the necklace from him and shoved the watch into his hands, then started to walk away.

"Wait, Evans," he called after her. "You have to do something for me. It's part of the lesson."

If looks could kill, James would be dead from the green daggers that were pointed at him. "Alright, Potter. I ask you to stay away from me." As James looked at her in disappointment, her face started to flush. James started at her in surprise, but her face was perfectly calm then. The rouge in her cheeks might as well have never been there.

Confused, but not letting it show in his voice, James replied, "What you can do for me, Evans, is sit next to me at lunch." He smiled wickedly at her. She looked around for help, but all her friends were still talking to whomever had their belongings.

To his surprise, she replied, "Fine, Potter, but only this once. And only because it's for class!" With that, she stormed off, but James couldn't believe his luck. He had expected her to immediately refuse.

Professor Kettleburn dismissed the class, and they headed up to the Great Hall, all talking about what they were going to do for each other. Lily sat down next to Emberlynn, pretending that by chance the seat next to her was empty. James knew better. Ever since she realized he had a crush on her, Lily had made sure she was surrounded by friends so that he could get nowhere near her.

Sitting down next to her, he smiled and said in a cheerful voice, "So, Lily, how are you today? Anything exciting happen in Care of Magical Creatures?"

********************************************

Lily had been horrified when she saw that James had her necklace. She recognized his watch right away, and had almost dropped it again, but it happened to be right near Professor Kettleburn, who had seen her and called her over to wait for the rest of the class. When she had told James she wanted him to stay away from her, no statement could have been opposite what she truly wanted. She knew she was being rude, but if anyone suspected that she liked him…well, she didn't know what she would do if that were to leak out.

Sitting next to Emberlynn, her heart pounding, she nearly leaped out of her skin as he sat next to her and spoke in his wonderful, smooth voice, "So, Lily, how are you today? Anything exciting happen in Care of Magical Creatures?"

Lily felt her temper rise. How could he ask about Kettleburn's class like that? He just infuriated her! She tried to keep her voice under control, which only made it shake. It gave the impression that she was trying to control her temper, which just infuriated her even more. "I'm fine, Potter," she snapped, "Just fine. And no, nothing happened in class. And how are you?" she added sarcastically, in a voice that clearly stated he should not answer if he valued his life.

He answered anyway. "Why, thank you ever so much for asking, Lily. I'm doing quite splendid, really." He smiled one of those mischievous grins that girls drooled over and Lily wished she could as well. Emberlynn certainly was, before Lily shot her a look that should have Petrified her.

Lily finished her lunch, with James trying to engage her in conversation. She pretended the reason she wasn't responding was because she wasn't pleased with the seating arrangements, but the truth was that she didn't think she could have replied. She likely would have gotten all tongue-tied trying to talk to him, thus she murmured responses without looking at him whenever it seemed necessary.

After what seemed an eternity, lunch was finally over. To Lily's horror, James grabbed her arm. She jerked it away and retorted, "What is it, Potter? I sat next to you, did I not?"

"No, Lily, I just want to ask you a question," James looked over at her friends, and Lily was irate to see them shoot her knowing glances and walk away.

"What is, Potter? I don't have time for this."

"I only wanted to ask you if you could teach me that Memory Charm we learned in Flitwick's class. We could find an unused classroom after the evening feast."

Lily melted. James Potter was asking her for help? Well, you always were better than him at Charms, she thought audaciously. He had beaten her in nearly every other class, however. Not that she would ever admit to it.

"You think I want to be in a classroom with you when I have much more important things to be done? Maybe you should have paid attention instead of turning Rosa's hair different colors." Well, it had been rather hilarious. Not that she had laughed.

"Please, Lily?" He was pleading with her?

She sniffed in a manner that said she was going against her better judgement. "I suppose, Potter, but you better pay attention and get it right away. If you do anything but pay due respect to me as if I were a teacher, I won't ever do it again."

No! I'm so stupid! Now I sound like a teacher, what's he going to think of me? Not to mention I just said he might do something other than perform the charm. To top it off, I just told him that if he behaved, I'd do it again! I'm not stupid, I'm a braindead fool!

And he had caught the mention of another time in her statement, as he looked positively delighted. "I'll see you then, Lily, after the feast! Unless, of course, you'd like to sit next to me again? There's always room--"

Lily turned around on her heel with such force that she nearly fell over, then stalked off away from James. If she had been a cat, her tail would be a bottlebrush and all her hairs would be on end.

******************************************

Hi!

Hmmm I decided to stop here….

Well, at least for you readers…

I'm about to continue right now, but you won't see what I'm writing till you review ;)

By the way, if you want me to tell you when I update, just send me an email @ AnGeLDrEaMz789@aol.com, but make sure to put something in the subject line as I get tons of junkmail and delete anything with no subject.

Au revoir!

*Sammy-Jo*