A/N: Hi there! I want to let everyone know that I have changed my mind so now James and Lily are in fifth year, not fourth. (It's more logical). Anyway, I hope to be updating more regularly than once a year! I think I have lost quite a few readers because I have taken so long in the past to update, but I hope the people who do read my story, really enjoy it. So go read!

Disclaimer: JKR owns all . . . you know the rest.

Chapter 5: Snape?

Lily in the hospital wing staring up at the ceiling humiliated. Before she was even given the putrid potion to mend her ribs, the complete shock of her injury overtook her; and caused her breakfast to erupt. She was lucky to make it to the bathroom in time.

But the worst part was James seeing her in this condition. He had followed her to the hospital wing and seen the horrid display. Still he stayed with her until the nurse dismissed him.

She only had fifteen minutes left until the potion had completely mended her fractured bones. In the mean time she kept replaying the whole day in her head . . . it had taken an odd unexpected turn . . .

The tick of the clock hanging on the wall resounded in her head, until she had heard the tick tock exactly 900 times.

Then Madame Pomfrey poked her in and hollered, "Evans, you're free to go."

Lily sat up slowly and gingerly felt her side-- it was perfectly normal. She stood up and walked quickly from the hospital wing, and made her way to the library. She needed a few books for her classes and while she was there she wanted another book to read; to get her mind off things . . .

When she stepped inside the common room that evening she saw all of the Gryffindors talking and stuffing their mouths full of treats. It was a customary party the winning team always threw.

When people noticed her step in, cheers burst from their full mouths. She was greeted with congratulations and several pats on the back.

She smiled shyly and worked her way toward the staircase leading to the girl's dormitories. She took a seat a few steps up so she had an ideal spot to watch the party.

Remus walked over to her with his hands in his pockets and took a seat next to Lily.

"Hey, nice job as chaser today." Remus complimented.

"Thanks, it was fun," Lily said with a smile, "Well, except for that embarrassing accident I had there."

"Haha, it wasn't too awful." He said reassuringly.

Lily began to think about what had caused her to get in the accident in the first place . . . she had been watching James fly instead of paying attention to the game.

She buried her face in her hands, "It really was my own fault . . . if only I had been paying attention." Where was that distraction (James) anyway? Lily began to scan the room . . ..

"James went off somewhere to talk to his girlfriend." Remus said as if reading her mind.

"Oh I- I was just wondering where he got off to." She stammered.

"Miss Chang was not terribly pleased with James' accompanying you to the hospital wing this afternoon," He said giving her a sidelong glance.

Lily's eyes widened.

I can't believe it, she's jealous of . . . he shouldn't have come with me . . .

"Oh . . ." Lily said awkwardly, "--Well I'm going to grab some food. Would you like anything?" She said standing up.

"Oh, no thank you. I've had quite enough. I think I'll head up to my dorm now," He watched her walk away and said softly, "Goodnight Lily."

She got a plateful of goodies and returned to her spot on the stairs.

Around five minutes later her plate was clean and she went upstairs, slipped into pajamas, picked up her new book, and returned to her seat on the stairs.

Lily was five pages into the book when James stepped into the common room with Vanessa attached to his arm. Again, cheers burst from the sugar happy crowd, followed by congratulations.

"Nice game today!"

"What a win!"

"You were awesome!"

. . . and other such praises of approval.

Lily watched Vanessa's glowing face as she held James' hand. She was loving all of the attention . . .

Vanessa looked up and saw Lily starring at her and James, so she snuggled in closer to him. James put his arm around her waist.

Lily couldn't stay there any longer; she stood up and walked up the stairs to her dormitory.

James' eyes followed.

Lily did not know why it bothered her so much to see Vanessa with James. It's not as if I have a chance with him . . . he is cute, funny, and even smart when he wants to be . . . but I cant like him. Everyone like James Potter, it would be silly. He's too big headed anyhow . . .

Lily still couldn't help feeling a certain fondness for him, however.

(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*(*

Lily sat in the first empty seat she saw, near the front of the potions classroom.

She looked over and saw that she was sitting by Severus Snape. He was a quiet, but bitter Slytherin boy, who was constantly teased by Gryffindors.

He sat slouched with his chin length black hair covering most of his face, as he scribbled something on a piece of parchment. Lily pulled out her supplies and waited for class to begin.

The bell sounded and everyone took his or her seats. She saw James sit next to Sirius a few seats over; she wondered where Remus was . . . . Several minutes later the teacher had everyone partnered with his or her neighbor to make a sleeping potion.

"Hi, I'm Lily." She said politely turning to Snape.

"I'm Snape." He said as he began to pour ingredients into their cauldron.

"So . . . is there something I can do?" She asked hesitantly.

"You could . . . cut up those roots." He said without ceasing his work.

She picked up the roots and started chopping. She noticed Severus glance over at her.

"Are these cut okay?"

"They're fine"

They continued to work in silence. He worked quickly and flawlessly so their potion was finished far before any other. They were forced to wait for the rest of the class to finish. So they sat in an awkward silence.

Lily scanned the table for something to keep her occupied; she noticed what was obviously a sketchbook, on the far end.

"What kind of things do you draw?" Lily asked curiously.

"What? Oh . . . I don't know . . ." He replied without looking at her.

"May I see them?" She asked with a nervous smile (which was completely wasted, as he still was not looking at her).

"No . . . I don't think . . ."

"Oh no, I understand . . ." She said, somewhat embarrassed she had even asked.

They sat in a painful silence for several seconds before Snape reluctantly held the sketchbook out in front of her.

She smiled as she grasped the beautiful leather-bound book in her hands; it had a worn old tree imprinted on the cover silver lettering that read: sketchbook.

She flipped slowly through it, examining each page carefully.

There were pictures of magical creatures, people, and plants. Most were rather dark, but not as depressing as she expected. They were all magnificently done and some looked so real you could almost reach into them and touch things.

"Oh wow . . . these are . . . they're beautiful." She said as she turned the pages. Snape leaned over to see what picture she was looking at because she had paused on one; it was a detailed drawing of a phoenix.

The drawings ignited a minute conversation between Snape and Lily.

James watched as Lily turned the pages of Snape's book. She was smiling and kept looking over at Snape and they started talking to each other. They weren't talking a lot but he knew those were words passing between them. What was she doing?! Did she not realize whom she was speaking to?

Maybe it's just a pity conversation . . . but she looks so happy, She's never looked at me like that . . . did she just giggle? Snape isn't witty, what's going on here? . . .

"Woah, Lily's fraternizing with the enemy!" Exclaimed Sirius who was observing the same scene as James.

"I know . . . it's disgusting."

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

After the bell rang Lily made a left out of the classroom and Snape made a right. She was in fairly high spirits and Snape was not as bad as everyone made him out to be . . .

She was on her way to the common and about halfway there, James and Sirius caught up with her.

"So when ca we plan the wedding?" Sirius asked jestingly.

"Um . . . what?" She wasn't sure what they were talking about.

"He's talking about you and Snape." James explained.

"What?! No . . . come on . . ." She pleaded.

"No, I think you were flirting with Snape, young lady. Don't you think James?"

"I um-- well yes. That's what it looked like." He replied somewhat downtrodden.

"Pumpernickel." The moment the portrait door swung open, they were ambushed by a sly looking girl with sleek black hair.

"There you are James. I've been waiting for you!" Said a slightly irritated but peppy Vanessa, glancing at Lily.

"Well, I'm here now." James replied with almost realistic enthusiasm.

"Fine," Sirius said rather irritated, "I'll just wait here then, shall I?" He called sarcastically after James.

James looked over his shoulder with a look of disgust at the bubbly group surrounding him; Vanessa saw that look.

*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)*)

After dinner Lily and James met in the library to work on their report on dragons, for Care of Magical Creatures. When she walked into the library, James was already fast at work with a large stack of books. Lily smiled to herself and went and took the seat across from him at the table.

"Well, look at who decided to show up." James said as Lily sat down.

"I'm only three minutes late."

"I'm sure you were off playing Quidditch' with Snape somewhere . . ." James smirked.

Lily blushed and looked at the table, "Are you ever going to drop that?" She mumbled, more to herself than to James.

"Highly doubtful. Kiss me and I'll think about it." James said with a sly grin.

"Excuse me?" Lily's voice trembled. She looked utterly shocked.

"Haha, just kidding. Wow, you looked really worried there for a moment."

Lily swallowed hard, then looked down. "So-so I-I-I, suppose we should um . . . uh, divide up the work then?" She said talking to the table.

James fidgeted slightly.

Maybe I shouldn't have said that . . . I don't want to scare her. Oh god, she looks so uncomfortable. . . .

"Lily, I'm-- I'm sorry. I'll stop screwing around." He said as if he was begging her to not be intimidated.

"So lets get stared, shall we?" He said trying to get back on task, "What were you saying about dividing up the work?" He asked gently.

"Well I was, um . . . thinking that maybe I would work on the essay and you could start the presentation . . ." She said quietly.

"That sounds great."

Lily got out her supplies and started flipping through her notes.

Why did he . . . I wasn't expecting that at all. . . . How am I going to write an essay with this on my mind? . . .

James watched Lily flip blindly through her notes; she obviously was not thinking of schoolwork at the moment. . . . James sighed then got up and pulled a dusty book from a nearby shelf.

The two worked in silence (except for a brief question of the other, every now and then) for about an hour, when James interrupted the quiet.

"Hey Lily! Watch this--" Lily looked up to see an excited James standing across from her, with a ready wand. "Projectio Horntail!"

A life size projection of a Hungarian Horntail appeared in the center of the library and let out a burst of flame from its mouth.

Everyone else in the library shrank back in fear, and Lily put a hand over her mouth. A split second later, the lifelike image vanished.

James looked over at Lily and smiled.

"That was, Amazing!" Lily said with wide eyes.

"I know. Haha . . . Hey can you make me a list of the most important breeds of dragons? I want to be able to do them all." He said sitting down.

Twenty minutes later Lily had more than half the paper written, and James was able to do a life-size projection of ten different types of dragons.

"Well, that's enough for now. Don't you think?" He said as he stretched, leaned back in his chair, and ruffled his untidy black hair.

"Fine . . ." Lily trembled slightly at the sight, "When are we going to finish it up?"

"Tomorrow sound good?" He asked.

Lily nodded.

"Now, how about we sneak down to the kitchens for a Butterbeer." James said slyly as he stood up and walked with Lily out of the library.

"Well, I suppose . . ." She glanced around nervously expecting a teacher, or worse-- Vanessa Chang, to overhear them.

Lily followed James down several floors until the reached they entrance hall. Then they made a left and soon found themselves walking down a dimly lit passageway which ended at a painting of a bowl of fruit.

James winked at her then reached up and tickled the pear on the canvas, which chuckled before transforming into a doorknob. Once they were inside, several eager house-elves bounded toward them.

"Master James has brought a guest!" One of the elves squeaked.

"This is Lily." He said smiling at them and gesturing to her, "Could we have two Butterbeers?"

"Yes sir, of course sir." And with several bows they scattered to fulfill their order.

"Great service, isn't it?" James said, leading Lily over to the table in concurrence with the Gryffindor table above.

"Wow." Lily replied as the house-elves brought them not only two Butterbeers, but two large platters of goodies.

James took a swig of his drink and then tried to start a conversation, as Lily was fidgeting uncomfortably in the silence.

"So. What do you want to be when you grow up?" He asked taking another drink.

"That was random." She grinned and took a drink herself.

"Just a conversation starter."

"Well . . . I suppose my dream career would be an Auror," She paused thinking James might laugh at this, but he only smiled, "But I don't think it would please my parents much." She said somewhat quickly. She was feeling rather nervous.

"Really? An Auror? That's what I want to do too, especially with the rise of this Voldemort fellow. You've heard about him, haven't you?"

"Oh yes. He sounds horrible, I wonder if he'll still be around by the time we're old enough to help."

"He might. He sounds a lot more powerful than the past threats of dark wizards."

Lily nodded then hiccuped.

James chucked, "Maybe you should slow down."

"Me?! Your bottle is almost empty!"

"Hmm. So it is . . ." James paused for a moment and looked at Lily, "I don't know how we've been at Hogwarts together for the past four years and hardly ever spoken."

"I don't know . . . I'm just quiet." She said looking slightly embarrassed.

"We'll have to change that won't we?" He laughed, "You should come pranking with me and the guys sometime," She looked at him with shock and fear, "Oh come on, we almost never get caught."

"I don't know . . . maybe." She said, because it did sound like fun, but the risky kind of fun. The kind of fun she never had.

James and Lily talked for a while longer and had about three Butterbeers each. When they left the kitchen it was about 9:45pm. They began the hike to the Gryffindor tower laughing as they went.

Lily tried to quiet down a little since Filch was probably lurking somewhere in the depths of the castle.

On the fifth floor James stopped dead in his tracks.

"What is it?" Lily whispered.

Then she noticed Ms. Norris crossing the hallway in front of them and gasped. James put his hand over her mouth and pulled her into a broom cupboard to their right. She was pressed awkwardly between the door of the cupboard and James. She adjusted slightly and held her breath hoping she wouldn't cough or sneeze or make any other noises.

They heard Filches footsteps echo down the hall and heard them fade away in the opposite direction. They waited a moment just to be sure he was gone, then Lily smiled with relief and the two started laughing. James pushed open the door but Lily stumbled slightly on the way out and he caught her around the waist. A few seconds later their laughter had began to die down, but James was still holding Lily when they heard a voice behind them.

"Ahem," There was Chang, with her arms crossed and her eyes piercing.

"Vanessa," James said pleadingly, "This isn't what you think." Lily squirmed uneasily.

"I can't believe you." Vanessa looked on the verge of tears, so she spun on her heel and ran toward the Gryffindor tower.

"No, Vanessa. Come back!" James shouted, then trotted after her with out so much as a glance at Lily.

Lily stood stunned for several minutes before she could process what had just happened.

She and James Potter had fallen, giggling from a cupboard . . . he even had his arm around Lily. She knew what the scene must have looked like to Chang.

Why did this have to happen to her? It made no sense. Quiet, innocent, Lily Evans was now going to be made out as a boyfriend stealer. It could have easily been any other girl in Hogwarts that James invited for a Butterbeer, but it was Lily. Now she was stuck in the middle of something awful, and it wasn't even her fault.

Why?! He didn't have to ask me to have Butterbeer with him . . . I didn't have to say okay when he asked me. . . . But I can't believe he just left me like that. If he really liked her he wouldn't be hanging around other girls so much . . . he didn't even look at me before running after her. So, now what do I do? I can't stand here much longer or Filch will catch me . . .

Lily hesitated a moment before starting toward the Gryffindor Tower.

Lily entered the common room hoping she wouldn't find Vanessa waiting with clenched fists; surprisingly she didn't.

She looked around and saw that most of the Gryffindors were still awake, but many were whispering to each other and a gasp escaped from a group of girls when Lily stepped into the room.

She saw James sitting by the fire holding his shaggy head in his hands, and walked uncertainly towards him. But using her better judgment she stopped short.

James heard her footsteps and quickly stood up and walked to the staircase of the boy's dormitory. He disappeared without a word.

The whispering the common room got louder and more excited and pounded in Lily's ears.

Lily walked quickly to her empty dorm and curled up on her bed, lonely and confused.