Stuttering

'Hey Evans.'

Lily and her friend Amanda turned around to face James Potter who had come up behind them. 'Hi.' she said, confused, and started to walk away with Amanda.

'Wait, Evans…can I talk to you? Please? It won't take long I swear.'

'Um, sorry Potter, I have to go meet my parents. It's the end of the year, you know, we just got off the train, now we go and meet people.'

'I'll tell your Mum and Dad where you are.' said Amanda, grinning evilly. 'Now you two just goon and talk.'

'But Mandy…' Lily protested.

'It's really important.' James added.

'Go.' Amanda said, pushing them away from the barrier, and walked away, trough the wall, leaving them alone on the almost empty platform.

'Ok, what is it?' asked Lily, facing James, one hand on her hip and the other hanging loosely by her side.

'Um...d-do you want to…um…like…sit down?'

'Alright.' said Lily and she walked over to a nearby bench and sat down. James sat next to her. 'What did you want to talk about then?'

'W-what I wanted to talk about, um, yeah, that…um, ok, I know that you…er…don't really…l-like me and all…'

'Yeah…'

'So l-la-last night something….happened.'

'Ok.' said Lily starting to smile at his blushing, stuttering and obvious nervousness, she was probably one of the only people who had ever seen James Potter nervous and/or embarrassed. 'So something happened last night/ We've established that. What happened?'

James saw her smile, which didn't help. 'yeah, s-something happened…but it was…well that's not really i-important…so…yeah, something happened, yeah, and um.' James swallowed. 'Well…er…the thing that happened last night…yeah…it was…big.'

'So something big happened last night?' Lily was enjoying this. It was a big change from his usual arrogant personality. She found it very amusing, and would most likely use it for blackmail at some stage.

'Yeah…something…big, and I…I almost died, basically.'

He looked up at her, and met her eyes. She knew he wanted to see her reaction, and she wasn't sure what her reaction was. She didn't like the guy, definitely not, but she didn't want him dead.

'Well anyway.' James continued. 'Um, so I almost…d-died…and I kind of realised something.'

'Ok…'

'Yeah.' he said, and dropped his gaze to the bench where the paint was starting to peel off. 'I mean…I didn't want to you know…be g-gone, and n-not have you know.'

'Know what?' Lily was really curious now, and all dislike of the boy in front of her was out of her mind.

'Um…well…I…the thing is…I kind of…I mean I d-do…I um, I er…I…I love you.' He went bright red straight away. Then he started babbling. 'I mean, I know you don't feel the same way or anything, but I really wanted you to know and yeah, I love you ok? And I'm sorry and you probably really don't care, but yeah, I just didn't want to know without having ever told you and I'm really embarrassing myself so I'll just go.'

James got up and started walking towards the barrier.

'Wait!' said Lily, running after him, fumbling in her pockets for something. James turned around, confused. Lily found a piece of parchment and some ink. 'Do you have a quill?'

'Uh, yeah…' said James, pulling one out of his pocket. She took it, unscrewed the ink bottle and handed it to him. She dipped the quill in the ink. 'Turn round.'

'Evans…'

'Lily.'

'Huh?'

'My name is Lily. Now turn around.' she took his arm, and pushed him so his back was to her, then used that to lean on as she scribbled some stuff on the parchment. 'What's this for?'

'What are you doing?'

'Owl me, ok?' She said, handing him the parchment with her address scribbled on it. 'Gotta go.'

She hurried off towards the barrier.

'But Ev-Lily!'

'Have a nice summer!' she shouted back, before she disappeared through the wall.

She ran over to and Amanda. 'Hi.' she said breathlessly. 'Where's Mum and Dad?'

'Getting coffee.'

'Oh.'

'So what'd you two talk about then?'

'Just…you know…stuff.'

Just stuff?'

'Yeah just stuff.'

'And…'

'Just so you know, if Potter might, you know, get the courage to ask me out again, he might even get a different answer.'

'Oh, really?'

'Yes. Really.'

'Must have been some pretty major stuff.'

'Yeah.' said Lily. 'It was some pretty major stuff.'

**********

Ok, I love one-shots, so that's my random little one, ok?

and in case anyone didn't actually pick it up, the thing that happened was the little incident with Snape and Remus and the Whomping Willow. ok?

buh-bye

luv, tori