Authors Note: Okay, sorry it's been taking me so long times a million. My sisters both got lice, so things have been a little hectic around here to say the least. I didn't get it thank god, but I still had to spend like days doing all my laundry, changing beeddding al lthe time, vacuuming everything in sight, bagging stuffed animals combing through hair...etc, etc. Anyway, I've finsished this story, and if you all review this chapter, then you'll hopefully get that chap in the next few days! Yay! Okay, so thank you to

Katie

Silverwolf130492

Annie (times 2)

Amela (times 2)

Taylor

Mindy

DarkHuntress

Sarah

Ourlittlesecret7

Who reviewed my last chapter. This chapteramazing...haha it's pretty long too. There's some James in there for all of you who love him (cough Taylor cough) Actually, now I think of it, it's all James. Oh, and I was just thinking about the sequal, and it's gonna be soooo much better than this, I have to say. I'll tell you what it's gonna be about in the next few chapters as we get closer to the end of this story. Anyway...read and review or else! Moohooohahahaha Bwahahahah...okay, so my laugh still sucks...I'm trying. I have three more chapies written...or actually maybe it's two...not sure really, but i've finished the whole entire story and started two chaps of the next one, so review or else! P.S. I don't need to post for me, I already know what happens...you're the ones who have to wait for me to post on my whim...bwahahahaha...gosh darnit, I would be so much more threatening and coniving with a good evil laugh...

Chapter 46

OWLs and Studies

"What, you didn't have enough subjects before? Had too much time and not enough to study so you decided to go and suck up to Professor Longbottom and get some extra courses?" Sirius asked her from across the common room on the following Saturday. Lily was, once again, hidden by piles of books she had borrowed from the library, and stacks of notes she had copied from other defense students who had been kind enough to share. She was reviewing and re-reviewing everything in the book. She had already read it twice, cover to cover, as well as reading through the material in last years text book. She felt reasonably confident that she knew the written portion, memorization was relatively easy, it was only the practical defense that would be a struggle. Lily ignored Sirius as she read through a list of the spells and curses that she thought she might need.

"Oh do put a sock in it Sirius, she's done nothing but study, something you would be well advised to do as well, so don't start pestering and distracting her." Holly said, looking up from her star chart. Holly had been becoming ever more testy as the exams approached. She was obviously feeling the crunch, and Sirius's lack of concern about the impending OWLs only served to rile her more, rather than soothe her nerves. "How are you doing Lily?" Holly asked, her voice softer. "You look dreadfull, I knew it was insane to try and learn an entire year in a week. I would offer to help, except that one, I'm not really any good, and two, I have so much of my own studying to do, you understand, don't you?" Holly asked, sounding frazzled.

"Of course Holls, I would never tear you away from your studying. Now do be quiet, I'm having a rather difficult time of it with this shield charm."

"See Holly? She asks nicely. No more of this telling me to put a sock in it." Sirius told Holly poutily.

"Excuse me? Do you consider that asking nicely?" Holly asked. The two settled into a good natured, much needed -on Hollys part at least- bicker. Lily sighed and turned back to her book, they already acted like an old married couple.

"Yeah, I had trouble with the shield charm too, that's a tough one." Came a soft voice close to her ear. Lily looked up from her book to see who was talking and flushed to find James's deep brown eyes staring into her own green ones. "I can help you if you like, I'm awful good at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and you could probabally use all the help you can get." He asked eagerly.

"I wouldn't want to distract you from your own studying." Lily said pointedly, trying to send a message. She had to admit, she was still a little sore on him over his latest admission to the fact that he was only using her to break up with Alice.

"Oh, go on. I know you need the help, you're doing an entire year in a week. Not to mention I'm the best in the year at Defense Against the Dark Arts. We can practice together, that way, I would be studying at the same time. Sound okay to you?" He asked, already sitting down. "So what's this?" He asked, pulling some of Lily's notes towards him. Lily felt powerless to stop him, he was going to sit down and help her no matter what she did.

"Oh no! James, please, don't touch anything!" It was too late. "James, you just messed up all of my notes! Now I won't be able to find anything! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get them set up perfectly?" Lily asked, practically in tears.

"Oh, no, Lily, don't cry, please! I didn't mean to mess up your notes. Besides, why did you waste so much time when you could have been studying by organizing your notes perfectly?"

"James, that is beside the point, it helps me to be organized okay? It helps me focus and study more efficently. Maybe it'd be best if you leave, that way I can study my way." She told him, attempting to remove her pages from his hands. With much effort she removed the paper from his grip.

"No way, your studying methods are totally inefficent. I am going to make you my project Ms. Evans." He said, bowing with a flourish. "See, everyone thinks that there is no way you're passing this exam. I mean, in all honesty I myself find it hard to believe that someone could skip a class for the entire year and then a week before OWLs learn everything. I'm surprised that I never thought of it. However, being that that person is you, I have made it my duty to see that you pass. Consider it a bet with myself. I think, that with my help, you can pass this exam with flying colors and be whatever you want." He told her, looking sincere.

"All right James, I'll let you help me. I suppose you can't be all that dumb in Defense being that you're top and studying to be an auror." Lily said, conceding only half willingly. James beamed.

"All right. Good. First things first, what do you know?" Lily began spewing off the names of places, dates, creatures, and spells at lightning speed. James held up his hands to stem the flow. "No, I mean what useful information do you know?" She looked at him blankly. "This is going to be harder than I thought." James said, slapping himself on the forehead with his palm. "Okay, come with me." He told her, after a moments pause for thought. He grabbed her wand, and the list she had made, as well as the text book, just in case, although he doubted they would need it. He pulled her chair back for her and she stood, as if in a daze of some sort. He shooed her towards the portrait hole in front of him and pushed open the picture, helping her through behind him and down again when they emerged through the other side.

"Where are you taking me?" Lily asked him, still perplexed and confused, as well as not yet over the disturbance of her notes.

"Just follow me," he said mysteriously. They walked down the hallways in a companionable silence, Lily not paying much attention to where they were going. "So why the sudden interest in Defense Against the Dark Arts?" James asked Lily in a friendly, convorsational manner.

"Well, it's required for the jobs I'm looking in to." She replied.

"Are you being vague on purpose to frustrate me?" He asked, slowing his pace as they turned a corner.

"No." She replied, smiling inwardly, glad that she could irritate him so easily.

"Because you are." He told her.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Lily told him. James shook his head, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye.

"No fair." He said suddenly.

"Excuse me?" She asked, a little puzzled.

"Well, you know what I want to be, but you wont tell me your career goals." He said.

"I never said I wasn't telling." She said, even more infuriatingly.

"Well, okay, I want to be an auror." He told her, trying to get her to exchange information for information.

"I know that." She told him calmly.

"Oh my goodness. Okay, I want to be an auror and you want to be...?" James asked her with the air of speaking to someone very slow.

"An auror, you just told me that." She said, acting as if she did not understand the question perfectly.

"Okay, what career does Lily want to persue?" He said slowly, announciating every word. She loved the way his forehead creased when he got agrivated.

"I would like to be a healer." Lily told him as if she had not spent the last ten minutes leading him in circles.

"Really?" He asked, somewhat surprised. Lily could not tell if it was because he did not think she could be a healer or if it was because she had answered his question.

"Yes, is that not a reasonable thing to want?" She asked him, trying to guess what his reaction had been.

"Why wouldn't it be?" He asked, obviously attempting to beat her at her own game.

"Thats what I'm asking you." She told him. He shook his head, sighing.

"All right, you win. I'm no good at this game, can't you just answer the question without turning it into another question?"

"Yes."

"Well than, by all means, do it!" He said, opening the door to a room Lily had never been in before. In fact, she had never even known that the door was there.

"I didn't know there was a room here." Lily exclaimed, a little too loudly.

"Shh." James said to her, holding his fingure to his lips and motioning for her to go through the door before him. She walked in and stopped, looking around and trying to acclimate herself to the darker lighting. James muttered something under his breath and pointed to the wall. Instantley a torch Lily had not previously noticed was alight. James continued lighting torches until the room was lit with an orange glow. Lily could make out couches and bookshelves and a fireplace. It looked very much like the Gryfindor common room, save for the open area of hard wood floor at one end. "Okay, so, down to buisness." James said, ignoring Lilys puzzled stares.

"What are we doing here? And on that note, where exactly is here? I never knew there was a room here." Lily said, following closely behind James as he walked to the other end of the room and opened a closet.

"Because you didn't need to." James replied loftily. He removed a stack of pillows from the closet and turned, Lily was so close that they were almost touching. Lily backed up somewhat embarassed.

"Er, what are those for?" She asked him hesitantly.

"Just in case." He said. Stand there." He pointed to the middle of the floor, throwing pillows at her.

"What do I do with these?" Lily asked, holding them in front of her.

"We're practicing the stunning spell." James told her.

"That's so easy." Lily told him, tossing the pillow back at him. "I'm going first. Stupify!" James had barely finished registering what she had said when she shot the red spell at him. Quick as a flash he straightened and prepared to defend himself. "Protoge!" James shouted, putting up a shield around himself. "Impedimenta!" He cried, pointing his wand at Lily. "Oh Lily, Lily Lily. What am I going to do with you? You knew you couldn't beat me in a duel. Now, I could flip you upside down and have a good look at your underpants like I did with Snape that one time..." James said, smiling and winking rougishly. Lily, however had other plans.

"Expeliarmus!" She shouted, recovering more quickly than James had anticipated. His wand flew out of his hand and soared gracefully towards Lily, where she caught it deftly. "Now, James, James, James. You should have known better than to challenge me. I could beat you with my eyes closed." She said. "And now I have your wand." Lily, not waiting even a moment to enjoy the shocked look on his face, shot a tickling charm at James that had him on his knees, writhing in fits of laughter.

"Lily, no, please, stop. I'm too ticklish." James said around gasps for breath.

"Apologize for threatening me."

"I'm sorry."

"Apologize for doubting me."

"I'm sorry."

"Apologize for lying to me." She said, aproaching slowly, her wand aimed at him. James gave her a mystified look. "About only practicing the stunning spell of course." She added quickly, her eyes narrowed.

"I'm sorry." He gasped, still twitching and laughing.

"Now, apologize for using Alice and I."

"I didn't!" James gasped, the outrage barely concealed by his giggles.

"Say it!" Lily shrieked, her eyes inflamed with anger. James, seizing this momentary lapse of concentration snatched his wand from her and countered the charm.

"Lily." James said, standing up and shaking himself. The room around them shrunk in size, literally. The bare patch of floor disappeared and instead they were standing on thick carpets. Two chairs materialized behind each of them, and they both sat. The tables and bookshelves disappeared, it was only them, the thick carpet, the chairs, and a now crackling fire in the fireplace.

"What the hell is this place?" Lily hissed, looking for the door and realizing that there was none.

"The room of requirement of course."

"Don't take that know-it-all tone with me James Potter, how am I supposed to know about this room?"

"Sorry. It only shows up when you really need it. Thats probabally why most people don't know anything about it."

"So right now, you needed it to lock us up in a tiny room?" Lily asked, not any less confused.

"Well, actually, no. Thing is, I didn't ask it to do this. Which is wierd, because it doesn't normally just act of its own accord. Not that I have any complaints of course."

"So, what are you saying? We're trapped in here?" Lily squeaked, the walls felt like they were closing in, and her childhood fear of small spaces started to creep back up to the surface.

"I guess so." James said. Lily sank back into her chair, sighing with exhaustion and exasperation.

"Well, since we're here, and we can't practice defense, we might as well talk about our issues. Why do you think I was using you?"

"Because you said, you told me that you had wanted to get Alice to dump you anyway." Lily said, to tired to fight with him any more.

"But why does that make you think I was using you?" He asked, still leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.

"Because, you kissed me in order to get her to dump you. But it didn't work. She kept dating you, even though she was cheating on you the whole time. Have you even broken up with her yet?" Lily asked, rubbing her hands into her forhead and trying not to notice the smallness of the room and the lack of doors and windows.

"Yes, we broke up. Why?"

"Because you were just using her to hook up with too." Lily said, glancing at him and noticing the hurt look in his eyes. "Well it's true, isn't it?"

"No, I didnt want to date her, she asked me out. And then I didn't want to hurt her feelings. Yes, we hooked up, but she's also a really nice girl Lily. You should know that, being one of her best friends."

"Correction, we're not friends anymore." Lily told him sharply.

"Why not?" James asked. Lily stared at him, dropping her hands to her sides.

"Are you kidding? Are you actually being serious?"

"Oh, right. Sorry about that." It was James's turn to sigh with tiredness. "Listen, Lily, I really like you. That's why I kissed you, not so Alice would dump me. How can I make you understand that?" Lily did not reply. Nor did she look up. "What can I do to prove myself to you?" He asked.

"There's nothing. We obviously weren't supposed to work out, look at us. Evevry time we get close to going out, something goes wrong." Lily said leaning farther back in to the chair.

"Don't give me that crap." He said exasperatedly.

"Don't talk like that, it's rude and vulgar."

"Sorry Lily, but it's total crap and you know it. Don't start feeding me bullshit about fate and destiny. The only reason we haven't worked is you. You're the one who is embarassed to be seen with me. And every time I've asked you out in the past you've rejected me. Why?"

"I don't know, okay? And it's not my fault we haven't been working! I was all for dating you when you kissed me after the quiddich match, you're the one who went and got a girlfriend." Lily said, and then quickly put her hands over her mouth. Why had she said that? Lily's eyes darted from side to side, searching for an escape. There was none, of course. Lily wished she could disappear. I need to disappear. She told the room. Nothing happened.

"What do you mean? You had a boyfriend! You started dating Nicky or whatever his name was."

"That lasted about a week, and we nver went anywhere or did anything." She said, trying to justify herself.

"Well thats not my fault." James said defensively.

"Oh, no, nothing is ever your fault." Lily said, waving her hands in the air like a lunatic. "James Potter can never be wrong! Heaven forbid!"

"Lily, you're being a little ridiculous." James said calmly.

"Look, James, this is great and all, and much as I love being trapped in a tiny space with you of all people, I really need to go now." Lily said, hoping that saying she needed to go out loud would make a door appear. It did not.

"That's going to be more than a little difficult, considering there's no door." James sniggered.

"Well, I'll make one." Lily yelled, standing. "Reductor!" She said, pointing her wand at the wall where she thought they had entered. There was a flash of red and she watched as her spell hit the wall and dissolved. "Reductor!" She said again, pointing her wand at the wall again. The spell bounced off the wall smashed her chair into a hundred pieces. Lily stood, her chest heaving with anger. "Are you going to help me?" She shot at James.

"No. Firstly, I don't want to leave, and secondly, I prefer sitting in this nice comfortable chair to leaning against the wall." He said. Lily realized that she would now have to sit on the floor, or remain standing. Or she could lean against the wall as James had suggested. "Here." Said James, sliding over a little to make room for her on his chair. As he slid the chair seemed to expand, turning into a love seat. Well, I suppose thats better than sharing a single chair... Lily sat.

"You don't want to leave?" Lily asked.

"Not until we work this out. You need to undersand that I wasn't using you, and I wasn't using Alice either." James told her, turning his body slightly so that they were facing eachother. Lily turned as well, sliding her knee on to the couch so that she was sitting with one leg dangling and the other croocked sideways, sort of half indian style.

"Okay, I believe you." Lily said, somewhat resentfully. Why did he get what he wanted, and yet the room would not let her have what she wanted. Bet if I had scooted on my chair it would have stayed a single, then we would be sharing a single chair. Huh, it's like this room is trying to set us up!

"Well, I don't believe you. You don't trust me, why not?" James asked candidly.

"Because, you always pick on people who are weaker than you, and you're cocky, and you used me! You just assume you can get everything you want, you think that all girls will just fall for you because, I don't even know why! Because you're good at Quiddich, or, or because you get good grades. I don't even know what goes through your head."

"Want me to tell you what I'm thinking right now?"

"No!" She replied frostily.

"How beautiful you are when you're angry. And how much I love the way your eyes light up when you're upset. And how sexy your voice is. And how much I want to kiss you." James told her, leaning forward.

"Don't do it Ja-" He cut her off by placing a fingure over her lips.

"Please Lily, forgive me?"

"Never."

"Am I really cocky and arrogant?" He asked.

"No." She conceded. He smiled, kissing her full on the mouth. As soon as their lips touched the room began to spin again, the bookshelves came back, the couches, the doors, the windows, the large open space with all the cushions on it, everything. On the wall there were two black marks, which Lily realized were from her reductor curse. Lily pulled away from James. "Look, we can leave!" She sad, springing up from the couch.

"You want to leave?" James asked.

"You don't?" Lily asked.

"Well. At least tell me if you forgive me." He asked, looking a little disappointed.

"Yes, I forgive you. As long as you'll help me with my defense studying tomarrow." Lily said, watching his change in expression. The playfullness came back into his eyes.

"You don't need it." He said, eyeing the marks left from her reductor curse. "Besides, I would be afraid for my life. But we can come back here tomarrow anyway..."

"Sorry James, but I do have to study. OWLs are so soon."

"Lily, you are going to ace all of them. Don't worry about it." He told her, opening the door for her.

"But I can't help worrying. It's alright for some, you're the cleverest in the year. I actually have to work for my grades." She said, stepping greatfully out into the corridor and breathing in deeply. They walked back up to Gryfindor tower, talking pleasently about the OWLs, and their future careers. James gushed about how much he wanted to be and auror and save people, while Lily went on about how much she wanted to become a healer, to save people and do good. They both realized how similar their desires were, although James wanted to kill bad guys and Lily literally wanted to save people, they both wanted to do good.

Authors Note: You like? Good. Review! No flames please...that last person stopped and I don't want any more! haha. Chap 47 coming soon hopefully!!