Chapter 2

"Words are loaded pistols."

Jean-Paul Sartre

"Divination is a load of bullshit!" James sighed as he tried to focus on his birth sign chart.

Lily rolled her eyes and continued taking notes, ignoring the boy. Ever since the incident with Dumbledore, they never spoke to each other and had stopped arguing, which came both as a shock and as a relief to the Gryffindor common room.

The bell rang and the 7th year class made their way towards the exit of the Tower and to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Lily, Lily …" Andromeda was running after her, with her bag in her hand.

"Oh, hey Andie…" she said softly, not really focusing.

After the last Prefect meeting, she couldn't really look at Dumbledore anymore, without wondering what exactly had happened, nor could she be around James Potter anymore … Of course that was a mutual feeling most of the times, but now it was odd. Was he as scared and concerned as she was? And he had called her Lily… He never called her Lily.

"You know Miss Evans, conversation implies you replying every few words."

"I'm sorry… I just had a very bad night's sleep."

Andromeda eyed her strangely, but said nothing. Celestina and Hestia joined them soon after and there was no more talk of Lily's strange behavior.

As the girls had begun to eat their lunch, the Marauders sat down in front of them and started trying to make idle conversation with the four.

Just as James was trying to point out how lovely the enchanted ceiling of the Hall looked, Lily lost her temper.

"Potter you dimwit, it's bewitched. Is this your idea of polite conversation? Cause you really have to work on it."

"Well sorry Evans, I was trying to be nice." They both glared at each other. "Look who's PMSing." He added under his breath.

Apparently Lily had heard him, since that earned him a hand full of mashed potatoes in the face.

The Gryffindor table waited patiently to see the outcome of the conflict. It would undoubtedly be 50 points from Gryffindor and detention for both Lily and James.

In a state of light shock and with gravy pouring on his glasses, James made the pitch full of pumpkin juice levitate and poured it on top of Lily's head.

By now she was livid with anger.

"Argh, Potter! How dare you?" she took a fork and lunged for his throat when somebody cleared their throat behind them.

Lily turned towards the stern Head of Gryffindor House. Apparently, all her anger had vanished and was now replaced with… Well, let's just say Lily Evans, Head Girl was scared shitless.

"Why Professor, fancy seeing you here." James smiled pleasantly as Lily rolled her eyes. Leave it to Potter to make a disastrous situation worse.

"Sorry to interrupt this very interesting act of ... bonding between you two. I expect you both to be clean and in my office in 5 minutes." With that said Minerva McGonagall turned her heel and left the Great Hall.

Lily turned and glared at James. "Good job Potter. We're in trouble now!"

"Am I mistaking, or weren't you the one who was trying to rip my throat out with a fork?"

"I wouldn't have tried that if I wasn't soaking in pumpkin juice Potter!"

"You wouldn't be soaking in pumpkin juice Evans, if you hadn't thrown mashed potatoes at my face. "

"I wouldn't have thrown mashed potatoes at your face if you weren't so damn annoying and big headed!"

"Well I wouldn't …"

"Shut just up Potter. Move, I don't have time to argue." She performed a cleaning spell on herself and started walking out of the Hall.

"Evans, you know I can't do that spell!" James whined after her.

"Oh yes Potter, how could I forget… you're stupid on top of everything else."

"Well aren't you my number one fan!" he rolled his eyes.

She performed the cleaning spell on him as well and they both marched out of the Hall, arguing still.

The people in the Hall were dead silent for a moment, and then Sirius spoke up.

"Look on the bright side; James finally managed to do the levitation charm."

The Hall erupted into fits of laughter as Remus and Andromeda hit him over the head.

Five minutes later the two knocked on McGonagall's door.

"Come in." Obviously, her spirits hadn't improved.

"You wanted to see us Professor?" James said innocently. Lily kicked him. "Ouch, what was that for?"

"For being an imbecile." She replied sharply.

"Well aren't you a little ray of sunshine."

The Professor stood up. "That is quite enough you two! Sit down."

They both took a seat in front of her desk, making sure they were as far apart from each other as possible. McGonagall glared at them both from under her glasses.

"I trust you both read the Head rule book." They nodded. "Good, now may I ask where is it stated in there that it is ok for the Heads to throw food at each other? Or to attack each other with table wear?"

They both stood silent. Lily was beginning to feel very ashamed. She had blown it. She could have her badge taken away for that.

"That's right." The Professor continued. "It does not. Now Lily, James, you two are very bright students. The brightest, I might add, due to the fact that you were chosen Heads. You must set an example for other students." She said in a softer tone. "I understand you two do not have a soft spot for each other. Or as I understand, Mr. Potter does have one for you Miss Evans, and you lack it." James opened his mouth to reply, but decided against it. "I want you two to get along. I trust the Headmaster has already spoken to you about that." The nodded once more. "However," and now the Professor's tone has become stone hard again, "as your Head of House, I cannot let this behavior go unpunished. So 50 points each will be taken from Gryffindor and you must serve detention with the new ground keeper twice this week. During Quidditch Practice." James looked horror stricken. "Yes Mr. Potter, do you have any objections?"

James would have had a million objections, but one glare from Lily made him decide to swallow them all.

"I thought not. Very well now, I shall inform the Headmaster of our talk. You may leave."

As James got up, Lily decided to voice her concern. "Professor, about the Headmaster…"

James turned and gave her a sharp look.

"Yes Miss Evans?"

"Nothing …"

The two got up and left the office. No words were spoken as they reached the floor with their Common Room.

"So Lily…" James casually put an arm on her shoulder and gave her a flirtatious smile. "In light of what our dear Head of House told us …"

Lily slapped his arm off.

"No Potter, I still will not go out with you." She glared at him and quickened her pace.

"And they say I'm shallow…" he mumbled under his breath, as he watched Lily turn a corner and disappear.

Author Notes:

Yes I realize I haven't updated in … yes forever, but high school started and I was so very busy I couldn't fit it around my schedule to write. And yes, I was lazy as well. But from now on updates will come regularly.

Truth is, I wanted to delete this last night, but then I re-read all the reviews I got and decided I need to update it.

Well, that is about all I can say for now. This chapter was a bit longer than the rest and they will get longer as I start to develop the plot.

Ral

Disclaimer: I do not own anything. Not Lily, James or their friends. I don't even own the mashed potatoes or pumpkin juice used in the creation of this chapter. They all belong to JK Rowling.