I broke it in PE. LoL. And typing is a pain. Hmm. But it's okay, since I just copy and past this story.

Anywho! Only here for a sec, I'm off out.

Thanks for the reviews!

And GCSEs – yeah, you use them to get into college. We do SATs as well though. Several of them, actually. We do GCSEs in year 11, and had SATs in year 9, 6 and 2. So. . . I've probably really confused you now. LoL. Sorry.

Lily's POV

Sirius, Remus and Peter left soon enough. Sirius just wanted out.

"So. . . hi," James said uncomfortably.

"Hi!" I replied happily. Fake happily, I might add. Stupid Tess.

And then there was the silence.

The dreaded silence. I hate silence.

"Well, anyway," I said, smiling. "I just wanted to say. . ." something? anything? hello? ". . .Thank you."

"Thank you?" he repeated, looking at me blankly. "Why?"

How should I know? It sounded good.

"Um. . . just because. You know. Sirius said you told him not to hurt me and stuff," I shrugged. I couldn't exactly explain it very well.

"Oh? Yeah, well, no problem," James said, shaking his head slightly.

And then he went quiet again.

I smiled to myself, even though I still hated the silence.

James Potter, shy? What was that all about? Only outgoing when he was with his friends?

I shook my head. "Well, anyway. I was wondering if. . ." You liked Tess?

I couldn't. I couldn't say it, it was too uncomfortable.

". . . we could be friends. Because. . . erm. . ."

He looked at me a little disappointedly - geez, it wasn't that bad to be friends with me - and then shrugged. "Sure. I already had you down as a friend anyway, but sure."

I grinned and stood up. "Okay. See you James!"

"'Bye Lils. . ."

Smiling, I made my way up the stairs to my dorm. And then my smile dropped.

Tess was gonna kill me. I could see it coming.

"So what did he say, what did he say?" Tess squealed, the moment I entered the dorm.

"Oh. . . I. . . you thought I'd ask him now? No, no. I didn't mean it like that. When I said I'd get to know him, I meant over a period of time. You know, a few days or something."

Or weeks, months, years. . .

Ugh. I had to get over my hating Marauders thing. It wasn't James' fault. He was really nice. And it wasn't Tess' fault either. If she liked James, that was great.

"Oh."

And that was all she said.

The next day I talked to James again, and we actually managed to have a conversation.

About some really stupid stuff, but it was funny. I'm never gonna be able to look Severus in the eye again.

But then the day after that, James was just gone.

"Remus?" I asked, seeing him sat in front of the fire with Sirius, looking depressed. Sirius just seemed to be in shock. "W-what's happened?"

Remus looked up at me, unblinking. "You haven't heard?"

I shook my head. I was beginning to get worried now. Had something happened to James?

"There's been another attack."

Attack? What did he. . . Oh God. Not You-Know-Who. He's this dark wizard who's trying to kill off all the Muggle population.

"A-another attack?"

Remus nodded. Sirius was still staring into the fire. "Yeah. About twenty Aurors were killed. And James' Dad was one of them."

I sank into a chair next to them.

"You're kidding," I whispered.

Oh, poor James. That's so awful.

Remus shook his head. Then he stood up. "I'm going to go find Peter. . . I don't think he knows."

He walked away with his hands in his pockets, leaving me sitting with Sirius.

And - as much as I hated him - I felt sorry for him. He just looked. . . lost. I suppose that was because he didn't have James by his side. The two were always together.

"Are you okay?" I asked him quietly.

He looked at me, and shrugged. "I guess. . . Just feeing bad. For James. For Joseph." I looked at him blankly. "James' Dad," he added.

"Oh. Did you know him well?"

"Yep. Great guy. And now. . ." Sirius sighed heavily. "Damn that You-Know-Who."

In the two weeks James was gone, I sort of made up with Sirius.

I didn't forgive him for what he did to me, but I did feel sorry him.

Okay, so we weren't best friends, exactly. We weren't even friends. But I didn't ignore him all the time.

I also nearly slapped Tess on several occasions. It wasn't her fault really, but if I heard about, "Poor little James" one more time, I wouldn't be held responsible fore my actions.

But it wasn't just Tess. Several other girls were saying the same.

And it pecked my head.

Not for what they were saying about James. C'mon, my heart was breaking for him. I just mean. . . most of them had barely ever had a conversation with him!

I know, I know. I hardly talk to him.

But at least we have talked every now and again. Tess has hardly said a word to the boy.

But. . . anyway. . . I still had to go back to my tutoring with Severus.

"Lily? Lily? Liiiiiily?"

"Huh?" I said stupidly, snapping my head away from the window and towards Severus.

He sighed, leaning back in his chair. "The answer?"

"Oh. Um. . . something to do with. . . animagi!" I answered, making sure I sounded confident. Though I wasn't. At all. Didn't have a clue what he was going on about, actually.

"Try something to do with splinching," Severus replied, deadpan.

"Ah. Close enough."

Severus sighed again. "Lily, come on! You're not concentrating."

Well sor-ry. I found the lake interesting, for your information.

"I know. I know. I'm sorry, okay?"

"Okay," he said reluctantly. "But you're doing really well you know. Don't give up now."

"Believe me, I'm not giving up. When would I do my homework?" I smiled.

We'd taken to doing my homework during our little tutoring sessions. Which worked well for me. I got my homework done, knew it was right, and got good marks! And something about understanding it as well, as McGonagall had said.

"So what are you thinking about then?" he asked, realizing I wasn't up for working.

"Oh, I dunno. . . stuff. . ."

"What sort of stuff?"

I shrugged. I wasn't really thinking about anything in particular, just anything but Transfiguration.

So a lot of things fell into that category.

Sirius had said James was coming back tomorrow. . . and I didn't know how I felt about that. I mean, obviously I was happy he was coming back. I did think of James as a friend, I didn't talk to him totally for Tess' benefit.

But I was worried about the state he'd come back in.

The poor thing.

Ugh, now I sound like one of those stupid girls who believe they're in love with him.

"Things. Just. . ." I sighed, resting my chin on my hand. "Severus, what do you think of this Voldemort guy?"

"W-what?"

"Like-"

"No, I know. But. . . why do you want to know about him? About what I think?"

"Because. . . I'm not sure. It's worrying, isn't it? People actually support him. . . How can people support a murderer?"

"Er. . ." Severus sank back into his chair. "I don't know. They'll have their reasons, won't they?"

"I guess. . ."

But what reasons? What reasons could make you agree to join him?

I asked him this, as I was unable to find any reasons on my own.

"Well. . ." he looked thoughtful, as if it was a homework question we were working on, and he was wondering how to put the answer into words. "Some people do agree with him. Not everyone's fond of Mudbl - Muggles, you know."

I shot him a murderous glare, so he coughed slightly and continued.

"Power? And. . . Well, some people are forced into, you know."

"Oh, yeah right!"

"No, seriously! Some families - darker families - force their relatives into it. They have no choice," he said simply.

"I don't care. They're stupid reasons," I said stubbornly. Okay, so maybe they weren't. Like I'd agree with him on this subject. "The point is, they kill people. And not even Muggles or Muggle born! I mean, was James' dad? No he wasn't!"

Severus rolled his eyes. "So basically, this had nothing to do with Lord. . .er, You-Know-Who. Just James Potter? God Lily, I thought you knew better after your little Sirius Black-"

Glaring at him, I threw my books forcefully into my bag and shot up.

"The boy's father has just been murdered," I hissed, my eyes flashing. "Give him a break! Ugh. I can't believe you sometimes."

I then stormed out of the library, refusing to look back.

Sirius' POV

James is coming back today.

Which is good, I suppose. It had been strange without him. Quieter, subdued. Lessons weren't the same, and we hadn't pulled any pranks.

We couldn't. One quarter of the Marauders was gone. Had it have been anything else - James being in the hospital wing or something - we would have carried on as normal.

But his dad had been killed. It was. . . worse. Not right. Surreal.

And yeah. I felt a little lost.

I sighed and tried to get my eyes to focus on my Charms homework. I'd had to go up to the dorm to do it, as people kept distracting me in the Common Room.

But being on my own didn't really help. My mind kept wondering. . .

I sighed again and shook my head. Charms, Charms, Charms. That's all I had to think about.

But as I stared at the page of the textbook I was looking at, the words blurred together.

Lily was good at Charms. Really good at Charms.

And she. . . Lily was talking to me again. Not much, but I think she sort of pitied me. I'm not exactly sure why, but I'm glad she's talking to me.

She's just so. . . perfect. It's really not fair. Because even if I wanted to change what I did, I couldn't.

Sure, James hadn't done anything about his 'feelings' for God knows how long.

But I couldn't do anything now. Especially now. I couldn't. . . hurt him anymore.

Lily's POV

"Did you hear James is back?"

"I saw him, he looks so sad. . ."

"The poor thing."

"I know, bless him."

I groaned loudly and buried my head into my pillow.

So James was back. I was happy about that, honestly I was.

But it was first thing in the morning and the girls in my dorm had taken to 'blessing' the 'poor thing' already, and he hadn't been back two minutes.

Just leave him alone, for God's sake.

". . .so sweet, I just wanted to hug him. . ."

Honestly, I'm the only sane one in this room.

No, wait. Helen isn't head over heels for him.

". . .and then Sirius Black dragged him off, I mean, huh! What's his problem?"

I smiled into my pillow, even though it wasn't exactly a smiling situation. Good one Sirius.

James is popular, not on show at a zoo somewhere. They really need to remember that.

"Li-ly!" Tess cried from her bed. "Are you up yet?"

"Even if I wasn't, I am now."

"Come on then. Get ready. We've got Potions first, and you know he'll have our heads if we're late again," she sighed.

"With the joyful Slytherins," Lacey, another girl the dorm, muttered.

Oh yeah. Slytherins. Normally, I would have stuck up for them.

But Severus Snape had gotten on my last nerve.

After Potions, I had to run back to my dorm because I'd forgotten my Divination book.

"Damn, damn, damn!" I was murmuring repeatedly as I pushed my way through the Portrait Hole.

The Common Room was empty, obviously. Everyone else was in classes.

I quickly ran up to my dorm, grabbed the book and ran back out. But as I was hurrying down the stairs, messing with my bag, I stopped when I saw someone.

Lay back on one of the couches, staring at the ceiling, I swear James Potter wasn't there before.

"Hey," I said gently, making him jump and look up.

"Oh. Hi. What are you doing here?" he asked, frowning.

"I forgot my Divination book," I explain, motioning towards my book.

James nodded, and then shifted uncomfortably.

I walked slowly down the rest of the stairs, not really bothered about class anymore. I stopped completely when I was a few meters away from his couch, and just stared at him.

He looked at me as well for a second, before dropping his gaze and staring at his hands.

"James. . ." I murmured sadly, and took myself by surprise as I rushed towards him and hugged him tightly. "I know it means nothing, but I'm so sorry."

James' POV

"Umm. . . thanks," I murmured, as she clung to me.

It was nice, and in another situation I'd have probably loved her for it. But that's what Lily was. . . nice.

She didn't let go, but I could feel her nod her head.

"If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay," she whispered.

"I don't want to talk about it," I replied immediately.

I didn't. I just. . . didn't.

Again, I felt her nod. And then she pulled away, and sort of held me at arms length, staring into my face.

She was quiet for a long time, just staring at me, until she finally said, "You know. . . I know nothing about you."

"What?" I asked, surprised by that statement. I'd been expecting her to say 'I really am sorry' or something along those lines.

"I don't," she sighed, sitting next to me and hugging her knees. "Sure, I know little things. . . but not much."

I hesitated. "Like what?"

"Things. I know we hardly talk but. . . I don't know. I want to get to know you, James," she sighed, resting her chin on her knees. "That sounds weird, I know. I mean. . ." she sighed. "Actually, I don't know. Ignore me."

I smiled halfly and shook my head. "Nah. I don't know much about you, now you mention it."

"You're right," Lily nodded.

"Uh-huh. So we'll have to get to know each other better," I said, resting my head on the back of the couch but keeping my eyes fixed on her. She smiled sadly, still nodding. "But now. . . as Head Boy, I should be telling you to get back to your lesson, you bad girl. So I'll see you around, kid."

Lily smiled slightly and stood up. "'Kay. So long as you promise to give me your life story one of these days."