Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all recognisable characters belong to J. K. Rowling.

A/N: Erm, okay, I'm ashamed to do this, but if you're so inclined, here's a plug: Lady Snowmoon, Ulterior Motives. Okay, normally I would never promote my own fics, but it's co-written, and…yeah. :smiles nervously at co-author: And if I mention it, hopefully she'll be nice to me!

Not that she already isn't

Anyway, when we search we generally can't find it why do you forsake us so?), so I'll put Lady Snowmoon on my favourites list (oh, the shame!). Not that I'm saying you have to go read it! You won't be hurt if you don't. P

On with the chapter we go!

Chapter Five: A Day in the Life of Lily Evans

Lily giggled as she remembered James' look of surprise as she had disappeared from sight again. However, her giggle turned into a sigh as she felt the now-familiar twinge in her stomach.

For the first time in a while, she wished she were like other girls, and could date normally. Meet guy, like guy, flirt a little, go out, see what happens. Rather than meet guy, disappear, meet guy again, disappear, try and flirt, disappear, eventually give up, and disappear again for the grand finale.

No, Lily, she commanded herself. Do not get bitter.

But sometimes she couldn't help but wish...

Stop it!

Checking her watch, she sighed as she realised it was too late to go to breakfast, but too early to go to her first class. Deliberating over what to do, she tapped her foot impatiently.

Finally making up her mind, she heaved a huge sigh as she swung her book bag over her shoulder and decided to impress Professor McGonagall and turn up early to Transfiguration for once.

………………….

At lunch that day, Lily found herself turning to look at Gryffindor table, scanning and quickly finding James in his usual seat, a habit she had taken to doing at every meal-time. As she turned back and watched the people around her talk and eat, she wondered for the thousandth time why she even bothered coming to meals. Her friends were under strict instruction not to talk to her, and she wasn't even allowed to eat there. In fact, it was a miracle she was allowed to sit at the Ravenclaw table at meal-times at all. In the debate over it, Dumbledore had argued for it, claiming she needed time with school friends out of classes.

Not that it does me any good, Lily grumbled to herself, feeling decidedly out of spirit that day. Can't talk or eat.

But despite that, Lily really did appreciate the time amongst her housemates.

'Oh, and did you hear?' Lian, one of Lily's classmates, said suddenly, leaning forward conspiratorially. 'Amos Diggory is now available!' Mixed reactions greeted that announcement as Lily's friends were split in opinion.

'Already?'

'Didn't he start going out with Sophie last week?'

'Who cares! He's really quite ugly. And so boastful.' Morgan made a face, clearly unimpressed.

Lily had to agree with that last point. No one bragged quite like Amos Diggory.

'He has a right to boast, seen him fly?' Lian enthused, and Morgan wrinkled her nose in distaste.

'Yes, who hasn't? But whatever, personality counts.'

Yes, it does, Lily silently agreed, smiling slightly to herself.

'If we're going to talk about flying, let's throw James Potter into the mix!' That caught Lily's attention, and her head whipped around to look at Bonnie, who's bright eyes and gleeful expression showed too much interest for Lily's liking.

'Ooh, now he's a good flyer, and has a great personality to match,' Morgan commented, smiling approvingly. 'Hey Bella, your brother's in Gryffindor, right?' Bella nodded slowly, as if wondering where this line of questioning was going. 'Well...he can get us into the Gryffindor common room!'

'Morgan!' Lian exclaimed with a grin. 'You're bad.'

'What?' Morgan put on an innocent look. 'I'd sneak in there to have a meeting with the perfect James Potter.'

'His personality's not perfect...he could do well to not play so many tricks.' Sally swirled a spoon through her yoghurt, a disapproving look on her face.

'For God's sake, Sally!' Lian exclaimed. 'The tricks are funny!'

'Poor Snape, though,' Sally murmured. Lian tutted in disbelief.

'Poor Snape!'

'Look, I know no one likes him...'

'Because he's a creepy little greaseball,' Lian interrupted, and Lily stifled a snigger at that accurate description of Severus Snape. However, Sally frowned at Lian, clearly not agreeing.

'But that doesn't give anyone the right to prank him that badly. James Potter and Sirius Black border on cruel in what they do to Snape.'

Lily bit her lip, suddenly not liking what she was hearing. She hadn't noticed this about James.

'You don't know all of it, maybe Snape is horrible to them,' Lian argued.

'And maybe he's not.'

'Sally!' Lian exclaimed. 'You have a propensity for being fair and good to people who don't deserve it that is downright annoying sometimes!' Sally looked nettled.

'You have no proof Snape's horrible to them!'

'You have no proof he isn't!'

'Guys!' Bella practically shouted, and Lily, who was next to her, jumped slightly. Lily noted with a frown that it was the first time she'd spoken that lunch, apart from "good afternoon"s to everyone. She furrowed her brow as she wondered what was wrong. 'Can we please not argue?'

'Sorry,' Sally muttered, and Lian, fairly reluctantly, echoed it. Lily's attention was not on them, however, but was on Bella. She looked quite pale, Lily realised, and definitely not happy. Making a mental note to ask her friend what was wrong later, Lily visibly relaxed when the conversation took a decidedly more mundane turn.

'What have we got next?' Lian asked, slurping the last of her orange juice and causing Sally to look irritated. Lily smothered a snigger.

'Erm...Charms, I do believe,' Morgan replied, grimacing. 'Could be worse, though. Could be Potions.' Lian, however, looked decidedly disturbed that it was Charms.

'I haven't finished my essay!' she cried in despair, pretending to tear her hair out. 'Oh, lord, Professor Flitwick will kill me,' she moaned amongst the laughter of the others.

'You never do your essays for Charms!' Bella giggled, looking happier. Lian made a desperate face.

'Yes, but I promised to do this one! I've only written one and a half parchments...and you know my loopy writing, it's not that much.' Amid laughter at Lian's misfortune, the Ravenclaw sixth years got up and headed to their various classes.

Amongstthe many students in the hallway Lily managed to grab Bella's arm.

'Hey,' she said, linking arms with her friend. 'What's up? Your face looks as long as Petunia's.' Bella looked like she laughed despite herself, and Lily cheered up with her.

'Don't be mean,' the former finally admonished lightly, an automatic response whenever Lily insulted her sister. Lily just smirked.

'Okay, ma,' she replied teasingly. 'Now, come on. 'Fess up. You weren't happy at lunch.' Bella sighed, the laughter in her eyes fading away. She opened her mouth to speak, when Lily was suddenly jostled sideways by some fourth year in a hurry.

'Hey, watch it!' she shouted at him angrily, and Bella pulled at Lily's arm sharply, giving her a warning look. Lily suddenly realised what she'd done, and covered her mouth with her hand. Frozen to the spot, she waited for the kid to turn around. Luckily, the kid was in such a hurry he didn't even pay any attention to her shout, and just kept running.

'Must have Potions,' Bella joked lightly, and started walking, pulling Lily's arm gently. Lily still looked slightly panicked. 'Something tells me that you should watch it, missy.'

'God, that was stupid.' Lily groaned. 'But I couldn't help it; I hate being pushed!' She shook her head, then turned her full attention to Bella. 'Now, you were going to tell me why you've been so glum this morning.'

'I wasn't glum, I just found out something,' Bella told her in a lower voice, but then she happened to check her watch. 'Jeepers, Lils, no wonder that kid was running...we're five minutes late!' She paused, then grabbed a piece of parchment from her pocket and shoved it into Lily's hand. 'My brother helped me. Don't ask...why, or anything,' she added at Lily's confused look. 'Just call it a hunch. But we really have to run!'

'But you haven't told me...' Lily looked disappointed as Bella started racing down the, suddenly empty, hallway, gesturing for Lily to follow.

………………….

I know the answer to this.

'Anyone?'

But I'm not allowed to say.

'No one knows the answer?'

Tra la la.

Lily scribbled randomly on her parchment, staring out the window as she did so. It was a trick she used to do at home; putting pen to paper and letting her hand move randomly while she paid no attention to it. After a few minutes, she'd look at the scribbles on the paper and try and see images or words which were, theoretically, supposed to reflect what she was subconsciously thinking of.

After a few minutes of this, Lily looked down at her parchment, inspecting it closely for anything that made any sense.

It was with complete non-surprise that Lily noted...

Nothing.

Rolling her eyes, she resumed staring out the window, making sure she kept touching her parchment and quill.

'Not quite,' Professor Flitwick managed to squeak, looking nervous, his voice permeating her thoughts. 'Doesn't anybody know the exact incantation?' Lily wondered again how he'd managed to get the job. Sure, he was a good teacher, but...he seemed to get so scared.

No; nervous. Teachers weren't supposed to be nervous. Teachers were supposed to be...well, like Professor McGonagall. She remembered her first detention with Flitwick. She'd managed to confuse him so much he couldn't remember why she was there in the first place, and had let her out early.

'Well, has anybody properly read chapter eighteen?'

Yep. Sure have.

'Well...this incantation is from that chapter. Look, I'm trying to be patient, but you've got your N.E.W.T.s next year, and this is important!' Lily nearly giggled at the squeak he nearly produced in the 'por' part of "important". It was reminiscent of a young boy's voice breaking.

Which then caused her to spend the next ten minutes imagining various professors' voices breaking.

Nearly laughing out loud at the thought of Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper's, voice breaking, Lily was disturbed from her reverie by the sound of everybody getting to their feet, chairs scraping and book bags thumping against the tables.

Desperate to know what Bella had found out, Lily leapt for her friend the minute they'd left the class. Bella was, however, talking animatedly with Bonnie, which meant Lily had to keep waiting. And waiting was not one of her strong points.

She bounced impatiently as they walked down the hall towards their next class, Ancient Runes, wondering if they'd ever stop discussing Professor Flitwick's hat, and thinking that if he didn't own a hat she'd already know what Bella had found out that morning.

On the plus side, Bella's looking happier, Lily thought to herself, then waited a few seconds.

Nope, doesn't make me feel any better. Still have to know now

'Can you imagine it with a cute little tassel bouncing around?'

Oh, dear lord!

………………….

'So, Lily,' Bonnie said conspiratorially, leaning forward and smirking. 'I've seen you talking to James Potter.' Lian laughed, and also leaned forward.

'I've seen that too! Lily Evans has finally found a guy worth talking to?' Lily wore a prim expression and held her nose in the air.

'Possibly.'

Laughter followed that response, and Lily grinned around at them all. The six sixth year Ravenclaw girls had congregated in the dormitory that evening, forming a circle on the floor with pillows, blankets and doonas everywhere. It was a rare occasion that the six of them could get together and just relax, without at least one of them running to Quidditch, some form of meeting, or homework.

'I can't believe it! Lily, James? Why James?' Sally asked. Lily shrugged, and threw her hands in the air.

'I don't know! All I know is that I ended up talking to his friend about...' She stopped and exchanged a glance with Bella. 'Um, Potions.'

'Potions?' Lian repeated incredulously. 'What on earth prompted you to talk about that?'

'Oh...you know, everyone complains about Potions!'

'Lily...what did you really talk about?' Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow. 'We know you. It wasn't Potions.'

'Alright...alright. It may have been chairs.'

'Lily, were you ranting about the fact chairs should have five legs again?' Sally asked, looking horrified. 'I thought you'd gotten past that!'

'No!' Lily exclaimed.

'Or were you complaining about how chairs should be a more artist-friendly shape?' Bonnie guessed, and Lily looked miffed.

'I'll have you know that is not what I was talking about, and that I got over that ages ago.'

'No, you didn't, you were complaining about it last week,' Lian told her helpfully, and Lily had the good grace to grin ruefully as everyone started laughing at her.

'Yes, okay. But...'

'Or how about your argument that...' Morgan started, and Lily threw a pillow at her to stop her.

'No! For goodness sake, I don't have that much to say about chairs!'

'You obviously do if there's something else you like to talk regarding chairs that we haven't heard already,' Lian replied, grinning wickedly.

'Well, it's bound to seem mundane after all those riveting points,' Lily told her sarcastically, 'but I merely commented when Sirius Black fell off his chair.'

'You also said chairs are our friends,' Bella supplied helpfully.

'Lily!'

'That...may have come up,' she admitted. 'But it made sense in the context!'

'Lily, it's amazing how many of the things you say only ever make sense in their context,' Bonnie pointed out. 'Remembering then that the context usually only ever makes sense if you happen to be Lily.'

'Look, are you ever going to let go of that?' Lily asked in despair. 'So I shouted the answer to a question you asked me two days later in the middle of lunch! Why is that such a big deal for you?'

'Apart from blowing your cover...'

'I survived, didn't I?'

'And apart from no one having a clue why you shouted, 'Do ya think I'm sexy?' at the top of your voice...'

'That was the name of the song!'

'But other than that, it's not such a big deal for me,' Bonnie finished as there was a round of laughter at Lily's expense.

Lily pretend to pout for a few moments, then waited patiently for everyone to calm down again.

'So...you didn't answer, why James?' Sally asked, seriously. Lily made a face.

'I don't know...I really don't know. He's...he's different.'

'How?'

'I don't even know that...'

'And she's meant to be a good student? Listen to her!' Lian exclaimed, grinning so Lily would know she was kidding.

'Okay! Okay, well, he seems nice. And obviously he's good-looking. And basically isn't the prat that Amos Diggory is,' Lily replied, referring to the conversation at lunch.

'Oh, Lily! Bringing out the language!' Morgan mocked, excepting the pillow thrown at her head gracefully.

'Right, I'm going to unsubtly change the subject tooo...' Lily looked around pensively, then pounced on Lian. 'So, Lian. Sirius.'

'Lily!' Lian exclaimed amongst the laughter, embarrassed. 'There's nothing happening there!'

………………….

Later, Lily stared at the ceiling as she listened to the sound of her dormmates' breathing, stifling a giggle at the whistling sound that she knew as Bonnie's 'snoring'.

Why James, indeed, she thought. After pondering it a for a few moments, she turned over onto her side and wondered whether James would prove to be worth it.

Suddenly remembering the parchment Bella had handed her earlier, she leaned over the bed, feeling the familiar light-headedness as she stretched out, her hands on the floor, her upper torso stretching from the bed. Making sure her waist remained in contact with the bed, she reached out as far as possible, finally grabbing her school skirt from where she'd thrown it.

Inching backwards onto the bed proved, as usual, a bit of a difficulty; but with many silent sniggers and much self-mocking, she was finally sitting up in bed, waiting for her head to lose its woozy feeling, absently wondering whether ever being drunk would be fun.

Reaching into the pocket, Lily pulled out the scrap of parchment, brushing away the cookie crumbs it had picked up from her pocket.

When did I put a cookie in my pocket? she wondered, thinking then how stupid it was. It leaves crumbs!

Unfolding the parchment, she studied the few words incredulously.

No. Way!

A smile started to spread across her face, and her heart beat a little faster at the thought of an adventure.

No. No, it's too early.

She hesitated.

Adveeentuuure, the other little voice in her head whispered.

But...you hardly know him...

But Lily knew from the slightly increased beating of her heart and nervous, excited feeling in her stomach, which she only ever got with the promise of adventure and doing something a little daring, that she had already made up her mind.

Thank you, Bella.

………………….………………….………………….………………….………………….………………….…………………

A/N: I am terribly sorry for the delay in this chapter...RL seriously took over.

Also, I'm sorry that not much happens in this chapter. This was basically, as the title says, a day through Lily Evans' eyes. And don't worry, it will all be sorted in the next chapter.

Thank you for reading!