A/N: Sorry for such a long delay! You all have Dr. T to thank for this chapter, if he hadn't called a snow day I don't think it would have made it up for another month. Enjoy!

All italicized writing is either thoughts, or in this case, notes.

XxX

Lil, I'm sorry I flipped out on you. I never meant to hurt you.

Don't worry Mari, you never hurt me, I hurt myself.

So . . . friends?

Definitely.

"Miss Evans, as thrilled as I am for your renewed friendship with Miss Goldberg, might I remind you that your NEWT examination is less than a week away? Perhaps you could suspend this note passing until after class."

"Yes Professor McGonagall" Lily answered meekly. As the stern professor turned Lily obediently bent her head over her notes with every intention of paying attention for the remainder of the class.

A piece of crumpled paper bounced off Lily's shoulder and landed atop of her notes. Throwing a furtive glance at McGonagall, Lily cautiously unfolded the paper, not surprised to see James' messy scrawl beckoning her.

Hey Lil,

How you holding up? Sorry, again, about everything this morning. I hope the girls didn't give you too hard of a time about it. I'm sure you can just imagine everything the guys said, Sirius in particular. Sirius says he has something in mind about graduation and that he wants to talk after class. Just thought I'd give you some warning and time to brace yourself. Love you!

J

Lily smiled to herself, tucking the note into her robes as McGonagall called the lesson to a close. "As your last Transfiguration assignment I am passing out a review packet that will help you to prepare for you NEWTs. I will be in my office after class if you have an further questions. Mr. Potter, Miss Evans, a moment please." Lily and James exchanged anxious glances. Had she seen the note? "No need to look so worried!" She let out a rare laugh as the two shuffled forward. "As you know there is a graduation ceremony that needs to be organized. Now, as both head and graduating students you have the option of either organizing the event yourselves or leaving that task to the prefects."

Lily glanced at James, trying to read his expression. Slowly he raised his eyes to McGonagall. "Professor, with everything that's been going on lately in the world, and the dark times we're heading into, I'd like to give the students something great to remember Hogwarts by. Something that will take their minds off all the trauma in the world, at least for the night. I can't speak for Lily, but I'd like to organize graduation this year, even if I have to do it myself."

Lily beamed at her boyfriend's selflessness. For the first time that year, Lily felt as though she were truly seeing the James Potter that was hidden underneath all appearances. She linked her arm with his, "You won't have to do it yourself, I'll be right there with you."

McGonagall tried not to let her pride for her two students show as she smiled down at them. "Very well then, I expect you both know how much work needs to be done. The ceremony will take place on the Friday following your NEWT examinations. If you feel the added strain of planning is too much for you to cope, don't hesitate to call on the prefects for help."

"It will be a challenge," James nodded, "but I'm sure Lily and I will be able to handle it."

There was a moment of silence as Minerva McGonagall observed her pupils. They'd come so far in such a short span of time. After five years of constant teasing and bickering she'd begun to believe that even Dumbledore's good intentions were blinding him from the truth. How could a lazy, reckless marauder like James ever end up with the dedicated and temperamental Lily? A smile tugged at her lips as she watched Lily looking admiringly at James and James adoringly at her. "I'm keeping you two, you'd best be off."

XxX

"So," Lily sucked on the end of a sugarquill nervously, trying to ignore the blinding whiteness of the unmarked paper in her hands.

"So," James repeated, regarding her with amusement dancing in his eyes.

"We really need to get started."

"I know."

"So . . .?"

"So, what?"

Lily rolled her eyes. She was beginning to think the James she'd seen in McGonagall's office wasn't the real James at all, just another side of his multi-faced personality. "So this was your idea, James."

"Yet you agreed to go along with it, much to my surprise."

"Well, it was a brilliant idea . . ."

"Thanks,"

"But I'm beginning to think the person who gave the idea was just having a brief moment of brilliance and didn't realize what, exactly, he was getting himself into."

"I know what I'm doing, Lil," James leaned across the table, kissing her cheek lightly.

"Sure you do,"

"I do!"

"All right then, prove it." Lily slid her blank sheet of paper across the table to James, tossing him a quill.

He blinked once, twice, three times, staring blankly at the paper. "And how do I do that?"

Lily shook her head, "We have to plan this James. I know planning is a concept you haven't quite grasped yet, but it must be done, okay? You can't throw something like this together at the last minute, not if you want it to work."

"Well, Sirius wants to spike the punch with firewhisky."

Lily wrinkled her nose, "Is that what you said he wanted to talk to us about? No, no definitely not. This is going to be nice, James Potter. We are not going to have drunk students wandering the halls."

"I agree,"

"James, I don't care what you – what?" Lily blinked, "Sorry, I must have misheard you, what did you just say?"

James was unable to keep a smiling from breaking across his face as he stared at her shocked expression. "I said, 'I agree,' this is Graduation, not some stupid school dance. It should be nice. I was thinking . . . fairy lights strung across the grounds, music filtering in lightly so that people can dance, a buffet table set up for those who want to eat . . ."

Lily grabbed the paper from him and began furiously scribbling down each word James said, a small smile unfurling across her lips. Perhaps she'd been wrong all along.

XxX

Lily and James were sitting around the fire the next day, heads bent forward, foreheads nearly touching as the extended and embellished their plans for the upcoming ceremony. Lily's face was twisted in a look of irritation, while a smirk played on James' lips as he waved away her retorts. Glaring fiercely at James' arrogance, Lily slapped his hand away when he raised it to brush a strand of hair from her face, and he caught her hand in his, entwining their fingers together. Lily tried to tug her fingers away, but James just laughed, dropping her hand and catching her face between his fingers. Lily wasn't glaring any more, her angry expression had melted from her face, replaced by one struggling to hide the overwhelming love that built up inside her. James traced the smoothness of her skin with his fingers, pulling her trembling lips into a smile before catching them with his own. The two sat there, completely immersed within one another, oblivious to the passing of students behind them, oblivious to anything but each other.

"PRONGS!" Sirius bellowed, thumping the back of the chair James sat in.

Lily and James quickly pulled apart, guilty smiles on their faces.

"Prongs, mate," Sirius slapped James' back, grinning at the boy, "Moony 'n' I are heading out for a game of Quidditch. You coming?"

A look of longing clouded James' eyes, yet who shook it out almost immediately, forcing a grim smile to his face. "Sorry, Padfoot, I've got to finalize these plans for Graduation."

"Pro-ongs!" Sirius whined, eyes as wide as saucers, pulling the closest imitation to a 'puppy-dog face' that Lily had ever seen. "That's all you've done for the last 48 hours, you deserve a break!"

Lily watched James carefully, waiting for him to break, to cave in, as she knew he would, to his friend's request. But for the second time in the last two days, James Potter took her by surprise. "No, Padfoot, I'm sorry. I promised McGonagall that Lily and I would take care of this. And no," he cut off his friend, anticipating Sirius' next question, "I'm not going to leave Lily with all the work." No matter how much I may want to.

"Go," Lily whispered.

"What?" Both boys stared at her, somewhat bewilderedly.

"Go," she smiled, "I can take care of the rest myself. Sirius is right," she nudged James, "you need a break. You're no good to me like this, you need to lighten up a bit."

James stared at Lily uncomprehendingly. Is this some sort of test? But he knew he wasn't, his test had been saying 'no' to Sirius from the start. From the look in Lily's eyes, he could tell he had already passed. "Are you sure?" He whispered, "I could just as easily stay here with you . . ."

Lily could hear the longing in his voice, and despite his offerings she knew he was already souring around the Quidditch pitch in his mind. "All we have left is to recheck everything, I can handle it myself. Go."

"Did you hear her, James? She said you can go. Now let's go before she changes her mind!" Sirius tugged on James' arm, pulling him out of the seat with just enough time for James to mouth "thank you" to Lily.

Lily smiled, shaking her head and turned back to the stack of paper, already dreading the hours of calculations awaiting her.

XxX

"Liiiiiiiiiily, you're going to drive yourself mad," Maren hounded her friend, grabbing a sheet of calculations from Lily's hands.

"Mari, give that back!" Lily whined, "I'm almost finished! I just need to recheck it once more . . ."

"No, Lil, that's your language for 'oh, only an hour or two more of stressing myself out.' I'm not giving it back! You look awful! You need a break!"

"Gee, thanks Mari," Lily grumbled.

"Just being honest," her friend shrugged, rummaging in her school bag and producing a mirror. "You wouldn't want James walking in with you looking like this, would you?"

Lily grabbed the mirror, praying that she didn't look as bad as Maren let on. After one glance in the mirror, however, she let out a low moan. She did. Loose strands of hair were escaping her pony-tail, sticking out from her head at odd angles. A pencil was tucked behind her ear, giving reason for the odd graphite smudges across her pallid cheeks. Her eyes were rimmed red and bags hung from beneath them, giving her a slightly haunted look. "Ugh, Maren, I look like one of the living dead."

"I could've told you that."

Lily lashed out with her arm, mock-slapping Maren on the shoulder. "Remind me why I'm friends with you, again?"

Maren smiled wickedly, "Because I'm the only one who can make you look fabulous in the ten minutes before dinner, not to mention the one who's going to make you look killer for graduation. C'mon."

Laughing, Lily allowed herself to be dragged from the common room up to her dorm, leaving all stressful thoughts behind her.

XxX

A/N: Very short, I know . But I'm battling writer's block and mountains of homework. Hopefully I'll be able to write more soon.

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