Disclaimer: I don't own harry potter, etc.

A/N: Thanks to my reviewers, butI especially thank goodgirl13! That's all, so please review, and enjoy!

"Not even a thank you?" James asked the empty space where Lily had been standing. He then leaned against the door and let out a sigh. Why did he have to ask her where she was going? It would've been better if he didn't know about Wood. He was just the Hufflepuff seeker that James had beat in every single game they played against each other. Lily wouldn't even look at James in that way, although he was the talented Gryffindor seeker, who had brains as well as good looks, at least he thought so, which was, he realized, part of the problem. He remembered what she had said about his arrogance, and cringed slightly.

James went up to the common room after he collected his things, just to see Lily leaving. "Hey Lily." He said, but Lily ignored him and walked by like he wasn't even there. James sighed.

"So, how was Detention?" Sirius asked James as he sat beside him in front of the fire.

"Oh, it was...um...good."

"Good? What did you have to do?" Peter asked incredulously.

James thought quickly, "dust the library."

All three of his friends looked at him slightly amazed. "You thought dusting the library was good? You're mental," Sirius managed to say. James just averted all of their gazes and stared into the fire, which incidentally, reminded him of Lily's hair. A small smile was making its way onto James' face. His friends were at a loss for words. They just stared at James, though he didn't even notice them.

The next morning at breakfast while the owls arrived to deliver the mail, James kept glancing at Lily. The whole time, Lily never even looked over at him, or even seemed to notice his gaze. But soon everyone's eyes were turned upwards at an approaching owl that was carrying a bright red letter that they recognized as a howler.

"Oh, poor bloke who gets that" James said as the owl swooped overhead. Then, he nearly choked on his toast as the letter was released and fell right in front of him. "Oh, no."

The whole Gryffindor table looked at the letter in front of James aghast. "Oh, no." James repeated. The letter started to smoke, and very carefully, he lifted it up between his fork and knife.

"Open it, Prongs." Remus said to him, "It's only going to get worse,"

Everyone was looking at him with pity as he unsealed the envelope.

"JAMES POTTER!" his mother's voice screeched at him immediately, "HOW DARE YOU ACT IN SUCH A HORRIBLE, IMMATURE WAY! I THOUGHT YOU WERE 17! I DON'T WANT TO PERSONALLY COME TO HOGWARTS AND DISCIPLINE YOU, BUT IF I HEAR OF ANY OTHER APPALLING BEHAVIOR FROM YOU, I SWEAR I'LL BE THERE FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY 'HOGWASH'!" And then it burst into flames on top of his scrambled eggs.

Everyone in the room was staring at James; some with smirks on their faces (Sirius) and others who looked embarrassed for him (Peter). James just kept his head down, not even daring to look up at Lily.

The next day, James looked forward to his tutoring lesson that evening - and spending more time with Lily. He knew she probably wouldn't be any nicer to him tonight than usual. Still, for some reason unknown to James, he still liked her - a lot. She didn't like him and spurned any conversation attempts of his, but it didn't seem to matter to James.

When he entered into the potions classroom, Lily was already sitting in front of her cauldron with the textbook on her lap. She looked up at him when he closed the door, he smiled weakly and said, "hey,". Lily just looked back down at her book and said, "I need help with chapter 2, I don't get it at all."

James sighed; so this was how it was going to be. He sat down close to Lily, and noticed she seemed slightly uncomfortable with their proximity, but he ignored it. Instead, he leaned over her shoulder with his breath lightly tickling her neck and read the instructions that were in the textbook.

"James, is there a reason your breathing on my neck? Do you need your puffer, or something?" Lily said after a few minutes.

"Excuse me, I do not need my puffer. I was just trying to read your textbook. You're hogging it."

"Ooh, very mature - remember what your mom said." James started to turn pink and looked down, "I'm not 'hogging' it, anyway, I'm the one who needs to learn this better, not you."

James was a little defensive, "Well I don't have them memorized, I thought if anyone could memorize them it'd be you, but apparently you can't either."

Lily glared at him and muttered to herself. Then she gave the book to James and told him she'd finished reading it. James then proceeded to go through the potion step by step, keeping his distance, and sticking only totalk about potions.

When they were finally both quiet - Lily was stirring her potion, and James was watching - he couldn't help himself and asked her, "So, how was your date last night?"

Lily looked over at him with surprise and returned with a question, "Why do you care?"

James didn't know quite what to say and coughed before saying, "I was, you know, just curious." He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and started to shuffle some papers that were resting in his lap. He didn't catch the quick smile that spread across Lily's face before she answered, "It was alright. I mean, he's not the brightest tool in the shed, and told me the same quidditch stories over and over again. Did you know, he's broken his arm three times, and I can tell you exactly how, play by play, each happened."

James laughed. So she wasn't into Wood, that was good. He felt a little better knowing she didn't go for dim-witted guys.James had gotten Lily to talk to him instead of fighting with him, and decided to try and keep up this normal strain of conversation.

"What did you do last summer?" He asked her casually, and to his delight, she told him.

"Oh, not much, my sister kept following me around. I had to finally threaten to hex her in order for her to stop. God, sisters can be so annoying." Lily looked at him expecting him to agree.

"Well, I don't have any sisters, but Sirius is like a brother. He tends to follow me around a lot, too. He looks up to me like a hero," James puffed out his chest in mock importance, "I couldn't blame him either." and then he shrugged.

To his delight Lily broke out into giggles God she had a beautiful laugh, and he loved to be the cause of it. She then said, "Riiiight, James. Are you sure it's not the other way around?"

James gasped, pretending to be offended, "Never! How dare you even think I'ma follower." Then he let himself smile. They were both finally relaxed and the rest of their lesson went by smoothly. Lily left first again at the end of the lesson. This time she stopped at the classroom door, turned and said, "See you Friday, James," then she was gone.

James smiled to himself as he gathered up his bag and walked back up to the Gryffindor tower alone. This time, his friends didn't question what James was doing in detention, the look on hisface made them wonder, but they knew he'd avoid what actually happened, so didn't even bother.

A/N: I hope you guys like this chapter...let me know what you think!