Disclaimer: Of course it's mine!

A thanks to:

Jadecowan2

Hpfanatic53072

XXRoseDawsonXX

Justmaybe (thnx so much!)

Elizabeth Denver

Finalfan17

Fred+GeorgeLover

Andy Gayle

Hazeled Eye Marauder

Apotterlover

Chapter 5

Lily scrambled into the common room. "Hey, Evans, where have you been?" James asked nonchalantly, fiddling with his wand. Lily paused to catch her breath.

"I, uhh, left some of my stuff on the common room table by accident," she explained hastily, blushing. James nodded, his brow furrowed. Please don't tell me she heard my fight with Prytian! Because, oh Lord, that is embarrassing! But she had to have walked by to have gotten to the common room… Why didn't I meet her on the way?

"Potter!" Lily snapped. James realized that she had been calling his name for a while. He blinked and grinned weakly.

"Sorry. I was just, er, thinking…" he muttered. Lily rolled her eyes.

"That's good to hear. Try doing it more often, like now, for instance," she sarcastically replied. To her surprise, James laughed. She raised an eyebrow. What is going on here?

Chuckling, James shook his head and said, "Okay, let's get started. Are we turning mice into rabbits again?" Lily blinked and shook her head.

"Uhh… no. Actually, I figured we might as well try something new," she replied, shrugging casually. A slow smirk crept onto James' face. He gazed at her in a funny way. "What?"

"My rabbit was good enough! It was just as white as yours!" he accused. Lily stared at him questioningly, but a smile slid onto her face too. She quickly ducked down to hide it. "Told you!" James cried.

"Okay, it was pretty good… Not as good as mine, of course, but still pretty good," Lily admitted, blushing a deep red. James rolled his eyes.

"Right… Never could it be as good as yours!" he sarcastically joked. "And you say I have a big ego!" Lily grinned sheepishly, and then said,

"You do, though." James gave her a scolding look.

"My dear Lily, don't meddle in things you don't know about. If you had a face like mine, it would be hard to control your ego too. In fact, my ego is small compared to what yours would be like if you looked like me. Luckily, you don't," he kidded. Lily rolled her eyes.

"Who has the big ego now?" James grinned cheekily. "Okay, we're going to be turning rabbits into puppies. The key is that you have to get their color to change too. The rabbits are white to begin with. You want the puppy to turn into a golden color."

"So, could I just focus on getting mine to change to a golden retriever, or something like that?" James asked. Lily nodded.

"Okay, the incantation is Puricala Rewiffa," Lily explained. She opened a cage and took out pure white rabbit. Muttering the spell, she flicked her wand and the rabbit immediately transformed into a golden retriever. She gazed at it proudly.

"Sounds easy enough," James scoffed nonchalantly, playing with the fuzz on his robes. Lily glared at him. She sniffed the air importantly and said,

"Well, for your information, this is a difficult spell. Most people don't cover this until their seventh year is half over." James shrugged.

"I can see why. When would it come in handy to turn a rabbit into a dog? Besides, if most people don't do this 'til the term is half over, why are we covering it now?" he questioned innocently. Lily shot him dagger eyes.

"That's not important. Work on the spell," she ordered. James sighed, pulled out his wand, and carefully took a rabbit out of a cage. Lily, meanwhile, took out a book and began to read. James worked silently for ten minutes. Finally, he interrupted the silence.

"Evans?" he inquired tentatively. Lily didn't budge. "Evans?" he repeated, raising his voice slightly. Lily slammed her book down on the table.

"What!" she snapped. James froze. Uh oh? Why did I call her in the first place? Shoot. He smiled at her and said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Why do you hate me?"

Hehe, I was going to cut the chapter off right here, but, because I'm nice (remember that everyone!) I decided that I'll continue!

Lily's mind stopped for a second. Her heart started pounding against her ribcage like a hammer. Why do I hate him? A sickening thought fell over her. Oh God. Do I hate him?

"Because… Because you're an annoying, obnoxious, arrogant prat," she spluttered. She thought she saw James' face fall, but maybe she imagined it, because, a second later, the same smirk was still on his face.

"Well, uhh, it's all part of my charm," he stuttered shakily, and turned back around. Once his face was out of view, the smile immediately slipped off his face. He was crestfallen. She really does hate me. I thought… it was just a joke, or something. Hate. Wow.

Lily stared at the back of James' head. I cannot believe I just said that! He can be sweet and – and nice and funny and –… She sadly shook her head. And, yet, I always say that I hate him…

Lily scrambled into the Gryffindor common room and was immediately engulfed by friends. "Lily! We haven't seen you in ages!" Katie Wentren exclaimed, leaping out of one of the chairs. The rest of her friends followed.

"Sorry," Lily apologized sheepishly. "I've been really busy with… stuff." Emily Drasenger grinned and handed her a butterbeer.

"We're having a little party, have some. And of course you've been busy. We've all been expecting that. You're Head Girl… How's James been treating you?" she asked innocently, leading everyone over to a couch in the middle of the common room. Lily choked on her butterbeer.

"What!"

She glared at her friends as they began to laugh. "Sorry, Lily. But James Potter is like…" Emily's voice trailed off.

"Really hot," Lucy Krustow finished. Lily snorted.

"Very subtle, Luce. But you guys all know what I think about him," Lily said. Do I even know what I think about him? Katie rolled her eyes and muttered,

"Yes, we do. You think he's -,"

"An annoying, conceited, stupid, ugly, detestable, intolerable asshole," everyone chorused. Lily smirked, but really, her hear sank to her stomach. Oh Lord, did I say that before?

Suddenly, the portrait opened and in pranced Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. Peter was looking awfully shifty. Sirius immediately struck up a conversation about Quidditch.

"So, Gryffindor will obviously beat Hufflepuff. Then, if we beat Ravenclaw, we'll be in second place. We just have to beat Slytherin after that and the Quidditch Cup will be ours for the sixth year in a row!" Sirius said loudly. "No surprise, of course. We've been winning every year that James has been on our team!"

Lily glared at them suspiciously. Lupin glanced over at her, and then shuffled over to a private table in the corner. Everyone remained silent as Sirius bent his head over and began whispering privately to his friends. Lily thought she saw Peter's eyes dart over to her a couple times.

When they finally got up, they walked over to them. Sirius grinned at them and leaned against the couch. "Hi, Evans. How ya doing? How are those tutoring sessions with James going?" he said innocently. Lily blushed a deep red as those words struck of the memory of what had happened.

"I'm surprised to see that Potter isn't prancing around with you. Has he ditched you guys for a new posse because you guys aren't cool enough?" Lily shot back. Peter looked angry, but Sirius looked only mildly interested. He leaned against the couch nonchalantly.

"So, Lily, did you enjoy James' ride on his broomstick?" Sirius said innocently. Katie stared at Lily in shock, looking both disgusted and impressed. Lily was stunned. How can he say that! How can he hint stuff like that! He knows perfectly well that it was a ride on his broomstick, not… ugh. Lily decided to play along with the "game" Sirius had started.

"Oh, I think he went a little too fast for my liking," she retorted. Emily spat out her butterbeer. Sirius looked surprised at her repartee, but regained his composure. He nodded.

"James told me how you guys were whooping and screaming since it was so much fun," he said knowingly, winking. Lily was appalled, but refused to show it. Lucy looked horrified.

"It wasn't bad. James wanted to go faster and faster, though. I suppose you've ridden on his broomstick before, right?" she said, trying to hide a smirk. Katie was turning a deathly white. Peter's mouth was twitching. Lupin looked like he was trying to decide whether to laugh or scowl.

"Nah, it's too precious to James. He'd never let me touch it. But I've seen it before. It's nice and long," Sirius replied. He spun around and left, Peter and Lupin following him.

"What was that!" Emily shrieked the minute they were gone. Katie was breathing heavily. Lucy's face was white. "Did you guys-?" Lily snickered.

"No, of course not! You know how much I despise him. He just skipped a tutoring session and let me ride his broom," she said casually. She was met by a silence. Eventually, Katie's breathing returned to normal. Lucy's face turned back to its original color.

"Oh… Oh! Whew. I was going to say…" Emily sighed, her voice trailing off. She sounded relieved. Lily looked at her curiously.

"What were you going to say?" she asked sharply. Katie and Lucy exchanged a meaningful glance and they burst out laughing. Emily turned a bright red.

"Well… I was going to ask… if he was good in the sack," she muttered. Lily looked positively disgusted. She opened her mouth to speak, but was speechless.

"But, honestly, Lily. How can you hate him? We'd all die for a chance to share a private common room with him," Emily sighed dreamily. Lily sniffed the air, annoyed.

"I'll trade rooms anytime, trust me. I don't see what you guys see in him. He's not even hot to begin with," Lily pointed out. Lucy groaned and rolled her eyes.

"Fine, then, Lils. Whatever… He's still number one on our Hottest Guys Chart," she muttered. Lily snorted into her butterbeer and began coughing loudly.

"You – you have a Hottest Guys Chart?" she demanded, sputtering noisily. Emily and Katie exchanged a smirk. "And James Potter is number one! Who are you comparing him to – Severus Snape?"

Emily snickered. "Severus Snape, yeah right. With hair that greasy and that git of a father… No, we were comparing him to some of the good ones here." Trying to look uninterested, Lily questioned,

"Who got number two?" Katie, Emily and Lucy glanced at each other and then burst into a fit of giggles. Lily looked at them curiously.

"Sirius Black," they chanted, sighing passionately. Lily was disgusted.

"And number three?" she asked, not even sure if she wanted to know. The girls glanced at each other and said nonchalantly,

"Amos Diggory." Lily looked stunned. They started giggling again.

"James-Potter-beat-Amos-Diggory!" Lily cried. "Compared to him, James Potter looks like a slug!" Lucy and Emily glanced at each other knowingly.

"Ooh… So you got it for Diggory, right?" Katie squealed. Lily blushed furiously. It was true, she had been attracted to Diggory, but she hadn't given a thought to him since… the first tutoring session with James.

"I haven't 'got it' for Diggory. I just think he's much more decent than Potter," she snarled. Emily rolled her eyes.

"Denial, denial, not gonna get you anywhere," she murmured.

"I'm not in -," Lily began hotly.

Emily continued, "Besides, Diggory's too… soft. James has that whole bad boy vibe going through him." She nearly swooned.

"As much as I'd like to sit here and discuss Potter's 'bad-boy look', I have a Heads meeting with Professor McGonagall," Lily said dryly. She finished up her butterbeer. "I'll see you guys later."

"Prongs!" Sirius hollered. James' head shot up. "Oi, Prongs, over here, mate! We've got something to show you!" James strolled over to their table and ssank into a chair.

"What?"

"Look at this," Sirius muttered, jabbing at a small screen. "Lily was in the common room with her friends. Listen, we taped her whole conversation, although some of it includes parts where me and Moony and Wormtail were in it. We hid a camera on the sofa when we were talking to them. You can watch it here, from this screen."

"Procatus," Lupin murmured, pointing his wand at the screen. "So it won't go beserk with all the magic floating in the air," he quickly explained. Sirius turned on the screen.

Sirius, Lupin and Peter were crowded around the couch where Lily, Katie, Emily and Lucy were sitting.

Sirius – "Hi, Evans. How ya doing?How are those tutoring sessions with James going?"

Lily – "I'm surprised to see that Potter isn't prancing around with you. Has he ditched you guys for a new posse because you guys aren't cool enough?"

Sirius – "So, Lily, did you enjoy James' ride on his broomstick?"

"Oh my Lord, you didn't! Padfoot! We agreed that you wouldn't interfere with our relationship!" James screeched. Sirius shushed him.

"Shut up. I didn't really interfere. Just watch."

Lily – "Oh, I think he went a little too fast for my liking."

James smirked at her witty comment.

Sirius – "James told me how you guys were whooping and screaming since it was so much fun."

James moaned. "Sirius, you asshole…"

Lily – "It wasn't bad. James wanted to go faster and faster, though. I suppose you've ridden on his broomstick before, right?"

Sirius – "Nah, it's too precious to James. He'd never let me touch it. But I've seen it before. It's nice and long."

James looked insulted. "Si-ri-us! God! You're not supposed to know this stuff!" Lupin snickered.

James watched in awe as the rest of the tape went on. However, when they reached the part about him being number one on the chart, he couldn't help smirking. "Hear, hear. No objections there," he called out. Sirius smirked when he heard that he was number two.

"Good enough for me," he said, grinning. Just then, Lily began talking about Diggory. The smirk was wiped off James' face. He stared at the screen, breathing heavily. The movie wrapped up, and the screen went black. James ruffled his hair.

"Oh boy… This isn't good…"