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Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize from the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. Damn.

Chapter Six

Lily

Lily walked into the Head's common room, dropped her book bag on the floor, and flopped down on the couch. She had survived. She had made it through not only the first week of classes of her 7th year, but she also made it an entire week sharing the Head's rooms with Jam– Potter.

She lay on the couch for a few minutes, staring into space when the portrait suddenly slammed open. Shocked by the loud noise, Lily jumped in surprise, causing her to fall off the side of the couch.

"Oooooh," She groaned, and sat up. She heard laughing behind her and turned to see Sammy leaning on Missy, both of who were gasping with laughter, and Chelsea rolling on the floor, nearly in tears. Missy regained herself first,

"Easy there, Grace," She said mockingly, throwing the three Gryffindor into gales of laughter again.

"Oh, shut up you three!" Lily said crossly, though a smile was threatening to break through at the corners of her mouth. She stood up and brushed herself off and turned to her friends.

"What are you doing up here?" Lily asked curiously, causing the girls too look at each other in a suspiciously innocent way. Lily caught the look.

"Oh no. No, no, no, no!' She stamped her foot, "We are not pulling any pranks! I'm Head Girl; I can't risk that! Plus there's homework, and patrol and classes and having to deal with Potter! " She cried. Chelsea sighed.

"But Lily, James has been pulling pranks almost every day, and he hasn't gotten expelled or gotten his badge taken away. And plus, you know you miss planning in the dorm, then sneaking out under Sammy's cloak and using the map we made. And the best part of all, never getting caught." Chelsea grinned up at Lily from her spot on the floor. Sammy and Missy sat down next to her, and they all started pulling the puppy face. Lily groaned.

"Fine!" She said, secretly pleased that they still wanted to continue. Those nights when they snuck around the castle were always the best. She looked at the girls and joined them on the floor.

"So what's the plan?" Lily asked eagerly. The four girls fell to talking about their next prank.

"Well we could––" Chelsea said she drew an outline of the Hogwarts halls on the paper in front of her, with a few extra marks.

"No! That won't work!" Missy exclaimed, slapping Chelsea upside the head, lovingly of course. She pulled the paper towards her and drew another picture. "How about this?" She asked. Identical grins of devilish mischief spread across Lily, Sammy and Chelsea's faces.

"Perfect," Lily muttered. "Just one more thing." She added a spell to the list that Missy had written. Sammy burst out laughing.

"Excellent." The other three girls chorused. They put their hands in the middle of their circle, over the paper, and chanted, "Kick ass!" The girls fell over giggling. They were abruptly stopped when the portrait hole of the Head's common room swung open and James walked into the room.

He stopped, shocked for a moment, then shook his head at the girls and walked up to his room. As soon as he was in his room the girls started giggling again, this time at the look on James' face. Suddenly, Sammy stopped laughing. Seeing James had reminded her of something…what was it again?

"Hey Lil." She said. Lily stopped laughing and looked at Sammy questioningly. The other girls stopped and looked at the pair. "So how's living with James?" Sammy asked. All of the girls were friends with the boys, with the obvious exception of Lily hating James' guts, and called them by their first names, and vise versa.

Lily turned bright red and nearly choked when she heard Sammy's question. Missy and Chelsea leaned forward, looking very, very interested. Lily looked around at her three best friends and opened her mouth.

"I-It's f-fine. I mean, he's not that horrible, even though he's still an annoying egotistical bully. We're never really here together, and he doesn't talk to me except about Head's duties. Oh, and he asks me how I am." Lily looked away, fidgeting with the carpet. The other girls looked at each other. If there was one thing Lily was horrible at, it was lying. The girl could not lie to save her life.

"Really Lily?" Missy asked shrewdly. Lily whipped around to find her dorm mates staring at her intently. She sighed.

"No! It's so weird…He's being so weird. He's being so nice, I don't understand! We haven't fought practically at all, and when we do, I start it! I don't get it! Why won't he just stop this stupid prank, because it's making me really, really mad!" Lily breathed in deeply, looking almost close to tears.

"How do you know this is a prank? How do you know he's not being sincere for once?" Sammy asked gently. Lily shrugged, and buried her head in her hands.

Chelsea sighed, and then looked at the clock. "Bloody hell!" She swore. "I have to meet Jake!" She stood up, brushed off her jeans, blew the girls a kiss, and jogged out of the door. The rest of the girls waved, Missy and Sammy casually looking up at the clock as well.

"Damn it!" Missy exclaimed, "I have to meet Will too!" She quickly hugged Lily and Sammy, and then stood up and ran after Chelsea.

"Chelsea! Wait!" Could be heard in Missy's voice before the portrait door swung closed. Sammy looked at Lily.

"Well, I don't have to be anywhere. What about you?" She poked Lily, who picked her head up.

"Nope." She replied, still looking rather upset. Sammy sighed.

"I think you need to give him a chance, Lily." She said. Lily rolled over onto her back, and looked at Sammy.

"But, Sam, it's hard. I mean, I've hated the kid for how long? And he's hated me back. And now, all of a sudden, he's being nice to me? Come on, that doesn't just happen. He's got to have some plan or trick behind it." Lily rolled her eyes. Sammy grinned mischievously, Oh, if only you knew, Lily dear.

"Maybe you should just try being civil back…or you could try asking him-" Lily made a sound of protest, "­Politely, why he's acting like this." Sammy suggested. Say yes, say yes! She chanted. Lily stared at Sammy for a second, then made up her mind.

I have to work with him anyways, being Head's together and all, so, I guess it wouldn't hurt to be nice. Right? She closed her eyes. Sammy stood up, knowing the conversation was over, kissed Lily's forehead, and walked out of the portrait hole, closing the door gently behind her. Once she was sure the portrait was closed, she broke out singing the first song she could think of, and ran down the hall screaming the lyrics to "Build Me Up, Buttercup."

After she heard the portrait hole close, Lily cracked open an eye, and sat up. She looked from the fireplace, to her room, to Pot––James' room, and stood up. She made her way very deliberately to James' door and knocked. Once, Twice, Three times. She heard a trunk close and the padding of feet walking towards the door, and then the door swung open.

James

James walked into his room and closed the door. He let out the breath he had been holding, and slid down to the floor with his back to the door. It had taken all of his will power to not say anything to Lily, whether it was teasing or asking her out. It would ruin the plan.

Ha, the plan.

It had originated over the summer at James' house, since the rest of the boys practically lived there. During one of many late night talks, the topic of conversation had swung around to Lily, and Remus had offered the advice that maybe James should stop being a dickhead to her and that he should start being kind and compassionate towards her. Sirius had agreed, which thoroughly surprised everyone present. Peter, being the little rat that he is, had agreed through his mouthful of Mrs. Potter's chocolate chip cookies.

First, Remus had set down some ground rules. No pranking, no teasing, no public embarrassment, and above all, no asking Lily out.

Then the four boys had come up with a schedule. The plan for these first few weeks was to limit what James said to Lily, only polite phrases and questions. That however was as far as the friends had gotten, because they had to rescue Peter, who had choked on his cookie in his excitement. The plan lay forgotten for a few hours, after which Sirius decided that they would play it by ear once they got to school.

The one thing the boys weren't planning on was Lily approaching James first.

So when Lily knocked on the James' door, it sent him into a flurry of activity. He threw his two-way mirror into his trunk, forgetting to sign off, leaving Sirius, Remus and Peter wondering what was wrong. After hastily shutting his trunk, which left it slightly cracked open, James opened his door to find a bashful Lily standing there, about to knock again.

"Uh…Hey Lily. Can I help you?" He asked, slightly confused. Lily blushed.

"Actually yes, you can," She replied. She looked at the floor.

"Iwaswonderinifyouwannabefriends." James' jaw dropped. Not only did she say that really fast and in one breath, and not only did he understand every word (How often did he have to deal with Sirius when he was acting weird?), but Lily wanted to be…friends?

"Um, yea." He stuttered for a second. "I mean, that would be really nice."

"What are you DOING? This isn't the James I know! This isn't the same guy who I had screaming matches with last year every night in the common room over the stupidest things! Stop being so NICE! I KNOW this is just some PRANK that you're pulling to make me mad! Well you know what? IT WORKED! So any time you want to stop, it would be greatly APPRECIATED!" Lily was standing up straight now and breathing heavily. James looked shocked. All I said was that that would be nice! I followed the plan! Where did this come from?

"Lily, this ISN'T a prank! I swear it on the Marauders. This is me…I never really was that boy in fifth year. I wasn't a bully or arrogant; ok, well I was, but that wasn't the "real" me. Ask any of the Marauders. Lily, I was all of those things because of you. I showed off with the snitch because I thought you would like it. I beat up Snivellus when he was being nasty to you, or to show off again. I dated those other girls to get my mind off you. And I asked you out every day because I thought that maybe if I kept asking and being persistent, then maybe…maybe you'd give me the time of day. I did everything, all of those things you found so irritating and frustrating, for you. I really do like you Lily. And I will get you." James said this with all honesty. Lily felt her eyes well up with tears. I had been wrong, all those years. Damnit, James…why did you tell me this? Here, now? This is not good. Arg!

"The tell me why you were so horrible to me James. Huh? Always calling me Carrot Top, bookworm, Evans. Teasing me about studying, and making fun of me in classes. Those aren't things you do when you like someone!" Lily was almost crying now; her self-control was slowing crumbling and her tears were threatening to fall over the edge.

"I'm a guy, Lily. Guys are stupid, you know that. I didn't know how to act around you. I had these feelings and I didn't know how to deal with them. Sure, I knew you were gorgeous, but I never thought that I would feel more than that. And besides, you have to admit, you did study all the time." James cracked a grin, looking at Lily earnestly. She sniffled, smiling back at him. Then she did the unexpected.

Oooh, what did Lily do? I know...hehe

Please, review! It's been a long time!

Erin: Thanks so much! hopefully you like this chapter. the collection? Hm, well I don't even know what that is yet...haha. But you'll find out eventually. Oh, you guys are going to love my relationships! Haha, I'm so excited.

Chat-Chan:Thanks dear! Hope you liked it!

Kairiyuna14: Thanks for the review, and for the luck. For any of you that were wondering (haha none of you prolly) I did well on my tests and stuff! yay!

AmericanDeerHunter73: Thanks, I try to be funny...yea... haha

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Spygirl: I'm glad you like it! Hopefully you like this chapter too...

amefurunokodomo: Day after the lake, hun. Haha, thanks for the review bit too...Chat-Chan said the same thing! haha...Well, you've seen most of this already, haha, so I hope you enjoyed it!

Ok, I'm off...

Lotsa love,

Sarah