A/N: I'm so sorry for anyone who was waiting for an update if this fic…it's not my fault… well, it really is, but I promise I'll be good now. I want to thank you all for your reviews, and it is because of you I have not yet given up…so here it is, the next instalment…

Guys, I'm so sorry if this is crap, but I had written a really good beginning and then my computer decided to crash, and I lost all of it. Hopefully, this is ok…

Chapter 7:

As Lily sat in Ancient Runes that afternoon, she had a million things racing around in her head. Firstly, she was feeling pretty mean to do something like this to Mark. After all, he was pretty nice and he liked Lily. Yet she knew he would eventually get over it and no matter how he felt, Lily also had to think about herself, and she knew if she kept pretending she liked Mark that much, she'd go mental and probably end up doing something that would hurt him even more.

Then there were her thoughts on how this would affect her relationship with James and Remus. Would it mean that she would grow to see a good side of James, a side she didn't want to know, lest she actually befriended him? Then she thought of her relationship with Remus. When all this was over, and Mark had gotten over his disappointment and she and Remus "broke up", would they still manage to remain friends, or would they end up developing real feelings for each other that would lead to an ending Lily didn't want?

There were so many negative things Lily could think about, so many in fact, that she was completely off in another world when her professor asked her if she could translate the paragraph on the board, full of words they had learnt that day.

Lily turned that delicate shade of pink she was so prone to turning and stuttered an apology,

'S-sorry professor, I can't tran-translate that sentence, I-I've been off in another world.'

Several of her classmates laughed and the professor said in firm tones,

'So it seems. Well Miss Evans, this is a first. Whatever it is you've been so absorbed in, I suggest you forget about it for the time being and try to concentrate on staying with this world, at least whilst you're in classes.'

'Yes sir,' Lily managed to mumble.

The bell then rang, signalling the end of classes for that day. Lily breathed an enormous sigh of relief, then inhaled sharply, remembering what she had to do. She thought over the plan one last time, convinced herself it was the right thing to do, given the circumstances and walked over to where Mark was packing away his books.

'Listen Mark, there's something I need to talk to you about. It's private, so can you meet me down by the lake in 10 minutes?' she said as casually as possible.

'Yeah, alright, see you soon,' he replied somewhat apprehensively.

Lily turned around and walked towards the door. Mark watched her thick, red hair, that day tied back in a braid, swinging gently as she walked. He pulled his eyes away from it and called out, as she was reaching for the handle,

'Hey Lily,' she stopped and turned to look at him. 'Lily, is there something wrong?' he questioned.

Lily didn't want to answer that question, she really didn't.

'Err, no Mark. There's just something I think I need to tell you.' replied Lily, trying not to betray that, for him, there was something about to go wrong.

As Lily was walking towards the Lake, trying to figure out what she was going to say to Mark when he found her, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter were walking in the exact opposite direction. As Lily turned a corner on the first floor, she walked headlong into the four Marauders. With her head down, she had not seen them, and they had all been so absorbed in talking about the next full moon, that they did not see her either.

There was a loud crash as Lily was sent sprawling against a suit of armour. As she gingerly picked herself up off the floor, Remus held out his hand to help her up. He told the others to go along without him, he'd catch up with them in a minute.

This statement was met with a few noises that made it clear what the Marauders thought they were going to do.

Sirius called out, 'Oi, Moony mate, there's an empty classroom off to your right, make sure you lock the door!'

Remus rolled his eyes as the other three continued onto the Gryffindoor common room.

'Please excuse them, they're not used to behaving like normal human beings,' Remus said apologetically.

'No, it's fine. Oh, and about this whole pretending-to-be-a-couple thing. We need to figure out some serious details. I'm just about to find Mark and break the news to him. He's going to expect to see something realistic. And I'm sure those fine young gentleman who just left are going to expect the same,' said Lily.

Remus nodded and she continued, 'Can you meet me in 15 minutes back here?'

'Yeah, sure, I'll go to the library and the guys will think I've been in that empty classroom over there with you the whole time,' he replied, smiling slightly.

'Ok, be back here in 15 minutes,' said Lily as she hurried out onto the grounds.

She sat down on the edge of the lake and attempted to compose herself. She took a few deep breaths and thought over the best way to do this. Just as she was deciding to take an honest approach (some may call it brutally honest), she looked up to find Mark walking down the sloping lawns to reach her.

She stood up and walked over to meet him. She tried to keep a calm face so as not to alarm him.

'Hi Lily,' he said, trying desperately hard not to look worried.

'Hi Mark. How's your first day back been?' she asked, pretending to sound absolutely as if it was the most interesting thing in the history of the universe.

'Oh, fantastic. It really looks as though we're going to be studying some really interesting things this year, don't you think?'

Lily groaned inwardly, but did not let her annoyance reflect on her face. 'Yeah, it does,' she said serenely, nodding in agreement.

'So what did you want to tell me?' he asked, the feeling of apprehension now lessened by the warm greeting.

'Uhhh, how can I put this? Look Mark, to be honest with you, I didn't spend all holidays reading, and I had a lot of time to think about things. About a lot of things, including you and me being together. At first, after talking to my parents, I convinced myself that it would work out to be a really good idea. But…'

'Oh no, I don't like it when people say that…'said Mark with a groan.

'But,' she continued, 'as I wrote to you, asking you about you're holidays, I realised….well I realised maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Mark, I really do think you're a great person, and I know one day all you're focus on school work will pay off and you'll find a job that pays enormously and I'll be kicking myself for doing this. But right now Mark, I want to enjoy the other things in life, and I don't think that you'd be able to do that with me.'

'Wait,' he said, 'you're doing this because I'm too…too boring?"

Lily nodded and said, 'Not boring exactly, more just the fact you are interested in spending your free time doing completely different things to me.'

'Well, I thought that's what would make us so good together, we have similar interests. If you want, I'll relax more,' he offered, but Lily shook her head.

'That wouldn't be right. I don't want to change who you are, I just don't want to put pressure on myself to be like who you are, just so we can stay together. And, there's something else I need to tell you.'

'What could be worse,' he thought.

'This morning Mark, Remus found me outside the Portrait Hole, because last night I had stormed out there after yelling at James, because I had gone to the common room because I was feeling so stressed. Mark, the pressure I felt that had been placed upon me by you, by my parents to stay with you and be as good as you and by myself because I wasn't spending enough time with my friends or treating you how I felt I should be, it was all just too much. I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to. There was so much going on inside my head that when Remus found me, I told him everything, and he told me a lot of stuff he'd been thinking about.'

'Oh, Lils, I'm really sorry that you felt under so much pressure,' interrupted Mark.

'No, it's not you, it's just me, and the way I am. I blow things way out of proportion sometimes…actually almost all the time. Anyway, there's something else. And please don't hate me, but, when Remus and I were talking this morning, he told me the way he feels about me. He said that he's liked me for a long time, but he has never said anything. Then I realised that the qualities I thought I admired in you, were really the ones I admired in him, and I had never realised. And I know that this is the worst possible, and most ridiculously unoriginal way to…'

'To tell me to leave you alone, right?' Mark asked, not angrily, but more wearily than anything else.

Lily nodded and Mark said, as though trying really hard not to yell at her, 'yeah, I understand now, and it's really o.k. Lily. I mean, I am pretty angry and hurt right now, but I understand that if that's how you want it, then that's you're choice,' he said, not looking down and his feet, but staring her straight in the eye, as if daring her to tell him the whole truth.

She said nothing and he turned and walked away, calling over his shoulder, 'Goodbye Miss Evans, see you later.'

Lily sighed, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Although she could sympathise with how Mark must be feeling right now, she laughed and felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

O.K, so that's it for this chapter. I was going to keep going, but I thought I should just post now so as not to keep you all waiting. Anyways, thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to everyone who is still waiting for me to read one of their stories, I promise, I am slowly getting there, and if I haven't yet reviewed, and you'd like me to, just let me know.

Caitlin