Not mine...

"James?"

A pair of hazel eyes are indeed looking back up at her from behind a pair of glasses that had been knocked askew by Lily and James's fall. Lily stares at him a moment, before:

"Uh…Evans?"

"Y-yeah?" Why was she blushing? Why?

"No offense, but could you get off of me?"

"What? Oh yeah." Lily practically throws herself off of James and onto the adjacent wall and clambers up, grabbing at her fallen books. She turns quickly to go, her face beet red, determined to get out of there.

"Evans! Hang on." He grabs her free hand and she freezes. Turning slowly, she sees him holding up a small, brown, leather-bound book. "You forgot your diary."

Ancient Runes-

Galloping gargoyles, I'm so glad Raya's not in this class to bug me, because Potter's in it! POTTER! Since when does he take Ancient Runes? When did he take his O.W.L? Blasted small N.E.W.T. level classes. He and I are the only Gryffindors in the class! Thank heavens I know Estelle from Ravenclaw, so I can sit with her. Well, her and an amber-haired Ravenclaw boy whom she blushingly introduced as Caley. Apparently they met last Halloween and got together shortly after. I have to admit, they make a cute couple. So now I'm sitting here with these two googly-eyed lovebirds-not that I'm complaining, but I do feel like a bit of a third wheel-while Professor Aster reviews some basic concepts. Oh, dear. I think she's noticed me writing in my diary and not looking up. Oh my. Her eyes have kind of hardened. This can't be good.

Common Room-

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Lily, chill out

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I'd be more supportive if everyone in the room weren't staring at you writhing in agony.

WHY? WHY DOES SHE HATE ME SO?

Lily.

Yeah?

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out…

Okay….Wow that helps….

What happened?

Okay, so James Potter is in my Ancient Runes class.

So?

So we have a project. A paired project. With assigned partners.

No! She didn't-

She put me with Potter. POTTER! I HAVE TO SPEND TIME ALONE WITH POTTER!

Calm down, Lily. How long's it gonna be?

6 weeks.

WHAT?

Yeah. I know. We have to pick a piece of ancient literature written in ancient runes, translate it, and write a response to it, both in English and ancient runes. We then have to present our literature to the class, both in English and ancient runes, and read our response to the class, also in both English and runes. And we have to "show creativity".

Yikes. That's one hell of a project.

I KNOW!

Ha ha.

Why do I have to spend time with him? You're the one who likes him!

Sigh. Some people have all the luck.

You call this luck?

Oh! Don't look up; he's coming over.

What?

"So…Evans."

"Yes, Potter?" Lily asks somewhat frostily as she discreetly closes her diary.

"D'you want to start on Ancient Runes?"

Lily looks up at him and notices, with some surprise, the pinkish flush that now creeps across his face.

"Now?"

"Well, yeah…if you aren't busy right now. I mean, we could start another time, but I thought, you know, starting early wouldn't hurt, and..." He trails off.

Lily smiles. This blushing, unsure James is a side of him she's never seen before. It is almost…cute. She shakes her head. She did NOT just call him cute!

"No?"

Oh, she almost forgot he's there.

"Well…" she says. "I'm a bit busy…"

"Oh, I totally understand," James rushes to say. "I didn't mean to pressure you or anything."

"You weren't. Actually," she stands up, stretching and faking a yawn. She looks at him surreptitiously to see if she's fooling him. The slight smile on his face tells her otherwise. "I could do with a bit of a break in…er…Transfiguration."

"Do we have any Transfiguration homework?"

"Oh…uh…yeah. Don't we?"

"I don't remember anything…but I better check."

Lily grabs his arm as he turns away to do just that. "Later," she says firmly. "We should get started."

"Okay. Where do you want to do this?"

"What?"

"Well, don't you think it's a bit noisy in here?"

Actually, it is deafening, but Lily hadn't noticed until now. "Yeah. Um…where should we go?"

He shrugs. "My dorm? Guys can't get into yours, and mine should be empty right now."

His dorm? Where he sleeps? Is he kidding?

"Um…okay."

Well, it's not like I can think of something better…