Disclaimer: I'm not a representative of J.K. Rowling so, please don't sue me (I swear to God, I'm broke. I mean, you wouln't take a girl's college fund, would you?).
"Oh, bloody hell."
Lily Evans knew immediately that she was lost. This stretch of the Forbidden Forest wasn't particularly far away from the school grounds, but it was difficult to get through if you didn't know exactly where you were. Lily, as a matter of fact, didn't.
"Great move, Evans," she said to herself, "you went and got yourself lost."
She peered around in a desperate attempt to get her bearings but failed.
"Oh, why did I have to go off the stupid trail?" she said, letting her head clunk against the nearest tree.
To go find the brambleberries for Professor Slughorn, said her inner voice.
Lily groaned. The voice was back. Oh, how she hated the voice. It was always so right, always telling her how she was wrong.
There was a perfectly good patch right by the path. You just wanted to see if there was more, it said.
"I know, I know, but I just wanted to be a good helper," she told it.
You should have said no it the first place. You knew it was too late to be tramping around the forest, looking for potions ingredients. But you couldn't say no. You're spineless.
"Hey now! I have a duty as Head Girl to help out the professors!"
You barely know your way around the forest. It was inevitable that you would get lost. And you're missing dinner.
Her stomach rumbled as if to help prove a point.
"Okay, so I'm a little hungry, so what?" Lily asked herself.
You aren't a little hungry; you're a lot hungry. You skipped lunch, remember?
"Fine, I'm hungry! But I'll find my way out of here eventually."
No you won't.
"I am NOT lost!"
Suuure. Just like you don't James Potter.
This had touched a nerve. "I DO NOT like James Potter!" she screamed at herself.
Don't lie to me, I'm you.
"Fine, if it makes you happy, James is a little less annoying than he used to be, but only a little!"
This seemed to appease the voice, because it didn't reply, leaving Lily to think about her situation undisturbed. She sat down on a boulder and thought.
The sun was going down and it was getting steadily cooler. Lily shivered and bit and began to think harder.
"Well, I surely can't sit here all night. For one, I'll freeze. And for two I'll be in an unfamiliar forest with thestrals and centaurs and God knows what else," she said to her self.
After that one complete thought, Lily gave up. She couldn't think anymore. It was too damn cold and she was too damn hungry. She sat shivering and watching as the sky turned from pink to blue to black.
There was a rustling behind her and she turned to face a stag, some ten feet away. While she would usually be fascinated with this animal, today she felt irritable with it.
"Shoo! Go away! Get!" she shouted at it. The stag just cocked its head.
Lily got up from her boulder and ran towards it, hoping to scare it away. Instead it just stared at her as if she was acting incredibly stupid.
"Fine," Lily said, sitting back on her boulder, "you won't leave, I'll just ignore you." With that she stared determinedly forward.
The stag pawed the ground restlessly behind her, until Lily turned around.
"Oh, fine!" she said, "Do you really want to know why I'm here?"
The stage inclined its head, as if wanting to know more.
"I'm lost!" Lily said, "And I have no clue how to get back. I'm freezing my butt off and I'm starving. There, happy?"
The stag bounded back into the forest.
"That was real nice!" she screamed at it, "Yeah, just go on back to your stupid stag friends and tell them about how stupid Lily Evans got lost in the woods. Just ignore the poor shivering girl over here!"
You know it can't hear you.
"Shut up," she told the voice before sitting down on her boulder again. "Stupid stag, I shoulda skinned it and made a coat," she muttered. "I oughta go back and find it and sk—." Lily stopped in the middle of her sentence. She could have sworn she heard someone calling her name.
"LILY! LILY! IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, SAY SOMETHING!" somebody called.
"HELLO? HELLO! I'M OVER HERE!" she yelled back, frantic for rescue.
James Potter stepped into the clearing, the cold moonlight illuminating his worried face.
"James!" she cried, jumping over the boulder and running into his arms, completely unaware of what she was doing.
"Er, Lily? I can't breathe," he said after a few minutes in the bone-crushing embrace.
"Oh! Sorry," Lily muttered and pulled back. Her cheeks turned bright red as an awkward silence overtook them.
"Should we go then?" James said after a few minutes.
"Yes! I'm sick of this forest, I'm cold, and I'm hungry!" Lily said eagerly.
"Well if you're cold then use my cloak," he said, taking the cloak off of his shoulders and placing it on Lily's.
Lily had a fleeting memory of a muggle movie in which a boy had done something similar to his girlfriend, but Lily brushed it away.
Oh come on! You know you like him, the voice said, but Lily ignored it.
James walked her out of the forest, through the castle, and to the common room.
"Good night," he said.
"Night," she said, and before she could stop herself, she kissed him on the cheek.
Blushing furiously, she ran up the stairs to her dormitory, yanked open the door, and flopped on her bed.
I told you so, the voice said triumphantly.
This time Lily didn't ignore it or deny it. She simply smiled and went to sleep.
A/N: Well, there you have it. I actually got this idea from a Stephen King novel (The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon) only Lily isn't lost for two weeks, only two hours. I think we all know that Harry often talks to himself. Now we know which parent he got it from. Remember to review!
