Dumbledore was sitting in his desk humming a little tune when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" Dumbledore cried.

Lily Evans entered the headmaster's office looking miserable and weak. Her eyes were red from so much crying. Albus Dumbledore stared at her with his piercing blue eyes. A normal person would have seen Lily as she was right now, a teenager in distress, with no real beauty or force in her. Dumbledore, however, was not a normal person. He could see Lily better than anyone else. She was having a difficult time but that was going to make her stronger in the future. The headmaster knew that, one day, Lily would be a great witch. He was proud to have such a fine student in his school.

"Miss Evans?"

Lily simply nodded.

"I gather you know why you're here?"

Again the girl nodded silently.

"Good. Now, Miss Evans, would you be kind enough to tell me last night's events?"

Lily licked her lips nervously. She had been expecting this of course. But telling someone everything in details would just recall horrible memories, memories she had tried to blank out of her mind. Now she was forced to put them back and form them into words.

"Well, you see, she began her voice shaking, last night Alice and I went for a walk."

Dumbledore gestured her to go on. Lily knew there was no point in lying.

"It was after midnight and we weren't really allowed to be out of our common-room this late."

Dumbledore sighed.

"I see, Miss Evans, that you had forgotten one rule of this school. I will forgive you completely for I know you didn't mean any trouble. But you seem to remember the rules now so we will not make any fuss, shall we?"

Lily smiled gratefully at the headmaster

"Thank you, professor, I will try to keep in mind to stay in the common-room after midnight."

Dumbledore smiled too. What amazed him was that the students still hadn't realised he always knew much more than he showed. So, to see if Lily wasn't going to hide anything from him he asked her a question. The question Lily had dreaded to hear and had felt coming.

"Miss Evans, may I ask you what you were doing in the grounds so late at night?"

Lily looked down at her feet.

"Well you see, she mumbled, I wanted to know what four boys of my form were doing every night. So I forced Alice to come with me and spy on them."

Dumbledore was satisfied. He had seen threw Lily Evans all right. She wasn't going to lie.

"I assumed these 'four' boys were Mister Potter and his friends?"

Lily looked up. She was stunned. She had been prepared for everything, even for being expelled. But for this she hadn't prepared and she didn't think she would have ever been prepared!

"Miss Evans, Dumbledore went on kindly, your liking for Mister James Potter is quite understandable, don't worry."

Lily went red. She tried to hide it in her anger. Lily always had a good way to hide her true feelings.

"I do not like him, professor, she cried indignantly, he's such a git I wouldn't even consider liking him!

Dumbledore chuckled.

"Why won't you just consider and see what happens? If my sources are right, Mister Potter is quite keen on you. And he isn't stupid, Lily, he's certainly as clever as you are!"

Lily stood up abruptly. She didn't even notice the smile on Dumbledore's face or the fact that he had just called her by her first name! She felt insulted to feel James Potter could be anything but underneath her!

"If you call cursing people and always fooling around clever, well, then your praise isn't much worth!"

Dumbledore glanced at the portraits behind Lily. The old headmasters seemed horrified that a student could behave like that! Fancy shouting into the headmaster's face!

"Oh, boys take a very long time to mature, I'm sure you know, Dumbledore said, and one day he'll change and you'll feel differently."

What Dumbledore didn't know was that James Potter was already changing and Lily Evans was already feeling differently …

- -

Author's note: I admit it this chapter kind of sucks, I'll do by best for the next one. And don't worry Dumbledore does care about Alice even if he didn't seem to be worried at all. But that's because Dumbledore is a great wizard and maybe he has a little idea in his mind …