A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. I hope, now, my story is up to better standards. Thank you to: ellie, Madame-S-Butterfly and emerald-eyed-stag for reviewing.

Chapter 12 - A Lesson to Remember

Lily walked quickly to the oval where she was meant to meet Jesse and Claudia, her Ravenclaw friends at eleven o'clock for a catch up. She hadn't spoken to them in ages and she felt really bad about it.

Jesse had thick blonde brown hair and large chocolate brown eyes. She could talk for hours on end and loved gossip.

Claudia had long, frizzy black hair; she had olive skin colour and brown eyes. She, being in Ravenclaw, was really smart and got good grades in everything she did. She was a perfectionist.

Lily loved talking to them because they weren't in the same house as her and they would listen to her problems and help her out. She loved doing the same if they had problems; it made her feel like she'd made a difference.

'Hey Lily,' they greeted her.

'Hey guys, it's great to see you, we haven't spoken in ages,' she said.

'Tell me about it,' said Jess as she sat down on a bench.

'What's new, Lily?' Claudia asked, always to the point.

'So much has happened, I danced with James in the couples dance and we seem to be getting along really well at the moment,' she said.

'Why is it,' started Jess, 'that all your problems are to do with James or the Marauders?'

'I which they weren't,' she laughed. 'I wish I was like a normal person who liked them but didn't know them at all,' she said.

'Like us?'

'Hey! You know James and all them,' she said.

'Yeah, like we know him. You so have to introduce us,' Claudia laughed.

Jess snorted, 'yeah and then my life goals would be complete.'

They all laughed. Another thing about Jess was she was very sarcastic and was proud of her sarcastic abilities.

'So you like him?' Claudia said after the laughter died down.

'I don't know, I know I don't hate him anymore. I think I'm on the thin line between like and dislike, which is weird.'

They laughed again.

'I am serious though!' she said, one more thing about these two was that sometimes they could never take things seriously. Lily waited once more for the laughter to die down and crossed her arms.

'Come on guys, you have to help me!'

'No can do, we don't think it's weird,' said Jess, 'everyone except the people who like James wants you to be together.'

'So you're not going to help me?' she said standing up, ready to leave the minute she answered "no".

'No.'

Sixth Year Students,

Apparition Lessons begin in two weeks from today.

Only students who are to turn seventeen this year will be able to begin learning Apparition for the twelve week course.

Professor McGonagall

The notice about Apparition lesson's about to start caused a flurry of excitement in Hogwarts. The whole group was looking forward to learning Apparition and it was all people could talk about for the next few days.

'Transfiguration next guys,' Isy said, they all took it Transfiguration.

'We haven't had Transfiguration for ages,' Sirius commented.

'Tell me about it, it's been like three days,' said James.

They all trotted off to the class listening to Emma and Sirius argue about the most trivial things. It was getting quite common.

'No Lily was saying pass the salt and you wouldn't, end of story!' shouted Emma.

'James was talking to me,' Sirius argued back, 'how was I meant to hear her?'

'You need a hearing aid.'

'You need a chill pill.'

'Would you both be quite, it doesn't matter I got the salt in the end!' Lily shouted.

They were silent after that, the next time Lily turned around they had fallen behind because they were kissing.

'I will never figure out you two,' James laughed.

They were doing theory work in Transfiguration that lesson, which didn't earn points for McGonagall, they wanted practical.

'When don't you want practical?' she had argued and silence them all. No one wanted to argue with her and end up with a detention.

Sirius tried to stop laughing at the guy on the other side of the classroom. His girlfriend was breaking up with him and everyone could hear it. Most people didn't find it funny, but Sirius and James were trying to hold in their laughter.

'Sirius!' Emma said when she looked at what they were laughing at. 'You shouldn't laugh at that. Poor Raymond, his father's in hospital at the moment too.'

'Who do you know everything?'

'I make it my business to know,' she said coolly.

'James! Don't laugh at him,' Lily said, she had just noticed that Emma wasn't copying the work off the board and wanted to know why.

'I think it's funny, you should hear the reasons why she's breaking up with him,' he said, which only increased her reasoning of why she thought James was an insensitive prat. She wanted to date him and then break up with him in front of everyone listing the reasons why.

'Miss Evans, would you stop your talking! I think I might put you on detention,' barked McGonagall, standing over Lily. 'Look at this you haven't even written the next paragraph because you were talking!'

James felt sick, Lily was going to get her first detention and it was all because of him.

'Professor, this wasn't Lily's fault,' he said.

'And how would that work out?'

James gulped, he hadn't thought of any reason at all. He was thinking so fast he couldn't even understand what he was thinking. That was it!
'She was helping me understand,' he said.

'Understand?'

'The work, I mean,' he said. He was so stupid he could nearly laugh at himself.

'James, please don't tell me you don't understand the work, you are one of my best students,' she said, her lips thinning.

'Yeah, I don't understand the whole thing about how he got stuck in the position when he was trying to learn how to become an Animagi,' he said, thinking quickly, 'and Lily, here, was just helping me understand it.'

'Well,' she said. 'I'm not sure I believe you, but I cannot prove this isn't true so I will believe you. Innocent until proven guilty.'

Lily smiled at James; he could do something for someone if he wanted to. 'Thanks,' she mouthed silently at him.

'That's ok, I think I get it now,' he said out loud, chuckling at his own little joke.

'Detention Mr. Potter for laughing unnecessarily in class and while I am speaking, this just might help you understand what you were having problems with before,' she said.

James slapped himself mentally; he had saved Lily from detention and earned himself one, great.

'James, wait up!' Lily called after class. She tapped him on the shoulder, pulling him away from the conversation he was having with Sirius and Emma.

'I just wanted to thank you,' she said, blushing, she was actually thanking James for something. 'You're not so insensitive after all.'

He grinned, that detention was so worth it now. The next class he had was Divination and he was going to walk in there with positive thoughts, ready to take on the Professor's predictions about him dying tomorrow.

He kept grinning all through dinner, even when Emma and Sirius started to fight again, this time over Sirius is a pig when he eats too much and Emma is eying guys and flirting with them.

His mind was now constantly on Lily, he was in "Lily mode" as Remus called it. Nothing could dampen his mood, not even a plate of food being flung at his face. It was meant to hit Sirius, but Emma had missed. Sirius had got Emma square in the face, and so the food fight began, and Emma and Sirius joined James for detention that night.