Disclaimer: All the characters that you recognize belong to J. K. Rowling. The plot of this story was greatly inspired by the movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

Author's Note: Thanks to onesmartgoalie, potterchik, JPx3LE, pyscho-pyro-shrink, iloveCedric, lovin potter, marrokinhas, hoolihoopgrl131, zuska1985, Aria Sparks, R, lizziee, lilydarling, sequin, thehalfbloodprincess, Miss Myrtle360, jessi, silly2, featherfinger, koolkatkt123, Avalon Star, puppyluva, rayolis, RubyBinds, and lillypad123 for reviewing! You are all amazing!

Lily lazily swirled her cereal around in her bowl as she rested her chin in her left hand. She was staring down at the cereal, but not in the way she usually does. She wasn't observing it, as if she were a scientist researching the food; instead, she was looking at it with dazed eyes. She couldn't concentrate on anything; she'd tried to pay attention to her friends talking, but found it impossible. Instead, Lily zoned out of the conversation and into her own world; one that was perfect.

Truth be told, she was thinking of James; a thought that she hadn't been able to get out of her mind since the previous night. Everywhere she looked, she imagined his smiling face and beautiful hazel eyes. She could clearly picture his laugh; strong and confident. Just thinking about the way he teased her brought a smile to her face.

"Lily, earth to Lily," Sam said, snapping her fingers in front of Lily's face.

"Huh?" she asked, focusing in on her two best friends.

"Do you have any plans with James tonight?" Sam questioned.

"Um, no, not yet," Lily answered.

"Well, don't let him off the hook," Kelsey warned her. "If you give a guy just one night of freedom, he'll start to think that you're not so bad."

"Um, right," Lily replied, hoping her voice sounded somewhat confident.

To Lily's dismay, her voice didn't convey the proper effect and Kelsey asked, "Lils, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she responded.

"Are you sure? You've been acting kind of spacey," Sam commented.

"Yeah, everything's fine," Lily replied, picking up her spoon and taking a bite of her soggy cereal. "Everything's great."

"If you say so," Sam muttered before going back to munching on a piece of toast.

Just then, the bell for class rang and the three girls grabbed their books and headed out of the Great Hall. They were among hundreds of students, all trying to get to class on time, so the halls were very crowded. Of course, they were quite used to that, as it happened everyday.

Usually, they didn't mind of they were a couple minutes late, seeing as the professors also had to battle their way out of the Great Hall. Today, however, they were supposed to begin their day with Transfiguration. Needless to say, Professor McGonagall was by far the strictest member of the faculty. She always arrived twenty minutes before class began and expected her students to be prompt as well. She even went as far as issuing detentions to students who had a habit of coming to class late.

Once the three girls arrived to class, they took their usual seats; Lily and Sam sat together at one table and Kelsey and a Hufflepuff girl named Sarah sat directly to their right. As Lily gathered her textbook, parchment, ink, and quill from her bag, she noticed the Marauders enter the classroom. The four boys were all laughing at something; Lily could only guess it had something to do with a prank.

She felt her stomach begin to flutter as James walked in her direction. Any other day, Lily would have shot daggers from her eyes, warning him not to sit anywhere within ten feet of her. Today, however, she looked up at him and smiled. Their eyes locked for a moment and Lily felt her breathing stop. His eyes were vivid with life, an aspect that made her heart speed up.

James flashed her a grin as he took a seat at the table directly in front of her, Sirius sitting down next to him. She watched as he slightly leaned back in his chair, making it stand on its two back legs. His fingers lightly held onto the table in front of him, just to support his balance.

Lily tried not to stare, but was failing miserably. Every time she attempted to refocus her gaze, her eyes always wandered back to him. As the light from the window shined in on him, he appeared to be magical, as if he was sent from the Heavens above. Her heart jumped, he looked so irresistible.

"Class, settle down," Professor McGonagall sternly said from behind her desk. Her lips were pursed together, her hair done in its tight bun, and her glasses made her eyes look tiny.

At her words, the entire class immediately hushed. James sat forward in his chair, knowing not to mess around in McGonagall's class, despite the fact that she adored her star student.

"Now, class, today we will begin transfiguring rats into horses," McGonagall informed her seventh year students. "The process, although very different from Animagi, is a large jumping stone between what we have previously been doing and becoming Animagi…. Now, if you will all open your textbooks to page ninety-two, you will see a detailed diagram of what you are supposed to do. I want you all to practice using the rats at your tables. I will walk around the classroom to see how you are all doing, and in about fifteen minutes I'll have someone demonstrate for the entire class to see."

With that said, the seventh year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students went to work. Lily opened up her book a studied the diagram for a moment, memorizing the wand movements.

However, she was distracted when she heard James mumble to Sirius, "This should be a piece of cake. I wish she'd give us something at least a little challenging."

Lily frowned for a moment; he was so full of himself sometimes. Yet, she couldn't see to get enough of him. It was his cockiness that showed confidence and power; two characteristics that she found irresistible in a man.

She sighed, now completely ignoring her textbook. Why was she doing this to herself? Why did she suddenly find James so attractive? Why was she suddenly so drawn to him?

She tried to find answers to her questions, but couldn't. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She wasn't supposed to fall for James Potter. She was supposed to drive him away, not start to like him.

Lily watched as James casually flicked his wand toward the white rat, which instantly turned into a valiant white horse. She smiled; it was as if he were her knight in shining armor and the horse his noble steed, just as she used to dream about when she was a child. Lily stared at him as he turned to Sirius and elbowed him in the side before pointing to his magnificent transfiguration job.

"Miss Evans," McGonagall snapped, forcing Lily out of her imaginary world and back into reality.

"Yes Professor?"

"Show me what you've got so far," McGonagall instructed.

Lily bit her lip and she could feel her heart race. Crap. She didn't know anything about the transfiguration assignment; she was too busy observing James. Her eyes darted to her textbook for a moment as she tried to mentally capture the wand movements and pronunciation of the spell.

"Eculeus mus muris," Lily said as she pointed her wand toward her own rat. She was almost afraid to look at what her wand created, but swallowed her dignity and opened her eyes to see the odd-looking creature. It was tall and had four sturdy legs, just as horses do. However, its face was very much the face of a rat, as was its tail.

"Miss Evans, I'm surprised, you usually get these ones right away," McGonagall said, her tone revealing her disappointment.

Lily scrunched her nose for a moment and frown appeared on her face. She hated disappointing teachers, almost as much as she hated disappointing herself. Lily let out a sigh, and then used her wand to re-transform the odd-looking creature back into a rat.

"You okay, Lily?" James asked, leaning back in his chair to talk with her.

Lily felt her entire face flush. Fuck. James saw her major mistake.

"Fine," she snapped.

Class carried on as it normally did; James was chosen to demonstrate the transfiguration spell to the entire class, which he did with excellence. After that, McGonagall went into a long lecture, telling the seventh year students everything that they would ever need to know about the spell.

Still, Lily found it extremely difficult to concentrate. She saw the words coming out of McGonagall's mouth, but couldn't keep her brain focused on what they actually meant. Instead, she was thinking about James, again. She couldn't get him out of her mind, despite how hard she was trying.

The real dilemma about the situation was concerning her plan to drive him away. Could she keep up with the act? Better yet, did she really want to keep up with the plan? Sure, it was fun to see him suffer. But at the same time, her heart was warming up to him and she felt bad about it. The times that she and James spent together, where she was being her normal self, were priceless. She adored every moment of it. In fact, looking back on it, Lily realized that she had more fun with James during their one game of Quidditch than she did in her entire life.

Lily was distracted from her thoughts concerning James when she felt Sam jab her in the side. She whipped her head toward her friend, only to find Sam pointing at a hovering sheet of parchment settled in front of Lily.

Narrowing her eyes, Lily took the paper in her hands. She recognized the handwriting at once; it was from James.

Do you have any plans tonight?

Lily bit her lower lip as she showed it to Sam, motioning that James had sent it. In return, Sam ripped a piece of parchment from her own notebook and scribbled a note. Basically, it read that she thought it would be a perfect opportunity to mess with James's mind.

Lily sighed, hating that her friends were so keen on her losing James. She wasn't sure if she could tell them the truth though. She couldn't tell that she was starting to develop feelings for James. Instead, she bottled up her feelings and grinned at Sam, as if to tell her she was thinking the same thing.

Lily then dipped her quill in her ink bottle and wrote a reply back to James, telling him she didn't have any plans at all. She watched as the ink disappeared before her eyes and knew that it reappeared in front of James.

A second later, another note from James arrived.

Meet me in front of Gryffindor at 7:00 tonight. I know a great place that I know you'll love. And before you go jumping to conclusions, we won't be breaking any school rules by being there.

She smiled as she wrote back to him, telling him that seven o'clock worked for her. She loved how he knew her so well. His addition about rule breaking made her heart swell up to ten times its normal size; he cared about her, she could tell.

---

Seven o'clock couldn't have come any sooner for Lily. Throughout the entire day, she hadn't seen James at all, apart from class, and still had no clues as to what they were doing that night. Her stomach flip-flopped as she stood outside the portrait hole that led to Gryffindor common room. She was antsy, although she wasn't quite sure why. She never felt nervous when she was with James; he had that appeal to him, one that made him feel like more than just a boyfriend, but a best friend too.

Once she saw his smiling face as he rounded the corner, all of her worries went away. She was with him now; safe within his watch.

"Care to join me?" he charmingly asked, extending his arm for her to grasp.

Lily only laughed, adoring what a goof ball he was at times. Yet, she took his outstretched arm anyways, allowing him to lead her to their destination.

"I hope you like it," James told her as they made their long journey to the seventh floor corridor.

"James, where are we going?" Lily hesitantly asked, absentmindedly looking around at the different portraits on the wall.

"It's a surprise," he replied, a sharp grin appearing on his face.

"I'm scared," she jokingly said.

"I'm hurt," he countered. "You don't trust me enough to pick out a nice place to have a date with my lovely girlfriend?"

"Honestly?" she teasingly asked. "Nope."

"Hey, I'm very hurt," he lightheartedly informed her, placing one of his hands across his heart. "I'll have you know I spent hours thinking about this."

"Hours?"

"Okay, well, maybe not hours," he sheepishly answered. "But all during my shower this morning and during Transfiguration."

"Oh, I got shower time," she teased, raising her eyebrows suggestively. She knew it was a lame shot at being funny, but couldn't help herself.

To her delight, James grinned at her and remarked, "Only a little."

Lily threw her head back and laughed. She adored the way that they were able to joke with each other, especially when it concerned humor that many others wouldn't find enjoyable.

"Seriously though, are we almost there?" she asked.

"We're here," he answered, coming to a halt.

Lily glanced around, but didn't see anything remotely interesting. To her left, there was a portrait of Barnabas the Barmy trying to teach trolls to dance the ballet. To her right, there was nothing, just a solid wall.

"Um, James," she began. "I like spending time with you and all, but we're standing in the middle of a corridor."

"That's what you think," he told her with a grin. "Now, just stand there."

She did as she was told and skeptically watched as James strolled in front of the blank wall three times. "James, what are you doing?"

"You'll see," he answered as he finished his final walk.

Instantly a small door appeared on the formerly blank wall. James stepped forward and opened the door, taking Lily's hand to lead her inside.

Once inside, Lily's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. It was as if they were outside instead of in the dreary castle walls. She was amazed at what she was seeing; a roaring fire stood in the middle of the room. Surrounding it were log benches, making a perfect circle around the tall fire. The floor was made up of dirt, just like any campsite might have. Lily looked up, only to reveal a starry sky.

"James, this is amazing," she stated as she took a step into the room. She could feel the heat from the fire radiate onto her skin, making her feel warm inside.

"You really like it?" he asked.

"I love it," she answered, flashing him a giant smile.

"I wasn't sure if you would," he informed her. "I know a lot of girls hate being outside where they might get a little dirty."

"Since when have I been like most girls?" she teased.

"Never," he replied, taking her hand and leading her toward one of the log benches. They sat down next to each, despite the fact that there was room on all sides of the blazing fire.

"Question," she said.

"Shoot."

"Since when has Hogwarts had an outside room in it?" she curiously asked.

"It doesn't," he cheekily answered.

"James."

"I'm not lying," he replied. "This is called the Room of Requirement, but you can't tell anyone about it."

"I won't," Lily responded before asking, "How does it work?"

"It's really quite simple," James stated. "It can transform into anything the user needs it to be, but only if that person really craves it."

"Is that why you were walking around outside it?" she asked.

"Yeah, you need to walk past it three times and think really hard about what you need," James replied.

"This is so cool," she told him, her eyes widening as she spoke.

"I know," he agreed before grabbing a small bag from behind the log. "Now, I've heard about this muggle food called Mores, you want one?"

"Mores?" Lily asked, a bewildered look on her face.

"Yeah, Mores," James said. "My dad and I had them once when we went camping with a muggle friend of his. They're really good, probably the best muggle food in the entire world."

"James, I hate to break it to you, but there's no such thing as Mores," she laughed.

"I'm serious," he insisted. "You obviously just don't get out of your muggle house much."

She gave him a doubtful look, but asked, "What's in these Mores?"

"Well, you take a marshmallow and you put it on a stick and toast it over the fire," he explained, demonstrating while he spoke. "Then, once it's done, you put it on a graham cracker with bits of chocolate."

"You mean a S'more," Lily laughed. She loved it when pureblood wizards made stupid mistakes like that, it always brought a smile to her face.

"Are you sure?" he jokingly asked.

"Positive," she replied before adding, "Now hand over a marshmallow."

James did as he was told and passed Lily the bag of marshmallows and a large stick to roast it on. As he was passing the bag, his hand lightly touched hers and he felt a shiver run through his body. He immediately whipped his hand back, although looking back, he wasn't sure why. It wasn't the first time he had ever touched Lily's hand, nor would it have led to their first kiss. Yet, he still felt a shock run through his body just from lightly touching her smooth skin.

Acting as if nothing happened at all, Lily placed a marshmallow on her stick and let it toast over the fire's high flames. She slightly turned to face James and asked, "So, how did you discover this place?"

"The beginning of sixth year," he answered.

"I'm surprised," she began. "I thought you and the rest of your friends figured out all the secret spots to the castle way back in first year."

"All but this one," he joked, although it was completely true.

"How'd you come across it though?"

"Well, it was Halloween," James started. "So, of course, we needed to pull some sort of prank; it wouldn't be Halloween without one. We devised a plan to charm these fake, but very realistic looking, bats to fly around the castle and swoop down on anyone who wasn't enjoying Halloween. Naturally, it attacked Filch. But, to make it funny, we put in this orange goo stuff that will explode and scream bloody murder whenever it touches human flesh. So, not only did Filch have bats attacking him all night long, but he was drenched in the orange goo, which wouldn't stop screaming… It was pretty funny."

"Wait, that was you?" Lily asked, her eyes widening.

"Of course it was," he replied.

"That was bloody hilarious," she stated. "Although, I couldn't figure out why the bats were only attacking some people and not others."

"Well, now you know," he said.

"I guess so," she replied before saying, "Now, please, continue on with the story."

"Okay," he began. "To our brilliant luck, Filch saw Sirius and Peter wave their wands at one of the bats, making it grow vampire fangs, which meant he knew it was us. Of course, there was no way to prove that's what they were doing, but he's smart enough to figure out that they wouldn't be trying to help him clean up. Anyways, he started chasing after us and shouting he was going to get us expelled. We had a wild goose hunt around the entire castle. Finally, we came up here and must have ran by it a few times hoping that we could find a hide-out."

"Oh my god," Lily interrupted, watching him intently as he spoke.

"I know, we just barely got away," he replied before continuing with his story. "The next day, we wanted to go back to the room because we accidentally left our m--, something, behind. However, we couldn't find the room. So, we retraced all of our steps that night, thanks to Remus's great memory. Finally, we came up here and walked around a bit. Then, the next thing we know, a door appears."

"Wow," Lily said before narrowing her eyes on him and asking, "What did you leave behind?"

"I don't remember," he lied.

"Yes you do," she insisted. "You almost said it, something that begins with an 'm' sound."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"James."

"Okay, I can't tell you," he honestly said. "I wish I could, but I can't."

"How come?"

"Sirius, Remus, Peter, and I all made a pact that certain things stay between the four of us. It's one of those things," James replied.

"Okay," she said, dropping the subject immediately.

James stared at her for a moment, shocked at her reaction. He didn't think it would be this easy to convince her that he couldn't inform her about the Marauder's Map. In fact, he was sure it would take at least ten minutes, as opposed to the actual ten seconds. The Lily Evans he spent time with earlier that week, the crazy Lily, wouldn't have dropped the subject this easily. The Lily he was with now, however, was the amazing Lily that he grew to love as each second passed.

Suddenly, James was snapped back into reality when he heard Lily shout his name and jump up from her spot on the bench. She was pointing at the fire, and James immediately focused his attention in the direction of her finger.

"Oh shit," he gasped, his eyes widening as he spoke. His marshmallow was on fire. He took the stick out of the flame quickly and blew on it, hoping to extinguish the large flame.

"Careful," Lily said.

He blew again, but this time it only grew larger. "Fuck," he complained. He looked around the room, hoping to find something that might extinguish the flaming marshmallow.

To his luck, a bottle of water sat behind another log. He sprang toward it and opened the bottle's top with his teeth. He then sprayed the fluffy, burnt mess until the final flame was washed away.

"Well, I think I'm going to need a new marshmallow," he simply said as he sat back down on the log, as if nothing happened at all.

Lily smiled as she sat down next to him, their legs slightly touching. She picked up the bag of food and flung it toward him, smacking him lightly in the stomach.

"Thank you," he sweetly said as he plopped another marshmallow on his stick.

Lily, on the other hand, was completely finished toasting her marshmallow. She squeezed it off the stick and into the graham cracker before adding the final touch, a brick of chocolate. The chocolate began to melt at once; the heat from the gooey marshmallow radiating into the other food.

"Yum," she said as she took a bite out of the campfire snack.

"That looks good," James commented before looking into the fire at his own marshmallow, which wasn't even close to being finished.

"It is good," she replied.

"Mine isn't going to be down for a while," he stated, his stomach grumbling as he spoke.

"That's too bad," she teased before taking another bite of the sticky creation.

"You know, there's this new trend going around, have you heard of it? It's when people share food with their boyfriends," James said, hoping she would fall for his made-up story.

"Nice try," she replied. "Yours will be done soon."

"But yours is done now," he sweetly told her.

"Not going to happen," she said, although she wasn't able to hide her grin at all.

"Not even a little bit?"

"Nope."

"You know, it's people like you who give women a bad name," he joked.

"People like me? How so?"

"By not sharing food, and then being mean about it," he said, crossing his arms like a little child.

"Well, I think its people like you that give men a bad name," she countered. "By asking women for food."

James grinned at her and teased, "Not true."

She ignored his comment and nodded toward his marshmallow. "You might want to get that before it ends up like the other one."

James turned to see his marshmallow and instantly followed her advice, saving his precious food. He then made a S'more and gobbled it right down, which received a questioning look from Lily.

"What?' he asked.

"Did you even taste that?" she sarcastically asked.

"Of course," he answered as he licked the marshmallow goo off his fingers.

"You are one of a kind," Lily stated.

"Likewise," he replied as he continued to lick his fingers clean. After a few minutes passed, a thought suddenly came to James's mind. He cocked his head toward Lily and said, "I thought you were against eating sweets."

Oh shit. She was done for. James discovered her secret. He put two and two together; adding everything that occurred in Hogsmeade and right now. She had to think fast, she liked him too much to blow this opportunity. "Well, sweets every now and then are okay."

He gave her a doubtful look, but put it behind him. After all, she did drop the subject of the Marauder's Map, so he felt inclined to give her a break as well.

"James, this is really nice," Lily suddenly said, turning to look at him. When she did, their eyes met at once, locked in position. Lily was amazed at what she saw; the firelight made his hazel eyes come alive with passion. She saw everything she was looking for when she looked at him. The firelight echoed off his face, illuminating his features.

Similarly, James felt something spark inside him when he looked at Lily this time. She looked magical; her emerald eyes portraying the very essence of her peaceful, yet fiery attitude. She seemed to glow, as if she were an angel descending from Heaven. Never in his life did he ever see anyone look so beautiful. Her red hair hung loosely by her face, slightly tumbling over her shoulders. It was like a shadow though, only magnifying her precious face.

James wasn't sure if it was just the romantic atmosphere of the fire blazing before them combined with the tons of tiny stars above their heads, but he instantly knew he never wanted to be apart from Lily again. He loved her. Just sitting with her by the fire made his heart race with excitement.

"James," she whispered, trying to regain her voice.

"Lily," he whispered back.

"Kiss me," she demanded in a light voice.

Doing as he was told, James leaned forward and laid his lips upon Lily's. He ran his hands through her silky hair until they found their place around her waist. He pulled her onto his lap, making it easier for them both to engulf each other in their kisses.

James tasted her sweet lips, which were like magic to him. The softness that they provided was comforting to him, like they were meant to fit perfectly with his. He could feel from her every touch that she felt the same way about him that he did towards her. She loved him with all her heart, just as he did for her.

Soon enough, the young couple found themselves off the log bench and onto the dirt floor, slightly further away from the blazing fire. Still, it provided warmth for Lily and James, a radiating heat that warmed their bodies and hearts.

Lying down beside Lily, James broke away from her trembling lips for a moment and propped himself up on one elbow. "You're beautiful," he whispered, gently stroking her hair out of her face.

She smiled back at him and gazed into his warm eyes. She felt her heart hammering, but through his chest, she felt his beat at the same rate. It was a wonderful feeling for both Lily and James, their hearts beating as one unit, synchronized down to the millisecond.

Lily reached up and gently touched his cheekbone and ran her hand down the side of his face until she reached his jaw line. She didn't say anything, but her eyes told him that she adored him.

"Lils?" he asked.

She smiled and asked, "Yeah?"

"Promise me this won't ever end."

"I promise," she whispered. She let a moment pass before saying, "You called me Lils, not Lily."

"Is that okay?"

"It's more than okay," she answered.

James smiled down at her and laid another tender kiss on her lips. Never in his life had he ever had a night like this; it was amazing. He felt like a king, lying next to and kissing the most prized possession any man could dream about.

His kisses eventually trailed down her cheek and along her jaw, forcing a slight moan to be released from Lily's lips. He felt her heart speed up a bit more and saw her eyes flash open. She lifted her arms high above her head, her implications clear.

"Are you sure?' he asked.

"Positive," she whispered back before she felt his rough hands shimmy the cotton material of her shirt above her head.

He kissed her collarbone, leaving a trail of love across her exposed skin. It was at that moment that they both knew they would never experience a more enchanted moment in their entire lives. Nothing could be more magical than the blazing fire, providing a mere glimpse of light for the young couple as they professed their love.

Author's Note 2: Hi all! I hope you enjoyed chapter 12! I know it wasn't nearly as funny as the rest of the chapters, but the romantic business between Lily and James has finally gotten underway! Yay! Anyways, I am debating whether or not it would be worth my time/ interest anyone if I were to write an unedited version of this chapter and post it. Let me know if you would be interested in reading it by means of a review. Speaking of reviews, please review the chapters, it means the world to me when you do!