Disclaimer – I am disclaiming. Not claiming. It is not mine. If you recognise it, it's not mine. Unless you recognise it from any chapter beforehand, obviously. If I say it's not mine, it's not mine. Basically, it's not mine. Use that as a rule of thumb.

Chapter 2: Lessons with Potter

Previously: Lily groaned and rolled over. Potter would have something to say about that too. He 'loved' her. Aargh! She just couldn't take this any more. This term she would do something about it, even if it meant sinking to James' level. She was a person who was depended on now, by Dumbledore himself! She fell asleep.

Lily groaned. She had been asleep all night! Of course, that wasn't exactly an unusual experience, but usually she was in her pyjamas.

'Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Tired. Not good. School. Even worse. James Potter! Worst of all! He has to go and tire me out so that I'll be late for … let's see … POTIONS! Oh no… Potter! It's so unfair. I try to like him, when he's being mature and nice, and I try and ignore his stupid times, and then he goes and does something annoying like this… I can't help it any more! I'm not going to try and ignore his stupidity and focus on all his good points any more, I'll just see if I like him without trying, and if I don't, then… well, I don't.'

She stopped, thought about what she'd just said, and shook her head. She spoke such rubbish in the mornings.

She washed her face and brushed her hair, changed her robes, praised some deity and Sarah's nagging for her bag already being packed, and ran down the staircase, out of the portrait hole, and down the stairs three at a time to the Great Hall, where she noticed that Sarah was just starting her breakfast. Realisation sunk in.

'You did the old change-the-time-on-my-alarm-clock thing again, didn't you?'

'You don't get up otherwise.'

'I hate you.'

'Your robes are on back-to-front.'

'Yippee.'

'Eat something.'

'I hate breakfast.'

'I know. Now eat.'

Lily resigned herself to the inevitable, poured herself some orange juice, and took herself a nectarine and a sharp knife. She started to cut up the fruit, glaring at Sarah, when Caroline came down.

'Hello, my little cherubim.'

'What d'you want?'

'That nectarine.'

'There's a bowl of them right there. And next to it is some horribly sweet cereal you'll probably like.'

'Coco Pops! Yummy!' Caroline sat down and started eating the cereal and fruit in turns.

'Caroline, that's gross,' said Sarah, looking up from her egg and sausage, 'The juice is falling in the milk.'

'You're eating meat for breakfast, and you're calling me gross?'

'Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Therefore it should be large and strong. I have orange juice and bread, too, so it's pretty balanced.'

'That is not nice.'

'You are not nice, but I don't say it to your face. You've insulted my breakfast now.'

'You just did.'

'Huh?'

'Say it to my face.'

'You just insulted my breakfast.'

'You just said that!'

'Guys. Shut up. This is a stupid quarrel, about breakfast. It should not be taking place. We've all finished, and here comes Suzie now. Suzie! Over here!'

Once Suzie had finished her breafast, all four girls trudged off, and arrived, a few minutes later, with Lily's robes on the right way round, in the Potions Lab. Lily hated Potions. It wasn't that they had a nasty teacher, in fact, he was nice, and inclined to favouritism, and Lily was one of his favourites. But they had it with the Slytherins, who disliked Muggleborns, or 'Mudbloods'. Lily was Muggleborn, and therefore could expect snide remarks and insults from the Slytherins.

But she was good at potions, in fact; she was good at all lessons. She managed to keep awake in History of Magic, with Professor Binns, and take notes, which is more than could be said of her friends. In fifth year Transfiguration she had managed to Vanish kittens while the others were still on snails, and so on. Professor McGonagall, their transfiguration teacher, had been so pleased with Lily that she let her have one of the kittens, so from then on she had a cat, Janie.

Before Lily could team up with Suzie,James came over. Professor Slughorn came over to write down the pairs.

'Potter and Evans. You're a lucky boy, Potter! Evans is very good at Potions, aren't you, girl?'

Lily blushed, smiled and shrugged, all at the same time. She wasn't good at taking praise, and never had been. 'Er… not…really…I mean…'

'Don't be silly, girl! You're one of the best in the class!' Professor Slughorn swept past, taking down the names of other pairs.

'He's right, you know.'

'Who, Slughorn?'

'Yes. I'd say that you are the best in Potions in the class, actually.'

Lily blushed again. 'I'm not, and you know that. Snape is better than me,' James snorted, and Lily looked at him sharply, '…and he's not the only one.'

'They're only better than you when they're paired with you.'

'Don't try and flatter me like this, please.'

'I don't need to flatter you – just telling the truth is nice enough.'

Lily blushed harder, 'James!'

James looked up sharply. They normally used the other's surname, rather than first name, but he wasn't going to comment.

'All right then. If you don't want to be told how marvellous you are...'

Lily frowned.

'James, I will partner with you, but just for the sake of my sanity, please do not try to annoy me or patronise me, and please let the conversation subject matter be Pride and Prejudice. Sarah keeps going on about Emma and I'm sick and tired of hearing about it.'

'Fine. Isn't it utterly hilarious when Mr Collins proposes and Mr Bennett tells Lizzie that her mother has said she will either never speak to her again if she doesn't marry Mr Collins, but Mr Bennett will never speak to her again if she does?'

Lily laughed, 'Yes, and then when Mr Collins tells their Aunt in Meryton that her hall was almost as nice as one of the smaller summer parlours at Rosings Park. And he meant it as a compliment!'

'The best bit is when Mr Bennet asks Mr Collins if he makes up all his compliments on the spot, or if they are a result of prior study, and Mr Collins says that he does like to pass the time making some up for different occasions.'

'Do you make up your compliments in advance, Potter?'

'No!'

'Perhaps you should, they never really work, do they?'

'Hey!'

Lily spent the rest of the lesson talking in-depth about the characters of her favourite novel with someone who knew as much about it as she did herself, and ended up a lot happier than she had been at the start of the lesson.

Lily had her tactics for stopping James beingtoo annoying, but unfortunately they only worked when they were having a conversation, and never else. Otherwise she would use them all the time, and the common room would be a quieter, happier place. They were mostly warnings of the 'Sure, I'll talk to you, but if you do something that you know will annoy me than I will go away. OK?' kind. She actually liked his company most of the time; he was witty and amusing, but then Sirius Black would be really immature, after seeing the pair of them talking, and would start a group of people on a 'Lily-and-Ja-ames, sitting-in-a-tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G' chant.

Then she'd get snipey at James and stop talking to him (even though it usually wasn't his fault), and then she'd feel really guilty, but she'd be too proud to say sorry.

She could only tell Sarah and Janie some things, and one of them was she actuallyliked James. The trouble was that she'd then see him in the middle of a prank, or when he was being immature or arrogant, and she'd think, No, Irritating Prat alert, I don't like someone like this, and she'd lose her sense of humour and fire up at him. It was stupid of her, really. She should stop it.

'Sirius! What are you doing?' exclaimed James as he came into his dorm.

'Oh, sorry, I should have asked. I need to go to the kitchensand get some food – I'm starving,' was the explanation. James thoughtof the meal they'd just eaten and snorted, but Sirius didn't appear to notice. 'So can I use your cloak?' Sirius looked up at him hopefully.

'Fine. But get out of my trunk.'

Sirius was too near the bottom of the trunk for his liking, because the bottom of the trunk was where he kept all his Lily stuff, which was a stupid box of stuff he kept in case she never spoke to him again after school ended.

'Honestly, Prongs, it's like you're trying to hide something. Was it these?' James inhaled sharply. He should have hidden it better!

Sirius held up a nearly empty bag of Honeydukes sweets, and took one. James could feel himself deflating with relief.

'Hey, Padfoot! Yes, it was. Pass me one, and get out of there. You borrowed my cloak yesterday,so it's probably still in that disgusting cesspit that you callyour trunk,' James said, acting irritated.

'Oh yeah, thanks!' said Sirius chirpily, ignoring the insult with more self-restraint than James knew he contained. Irritated at the lack of response, James bopped him on the head as he got up.

Well, at least Sirius hadn't seen any of his stuff. It was mostly just stupid things, notes she'd passed him or mementos of times she'd been really nice to him. One thing was a card she'd written him. Inside she had written, 'You're a prat. I hate you and wish you would leave me alone.' The picture on the front was nice, and it was one of the longest samples of her handwriting he had, so he kept it.

But one thing was really dumb. It was a sheet of parchment, and although it had cost even more than his SilverArrow, he'd bought it becausethe words on it summed up to him exactly what went on between him and Lily. It was the original draft of Greensleeves, or Greeneyes, as he called it, only the first verse and chorus.

'Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have lovèd you so long,
Delighting in your company.

Greeneyes was all my joy
Greeneyes was my delight,
Greeneyes was my heart of gold,
And all for my lady Greeneyes. . .'

To get the full effect, you have to sing it, or imagine James singing it. Perhaps with a lute. I have to say, though, Greensleeves is a beautiful song, and I think it sort of suits Lily and James at this stage. This is the second version of the second chapter, which I think displays a rather nice symmetry. I hope you enjoyed it, because I really did like writing it. It seemed to work a lot better than before.

And I would like to say a great big thankyou to my Beta, and account-sharer, Hepsa. Oh, and my Gamma, if there is such a term, Lamia. Hepsa is a great Beta, sees all the little things that don't make much sense, and changes my grammar, just like some sort of benevolent English teacher fairy, and Lamia just tells me it doesn't make sense, and why, and then I write it again, and Hepsa Betas it, and then it works! Yay!

And then I post it and you read it, and you review it. Please.

Larka :)