I am honestly desperately sorry that it has taken so long. I've been busy with school, but I've also been battling a very serious case of writer's block and lack of motivation. So here it is, probably the worst chapter I've ever written, but I think I just need to get past this transition from summertime to schooltime (in the story, I mean) and I'll be updating likea squirrel on a surfboard! (Doesn't make sense, I know...just go along with it!)

Note that we are no longer able to reply to reviews on here, so I'd just like to say a generic "Thanks!" to everyone whose read the first chapter and reviewed. You are the reason I feel so guilty for not having updated more quickly.

Chapter 2 - Everybody's Watching

The Welcoming Feast, although definitely the best meal Hogwarts served all year, also happened to be one of the most repetitive occurrences in Lily's life. She vaguely recalled the butterflies she had felt when she had been a first year. Oh gosh had she ever been nervous. The oddest part, though, was that, being a Muggleborn and all, she had no clue what there was to be so nervous about.

She remembered the shiver in her spine as the Professor with the cold voice had called her name. She had almost hesitated, unsure whether or not her name had, indeed, been announced. With a nudge from the person she had sat with on the train, Lily took a few shaky steps up the stairs that led to the teacher's platform and sat herself on the stool. Although Lily couldn't recall word for word what it was that old hat had said, she did remember that he had pondered, out loud, between placing her in Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

'What about Gryffindor?' she had asked. The girl with whom she had sat on the train had explained all the houses and their trademark characteristics and Lily had almost been sure she would have made Hufflepuff for she welcomed almost anything…that is until the hat had left out that house. The hat had explained to her that to be a Gryffindor, she had to be set in her ways, brave, loyal. Lily had argued, trying to drill into the hat's head (although he had none) that she could be loyal if she felt the person or cause was worthy. The hat had laughed. 'Definitely Sly-'

'No! I don't want to go in Slytherin.' Her decision was made. 'And why not?' The hat sounded amused. 'Because I am not a like those guys,' she nodded her head towards the said table, focusing all her thoughts on how cowardly they seemed. 'I am no coward.' She thought that over and over. Finally, the hat had sighed or something akin to it, and had said, 'You would do great in Slytherin, Lily Evans, you have the character for it. But, you also have heart, and are incredibly bright, as I can see...' Then it had spoken aloud. "Ra - Gryffindor!"

Lily sat at the Ravenclaw table, talking in hushed and excited tones with one of her Ravenclaw friends. Ravenclaws were nice, they really were, and Lily believed she liked them most out of all the other houses. In a way, she felt sort of guilty that she had been against going into Ravenclaw, but that guilt had faded and morphed into admiration for the house, and, at some points, envy. Gryffindor always won the Quidditch Cup, but Ravenclaw won the House Cup thrice in six years. Hufflepuff had won once, Slytherin too, and Gryffindor had miraculously gotten an extra five hundred points added at the end of last term and thus, had won. Dumbledore had explained that someone had done something so selfless, so brave and so worthy of praise, but that person refused to be known and so Dumbledore had decided to shower his or her house with points. The Marauders seemed dejected at it, though they had cheered just as loud as the rest of the table.

"James is coming," the brown eyed Ravenclaw, Lorenna, said. Lily smiled, excused herself, and stood.

"Are you coming or are you going to spend the feast here? Hi Lorenna," he added as an afterthought.

"Hello Potter." Lorenna turned her back to them and engaged herself in another conversation.

Lily smiled at James. She couldn't help it. He just looked so out of place standing near the Ravenclaw table. Not that James wasn't bright, quite the contrary, but he just seemed to encompass all those qualities that made Gryffindor so…Gryffindor-y. It's like red and gold light shot out of his head, his eyes, his arms…everywhere Gryffindor!

"Yes, I'll be sitting with my house, James. You?"

"What kind of question is that?" Fair enough. He was right, it was stupid of her to even think about asking. But see that was just it, she hadn't thought about asking, she had just asked it.

"Right. Well then, have fun!" She walked passed him, making sure that her shoulder rubbed against his arm. Then he grabbed her left hand and spun her around. Her heart fluttered. Great, now I'm a cheeseball.

"Lily Evans, I think you owe me something." His voice wasn't loud, but it was clear. Almost piercingly clear, that kind of voice that told you his mind was organized, the kind of voice that told you he was in control, he knew what he wanted, knew how to get it, and knew there was no other way but to get it.

Lily walked closer to him, looked only at him – at his eyes behind his glasses, to be exact – and said the first thing that came to her mind. Yes, Lily was quite the impulsive one, a trait that was both a part of Slytherin and Gryffindor, although Gryffindors were most often impulsive out of dire need, whereas Slytherins often found themselves impulsive due to change in their needs.

"I may be your girlfriend, Potter, but that doesn't mean I'm at your beck and call. You want something, get it for yourself!" What had come over her? Absolutely nothing, she reminded herself, it was simply her honest conviction. She was terrified that James would start acting like a complete jerk now that she was his girlfriend. Not that James ever said or did anything to make her feel that he would, she just…

Whatever she was about to think to herself was forever lost. Amidst her thought-rants, James had muttered, "Alright then," and had planted his lips on hers. Suddenly, Lily was aware of the fact that the Great Hall, all of it, was in dead silence. Honestly! You could almost hear the crickets chirping their discomfort. The silence reminded Lily of where she was – Hogwarts. If there was ever a place you could rely on for spreading rumours faster than lightning, Hogwarts was the place. Now, she knew the rumours about James and her dating would cease before they began; to her dismay actually, for she was sort of looking forward to laughing in people's faces about her supposed affair with Potter. The rumour was confirmed before it even started.

Someone cleared her throat. McGonagall. Who else? Lily turned, lips still attached to James', and faced the would-be terrified first years. They weren't terrified. They seemed to be making disgusted faces, as though catching two people kissing was the most stomach turning thing anyone could experience. She felt James' lips spread into a thin smile. Her lips twitched, and she was dying to laugh out loud, but she kept it in. McGonagall looked somewhere halfway between amused and furious, which made it even funnier. Dumbledore, Lily noticed, was getting ready to clap.

"He's gonna clap," James informed her as though he read her mind. It felt weird to have his lips move against hers as they formed words. Lily smiled, giggled even. Still, Lily's and James' lips did not part.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, your Head Girl and Head Boy!" Dumbledore bellowed good naturedly, eyes shining like the lake. He seemed to be enjoying this a little too much for Lily's comfort, though she didn't waste too much time on this. Dumbledore usually supported the things no one else did.

James took his lips away from hers (she almost growled at him for doing so) and kissed her softly on the nose. Then, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, gave it a little squeeze, and thanked Dumbledore. Lily just stood there frozen, horrified of all the attention yet…was it like? Yeah, she liked it…not all of it, but some of it… mostly, she liked the way James shrugged it off as a casual occurrence. She had always had some sort of respect for James, even if he was a very prattish person, for he seemed so at ease with any attention he got, so completely in his element whenever he dealt with people (excluding all Slytherins or other houses before a Quidditch match). He also had this thing that made him surface as the leader of anything. She had been forced to do a presentation for Potions last year with James and a few other random people, and she had been amazed at how everyone found themselves depending on him - even she! Lily, who had the most amazing grades in Potions! She had depended on him to be their leader. It had been unsettling, unnerving, and somewhat of an awakening for Lily.

oooo

People kept randomly walking up to James and expressing their congratulations. As if that changed anything to him. Really, all he really wanted was to walk up to Lily, wrap his arms around her waist and take her away from her friends so that she could spend time with him. Only him. It was sick, very primal feeling he had; a very animal-like sense of possession. He struggled against it, constantly battling the perverse feeling he had to just whisk her off and lock the world outside of their door and spend the rest of eternity making each other happy. He was half disgusted by it, knowing full well society's view of a possessive wizard over his witch. But the other half – he was mesmerized, almost grateful that Lily could evoke this feeling in him, that her tentacles could reach beyond his skin and suck all the blood from his limbs and shoot it towards his chest. It sounded negative whenever he tried to explain it to himself, but he knew it was the opposite. It was beautiful, genuine. It was theirs.

He walked up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and snuggled into her neck. Someone in the group she associated with started ranting on about how he hadn't been invited to pry into Lily's life. A Slytherin, no doubt. He wondered, at this point, just randomly out of nowhere, why he found himself free of the discomfort that had manifested itself within their relationship when she had stayed at his home. He had barely been able to hold her hand without hesitating first, without a long debate about whether or not she would appreciate his hand in hers. Now, he seemed not to care. She hadn't pulled away in the Great Hall. That's probably what had done it. It had been a test, much to the same effect as her test on him in the train concerning the Rule of Train, If she would have pulled away, that would have meant that she was somehow embarrassed of being with him, unsure of their relationship.

But she hadn't. She had held on for as long as he had. In fact, he distinctly remembered being the one to pull away. That small notion had meant that she was serious about being with him, even after that little spat she had had at him just moments before.

"Jaaaames," she turned around and spoke in a warning voice. He loosened his grip slightly and let her push him away from her friends. "What do you think you are doing?"

Cold. She was so cold sometimes. "Nothing. Just giving you a hug is all." It sounded sincere, it sounded innocent, it had sounded good to him.

"Why?" That question, as simple and mediocre as it was, stumped him.

"Why would I need a reason to hug you?" Honestly, he didn't understand Lily. He had stopped trying to understand her this summer when he realised that her reasoning was at complete ends with him. And it wasn't only Lily, it was woman kind. Witches were so odd and weird, different from wizards, that James had simply told himself to stop trying fruitlessly to understand, and rather to accept them as they were without question. She remained silent, although he knew something was brewing in her mind, so he continued. "I mean, think about it Lily. I've been wanting to hug you for a while now. And I don't mean a few minutes, I mean years, and now that I finally can without having to worry about you snapping, I am taking advantage of it. Does that make sense?"

"James, James, James….what am I going to do with you?" She backed away. Was it a test? Sometimes, that witch could make him feel as though he were standing on a time bomb.

He took a step forward. "You are uncomfortable with us, Lily?" It was a statement voiced as a question. That's how it was, genuinely.

"No. I'm not uncomfortable with many things."

"My mother is one of those?"

"Was."

James pondered. "Then what? You say you're not uncomfortable, and you act like you aren't, but then I go up to you, hug you and you make it seem like I am embarrassing you!" Why was he saying this? Had his lips overthrown the use of his brain? Try as he might to refrain from speaking more, James found himself unable to. There was something about her eyes, about the way she kept stealing glances at the place where her friends had stood with her moments before and had now walked away. It made him feel awkward, really, and he decided then that, given the opportunity, James would go back in time and stop this conversation from ever happening.

She seemed to be fighting with something, maybe debating what was supposed to be the nicest way to let him off. "You're smothering me, James. It's only been a week that we've made it official, and you're already acting as though we've been together since first year. I'm getting too much affection from you in a short amount of time. Does that make sense to you?" He nodded. "Plus, I was trying to tell them about sensitive subjects and you sort of show up uninvited."

He glued his eyes to the ground. He felt like his five year old self when his father had told him how disappointed he had been in him. Honestly, James hadn't known that it was inappropriate to walk in his father's study and bring him tea when his door was closed. James hadn't known that his father was in a serious, private meeting about something or another. It was the same now. He hadn't known that Lily and her friends were in some sort of private meeting, and now, although she didn't say it, he felt she was disappointed in him, almost like he should have known. "I'm sorry."

She smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about it, James. We're both new at this, and I know that…what's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Then why look dejected?" He shrugged, still not taking his eyes from the floor. "James, you're acting weird. What is it?"

That was the initial reason he had set out to find her. He was avoiding the Marauders. But he didn't want to worry her with that, with the fact that he and his friends had had some sort of squabble concerning her last night. So he did what ever seventeen year old boy would do were they in his shoes. "I just wanted to give you a kiss, that's all." He congratulated himself as he kissed her forehead, watching a smile form on her face. He had managed to stay in the realm of truth, as he had wanted to kiss her, but he managed to get out of telling the real truth. Pulling away from her, James stuck his hands back into his pocket, smiled sheepishly at her and told her to get moving if she wanted to catch up on her friends.

"James!" she shouted over her shoulder from the opposite end of the corridor. James, shuffling his feet, turned to look at her. "I'll see you later tonight, alright? Around nine," she spoke walking backwards, checking every so often behind her lest she bumped into something. "I'll be at the library. You can escort me to the common room?"

James smiled and shouted, "You better be ready at nine, then!" She laughed and turned to run towards her friends.

Still deep in thought, James walked slowly towards the Gryffindor common room, back to a quiet corner to finish that DADA essay the nutty professor had assigned them on their first day.