Summary: James Potter returns to Hogwarts School, this time as a teacher, and meets Lily Evans, brilliant and full of life. He falls for her and romance, comedy, and drama follow.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, anything from the brilliant mind of JK Rowling, and whatever else that isn't mine.

Chapter 7

Wednesday afternoon, the sixth year Gryffindors filed into James' classroom. Lily had been absent on Monday and James was extremely curious and concerned as to her being. He watched the sixth years carefully.

She wouldn't possibly miss his class for no reason.

Hell, he had told her not to miss his class, albeit, jokingly.

She had agreed to it.

What the hell, Potter, you're acting as though you two had made a date.

No, he was just concerned as any professor would be about any student.

Well. Not any student. James had finally identified Lucius Malfoy. He wouldn't have minded at all if he had been absent more often. Malfoy often acted as though he knew more about DADA then James. Which was positively ridiculous. Malfoy also had another friend aside from the "girl with bug eyes", whom he assumed was Narcissa, since she sat beside him in class and fit the description Lily had given; his other friend was black-haired and greasy, which a large hook nose.

Jeez, it was huge. Gigantic.

He was interrupted from his reverie by a shy "Hello, Professor" from one Lily Potter. Thank goodness.

He nodded, smiled, and then closed the door as she came through.

Thump.

Oh. Wait, more people were arriving. And he had just slammed the door in their faces.

"What the bloody hell was that Professor?" asked Mendalus Archer, a sarcastic, smart-ass blonde boy. Apparently he had moved to London earlier that year.

"Erm… lesson. Always be aware of your surroundings," James explained.

Mendalus rubbed his forehead with his hand and glared at James, who did his best not to laugh.

As everyone took their seats, James did the same.

"I'm not going to bother with you today," he told the class, "So I've got an assignment for you. Please come up and get a worksheet on temporary mind-altering spells and pick a partner to work with. You'll be handing this in at the closing of the period."

Lily and Mendalus had partnered up. James was a bit displeased.

She didn't have a boyfriend, but Mendalus definitely seemed interested.

"Lily Evans," he found himself saying suddenly, "Please come up here. I'd like to speak with you. Mendalus, you'll need a new partner, I'll be borrowing yours for a bit."

Mendalus frowned, and Lily, looking rather confused, stood and made her way to the front of the classroom.

"I'd like to know where you were Monday, Ms. Evans," he said, "If it pleases you to tell me." He smiled.

"Dumbledore's office," she explained.

He wanted to ask her why, but knew that it wasn't really any of his business. "Alright, well, Dumbledore had told me that you needed help with this topic," he said, gesturing at the pile of worksheets. "I assumed, in that case, that we would work on that at our first tutoring session and that I would explain what we did on Monday during today's class."

"Alright," said Lily, nodding.

James began to explain the use of magical creatures for defense and how they could be won over to fight for a witch or wizard. Lily listened politely and seemed genuinely interested.

Genuinely pretty, James thought dreamily.

"Professor?"

"Hmm? Oh. What? Yes?" He realized he had stopped explaining the topic.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes, of course."

"Alright," she said, dubiously.

He continues his explanation of the topic and finished just as the bell rang.

"Did you time that?" she asked, laughing.

"No, didn't need to. I'm just naturally awesome."

"Oh, oh, alright," she said sarcastically. "I knew that."

He chuckled, and she walked back to her desk to put her things away. Like what seemed like so many times before, she was the only one left in his classroom after the bell had rung. Now that the other students had gone, an awkward silence fell between the two of them. She was packing her books up so slowly, it made him wonder if perhaps she did so on purpose.

"So when are we meeting?" she asked, finally picking up her bookbag.

"Hmm... I suppose tonight at around eight o'clock if you can."

"Alright, I'll see you then," she said.

As the door closed behind her, James breathed a sigh of relief. He suddenly noticed that his hands had been sweating.

What am I, thirteen? Control, James, control. You're a man.

"The more I talk to him, the more I'm convinced he's like a little boy," Lily told Loren as they walked to Potions class after lunch.

"What do you mean?"

"He's seems sort of shy and bashful, but it's like he's covering for it with his cocky jokes and comments," Lily explained.

Loren laughed. "I think you're the only one who's seen that side of him. He just seems a bit cocky to me, but in an oddly nice way."

"I don't know."

"I do," Loren said. "I think that not only do you like him- "

Lily uttered sounds of protest.

"I think he likes you to," she finished.

"You're insane, Loren. And "like" seems like such a weird word when we're talking about a twenty-five-year-old man."

"It's true," Loren chirped. "You do and he does."

"No, no, I don't."

"How not?"

"I just don't. He's too old for me. And he's got messy hair, and he wears glasses, and he's cocky," Lily explained in one breath.

"You don't care about any of those things, and you know it."

Lily sighed. "Suppose that I didn't. What difference would it make? I wouldn't even be thinking about this if Archie and Albert hadn't mentioned him supposedly talking about me. Silly really, since it probably wasn't even me."

"But he was talking about you, and you would be thinking about it. I've been watching you in class. You ogle him," Loren said matter-of-factly.

"I do not ogle him!"

"You do. And I've stopped waiting for you after class because you take too long packing your bag. You do it sooo slowly, and you've been doing it since the first day. I think you just want to prolong your time with him."

"I do not!" Lily protested.

Loren gave her a skeptical look.

"Even if I did, it wouldn't matter a bit because he doesn't care anything for me."

"Yes he does," Loren said simply.

"You're infuriating!" Lily snapped.

Loren simply laughed. "Say whatever it is you want to say, but he likes you and you aren't going to change that by denying it."

"Suppose he does. How would one even know?"

"I guess you've completely forgotten the occurrence after that detention. And you were standing close to him. And leaning in. And he was leaning in, too."

"You saw that?"

"Of course I saw it. And then you both leaped apart like little fishes." She laughed at the memory.

"That doesn't mean anything," Lily said.

"It meant quite a lot actually. It was like watching a pair of magnets. The attraction is quite obvious."

"You're insane. I don't believe you," Lily said simply.

Loren just smiled and continued walking.

After a few moments the two were almost at the dungeons. Lily stopped suddenly.

"So what do I do?" she asked.

"I don't know, what do you think you should do?" Loren returned.

"Talk… to him?" Lily asked hesitantly.

Loren shrugged. "I don't know, it's up to you."

Later that night, Lily was on her way to Professor Potter's classroom at eight o'clock that night, and she was rather nervous. She was unsure as to the course of action she should take, if any at all.

Before she could dwell on it much longer, she noticed a tall man with chin length black hair exiting Professor Potter's classroom. He looked rather familiar. The man waved to her.

Strange.

He stopped a few steps in front of her, forcing her to stop as well.

Stranger.

"Hello," he said, "My name is Sirius Black. Nice to finally meet you."

Lily's mind was in a bit of a jumble. Why was he talking to her? Did he even know who she was?

"Lily?" he asked.

"Er. Pardon? Yes."

"I've heard quite a bit about you," he explained.

This only increased her confusion.

"From whom?" she asked, "I'm sorry, that sounds rude. I just… don't know who you'd hear about me from."

A thought occurred to her. James maybe?

No, that was silly.

Sirius was looking at her curiously. She then realized that she must have had some sort of strange look on her face.

"Oh, sorry," she said quickly, "Er, I'd better go. I've got a lesson with Professor Potter."

Sirius laughed. "Professor Potter. That's fantastic. Have a pleasurable evening."

With that he left her standing in the hallway, looking rather curiously at the place he had stood for a few seconds. She then continued walking.

When she reached the classroom, she was about to enter, until she heard two voices inside, conversing.

"I think you should ease into this, James. She might not be used to such an idea," said the first voice, one she didn't recognize.

"I know, Remus," responded a second. This one was Professor Potter's; she'd know it anywhere. "I really don't want to ruin my chances. If I even have any."

Lily's curiosity was captivated.

"I'm sure you do. So when do I meet her?"

"Well, she…"

Lily couldn't take it anymore. It might have been her. But there was an equal chance of their conversation being about someone else. And at that moment, she decided that if it was so, she couldn't bear it. All this was discovered and acted upon in a single second.

She knocked.

A profanity was whispered in the Professor's low voice. A pause. "Er, come in!" he called.

Lily entered. Professor Potter's back was turned to her. Another man stood by the desk. He was rather handsome, with messy grey-blonde hair and shining eyes.

"You must be Miss Lily Evans," he said kindly.

Dammit, how did everyone know her name?

"I am," she replied, smiling.

"I'm Remus Lupin." He walked across the room and shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you," she told him.

"And you as well," he replied, "I hear you're having a few difficulties with those damn mind-altering spells. I hated those too."

She laughed. "They're tricky."

"Well, I suppose I will leave the two of you to it. Good luck. I'm sure you'll catch on quickly, James tells me that you're one of his most brilliant students."

She didn't recall ever saying anything particularly outstanding or worthy of such a label. And wait, was Professor blushing?

No, it had to be a trick of the light.

Remus smiled at Lily, waved goodbye to Professor Potter, and then left.

(James)

James coughed. "So, where would you like to start?" he asked.

"I don't know. I'm having a lot of trouble actually performing the spell, I think I get the concept behind it, though," she explained, sitting across from him in a chair that had been pulled up to his desk.

"Well, why don't we start on this worksheet then, then work on the spell. Sort of like a warm-up."

Sort of like foreplay, said his mind.

"Stop being ridiculous," he mumbled very quietly to himself.

"I beg your pardon?" she queried.

"Oh, nothing. Why don't you get started on this, if you have any questions… well, erm… I'll be sitting across from you."

She laughed.

How much had she heard at the door? he wondered.

He watched her work, studying the look of concentration on her face… the way her red hair fell about her face… the freckles on her forehead and across her nose.

"Alright, done," she said suddenly.

James glanced up at the clock. It had only been about ten minutes. He smiled as she handed it to him. From what he could tell, nothing seemed to be amiss or frightfully wrong.

Lily smiled at him. He hoped he wasn't blushing. That would be the millionth time since he had met her.

He stood and mumbled a spell under his breath. The tables in the classroom all moved to the back of the room, allowing them room in the middle of the classroom. He then motioned for her to stand and join him.

"Now," he said, "with these types of spells, you have to be very sure that your wand movement is precise. Let's try the first one, psychos plus, the adding of thoughts spell. Make me think something."

Lily looked at her subject with intense focus. She mumbled the spell and flicked her wand.

James felt his mind being twisted very slightly, but other than that, nothing.

He walked over to stand behind her and put his hand on top of hers on the wand. He felt her tense up.

He hoped he wasn't tensing up as well. He hoped he seemed perfectly relaxed.

Oh, wow, but her skin was soft.

"You want to relax the motion more," he said, "It's more flowing than sharp and jagged, which is what you're doing."

She nodded.

"Try the movement with me," he said, "Forget the words for a minute."

She did as instructed. He moved her hand, then nodded.

"Do you think you have it?"

"I… I think so, Professor."

"Good, now try again."

But he just stood there, his hand on top of her hand. Why wasn't he moving? In order to let her test the spell he had to be standing where he had been before, but his legs simply were not taking him there.

Lily said nothing. He had expected a shy, confused "Professor?" but it didn't come.

He loved it when she said "Professor." There was nothing else to say about it but that it was adorable. So shy, and questioning, and unsure, and sweet.

Maybe he wouldn't move. What would she do if he didn't? She hadn't done anything yet. His other hand found it's way to her shoulder. The contact made him shiver slightly.

Now it came. "Professor?" She was leaning into him, very slightly. He could feel it. Why was he so sensitive to such a tiny movement?

"Yes?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

"What… what are you doing?"

He thought for a moment about making up some sort of excuse. "It was necessary to the spell," or "If you could gain some of my energy through this connection I've just made, it would help," etc. But then his mind stopped, and no more excuses came. He didn't want to use any of them, partly because he didn't want to lie to her and partly because he would have to move.

"Holding you, I think," he explained softly.

The hand that had been on her shoulder moved under her arm and slid its way onto her stomach, then pulled her closer to him. Her hand placed itself on top of his hand. Their wand hands retained their positions.

There placed and in such a way positioned, they stood.

A/N: So very sorry for the terrible long delay in updating. Thank you to all the reviewers, and I hope everyone keeps reviewing. It helps a ton. But, since fanfiction dot net no longer allows the responses in the story, I'll just do my best to use the little reply button in case anyone has a question. One thing I will address in this is an anonymous review, Laura, who asked why Snape is not in James' year. The answer: simply because this is Alternate Universe. Since it doesn't exactly have to flow with cannon, I can basically put them anywhere, and dividing them so recognizeable characters are in both the student and graduate group seemed like a good plan. AU is Great fun. And for the point of view, I'll put the name in parentheses only when the situation/setting/time is the same, but the POV changes. Hope that all works. Renee