Disclaimer: I do NOT own Harry Potter.

A/N: God, I haven't posted here in a looooonnnnngggg time. Oh the woes of not having my own computer. Read and review...thanks. :)

They were sitting on the rocks near the Lake. She was skipping stone and he was watching her, studying her, much like he always did. "Do you love him?"

Startled, she turned to face him, her long red hair whipping in her eyes as she did so. "What?"

He ran a hand through his hair, as if trying to figure out how to word what his next sentence would be. "James, do you love him?"

She shrugged, her green eyes focusing away from him. She was never a very good liar. "He makes me smile."

"That wasn't the question. Do you love him?" He had expected a comeback like that, how could he not have? If she wasn't going to lie, she was going to manipulate the truth. That was what she did, that was how she worked, that was why she should have been a Slytherin.

Shaking her head, she stood up and moved closer to him. She hugged him and said, "Well of course I do, how could I not love the person who makes me smile?" And the way she said it, it sounded like it was such an innocent question. But he knew that she was trying to evade the truth, he knew she was trying to spare him.

"He isn't good enough for you." And he wasn't, James Potter wasn't good enough for anyone, especially not his Lily.

"He makes me better than I could ever be without him," another lie, she knew that the only person in the whole world who could make her better was the person sitting in front of her.

"You're above him, Lily!" the words echoed throughout the darkened yard, and Lily silently thanked God that it was three am.

"You're below him, Lucius!" She was lying through her teeth now. There was no one in the world as perfect and as beautiful as Lucius Malfoy, no matter where you were and who you were speaking to, it was the die-hard truth.

"I could make you smile," he whispered against her ear, sending shivers down her spine. But Lily had to stay strong, because they would never work out.

She took a deep breath, smiled at him, and turned away. But as she made her way back to the castle Lucius could have sworn he heard the words, "You make me beautiful," echo through the vastness of the Heavens. And he smiled.