Lily was strategically positioned in the corner of the Common Room, reading one of her new textbooks, but paying more attention to the entrance than the page. The careful consideration in her placement next to the knight of armour meant that she was nearly invisible to students walking through the door, but could keep an eye on the comings and goings of her fellow Gryffindors, watching for one in particular.

At 7:45, none other than James Potter walked through the door with his motley crew and slowly wandered toward the stairs up to the boys dorm. Pieces of conversation drifted over to Lily from across the room. "Mate, just do it. Just tell her," Remus said, trying to be as quiet as possible.

Sirius hit him over the head. "Tell her? You can't just tell somebody that. You"ve got to PROFESS it, y'know?"

Lily was confused, to say the least, but decided that James's love interests were none of her business. Her decision was well timed, and as the boys climbed the tower, the conversation faded and she could no longer hear the Marauders' gossip.

At 7:58, Lily got up and walked over to the supposed hiding spot of the Head Office. She pulled out her wand, tapped thrice, and watched as the wall swung into a large room with two comfortable looking couches, two desks with matching desk chairs that also looked very comfortable, and 4 walls lined with bookcases and bookshelves that were filled - top to bottom - with stacks and stacks of books.

Oh my god. Heaven?

Lily hesitantly walked in, not wanting to wake herself from the dream or scare the mirage away - it had to be a mirage, right?

At 7:59 on the dot, right as Lily fell back onto the couch facing away from the door, coincidentally hiding herself from view, James walked in the door. "Just do it. I've got to do it. Agghhh."

Oh! He's here. And he's talking to himself. Erm..

"Lily? Oh my god, I'm late. My watch is slow and I'm late and it's all over. Shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh -"

James was interrupted by the sudden sight of Lily's head poking out over the top of the couch.

"Oh," muttered an only mildly completely and utterly embarrassed James Potter as he walked over to the couch opposite Lily and delicately took a seat. "Erm, hi, uh, I mean - hello, er, hey?"

Wait.. Is he nervous? What even? What is going on?

"I'm glad I get this opportunity to talk to you and to, uh, try to correct some of the wrongs I've, erm, wronged you with, uh.." James trailed off.

Lily decided to proceed as if James - POTTER! She reprimanded herself. I've got to stop doing that - wasn't acting completely barmy. "J-, er Potter," she paused to clear her throat. "You have 5 minutes to get my attention, and if you haven't convinced me that this "pairing" of us as Head Team is actually workable, I'll be finished and I'll handle all the responsibilities and you can fuck off to your Quidditch Pitch. Got it? Go."

James wasted about a tenth of his explanation time stuttering, trying to find the words to tell Lily how he was okay being friends and how he was sorry and how he felt and -

"Hello? Earth to arsehole?" Lily was being rude but it was enough to snap him back into this weird and twisted version of reality.

"Lily, I just want to tell you how sorry I am for everything I've done and how badly I treated you for so long -"

"Six years."

James recovered from her rebuttal smoothly, continuing. "I know. And I feel so terrible, Lily, really. Truly terrible. And I promise to do everything I can do to make you believe it and to help you in this whole Head Boy and Girl endeavour, everything. Okay? And, erm, I want to tell you all about how I've changed and all, and erm, how I feel… about… erm. Well, well everything, of course, nothing in particular, not anyone, erm..."

Lily's face was a mix of sympathy and utter confusion for the Head Boy. Where the hell is he going with this? Is he even going anywhere with it at all? I should probably forgive him, right? Purely so that we can proceed with our duties, of course. Of course. Nothing else. Right.

With that, she decided to put the poor boy out of his misery.

"Fine. Fine, whatever, you're fine. Forget it. Now you can go back to your Marauders. I just don't care anymore," Lily said, trying to convince herself that she truly didn't.

James's face fell. So much for a cunning plan, eh? You twat. Fucking tell her. "Erm, okay. Oh, and Lily? About earlier? Erm.."

"What?"

"I wasn't making fun of you. All those years. Y'know, asking you out and that. I really liked you that whole time, Lily. A lot, actually. I know I was a dickhead but I really liked you a lot. I'm sorry about Snivellus and ruining the past 6 years but I was just trying my best to impress you and get close to you and I know I did a really shitty job and we'll probably never even be real friends or anything *ahem* else, but please just know that I'm trying my best to right the wrongs and to prove to you that not only am I worthy of Head Boy, but that I'm worthy of being your, erm, your friend, I guess. Yeah, friend. I'll happily spend forever trying to prove it to you, Lily Evans. I promise I'll prove it to you. Please let me."

It was a lot. It was definitely a lot to take in. The profession that Sirius had talked about in the Common Room… it had been for her? So way back in First Year, when Lily swore she was in love with James Potter, before all the shit started, he felt the same way?

Her entire perspective began to shift. So everything he did, he was trying to impress me? That whole time? And he was trying to protect me from Severus? What the fuck?

Lily's emotions were running rampant and her heartbeat racing. In 5th year she had thought to herself that if James Potter hadn't been such a dick, she'd have liked him, and now she learns 2 years later that he reciprocated it? This was wrong. This was so wrong. Everything she'd assumed about him teasing her had been wrong.

Was he actually a nice guy then? The meanness - it was all just a front? I mean, the end of last term he seemed to have left her alone a lot more than previous years, and she assumed it was because he growing bored of the fighting, or that he was distracting himself with other… things. Was that just because he stopped liking her? The thought of him ceasing to fancy her stung, but she wasn't really sure why.

After a quick internal assessment of the confusing situation and of her own thoughts, Lily responded with a sharp "right," and quickly left the Head Office in favour of her bedroom.

Fuck.

A/N: So if this isn't your first time reading the story, you might notice this chapter is a lot longer than before. This is because I added a LOT of Lily's thoughts after James's confession. Before, I felt like the story was moving along way way way too fast for no reason, so I figured this might help clarify why.

-Chloe