I couldn't believe it. I just…I really couldn't…

ARRRAGH! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO ME?

I was Lily Evans. Respected Prefect extraordinaire. Well, slightly respected. By the first years at least. A few of them, anyway.

AND HE HAD RUINED ALL OF THAT!

I flung myself into my bed, tried to bury my face in my pillow, missed and whacked my nose on the bed post instead. Which hurt. A lot. Rolling onto my back (safer that way) I nursed my rapidly swelling nose and tried very hard not to cry.

Oh, alright then. I actually lay there and sobbed until I was damn near blue in the face and had to do breathing exercises to calm me down. Happy, now?

Someone knocked on the door, then came in before I could shout at them to go away. It was Marlene, and she gasped when she saw my tears, which just made me feel so much better. It's like, oh my god! Lily is crying! Let's all gasp at her!

"Lily! What's wrong?" Gaspy said, running over to my bed in a concerned flurry. I looked up at her blurry outline through my tears, and blinked, trying to get her into focus.

"Where have you been?" I said through gritted teeth (gritted to stop my voice shaking, not because I was mad at her or anything) "Didn't you see what happened just now?"

"No, I was in the – phwaor! What is that smell? Lily, was that you?"

"NO, IT BLOODY WASN'T ME!"

Marlene almost fell off the bed in surprise, but grabbed onto my hair just in time to stop herself slipping off. Y'know, having your hair yanked out in fistfuls really does do wonders for your mood. I'd say try it some time. "There was no need to shout!" she goes, all hurt and blinking, "It's just that there's a really bad smell in here."

Oh, great. I lifted my sleeve and sniffed at the material. True enough, rotten eggs wafted under my nose once more, and I gave a scream of rage, hurling my pillow at the wall. This time, Marlene really did fall off, and hit the floor with a thump.

"BLOODY POTTER, AND HIS BLOODY FRIENDS!" I screamed at the top of her head, which was all I could see of her. And I didn't say bloody either.

"Whoa!" was the best Marlene could do, scrambling to her feet again. She went to sit back on the bed, hesitated, then stayed standing. She held up her hands as though frightened I might start throwing pillows again. Which was stupid of her, as there wasn't any left on the bed.

"What's he done this time?"

"What has he done? What hasn't he done?" I took a great, steadying breath. It didn't help much. "He set off a stink bomb, or a dung-bomb or whatever they're called, right in front of me! And everyone thought it was me who made the smell!" I stared expectantly up at her, waiting for sympathy. Or at least for her to offer to hire the Mafia to murder Potter or something.

Marlene frowned. "You saw him do this?"

"Well, no, I didn't see him do it, because of Black. He made a distraction so no-one would see him do it!"

She raised an eyebrow. Why was she raising her eyebrow? You put that eyebrow back down at once, missy. "So, you think Black made a distraction so Potter could make everyone think you'd made a smell?"

Why did she sound so sceptical? "Yeah, I do!" I retorted angrily, "Because that's the truth!"

Her other eyebrow went up as well. God, I hate her eyebrows. So damn skinny and perfect. Bit like Marlene, really. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked her.

"Well, Lily…you know you can never own up to it when you stink a room out…"

Oh no. No way was she doing this to me as well.

"…I mean, you might not have meant to have done it, it might have slipped out without you noticing…"

"So you're telling me," I interrupted angrily, "That I managed to fart and cause everyone around me to go green without noticing?"

"Well…yeah."

I didn't even dignify that sentence with a reply. I got up and stormed into the bathroom for a second shower, slamming the door behind me.

0o0

My stress ball had, at the beginning of the week, barely been touched. It had been a joke present from my muggle friend, Claire, and it was meant to release a calming scent of lavender every time it was squeezed in a spasm of fury…

An image of Potter's laughing face flitted into my mind, and I clenched the stress ball, imagining it to be his nose. Lavender scented beads exploded from my hand and scattered over the floor, making me jump.

Great. Now the whole room stank of over-powering lavender. Not to mention there were tiny purple beads everywhere.

"Wassat?" I heard Katy mutter, and she rolled over in her bed, then sat up, tousle headed and stared over at me. Although it was dark and I couldn't see her face, I knew she was glaring at me.

"Don't tell me you're still wigging out over that whole farting incident," I heard her say incredulously. "Honestly, Lily, get over yourself! That happened four days ago!" I squeezed my torn remnant of the stress ball hard.

"Easy for you to say!" I spat back at her, "Every time I see them, they laugh at me. Even the Head Girl can't look me in the eye without her lip quivering!"

"Whatever, Lily…" she muttered, then lay back down. I wish I could say snoring filled the air ten seconds later, but Katy is much too perfect to snore. No, she sleeps in total silence. Cow.

Marlene had fallen asleep propped up on her elbow talking to me. Or listening to me rant. Same thing. Now she looked like she was in some weird porno pose, only a really bad one as her mouth was wide open and she was drooling all over the pillow. I sat there, staring at their sleeping faces, running my fingers repeatedly over the stress ball. Then suddenly, unable to stand the pong of sickly lavender any longer, I got up and walked to the door, unable to resist slamming it behind me and waking up Katy once more.

Alright, so that was slightly mean. But it made me feel better.

The common room was totally deserted when I got down there, which wasn't exactly a big surprise as it was something like quarter to midnight. Just outside the window I could see the full moon, low and orange in the sky. For a moment I stood there staring at it, wondering why the moon looked like it had gone out of date, and then shrugged it off. There was probably some long sciencey explanation for it that I wasn't really interested in, so I collapsed into an armchair and stared moodily into the fireplace.

You know, sitting down in the common room and being moody really wasn't much better than sitting in my dormitory and being moody. I fidgeted slightly. Then I was starting to wish I'd bought my stress ball down with me. Then I remembered I had burst it from squeezing it too hard.

Bum.

So I sat there, gazing not-so moodily into the fireplace, and because it was nice and warm I felt my eyelids start to flutter closed. The armchair was very comfy…maybe I would sleep down here again…

I'm not sure how long I lay there, half asleep, but the sounds of footsteps clumping down the stairs snapped me out of it. I sat up slightly, then stuck my head around the side of the chair, watching the foot of the stairs. I could hear whispers, then the muffled sound of someone laughing…I stiffened, and shrank back in my chair until only my eyes were sticking out. I knew that laughter.

Someone stepped out of the shadowy staircase, and walked softly across the common room, then stood with his back to me. My fists clenched and I had to swallow several times to stop myself growling. I knew that messy-haired outline anywhere. Potter.

Two more figures came out, side by side and talking quietly. Surprise, surprise, it was Black and Thingy. I watched as Thingy gave a high-pitched giggle at something Black said, and was hastily shushed. Well, Black slapped a hand over his mouth, which counts as being shushed. I waited for Moony to emerge from the dark as well, but to my surprise, he didn't. It was just the three of them, gathered in the middle of the room and talking. Very quietly. I strained my ears to catch a snippet of their conversation, but within about ten seconds Potter went to the portrait, opened it and called softly over his shoulder, "All clear." With that, they all disappeared outside, closing the Portrait with a tiny click behind them.

I stood up at once, jogging over and pressing my ear to the back of the portrait, but all I could hear was the Fat Lady snoring.

Hmm.

De ja vu, anyone?

The only thing was: what to do this time…

0o0o0o0o

Hey there. Should Lily go after them, or should she not? What do YOU think? Only way to tell me is to review...or e-mail me...or even track down my adress and phone number and tell me in person...but I'm hoping none of you are going to do that. That would be creepy to say the least. Lol.

There will hopefully be some romance blossoming between our lovely Lilykins and Jamsie, but not for a VERY long time. Well, longish. It depends on which way my muse sways me. That's the way I write my stories: purely on impulse. Feel free to tell me if you reckon James is horrible to Lily to get her attention, or if he is merely being a...not very nice person.

You know the drill, people. Review, or ignore what I write here and just not review anyway.

Peace out xxx