If James's reaction to the extent of her relationship with Severus Snape didn't make Lily regret not keeping her mouth shut, the next few days certainly did. It was as if James and Lily had never met given the formality he suddenly took on in their exchanges; Lily would have gone so far as to say he was being quite cold to her. Worst of all, James was completely himself aside from his behavior to Lily—the same jokes, the same exuberance, just as silly as always.

Lily made a point to focus on her schoolwork in an attempt to forget about this. It did not help that Professor Slughorn had partnered her with Severus for a Potions lesson, hoping to see "what my two best Potion makers can accomplish together." Lily did not fail to notice James sniggering with Sirius, making kissy faces and smooching noises when he thought she and Severus were not looking.

One person certainly seemed pleased that James was very deliberately putting distance between them; Libby capitalized on her opportunity to own a large part of James's attention, halfheartedly telling Lily, "He'll get over it, don't worry."

Lily woke up on her birthday the following Saturday in poor spirits. James and his team had come in from Quidditch practice the previous evening practically singing with excitement, and James had slung Libby over his shoulders declaring, "Delivery, coming through! Anyone order one large ticket to a Quidditch victory tomorrow?"

"Hey!" said an upside-down Libby, her blonde spiral curls curtaining her face. "What do you mean large?"

"Oh! Sorry," James corrected himself, "Tiny ticket to victory coming through! That do, titchy one?"

Lily groaned at the memory and got out of bed. Gryffindor were playing Ravenclaw that morning, and Libby was already up and stretching. When she saw Lily awake, she tossed a gift at her. It was one of quite a few, the rest sitting at the foot of her bed.

One from Mum and Dad, a beautiful set of dress robes; a bath set from Petunia, which pleasantly surprised Lily; Alice and Maggie had chipped in to get her a new Potions kit; Libby's present was a biography of Newt Scamander; and, amongst a pile of gifts from cousins and other Hogwarts friends was a very heavy package. She was surprised to find a complete, first edition series from one of her favorite Muggle writers, one that she was surprised anyone in the wizarding world had ever heard of. She opened the card:

Evans,

I saw you reading the first one recently and thought you might like the set. Hope you don't mind I opened it for a quick peek. Your taste in literature is offensive, it is all rubbish.

Happy birthday anyway.

—J

Xx

Lily grinned as she bundled up to face the last, very cold day of January on the Quidditch Pitch.

The animosity between the two Quidditch Captains was clear from the moment they walked onto the Pitch. As James headed out to assess the light, wind, and cloudiness, Kurt Myers shoved very deliberately past the unsuspecting Gryffindor Captain, who staggered forward and looked around to see his aggressor. Very surprisingly, however, he smiled pleasantly.

"Ladies first," he snickered.

"Alright," said Madam Hooch. "Let's have a nice, clean game, boys."

From her place in the stands, Lily watched James address his team, pointing and gesturing and looking rather impressive in his red Quidditch uniform. The Captains shook hands—a tense, awkward handshake—and only fifteen minutes in, the Ravenclaws had a lead on Gryffindor.

"Gryffindor scores!" called Georgia Grove, the Quidditch commentator from Hufflepuff. "And it looks like Potter is going for the old Double Dip, his signature move, isn't that right Goran?"

"Indeed it is Miss Grove, he—ah, missed that second one—he's certainly speedy enough on the Pitch but this time he just wasn't quick enough to manage two goals in a row and he's missed tying the game with 60-50 to Ravenclaw."

"And it was a nice save by Kurt Myers the second time around, and Myers is looking very pleased with himself indeed! Always a good game with Myers and Potter going head to head."

"Not to mention Myers recently received a bit of a duffing up from Potter as I understand it—"

"And what is going on in the game, Mr. Milman?" called Professor McGonagall angrily.

"Right you are, Professor…It's Frank Longbottom with the Quaffle, over to Eaton now, Longbottom, Potter…and another score for Gryffinfor!"

The three Chasers high-fived each other in turn as Kurt punched the air angrily, and the score remained tied for an additional half hour before…

"Oh!" called Alice from next to her, "Look at Philomena, look!" Lily found the Gryffindor Seeker in a nose-dive, a determined glint in her eyes.

Lily began cheering with Alice, Maggie, and the rest of the Gryffindors.

"And it looks like Miss Simon has spotted something! Really coming into her own on her first year playing, very speedy second year we've got here, and…wait for it!"

"And she's got it! It's a win for Gryffinfor with a final score of 210-60!"

The Gryffindor Common Room was filled with high spirits that evening, and the Quidditch team was the life and soul of the party.

After her adventure earlier in the week, Lily no longer had to wonder how the Marauders were always able to sneak into Hogsmeade and bring back Butterbeer, wine, and snacks. She accepted a glass of red wine from Remus as he smiled sheepishly, and on her second glass she made everyone laugh by doing an excellent impression of Professor Slughorn doting over her.

"Ah, Lily!" Sirius bellowed, flinging an arm around her. "I had no idea you were such a cheeky cat. Always thought you were a bit of a swot to be honest."

"Oh Sirius, you dog," Lily reproached with a sly smile, and Sirius choked on his Butterbeer laughing.

About an hour into the celebrations, Lily, Remus, and Alice found themselves squished on a loveseat, Lily talking animatedly about an organization she had recently heard about, The Order of the Phoenix, headed by Professor Dumbledore and aiming to work against Lord Voldemort.

While she, Remus, and Alice, talked politics, however, others were engaged in more lighthearted matters.

Lily was not sure why her eyes locked on them to begin with; James and Libby were leaning over the back of the couch on which Gwenog, Sirius, Frank, and Maggie were sitting. They were all talking together, laughing together, reliving the highlights of the game earlier that day and chuckling over how Gwenog nearly took the Ravenclaw Seeker's head off with a particularly good swing at a Bludger.

And then Lily's stomach turned over.

Libby had taken half a step nearer to James, still fully engaged in conversation, and very casually hooked her left arm around his right one. She ran her polished fingers along his forearm.

.

James did not respond to this secret flirtation at first. Expressionless, he looked down at their adjoining arms as though trying to process Libby's behavior. Then, without looking at her, he caught her wandering hand in his and glided his thumb over it in gentle circles. Lily did not need to see Libby's face to know that she was beaming.

"…don't you think, Lily?" said Remus, but Lily wasn't listening anymore. She only had eyes for Libby and James.

The pair stood, joking around with their oblivious friends, their fingers interlocked behind the couch, Libby's foot now hooked around James's ankle.

It was at this point that Lily suddenly became extremely tired, and hurried off to bed.

"What—?" called Remus as she practically tore across the Common Room.

"Well, goodnight then!" Alice said in confusion.

When Lily climbed the stairs to her dormitory, she closed the door behind her and took several long, deep breaths. She had to distract herself, forget what she had just seen. She climbed into bed fully clothed and attempted to read for a bit, though really she had only read the first paragraph about twenty times, unable to concentrate. No matter how hard she tried to focus on what she was reading, all she could see in her mind's eye was Libby's leg wrapped around James's, James's hand grabbing Libby's, Libby touching James the way she so desperately wanted—

No, Lily shook herself. She couldn't allow herself to feel this way, to sink into these petty feelings. She focused her eyes more determinedly on her book.

It was half an hour before the rest of the girls started filing in, and Libby was the very last of them. She all but floated into the room nearly an hour after Lily had come in.

Lily deeply regretted not closing the hangings on her bed; she did not want to talk, least of all about James, or Libby's snugglefest with him in the Common Room.

Libby plopped dreamily onto her bed and tossed a pillow at Lily. "Ask me how my evening was."

Lily's heart sunk even further. "How was it then?"

"He kissed me!" squealed Libby.

"He what?" Lily suddenly felt like she'd just swallowed several jugs of ice water.

"We snuck down to the kitchens together—you know, just the two of us—to get some snacks. And we heard someone walking and we thought it might be Filch, so we ducked into one of the rooms. Wasn't exactly the largest…and while we were in there, he just…"

"Kissed you," Lily said flatly.

"Yeah," she said, sighing.

Lily had never felt quite this way before. A sickening feeling was bubbling up in her gut, and she wanted nothing more than to punch something, to scream in Libby's face. A year ago today, if someone had told her that hearing about James kissing someone would make her feel this way, she would have laughed. Why was it such a big deal to her? She had heard about James snogging girls before, hadn't she?

But, she reminded herself, that was when he was asking me out the next minute. Lily was slightly ashamed of herself. She tried to tell herself she was above feeling this way, she was above this kind of petty jealousy.

"Right, well, that sounds brilliant. Surprised this was even your first kiss, the way you two have been on top of each other over the years."

"What? What does that mean?"

"Nothing, I think it's lovely. The tension between you two has been building for so long, it's good you're finally getting it out of your system."

"Lily…I mean, we've been on the Quidditch team together, so sure, we've been mates…"

"Yeah, mates," Lily scoffed. "No, it's good, I think it's great."

Libby sat motionless for a while, her cobalt eyes anxious. "Lily…I thought you were alright with this…"

Lily paused for a moment, gave herself a mental shake.

"Oh, Libby, I am…I'm sorry, I was just…making a joke," she said, the end of her sentence falling flat. "I'm really happy for you. Really."

Libby looked unconvinced at first, but Lily was relieved to see her round face break into a grin. "Thanks, Lily. You'd tell me if you weren't comfortable, wouldn't you? You know, if you had feelings or something?"

"Yes," she lied, "yes, of course. We're just friends, Potter and me…barely that."

As they both settled into bed, Lily felt like a swarm of bees had somehow gotten into her stomach. Libby looked positively aglow with giddiness as she looked up at her bed canopy.

"Libbs? Do you think it's…is it serious?"

Libby considered this for a moment. "Well, I dunno how he feels but…well, can I be honest?" She sighed. "I've liked him for ages. I never said anything because he was always…well, you know…I tried to look at it as a stupid crush, but I just could never get past it. I really like him," she said earnestly.

Lily nodded silently.

Libby closed the curtains on her four-poster and settled into it. "Hey Lily?" her muffled voice said, and Lily could tell she was still smiling.

"What."

"Happy birthday."

Lily closed her eyes and sighed. "Thanks, Libby."

It was not long before Libby's breathing became slow and heavy. Lily, for her part, drifted off to sleep nearly half an hour after Libby had, her swollen face pressed into a damp pillow.