"Do you see what I mean?" James immediately asked his friends as they sat down in their compartment. "I might have been completely misinterpreting her, but I definitely thought we had become friends! Now, she won't even talk to me!"

Sirius and Remus shared a quick glance. But they were both thinking completely different thoughts.

Poor James. Lily should just give him a chance. Well, she does have a long time boyfriend, thought Moony. Sirius wasn't exactly of the same mind.

ONE GIRL! He gets himself all worked up for ONE GIRL. Damn, Lily. If I hear another word about Lily I might… well, I'll probably do nothing. But it is still really annoying, thought Sirius.

"But she invited you to her house for Christmas, right? That should have been a good sign," voiced Remus finally.

"Yeah, but it was just because of Head duties. She probably would never have invited me over unless we had something to do."

"Oh. Well, what did you do?" asked Sirius.

"We… SIRIUS!" screamed James, suddenly jumping up from his seat.

"WHAT?" responded a suddenly startled Padfoot.

"WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" screamed James.

"Duh. Sorry, Prongs, but it's not exactly like she's shown much of an interest in you in that way," pointed out Sirius.

"Not that way, pinhead. We didn't do any Head duties. What is Dumbledore going to say?" James was no longer screaming, but looked no less panicked.

"James? James? LISTEN TO ME! Ok, calm down. Why don't you just ask Evans? I'm sure she knows exactly what's going on," rationalized Remus.

"Yeah, yeah. That's exactly what I'll do. Thanks, mate," beamed a suddenly relieved James. He promptly left his compartment and went to find Lily. Kind of. He already knew exactly where she was, technically. He burst into her compartment at a run.

"Listen, Evans. I know that you're mad at me, but I just realized something. We didn't get any Head duties done!"

Lily looked at him blankly for a second. But Emma said something before she could.

"Dumbledore didn't say you need to do any Head duties…" said Emma, looking at Lily.

"Until December 29th. I mean that's when we have to turn in our plans. We still have a couple of days." Lily interrupted Emma quickly.

This all sounded very… odd. He looked between Emma and Lily. Why did this seem so suspicious? He would just have to find out.

"Well then why did I have to come to your house?"

Lily took a second but then responded with what seemed to be a very logical answer.

"Um. I wanted to get a head start but you saw how my family was. It was just too busy. We can work on it tomorrow. Good? Great. Ok well see you tonight." She rambled as she pushed James out of the compartment.

Wow. Either Lily was madder at him that he thought she was… or she was lying. Both ideas seemed completely wrong. After this encounter with Lily, James spent the rest of the train ride to Hogwarts trying to figure out what was going on. Why was Lily angry with him? Why did that whole situation about their Head duties seem so… wrong? And if what Lily was saying was true, why would Lily, of all people, just deem it unnecessary to do their Head duties? And if it wasn't true, why was she lying to him?

Who can tell me what's going on in my life, if I don't even know? thought James, rhetorically. But then he realized that there actually was someone!

As soon as the train halted, James bolted away from his friends. He almost ran into Lily, Emma and Katy walking hand-in-hand to the Great Hall. He almost stopped to try and find out what he did wrong with Lily in the first place. But he didn't. Not because he didn't want to rain on her parade, but he really needed to find someone.

Then James caught sight of exactly just who he was looking for. He was just ahead of Lily. James hurried to catch up with the man he was looking for.

"Excuse me, Professor Dumbledore?" said James, tapping on Dumbledore's arm.

Dumbledore stopped walking and turned around.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Potter. How was your Christmas break? I understand you spent it at Miss Evans home," said Professor Dumbledore, with his natural twinkle in his eyes.

"Actually, sir, that was what I need to talk to you about. Evans said that I had to come over to her house to discuss and work on Head duties with her," continued James.

"Well, that sounds like Miss Evans. Always taking initiative," added Dumbledore.

James stopped talking for a second. Dumbledore's answer didn't really seem to fit. Initiative? Did that mean Dumbledore didn't tell her that they had to spend Christmas together?

"Is something wrong, Mr. Potter?"

"Well, you see, sir, I was just wondering if you by any chance told Evans that we had to work together over Christmas on Head duties," asked James, finally just asking the man himself instead of beating around the bush.

"I don't remember…" started Dumbledore, but he was almost immediately interrupted.

"What you told us to work on, sir? I'm pretty sure you asked us to plan something for New Year's Eve," continued Lily.

She had seen James talking to Professor Dumbledore and had automatically assumed the worse. It was a good thing, too, because they had been discussing exactly what Lily was afraid of. And Dumbledore had just been about to reveal Lily's secret.

"Remember, sir? Isn't that what I told you, Potter?" Lily was trying desperately to control the speed of her speech.

"I don't think you told me it was about New Years Eve," muttered James. He was both embarrassed and angry that Lily had caught him. Now he had to pretend he wasn't over here, cross-checking Lily and he would never find out if she was lying to him or not."Is that all you needed, Mr. Potter? I'm sure you could have just asked Miss Evans instead of asking me what you needed to go over. That is what you were asking, correct?" Dumbledore was giving him a way out! Merlin, you just have to love that man.

"Yes. Exactly. Thank you, sir. Well, I have to go eat dinner. Would you care to join me, Miss Evans?" James asked as sweetly as possible. He was defiantly going to try and get the best out of this situation.

That PRAT! thought Lily, I just prevented any hurt feelings and he has to be all "Would you care to join me, Miss Evans? UGH!

Just as she was about to try and weasel her way out of her predicament, Dumbledore interject his plans.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Potter. I am afraid I need to see Miss Evans in my office immediately. I have some thing I have to discuss with her," said Dumbledore.

Lily was both relieved and anxious. Now she didn't have to join Potter. But what did Dumbledore need to talk with her about?

"I see. Well, I'll see you tonight than, Evans," said James. He seemed disappointed but even more curious.

"Miss Evans, follow me please," asked Dumbledore.

Lily followed Dumbledore up to his office. She knew his password (Twizzlers) well by now, because she and Potter had to go up to his office every month to check-up. But she had never been up there because she had been in trouble. Was she in trouble now? What could she have possibly done? What if she got demoted from being Head Girl? What if she got… expelled? They were now in Dumbledore's office, he was seated behind his giant desk. The "what if"s in her mind had to come to a halt.

"Now, if you will please explain what that was about," Dumbledore finally said, very nonchalantly. Lily exhaled. That was it? It was best he knew the whole story anyway. So she told him.

Dumbledore listened patiently. When Lily was done with her whole tale, he turned around to face the back wall. To Lily, it seemed that Dumbledore was just contemplating what she had done. In reality, his eyes were twinkling, and he was grinning broadly. She seemed to finally be giving the poor, love-struck boy a chance. When he eventually turned back around, the grin was gone but his eyes were still twinkling.

"Miss Evans, I'm afraid that I will have to give you a small punishment for lying in my name! In addition, I now need to prepare for a ball in a few days," he said.

"I'm sorry, sir. And I will make sure everything goes as well as possible!" promised Lily, earnestly. She had never gotten even one detention in seven years! And her spotless record was about to be ruined because she was nice to Potter!

"I need you to run an errand to Hogsmeade for me tonight. I need you to pick up a special bracelet from Jacqueline's Jewels. It is a Christmas present for a friend of mine. I'm not giving you a required time frame, but you may not tell anyone, not even Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore.

Is this a reward or a punishment? thought Lily.

It didn't really matter. For the second time that night, Dumbledore had just saved her arse. Now she could get a quick present for Danny! Chocolate would be a quick present. Wait, not quick. She meant perfect. Some Honeyduke's chocolate would be perfect.

"Yes, sir. I promise. But um, er, sir? I was wondering if it would be at all possible, if you could not tell Potter that I lied to him?" asked Lily.

"I understand, Miss Evans. You have my word, I will not tell him. Thank you, Miss Evans. The bracelet should already be wrapped in a box and paper, so please just leave it on Professor McGonagall's desk," finished Dumbledore.

"Good night, Professor," said Lily as she left. She smiled to herself. Dumbledore was so sweet to so many people. He was such a great person, teacher, headmaster, and wizard.

I hope I can grow up and be like Dumbledore, thought Lily.

It would be nice to add: great wife, mother and healer to that list. And not a headmaster, of course. But she could accomplish everything in life that she wanted to without a husband. If she never found the one, she could just adopt a child. There were enough parents dieing everyday anyway. Maybe she could become a foster parent for those poor children. She could help them.

She could only do that if it didn't get in the way of her career. She had other responsibilities to attend to. She and Danny had talked about possibly getting married and having kids of their own; they would both have their own careers, but they could make it work. Sometimes Lily could see herself spending the rest of her life with Danny because it made her feel so safe to be in his arms. But he was so much like her… could they really live out the rest of their lives in harmony?

By this time she had reached Honeyduke's. It was time to begin the quest for the perfect chocolate for her perfect boyfriend.

"So, Miss, that will be one pound of mint-chocolate fudge and ½ a pound of coconut fudge?" asked the sales clerk.

"Yep. That sounds good," answered Lily.

"Would you like that wrapped in Christmas paper?" asked the witch.

"Yes, please. That would be fabulous!" beamed Lily.

She received the fudge, paid for it and left Honeyduke's feeling very satisfied. Now she just had to go to Jacqueline's Jewels, which was just across the street, and get McGonagall's gift from Dumbledore. That task was quickly completed. She looked out across the almost deserted small town of Hogsmeade. It was so quaint and lovely. She looked at her watch.

It's 11:30. I really should be heading back, thought Lily.

But she wasn't really tired yet. And it was nice to be out here by herself. There was a hill just outside Hogsmeade that she loved to visit just to think sometimes. Now seemed like a great time to go there. It was her own special space. No one knew that she went up there, no one would ever find her there. It was Lily's Hill.

Lily traipsed out of Hogsmeade and up the hill. It was much steeper than Lily had realized. That was probably because she had never climbed it at night, when any melted snow had turned back to ice. By the time she got to the top of the hill, her watch had just struck midnight.

This is so lovely¸ thought Lily. She was enveloped by the black sky, littered with stars. The full moon was lighting up the otherwise dark village and the surrounding valleys and hills. Then just near the Enchanted Forest, she saw a light go off in a small, worn down shack that she had never noticed before.

Suddenly, she heard an ear piercing… sound. It was a mix between a cry and a howl. It sounded like something was getting hurt. She broke into a run towards whatever was hurt. It sounded like the noise had come from the suddenly lit up shack.

As Lily got closer to the structure, she could see shadowy figures in the windows. She rushed, as quietly as possible, to look into the window. She couldn't quite reach the window, so she moved a log over a tad bit to stand on it. But as soon as she should have been able to see inside the window, something was blocking her view. It seemed there was a huge, furry, gray chair in her line of vision. Suddenly the log flew out from under her feet. Without even thinking, Lily screamed.

As she fell to the ground, she glanced up. And she almost screamed again. Because she had been wrong when she had thought that a chair had been blocking her view. Dead wrong. And it was about to cost her her life.