AN: Thanks to all who read and review this story. ya make my day! oh and thanku for the sympathies on my loser-boyfriend. haha. nah he's ok. anyway hope u enjoy the chapter. it's long-ish, so get reading:D enjoy!

"Tell me all about it," Sarah said, her dark eyes wide with interest.

"Every detail," added Eleanor, her large blue eyes reflecting the flickering candle-light.

"You are so lucky," moaned Jessica, digging her finger into a jar of peanut butter then passing it to Lily. The girls were sitting on Lily's bed on the last day of school. It was late, and they were keeping up with tradition by watching the clock slowly approach midnight and the freedom of summer holidays.

"It's ironic though," said Sarah thoughtfully, crunching on a piece of celery the other three had disregarded. "The only girl in the school who didn't want him ended up getting him."

"And ended up becoming one of the most hated girls in school," Lily said, talking around her peanut-butter coated finger which she was sucking on.

"Details!" cried Eleanor. "I need DETAILS!"

"What do you want to know?" Lily asked, feeling herself blush at the memory of James' warm body moving above her.

"Ooo look she's blushing!"

"Did it hurt?"

"How long did it last?"

"It sounds so messy. Was there loads of blood?" That was Eleanor, her innocent eyes wide with apprehension.

Chucking a pillow at her, Lily leaned back against her headrest and shrugged. "It was…okay."

"Okay?" the three girls repeated, all eyes fixed on Lily.

"No, that makes it sound bad. It wasn't. I mean, it was incredible to feel that close to someone, and it felt completely natural. And he was really careful and gentle and sweet."

Sarah made a loud retching noise, which Lily ignored.

"It wasn't how I thought it would be though. No fireworks went off in my head. It wasn't about our bodies, it was about…us." Lily had been speaking in a very quiet voice looking down at her legs, but she looked up at the girls and grinned. "It was way better than I thought it would be."

---

"Well?" Sirius asked James, carefully passing him the joint he had just rolled.

"Well what?"

"What was she like?" Sirius asked, unattractively blowing a cloud of smoke from his mouth.

"None of your business," James said grinning at his best friend and passing the drugs on without taking a drag. Only the day before he'd rowed with Lily about his "filthy habit" as she'd called it.

"It's just for fun, Lily. It's not heavy stuff!" he'd said to her, trying to calm her down.

"I've heard that before! It was 'just for fun' for my dad too, but then he slowly got hooked on stronger stuff and one day I came home from school to find him lying on the couch, not breathing. He'd overdosed and almost died. So don't tell me it's 'just for fun', James. Drugs are serious no matter what they are." She'd glared at him, her green eyes flashing and her face pink. He'd apologised and promised to stop then spent the rest of the day trying to make her laugh.

Their arguments seemed to be a major part of the relationship they had. Well, he considered it a relationship anyway. He'd given up trying to figure out what Lily thought. It was too much like trying to read a novel with every other page ripped out. Some days she liked him, some days she was distant. It was frustrating to say the least, but he didn't want to ask her about it. Not after their last argument, anyway.

"You can't just go running off into the countryside, James, hoping to kill the evillest wizard of all time, without even the slightest idea of how you'll do it. You're seventeen!" Lily had yelled, after he'd told her his plans of tracking down Voldemort.

"And I'm not going to just lie down and take it, Lily. What do you expect me to do? Hide under the bed for the rest of my life? That's not the kind of man you want, and that's not the person I want to be. I'm not a coward!" James had yelled, turning away from her.

"I don't want a dead boyfriend either," Lily yelled back, grabbing his shoulder and forcing him to look at her.

"I'm not going to be a coward, Lily!"

"You're so selfish!" she'd spat at him, taking a step forward and poking him in the chest for emphasis.

"I'm selfish?" he retorted, his eyebrows raised. "Hark whose talking! This coming from the girl who doesn't want me to avenge my parents because she can't stand being alone."

Lily gasped in anger and shock. "Oh, try sounding more like an arrogant, stuck-up prick why don't you!"

"I'm doing this, Lils. You can yell and scream at me all you want, but I'm going to do this. Either you stick beside me or you don't but I'm going."

"So if it came down to a choice, me or Voldemort, you'd choose him?"

"Fuck choices! Why are you always asking me to choose!" James had sighed when her eyes welled up with tears and shook his head. "I'd choose nothing over you, Lily, you know that. But the Lily I know, would stand by my side and support me, not berate me for doing something I believed in."

Stony silence had finished that row, both upset and angry with the other. They'd yet to make up from that one, and the only conversation they'd had was when Lily coolly asked James to pass the pepper at dinner.

"Took your time telling us about it," Remus muttered, flicking the glowing butt off of the roof and glancing at his watch. Almost midnight.

"Yeah, well, we had other things to think about," James muttered. They'd unanimously agreed not do discuss Sirius' dangerous prank ever again, and James didn't want to bring it up. Dumbledore's anger that night had been terrible. James had never seen him like that. Detention each night for a month had been Sirius' punishment in the end. James, however, had earned a pat on the back and a sermon on bravery from Professor McGonagall, but even still it was a memory he wanted to forget about.

"She's not even talking to me at the moment," James said. "I thought when we got together, that would be it. We'd be a couple."

"She'll come round," Sirius said, clapping his friend on the shoulder and standing. "Wait for it," he muttered, watching his watch closely as the second hand ticked closer and closer to the twelve. "And…it's now officially summer!"

James let out a whoop. "One year left!" he yelled across the dark grounds.

---

James' trunk was packed, owl safely stowed in her cage, and broomstick laid with the utmost care across his made bed.

"Goodbye, my dear dormitory. I will miss you once I am gone. But fear not…I will return for you." Sirius was standing on a small table in the middle of the room, professing his undying love for the bare walls. Grinning, Remus pushed him off the table and he went sprawling on the floor.

"Shut up, Padfoot," he said taking care to step on his friend as he crossed to his bed.

"Shall we go and accompany the girls to the carriages?" James asked, sparing one last glance in the dirty mirror and carefully mussing his hair.

"Yes, let's," replied Sirius, picking himself up in a dignified manner and with one last flourish of his hand, bowed himself out of the room.

"He's weird," Remus muttered, following his friend.

---

"Anything off the trolley, dears?"

"You got any good-looking blokes in there?" Sarah asked the friendly witch with the food trolley. It was there standard joke and always made her grin.

"Five pumpkin pasties, please," Lily asked politely, handing the witch three sickles in return for the pasties. Taking the food, Lily left the compartment and wandered down the train, waving to people as she walked. At last she found them, lounging in their own compartment and laughing.

"I come baring food," Lily said, sliding open the door and waving the pasties temptingly.

"Ah then please do enter, good lady," James said, pushing Peter off of the seat so she could sit. Chucking each boy a pasty, she sat and let herself relax into James' arm which he had crooked around her neck.

"Well, I must say, Lily, you have achieved the impossible. James is a changed man," Remus said, smiling at her. "He has almost removed his head from his arse and it is now half the size it was at the beginning of the year."

"What, his head or his arse?" Lily asked crudely, earning a rare grin in her direction from Sirius.

"Enough room for us?" asked Sarah, sticking her head through the compartment door.

"Always enough room for two pretty girls such as yourselves," Sirius said. Of course, there wasn't enough room so Sirius made Peter go and sit outside. Hours of laughter and joking ensued until the train began to slow and the blur of houses outside the window became individual buildings.

"Well," Sarah said, rising from her seat and pulling Eleanor with her. "We'd better go and get our trunks."

"We'll help," Remus said, and he and Sirius hurried to follow them from the compartment, leaving Lily and James alone.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Lily said quietly, kneading James' palm gently with her fingers. "It's just…well I worry about you."

"Shh," James whispered, kissing her forehead. "You don't have to apologise."

"I wish you could come and visit me this summer. It's going to be hell, with my drunk dad, weight-obsessed mum and a sister who hasn't spoken to me in six years."

"I'll be thinking of you," he said. "I wish I could come and see you too, but I won't have time. I've got to sell the house in the South of France and then go down to Sydney and sell the apartment we have there."

Lily looked up into his face and grinned. If he'd said that six months ago she would have made a sarcastic remark about his wealth and arrogance. But, she reasoned, he had money. Why pretend he didn't?

Looking out of the window, Lily saw the platform outside through sheets of rain. Getting to her feet, she slung her bag over her head and across her shoulders. Holding a hand out to James, they left the train and crossed through the barrier to the muggle world. She spotted her mum standing near the ticket office, patting her hair and craning her neck through the crowds in search of Lily.

"I'm going to miss you," Lily said, shaking the rain off of her cloak and letting James pull her into a tight embrace. In reply, James kissed her passionately, not caring who was watching. He finally let her go and she smiled at him. "I guess I'll see you in September."

"Lily," James breathed. His eyes were eager and anxious. "Lily, I need to know."

She didn't have to ask him what he needed to know. Looking down at her feet, Lily smiled sadly to herself. This was it. Everything depended on her next words. Her sixth year was over, the bet was over. And still she didn't know what the outcome was.

Gently, James pulled her to him and she fell into his arms yet again. With a finger, he brushed a piece of wet hair off her face then snaked his fingers under her ear to massage the back of her neck.

"You're crying," he noted as her eyes welled with unshed tears.

"I need to go."

James shook his head. "I need an answer first."

"I…" she gulped and seemed to rack her brains. How did she know whether she loved him or not? She'd thought she loved him, but…how could you tell? And the fact that she was questioning it…that must mean she didn't. But she felt as though maybe she did. Or at least, she could…she would one day.

James sighed and took a step backwards, his eyes falling closed. "Right," he breathed.

"No, James listen. It's not that I don't…feel for you, I do! I like you a lot -"

"But you don't love me," he interrupted. "It's ok. I was arrogant to think I could ever get a girl like you."

"You do," Lily whispered, tears streaming down her already wet face. "You do have me. I just don't know if I love you."

"If you're not sure after seven months, it means you don't. It's ok. I'll keep up my end of the deal." He leaned forwards and kissed her tear-streaked cheek as she racked her brains, trying to remember what his end of the deal was. "And just for the record," he whispered. "At the beginning of the year, when I told you I wasn't in love with you – I lied."

Pressing a hand to her mouth, Lily's tears fell faster as she watched him smile sadly and walk away. "James," she said quietly, through her tears, but he didn't hear, just continued walking.

Her arrogance had split them apart, not his. It was pride: she had too much pride to admit he was right and he had too much pride to let her tell him things he wanted to hear. Arrogance. They both had it, more so than either knew.

THE END

(nah just kidding)

Yea ok so this isn't the end. How upsetting would that be?? hehe. anyway, please review!! love to know what everyone thinks! okeydokey. thanks for reading! xxx