I saw The History Boys today (DVD, not the play unfortunately). I really enjoyed it, and I have to admit that I thought Scripps and Posner were excellent (Posner's "I'm Jewish, I'm small, I'm homosexual, and I live in Sheffield. I'm fucked" line was the best in the film as far as humor goes and the actor who plays Scripps looks, in my opinion, a lot like a young Aaron Eckhart). Speaking of Aaron Eckhart, has anyone seen Conversations with Other Women? If so, how is it?

Bloody buggering hell. You know, Lily, I'm beginning to think that Remus is just as much of a sodding prick as the rest of them. I was eating breakfast this morning when I felt a tap on the shoulder. To my surprise, you were standing behind me when I turned around. I had been in the middle of shoveling bacon into my mouth and, half-asleep and stupid, saw no problem in greeting you –very politely – with a mouthful of food.

"Wadawoowan?"

You paused for a moment, perplexed, then carried on. "Erm, good morning." You were wringing your hands, something you only do when you're nervous. Remus smiled at you in a friendly fashion and Sirius stared at you, excited to an almost ridiculous level. "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to take that walk you asked me about a couple weeks ago."

I have to admit you caught me off guard. At this point I'd swallowed and, if I hadn't been before, your question had thrust me into full consciousness. "Alright. Yeah, okay."

You smiled slightly. "Great." Before following you out, I turned to Sirius and Remus. Remus simply shrugged while Sirius made a grotesque movement against the table, prompting Remus to smack him in the back of the head, sending Peter into fits of laughter. As we walked in silence through the empty halls, everyone else still eating breakfast, I wondered what could possibly be so important that you would come up to me on a Saturday with the whole school watching (except, of course, for Wilkes, who had managed to get on the foul side of one of the Slytherin beaters and was in the hospital wing). I knew you weren't in love with me and therefore weren't going to beg me to elope with you, and, as those seem to be the only reason girls drag me away from prying eyes (well, two of the three…) I was at a loss for what to think and simply followed you like a shell-shocked pup. When we reached the grounds you stopped and we stood quietly for a moment, enjoying the view of the lake and the feel of the breeze. I didn't dare to say a word, afraid of breaking the strange spell you seemed to be under.

"Beautiful day," you said. "Pity you don't have a match today, weather'd be perfect."

"Yes, well now that you've gone and said that, its guaranteed next week's conditions will be crap. Guaranteed. Thanks so much." You smiled for real and I could almost see your teeth. "Besides, we couldn't play this week regardless. No reserve Chaser. Hufflepuff's game with Slytherin today should be interesting, though, don't you think?"

"Yeah. John told me that I have to come up to the hospital wing right after and tell him the score. Give him a play-by-play. Which means that I've got no hope, as I don't know the faintest thing about Quidditch apart from the basics." And there we were. Barely talking for three minutes before we reached the dreaded topic of you and Wilkes snogging in a corridor after hours and out of bounds, the topic that had caused you to avoid me for a week and a half. As impossible as it seems, considering that we're Heads and I'm me and hopelessly crazy about you, we've managed to completely sidestep each other until this morning. "Look, James, about last week…"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does. I could have lost my badge if you'd gone to McGonagall and I just wanted to say thank you."

"Ah. I, er, I get it now."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"For a second I thought that you actually cared about the fact that I have been waiting for you for seven years like a pathetic little kid. But instead you only care about the fact that I saved you and your stupid badge. And here I thought that perfect prefect Lily Evans was actually going to admit she was wrong about something for once. How thick of me." I glanced at you. You were staring at the ground, your eyebrows arched in surprise and your mouth ever so slightly open. "I'm sorry. I was out of line."

"No, you were right." You paused, your arms folded. "Isn't it weird, how easily we can hurt someone without ever even noticing it?"

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"Remus said you've having a meeting on Monday. Something about Dumbledore."

Bloody bastard.

"Did he? I don't know what he's talking about."

"You don't need to protect me, James. What are you planning?"

I thought about it for a moment and decided you were trustworthy. "A secret plan to overtake He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and destroy him."

"And Dumbledore's helping you?"

"More like I'm helping him. His plan. His club."

You looked out at the lake again. "What time?"

"Room of Requirement at seven." I told you how to get in the room and then you went back to breakfast.

In case it matters, Hufflepuff won.

—James