"Sorry, sorry, I got caught talking to-" James started as he entered the prefect room before he stopped short at what he saw.

"You haven't been waiting long, have you?" he started again as he examined the room amazed that every inch of desk space seemed to be covered in parchment.

"No, don't worry, I only got here about ten minutes ago," Lily said distractedly as she shuffled through some papers a little too frantically causing them to crumple up.

"Need help with finding… whatever it is you're looking for?" he offered.

When she didn't answer him, but dived under a desk instead he decided it was best if he just took a seat to wait, figuring if she needed his help she would ask for it.

That was until she gave a little scream of frustration and started pulling at her hair.

"What!?" he asked alarmed.

"I'm looking for the patrol sheet," she cried. "The Hufflepuff seventh years wanted to know if they could swap days with the Ravenclaw sixth years, and then the Slytherin's are refusing point blank to patrol with anyone at all… they can be so unreasonable…so you know what that means?…"

"More work for us?" he hazarded a guess.

"Exactly!" she said nodding her head frantically staring at him with wide anxious eyes.

He continued to watch her for a moment, as she started to search again. He'd never seen her this disorganised and he was shocked to see on closer inspection that she seemed a little frazzled. It was a little disconcerting to see her like this, she always seemed cool, calm, and in control. Perfect.

His eyes ran over her uniform and he was bowled over, her hair was mussed; her tie hung loose around her neck and her shirt was un-tucked, he'd never seen her in such disarray. Quite frankly she'd never looked hotter.

So resigning himself to helping he said: "Calm down. Don't worry we'll find the rota and it might be a little awkward to change the patrols, but we'll manage."

He got up and helped her look for a minute before asking carefully "Are you sure that's all that's bothering you because it just doesn't seem to justify this," he said, gesturing to the floor which was now also covered in parchment.

She stared at the mess unfocused for a moment before she gave a short laugh and took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. It seemed to have the desired effect because she seemed to have calmed a little when she waved a dismissive hand and said: "It's nothing."

He carefully picked his way toward where she stood in the middle of the room. She watched him warily as he entered her personal space, but when he reached her he only passed her a piece of parchment. When she looked down at what he had given her, she realised it was exactly what she had been looking for causing her to smile at him in relief.

"Thanks," she sighed before collapsing into a chair and running a hand absently through her already mussed hair.

"Are you sure there's nothing else?" he mumbled.

She scrutinised him for a moment before saying: "It really is nothing. I'm just a little stressed because I've lost the transfiguration homework that's due tomorrow so now I'm going to have to do it again …and it took me bloody ages to complete the first time... then I had a fight with Jac-" she started to say before amending it quickly. "Then I had the Slytherin prefects corner me on the seventh floor to demand a change in schedule, and well… yeah. Everything just got on top of me for a moment…" she finished trailing off, suddenly realising he probably didn't care to know the ins and outs of her day.

"They did what?!" he asked, shocked to find out that the prefects were giving her trouble.

"Don't look so shocked all the Slytherins are totally convinced I'm beneath them, so they don't care about hassling me, but don't worry I'm not exactly a wilting flower," she said as a feral grin passed across her face.

"Oh Evans, they hassle you? Why didn't you say something? I know that things have been kind of awkward recently, and I know I'm not exactly your go to guy, and I definitely know you don't need protecting having been on the receiving end of your wrath many times… but I am Head Boy. If they want to hassle someone they can hassle me," he said seriously, genuinely concerned.

"It's obvious isn't it? They think I'm easier to… persuade," she said choosing her words carefully. "And well you are James Potter, pure blooded, popular, Slytherin hexer extraordinaire."

"I'm sorry," he said meaning it and silently vowing to try much harder. She shouldn't have to suffer just because things had been awkward between them the last few weeks.

They had maintained their fragile friendship trying to build on what they had started, but they were still a little uncomfortable around each other especially when they were alone or when Kim or Jacob were there.

"Don't be," she said with total honesty, looking him directly in the eyes. It was the first prolonged eye contact they'd had since their kisses and it was bringing back unwanted feelings on both parts.

Lily noticing the change in both her and James quickly attempted to get back on to safe ground by saying uncertainly: "Um, I guess we should start our meeting."

That effectively broke the tension, "Um Evans don't you think we'd better sort this out first?" he asked, gesturing to the mess the room was in and trying to hold in a laugh.

"Hm, oh I guess your right," she chuckled.

--

An hour and a patrol sheet later Lily said: "Anyway what do you think James?"

"Yeah that's fine, I don't mind swapping, but do you think we could convince them to start the new rota next week because otherwise I'm going to have to reschedule Quidditch practice, which is a nightmare."

"Sure and even if they wont I'll cover for you," she said making him smile.

"Well that's it, thank goodness," she said starting to pack away. "On to re-writing my essay," she sighed looking up at the ceiling.

"Do you want my help with it?" he asked uncertainly. Normally he wouldn't have offered to help; he wouldn't have wanted to stay in the room alone with her for that long, but it had been weeks since their kisses and they had just managed to work alone together for an hour and nothing unusual had happened. It was time they tired to move past their discomfort, especially if they genuinely wanted to build a friendship with each other.

"What?" she asked clearly shocked by his offer.

"Do you want my help or not?" he said uncomfortably.

"Oh would you?" she asked hesitantly. At his affirmative nod she sighed: "oh thank you, I'm rubbish at Transfiguration," then seemingly unable to restrain herself she threw herself at him.

"That's okay… Honestly, it's not that big of a deal," he said uncomfortably, but tentatively returning her enthusiastic hug.

His offer had obviously shocked her and something Remus had said to him suddenly came to the forefront of his mind. So seeing as they were being civil and a lot less awkward than was usual recently, he figured now was as good a time as any to broach the subject of their friendship and just ask the question that he had been burning to ask despite the fact that considering recent events it was a tad inappropriate.

After a pause he asked curiously: "Do you think I'm cold towards you?"

She leaned back out of the hug a little so she could see his face raising her eyebrows at the random question and he realised he needed to explain so he continued: "It's just something Kim, Sirius and Remus were talking about a few weeks ago and considering we're trying to be friends I wanted to….They said I was kind of cold towards you-"

"Recent events excluded," she replied with a choked and disbelieving laugh.

"Of course!" he replied hastily, the sudden reference to their kisses making his stomach flip.

She averted her eyes for a moment before replying seriously: "No, not all the time, but sometimes when it's just the two of us… we never really talk… we never have conversations, you know?" she said obviously straining to find the right words. "It's like you work hard to stay… detached from me."

"Our friendship is all superficial," she said clarifying and unknowingly repeating Remus.

Realising what she had said may have sounded rude she rushed on, "But don't worry, it's not your fault… or mine…there is just a little too much… anger and humiliation in our past for us to chat it up like a couple of little girls."

After a moment's hesitation she continued, frowning, "I was awful to you and I'm sorry for that, but at the time it seemed to be the only thing that deterred you."

He laughed, "Yeah I was persistent, but in my defence I was young and didn't know any better. You're right though our friendship is superficial," he said, before adding hesitantly "but do you think we could change that?"

She inspected him for a moment, trying to detect an ulterior motive, after seeing none she smiled, "You really want to try and be friends?"

"Yeah. Well, if that's okay with you," he answered uncertainly.

She came back in and gave him a reassuring hug. "It's more than okay," she said with a wide smile. "I've always wanted to know what it's like to actually be the great James Potter's friend."

That statement brought a moment of ringing silence, and they lingered just hugging. Both feeling a strange burning, tingling sensation where they were touching. Suddenly she whispered breathlessly: "you're off to a good start, you're definitely not cold anymore-" but he silenced her with a kiss.

--

Well that hadn't gone quite to plan, he thought as they made their way back to the common room in silence.

Just as they got back to the portrait hole James turned around to face Lily in an attempt to discuss the thing that seem to be happening between them, but came up short when he saw she was smiling brilliantly. At first he thought she was smiling at him, he even opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it rather swiftly. Lily was looking directly behind him.

"You waited up for hours, just to see me?"

James whipped around and promptly started scowling. Sitting there on the floor outside the common room with a book open in his lap and an essay out in front of him was the wanker Jacob. Lily's boyfriend.

"I wanted to say sorry about before…I'm sorry I snapped, I didn't mean to cause an argument… I know you're under a lot of stress and well I thought we could make it up to each other by having some private time," he said giving her what James considered to be a lecherous smile. Her eyes quickly flashed to James before she turned her full attention to Jacob smiling widely.

James watched as she approached the little git, who promptly swept her up into his arms and kissed her. Insane jealously rose up in his stomach, but he told himself that he was used to the feeling. He had spent years of his life jealous of Lily's boyfriends and one more wasn't going to kill him.

This thought and the idea of Kim was the only thing that prevented him from smacking the stupid bugger silly, which consequently meant that Lily did not smack him silly.

Deciding he definitely did not want to wait around to see how affectionate they were going to be tonight, he climbed through the portrait hole rather swiftly in search of Kim.

As he went he mumbled goodnight to them both.

It went totally unheard.

---

AN:

Well there you go I hope it was satisfactory

Please continue to tell me your favourite quotes, it always makes me smile : )

Thank you to cosmopolitan beta extraordinaire

And a massive thank you to all those who review (and an extra thank you to all those who review regularly x)

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