Okay

Someday

"You stupid, thick-headed, dim-witted, arrogant… prat!"

James took a step back from the full force of Lily's temper. It wasn't the first time, by far, it had been directed at him, but he usually had Sirius or Peter around to take some of it.

"You're the Head Boy! I've tolerated your usual little pranks, goodness, I thought you'd done an excellent job of keeping them small! Then you go and do something as blatant as this? What are you thinking?! Oh, wait, you're not!"

It wasn't actually over a prank at all, and James knew it. In fact, James knew exactly what she was going on about. "It was just a bit of fun."

"Bit of fun? Did you ever stop to consider that your 'bit of fun' was hurting someone?"

James blinked. It had been harmless and normal, using magic to turn Severus Snape on his head. Then all they'd done was their boring usual dumping water on him. Sirius had added a soap and brush spell, but it had been harmless. "No one got hurt."

"Physically!" Lily exploded. "But that's the thing, Potter. You've never thought of someone else's emotions before. They don't get hurt, do they? All that matters is that no one gets physically injured and you have your 'bit of fun'."

He really didn't like the sarcastic emphasis she was putting on the 'bit of fun'. "Look, Lily-"

"Don't you dare 'Lily' me," she growled. She let out an exasperated breath, and James was surprised to find tears springing to her eyes. "You know, I was actually starting to think you weren't the arrogant bastard you've been for six years. I was starting to get along with you, starting to enjoy your company and even starting to enjoy your little pranks. But I can see I was wrong."

This was not good. Not good at all. He'd been making progress, even he'd known it. "Why does this bother you so much?"

"If you don't know, I'm not going to tell you."

James resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the childish response. "Humour me."

Lily raised a sarcastic eyebrow, but conceded. "There are many types of people in this world," she began slowly, as if she was about to teach a lesson to a first year about the right way to wave their wand. "There are arrogant prats like Sirius Black, calm mediators like Remus, smart know-it-alls like me… and then there's people who are weaker, not necessarily because they haven't had the training, but sometimes because they're given a certain label."

James looked at her in confusion. This was all psychobabble to him.

Lily sighed in exasperation. "Look, you're smart, you're strong, you're popular, and with those designations comes a certain amount of responsibility. Add Head Boy to that, and there are guidelines of conduct that follow. Being a bully is not in our Head Student contract."

A bully? What had she been eating? He'd have to check with the house elves to make sure they weren't sneaking odd things into dinner. "Bully?"

"That's what you were today," Lily answered with sad conviction in her voice. She sat down on the couch, her anger deflated for the time being. "I could have turned this down, you know."

"You? Turn down the Head Girl position? And I'm signing up with Voldemort tomorrow." He was impressed that she didn't flinch at the name.

"I didn't want to work with you. I dealt with you enough on a day-to-day basis with your pranks and your mischief… I didn't want to have to pretend to get along with you. But Dumbledore convinced me."

"He's good at doing that." He paused. "What did he say?"

"That he saw potential in you. The Head position isn't just for students that have demonstrated the abilities and skills necessary for the job, it's also for students who need just that little push to be something better than they were."

What?

"He knew that you could do this, knew that you'd make a fantastic Head Boy and you were. You stepped up to the responsibility and you stepped up to the challenge. I was surprised, quite frankly, at such a drastic change. You were helpful to the first years of all but Slytherin – no surprise there, but then, it would be hypocritical of me to criticize – you weren't harassing half as many people with pranks and jokes… And you'd worked hard at learning charms with me."

James blinked. He hadn't realized she'd been paying that much attention.

She met his eyes. "Define a bully," she requested softly.

He sighed as he sat down at the other end of the couch. "Why?"

"Do it."

"Someone who picks on other people for the fun of it."

"Close. Someone who picks on people they think are weaker than them for the fun of it and for their own perverse pleasure." It wasn't the Oxford definition, but it would do.

"Know-it-all." That, at least, got a small smile from her.

"That was you. You had fun from torturing Snape. You were looking from attention in Snape's suffering. You didn't once think that he was smaller, skinnier or minding his own business."

"He's a Slytherin!"

"So?"

The softness of her tone caught his attention. It was phrased as an innocent question and it gave him pause. "So, he lives and breathes the dark arts."

"You know this for a fact?"

"He's an arrogant, pure blood that wants muggle borns like you dead."

The strength of the conviction in his voice surprised her. "He's not, you know. He's not a pure blood. He's not arrogant. But you wouldn't know that because you're too busy picking on him."

"How do you know?"

"It doesn't matter," she said with a dismissive wave. "With the rise of Voldemort, everyone knows somewhere something is going to have to give. There's got to be some sort of tip in the scale to give one side more power than the other."

"Strength," he said immediately. "Power."

Lily shook her head. "No."

"That's what matters in this," he told her straight out. "Which side has more strength. Which side has the stronger witches and wizards. Which side has more power."

"Which side has more tolerance."

James blinked. He'd seen many sides to Lily, more so since they'd been living together, but this philosophical, politically sound Lily was one he had yet to see. Her grasp of wizarding politics surprised him, her understanding even more so.

"It's not going to come down to which side is stronger. Strength can only get a person so far before it won't help any more. Voldemort rules on fear, he eats it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sure, he's strong, that's why he's got followers, but he isn't the strongest being in the world."

"Dumbledore."

"Well, yes," Lily conceded, "but that wasn't exactly what I was getting at."

"All of this from Snivillus," James mumbled to himself.

Lily slapped his arm. Hard.

"Ouch!"

"By picking on Snape you run the risk of teaching others that its okay to do the same thing. You run the risk of breeding bullies in every house at Hogwarts. I can't watch you every moment of the day to see if you're going to do it again, I simply don't have the resources."

"You sure know a lot about the school for a girl without the resources."

She actually chuckled. "A girl's got her secrets."

"Yours continue to surprise me." He felt a thrill up his spine when she actually blushed.

She checked the clock on the wall. "I'm late for a tutoring session in Gryffindor tower," she told him. "Think about it."

He did just that, ignoring his homework and staring into the crackling fire until Lily returned with enough time to drop her things off before they headed off to patrol the hallways. They were silent as they made their way through the dark corridors and James knew he wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to what was going on around him.

"You're right," he said finally, softly.

Lily chuckled lightly. "Of course I am," she said cheekily, feeling upbeat because of another successful tutoring session. "About what?"

"Bullies, Voldemort… everything."

The redhead cocked her head to the side.

"I was thinking about it," he told her, moving on. "People are strongest when they work together. Sirius, Remus and I know that very well. We play off of each other's strengths and we'd do anything for each other."

"Okay…" Lily said slowly.

"If we breed misunderstanding, bullying… everything else into the younger kids, how are we going to have a way to beat Voldemort? Everyone knows that his followers are playing the game for power and control, but even the strongest Death Eater isn't going to be able to stand up to two or three wizards, no matter their strength."

Lily was virtually glowing. He'd taken her word to heart and understood them.

"I'll try not to pick on people if they haven't provoked me first," he promised softly when they were back in their common room. "But I draw the line at Malfoy. I don't care if he's provoked me or not."

Lily had dealt with enough of Lucius Malfoy's brand of bullying that she could give that to him. On impulse, she bounced up on her toes to kiss James cheek. Then she flushed bright red. "Thank you."

He called out to her just before her door closed, a look in his eyes Lily had never seen before. Still, it made her shiver pleasantly.

"Go out with me."

This time, there was a pause before she replied, chewing her lip in thought. James felt hope flare in his chest. She was actually thinking about it!

Slowly, and looking apologetic, she shook her head. "Not yet, James. Not after today."

"When?"

Lily blinked at him, startled by the question. "I… I don't know," she said honestly.

"But you will? Someday?" He knew he sounded pathetic, but he'd wanted her for so long…

She smiled, a smile that made his stomach twist itself in knots and his heart lodge in his throat.

"Someday."

Closer, closer, closer... but not quite.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I'm sorry it took so long for me to get it up. I had no inspiration. I hope you can still consider these characters in canon. The way I seem to be doing this makes me feel like I'm pushing them more and more out of character. Eeek!

01-15-2008