Everyone knew that he fancied Lily Evans. It was as well known around Hogwarts as Nearly Headless Nick's death. And that was pretty well known. But he'd only realized that maybe, just maybe, it was actually love in the fifth year. Before that, she'd just been a pretty girl who was fun to ask out. She always said no. Of course she always says no, you barely know her! But Moony had finally taken pity on him and introduced them properly. Moony was a Prefect, so he knew Lily, and after a year and a half of begging, he caved. She was really nice, and funny, and overall better about getting to know him than he thought she'd be. He, of course, was completely speechless and rather stupid the entire time.
But they'd gotten to know eachother, and somehow, this year, he'd become Head Boy, and apparently she was Head Girl (but Padfoot had told him this, so he wasn't sure how true it was). They'd be seeing a lot of eachother this year. Not that he didn't see her every day anyway, but it was so much better now. He couldn't sit there any more. Remus and Sirius were chatting about something to do with Transformation (but God knows what they actually meant, he'd caught a few double meanings in there), and Peter was hanging off their every word, as he usually did (and completely missing the point, as usual).
"Hey, I'm going for a bit of a walk. You want anything if I run into the trolley?"
There was a chorus of no thank-yous and a snarky little comment from Sirius about not knocking the sweets lady over when he ran into the trolley. He rolled his eyes and exited the compartment. Finally. Now...where to go? Their compartment was almost at the front of the train, so he could just do the usual walk to the end and back and hope he met the–
"Oh!"
He'd run into someone. Someone female. Someone with red hair and green eyes. Someone named Lily. Damn. What now? What was he supposed to say. Sorry I ran into you, but you weren't looking? Name. Her name.
"Evans," he managed to spit out. Lovely. He sounded cold and horrible and angry.
"Potter," she replied, sounding just as cold and horrible and angry. Oh. Maybe he should make sure she was okay, because he certainly wasn't.
"You all right?"
She rolled her eyes, but he wasn't sure she knew she was doing it. It was sort of a Lily-reflex thing. Not that he'd noticed or anything.
"Fine, thanks."
Hm. Okay, then. Off to the trolley.
"Right. Well, I'll see you." And he walked right past her. He figured asking her out, again, would be a bit inappropriate. But he couldn't resist looking at her again. He could have sworn, as he looked back, that he saw her do a little skip round the corner.