Author's Note: A big thank you to all reviewers, and thanks again to my beta Four and Twenty Blackbirds.

Chapter 2: Had She Not Been So Stupid...

The fall came with the arrival of the following Monday. The weather turned from sunny and hot to cold and windy, leaving the entire school yard – once crowded with students during the breaks – quite deserted.

Though strangely distracted, Lily had, just as she said she would, gotten all of her expected studying done during the weekend, following her revision schedule to an almost extreme extent. As she handed in her Transfiguration essay on Monday morning, she was utterly assured that she would have achieved an O.

This joy was somewhat scattered when it was brought to her attention that Elisabeth and Aurora had chosen the seats in the very back, behind James, Sirius and Remus – Peter having not been accepted into the Transfiguration NEWT class. She hesitated, but as those were the only seats free, she headed over there and sat down.

"Why these lousy seats?" she asked them as she took out her books and quill from her bag.

"They were the only ones left except for the one in front of Fredric Johnson, and he keeps poking me in the back," Aurora explained.

They did not have time to continue the conversation on their choice of seats, for Professor McGonagall emerged and the class fell silent.

"Good-morning, class," she said, "I hope you've all done your homework for today, as we today will be practicing the spell we read about last time. Please, pair up."

Lily looked uncertainly at Aurora and Elisabeth. It didn't really matter to her whom of them she worked with, or if she worked with someone else (as long as they were reasonably good), but she would really like to avoid working with James – which was a possible scenario if Sirius and Remus decided to pair up and Aurora and Elisabeth were partners. She needn't have worried though, as Elisabeth seemed to have read her mind.

"Remus," she said and knocked him softly on his shoulder, "fancy pairing up with me?"

That left James with Sirius and Lily with Aurora. The spell that they were practicing was one that changed the eye colour of their partner. Practicing an appearance-altering spell on humans was indeed considered dangerous, but as it was likely to come up in their NEWTs, it had to be done. Furthermore, this particular spell was regarded as being quite harmless for a spell that altered a person's appearance.

"You go first," Aurora said uncertainly, apparently a bit nervous that she'd mess up – to be honest, the only reason that she passed her Transfiguration OWL was the many hours Lily and Elisabeth had spent helping her.

Like one would have expected, it took Lily a mere three attempts before Aurora's eyes were sparkling purple.

"Very good!" Professor McGonagall beamed, "now let me see you try, Miss Wilkins", she said to Aurora.

Aurora waved her wand uncertainly, but nothing happened. McGonagall took to instructing Aurora in more detail, while Lily – a tad bored – shifted her weight to one foot, looking around in the room. Most of the students seemed to have at least slightly changed the eye colour of their partner by now, and as a result, all the students had eye colours like purple, green, orange, or red. Lily smiled to herself; it looked quite funny.

Her thoughts were interrupted though, as someone bumped into her back, causing her to fall forwards, the person in question landing on top of her.

"OUCH!"

"Oh crap," James muttered as he got up. "I'm so sorry." He reached out a hand to help her to her feet. "Are you alright?"

She grabbed his hand and allowed him to help her up, then he immediately let go of her hand as though he didn't want to touch her more than necessarily. "I'm okay", she said, taking a deep breath and brushing the dust off her robes.

"I apologize, Sirius doesn't know what he's doing," James said with a grimace that could have been an attempt at a smile. "Sorry."

And with that, he turned around.

McGonagall had hurried away to help a Hufflepuff girl whose teeth had accidentally turned purple, and Aurora had apparently been watching James and Lily. She gave a small whistle.

"Shush!" Lily hissed. "What is the matter with you?"

"What is up with you two?" Aurora asked curiously. "All of a sudden he's basically ignoring you, while you can't stop glancing at him every time he's in the room."

"Oh just shut up, will you," Lily snapped – and it wasn't at all like her to act this way. She took a deep breath. "Just try the spell once more, okay?"

"I could kill you for that, Padfoot!" James muttered under his breath as the three of them walked towards the Gryffindor common room. "That can't even be called an attempt at the spell we were supposed to be practicing. I know you did it on purpose. I'm not stupid."

"Chill, Prongs, what's the matter with you?" Sirius asked. "I thought you'd like any chance to lie on top of Lily."

James took a deep breath. "I've decided to stop asking her out," he said quickly.

"What?!" Sirius exclaimed. "Why?"

"Because," James said slowly, "in case you haven't noticed, she's not at all interested in me."

"Prongs-"

"I mean," James said and sounded more like his normal self, "why would I want to waste myself on someone not clever enough to realize what a huge mistake she is trying to make? C'mon, the ocean is full of fish."

"Whatever you say," Sirius said. "I bet you you'll be able to keep this up for one week, at most."

Remus had been quiet until now, listening to their conversation. Now he cleared his throat quietly and spoke, "I think it's good for you."

"See, Moony is with me," James said.

"I'm not saying I don't support you or whatever," Sirius said impatiently. "I'm just saying that I don't reckon you'll be able to pull it off, this whole 'getting-over-Lily'-thing."

"We'll see," James said. "Just wait."

"I'm tired, I'm going to bed. You coming?" Elisabeth asked with a yawn.

It was well past 2 AM and the Gryffindor common room was empty, except for Lily and Elisabeth. The girls had been doing homework – well, Elisabeth and Aurora had been doing homework. Lily had been pretending, and indeed trying, to do homework but the attempt had not been very successful. Aurora had gone to bed hours ago, as had the Marauders and the rest of their housemates.

"Yeah, just a minute", Lily said in response to Elizabeth's inquiry, and pretended to be working very hard on her Arithmancy paper. "I want to get this finished."

"G'night then," Elisabeth said with another yawn and disappeared up the stairs to the girls' dormitories.

Lily leaned back in the chair. She hadn't been able to concentrate at all this evening, as she had been reliving the Tranfiguration incident over and over again in her mind, and then she began dwelling on the day at the end of last year – the day when James had kissed her.

"Get a grip," she muttered, and closed her book with a bang. "This is entirely your own fault."

Oh, had she not been so stupid as to fall for James because of his stupid kissing, or had she not been so arrogant as to drive him away forever when she finally had begun to think that she might be able to like him, she wouldn't be in this ridiculous situation.

Maybe I ought to get myself some sort of a distraction, she thought. Perhaps I ought to put one of those silly ads in The Mirror

Yes, that's what she needed! She needed to find another guy to like. She needed a boyfriend. She needed to put in an ad in the lonely-hears column. An ad would find her a guy that would help her get over James – that prick – and find somebody to care about. It was a perfect solution to her problem!