Hey guys! Thanks to everyone who has given this story such glowing reviews! My co-author and I love you all! Here's the next chapter...please enjoy!

Narcissa, being a prefect, indulged in her rights to the prefect bathroom to get a breath away from Malfoy. She hated him. Loathed him. His touch, his voice, his smile...she HATED him...and nobody could know. Her mother knew, of course, and had hit her as hard as she could without leaving a mark when her daughter had mentioned her distaste. Narcissa knew better, and she pretended to adore him. Oh but she hated him, and sweeping the bathroom quickly to see that it was empty, she slammed both fists against the wall and screamed as loud as she dared, pushing back the urge to vomit at the lingering touch of his arm around her waist, fingers rubbing against her hip, his eyes on her ass. Like he owned her. She grit her teeth and slammed her fists again against the wall.

"Miss Evans! I forgot the password!"

"How many times, Shawna, do I have to tell you to call me Lily?"

Shawna smiled. "At least once more, Miss Evans...but...um... the password?"

"'Lion over snake'..."

"Thank you!"

The first year girl scurried off and Lily slipped into the nearest restroom for some peace...then she saw the only other occupant. "Oh gods..."

When she heard the sound, Narcissa was instantly composed, whipping around and hiding her hands—now red and a little raw from her outburst—behind her back. Her chin was tilted, her features smoothed into the perfect look of contempt. Of course she couldn't erase that moment with her fists against the wall and her head down in defeat, but there was always the chance Lily hadn't seen it.

Luckily for her, Lily hadn't noticed it. "I'll just go find another restroom..." She glared at Narcissa and huffed. Just as I was trying to escape...

Narcissa steeled her voice to it's natural calm and smirked. "If you find yourself too flustered, be my guest, and all the better for us both."

"Who are you calling flustered? I'm just fine, thank you..." She crossed her arms and glared with all of her Gryffindor 'bravery'—more commonly known as stupid pride—she stayed right where she was.

Narcissa arched a slender eyebrow and continued to look gorgeously smug. "Well don't let me distract you, then; or did you just come to try and fix your hair in the mirror? I'll save you the time by telling you it's a hopeless cause."

Lily bit back her retort. Prefects were supposed to be above witless banter like this... She slipped into a stall and slammed the door, locking it tightly.

Narcissa turned her own attention to her reflection, studying herself with what appeared to be interest while her mind played at other things. Mostly about Malfoy and how she detested him. Her thoughts strayed; she glanced to Lily's slammed door and frowned a bit. "Pity Potter spoiled your potion..."

Lily muttered under her breath, eventually spitting out something that sounded like, "Yeah..."

Narcissa wondered what she was doing, but her temper flared beneath the calm exterior, and she desperately searched for a way, any way, to release some of the pent up passion. "It was good." Years of barriers built to keep emotions locked away were rather hard to break through, but she had at least made some slight progress by giving that tiny compliment.

Lily finished what she was doing and the toilet emptied itself and she slipped out of her stall with an eyebrow raised. "How it was ruined...or the potion itself...?" She asked almost skeptically.

"The potion." She leaned forward to tuck a stray strand of silky hair back into place. "You must have interpreted the 'six pinches' differently than I, that must have been the smell. Or maybe you have bigger hands." She arched an eyebrow and smirked a bit. "Most likely, as it would account for your rather clumsy nature."

Lily grimaced, and shook her head. "I don't know what I did differently...just that mine came out the way it did..."

"I told you what you did differently." She turned around, arms folded a bit haughtily, still full of passion and spitfire and loathing for her fiancé.

"I meant with the measurements, Narcissa..."

Her tone grew slightly irritated, "Yes. The pinches."

Lily sighed and clenched her fists. "It's not my fault they don't say three tablespoons..."

Narcissa blinked, frowning a bit. "What's a table spoon...?"

Lily shook her head. "A..." She didn't want to admit it to someone who had fun calling her a "mudblood." "Nothing..."

Narcissa studied Lily a moment, taking her in, sizing her up. The hair would be dreadful, the horrid color of red it was, but her eyes saved it. They matched. Green... Narcissa supposed her eyes weren't too bad. Her figure could be better. Or maybe it was the loose robes. Her bone structure was pleasant enough, in a non-pureblood way... she should have found the freckles to be utterly disgusting, but in current light of her utter loathing for her pureblood fiancé, she rather liked them. In fact, Evans was perhaps an exact opposite to Malfoy...and if nothing else, that softened Narcissa to her. Her heart rose in harmony with her mind, screaming at her to do something, anything, reckless and careless and not...perfect. She remained, however, aloof and snide.

Lily blushed gently and washed her hands before brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

Narcissa glanced at the water, sneering inwardly at her own purity. Sometimes she compared herself to water. Frozen water, perhaps. Clear and cold and perfect. Sometimes she wished she could melt and slip through someone's fingers...or even get so heated that she'd disappear. Passion was heat, and she wanted it. She turned away from Lily to stare again into the mirror.

Lily smiled softly. "Just so you know...a tablespoon is a form of an exact measurement... No guess work..." She dried her hands carefully and looked at the mirror as well. Her green eyes flashed gorgeously, but her hair...it shined like silk...and looked otherwise like tumbleweed.

"Oh..." She turned her attention back. "A mudblood thing." The words were out before she corrected them, and she frowned a bit. "Or, muggle...sorry." Sorry! Ha! She almost grinned, which would have been very unlady-like, but it was something. Narcissa Black did NOT apologize to anyone for anything, especially not a mudblood. Er, muggle.

Lily's jaw dropped in anger and then she smiled softly as realization hit her. "Thank you...I accept your apology..."

If she didn't grin, she at least smiled, and it was neither coy nor smug as her smiles almost always were. She ignored the insistent urge to fix Lily's hair herself, and simply shrugged a shoulder.

Lily glanced at herself in the mirror, tried to fix it with her hands and then shook her head as she pulled out her wand, muttering something under her breath, her hair became half-way decent—a far shot from Narcissa's, but mostly acceptable.

Narcissa wasn't too impressed, and clasped her hands behind her back to keep from reaching out to tame the red waves. "How do you condition it?"

Lily shrugs. "With whatever I end up using...never really paid much attention...why? Should I?" She glanced at the blonde like this was the most shocking revelation of them all.

A look of horror momentarily disrupted Narcissa's calm expression. "You don't-...You-...oh. Well. I suppose that explains it..." Through an act of amazing will power, she managed not to laugh. "Perhaps you should try some..."

"Perhaps I should try some what?" Lily seriously wanted to make herself look as good as Narcissa. She did not just admit to herself that Narcissa looked good! Even as she denied the thought, she caught herself examining the other without moving green eyes from the icy ones of the blonde.

"Conditioner. I make my own, actually." She lifted a hand to touch her silky hair. It slipped over her fingers delicately, smoothly, neatly falling back into place. It was perfect. She almost sneered.

Lily watched the perfect motion of Narcissa's hair and bit her lip. "I use it...but nothing seems to work quite right...my hair is just... Feh...I've given up!" She shook her head. "Nothing will fix it."

Narcissa considered her own hair and decided maybe she didn't mind Lily's so much after all. Well...it could be a little better... "You should try finding a mix that suits you. It's just like potions, so you'll do it easy once you know what to look for."

Lily nodded. "Makes sense I suppose..." She turned to glance back at the mirror. But what was it she needed to do to make her hair better?

"And you might try pulling it back. It would suit the shape of your face to do so." Narcissa almost lifted a hand to do so, but paused midway and let it drop idly to her side.

Lily half-noticed the hand, but already had her own hands pulling her hair back. "Huh...you're right...it does look better..." She paused, dropped her hair and turned to Narcissa. "Why are you helping me?"

"Yes I know." She commented lightly to the first, and paused a bit at the second, turning sharply back to the mirror. She checked to see that her every feature was in order, and was relieved that her face betrayed no emotion. "I'm not. I just couldn't stand to look at that dreadful hair another instant."

Lily shook her head. "Then who was it that asked you to look?" Lily raised an eyebrow as she looked at Narcissa's reflection.

"It's rather hard to miss, being the horrid color that it is." She lifted a hand to touch her cheek and her lips curved up a bit at the corners. She pushed her head to one side with a finger and glanced sideways at her profile, tracing the finger down her cheek and letting her hand fall idle again.

Lily shuddered in anger. "Then ignore it...it's better manners, Miss Perfect Pureblood, than being rude." She slipped from the room without another word or a backward glance.

Narcissa stared at herself for quite some while, turning this way and that in her inspection. She finally decided she couldn't very well hide forever, and stepped out of the bathroom with a forced smile, smug and aloof as ever. Malfoy was almost instantly by her side, even smugger, his hand on her lower back as if to guide her. She smiled coyly over at him, and walked as she had been trained to do. Gracefully.

It was now dinnertime and Lily had slipped in next to James and Lupin with a glare to the first and a half-hearted smile to the other as Sarah sat down across from her. Soon, she was dragged into a conversation she had no interest in.

Narcissa allowed herself to be led to the Great Hall, and sat regally at her table with Malfoy on her right and Bellatrix at her left, both questioning her as to where she'd spent the day. She lied. And she didn't look at Lily even once.

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