Forty five minutes, one miserable walk, and a change of clothes for each of them later, Lily and James sat side by side in the Gryffindor Common Room, a blanet wrapped around their shoulders and a comforting fire blazing in the hearth.

James turned his head towards Lily. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," She mumbled in reply, wiping a stray tear off of her cheek.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, scooting closer to her.

"Well, it's just..." She paused, unsure of whether or not to tell James what she was thinking. He was, after all, still James Potter, and she did, after all, still hate him. One kiss and a few kind words didn't change anything between them.

...Right?

"I... I dunno what I thought was going to happen," she admitted. "I mean, I know things can't just conveniently go back to the way they used to be between Sev and I. But I think that I wanted them to do just that so badly, I wasn't being rational, and I ran into the forest on an impulse to meet him, and then there was you, and the storm, and the spiders, and everything just happened at the absolute worst time possible." Every word came tumbling out of her mouth at an alarming rate, and she looked as if she were about to start sobbing again. "A-and now there's all of this, and you're being so nice, and I j-just have no idea what the hell I'm meant to do. E-everything's just so confusing."

"Ssh, it's okay," James whispered, wrapping his arms around the bawling girl that he'd chased after for so long. He absolutley hated seeing her like this, and would give anything to see her happy again. "Everything's going to be alright," he continued as she rested her head on his chest.

Suddenly, the portrait that served as the entrance and exit to the common room creaked as it was pushed open, and a very drunk Marlene McKinnon and a very happy Sirius Black clambered through, all messy hair and grins and lopsided ties.

"Oi, Prongs!" Sirius yelled cheerfully, his arm supporting Marlene. "What're you doing up this- Oh," he said, eyes widening as he noticed Lily for the first time."Oh! Look who finally came around!" He announced, either too far away or too tipsy to notice her tears. Lily quickly sat up, wiping her eyes, and wiggled out from around James' arm. "Well, I'll leave you two to it, then. Come on, Marls," He said with a wink as he and Marlene headed up the stairs, giggling about nothing in particular.

"Godric," James said as soon as the door had shut behind the two. "Sorry about him, he's way too obnoxious for his own good sometimes."

"No, it's fine," Lily said, wiping the mascara tracks off of her face. "I should go anyways, it's late..." She said, quickly standing up. Had she really just allowed James Potter of all people to comfort her? What had she been thinking?

"Are you sure?" James said, standing up, a concerned expression on his face. "I mean, I'll stay here with you, if you'd like."

"No," Lily answered quickly. "I'm fine. See you around," she said, and headed straight for the stairs to her dormitory, mentally kicking herself for acting so stupid around him.

"Okay. Good night, Lilyflower." James said as the door shut behind her. He sighed, and headed up to his own room.

Neither of them slept all night; their thoughts were too trained on the other.

a/n: please don't kill me, you guys. i normally update things on time, i really do. i'm generally a very timely person.
but so much has happened since i last updated, i just spaced out on this entire site and forgot that i was currently writing a story until... well, until around an hour ago. i took my first trip out of the country, i started my sophomore year (all honors classes = no life for bella), got a boyfriend... just oh my god there aren't even words for how suckish i feel for leaving this hanging since july. please forgive me? (pretty please? with rainbow sprinkles on top?) c:
anyways. moving on. this chapter is what i like to call, "a totally necessary and not lazy ass at all filler chapter." it might seem like i only wrote 500 and something words because i'm a bitch like that, but this chapter and its events are crucial to the overall arc of lily and james' relationship (or lack thereof), and there weren't many places i could go with it to stretch it out to 1,000+ words. so just have patience, young grasshoppahhh. the good stuff is on its way.
love and promises of adbundant updates,
bella.

DISCLAIMER: nothing. i own nothing, except for a small laptop on which i write these strange fanfics. and clothes and food and textbooks and stuff like that.