"Mr Potter!" Minerva McGonagall's voice whipped across the classroom startling James from his daydreaming almost as if it ha been a real whip that just lashed across his face. "If you are not going to pay attention in my lessons then do not enter my classroom." She finished forcefully and returned to teaching.

James eyes again fell on the object of his daydream; Lily Evans. He was surprised to see her emerald eyes staring straight back into his caramel ones. The green of Lily's eyes shimmered and for a moment James thought he saw the ghost of a tear swell in them, but before the sight could puncture his heart she blinked, shook her head and restored her attention to the Professor. James couldn't help the quite sigh that fell from his lips. For his entire Hogwarts career he had striven to be with Lily and than it seemed he had finally obtained his dream, only to have it snatched away before he could really appreciate it. For the past week he had been able to think of nothing else. Lily seemed to be wherever he went, even in his dreams he couldn't escape from her. He would see her in the common room, laughing with her friends, in the library, studying furiously and he would watch her at her favourite spot by the lake earlier in the morning. When she thought no one was watching, that was when James felt his the loss the most. When beautiful, bright Lily Evans sat with an old book given to her by her grandmother and let silent tears fall down her face or when she would lean back against a tree sighing deeply, James felt the pain most. He wanted nothing more than to comfort her, tell her everything was going to be okay, wrap her in his strong arms, but, alas, he had blown it.

It was in these stolen moments that James knew where he had gone wrong and understood why Lily couldn't be with him in the childish and unpolished state he was in. He needed to grow. Unfortunately, he found this slightly more difficult to put into practise than he first imagined.

Lily was sat at her usual table in the back of the library. She could be found here more than usual as of late even thought the exams were almost over. Amongst her books for next year and the texts she had to study for her two final exams where a smattering of books she had been gathering from specialist shops and foreign medical research centres in the hope of discovering Remus' mysterious illness. So far she had had no such luck.

Tonight she was studying a French report detailing findings of a recent investigation into different types of algae and the effects they had on the immune systems of wizards and witches. They were very interesting indeed and would no doubt interest the Healer in Lily for hours, but she was beginning to think that they had no bearing at all on Remus' situation.

As her eyes grew weary she threw the sheaf's of parchment onto her pile of books and let out a quiet string of mild profanities. A muffled snort from behind her made her spin around quickly her red hair whipping around her face in a flash, not unlike the way Professor McGonagall's voice had lashed around their classroom.

For a moment Lily was struck dumb as she saw James Potter stood sheepishly leaning on a bookshelf looking slightly ruffled from the day, but nonetheless dashingly handsome. He gave her a tiny smile, his eyes apologetic and Lily was reminded of the day when he scooped her from this very chair and carried her sobbing form to the window seat. Lily was trapped in the warm and fuzzy memory before a not so pretty image of Sev's greying boxers assaulted her mind and she turned her steely gaze to James.

"Potter! What is wrong with you?" She hissed, her eyes boring into his rich caramel ones, she took a long breath, "Forget it, I'm leaving anyway. Don't watch me in future Potter because I will no be so lenient."

She gathered up her books berating herself at how easily the depth of his eyes could wear her down. As she swept past him she saw the pained expression skew his face and she almost stopped.

"Oi Evans," He called after her, she stopped, but didn't turn, "I gotta say you were rocking the whole diligent student look, you actually make the library worth coming to for a guy like me."

Lily span on her heel. For a second her face burnt with undisguised anger and perhaps a hint of disappointment before she shook her head saying, "Potter, you stuck-up twat!"

With those harsh, but indisputably true words she left the library escaping back to her dormitory where Alice was painting her nails. As Lily entered, Alice screwed the top back onto bottle and embraced Lily. She could easily spot the after effects of Lily's easily angered red head nature and knew that James Potter would somehow be involved.

The next morning when the two girls awoke the sky outside was ablaze with a bright yellow glow and the other girls in their dormitory where already busily scuttling about reaching for summer dresses and flip flops, bright colours and big sunglasses. Lily looked across at Alice and in unison the both beamed at one another. Each year so far in their Hogwarts career the two girls had spent one day completely alone by Lily's patch of the lake laughing, joking, reading, swimming and generally enjoying the rare British sun as well as the other's company. It seemed to them both that today would be that day this year.

"Ooh what shall I wear?" Squealed Alice as she leapt from her bed and flung open her trunk.

She pulled out a long green dress with a halter neck, "Not, that," Felicity, one of the more stylish of Lily and Alice's friends said moving to stand beside Alice's trunk, "Green is not really your colour Alice," she said sweetly, looking at Alice's dark hair and eyes.

She rummaged around in Alice's trunk, pulling out random garments and holding them up to Alice's body. Finally after much grumbling on Alice's part and much laughing on the half of all the other girls, Felicity had coerced Alice into a bold red dress with think straps that fell to just belong her knees and hung to her curves in just the right places.

Lily smiled happily at her friend as she admired herself in the mirror a small smile curving her features.

"Thanks Flic."

"No problem honey. Now we just have to work on the disaster that is Lily's wardrobe." She said sarcastically.

Lily threw her pillow at Felicity as the Gryffindor girls fell about with laughter.

Just under ten minutes later Lily had managed to dress herself with no help from the ever present Felicity in a green floral skirt that sat perfectly on her knee, a plain white vest top and her favourite pair of low white Converse.

As the two girls walked into the common room and made their way towards Frank and his friends the Marauders where just re-entering it after a hearty breakfast.

James wolf whistled, "You look be-a-utiful Evans, you should come down and see us later at the Quidditch pitch we are having a friendly game against some Hufflepuffs." James said confidently running his had through his hair.

Remus and Sirius who were stood behind him shook their heads and Lily didn't pause in her path, preferring to act as if he hadn't spoken his stupid words.

"Dude, why, just why?" Sirius whispered to him.

"I was giving her a compliment like the one I told you about in the library, I don't get it, I haven't asked her out again and I haven't been showing off." James looked dejected.

"'You should come down and see us later at the Quidditch pitch'?" Remus queried, James sighed before his friend continued, "Watch, Longbottom can get it right."

Lily and Alice had reached Frank and he had immediately embraced Alice.

"You look beautiful Al," he said quietly, looking over her dress, "As perfect as a rose." Some of the boys around them frowned, but both Alice and Lily, who stood a step away from the two, smiled.

Frank and Alice exchanged a few more words before they kissed and Alice departed with Lily and Frank returned to his overdue Potions essay with a group of his friends also setting up camp with their books.

James watched the space where Lily had previously stood and realised that he still had a long way to go before he could deflate his head enough to get the girl that to him was not AS perfect as a flower, but was more than any lily could ever dream of being.

Dunno what you guys think, but I thought of Lily as a Healer? Let me know if you don't like it and I won't mention it again.

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