A/N: Sorry it's been a while since I updated, I've had huge ammount of schoolwork to do and I'm WAY behind in Italian, that, mixed with writers block on this chapter, is not a good combination. Thank you for all the lovely reviews! Anyway, this one's all about Lily and James, it's a little shorter than usual but the next chapter will be up soon. Enjoy.

It was not the first time since she had started at Hogwarts, that Lily Evans had snuck out after hours to find an empty classroom in which to practise her wand work. She was getting better and better, and was set to become one of the best in her year, a goal which she yearned for with every fibre of her very determined being. Lily was not naïve enough to believe that all of her peers thought her an equal; even though she was only a first year, she did not miss the way that certain students looked upon those of her parentage with extreme distaste. She had only been at the school for three days when she first heard the term 'Mudblood'. Lily had been on her way out of the dungeons alone after potions, when she had literally bumped into a group of fifth year Slytherin girls, who promptly spat the word at her, wrinkling up their noses and looking down their noses at her as if she was second-class. It wasn't until she was chatting with her fellow dormitory mates that she had learned what the word meant.

Ever since that day, Lily had felt the need to prove herself, sneaking out a couple of times a week to practise her magic. Charms was her favourite lesson, but she was rather good at potions also, Professor Slughorn had informed her that she had a natural talent for the subject. Lily found potions rather like cooking, a subject that she had found tedious at her muggle primary school. Charms was definitely her favourite. She loved the way she could make objects whiz through the air and dance around the room. She was getting very good at it as well, she had managed to levitate a desk three foot from the floor, something which her classmates could only dream of at the moment, for heavy objects were a lot harder than the feathers and books they had been practising on.

Suddenly, the door creaked open behind her and the desk fell to the floor with a thud as she whirled around, her heart racing, she would not go through the indignity of a detention.

"So it was you who snuck out!" James Potter smirked, "not as much of a goody goody as you seem are you Evans. What are you doing in here anyway?"

Lily scowled. Furious at him for intruding,

"Shush! Keep your voice down! You'll get us caught out of bed and we'll end up in detention," Lily grumbled, "and it's none of your business what I'm doing in here, Potter."

James smiled; for some reason, he felt a surge of admiration for Lily, despite his initial impressions that she was a boring by the book sort of girl.

"Alright, I won't ask questions, but we should head back to the tower, Filch is on the prowl and you don't want him catching you out of bed,"

Lily studied the boy carefully, taken aback by his sudden sincerity, waiting for the catch to kick in,

"How do you propose we get back without being seen if Filch is wandering around?"

Once again, James smirked. Of course, he had a trick up his sleeve.

"If you don't tell anyone, I'll let you in on a secret. Alright, Evans?"

She looked at him dubiously, still unsure whether or not to trust him, after all, this was James Potter, who shared responsibility for causing mischief and being downright annoying. Not to mention the fact that his ego was so huge Lily was surprised he could fit through the portrait hole.

Lily suspicions, however, were quickly resolved when a bedraggled looking cat slunk around the door and gave an almighty screech in order to summon her master,

"Bollocks! Quick under here!" James threw a strange looking silvery cloak over himself and Lily and steered her quickly out of the door.

"What the hell Potter?" she whispered, Filch was stupid, but he was sure to notice a large lump of silvery fabric wandering the halls.

James ignored her and instead clamped a hand over her mouth. This was, however, futile as they rounded the corner at a quickening pace and bumped straight into Filch.

"What the- STUDENTS! STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Filch let out an almighty shriek. He had no idea how the little buggers had managed it, but they're made themselves invisible and were running around the castle.

Still concealed by the magical cloak, James grabbed Lily by the wrist and dragged her along behind him as he sprinted towards the Gryffindor tower.

Lily wasn't sure how they managed it; they reached the tower, scrambled through the portrait hole and collapsed onto the sofas in front on the dying fire, gasping for breath after running from the third to the seventh floor.

"What is that cloak James?" Lily's eyes widened in wonder,

"It's an invisibility cloak, stupid. Watch this!" he wrapped the cloak around only his head, and chucked as Lily gasped at the headless body of her classmate, "you should see your face Evans!"

"And you should see yours! You don't have one!" the pitch of Lily's voice rose in alarm, "just when I thought I was getting used to this magic thing…"

James removed his invisibility cloak from around his head and studied the girls face. She looked sad.

"So are you going to tell me what you were doing in that classroom? Seeing as I risked my neck coming to rescue you from Filch," James asked seriously,

"You didn't have to follow me Potter," Lily evaded the question, but James gave her a look that told her that he wasn't going to drop it, "fine. I'll tell you. But you have to keep it a secret…or I'll tell everyone about your cloak!"

James considered her offer for a moment, and then nodded, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"I was practising."

"Practising what?" he asked

"Magic, stupid," Lily rolled her eyes

"Why?" confusion tinged his voice, "you're the best in our year, why would you need to practise?"

Lily sighed; boys could be so stupid sometimes.

"Because I'm a mudblood. If I don't practise loads I'm never going to be any good," Lily couldn't meet his eyes.

Mudblood. James hated the word. His parents had brought him up to be proud of his heritage, but they had also taught him good values and not to look down on others.

"Who told you that?"

Lily shrugged,

"I'm not stupid James, I know what people think about people who have parents like mine. I don't know how I can do magic, but I shouldn't be able to, right? I don't want to fail and then get sent home because they realise I don't belong here," she said very quietly,

"You have as much of a right to be here as any of us pure bloods, Lily,"

Lily snapped her head up, her green eyes meeting his hazel ones. Those were the first kind words James Potter had ever spoken to her, and she was shocked, she didn't think he had it in him. All she could do was nod in response.

"Well, after all that excitement I'm going to bed, night Evans!" James called as he bounded towards the spiral staircase.

As Lily clambered into her bed, taking care not to trip over Susi's books, which littered the floor in the space between their beds, she made a mental note to be a little less harsh on James Potter in the future.