So here's another chapter to apologise for neglecting this for so long. I hope you like it! I was going to wait for a review before I put this one up, but I got it done really quickly and couldn't wait to post it! I hope you like it, and please, no flames.

James' POV

'What the hell did you do that for?' Sirius was staring at James, his mouth aghast. Remus was just looking at him, shaking his head.

It was twenty minutes after the prefect's meeting, and James was sat in a compartment with his friends, and Remus had just told them about his conversation with Lily after everyone had gone. Unknown to him, Remus had been listening from outside the door.

'I don't know,' James said. 'I couldn't help it! It all sort of, came out!'

'It was bloody cringe-worthy,' Remus said. 'I was stood outside the compartment. What happened to the plan, Prongs?'

'It sort of fell through,' James said.

'You can say that again!' Sirius said with a laugh. 'That's also got to be the quickest time back from holidays you've asked her out in, ever. It had to be what, twenty minutes?'

'Ah, you're forgetting the time he sent that paper arrow with the note attached to it in forth year,' Peter said with a nervous laugh. 'That was on the platform! Technically before term has even started!'

'Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one!' Sirius said, bursting into laughter at the memory. 'Merlin, Prongs, you're so hopeless.'

James grinned half-heartedly. Suddenly, he could see that Sirius was right. He hadn't just been hopeless, he'd been a prat. He'd truly been the toe-rag Lily had been calling him practically every week since third year, and definitely deserving of the hexing she'd threatened him with today. But he just couldn't help it. Every time he went near her, his heart began to race and words just seemed to tumble out of his mouth and his arms and legs seemed to act independently from the rest of his body. He couldn't help being an arsehole when it came to her.

But he'd have to try harder, he realised that now. Remus' advice was right, he'd lay off it for a while and see where it got him. They'd be sharing a dormitory together this year, it was the perfect way to start. He didn't want to alienate her before term had even started.

'You okay, Prongs?' Remus asked, sounding slightly concerned. James jumped back into the world of the waking, to find Sirius and Peter rolling around in their seats, still laughing at something, probably another one of his failed attempts at asking out Lily.

'I'm fine,' James replied. 'Just, you know, been hit by realisation, and Merlin it hurts.'

'Why don't we go and pay them a visit?' Remus said.

'That's a great idea,' Sirius said at once, and in an instant he was out of his seat and leaping towards the compartment door. A little too enthusiastic, James thought to himself, and smiled knowingly. Who would it be this time?

'Who are we going to see?' Peter said, looking confused.

'Evans and the girls, of course!' Sirius said, rolling his eyes at Peter. 'Come on!'

With that, the stood up and left their compartment.

Lily's POV

'I can't believe it!'

Lily was back in the compartment her friends had managed to get while she was at the prefect's meeting. She still couldn't believe that James Potter was the Head Boy, but even more so that he hadn't tried to pull a ridiculous prank on someone while they were in the meeting. Occasionally, while she was talking (she had done most of the talking), she caught him grinning at Remus, who, as a prefect, was at the meeting, in a way that usually meant mischief was about to happen, but nothing had. It was almost a complete change of character.

She supposed it was too much to expect that he wouldn't ask her out, but to her annoyance, he had cornered her after the prefects had left (she decided it was a good example to set to let them all go first, as much as she had wanted to rush back to find her friends and get away from Potter).

'So, that date you mentioned, Evans,' he had said, a twinkle in his eye.

'No, Potter, that you mentioned,' she had said huffily.

'Well, one of us had to, really,' he said.

'Potter, I am NOT going to go out with you!' she had screamed. 'Not now, not EVER!'

And with that, she stormed from the compartment, to flop down on a seat next to Danni and exclaim in the high-pitched voice she always had when she was angry, 'You wouldn't BELIEVE who is Head Boy!'

'We know,' Danni said with a bit of a grin on her face.

'It's James Potter,' said Tarragon, looking up from her magazine.

'How do you know?' Lily said in astonishment, looking from Tarragon, to Danni, to Mary.

'Sirius told us,' Danni said, her cheeks blushing a little. 'He came in with Remus and Peter to talk to us for a bit and he told us then.'

Lily stared around at them. She had never really worked out why her friends didn't see Potter and his gang as repulsive and horrible as she did, but she supposed that they'd never been on the receiving end of Potter's attentions. She shrugged the thought away.

'Anyway,' she said, 'Potter was a complete arse. All the way through the meeting he was grinning at Remus in that stupid way he does when he'd going to break rules or pull one of his stupid pranks.'

'You know, you should cut him a bit of slack,' Tarragon said slowly, folding up her magazine and putting it away.

'What?' Lily said, not quite believing her friend had just said that.

'Cut him a bit of slack, you know, let him off the hook a bit. Stop yelling at him every time he comes into your presence.'

'Every time he comes into my presence he's a toe-rag!' she said. 'Every time he asks me out, or comes out with some ridiculous line, or joke! It's enough to drive anyone up the wall!'

'I know he's a bit annoying, Tarragon said gently, 'but he's just nervous around you. You know he wrote to me over the summer to ask what the perfect gift would be for you.'

'What did you tell him?' Lily said, a little taken aback.

'I told him to keep out and let you alone,' Tarragon said. 'If he valued his manhood.'

The girls all giggled.

'But no, seriously,' she carried on, 'I think he might be different this year. That's not usual James, is it?'

'It was usual Potter when he asked me out again in the prefect's compartment,' Lily said a little waspishly. On reflection, she sounded a little meaner than she had intended, but really, Tarragon should keep out of it. She didn't know what it was like, even though she meant well.

Tarragon shrugged. 'I'm just trying to say that he's not all that bad.'

'When he shows me he's changed, then I'll start believing it,' Lily said. 'As it is, he's still the same old git he's always been, and I'm definitely not changing my opinion of him.'

Just then, the compartment door slid open.

'Ooh, that's a bit harsh, Evans,' Sirius Black said as he stepped into the compartment.