A/N: I am back! You will get two chapters today.

"Good evening."

Severus looked up from his potions book. It was the new girl. He simply motioned the girl to take a seat opposite him.

Hermione took the said seat and took her book out. Severus was yet to utter a word.

"So, how do we go about it?" Hermione asked.

Severus had not had much chance to observe the girl, but he knew the girl was confident and rational. He was sure she would even know her problems with potions; she was better than average in the class.

Severus leaned back in his chair, folded his hands across his chest and raised an eyebrow at the girl. Though there were no outward signs of distress on the girl, something was definitely wrong. The statement proved that.

Hermione sighed. "Have you observed my work in the class? Maybe you can share your observations."

Definitely distressed, Severus noted. "What makes you think I observed your work? Don't I have mine to do in the class?"

"You generally finish your work quite ahead of time," Hermione answered, in her usual tone, Severus observed. "I have seen you observe other's work."

Ah, she was right. He did observe other's work. That had given him ideas many at times to tweak potions.

"You follow instructions too seriously," Severus drawled. "Potions isn't only about that. You have fair understanding of ingredients, I assume. But you let go of that understanding when you start working. You need to be more confident to experiment."

Severus noted a slight flinch at the last line. So, she was afraid to experiment. Somehow this didn't suit with her normal attitude. She was never afraid of experiments in Defence in the Dark Arts, the third class they shared. Either he was wrong in his assumptions or she was particularly afraid of potions' experiment.

"Let's go through today's potions," Severus said, flipping through his book. "I will tell you where you went wrong."

"You are not thinking about Hermione, are you?" Remus asked James.

"So what if I am?" James said defensively.

Remus shook his head and sighed. They were currently in common room, working on their homework. Sirius was lost somewhere, probably flirting with some girl and Peter was off to …. also somewhere.

"James," Remus started cautiously. "Why are you so fascinated by her?"

James stopped pretending to do work and scratched his chin, thinking hard.

"I don't know, Moony," James answered, looking confused.

"That's worse," Remus groaned.

"Are you sure it's not a repeat of what happened between Lily and you?" Remus asked after a pause.

That had James thinking hard and shut him up as well.

"I hope not," James finally answered. "But I want to protect this girl… I never felt that with Lily."

"This girl probably doesn't need your protection," Remus said quietly.

"I know, Moony. I know." James sighed. "But, somehow, I feel like offering her one, so that she knows she has me to rely on."

Remus raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you following her around too much?"

James smiled sheepishly. "What? I am sure everyone must have noticed her lack of letters."

Remus gave him a look which clearly said do you really believe that?

"You also know!" James cried.

"Because you bugger me with all information you get to know about her," Remus replied. "I'm going to library. See you at dinner."

Remus got up and gathered his books. Just before turning around, he said quietly, "Just be careful around her, James. She isn't Lily. "

James stared after his friend, trying to figure his friend's cryptic message.

"Hey, Girl," Sirius called out.

"Hey, Black," Hermione replied, adjusting her bag in one hand and a couple of books on other.

Sirius wrinkled his nose in slight disgust. "Please call me Sirius, alright?"

"As you say."

"Let me help you with those books," Sirius said, ignoring the girl's protests. "Honestly! No doubt you are so short."

"Hey!" the girl in question protested. "I'm only a foot shorter than you."

Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "You are worse than Moony. At least he doesn't stay in library so long. But that maybe the case because we drag him out at proper times."

Hermione smiled. These four friends were quite lively and attention catching, mainly due to Sirius' antics.

"By the way, where were you headed to?" Hermione asked.

"To you," Sirius answered. "I had really difficult time guessing where you would be." Ah, sarcasm.

"Whatever for?"

"I met Dumbledore in the corridor. He wants to meet you."

"Oh," Hermione said. Her expression fell, Sirius noticed.

"If you don't mind," Sirius said, "I can carry your bag and books to the common room. You will have to come back again in this direction to go to Dumbledore's office."

Hermione thought on it for a minute and then nodded yes. "If you don't mind?"

"I wouldn't have offered," Sirius said nonchalantly.

Hermione muttered her thanks and handed over her bag. Then she took off in the opposite direction. Had she bothered to turn around, she would have noticed a black dog sniffing her trail before turning human again.

The last few days had been good for Lily. She was, for once, having a normal teenage girl's life. Not being stalked or proposed every corner and being friends with Potter and group was actually … cool.

The only problem was her ever increasing crush on James.

Lily sighed. Sameera had thrown many warning looks at her during group studies. But, she just couldn't help it. It was as if she was discovering a whole new side of Potter … James. His messed up hair looked so cool on him, his spectacles made him look serious and cute at the same time and boy! When did he get those muscles on?

And if all this was not enough, she was feeling jealous of every other girl he would bestow his smile on, chat with or smile at. Especially that new girl, Hermione.

Lily frowned. James seemed especially taken with this girl. They hadn't talked much, but he was always observing her. Or maybe it was her own mind overworking.

The fact that the girl was good looking and intelligent did nothing to calm her overworked mind.

Maybe she had finally gone nuts and needed a trip to St. Mungo's.

Sameera was right; things would have been so much better had she accepted James' proposal years ago. Maybe it really was too late…

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