Sitting mid-morning in the middle of a defence against the dark arts lesson, Lily tapped her foot softly on the floor beneath her, gazing out of another window. She seemed to be doing it a lot this year; why was beyond her. Suddenly she gave a start, and realised Professor Gladwin was speaking to her.

"Well, Miss Evans?" she felt herself going a little red; she had no idea what he had just asked. Suddenly a voice spoke from the other side of the room,

"It's a poison, only effective at certain times in a human's life." She looked around, and unsurprisingly, it had been Severus who had come to her rescue. He did it every now and then. Didn't acknowledge her in any way, but helped her through little things like that. It always made her slightly sad. But, he had chosen his friends...

"Exactly, take 10 points Master Snape" continued the professor, "and I suppose my next question -" A knock on the door interrupted him.

"Come in?" The door opened and the noise that followed was incredible, especially when you considered it was only the Gryffindors making it. James Potter, quite suddenly, stepped over the threshold. He was strutting into the classroom to the sound of roaring approval from friends, some of which embraced him like a long lost brother, simpering, giggling girls started to ask quite anxiously whether he was OK and if he needed to talk to any of them, and even the rather composed Professor Gladwin shook his hand rather excitedly. "I've heard so many great things of your talent within defence Mr. Potter!". Lily scowled. James however, took it all in his stride, calmly telling girls he'd be happy to talk with them sometime, shaking hands and grinning with everyone in the class, and even managing a modest, "Someone has been exaggerating Professor, really I'm no better than most." Lily rolled her eyes. As he took a seat near Sirius, she watched him out of the corner of her eye. Remus had been right; he looked as though he had come back from holiday. Sitting at ease he ran his hands through his hair in the usual manner, laughed a genuine laugh, and talked smoothly.

"Alright, alright... settle down now class. I'm sure we're all very happy James is back with us," Sirius made a rather rude comment, to which James responded with a playful punch, grinning. They really were fools. "And now if we could return to our lesson. If we could have wands out and books away, please. Oh, and move these chairs and tables out the way if you will." Immediately, people exchanged looks of excitement, grinning as they promptly set about clearing a space. As Lily began to help by stacking chairs with Lauren she heard a voice behind her and jumped,

"So you're head girl?" Lily turned to face Severus, his face was blank, but his dark eyes seemed bright as they fixed on hers. Gulping slightly, Lily nodded, "I am."

For a moment Severus said nothing and just looked at her. Then, very quietly, "I...I thought you might be. You're perfect actually...for the post I mean. Well...well done..."

Lily smiled slightly, he had always had that nervous way of speaking, "Thanks...Sev." He was quiet a while longer, an odd look in his eye "Just...wanted to say that to you."

As he turned away she caught the briefest flash of pain across his face, and grabbed his arm "Sev, are you all right?" For a moment Severus stared at her, that odd look still there. And then he snatched his arm away and, quite coldly, said "I'm fine. Would you mind not grabbing my arm in public like a complete fool?" He stalked away without another word. Lily watched him walk away in silence, until she realised someone was watching her. Turning her head she looked just in time to see James, quite casually, look the other way, apparently already in conversation with Sirius. How long had he been watching?

"Lily? You OK?"

She gave a start; Lauren was looking at her anxiously, sparing the odd glance to glare angrily at Severus' retreating back. Lily smiled and shrugged. Lauren for once did not lecture her on the evils of Severus Snape, but patted her arm sympathetically.

Professor Gladwin called for their attention and he turned to face the class who now stood ready in a circle.

"Now, as you all now, the stories in the newspapers of late have been far from pleasing..." a few faces glanced quickly at James, who stood quite easily, waiting patiently as the teacher spoke, "well Dumbledore insists part of my methods this year be heavily practical as well a theoretical. So, every single spell, curse, charm and shield you read about, will then be practised. Now, Dumbledore wanted your opinion on this, because this means you will be learning a vast amount of extra spells and curses, that would otherwise be only glanced at, on top of a series of the most difficult enchantments that must be learnt in order to pass your exam. I wish to know now, who would have a problem with this?"

It seemed the newspapers had had quite an effect on its readers. No-one even looked remotely unsure.

"Well, I shall simply demonstrate a rather simple series of spells today then..."

The remainder of class was most satisfying. It seemed she had rather a knack for picking up the spells quickly, especially spells of protection. She did notice however, that James managed to pick them up that much faster, and she couldn't say why, (she had never been a jealous person) but it irked her.

The following morning Lily sat in the library around lunchtime, thinking she'd start her essay for potions and get it out of the way, Professor Slughorn liked her a lot and she hated to disappoint him . Plus, she would have head girl duties to deal with later in the day, although thankfully there were never as many as in the first week, and now that James was here, there were even less for her to do. So far, she still hadn't spoken to him, despite their shared status. She had heard the shower running in the bathroom this morning, but quite obviously, had not continued on her way in. Quite abruptly madame pince shrieked across the library,

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Lily looked up in alarm, and saw Lauren practically flying towards her, who then shouted over her shoulder a rather brief apology before stopping, breathless, before Lily.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Lily whispered, looking warily at a seething madame pince.

"L-lily!" she breathed, "the most awful thing...!" suddenly, tears began welling up in Lauren's eyes. Lauren never cried...

Lily stood up, grabbing her friend's arm urgently, "What happened?"

Her voice shaking, Lauren looked up at Lily miserably, "Alice's father has been killed."

Lily couldn't remember sitting down, but suddenly she was on her chair, the shock washing over her. Impossible... they had spent a week at Alice's, eating meals and such with her father, just that summer...

Lauren had sat down next to her as well, staring almost hopelessly at the wall.

"Is...where is she?"

Lauren sighed, wiping her nose with a sniff "Her mother reckons its too dangerous for her to come home, and she insists she stays here. She's in Dumbledore's office I think... I don't think she feels much like talking though."

Lily shook her head in disbelief. Another murder.

Three weeks past in which a disturbingly quiet Alice kept their company. They did as much as possible in an attempt to make her feel better. Slowly, towards the end of their first month at school, she began to smile a little, but Lily had a feeling it would be a very long time before she went back to normal...if she ever did...

Walking back up to the tower late one night she groaned at the pain in her neck. Annoyed, she could feel that a muscle had been pulled, and cursed being head girl. She had been simply been carrying out her usual duties, doing her rounds but that stupid poltergeist had left a rather large pile of slippy, yet invisible gunge in her path. Falling flat on her back had produced this, oh so marvellous, effect.

As she approached the final corridor to the portrait she began to hear voices from around the corner and was taken aback to find Alice and James in the midst of very deep conversation, judging by how serious and considering their faces were. She stopped in her tracks, unsure how to interrupt. It seemed to her they could only really share one topic: dead parents. Almost instantly though, James had seen her, and informed Alice who turned around and smiled at her. Lily slowly approached.

"I'll speak to you some other time then, yeah?" James was asking. She beamed at him, "of course! It was... really nice speaking to you, James." She blushed slightly, and he smiled warmly and with a brief wave for Lily, darted into the portrait hole. Alice gestured and they followed him in, watching as he crossed the room to the boys dorms. Alice sighed and fell into a chair, Lily, watching her suspiciously, perched on the end of another.

"What...was that about?" Alice looked at her and sighed again,

"Lily, I've just been talking to him for like an hour, and, to be brutally honest..." she hesitated slightly, "I think we misjudged him... by a long way -"

"No," Lily interrupted firmly, "we didn't. I mean, there's no denying he has got...maybe a little... better in the last two years, but before that he was unbearable! You know he was. We were perfectly right in judging him."

Alice looked uncomfortable, "Perhaps...but I think we should at least stop calling him names and stuff. He doesn't deserve it at all. And oh, he was being so nice just now! If you could've heard him you would have been shocked, he's so understanding."

Lily only looked at Alice, but her face must have been saying something else because Alice looked slightly worried and said quickly, "Please don't...disapprove or anything... it's just I think I want to be friends with him, you know?"

Lily consciously made an effort and warmed her face, even smiling a little, "Alice, I can hardly say who you can or cannot be friends with. And I'm certainly not disappointed," Lily laughed, "I'm just a little shocked, who would have thought he'd be your extra shoulder to lean on!" Alice grinned,

"I know! But he really is so nice Lily. And really funny too!" she shook her head in wonder, "You know, its weird, but I actually think for all that you didn't like him you'd probably get on with him really well, and you always like having boys as friends don't you,"

Lily nodded smiling, "That is true."

Suddenly, Alice grinned rather mischievously, "Lily," she said in a very quiet voice, "Please don't roll your eyes or anything! But it think... I think I might actually like him!" she giggled excitedly, "I mean, we have so much in common you know?" Lily kept her grin on her face, nodding,

"Sounds like you two had a one interesting conversation!"

Alice laughed, "I think we did!" She sighed once more, "But I'm going to have to go to bed I'm afraid, Lily, I'm so tired! Good thing you stopped us talking then, who knows how long we might've spoken for!"

Lily stood up, still grinning, and hugged her friend goodnight. Just as Alice was walking to the dorms she turned around suddenly, smiling even wider, "Lily, you really should be friends with him you know. He's stopped pestering you all year long! In fact I think he's been rather polite. I thought he'd be awful this year, but he's barely said a word to you, do you think you might?"

Lily laughed a little, "We'll see, it has been 6 years of abuse you know..." Alice laughed and finally walked up to stairs to bed.

After the door had closed, Lily sat down quietly, and the grin that had been glued to her face, slid off. She felt...rather lonely.