Eight o'clock arrived rather quickly that night and James couldn't wait to spend a few hours alone with Lily, not just because he fancied her, but because he was rather intrigued as to how and why she had pulled that prank of Filch and Mrs Norris. Lily on the other hand, was dreading spending detention with James. She hated the way he showed off to his little fanclub of girls throwing themselves at him. He hexed multiple people, his favourite victim was Snape. Her friendship with Severus had ended a year ago because of James. If James hadn't hexed Snape then she wouldn't have had to defend her best friend, it was because Severus had called her a mudblood that she realised that they were heading down different paths. She often thought that if things had been different, would she still have her best friend? She didn't know the answer, she wasn't a seer.

Lily walked to one of the classrooms in the dungeon, luckily for her she had had years of practise with scrubbing and cleaning. Washing the dishes at home had always been her responsibility. The thought occurred to her that James probably hadn't scrubbed anything without the use of magic, she smirked as she thought of this. Maybe tonight won't be so bad she thought to herself as she pushed open the door to enter the classroom.

James was already there, sat casually on top of a desk. He looked over to her with a massive grin on his face as she slammed the door shut. Lily strode over to him, arms folded and wearing the look of displeasure on her face that she always reserved for him. James ran a hand through his messy hair and didn't miss Lily rolling her eyes at him.

"Where's Professor Slughorn?" asked Lily.

"Popped to his office," replied James.

Lily nodded and placed her wand on the empty teacher's desk at the front of the classroom. She noticed that James was watching her closely, she turned back to face him starting to feel annoyance growing within her.

"Have I got something on my face Potter?" she snapped.

James smiled at her and shook his head. He always thought she was beautiful, even when she was annoyed or angry with him.

"So how did you do it?" asked James.

Lily opened her mouth to answer his question but couldn't, Professor Slughorn had entered the classroom. He smiled brightly at the two students and placed a bucket of hot water and two sponges on one of the front desks. He waved his wand and the dirty cauldrons appeared on the desk next to the bucket of water. Lily smiled to herself as she heard James groan out in response when Professor Slughorn told them to start scrubbing them out. She now had the evidence that James hadn't scrubbed a thing in his life.

James was still on his first cauldron by the time Lily had finished scrubbing her forth one. Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Slughorn had fallen asleep. She snatched the cauldron from James and started scrubbing it.

"I could manage on my own," James pointed out.

Lily looked up at him, "Potter we've still got another ten to scrub and we've not even done five between us yet." she replied.

"I'm not used to this," James admitted as he watched Lily put effort into scrubbing the cauldron.

"Have house elves at home do you?" she asked.

"Yeah we do," muttered James.

"Luckily for you, washing up dirty dishes was my chore at home." sighed Lily.

James continued to watch Lily as she finished off the cauldron. Once cleaned, she placed it onto the teacher's desk with the other clean ones and placed another dirty cauldron in front of James before getting herself another one. They continued to scrub in silence, the only sound were the snores of Professor Slughorn that occasionally filled the room. James looked up to make sure that the potions master was deeply sleeping so that he could quiz Lily over her prank on the caretaker.

"So how'd you do it?" asked James.

Lily looked at him as she continued to scrub, debating whether or not she should tell him. James gave her a reassuring smile which gave her the feeling that she could confide in him. Like a friend. But we aren't friends Lily thought.

"Why do you want to know so badly?" questioned Lily.

"Because you're the goody goody prefect who has never had detention, let's just say I'm intrigued as to why Lily Evans would pull a prank on the caretaker." answered James.

Lily sighed, knowing that if she didn't tell James he'd just keep bugging her until she did.

"If you must know, a Slytherin first year broke a vase on the second floor corridor between lessons. The first year legged it and I was wrongly accused as I was passing that way. Filch took me into his office to put it on my school record," explained Lily.

"So you wanted revenge?" asked James.

Lily nodded, "Marlene's brother just got back from China and as a gift he gave Marley a trick potion which turns the drinker into a caveman and animals into prehistoric animals from that time period. Me and Marley sneaked into his office and put a few drops in his drink and in the cat's water. It only lasts a small time but it made me laugh and smile so I'm happy. You and the marauders have done worse," said Lily with a shrug.

James chuckled in amusement at Lily's explanation, he never thought that a hard working prefect like Lily Evans would have the guts to pull a prank on anyone. It was as if she were showing a side of her that she liked to hide.

"I didn't know you had it in you," James congratulated.

Lily blushed slightly as she finished scrubbing the cauldron, it made her slightly uncomfortable that James had congratulated her on the prank she had pulled. This was the first time where he wasn't pestering her to go on a date with him, it made her a little bit suspicious that he was up to something.

"Any plans for the summer?" asked James as they both placed the clean cauldrons onto the teacher's desk before taking more dirty ones for them to clean.

"Nothing much, stuck with a sister who hates me. You?" asked Lily.

"Sirius is living with me so I'm sure we'll get up to something. I usually hold a barbecue," replied James.

"Sounds nice," said Lily.

"Why don't you come?" asked James.

Lily eyed him suspiciously.

"Come to your barbecue?" Lily questioned.

"Why not? Marlene will be there. Our dads work together at the Ministry. Feel free to bring Alice and Mary," James said happily.

Lily raised a sceptical eyebrow, surely this had to be a trick.

"Owl me when it is and if I'm not busy I may come," replied Lily.

James beamed, "Great!" he cried.

Professor Slughorn stirred and opened his tired eyes, he stared at the two students in confusion.

"What's going on?" yawned Slughorn.

"Nothing Professor, we're nearly finished." smiled Lily.

Slughorn smiled in satisfaction and watched as Lily and James finished off cleaning the rest of the dirty cauldrons. The pair were finished by ten o'clock and made their way back to Gryffindor tower. When the two of them walked through the portrait hole, exhausted, Lily bade James goodnight and made her way up the girl's staircase. James walked up the winding staircase to his dormitory, happy that things seemed to be slowly changing between him and Lily. They might even be starting to develop a friendship.

A/N: So please let me know what you thought, all reviews are much appreciated.