Just a short chapter, hope you enjoy!

Lily's detention was at 7 o'clock on Wednesday evening. Switch sent a note telling her that she would be clearing out the store cupboards. He forgot to add the phrase "without magic" however, so Lily was confident that it wouldn't take too long.

She was sitting with Alice and Elle, whiling away the time before she had to report to Switch's office.

"What I don't understand though," Alice was saying, "is how you managed to be late AND forget to do your homework, and you still managed to escape with only a detention."

Lily shrugged, avoiding her gaze. She had not told Alice about James' actions, as she was certain that Alice would obsess over them, and right now she did not feel much like talking about James Potter.

In the days between the lesson and their detention together, she had reverted to her usual treatment of James, calling him 'Potter' with as much malice as she could when she had to talk to him, and otherwise ignoring him. He had asked her out at least three times in the past two days, and each time she had said no. It had become a habit to say that when he talked to her, a fact that she was glad of, because sometimes he concealed the fact he was asking her out very sneakily and successfully.

Elle looked up from her homework with a surprised expression.

"Lily did do her homework Al! She got an O for it, too!" Elle said, shooting Lily an admiring and envious glance.

Of the three, Lily did the best at school. Alice spent too much time doing 'nothing' with Frank and Elle was an erratic studier, working flat out for 5 hours in a row, and then not touching her books for the next week. She was the prettiest of them though, and had a very sweet personality.

"No, she couldn't have done it. I was sitting with her the whole time we were doing homework."

"When you guys have finished talking about me in third person, I'll tell you what happened."

They looked at her with expectant expressions.

"You're both right. I didn't do it, but I handed it in and it got an 'O' grade. I don't know exactly how it got that, given James' level of study, but – "

"James who?"

"Potter."

"What? Lily! You never call James, James!"

"Well I do now, OK?"

"Hmmm?" Elle suspiciously.

Lily sighed. She had known this was coming.

"I forgot to do my homework. James had done the essay. He transfigured his handwriting to look like mine and changed the name on it, and pretended he had forgotten to do his."

"Why would he do that?" said Elle, clearly puzzled. "I mean, you've never exactly encouraged him to be nice to you. Most of the time you're pretty horrible to him actually, so…"

"He said it was because he didn't want me to lose points for Gryffindor."

"As if!" Alice scoffed.

"But didn't he lose points anyway?" asked Elle

"No, he got detention, as well. With me, actually." Lily felt herself blush slightly.

"Wow. That is SO romantic Lilz." Elle sighed, rapturously.

"Yeah, because cleaning store cupboards is such a romantic thing to do together." Lily said sarcastically.

"He obviously just wanted to get detention with you so he could spend time alone with you." Said Alice matter-of-factly. "I'm interested in your blush though, Lil"

"It's a hazard of being red-haired." Lily said, in what she hoped was a casually disinterested voice.

"Hmmm," mused Alice. "If I didn't know better Lily Evans, I'd say that you're developing a bit of a crush."

"I've got to go." Lily hastily gathered her books and walked towards the portrait hole.

She did NOT have a crush on James Potter! It was an absurd thought. She COULD not have a crush on James Potter. Or could she? She didn't want to even consider it.

R+R?