A/N: Much thanks to all those who've reviewed so far: andientropy, theycallherkaush, ShikaTem Sand-Leaf, CuteDreamer, VaneBEAR, Sam-EvansBlue, and TimeWitch'93!

I'm watching The Matrix as I post this—never seen it before—and my basic reaction so far is . . . WTF? Haha.

Chapter 2: Strange Cup of Tea

"Don't you just love the first day of term?" I asked, sitting down with Mary at breakfast. "Fresh start, exciting new things to learn, no homework looming over us yet—what?"

Mary was looking at me like I'd spouted an extra head. "You are so weird," she pronounced. "Though I suppose you have a point about the homework thing."

I sighed. "Fine, I'll just shut up, then," I said, pretending to look dejected.

"Ah, thank you kindly, Evans," Black's voice came from behind me, causing me to jump slightly. Turning in my seat, I glared up at his grinning face. "Though I must say I agree with you about the new year—for completely different reasons, of course."

Before I could ask what he was on about, the question was answered for me as Sirius winked at a pair of fifth year girls, tossing his hair out of his eyes with a casual elegance. The girls giggled as they passed us, and Sirius turned back to me with a smirk. "Yep, gotta love the first day of school!" And with that he turned after the girls.

I rolled my eyes as the other Marauders continued in Black's wake along the table. Remus half-smiled, half-grimaced at me as though apologizing for his friend's behavior. Peter gave me a nervous smile and hurried after the other two. And Potter walked by without even glancing at me. I spun in my seat to face Mary. "Did you see that?" I demanded.

She frowned. "See what?"

I sighed in exasperation. "Potter! He didn't even look at me!"

Mary raised an eyebrow. "I think you're being a little paranoid about this, Lily," she said.

"That's not—I'm not paranoid," I protested. "I'm just . . . confused," I finished lamely. I wasn't really sure myself why Potter's behavior bothered me so much, except that it made me feel jumpy and tense, like it was all just the calm before the storm.

"I don't see why it's such a big deal," Mary said. "After all, didn't you want him to leave you alone?"

"Yes, but—" I started, when a distraction arrived in the form of our schedules, which zoomed magically down the tables from McGonagall's hands, stopping in front of their owners. Scanning mine, I saw that our first class after breakfast was—

"Charms!" I jumped as a squeaky voice issued from the paper in my hands. "Break! Transfiguration! Lunch!" The voice continued to announce my schedule, and when I turned my attention to the rest of the Hall, I could hear all the other Gryffindors' schedules doing the same. Everyone's except . . .

"Potter," I growled. He and Black were sniggering into their cornflakes as everyone stared at confusion at their schedules. Peter looked on half in awe, half in delight, and Remus seemed to be fighting back a grin.

I sighed, surprising myself a little when it came out sounding almost relieved. At least this was proof that Potter hadn't done a complete one-eighty. "Immature pricks," I muttered.

"To be fair, it's not as bad as some of the stuff they've done over the years," Mary pointed out.

"Yes, but it's also only the first day; they've only begun their—God, this is so annoying!" I burst out, shaking my schedule as though that might shut it up. The shrill voice continuing to rattle off my classes was starting to give me a headache.

"Here, maybe if we just—" Mary pulled out her wand and directed it at her own talking schedule. "Silencio," she commanded. Nothing. She looked up at me and shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try."

I glanced back at the Marauders, who seemed to have gained control of their laughter and were now nonchalantly eating breakfast as though nothing out of the ordinary was happening around them. Which, for them, it wasn't—pranking was their norm. As he had the night before, Potter suddenly looked up, meeting my eyes. See what I mean about radar? Anyway, he gave me a small smirk, tipped an invisible hat to me, and turned back to his mates.

Rolling my eyes—seriously, with the number of times Potter had caused me to do that over the years, I was surprised they hadn't gotten stuck—I pulled a spare piece of parchment and a quill out of my bag. "Well, there's a slightly less simple but still effective solution to this," I announced to Mary. And with that, I quickly copied my schedule onto the blank parchment, rolled it up, and thrust everything back in my bag.

"Ingenious," she said, grinning at me before pulling out her own parchment and quill and copying my actions. Then, as one, we both shredded our original schedules, which thankfully put a stop to the annoying voice.

I looked back at Potter, ready to shoot him a triumphant, ha-ha-I-beat-your-little-prank-so-there type of look, but discovered that he was once again partially blocked from view by Chloe. Honestly, are they on some sort of snogging schedule?

When I voiced these thoughts to Mary, she snorted with laughter. "I don't know, Lily, maybe it's just the excitement of a new relationship. I know Andrew and I spent more time snogging than talking when we first started dating."

Okay, I did not need to know that. "Yes, but you didn't do it in public for everyone to see! I mean, that"—I gestured towards Potter and Chloe—"is disgusting."

"Well, they'll probably calm down over the next week or so. You can make it that long, right?" she asked with mock concern.

"I don't know," I muttered, half serious. Checking my watch, I added, "Well, we better head to Charms."

The day started off normally enough—well, besides the schedule incident at breakfast. However, most of the students had employed a method similar to mine and copied their schedules out elsewhere, though there was still the odd student whose bag continued to emit muffled squeaking noises. As Professor Flitwick's voice matched the charmed schedules' for squeakiness, he didn't notice the distracting noise, but almost the instant our Transfiguration lesson began, McGonagall stopped and demanded that someone silence 'that infuriating screeching.'

The offending student, Hufflepuff Darren Nesbaum, mumbled an embarrassed apology, crumpled up his schedule, and, looking around the room, finally settled on tossing it out the open window.

I heard a snort from behind me and turned to see all four Marauders grinning stupidly at their desks, heads bent in an attempt to hide their guilty faces from McGonagall. Sighing, I returned my attention to the lecture. There was a time when I would have turned them in, but I'd matured beyond being a nosy tattletail. Besides, it was far too much work keeping track of all the stupid things they did.

After lunch, I said goodbye to Mary and we went our separate ways for afternoon class. I had Arithmancy and she had Herbology—I'd never really fancied taking care of odd and often vicious plants, and had happily dropped the subject after last year. As I headed down the first floor corridor to my classroom, I noticed Potter and Chloe heading striding hand-in-hand towards me. I wrinkled my nose. At least they're not snogging this time, I thought. As they drew nearer, I surveyed Chloe closely. I was curious what type of girl could actually stand to date Potter. Okay, probably a lot of girls could, I amended, knowing his reputation among the girls at our school. Merlin knows why.

Distracted as I was watching Chloe as she passed, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going and suddenly wham! I ran smack into an open door.

"Ouch!" I cried, rubbing my nose. Behind me, I heard Potter's laughter, and cringed at the thought that it was probably directed at me. I hated when I made an idiot out of myself in front of him. Not because I gave a rat's fart what he thought of me, but because he didn't need my help in coming up with things to tease me about.

"You okay, Lily?" I looked up to see Andrew watching me in concern. He was in Arithmancy as well—in fact, that's how he and Mary had met. She and I had been working on homework in the library when Andrew'd come up to ask me for help with Arithmancy. Needless to say, neither he nor Mary had gotten much work done that day. Neither had I, come to think of it.

"Yeah, fine," I muttered, embarrassed. "I just wasn't watching where I was going, that's all."

We entered our Arithmancy classroom and sat down in the middle of the second row. "So," I said, trying to sound casual, "what do you know about Chloe Sanders?" I was hoping that since Andrew played Quidditch as well, he might know something about her.

"You mean James's new girlfriend?" he asked.

I resisted the urge to wrinkle my nose again. "Yes."

"Er, not much. She's a wicked good Seeker, though."

Of course she is. Looking perfect wasn't enough—she has to be good at Quidditch as well. This girl was starting to sound more and more perfect for Potter the more I learned about her. What with their good looks—well, most people thought Potter was handsome, though I couldn't really see how they came to that conclusion—and Quidditch talent, they were like the wizard version of the prom king and queen.

"Is she smart?" I asked, not really sure why that mattered. But for some reason, I was hoping Chloe was just some blonde bimbo, so I could scoff at Potter for dating her.

"Dunno," Andrew answered. "But she's got to be at least passing all her classes to stay on the team, doesn't she?"

Damn. "Yeah, I guess."

"Just curious, but why are you so interested?" Andrew asked. "I thought you hated James."

I frowned at him. "I do. I'm just trying to gather some dirt on his girlfriend so I can taunt him about it—I've got to look for ammunition against him anywhere I can, you know," I added with a smirk, which quickly faded back to a frown. "But she appears to be annoyingly perfect."

Andrew nodded, still looking unconvinced. At that moment, Professor Epsilon entered to begin the day's lesson, and I turned away from Andrew, still wondering at his reaction. I didn't know what he was so confused about; why else would I be asking about Chloe? Suddenly, I let out a little gasp. Merlin, he didn't think I was jealous,did he? I didn't know whether to laugh at the ridiculousness of such a notion or gag at the repulsive thought of dating Potter.

After a rather interesting first day, I was looking forward to relaxing in the common room that night—in a strange onset of kindness, our professors hadn't assigned much homework yet. However, it appeared fate wasn't going to let me off that easily. As Mary and I were leaving the Great Hall, Severus hurried up to us. I tensed as I saw him approach. I'd effectively avoided him all day, despite the number of classes we had together. I'd been quite proud of this achievement, but apparently my luck had just run out.

"Lily, can I talk to you?" Severus asked, barely moving his lips in that strange way he had of trying to block other people out of our conversations.

Mary raised her eyebrows at me, and I sighed and nodded for her to go on ahead. "See you in a bit," I muttered resignedly.

Severus watched her start up the stairs to the first floor and then turned back to me. "Look—" he started.

"I hope you're not going to try and apologize again," I interrupted shortly, crossing my arms defensively across my chest.

Sev shut his mouth, looking at me with a mixture of surprise and anger.

"Oh, my God, you were going to try apologizing again!" I said in disbelief. "I told you already that nothing you do or say is going to make a difference—and I was serious, much as you apparently don't want to believe that!"

"But—" Severus started again, though this time he stopped talking before I said anything. A look of absolute loathing jumped into his eyes, which were currently fixed at a point over my shoulder. I grimaced at the blatant hatred, knowing there was only one person that could cause Sev to look like that . . .

And sure enough, Potter suddenly entered my field of vision. He was, to my surprise, alone, and even more shockingly, not paying any attention to Severus or me. I'd started to get used to his odd avoidance of me, but he'd never missed a chance to hex Sev, or at least insult him.

Apparently, Severus had noticed his strange behavior as well. "What, not even going to try and hex me, Potter?" he called out tauntingly, and I was unpleasantly reminded of my words to Potter on the train. Although, I think I would have fallen over in shock if Potter had answered Severus in the same way he'd answered my inquiry about his lack of date proposals.

Mind, what he did do still almost made me fall over in shock. It certainly caused my jaw to drop open in surprise.

Potter looked around at Sev's words, surveyed the two of us briefly, shrugged, and turned away again.

For some reason, his lack of action seemed to infuriate Severus more than if Potter had tried to hex him. He whipped out his wand and pointed it at Potter's back.

Coming out of my shock, I grabbed Sev's arm, causing the curse he'd aimed at Potter to fly wide. "What the hell are you doing?" I demanded.

Potter had turned around again, and now there was anger in his gaze as he glared at Severus. But he still didn't say anything, and after a few tense moments of silence, Sev yanked his arm out of my grasp and strode towards the dungeons, knocking roughly into Potter's shoulder as he passed. I might have imagined it, but I thought I saw Potter roll his eyes at Severus's retreating back. His gaze met mine briefly, and something unreadable flashed through his eyes. To my embarrassment, I felt my cheeks redden, and was relieved when Potter turned without saying anything and began to climb the stairs out of the Entrance Hall.

I wasn't sure why I was embarrassed about stopping Sev from cursing Potter. I mean, it's what any descent person would have done, right? Just because I loathed him didn't mean I thought Potter deserved to be hexed when his back was turned. Even though he's done the same to others, especially Sev, plenty of times, a voice in the back of my head argued.

But not this time, I argued back as I finally started towards the marble staircase myself. I'd barely been at Hogwarts for twenty-four hours, and already Potter had confused me more than he had in the previous five years put together.

Looking ahead, I saw Potter slow his stride slightly and glance back at me. Quickly, I stooped and pretended to do up my shoelace. I heard Potter chuckle quietly and his footsteps resumed. I was blushing again as I straightened, and this time I waited until Potter had turned a corner before continuing on my way. Again, I couldn't explain my behavior, except to say as I had before that Potter acting so out of character unsettled me, and I didn't fancy walking the seven flights to Gryffindor tower with him at the moment. Not that I'd ever fancied such a thing, really.

When I entered the common room, Potter was seated near the fire with Peter, Sirius and Remus—I wondered briefly whether he'd eaten dinner alone—and I skirted past them quickly on my way to where Mary sat by the far wall. Watching Potter out of the corner of my eye, I saw that he didn't even look up as I passed.

"So, what did he want?" Mary demanded as soon as I sat down.

"Who?" I asked, momentarily confused.

Mary looked at me like I was insane. "Snape!"

"Oh, right," I replied. My recent thoughts about Potter had distracted me from my brief encounter from Severus. I had to stop letting Potter get into my head like that. "He just tried to apologize again," I said, rolling my eyes. "But I didn't let him."

"Git," Mary declared darkly, and I smiled in appreciation of her solidarity. "I mean, honestly," she continued, "what does he expect? You just don't do that to someone you proclaim to be friends with. But I am sorry, Lily," she said seriously.

"Thanks, but it's fine. Really." I was starting to feel a little choked up—not thinking about my lost friendship with Sev; I'd come to terms with that—but because of Mary's sympathy. She'd never really approved of our friendship—no one had, come to that—so it meant a lot that she was being so nice about it now.

"Anyway, enough about that," I said, clearing my throat in what I hoped wasn't a too obvious I'm-holding-back-tears way. Opening my bag, I took out my Transfiguration book. "What are you—"

I was interrupted when a folded bit of parchment fell onto my open book. Glancing around, I saw Potter walking past my chair. He glanced back and smiled briefly at me before moving on to rejoin his friends by the fire.

"What was that about?" Mary asked me.

I shrugged. "Search me," I said, unfolding the parchment. Written on it were two simple words: Thanks, Evans.

"Thanks for what?" Mary asked curiously, craning her neck to read the note.

"No idea," I said, but I could feel myself start to redden at the lie.

Mary narrowed her eyes shrewdly at me. "Lily, what are you hiding?" she said, a warning note in her voice.

I really need to learn how to lie better. Sighing I reluctantly told her about the other part of my meeting with Severus. When I'd finished Mary was grinning in an all-too-knowing way. "Defending James? How cute."

I kicked her leg lightly. "Come on, I wasn't going to let Sev just hex him like that. It doesn't mean anything."

"So what about all this I hear about you inquiring after his girlfriend?" Mary continued, a mischievous glint in her eyes.

Of course Andrew would tell her about our conversation. Prick. "Like I told Andrew," I said, glaring in what I estimated to be the direction of the Ravenclaw common room, "I was merely asking so that—"

"—you could have something to annoy James with, I know," Mary said pleasantly. "But as your best friend and a girl, I still say there's something else there."

"Well, there's not."

"I always thought you had a little crush on him," Mary continued, as though I hadn't spoken.

"What?" I exclaimed. She'd never confessed such a suspicion to me before. Good thing too, as I probably would have throttled her for even suggesting such a thing. I was having trouble not doing so now. "The day I admit to having a crush on James Potter is the day hell freezes over," I pronounced.

I hadn't realized how loudly I'd spoken until I heard Potter call over, "That can be arranged."

I whipped around to glare at him, not missing the fact that Chloe was no where to be seen. He flashed his characteristic smirk back at me before turning away again. God, he is so bipolar! One minute he ignores me, and the next he's flirting with me like nothing's changed! "He can't flirt with me—he has a girlfriend now!" I hissed at Mary in indignation, whether on my part or Chloe's, I couldn't really say.

"That honestly doesn't mean anything, Lily," Mary said, still grinning. "Besides, I thought you were determined to hate Chloe—now you're getting all defensive on her behalf?"

"I didn't—that's not—" I let out a loud sigh of frustration. "I'm going to the library," I announced, wanting to get away from Mary and her teasing grins.

Her laughter followed me out of the common room. Some friend.

Things settled down a little over the rest of the week. Potter didn't try to flirt with me again—though I couldn't help but notice that he and Chloe were now together almost constantly. Severus kept his distance as well, and Mary stopped teasing me about Potter—a good choice on both their parts, if they valued their lives.

Classes began to pick up; the teachers justified the copious amounts of homework they assigned us as 'preparation for N.E.W.T. year.' Though, as Sirius pointed out, we were two years away from those exams, so there couldn't possibly be a reason to start preparing us now. Much as I hated it, I privately agreed with him. If this was what sixth year was like, I dreaded to think how much pressure we'd all be under next year.

Our new Defense professor was proof that size is no judge of character. Tiny and harmless-looking as she was, she was shaping up to be one of our hardest professors this year. Though it was obvious she knew her stuff—a welcome change from some professors we'd had in the past—she was also very demanding in terms of the amount of work she expected from us. Even Potter and Black, the brightest students in our year (just one more infuriating thing about them), could be found making rare trips to the library during the first couple weeks of term. Of course, no amount of homework could stop them from causing mayhem as per usual. In fact, the added stress this year probably only accelerated what happened on the third Friday in September.

As Mary and I entered the Great Hall, tired and yawning, we were immediately jolted into wakefulness by the six foot high, sparkling orange lettering displayed along the back wall above the teacher's table: Good morning! Here's a little sparkle to brighten your day!

"Well, that's nice of them," Mary said.

I looked at her strangely. "Bit distracting, though. Not to mention so bright it makes your eyes sting a little to look at it." Though I had to admit, the Marauders' latest prank—because there was no doubt who would have executed such a thing—was as harmless as their first had been. And it was, actually, sort of funny.

Any kindly feelings I had towards the prank quickly vanished when McGonagall came up to me as I was finishing my toast. "Miss Evans," she began, "you have no doubt noticed the . . . message at the front of the Hall. While it is not, on the whole, harmful, I'm afraid we cannot allow it to remain there."

I nodded, a bit confused as to why she was telling me all this.

"It appears that whoever left it has made it un-vanishable, and therefore it must be removed by hand, which, I'm afraid, is where you come in. As the other teachers and myself must soon begin lessons for the day, we are asking that the prefects along with the Head Boy and Girl stay behind to clean it up."

"Of course, Professor," I agreed politely, but inside I was fuming. Not at McGonagall, though it was a little unfair that the prefects always had to do things like this. I mean, it made sense—we were supposed to be responsible enough to take care of it in a timely manner and still be able to catch up on the class we missed. No, I was angry at stupid Potter and his stupid friends. Even Remus, who I normally exempted from the hatred I often directed at the Marauders, this time was at fault in my book. I took some pleasure in the fact that he'd be cleaning up the mess right alongside me.

He must have realized I'd be angry, because he greeted me a little sheepishly when I joined him and the rest of the prefects under the giant lettering after breakfast.

"So, you agreed to this even though you knew you'd probably be forced into dealing with it later?" I asked him rather shortly as we grabbed two sets of sponges and buckets that McGonagall had provided.

Remus shrugged. "I was overruled," he said lightly, but I thought I saw his jaw tighten the tiniest bit.

I softened towards him considerably upon hearing that he'd at least tried to prevent this. "Well, you'll just have to—"

"Sorry about this," Potter's voice interrupted from behind me.

I almost dropped my sponge in shock. Was James Potter actually apologizing to me for the prank? That would mark an all-time new level of oddity in—

Oh. I turned and saw Potter clap Remus on the shoulder bracingly. He wasn't talking to me—he was talking to Remus. Well, now I feel stupid.

"Sometimes being the greatest pranksters in the school has its downfalls," Potter was saying with mock sympathy.

Remus threw his sponge at him, but Potter dodged it and left the Hall, laughing.

"You know, sometimes I really hate him," he muttered.

I didn't answer, still preoccupied by why I'd automatically assumed Potter had been talking to me. Maybe Mary's right—maybe I am paranoid.

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