A/N: Thanks to last week's reviewers: HarryPottersBiggestFanRIMSHA, SecretBlack, Silver Scorpion, hushpuppy22, and evisawesome!

Okay, Lily's still sort of an annoying swot in this chapter, but I promise that is slowly changing . . . :)

Chapter 4: Don't Think It's Funny

"Okay, Lily, you have to tell me what happened yesterday," Mary said the next morning during break, finally reaching the end of her patience. Being my best friend, she'd noticed something was off when I found her after the Quidditch game, but I hadn't wanted to talk about it then. She'd allowed this and kindly refrained from asking about it for the rest of the night and the first part of this morning. I knew I owed her an explanation, though, so I sighed and reluctantly told her everything, Potter included.

When I finished, Mary looked somewhere between shocked and scared. "What do you think they were talking about?" she almost whispered, surprising me by ignoring the Potter-related part of the conversation.

I shrugged. "No idea. Nothing good, I'm sure."

Mary raised her eyebrows. "Yes, since they basically attacked you for overhearing it, I'd say that's a fair assumption."

I shivered again, remembering the look in Severus's eyes when he'd questioned me. He'd never been cruel to me, but now that we weren't friends, I guess anything was fair game.

"You were a little rude to James, though," Mary added, almost as an afterthought.

And there it is. I frowned at her. "Well, it wasn't any of his business," I protested, repeating what I'd said to Potter. "And I really didn't want to talk about it, especially not with him."

"Okay," Mary said mildly, shrugging.

It's funny how people seeming not to care about something often makes you realize that they actually do care more than if they got really passionate or angry about it. And in this case, it was starting to make me feel guilty about what I'd said to Potter. He'd tried to be helpful, and I'd just shot him down. Come to think of it, it had been very uncharacteristic of him to show concern for my well-being—well, just add it to the list. Though this time it was uncharacteristic in a nice way, instead of just being confusing or unsettling. Of course, with the pattern things are following this year, he'll probably be back to his same old annoying self by tomorrow.

OOOOOOOO

And in fact, he was, with a vengeance.

Mary and I were walking out of the Great Hall at breakfast Monday morning, and I was talking to her about the first Hogsmeade weekend that was coming up.

"I always love the first visit of the year, because it—" SPLAT! Something wet hit me in the back. "What the—"

SPLAT! This time I saw a balloon explode on Mary's shoulder, showering her with—

"Paint? Oh, gross!"

I twisted around to see orange paint splattered over my robes. Looking up, I saw several other people yelling in surprise as balloons full of paint rained down from . . . well, apparently thin air. As Mary and I scurried out of range of the balloons, I scanned the Entrance Hall to find the source of the chaos. Though I could see the general area it seemed to radiate from, there wasn't a soul in sight.

"What the hell?" I muttered, explaining my observations to Mary.

She shrugged. "Dunno, but it's kind of funny," she replied, grinning.

Now that we were out of the direct line of fire, I had to admit she was right. Watching everyone else attempting to dodge the balloons was rather amusing. Even better, I spotted Chloe getting hit twice in quick succession with two balloons full of bright pink paint. Mary had seen this as well, and the two of us giggled as we watched her mouth drop open in indignation. Shortly after this, the balloon fire abruptly stopped. People moved hesitantly away from the walls, and the normal traffic of students on their way to class shortly resumed, though with the addition of several brightly splotched people painfully visible among the usual mass of black.

"That's a nice color on you, Evans," a familiar voice said from behind me.

Turning, I found myself facing Potter and Black, both of whom were grinning and suspiciously paint-free. "I could give you two detention for this, you know," I said calmly, ignoring Potter's comment.

"For what, exactly?" Sirius replied innocently.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Come on, who else would do this?" I asked, waving my arm to include the splatters of paint on the floor and the few painted people still making their way out of the Hall.

"Ah, but you never actually saw us do anything, did you?" Potter replied sweetly. "Innocent until proven guilty, remember, Evans."

"They did make it vanishable this time, though," Mary added helpfully, showing me her newly restored robes.

"Oh, how kind," I responded sarcastically, though I directed my wand at my own robes in turn. I didn't fancy going round with a great orange spot on them for the rest of the day.

At that moment, Chloe joined our group. She was glaring furiously at Potter. "That was not funny," she said harshly, pointing to her pink-stained robes.

"See, we're not the only ones who know it was you," I put in smugly.

Potter ignored me and grinned at Chloe. "But don't you think they look much nicer like this? Black is just so boring."

She continued to glare at him. I sighed. "Here," I said, vanishing the paint from her robes with a flick of my wand.

Everyone stared at me in surprise. Except Chloe—she merely turned her glare on me. "What?" I said defensively.

The other three all shrugged or shook their heads. Sirius looked disgruntled, Potter seemed to be fighting back a grin, and Mary was looking at me in confusion.

I turned to Chloe, who was still glaring at me. "You're welcome," I said pointedly. When her expression didn't change, I sighed again and said, "You know, if you're not careful, your face is going to stick like that."

Sirius and Mary laughed, and even Potter snorted in amusement, though he quickly changed it to a cough. Leaving Chloe looking slightly stunned, Mary and I continued on our way to class.

"What was all that about?" Mary demanded as soon as we were out of ear shot. "I thought you were determined to hate her?"

"I never said that," I protested. "Besides, Potter was being an ass, and I am on the side of anyone on the receiving end of his prickish behavior. And that includes Chloe."

"But it was so funny seeing her all pissed off—I wanted to see how long it would take her to figure out she could just vanish the paint."

"Well, you may have noticed that what I did only made her angrier," I replied mildly. "Plus, I think the vanishability of the paint was rather beside the point in her mind. I have a feeling that Potter told her about the prank and promised she wouldn't get hit by any of it."

"So you think he lied?"

"No, my money's on Black. I don't think he likes the two of them together—honestly, I can't say I blame him, she's bloody annoying—and I'm betting he's the one who hit Chloe. Either way, Potter's definitely going to get it from her," I said, unable to stop a satisfied smile from spreading across my face at the thought.

And indeed, Potter looked much less amused when he entered our Transfiguration classroom ten minutes later. By contrast, Sirius was looking a good deal happier, though I couldn't help but notice the two sat on either side of Remus and Peter, as far apart as possible. When I glanced back at Potter halfway through class, I was shocked to see he was actually paying attention and taking notes. There was an angry frown on his face, and he seemed determined not to look at Sirius. As I faced the front again, I suddenly realized I felt a little bad for Potter. I quickly slapped myself mentally at this realization. Pull it together, Lily, he doesn't deserve your pity.

OOOOOOOO

Saturday morning dawned grey and chilly, but that didn't deter the hundreds of students third year and above from making the first visit to Hogsmeade. Everyone was eager to get out of the castle, and the sixth years—yes, me included—were especially grateful to escape thoughts of homework, at least for a while. With the weather being far from pleasant, Mary's and my usual hangout, the Three Broomsticks, was more crowded than normal. We managed to find a table in the back, however, and Mary ordered three butterbeers from the bar, since Andrew was going to be joining us for the day. I'd offered to let Mary and him spend the day alone—after all, two years' worth of Hogsmeade visits had certainly made the novelty wear off a bit. But she'd insisted on including me, and honestly, I didn't mind being the third wheel with her and Andrew. I liked Andrew, and they weren't an annoyingly affectionate couple, so I never felt excluded or awkward when the three of us were together.

Just as Mary returned from the bar, Andrew entered the pub. The two of us waved him over to our table, and he greeted Mary with a kiss and smiled at me as he sat down.

"Not exactly the best weather for this, huh?" he commented.

"No, but I don't really mind spending the day in here," I replied.

"Besides, it's just nice to get out of the castle every now and then," Mary added.

"Yeah, I'm already so overwhelmed with everything and it's only October . . . Merlin, I can't even remember the date, that's how bad it is!" Andrew said.

"Come on, it's not that horrible," I said.

Andrew raised his eyebrows. "Maybe if you're brilliant, it's not," he muttered.

I straightened in my chair with a smug smile. "Thank you."

"Anyway," Mary said pointedly, "We did not come here to talk about school—or at least, I didn't. So, w—"

"Yes, I completely agree," Potter said from my left. I looked up into his grinning face in annoyance. "So, you all enjoying the first Hogsmeade visit? I know I—"

"What are you doing?" I interjected sharply.

"Er, making polite conversation?" Potter replied, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I think you've mistaken me for someone who cares what you have to say," I returned with a false smile.

Potter's other eyebrow joined the first on top of his forehead. "There are other people at this table, Evans," he said. "And, you may recall, I've told you that not everything I do somehow relates to you."

I sighed in frustration. "Fine. See you later," I said to Mary and Andrew.

"Wow," Potter said, standing aside as I rose from the table, "someone has a wand up her—"

"Lily," Mary interrupted, but I ignored both of them and kept walking. I didn't mind talking about school at Hogsmeade, but I did draw the line at having to deal with Potter and his arrogance on my day out.

"Lily!" I heard my name again and turned to find the source. Remus was waving at me from a table along the far wall. Glancing back to see Potter still talking to Mary and Andrew, I started towards the table. Peter and Chloe were there as well, and I wondered briefly at Sirius's conspicuous absence while at the same time ignoring the glare Chloe shot me.

"Hey, sorry to bother you—"

"Oh, trust me, Remus, you're never a source of bother for me," I assured him.

Remus's eyes flicked briefly towards the table I'd just left. "Right. So, we're on for patrol duty this Thursday, but I have to visit my family—" At this moment, Peter caused a bit of a distraction choking on his butterbeer. "You okay, Pete?" Remus asked with a smile, clapping his friend on the back.

"Fine," he said hoarsely, grinning sheepishly.

"Anyway, I don't think I'll be able to—"

"Don't worry about it, I can handle it on my own," I said. "Er, is everything okay?" I added, concerned.

"Yeah, it's just, my mum's been ill, so . . ." Remus said, clearing his throat and taking a sip of his drink.

"I'm sorry," I said, suddenly feeling guilty. I always complained about my home life to Remus, but had never thought to ask him about his.

"It's fine," Remus said, but he didn't quite meet my eyes as he spoke. "Well, thanks for covering for me, and I'm sorry for the late notice."

"Seriously, don't worry about it," I repeated. "It's really no trouble."

"Right, well, I'll let you get back to enjoying the day."

"Yeah, you—"

"Evans, if you really didn't want to talk to me, you probably shouldn't have come over to my friends' table," Potter said pleasantly from behind me.

I turned to glare at him. "I was just leaving, Potter." And I spun on my heel and marched out of the pub. I still felt embarrassed that I hadn't known anything about Remus's mother being sick. I must seem so shallow and self-absorbed to him, I thought ashamedly. And yet he was the one apologizing to me about missing patrols. Plus, I didn't even get a chance to say how I hoped she'd get better soon or anything because Potter distracted me.

"Lily!" I looked back to see Mary running towards me, Andrew at her heels. Reaching me, she stopped, hands on her hips, and fixed me with a glare, "Why didn't you wait for us?"

"Sorry, I just didn't want to deal with Potter today."

"Do you ever want to deal with him?" Andrew asked in some amusement.

Before I could answer him, Mary said, "Well, you didn't have to run away like that—he left about two seconds after you did."

"He probably only left that fast because I was no longer there for him to annoy," I argued back. "And I didn't run away."

"Yes, you did, and—"

"Okay, let's just—does it matter?" Andrew cut in, attempting to play peacekeeper.

Mary sighed. "Not really, I suppose." She turned to me again. "But I still say you and Potter—"

"Right, thank you," I said to forestall her. I didn't really want to hear her latest theory about Potter and I, and I especially didn't want it discussed in front of Andrew. "But could you, for once, just keep your opinions to yourself?"

Mary stared at me, slightly taken aback. We hardly ever fought—well, except for the Potter debacle in fourth year—but I was nearing the end of my patience quota for the day, and I was getting a little sick of Mary's sudden need to twist every one of my encounters with Potter into evidence that I fancied him.

Andrew looked between us warily. "Er, I think I'm just going to run into Scrivenshaft's—need some new quills," he said, clearly hoping to escape the tension that had currently built to a breaking point. Mary and I ignored him, and he took off without waiting for a response.

"Fine," Mary said stiffly to me. "I guess I've mistaken you for someone who cares what I have to say as well?"

It stung to have the words I'd directed so harshly at Potter thrown back at me like that from my best friend. "That's not—of course I care what you have to say! Just not when it has to do with this 'secret crush' business you've been on about lately."

"What? That wasn't what I was going to say at all!" Mary protested, her blue eyes flashing angrily. "And I haven't been 'on about it'!"

"Yes you have! Every time I tell you about something that happened with Potter, you always interpret it to mean I like him!"

"No, I'm just trying to figure out what's going on with you—your actions towards him have been more confusing than his supposed 'bipolar' behavior."

"What?" I said, completely thrown by this accusation. "I haven't—I'm not—"

"Take today, for instance," Mary continued over me. "He was just trying to have a friendly chat with us, and you completely blew up at him for no reason."

"I already—" I started, feeling like we were going around in circles.

"But Monday," Mary cut in, more loudly, "you didn't even care about the paint thing and only joked about giving him detention, even though last year you wouldn't have hesitated to punish him. And yet, last Saturday, you freaked out at him again when he was only trying to be helpful."

I just stared at her once she'd finished. Then I said, half-laughing, "You're blowing this way out of proportion."

"I don't think so. But I will give you one thing—I don't think you have a crush on James. No, I think you're finally starting to realize that he's actually a decent person, and you don't know how to handle it."

Her pronouncement stunned me into silence. I was saved from answering by a huge clap of thunder and sudden downpour of rain that let loose from the sky at that moment. Shrieking in surprise, Mary and I bolted for the nearest shop, Dervish and Bangs, and ducked inside.

"Wow," Mary said, shaking water out of her eyes. "That came up fast."

Impressive bolts of lightning were flashing across the sky in quick succession, followed almost immediately by rolls of thunder. It looked like someone was pouring gigantic buckets of water down on Hogsmeade; the rain was so dense it was hard to see the other side of the street. The storm lasted barely five minutes, and then, as abruptly as it'd come, the rain stopped. People began to emerge hesitantly from stores, and Mary and I soon followed suit. Everything was dripping wet, and I could still hear distant rolls of thunder, but we appeared to be out of the worst of it.

"Sorry for yelling at you," I said suddenly to Mary. "It was a stupid thing to fight about."

Mary smiled at me. "That's okay—but think about what I said, okay?"

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I said resignedly. "But I think that's just as crazy a theory as the last."

Mary narrowed her eyes at me. "I thought we weren't going to fight about it?" she said with mock sternness.

"All right, sorry," I said again.

Mary retrieved Andrew from Scrivenshaft's and the three of us started back to the castle. As we reached the edge of the grounds, a commotion appeared ahead of us. Squinting, I could make out four people having what seemed to be a mud fight. Nearing the group, I saw that it was none other than—surprise, surprise—Potter, Black, Peter, and Remus. All four were laughing and yelling as they slung handfuls of thick black mud at each other.

I rolled my eyes. "How mature," I commented dryly to Mary and Andrew as we drew even with the Marauders. "I suppose they couldn't think of anything b—" I was cut off abruptly when Sirius ducked a glob of mud Potter had just thrown and the mass smacked me square in the face.

I stumbled back a few steps, spluttering and attempting to wipe the mud from my eyes. Spitting a mouthful of it to the ground, I straightened and whipped around angrily. The four Marauders were doubled over with laughter. "Potter!" I yelled, my fury only building at the sight of them, "you are in so much trouble!"

"S—sorry Evans," he gasped around spurts of laughter.

I strode up to him, glaring so hard I wouldn't have been surprised if sparks were actually flying from my eyes. Glancing behind him, I saw he was standing in front of a large muddy puddle, no doubt churned up during their fight. Reaching up, I shoved Potter in the chest with all my might. Either he hadn't been expecting it, or he was off-balance from laughing so hard, but he stumbled back, arms pinwheeling, and landed on his back in the puddle with an impressive splash. The others' laughter redoubled, and to my aggravation, Potter merely smirked at me and said, "Touché, Evans."

I spun furiously on my heel and stomped back to Mary and Andrew, both of whose lips began twitching at the sight of me. "Shut up," I said through clenched teeth. Turing to Mary, I added, "Decent person, my arse."

OOOOOOOO

The steaming hot water pounding from the shower eased both my temper and my mind. After all, it hadn't been strictly Potter's fault that I got a facefull of mud. Nevertheless, it was something I'd rather not have experienced, given a choice. I mean, it'd gotten in my mouth, for Merlin's sake! And that, let me tell you, is far from pleasant.

Relaxing under the shower's steady stream, I also had time to mull over what Mary had said about Potter being a decent person. As much as I'd tried to find ways to deny it, something was different about him this year. Adding up all the indicators of his old ways that had accumulated over the past two months—three (relatively) harmless pranks, two isolated instances of flirting, and that knock about asking me out for two years previously only as entertainment—left me with a series of incidents that paled in comparison to Potter's usual level of infuriating behavior. And I had treated him unfairly the other day after my run-in with Severus. But I was hardly behaving as confusingly as Mary had insinuated.

Ignoring for the moment the fact that I hadn't come to a conclusion about the 'Potter really isn't that bad' part of the argument, I stepped out of the shower and dried off. It had taken three shampoos to get all of the dirt and grit out of my hair. That was nothing compared to the five times I'd brushed my teeth, only to give up on completely removing the horrible taste of dirt from my mouth.

After I'd dressed in clean clothes, I pulled my hair into a hasty bun to keep it out of my face and descended the stairs into the common room. Reaching the bottom, I hesitated—Mary had gone to the library, and I would rather study with her than among . . . present company (the Marauders were sitting by the fire, as usual), but I didn't really feel like walking all the way down there. So, with a resigned sigh, I started for one of the two seats Mary and I generally occupied in the common room. As I passed his chair, Potter—also freshly showered—turned to me and said, "Really, Evans, I am sorry about earlier." He was smirking as he said it, of course.

"I swallowed some of that, Potter," (that's what she said) I said by way of indicating that he was in no way forgiven, despite my private reflections earlier.

"It wasn't entirely my fault, you know," he continued. "If Padfoot hadn't ducked, I—"

"Hey, don't try to pin this on me," Sirius interjected hurriedly.

It was then that I noticed Chloe was missing from their group. And it appeared Potter and Black had patched things up, if in fact they'd even been at odds with each other. Boys, I thought wearily. "Yes, but you were the one who threw it—therefore, the fault is entirely yours," I said aloud.

"Thank you Ev—wait, did she just defend me?" Sirius said, pretending to be shocked. "This is a historical moment! I think we should all take a moment of silence to—"

"Oh shut it, Black," I said, annoyed.

Potter's grin widened. "Well, in any case, since I allowed you to retaliate, I'd say we're even, wouldn't you?"

I just shrugged.

"So, we're good?" Potter pressed.

"Yeah, sure," I said, hoping this would speed up the conversation, as I really didn't want to waste my time talking to Potter longer than was necessary.

As I started to turn away, he added, "Good. I don't like it when you're mad at me."

I whipped around and looked at him sharply.

"Because I'd rather not have to watch my back these next few days. It's awfully tiring." He was smirking again.

I arched an eyebrow. "Afraid of me, Potter?"

"Hey, I'm not too proud to admit that wand of yours is perfectly capable of doing me serious damage."

"Ah, but you forget that I'm not like you—I don't attack people when their back is turned just to get revenge."

Potter blinked, the smirk wiped off his face, and I knew I'd struck a nerve. It was an old argument, one I'd used against him many times before, but this time it seemed to hit with more force. "Right," he mumbled, turning away, and I had no choice but to do the same. I settled in my usual seat, guilt already clenching my stomach uncomfortably, and wondered if Mary had been right about me after all.

A/N: If any of you are STAC readers, you may have recognized the prank at the beginning of this chapter—Lily mentioned it when James told her about the invisibility cloak. Since I always have a hard time thinking of good Marauder pranks (guess I just don't have a pranking mind) I decided to borrow my idea from that story ;) Just a fun fact.