The Truth Of The Heart

Summary: Lily Evans has always, ALWAYS hated James Potter. So when they become Head Boy and Girl, nothing could be worse. But could working with him change Lily's opinion? Has she been ignoring the truth in her heart all along?

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this….except a few minor characters, so please don't sue me, JKR, 'cause I have nothing you want….unless you're into human flesh (you're not, are you?)

A/N: Thank you guys all SO MUCH for your reviews – it's nice to know I haven't been forgotten! I would do review thank-yous, but if this fic gets taken down again for anything, it won't be going up again, so I won't risk it. Apologies for the lateness of the chapter – I'm working on something else which now needs only to be fully typed up (its already half-done) before it can go up! The next chapter of this will be sooner, I swear!

And this chapter is earlier than planned, as a celebration because Lady A is back in the country! Well…she's back from Houston…meaning she's near a computer…meaning we can talk again! Grins Yay! (yes, I'm slightly hyper – too much sugar today!)

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Chapter 9: He Loves Me, He Loves U Not

The next day had a very tranquil air about it. Although school was still on, most people got up late and lazed in the Common Room for at least half an hour, yawning, before doing anything else.

Lily was the first to wake in her dormitory. She padded over the thick, soft carpet to Emma's side and shook her gently, but Emma groaned and huddled under the duvet.

"Le' me alo'."

Deciding it was no use, Lily went off, and took a long shower. A she let the warm streams of water run over her head and soothe her, she couldn't help but wonder about Serena. The girl had glowered at her for almost the whole evening after she had returned with James in tow, laughing and talking. Although Serena usually acted rather . . . catty, she had seemed to dislike her even more last night, and Lily was quite at a loss to understand why.

She pulled on a pair of jeans and a green turtleneck, and grabbing a book, headed down to the empty common room, where she curled up in front on the fire on a squashy old sofa and began to read.

For the next hour, the Common Room was silent and peaceful, deserted except for Lily. Oblivious of time, she read on, while the fire crackled merrily beside her, and cool daylight crept slowly across the circular room. At one point, she looked up to hear footsteps, hoping it would be Emma, but instead, Tom Jacobs and Keegan Adams, the other two seventh-year boys who shared a dormitory with the Marauders, came down the stairs, talking quietly. They were dressed in tracksuit bottoms, and Lily supposed inattentively that they were going out for an early morning run. Keegan simply nodded at her in acknowledgement, while Tom greeted her with a smile and a "Hey Lily," before he too vanished through the Portrait hole.

A short while later, Lily was once again deep in her book, when she heard the portrait hole open again, and someone clambered through. Assuming that it was Tom or Keegan come back for something, or just another early riser, she did not bother to look up.

Footsteps sounded towards the middle of the room, then stopped.

"Oh look. It's the red-head whore."

"What?" Lily raised her head to see Serena Parkinson glaring at her, hands on hips.

"Need your hearing checked, do you? I suppose you would, after all the shouting a certain person did in your ear last night during the concert."

Carefully, Lily put her book down and stood up. She looked Serena coolly up and down, from her straight honey-blonde hair that reached just below her shoulders, all the way down to her high-heeled pink sandals, even though it was a cool October morning, and not yet even breakfast; in fact, barely past sunrise; no weather for sandals.

"Excuse me?" she asked coldly. "Who or what are you talking about?"

"You know perfectly well who I mean, you two-faced slag!" Serena's voice was getting higher and louder. Lily raised an eyebrow.

"No, actually, I don't," she said calmly. "Would you like to, uh, clarify who it is that you're talking about?"

"You are so thick," Serena sneered. "All right, I'll tell you. Does the name James Potter ring any bells? Sleeping with him now, are we?"

For a moment, Lily stared at her in disbelief, convinced that she had heard something wrong. Then she began to laugh.

"That is the single most . . . ridiculous thing I have ever heard!" she gasped, clutching her side as she laughed.

"You can't cover up whatever it is that's going on by just laughing, Evans. I'm not stupid!"

"Well you obviously are, if you honestly think that! For one thing, I would never, never get involved in Po - James' love life or his tangled string of girlfriends. For another, last time I heard, you weren't even going out with him anyway, so what's it got to do with you?"

Serena snorted. "Don't play innocent with me! You've had him eating out of your hand and following you around since fifth year! You've got him wrapped around your little finger, and you know it! You're practically raising his hopes by spending so much time with him, when all a bitch like you is doing is stopping him from going out with real girls!"

She took a step forward, menacingly, and narrowed her eyes. "You don't own him."

"Neither do you," came a voice from the staircase. Lily and Serena turned, as one, to see James Potter descending, his hair its usual messy self, wearing a crumpled pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, giving him a very much just-got-out-of-bed look.

Serena's entire persona shifted.

"Jamesie!" she cooed. She took a few paces towards him, swaying her hips provocatively, and practically radiating waves of flattery; Lily had never felt so sickened. "And how are you today?"

"Fine," James answered shortly. He eyed Serena with great dislike. "What do you want, Parkinson?"

"You already know the answer to that, James. I want you." Her eyes were fixed on his face hungrily.

"Well I'm not interested, Parkinson, and that's something you obviously didn't pick up the other five hundred times we've had this conversation. See you." He indicated the portrait hole.

"But Jamesie!" Serena cried.

"Do NOT call me Jamesie. Bye-bye."

Serena snorted again, angrily, and flounced towards the hole. As she passes Lily, she shot a glare at her and mouthed 'Bitch.' Then she was gone.

Lily collapsed back down onto the sofa. To her surprise, James came over, sank down next to her, and sighed.

"What was all that about?" she asked.

"You really want to know?" James yawned.

"Well, seeing as she's verbally attacking me over something that I know very little about, yes, I do. How much did you overhear, anyway?"

"Enough."

"So, what's the story?"

"We went out together in fourth year. I dated her for exactly two days before I found out what a bitch she was, and for a week before I found out that she was cheating on me with some Ravenclaw, so I dumped her. After she got dumped by the other guy and found out that my family is . . . fairly wealthy, she came crawling back. She doesn't seem to understand that I'm not interested."

Lily looked at him doubtfully, holding her book against her. "And all this comes from the Master Player of Girls himself?"

James turned round sharply and looked back at her, raising his eyebrows.

"I didn't know you believed everything you heard."

"It's just a rumour, is it?"

"I may have gone out with quite a few girls, but I don't two-time or cheat. I'm not that dishonest."

Lily smiled slightly, but James' brow had contracted as he reached his hands out to the fire and turned away from her again.

"What are you doing down so early for? I was hoping for at least another hour on my own."

James slid off the sofa and down on to the rug in front of the dancing flames. "The heating in the boys' dorm's gone off. Apparently they forgot to restart the heating charm. The others haven't woken up yet, but I was cold . . . so here I am."

"I suppose that's why Tom and Keegan left so early," Lily mused. She glanced at the boy leaning casually against the arm of the sofa. "And how exactly do you know so much?"

James grinned mysteriously. 'I have connections.' He saw Lily's expression. "Ok, ok, I know one of the house elves who looks after the dorm. He's the brother of our house elf, Topsy, and their sister, Tipsy, works in Sirius' house. Topsy, Tipsy, and Tolly."

"Sounds like a children's show."

"Yeah."

There was a few moments' reflective quiet.

"James?"

He looked up. "Yeah?"

"Would you mind . . . not telling anyone about the Snape thing last night?"

"But -" James protested.

"I'd just rather that no one else knew, other than Emma, I suppose. They'd probably react the way you did, and I don't want that."

James regarded her in silence. "Oh, all right," he said, finally. "My lips are sealed. But Sirius already found out that I had a run-in with Snivellus, though he doesn't know details."

"Keep it that way," Lily said, relieved. She was about to say something else, when footsteps sounded once again on the girls' stairs, and Emma appeared, looking worried.

"Lily, Saffy's woken up. I think she wants to talk."

Lily got up and followed Emma, giving James a brief wave.

"Hey, Lily!" James called after her. She turned round, halfway up the stairs.

"You go the Quidditch matches, don't you?"

"Yeah," Lily replied, confused.

"Well then you'd better be there for the next one, to watch us whip Slytherin. Next Saturday."

Lily smiled. "Alright."

He grinned a farewell at her from his place on the floor, and she continued up, contemplating.

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Give it your all girl, give it all you got,You can take a chance, and take your best shot,I see what you want girl, and what you do,He's never gonna, gonna make it with you.You're pulling petals off a flower trying to get your way, Keep pulling 'til it says what you want it to say, Girl you can pick a field full of daisies,But he'd still be my baby,I know you can hardly wait 'til I'm away from him,Instinctively, I know what you're thinking,You'll be giving him an open invitation,But my baby won't be taken in.You can pout your cherry lips,Try to tempt him with a sweet kiss, You can flirt your pretty eyes,He ain't got his hands tied.No chains to unlock, so free to do what he wants,He's into what he's got,He loves me, he loves you not,No matter what you do, he's never gonna be with you,He's into what he's got,He loves me, he loves you not...You're the kinda girl that's always up for do-or-dareOnly want him just because he's there,Always looking for a new ride,The grass is greener on the other side..You're the kinda girl who's not used to hearing no, All your lovers try to take you where you wanna go, Doesn't matter how hard you try,Your never gonna get away with my guy.No chains to unlock, so free to do what he wants,He's into what he's got, (and that's me)He loves me, he loves you not,No matter what you do,He's never gonna be with you, He's into what he's got,He loves me, he loves you not.

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Lily's class had been very much set in its social groupings since first year. Lily and Emma had become friends after being partnered in a particularly disastrous Charms class. James and Sirius had befriended each other on the train to Hogwarts when they had both simultaneously attacked Snape in the corridor, and had soon found Remus to be a worthy ally. Peter had been the one who had flattered his way into their good books, willing to do anything, until he had been accepted. That left Tom Jacobs and Keegan Adams together, and they had become friends as well. As far as the other girls had been concerned, Sapphire Heathleigh, Callie West and Serena Parkinson had once been a single unit, and completely inseparable. Callie and Serena had known each other since babyhood, as their wealthy mothers had moved in the same social circles. Then, in third year, a 'disagreement' had arisen between Mrs West and Mrs Parkinson, and cracks had appeared between Callie and Serena, resulting in a fight that had nearly blown the roof of Gryffindor Tower off. The end of it was that Serena had let the group and began to hang out with a group of fourth-years well known for their bitchiness and 'tarted-up' view of themselves. As Lily put it to Emma once, in a rare moment of sarcastic humour, 'they had their heads so far up their own arses that it made it a bit difficult to talk to them.' All the hate and anger she had was now directed at her own dorm mates with a vengeance, as if despising the fact that she no longer fitted in. What could have caused the sudden break between Callie and Sapphire? Lily wondered.

Dragging Sapphire to Emma's bed, they shut the door and settled down comfortably. Both girls wanted an explanation of what had been going on last night, and now that Sapphire was ready, and the dormitory conveniently empty, there were no obstacles left. Despite her tears in the toilets, Sapphire remained dry-eyed as she poured out her tale.

"It was probably around when the contest was nearly over. We had both finished out turns on stage, and Callie was looking kind of . . . I don't know how to describe it. Not right. So I asked her what the matter was, and she turned round and said, 'You.' I didn't really understand her at first . . . so I was just like 'Huh?' She started saying stuff about how I was so boring and serious, and I never wanted to have any fun, and that I was a prude . . . because I don't have a constant line of boyfriends like her. She – she said a lot of other stuff, actually, about how I was poor, and things like that. I'd rather not remember them.' Sapphire bit her lip. 'So I said, 'Why are you saying all this?' and she said, 'I have better people to hang around with. Consider our friendship,' and she pulled off the – the best friend necklaces we got each other in fifth year off her neck, and held it up, 'broken.' So she dropped it on the floor and went to Serena's table to sit down. I tried not to get all . . . emotional, but I felt like – well, such an idiot. So I left. That's where you found me.' She looked at Lily, and then sighed pensively. 'I suppose I should have seen it coming. Callie's mother sorted things out with Serena's mother over the holidays, so they were talking to each other a lot more this term, and besides, Callie always seemed so . . . snide. About everything." She put her head in her hands.

Wordlessly, Emma and Lily looked at each other, and then moved forward to engulf Sapphire in a tight hug.

"Don't worry about Callie," Emma reassured her, once they had let go. "I don't know what's going on with her, but she had no right to say what she did, especially because it's not true."

"You can hang with us, we'd love to have someone else to talk to," Lily added.

Sapphire smiled wanly. "Thanks. Just . . . for being there."

"Anytime."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Are we having a moment? You know, of sympathy and understanding?" Lily questioned.

"Not anymore, you idiot!" Emma groaned. "Speaking of moments, what were you and James talking about downstairs? You two looked very . . . cosy."

"Shut up! Nothing was going on, and if it ever does, you can go get Peeves to chuck a load of Dungbombs on me in person!" Lily threw a pillow at her, and Emma reciprocated. The three of them were just getting into a very enjoyable pillow fight, when a voice echoed up the stairs.

"LILY!"

Abruptly, all the pillows dropped.

"What the -?" said Sapphire, puzzled.

"Is that Sirius?" Lily exclaimed.

It was.

From the top of the stairs, Lily saw Sirius standing at the foot, his hair flopping into his eyes, panting. "Lily, you have to come, McGonagall's punishing James for something he didn't do and you're the only one who can stop it!"

Lily came down halfway and looked at him suspiciously.

"Come ON!" Reaching up, he grabbed her wrist and dragged her down the stairs, across the Common Room, and out of the Portrait Hole. He was walking fast – Lily had to jog to keep up.

So much for a restful day after the contest, she thought sarcastically as she followed Sirius' loping gait.

"It's got something to do with whatever happened last night. James won't tell her why he used magic on Snape, so McGonagall thinks it's just because he doesn't like him, and she's threatening a month of detentions and to take away his badge!"

"Oh…dammit!" Lily said frantically. "That's because of me!" She turned on Sirius. "How do you know this much? Were you eavesdropping?"

"Well, duh." Sirius snorted. "What else did you expect me to do? It's a good thing I did!"

They reached the Transfiguration classroom. Pausing for a moment to catch her breath, Lily heard James' voice, defiant.

"You can take the badge if you want, and I don't care about points or detentions, but I can't tell you why. I won't."

Lily pushed the door open. Professor McGonagall was seated on the desk, looking infuriated, while James slouched in a chair, his face sullen. He did not look up as she entered.

"Professor, don't punish him!"

McGonagall turned to her and raised her eyebrows. "I fail to see what this has to do with you, Miss Evans."

"It's – not – James' – fault!" Lily gasped. She clutched her side, trying to ignore the stitch she could feel. "Snape was using magic on me – to hurt me – and James saw what was happening and stopped him. He didn't do anything unreasonable, I swear! He was just defending both of us!"

"Is this true, Mr Potter?" McGonagall inquired, her eyes back on him. James looked up unwillingly, and nodded.

"Then why did you not see fit to tell me this before?"

James looked at Lily for a moment, his expression unreadable, then back at the teacher. "Lily made me promise not to."

"Hmm." Professor McGonagall eyed the two teenagers in silence. "As much as I do not believe you are telling me everything, I shall let this pass and have a talk with Mr Snape. Consider yourself let off with a warning, Potter. And by the way, Professor Dumbledore wishes to see the two of you tonight at seven o'clock. The password is Ice mice."

James got up to go.

"Oh, and Potter?"

James turned.

"Five points to Gryffindor for doing the right thing."

James smiled, and followed Lily out.

"How'd you know I was here?" he asked.

"Sirius told me." Lily looked round. "He must have gone back to the Common Room – he said he was listening outside." She stopped for a moment. "Why didn't you tell her?"

"You asked me not to," James responded, matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but still . . . I mean, she was threatening to take your badge!"

"So?" James looked at her straightforwardly. "Lily, I don't have any idea what you think of me, but you appear to be wrong, so you should get three things straight. I don't cheat, I don't lie, and I don't break promises. Whatever the consequences." He started walking again, away from her, using much the same long strides that Sirius had.

Lily looked after him for a minute, and then hurried forward to catch up with him. "Well, thank you. And I'm sorry," she said awkwardly.

James shook his head. "S'alright."

Lily looked at her watch. "Shall we go join the others for breakfast?"

"Of course," James said, and laughing for no particular reason, they headed for the Great Hall. Halfway through eating, however, Emma, who was sitting next to her, prodded her in the side and leaned over.

"Lils, I need to talk to you!" she whispered.

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A/N: Chapter nine redone and dusted! Yay! And I don't know how well the song works, but I found it, thought it suited, and I'll leave it up to you to decide whether it applies to Lily (although she doesn't know it yet) or Serena and her twisted view of things…Now, how about a review?