A/N: Back with the next installment! This contains a lot of background info which'll hopefully make things clearer. This is also a longer chapter, as I've been slacking and putting up quite short chapters. Enjoy!

Lily was at a loss. Her head was all over the place. As she headed back up to the castle from the Quidditch grounds, she mentally scolded herself.
What are you playing at, Lily Evans? Talking to Potter like that! You hate him; you hate his guts!
I know, Lily told herself, I know I do, but I can't help but feel obliged to thank him. I know he's an obnoxious, foul waste of space most of the time but I do sort of feel bad about accusing him of something without proof, whether he did write those things or not! Also about how brutal Sev was towards him, I didn't know he could be so violent. Can't really blame him though, Potter was acting like a snake…
I mean, he didn't need to talk to me, though, that morning in the Quidditch stands. Maybe… maybe I'm just blaming everything on him because I'm so upset about how things turned out with Sev -
Sev.
I miss him.

Lily had tried to talk to Snape about that night outside Gryffindor Tower, but whenever she'd got close, one of his Slytherin friends told her to get lost before she was able to catch his attention. They told her how she he didn't want to see her, that she'd hurt him. She desperately wanted to explain that what he had seen had been false, what he'd accused her of was a lie. In a way she way furious with herself for letting things get as out of hand as they had that night; she should have been more in control, she could have prevented it from happening. She was angry that Sev would even consider her going near Potter after how horrible he'd been.

Thinking back to the brief conversation she'd had with Potter just minutes earlier, she smirked. The look of shock that he had had was quite amusing, almost as if he dared not believe she was there talking to him. She did feel somewhat like a traitor to herself, because she'd voluntarily been pleasant towards him. But as she'd said to Potter, she was too nice. She'd never been able to hold a strong grudge.
Perhaps Potter wasn't all that bad. Maybe Lily had just convinced herself recently that he was.
That day in the library, though, she thought. Maybe he really is as bad as he seems.
Lily screwed up her eyes and rubbed her temple. This was making her head hurt.

Later that night, after talking to Sam about how angry she was with herself and how confused she was, Sam came up with a 'plan'.
"I think it's a great idea!" Sam smiled encouragingly.
"Oh, I don't know, Sam. It seems kind of dodgy."
"Don't be silly," The girl shook her head, shaking her newly cut and coloured hair – short and baby blue. "It's a win-win situation for you however you look at it."
Lily folded her arms.
"Look," her friend continued, "If this plan works, you'll have Snape jealous and wanting you back. He'll realise how wrong and blind and… and stupid he's been and everything will be back to normal!"
"And if it fails?"
"Then you'll know that you and him were never meant to be. And you'll have gained a friend… perhaps a potential boyfriend!" She finished, clapping her hands together and smiling.
Lily sighed. It was something she'd been doing quite a lot recently. "It seems so deceiving though, I'm not sneaky like that. I don't think I can do it."
"Well, it's up to you, think about it. You can't deny it's not a good idea."
Sam got up, ready to bid Lily goodnight, but before she could open her mouth, Lily blurted out, "Hey! Wait a minute! What do you mean, 'potential boyfriend'?!"
Sam gave her a somewhat patronizing smile. "Oh Lily. True, you're repulsed by James Potter now, but you can't deny the massive crush you had on him during our first few years. Hell, third year you never shut up about him for weeks! If only he'd known that then, things would be very different now." Half smiling at Lily's expression, she finished, "But it's late, I'm off to bed. Think about it, Lil. Goodnight."

Lily just sat, jaw hanging open at her friend's parting words. The thing she'd been fighting to keep at the back of her mind had finally broken it's way to the front.
"Damn it," Lily said out loud to the empty common room, some hours after it had emptied. It was true, James Potter had caught Lily's eye during her first year at Hogwarts.
He was a lot different then though, Lily remembered. This too, was true. James had been a short, average looking and moderately shy boy when he'd began at Hogwarts. He'd just seemed interesting to Lily in a way she couldn't explain. She'd never really become friends with him or engaged him in a lengthy conversation before her third year, which was when things had changed.
Over the summer, James had matured. As he'd boarded the Hogwarts Express at the start of term, it wasn't hard to see that Lily wasn't the only one who had noticed. He'd grown several inches, was still lean but visibly toned under his shirt. His dark, glossy hair had grown long and unruly and flopped over his forehead every time he ran his fingers through it.
Much to Snape's displeasure, Lily couldn't help but smile sweetly and flutter her eyelashes in his direction. She began talking to him more often – in class, in the hallway, catching him up on the way back up to the common room…
Within a short amount of time though, it had become obvious that Lily and the rest of James female admirers weren't the only ones to notice the changes about him.
Half of the boys became bitter towards him, perhaps because they were jealous of his appearance, or perhaps because they envied the attention he received and his talent on the pitch.
The other half, in contrast, followed James around like puppies. Perhaps they wanted in on his new found glory; perhaps they too admired him. Or maybe they genuinely just wanted to be his friend.
All that could be said for definite, however, was that James' idol-like fame around the school had quickly gone to his head.
Within weeks of the first term, the version of James that had once interested and attracted Lily became a ghost. James too had noticed his mature appearance, and assuming that he was loved and admired by all, started treating most people like dirt. He'd lost a fair few of his admirers due to this, including Lily, who had quickly become disgusted by this new obnoxious and frankly repulsive version of Potter. The students that still stuck by him were those who still relied on and respected him for his skill on a broom, or the shallow and naïve girls that believed they had a chance with him.

It's a shame, Lily thought, If he hadn't changed so much, maybe I would have been friends with him, or more…

Unbeknownst to Lily, James' first opinions of her weren't so different.
She, too, had caught his eye for no apparent reason during their first year. He'd never really paid her any special attention until their third year.
Lily had also matured over that summer. He vibrant red hair hung elegantly and framed her face perfectly. James couldn't help noticing her rapidly developing figure, slim with curves in all the right places, and 'a great rack', helpfully pointed out by Sirius. Her bright green eyes lit up like gems every time the light hit them, and her skin had become illuminatingly pale, giving her an almost ethereal look about her.
The difference was that whilst James had become very popular, soaking up the glory, Lily had chosen to blend in with a quieter crowd, perfecting her studies and maintaining her good grades. This was the main reason why James had never made a move on Lily, until now.
Although he thought her beautiful, he assumed that she would think him silly and immature, as studying was a thing James had little time for when Quidditch was his main priority.
Every year, he would fall in love with Lily a little bit more, until he couldn't sit by and let his feelings go to waste any longer.
This was the reason for his creepy methods of wooing Lily; he knew she was too good for him, which was why he had to try his utmost to show her how amazing and worth it he was.
But it hadn't worked, and he knew that when Lily learns the truth, his chances with her would be over for good.

A/N: Okay, the thing about the 'plan' will be explained in the next chapter, although it's probably pretty easy to predict. As always, review and anticipate :D