As soon as the door closed Lily apparated upstairs to her room so she could spy on James' departure. She tended to avoid anything magical while Petunia was in the house but this was a special occasion and therefore called upon special measures. Through the nets of her curtains she could see that James was still there staring into nothing with his hand on his face. A full minute passed before he disapperated. Lily slid onto the seat of her bay window her heart thumping loudly. The kitten mewed beside her.

No amount of denying was going to work this time. "I think I have a thing for James." She said softly to herself. She got to her feet and started pacing all the while pondering over her newest discovery. Suspecting was always quite a different thing from admitting. Panic began to settle in and she increased her pacing speed. What if James was just messing about? He could just be playing around because he was bored. Lily groaned and covered her face in her hands. One kitten and she had kissed him! Goodness, what standards were these?

A soft knock interrupted her thorny thoughts.

"Lily?"

"Mum." Diane came into the room. She headed for the bay and picked up the kitten with no surprise.

"How are you feeling honey?"

"I'm fine." Lily flopped onto her bed. The shouting had stopped although she had no idea how long the peace would last.

"Really?" Diane moved over to sit beside her daughter.

"I guess not." Lily admitted after a few seconds. "Dinner wasn't exactly perfect."

Diane gave a quiet laugh. "Understatement of the year but no honey, I wasn't talking about dinner."

"I think I'm getting used to Petunia finally. Don't worry about me?"

"Do you like him?" Diane asked, gently pushing the conversation to the topic of her interest.

"Mum!" Lily sat up astonished by her Mother's bold comment. "Wait, was you-?!"

Diane smiled sheepishly. "You got me, I was playing I spy at you two through the living room window."

"Mum! I can't believe you did that!"

"Aw hush sweetie, at least I didn't let your father watch too!" Diane said with humor. Lily thought about this and then agreed. At least Dad hadn't seen. "I couldn't trust you out in the dark with a boy." She teased. "But I'm happy to say that he was almost a perfect gentleman, better than what I can say for you."

"MUM!" Lily blushed a deep red.

"Relax honey or you'll pop a vessel." Diane said mildly. "I'm still waiting for an answer. Actually I can guess the answer but I want you to say it all the same."

"You are so cruel." Lily rolled over and buried her face into her bed. "I don't know, guess I do." She said when she resurfaced for air.

"Do what?" her Mother asked innocently.

Lily narrowed her eyes knowing exactly what her Mother wanted her to say. "All right! I think I like James Potter! Is that good enough?"

Diane nodded with satisfaction. "Not quite. If you like him why are you working yourself up into such a state?"

Lily wanted to bury her head again. "I don't know whether he's serious." She said and recounted the James of the past and his tally of girlfriends.

"Ah." Diane said and went to sit beside Lily on the bed.

"'Ah'? Is that all?" she had been hoping for a bigger reaction and maybe a whole lecture of sound advice.

"To be fair dating is a lot to do with finding yourself the right partner." Diane laughed. "It's all to do with finding yourself the right person and also someone for you to dote on and for them to coddle you in return. Maybe he just didn't find the right girl in the other girls."

"That's a lot of girls."

"He's a charming handsome young man. Your father had quite a few girlfriends before me."

"What if he's just trying to pull a huge prank over me then?"

"Does he seem genuine?"

Lily paused. "I think so."

"Then give him benefit of doubt. Having said that though, as a Mum I wouldn't want to see you get hurt."

"Mum, you always sound like you're making sense but you never do."

Diane laughed. "I try."

Lily dragged herself over so she could rest her head on her Mum's lap. "He's got this thing. I don't know. It's almost magnetic. I want to be around him but at the same time I don't because I get this weird feeling inside."

"I wish I could give you advice honey, but I really don't know what I can say." Her mum stroked her hair like she used to do when Lily was a little girl.

"Don't worry about it Mum, in some sort of strange way I think I can make sense of your advice."

"You can?"

"Sure." Lily meant it with all her heart. It was nice to have someone to listen.

- - -

A/N: A short chapter but it was needed to make other chapters more effective later. I've figured that I need to get writing to finish at least another five chapters (if I can) before I go. I really want to try because I got a really wicked idea in mind. And I'm warning that I will leave on a scary cliffhanger!