I knew that at some point I was going to have to talk to James, but right now, all I wanted to do was eat. It was with this attitude that Potter found me just as I was leaving the library and heading down to the Great Hall for dinner.

'Hey, Lily.' He greeted me calmly, matching his long legged pace to mine.

'Hello.' I squeaked back. 'How was your day?'

'Fine thanks. Yours?'

'Fine… too.'

'Good.' Never before in my life had polite pleasantries ever been so awkward. We walked in uncomfortable silence for a couple of flights of stairs, until James unexpectedly turned off down a corridor leaving me behind with no hint of a farewell. I stopped walking and stared at his receding back, dumbfounded.

About halfway down the corridor James's head swivelled to the side and finally noticed that I wasn't following him. He turned to face me.

'Are you coming?' He bellowed down the corridor.

'I was going to dinner.' I explained just as I felt my tummy let out a low rumble.

'Yeah…' James drawled, giving me an odd look.

'It's this way.' I said, pointing in the direction we had been heading before James had decided to take his detour.

I will admit that I felt a little offended when James began laughing at me. 'Lily, as a marauder I've learnt a few things over the years. And if you dat-' he hesitated a moment here and then quickly decided to rephrase what he was saying 'walk with a marauder, you'll pick up a few things too.

'If you say so.' I replied sceptically, allowing James to pull me off down the corridor, but having a pretty good idea that once we reached the end of it he would realise his mistake and turn back around.

I sighed heavily when we got to the dead end. 'Well, that window does hold a very nice view.' I said, the hunger making me a little snarky, 'but it doesn't get us any closer to the food.' When I turned to see what James's defence to his stupidity was, I found myself facing an empty corridor.

'James?' I called out tentatively, looking around. I heard his tell-tale chuckle and spun around to where I had thought the noise had come from. There was nothing but an old tapestry hanging on the wall. 'James, are you there?' I called out again. 'This isn't funny!' I called when I heard no response, a hint of panic beginning to creep into my throat.

'Come on Lily. I know you're smarter than this.' I heard his teasing voice echo around me, the sound seeming to come from within the wall itself.

Feeling utterly foolish I pressed my ear up against the stone wall and began talking to it. 'James? You in there?' I was rewarded with a quick burst of laughter. Narrowing my eyes I spun toward the tapestry I had noticed earlier and wondering what the hell I was doing, pulled it back and took a quick peek behind it. What I saw left me speechless. There was a hollow passage behind it, and standing inside, his silhouette slighter darker than the air around him and grinning so wide his lips must be hurting, was James.

'Bleeding hell.' I proclaimed, stepping into the small passage and swatting James in the arm for good measure. 'I didn't know this was here!'

'Not many people do.' James said, walking backward and further into the passage.

'Where are you going?' I called out, squinting into the dark, struggling to make out his shape against the dark background.

'To get some food. I thought you were hungry?' He answered this so casually, it raised my suspicions immediately.

'You know where this goes?' I asked, bewildered.

'Of course.' James grinned.

Then it hit me. 'This is how you get away with so much trouble!' I announced. 'You know a whole bunch of escape routes!'

James sniffed. 'Well, yes, these passages can be helpful, but I like to think that our wit and irresistible charm also play a part in the Professors appreciation of the marauders.'

I had to laugh at this. 'I'm not quite sure 'appreciation of the marauders' is how I would describe the relationship you guys have with McGonagall.'

James winced like I'd hit him. 'Oh, low blow, Evans. I'll have you know that McGonagall can, at times, appreciate our pranks. You know, one time, Sirius swears she offered him a biscuit when he was called into her office. Peter was devastated; he's never been offered one.'

'I can't imagine why.' It was supposed to sound sarcastic but my overwhelming fascination at moving ever farther into the unknown passage made it sound sort of dreamy.

'Where does this go?' I wondered aloud, squinting into the endless darkness.

'You'll see.' James answered mysteriously, no doubt with an arrogant smirk plastered across his lips.

We'd been walking, well James had been walking and I'd been stumbling along after him, for about a minute when quite abruptly the flashing of James's glasses that I'd been following, disappeared. Not thinking too much about why this might happen I carried on walking. Straight into a brick wall.

'OWW!' I cried, blood streaming down my face.

James came rushing back up the passage, lighting his wand as he did so (which only made me feel even more idiotic; why the hell didn't I do that?). 'What happened?' He asked, squinting at my face.

'I think I broke my nose.' I mumbled, my hand hovering just over it, feeling the need to apply pressure like you did to mysteriously heal all wounds when you were little, but knowing that was a stupid idea, having now learnt from experience that touching it would only make it throb painfully.

James stepped forward and drew my hand away so he could get a better look. 'How in Merlins name did you manage to do that?' he asked.

'Well someone didn't tell me that there was a turn coming up!' I accused him nasally.

He looked down at me sheepishly. 'Oops.'

I rolled my eyes, and we both stood silently for a moment, staring at each other. James hadn't released my hand and from the way he was gripping it, I'm not sure he planned to.

He began to lean in but I cut him off. 'This actually really hurts.' I complained, pointing to my nose.

'Oh, yeah.' James coughed. 'Um, hospital wing?' I nodded and he spun us around and we walked back the way we came. 'I really am sorry about that.' He told me over his shoulder. 'I've just never had to think about being in here with someone who doesn't know where they're going. I just forgot to tell you there was turn coming up.'

I shook my head slightly. 'No big deal. It's only a broken nose.'

No big deal? I thought to myself. It feels like my face is on fire!

Madam Pomfrey took one look at the blood pooled down the front of my shirt and knew what had happened. Sitting me down on the edge of the bed she gave a sharp flick of her wand and I felt my nose crunch painfully back into place. Even James winced a little, rubbing his nose unconsciously.

'All done.' Madam Pomfrey trilled, hurrying me out. I gave James a bemused look but he seemed only too happy to allow her to scurry him from the room.

Once we were outside and the doors had been shut firmly behind us, James shook himself from head to toe, giving the overall effect of a wet dog.

'What are you doing?' I asked dryly, surprising myself when my voice didn't come out low and nasally.

'Ergh. Shaking off the feel of that place. I hate it. Ergh, I just spend way too much of my time in there.'

'From quidditch?' I asked. James squirmed uncomfortably under my gaze.

'Yeah… quidditch. It's a dangerous game, you have all those bludgers flying around... the beaters are supposed to protect you from them, but I mean, even Sirius isn't flawless-'

'James.' I laughed, cutting him off. 'You're rambling.' And hiding something.

'Oh, right.' He chuckled softly, before making a swift subject change. 'You still hungry?'

'Starving.' My tummy rumbled loudly, backing up my point.

'Got it. This way.' James said, pointing over his shoulder before turning on his heel and gliding off. I stood where I was, looking down the corridor at the way I would have gone. Sighing and wondering what the hell I was doing, I turned and ran after James, falling into step beside him.

'How's the nose?' He asked guiltily.

'Fine.' I answered honestly. 'Madam Pomfrey is amazing.'

'That she is.' James agreed, stopping suddenly and sweeping aside another tapestry to reveal a narrow set of steps leading down into the darkness. Thinking ahead this time, I lit my wand before venturing any farther in.

'Stop!' James bellowed when I was halfway down the steps. I froze with my foot still hanging in the air, panicked.

'What?'

'I almost forgot, there's a trick step, you have to jump it.' He commanded. Nodding, I hopped the next step and continued, albeit a little more cautiously, down the stairs.

I let out a short scream when James shouted at me to freeze the next time. 'What?' I whispered, the panic in his voice scaring me.

'Nothing.' He chuckled. 'You just look funny balancing like that.' He grinned and chucked me under the chin.

'You're mean, you know that?'

James just leant his head back and let out a loud peal of laughter, overtaking me and carrying on down the stairs. 'I think you've mentioned it before' he wheezed when he was finally able to speak.

It wasn't long before the stairs ended and James pushed aside a suit of armour, letting a sliver of daylight into the dark passage.

James indicated that I should leave first, and taking a quick peek I edged myself out from behind the armour. We were on a 2nd floor corridor, our transfiguration classroom across the hall. There were a few students milling about, but none of them seemed to notice my random appearance.

I walked a little farther down the hall and, deciding I should act natural while I waited for James, leaned casually against the wall.

'What are you doing?' James's voice questioned from behind me, making me jump out of my skin in fright.

'Acting natural.' I sniffed.

'You finished?'

'Yep, I'm done.' I announced, pushing myself off the wall when I realised that the boys down the hall weren't staring at me because I looked like badass motor-chick, but because my skirt had hiked up to indecent levels where my foot was propped up against the wall. Some girls just can't pull off sexy.

'Thought so.' James coughed, stepping in-between me and the 6th years.

'Dinner?' I squeaked in attempt to get moving as quickly as possible. My face was now bright red, my integrity in shreds at my feet. James's eyes were flashing with laughter and to be honest, I think he was finding this whole thing far too amusing. 'Let's go.' I instructed, marching off. James followed close behind, his lips clamped together, his body shaking in silent laughter.

'If you tell anyone about this!' I threatened, and he held his hand up in front of him.

'I won't.' He was still laughing.

'Jeez James, it wasn't that funny.'

'I know.'

'So why are you laughing?'

'You have a bit of something…' He mumbled, pointing to his nose.

I stroked my face in confusion. 'Oh, crap.' I sighed when dried flakes of blood came off in my hand. 'Madam Pomfrey is not as amazing as I thought she was.'

'Whoa, Lily. Take that back.' James said seriously. I rolled my eyes.

'Why didn't you tell me?' I asked.

'I just did!'

'Humph.' I turned to follow the stream of traffic down to dinner, rubbing my face with the back of my sleeve (which I now noticed was also stained with dried blood), when a strong hand shot out, twizzled me around by the shoulder and navigated me through the throng of oncoming traffic.

'Err, where are we going?' I asked. 'There cannot be a shorter way to the Great Hall than down those steps.' I argued.

James shrugged. 'That may or may not be true, but we're not going to the Great Hall.'

I actually snorted at this. 'Well, you might not be, but I'm starving, so…' I made to turn around but James grabbed my hand and just kept dragging me along in the wrong direction.

'We're going to be eating. Just not in the Great Hall.' I immediately stopped my struggle to escape James's grip. 'Thought that might calm you down.' He laughed. I sniffed and tried to act aloof to all of James's little jokes; the truth was the mention of eating had settled my nerves. Although now my curiosity had also been peeked.

'Where in Hogwarts can you get food other than the Great Hall?'

'It amazes me how little you seem to know about the Great castle you live in.' James shook his head in disappointment. 'Stick with me, child, and I will reveal unto you secrets you would not believe.' He drawled, taking on a mystic, faraway voice.

I couldn't even think of a response to that so just shook my head and followed James down into dungeons.

'Where are we going?' I asked, eyes roaming the damp stone walls.

'You really have a thing about knowing where you're going, don't you?' When James made no further comment it became clear that this was the only answer I was going to get, and I continued to follow him moodily down the under lit passageways.

'Here we are!' he announced, stopping abruptly next to a large painting of a bowl of fruit.

'Actually James, I was kind of hoping for food that I could actually eat.' I said slowly, prodding the painting cautiously with one of my fingers. I jumped back into James when the painting let out a curiously high giggle. I stared in alarm as the frame swung open to reveal a high archway, rolls of heat bursting from within and out into the corridor.

'It wasn't me, I swear.' I raised my hands in front of me, denying all connection with whatever had just happened and planning to blame everything on James.

'Calm down Lily, this is it.' James laughed, rolling his eyes and walking around me.

'This is what?' I asked, peeking around James's large frame suspiciously.

'The entrance to hell…' James mocked, taking that mystical tone again. I could almost see him walking around with a crystal ball and long sequinned scarves.

'Well, it would explain the heat.' I mumbled, following him in. 'It wouldn't explain the house elves, though.' I said slowly, feeling totally idiotic.

'This is the kitchen, Lily.' James announced, throwing his arms wide as if to showcase the amazingness that was the steaming hot room.

I, however, was not quite ready to acknowledge this yet. 'The kitchens?' I repeated.

'Yeah. It's where they cook the food.' James enunciated slowly, bending down to look me mockingly in the eye like I was a stupid 3-year-old who was struggling to grasp the concept of Lego.

'They cook the food. Here?' I asked in amazement, finally taking a moment to look around. There were ovens and cookers lining the walls around 5 replica tables from the Great Hall above. Steaming food was being carted by the pintsized house elves onto the already overloaded silver serving plates.

'Well it has to be cooked somewhere. Where did you think all the food came from?' James asked, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

'I dunno.' I mumbled. 'I never really thought about it.' I admitted, feeling guilty that all these years I had been gorging on food with no thought for the house-elves being forced to cook in the sweltering heat below me.

'Mr. Potter!' One little house elf squeaked from under me, her huge eyes shining up at James. 'It's nice to see you again, sir!'

'Good evening, Dickory.' James replied politely.

'And hello to you to, Miss.' She added, turning to look up at me, her eyes lingering long enough upon my nose to make me feel an edge paranoid.

'Evans.' James chipped in, one hand jumping to his hair.

'Miss Evans.' The elf squeaked, a knowing sparkle entering her eye and making me wonder how often the marauders were down here and what they discussed when they were.

'Hi.' I smiled, sticking my hand out in a greeting. Dickory froze and turned to look up at James, as if to check if I was mentally well. I retracted my hand and tucked it self-consciously behind my back, embarrassed once again by my lack of wizard knowhow.

James took a step closer to me and looked like he was going to place a reassuring hand on my back but changed his mind at the last minute and let his hovering hand drop heavily to his side. 'I'm starving! What's for dinner?' James asked loudly.

Dickory produced two empty plates from mid-air and gestured to the tables behind her. 'Roast chicken, sir.' And with a slight bow she turned and returned to her work.

I wanted to check with James if we were allowed to just go up and start taking food, but when I turned to ask he was already gone.

'That's disgusting.' I let him know as he clamped a chicken drumstick between his teeth to retain the use of both of hands; one was ladling gravy over his potatoes and the other trying to balance the plate piled so high with food it looked like The Leaning Tower of Pisa. I took a cautious step away from that catastrophe waiting to happen and took some normal size portions of food. Following James's (precarious) lead I grabbed some cutlery and sank to the floor by the exit, my back pressed up against the wall.

We sat eating in silence for a while, both happy to gorge to the sounds of scraping knives and forks and the bustle of the busy house-elves. Although James had at least double the amount of food on his plate, he finished before me and kept pinching stray potatoes from my plate. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts I finally managed to jab him with my fork, and after a very feminine squeal he got up and walked off.

After an intense moment of panic in which I wondered if I'd actually annoyed him, James returned him with another plate; this one filled full of desserts. I quickly lost interest in the rest of my potatoes and I pushed the plate off my lap and smiled hopefully at James.

He held his head aloft and pretended not to notice my eyes boring into him. I sidled up a little closer to him and blinked up, in what I hoped to be an alluring way at him. Swallowing the last bite of his danish he stretched out his hand and clenched it, wincing slightly before peering down at me.

I rolled my eyes, but upon seeing the awfully long trek to the desert table, decided that I would play along.

'Sorry.' I tried to sound sincere but form the look of James's face I was not pulling it off. 'My fork must have slipped.' I tried to explain, reaching out and taking James's wounded hand.

He coughed awkwardly and slipped his hand out of mine. 'Here.' He offered, picking up an éclair. I smiled, happy that my feminine charm wasn't completely absent. I reached out to take it, but was taken completely by surprise when it was thrust into my face, smearing cream and chocolate icing all over me.

I little out a small scream and grabbed a creamy cake and dropped it bottom-up on top of Potter's stupid hair. He laughed and twizzled the pie plate of my reach, sticking his tongue out to try and catch any stray streams of cream dripping from his head.

I was laughing so hard I was finding it hard to find catch breath, and when I finally stopped I collapsed, exhausted, onto James's shoulder. He stiffened and I automatically cringed away from him.

And that was it; I lost my temper. I had been struggling all day with whether to be angry or upset, but I had finally decided.

'Why have you been avoiding me all day?' I all but yelled into his face. He seemed quite shocked by my outburst, and looking at it from his perspective, it probably did seem a bit unexpected. But it was because we were having such a good time that annoyed me; did he not want this?

'What do you mean?' He asked, placing his plate on the floor and sliding it away. Well at least I had his full attention.

'I mean' I huffed, annoyed that I had to explain myself when I thought my meaning should be perfectly obvious, 'all day you've been acting weird. Avoiding me at mealtimes-'

'I sat next to you breakfast and lunch. And technically we're sitting next to each other at dinner, too.' He shot back. I trollied on regardless.

'Not talking to me in class-'. Once again James cut me off.

'Last week I was, how did you put it? 'Clouding your concentration with meaningless babble' and this week your annoyed that I'm actually paying attention?' James's continual logic was irking me.

'There's paying attention, and then there was you. Not something I ever thought I'd say, but seriously Potter; suddenly you've decided to go all teachers pet?'

'Jealous, Evans?' James grinned, seemingly unable to pass up the opportunity to tease me.

'Hardly.' I scoffed, rolling my eyes. From the smirk on James's face he was not buying any of my pretend casualness.

'Well, what about this morning?' I shouted, jumping up onto my knees when I remembered one thing that I knew James couldn't reason his way around.

'This morning?' He repeated back at me.

'Yes, this morning! You went to breakfast without me.'

For the first time in a long time I saw James look like he was about to flip his lid.

'How in Merlins name have you managed to make that sound like you were the one who got hurt there? You walk down the stairs, see me, then run back up them?'

'James.' I whispered, feeling ashamed of myself. I dropped back down onto the floor and claimed James's hands in my own. 'I'm so sorry. I was just so confused this morning and I just needed time to think about what had happened.'

'It's understandable, Lily. But you could have told me. I've just spent the whole day fretting over the fact that you haven't mentioned anything, wondering if you wanted anything more to come of it, or if you were just going to pretend like it never happened.' He admitted.

'How could anyone have pretended that didn't happen?' I smiled.

'Well I couldn't, but I wasn't sure about you. You've got other people to think about after all.' James said frankly, and I knew I wasn't imagining the underlying edge of malice in his voice. He and Snape were just never going to see eye to eye, and for the first time ever, that thought actually made me smile. His belief however, that I cared more about Snape than him peeled back the layer of calm that had enveloped me and returned me to my earlier anger.

'Oh, come off it Potter. Snape hasn't meant anything to me for ages. He's a creep and I don't know why I even mentioned him. I didn't mean it. I was just freaked out by the whole thing and I said what I'd been telling myself to think since first year; that Snape had to come first. That's no longer the case, obviously, but it's unfortunately still my first reaction.' I looked up from where I was talking to my fingernails to check how he was talking all this. He appeared to be surprisingly calm about the whole thing; I took this as permission to continue with my explanation.

'I'd gone down to the quidditch pitch expecting detention. You wanted me to emerge with a boyfriend. I'm a planner James, and that, that wasn't planned. That was never even considered, thought, dreamt about.' I bit down on my tongue when I saw the hurt flash through James's eyes.

I gave his hands a reassuring squeeze and shuffled myself closer to him. 'And looking back, I don't know it wasn't. Because honestly, James; you're amazing. And I've been blind these past couple of months, because you've been amazing for a while now, and I was just too stubborn, too proud, to let myself think that you could have changed and risk being hurt.'

The words were rushing out thick and fast now; I had no control over what was going to leave my mouth next. All I knew was that it felt so good to finally be able to someone all the feelings that had been rushing around in my head for the past year.

'He was my best friend, James, my best friend.' If James thought the abrupt subject change was at all odd, he didn't let on. 'I loved him. And he hurt me. Over and over and over again. And he finally went too far. And it felt good to have something to blame. Someone to blame.' I admitted, looking up into James's eyes. In them I found total acceptance; no anger, no hatred. Just concern, compassion.

I hadn't realised I was crying until James brushed away my tears with his thumbs and pulled me into his arms. 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' I hiccupped, wiping my nose and laughing a little when I saw the pink streak left across my hand. 'I loved him, I really loved him. And it hurts, James, it hurts so bad.'

'If there's one thing I understand Lily, it's heartbreak.' He mumbled into my hair. I shook my head in remorse.

'I've been a total bitch to you over the years.'

'Rarely was it without cause.'

'I know. But I'm sorry nonetheless.

'Thankyou. And if it means anything, I'm sorry too. I was total arse to Snape for five years. And as much as I wish I could go back and change how I acted, I can't. Just know that I regret what I've done to him, and therefore to you, for a long time now. You were right you know. I was a bullying toe-rag, and I didn't deserve you how I was back then. The same way Snape doesn't deserve you now.' I let out a strangled sob and James kissed the top of my head.

'I know that in a couple of years I will probably regret ever asking you this' James began resignedly, 'but can you just promise me that, whenever this may be, whether in 2 years or 2 days; if Snape ever does change and tells you that he regrets what he's done, try and forgive him the way you've forgiven me.' I lifted my head up from James's chest, and looked amazed, into his eyes.

'You know, you really have changed.'

'You don't know how much that killed me inside to say.' He chuckled.

'But you said it anyway.' I breathed. 'But you shouldn't worry too much. I think it's safe to say that he's chosen which side he intends to fight this war on. But I promise anyway.'

A/N: A bit of a topsy-turvy chapter! But also, for those of you interested; my longest chapter ever! I'm quite proud :D

So review and let me know what you think!

Oh, and if you guys wanna do me a HUGE favour and check out this short Harry Potter inspired duelling film, it would be much appreciated! It's actually amazing!

.com/watch?v=CnzlUKX_PTk ~ Thanks in advance!

Love, Anna-Cate xxx