Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter or Harry Potter related copyrights.

"Hello Lillian," said Richard Gills suavely as he spotted his girlfriend reclining in a hospital bed. He marched over, his steps long and calculated, not one any longer than the last, his starched black robes wiping along behind him as he moved and his shiny leather boots clicking on the worn stone.

"Hello Richard," said Lily with a polite smile as she put down the book she had been reading. "What are you doing here? Didn't you get my owl?"

"Of course I received your owl," said Richard snidely. "And I decided to investigate your mysterious illness; I just wanted to make sure this was not one of your well-known dismissals."

"Well," began Lily as she gestured to her various wrappings. "I really am quite injured, though Madame Pomfrey has given me several potions for the pain, so it's not so bad."

"The wonders of modern magical medicine," sniffed Richard.

"Indeed," Lily agreed. "So, have you heard about the international student exchange?"

"How could I not? After all, I am a Defense against the Dark Arts professor, the selected subject for the accompanying educator exchange."

"I feared as much," said Lily with a typical aristocratic sigh. "You're coming here to teach, aren't you?"

"I cannot deny it."

"What shall we do?"

"You are quite capable of keeping secrets," said Richard with a piercing glare. "I cannot fathom why this one would be any different."

"I suppose you are correct."

"As always my dear."

"I suppose we are in agreement then?"

"We are in an agreement pertinent to what? You must be specific darling."

"With keeping our relationship a secret during your sojourn here."

"I would not have it any other way," said Richard with his characteristic grin, cold and derogatory.

"Neither would I," said Lily with a smile that would give a fellow ice queen the chills.

"Well, now that that is settled, we can move on to, other matters."

"Oh?" asked Lily coyly. "What more do we have to discuss?"

Richard cool façade wavered ever so slightly, but just enough to widen the coy smile on Lily's face.

Richard kneeled down next to Lily's bedside and whispered, "How good are you at disillusionment charms?"

"Good enough to get out of a hospital wing without being seen."

"Do you think you can walk?" he asked, looking at the gauze on her calves.

"Far enough," said Lily.

Richard smiled widely as he felt a cool sensation spread from his head, where Lily's wand had tapped him, to his feet.

"Let's go," he whispered to the nearly invisible girl next to him. As always when he was around Lily for an extended period of time, his rigid exterior melted away to reveal the ordinary youth underneath.

"Right behind you," she whispered back.

-----

"And just where have you been all afternoon oh rule-abiding Head Girl?" asked Sirius as he suddenly popped up in bed as Lily passed him to get back to her own bed.

Lily jumped slightly and then when she saw his smirking face, said, "Don't do that Sirius you great prat!"

"You haven't answered my question Lily," said Sirius tauntingly.

"Can't a girl get some exercise? I took all of those foul potions Madame Pomfrey forced on me, shouldn't I get a reward of some kind?"

"All you were doing was taking a stroll around the grounds?" asked Sirius suspiciously.

"Actually, I didn't leave the castle," remarked Lily. "It was just a long walk along the hallways to exercise my legs; they were cramping up quite badly."

Trying a different tactic, Sirius said, "Your lipstick is smudged Lily, I think we all know what you've been up to."

Unfortunately, Lily didn't take his bait. "I don't wear lipstick Sirius." 'Specifically for this reason, just too much obvious evidence.'

"Damn," muttered Sirius underneath his breath but still loud enough for Lily to hear him.

"Alright Sirius, I admit it. I went to my dormitory to get my journal. It took me awhile because my wounds kind of still hurt. So now I think I'm going to get some more of that delightful numbing potion," replied Lily honestly as she showed him the plain notebook in her hands.

"Don't you think that you're off the hook Lillian whatever-your-middle-name-is Evans! I'm watching you like an offended hippogriff!"

"I wouldn't have it any other way," said Lily as she reached her nightstand and measured out some of the potion that was still there from the previous ways. 'I need someone to make sure that my lying is up to snuff,' she added silently.

-----

"So, Lily," said James painfully slowly.

They were walking back together from Dumbledore's office after explaining the story from the previous full moon as well as they could without exposing the Animagi's secret. Remus and Sirius had headed off in another direction due to prior planning on James' part.

"What?" asked Lily tiredly. Her life was more complicated than ever. She and Remus had reconciled already, but that didn't solve all of her life problems- not even a fraction of them.

"Whoa? What's your issue? I was just going to ask you a simple question. You know, just start a conversation like acquaintances tend to do," said James in an infuriating tone.

"Then go ahead."

"Not if you're going to hex me!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to hex you for asking me a question, unless I want to. It all depends on the question. No pressure."

"Scared of what kind of question I'll ask?" challenged James.

"More like scared for you when I answer it," said Lily, rising to the challenge. "Your opinion of me will never be the same."

"Is that so? Can I ask you any question?"

"Sure, but that's not to say that I'll answer any question."

"I'll make a deal with you; I won't ask anything I wouldn't mind answering myself and you have to answer all of my questions."

"I'll answer all of your questions if you answer them first."

"Deal," said James with a smirk. "First question: Where were you when you left the Hospital Wing yesterday? My answer: I didn't leave the Hospital Wing."

"My answer: none of your business."

"Not fair!"

"Neither was your question! But I gave you an answer, just like you gave me an answer."

"What were you doing?"

"Jumping off the Astronomy Tower," said Lily sarcastically.

"You were snogging him," said James matter-of-factly.

Lily didn't answer.

James jumped up and down beside her and said, "You were snogging him! I was right! You snuck out of the Hospital Wing to go and-"

Lily quickly covered James' mouth and said, "Shut up you great prat! I don't exactly want that particular piece of gossip reverberating off of these walls."

"Why?" asked James when he was released from Lily's grasp. "Are you embarrassed by your lover boy? I didn't get a good look at his face; is he disfigured perhaps? Or maybe he's a, gasp, Slytherin!"

James got down on his knees in front of Lily and said pleadingly, "Please tell me that the guy you were making out with, is not a Slytherin!"

"He didn't go to Hogwarts," said Lily. "So he's not technically a Slytherin or anything else."

James got up quickly, comically showing his "relief" by wiping his brow obviously. Then, catching up with Lily, who hadn't stopped walking, he said, "Does your boyfriend know about him?"

"Newsflash Potter, he is my boyfriend, hence why I snuck out of the Hospital Wing to see him. He and I were supposed to spend the day at Hogsmeade, but certain circumstances made that impossible, so he came up to the castle and I gave him a tour instead."

"Stopping at all of the local broom closets I'm sure," said James.

"My love life is none of your concern."

"Just tell me who he is!"

Lily was mute on the subject.

"Come on, I covered for you! You owe me!"

"What did you cover me for?"

"When Poppy asked if we, Sirius, Remus and I, had seen anyone come into the hospital wing, we said 'no'. And we also said that you had just left to go to the bathroom."

"That's too bad. I told Dumbledore about sneaking out with Richard when he caught me in the hallways returning to the Hospital Wing."

"So what's he like?" asked James after a long pause.

"Who?"

"Richard," said James as if it were obvious, which it was.

Lily shrugged.

"You mean, in all possibility, you're going to marry the guy and you don't have one thing to say about him?"

"Well, what do you want me to say? I'm not about to gush on and on about him. We're good friends; we work well together, bring out other sides of each other, balance each other out, you know, the whole ying and yang thing."

"You don't love him do you?"

"I don't have to."

"Lily, what is wrong with you?"

"A whole ton of things."

"But really, if you don't want to marry the guy, then don't! It's that simple, not exactly N.E.W.T. level Arithmancy."

"Which I take and pass with relative ease," Lily pointed out.

"You're avoiding the subject."

"Didn't we already go over this?"

"Yeah and I believe that I said that you should just tell everyone to sod off and do what you want."

"I'd lose everything," said Lily. "I wouldn't be able to visit my sister, or my dad. I would have no money, no where to go and no one to depend on."

"You have lots of people to depend on Lily, stop pitying yourself and being all pessimistic."

"You don't get it," said Lily slowly as she fought back tears. "No one offers scholarships to muggle-borns!" Lily stopped walking and spun to face James head on. "You have no idea what it's like to be judged as soon as you say your last name. Well, that's not true- you do! Except the moment you say 'Potter' everyone starts sucking up to you; the second I say 'Evans', I can see it flash across people's faces, they realize that that's not a wizarding surname. Some ask, just for confirmation; most just instantly get a superiority complex and decide then and there to put me down. Do you realize that there had never been a muggle-born Head student before Dumbledore became the Headmaster? And the last one, the only one besides me, didn't even last a month before the taunts got to him and he resigned."

"Do people taunt you?"

"Ha! I wish! They send me threats, Potter. Adults, send me threats that if I don't resign my post as Head Girl, my life will be miserable. I'll never get a job, get accepted to the university, or ever get any financial aid. The purebloods have all the power, and they don't like me."

James listened patiently through Lily's little rant, but once she seemed to run out of steam, he said, "Are you finished now?"

As usual, the comment only seemed to deflate Lily more. "Yeah, I suppose that now I've made myself out to be a total self-absorbed million-pound charity case, I should stop talking."

"So I can have a go at ranting now?"

Lily shrugged. "Go for it."

"Not all the purebloods are as bad as you make then out to be. There's the Prewetts, the Greens, the Longbottoms… and my family of course. There's also Dumbledore; they are all people who will help you get were you need to go. I'd like to think that their influence is as great if not greater than people like the Malfoys. So being pessimistic isn't going to get you anywhere. If you really wanted to make something of yourself, you could and not even Abraxas Malfoy could stop you."

"You make it sound so easy James, but then again, everything comes easily to you now doesn't it?"

"Not everything," said James thinking of one girl in particular who made his life difficult.

"Name two things that are hard, actually difficult for you," Lily challenged.

James scratched his head absently and thought. 'Quidditch? Nah, that always came naturally to him. Dating? Nope, easy as pie, well except for Lily or course. School? Uh uh, he passed all of his classes by barely cracking a book. Pranking? No way! He was awesome at pranking from the first time he tried it. Making friends? Not really, he was a very charismatic person and could make new friends at will. What else did people his age have trouble with? He wasn't a werewolf, his family wasn't out to kill him or disown him, he had bravery to spare…

"I knew it," Lily voice cut into his thoughts. "Not even a single example."

"Well then you tell me something that you're awful at!" retorted James.

"I am really bad at singing. Everyone else in my family can sing, but I just can't. My singing teachers all but gave up on me when I was little," said Lily in a soft voice. It was always hard for her to admit that she wasn't as perfect as everyone thought she was.

James softened. "I can't cook," he admitted as the thought suddenly came to him. "Or draw, or paint or anything artistic and I can't…"

"Shhh," said Lily. "You don't want to give me too much blackmail material all at once, do you?"

James smiled. "Come on, let's get back to Gryffindor Tower, Sirius and Remus said they would grab our stuff and meet us there. Lucky us getting out of the Hospital Wing so early. That Madame Pomfrey is a genius."

"She certainly is," said Lily.

A/N. Now that I've written some long chapters and some short chapters, I was wondering which you guys preferred, cause I can do either.

Please, please review! I'm getting only like 4-7 reviews per chapter and it's kind of really starting to get to me!