Author's Note - So. A second chapter, oh my. I really did like this as a stand alone one-shot, but I'd already written this chapter and I liked it. It's a slow build, but I enjoy that with Lily and James fics. And I much prefer L/J angst to anything else. I thought I had accidentally forgot to save this chapter when I wrote it, and freaked out but I found it and decided that it fit nicely and I would use it. I already wrote the third chapter, which was the inspiration for the one-shot in the first place. So, if I keep getting such good reviews (thank you to those of you who reviwed), I'll gladly post the chapter right away.

By the way, I'm not totally sure how I'm going to alternate POV's. I much prefer writing James to writing Lily, but we have to get both sides of the story, right? I feel like I do better job getting in James' head then I do with Lily.

Thunder roared as Lily Evans made her way down to the Great Hall. She sighed to herself sadly, her plans to catch up on some of her schoolwork while sprawled across a nice sunny patch of grass were ruined. Nothing seemed to be going right for her these days. She walked through the open doors of the great hall, the sounds of her classmates and the smells of various breakfast foods hit her all at the same time.

It wasn't as though she took notice of any of it though. No, these days Lily had taken to doing things by herself. She quite liked this, and wasn't feeling lonely at all. Her friends were worried, but she just found them rather annoying instead of comforting. They knew her too well, she didn't want to deal with their questions anyway.

As she sat down, she could feel a piece of paper digging into her side. It seemed like it was burning her, but she ignored it. She would not take the paper out. It felt heavy in her pocket, though it practically weighed nothing. No. She would not remove it, ever. It was a reminder of just how badly she'd screwed up her family. She hadn't even been invited to Petunia's wedding. And Petunia's excuse? "Must've slipped my mind Lily."

It seemed like Lily slipped from Petunia's mind in general. The wedding was this upcoming weekend and Lily hadn't even met the man her sister was marrying. She suspected that Petunia was embarrassed to introduce her into her sane, ordinary world. Somehow, this thought stung more than everything else.

She was suddenly very aware of someone calling her name. She looked up to see that James Potter had taken the available seat right beside her. Seats beside Lily were always available because everyone knew to back off when she got like this. But they had no idea, this time it was much, much different.

"Did you want something?" She asked him, not really looking at him. She didn't care enough to have a real conversation with anyone, but she still had manners.

"Um, I just wanted to say hello. You know, see how you were doing." He sounded pained. She looked up and met his eyes. He looked sheepish, and he was slightly pink. Not his usual cocky self.

"I'd say that I'm fine, but I don't like to lie." She replied. Her lips came together in a hard line, and she studied him intently, trying to figure out his intentions.

He seemed at a complete loss for what to say. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. This time, a coherent sentence finally came out. "I know I'm not the best at this comforting thing, and I know it's not my place to be worried. But I'm the only one who saw the state you were in that day Lily."

She cocked her head to one side, eyes narrowing. He had one elbow propped up on the table, and he was leaning into it. His shoulders were tense, and she noticed that he also happened to be sitting as far away from her as a lack of space permitted him to.

"What's your point?"

He sighed. Apparently, he'd prepared himself for this. He'd known she'd be difficult.

"I know that everyone's been trying to figure out what's wrong with you. And everyone's been pestering you, trying to get you to talk about your feelings. And I'm not going to lie either, I think you will have to confront those feelings. But I was thinking maybe you'd like to talk about anything but what's really going on. Maybe you need to get out of your own head for a little while." He'd sped up towards the end, and had to take a big breath once he was finished. He smiled warmly at her, but his body was still tense.

Lily turned to stare at her empty plate, mulling his words over. She wasn't really sure what he was offering, but she couldn't help agreeing with him. She dropped her head, letting her hair fan out between her and James. She couldn't think while he stared at her. He was waiting for her to say something, she knew he was. She didn't want to just get up and leave him there, which is what she normally would have done. She couldn't do that to him, not after their moment in front of the Owlery.

"Lily?"

She looked up, pushing her hair out of her face. "It's still weird to hear you use my first name. Why the change? I thought you were more partial to Evans."

He ran a hand through that impossible hair of his and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm trying not to be a prat this year." And in that one moment, Lily knew that she was not speaking to the same boy she'd known for over six years now. He sounded more honest than anyone ever had to her, and she was completely surprised by his words.

She shook her head, red locks cascading back into her face. "What is with you these days?" She asked him.

"I could ask you the same thing." He paused, relaxed his shoulders, and continued. "But I'm not going to ask you that. Instead, I'm going to ask you if you could please help me with my Transfiguration essay."

Now this, she was not expecting at all. "You're here to ask me for help with an essay in a subject you know much more about than I do?"

He blushed slightly, letting out a genuine laugh. It was a pleasant sound, slightly hiccupy and loud. She liked it.

"So you know." He said matter-of-factly.

"Yes, I know that you can transfigure into a stag. I saw you do it once, last year. You were with Sirius. He turned into a dog. Looked sort of like the Grimm to be quite honest." She pursed her lips, a smile forming at the edges of her mouth. "I was the one who stole your clothes."

His eyes widened. "That was you? We got two months worth of detentions for walking up to castle without any clothes! We tried to summon some robes, but Filch had decided to patrol the grounds that night and saw us before our robes made it there. I still don't know how I made Head Boy after that escapade."

Now she was full on grinning, remembering the secret prank she'd pulled on the boy who she knew had been obsessed with her for years.

"Want to know another secret?" She asked. His eyes lit up. He wasn't even mad at her.

"Go right ahead. I love gossip just as much as the next girl." He winked at her, all tension gone from his form.

"I did it because I was upset with you." She dropped her eyes, suddenly regretting saying anything. James reached over, lightly touching her shoulder, then pulled his hand back. She looked back up at him. His brow was furrowed as he watched her, and yet again, he reached up and ran one hand through the dark mess on his head.

"We hardly spoke to each other last year. How did I upset you?" He was sincerely curious, she could tell.

Now she was looking anywhere but at him. She couldn't say it. It was embarrassing and petty, and it would make her look incredibly stupid.

"You're as red as your hair. You have got to tell me." He sounded like he wanted to laugh, and was trying really hard to hold it in.

"Okay. But you can't laugh at me." She sounded like a child, and she hated it. She was staring at her hands now.

"No promises."

She started to get up from her seat so that she could leave and end this embarrassing conversation when he reached over and held her hand just like he had in front of the Owlery.

"I won't laugh. I promise." His voice was much gentler now, the mocking tone gone completely. She sat back down and finally looked at him again. He sat and waited patiently, still holding onto her hand.

"I was upset that you didn't fancy me anymore. All of a sudden, you hardly even looked at me. It was such a change from having you ask me out on a daily basis. It wounded my ego. Taking your clothes because of that was petty and childish, and I'm sorry that you got in trouble for it." The words came tumbling out in a rush, and she could feel more blood flow in her face so she knew she was even redder, and my gosh was she embarrassed. This was ridiculous, and worst of all, she'd landed herself in this god awful situation.

But, as promised, James was not laughing at her. He was smiling with such warmth. He looked down at their hands, and then back up at her. "It's quite alright Lily. Detention is nothing. And besides, it's all in the past."

The grace with which he accepted her apology left her speechless.

"You don't have to tell me anymore. It's okay. But I was serious about help with that essay. I'm going up to work on it right now, if you'd like to join me?" He started to stand up, and Lily did the same, wordlessly.

He led her away from the Gryffindor table and towards the doors, and it was then that Lily realized people were staring at them. She knew that James' long, slender fingers were still intertwined with her own, she could feel the warmth his hand radiated within hers. She knew that this was why people were staring. Lily and James had hardly spoken to each other since their fifth year, and back then it was mostly arguing. They'd only had one real conversation before this, at the Owlery, and that hadn't been in public. Now they were sitting together at breakfast, and leaving together holding hands. It definitely must have looked suspicious.

He glanced at her, and noticed her discomfort. "Do you want me to let go? People may get the wrong idea, and I don't want any trouble for you."

She shook her head. "No, that's okay. I told you before that I like it. I don't care if they're staring."

He seemed to like what she said because he smiled down at her as they left the Great Hall and, mercifully, all the staring students disappeared. It was at that moment that Lily realized for the first time since she'd received her mother's letter that she hadn't felt as if it were burning a hole through her pocket. In fact, she'd forgotten about the letter completely.