Disclaimer: I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N-I can tell you all about how busy I've been and how horrible this chapter was to write and how my first draft was so terrible that I had to delete most of it and rewrite in an effort to make excuses for why this chapter has taken me so long to post...but there's no real excuse. I have been busy and this chapter was awful to write (and also I discovered Hunger Games so that took up a full week of my free time) but it shouldn't have taken me that long. So, I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me.

Chapter 16: The First Secret Part V

"How is it that after only a few weeks of relaxing, wonderful Christmas vacation, I have somehow managed to forget just how much homework McGonagall is capable of assigning?" Lily complained, breaking the atmosphere of tense silence in frustration. She was flipping distractedly through a dusty tome, one of a stack of at least seven thick books that she had struggled to carry in from the library hours before, while the group sat in the common room on Thursday night. She looked down at her essay, discouraged by the lack of ink glistening on the parchment and even more discouraged by the lack of quality and content in those few words. She signed loudly and James patted her knee comfortingly.

"Oh, I don't know," Remus said, pulling one of Lily's books closer to him as he tried to finish the same assignment. "I wouldn't place all the blame on yourself too quickly. I think the Professors' idea of a good holiday is finding cruel and sadistic ways to give us more work and further sap our will to live." The group gave a collective snigger of appreciation.

"Well, they should be very proud. They've outdone themselves," Lily retorted, disgruntled.

James laughed and held out his nearly complete essay to her. "Here, you can copy mine."

She looked at his paper warily, even moving away slightly as though it were a poisonous snake rather than a harmless sheet of parchment. "Thanks, but I actually like to get good marks on my homework," she teased and pushed the page back onto his lap. James feigned hurt feelings and pushed her off of the couch where she landed with a thud, laughing loudly. "Ouch!" She playfully hit him in the legs and he retaliated by gently kicking her back. Once she had regained a grip on herself, calming the giggles that had taken over for quite a bit longer than they should have, she sighed as she resignedly pulled another volume toward her. "Well, whatever the reasoning, my forgetfulness or our teachers' inherent cruelty, I am swamped. I doubt I'll do anything this weekend except homework…and that includes sleep."

"Does it include showering?" Sirius asked, a smirk on his handsome face as he lazily scanned a Zonko's catalog. He was the only one of the group not working on some kind of schoolwork. He looked completely relaxed, bored even, lounging in an armchair, one leg dangling over the side. "Because if you're skipping showers in order to finish your work, I'm staying in our dormitory all weekend."

Lily narrowed her eyes good naturedly at him as he grinned. "Oh please, we both know that I could go a week without showering and still smell better than your dorm room."

"Good point," James interjected as Sirius howled with laughter. He cleared his throat and looked down at her. "So...if you're going to skip eating and showering, does that mean you aren't going to force me to go to the Slug Club party with you either?" His voice was almost too hopeful. James had been whining and groaning about the party ever since the invitations had arrived in the post at breakfast on Monday. Once he'd finished complaining, he had begun searching for an excuse, any excuse, to get out of it.

"Wow…someone's eager to get out of spending the evening with you," Jenna commented impassively without looking up from her work. "You must have really scared him over the break. If only we'd known the last two years that the key to discouraging James and getting him to leave you alone was you spending more time with him."

Lily shot Jenna a warning look but James spoke up before she could say anything. "Wouldn't have worked," he declared making Lily snap her neck around and stare at him with wide eyes. He just winked at her. "I'm tenacious…and incorrigible." Lily smiled, her glare relaxing as she rolled her eyes.

"And I'm impressed that you actually know what those words mean," Sirius said causing Lily to snort loudly in a failed attempt to hide her laugh, earning herself another kick from James.

"Ouch!" Lily exclaimed, grabbing her arm in a wounded manner. "I was going to say, 'sure James, I'm too busy to go to the party,' but now I think I should make you go as punishment for all of this physical abuse." James ignored this statement and instead nudged her with his foot again.

"Why do you go to those parties anyway?" Sirius demanded, disgust clear in his tone. "If I were you, and Sluggy leered at me the way he does you, I'd avoid him at all costs."

Lily rolled her eyes. "He doesn't leer at me."

"Yeah, but sometimes he drools a bit," Peter said grinning.

"What is it, Lil? Do you secretly like the attention?" Sirius asked sarcastically, his tone mean and biting, but his eyes alight with enjoyment. "That's all I can think of because the one time I went was torturous enough to keep me from ever even considering going again. No joke, I still have nightmares about being in that dungeon again, bored to tears. I wake up screaming and soaked in cold sweat."

Lily grinned. "And that's precisely the reason that I do go...because I know that it's the one place in this whole castle that I won't run the risk of having to suffer through an evening in your company." Sirius just shook his head, as though disappointed in her excuse while she just smiled sweetly at him. "Okay fine, I'll admit it. The real reason I go to the parties is for the Pumpkin Pasties. Not all of us can sneak into Hogsmeade every time we want some Honeydukes sweets," she finished giving each of the boys a pointed look.

"There are people at this school who sneak into Hogsmeade?" Remus asked in mock horror, shock all over his face. "How terribly unfair for the rest of us rule-abiding students!"

"I don't believe it!" James proclaimed, pounding his fist on the arm of the couch. "There is literally no way to get out of the school undetected. And there certainly aren't seven different ways that Filch doesn't know about," James added, his feigned innocence causing everyone else to crack up.

After allowing his friends to quiet back down, he said, "Padfoot asks a valid question, Lily. Honestly, how can you stand going to those awful parties?"

Lily considered for a moment before answering. "I don't know, probably habit at this point. They're not always that bad, after all. The music is usually pretty good and he always hires the best chefs to prepare the food and you're almost always going to run into a few interesting guests…" She trailed off as James, Sirius, Remus and Peter simultaneously, almost as though they had planned it, let their heads fall back and began making loud snoring noises. "Oh, shut up! You're all jerks." Everyone was laughing again and even Lily was having trouble keeping the disdainful expression plastered on her face.

As they all calmed down, the dull panic that gripped her stomach with the knowledge of precisely how much homework was still left to be finished compelled her to return her attention to the large hardback in her lap. She began rummaging around in her bag for a quill and when she couldn't find one she pulled James's bag off of the couch and searched it, pulling out a broken but usable one at the bottom.

She had tilted her essay and was flipping through the book in her lap when James leaned down next to her ear and murmured quietly, "So, just to clarify, I do not have to go to the Slug Club party?"

She suppressed the shiver that threatened to shoot down her spine at the feeling of James's warm breath on her neck. She swallowed hard and then grinned and turned her head to look up at him. "No, James," she said half-exasperated and half-amused. "You don't have to go to the party. I'd say thanks for offering, but I practically had to bribe you to go with me."

They all worked late into the night, even Sirius pulling out a Charms book and working on the four foot essay Professor Flitwick had assigned the previous afternoon. Mary and Jenna were flipping through a Herbology book searching for organic magical cures for Muggle ailments. Remus was mumbling definitions for different runes under his breath, the repetitive nature of it deeply soothing. James drifted off, his head lolling to the side, his deep and steady breathing a comforting and steadying noise for Lily. But as her eyes began to droop and the common room gradually cleared out she decided it was time to go to sleep. It was only Thursday and she still needed to make it through another day of class.

She collected all of her things, throwing James's broken quill into her bag along with her ink well and incomplete essay. She stacked up the books that had bit by bit opened up and spread out around her. "I think I'm going to head upstairs," she announced quietly to the rest of the group as she stifled a yawn.

"We're right behind you," Jenna responded looking up at her, her eyelids drooping dangerously as well.

Lily, without thinking, nudged James's legs and looked around at him. He roused suddenly, blinking slowly and focusing quickly on Lily. "I'm going to bed," she told him as she began pushing herself up off the floor.

He nodded slowly as he processed her words. "Okay," he mumbled hoarsely, rubbing his fingers over his eyes quickly. "Goodnight." He smiled gently at her, his sleepy eyes unable to mask his feelings for her, foggy as they were with exhaustion.

"I'll see you in the morning," she said as she stood up and flung her bag over her shoulder. James handed her the stack of books and watched as she headed up the girls' staircase.

He debated internally about whether or not he should continue working or follow suit and go to bed. Only a few days into the Spring term and already he was more exhausted than he had been at any point in the previous one. He had insisted on Quidditch practices every day as the most important match of the season was coming up the following weekend. It would decide whether or not they made it to the final. Along with that, he and Lily had already patrolled the corridors two nights that week with a third planned for the following evening. The previous night they had decided to give up their midnight meetings because both were already so tired and also because most of the fifth and seventh years were up past midnight anyway trying to finish all of the extra homework the professors had assigned to prepare them for their O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. In the end he decided to keep working on homework knowing that he would regret it the following day if he didn't.

Lily was washing her face, her red hair pulled into a ponytail at the base of her neck when Jenna and Mary walked into the dormitory, their book bags bulging. They both spilled their things onto their beds. Mary began digging around in her trunk for her warm pajamas, but Jenna stood up and pierced Lily with a suspicious look, one eyebrow hiked perilously high on her forehead. It was a maddeningly superior look that normally would have irked Lily had she any room in her body to feel anything except exhaustion.

"What?" Lily asked when Jenna didn't say anything but just continued to stare at her. Lily kept letting her eyes flicker over to where her warm bed was beckoning from across the room, her legs aching to trudge across the room and collapse into the thick covers.

"You tell us, Lily," Jenna said, her voice purposely light. Lily could hear the untamed curiosity though. Seven years of friendship had made it nearly impossible for Jenna to disguise her true feelings to the other two girls.

"I don't know what you're talking about or I would tell you," Lily replied her tone a bit harsher than she had intended.

"She wants to know what's up with you and James," Mary said, her voice flat. She had given up on finding her pajamas and had simply pulled her skirt off and slipped beneath the sheets, too tired to keep looking. Her eyes were closed as she spoke.

Mary said it so matter-of-factly, her voice unpretentious and unassuming but Lily faintly noticed the way her own shoulders automatically tensed. "Oh Merlin, you're not on about that again, are you?" she whined, rolling her eyes and making her way over to bed and crawling up on top. Mary rolled over on her stomach and cracked an eye open to look at Lily. Jenna abruptly followed her, her swift footsteps banging loudly on the floor. "For the hundredth time today…there is nothing going on between James and me." Her voice was fatigued but she wasn't sure if it was a result of her physical exhaustion or if it was from having this conversation again. She reached up to pull her hangings closed but Jenna grabbed them and held them open.

"Okay…yes, I'll admit we've already asked a million times, I'll give you that. But something is different between the two of you, you can't deny it."

Lily fell back onto her pillows with a groan and covered her face with her hands, rubbing at her eyes. "I can and I will!" she declared, her hands muffling her voice but not hiding the sharpness with which she uttered the words. She peeked between her fingers hoping that Jenna would have relented, but no such luck. She was still standing there, looking at her expectantly, waiting for an answer she liked. "Oh fine!" Lily grumbled as she felt what was surely a very childish pout form on her lips. "What is it that's so obviously changed between us that makes you sure there's something going on?"

"I dunno," Mary said, looking more awake now as she propped herself up on her elbows. "They just have."

"Well, that's not really helpful is it?" Lily said mockingly, her tone biting. "I really hope you've got something more specific than that."

"For example," Jenna spoke up, more loudly than earlier and cutting across Lily, "just this evening…you sat next to him…"

"I've sat next to James before," Lily interrupted with a halfhearted glare, but Jenna just ignored her.

"And then you were flirting with one another."

"Which really isn't that different because you've flirted before but never so openly and never so obviously. It's never been quite so deliberate," Mary supplied thoughtfully.

"Very true…" Jenna added, her voice rising in eagerness, "and then when it was time to come up for bed, you just said a general goodnight to the rest of us but you actually woke James up to tell him goodnight. What's that about?"

Lily looked between them for a moment contemplating her next words. "Is that it?" she asked skeptically, almost derisively. "That's what's 'so different' between us that something must be going on? I sat next to him and then I woke him up? Is that all you have?" Jenna who had been looking triumphant moments earlier seemed to deflate a tiny bit.

"No…there have been other incidents," Mary stammered, losing confidence in her own perceptions.

"Like what?" Lily goaded, her tone sarcastic. Mary was silent, unable to recall a specific example though she knew there were plenty to choose from. "What's wrong? Can't think of anything?"

"That's the point, Lily," Jenna chimed in. "We can't pinpoint just one moment because it's all the time. It's the way you interact with each other. It's the way you react to one another. You're practically inseparable."

"We're friends, Jenna," Lily maintained, her voice small as she instinctively went on the defensive. "We're just friends."

"Good lord! When are you going to realize that you're not just friends!" Jenna exploded, throwing her hands up in the air. Lily's eyes had grown wide, shocked at Jenna's reaction. "Friends don't act the way you two do. Remus and I are friends. Sirius and I are friends. You and James are not friends."

Lily and Mary were gaping at Jenna, speechless, amazed at her outburst. Lily bit her lip and composed herself before looking up at Jenna who was staring hard at her. "I'm just more comfortable with James than you are with Remus or Sirius," she said, her voice quiet and gentle. "Even more so since Christmas."

Jenna looked at Lily with something that looked like pity in her eyes. "You're sure that's all it is? You're one hundred percent positive that it's only that you're comfortable with him and that you feel nothing romantic for him at all?" Her voice was imploring, almost begging Lily to see reason. If Lily hadn't been trying so hard to keep her true emotions off of her face, she would have found the situation unbearably funny. Mary was giving Lily a furtive look and Lily considered telling Jenna that she did like James. It didn't seem fair that Mary knew and Jenna didn't but at the same time Lily knew that Jenna wouldn't just be able to absorb the information and move on the way Mary had. She never was able to just let things lie.

While she was still thinking about it, Jenna interrupted. "You need to be sure because not everyone who has a connection with him is satisfied with being just friends."

Lily furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What is that supposed to mean?" she questioned, feeling drained.

"I'm talking about Lexi." Jenna seemed pleased with the reaction this statement earned. Lily's eyes snapped up to her, wide and suddenly absorbed in every word Jenna spoke. "Lexi, who's the kind of girl who figures out what she wants and then goes after it, no cost spared."

"They're just friends," Lily replied quickly, reflexively, her brain already running through all of the solacing arguments that she'd used to placate herself in the past in an attempt to keep herself from getting hysterical and worked up.

"Are they?" Mary piped up quietly, her brown eyes beseeching. "I heard she spent a lot of money on an autographed Snitch for him. That's not the kind of thing you do for a friend."

"It was just a gift," Lily insisted, more to herself than to her friends. Old feelings of insecurity were beginning to resurface, her confidence shaken at the realization that her friends saw the same thing she did despite James's many reassurances. She was quiet for a long moment, replaying the internal debate she'd been having with herself about James and Lexi since Halloween.

When Lily said nothing else, Jenna sighed loudly and pushed herself up onto the bed next to her. "I guess we don't have any choice but to believe you." Mary concealed a grin while Lily did the same to her guilt. "I can't believe that you aren't even the tiniest bit attracted to him," Jenna remarked, playing with Lily's bed hangings distractedly.

"I don't know that I'd say that," Lily commented, the words spilling out before she could stop them. She immediately slapped a hand over her mouth but not before the other girls had seen the guilty grin making its way onto her lips.

"What!" Jenna and Mary exclaimed in unison, Jenna's head snapping around to look at Lily.

"What do you mean you wouldn't say that?"

Lily hesitated and slowly lowered her hand. She looked back and forth between her two friends who both looked like they'd found out McGonagall had cancelled end of term exams. "I mean, I'm not blind. Anyone can see that the boy's good looking," Lily explained, blushing deeply and unable to stop a giggle from escaping her mouth.

Jenna was gaping at her, speechless. "Merlin's beard," she finally stammered, "You think he's sexy!" Lily and Mary both began giggling wildly, Lily shaking her head in protest. "Yes, you do! You want to jump his bones, don't you?" Lily denied this vehemently while the other two girls giggled like maniacs. Lily promptly hit Jenna in the face with a pillow in an attempt to shut her up, but it was in vain.

"What exactly happened over Christmas?" Mary questioned through laughter. "Before you left, you'd barely admit that you liked him as a human being and now you're practically planning your wedding!" she said only managing to make herself and Jenna giggle even more.

"He didn't bewitch you or anything, did he?" Jenna said, only making the other girls laugh harder. "I know he and Sirius were working on some mind control thing a few years ago in an attempt to make McGonagall give fewer detentions."

"I hate you...I hate you both," Lily finally replied when she could control her giggles. She was holding her side, her stomach aching from laughing so hard. "You want to know what happened over Christmas?" They both nodded way too enthusiastically. Lily shrugged and blushed a bit before continuing. "He was really sweet. It wasn't awkward at all, he was...wonderful. But not just him either. His mum and dad too. It was like I was a part of the family from the moment I stepped off the train," Lily began before fully launching into detailed descriptions of the three week Winter Break. Of course, she left some of the finer points out of her retelling. But as she was talking, she realized that by keeping her relationship a secret, she'd been forfeiting this part: giggling and analyzing and telling her friends about how great a boyfriend James was.

She considered telling them right then. It would be such a relief. She was so giddy and so happy all the time now and she wanted to share that with them. She wanted to be able to run to them when she and James fought or when he did something especially spectacular. Sure, she was still wary of the inevitable rumor mill that would start up when news finally got out about them. And the fear that things couldn't possibly stay this good forever which would lead to her eventual heartbreak was still lurking in the back of her mind, but with each passing day it faded a little bit more.

If she really thought about it, really analyzed it, she knew that at this point the secrecy act was more out of habit than anything else.

The words were on the tip of her tongue, the truth about her and James begging to come forward. But when she opened her mouth something else came out instead.

"Do you really think Lexi likes him?" she asked quickly, her voice too curious, her tone forced to sound too nonchalant. James had been so sure, so confident that Lexi didn't think of him that way that Lily had managed to convince herself that what she had assumed was between them was just a result of her own jealousy. But hearing it come from Jenna's mouth earlier had caused her to doubt.

Mary, who had been laying on her side while Lily had been rambling sat up and nodded solemnly. Jenna was scrutinizing her carefully.

"Do you really think she doesn't?" she asked timidly.

Lily hesitated and bit the inside of her lip. She knew that she should have let it go, that there was no reason to be jealous. James had told her that more than enough times. But still, she knew that what she believed to be true, that Lexi did have feelings for him, was different from what she wanted to believe. Instead of answering Jenna's question truthfully, she voiced the answer she knew she should give.

"James swears up and down that they're only friends. I don't know why he'd lie to me about it." Jenna smirked at this pronouncement. "What?" Lily asked, looking quickly between Jenna and the grinning Mary. She felt quite exposed by the way they were looking at her, like they were sharing some inside secret that she wasn't a part of.

"You asked him about Lexi?" Mary questioned incredulously, obviously feeling that that simple fact was extremely telling.

"Yeah," Lily drawled, not understanding what was so significant about that.

"You asked him about another girl?" Jenna repeated, her words dripping with disbelief. Lily nodded, looking inquisitively at her, thinking that perhaps both of her friends had gone ahead and lost their minds. "That sounds an awful lot like you're jealous, Ms. Evans," she said in a sing song voice, her smirk becoming more maddeningly smug by the moment. Lily just rolled her eyes before hitting her with a pillow again (and with quite a bit more force than earlier).

"What's more than that is I can't believe James wasn't announcing to us all that Lily was jealous of Lexi," Mary chimed in as well. "If this had happened last year he would have organized a parade to go marching through the Great Hall declaring it to us all."

"Oh, shut up, the both of you. I only asked him because when we weren't talking I assumed they were dating and he corrected me later. That's all." Jenna and Mary however showed no signs that they believed her and seemed to have lost the physical ability to quit laughing at her explanation. Lily, feeling flustered and annoyed but also pretty amused, began shoving Jenna off of her bed, proclaiming, "All right, I'm going to bed now. Get out, get out!" Then she snapped her curtains shut with a loud, "Good night!"

She could still hear them laughing and later she heard Jenna's gentle footsteps as she made her way across the room toward her own bed. She smiled as she sunk down into her bed, pulling the comforter up around her and cocooning herself in. She had nutty friends, and they were often a bit too observant for their own good, but she couldn't shake the smile that had formed on her lips and fell asleep feeling more content than she had in a long time.

She met James the next morning at breakfast, both yawning widely as she slid into the seat next to him. He gave her a bleary eyed smile, one she returned as she squeezed his hand beneath the table. Remus was flipping through a Transfiguration book, his eyelids drooping as he attempted to spoon eggs into his mouth, missing on several occasions which resulted in several bits of egg sticking to his face. Sirius, across from him was completely asleep, his head resting on his folded arms, an occasional snore escaping him while Peter was absent entirely.

"You boys look exhausted," Lily commented as she suppressed a grin.

James looked over at her inquisitive gaze, squeezing her knee beneath the table. "We were up late studying," he explained before taking a bit of toast, but he looked up quickly when she snorted.

"A likely story," she said, pulling a plate of muffins toward her and grabbing a cranberry and cinnamon one.

"It has been known to happen on occasion," James said defensively though his mouth was quirked in a half grin.

"It's one of the great mysteries of the universe," Remus piped up though his eyes never stopped their scanning of his book. "James and Sirius manage to be top of the year in everything and yet has anyone ever seen them really do any work? No. The world may never know how they manage it."

"It's because they cheat," Mary stated when she sat down next to Sirius. "No one knows how, but there's no other explanation. That must be how they do it."

"Prove it," James teased with a wink. "Anyway, we're not the only ones who look tired. I thought you all went to bed early," he said, quirking an eyebrow up at Jenna as she sat down with a soft fwump, dark circles under her eyes. "Why so sleepy?"

"We stayed up late talking," Lily piped up quickly, eager to explain before Jenna got any nasty ideas.

"About what?" he asked though his tone suggested that he was hardly interested and was really only asking out of politeness.

"About you," Jenna chimed in before Lily could deflect the question. Suddenly James seemed very interested. The way he perked up reminded Lily of a dog perking up when he smelled dinner cooking. He was sitting up straighter, his eyes suddenly much more awake than they had been moments earlier.

"Oh really? What about me?" James asked with a highly amused look over at Lily who was gaping open-mouthed at Jenna, completely speechless.

"Jenna…don't…"Mary said, but she was too late.

"Lily was telling us how sexy she thinks you are," was already flying out of Jenna's mouth so nonchalantly that had Lily not heard it herself, she would have though Jenna was merely passing on the news that they had been talking about Switching Spells or Mary's favorite scent of shampoo. James, for his part, didn't act shocked or surprised in the least but immediately burst out laughing and Remus finally turned his attention from his homework to stare at the girls. Mary was giggling nervously, her eyes darting anxiously between Lily and Jenna. Lily was just shaking her head, her mouth hanging open in pure shock and amazement.

"Is that so?" James asked, his attention fully on Lily, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses. He bumped her leg with his own and his body was shaking in the effort to reign his laughter in. Lily couldn't help but grin back at him now he was so amused, and it's not as if he didn't already know she felt that way.

"That's not exactly what I said," she replied shooting an exasperated look over at her friend who had a supremely smug look on her face. "And now Jenna, you know why I never tell you anything, you big mouth! Because anything I say in confidence is big news for the rest of the school in less than twelve hours." Lily was still looking at her incredulously, but her tone was light.

"I'd hardly call the six of us the rest of the school…" Jenna replied with an eye roll. "But look at you!" she exclaimed, disregarding the point of Lily's previous statement. "No denial…no embarrassment. You're not even blushing! You weren't kidding when you said you were comfortable with him."

"Well, it isn't exactly news to James, is it?" she said grinning. "He's been telling me for years how much I want him. He even wrote me a letter about it once, detailing my desire for everything about him. There was an especially interesting section about how his trainers sent my body into fits of ecstasy. I wish I'd kept it now...very amusing, that was."

James nodded, chuckling silently. "That's very true, but you usually had some 'amusing' little comeback about how you'd be more attracted to the offspring of Mulciber and a mountain troll than to me." Everyone laughed as James paused. "And truthfully, I could never decide which one of those was more of an insult, being less attractive than a troll or less attractive than Mulciber."

Lily giggled. "Let's just say you've been promoted. You're now somewhere between those two," she teased as she scarfed down the last bit of muffin on her plate. Jenna and Mary chuckled while James narrowed his eyes at her. "Anyway, any further discussion will have to occur later, we need to get going or we'll be late for Arithmancy." She stood up and grabbed her bag and waited as James groaned and did the same. He looked at her, ready to go but she paused. "Aren't you going to wake Sirius up?"

"No," he answered simply. "He looks pretty comfortable if you ask me."

"He's going to miss class," Lily said pointedly, arching an eyebrow at him. James just shrugged and started walking toward the doors to the Entrance Hall. Lily rolled her eyes dramatically and then stared after him for a few seconds before waving goodbye and scrambling to catch up, chuckling to herself. "You're a terrible friend, do you know that?"

"I am not," James retorted, his tone full of feigned indignation. "I'm merely prioritizing, putting Padfoot's biological needs ahead of his intellectual ones." He grinned cheekily at her. They turned and headed up a deserted corridor, one she didn't recognize, but she'd long ago realized that James knew a lot about the castle that she didn't and followed without question. "We did the same thing for Wormtail and you don't hear him complaining."

"You're crazy," she said, slipping her hand into his with a quick peek over her shoulder.

James nodded. "Perhaps," he agreed, "but at least I'm not attracted to someone who, according to your attractiveness scale is somewhere between a troll and Mulciber. You must have very low standards, Evans."

Lily smirked and knocked into him playfully. "Just further evidence that even the best and most well intentioned of us sometimes eat our words. Because I now find you much more attractive than a troll," she assured, giggling.

James laughed sarcastically. "How did you guys even start talking about that anyway?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I think I might have been tricked into it...but then again, I offered it up pretty freely." James raised an eyebrow at her. "Jenna said that she couldn't believe I didn't think you were good looking…so, I contradicted her. It was out of my mouth before I could stop it." James was shooting her his crooked grin, the one that made her legs feel a bit like jelly. He was clearly still highly amused by the morning's conversation. "It's not like it's a big deal, anyway. You are quite good looking. She'd know I was lying if I tried to deny that."

"Wow!" James muttered, looking at her wide-eyed. "You are being really forward today." James stopped in the middle of the corridor. He pulled her into him using the hand that was still holding onto hers. She gasped in surprise and then grinned as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her tightly against his body. "I like it," he said, his voice low, before pressing his lips against hers. She practically sighed into him, her body melting into his. It wasn't long before her arms were winding up around his neck and pulling him down harder against her.

It was nice, warm, standing there in his arms. It was really easy to forget about everything else that was weighing on her mind. But somewhere in the back of her head she recognized the fact that they were standing in the middle of a corridor that surely would soon have at least a few students scrambling about. She grinned against his lips. "We're going to be late for class," she murmured quietly, though she was not making any kind of physical effort to actually move out of his arms.

"Don't care," he replied, kissing her again, his hands going to her face, holding her gently in place.

After a few more seconds, Lily spoke up again. "People are going to see," she persisted, her voice lacking any kind of real conviction. Her own desire to remain where they were was backed up by her body's inability to move away from him. If anything, it seemed to her that she was still trying to get closer.

Now it was James's turn to grin against her mouth, his soft words sending a shiver down her spine. "Really don't care."

Lily laughed, somehow willing her fingers to untangle from his hair and move down to his chest where she gently pressed him away. He groaned and she laughed again. "I know you don't," she muttered. She ran her hand down his arm and linked their fingers, pulling him off toward the Arithmancy room again.

He groaned again, this time more to make a point. James couldn't deny that he was still frustrated by all of the secrecy. It took practically all of his will power to keep himself from taking out his frustration on Lily. He knew he didn't succeed at it all the time, but he also knew that unleashing it on her would only make matters worse, only confirm her belief that they were headed for destruction. It would only manage to push her further into her shell, making her even more reluctant to tell people about them. So, instead he waited. He could feel the wall coming down. He knew he wouldn't have to wait too much longer…at least that's what he told himself to stay sane.

He teased her mercilessly the rest of the day, Jenna and Mary joining in any time they were all together. And once the story had been retold to Sirius (who showed up twenty minutes late to class and then promptly went back to sleep during the lecture) he couldn't seem to help himself, though Lily doubted he was trying too hard to resist the temptation.

"Prongs," he said knowingly, later that evening in the common room while Lily was impatiently waiting for James to join her so that they could start patrolling, "you know the only reason Evans wants to get started so bad is because she already has the closet picked out that she's going to ravage you in and she wants to make sure that some hormone-crazed 5th years don't get their first." His words were dripping with implication and earned him a scolding look from Lily. James grinned too but he didn't look up. He was working hard on finishing an essay for Transfiguration. Jenna and Peter snickered, Remus ignored them all together and Mary was nowhere to be seen, Emmett having come to collect her some time earlier.

Lily sighed audibly and tapped her foot irately on the floor next to where James was sprawled, his items scattered all over the floor. "I know, I know, Lily. One more sentence and I'm all yours."

"I don't get why you're working so hard on it now anyway."

"I have three other essays due that I need to finish before Monday."

"So, do them tomorrow," Lily said, annoyed that her normally logical boyfriend was overlooking a very simple solution just to put off patrolling a few more minutes.

"I can't." He finished writing and put his quill in his mouth while he laid out the parchment to dry and screwed on the cap of his ink well.

"Why not?"

He couldn't answer right away because of the quill so Sirius piped up instinctively. "Because he's got Quidditch practice during the day and Sluggy's party after that." James froze, glaring at Sirius, and then stood up very slowly, artfully avoiding Lily's gaze.

"No," Lily said, dragging out the syllable, "he doesn't. He's not going to the Slug Club party anymore." Sirius, late on the uptake, seemed to realize what he'd said and looked up at James who was looking exasperatedly back at him.

Sirius cleared his throat then and said very carefully, "I guess he hadn't told you yet that he was taking Lexi then."

Lily masked her shock and horror before turning to look at James who was smiling very apprehensively at her. "No, he hadn't." She pursed her lips and nodded. "Okay, well...I'll help you finish that after we get back then," she said gesturing to his parchment and then turned and headed toward the portrait hole where she waited for James, anxious to get away from Jenna who she knew would recognize her jealousy.

"All right, be back in a few hours. That scroll better not be in the fire when I get back, Padfoot." He followed Lily out of the common room. She abruptly began walking before he could say anything so he followed silently down the corridor next to her until they came to an empty one. He was preparing himself internally for her rage.

She stopped and turned to look at him. "I was going to tell you while we were patrolling," James blurted out before she could start yelling at him. "I thought it best if I told you while we were alone."

The corner of her mouth quivered almost as though she were going to smile. "That's good to know," she said calmly and James was shocked at the lack of coolness in her voice. She actually seemed like she was really calm and not just forcing herself to sound like she was. "What exactly were you going to say?"

James stared dumbstruck at her momentarily. Calm was the last thing he'd come to expect from her in a situation like this. "Well…" he started slowly, "I was going to say, 'Hey Evans, you know that Slug Club party? Well, remember how I took Lexi last time and she had so much fun? Well, interestingly enough, she didn't get an invite this time around and she approached me on my way to dinner this evening wondering if I would mind taking her again. And so I figured you couldn't go…and you're so amazing and obviously you know that it doesn't mean anything at all and that I'll be thinking about you the whole time...so how much could it really hurt? So, as long as it's okay with you, I thought I'd take Lexi to the party tomorrow.'"

Lily's arms were crossed and she was watching him with a skeptical eyebrow arched, but there was certainly something like a grin playing on her lips. "Hmm…well, it certainly picked up steam toward the end." James smiled at her nervously. She shrugged. "Okay."

"Really?" James asked, astounded. "You're not mad?"

"Not yet...and I sincerely hope that you don't give me a reason to start." Lily grinned and then turned and started walking down the corridor. "I will however be going to the Slug Club party too," she called over her shoulder.

James rolled his eyes and let her get a few paces ahead of him before taking long strides and catching up with her. "You don't need to do that."

"Oh, but I think I do," Lily countered.

"Look, I know you need to study. That's the whole reason you decided not to go in the first place. And if you're worried about me rubbing up on her or something, you shouldn't because that's ridiculous."

She laughed and leaned into him momentarily. "I'm not worried that you're going to 'rub up' on her. I'm just not particularly fond of the idea of my boyfriend being on a date with some other girl while I'm doing homework."

"Lily, that's ridiculous. You are being ridiculous." She glared at him, but kept her mouth shut. "There is no point in us both going to that wretched party separately. The only reason I could even tolerate last time was because you were there."

She grinned at his statement. "Well, I don't really like it either, but it's not like you've given me too many options. And in future I would appreciate it if you wouldn't go on dates with other women…"

"What was I supposed to say?" James interrupted, anger flaring up inside of him. "'Sorry Lexi, I know I just said that I was only going to be studying Saturday night and you really want to go and I know to you it looks as though I'm single so it won't matter to anyone if I took you, but I can't because Lily, who has no reason to be jealous because the two of us aren't dating, would be mad.'" He stopped and looked at her, his irritation at the whole situation threatening to boil over. "Trust me, I don't want to go to that absurd party, especially with someone who isn't you, but the only legitimate excuse I have for why I can't take her is the one that I'm not allowed to tell."

Lily considered his statement for a moment and then nodded. "I know…and I'm sorry," she said quietly, looking up at him apologetically. She searched for something else to say, but there really wasn't anything. He was right. The only real reason he had to not take Lexi was that he was dating Lily, and as he was respecting her own wishes to keep them a secret she didn't have much of a reason (or really any reason at all) to be angry with him. So she sighed and reached her hand over and took his, pulling herself up close to him, resting her head on his shoulder and looking up at him. "Do you promise you'll think about me the whole time?" she asked in a sing song voice, a mischievous grin creeping up on her lips.

James couldn't help but smile at this, much as he would have liked to continue on in his sour mood, and shook his head in disbelief. "Of course I'll be thinking of you the whole time...unless Ernie Frakkenflin starts eating ghost food for money again. That might take precedence." Lily hit him playfully in the arm. "But then I would just be mentally taking in all of the details so that I could tell you about it later."

"Hmm..." Lily hummed, shooting him a sarcastic glare. "I suppose I might not go then. But I make no promises."

The dungeons were as loud as they were chilly despite all of the grates alight with roaring fires. People were laughing raucously and many of the guests, James observed, seemed to have had one (or two...or three) shots too many of Firewhiskey. He and Lexi were leaning against a stretch of table covered in stacks of different flavored tarts but otherwise absent of other people. The hall was decorated with brightly colored streamers, balloons and banners with words painted on them that were flashing different colors and designs. James stared at one for a long moment, reading the text as it flashed and scrolled.

"It would seem that this party is New Year's themed," he commented, hoping his desperate longing to be anywhere else in the world didn't come across in his tone. His eyes were scanning the crowd for Lily's dark red hair even though when he'd left her in the common room she had seemed content and determined about remaining there.

Not that he wanted her to come. He wanted her to trust him.

But he was so bored.

When his eyes came up empty, he looked to his left and let them settle on Lexi's pale brown eyes instead. He thought she'd seemed a bit different around him this evening, a bit odd. She was standing nearer, watching him more closely. It wasn't awkward, it was just strange. She seemed a bit more reserved than usual. But then he would remind himself that he was probably just projecting Lily's doubts onto her...that he was overanalyzing and that perhaps he was the one making it strange rather than the other way around.

"Didn't it say that on the invitation?" she asked.

A quizzical look crossed James's face as he dug around in his robes for the bit of parchment they'd needed to get into the party. He scanned it quickly and sure enough, about midway down the scroll it proclaimed the theme. "What do you know?" he said amazed, handing the invite over to her so that she could see. "There it is."

Lexi was grinning at him and shaking her head. "Are you always this forgetful or are you really that poor of a reader?"

James chuckled, the first moment of real enjoyment he'd experienced since arriving an hour earlier. "I suppose I only had to read to the time and day to know that I didn't want to go."

Lexi stared at him a moment, the smile frozen on her face as she was trying to gauge how much of his comment was sarcasm. When she realized he was being completely serious, the smile slowly fell from her face. "If you didn't want to come, then why are you here?" Her voice was hollow and a bit defensive. A look of deep disappointment spread across her pretty face and she self-consciously tucked a piece of blonde hair behind her ear.

"You invited me if I recall correctly," he said lightly, sensing her shift in mood and trying to inject some humor back into the conversation.

"Okay, what about last time? I didn't ask you then."

James thought for a moment back to the previous time he'd been in this same situation. "True, but I only came because Lily had said she might come." Lexi nodded, flicking her eyebrows up, and then looked away for a second, mouthing "Lily" before turning her eyes back to James as he continued. "But I didn't want to be at the party by myself so I asked you." James winced at the bluntness of his words. It made the whole situation sound a lot worse than it had actually been. "Sorry, that sounds really bad."

"No, it's fine," Lexi said, though her smile still didn't return and her voice held an edge of bitterness. "I'm Plan B…just like at Halloween." She was chewing on the corner of her lip and staring off into the crowd, obviously pretending like that fact didn't hurt her feelings as much as they did.

James felt guilty at the look of hurt on her face, but was at a loss for words. There wasn't anything he could say that would make her feel better. Most of what was on the tip of his tongue was a lie…and worse than that, a lie that would give her the wrong impression about his feelings for her. But he couldn't tell her the truth either. Though, he reminded himself, the truth would only give her solid proof that she had indeed been his "Plan B" as crude as it sounded, and it probably would only manage to make her feel worse.

So he remained silent, awkwardly shifting his weight back and forth between his two feet and uncomfortably stuffing another bite of pumpkin tart into his mouth.

James cast his eyes around the room, searching for something to distract them from the serious turn the conversation had taken. There was a pack of about four students following Professor Slughorn around the dungeon, hanging on his every word and gazing star struck at some official looking warlock who James didn't recognize but didn't doubt was a very important person. There was also a surly looking gang of Slytherins who were whispering conspiratorially to each other in a corner. They caught him watching them and the look they gave him in return was so icy and so hostile that they were practically screaming, "we're doing something sinister and there's nothing you can do about it," across the dungeon. He furrowed his eyebrows and had a right mind to reach into his pocket, pull out the mirror and tell Remus (who was currently in possession of the corresponding mirror as he'd been the most recent to land himself in detention) to hurry down with the cloak to listen in and figure out what they were up to. Then, a group of girls walked in front of him, breaking their eye contact and he briefly heard them giggling their hopes that Sirius Black would make an appearance this time. He rolled his eyes and turned back to Lexi, pretending he didn't see the way they were looking at him inquisitively as if he were hiding Sirius inside of his robes.

"James, did you hear what I said?" Lexi asked, her tone amused but her eyes annoyed. He guiltily shook his head, grinning apologetically and trying halfheartedly to recall something of what she had said, hoping he'd processed it subconsciously, but coming up empty. She was sighing and then telling him that it was okay and began to repeat herself but once again James felt his attention ebbing away. He tried to focus his mind on her words but they seemed to wash over him with no comprehension at all.

He looked around for the group of Slytherins, but couldn't spot them anywhere and disappointment swept through him. He guiltily acknowledged that he was more disappointed because for a brief moment he'd had something to really think about and not because the menacing crew were off carrying out whatever horrific thing they'd been plotting.

He was miserable, bored out of his mind. How had he even managed to survive the last party?

That was a stupid question. He knew how. He'd only been thinking of Lily that night, wondering if she was coming and then wondering if she'd ever recover, those sad green eyes gazing up at him, her world so tragically ripped apart. He hadn't been worrying about his own boredom, only helping her start living life again.

Coincidentally, he had really only been thinking of Lily this evening as well, only this time he'd been wishing he was with her anywhere else. He wasn't sure how many times he'd sneaked a look at his watch only to be horrified that the hands seemed to be turning backwards. It wasn't that Lexi was poor company. He liked being around her. She was funny. She was clever and witty and interesting. He just wished that she didn't enjoy these awful parties quite so much.

That's when he spotted it. A dark red ponytail swinging around in the crowd. He figured his eyes must have started playing tricks on him. In his advanced state of boredom he was beginning to hallucinate. It wouldn't be the first time. He often had wildly entertaining hallucinations during History of Magic.

Lily couldn't be in the dungeons right now. She would currently be sitting by the fire in the common room. He could picture it quite clearly in his mind's eye. Her hair pulled away from her face in a sloppy ponytail, whisps of her thick hair falling into her face. Her eyes would be screwed up as she surveyed something in a book, working it out in her mind and then finding a way to incorporate it into her essay. Massive books would be open and surrounding her as she scribbled on a scroll, shooting angry looks at anyone who dared to interrupt the silence. Yes, Lily would be having an infinitely more exciting and enjoyable evening than he was having.

Or would she? He spotted that red ponytail again and this time he got a better look at the rest of the girl it was attached too. And there she was, petite and beautiful, her bright eyes scanning the crowd, searching (he noted with a satisfied flip of his stomach) for him. He couldn't deny that he was happy to see her. Despite all the implications about her trust, or lack of it, that her appearance created, he was elated.

"Lily!" he cried, cutting off whatever Lexi had been saying. Lily spun, her eyes seeking his in the mass of people around her hoping to find the source of her name. He waved his hands (perhaps a bit too enthusiastically) and her eyes connected with his. Her face immediately broke into an expression mirroring what he felt: exhilaration.

"Hey guys!" she said a bit breathlessly as she approached, keeping a careful distance from James but standing closer to him than was strictly necessary. "How's it going? Did I miss anything good?" Lexi smiled pleasantly at her but again her eyes flickered up to James, watching for his reaction.

"Is it possible for anything that happens at one of these parties to be considered 'good'?" James asked sarcastically, shooting her a pointed look.

Lexi shot James a scornful glare while Lily shook her head. "No, you didn't miss anything," she answered. "James said you weren't coming. What happened? Why'd you change your mind?" James tried to ignore the barely concealed hint of disappointment in her voice and hoped that Lily had missed it entirely, but one look at her expression which was slightly stonier than it had been moments earlier and the fact that her eyebrow had arched an infinitesimal amount higher on her forehead, told him to abandon that hope.

Lily looked at her warily for a few moments before she let her eyes flicker to James briefly, but long enough for him to interpret the "I told you so" she had intended. But when she spoke, her voice was friendly and devoid of any frostiness that might have been present in her gaze seconds earlier. "I couldn't really concentrate. I've been working all day and I really needed a break so I decided to come down here. There's only so many times a girl can read Practical Numerology before she goes crazy, you know?" A likely story, James thought, when she turned her eyes on him, a pleasant smile on her face. "I tried to convince Sirius to come down here with me but no amount of bribery or blackmail could convince him. And then Brady Wilkins overheard and offered to be my escort…"

James snorted loudly at this bit of information, cutting her off. "Of course he did." Lily shot him a questioning glance so he decided to explain. "You know he's been bragging ever since Halloween about how well your date went and how obsessed you are with him now."

Lily started laughing now as well. "Has he really?" she asked, disbelief clear on her face.

James nodded and rose his eyebrows at her significantly. "It's dead annoying really. I ignore him most of the time but sometimes he says the most absurd things. I just can't help myself."

"Oh Merlin...what have you done to him," Lily groaned, shooting James a wary look. "I hope you weren't too mean."

"I wasn't!" James said defensively. "Just because Brady and I have our...differences doesn't mean that I go out of my way to make his life miserable." Lily's serious exterior cracked and she let out a giggle. "Besides, if you heard half of the stuff he makes up about you, you'd want me to be mean to him. If you really look at it closely, I bet you'd find that I have shown remarkable restraint."

"What kinds of things has he said?" Lexi asked, injecting herself into the conversation. Her words and the way she had casually stepped closer to himself and Lily indicated that she wanted to remind him that she was still standing there.

James scrunched his face up thoughtfully and brought a finger up to his chin, scratching it as if in deep thought. Lily grinned again, watching him with great amusement. "Well, before Christmas he claimed that he received an anonymous gift but that he knew it was from you because it clearly held a hidden reminder of your, and this is a direct quote, 'magical night together.'" Lily snorted loudly, ducking her head as she began to laugh harder. "And then he swears that the reason you two aren't an official item yet is because you're moving too fast for him. It's quite clear to him that you are in love with him by the way you gaze achingly at him during History of Magic. I tried to explain to him that that's just the way you look whenever you're bored out of your mind, but he will hear nothing of it. Even when I asked how he wasn't already familiar with that look because he saw it constantly the evening of the party."

"What'd he say to that?"

James smirked now. "He pretended not to hear me and walked off toward Muggle Studies."

Lily snorted again, rolling her eyes. "How did he handle the news that I spent Christmas with you?"

"Probably just consoled himself with the knowledge that you were obviously using me to get over him," he answered with a wink. "It's twice as nice for him because firstly, he gets the satisfaction of knowing that you're trying to get over him. Though, really, we both know that it's impossible, what with how infatuated you are with him. And secondly, I get my precious feelings crushed, which he always enjoys." He was wearing a face riddled with sorrow now, but his eyes were shining with amusement.

Lily scoffed and shook her head. "I'm sure your precious feelings have endured much worse than a bit of rejection from me," she protested, reaching across him for a cranberry tart.

"Oh, I don't know," James said thoughtfully, grinning at her. "You didn't see just how heartbroken I was when I realized that our unbelievable Christmas break together was just a ruse to help your forget your one true love." Lily looked over at him doubtfully, amazed at his ability to be so completely over the top dramatic about anything and everything. "I spent hours on the second floor curled up behind that portrait of Padrina the Pathetic crying my eyes out and holding onto a lock of your hair..."

Lily cut him off at this point, his wild story taking such a wild turn. "A lock of my hair?" she asked astounded. "Really?"

"Yes," he answered seriously, pretending to wipe a tear from behind his glasses. "It was a bit difficult to obtain, but it has helped me through a very dark time."

"And have you made it through that dark time, yet? Have you reached the light on the other side?" Lily's voice was consoling, playing along with him.

James took a deep breath and sighed loudly. "I think there will always be a part of me that will be haunted by that time...haunted by the loss of you," Lily rolled her eyes and shook her head at his proclamation, "but I think the dark days are behind me. I can look forward now with hope."

"Okay, okay," she muttered, hitting him in the stomach and giving him an exasperated look. "Thank goodness I have Brady, because I just don't think I can handle someone quite as in tune with his emotions as you are." She took a bite of her tart, James looking quite satisfied with himself and gazing at her with amusement. She chewed thoughtfully and then swallowed, looking up at him again. "I don't understand why he's diluted himself into wanting me anyway. I mean, it's not like we had a wonderful night...he was probably just as bored as I was." James quirked an eyebrow at her now. "Okay, maybe not as bored as I was, but it's not like we had any type of connection. He spent the whole evening talking to Bill. It's like he just arbitrarily chose to like me. No real reason, I was just the first girl he saw after he decided that he needed to fancy someone."

James looked down at her warmly, forcing his hands to remain at his side when they really wanted to reach up and push a loose strand of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail away from her face. His hands were also considering reaching out and pulling her closer. "Oh, I can think of a few reasons he chose you," he said, his voice a shade deeper than before. He watched as she began to blush ever so slightly, the pink tinge creeping up her cheeks. She held his gaze momentarily and then quickly cleared her throat and looked over at Lexi who was wearing a look of agitation now for having been ignored.

"So, Lexi," Lily began, her voice a bit choked. James couldn't deny that he found great pleasure in being the reason she was so flustered. Perhaps that was wrong, but it was the truth. "How was your break? Do anything fun?"

"It was fine," Lexi bit out, her voice much colder than it had been before Lily's arrival, but then she hadn't just been properly ignored (well...as properly ignored) before Lily's arrival either. "My family and I went to visit my older brother in Spain."

"Oh, that sounds great," Lily said politely, James observing the way her blush seemed to deepen whenever she realized that he was still watching her. "Was Spain nice?"

Lexi was watching James who had finally looked away from Lily and over to her as she was speaking. "Dunno. I got food poisoning the first night we were there and spent the rest of the hols in our hotel room watching television shows in a language I don't understand." She watched them both expectantly, waiting for their reply. James wanted to laugh, sure that at some other time Lexi would have found the retelling of these events to be quite amusing, but based on the steely glare he was currently receiving, thought it best if he kept his chuckles to himself.

Lily, on the other hand, seemed to feel quite uncomfortable. "Oh..." she drawled, looking around awkwardly before looking over at James, a silent plea for help.

"I've been to Spain," he piped up, a wicked glint blooming in his eyes. He was speaking to Lexi but his eyes were slowly being drawn once again to Lily. "It wasn't for very long but my parents took me to this really good restaurant. They had the best raspberry tarts I've ever tasted." Lily scrunched up her nose in distaste but watched James cautiously. She recognized the look in his eyes and was anticipating something contrary to the serious tone he was using, though it was clear that she had no idea where exactly he was going with this story. "But you know these," he continued, reaching behind him and plucking a raspberry tart off of the table, "these are quite good as well. Here, have a taste, Evans."

Lily narrowed her eyes at him. "I don't want a taste...I hate raspberries."

James looked at her in open-mouthed shock. "You do?" he asked with false disbelief in his voice.

"I do," Lily answered, her eyes narrowing to slits. "And I'm pretty sure you know that too."

James shook his head. "I didn't actually," he said smoothly, though it was a complete lie. He'd known she hated raspberries for years. "But, even the best of us sometimes eat our words." He grinned cheekily at her and she glared at him as he turned her words back on her. "I think you'd be surprised to find how delicious this is." And with that, he took a step toward her and held it up to her lips, waiting for her to take a bite.

She instinctively leaned back, away from the offending pastry. "No thanks, I don't want...James Potter!" she giggled as he began pushing it into her mouth. "Get that thing out of my face!" she demanded, smacking his hand away and laughing like a madwoman.

James was grinning now too. "Now come on, Evans. Anyone with a lick of sense would at least be willing to try something as delectable and savory as this. Lexi will, won't you, Lex?"

He held it out to her, waiting for her to take it from him. She eyed it disapprovingly, her brown eyes flickering up to James's to see if he was truly serious. After a few seconds, a look of pure incredulity crossed over her face. "I don't want to eat something you just tried to shove in Lily's mouth."

James merely shrugged and dropped the tart back onto the table before picking up a blueberry tart and holding it up in Lily's face again. "Now the best blueberry tart I ever had was in a little town in southern Italy..." Lily was giggling uncontrollably now, dodging his fresh attempts to make her eat the dessert.

But before James could finish his story, Lexi had pushed between James and Lily and was walking toward the exit, shaking her head in disbelief.

James stared after her for a moment. "Oi, Lexi, are you leaving?" He didn't understand why she would be going. He was just starting to have a good time.

She turned and pierced him with an icy glare. "Yeah," she responded angrily, her jaw jutting out in her frustration. "Yeah, I am. Because if I wanted to spend a couple of hours being ignored and watching you and Lily flirt, I would sit at Gryffindor table for dinner." Lily winced and looked down at the ground, shame flooding her body. James however stood rooted to the spot, unable to think of anything to say in defense and unable to say anything to try and convince her to stay. "And you know what? There's a common room full of people who actually like talking to me, so I think I'm going to go and spend the rest of my evening with them." And with that, she turned on her heel and marched out of the dungeons.

James watched her go, remorse building up within him as she went. He slowly turned to look at Lily who was pursing her lips and watching him, a guilty and uncomfortable look on her face. Silently, they began moving toward the exit too.

When they reached the corridor, Lily headed off toward the common room, but James stopped and headed in another direction. "I think I'm going to try and apologize to her before she gets to her common room." Lily nodded. "I didn't realize we were being so obnoxious, but I guess we were."

Lily nodded again, this time a small grin playing at her lips. "Oops," she murmured, making James grin too. "I'd go with you to apologize, but something tells me my presence wouldn't make the situation any better. I'll just wait until breakfast."

"Probably a good plan," James agreed. He took a few swift steps toward her, kissed her quickly and then headed toward the Ravenclaw common room. "See you in a few minutes!" he called over his shoulder and then he was gone.

Lily sighed and began walking, feeling light for the first time in days. James seemed to have that effect on her. And as the days passed by, she cared less and less that other people were slowly beginning to notice.

A/N-Again, I am terribly sorry for the long wait. I'm horrible. Feel free to express your frustration at me in a review. Hopefully the next chapter will make up for it though. ;)

Also, I'm looking for a Beta for this story. What I really need is someone who can read through it and tell me if things feel natural, check for blatant grammatical errors, check for continuity, etc. I need someone who can look at it critically and tell me what is good but also (kindly) tell me what needs to be fixed or worked on. I need someone who won't say it's perfect all the time. If you're interested, please PM me. Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And Happy Harry Potter Movie! If you haven't seen it, go now. And I just want to say that what I'm thankful for is you guys for reading this story (because that means the world to me...truly it does) and for the person responsible for casting Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley.