Disclaimer: I own nothing. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N-I know…it's amazing! A nice quick update. This is a scene that I've been toying with since I read the 7th book. I may rewrite it as a one-shot some other time when I'm not restricted to starting new paragraphs with a word that starts with "B" but then again, maybe not. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter Two: B is for Bravery

5th Year – Lily's POV

"Beats me," said a blonde second year in front of me. She was talking to a gangly girl who I was pretty sure was in Hufflepuff, but I'm not certain. The second girl had her mouth hanging open in amazement. They were talking about the only thing that anyone seemed to be discussing these days: whether or not James Potter had indeed saved Severus Snape's life. "It sounds like the kind of heroic thing he would try to do but then again, I can hardly imagine a scenario in which he would ever risk his neck to save Snape. He hates that guy," the first girl said, echoing my thoughts exactly. Running down a dark tunnel where something dangerous will probably kill you does sound like the kind of idiotic thing that Potter would do.

But then again, when has he ever done anything remotely kind to Sev, let alone save his life? It also sounded like the kind of rubbish he would make up so that everyone would think he was wonderful. That would be an easy theory to disprove if say your best friend would talk to you, but Sev hadn't been any help. All he'd said was, "I don't want to talk about Potter," and then walked away moodily.

Breakfast in the Great Hall was a noisy affair. Everyone was talking loudly either about their weekend or quickly trying to copy the last bit of the essay they'd forgotten to do. The Marauders were no exception to this rule. They were the loudest group in the entire Hall. I could hear their boisterous laughter over everyone else, even as I stood just inside the doors at the entrance. Potter was easy enough to spot as tall as he was and with that hair sticking up in every direction possible. He and Sirius seemed to be telling some sort of story, reenacting it with wild hand gestures while Peter and Remus laughed. Remus looked tired, as though he hadn't had any rest in the Hospital Wing while he was sick all weekend.

Breathing in deeply, I gathered the confidence I needed and walked determinedly to where the four boys sat. Remus saw me first and tried to make the others aware of my presence by discretely coughing and pointing in my direction. Potter and Sirius stopped talking immediately and turned to look in my direction. As soon as he saw that it was me, that stupid smirk spread across his face and his hand jumped immediately to his hair, giving it a nice ruffle before I marched up to him.

"Beautiful day, huh, Evans?" he said as a greeting, ridiculously attempting to lower his voice, and flashing me what I'm sure he considered a winning smile.

"Beautiful?" I asked with a raised eyebrow, looking up at the ceiling of the Great Hall to see dark, swirling clouds that looked as though they were about to begin dumping buckets of rain on the castle at any moment. Even as I looked back down at him I heard a low rumble of thunder from outside the walls. "Sure…it's gorgeous. Can I talk to you for a minute?" Surprise registered momentarily on his face before his normally suave mask slipped back into place. I tried to ignore the way that Sirius looked over at Remus and wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"But of course," Potter answered. "How about…hmmm…how about this weekend, the Three Broomsticks, say one o'clock? I'll buy!" The other three boys started laughing and Potter simply peered up at me, innocent smile in place, awaiting my reply.

Blinking in surprise at this unexpected answer (though I don't know why I don't expect him to say stupid things anymore) I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms over my chest and began tapping my foot irately. It was hard enough for me to be civil to him without him saying stupid things like that, but I desperately tried to hold my tongue and not spit out some biting comment. So, I took another deep breath and answered, "No, I'm not asking you out. I just want a word."

Bringing his glass of orange juice up to his lips and taking a long sip, he shrugged. "Sorry, Evans, but that's the only way you're getting a word out of me. It's lunch and words on Saturday, or nothing. Your choice." He looked rather pleased with himself, still smiling serenely at me. Remus was looking awkwardly between the two of us while Sirius and Peter were still chuckling.

"Boys!" I thought angrily. "Fine, have it your way," I hissed and turned on my heel to stomp off toward Mary and Jenna, knowing full well that I wouldn't have to walk too far. "Evans! WAIT!" he called after only three steps. A satisfied smile creeping up on my face, I turned around to see him looking extremely disgruntled. "I'll talk…just come back." I hesitated a moment and then conceded, walking slowly back to where he and his friends were sitting. It was almost too easy to manipulate him sometimes.

Beating his grits moodily with his spoon, he looked up at me. "What do you want to talk about?" I was about to start badgering him about the rumors whenever I noticed that all three of his friends were listening intently and one of them in particular (though I won't say who) had an annoying smirk on his face. "Alone?" I questioned.

But that was a huge mistake. Potter's eyes lit up as did Sirius'. "Nice work, mate," he exclaimed triumphantly. "She turned you down for a date but it seems that Evans here is finally ready for that snog you've been proposing." Even Remus couldn't keep from laughing and Peter was clutching his hands over his mouth and avoiding my glare.

"Black…that is possibly the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. I'd rather lick bedpans in the hospital wing."

Barks of laughter followed that comment, though only from three of the boys. Potter looked pretty irked, which, I'll be honest, gave me great pleasure. "Aww, come on, Lily. James isn't that bad at kissing," Remus teased, giving me a shy smile and then ducking when Potter threw a blueberry muffin at his head. Peter was snickering heartily and Potter glared at him too, but then stood up and grabbed my arm before dragging me out of the Great Hall. When we were outside in the silent corridor, he turned to look at me (not before ruffling his hair again…ugh) and then stuffed his hands into his pockets. He still looked rather irritated, but what did I care. It was nice to be playing the opposite role in our relationship where I was the one bugging him. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked.

Boosting my confidence one last time (as I was feeling considerably less comfortable now that we were away from all the noise) I began. "Are the rumors true?"

Beaming instantly, he asked, "What rumors? That I'm a fantastic kisser? I don't know, you tell me." He took a step toward me and I was torn between giving him a hard slap across the face or grabbing my wand and jinxing him so much that he wouldn't be able to sit down for the rest of the week. Fortunately for him, I just put my hands up and held him at arm's length.

"Bleargh! Don't make me sick…I wasn't kidding about the bedpans." He grimaced at me, but stopped his advance and stepped backward. "First of all, I haven't actually heard those rumors…but I actually mean the rumors that you saved Severus' life." His eyes grew to the size of galleons as he looked at me and then a deep crease formed on his forehead. "I'll take that as a 'yes,'" I said to myself. "Why'd you do it?"

"Back up a second…where did you hear that?" He did not seem pleased at all that I knew about this, which actually surprised me. I had figured that, true or not, he had been the one who had started spreading the rumors.

Baffled, I stared back at him. "It's all over the castle. Honestly, everyone is talking about it." I watched him closely, more surprised by every second that passed. "What happened? Start at the beginning."

"Beginning of what? There's nothing to tell."

"Bull crap, Potter. Everyone knows about it and you seem to be the only person who doesn't want to talk about it…that seems pretty suspicious to me." He didn't look like he was willing to budge, but then again, neither would I. We stood there, silent, for some time. This was easily the most irritated he'd ever been with me. "Come on…everyone's saying you're a hero! Surely you want to tell me all about it," I said, batting my eyes and giving him a small smile in an attempt to be persuasive. He gave me a sarcastic smile, but then sighed resignedly.

"Basically…without going into too much detail…" then he paused for a moment. "Actually, you tell me what you've heard and I'll tell you if that's what really happened." I rolled my eyes, but at least he was willing to talk now.

"Bernie Anderson told me that Severus went under the Whomping Willow…I'm not sure exactly what that means but I guess there's some kind of tunnel or something down there. Anyway, he said that there's something in the tunnel that would have killed Severus, but that you went after him and pulled him back." I watched him apprehensively, scrutinizing every movement, every word to see if he was lying to me or not. If there was one thing I'd learned from all of my arguments with him, it was how to tell when he was lying or being truthful. He sighed again and then nodded, confirming the story. "What was down there?" I asked, wide-eyed.

"Bears…" he answered quickly. When I didn't look convinced, he added, "and vampires?" When I just shook my head and rolled my eyes, he said, "I don't really know, to be honest." That was clearly a lie. He had looked down at the ground and kicked a pebble across the hall, but he obviously was reluctant to talk about it and it didn't really matter, not in the grand scheme of things. "Anyway, it's not a big deal," he continued. "I did what any normal, halfway decent person would have done in my position." Then I felt something I'd never felt in relation to Potter before…gratitude.

Blushing, I spoke up, albeit in a very quiet voice. "It takes a lot more than just a 'halfway decent person' to risk their life for someone they hate." He shook his head and didn't really make eye contact with me, but I saw a blush creep up his cheeks too. We didn't say anything for a moment…both of us rather embarrassed and neither really sure what to do with ourselves when I wasn't yelling and he wasn't being an arrogant idiot. Luckily, the bell rang signaling the end of breakfast.

"Back to reality, I guess," he muttered and then walked around me and trotted back to the Great Hall. I watched him go, and decided against saying anything else when I saw Mary and Jenna waiting for me.

But before I could stop myself, I was yelling, "James!" He turned around and looked more shocked at my use of his first name than he had all morning. "What?" he hollered back, still looking like a deer in the headlights. I jogged up to him, aware that people were staring at us. "Thank you…for saving Severus."

Blinking back his surprised expression, he muttered, "I didn't do it for you," and then turned around to walk toward Sirius, Remus and Peter who were waiting for him with his bag. I watched him momentarily as his friends asked him what we had talked about and he quickly brushed it aside and changed the subject.

Bewildered and utterly confused, I let them walk past me. Potter didn't look at me once, though the other three did. He just kept talking about some essay that he hadn't done and how he was planning to sweet talk one of the professors so that he could get an extension. I'd never seen him act so…humble. It figured that the one thing he ever did that actually impressed me was the one time he didn't want anyone else to know. Maybe this was a turning point for us. Maybe he was growing up. Maybe there was more to James Potter than just a cocky athlete who didn't care about anyone but himself.

But then again, maybe not.

Because literally, as I was meditating on those thoughts, I saw Black trip a first year and then shoot a charm at him that split his pants open at the seam, followed immediately by the boisterous laughter of his three idiot friends.

Bastards.

A/N-There's chapter 2…a nice, quick update. I read a story like this on an Office fan fiction site. I quite enjoyed it and still like to go back and read some of the interesting ways that she managed to pull something like this off, especially with really difficult letters like "Q" and "X." I might have to cheat on those chapters. Either that or they will be nice and short.

Anyway, leave a review if you enjoyed this. The next chapter will be up sometime. I'm going to try and devote some free time to my other story. But the next chapter here will be "C is for Crowded." Any speculation?