Yet another sleepless night for miss Lily Evans. She had been up in the Common Room for hours doing her homework, making sure it was perfect. She didn't want to get a bad mark on one of the first assignments of the year. She gave a yawn and crossed off yet another word from her paper.

The sound of footsteps snapped her awake. She curiously turned her head to spot James Potter entering the Common Room. For once in her life, she wasn't even annoyed by his prescense. At least she had a familiar face to talk to. At least...if he actually wanted to talk to heré

"Hey Evans"

Lily grinned at the mention of her last name. As far as she could remember James had called her that. "Hello sleepy-head. I see you haven't gotten much sleep either." she said stating the rather obvious. She turned back to her parchment, trying to concentrate, but somehow being unable to. James's prescense was making her lose her concentration, something that had never happened before.

Lily slightly rolled her eyes as she eyed James. He really hadn't slept at all. Not with the way he kept on closing his eyes and opening them back again. It was sort of funny to watch. Lily grinned. He was actually tired not to ask her out. That was a definite first. She was so used to him asking her out at any oppurtunity she was actually really surprised he hadn't asked her.

"Are you alright? James?" she asked unsure as she looked at him. He seemed kind of...unwell. At least it was better than his usual pranking self by a little. He was a lot less annoying like this.

Since when had she started to care about how he was? Maybe she was the one who wasn't feeling well. Ever since the beginning of the school year she hadn't stopped worrying about James for no particuliar reason. Just last week she had been worried that he had actually started to date a Slytherin 7th year. Not that it was ever going to happen, but she had been so worried and she actually gotten a friend of hers to spy on James to see if it was true. Paranoid much?

Lily suddenly felt as though someone had slapped her across the face. Her expression turn to a rather painful one at his words. Since when had he been so...mean to her? He had changed since last June. He had changed a lot, and Lily didn't know if she liked this James or the old one better. She was always saying how horrible he had been last year, but he had gotten even worst this year. For a moment she was actually considering doing anything to get the old James back.

"I was just asking. And I can't concentrate if your here." she said in a hurt tone. She turned her face back to her parchment, trying not to cry. "I was just trying to be nice for once instead of being my usual self. Guess you like my usual self better." she said trying to sound as snappy as possible, without much good results.

Why did his comment affect her much all of sudden? Usually she didn't give a care about what he said. She usually didn't even come close to caring. Why did she care now? She really had changed over the summer too. Everyone seemed to have done so.

"Well go to the library i staying, anyway why you so hurt it only comment aren't you going to say stuff like go to hell Potter or what was it i wish you were dead"

Lily turned to him, almost unwillingly considering her eyes were full of tears. "Want me to be honest? Really honest?" she asked seriously, almost choking on the words she had just said. She was planning to be honest. 'Honestly is the best policy' was something her mother always told her.

She waited a little bit, giving him time to answer. If he did or not, she didn't really hear him. "Actually I'm not even going to care if you want me to be honest. I'll just be honest. Straight out." she said. "I can't bring myself to say insults to you anymore. I don't really know why I just can't find any insults to use. I've though about it over the summer and..." she said finishing off in mid-sentence.

She wasn't actually going to tell him she was thinking about him during the summer...right? She didn't really want to, but somehow she knew she had to. Why she had to she didn't know, it was simply something she knew without knowing why. She was going to wait before saying it. She turned away from him and tried not to make eye contact.

Lily shook her head dismissively. He was helpless. After years at Hogwarts dating a bunch of girls, had James never understood their way of acting? Couldn't he understand that she was crying, not because of what he had said, but because of what she had started to realize monthes back? Sometimes people were full of surprises.

"James Potter. I am not crying because of your temper. Try to think for once. You might actually realize that I'm crying because I might actually be...I might be..." she said. The words wouldn't come out. She couldn't say, "I might actually be falling for you." It was way too hard for her at that moment. Life was harsh at the most unwanted of moments. This was a perfect example of that phrase.

Unable to say what she meant to say, Lily felt herself blush. She wiped away the tears in her eyes and tried to do as if nothing had happened. As though James would let this slide. Lucky for her he was tired. Then he might have dozed off while seh had been talking. At least she could hope he had.

This was going to take a while to explain completely. Even if she told him that she sort of liked him, he probably wouldn't believe her. He'd probably think it was one huge joke that Sirius had asked her to do. Fun. Just fun.

"Alright look. I couldn't care less if you do or if you don't believe me after I say...what I have to say alright? If you think it's a joke then think that, I don't care. I'll try to be straightforward with you ok? Think you can handle it?" she asked a little angry. He was seriously in need of help. Big time.

She turned to stare at him. Straight forward approach. Not the best, but it'll have to do for now. "All summer long I couldn't help but think of you. All summer you kept crossing my mind. During the summer I realized that...well..that I sort of..." she said. She took a deep breath before continuing. "That I sort of like you..." she said. Had the words really come out of her mouth? Had Lily Evans just admitted to liking James Potter? Oh. My. Goodness. She had. She felt like dissappearing now. She turned her eyes away, looking in another direction.

"I wish I was an imposter." she said in barely a whisper. "And Sirius isn't here. I told you I'm not lying." she said simply still not looking at him. She had expected this. Alright. So maybe he wasn't reacting as crazy as she thought he would have. Maybe he was acting... more maturly than she'd have thought possible from him.

"Even if you admit feelings least you can do is stick to facing a guy not turn then it be less embarrassment i learned that over the last few years"

Lily closed her eyes for a few seconds. Now that she had told him how she felt he was probably going to bother her about it for the rest of her Hogwarts years. That was probably going to be the case, but also he probably wouldn't bother her if she said yes to a date. Great. After monthes of refusal she was going to have to give in? Just Great.

She turned back at looked him. "Fine. Now what?" she said trying to sound annoyed, without good results. She couldn't even sound annoyed with him! This was going great. Just great. This was going to be in Lily's mind for years as the one night she let her guard down and acted like an idiot. What a great memory to have.

"So now I act like an idiot?" Lily said trying to hide her smile, trying to look serious. She gave a small laugh as she slowly shook her head. The laugh made her lips form a small smile. "Maybe because he felt sorry for you." she said grinning. She wasn't acting like an idiot. She was just...acting more...freely, not like her usual studious self.

“I know a no, but want to go out?”

Lily felt her cheeks grow red. She really wanted to say yes, but would this affect her a lot? What would others say? Since when did she care what others thought about her? If she didn't before she shouldn't now. Especially if she did like James. This was just great. Now she was stuck between her heart and her mind. Which to pick?


She bit her lip slightly while thinking of an answer that would suit her best. After a few moment of reflection, she took a deep breath and tried to say it as clamly as she could. "I might regret this in a while but...yes, I will go out with you." she said and started to bite her lip again as she waited for his reaction.

"So...what now? I mean do we tell anyone?" she asked unsure. She didn't care about what others thought, but if James didn't want to tell anyone (which was least probable) she wouldn't mind as much. Except that people would still continue to bug her about saying yes to him, not knowing that she already had.

A plus side to her agreeing to go out with James was that maybe he'd stop calling her 'Evans' all the time. Another thing to add to the plus side was that maybe now Severus would regret ever calling her a mudblood. At least she was sure that James wouldn't call her that horrible name. Though one major disadvantage was that maybe her teachers would look at her in a different light. A worst one possibly.

She stared at him from across the room. Why did he have to be so far from her? She hated talking to people across the room. It made her feel as though the person wasn't really listening to her somehow, even if they were the only two in the room. One thing was for sure. She definatly wasn't going to move.

Lily gave Amethyst an angry glare. Ever since she and Severus hadn't been friends, she had sort of been pleased to see James and Sirius make fun of him. She had always considered it payback for how much he had made her humilitated and hurt when he had called her a mudblood.

"Severus will always be Snevilous. That will never change. Oh, and it's not Black, it's Sirius, and still on the matter, don't call him," she said giving a small nod with her head toward James. "Potter. I'm the only one who does it." she snapped. Ever since her 'talk' with Severus outside she had become a little more cold with Amethyst. Not that it really bothered her or anything, she just saw Amethyst in a different way now.

"Look alright? I'm not just mad at Snevilous, I'm absolutly fed up of him! Before you go around shoving your nose in other people's business get your facts straight. Whatever the heck he tells you if why he thinks I'm mad at him for. He really doesn't know the truth, and I don't care what in the world he's told you, or how many times he begs forgiveness, I'll stay just the way I am with him." she said rising off her chair and staring at Amethyst. She had always hated to argue with someone totally innocent from crime, but Amethyst had gone way too far this time.

"And James has nothing to do with me and Snevie not being friends anymore. He didn't get in the middle at all for your information. I simply made my decision concerning what I wanted." she said. She couldn't believe that Amethyst was trying to blame James for the end of her and Severus friendship. It had just...ended, with no one but the two of them to blame.