"Thanks for that, Lil, I'm late for transfigurations now and McGonagall is going to kill me," Mary said snarkily as we rushed out of class, keeping ahead of me with ease. She had ridiculously long legs which meant I was practically running to keep up with her.

"I'm sorry, I just got distracted...." I said desperately. I did feel bad, our second potion attempt had run a little over and it was mostly my fault. I didn't mind as I didn't have a class until after break and we had done it perfectly but as they had both pointed, it should have been perfect first time.

"By what exactly?" Mary said whipping around, "Next time if you're going to flirt with Potter, do it in your own time."

"I wasn't flirting with Potter!" I replied indignantly. Potter may have been flirting with me but I was just defending myself against an arrogant idiot.

"You were flirting, Lily." She snapped back, quickly dashing up the stairs. I wasn't flirting, I was arguing, there was a BIG difference!

If I thought about it, it was his fault that Mary was annoyed at me and my potion had exploded onto me. This was not surprising, it was his fault for a lot of things. If he hadn't distracted me with his "quality time" and forced me to use my brain to come up with a witty comeback, I would have added the doxy eggs and we would have completed our potion in half the time.

"Lily!" Of course, he was here right now. He always seemed to show up at the worst times. I pretended not to have heard and walked down the hallway hoping he'd give up but I heard him running up behind me. He ran in front of me, nearly tripping me up before skidding to stop.

"What now?" I said, mustering as much sarcasm as I could.

"I just wanted to say...sorry. Sorry that I was so charming that I distracted you." He was smiling slightly as if expecting me to laugh but I kept my face emotionless.

"You weren't charming, you were annoying just like you're being now. Mary's mad at me because I made her late and it's your fault! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class to go to." I lied, dodging around him and speed walking away. His face had fallen when he saw I was annoyed and if I wasn't so mad, maybe I would have felt sorry for him.

Of course, he couldn't just let me go and I heard him pursuing me again. It was kind of cute but also ridiculously infuriating. He caught my arm and I could feel my stupid face going red again.

"Lily, I really am sorry. I just... wanted to talk to you." I didn't know quite what to say. James Potter being sincere was so very unexpected that it caught me completely speechless, "I'll let you go now. I have to get to Defence against the Dark Arts anyway."

I hadn't realised he had a class. He'd made himself late for me. He was late a lot so maybe I was overthinking but that was sweet.

"Lily." I turned around to see Marlene walking towards me, "I've been looking all over for you, I bumped into Mary and she is pissed with you but she'll cool off like always. You okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."

No, just a rare moment where James Potter wasn't being a cocky, conceited idiot, I thought but I wasn't ready to share my inner feelings with anybody quite yet.

"Yeah, I'm good, why wouldn't I be? Shall we go to the library?" Marlene didn't look convinced but we left anyway.

I managed to avoid Potter for the next few days which was easy considering we were in very few of the same lessons and he couldn't get into the girls' dorms even if he tried. A small part of me wanted to see him but I suppressed it as my mind was obviously messing around with me. I couldn't like Potter, he was so annoying. Yet somehow I did.

It was only a few days later, in Hogsmeade that I actually properly saw him again. He was with his "Marauders" as they asked to be called. Nobody really called them that but I kind of liked it. It was pretty appropriate for them.

I didn't really talk to them all much as a group. Remus and I were friends and I had the occasional encounters with James (which were becoming more frequent) but I hardly spoke to Sirius or Peter. Sirius was almost as bad James although he'd never had the same taste for randomly hexing first years as his best friends. Peter was always following after them, I don't think I'd ever seen him alone.

"Hey, Lily." I was half expecting it to be James as he seemed to enjoy sneaking up on me but it was Remus, the most level-headed of the four of them. I liked Remus a lot. He was good to talk to during the otherwise boring patrols.

"Hey, Remus, what's up?" I said, examining the selection of sweets that Honeydukes had to offer.

"Did your potions exam go okay in the end?" He said and I could see James, out of the corner of my eye watching us talk. I smiled, deciding to have some fun with it.

"Yeah, it was good in the end. Slughorn came and told me personally that it was all okay and we all make mistakes. I'm still annoyed though that some self-important dolt distracted me half way. I blame the whole thing on him, personally."

I expected him to frown or look annoyed but instead, he smirked. It was a horribly knowing grin which made me simultaneously panic and also want to smile back. I instinctively turned around, confused about his lack of annoyance. I mean, I'd insulted him for God's sake. Remus turned around too and when he saw what I was looking at, he smiled something.

"I think you described him perfectly." He said in a hushed voice and I cursed myself for being so obvious. Why was I like this?

"Yeah, it was all okay in the end," I said, going a deep scarlet shade. Remus obviously noticed but didn't say anything for which I was very grateful.

"That's good, I have to head off now but I'll see you tomorrow? Somebody has to make sure those first years stay in bed."

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Given all the inner conflicts and emotions I was processing, I had almost forgotten that I had other, non-Potter problems to think about. I was glad to have an excuse, it had been hard to avoid him in the evenings. Marlene and Alice were getting suspicious of why I was suddenly spending my free time in the girl's dorm.

I still had the image of James' knowing grin when I called him a self-important dolt. He had a very unique smile like he always seemed to know more than you when he did it. I wondered if he was catching on that after all these years of him chasing me, it might actually have worked. Part of me hoped he did but at the same time, I didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

I don't know if he even liked me anymore though since I'd publicly rejected him. I mean he did seem to be flirting in potions but it's Potter. He's cocky and charming to all the girls, maybe he was just being nice. But he seemed so sincere and sweet when he apologised to me, I was so confused.

"What do you think you're going to buy?" Dorcas jumped up behind me, she leaned close to me and whispered, "James Potter was staring at you so much earlier."

"Why would I care? I don't care..." I replied, blushing profusely. Dorcas smiled slightly.

"If you don't care, then why are you blushing?" She whispered.

Damn my stupid pale face for giving away that maybe, just maybe I liked James Potter.