It had been a few days since the jawline incident and I told myself that it was nothing. I was a teenage girl, I was allowed to notice guys' jaws now and then especially good ones. So what if the jaw happened to belong to James Potter. It didn't change the fact that we were completely incompatible -

"Lily, are you wearing concealer?" Marlene's voice broke me out of my anti-Potter thoughts. I'd been hoping nobody would notice, I'd never been that into makeup and it's not like I was doing it because I had potions with Potter or anything and I'd suddenly become acutely aware of my acne or something.

"Yeah, I had some spots on my skin that I wanted to cover up." Marlene, Alice and Dorcas were slightly smirking at me, "What?"

"You never wear makeup though." Dorcas pointed out. I'd never really had the time before and I'd never been very good. The eye makeup just seemed to go everywhere and I always either looked overdone or like I wasn't wearing any at all.

"Yeah, well I thought I'd try a bit. It always looks so nice on you, I thought I'd give it a shot." Dorcas smiled at this and I knew that she probably wouldn't question it any further.

Alice and Dorcas went back to talking about the transfiguration homework but Marlene inched her way over to me and I sensed an interrogation.

"The last time you wore makeup was when you liked that guy in the year above," Marlene said, her voice hushed.

"Which guy?" I said, hoping that if I sounded casual maybe my face would cooperate and I wouldn't go bright red. It was honestly ridiculous, I seemed to blush at the worst times, it was so revealing.

"You know, the Ravenclaw with the long dark hair. You were in choir together, remember?" She nudged me and I bent my head in embarrassment, "You went to it with full green eyeshadow, remember?"

I couldn't help but laugh with Marlene, it really was an awful look that I hated to remember.

"Why didn't you stop me?" I laughed.

"I did try but you were so stubborn about it. Besides, you rushed out the door before I could say anything."

"Oh my god." I put my head in my hands, trying to erase the memory of that particular choir practice.

"That was back in fourth year though and you haven't touched it since. Why the change?" She said nudging me again. Damn Marlene and her ability to always read my mind, even before I knew it.

"There's no guy, if that's what you're asking." She gave me a quizzical look, "There's not. I just didn't like a couple of the spots on my face and I felt like covering it up. That's all."

"That's all?" She raised one quizzical eyebrow.

"That. Is. All." I said firmly, "I think I need to get to potions now."

"You've got about five minutes!" Marlene said pleadingly, holding onto my robe as I stood up.

"But it's on the other side of the castle and I don't want Slughorn to hate me." I said, detaching myself from her grasp and slipping away from her.

"He could never hate you, you're his favourite!" Marlene yelled after me.

I was the first at potions as usual but I didn't mind. I always felt tense if I thought I was going to be late so early was definitely better.

"Alright Evans." I honestly felt like I was having deja vu right now, this felt exactly like that day in the common rooms. Alright, Lily, I told myself, you admired his jaw but that was it. You can find somebody's jaw attractive without finding THEM attractive, you don't like Potter and the fact you are wearing concealer right now is completely unrelated. You don't like Potter.

I attempted to nonchalantly nod without looking round at him but failed, instead looking like I was about to sneeze.

"Have you revised for the..." I turned round to look at him as casual aloofness was clearly failing and momentarily forgot what I was about to say. He looked expectant although he looked like he was stifling a grin.

"Potions test?" He said finally.

"Yeah. The test. Have you revised?" I said recovering my ability to speak. I was almost 100% sure I was blushing so I turned away, making sure my hair was shielding my face. I could not be starting to like him. This was not happening, not to Lily Evans. Hiding away from my fears was the worst thing to do, so I decided to stop hiding behind my curtain of red hair and turn and face him.

"I haven't revised much. I did a bit, Remus forced me to but then Sirius distracted me." I realised as I looked at him that I'd never actually properly looked at him before. When somebody annoys you as much as he had for the last few years, you tend to avoid their face.

His eyes were a light hazel colour and his hair wasn't quite black, it was a dark brown. It seemed to stick up everywhere, defying gravity. His front tooth was slightly crooked and he had a mole on the right side of his chin. His face was quite thin but he had a strong, defined jaw. Girls seemed to talk about how attractive but I'd never seen it before. I wasn't into "perfect people" but Potter seemed weirdly... human now.

As I was staring at him, I noticed that he was staring back. I looked up slightly and made eye contact with him which instantly made him smile slightly and look away. He ran his hand through his hair which had always annoyed me before but right now it was okay.

"I'm guessing you've been revising non-stop."

"You don't have to guess, you were there for some of it in the common room."

"Yeah, I remember that." He looked away, smirking that stupid crooked smile of his, "Quality time together."

I smiled almost involuntarily. He was such an idiot, we'd hardly spoken that day.

"You know you're cute when you're studying." He said suddenly. This took me by surprise, I thought the days of his obvious flirting were over. It was common knowledge that he liked me but I thought he'd grown up a bit and was over it. I felt my face blush a deep scarlet and I suddenly had no idea what to say.

He had a strange expression on his face, sort of... hopeful. Did he still like me? He seemed to have moved on.

"Hey Lily, you ready?" I silently thanked Frank Longbottom for getting me out of this situation as he walked up behind me. I whirled around quickly, almost tripping on my robes.

"Yeah, yeah I am," I said turning back around to Potter but he'd turned away, talking to a couple of Hufflepuff girls. I felt a sharp pang of jealousy through my stomach but dismissed it. I needed to focus on potions anyway. Slughorn called us in a few seconds later which allowed me to properly get into the chemistry mindset.

I was partnered with Mary which was always good. Slughorn usually didn't let you partner with friends but he liked us both so we were usually together.

I felt good in potions, this was my element. I was a self-admitted potions nerd and I loved it.

"Mary, have you prepared the doxy eggs?" I asked Mary, stirring their girding potion which was turning a rather lovely turquoise colour. It looked almost as good as the one in the drawing. My hair had frizzed up, my concealer had probably been vaporised but I didn't care. This was my element, nothing could shake me.

"Have you got any spare fairy wings? Frank managed to mess our's up?" A voice said right by my ear. I turned my head slowly and realised I was inches away from James Potter's smiling face. I probably looked like a potions troll and I hated him for making me realise this.

"Yeah, they're by Mary." James picked them up smoothly and I was really hoping he'd go away and let me get back to my potions but of course that wasn't going to happen.

"You look a bit insane right now, Evans, with your hair everywhere." He said grinning as if he was the wittiest man alive. I turned my head slowly back to him, death staring him as I did. I KNEW that, it was my hair after all and it did this all the time.

"Funny, I didn't realise that. It's not like I've had to deal with frizzy hair every potions lesson."

"It looks like fire, the fiery redhead." He laughed to himself.

"Shouldn't you be getting back to Frank? Your potion needs you." I said, putting down the ladle and leaving it in the pot.

"Lily, I've added the doxy eggs..." I heard Mary say but I barely registered. I was too focused on Potter's annoying, hot face.

"I'm sure, Frank can manage without me. Besides, wouldn't it help me to come and watch the potions master at work."

"Snape's better than me."

"Yeah, but I don't want to go and watch Snivellus. work." His face curved into a slight frown as he said his nickname for Snape, "Anyway, I'd much rather watch stand and talk to you. Get that quality time we missed the other day."

I really hoped he didn't think that was in joke between us. I didn't have inside jokes with Potter.

"Lily, add the doxy eggs." I heard Mary say but I was too involved with my conversation with Potter to notice that my potion had turned from a beautiful turquoise to a dark, midnight blue.

"I don't feel too bad, you probably had some quality time with Sirius's magazines after I left," I said, smiling slightly. He smiled as well, his hands running through his messy hair again.

"I wasn't..." He floundered for words, "Sirius left in on the table."

"Uh huh," I said, smiling what I hoped was a knowing smile as I turned back to my potion. As I looked down at it, I suddenly noticed the awful colour it had turned. Thick wisps of smoke were beginning to appear on the surface. I barely had time to turn my face away before there was the potion bubbled up and exploded onto my robes.

I glared up at Potter who was concealing a laugh. This was his fault. If it weren't for his great jaw and stupid words, I would be fine.

"Oh dear, Lily, this isn't like you." Slughorn said to me after, "It's nothing we can't fix though, I'm sure you can have another go."

Mary glared at me and if I could, I would have glared at me too. This was not like me at all and it was all thanks to stupid Potter who I definitely and annoyingly liked.