Lily sat on the front row of the classroom, feverishly taking notes on the work on William Blake they were currently studying. She had done at least a dozen English Literature past papers, and he had come up on every. Single. One.

"I'd like you all to annotate and analyse this extract from a speech of Blake's, which gives us more of a background of his work." The teacher said before handing Lily sheets to give out. "You don't mind, do you Miss Evans?"

"Not at all, Sir." She replied but inside she was groaning. Handouts were her worst nightmare, just lose sheets all over the place. She shuddered at the thought.

"Psst. Evans!" James whispered as she passed his table of four, that only he and Sirius had claimed.

She placed the sheets on the last table before turning on her heel to return to her seat.

"Not now, Potter." She said as she passed the boys for the second time, and thought she heard Sirius mumble something about her being rude. Lily scoffed. Nobody was as rude as him.

"It won't work, I'm telling you!"

Those boys, she thought. Their whispers are everybody else's indoor voices.

"It will, trust me. She loves it!" And after James said this, a paper aeroplane fell promptly on her head, disturbing her.

Lily turned around to glare at the culprit, and he smiled apologetically and she shrugged. Nobody could have perfect aim from back there.

Opening the paper, her heart fluttered. Another painting. This time it was watercolour, and portrayed a pair of green, almond shaped eyes. Eyes identical to hers. She scanned the page and found a small signature at the bottom, accompanied by a short message:

You have the MOST BEAUTIFUL eyes.

Grinning, Lily turned around in her chair and blew a kiss to the raven haired boy. He looked like he was about to faint. She turned back around and carried on with her work, smiling to herself.

That boy, she thought, will be the death of me.

~

Lily arrived at her home feeling tired and wary. She wished for nothing more than to collapse on her bed and sleep, but the odds were against her; her bag was heavy with textbooks and homework and it was exam season soon.

Opening her bedroom door, she saw her sister there, on her bed, holding a black leather bound book. Her heart leapt. But not in the good way.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Lily asked hanging her bag on the doorknob.

"Who's James? Your crush?" Petunia asked, ignoring her own question. She brought out the coffee painting tucked away at the back of the diary and looked at it. "Aw, he even gave you a painting, how sweet! A shit one, but a painting none the less."

Lily scowled. "I don't like him if that's what you're getting at. And, besides, you have no right to re-"

"Why, that's not what it says here, is it?" Her sister giggled evilly before clearing her throat and reading in a falsetto: " Monday. James is the most amazing artist, I know I'll treasure the painting for a while... Holy crap, I think I might like him!"

"SHUT UP!" Lily yelled, lunging at Petunia and grabbing the book from her hands. She made to grab the painting as well, but it was dragged away from her, ripping cleanly in two. She looked down at the crumpled paper in her hands, half of the park skyline, before looking back at her sister, who looked vaguely satisfied.

"So much for treasuring it," Petunia said. "You didn't even grab the half with this signature!"

Lily took a deep breath, regaining her control. "Petunia." She said with lethal calm. "Get out."

The elder sister huffed, before standing up and scrunching the other half of the paper even more, and dropping it on the floor. "Whatever, you whore. Honestly, how many guys are you going to be all over. First that nasty greasy boy, and now James."

"I'm no longer in contact with Severus for your information," She replied, taking a step closer to Petunia, who took a step back. "Because he called me precisely what you just did. Shame, isn't it? That I can't cut ties with you the same way. Now if you could just leave."

Petunia left the room, muttering something about how Severus was right to say that word, and Lily closed the door behind her, not wanting to utter another word to the devious girl.

She lay down on her bed, all prospects of getting any work done gone. She needed to speak to somebody, anybody. But who? Speaking to Marlene would mean admitting she has feelings for James, Alice was probably with Frank, and Remus was most likely with that horrible, wonderful, beautiful boy... She sighed. Alice wouldn't understand anyway.

Picking up the phone, she dialled Remus's number. He picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" She could hear Sirius being a goof in the background, talking about some girl he banged. Lily never believes any of that herself. He is very clearly queer.

"Hi, Remus. D'you think you could come round? Just for a bit." She asked, biting her nails.

"I don't know... I'm with the lads." he said, hesitantly.

"Yeah, I know, I can hear." She replied, tears welling up. She was going to have to deal with this by herself. He was going to leave her by herself. "But please? I kind of need you."

He must have sensed her upset, because Remus asked: "Oh my god, Lily are you crying?"

"Maybe." Lily said, sighing. "So can you come or...?"

She heard a voice in the background shout something unintelligible. She didn't want to know what situation they were in to not be able to speak that way. "Prongs wants to speak to you."

"A what now?"

"James."

"Oh."

"So should I give the phone over?" asked Remus.

"No!" Lily almost yelled. She couldn't speak to him... Not like this. "He's a part of the fucking problem, isn't he?"

"Alright," he said, before his voice came muffled. He had put his hand over the microphone. "She said no."

"Please!" James replied and her heart soared. "If she's upset I want to see if she's okay!"

"No can do mate." Remus took his hand off the microphone and said quickly. "Alright, I'm going to hang up before James beats me up, I'll be over in ten."

"You're ditching us?" She heard Sirius yell before the line went dead.

It took Remus an overall fifteen minutes to arrive, during which time Lily occupied herself by, rather foolishly, trying to sellotape the coffee painting together. She took that painting, and the most recent one, and pinned them on her noticeboard.

The doorbell rang and immediately, Lily ran down the stairs to answer it. But Petunia beat her to it.

"And who are you?" she asked, her voice full of hostility.

Remus held out his hand for her to shake. "Remus Lupin. Lily's friend. I don't think we've met?"

"Petunia Evans. And no, we have not, I don't have as many little minions as my sister does." Petunia replied before turning to face Lily, who was watching horror struck from the stairwell. "Hey, Whore. There's another one here for you."

"Excuse me, there's no need to be so rude. Lily hasn't done any-" Remus started to say, but Lily grabbed his hand and pulled him away.

"Forget it. She's often this way." She said as they entered her room. He grumbled a little, but didn't drag the topic up again.

"So, what's happened, love?" He said, taking off his large brown jumper, leaving him only in a red checked shirt and sitting on the bed.

Lily took a deep breath, tied her hair up and told him about the recent events, from the Monday when she received the coffee painting, to Petunia reading the diary. About how she's liked James for the longest time, but something has always been holding her back even though she knew he liked her too.

"And I'm just scared Remus." She concluded, sighing as more tears came spilling out.

He didn't say anything, simply beckoned her closer and wrapped his arms around her. Lily just sobbed into his shirt for a while, and Remus continued to let her.

It was only when she calmed down again that he pulled away and spoke. "I don't get it... What's so wrong about liking James?"

Lily let out an empty laugh. "Did I miss out that one tiny detail? I've kinda got a bet on with-"

"Oh here we go again." Remus groaned.

She looked at him, confused. "Pardon?"

"Never mind," he said, shaking his head. "Carry on."

"Anyway," she said. "I've got a bet on with Marlene, that I could be involved with a guy for six months without falling for him. And she asked me to give an example and I... I said James."

Remus shook his head again. "Are you kidding me? Why the hell did you say that?"

"I don't know! It just... Came out." Lily replied, exasperated. He sighed, and faced palmed, muttering about her idiocy. "So, basically, every thing is fucked up before it's even began."

"Not particularly..." Remus said, looking up from in between his fingers, then sitting up again. "You could always cancel the bet."

"But it's a hundred quid. " she sighed. "And I don't have that money."

"But Marlene's your friend, right?" He frowned. "Surely she'd let it drop?"

Lily shook her head. "Think about it, Remus. If Sirius and James placed bets, and James decided to pull out, would Sirius let him get away with that?"

Remus pursed his lips, and wore an odd expression, like he was with holding information. "Um... Probably not."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." He smiled half-heartedly. "Of course."

"Good." there was an uncomfortable silence. "You won't tell him any of this will you? James, I mean. You won't tell him?"

Her friend hid his hands in his sleeves. "Sure, if you don't want me to."

"Thank you. You're the best." Lily grinned, kissing his cheek friendlily. "How about a movie?"

"Yuck," he grinned, wiping his cheek, before saying. "I don't see why not. I guess I can't go back to the Potter's without Prongs interrogating me."

"Why do you call each other those strange names?"

"Oh," Remus laughed. "We were having a discussion a while back, like so long ago, Year Eight or something, about what animals we'd be if we could. And I said, a werewolves were cool even though they aren't animals, hence Moony. Sirius said a dog, so we call him Padfoot and Peter said a rat for some reason... Don't even ask, I still don't get it myself. Anyways, he's Wormtail and James said-"

"A deer?"

"A stag. He refuses the term deer for his 'spirit animal', says the word stag is a lot cooler. "

Lily snorted. "Hardly."

"I know, right? But yeah, Prongs because you know," Remus grinned and put his hands above his head, spreading out his fingers. "Antlers."

Lily laughed so hard, it brought tears to her eyes. "God, you're such a weirdo. Anyway, should I go pick a film."

"You think I don't know that already?" he laughed back. "And, yeah, sure. Pick whatever."

Lily felt better than she had in three weeks.