Requested (sorry if this is bad, I don't know too much about universities or colleges or anything cos I've never studied at one, I'm still in secondary school!)

Lily Evans twirled her hair around her finger absentmindedly as she looked out of the window. She was sitting at her desk, trying to read her copy of Animal Farm, but she kept getting distracted by the texts that kept coming in from her friend, Severus Snape.

Lily sighed as her phone pinged again.

A few months ago, Severus had thrown a total fit because Lily had decided to join a Muggle university.

See, Lily was a witch, and Severus was a wizard. To learn more about the Muggle community, she'd joined the university, but Severus had disagreed with her choice.

Lily propped her chin up on her hand and thought back to that day.

'What?' Severus looked up from the book he was half-reading and frowned. 'Is that a joke?'

'No.' Lily crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. They were outside her house, sitting on the porch, and Lily had just dropped the bomb on him about the Muggle university. 'Why would it be a joke?'

'Because-' Severus waved his hands in the air in exasperation. 'I don't know. You aren't seriously considering this, are you, Lily?'

Though it was hot outside, Lily shivered. Severus' tone sometimes when he talked about Muggles bothered her, but she tried to brush it off, like she was trying to brush they off. 'I am. Why would I not be?'

'Because Muggles don't understand!' Severus burst out. 'They aren't worth being around, are they? Really?'

Lily stared at him for a heartbeat before speaking. 'What, you think my parents- my sister- my Muggle friends- aren't 'worth being around'? And because I'm a muggleborn, does that make me not worry to be around, either? Is that what you think, Severus?'

'That's not what I said-' Severus began, already back-pedalling, but Lily shook her head.

'What happened to the boy I used to know, Sev? Because at the moment, I feel like I don't even know you at all.'

She didn't give him a chance to answer before continuing. 'You can get the hell out of my house, and kiss goodbye to your friendship with me, Severus.'

*****

Lily was walking across the courtyard to get to her English class when she crashed into something- or, more accurately, someone.

'Are you okay?' The person asked, and Lily looked up. She'd dropped all her books on the floor, and now she was probably going to be late. She opened her mouth, ready to snap out a retort, but then closed it again.

Because in front of her was... well, Lily didn't know his name. But she'd seen him around at Hogwarts, and Marlene had always talked in awestruck whispers about his best friend, Sirius Black, who was 'the hottest hot guy in the entire school'. Lily, however, was pretty sure that Sirius was gay.

Anyway, 'the hottest hot guy in the entire school' didn't even seem that hot to Lily. Sure, he had that bad boy handsome look going for him, but Lily's eye had always been caught by the more natural looking guys, like...

Well, like the guy in front of her, who was now looking at her rather quizzically.

'Do I know you?' He asked. Now that Lily thought about it, he didn't look completely like the guy that hung around Sirius... maybe he wasn't.

Lily blinked, and realised the guy was waiting for an answer. 'Erm, I'm not sure.'

'Not sure?' He flashed her a grin. 'I'm James Potter, by the way.'

James Potter? Well, that was a name Lily knew. She'd been tutored by a guy called Remus (he'd been two or three years older than her) for a few months in her fifth year, and he'd talked about people called James, Peter and Sirius quite a lot.

'Lily Evans,' Lily replied, smiling back. 'And I'm fine, thank you, although I'm really late...'

James looked down at her books, that were scattered all over the floor. 'Ah. Erm, sorry. I'll help you pick them up. Who's your professor?'

'Professor Dixon,' Lily mumbled, picking up Animal Farm and shoving it in her bag.

'English Major?' James whistled. 'Whoa. You've gotta be pretty smart to get into the English course here.'

'You've got to be pretty smart to get into any course here,' Lily told him, picking up the last paper and shoving it haphazardly in her bag. 'Now, I really have to go. Nice meeting you, see you!'

She turned and half ran away, all the while thinking holy crap, I'm so late.

But she couldn't help sneaking a glance back at James, who, she saw, was watching her as she left.

*****

She was studying at the library when he arrived.

Animal Farm was open in front of her, and she was chewing on her pen as she scribbled notes down.

'No laptop?' James asked, dropping into a seat next to her.

Lily glanced up, startled. 'Erm, hi.'

'Of course, laptops interfere with magic,' James continued. 'And you're used to writing with a quill, anyway, aren't you?'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' Lily laughed awkwardly, and started to chew her pen, a nervous habit of hers. 'Is this a joke?'

Lily wasn't going to just blurt out her secrets just like that. James Potter was a common name, and Lily wasn't even sure that this James and the James from Hogwarts even looked similar... after all, she'd only seen the Hogwarts James a few times, and certainly never enough to completely memorise his face. He could be a crazy Muggle, or one that just knew too much.

Maybe I should obliviate him, Lily thought.

'I talked to Remus,' James said triumphantly. 'You know, the guy who tutored you in fifth year? And he says there was a Lily Evans with hair just like yours-'

James pointed at Lily's hair, and she blushed.

'I couldn't remember where I knew you from,' James continued. 'And it was really bugging me. Now I know.'

Lily sighed and shook her head. 'Do you know how irresponsible you just were? I could have been a Muggle!'

James stared at Lily.

'Lily Evans is an incredibly common name, you know!' Lily continued, keeping her voice low. 'And my hair colour can't be that rare, either. What if I was a Muggle?'

James blinked. 'But you weren't.'

'It's a Muggle university!' Lily hissed. 'There are literally no wizards here!'

He held his arms up in surrender. 'Merlin, Lily! There's you and me here, that's two of us. And Remus, Peter and Sirius were here for a bit, too, until they dropped out... or were kicked out, in Sirius' case.'

Lily shook her head, rolling her eyes. 'Kicked out?'

'He tried to flirt his way out of homework,' James admitted, running a hand through his hair. 'And apparently it was breaking the school rules, although there wasn't specifically a rule against it in the school guidelines-'

Lily laughed, surprising herself- and James, too. 'Wow. Have you four never done anything in the Muggle world before? Don't you know there are laws against student-teacher relationships?'

'Erm, no,' James said sheepishly. 'We've always done things with wizards.'

Lily shook her head. 'I'm surprised you've managed to stay here this long, to be honest.'

'So help me!' James urged. 'You obviously know a lot about Muggles, right? I want to learn more. I have to learn more, don't I? I can't just go around not knowing anything about Muggles, can I?'

Lily stared at him, slightly open-mouthed.

Muggles aren't worth being around, she heard Severus say in her head.

Lily had half thought that was how all wizards and witches thought... but here James was, from a notoriously pureblood family, asking for her help learning more about Muggles...

'Sure,' Lily said, and James grinned.

Word count- 1328

This is the first one in the past few days that I've actually liked, so yay for me. 😄