AN: Yup, I'm just casually updating after not updating for a year and a half. Never give up, readers. There's always hope.

Lily was hiding on the far side of the lake with a textbook.

She couldn't explain why she spent her time here, since this place was where her problems had started.

She had been hiding from Snape and Potter since the fight at the lake last week.

She didn't know what to do with herself. How could she ever look at either of them ever again?

Sev was supposed to be her best friend. He should have been there for her. He should be comforting her, not be the reason she's crying.

And Potter...

What did he want? Why did he cause  these situations? She didn't hate him before, he may have been annoying when he flirted with her, but he knew exactly how to make her laugh, and when she needed someone to cheer her up, without even noticing it, in the past few months that person had become Potter.

Not anymore. Nothing would be the same after that day at the lake.

"Evans, we need to talk."

She turned around to see James Potter panting, as if he had been running around the whole campus looking for her. He ran his fingers through his hair, trying to get it back to a somewhat normal look.

Lily turned back around at to look at the stars. She couldn't look him in the eyes.

"Evans, please" he said sitting down next to her. He sounded like he was pleading.

"What is there to talk about Potter?" Lily snapped.

Shoot. There goes her grand idea of the silent treatment. Now she couldn't go back to ignoring him. Lily Evans never backed down from an argument.

"You ruined my life. I lost my best friend because you just thought it was so funny to bully someone because they're not exactly like you. You think you're so cool and perfect, but you're the biggest jerk in this school!"

There was silence for a moment, except for the sound of the small waves in the lake hitting the land.

"I know."

That was the last thing Lily had expected. She had never known James Potter to think of himself as anything but God's gift to this world.

Maybe things had changed.

"Lily, please hear me out," he said, grabbing her hand in his. Lily didn't pull away.

"I would take it all back if I could. Not just because it hurt you, although I would do anything I could to never have to see you hurt, but because I know it was wrong. I could come up with a thousand excuses for what I did, and maybe two or three of them would be true, but they don't matter. There's never an excuse for doing the wrong thing, and I'm here just to tell you that I know that. The person that I acted like that day by the lake, it's not the person I want to be, and I wish I could say it's not the person I am but I know that's not true. But I promise you right now it's not the person I'm going to be anymore."

Lily stayed quiet.

"I wrote Snape an apology letter. Not one I'll ever send, but I wrote down all the things I regret doing to him. It was two pages long. I didn't do this so I could brag about it to you, I did it for me. I want to change Evans, and I think the first step to that is here with you."

James reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. "I wrote you a letter too. You deserve an apology for everything I've put you through. There's even a whole paragraph in there dedicated to the time I put baby eels in your bed."

Lily couldn't help but laugh at that one, and James felt like he was on top of the world hearing that noise.

"You're a good guy, Potter," Lily said finally. "Yeah, you need to work on some things, but you're not all bad. So don't go acting like you are. You're smart, loyal, and occasionally funny, and so I forgive you. Right now. Before even looking at the letter. I don't need it." She handed the letter back to him, and leaned over to kiss him on the cheek.

"I don't need a letter to know that you're better than what you showed then, Potter."