Oh, not good!

Not good!

Crap, so not good at all!

Duck!

--

"Lily, are you feeling alright?" Jennifer Marlow asked in a worried voice.

"Of course I am, whatever makes you think that I'm not?" Lily asked, peeking her head around the piece of armour she was currently hiding behind.

"Well… because you seem to be developing a rather unattractive twitch…that and you keep trying to hide behind things, like some really poor version of James Bond—you do realise it's taken us almost twenty minutes just to get halfway to lunch!"

Lily looked at the girl in front of her for so long that Jennifer was starting to feel a little uncomfortable when Lily finally said "And your point is?"

"The whole trip has never taken us more than ten, and that includes that time in first year when we got lost!"

Lily seemed to contemplate that before shaking herself and straightening up from her slightly hunched position, she then said, in as dignified voice as possible, "Don't be ridiculous it hasn't been that long and I am not developing a twitch!"

"Whatever you say crazy lady—Oh hey, Potter!" said Jennifer in polite greeting having seen said boy approaching in her peripheral vision.

"Marlow, how's it going?"

"Oh fine, but Lily's acting a bit weird—you didn't do anything to her, did you?" she smiled.

"Not as far as I'm aware," he chuckled "I can ask the boys if you like, but, honestly, I'd like to think they'd know better by now, especially after the pink glitter incident."

Then, the smile fading from his face, James asked, in a concerned voice, "So what's the matter with her, is she okay?"

"I know you two have only just started to get along, but you can't honestly think that is normal behaviour," Jennifer said, gesturing behind her to where Lily had been standing only moments before.

"Err, Marlow, either I'm missing something or you've bumped your head really hard–"

Looking around in bewilderment Jennifer turned a full circle looking for Lily, not being able to find her.

"I could have sworn—" she began to say in a voice that suggested she was questioning her own sanity.

She leaned around the armour Lily had taken a liking to just moments before but found no sign of her.

"Umm, Marlow, are you feeling okay? Did you lose something?"

"Yeah, Lily!" she replied in a high pitched voice.

James seemed to ponder that announcement for a second before putting the pieces together. "Oh! Did those idiotic sixth years 'accidentally' spill some invisibility potion again?!—I'll kill them!"

"No, no!" she said hurriedly, raising her arms in a placating gesture. "Or at least I don't think so?" Jennifer added quietly to herself checking the floor at her feet quickly.

"Yeah well I think I'll pay the little idiots a visit just in case, you would have thought they'd learned their lesson the last time they crossed me!" he finished angrily and with a slightly maniacal gleam in his eye, before striding back off in the direction he'd come without so much as a good bye .

"He's doing it on purpose you know," Lily said into Jennifer's ear, seeming to materialise from nowhere.

"Merlin, Lily!" Jennifer said, putting a hand to her now rapidly beating heart. "Don't scare me like that, and where the hell did you go anyway?" she finished her brow furrowing.

"Oh nowhere," Lily said airily. "Been here the whole time—yep, the whole time."

"But you were right—right there and… and then you were—you know what I don't think I even want to know. My head hurts now and I'm beyond caring, but, Lily, if I'm not fed in the next ten minutes I'm going to have to start eating you!"

"Oh, humm, what did you say—oh right lunch… yes, lunch is a very good idea!" Lily said as she started to walk like a relatively normal human being again and in the right direction for the Great Hall.

Jennifer watched Lily in total confusion for a moment before catching up and attempting to match her stride "Okay I'll bite—you're acting too strange for it to be ignored—who's doing what on purpose?"

"James!" Lily hissed, stopping completely, like a frightened animal, her eyes scanning the corridor rapidly as if she expected James to fall from the rafters and ambush her.

Jennifer groaned at the lack of forward momentum but decided the only way she was going to get anywhere near lunch that day was to deal with the situation as swiftly as possible. "What about James?"

"He's everywhere," she whispered, looking at Jennifer with wide eyes.

"Okay, slightly insane person—could you please let my friend Lily back out now?" Jennifer asked in a quite voice, trying to make as few sudden movements as possible. "She's sensible, speaks in full sentences, and doesn't disappear without any warning—You know… Lily."

"No, you don't understand!" Lily said urgently. "He's everywhere"

"Riiight. Everywhere, you say?" Jennifer said a little mockingly but also with real worry for her friend.

"Yeah, everywhere!"

"He not here right now—is he?" Jennifer said spinning around quickly half expecting to find James staring at her with the same deranged glint Lily seemed to have acquired.

Not finding him she turned back to Lily slight calmer and with an expectant look on her face "I'm afraid I'm going to have to have you explain."

"He's in prefect meetings; he even tries to run them!"

"Yes, well he is Head Boy."

"He's on patrols telling students off for being out of bounds and such!"

"Gonna have to resort to my previous answer again: he's Head Boy, isn't that what Head Boys are supposed to do?"

"He's at Quidditch Games."

"Dude, he's Gryffindor captain! If either of you are out of place at a Qudditch match, I'm afraid it's you, you weirdo."

"He's sitting at the same table as me in Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms!"

"Yeah, well they're really small classes, only the very best were allowed to progress to NEWT level! What do you want the poor boy to do?—Sit on his own, like some outcast, just so he isn't invading your apparently, extremely large personal bubble?"

"He's in the common room!"

"Yes, well he lives in Gryffindor tower too. Are you seriously trying to exclude him from his own bed as well as his classes now?"

"What about Hogsmeade visits, huh? He's everywhere there too!"

"Good Godric! You're even trying to exclude him from weekend trips?! It's a small village and there are only so many things seventh years want to do, he's not the only one there you know," Jennifer almost shouted, starting to lose patience with Lily. She took a deep breath before saying "Has it occurred to you that it's not that he's suddenly everywhere—it's more you're suddenly just noticing he's everywhere?"

"Don't be silly, why would I suddenly be noticing? And anyway I've always noticed! How could I not, when he wouldn't leave me alone for two years?!"

"No, it's more than that… It's not just noticing that he's there—I've never seen you freak out like that over anyone—you came close when you fancied—" Jennifer trailed off staring at Lily with wide eyes and then in a hushed voice she said "It's finally happened, hasn't it?"

"What has?" Lily asked shifting uneasily from foot to foot.

"It's finally happened! You've noticed James; you finally see what almost everyone else can see! And—and you like it… you like what you see! That's why you're acting like an escapee mental patient –"

"I'm not the crazy one!" Lily said loudly, ruffling her hair and making herself look even more idiotic in the process. "James is!—he's changed…" she said, drawing out the last word.

"Changed?" Jennifer said mimicking Lily's tone of voice and starting to find a great deal of humour in the situation. "He looks the same to me Lily—perhaps a little taller and more filled out from last year, but he's still got the same hair, same glasses, same untidy style of dress, same tattoo that suddenly appeared last year—so hot by the way—same old James."

"No! No, he's not! He's changed!"

"You're starting to get a little redundant now Lily."

"He's changed," Lily replied while Jennifer groaned. "And I can't work out if it's genuine or if…"

"If?" Jennifer prodded gently, grateful beyond words that they were starting to get somewhere.

"Or if he just has some ulterior motive, some scheme, some grand masterful plan!"

"To do what, Lily?" Jennifer laughed. "Do you honestly think he has some grand master plan to take over the world?"

Judging form the look in her eyes Lily really did see that as a possibility. So, deciding she should perhaps treat the situation a little more seriously, Jennifer said "Uh, Lils, maybe this is a stupid question, but I feel like it needs to be asked: if you don't fancy him then why do you care? Why are you avoiding him?"

"I don't and I'm not!"

"– Oh for the love of chocolate! How could you even say that with a straight face? You should see yourself, you're hiding from him! And I don't care what you say, your right eye is starting to twitch!—What's the matter, Lils? Worried that if you spend more than ten second in his presence you may pounce on him like you did when you fancied Michael Reeves?"

"Shut up—and NO— I have more self restraint now! I was fourteen, for goodness sake, are people never going to let me forget that?!"

"Oh ho, so you admit to having to use self restraint?!"

Lily threw her hands up in the air. "You're making it impossible to have a rational conversation!"

"Me?" Jennifer laughed incredulously. "Sorry to break it to you, love, but I'm not the one being irrational here."

"I am not being irrational, I do not have and twitch and I am not hiding from him!"

"No—okay …well then here's your chance to prove me wrong," Jennifer said with her own maniacal glint before shoving Lily roughly away from her and strolling off at a leisurely pace towards the lunch she had been desperate for for the last hour or so.

Lily had closed her eyes the moment she'd hit the hard warm body knowing full well that when she opened them she would find none other than James Potter.

"Oh, Lily, there you are! I was a little worried after talking to Marlow. Are you aright? Still completely visible and all?"

Lily nodded her head quickly desperately trying to avoid eye contact. "I'm fine," she squeaked.

"Oh well then… that's good! –- but – but I think I may have just unfairly accused and then unnecessarily punished some Ravenclaw boys… I should probably talk to a Professor about that… anyway I'm glad to see you're alright—"

Lily interrupted him. "Am I irrational?"

James's eyebrows scrunched together, but being used to strange questions from his friends answered her anyway, jokingly "Only when it comes to me. In fifth year you seemed to develop a deep hatred for my general person, I thought that was terribly irrational of you at the time."

Seeing her terrified at the thought of being irrational he dropped the joking attitude by saying "But it makes a little more sense to me now that I'm older and wiser and can look back and see just what a silly bugger I was."

Lily smiled gratefully at his answer before asking "Do I walk funny?"

That time James laughed out right "No, not even a little funny. It's actually quite sexy, especially when you do that little hip sway of yours."

She hit his shoulder lightly, blushing, before looking him full in the eyes. And suddenly she felt like she couldn't breathe but she carried on her questioning regardless "Do—do I have a twitch?" she stuttered

Finally having eye contact and able to see the fire in Lily's eyes James gave her a piercing look before saying "Well you've never had one before and trust me when I say I would have noticed," he said, blushing a tiny bit himself. Then, taking the time to scan her face properly, he said "Nope, no twitch, not that I can see anyway.

She looked at him with obvious relief so he continued "Don't worry, Lily, even with a twitch I'd still think you were beautiful –" the rest of James's sentence was cut off abruptly when he found Lily's lips suddenly on his. James just stood there for the barest hint of a second before he started to respond, demandingly as if he'd been waiting forever to taste her and now that he had he couldn't get enough and, before Lily really had time to process what was happening, she was wrapped securely in his arms and being dragged back into an alcove.

It took at least fifteen seconds this time. An improvement, is it not? Lily thought smugly to herself before realising where she was and where exactly she had her tongue. The moment she did fully realise and had had time to consider the consequence of her unplanned actions, she pushed him off her and hurried away as fast as her weak knees would allow.

He wasn't following her. Shit.

--

A/N

Oohh a new one!

I was attempting a new one shot and this literally just rose up for the depths of my mind with absolutely no warning

It will be a multi chap but I'm not sure how long yet –and don't worry I'm going to try my hardest not to let it interfere with Object of Desire – I'm ahead as far as those chap go anyway – and this should be quite short – so no need to worry!

I hope you like it!

Thank you to the marvellous cosmopolitan – who not only beta's for me but also through some of email to each other inadvertently inspired certain elements of this first chap!

Mwah x