Fuck, she thought. Her heart was hammering in her chest and a blush was creeping up her neck. Her body was reacting like a lovesick sap. Her mind on the other hand, was ticked off as hell.

He came striding down the hill with his friends, robes flying, laughter pealing, that cocky grin plastered on his too-pretty face. Honestly the nerve.

She looked pointedly away from the hill and back at her friends, who, she noticed, had stopped talking. Instead they wore matching smirks.

"What?" she said, "Pray tell what is the joke this time?"

"Someone's in an awful mood," said the blonde.

"I think we know why," replied the brunette.

The redhead scowled.

"Hey, Evans," called James Potter.

Marlene and Mary started to laugh. It was only when Lily twisted her face at them did she realize that her features had smoothed into a smile at the sound of his voice.

"You two are imbeciles."

"You're in love," insisted Mary.

"And in denial," added Marlene.

Lily opened her mouth to correct, not deny, their presumptions when a sturdy arm reached around her waist and pulled her off balance.

"What'd I miss in Charms today?" he asked.

"It's not my job to go to class for you, Potter," Lily quipped as she regained her footing, though her voice wasn't as sharp as she'd meant it.

James smiled sheepishly and shrugged with his whole body. The movement caused the hand sitting on her waist to tickle her, and sent jolt up her spine.

"I got injured at Quidditch practice this morning and it took most of the period for Madam Quinn to fix me up," he explained, and then quickly added after seeing Lily's reaction, "I'm fine, see? All five fingers accounted for and in working order." He flourished his left hand to demonstrate.

"Honestly, it's just a sport, no reason to nearly kill yourself before lunch," she reprimanded.

James smiled, "You want us to beat Slytherin this weekend just as badly as I do so don't even start." He finally let go of Lily to ruffle his hair with his right hand.

Lily noticed that her friends had joined up with the other Marauders, and were doing a terrible job of pretending that they weren't constantly peeking back at them and giggling mischievously. She shot them the V.

"So, Charms," continued James.

"Right, er…" Lily tried to recall Flitwick's lesson with little success. "I'll have to check my notes."

James laughed, "Lily Evans has to check her notes for Charms? What's next, Head Girl, are you not a natural ginger?"

"You wish your hair was a brilliant as mine–"

"The hair is off-limits, Evans," his hand shot back up to his head.

"I'm allowed to have an off-day, I can fill you in during rounds tonight."

"It's a date."

"It's rounds."

"Sure," he said, and slung his arm around her shoulders as they reached the Greenhouses.

By the time they made it to the tables inside, their friends had paired off in a blatant maneuver to keep them together. Whether they noticed it or not, James and Lily filled in the open station just as Madam Sprout clapped her hands to signal the start of the lesson.

Herbology had never been Lily's strongest subject, but she and James worked in a perfect tandem that had long silenced any doubt that they were the right pair for Head Boy and Girl. James was still the trickster that made him the half of another dynamic duo with Sirius, but now Lily was in on the jokes that they volleyed across the greenhouse. Professor Sprout didn't scold them like she would have in earlier years however, because now the antics didn't interfere with the lesson.

The warm comforting glow that surrounded Lily dissipated at the end of the period when James left to join the Marauders for lunch.

After helping her tidy the station, he caught her arm and looked down at her face. Gently, his other hand reached up to brush her cheek. Her stomach fluttered.

"Got some dirt there," he explained with a small smile. Her face reddened. "See you, Evans." He walked off.

Disoriented, Lily quickly glanced around for the girls. Mary and Marlene came to collect her before heading up to the Great Hall. She continued to ignore their smug expressions.

"I wonder what Potter and his friends are up to," she couldn't help but muse aloud, "they ran off so quickly."

"I'm sure you'll see him at lunch," said Marlene, "don't let your separation anxiety get to you."

"I don't know what you're on about," she huffed, "I've survived the past six years without him, I can make it to lunch."

"Lily, this has to stop, just go snog him already before your delusions get so intense you end up hating him again," Mary exclaimed.

"These mood swings will only be amusing for so much longer," Marlene added.

Lily admitted the validity of their input, but only to herself. She wasn't used to being flustered and confused and…aroused all the time. She barely recognized herself and didn't want to agree with them for the fear of her loony transformation becoming permanent.

—

James was running late to rounds and Lily was pacing in frustration. Really he was only a few minutes behind and she had been early. Nevertheless, she was wearing a hole in the stone floor of the corridor and her pinkie nail had been bitten down to a stub.

"Evans." She jumped at the sound of his voice. She silently cursed herself before turning around to face him with a weary smile.

He was grinning and winded and had probably just come from doing something Head Boys were supposed to discourage other students from and suddenly Lily was very aware that her legs were liquid and her expression was rapt.

"James," she stammered in response. His brows shot upward but he said nothing. She decisively turned her head to stare down the corridor and carefully willed her feet to move forward so they could begin rounds.

They walked in a heavy silence for a moment before James broached the issue of Charms. Lily had indeed poured over Marlene's notes after classes (she had, to her utter shock, forgotten to take any herself) and quickly caught up on the lesson. With a neutral topic to discuss Lily became more at ease. Charms was her best subject for a reason and diving into the theory and explanations allowed her to act like a real human being instead of the fool that seemed to appear whenever a certain Quidditch Captain was around.

James, for his part, demonstrated again why he made top marks without ever seeming to do much work. He paid close attention when Lily was explaining how to conjure a small snow cloud above their heads. After watching her cast the spell once, it took him only a couple of tries to replicate it.

"There you are then." Lily smiled and shook the snowflakes from her vibrant hair.

"What's the point to going to class at all if you can just teach me the lesson in a matter of minutes?" James joked.

Lily tried to frown but couldn't help but laugh. "Who says I'd keep teaching you? This is purely out of pity for breaking your hand earlier."

"Nah, you like it."

"You've obviously never seen me tutoring the first years, or trying to at least," she grumbled, "It'd be easier to hold the attention of a niffler with a rusty spoon than those kids with a Charms lesson."

"We all grow up eventually, I'm sure they'll get it."

"Maybe, but not everyone is as uncommonly and annoyingly clever as you are." It was true, but Lily still bit her lip for letting it slip. She braced herself for whatever arrogant boast would follow the too convenient, if unintentional, set up. However, James said nothing, but smiled tightly as his cheeks reddened.

Humility had discovered James Potter and it suited him as well as his signature smirk.

"You think I'm annoying?" he asked sincerely. She stared at him a moment, trying to discern his meaning. Their interactions over the years meant that this question should have an obvious answer, so he clearly was thinking of something else.

"It's just so easy for you," she tried to explain, "Not just because you're a pureblood – because it took Fenwick the whole lesson to conjure the wisp of a cloud – and Marlene studies just as hard as I do. But you just get it. It's hardly fair. Maybe you forget because you are a pureblood but magic is…amazing–"

"I don't forget it," he said, "I think about it every day. I love magic and being magic…and I think that's why I get it. I do love learning, just maybe not always whatever lesson is on. I don't understand all the little details you do, but, I guess, I trust magic, and myself, for it to turn out alright in the end. Well, that and I have a very good memory." He smirked again, but his constant blush convinced Lily to respond.

"I wish I could trust my magic like that," she confessed, "Sometimes I think that if I don't understand every aspect of a spell it'll slip away from me, I have to convince the spell to work, that I really am a witch."

"Lily," James said earnestly, grabbing her arm, "You are an incredible witch, anyone with half a brain can see that. Don't let anyone, especially those Death Eater blood purists, convince you otherwise. No listen–," he exclaimed, taking her expression to mean disbelief rather than a reaction to him touching her, "You're the best witch Hogwarts' got, you're Head Girl for goodness sake."

At first Lily couldn't think of a single word to say. She blinked until she wasn't caught under the intensity of his gaze. "I know I'm bloody brilliant," she said finally, and smiled up at him, "you may be clever but I'm still the teacher here aren't I?"

James sighed into a smile and released her arm. "That you are."

With their lesson and heart-to-heart over with, they continued to patrol the halls until it was time to make their way back to Gryffindor Tower.

For all her time spent thinking about James Potter, whether in annoyance or, more recently, in longing, Lily had never thought that he could feel the same way about magic as she did. That it was this glorious thing that was at once bewildering and fundamental to who she was. It made her stomach flutter, that and the fact that he thought she was the best witch at Hogwarts. Even after almost seven years, he was still a mystery.

When they'd made it through the portrait hole and across the empty common room they came to a stop at the bottom of the staircases that split to take them to their respective dormitories. James opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly changed his mind and, with a nod, started on the stairs. But before Lily could begin her own ascent, he changed his mind again, turned, and leaned against the railing.

"Hey, Evans."

"Potter?"

"Sweet dreams," he said with a cheeky grin, and blew her a kiss.

Her hand reached up to touch her lips as if to confirm the kiss had found its mark. They tingled with imagined sensation before she realized just how ridiculous she'd been for pining.

True Gryffindor courage bloomed in her chest as she called out, louder than she probably needed to, "James."

He turned, having resumed climbing the stairs, and raised a brow at the sound of his name.

She allowed herself one moment to take in his face. The sharp jaw, now slackened with surprise. The hazel eyes that shone from behind his glasses. And that incorrigible hair that Lily could no longer keep herself from delving her fingers into.

"Get back here and kiss me proper."

"What?"

"Do I need to make that clearer for you?" Not waiting for an answer, she climbed up to meet him on the staircase.

The force of her kiss sent them back into the railing. James reached out to catch himself before firmly placing his hands around the back of her waist to pull her closer. Evidently he recovered from his shock quickly.

Lily's lips were demanding and James' were eager, and it was a while before they broke apart panting, still holding their heads close together.

"To hell with dreaming," she muttered.

"Right so," he said, before lifting her into his arms and carrying her back down to the common room to find an inviting couch.