A/N: Thank you for the reviews! Thanks lilprongsie, powerofthename and Minna Vipera!

I wasn't sure how long I wanted this to be; initially a couple of chapters,but now I think I might extend it a bit. Promise we'll get to the Staircase Championships at some point! Onwards...

Chapter 2

They never made it to the top of Gryffindor tower. Turning a corner not two-hundred feet out of the library, both Lily and James - who by this point had caught up to her – skidded to a stop in front of an, at first, surprised, and a moment later, irate, Professor McGonagall. What bad luck, thought James impatiently. Lily straightened, tucked a fly-away piece of hair behind her ear and attempted to look as nonchalant as possible. "Hullo, Professor," she began, with a winning smile. "Didn't see you there, sorry. We'll just be off." She made to sidle around the imposing Transfiguration teacher but didn't get very far. "Just one moment Miss Evans, Mister Potter." She regarded them suspiciously over the top of her horn-rimmed spectacles. "Could one of you please explain just why you are pelting down the corridors on a Thursday afternoon?"

James ruffled his hair, grinning affably. Lily could tell without looking that he was doing it and rolled her eyes surreptitiously at the ceiling. "Would you say you were, on balance, more concerned by the pelting or the Thursday?" he asked, before continuing hastily at McGonagall's raised eyebrow. "That is, I – er – we, were on our way to try out a hypothesis." He nodded, as if it were obvious, and thought he caught a flash of amusement in the Professor's eyes. If so, it was gone as soon as he blinked.

"And what were you hypothesising?" she asked, with – Lily thought – mock interest.

"How potential Heads of School could take a greater intere-"

"Whether or not people might be interested in watchin-"

They spoke at the same time, and both trailed off, casting aggravated looks at one another, which everyone present construed, correctly, to mean 'let me to the talking, I'm-' in Lily's case 'more believable' or James' 'more practised -in this kind of situation.'

"I beg your pardon," McGonagall said. "I didn't catch a word of that. Perhaps one at a time. Potter?"

James raised his eyebrows at Lily in triumph as he launched into his story. She regarded him doubtfully, sure that McGonagall had seized the weaker link and they were in line for a train wreck. "You see Professor, what it was, was that Lily here and myself were just pondering in the Library-" he put an exaggerated emphasis on this word, grinning again, as if daring the Professor not to be impressed at his studiousness, "whether people might be interested in watching – ah – certain, safety demonstrations and receiving mapped illustrations regarding the staircases. How to time a jump, shortcuts, ones to skip, that sort of thing. Rather tricky, some of them, particularly for first years and not to mention extremely dangerous. Just off to survey the options."

Lily grudgingly surrendered to his greater expertise in the 'fluent excuse-of-a-moment' department. While she could probably have invented something believable, his Marauder shenanigans had given his excuses a certain well-polished flair. It was a credible tale, and actually, she reflected, not a bad idea for the school going forward. Hogwarts really was rather lacking in any form of health and safety. Unfortunately, McGonagall seemed to agree.

The Professor looked from one to the other, clearly surprised but impressed. While normally she would immediately doubt any off-the-cuff excuse of Potter's, (there had been so many she took anything he said with a pinch of salt,) the fact that he was stood next to - and working in apparent harmony with – Lily Evans, gave the explanation much greater credibility. While not a huge stickler for the rules herself, Evans could be relied upon to look out for younger students, and she knew the Prefect did not usually seek out the Marauder's company.

"Very well. That does in fact sound like a good idea. I'm impressed that the two of you seem to have been able to put aside your differences for the good of the school – you both do Gryffindor proud, representing our house with maturity and leadership." The pair shifted guiltily, trying to avoid eye contact while still appearing at ease. McGonagall continued, apparently in an unusually nostalgic mood: "How far you have come from first year! I feel sure you will continue to help the school improve as your year group becomes the senior students in September." She bestowed upon them one of her rare smiles; James and Lily both wished they could sink into the floor. "I'll speak to the Head Master about it at tomorrow's meeting, and I'll see you both in Transfiguration in the morning. But no more running!" With that final command, she walked past them and turned the corner.

Lily turned to James in dismay. "You clot pole! Now look what you've done. McGonagall thinks we're paragons of Gryffindish virtue, we're going to have to see Dumbledore at some point about our "brilliant new idea" and we'll likely have to produce safety manuals and physical demonstrations of how to cross stairs until we leave Hogwarts!" She sank back against the wall, groaning dramatically.

"Yeah, to be honest, I didn't think she'd a) buy that or b) run with that as much as she did. She always picks apart my excuses." James admitted, grinning a smidge guiltily. Although she was almost certainly right, and this all sounded like a lot of unnecessary bother, a small voice in the back of his head was reminding him that this would all mean quality bonding time with Evans. He squashed it. He was over that. She was fun, that was all. If – he regarded her languishing on the wall – a bit prone to the dramatic.

"My bad, Evans. Should have said we were late for handing in an assignment or something - sympathetic and also zero future work commitments."

Lily groaned again in answer, her hand now draped across her eyes.

"We could always just see Dumbledore and then bow out," he suggested, slightly unnerved by her melancholic histrionics, even if it was his fault.

At that she dropped her arm and gave him a pitying look. "You think I could bow out after that "maturity and leadership" spiel 'Gon just gave us? I would now rather crawl to my own death than disappoint her, and don't think you wouldn't be crawling with me. I'd cut your hamstrings." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "That woman knows just how to play me."

James, now even more unnerved but in reluctant agreement – he didn't think he could disappoint such faith either – said moodily: "I bet she said it on purpose, in case I was lying. Emotionally blackmail us into being good students."

Lily got up from the wall. "Probably. Next time, let me do the talking." She frowned, noticing her implication that there would be a next time. It smacked of camaraderie, and friendship, two things Lily was not planning on pursuing with James Potter – just look at the mess the first time had created! - and she wasn't sure how it had slipped out. She hoped he hadn't noticed (but, of course, he had. He didn't care though.) and barrelled on. "Although, now I think about it, this may not be so bad. It gives us a teacher-approved excuse as to why we'll be around the staircases. Really, what's the difference between 'checking for safety hazards to contain them' and 'checking for safety hazards to exploit them?" She frowned again, repeating her words in head and finding them wholly unconvincing, but she resolved not to think about it and her brow cleared.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. It's not like loitering in the stairways is a crime, you know."

"I know, but at," she checked her watch, "2:50? It's a bit weird-" she stopped as James yelped and looked at his own watch.

"Crap, I said I'd meet Reyna O'Brian at 2:45. How did I forget that?" He raked a hand through his hair in irritation. "Rain check on the staircase bet?"

Lily nodded, then frowned. "How do I not know who that is?"

"Third year. Hufflepuff."

"That explains it. I'm not sure I've ever seen a single third year Hufflepuff in my life. I'm not even convinced they exist."

"Now you mention it, they do seem uncommonly rare." James agreed. "I don't even remember seeing any we were in third year. And we had Herbology with them."

They both attempted to recollect for a few moments. James shook his head. "Anyway, Reyna's the only one I know."

Lily looked at him with sudden suspicion. "How do you know her? And why are you meeting up with her?"

"I'm not sure it's any of your business, Evans."

"No," she agreed pleasantly. "But nosiness is one of my worst faults."

"And the worst thing you can do to encourage a fault is to give in to it."

"I always found giving in to a fault immensely satisfying. Like that time I noseyed my way into Linda Grady's business in fourth and found out my slag of a boyfriend was meeting up with her."

"Bitter much?" laughed James. "I'm guessing that was Mitchell Drummond."

She nodded.

"And how was that satisfying?"

"Oh, it wasn't, much. Punching him in the nose was though. Immensely."

She shot him a cheeky grin.

"I take it all back. That sounds amazing. Never liked him. How did I miss that?" He wondered.

"I think you were in the hospital wing."

He looked at her in surprise, and she blushed.

"I'd been talking to Remus about it at the time; he missed it as he was in the hospital wing, and he mentioned you other three being there too. Still don't what you four were doing to all end up there. Couldn't get it out of him."

James might have been persuaded to elaborate but had a thought. "Hang on, aren't you friends with Grady? Ravenclaw, tall brunette?"

Lily nodded. "Oh yeah, she's great. We get on famously. She didn't know obviously, at the time, that I was dating Mitchell. And of course, when two girls find out a guy is screwing them both over, the only thing to do is ditch him and become firm friends."

"Terribly enlightened, Evans, but I think you'll find about 70% of the female population at Hogwarts would disagree with you there. Emily Sutherland and Rachel Roberts have been feuding since fifth year over Rory Gambit. It's infamous."

Lily sighed. "They prop up the patriarchy and put feminism back about 40 years at the same time. It's a distressing use of brain cells."

James snorted. "I'm not sure they terribly well-endowed in that department. It's dead racy though."

She scowled, and James thought it might be wise to change the subject. "Stubbornness is one of my worst faults," he confided. "McGonagall wouldn't let me try out for the team in second year 'cos they already had three chasers. I badgered her , I think, about twice a day for three weeks until she gave in." He laughed at the recollection. "And wrote letters. And put Quidditch references in my Transfig assignments."

Lily laughed appreciatively. "See? Dead satisfying. Faults truly are the spice of life." She turned sharp eyes on him. "So, back to the point. Why are you meeting with Reyna O'Brian?"

"Well, you know, it's uh…" he grinned sheepishly, and ruffled his hair. "Not sure I should tell you, Marauder reputation and all that…"

She raised her eyebrows and folded her arms, classic signs of the beginning of a Lily-Evans-Lecture. James had been on the receiving end of a few of these before, but not for months. She usually reserved it for his most thoughtless and at times bullying attitude towards the younger years. Otherwise she'd just hex him.

He sighed. "If you must know, I've started seeing her t-"

"You've started seeing her!?" Lily almost shrieked, interrupting him.

James paused, and quirked an eyebrow. "Jealous, Evans?"

"James, that's horrible, and so hypocritical!" Lily cried, impassioned. "Third years are like, tiny children! How can you string along a 13 year-old after McGonagall literally just said how she proud she was of us for looking after the younger years? The-"

"Oh, easily, Evans." James interrupted with a dangerous glint in his eye. "Nothing so impressionable as a 13 year old Hufflepuff, once you actually find one. I mean, I've gone through our year, of course, and fifth, not too sure about fourth year, not really many lookers there, so why not skip straight on down?" His voice was still light, but had a cold bite to it.

Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing. James was popular, confident, Quidditch Captain, and fancied by probably around a third of the school. The responsibility that came with this, and that up until now she thought he kept, was that anyone older or up to two years below was fair game. That was the unspoken school rule. Even two was thought a bit weird though, and not even Sirius Black had ever had a liaison with a girl three years younger than him – that she knew of anyway.

"Why not skip straight on and out of Hogwarts?" She retorted. For a moment it seemed as if they both might laugh; not one of her wittiest comebacks by far. But she rallied her anger and pressed on. "You are unbelievable! Taking advantage of your position, your looks, your popularity!" Her voice had risen till she was almost yelling.

"Oh, my looks, Evans?" James smirked nastily. "Didn't know you'd come to appreciate them."

"I haven't come to appreciate anything about you, you twit." She scoffed. "You know, I actually thought you'd begun to change? You were acting decently, being polite, being funny – we were getting on! But underneath you're just as shallow and selfish as you ever were."

"Oh yes, because you're the perfect angel, aren't you Evans! Of course, only once I changed every aspect of my personality could we "get on". If I'm shallow and selfish, you're just as self-righteous, critical and judgmental as you ever were!" James looked really angry now; his hands balled into fists and his eyes lit by that same, cold fire.

Lily opened her mouth to yell back, but a young girl turned the corner at the opposite end of the corridor. She saw James, and waved at him. They both fell silent, regarding each other coldly, and in James case, with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes.

The girl approached; she had bronzed skin, dark hair and eyes, and a mischievous smile. She glanced between them and sniffed; Lily was sure she could pick up the tension.

"Wotcher, James." She said with a grin, hoisting her bag over her shoulder more firmly. "I'd apologise for being late, but you clearly are too." She smiled at Lily, then addressed James again. "I'll meet you in the Library shall I? Looks like you're in the middle of something here." She gestured between them vaguely with her hand, grinning more widely. "Rahel says thanks again, by the way; I did so much better in that last test. She's more concerned about my grades than I am!"

Lily was starting to feel as though she'd made a horrible mistake.

"No kidding." James gave her a friendly smile. "Tell her no worries. And you know what, I think I'm done here, Reyna, I'll walk with you. You can tell me what homework you haven't done this week and the no doubt excellent reason why." He ruffled her hair and she swatted his hand away with a yelp, in an easy, familiar manner. With a last challenging look at Lily, he turned and walked away, Reyna chattering on beside him about McGonagall and wand length.

Lily was left wishing the ground would swallow her up for the second time in 15 minutes. Obviously, it wasn't a rendezvous, but a tutoring session. She groaned out loud, tugging on her hair. Why had she even jumped to that conclusion? They were by the library for goodness sake. She supposed glumly that was the reason he'd appeared there in the first place. To help failing third years out of the goodness of his heart! And he had been early!

She didn't think it was possible to feel any worse than she did. She had slighted and insulted him, suggested she thought his moral standards were so low as to be abhorrent, and all while he had been doing something rather admirable. She kicked the wall, and started to walk slowly back to Gryffindor Tower. Her books were all still in the library, but she left them; she'd be blowed if she was walking past Potter just to observe the finer details of his caring, thoughtful side.

Now that she thought about it, she was sure there was an O'Brian in one of the Quidditch teams – that must be Rahel, and how James knew Reyna. If sh'ed just stopped to think...That was a classic Lily-James argument, something she'd hoped they were over by now, and she only had herself to blame. He'd say something provoking, she'd jump down his throat, he'd be antagonising, she'd be derisive and it would spiral from there. Except this time, she had jumped to the wrong conclusion. She had behaved shallowly, and critically, and in every other way James had accused her off.

She sighed, and resolved to duct tape her mouth shut in the future. But first, she would have to do something she swore, from day one, she never would - apologise to James Potter.