"Well, that's it for today." Ms. Evans told the students at the end of the lesson, "Please gather the cushions together and place them neatly in that corner." She pointed, distracted by her thoughts.

Things had changed all of the sudden. Since she had graduated Hogwarts, for five years she had traveled the world working for the Ministry of Magic as a diplomatic witch until her old headmaster had asked for a favor. Dumbledore had asked her to teach Charms at her old school as the former teacher, Professor Flitwick, had requested for a sabbatical to spend time with his dying mother. She had now been on her deathbed for almost a year. Lily didn't mind though and of course said yes to the job and had gotten quite excited about coming back to Hogwarts, it was now early May, so she'd been there for almost a year, it was hard being the only young teacher there and she could only catch up with her friends through letters and on occasional Hogsmeade weekends.

But despite all that she was quite content, she liked the idea of teaching and the students took her with open arms and most of them liked her, even a fair bunch from Slytherin.

Being back in Hogwarts made her feel nostalgic, remembering how easy life was once, how she sat with her friends on the side of lake talking about how boys smelled bad and then a few years later who was the hottest bloke at Hogwarts that month.

She missed being so carefree. Now she was 22 years old and felt like all her years of freedom had passed by in a heartbeat.

"Excuse me, Professor Evans?" She was snapped out of her thoughts by a male voice next to her, she turned to see a student by the name of James Potter. In her daze she hadn't noticed the fact that most of the students had run out as the bell rang, except for young Mr. Potter that stood in the corner she'd pointed to earlier with his hands full of cushion and he was obviously losing his balance.

Lily quickly got up and helped him place the cushions neatly in the corner, as she placed the last one on the top she spoke smoothly "You know, you could've just used magic."

James' back was turned to her but she saw the back of his neck turn bright neck. "Oh, right. Right, I didn't realize." He answered stuttering slightly.

"Was there anything else?" Lily asked as she eyed him, James stood in front of her clearly wanting to say something.

"Yes, Professor. I think I may need some help in this class."

"But school will be over in less than a month, have you been having problems all year long?"

He nodded with a baffled look on his face, like he didn't know whether or not to nod.

"Why didn't you come to me sooner, James?" She asked him softly, making his palms sweat.

"I- I don't really know. I kind of just lost track of things all of the sudden. Please, I really do need help, I need to pass the M.U.G.G."

Lily sighed and looked at him for a second before reaching out for her agenda, "I'm free next Thursday night, come to my office then and we'll discuss what you need to practice in." Smiling at him she wrote down the appointment for the day.

"Thank you, Professor." He smiled awkwardly and ran his hand through his hair clumsily.

"You better get to you next class, James." She told him, collecting her things from the desk.

James muttered "Oh, right! Bullocks!" and ran out. Lily walked towards the open door and giggled faintly, leaning against the doorframe she saw him running through the corridor. She didn't close the door 'til he was out of sight.

During the next few weeks, Lily and James met on a regular basis and practiced everything James seemed to have trouble with, which was a lot more than Lily had expected, he hadn't been this bad ever before, she often thought how on earth this had occurred. She knew he was an excellent student with great scores in every single one of the classes he was in.

Late in May, Lily sat in her office grading papers. She looked out her office window; the afternoon sun shone through it and blinded her temporarily. At the same time she heard a knock on the door; she stood up, walked towards the door and opened it. There stood a very happy James Potter.

"Well?" She enquired excitedly.

"I did well, the examiner even said so! I didn't forget anything!" He beamed at her.

"That is excellent, James! Congratulations!"

They stood there for a moment, smiling at each other until Lily spoke, "Well, I better get back to work. Well done, James. I'm very proud of you." She smiled and moved to close the door, but James reached his hand out and stopped the door from closing.

Lily looked at him confused and he asked "Can I come in for a second?"

She nodded slowly and drew back the door as she did so. Once James was inside, she took a seat behind her desk and motioned with her hand for James to sit down in the chair opposite hers. Instead of sitting down he stood still some feet away from the desk and stared fixedly at Lily. After a short while he opened his mouth to speak, but closed it again just as the words were about to escape his mouth. He repeated this action a couple of times before starting pacing slowly with a thoughtful look on his face.

"James?" Lily spoke after a few minutes' silence, "Is there-"

"I've been lying to you." He interrupted her.

"What?" She asked confused.

"I'm not bad at Charms. In fact I'm really rather good." He nodded, closing his eyes and paused for a second. "I just pretended to be bad to… well, to spend time alone with you."

He looked at her and saw her staring dumbly at him,

"I remember the first time I saw you during my first year. You were a sixth year Prefect and helped me find the Gryffindor House. I had a crush on you during all of my first and second year here," He continued and smiled sheepishly at the last thing he'd said, "And then when I got back in third year you were already finished, so I finally realized that there were a bunch of other of beautiful girls here at Hogwarts, so I forgot about you. That is," He looked at her again and noticed how her expression had softened and how she clearly was aware of what he was about to tell her, and went on "Until last September, when I saw you sitting at the Teachers' table, tossing your hair aside each time you laughed at Slughorn's bad jokes. I was mesmerized. You blew me away, for weeks I couldn't think about anything but you, I couldn't see anything but you, other girls didn't interest me at all. But, there was no way I could ever tell you how I felt, I mean, you being a teacher and I being a student. And then I thought of a plan with my friends, one of them suggested I could take extra Charms lessons to get closer to you and eventually tell you the truth. I thought it was the perfect plan but then my so called Gryffindor courage bailed on me. I couldn't, I was afraid of rejection, which is a very unusual thing for me to be," He pointed out, "During the exam today, I realized that this would be my last chance, perhaps ever to tell you my feelings."

James fell silent and let Lily digest what he'd just told her, she blinked a few times and swallowed before looking up at James,

"So you're saying that-"

"That I'm in love with you, yes." He answered firmly and nodded once.

"James, this is really-" She sat up straight, shaking her head, but James knelt down beside her and turned the chair so that she was facing him and held her hands as he interrupted,

"Lily," She shivered when he said her name and the hairs in the back of her neck rose, James lifted up her right hand and kissed her palm.

"No, don't. I'm your teacher. You're my student. I'm a lot older than you!" She whispered but still she let him hold her hand.

"Only five years." He reasoned.

"Still, that's five years! You're still just a child!" This time she withdrew her hand but James quickly grabbed it again and held it firmly, yet softly.

"No, I'm not. I'm of age. I'm seventeen."

She considered him for a moment, caressing his cheek and said "Like you said yourself. You're seventeen, you're only just seventeen. You don't know what love is yet."

James lowered his face for a moment, then looked up and moved towards her face. Before Lily knew it his lips were set firmly against her own. Just as she was about to close her eyes and lean into it, she realized what she was doing, pulled back and slapped him square on the cheek.

"Wha?-" But he didn't get a chance to finish as Lily rose from the chair, with an angry look in her eyes.

"Leave." She said stiffly and then repeated "Leave." A little stiffer.

James stared at her for a moment or two and then left the office hastily.

-Four years later-

"Will you hurry up Padfoot? We're late as it is!" James yelled out to his friend from the entrance hall in their small apartment.

"I know, I know!" The other young man yelled back just as loud as the other as he came out from the bathroom, "The thing is just… it's like my hair has a mind of its own today!" Sirius exclaimed as he continued adjusting his hair, gazing at his reflection in a mirror that hung on the wall. "Good God! Why is this happening to me? Why on this day of all other days?" He cried out and threw his hands up in the air.

James stared at him for a moment. Was he joking? Was his best friend for a decade seriously fussing over the fact that a few of his hairs weren't swaying the way they were supposed to?

He walked up beside Sirius and looked into the mirror and gazed upon the reflection of the two.

"I don't see nothing wrong with your hair." He then said after a second or two.

"Well of course you don't. You hair always looks like a bird nest gone bonkers."

James raised a brow at that comment a Sirius quickly added, "A nicebirdnest gone bonkers. What I meant is that you're used to it. It's your trademark, you know? My trademark is the way my hair is always perfect. Always. Perfect." He gestured with his hands to emphasize the fact that the hair was always perfect.

The pair of them stood and stared at their reflections for a few more moments until James said again, bewildered and shaking his head.

"I don't see nothing wrong with it."

"Well this lot here!" Sirius practically screamed and pointed with his finger above his right ear, James leaned closer and looked at the spot Sirius had pointed to.

"Nope. I don't see anything out of the ordinary."

His friend gave a frustrated sigh, started patting the spot he'd just pointed to lightly and asked "What time is it?"

James glanced at his wrist watch and muttered "Nine past eleven." Just as the words escaped his mouth both of the men turned to each other and yelled out in unison

"Fuck!"

Sirius grabbed their shoes and James their wands, tossed Sirius his and soon they'd apparated away.

Once they'd arrived at the Ministry, they tumbled into the phone booth and gave their names and reason for coming. Once they'd gotten in they ran towards the elevator while struggling to get their shoes on and just managed to get in before it closed.

The time couldn't have gone any slower, James thought. The elevator made three stops before it got to the floor the two friends were headed for.

Running out and making a sharp right they soon got to the Auror Department. James slowed down and took a deep breath. This was it. This was what would determine whether James was qualified for Auror training. This moment would be possibly one of the biggest- His thoughts were interrupted by a nudge from Sirius.

"You all right, mate?"

"Wha'? Oh yeah, I'm fine. Let's go!" As he took a nother breath he headed for one of two doors, a sign on it reading 'Auror Training – Introduction & Interviews'

James reached out for the doorknob and slowly opened the door, followed by Sirius.

They walked into an average sized room filled with people and at their arrival silence, everyone had turned around to see who was late, a small woman sat at a desk in front of the entrance and demanded "Names?"

"Sirius Black. And James Potter." Sirius answered noticing how his friend had become distracted by something at the end of the room.

"You're late." The woman said sternly as she took their respective files and placed them on top of a pile of other parchments, James' file on the very top.

He groaned, "Yes, we know."

Sirius grabbed his friend by the elbow and steered him towards a couple of free seats.

When they'd sat down a female voice spoke. "As I was saying, my name is Lily Evans and I'm Junior Head Auror here at the Auror Department. I'll be doing your individual interviews. Elle, could you hand me the files please." The tiny woman got up from her desk and handed Lily the stack of parchments. Lily read the top file.

"James Potter?" She looked up and gazed around the room until meeting his hazel eyes with her own emerald green ones. They gazed at each other for a short moment before Lily broke the stare and said "Follow me." She walked towards the door with James on her heels and led him into the opposite room.

As she turned to close the door she thought to herself, 'Typical. Awkward. Awkward. Awkward!' and closed it.