He watches her from across the common room and manages to lose track of time. He only realizes he's staring a couple minutes later with a jerk of the head back into reality. Taking a few steps back, he continues to keep his eyes on her; he knows there's something wrong with her.

Lily Evans never leaves an unfinished essay in front of her to curl up in an armchair. He's only seen her do this after all of her work was finished – but he knows for a fact that she's barely started her essay.

He can't help but continue to scrutinize her to see if he can figure it out by himself. They're closer now anyways, and he knows he can figure it out if he tries.

But she's chewing her nails now and he's taken back. Lily Evans never chews her nails. He pauses, wondering if someone had taken over her body, proclaiming to be the real Lily. No, he convinces himself that of course it's Lily because she still has the habit of tucking her legs underneath her body and sitting sideways on the chair.

He finds himself striding across the room toward her without a second though. He sits across from her, flashing a grin.

She barely looks up to meet his gaze. "Hi," she greets him but he can hear the wavering note in her voice and he freezes momentarily because Lily Evans does not let her emotions get the better of her.

So, he leans forward and says, carefully, "You okay?"

He doesn't think she's going to respond by the way she gives him an exasperated look, but then she shrugs lightly. "Stressed, that's all."

He sits back, slightly relieved that it isn't something worse. For a second, he thinks that someone tried to break her heart and, even though he knows she's strong and independent enough to deal with it, he still wants to break the idiotic bloke's nose. "I haven't seen you around lately," he comments after a short pause.

She meets his eyes. "You've been busy, I guess."

He almost wants to flinch the way she says it, thinking that she's still bitter that he bailed on the last couple rounds to check the corridors. Instead, he responds, "I'm sorry. Quidditch and essays and all that."

She opens her mouth suddenly, but closes it immediately afterward. He yearns to hear what she had almost said, so he adds, "I'll reschedule practices to fit in more time."

He almost doesn't hear it by the way she mumbles the words. "Practices don't last that long."

He blinks once, twice and then says, "What are you talking about?" He can hear the annoyance in her voice – something that he hasn't heard for awhile.

She then looks up at him and shifts to untuck her feet and he knows he's in for it now. "Nothing. I just need to know the truth behind your lack of responsi-"

"Seriously?" he interrupts her, his eyebrows raising in surprise. "I missed a couple rounds – I said I'm sorry – what else do you want?"

She shrugs and he gets annoyed at the gesture. He hasn't gotten into a fight with her since the beginning of the year and he's slightly surprised that the feeling comes back stronger than ever and it doesn't necessarily feel bad.

"I want to know why you're lying," she then says smoothly.

He wants to yell his response because the look on her face is so frustrating, but he answers evenly (albeit through clenched teeth), "Lying about what?"

She leans forward and he's caught offguard by the flashing in her eyes. "Her." He blinks again. "What's her name?" she adds, clearly frustrated now.

"Holly?" He says with a questioning note – but he knows that it's the right answer, especially when Lily sits back in her chair with pursed lips.

"You've been with her."

He stares at Lily for a second and realizes that he hasn't told her anything. He's never brought up Holly in any conversation with Lily and he knows it's because he doesn't understand how to deal with it. He tries to comprehend the situation at hand.

When he doesn't respond, she adds, "It's not professional to miss out on rounds for some girl, James."

He watches Lily ramble for a few more seconds about how unprofessional he's being and he finds himself amused at the whole thing. Surprisingly, he isn't shocked when he finally realizes what's going on. If anything, it makes him want to laugh.

Finally, she ends on the point of "and that's why you shouldn't go around snogging in public where people can see you and your idiotic friends can go around taking pictures of you and then give them away so people can look at them all day or something."

He can't help but grin at the way she's rambling.

It takes him awhile to finally say something because he's too distracted by her arguments about why he's unprofessional. When he does get ready to say something, he takes his time, standing up to stretch while watching her out of the corner of his eye.

She's eyeing him like he's crazy of course.

"Don't worry," he exclaims, taking in her expression; she looks as though she's about to yell at him again. The grin on his face widens and he says his next words slowly, trying not to let the smile get in the way. "You're much better."

And he's not lying either.

Ah, yes, they don't really get together but it's the start of it, right? So, think of it as "almost fluff." At least it's happy this time.

(I'm not ashamed to say that this was inspired by Much Better by the Jonas Brothers.)

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!