Lily Evans was furious.

Bloody Professor McGonagall had to go and make James bloody Potter her bloody partner for the bloody Transfiguration report and bloody Potter wouldn't do any bloody work and -

"Whoa. All right, Lily?" her friend Alice Longbottom looked at her in slight concern, as some of her fury was obviously showing on her face.

"No, Alice, I'm not bloody alright." She then proceeded to tell her about the entire sad, sorry tale.

When she was done, Alice looked at Lily skeptically. "Well, it looks like you just can't find him. That doesn't necessarily mean he won't do any work."

Lily looked momentarily disconcerted at this voice of reason. "But - I - even if I do find him, he's not going to do anything. I - just, I just know it, okay?"

"But he's really good at Trans-"

"No, he's not! He's not going to do anything, because he's James Potter and he -"

"He what?" Alice's eyebrow was raised.

Lily made an extremely frustrated noise and stalked off.

"Black! BLACK!" Lily yelled across the Great Hall. Sirius Black, second only in dickheadedness to James Potter himself (and, as such, was his best friend) turned around, slightly alarmed.

"Yes, Evans?"

Panting slightly, she asked him, "Where's Potter?"

"Er - haven't you heard?"

"Heard what? No, you know what, I don't care. I just need to know where he is so I can finish this bloody rep-"

She was cut off by Sirius waving a piece of parchment in her face. Giving him an odd look, Lily skimmed the letter. She gasped in sudden shock and looked at Sirius.

"I - his dad - dead - seriously -?"

Sirius nodded gravely. "He's by the lake. Doesn't want to talk to anyone, apparently."

Lily knew immediately how serious the situation was - if Sirius had not made a pun on the "seriously" in her question, something was definitely wrong, and it was.

"I seriously suggest you don't go down there," Sirius said warningly. "He doesn't -"

"I don't care." And with that, she walked off determinedly.

"Potter - James - I -"

"Don't bother." James was sitting under the tree, staring hard into the lake, while absentmindedly playing with a Snitch.

"But I seriously -"

"I said, don't bother." He still wasn't looking at her. "Don't pretend that you weren't coming down here to yell or - or to curse me or whatever it is -"

Lily reddened slightly. That had been her intention in the first place. "I just wanted to say I'm sorry for what happ-"

James sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Look, Evans, I appreciate the gesture, but can you please just leave me alone?" he said, finally looking right into her eyes.

Lily was slightly taken aback by the colour of his eyes. They were such a lovely mixture of green and brown or hazel and that was her favourite eye color and why hadn't she ever noticed...?

"I - " Again, she stopped short as she noticed that his eyes were, ever-so-slightly, red-rimmed. She felt a sudden, extremely rare and very shocking rush of affection for him. "Oh, James, I ..."

He averted his gaze again and rummaged through his schoolbag, which was sitting next to him. After a moment, he handed her a sheaf of parchment. "That's my part for the Transfiguration thing, by the way. I did it last night."

Lily couldn't take it anymore. She hugged him hard, knocking his glasses askew. In fact, a more accurate word might have been 'pounced.'

"Whoa - Evans - what the -" The faintest trace of a shocked grin was now on his face.

She smiled slightly. "You know, Potter, I don't think you're quite so bad after all."

He looked quite taken aback, and then grinned. "I've been trying to tell you that for about six years now."

She smiled again, slightly apologetically. "Seriously, though, I'm sorry for what happened - "

"So am I." said James bitterly, the smile disappearing from his face. "I guess I deserved it for -"

"No," interrupted Lily shortly. "No one deserves it, not even you." She looked at him again. "Especially not you," she amended, smiling slightly again.

He grinned again, though it took slightly more effort this time. "You know, Evans, I think this might be the start of a beautiful friendship."

"You know, Potter, I think you might be right."

Reviews are highly appreciated.