Last Lily

"Evans! Hey, Evans!" Lily Evans gritted her teeth and walked even faster down the Hogwart's hallway. She heard footsteps behind her and a hand grabbed at her shoulder. She turned around angrily and glared at the boy who had stopped her.

"What do you want Potter?" She spat. He grinned.

"Good Morning, my beautiful blossom."

"Bug off." Lily turned from him and ran into the History of Magic classroom. She took a seat in the first row and stared raptly up at Professor Binns who sat transparently going over some notes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Potter come through the door and make his way to the back of the classroom where the rest of his annoying friends sat.

Professor Binns looked up from his notes and started, surprised like always, that there were students in his room looking up at him. Well, some of them looking up at him. Not those four in the back, but they didn't count. James Potter never paid attention.

He smiled at Lily, his favorite student, and began the lesson.

Lily rushed up to the Gryffindor common room after her morning classes to drop some books off. She rushed into her common room and bumped into her dorm mate, Amaryllis.

"Oh! Sorry Lils," Amaryllis gushed. "I wasn't looking where I was going.

"Woah, me neither. Sorry"

"It's OK." Amaryllis glanced at her watch. "Oh son of a Hippogriff, I'm late for divination. See you Lils!" She rushed off. Lily proceeded up to her dormitory.

She was packing her DADA book into her bag when there was a knock at the door. She opened it and stared into the empty air in front of her.

"Ahem. Down here miss." Lily jumped and looked down at the floppy ears of an ancient house elf.

"Oh! Wilfred! I'm sorry, I didn't see you."

"Quite alright miss." He smiled toothily up at her. "I'm to deliver a present to you." He held out a huge bouquet of red and white flowers. "Only, I'm not supposed to say who they're from."

"Thank you Wilfred."

"You're quite welcome miss." Having done his duty, he scurried away down the winding staircase.

Lily looked in wonder at the beautiful flowers in her hands. Who could have sent her them?

Suddenly, she remembered Potter calling her his blossom that morning. She dropped the flowers quickly and wiped her fingers on her robes. Then, trodding hard on the delicate blossoms, she made her way to lunch in the Great Hall.

James sat down on his bed with a sigh. No matter what he did, Lily kept ignoring him. It was getting pretty depressing. The dormitory door squeaked as his best friend Sirius came in.

"Hey, James."

"Hullo." Sirius looked at him in mock concern. "Why so glum sugar blossom?" James glared at him. Sirius chuckled. "No, seriously, what's wrong?" James put his head in his hands and mumbled something incoherent.

"Didn't quite catch that."

"Lily."

"Ah. Yet again the rejected lover. What'd you do to her today."

"Hey! What do you mean 'do to her'?" James looked suspiciously at his friend sitting across from him. Sirius sighed.

"Well, James," Sirius chewed his lip thoughtfully, thinking of how to phrase this. "She - well -- she doesn't like you very much." James looked hurt. Sirius plowed on. "And I know you like her and everything but technically I think it's cruel and useless to go on harassing her like this." James swallowed.

"I don't."

"You don't harass her? Sure, mate, sure."

"I don't like her." Sirius frowned.

"Oh, well then there doesn't seem to be a problem does there? I just assumed that-"

"I love her." Sirius jumped and almost fell off the small four-poster bed he was perched on.

"What?!" James blushed. He hadn't meant to be that blunt.

"Nothing. Never mind. I'm going to bed." He turned from Sirius and shut the hangings around his bed.

Sirius remained seated with his mouth gaping open, staring at the place where James' head had vanished. He took a breath, closed his mouth, and silently left the room.

Lily lay on her bed and listened to Amaryllis gabbing to her best friend Violet about Quidditch practice.

"And then MacGrunland made this great save and Wood said that it wasn't good enough and then Potter tackled him and now he's suspended from the Quidditch team."

Lily's stomach flipped over at the sound of James' name. She hated him, the bastard.

"So whadaya think Lils?"

"Huh?" Lily snapped back to reality. Violet sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Weren't you listening at all?" Lily blushed.

"Of course I was. I just spaced out for a sec."

"Sure."

"Well?" Lily said impatiently. "This had better be a good question, Vio. I don't come back to reality for nothing you know." Lily made a mock exasperated face. Violet giggled.

"Well, we were talking about Potter." Lily clenched her teeth. "We really think he likes you Lil." Lily raised her eyebrow.

"Amaryllis caught him staring at you in Potions the other day. Didn't you Ama?" Amaryllis bobbed her head excitedly. Lily looked disgusted.

"You guys are just plain sick." she spat furiously, and stalked out of the room.

"So then he says, 'I love her', and I said 'What?!' and he got all defensive and went to bed." Four boys clustered around the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Four somber faces frowned. "What do you reckon?"

"I dunno Sirius. It sounds pretty serious doesn't it?" Sirius glared at the small, rat-like boy sitting to his left. The boy grinned sheepishly and cowered in his seat.

"Very funny, Peter."

"Actually, I think Peter's right, Sirius. If James actually said that, I think he's pretty... set on Evans." The other three turned to the boy sitting closest to the fire. His shaggy brown hair fell partly into his dark eyes which reflected the light of the blaze near to him.

"You have a point Remus." Peter scowled. "I mean, considering he's the only one out of us that hasn't even had a girlfriend yet-" Peter looked up.

"I haven't-"

"You don't count Peter." The small boy looked hurt.

"Anyway, as I was saying. Considering he's the only one of us who hasn't had a girlfriend yet, it's pretty extreme for him to suddenly proclaim his love for her."

Remus chuckled.

"Maybe she's the special one for him." He crooned, and batted his eyelids.

"Maybe they'll get married!" Was Peter's excited contribution.

"Maybe they'll have kids!" Sirius gasped with laughter. All three of them cracked up.

"Shut up!" They all stopped quite suddenly. The fourth boy sat the furthest from the fire. His face was partly hidden by shadows.

"Don't tease James. If he's found the right person, he's found the right person and it's not for us to judge. Or," He glared at them, "to make fun of him."

The other three hung their heads, looking ashamed.

"You're right, Harry." The boy nodded, got out of his chair and stretched. His long blond hair fell about his shoulders and his blue eyes twinkled mysteriously.

"I'm going to bed. No more teasing. OK?"

The others all made affirmative noises and Harry walked off towards the dormitory.

Sirius sighed.

"Harry's right." He pondered. "In two ways. One, we shouldn't tease James anymore, and two, it's time for bed."

The other three nodded and they left the warm fire and made their way to bed.

James dressed quickly the next morning and was out the door before the others were even awake.

Sirius, Remus, Harry, and Peter went down to breakfast together but James was nowhere in sight. "Where do you reckon he is, Padfoot?" asked Peter worriedly.

"Dunno. Probably embarrassed about last night." All of them avoided making eye contact with Harry. An awkward silence of several minutes followed. "Well, at least I'll see him at Quidditch practice this afternoon, right?"

"Right. You can talk to him later today." Agreed Lupin. "Don't be too serious though, Sirius."

Sirius punched his shoulder playfully but laughed along with the rest. "Never gets old, huh?"

"Because if you're too serious, Sirius, he might just run away!" They all stared at Peter eyebrows raised. His face turned steadily redder and redder before Sirius spat at him.

"Ok, now it's old." The group laughed.

"Yeah," put in Harry, "It's not funny when you do it, Wormtail."

The small boy seemed to deflate slightly and he stayed behind as the others left the hall.