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“Ughhhh” James Potter groaned, face planting the desk at which he was sat.

It was 6am on a rainy Saturday morning and James had dragged himself out of bed at such an unearthly hour in the hope of completing some notes for his muggle studies exam before 10am, so he could join the rest of the marauders down at Hogsmead. He was also hoping that, assuming Lily wasn’t in a foul mood, he might be able to have a civil conversation with her later or maybe even some banter… but that might have been pushing it.

James adjusted his glasses and stared down at the empty piece of parchment. It’s not entirely empty James consoled himself looking at the title which he had underlined twice.

James slammed the heel of his hand onto his forehead, before leaning back on his chair and closing his eyes. I wonder if Lily will be wearing her hair down today he thought, imagining running his fingers through those fiery locks. Momentarily, James lost his balance sending both himself and the chair tumbling to the floor, upsetting the desk on the journey. His bottle of ink crashed to the floor creating a pool of black glossy liquid, which began to seep into the carpet… and Lily’s green jumper that must have fallen off the back of the sofa.

“Crap” James exclaimed, scrambling to his feet and yanking the jumper out of ink’s black tendril fingers that were slithering its hold onto the green fabric.

“No No No No No” James muttered under his breath, attempting to wipe the ink off, but only smearing it so that the stain was even larger than before.

Suddenly a door banged open, which to James’ horror, revealed a very grumpy looking Lily, who promptly stormed down the stairs to investigate the cause of the commotion.

“What is going on?” She snapped at James, who had hastily hidden her jumper behind his back.

“Well…I….er” He stuttered, a faint pink glow making its way along his cheeks.

Lily raised an eyebrow, unimpressed, and used a spell to summon the object James was doing a poor job of hiding.

Her favourite jumper landed in her hands with a rather pathetic ‘plump’, the ink stain obvious.

“Care to explain?” She enquired, her voice deadly even.

James gulped audibly and she saw his adams apple bob up, then down.

“Iknockedmyinkanditsmashedandstainedyourjumper” He rushed, his eyes big.

“YOU COMPLETE…wait ink? Why are you writing at 6am on a Saturday morning?” Lily asked, suspicious of the boy stood in front of her.

“I was doing notes for my muggle studies exam” he informed her, his voice wavering slightly.

“Oh OK…well never mind.” She replied, throwing herself onto the sofa nearest the fire and closing her eyes.

James stood there dumbstruck. He had just stained Lily’s favourite jumper and woken her up on the one day she got a proper lie in and she said ‘OK’! what was the world coming to?

Once he had regained full use of his mind again, James righted the chair and repaired the broken ink bottle, before sitting down to attempt to complete the essay.

Really, he knew his effects were futile seeing as he had never been able to concentrate when Lily was in the room, so he wasn’t surprised when he didn’t manage to write a single letter because he was busy thinking about his favourite red-head.

“What cha doing?” Lily chirped, startling James out of the land of daydreams and appearing behind him.

He opened his mouth to reply, but before he got a chance Lily spoke again. “Loftus and Palmer?” she said, surprised, peering over his shoulder at the title on the parchment.

“Yeah, for some stupid reason I chose Psychology for muggle studies this year. Why, do you know it?” he told her.

At Hogwarts, if you took muggle studies up to NEWT level and passed an entry test, you had the opportunity to specialise in a muggle subject, which basically involved a year of doing your chosen subject.

“Yes actually; my dad loves Psychology” She explained, smiling briefly.

“The question is though, when your ink bottle smashed onto the floor, did you see glass?” Lily added cheekily.

“Wait…You actually know the study?!” James almost shouted, unable to contain his glee at the plan that was quickly forming in his head; Lily Evans loved to help people. James needed help.

“Well yeah, but I wouldn’t say I’m an expert” She thought aloud.

“Help me?” He asked, crossing his fingers under the desk.

At first Lily looked slightly taken back by the abrupt question, and he could see her toying with the idea for what felt like an eternity. Eventually her need to help overtook and she dipped her head in response.

Even though he was pleased with the outcome, James frowned; he wasn’t actually expecting her to agree to his proposition.

“What? You thought I wouldn’t help?” Lily said, reading his mind “Hey! I would never leave a friend to suffer if I knew I could alleviate their pain!”

James’ heart spluttered. He was torn between being over the moon that she didn’t hate him anymore, and being depressed because he had just been well and truly friend-zone-ed.

Before he had anymore time to ponder over his current predicament, Lily pushed the junk littering the desk along to the other side and perched in the now free space.

“Lets get started shall we?”