Just a little James/Lily one-shot. I love them!

A/N: I own Harry Potter. J.K. I own nothing. J.K. Rowling does. Haha! Get it? J.K, J.K? Yeah, I know. It's not funny.

Lily flopped into her chair with a loud huff. She didn't have the energy to lower herself gracefully. After staying up until 3 am the night before finishing a Potions essay, she felt like she was going to pass out any moment. The last thing she wanted to do was struggle to stay awake during a double Transfiguration lesson. Dinner was still hours away, and even then, Lily would have mounds of homework to do. She didn't see how she would make it to bedtime.

James slid silently into the seat next to her. When Lily's best friend Marlene had started dating James' best mate, Sirius Black, she apologetically abandoned Lily to move in at his desk. James had hastily seized the opportunity to claim Marlene's place and Lily found that she didn't mind nearly as much as she would have just a year ago.

"Hey Lily," James said, smiling cheerily as he pulled out a quill and fresh piece of parchment.

"Hullo." She didn't know how he could be so bloody cheery. Nobody had the right to smile like that when Lily was running on three hours of sleep. Especially James Potter, because he made her want to smile back. And she would not expend any of her limited energy on smiling at James-bloody-Potter.

"Well aren't you Little Miss Sunshine today. Somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"No, somebody woke up on the right side of the bed eight hours too early."

"What were you doing up so late, Evans?" He quirked an eyebrow suggestively.

"My homework, you prat." She slapped his arm half-heartedly as McGonagall walked into the room.

"Settle down, class," she said when she reached the front of the room. "Take out some parchment for notes. Today we'll be talking about human to inanimate object transfiguration."

Lily sighed and dug through her bag, searching through layers of old assignments. Normally, she was much more organized than this, but the N.E.W.T. work was so hard. She hadn't had a spare second to organize all term.

James nudged her and she looked up from her bag, still unable to find clean parchment amidst the mess. "Here," he said, holding out a piece. Lily tried to tell him she just had to find some of her own – she knew it was in there, after all – but he shook his head and said, "Just take it. You've missed a few things already." Lily looked over and, sure enough, James already had a few inches of notes down.

"Thanks," she whispered and took the parchment. She hastily tried to catch up, fighting to remain open-eyed and seated upright. When the weight of her eyelids became too unbearable, she allowed them to slide closed for a moment, convincing herself that the second of rest would leave her feeling refreshed. Instead it only made her longing for a soft bed and pillow grow.

Lily's eyes popped open the moment she felt James' breath tickle her ear as he whispered, "Just lay your head down and take a nap. If McGonagall starts looking suspicious, I'll wake you. Otherwise, you can copy my notes down later. Or Remus', if you don't trust me to take good ones." He grinned.

"I trust you," Lily muttered, her head already slipping down to meet the desk without her conscious approval. She wanted to argue with James, to tell him that she couldn't afford to miss the lesson. But really, she knew it would make no difference. McGonagall's words were sounding like garbled mush and Lily wasn't understanding any of it. Besides it would feel so good to just close her eyes and let her exhaustion pull her under. She could catch up later.

James froze as Lily lay her head down. Her vibrant red hair had splayed out across the table and now a lock of it was only an inch away from his hand. He'd been good this year; he really had. No more obnoxious pranks, no more immature comments, no more asking her out every five minutes. He'd been good, and after six years of bickering and enmity, they were finally friends. He couldn't ruin that now by touching her hair, even if he had been dreaming about what it would feel like to run his hands through it for years.

But she's sleeping, James thought. She'd never know. And it's right there! Just look at how soft it looks!

She could always wake up, James' cautious side said. And it doesn't matter how soft it is; just keep your hands to yourself.

If James' cautious side knew the rest of him better, it would have held its tongue. James Potter never refused a challenge, even from himself.

Checking that Lily's breathing was even and praying that it meant that she was, in fact, asleep, James slid his hand a few inches to the left until he felt her soft hair brush against his pinky finger. James' breath caught. It was even softer than he'd imagined, if that were possible. He gently, slowly, tentatively combed his fingers through the last few inches of her hair, marveling at the feel of it as his stomach did somersaults.

Lily stiffened imperceptibly as she felt a gentle tugging on her hair. She had been on the borderline of sleep, perhaps moments from drifting off. But at the feel of James' hand in her hair, electricity coursed through her limbs, supplying her with energy that she hadn't known she had.

Lily struggled to keep her breathing even as James' hand continued to caress her hair. She had a feeling that if he knew she was awake, he would stop. And she never wanted him to stop. She'd been imagining what it would feel like for James to touch her like this since the beginning of the year, ever since she realized that he wasn't nearly as much of a prat as she'd thought. In the last few months, she'd wished that he would ask her out, just once more. She knew her answer would be different this time.

But no. It had seemed that James was plenty content with friendship. She'd been sure that he'd finally given up on her. Now… it looked like maybe she'd been wrong.

James sighed as he slowly extracted his hand from Lily's hair. His time was up. It had been stupid of him to do it in the first place; even if Lily didn't wake up, they were in a classroom full of twenty or so of their peers. Someone was bound to notice that James Potter was playing with Lily Evans' hair, and what would they say then?

As Lily felt him pull away, she turned her head, still on the table, toward him and opened her eyes. James' stomach clenched nervously. How long had she been awake?

"I'm sorry Lily," he said quietly, glancing toward McGonagall who was still teaching at the front of the room. His cheeks were stained pink. "I don't know what came over me."

Lily said it before she could stop herself, before the fear and embarrassment could freeze her lips. "Don't stop."

James' mouth fell open. "What?"

Lily's mouth opened and closed a few times as she floundered for words, and then she gently grabbed his hand and pulled it back to her hair. "Don't stop. I mean, unless you want to." She glanced away, her face now scarlet. Maybe he really hadn't meant to touch her…

James' hand resumed its gentle stroking of her hair. Lily's eyes flicked back to James' and they both smiled slightly, though this did nothing to decrease either's blush.

Lily sat up slowly and James tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. On an impulse, Lily turned her head and pressed her lips to his wrist.

James' eyes widened and his hand froze in her hair. Lily stared at the table, wishing she could burst into flames. What had she done?

James put his hand on her chin and gently turned her face up, forcing her to look at him. His thumb caressed her soft skin before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Lily's. One hand remained on her face, holding her to him, while the other made its way back to her hair.

Lily didn't move for a second, too surprised to kiss him back. James pulled away, looking extremely embarrassed. "Sorry," he said. But Lily's lips had followed him, and they silenced his words before he could say any more. Her hands wove themselves into his hair as she scooted her chair closer, wanting to erase all the space between her and James.

His tongue had just brushed against her lips when someone cleared their throat loudly. The two pulled apart, blushing bright red and grinning stupidly. Sirius wolf-whistled and a few people laughed, some cheering loudly. McGonagall's lips twitched slightly, but she managed to keep her face set and severe.

"I wish the two of you every happiness," she said sarcastically, "but please refrain from repeating this episode in my classroom. Twenty points from Gryffindor." She turned back to face the rest of the class, picking up her lecture where she'd left off when the class had been distracted by the kissing couple.

Lily and James both sat, staring blankly ahead, for a few moments, neglecting their notes. Finally, James reached over and grabbed Lily's hand, squeezing it gently. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw him grinning. The corner of her mouth curved up and she had a hard time holding in a laugh. Lily kept her eyes straight ahead, but her nerves were singing where her skin touched James'. Lily felt like she would never be able to go to sleep again; her heart was pounding too quickly and her thoughts were firing too fast. She found that she didn't mind.

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