All I can see are stars [OPEN]

[``lily marie evans]

With Seven years in that building, Lily Evans knew the tower inside and out. She knew the quiet places, the beautiful surprises, and the secret corridors. Bare in mind, she was really never one to use them, but over her years in the school she became quite aware of their existance.

Knowing the school so well had its advantages. She knew all the places she could go to avoid the world. The astronomy tower was one of those places, unless you ventured up there during a clear night. But at four o'clock in the afternoon, the place was empty with the exception of the two girls sitting on the floor their backs pressed against the stone of the castle walls.

Marlene McKinnon and Lily Evans. The two girls had been close since first year. As one could tell by the pile of text books, their venture to the tower had been for academic purposes. Lily offered to help her with the transfigurations, but after a few hours, the pile of books had been left untouched.

Girl talk. One thing left to another, and they were led completely off topic. Boys. Christmas. Home. The potions assignment. Well... potions was school related, but that came up for another reason. Slughorn had assigned partners. Lily was with Amos Diggory, and Marlene was with none other than Severus Snape.

"Diggory? It could be worse Lils. He's quite the looker actually, and didn't you have a thing for him in fourth year."

Lily rolled her eyes, as she looked towards her friend. "Even if I did, I have a boyfriend-"

"Who you haven't seen much of lately."

"That's besides the point Marlene. And Amos is horrible with potions. The first time we attempted it, he somehow managed to make it explode. I'd much rather have someone who knew what was going on."

"Like Snape? I'd be happy to trade."

"Not funny."

"He keeps asking about you. Well mostly about you and Potter."

"Of course he does, he hates Potter, he w-"

Dammit The brunnete said cutting her off, as she stood up quickly, pushing her books into her canvas bag. I completely forgot, I was supposed to meet him in the library about.... dammit an hour ago, I'll see you later Lils. The partner trade is still on the table, if you'd like it

"Thanks, but I'll pass. Bye Marlene. she said with a smile watching as the girl ran down the spiral staircase.

As Marlene left, she was actually a bit happy to have the time to herself. There was alot on her mind lately, and it was nice to simply let her mind unwind. Alot had gone on lately, things had changed alot this year that was for sure. Hell, she was dating James Potter. The boy she couldn't stand for years. It's funny how drastically your feelings about someone can change. She was falling for him, and falling fast, despite the fact he'd been a little more distant that usually. But she had a sneaky suspicion that was because Sirius Black was continually glarring at her with discontent. Maybe she had stepped out of her bounds just a bit, but in her mind, SIrius was taking this too far. Remus was past it, Sirius would be eventually too, apparently that would just take a little more time.

[``james ignotus potter]

The raven haired Gryffindor sighed as he continued scribbling down some stuff on a piece of parchment. He hated waiting til the last minute to do homework, but for some reason he hadn't been able to get himself to do it this weekend. He didn't know why, but he had a feeling that it was because his life was going to hell right now. Sirius and Remus were both a little ticked at him, well, more Sirius than Remus, but still. He hated having people that mad at him, especially his best friends. They had been through so much in the last 7 years, and now it seemed as though everything was going to end this way, with everyone mad, and forgetting about the bond that they all shared. James didn't want that to happen, but right now, he didn't know if there was anything he could do to help the matter, unless he wanted to break up with Lily, which he already knew there was no chance of doing.

He let his mind drift to his girlfriend for the time being. He hadn't seen her much lately, except for in class and maybe around in the hallways. They had also seen each other on their rounds since they were Head Boy and Head Girl. He hadn't been avoiding her per say, he just had kept to himself since the whole thing in the common room. They had talked about it an everything one day when Transfiguration class had been canceled, but other than that they hadn't been together all that much.

He sighed softly to himself and finally finished his homework. After he got his homework finished, his mind went back to Lily. There was so much he wanted to talk to her about. They had talked about a lot of things the last time they had met. They had talked about them, and the problem between Lily and Sirius. As he thought about it he just shook his head. He knew everything would go back to normal, or at least he hoped it would.

He ran his hand through his hair and decided that he needed to get out of the common room and go do something. He had been doing his homework He decided to head up to the Towers and ended up going into the Astronomy tower. He sat down on the bench and looked around for a second and then he saw someone familiar.

When he saw his girlfriend, he felt his heart flutter a little. He shook his head, wondering if he should just talk to her, or just go up to her. He finally made a decision and walked up behind her and snaked his arms around her waist and said, “Hey…”

[``lily marie evans]

This whole issue with James and his friends had been on her mind far to often lately. It bothered her, maybe than it should have, but being on bad terms with Sirius considering her relationship with James was never a good thing. But it really wasn't like her and Sirius had really even been close. Hell, she could barely stand him for years. She only started warming up to him within the last year, it really shouldn't have mattered what he thought of her. But considering how close he was with James, what Sirius thought was incredibly important.

And that was the problem. It mattered what Sirius thought of her, not to her, but to James. Sirius and James had been friends for years, Lily wouldn't willingly stay in the same room with James until sixth year. Their relationship dynamics were completely different. Sirius was like his brother, Sirius had alot of influence, Lily was new. Despite the fact she was new, she cared alot. She had fallen for James Potter, and faster than she could have ever imagined. It still surprised her at times. For years he was the one person she told her self she'd never be with, and now, he was the one person she couldn't get off of her mind. Funny how the heart works.

A faint sigh escaped her lips as her mind drifted. Her thoughts had wandered too far. The silence of the tower was too good of a distraction from school work. She needed to be remotely productive. She stood up, running a hand through her hair. Planned on packing up her stuff. but that planned changed rather suddenly. Not like she was complaining though.

His touch surprised her at first, she hadn't heard him come in, but it was far too comforting as soon as she realized who it was. His smell... his touch... it had all become familiar to her. Even though he had seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth this week, his touch still brought a smile to her face.

A warm smile pulled at the corner of her lips as she leaned into him. " "Ello" she said softly, looking over shoulder towards him, gently placing a quick kiss on his cheek. "Funny you know, I was just thinking about you." as she spoke, she turned towards him, the smile remaining on her lips as she looked up at him. He really did have phenominal timing. "I barely heard you come in. What are you up to, just wandering?"'

[``james ignotus potter]

The black haired, 17 year old Gryffindor looked at his girlfriend as she turned around and gently kissed his cheek. He laughed softly and said, "Oh you were huh?" He should have known that she would have been thinking about him. He was the same way. He had tried to get his mind off of everything this week, distancing himself from Lily and his friends. It hadn't worked though. He had been constantly thinking about Lily, which really was no surprise when he thought about it. She had replaced his friends, he just had a different type of affection for her than he did his friends.

He smiled a genuine smile, the first one in a while. Ever since the whole thing between himself, Lily, Remus and Sirius, James hadn't been able to bring himself to smile,nor could he get his mind off of it. He was constantly wondering what he should do, and at one point had considered just ending his relationships with everyone, but he had quickly realized that that course of action would not solve anything, and that is when he had decided that he should just keep to himself for a few days.

Lily's voice came through his thoughts and he smiled softly and nodded and said, "Yah, I just got done with my homework, and needed to get out of the common room..." He sighed softly to himself and then he continued and said, "I was also thinking about you...and I wanted to find you and be with you...and so fate made me decide to take a walk up here..."

He continued to look at her, slowly getting himself lost in her eyes. He finally gave her a small smile again and said, "So...how have you been doing?"

[``lily marie evans]

Fate? So he wanted to blame this on fate. Sure, Lily was a bit of a romantic at heart, but she knew James was quite the charmer and was quite sure fate was a load of crap. She never believed in fate. It seemed like it was an excuse people needed to justify decisions. Like that if something was your 'fate', the outcome of your actions would be the same no matter what you decided. She liked to think life was much more controllable. That you could make things change. Despite her dislike of the term 'fate' she was more than happy the boy had showed up, so if she wanted to blame fate... well she'd let it slide this time. "Fate hmm?" she said softly, the smile still pasted onto her lips. "Could be that, or maybe we've just got dumb luck." she joked, emerald eyes locked in his. Whatever it was, she was happy he was there.

She gave a simple shrug as she leaned her back against the stone wall. Life had been fairly uneventful lately. She'd felt guilty as hell about this Sirius and Remus thing. Things were fine once again with Remus, but Sirius was a whole other problem. He was stubborn. Too stubborn, the boy was worst than she was. And a bit of a hot head too actually. One thing she learned from this was that Sirius Black was like her in quite a few ways, but that wasn't a fact she was content enough with to admit to yet. She'd given up on trying to resolve things with the boy, realized he'd have to come to her on his own time. It was rather annoying though having to wait while this whole thing was driving her nuts.

"I've been fine." She answered very vaguely. Sure, this situation was driving her mad, but she didn't exactly want to have a discussion about all the drama in their lives. There was always plenty of time for that later. " A bit bored actually. Nothing to eventful has happened lately. This potions assignment with Amos is starting to drive me mad, and I haven't seen nearly enough of you around lately. " [/color]

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[``james ignotus potter]

James couldn't help but laugh at himself for talking about fate. He wasn't usually the kind of person who believed in that kind of stuff. Sure it had sounded corny in his mind and even when he actually said it, but he didn't know what else to say. He shrugged and said, "I don't know, it just sounded good at the time..." Besides, ever since he had been with Lily, everything about his thinking had changed. He believed more in stuff, even fate, but he wouldn't usually say it out loud, no matter what. He usually kept stuff like that to himself, but he kind of liked saying stuff like that to Lily, even if it didn't seem like she believed him.

James watched her lean against the wall and sighed softly to himself, wondering if she still blamed herself for what had happened between Sirius, Remus and himself. It hadn't been entirely her fault. Sirius had overreacted, and Remus had already forgiven her. They were doing fine, even if things were a little strained with Sirius right now. Things had been rough before, and James was used to dealing with it. He didn't feel like his world was crashing down anymore, at least not as much any more.

He heard her voice, and his eyes searched hers. He knew there was stuff she wasn't telling him, probably because she didn't feel like talking about it, or it was just little trivial stuff that she didn't want to talk about. He looked at her again and nodded and said, "Yah, I've been bored lately too..Sirius had kind of kept his distance...I mean we're talking, but we still aren't 100 percent yet..." He shrugged and said, "I hate the potions assignment too..." He then gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and said, "I know how you feel...I haven't seen enough of you lately either..." He smiled after they seperated and said, "Sometimes I can't wait for school to be over...but I don't think I'm ready for this war to start yet..."

[``lily marie evans]

"At least your talking. That's a start right?" She hated putting James in this position. It was awkward for everyone. She'd never make him choose between her and his friends, but Sirius was successfully making things very, very awkward. It wasn't like she'd ever been very good friends with Sirius, but he had made his disapproval of Lily known over the past few weeks, which was much more awkward than she'd prefer. "I mean he still won't look at me without giving me a death glare, so talkings brilliant." she added offering a faint smile.

A faint smile tugged at her lips at the warmth of his kiss. James could do funny things to her heart. He was comforting. Everything just felt easy. Funny, if you asked Lily Evans in first year if she ever thought this moment was possible, she'd call you a foolish prat and walk away. It's funny how much people changed.

Her arms slipped around him as their lips parted, emerald eyes still gazed up at him. The smile wore quickly off her face at the mentioning of the war. A soft sigh escaped her lips, as she gave a simple shrug. "Really? I don't know, I don't mind if it school drags out a bit. Sure, there's alot of things I'm excited for afterwards, but this whole war thing... I don't know, I think I'm just more afraid about it than I'd like to be,"