Lily and James the Prequel

"Yes I will!" Lily shouted back, and then opened the door.
Remus stared, "You will?"
"Yes."

They smiled at each other and Remus said, "I'll go write our names in the book."
"Okay, see ya later." Lily said, and flashed him a dazzling smile, then backed into the room, shutting the door.
Remus thought this was perfect, he wouldn't even have to worry about the full moon, it would be the orange harvest moon, so he wouldn't have to worry about it. Since it fell on Halloween for the first time in decades, it wouldn't faze him; he'd already checked that out.
Lily turned around and screamed, "YES!! HE ASKED ME!!!" and Remus heard this halfway down the stairs, and smiled.  Lily said, "Can you believe it?"
"Yes, we can. You've had guys falling all over you ever since your makeover." Renee told her
"Thanks you guys, I owe you so much for that."
"No problem" Gina told her.

Remus wrote their names in the floating book in the center of the common room, theirs was the third entry. Then he walked back up to the dorm.
"Well, did you get turned down too Remus?" Sirius asked,
"Nope, she said yes." he said blissfully.
"WHAT?" Sirius and James shouted with identical expressions.
"She was waiting on you to ask her?" Sirius asked with disbelief.
"She turned us down for you?" James continued.
"Hey, watch it." Remus said with mock hurt.
"Sorry, but I can't believe it." James said.
"Well believe it. Lily Evans is going with ME to the ball."                                                    "So, who are you guys going to ask now?" Remus asked.
"Well, maybe I could ask Gina." Sirius said
"NO! Absolutely not! I won't allow it!" James shouted at Sirius.
"Relax, James, how about Adriana. She's in Lily's dorm, and she seems nice, I guess."
"And I think I'll ask that Genevieve Riggs, from Ravenclaw. How about you Peter?" James said
"I wanna ask Patricia Patterson." he said.

The next morning at breakfast Lily and Remus sat next to each other, earning the evil eye from James and Sirius, though they weren't really mad. Sirius asked Adriana, and they agreed to go to the dance together. James couldn't bring himself to ask the pretty, popular Ravenclaw girl (sound familiar) and decided to put it off for a while. They had fun classes that day, and it turned out, they were all succeeding in them. That night quidditch practice was fun too, but the conditioning wasn't.  They were just about ready to start the conditioning, which consisted of running the entire distance around the Hogwarts land, then a partner run, when Amelia came running out from the castle over to James.
"James" she panted, "I'm so glad I found you. I wanted to ask you to the ball."
"Uh, NO. I would rather go with my sister than go with you." he said flatly.
"Fine, Potter. But you will be sorry for messing with me. My father is second in command for the owner of Mentinen."
"Haven't you learned your lesson yet?" Lily asked in an exasperated voice. "My father is the owner of the company, so I don't think you should mess with one of my father's friends children."
Shane Maddox shouted, "Okay, run all the way around Hogwarts property, you will see fluorescent flags that mark the boundary." then he took off, and everybody followed him. At first everybody thought 'how hard could this be?' and were joking around, all of the boys on the team, with the exception of Shane started jinxing each other, but they didn't mess with Caitlin, she was too tough for them. Lily however was free game, so often got caught in jinxes, but she just turned angry eyes to whoever did it and haughtily demanded the counter curse, and they obeyed. They were about halfway around the castle grounds when they started panting, and when they finally made it back to the starting point everybody collapsed, excluding Lily and Shane, who was in better shape than everybody else, but they were breathing hard.
"Okay everybody, ten minutes then the partner run, I'll explain that in a minute." Shane shouted, and everybody groaned.

"Okay" Shane shouted five minutes later, "I'll let you choose your partner today, but if it gets to be a problem we'll have to draw. What we're going to do is a muggle-military drill (is it really?). What you do is carry your partner piggyback at a run, or as fast as you can for 25 yards. We'll progress to longer distances as the season goes along. Then we'll switch, so that each partner has to be the runner once. Okay, on three pick your partner. One.... two.... three!"
"LILY!" Every person on the team shouted and ran over to grab her.

Lily looked at all the people who wanted to be her partner. One of the boys HAD to weigh 250.
"How dumb do you think I am? Caitlin, will you be my partner?"
"Sure" and everybody groaned. James eyed Sirius and Remus, "Remus, will you be my partner?"
"Yeah, I guess."
Sirius went and asked Shane to be his partner, and then there was only one person left, and Shane announced, "Since there are an odd number of players, the odd person will have an invisible weight spell placed on them."

Matthew Moratsin-the 250-was the one without a partner. James, Sirius, and Caitlin would run first. Lily and Caitlin thought she should go first because Lily would probably be too tired to hang on after she ran, because Caitlin was about 30 pounds heavier than Lily's own 98. Just before they started running, Remus grinned at Lily and said, "This should be fun". They were running, and as it turned out, Sirius came in third out of three places. Then it was Lily's turn to run, and Caitlin kept sliding off. She finally made it past the finish line, coming in the same time as Remus.

"Jesus James! You need a diet!" Remus exclaimed, dumping James unceremoniously on the ground.
"Hey!" he said, when he landed roughly, “You're no lightweight either Lupin!"
Lily meanwhile was lying on the ground, half-dead.
"Shane" she wheezed, "could we only do this maybe once a week?"
"I can see this could be a problem for you Lily. I'll see if I can find a solution for it."

The next morning Lily couldn't get out of bed. Gina, Renee, and Adriana all tried to help her up, but she moaned, and fell back to the mattress, then she finally explained, "We did the partner run last night, and I think Caitlin broke my back."
"Oh, I'll get a teacher" Renee said, and ran out of the room
Professor McGonagall came back looking very worried. "Miss Evans, can you get up?"
"No, it hurts too bad."
"Okay, I'm going to levitate you to the hospital wing."

"Wait! Let me brush my teeth first!" Lily said, she was obsessed with dental hygiene. Renee brought her toothbrush, and she quickly brushed her teeth in bed. Then she was levitated through the common room, to her chagrin, still in her ducky pajamas. Actually they were kind of cute for her girlie side, but not for Lily's tough girl appearance. The students in the common room stared at her.
"What happened?" Remus asked.
"Quidditch practice." Lily said shortly, and all of the quidditch team knew exactly what was wrong.

When she got up to the hospital wing, the very old nurse said, "My dear, what is wrong?"
"My back" and she was flipped painfully over so she was lying on her stomach.
"What happened, it appears to be badly strained. It almost seems as if a hippopotamus jumped on you."
"Well, in quidditch practice we had to do the partner run. I got the lightest person on the team, besides me, and I think she probably weighed thirty pounds more than me."
"That could definitely do it. You are such a dainty child, much like my great great granddaughter. I'll perform a spell, and it should reduce the pain, and help it heal quicker. But no more of this partner running, and avoid any back strain, like standing for more than 10 minutes."

Lily was magiced some clothes, then she went down to the great hall for the remaining 20 minutes of breakfast.
"How's your back?" James asked when she got sit down.
"Not, too great, but better than before. Guess what, I have a note that excuses me from the partner run."
"Lucky" the three other members near her exclaimed. As it turned out, the partner run wasn't ever used again.
That evening, at dinner, a large, flat box was dropped at Lily's feet by several owls. She peeked inside, and there was her outfit for the Halloween ball, 3 weeks away.

Very soon those three weeks passed, and it was Halloween. The girls were about ready to go up, when James came running over to Gina and pulled her over to the side. "Gina, do you have a date?"
"No. Why?"
"I don't either, I waited too long to ask this one girl, and I kind of forgot about asking anyone else to the ball. I've checked the entire school, EVERYBODY except for me and you have got a date. We will be humiliated. There isn't a student in this school going stag."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Gina, will you go to the dance with me?"
"WHAT?"
"Please, everybody know your my sister."
"That's what I'm afraid of. INCEST!"
"Shut up Gina, come on, you'll be the only girl without a date."
"Fine, James. But I'm not going to dance with you."
"Deal." Then all the girls went to get dressed.
Lily was twisting her hair into little twists, secured into a bun with onyx and pearl studded bobby pins when they asked, "what are you wearing?"
"A dress my mum sent me, but its a surprise, you'll have to wait till I put it on." and Lily continued fixing her hair, leaving a few curls trailing down her back, then some in front. Her mother had sent her a Neiman-Marcus exclusive dress, tailored to her measurements. It was a black silk column dress, with a back that laced up. With is she wore a string of pearls and black heels. She looked stunning she could tell by the wide-eyed expressions of her roommates.

They got into the great hall, and they were awed by the decorations. Black trees were growing through the floor, jack-o-lanterns were glowing eerily on every table and black cats were wandering around, and Lily recognized her own cat, Rhett, as one of them. James immediately went to the refreshments table and got himself some pumpkin juice and cauldron cakes, but he dropped both of them when he saw Lily take off her cloak. His eyes grew round as saucers at the magnificent picture she presented. Almost every guy in the room had the same expression on his face, Remus included. Couples stopped dancing on the floor, because the guy out of each one was staring at Lily. The youngest singer from the magical pop band that was around fifteen stopped in the middle of the chorus. Lily was blissfully unaware of all of this.

Sirius choked on some peanuts he had grabbed on the way in, and Lily got up and hit him squarely on the back.
"Thanks" he said,
"anytime, hey what are you guys looking at?"
"YOU" Remus, Sirius, James, and even Peter said at the same time.
"Is it my dress, I think I'll just wear my cloak. I was afraid it would make me look ridiculous." Lily said and reached for her cloak, but Remus ed it away from her and said, "NO! You look nice. Don't put the cloak on."
They sat down, and the feast began. After awhile Remus asked nervously, "Lily do you want to dance?"
"I would love to" and she flashed him a beautiful smile that almost made him pass out. They were dancing their fifth straight dance when Remus suddenly asked, "Lily, will you be my girlfriend?"
"Umm, yes I will." Lily answered, and Remus returned her smile. They were completely absorbed in each other when James tapped on Remus's shoulder and said, «May I cut in?" and Remus reluctantly handed Lily over.
Unlike between her and Remus, Lily put a good foot of daylight between her and James.
"So, Lily, what's going on between you and Remus?" James asked.
"He asked me to be his girlfriend." she said simply.
"And what did you say?"
"Well aren't you being snoopy, but I said yes."
"Just asking.” James said in a snappy voice
"Just answering" she said in an equally snappish tone and frowns settled over both of them, until Sirius cut in.

"Hello Lily, what's going on between you and Remus?" Sirius asked without preamble, and Lily purposely stepped on his foot.
"We're going out" she said irritably, "I wish you people could learn to mind your own business."
Sirius smiled and said, "Can't teach an old dog new tricks."
"Yeah right" but Lily smiled back
"Okay, its time for me to get to dance with her again." Remus cut back in, and they were once again dancing.

"Lily, do you want to go for a walk in the gardens with me?" Remus asked
"Sure."
"Hey, can I dance with her?" Shane interrupted and Remus reluctantly handed her over once again.  "You look real nice tonight Lily."
"Thanks Shane. Who did you bring?"
"Caitlin, but she's dancing with Matthew."
"Cool, she's nice. Think we'll be ready for the match tomorrow?"
"Probably so."
"Hey, Shane, I'll trade you partners." Matthew said, and they switched. Lily danced with him for a minute then said, "I need to go, Remus is waiting for me." and she started walking toward him, but Luke McClain intercepted her. They danced a song, and then Severus Snape walked up.
"Lily, would you please honor me with a dance?" he asked, and she couldn't be mean so she accepted. This lasted for about twenty seconds them Remus said coldly, "Snape, I believe she's with me."                                                                                       "Well, if she can dance with other guys she can dance with me too." Snape said
"No she can't"
"HEY!" Lily exclaimed,
"Sorry Lily, but you still don't realize the full extent of his malice and stupidity."
"Whatever you say Remus, let's just continue dancing." Lily said pleadingly and led him back out to the dance floor. Lily noticed that only a few couples were on the dance floor at any given time, and she switched partners often, but every other dance was always with Remus. Most of the time he sat out when he wasn't dancing with Lily, and it was toward the end of their 27th dance that James came over and said, "Please dance with Gina, she's driving me crazy." They did trade partners and Lily said, "I thought you two weren't going to dance."
"Gina has only danced three other dances besides this one, and she wanted to dance, so I was the gopher. Unfortunately. Then she just complained once we started dancing."
"That sounds like a lot of fun."
Oh, it was, trust me" He said sarcastically. About twenty minutes later, the ball ended at midnight.
Lily went up to the dorm and got into her pajamas. She flopped onto the bed and said, "I'm exhausted."
"I'm not" Adriana said
"Me neither" Gina complied
"I'm still fresh" Renee told them
"My goodness, how can you guys NOT be tired." Lily asked.
"Easy, none of us danced more than five dances." Gina said good-naturedly
"WHAT?" Lily asked with disbelief
"Exactly, there wasn't a girl in this school besides you that danced more than fifteen dances." Renee informed her.
"Why am I so special?" Lily asked in astonishment.
"Look at you! You looked gorgeous tonight. You were the only girl they wanted to dance with." Adriana said.
Lily blushed and mumbled good night.

The next morning Lily was more than a little embarrassed to go down to the common room, let alone the great hall. She thought she would disguise whatever made her so popular last night by pulling her hair back in a tight pony-tail, streamers and all, and forsaking any kind of beauty amplifier (makeup). She also left all her jewelry upstairs and put on her rattiest sneakers. She thought the tomboy effect was pretty darn good. She skipped down the stairs and saw that the common room was surprisingly filled. With 90% of the Gryffindor male population. When they heard her coming down the stairs they had expectant looks on their faces, but they turned to looks of surprise and disappointment when they saw how she looked. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter all got up and followed her out the portrait hole. James was the first one to talk. "So, did you decide to quit playing dress-up?"
She said calmly, "Yes, I think I put more work into looking like this than what I normally do though."
"I have to say, you look like crap." James said, and Lily momentarily stared. Then she went over to him and punched him.
"Hey, what'd you do that for?" he said indignantly.
"It takes 42 muscles to frown, it only takes about 4 to punch you."

She smiled nastily and Sirius, Remus, and even Peter started laughing, and Lily kept walking. Remus caught up to her quickly and said, "Lily, you still look pretty."
"Thanks Remus" she said and they walked down to breakfast together. That morning they had potions straight off. Their teacher was an old witch named Madame Morano, which the students secretly called Madame Moron.

Today in class they were going to be making happiness potions, and at the end of class, they were going to test them on themselves. Remus was perfectly happy about this, because he thought it would be a good time to tell Lily his secret. All of his friends besides her knew, and he wasn't looking forward to telling her. They all made their potions, and tested them. Most people's worked, including Lily's, but Remus couldn't bring himself to tell her while she was under the spell's effect. He promised himself he would tell her after the quidditch match against Ravenclaw.

That night the team walked nervously out to the quidditch field. Gina as it turned out, was going to be the announcer. The Gryffindor quidditch team walked down to the locker rooms and changed, then listened to the pre-game pep talk by Shane. "Okay, we need to start the season with a bang, to show Slytherin they won't be able to walk all over us, got it? Good. Now here's the plan. You chasers, score as much as you can, obviously, and exaggerate the fouls as much as you can. Beaters, keep the bludgers away from our players as much as possible, and direct them to their chaser, Minihe; he's the biggest scorer. Also, really give their seeker a tough time. Okay team, let's go out there and show them what we're made of."

Gina sat in the announcer's box and started talking once the team came out.
Here are the teams. Captains Shane Maddox and Taylor Webster shake hands. Gryffindor's got a lot of green players this year, and Ravenclaw's got experienced ones. This may determine the game right here. Experience.

The teams are off! Evans immediately takes the quaffle, tosses it to Potter, score! 10-0 Gryffindor!
Dimity Monroe of Ravenclaw has the quaffle, passes to Jacobs, OH, interception by Lupin, toss to Potter, handoff to Evans, oh a good fake, and a toss back to Lupin, SCORE 20-0! The Gryffindor beaters are really hammering the Ravenclaw chaser Minihe, though he's in a shower compared to the hailstorm the seeker is going through. They're really beating those bludgers. Ravenclaw scores! 20-10, and no sign of the snitch. OOH! Lena Ninton flies into Evans and she gets a foul shot. She makes it 30-19. Oh My! Another foul already. This time Potter has a foul shot and its 40-10 Gryffindor. Minihe has the quaffle, the bludger gets him, and Evans picks it up, tosses it across the field to Potter and score! 50-10 Gryffindor, the Gryffindors are cherry picking, it happened again 60-10! Look at them dive! Shane Maddox and Reynolds Wrap are in a neck and neck dive for the snitch. Maddox leaps off his broom and grabs the snitch! Gryffindor wins!
Remus pulled Lily over to the side and said, "After you get changed I need to tell you something."
"okay" and she went to change, not trying as hard as she usually did to look good. The attraction to Remus was wearing off; she kept wishing his hair were darker, and maybe not so neat. The chocolaty brown eyes weren't as cute as before, and she wished he had lighter eyes, and she was finding herself more attracted to the bad boy type. She knew Remus was a wonderful person, but her feelings weren't the same anymore.

Lily met Remus in the corner of the common room.
"Lily, I'm just going to tell you this straight out, because I can't keep this secret from you anymore. I will understand if you want to break up with me because of it."
"Tell me Remus, what's bothering you?" Lily asked, fearing the worst.
"James, Sirius, and Peter already know. They're trying to help me with my problem."
"JUST TELL ME"
"Well, Lily, I'm a werewolf."

"What?" she whispered in disbelief.
"I was bitten by a werewolf when I wandered out into the woods when I was five."
"Wow. I don't know what to say." Lily said, still stunned.
"I didn't expect anything different. You've actually taken it better than I thought. I expected screaming and crying and fear. That's what I get for everybody else. I understand that you don't want to go out with me." Remus said sadly, and he suddenly seemed tired. He turned before she could say anything and went to the boys' dorm. She stared after him.

James, Sirius, and Peter were watching Lily anxiously. She turned and started walking up the stairs all the while thinking. They could practically see the wheels turning. Lily was thinking I was going to break up with him, but I can't now. He'll think it's because of the werewolf thing. What should I do? She was upstairs now, and she sat on her bed, still thinking. I know he won't believe me if I explain it to him. I'll just have to go out with him still. That's all I can do, and I'll make the best of it. I won't let him regret it either. Lily smiled grimly at this idea, and got ready for bed, then fell into a restless horror filled sleep.

She kept having nightmares about a huge black dog, a rat, a deer, and a werewolf. A werewolf was going to attack a boy. The deer made the werewolf back off. Then her dreams flashed to her and James. It looked like a wedding. She was sitting at a table, and all of a sudden Remus knocked some wine over and stood up. When he did the tablecloth went sliding, and dumped the cake on Lily, and she woke up laughing. It was four o'clock, so she decided to go ahead and go downstairs to wait for Remus after she dressed.  Lily sat reading Hogwarts: A History for three hours until dawn. She was on the final chapter when the boys came down, looking surprised to see her there. She went up to Remus and said, "I just needed a little time to adapt." and she kissed him on the cheek.
"Y-you mean you still wanna go out with me?" Remus asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, you weren't trying to scare me off were you?" she asked teasingly
"Nope. Are you ready for breakfast?" Remus asked and they all headed down to be the first ones at breakfast. If Lily would have turned around she would have seen a peculiar expression on James's face akin to enlightenment.  It was a Saturday, so they didn't have classes. James disappeared somewhere, and Remus, Lily, and Sirius were playing exploding snap. James came bounding through the portrait hole and said, "Guess what? I'm going out with Saran Wrap! From Hufflepuff."
Lily and Sirius started laughing at her name, because they were familiar with the muggle world.
"You're going out with plastic wrap!" They both shouted simultaneously, looked at each other, then started laughing at each other.
"No. I'm going out with Saran Wrap. She has a brother named Reynolds. Nobody names Plastic though, to my knowledge." James said seriously.  James went to get a wizard chess set to play with Sirius, and once he left, Lily immediately started plotting.
"Hey, guys, do you wanna pull a really great prank on James?"
"YEAH!" they said jubilantly
"Okay, I'm going to write to my parents, and they should send me some stuff, and once I get it we will plan our prank out all the way." Lily said, and then raced to the owlery. Surprisingly, her package came back that night. It was 300 rolls of Saran Wrap and 10 cases of crazy glue, just in case.
It wasn't very late, so Lily ran downstairs to get Remus and Sirius. She pulled them over to the side and said, "Okay, here's the plan. My parents sent me boxes of Saran Wrap at my request-"
"How could they send you Hufflepuff girls in a box?" Remus questioned,
"No, the Saran Wrap we're talking about is a plastic film used to cover dishes and stuff. Okay, what we're going to do is sneak down to the kitchens and get honey and lard. We spread this stuff on the Saran Wrap and wrap James in it, and anybody else you want to while we're at it. We should also put this stuff around all of his stuff, like his clothes and books, only without the honey and stuff. Got it?"
"Yeah, this is a great idea Lily." Sirius grinned, and Remus was barely containing laughs.
"My parents also sent me Crazy Glue for some reason. We could use that if you have any ideas."
"Duh, glue them to their beds." Remus said.
"Okay.. You guys go get the honey and lard. I'm guessing you know how to sneak down to the kitchens?"
"Oh, yes."
"Okay, great. I'll look up the spell to make people sleep deeply real quick, and we'll be ready to roll." Lily said with a devilish glint in her eyes. Amelia was tops on her hit list.

When everyone was asleep Lily met Sirius and Remus in the common room, levitating a sack of Saran Wrap rolls in front of her.
"Are you guys ready?"
"Yeah!"
"Let's get James first. We might as well get Peter and Anthony while we're up there."
"Okay, should each of us have a person, or everybody work together?" Remus asked,
"Good thinking, each of us should have our own person. I'll take James." Lily said.
"I got Peter" Sirius said,
"So I'll take Anthony." Remus concluded,
"That's right. The spell is Rentingut Sleperus." Lily told them, and they quietly walked up the stairs and let themselves into the boys' dormitory.

"Retingut Sleperus!" all three said at the same time, pointing their wands at their victims, immediately putting them into a deep sleep. Lily opened her first box of Saran Wrap and spread honey on the entire length. She then levitated James and wrapped him mummy-style in the Saran Wrap. Remus and Sirius were doing similar things. Lily was trying really hard not to burst into laughter at the sight of James drooling. Then she spread a bottle of Crazy Glue on James's bed and put him on it. Then she spread lard on more rolls and completely encased his four-poster bed. Sirius had done something similar to Peter, only with honey, and Remus was Crazy gluing Anthony's bed curtains closed. They got done and they did the same thing to Shane Maddox and Matthew Moratsin. Next they went into Lily's dorm. Lily wrapped Amelia in honey and her bed in lard. She couldn't resist Crazy-gluing Amelia's slippers to the floor. Sirius also got a crafty gleam in his eyes and wrapped Gina in lard, but spared the bed trappings. The funniest part about all of this was that a simple spell 'pranktin renturnus' would reverse all of these effects. They just had to figure this out. For Shane and Matthew they had left a note, just in case so they wouldn't be too steamed. They didn't give James, Peter, Amelia, or Gina this luxury.

The next morning, a comical sight was acted out in the first year dorms. The expressions of the honeyed and larded victims were priceless. When Lily got downstairs she high-fived Sirius and Remus and said, "Some things are priceless, but for everything else, there's MasterCard. Well, that truly was priceless, but I'm sure we could've bought the Saran Wrap and glue with MasterCard."
"So I guess I just met the infamous muggle Saran Wrap huh?" James said.
"Yep!" All three chorused.

A week later, during History of Magic with Ravenclaw Remus saw Lily stare longingly at Taylor Webster. This went on for several days, but Lily always pretended like nothing was wrong to Remus. Then he KNEW. He knew why she didn't break up with him. Pity. He hated it. Finally one night in the common room he went to talk to her.
"Lily, I know you don't really want to go out with me anymore, and I don't want your pity." Remus said bitterly.
"Remus, I don't pity you. I just didn't know how to end it. I realized it before you told me you were a werewolf, and I was going to tell you, but then you told me about that. I couldn't break up with you then, because I thought you would think it was because of you being a werewolf."
"Thanks for considering my feelings Lily. It's more than most would do. But you deserve to be happy."
"Thanks Remus. Friends?"
"Friends."

Very soon it was all over school that they had broken up, and within the week, Taylor Webster asked Lily out, and of course she accepted. He still wasn't quite the type she was looking for, but he was definitely a long way from Remus. He had short blond her and golden good looks. Actually, he reminded Lily of a Viking. Taylor was actually a fun person to be around and she was getting to really like him.
James meanwhile was still going out with Saran, but he seemed to have difficulty putting up with her incessant whining, flirting, and just plain stupidity. If she wasn't so pretty, he would have broken up with her long ago. He was discovering he didn't care much for Taylor Webster, and it was a growing dislike the more time he spent around Lily. To banish these feelings he spent more time with Saran, but that was succeeding in driving him crazy.

Lily walked into a classroom on the Thursday before Christmas break and saw Taylor talking loudly to a huge group.
"Lily Evans is a real dummy. She thinks I actually like her. Ha! She needs to lose some of that baby fat first. Maybe get rid of those freckles. I know there's not many, but she should have clearer skin. And that hair! How hideous. Nope, it's the straw blonde stick thin girls that I like Saran. You are gorgeous. You make her look like a trash can lid. I was just hoping you would come to me after you saw me with her. I was just trying to make you jealous, Saran." Taylor declared. Lily drew out her wand and used a curse James had made up, "Snottium floo!" and Taylor's nose started producing huge amounts of snot. She turned and saw James had heard everything she had. They both silently went back to the quidditch common room.
Lily was rather depressed about the whole Taylor Webster affair, and James was mad. This wasn't too flattering for him either. Lily was relieved when Saturday came, and she could ride the Hogwarts train home for Christmas break. She and James and Gina were the only ones going home out of their group. James and Gina didn't really want to, but their parents insisted since he was a first year. When train finally got to the platform 9 3/4 station Lily was very ready to be home. She really wanted her mother. When she stepped off the train her parents didn't recognize her at first. She walked up to them and said, "Mama! Papa! I missed you!"
They stared down at her for a moment then said, "Lily, honey, we didn't recognize you, you've changed so much."
"You've finally done something with your hair. And lip-gloss. You look spectacular." Her mother declared.
"Lily, you look wonderful" Meredith Potter declared.
"Err, thank you."
"The Potters let us go with them to pick up James and Gina, so we only had to take one car." her mother explained as they all piled in one car.
"How did they do this?" Lily asked once she got settled between James and the window.
"Magic. How else?" he said, looking at the four adults sitting in the front seat with apparent ease.

Gina read most of the way home, while James and Lily were thinking up things to repay Saran and Taylor.
"I've still got the plastic wrap and crazy glue left over." Lily said
"Lily, dear, what did you use all of that Saran Wrap for?" Lily's mom asked, and Lily looked like she was going to faint.
"Umm, I uh, was umm, using it for, a umm, uh, experiment. I was testing it on umm-"
"She was seeing how much it takes to bind a person completely." James said sweetly.
"WHAT?"
"Chill. I was just wrapping some of my friends in it. It was a joke." Lily jumped in.
"You haven't been getting into trouble at this school have you?" Lily's mom asked sternly.
"ABSOLUTELY NOT! I am doing very well in all of my classes, and I've only had detention once. And it wasn't my fault. It was James's." She said,
"Oh, it was not."
"Was too"
"Was not"
"Was too"
"Stop it!" Gina said, "It was Lily's boyfriend's fault."
"LILY! DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?" her dad bellowed in outrage.
"Uh, not anymore." she said in a tiny voice.
"GOOD. I don't suggest you get another one unless you want ME to meet him." He continued, and Lily scooted way down in the seat, and covered her face.

Lily got home, and she felt safe in her old room. She had been up there a few hours when her mother came upstairs.
"Lily, honey, tell me what's bothering you."
"Nothing's wrong mama."
"I can tell something's wrong."
"Well, I did have a boyfriend at school. Actually my first one was really nice, and he is still my friend. He was that boy with brown hair and eyes that was at James and Gina's birthday party.. Then we broke up and this other boy asked me out. I thought he was really nice mama, but he wasn't. We went out for a couple of weeks, then I heard him talking to a bunch of friends, saying he was just trying to make this other girl jealous. He said I needed to lose weight, and get rid of my freckles." by now Lily was crying, and Mrs. Evans wanted to give this boy a good beating.

"Lily, don't cry over him. He's not worth it. You're eleven years old. You've got a long time to find THE ONE. He's obviously not it. You're perfect the way you are, but if you still want to change your looks, I'll help you this summer, but don't do anything drastic."
"Mom, thanks, how did you know Papa was the one for you?" Lily said tearily
"Well, you can tell if the person you like is the one-" Mrs. Evans started, but was interrupted by Lily.
"Wait, just a second" and she dashed over to her trunk, and got out a quill that was supposed to take notes on its own. "Okay, continue."
"Every night, when you close your eyes, is he the last thing you see. Do you smile just to see him smile back at you? Do you feel like you can't breathe unless he's with you? That's how I feel about your father. That's how I knew he was the only man for me."
"Thanks mama. I love you."
"I love you too, sweetheart. The Potters are having a Christmas party if you want to go with us."
"Yeah, I guess."
"Good, it looks like you and James are friends now?"
"Yeah, we are."
"Good, you need friends Lily. They make life work living."

"We bought you dresses and jewelry as sort of a early Christmas present. It's in our room. Also, tomorrow night, Christmas Eve, we will be hosting the neighborhood Christmas party, then the Potters invited us over for Christmas dinner the next day."
"Great, so we'll practically be living with them for the next two days."
"Basically."
"Great, anyhow, I'll get dressed."
Lily chose a gold dress. It was glittery and it had a double cowl neckline in front and back. It was rather slinky too, so she wasn't looking forward to her father's opinion. She could tell her mother picked it out. Since it had a rather high neckline, a necklace wasn't possible, but she wore pearl stud earrings. She pulled her hair up again, leaving a few curls dangling.
She walked down the stairs to her waiting parents the same time as Petunia. Lily's parents exclaimed, "Lily, you look beautiful. You look nice too Petunia." but it was a gross flattering of Petunia. She had chosen the tackiest dress possible, and she had picked it out herself. He had mousy brown hair, and she wore short sequined red dress, giving her a rather unflattering appearance. Mrs. Evans looked like she was going to die of shock, but kept her mouth shut, and walked to the Potters.

The Evans walked into the Potter residence, and it was soon obvious that they were the only ones there not related to Meredith and Anthony Potter in some way. She spotted James across the room at the buffet, pulling uncomfortably on his tie, while loading his plate. She made her way over to him after Meredith Potter to make herself at home and fill up on the buffet. She walked up to the buffet, grabbed a plate and said, "Hi James."
There was immediately the sound of cracking china as James dropped his plate when he saw Lily. Somebody who looked like James's uncle pulled out his wand and repaired the plate, darting an amused smile at James.
"Can they do that? I mean with my parents here?" Lily asked,
"He just did. Anyhow, your family is the only muggles here, and since they know you're a witch, it's okay to use magic in front of them."
"Okay, cool. Sorry to startle you."
"Oh, it's okay." James said, relieved she just didn't realize that he was shocked to see her looking so pretty in a dress. "Do you wanna sit with me at that table over there? That's were everybody under 18 is sitting."
"Yeah." Lily said, and grabbed her plate, filled only with a salad.  She sat down at the table, and she felt rather like a cardinal with a bunch of ravens. She sat at a large round table with about 13 people besides her and James. Every one of them had jet-black hair and sapphire eyes. When she sat down at the table one boy immediately said, "You're not a Potter."
"That obvious huh?" They all nodded and she said, "I'm Lily Evans, I live next door."
"Cool" another boy said, then continued with the questioning, "Where do you do to school?"
"Hogwarts, how about you?"
"Awesome. Most of us go to Beauxbatons." A boy about her age said.
"I go to Shingle's Girls Academy, also a witchcraft school." a girl, looking similar to Gina said.                                                                                                                                "So why do only James and Gina go to Hogwarts" Lily asked
"They're the only ones who live in England." The same boy answered, and she found out his names was Frederic. Not Fred, Frederic.
"Hey, hello, I'm still here." James said, annoyed.
"Chill, James." Lily said, and continued her conversation with Frederic. As it turned out, Frederic knew about the muggle sport, tennis. One of James's cousins leaned over and whispered in his ear, "I hope you don't fancy Lily Evans too much, because she and Frederic seem pretty happy."
"Shut up Rick."
"Ooh, James is getting pretty riled up over his girlfriend" Rick teased.
"SHE IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" James yelled, causing the entire room to look at him.  Lily looked up and could only guess what was causing James's discomfort, but she felt sorry for him and jumped in and said, "He's right, he's not going out with Saran Wrap anymore."
"Thanks a lot Lily." James said sarcastically as the entire table cracked up with laughter. Apparently James was the only Potter who didn't know about plastic wrap.
"You went out with plastic wrap! How pathetic!"
"Shut Up! Saran is a girl. A very dishonest girl, but a girl nonetheless." James said, "Please explain to them Lily."
"He's right, she is a girl at Hogwarts. She even has a brother named Reynolds Wrap. Remus, Sirius, and I have teased him a lot about Saran. In fact, I wrapped him in Saran Wrap covered with honey." Lily said proudly, and everybody stared with shock.
"You mean you were the one that wrapped me like that? I figured Sirius did. I mean, I know you wrapped Amelia and Gina. I had a hard time finding my way out of that mess."
"James, several points of information here. One, I only wrapped you, Amelia, and Shane Maddox. Two, Sirius wrapped Peter and Gina. Three, you couldn't find your way out of a brown paper bag."  This sent the entire table into hysterics. "Lily!" James shouted
"James!"
"You're infuriating, you know that."
"I try my best."
"That's obvious"
"Awwwww, a lover's quarrel" Gina said
"SHUT UP!" both Lily and James shouted.
"Watch your language Lily!" Mrs. Evans shouted at her daughter.
"Yes, Mama." Lily replied wearily, and started eating her salad she had ignored until now.
"Did you overlook the rest of the buffet?" Frederic asked, and Lily looked at everybody else. The all had either two plates, or plates filled to overflowing.
"Did I miss something? How can you guys eat all of that?"
"Potter family appetite." One cousin answered.
"Must be" Lily agreed, and finished her salad. The children were dismissed shortly to go play games or watch TV. Most people changed, so Lily ran home, dressed in a pair of jeans and a sweater, and then ran back.  When Lily got back there were several boxes brought out. They were all labeled TWISTER. She squealed, "Oooh, are we playing Twister? I love twister!"
"Yeah, there's fifteen of us, so we could have 3 games, with four people to a game, and each game has to have a spinner. Everybody get the mats spread out and get into four people groups." Frederic said. Everybody did get into the groups, and strangely, all the girls besides Lily bricked out, and decided to be the spinners. Lily was playing against James, and an eight year-old, Joseph. Since all the girls chickened out, there wasn't enough for a third group of four. She thought, Boy, this is going to be a piece of cake to win, an eight year-old and James, no problem.  Lily soon realized why the girls had chickened out. Twister was like a second religion for male members of the Potter family, even 8 year-old ones. James and Joseph weren't about to give up. Soon, all the other games were over, Joseph was out, and James and Lily were still battling it out. Lily was in a precarious position, one foot on red, one on green, one hand on yellow, and another on blue. James on the other hand, was having great luck, and had both hands on red, and both feet on green. It was Lily's turn, and she had to stretch across the mat, but hit James's hand, causing him to fall, but she fell first, so she lost.
"Potter, you are just lucky."
"It's all skill Lily, all skill."
"And I'm Severus Snape."
"OUT OF MY HOUSE! I DON'T WANT SLIME LIKE YOU IN HERE!" James shouted
"Chill, I'm Lily again." sending the entire room into fits of laughter. Lily's parents came in to get her, and they had to go home. The next day, the Evans residence was pandemonium. Caterers and decorators were rushing all over the house. Finally, they left, leaving the ballroom decorated as a winter wonderland, a contrast to the mild weather of this year. The caterers had not planned on the entire Potter family, so the Evans family had to pick up the slack. The problem was, Lily was the only one who could cook anything besides a grilled cheese, and so she had to magic up some food with a spell found in an extra reading book she had got in Diagon Alley. Soon, it was only an hour until the neighborhood party began. An owl came swooping in the kitchen, with a note for Lily.
Dear Miss Evans,
Please refrain from the use of magic outside of Hogwarts. You are an underage wizard. This is a first offense, so this is just a warning. You are an excellent pupil, and it would be a shame to have to expel you from Hogwarts if it happens again.
Merry Christmas,
The minister of magic
Oh great, Lily thought. She jogged over to the Potters. She had to take this matter into her own hands. She and Petunia was in charge of the activities for the neighbors age 11-17, who would have a separate party, in the indoor gym in the Evans's back yard.

Meredith Potter opened the door, and before she could say anything, "Mrs. Potter, we are having some difficulties at my house, and I was wondering if we could borrow a house-elf to finish up cooking dinner? Everybody else at my house is in charge of stuff, and we didn't have the caterers make enough food. Please?" Lily said in her most adult-friendly attitude.
"Oh, yes, dear, you certainly may. Here sit down and I'll go get you a few." Mrs. Potter came back with 5 house elves. Lily ran with them back to her house, hoping the neighbors wouldn't see, and gave them instructions. Lily now only had 50 minutes to get changed. She ran upstairs, showered in five minutes, dried her hair in 10, put on some lip-gloss and silver eye shadow, and then dawned her dress. This one was a one-shouldered chiffon dress with a asymmetrical hem ending at her knees. It was emerald green, with matching shoes, and the jewelry that matched it was an emerald bracelet and barrette that she pulled some of her hair back with. She thought she looked just pretty darn good for 30 minutes. Lily ran back downstairs to chaos.  The houselves had done a good job with dinner, but Petunia was screaming at them with fear. Lily went up to her and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Shut up Petunia, they cooked dinner. Mrs. Potter let me borrow them. They're a symbol of wealth and prosperity, so feel honored."
"But they're not NORMAL" Petunia wailed
"Neither are you, so shut up!" she hollered back, effectively silencing her. Petunia was wearing another horrifying creation like last night's. Lily went to check, and the dining room was decorated perfectly, and the tables were sat elegantly with the best crystal and China. She checked the gym; it was equipped with 8-tracks, decorations, and refreshments. People began arriving, and Lily directed them to the living rooms. Once everybody had arrived, they were ushered into the dining room, and the elves had put the food on the table. Lily's mother had put place cards at every seat so everybody would sit at the correct spot, and Lily was sitting between James and James's Grandpa who was visiting. It was a miracle that the Evans's had such a large dining room, because four 6 foot wide tables had been placed, each twenty feet long, sitting 30 people each comfortably. Every chair was filled.  At first, Lily thought dinner would go off without a hitch, but that was until the old people were brought into the conversation. It was every kid's nightmare.
"These younguns here make a right good pair don't you think?" James's Grandpa, Joe said.
"What?! We're not-" James started yelling
"No use denying it. I looked at your Gran the same way, God rest her soul, as you look at little Lily." Joe continued, until Lily's grandpa, Ray, stepped in. "That boy better not be making eyes at my granddaughter. Not if he wants to live to get his whiskers! No sirree, I won't tolerate it!"
"Hey! Stop-" both James and Lily said
"Yes, they do make a cute couple, just look, they can read each other's mind." An elderly lady said.
"Mrs. McGwirk, you see, we're not a couple." Lily said
"Balderdash, I know puppy love when I see it."
"You're legally blind!" James shouted.                                                                         "Well, I never-" she started huffily, but Lily and James both interrupted at the same time "Well I have!" and looked at each other and started laughing.                                    "Children, stop making fun of your elders, and everybody, leave them alone. They're just friends." Lily's dad said, and Lily never loved her dad more than at that moment.   James continued shoveling down his food like nothing was wrong, in fact, he could eat a person out of house and home rather easily. Very soon, Lily just stared at him, eating his fifth plate full of food, thinking wow, he's kind of cute, even if he is a hog. He looked up, "What you staring at?"
"The world's best garbage disposal."
"Ha, Ha, aren't you a regular box of laughs."
"Oh yes, all that and a bag of chips." Lily said as she tossed another baked potato on his plate.
"Hey! Don't bruise it."
"Potatoes don't bruise dumba**." Lily said sarcastically.
"Lily Evans! Watch your language!" James said with pretend outrage.
"You kids can go over to the gym now." Mrs. Evans announced, saving a blazing row between James and Lily.  They got into the gym and Lily said "Petunia has prepared games and activities so we won't be bored." Then she over to Petunia who was frantically shaking her head. She walked over to her 14 year-old sister and said, "Let me guess, you didn't?"
"Correct"
"Well, isn't that just peachy. Everybody stay here, actually James come with me and help me get some stuff. One of my friends has all kinds of games and I'll just call her and she can send me the rules and list of supplies, come on." Lily said, took off her heels, and ran across the yard to her house.  Lily and James ran through the house, and upstairs to Lily's room.
"Sit down and don't touch anything besides the floor you're sitting on." She told him, and he obediently sat, but looked around. Her room was decorated in light purple and yellow, and surprisingly girlie. Lily started talking into some contraption, where somebody apparently talked back.  "Okay, I got the games. We'll need spoons, string, bottles, potatoes, and flashlights."

"Go downstairs and get two spoons from the kitchen, a glass bottle, just look in the fridge, and a potato, they're in the pantry. You can't miss them, then come back up here, but knock first." Lily told him and he went to get the stuff. Lily changed quickly into jeans and a sweater, and found some string. She opened the door just as he knocked.  They went back to the gym and Lily said, "Okay, here's some games, pick which one you want to play first. We can play flashlight hide and seek after it gets dark. Okay, here are the choices:
pass the potato
drop the spoon
and chair share. (That's not the real names, I don't think they have real names)
"What about spin-the-bottle?" one guy asked,
"Only as a last resort, my parents would skin me alive." Lily said.
They ended up deciding on chair share.
(Because it's my favorite)
They lined up the chairs and Lily explained it. "Okay, everybody starts out with their own chair, and the moderator calls out different things. They'll say stuff like if you have on red move three chairs to the left, and if you have on red you move. If there's somebody in that chair, sit on his or her lap. If there's two somebodies in the chair, stack em up. Got it? Good, any moderator volunteers?" and a shy girl volunteered, she didn't like the idea of sitting on anybody's lap.

Everybody sat in a chair, James sat next to Lily and muttered, "This is a muggle game, isn't it?"
"Yip, just think, it's too bad you couldn't have played this with Saran."
"Move one chair to the left if you have blue on." Lily sat in James's lap, because she had blue jeans on.
"Move two places to the right if you are wearing closed-toe shoes" and both of them moved to the right, stacking up on their across-the-street neighbor.