My Best Friend James Potter

1 - Goodbye Hogwarts, Hello Summer!

“Goodbye Hogwarts, hello summer!” Sirius Black shouted to the world—or at least to the crowds of Hogwarts students lining up for the approaching carriages. He shook back his long and shaggy black locks, shaking the strands just enough so that they moved out of his eyes, and he grinned at his fellow Marauder companions. “Aren’t you excited?” he asked them merrily. He threw his arm around Peter. “Just think of it now, mate. Summer… summer… summer! Doesn’t it just roll off your tongue? Say it now… summer.”

“Summer,” Peter said in an attempt of mimicking Sirius’ tone of voice. “Summer,” he said again with more effort.

While Padfoot was trying to teach Wormtail the blissful pronunciation of the marvelous word ‘summer’, Prongs grabbed Moony by the upper arm and pulled him off to the side. Moony shut the book he had been reading as they walked, and took off his reading glasses.

“Prongs?” he said in a questionable voice. “What is it? The carriages, they’re almost-”

“I know,” interrupted James, “I was going to ask you if you were planning on coming to my manor this summer.”

Remus Lupin looked as if this was the wrong thing to say. And it was. For the past five summers he’d managed, for the most part, to dodge James’s invites to the infamous Potter Manor, but now it was obvious that James wanted him to come, particularly since this was their last summer as Hogwarts students. Remus sighed and decided to delay his answer by cleaning his reading glasses with his handkerchief.

In the background Sirius and Peter Pettigrew were still having a field day with the word ‘summer’. They had now gotten Frank Longbottom to join in on the joyous affair.

“Look, Prongs…” Remus began slowly.

“I knew it,” James said straightaway. “You aren’t coming—again. Again Moony. Why not? My mum wants to meet you… she hasn’t seen you for years. She’s met Peter plenty of times, and she’s been around Sirius so much she’s even bought him one of our customary Potter bathrobes… you know the one’s with the fancy gold scrawl? Yeah, those. And our House Elves Sam and Maim both know all of his favorite dishes. But not you. Mum and dad have hardly met you, and they’re wondering why the studious Remus Lupin, who I’ve spoken highly of, may I add, hasn’t dropped by their door.”

Remus sighed. “James, I’ve told you before.”

“Your mum needs a lot of help, I know, but she can’t manage a few hours on her own?” James asked disbelievingly. He ran his fingers through his hair, smiling at Sarah Silverstone, a girl he’d recently gone out with. Looking back at Remus, he frowned again. “Really, Moony, I want you to come over this summer. Your mum can come, too.”

James turned from Remus and rejoined the trio of Sirius, Peter and Frank.

“Well, are we getting a carriage or not?” Sirius asked impatiently as James approached. “I don’t want them to leave—then we’ll be stuck here for the next three months… oh, plus the ten months of seventh year. What a nightmare!”

“Yeah, yeah… let’s go,” James said, leading the way over to the carriages. It was packed of students of years one through seven trying to snag a carriage with their friends. The teachers walked about the crowds, righting any wrongs they saw. As they neared one of the last carriages, James noticed that, though there were four of them, Remus was not with them. He was still standing in the background, an odd look on his face. “Oi! Moony, are you coming?” James called.

Sirius, Peter and Frank all filed into the carriage. Sirius began complaining that they could kick Peter out for a passing Kady Gavin, a girl Sirius was very interested in.

“Yeah,” Remus said hesitantly. He began a trudge James’s way. He looked to be the polar opposite of every single person around him; everyone was happy about summer holiday, overly happy if anything. But Remus Lupin wasn’t. He climbed into the carriage and took a seat in the corner by the window, immediately pulling out his book and reading glasses once more.

James went to get in then, being the last. He climbed up onto the carriage step and reached for the carriage door, when his hazel eyes behind his round glasses spotted the girl that made his heartbeat increase to ridiculous rates.

Lily Evans was passing all alone. She was headed in the direction of the very last carriage where the nobody’s sat—nobody’s like Verna Tousleman, Jay Lovegood, and a few others.

James sighed as he watched her pass him by. She didn’t even look his way. He didn’t know if that was because she hated him and she was avoiding another scene with him, or if she simply did not see him. All he knew was that Lily Evans was the most entrancing person he had ever met, as well as the most poised and beautiful. He had argued with her so many times in the past six years, and yet he knew little to nothing about the girl that he cared so much for.

She was a mystery—an enigma. Her life and personality, her likes and dislikes and her interests were all so vague and unknown to him that it was something of an unsolvable mystery. He knew she was intelligent and he knew she was beautiful (those were obvious) and he knew she hated him, but other than that what he knew of Lily Evans was slim to nothing. Sometimes he liked to think about what she was like – just to ponder, to wonder what she was really like beneath that layer of good marks in Charms and a great, intense loathing for James Potter; he wondered what she was like. He liked to wonder what she was like.

He realized he had been staring at Evans pass for a good few seconds now, and the others inside the carriage were starting to get curious as to why he hadn’t yet closed the door. After he shut it he sat down next to Peter, rejoining the conversation that was going on.

Only a second after that did the carriages begin to move down the path leading to the train station in Hogsmeade. The carriages rode down the earthy path, right by the fresh Hogwarts grass and thick trees. In the distance smoke billowed out of Hagrid’s hut, and a few of the school owls flew to the Owlery tower to get a day’s rest. The teachers had disappeared back inside the castle, presumably to pack their things—or whatever they did when the students were gone.

The carriages arrived at the train station, and when they did they boarded the train with assistance from Rubeus Hagrid, and a few hours later they’d reunite with their families. Well, some of them did—the others just picked up their trunks and decided to do the best they could to enjoy the summer holiday.

xxxx

Nathan Evans was standing in the back of all of the crowds of families. He didn’t want to have to fight his way to the front; he knew Lily would find him with ease. His auburn hair (a color that was a bit browner than Lily’s flaming hair) was combed neatly to the side, like a young boy’s mother combed his hair when going to church. He wore his square spectacles that always fell to the bridge of his nose every so often, and his favorite gray vest and white dress shirt; actually, it was Lily’s favorite… she used to tell him when she was younger that he looked like a real librarian.

Nathan Evans was on a two and a half hour lunch break so every so often he checked his wrist watch to make sure they weren’t running late. He still had another hour and a half before he’d have to return to work.

The throngs of families were thinning as students came off the scarlet steam engine, and even Mr. Evans began to wonder where his daughter was. He knew she wasn’t going to be in the best of spirits considering what was happening, but he hoped she’d come to adjust.

Two porky children (both which happened to be third year Slytherins) moved out of his line of vision, and when they did it was then that Lily finally came into view. She looked the same as ever—short and petite with her wavy and bright red hair and even brighter emerald eyes. A small smile graced her pale face when she saw her father.

“Dad!” she said, letting go of her trunk for a moment as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

He hugged her back with an urgent need for the familiar feel of his favorite daughter. He had missed hugging her and kissing her forehead like this, and now that she was on break from Hogwarts he was pleased he’d get to again.

“Lily, you’ve grown inches,” he teased, chuckling. He picked up her trunk for her, together the two starting down the platform toward the barrier of 9 ¾. It felt so natural again to have his favorite and youngest daughter by his side.

“Dad, I think I’ve shrunk more than I’ve managed to have grown,” Lily replied. Her cheeks were pink from the heat; her thick hair was really beginning to bother her. She reached for her hair tie inside of her pants pocket and tied her hair back in a rather sloppy ponytail.

“I’ve missed you,” he said, looking over and smiling down at her.

Lily returned his smile. “I’ve missed you, too, dad.”

“Your mother’s missed you as well,” he said.

Lily’s smile fell off her face, to be replaced by a dejected half-frown. Her father’s mention of mum had her now thinking about the divorce, something she tried to avoid thinking about as frequent as possible. It was only four months ago that they had told her they were divorcing, and she knew her father had already moved into a house of his own, leaving Mrs. Evans with Petunia and the original Evans residence. And now for the summer she’d be staying with him.

“Yeah, I’m sure you’ve both missed me,” she said hoarsely.

“Lily, don’t shield behind sarcasm… please,” her father pleaded. “It’s been very difficult for the both of us. Divorce isn’t a clean experience for anyone.”

“Then why go through with it?” she asked as they reached the parking lot. She was speaking louder; she felt it was warranted considering hardly anyone was around.

“It isn’t something I can simply explain,” Nathan Evans told her vaguely. “I wish I could. I really wish I could sit down with you and Petunia and explain it in two sentences, some way that you’d both understand it was for the best, but I’m afraid that’s impossible. I’m still trying to figure a few things that’ve happened myself.”

Lily made a snort of disgust as she opened the front passenger door and got in. Mr. Evans heaved a sigh, opening the trunk of the aquamarine station wagon and lifting her luggage into the trunk. He shut it, walking around to the front of the car before getting in the drivers seat.

“Lily,” he said into the silence of the station wagon. He hadn’t put his keys in the ignition yet. The fact that Lily seemed to be disgusted with her parents at the moment was bothering him. “Lily, please understand.”

“Dad, can we get out of here?” Lily asked curtly. She kept her eyes glued to the window on her right. “I don’t want to spend the day in the parking lot of Kings Cross.”

Another sigh was to be heard from Mr. Evans before he started the station wagon, and before he backed out of his parking spot, turning out of Kings Cross, and entering the nearby highway to home—to his home, anyway.

xxxx

Best friends James Potter and Sirius Black lay in nothing but swim trunks on the lounge chairs out by the extravagantly huge pool. The water looked shiny in the summer sun, and it was so hot one could easily fry an egg. The two best mates both had a pair of sunglasses on as they drank iced drinks, relaxed, and talked of girls they wanted to invite over. Inside the House Elves were already preparing dinner, and Mrs. Potter was in one of the many, many rooms of the manor.

The two had been home for an hour already; they had arrived shortly from Kings Cross by Portkey. Mrs. Potter knew James hated travel by automobile.

On the short, round table beside James’s lounge chair rested a radio where they had changed it to their favorite WWN station. Right now the Jinxed Unicorns were on, their latest song, “Hot Summer”, playing.

Sirius lifted his sunglasses and looked over to his best friend.

“Prongs,” he said, the first word spoken in at least half an hour.

James also lifted his sunglasses and returned his friend’s gaze by looking over at him.

“I’m going to take a swim,” Sirius said, rising. “We really should invite Kady Gavin and… who do you fancy again?”

James racked his brain for the latest girl he had lied about fancying; he had been doing this for over a year, since Sirius had convinced him that his public fancy for Lily Evans was a disgrace to his reputation.

“Sarah Silverstone,” James answered huskily. It was an utter lie, but he knew Sirius wouldn’t know.

“Oh, yeah… well, we could invite them over. Your mum won’t find out; we could have Sam go up and distract her—you know, knit her something or… something.”

“I dunno, Padfoot,” James said, dropping his sunglasses back over his eyes. He heard a great splash, and knew this was the sound of Sirius jumping into the preposterously huge Potter pool. It was mostly for show, since not one of the three Potters enjoyed swimming, only Mrs. Potter, but that was rare.

“Aw, c’mon,” Sirius said, coming to the surface again; his shaggy hair was now slicked back quite attractively, allowing a good view of his handsome face, something his coolly-styled hair concealed more than most girls wanted. “If we get caught I’ll do something stupid and humiliating to make up for it. Deal?”

“That happens everyday, mate,” James mocked.

“You know what I mean,” Sirius said from the pool.

“Last time you said you’d streak at Slug’s party and you never did,” James reminded. His favorite song by the band Seer was playing, but Sirius’ loud mouth was drowning it out.

“I was, but then Tara Kramer and her boyfriend broke up, remember? I couldn’t let that chance pass me by,” Sirius said, floating on his back in the soothing water.

“Padfoot, no.” James was beginning to grow moody about the subject. Sometimes Sirius’ persistency could become irritating, especially when James had little interest in spending a day with Sarah Silverstone; he’d much rather have spent a day with Lily Evans.

Sirius now looked bored. “Fine,” he said, the disappointment clear in his voice. “I think I’ve had enough sun then.”

James listened to the sound of his friend getting out of the pool, and to his footsteps as he grabbed a fresh towel, heading into the house then after. He sighed; Sirius just didn’t understand.

The Seer’s song ended, and was replaced by one that made James think of the only girl he wanted, but then again when wasn’t he thinking of the mystery that was Lily Evans?

xxxx

“And here it is… my community,” Mr. Evans said as he drove the station wagon down the empty, curvy road. Both sides of the peaceful road were lined with extravagant house after extravagant house. Most were gated and several stories high and with pricey new cars parked in the drive. As the road curved on, and as Mr. Evans drove on, Lily looked out the window with astonish. Since when was her father rich?

The Evans were well off, true, but they weren’t like a family such as the Malfoy’s or the Potter’s. They were slightly better off than an average middleclass family and that was all.

She looked at big house after big house and thought of the ridiculousness of it all. Here were all of these manors with fancy furniture and fast cars and other things a person didn’t need, when there were starving children and homeless people all over the world. It was appalling, and to be frank, in Lily’s humble opinion, sickening.

She looked away from the houses and down at her hands in her lap. She missed home—not this home, the one that her dad had bought to get away from mum, but the home where the four of them lived together and happy.

She had been staring down at her hands for so long that she didn’t realize the car had stopped until her father said, “We’re here.”

Lily closed her eyes, preparing herself for the travesty that was about to meet her eyes, and then opened them again, looking out the window to see her father’s new home.

It was the oldest house in all of the Raintree Community. It was an ancient-looking house, Victorian-style, and on the very end of the long road of manors and new cars. It was at the very end with tall, tall gates that obscured most of the house from view. But it was a creamy yellow color with plenty of windows and trees, like her father had his own miniature forest.

She could see from the corner of her eye that her father was watching her for her reaction, and though she wanted to hate it, she smiled. It was an old home, but it was pretty and welcoming and peaceful.

“Do… do you like it?” he asked uncertainly.

She gazed up at it still, without taking her eyes off of the house, and answered him.

“I love it, dad,” she said quietly.

Lily missed the look of extreme relief and pleasure on her father’s face.

“Well, let’s go in,” Mr. Evans said cheerfully. He got out the car and walked around to the back to get her things. “It’s a big house—bigger than your mother’s. But it’s the smallest and oldest house in Raintree. We’re the poorest here,” he said with a laugh.

Lily laughed too. She was suddenly in brighter spirits as she got out of the car and ran to the tall gate.

“You live here all by yourself?” she inquired as her father approached with her luggage.

“I do,” he said.

“Doesn’t it get lonely?”

“Sometimes; but it won’t now… not with my little girl staying with me.” Mr. Evans smiled warmly at her.

Lily restrained from pointing out she wasn’t his “little girl” anymore; she was sixteen, soon to be seventeen, for Merlin’s sake, but she reminded herself that dad was just being clingy and sentimental like any other parent.

He unlocked the tall gate, and a narrow path leading to the front porch of the house came into view. Lily smiled again and hurried in front of her father down the path, up the front steps and onto the porch; on the porch there was a two-seater swing, one just like grandma had. Lily couldn’t resist sitting down on it and staring around at the grassy front yard where there were sycamore trees scattered every few feet. There were bushes of flowers and fruits and plenty of shade underneath the sycamore trees; she knew she’d be spending hours out here in the front and backyard, reading and relaxing.

“Home sweet home,” Mr. Evans said as he set down her trunk and reached for his keys to unlock the glass front door.

It wasn’t the first time and wouldn’t the last time Lily smiled that day. She smiled because what her father said was true. This was home after all.

xxxx

Lily got up early the next morning to sit on the swing on the front porch, and stare out at the tranquil front yard and the rest of the Raintree Community. The sky was still a faint purple, a mix of this purple with the oncoming pale orange and blue of dawn. Inside her father was still fast asleep.

She sipped from her mug of hot chocolate and smiled to herself. There was something about this house that brought a smile to her face. It was a something she couldn’t label and couldn’t describe, but a something she didn’t mind. It did her good to smile as she saw it. She had done so much frowning in the past few months that to smile made her spirit soar.

“Hey Nibbles,” Lily whispered a greeting to her beloved kitten. Her dad had bought it for her as a surprise and a welcome home present, and since yesterday afternoon Nibbles had been unable to stay away from her. He was the smallest kitten Lily had ever seen, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand, and he was gray with two small streaks of white across his back. He had the cutest pink button nose and the soft mewing noise he made caused Lily to melt. In simple summarization, he was adorable and Lily’s new best friend.

“Did you sleep well, Nibbles?” Lily asked in a baby tone as she set down her mug of hot chocolate, and took her kitten into her arms and scratched his little neck. He seemed to like this. He took no longer than a second to get cozy in her arms.

Lily looked up from Nibbles resting in her arms, to the curvy road of Raintree. It was that moment that she spotted a figure walking down the middle of the road. By the looks of it the figure was male. Lily squinted her eyes as she tried to make out the person, but couldn’t really; for the strangest reason this faraway figure looked eerily familiar. So familiar that Lily stood from the swing and gradually made her way across the porch and down its steps.

She didn’t know why, but she was nearly positive she knew the identity of the person; it couldn’t be her father, he was up in his room. It was someone else she knew, some other male she knew… someone from Hogwarts. She walked down the front path of her father’s house with dozing Nibbles in her arms and pushed open the tall gate just wide enough for her to squeeze through. Now she stood on the sidewalk with a better view of this person.

“Oh… my…” she breathed, and she was so shocked that she almost dropped delicate little Nibbles. Her emerald eyes widened and her mouth opened wide in disbelief.

“Lily?” said the figure, stopping in his tracks.

“What are you doing here?” she asked loudly into the dawn silence.

“I… live here,” he replied. “You?”

“I… well, I also live here,” she said awkwardly, holding Nibbles close. She was now scratching him behind the ears, trying to think of something else to say in this awkward situation.

“Well, that’s… nice,” he said also awkwardly. He scratched the back of his neck. “I s’pose I should… go now.”

“SIRIUS!”

Lily and Sirius Black looked to their right at the corner window of the biggest house in all of Raintree. It was only two houses away from Lily’s fathers, and it was so big that Lily really had to try and find the window where the voice had come from; there were so many windows it was enough to rival Hogwarts.

“Sirius!” James Potter called again from what was apparently the ledge of his bedroom window. From where the two stood down in the road he looked furious. “Sirius, get in here—now! I’m serious; mum and dad can wake any moment!”

Sirius turned red as he glanced back at Lily. He didn’t like to be embarrassed or told off in front of girls, even girls like Lily Evans. He took a step toward the larger than large manor that was the Potter’s, but in that meantime James’s eyes had focused on the person standing in front of his best friend.

“Lily?” he said in complete stun. In fact, he was so stunned that he fell from the ledge of his bedroom window.

Lily gasped and Sirius jumped back as James fell off the ledge where he’d been sitting and out of his bedroom window. He landed with a thump on the smaller and slanted roof below and continued to roll down, down, down until he was off that roof and fell into the garden below. It was all much quicker than described, so quick that neither Lily nor Sirius moved or formed a thought and it was a hard, obviously very painful fall.

James Potter was so shocked to see Lily Evans that he had fallen from a third story window.

xxxx

Feedback is really appreciated. Chapter two coming soon. Thank you for reading!