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Why Don't You and I? by Phoenix_Song
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Why Don't You and I?

Phoenix_Song

Hi guys! Thank you! Your comments on that last part were wonderful.

hermionegranger: In Lily's defense, she didn't know that James liked her, she just knew that it bothered him that she had Snape as a friend. Lily's a bit slow, when it comes to how James feels about her! Thank you for your enthusiasm. Your response made me smile.

LJstagflower4e: Yes, in my version of Lily's story, she is a seer. It's a bit more complicated than that, but that's the short answer. And James knows, so he believed that her vision was real, but it wasn't. It was a prank.

Muddratt: I think I may be posting up Lily's Story on pk. I'll wait until I finish this to post it, however. There seems to be enough interest!

PhoenixPheather: Your anger with Lily is not unexpected. When reading this from Lily's point of view, my readers were torn…about half of them though Lily was wrong, and the other half defended her. There is more to this story than you see from James's POV, quite a bit more, though, so don't judge Lily entirely based on this! If I decide not to post Lily up here, I'll tell you where to find it.

nice and SaraMalfoy: Thank you!

Lady Mel: Snape wasn't always greasy…was he? *grins* Thank you!

And thanks to everyone else who is reading!

Third Year

"You're really going to do this, Jamesy?" Sirius was asking skeptically, glancing between James, and Lily, who was sitting across the room from them.

James took a deep breath. "Yes, yes I am."

He had been watching Lily carefully since they had returned from the summer holiday, and he was certain that she had realized her feelings for him over break. Why else would she get so angry and upset with him all of the time? She was upset with herself for falling for the Potter charm, that's why. It was the only rational explanation.

Unless she really does just find you irritating.

Maybe I find YOU irritating.

"You might have thought about asking her before you decided to hex Snape earlier today," Remus admonished as only Remus could. Any other Marauder would have gotten his head bit off for suggesting to James that perhaps hexing Snape was not the best way to go about catching Lily's eye, but not Remus. He wasn't saying it to give James a hard time, he was simply speaking the truth as he saw it, and James admired that.

He's got a point, you know.

Shut up!

"Too late for that now, Moony," James replied, standing up. "Okay, that's it, here I go."

James strode across the common room, the well-wishes (or laughter) of his friends echoing in his ears.

"Hey Evans," he called out, pausing in front of her chair.

Yet another time that the first name would have been more appropriate. You are asking her out, after all. Seems like that would demand a little more familiarity.

You know--

But he didn't have time to finish the thought, because at that moment, she looked up from the book that she was reading, and he found himself staring at her, caught up once again in her beauty. She was curled up with a book in a chair next to the fire in the Gryffindor common room, wearing a pair of muggle jeans and a t-shirt, her school robes discarded much earlier in the evening in favor of comfort. James couldn't help but think that the muggles had the right idea when it came to dress. In his opinion, Lily's outfit emphasized every curve in just the right place, whereas her school robes would have obscured all that was lovely about her figure. Lily's hair, for once freed from the ponytail in which she usually wore it, cascaded softly to her shoulders, the light catching the blond highlights and making it dance softly in the firelight. Her green eyes were narrowed slightly, and he gulped. Here it was…the opportunity he'd been waiting two long years for.

Don't screw it up!


Thanks for the confidence boost.

"Can I help you, Potter?" she asked coolly.

Not exactly the greeting that he'd been hoping for. "Er…well, yes, yes you can."

"I'm not helping you with the Charms you missed because you were too busy playing kick ball with Severus, Potter," she retorted.

Well, at least they were on familiar territory. He was used to Lily being defensive. He allowed himself to look hurt. "I'm hurt, Evans, I truly am. It's not my fault that he got in the way of my attempt to transfigure Black's owl into a soccer ball. You know that I had no intention-"

"I know," she interrupted him, "that you had every intention, Potter. In fact, I know that you've probably spent most of your free time the last month figuring out how to carry out that very prank."

Not true. We've only been working on that transfiguration for a week!

Good point.

Thank you.

"Yes, well…be that as it may, I'm not actually here for your Charms notes."

Lily's eyes narrowed some more, and James wished that he could think of something to say that would make her laugh. He loved her smile, and found that it was too rarely directed at him these days. "What are you here for, then?" she asked, her voice ringing with suspicion.

He flinched involuntarily.

This is not going well.

I know that! I don't need YOU to point it out to me!

"I just, uh…well, Hogsmeade weekend is coming up, and as you can finally go, I thought…well…you might like to go with me."

Her eyes widened, and she looked at him in what could only be astonishment for a moment. "Are you asking me out, Potter?" she asked.

"No," he said quickly. "Well, yes. I mean, kind of. I just thought that since I've been there so often, I could show you around, so you don't miss any of the good stuff."

Lily was still staring at him in amazement. "You honestly want to show me around Hogsmeade?"

"Yes," James replied, nodding fervently. He was so nervous that even his heart seemed to be dancing to its own rhythm, and he found he suddenly couldn't meet her eyes.

"Well, I'm afraid I can't accept, Potter. Severus has already offered to show me around."

Don't insult him, don't insult him, don't-

"SNIVELLUS?" he nearly shouted, the tightrope that was his nerves snapping. "And you agreed to go with him?"

"Of course," Lily said simply. "Why wouldn't I?"

"Why?" James repeated. "Why??? Honestly, Evans, for someone so clever, you can be incredibly dense."

NOT the right thing to say.

I KNOW that! You're not helping.

How can I help when you won't listen to me?

Lily had now uncurled from the chair and set aside the book that she was reading. She stood up slowly, and drew herself up to her full height. James realized with a start that he was now looking up to her. Apparently she'd grown over the summer, for she now towered over him by a full inch. He could tell by the flash in her eyes that she was about to lay into him, and he watched her warily, searching frantically for something to stem her tirade before it began.

"Just a minute, Evans," he said finally, holding up a hand to stop her. "Can we start over, please? This didn't go exactly as I'd planned it."

"If your plan involved me saying yes in any way, Potter, there's no need to start over. That will never happen."

It will. I'll make you see.

Too right you will.

"All right then, Evans," he said, shrugging as though it made little difference to him. "Just thought I'd offer my Hogsmeade expertise to you." He turned and trotted back to the Marauders, who were all trying desperately to conceal their laughter.

Just a minor setback. We'll be together some day.


So I say why don't you and I hold each other?

Fly to the moon and straight onto heaven.
Cause without you they're never gonna let me in

Fourth Year

Fifteen-year-old James grabbed a book off of a nearby shelf, not even bothering to look at what he'd grabbed, and flipped it open, trying desperately not to think of his friends who were, even as he sat there, attempting to kidnap Mrs. Norris and ransom her for the dung bombs and fireworks that Filch had confiscated from them earlier that week. James wanted to be with them, but he was determined to show Lily that he wasn't the arrogant prat that she thought he was. Alice and Amelia had agreed to send Lily to the library herself that evening so that James would have an opportunity to be alone with her, and he'd been unsuccessful at convincing Sirius to hold off on the kidnapping until the next day. Sirius had been certain that their dung bombs and fireworks would be destroyed if they waited, and while James had hated to admit it, Sirius was right.

Still, James couldn't be certain that Alice and Amelia would agree to help him again, particularly if they discovered that he'd blown off this opportunity with Lily in order to help his friends, so he had no choice but to skip the marauding, and wait at the library for Lily. He planned to take advantage of the fact that Lily was alone, and therefore less combative and defensive, to make her see that he was, in fact, a charming and wonderful person. He had no idea just how, exactly, he was going to accomplish that, but he know that if he didn't, he would end up driving her right into Snape's arms, and anyone with half a brain could see that Snape was only using her to get to him.

James's hand curled into a fist at the thought of his nemesis. His family was even more fanatical about pure-blood than the Blacks were, and unlike Sirius, Snape followed his family's teachings. To make things worse, Snape knew more dark magic than most students in their seventh year, training to become aurors, and he was buddies with Lucius Malfoy, meaning that every time Lily was around him, she was risking her very safety. James couldn't understand what Lily saw in Snape, but over the last two years, he had developed a sneaking suspicion that it was his own behavior that was driving Lily to Snape. Although he hated to admit it, it seemed that every time that she caught him levitating Snape and hanging him on a lantern, she and Snape became even closer. He didn't know what to do.

You could just leave Snape alone.

James angrily flipped a page of the book.


No. Never.

He flipped to the next page.

Your funeral.

He flipped another page.

Yours too.

"Hi Potter, what are you reading?" Lily's voice interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up, trying to hide his discomfort with a wide smile.

"Hi Evans, I-"

Good question. What am I reading?

James flipped the book shut and glanced at the title, then groaned inwardly. Of all of the books that he could have pulled off of the shelf, he'd picked up "You Can Be Womanly, Beautiful, and Powerful, Too: A Guide for Young Witches"

Well done.

Shut up!

She glanced at the book, and then back at James quizzically. "Nothing, er…nothing," he mumbled, standing up quickly and trying to re-shelve the book on the bookshelf behind him. The book struggled against his efforts to push it into the opening, and James gave one final push against the binding before giving up and releasing it. The book flew off, tut-tutting loudly, and re-shelving itself in the proper place further down the stack. "Apparently that wasn't where I got the book from," he added, turning back to Lily with a nervous smile.

"If you're not here to read, why are you here?" Lily asked curiously.

To talk to her. Tell her you're here to talk to her.

No! Are you mad? I'm not going to say that.

Why not? It's good!

You wouldn't know `good' if it danced naked in front of you.

Wish Evans would dance naked in front of me.

FOCUS!

Right.

"Homework," he said quickly. "Why are you here?"

"I'm always here this time of night," she said, smiling and shaking her head. To his surprise she sat down next to him. "You're not working on Transfiguration, are you?"

"Yes," he said, setting the book aside and reaching into his backpack. In reality, he'd finished his Transfiguration homework hours ago, but she didn't know that, and if it meant that she was sitting beside him, working quietly, and not yelling, then he was more than happy to do it all over again. He pulled out his Transfiguration book and quill, silently thanking the quirk of fate that had possessed him to bring it with him and summoned the ink well that was sitting on the end of the table. "You?"

Lily sighed heavily. "Me too. I've been working on it all afternoon, but I don't seem to be getting anywhere. This assignment's a nightmare, isn't it?"

"I thought it was easy," he said dipping his quill into the ink well.

She glanced at him sharply.

Bloody hell.

You can say that again.


Bloody hell.

"I mean, er…well, actually, as it turns out, I've just finished Transfiguration. But I'll be happy to help you with it, if you'd like."

Lily looked at him suspiciously. "What's going on, Potter?" she asked. "You're never this nice to me."

Ouch.

"That hurts, Evans," James said, smiling. "I'm always this nice to you."

"No, Potter," she countered. "You're not. Since I need to get this done, I suppose I'll overlook your ulterior motives for the moment, but if you insult Snape, or try to turn this into an opportunity to hit on me, I'm leaving."


She called him Snape.

Yes, and she also told-hang on. She called him Snape.

James smiled brightly. Snape must have done something to upset her if Lily had reverted to using his last name. This was exactly the opening that he'd been hoping for. "Right."

Lily gave him a funny look. "What?" she asked.

"Oh, I was just saying, right… Don't hit on you, and don't insult Snape. I can do that."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Can you?" she queried.

He grinned in spite of himself. "I honestly don't know," he answered. "We're in uncharted territory here. But I promise to give it my best shot."

When's this fever gonna break ?
I think I've handled more than any man can take
I'm like a love-sick puppy chasing you around
And it's alright