Their Seventh Year

Chapter 3- Rules of Engagement

This was not going to be easy, James realized, the next morning at breakfast. He had decided to attempt to put Remus's advice into action. After all, girls seemed to like Remus. Not the way that girls threw themselves at Sirius's feet of course, but then those girls were usually pretty stupid, or pretty and stupid. But the girls Remus seemed to be friendly with were nice, smart girls, and they actually seemed to like talking to him. James didn't just want to snog Lily Evans….not that he would object if the opportunity presented itself.

So rule number one was not to harass her. He pretended not to notice when she entered with her friends. It felt strange, pointedly not looking at her. I ought to say something. I should tell her she looks pretty. No! He reached for more toast, and in order to not look at her, opened his notebook, looking at the notes he had written the night before:

Rules of Engagement Re: Lily Evans

-Do not harass.

-Call her "Lily". Do NOT call her "Evans."

-Do not attempt to discuss any of the following: quidditch, how good I am at quidditch, how good I am in any classes, how I beat her in 2 classes last year.

-Find out things about her. Task for this week: Find out where she is from and what subjects she likes.

-Think of sincere compliments to give her. Practice saying them in sincere manner.

-Do not, under any circumstances, try to talk to her with Sirius present.

"Hey Prongs, what's that you're working on?"

He slammed the notebook shut before Sirius could get a look. "Nothing. Say, what class have we got first?"

Lily had steeled herself for a smirk and some kind of comment from Potter when she walked into the Great Hall that morning. But for once there was no arrogant grin, no fake, overly cheery "You're looking lovely this morning Evans", no asking her out. In fact, he didn't even look in her direction. Well, she thought, good. Maybe he was finally taking the hint. Not even a hint, more like outright rejection.

For once he wasn't joining in the loud chatter of his friends. He appeared to be concentrating on something. She wondered what. She never actually saw him study, though she assumed he must since he get good marks. But he couldn't be studying lessons, they hadn't had any classes yet.

"Hellooooo? Lily?" Flora was waving a piece of paper under her nose. "Schedule?"

"Oh, right, thanks."

Her schedule was very full, she was taking as many NEWT classes as she could- Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and Herbology. She wasn't really sure what she wanted to do after Hogwart's, but she figured those classes would put her in a good position for whatever he wanted to do. She happened to know Potter had the same schedule, except he had Arithmancy rather than Herbology. She also knew, because the prat never stopped talking about himself, that he wanted to be an Auror, like his father.

Across the table from her, Flora sighed dramatically. "It's never good to start the day with potions."

James didn't have much trouble ignoring Lily through potions. They were brewing a difficult potion, and he had to keep a close eye on the level of the flame and the color of the potion. He didn't particularly like potions, but the Professor, although he wasn't particularly warm or interesting, was fair and knew his potions. And whatever his feelings about Professor Jenner, he knew he needed decent potions grades to make it into Auror training. It was the only thing he'd ever wanted to be. Well, besides a quidditch player of course, but he didn't think his parents would like that one much.

"Oy there, it's turning blue, add the unicorn hair." Sirius said, breaking into his thoughts. Despite the impression he might give, Sirius was near the top of every class. If he ever bothered to crack a book, he'd do even better. There were sides to Sirius that most people didn't see, James knew.

The unicorn hair was added, and their potion bubbled cheerfully, turning just the right color of light blue.

"What is he staring at?" Sirius was looking past his shoulder, and James turned to see Severus Snape glaring at them with cold eyes. Sirius raised his voice. "Keep your eyes on your own potion Snivellus, unless you want to be wearing it."

With a look of utmost loathing, Snape turned back to his old cauldron, and Sirius smirked. As attractive as the idea of dumping a boiling cauldron over Snape was, James didn't think it was a good idea to get in a brawl on the first day. He'd definitely get a howler for that. In any other class, Snape might have retaliated, but the slimy git was actually good at potions.

James felt someone's eyes on him, and looked and saw Lily Evans giving him a dirty look. Damn! He'd forgotten she was within hearing. She hated when he and Sirius picked on Snape, no matter that the nasty Slytherin gave as good as he got. James still remembered that time in fifth year when she'd tried to stick up for Snape. His blood still boiled when he thought about Snape calling her a mudblood. Suddenly the idea of Snape wearing the contents of his cauldron seemed more attractive, but knowing she was watching stopped him.

It was weird, but Potter was acting totally normal, except for acting like she was invisible. Through breakfast, potions, and charms he had been chatting with his friends, acting normal, doing his assignments. In charms he had even addressed a remark to Flora, right next to her, but not a word to her. Well, that was a huge relief. Flora seemed to have forgotten her idea from the night before about dating him, at least, she didn't appear to be flirting with him or anything, and Flora was not usually subtle when she had her sights set on a guy.

They were coming out of lunch when she noticed a small knot of people gathering in the entrance hall. As she got closer, she heard raised voices.

"Rictumsempra!"

"Furnunculus!"

Pushing through the crowd, she found two third year students, one a Slytherin, and one a Gryffindor, facing each other, red faced and furious, while their friends tried to restrain them. Luckily, both of their curses had missed.

"Stop it right this instant!" She said sharply. They were still young enough to be afraid of her, and they did both back down.

"Thirty points from both Slytherin and Gryffindor!" She said firmly. It was time to establish that, as Head Girl, she was not going to put up with fighting in the halls, and she was not going to show favoritism to her own house.

"Thirty!" Cried a fifth year Gryffindor boy called Paul Turner. "C'mon Evans, that practically puts us into negative points on the first day!"

"Is there a problem here?" Came James's voice from behind her. For the first time in her life she was glad to hear it. He could back her up.

"Evans just took thirty points off Gryffindor!" Yelped Turner. Potter raised an inquiring eyebrow at her.

"From Slytherin as well." She explained. "Those two-" The two miscreants were trying to blend back into the crowd. "-were throwing hexes at each other."

"C'mon James, it's thirty points." Turner whined. Lily had half a mind to tell him to shut up or it would be fifty.

"Is that really necessary Evans?" He said reasonably. "It doesn't look like anyone's hurt."

Damn him!

"I. Said. Thirty. Points." She turned on her heel and walked away, ignoring Turner's continued protests behind her.

James settled into a quiet corner of the library, out of sight of everyone else. It looked like he was going be retreating there fairly often. He wasn't going to get any work done in their room, with Peter whining about classes, Remus trying to help him, and Sirius prattling on about girls and quidditch. James found girls and quidditch as interesting as any seventeen-year-old male, but he needed to keep his grades up, and his NEWT classes were shaping up to be pretty tough.

"Potter!"

He looked up, to find Lily Evans standing in front of him. And wow, was she mad. Her voice was low, but definitely dangerous.

"Don't ever do that again!" She hissed.

"Me? What did I do?" He had been pointedly not bothering her all day.

"Questioning my authority in front of other students, that’s what!" She snapped.

James felt his own temper rising. All he'd tried to do was reason with her. After all, they would do better dealing with students if they were liked. And he was willing to bet the Slytherin kid had started that fight anyway. And hadn't he let her have the final decision after all?

"Lighten up Evans! 'Questioning your authority?' You're head girl, not the bloody Minister of Magic!"

"So? That doesn't mean I want to be the one actually keeping order while you get to be the nice guy! I should have known you'd be like this!"

"And just what's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it's kind of hard to have an authority figure who holds the school record for most detentions served."

It did not seem the time to point out that it was actually Sirius who held that distinction, since he was a close second. Unfortunately, still angry, he fell back on sarcasm.

"Oh please Evans, tell the rest of us what it's like to be perfect. I suppose you've never had a detention."

"I have, I just don't consider it something to be proud of."

Why did she have to be so damn sanctimonious anyway? "You know Evans, you could relax a little. You don't have to be perfect all the time."

"No Potter, actually, I do." The anger had gone from her voice, she just sounded tired, even a little sad? What was with that?

He was about to tell her to get over herself, then he realized what she meant. She did have to be perfect, better than anyone else, to be taken seriously in this world, because she was muggle born. No matter what he did, he would be accepted because he was James Potter. Because he came from an old pureblood family. But she was the first of her family to be a witch, and everyone knew it. She had to prove herself every day, and even when she did people still looked down on her and called her mudblood. James suddenly felt like an enormous prat.

She hitched up her bag and turned, preparing to go.

"Wait, Evans-" She turned back. "Listen. In the future, if I disagree with a punishment you give, I'll wait and talk to you about it in private, instead of in front of everyone."

"Thank you."

"And you were right, you know. That kid Turner is a real pain in the ass."

She gave him a faint, fleeting smile before she walked away.