Their Seventh Year

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Chapter 5- Some Things I Know

Things I know about Lily Evans:

-She's very pretty.

-She thinks I am a complete prat.

-She slaps very hard. (Found that one out the hard way)

-She comes from a place called Little Whinging, in .

-Her favorite subject is ??????

James was quite proud of finding out where she was from. He had not actually found it out from Lily, he had seen it on a letter she had written to her parents at breakfast, as she had been planning to take it up to the Owlery before class. He had not found out yet what her favorite subject was, but he had accomplished one of his goals for the first week, and that was not bad seeing as he had been doing, in his opinion, and excellent job of not harassing her. Not that he'd really had time to. They seemed to have an unbelievable amount of homework, as though their teachers were trying to cram in as much information as possible before they let them out into the real world. After just one week of school James had to write three rolls of parchment about the uses of dragon blood in potions, he had to practice conjuring spells, which were very difficult, for transfiguration, he had to write two rolls of parchment on animation spells for charms, he had a long term project in Defense Against the Dark Arts on the Unforgivable curses, and Arithmancy…he didn't even want to think about that.

But the bright spot was that quidditch practices had started again, and he was the team captain this year. Their keeper, one of their beaters, and a chaser had graduated the year before, so he was planning to hold tryouts the next week. He already had an idea who he wanted. A fifth year named Simon Frey had played keeper once the last year when their usual keeper had been forced to sit out of a game after a bludger knocked him unconscious for nearly a month, and he'd been brilliant. A fourth year named Dale Waltham would make a good beater, and James suspected a second year named Bill Weasley would make a good chaser. A little young, yes, but the kid was nothing if not enthusiastic.

Remus kicked him gently. He looked up from his Lily list.

"Huh?"

McGonagall was standing directly over him. "Welcome to the class Mr. Potter. We were reviewing how conjuring spells need to be modified when conjuring live animals. But apparently you are finding something else far more interesting." James turned a deep shade of red as she picked up the notebook he had been scribbling in.

Oh Dear Merlin, she's going to read it aloud to the class. James wanted nothing more than to die. If there was any mercy in the world the floor would open up and swallow him. He closed his eyes, waiting.

He opened them again as McGonagall placed the notebook back on the desk in front of him, and said mildly "You should not be doing work for your other classes in here Potter. Ten points from Gryffindor, and pay attention."

He stared at her. It was clearly not work for another class. Had McGonagall actually….given him a break? He said nothing, only nodded meekly, and spent the rest of the class paying close attention and taking notes on every word she said. Only, as he was leaving, did she say "Potter?"

He paused, while his friends moved on out of the room, Sirius muttering "Oy, Prongs is busted."

"If that happens again Potter, I will read it aloud to the class." McGonagall said when all the students had left. She was marking papers and did not look up.

James gulped, a deep shade of crimson. "Yes Ma'am. Thank you."

"And I believe Miss Evans's favorite subject is Charms." She continued, still expressionless. He stared at her, his mouth wide open, until she looked up. "Don’t you have another class to go to Potter?"

"Yes Ma'am."

James stumbled out of the classroom, still completely not believing what had just happened, he could only wonder at the fact that you never did know what to expect from some people. Obviously there was more to his transfiguration teacher than he had realized.

******

Lily sat at one of the tables in the Common room and frowned at the stack of potions books she had brought from the library. Of course dragon blood was incredibly useful, but three rolls of parchment? Across from her, Flora was working on the same essay, and now she sighed deeply and laid her forehead against the table.

"Why oh why oh why am I taking NEWT level potions? What in Merlin's name was I thinking?" She moaned.

"Because it's better than NEWT level Divination?" Suggested Lily, and they both snickered. Neither of them had much use for divination, which seemed like a lot of guesswork to Lily. They were glad to be done with it.

"Hey Lil, Potter is staring over here." She whispered.

"So?"

"I'm just saying. He could be looking at me though." She threw a flirty smile his way. "He always looks so cute after quidditch practice. His hair all messed up."

Lily sighed and slammed her potions book shut. "His hair is always messed up. James Potter was apparently never instructed on the proper use of a comb." She gathered up her books. "I'm going to finish this upstairs." If Flora was that interested in Potter then she should go ahead and date him, but Lily was just sick of hearing about him. All she ever heard about was how he was a top student, how he was quidditch captain, how cute he was, how perfect he was. All she saw was how incredibly arrogant and annoying he was.

As soon as Lily was out of sight, Flora promptly stopped shooting dazzling smiles at James and his friends. gave her a concerned look.

"Flor, you're not really thinking of dating Potter, are you?" She asked quietly.

"Of course not. I know he's perfect for Lily. I think he's nice, and I do think he's pretty cute. He's not really my type. Now Black, on the other hand…" She cast a speculative look at Potter's group.

"So what's with all the talk about Potter?"

"Isn’t it obvious? I'm trying to light a fire under Lily by making her nervous. I think they'd be great together. He knows it, you know it, I know it. The only person who doesn't is Lily, but she's slowly catching on. I'm nudging her along."

grinned. "Good. Just so long as we’re on the same page."

******

James was thinking of going upstairs to bed when he spotted sitting at a table alone, poring over her potions textbook. Aside from making him remember that he had not yet done his potions essay, he realized she was one of Lily's best friends. They shared a room, so surely they talked a lot? Everyone knew that girls gossiped terribly when they were alone. Surely they had talked about him at least a few times?

He tried to think of a reason to strike up a conversation with her. He didn't know her terribly well. She was generally quiet and sweet. But then he remembered she was all but married to Frank Longbottom. James liked Frank very much. He edged over to where she sat.

"Working on your potions essay?"

She glanced up, surprised to see him. "Yep."

"So, um, I was just wondering, how's Frank doing? With the Auror training and all?"

A brief but truly stunning smile crossed her face, and James was momentarily struck, wondering if mention of him would ever make a woman smile like that. "He's good. It's really hard work but he likes it."

"Tell him I said hello?"

"Sure, I will."

She closed her potions book, and shuffled her papers. "James, I know Lily seems really tough. She kind of has to be. You have to fight for her."

He stared at her. He'd thought he'd have to be the one to drag information on Lily out of her.

She shrugged. "I just wanted you to know it's not a lost cause. Just be yourself around her. The two of you actually have a lot of things in common. Find out what they are."

She winked at him, sweet little actually winked at him, and gathered her books and headed up to the girls' dormitory. James was surprised, and thought Frank Longbottom was a pretty lucky guy.