Lily and James are Head Boy and Girl in their seventh year. They must learn to get along and work together against the threats of Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
From the Unofficial Portkey Archive: https://portkey-archive.org/story/3370/
How It All Began: Chapter One
Maturity
Summary: Lily hates James, and James loves Lily, we all know that, but when Voldemort threatens the world of magic, they both need someone that can understand them and give them love. L/J Seventh Year.
Other Characters: Kala (Seamus Finnigans mum) and Alice (Boyfriend: Frank, you get the picture?)
Rating: PG-13. Mostly, this won't come up until later, but it will be for violence, language and sexuality.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The room was dark, and the air was slightly musty. It was empty of living creatures, except for a small rat snuffling about in the corner of a wooden chair where some blankets were resting. The air suddenly rippled, and a man appeared with a pop. The rat squeaked in shock and buried itself into the blankets.
A man laughed, a high, sinister laugh, and turned his cold red eyes towards the blanket.
"Come out, my pet," he crooned. "I won't hurt you."
The rat slowly poked it head out, its nose wetly snuffling at the air around him. It turned its watery eyes up to the tall, pale man in black robes. The man laughed again, and the rat seemed to cringe.
"What do you have for me, today?" asked the man, in a creepy voice that would have made anyone in the room shiver, had they been there.
The rat scurried over to another corner of the room, and squeaked loudly. The man walked over, looked at the object quickly, and turned towards the rat.
"Is this all?" he asked. The rat squeaked in reply. Suddenly, the man's attitude seemed to change. "Coward," he spat out, red eyes flashing. "You can't even show your face in a meeting with your master. If you are to be one of us, you must act like it. Think on this. If you do not want to be one of us, then you will not live much longer." The rat's body trembled, and it scurried back towards the blankets. It seemed about to bury itself once again, then seemed to remember its master's words, and turned back towards the man. There was a blinding flash of blue light, and a man -- well, a boy really -- appeared. He had watery blue eyes, and twitched, sort of like the rat he once was.
"M-my master. L-look closer at those d-documents." His voice was nasal, and the man found it difficult to not flinch. He strode over towards the corner where the documents were and picked them up. He scanned them, and then grinned evilly. He looked over towards the rat-turned-man.
"Yes. These will do quite well. Perhaps I have underestimated you. You say here that this boy is your friend? Yes, I know him and his family quite well. I had a -- dealing with them this past month. And this girl...what of her?"
"She is a mudblood, my lord. And I think the boy has a weakness with her."
"Yeees.....you did very well."
There were two pops, and the room was empty once again, except for a slight rising of the dust.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Lily sighed as she waved goodbye to her mum on platform 9 3/4. This would be the last time she would ever get onto the train to Hogwarts. She was surprised to feel tears coming to her eyes. What am I doing, crying about the end of school before it has even begun? she thought. At that, she swallowed up her tears, sniffed, and waved again as the train rolled out of the station, and kept on waving until the platform was out of sight. She turned around, looking for her friends. Behind her came a shout.
"LILY!!!" she felt a small whirlwind knock into her, taking her breath away, and then another small whirlwind. She fell to the ground laughing, or trying to, as she had no breath left to actually do it.
"Kala! Alice! How are you? How were your summers? I'm sorry I couldn't come to stay!" she said all this in a rush, then playfully shoved them off of her as she sat up. Alice was the first to answer.
"I had an absolutely smashing summer. We went to Italy and saw the historic magic towns. I learned so much history there."
"Enough for Bins' essay he set over the summer?" Lily asked teasingly. Alice rolled her eyes while Kala giggled.
"No one could write enough for that. TEN FEET? I mean, is he crazy?" Alice complained.
Kala shook her head in response, then said, "Come on you guys, we have to find a compartment."
Lily sighed at that, and her friends looked at her, question in their glances. "I'm Head Girl," she said by way of explanation. Once again, she was seized in a tight bear hug as her friends danced around squealing.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Kala asked. Lily smiled, then said her goodbyes, making the two other girls promise to save a spot in the compartment for her, and went to search out the Heads compartment where she would talk to the prefects, and meet the Head Boy. She had been wondering for a month who it was, ever since she got her letter, since Dumbledore didn't mention it. She hoped it was either Remus, a fellow Gryffindor prefect of two years, or one of the Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff prefects. The Slytherin prefect, Severus Snape, creeped her out.
She turned around, but as soon as she did so, she regretted it. A tall, handsome boy with messy black hair and hazel eyes covered with glasses was walking towards her, grinning. Lily sighed, resigning herself to the torture that was sure to come. It was James Potter. The egotistical, know-it-all git, who had had a crush on her since before fifth year.
"All right there, Evans?" He asked grinning. She glared at him.
"Not with you around, I'm not," she replied, sticking her nose up. He pretended to look taken aback.
"Oh, I'm hit!" He staggered around moaning and pretending he was dying until another boy stuck his head out of the compartment next to him.
"Oy! James! Shut up out there! Stop trying to impress the girls!" Sirius Black stepped out of the compartment. He saw Lily, and pretended to do a double take.
"The Ice Queen!" He said, pretending to be shocked.
"Black" she replied curtly. He was equally as handsome, but slightly taller than James. He didn't have glasses, and his hair was slightly longer. Turning back to James, Lily said, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm on my way to the Heads' compartment to talk to some responsible people about this year. She brushed by him sharply. Unfortunately, her grand exit was not to be. James took hold of her robes, which she had already changed into and halted her progress. She turned around to look at him. He was gazing sharply back at her.
"What now?" she snapped. "I have somewhere to be." James was still looking at her with a confused expression.
"Wait Evans, you're Head Girl?" he .asked incredulously
"Uh-huh," she said suspiciously, "What's it to you?" He swallowed and looked over her shoulder.
"Nothing," he said softly, still not looking at her. "I suppose you'll find out soon enough." Now it was Lily's turn to look confused. She opened her mouth to reply, but found that Potter was gone. Black however, was a different story. He was still out in the corridor, grinning annoyingly.
"What is it Black? Do you also have the desire to hinder me further?" Sirius shook his head, grinning.
"Nothing, Evans. Like James said, you'll find out soon enough." With that, he went back into his compartment. Lily stood there for a few moments, totally and absolutely perplexed, then shook her head and made her way to the Heads' compartment.
She arrived at the compartment to see through the glass that some people were in there, milling around, and waiting for the Prefects' meeting to begin. She looked around, pondering on who could be Head Boy. She didn't know any of the Ravenclaws that well, and was trying to figure out which could be Head Boy, when someone opened the door.
"Coming in?" a familiar, very annoying, voice said. "The meeting started five minutes ago. Don't want the new Head Girl to have the reputation of being late, do we?" Lily looked up into the annoying and conceited grin of none other than James Potter. She tried to speak and couldn't. James saw all this and laughed.
"What?" he said, "Finally blinded by my good looks?" He smiled a smile that would have had most girls swooning. Unfortunately for him, it didn't have this effect on Lily Evans. She glared at him for what she thought was about the tenth time today, and shoved past him into the compartment.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Well, that was basically just an introduction to the characters of Lily Evans and James Potter. Let's see where it goes from here shall we? That is, if you review ;)
Edit: 1/16/05: For those of you that have read this already; I have added a whole new scene and have done changes to the rest of the chapter. I will note this in the next chapter I post (7).
Crystaltambaia
-->
How It All Began: Chapter Two
The Marauders
A/N: I'll put up the first three chapters of this now, and then wait till I put up the other ones.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
James was daydreaming right in the middle of a prefects' meeting. At the start of the meeting, he had done well not looking at Lily for prolonged periods of time. Unfortunately, he could only keep that up for so long, and the meeting was not moving along all that quickly.
He was looking at her perfect skin, which glowed milky-white, just like an incandescent pearl. He was looking at her perfect eyes, which glowed with a brilliant shade of green, overpowering even the most luscious emeralds. He was looking at her perfect hair, which cascaded down her back in magnificent red curls. Her whole self was perfect! Or at least, he thought it was.
They were in a prefects' meeting the second week of school and James was already bored of this whole Head Boy business. All he did was meetings, meetings, and more meetings. He needed to spice up his life with some pranks! Unfortunately, someone wouldn't let him.
Sirius just said that he was being a baby.
That someone snapped him out of his reverie by waving a hand in front of him. He jumped, causing some of the prefects to laugh. He scowled back at them, causing them to look away quickly.
"So, our Head Boy having some trouble paying attention?" Lily asked. It seemed that, instead of being angry with him, she was slightly amused. This caused him to scowl again. He would never understand her. This time, however, his scowl had no effect. Lily just smiled and tapped her fingers on her desk, awaiting a response. James, for a few seconds, refused to indulge her, but couldn't keep it up for long.
"I was paying attention. I'm a good little boy. And besides, this Prefects' meeting is really boring,” he whined, but then stopped because he realized he sounded like a little boy trying to get his mother to buy him cockroach clusters. "Right, okay, what'd I miss?" Lily laughed this time, instead of just smiling.
"Look around you. While you were doing your 'whiny, spoilt little boy' interpretation, everybody left. The meeting's over."
James groaned. How was he ever going to get on Lily's good side now? Well, he thought since I screwed this one up, she wont mind that much if I do a couple of pranks, would she? Sirius had been trying to get James to do some pranks since the opening feast, but Lily was having none of it.
That girl was psychic.
Lily and James got up, and straightened the desk in the charms classroom, which they had been using as the place for their meetings, since Dumbledore hadn't quite opened the official Prefects' meeting room. Lily didn't talk, but James tried to.
"Hey, Lily?" he asked.
"What?" she snapped back.
Man, she sure changes tempers quickly, James thought. "I'm sorry," he said, trying to sound as sincere as possible.
"No you're not," she said, and shook her head, letting her shining red hair cover her face slightly, and walked out of the classroom. James ran after her, trying desperately to get her attention, but she was having none of it.
"Go away Potter."
"Why?" he asked, not bothering to check his whine this time.
"Because Potter, I only talk to people who have grown up."
He slowed to a walk, his head hanging. He would never get her. At least not at this rate. She has too many prejudices against me. But wait...I think I have an idea...At that, James walked up to the common room and began to formulate his plan.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Later that night, Lily was busy attempting to do her small mountain of homework, while at the same time trying to pretend that Sirius Black, planner of all bad and mischievous doings (well, co planner anyway), didn't exist. At that moment, he was terrifying a load of bright third years into doing his homework for him. Really, he was even worse than Potter. Even worse that he's a womanizer, she thought. At least Potter has no clue how to talk to women.
Finally, though, she had had enough. She stood up, knocking the table with her homework on it over, causing a loud crash. This caused Sirius to look over.
"Black," she said menacingly, "or should I call you padfoot? I think its time you did your own homework for a change." At that, Blacks face drained of color, and he nodded in agreement, surprising Lily. She had heard Potter and Lupin use that nickname for him before, when she was evidently not supposed to be listening, and she had wondered if it had any meaning. Evidently, it did, and she wondered what...
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
James and Sirius were both sitting on Sirius' four-poster bed. It was about midnight, but neither was tired, and they had both been saying nothing for awhile, James cleaning his broom and Sirius picking at some lint on his pyjama trousers. Finally, Sirius decided to breach the silence.
"James, mate," said Sirius.
"Yeah?" said James, not bothering to look up.
"I think...well...I think that Lily might know about us."
At this, James' head shot up. "What?"
"Yeah, she called me padfoot earlier. We only use that when we're alone. How could she know it when she doesn't know about us?"
James shrugged, seeming to not be entirely paying attention to the conversation. "Maybe she just heard us when we thought there was no one around. Besides, no one has strange nicknames without a reason. She probably thought that it meant something and decided to see if it did by using it on you. Judging by your worries, I'm guessing that you gave her the idea that they do mean something."
Sirius was not reassured. "Maybe. But James?"
"Yeah?"
"If you know all that, then you spend way too much time thinking about how Lily thinks.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Well, folks, that's another chapter! And I'm sorry that these first ones are so short! Thanks, bye. Review!
Crystaltambaia
Chapter Three Preview:
“B-but wait!” she said, sputtering, “doesn't that mean you have to spend the weekend with your all time enemy?”
Her bad weekend had gotten much, much worse.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~
“Knowing what that class contains, I probably will vomit,” said Alice, voicing Lily's exact thoughts.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Edited: 1/16/05 A/N: Please review!
Crystaltambaia
How It All Began: Chapter Three
Letters and Admirers
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
“First Hogsmeade weekend next weekend! Sweet!” Kala shouted in delight.
“Ugh, I can't go,” said Lily, dismayed. “I have to spend that Saturday decorating for Halloween - you know - Head duties.”
“Tough luck, mate,” said Alice sincerely. Kala suddenly stifled a gasp.
“B-but wait!” she said, sputtering, “doesn't that mean you have to spend the weekend with your all time enemy?” Lily jumped up, her eyes wide. Her bad weekend had gotten much, much worse.
“Damn,” she muttered under her breath. Her friends offered their condolences, then stood up with Lily.
“Breakfast time, oh dearest Lily of the Valley. We better get down there before Potter and Black eat all of the food,” Kala said.
“But we have Potions: what if we have to make something really nasty and we vomit or something?” Lily looked at her friend; she hated Potions with a passion. It wasn't that the teacher was bad, it was that it contained the slytherins - one in particular - Severus Snape. Every time she looked at him, she truly did want to vomit he was so disgusting.
“Knowing what that class contains, I probably will vomit,” said Alice, voicing Lily's exact thoughts.
About halfway through breakfast, the mail came. Lily, who never got much mail except for the occasional letter from her parents, was surprised to see her owl bringing her a letter. She gave her owl a nibble of toast, then took the letter and ripped it open.
Dear Lily, Please accept this gift as a token of my affections...
Lily looked down to see a single tiger lily lying there on the table, though she was certain it hadn't been there before.
I am an admirer of you, and through your actions you have captured my
heart. If you would like to send a letter, tell your owl to send it to
Prongs. She will know where to go. I will understand if you don't
trust an anonymous letter, but I do await a response. Until then...
The note was unsigned. Quietly, she gave it to Alice and Lily, who had been watching her intently. They read it and both sighed.
“It's so romantic...” breathed Kala, ever the exaggerator.
“Yeah,” agreed Alice. “If only someone would do that for me.” Lily giggled at the absurdity of the two of them and went back to breakfast. While she was eating, she wondered about the letter. Who was it from? Why did they send it? With the abundance of dark wizardry emerging lately, she was inclined to ignore it. However, it seemed sincere, and there were no threats or sinister undertones. Quickly, she got out a bit of spare parchment and scribbled a note.
Prongs...whatever that means,
I thank you dearly for your previous letter, but I want to know who
you are! I promise I wont scream or run away...although, on second
thought, I might. Anyway, this has to be quick, otherwise my friends
will find out, and I don't want them to know I answered, otherwise
everything you say will be around the entire school; my friends,
although nice, are the teensiest gossipy - although, if you know me as
you say you do, you would already know that. Goodbye.
Lily
With that, Lily sealed it up and gave it to her owl.
“This is for Prongs,” she whispered, “although I imagine you already knew that.”
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
A/N: Third and last one up for now. Please review!
Crystaltambaia
How It All Began: Chapter Four
A Fight
A/N: Thank you all for your reviews of the first three chapters. Since this has already been up on ff.net, some stuff might be confusing, but hopefully not too much so! Anyway, enjoy!
Recap:
With that, Lily sealed it up and gave it to her owl.
“This is for Prongs,” she whispered, “although I imagine you already knew that.”
Meanwhile, down the table, Remus Lupin was whispering to his friends.
“I don't think this is a good idea, James. What if she thinks you're a dark wizard or something and sends you a curse?” Sirius shook his head in mock sympathy towards Remus.
“Remus, Remus, Remus. We've been sitting here watching her reply to James' letter. It seems long, she doesn't have an angry face AND her wand isn't out, so how could she curse it? No, my friend, I think Jamsey here has scored a winner.” James grimaced at the nickname, and Peter proceeded to laugh hysterically. The other three gave him weird glances until finally Sirius coughed meaningfully, causing Peter to stop.
“Anyway James,” said Sirius, turning to him, and pretending nothing had just happened, “what's this I here about you having Head duties Hogsmeade weekend?”
“Oh yeah, sorry guys, I have to decorate the Great Hall for Halloween with Evans,” James said ruefully.
“It's okay, we can just go Sunday. We know you wouldn't want to miss a date with Evans.” James turned red and Remus gave them a warning look.
“Mates—,” he started.
“Remus, let poor James have some fun.”
“But what if you get caught?” Remus argued.
“Yeah, what if you get caught?” piped up Peter. Sirius rolled his eyes.
“How many times have we gone to Hogsmeade illegally, Remus?” said Sirius, “And have we ever gotten caught?”
“It makes it even more likely that you will this time. And James will lose his Head's badge.”
“Oh yes, and that's just SUCH a terrible thing,” said James.
“Well,” said Remus, “What about Lily?” James shrugged.
“It's not as if she talks to me anyway.” Sirius glanced down at his watch.
“Potions time!” he said with false cheerfulness.
“Make-fun-of-Snape time, you mean,” replied James, grinning. James, Sirius and Remus were all in NEWT level potions, but Peter wasn't, so he headed upstairs to his divination class while the others headed for the dungeons.
They were sitting in potions later, and Sirius was flicking salamander tails at Snape's head, who was, coincidentally, paired with Lily. As much as Lily hated being paired with Snape, she hated it more when Sirius missed and flicked the tails onto her instead.
“Sorry,” he said as a tail hit Lily in the head for the fourth time, and she turned around to glare at him. She turned back to making her potion, trying to ignore Snape while he stirred his potion with his nose a centimeter away from its contents. Involuntarily, she gave a shudder when he sniffed a piece of rat dung. He heard and glared at her with his beady eyes and whispered,
“Be careful how you act around me, Evans. I have powerful friends, and it just might be the last thing you do.” She stared back, shocked, unaware that behind her, Sirius and James had heard the whole thing. They glanced at each other with troubled expressions.
“What do you reckon that was all about, Si?” James asked his friend.
“Dunno, but you better keep an eye on Evans, and Snape for that matter.” For once, Sirius looked serious.
“Yeah,” James barked, “That is, if she ever looks at me without scowling.”
“James, my man, she'll be head over heels for you by the end of this year, mark my words.”
“Sure, sure,” James replied, then went back to his potion.
**
A/N: Well, there we are then. Have a good winter break!
I'll get another chapter up soon. (It's very useful when they're already written!)
~Wwindmilller
How It All Began
Chapter FIVE: Responses
A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews! I haven't quite figured out how to do the review response (I'm new to portkey), but I'll figure it out and respond to all of your lovely reviews.
Later that day Kala, Alice and Lily were in their dormitory. Kala and Alice were interrogating Lily about the letter she had gotten at breakfast that morning.
“So, Lils, did you answer it?” Kala asked.
“Yeah, whoever it was must really love you...”Alice sighed dramatically.
“Alice, you have Frank to sigh over. That reminds me, have you found out whether he likes you yet?” Lily laughed at her two friends as they sat on her bed chatting about Frank. Slowly she moved, hoping that they had forgotten about the letter. Unfortunately, it was not to be so.
“So Lily...you evaded the question...tell us the answer!” Lily laughed at that.
“Actually, mates,” she began, “you were the ones who went off on a tangent, not me. And to tell you the truth,” she hesitated at her lie, “I didn't answer the letter. With all these rumors about dark wizardry, I didn't think it was safe.” She mentally excused her lie - after all, she had thought the exact same things, she had just taken the risk of writing back. She was curious. Kala and Alice seemed to understand and didn't question her further.
Meanwhile, Sirius, James, Remus and Peter were looking out of their dorm window at the girls crossing the lawn.
“Look at that girl, mate. Boy, does she look fine! Oh, and look at that one over there!” Sirius was being his usual girl-obsessed self. Remus laughed.
“Sirius, how can you tell these things? We're at the top of a tower and its dusk, and you can still tell if the girls are hot or not?” Sirius smirked and shrugged.
“It's my aura, mate. It's like a god-given gift or something.”
“Honestly,” said Remus, “I don't know how you manage to sound so utterly thick when you are one of the smartest wizards in the year.”
“Hey!”
“She'll never like me,” said James miserably, interrupting the other two. “If she ever found out who that letter was from, she'd probably hex me. I was so stupid to do that.” James had just gotten out of another depressing Heads meeting in which it seemed like Lily had been shouting at him the whole time. He wasn't looking forward to decorating the Great Hall that weekend with Lily. Remus suddenly looked up.
“Oy, James, isn't that Lily's owl at the window?” James also looked up. A smile lit up his previously sad face.
“It is! Yes!” James reached over and opened the window. He took the letter from the owl and opened it. He read it with a smile.
“So, what did she say, mate?” asked Sirius.
“She didn't threaten to hex me! Score!”
“Let me see!” said Sirius, attempting to snatch the letter away.
“No,” said James, shocking Sirius, who sat back. James got up, fetched a piece of parchment and quill, and went downstairs to the common room, thinking about what he should write. Finally, after many attempts, he had a letter.
Dearest Lily,
Prongs is an extremely distinguished and meaningful nickname. Or at least, I think it is. And knowing you, you probably would scream and runaway if you knew who I was. Personally, I think commitment scares you, though I think that isn't the smartest thing to say when I'm trying to get on your good side. But know that I will love you always and forever as long as I know you.
Forever yours,
Prongs.
James looked up to see a very confused looking Sirius reading over his shoulder.
“Why are you making it all fancy, mate? Why not just, `I think you're hot, come meet me at the astronomy tower at midnight.'?” James sighed at his clueless friend.
“Because number one, I don't want to shag her, I want to be her friend, and number two, the first years have astronomy at midnight tonight.” At that, James sent the letter off with the owl.
A/N: Sorry for the shortness, but I can't control that; these chapters have already been written. I can promise you that they get much longer, though!
Crystaltambaia
How it All Began: Chapter Six
Transfiguration
A/N: Thank you reviewers! This chapter is just slightly longer, but as I said before, they are already written. It's just a little fun chapter, and I promise that it won't be long until more substantial chapters start coming. Next chapter is much longer!
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The next day, everyone was in Transfiguration, and the seventh years were learning the conjuring spell, which was a tricky piece of magic. Right now, they were just conjuring up small inanimate things, like nails. James, who was good at Transfiguration, quickly mastered that, and was lazily conjuring up some cupcakes to eat. Sirius was eyeing them, but James was having none of it, preferring to torture his friend.
Across the room, however, Lily was having more trouble. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't do it. The best she got was a slight shimmer in the air.
“I give up,” Lily announced, slumping down in her chair. Kala and Alice both looked apologetically at her.
“Sorry Lils,” said Alice, “We could help you work on it tonight.” Lily shook her head, determined to do it herself.
“Thanks, but I can do it.” The other two looked at each other and shrugged.
Suddenly, there was a loud noise over where Sirius and James were sitting. Sirius, finally giving in to his cupcake urges, had leapt onto James, attempting to wrestle them from his grasp. The chair had broken underneath them with a loud BANG! McGonagall stood up, livid.
“Detention both of you,” she said shrilly, “I will NOT have that kind of behavior in my classroom.” Sirius and James both looked down at the floor, slightly embarrassed, and mumbled their apologies.
Looking back at her friends, Lily shrugged. Then, with a smirk, she showed her friends two cupcakes she had under her robes.
“How did you…?” Alice asked, shocked. Lily just smiled.
“Summoning charm,” she said simply. “Plus, those cupcakes looked too good to be wasted on Potter and Black, don't you agree?” Kala giggled.
“We'll be hearing their moans of dismay right about…NOW!” Right on cue, there was a loud howl from the other side of the classroom
“MY CUPCAKES!” shouted James. Once again, McGonagall stood up.
“Potter, quiet down this instant, or I shall send you to Dumbledore.” James jumped at that, apparently surprised to see the Professor there, so absorbed was he in the fate of his cupcakes.
Lily, Kala and Alice all laughed.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Back in the common room, around midnight, Lily was not feeling quite so happy. She had been practicing the conjuring spell for hours now, but all she had now as a result was a massive headache. Kala and Alice had both gone to bed, having finished their homework hours ago. Lily put her head in her hands in despair. She was NEVER going to learn this. Suddenly, a shadow crossed over her and she looked up. It was James, and she frowned, though she did admit he looked serious.
“Hey there, Evans. I-uh, well, I just came over because - well, you looked like you could, uh, use some, er, help,” he finished lamely. Lily frowned, feeling her anger start to well up. She repressed it; she needed the help, badly, but this was James Potter, her sworn enemy since around third year or so. On the other hand, he had managed the spell in about two seconds flat in Transfiguration. She herself had eaten a cupcake that he had conjured. She sighed, resigned to spending an hour with James Potter.
“Yeah, you can help me.” James raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“What?” Lily said, suddenly enjoying torturing him, “you didn't think I would agree?”
“Well…no,” said James, scratching his head. Lily realized then she hadn't seen him ruffle his hair in that annoying way of his all year. She decided then and there to give him a chance, at least for tonight.
“Well, sit down,” she said. He did, but not too closely. Lily noticed, and smiled. Maybe he was getting better.
“Well, to start with,” he said briskly, all nervousness gone, “you're holding the wand wrong. You hold it like this, see?” James clasped his warm hand around Lily's and placed her fingers in the correct positions. A strangely warm shiver went down the back of Lily's neck at his touch, but she shook it off.
For the next half hour, James worked with Lily on her conjuring spells. By the end, she could almost conjure a cupcake of her own. She could see it, but when she tried to touch it, it would ripple and disappear. She turned to James, thoroughly pleased at his performance.
“Well, thanks James,” she said softly.
“It was no problem. You need help any other time, I'll give it.”
“I better get to bed. Need to get enough sleep to decorate on Saturday.” James smiled and they both stood up. There was an awkward silence, but a shrill hooting broke it.
“My owl!” said Lily. She bounded across the common room and opened the window. James sighed and made his was up to his dormitories. Once up there, a sleepy looking Sirius greeted him.
“`ello,” he said drowsily. “Watcha doin' up so - so -” his sentence was interrupted by a large yawn, “late?” he finished. James shook his head at his sleepy friend.
“It's only twelve thirty Sirius. Did you spend last night snogging or something to make you so tired.” Sirius just looked confused. Obviously, his brain wasn't up to processing a question. James got into bed and went straight to sleep.
A/N: Hmm…slightly pointless, but it does convey some of what James and Lily are feeling at this point - a useful commodity for later chapters! Did anyone notice that their silence at the end was interrupted by the owl that Prongs had sent Lily? Well, you probably did, but anyway…That means that it was sort of James' fault that nothing…er…happened…
Chapter Seven preview:
***
“Six muggles and four aurors killed last night by the Dark Lord.”
***
“So,” said James, “What about those attacks today, eh?”
Remus shrugged. “If only they had some idea of who was behind these attacks,” he said. Sirius grimaced at that. “I do,” he said.
***
“Don't you ignore me, Evans,” he spat, “or it'll be the last thing you do.” Lily turned around to face him, wiping blood from her head.
***
“How was your date?” Kala asked cheekily. Lily pretended to slap her friend.
“It was NOT a date,” she said loudly.
Alice smiled. “Suit yourself.”
~Wwindmilller
-->