Thanks:
hazeleyedmarauder and chocolatefroggie
Please READ!
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Chapter 2, A Punch To The Stomach
The traditional brown Hogwarts owl dropped the letter into her lap that sunny morning.
Lily ripped it open less-than-eagerly, knowing that this year was not going to be any better than the rest of them. It was her last year, though. Seventh Year.
The usual letter fell into her hands, telling her what to buy for her new year. But alongside it, another letter fell out, accompanied by a quadruple-coloured badge reading the words `Head Girl' on it.
"Oh Merlin," Lily breathed. "How the fuck did that even happen?"
She sighed, and left the house to get her things.
---
"I would like to announce this year's Head Students, Mr James Potter and Miss Lily-Marie Evans!"
At the mention of James, the whole hall went up in applause minus the Slytherin table. But when Lily's name was announced, there was silence but for a few people going, "Who's she?"
Lily rolled her eyes as nobody recognised her, and looked around the hall to see if anyone did. Her eyes rested on the Slytherin table, where four boys were looking in her direction. One of them was Snivellus, but the other three she didn't recognise.
After dinner was finished, she went up to Dumbledore's office and asked if there were Head Dorms. He smiled, being the only person who ever remembered her, and told her the directions.
Lily went to her room and dived into her new bed, sighing with relief that there was nobody else around.
---
It was several weeks later. The Heads had had no duty to do, so Lily and James hadn't come across each other yet. Lily was walking along a small, unused corridor that she'd discovered in her third year.
Suddenly, four boys stepped into her line of vision. They were all much taller, bigger-built, and stronger than she could ever be.
They were the four Slytherins she'd seen earlier. The ringleader, Snivellus, stepped forward towards her.
"My dear mudblood. Don't look quite so scared. We're not going to hurt you." Lily relaxed for a moment. "Hell, who am I kidding? Of course we are! One less mudblood in the world…yeah, the Dark Lord needs fewer mudbloods. And we are going to put you through as much pain as we can to make it worthwhile. You don't deserve to live in this world, mudblood bitch."
Lily bit her lip and turned her eyes downwards. Snivellus continued taunting her.
Finally one of the other boys chuckled. "Severus, can we just get on with it?"
"Yeah Snape!" another added.
Oh, so he's called Snape, Lily thought. She raised her eyes, finally bold, and was met with a punch to her stomach.
She doubled up in pain, but refused to give him any sound. They started hitting and kicking her. She fell to the floor, still trying to not make any sound. But it didn't work and she whimpered almost silently.
The blows came faster and faster, and she knew she was bleeding in many parts. Several of her ribs were cracked, but she refused to faint from the pain. She sat there, curled up in a bloody ball.
After a while she stopped feeling the hits; it was like they weren't happening. She focused her thoughts on seeing her parents again soon, which she would as Christmas was only a few months away…though she had only just got back.
After a while the boys got bored with their physical attacks and aimed curses at her. One of them yelled, "Crucio!" and she squirmed and squealed in immense pain. She almost couldn't breathe. It took even more of her effort this time to stay awake, but she knew that by doing so she was showing them she was stronger than they thought her to be.
In the end one of the boys became bored. He grabbed Lily's arm and yanked her to her feet. He began slamming her backwards against a wall, then pulling her forwards, then slamming her into the wall again. Searing pain flew up Lily's shoulders, arms, head, neck, and ribs, and she had to bite her lip hard to stop her from screaming again. Then, finally, another of the boys punched her hard on her forehead and then let go of her.
She slumped, unconscious, to the floor, where she lay in a pool of her own blood.
---
She awoke, a short while later, to find herself lying in bed. She wondered had she dreamed everything, but when she moved she realised otherwise. She raised a hand to her throbbing temples, and when she drew her fingers away she realised they were coated in blood, her blood. It had most definitely not been a dream.
Lily groaned in pain, and the door to the room flew open, revealing a tall boy with messy black hair, thin-black-rimmed glasses, and deep hazel eyes you could drown in (like mud). He hurried over to her bedside table and asked in a soothing and gentle voice, "How are you feeling now? You got banged up pretty hard."
Lily smiled weakly in response and winced. His eyes narrowed. "Who did this to you?" he asked.
"Some Slytherins," she whispered. "Mudblood-hating maniacs."
"I'll kill them…" the boy muttered. "What's your name? I'm James Potter, by the way."
Lily stared. It was him! Her `husband' in her dream! "Oh God, it's you…" she whispered.
"Sorry?"
Lily shook her head and stared, not in admiration but in wonderment. "How did you see me? Nobody ever sees me, they just ignore me. Even the teachers forget to read out my name."
James's eyes betrayed his sympathy for her. "Merlin, that must have been hard…how come I never noticed you? I mean, a beautiful girl such as yourself…"
Lily's eyes started tearing. Nobody had ever called her beautiful before, not even her parents. Petunia, the horse, had got herself engaged to the pig a few months back, and along with her `freak' comments, now took to calling Lily ugly because she didn't have a fiancé, too. The redhead smiled at the boy.
"I'm not beautiful," she whispered. "I could never be…"
"Of course you could, and you are. You're prettier than any girl I've ever seen. What is your name, what's your House, and what year are you in?"
"I'm a Seventh Year Gryffindor, I'm seventeen, I'm Head Girl," at this James's eyes widened; he was Head Boy and he'd never met her before, "and my name is Lily-Marie Evans, though people just call me Lily."
James stared at Lily and felt his jaw drop open. He remembered a conversation he'd had back with his Mum after Fifth Year, a short while before Voldemort killed her, his father, and his younger sister Evelyn (Evie). A very interesting conversation.
Flashback -
"James, you're home!" Julie Potter beamed and rushed over to hug her son. "We have something to tell you, son."
Andrew and Julie sat James down and proceeded to tell him of something they'd decided.
"When you are eighteen, you are going to marry," Julie began.
"That's three years, Mum, I have all the time in the world," James told her lazily. "I can choose who later."
"No, you cannot, as we have decided for you. She is a very sweet girl, and I am good friends with her mother, Lauren. I believe she is in your year at school, and has plenty of friends, her mother tells me. Her name is Lily Evans."
James shook his head, "Never heard of her, Mum. Your Lauren must have got it wrong."
"You are marrying her come your eighteenth birthday, James, and that is final," Andrew told him sternly. James shrugged, not really hearing.
End Flashback -
"Ah, my dear betrothed," he said almost inaudibly. Lily's eyes widened.
"Oh gosh," she whispered. "We're…?"
James nodded and proceeded to tell the girl of the talk with his parents. She nodded, understanding, and then told him of her dream.
James smiled gently. "Well, I guess that's settled. We have to get married at some point. My Mum, may she rest in peace, would never forgive me if I didn't marry you, and your parents might be a little hurt. My eighteenth birthday is in July, the thirteenth, so we should get married around then. But until then we should not go out with anyone and try to get to know each other more. You can hang around with the rest of the guys and I, if you like."
Lily nodded, very grateful. "Okay, now tell me, where am I?"
---
They spent the rest of the year messing around and playing pranks. The other three Marauders fell for her charm and beauty (but as friends), and immediately welcomed her into their world.
Now that Lily was popular, boys noticed her and asked to go out with her. But she always refused them, saying she was saving herself for someone else.
James, unlike Lily, was having a lot of trouble turning down girls, but as he got to know Lily more, he fell for every part of her, much deeper than the other three boys. They felt like her big brothers, but he felt a closer connection to her, one of strong love. He finally decided to take a stand in their relationship. After all, he had to marry her.
"Lils, can I talk to you for a moment?" he asked the spunky, funky redhead one day. The girl grinned and bobbed her head, and turned away from the other three Marauders.
"What's up, Jamie?" she asked him. She was the only one allowed to call him that.
"Will you…will you go out with me?" James asked her eventually. "Like, on a date?"
Lily bit her lip and shrugged. She had never actually been on a date, but she felt more comfortable around the boys and decided she really should. "Okay, sure."
James smiled all the way to his eyes and bent his head towards hers.
His lips grazed hers for less than a second. Lily's eyes widened and she realised she'd just been kissed. She reached out a hand and grabbed a handful of his shirt. She dragged him closer to her and pulled his mouth onto hers hungrily, feeling her stress and strain slip away as the kiss deepened into a full-on snog. Finally, James grinned and nodded his head towards a broom closet nearby. She smiled back flirtily, and allowed him to pull her into it behind him.
---
Lily and James had been together since December 7th. It was now May, and James decided to do the inevitable. He and Sirius went out to the shops, leaving Remus and Peter to baby-sit Lily and pretend they were doing something secret, that she couldn't know about (which was actually the truth).
The two boys came back much later. They decided to hold a meeting, where they told Lily of the transforming; their Animagi forms and Remus's werewolf change. Lily took it amazingly well, and she refused to leave Remus for a while.
Finally, James asked to speak with Lily urgently. Lily complied, all of a sudden reminded of the talk they'd had when James asked her out.
"What is it, Jamie?"
The boy raised his eyes to hers, and slid slowly down onto one knee. He breathed in deeply, brushed some of his messy black hair out of his eyes, and drew out a small box.
Lily gasped in shock. Was he…? She couldn't breathe; she just kept staring as James flicked the box open to reveal a glistening emerald-set real silver ring, identical to her eye colour.
"Lily-Marie Evans, I love you so much, with all my heart. Will you marry me?" he asked, his voice betraying his nervousness, but somehow managing to not tremble.
Lily reached out to touch the ring. "Wow…" she whispered. "I love you too…" She raised her eyes to his. "James Harold Potter, I would be delighted to marry you."
The boy's eyes lightened up furiously and he picked Lily up and spun her around. Then he slid the ring onto her ring-finger carefully.
They turned and went back into the room where the remaining Marauders were.
Sirius beamed when he saw her smile. "Do you like it?"
"Come on, show us the rock!" Remus added, grinning. Lily obliged.
"What an amazing fiancée I have," James told her, murmuring in her ear. Lily grinned, mentally thinking of ways to tell Petunia to shut her up.
"You're more amazing," she told him gently. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
---
So that's that chapter. They got together, yaaay! Would you believe that next chapter is the last chapter? This has been so short…
My shortest HP story, this is! lol, I hope you enjoyed it, and please read more of my stories. Look out for the final chapter, The Wedding, which is a songfic chap to I Was Made To Love You by Starmaker, a band I have honestly never heard of.
Now, I'd better go to bed as it's 12:41 and I have school tomorrow! Thanks, enjoy, and R/R!
Lyl,
Jayceexx
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