Trouble in Paradise
Chapter 1: Paradise
"Oy, James!" Sirius shouted to his best friend. "Come here-this kid wants to propose!"
As James laughed and began walking over to Sirius, the first year that was standing next to him turned scarlet and practically sprinted back to the castle.
"You should have heard him, mate! That boy worships you. The whole lot of them do. Oh, James is the greatest Quidditch player ever! He's just incredible! I wonder if he'd give me his autograph!"
James shoved Sirius and laughed. "Oh, come on, Padfoot. You know you agree with him!"
"Oh, I don't know about that. But I do know that if those first years don't stop flattering you, your head will be bigger than all of Hogwarts!"
James laughed, and the two of them sat down next to the lake, where Remus and Peter sat with half a dozen textbooks. "What are you two up to?" he asked them.
"What does it look like?" Peter replied grumpily. "We're studying."
Remus laughed. "Yea, you know, that thing you never do?"
"Well I would, but I just don't need to," James said, lying down on the grass.
"Yea," Sirius agreed. "We know all that stuff already. And everything else there is to know as well."
"So what's going on with you two?" Remus asked, looking up from his book. "Done anything interesting this morning?"
"Well, that depends on what you'd call interesting," James said.
Sirius looked at him and laughed. "James dumped Louisa this morning."
"Really?" Remus asked incredulously. "Why?"
James simply shrugged.
Sirius laughed. "So who's next? How about that new girl-Christine Thomas?"
James shook his head slowly.
"What about Emma Miller, from Ravenclaw?" Remus asked. "She's really pretty."
"Then you go out with her," James said, closing his eyes.
"Oh, and I hear Lily Evans is single again," Sirius said suddenly. "And if you don't go for her, I definitely will. That girl is really something."
James looked up. "Who?"
"Lily Evans," Remus said slowly. "For someone who gets such good grades, you're not so quick."
James laughed. "Lily Evans? Sounds familiar, but I can't think who she is."
Sirius looked at him blankly. "She's in our year, and she's in our house, and she's in quite a few of our classes."
James looked puzzled. "I think I know who she is, but I've never spoken to her before. That's odd. Oh well, she must not be very memorable, that's all."
"She definitely is," Sirius said. "She's pretty much the only one that could rival you in memorableness."
"Memorableness isn't a word," Remus said without looking up.
"It is now," Sirius said quickly. "So seriously, James, I think you should talk to her. She's really great. You won't regret it."
~
"Lily Evans, can I see you for a moment?"
Lily stood up and walked to Professor Vector's desk. "Yes sir?"
Professor Vector smiled. "I just wanted to inform you that you earned a perfect score on the last exam. That was a very difficult exam, and a perfect score is unprecedented. You are an amazing student, and I am very proud to be teaching you. Congratulations, Miss Evans."
Lily smiled widely. "Thank you very much, Professor."
"What was that about? Are you in trouble?" asked Emily Hammond, Lily's best friend, as she left the classroom. She laughed. "No, what am I saying? You're never in trouble!"
Lily laughed with her. "Professor Vector just wanted to congratulate me on my perfect score on the last exam."
Emily stopped laughing. "The last exam? You mean the one that was so hard that Tim Walden started crying right in the middle of it? The exam that was so impossible that half the class handed back blank papers? The exam that was responsible for ruining the grades of generations of amazing students?"
Lily nodded slowly.
"You know, you're really incredible. I don't know how you do it. It's not even that you're just good in school, either. You're virtually perfect in every way!"
Lily laughed. "I'm not perfect. I suppose I'm just lucky!"
Emily laughed with her. "Well I'm just hoping some of that luck rubs off on me!"
The two girls walked down the steps of the castle, laughing all the way. When they reached the courtyard, they were joined by Christine Thomas.
"You'll never guess what I just heard!" She shrieked, making them jump. Without giving them time to answer, she went on. "I hear James Potter just split up with Louisa Winters! She's devastated!"
"You seem a bit happy," Lily said, frowning.
"Well, it's great!"
"I fail to see what part of that is good," Emily said slowly.
"He's SINGLE!" she shouted, jumping up and down.
Lily looked puzzled. "James Potter… is that the boy who sits in the back of Transfiguration and throws things at people?"
Emily and Christine both looked at Lily strangely.
"You're joking right?" Christine said quietly. "That's Roger Simlan. James Potter is nothing like him at all. James Potter is only the most wonderful guy to ever walk the halls of Hogwarts. How can you not know exactly who he is?"
Emily agreed with her for once. "I can't imagine how you could mix James Potter up with anybody. I thought everyone knew him!"
Lily shrugged. "Well I'd probably recognize him if you pointed him out, but I've never spoken to him or anything."
Christine grabbed her arm and started dragging her toward the lake.
"What are you doing?" Lily gasped as she stumbled after her.
"Everyone should know James Potter. I'm just helping you out," she replied.
As they got closer to the lake, Lily saw who they were heading for. He was tall, with dark scruffy hair, and Lily was sure she had never seen anyone so gorgeous in her entire life. He looked up as they got closer, looking puzzled, but slightly amused.
~
"That's her, isn't it?" James whispered to Sirius as the two girls got closer. "That's Lily Evans."
"Oh yea, that's her." Sirius said, sounding uninterested.
"She's beautiful," James said, smiling.
"Yea," said Remus and Sirius together.
James stood up slowly as the girls reached them.
"Hi James," Christine said flirtatiously. "I hear you're single again."
"Uh, yea, I guess so," he said, not taking his eyes off of Lily. "Hey, I'm James Potter."
"Lily Evans," she replied, smiling.
Sirius laughed quietly at the disappointed look on Christine's face. "Why don't you come over here, Christine?" he asked gently.
"Oh, fine," she replied moodily. "I'll just go, and let these two get on with it." She stomped off, but Lily and James didn't seem to notice.
Hope you liked it! I totally understand if you didn't though… This chapter is just leading up to the rest of it. It'll start getting good soon!
Anyway, review!
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