Six Minutes

A/N: Again, just something I had to get out there as the urge to write it has been eating away at me for quite some time. Enjoy!

Prologue: …Just Six Minutes of Her Time…

The sounds of breakfast filled the air on yet another morning in the Great Hall, the bewitched ceiling depicting a practically spotless cerulean sky.

There are people who believe that the weather tends to affect their personality from day to day. Whether by coincidence or not , it just so happens that these particular people tend to feel bright on a particularly sunny day, or slightly blue on those rare murky days.

James Potter, however was not one of these people. Why? Because if this were true, taking James’ particular mood into account, the sky would instead be painted a murky grey, covered in a blanket of clouds with just the slightest chance of rain.

The messy haired bespectacled boy walked into the great hall alone, lacking the usual spring in his step and gleaming with laughter eyes that most of the student population had long ago associated with him. Huffing exasperatedly, he plopped down next to Remus Lupin and across from Sirius Black and heaved a tremendous sigh before propping his elbow up on the table and ceremoniously dropping his head to rest on the palm of his hand.

Remus and Sirius shared looks of understanding from across the table, realizing James must still be in a bit of a dreary mood from Lily’s latest rejection which had occurred, rather publicly last night in the Gryffindor Common room.

The funny thing was, James had gotten quite good at handling rejection when it came to Lily Evans. Sirius figured that’s what happens when you were relentlessly chasing after the same girl for over three years. But even so-- even after the thousands of rejections he had probably received from Lily-- James always had the uncanny ability to bounce back quickly, as well as the will to optimistically try again. The fact that James had both time and a night to sleep rejection off was what worried Sirius the most, as his best friend was quite clearly sitting in front of him looking as glum as could be.

Remus raised his eyebrows, tilting his head slightly in James’ direction as if encouraging Sirius to talk to him.

“Ahem.” Sirius cleared his throat, causing James to look up from the bowl of cereal he had been moving around restlessly in its bowl. “A little blue today, Prongs?”

James’ response was yet another heart wrenching sigh.

Sirius caught Remus’ eye again shooting him a questioning glance and shrugging his shoulders lightly as if asking his opinion on pursuing the matter at hand. Sometimes, Sirius thought, it was best to go about business as usual instead of paying too much attention to the way James was handling his Lily problems.

Remus understood-- Sirius had tagged him in and it was his turn in the ring.

“Do you want to tell us what’s going on?” Remus asked.

At this, James pushed his cereal bowl rather forcefully aside before dropping his forehead rather violently onto the table top. The result was a resounding SMACK! which caused the remaining three marauders’ breakfast plates to shudder.

Peter’s eyes widened with shock at the unexpected noise, looking fearfully at the other two.

“James…?” Sirius asked. No answer came, so he tried again. “Prongs…?”

“It’s hopeless, Padfoot-- hopeless!”

“What’s hopeless?” Peter asked, rather stupidly as both Remus and Sirius were shooting him furtive glances, telling him not to press on the matter so bluntly.

“Lily.” James snapped, causing poor little Peter to jump in his seat once more. In James’ defence however, Peter should have known that around ninety percent of the time, the reason for James’ gloomy moods almost always had something to do with the red-headed Head Girl.

“It’s hopeless!” James continued. “No matter what I do it’s always the same answer! When’s she going to realise that I’ve…well, that I’m not…am I ever going to be good enough for her?”

James ended his little speech, looking at Remus as he asked the final question , knowing that Remus wouldn’t lie-- Remus would tell him the truth, even if it hurt. Sirius, on the other hand, would be more likely to dance around the subject to spare James’ already bruised ego.

“But you are good enough for her, Prongs!” Sirius argued although the question had not been directed at him.

James gave Sirius an ‘Oh, really?’ look before responding. “If that’s true than why hasn’t she ever consented to go on a date with me? Not one ‘yes’ in the how many times I’ve asked her out?”

“What Sirius is trying to say is that you are good enough, however Lily has yet to see that you aren’t exactly the arrogant fifteen year old you were two years ago. If you show Lily you’ve grown up a bit, I’m sure she’d be more willing to give you a chance.”

“But that’s just it, Moony!” James exclaimed. “How am I supposed to show her I’ve changed?-- She won’t even bloody give me the time of day!”

“Is this your way of telling us that you’ve finally given up on the Lily Evans-pursuit?” Sirius asked rather seriously.

“No!” James said quickly. “ I just…I just don’t see how I can show her I really am responsible if she won’t even submit to having a decent conversation with me. I just need more time with her-- is a couple of minutes of her time so much to ask for?”

Remus bit his tongue, knowing the answer to that question was most definitely ‘yes’ while the edges of Sirius’ lips quirked up as he contained a smile-- his best friend really did fancy the hell out of Lily Evans-- but he too, kept his mouth shut knowing the question was more of the rhetorical kind. Peter on the other hand…well, let’s just say he was never too quick to pick up on these sort of things…

“Prongs, buddy, I’m not sure if even three minutes of Lily’s time would be enough to convince her of how much you’ve grown up.”

Remus rolled his eyes at Peter’s observation.

“Peter!” Sirius said through gritted teeth as he stomped on his friend’s toes.

“Ouch!” Peter cried. “That hurt Sirius!”

“Yeah, well you deserved it dunderhead-- where the heck do you come off saying something like that?”

“Well, it’s true!” Peter argued.

“I KNOW that!” Sirius said exasperated. “YOU know that, REMUS knows that! But that doesn’t mean you have to say it!”

“I believe what Sirius is getting at, Pete, is that this particular question is that of the rhetorical kind.”

“That means you’re not supposed to answer it.” Sirius said as if talking to a five year old.

“I know what rhetorical means, thank you very much.” Peter said, pouting slightly.

“Oh really, well--”

“Sirius, stop, it’s okay.” Jams said, cutting him off. “Pete’s right,”

And suddenly, there was a gleam of the old James Potter spark alight in his eyes, and James notably sat up a little straighter.

“I am?” Peter asked surprised. He then coughed and tried his response again, this time attempting to sound more confident. “I-I mean, of course I am!”

Sirius quirked an eyebrow up in question at his best friend’s sudden change in attitude. Sirius knew that look-- he could almost hear the wheels and gears turning in James’ head-- something was going on in that mind of his.

“Well, he is, Padfoot and he was right to say it as well-- three minutes with Lily Evans is not nearly enough time for her to realize that I’ve changed…” James paused, a genuine and thoughtful smile settling on his features. “Six minutes however…now that’s a horse of a different colour.”
“Where are you going with this, Prongs?” Sirius asked wryly.

“Don’t you see, Sirius? It was right there staring me in the face-- the key to getting Lily to see that I’m worthy enough for her attention!” James said, excitedly. “Six minutes. That’s all I need.-- six minutes of her time and then she’ll realise that I’ve grown up a helluva lot more than she’s realised I have. Six minutes is all I need for her to see the real me-- not the me she thinks I am. And After I’ve gotten her to see that, it’ll be smooth sailing toward the lovely shores of Date Land.”

“You do realise that your reasoning behind this plan makes absolutely no sense, don’t you?” Remus asked.

“I‘m confused, Moony-- which part don’t‘ understand? I‘d have thought the plan was rather straight forward.”

Sirius studied James‘ face as he answered Remus, and it was then that he realised James wasn‘t joking about regarding his ‘six minutes theory‘

“For the love of chocolate-- y-your‘e serious, aren‘t you? You actually think you can get Lily Evans to see the real you in six minutes?”

“Yeah, I do.” James said seriously. “Don’t you?”

“NO!” Remus and Sirius replied in unison.

Instead of being insulted at their lack of confidence in him, James merely shook his head, “Oh, ye of little faith, boys. Ye of little fate.”

And with those parting words, James stood gracefully from his seat. As he walked away, grinning like a Cheshire cat, the spring in his confident stride most definitely back, Sirius stood up, calling after him.

“Oy, Prongs! Where’re you going? Class doesn’t start for another twenty minutes!”

James turned around , walking backwards toward the hall doors.

“Six minutes, Padfoot! Six minutes!” was all James replied with before walking frontward once more and waltzing out the door.

“He’s off to put that ridiculous theory of his to the test, isn’t he?” Remus asked, looking up from his copy of the Daily Prophet.

“Yes he is, my dear Moony and there is no way I am going to miss this!” Sirius stood quickly from the table, “Aren’t you lot coming?”

Peter, having always been one to follow, stood at attention quickly.

“Let me ask you something, Padfoot-- does any part of you feel bad that you’re basically going off to watch your best friend crash and burn?” Remus asked.

Nevertheless, he stood-- rather hesitantly, mind you-- and followed Sirius, who was heading toward the library.

“Four sickles says James doesn’t make it through two minutes.” Sirius said, as they neared their destination.

Clearly, the answer to Remus’ prior question was a big, fat ‘no.’

“You’re on!” Peter said, shaking on the bet.

A/N: So there you have it, the prologue. I will start off by saying that this will be a very short story-- 7 chapters total including the prologue. The chapters for that matter, will be short as well, though they may get slightly longer as the story progresses. Chapter 1 should be out either tomorrow or the next day.

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed reading this so far-- regardless of if you did or didn’t, why not drop me a review and let me know what you liked…or what you didn’t! ;-)

Take care!

--Pamela

A/N: Just got back from seeing Melissa and John of the Leaky Cauldron and PotterCast-- this chapter is dedicated to them simply because they loved the cookies I baked for them so much. J

Chapter 1: One Minute And the Earth Begins to Shake…

If you were ever to ask James exactly how he knew where Lily Evans was at any point throughout the day, he would probably respond with something along the lines of having a built in Lily-Radar. For all anyone knew, James very well may have had a built in Lily-Radar, but in the instances where his radar failed him, it was always handy to have the Marauders’ Map lying around. Which is exactly why, after checking the trusty map, James headed immediately toward the library, opening the double doors quietly so as not to disturb the librarian.

He swept the library once over with his eyes, and there she was: the apple of his eye sitting alone at one of the many tables. James watched her green eyes move rapidly back and forth as she scanned the open pages of her book, bottom lip between her teeth and a long strand of her auburn hair twisted around her index finger, obviously deep in thought. She dropped the strand in favour of picking up her quill and quickly jotted something down on a spare bit of parchment. James sighed, a goofy smile plastered on his handsome face-- he loved watching Lily study….and eat….and read by the fire in the Gryffindor common room…and walk down the corridors between classes…okay, fine, James loved watching Lily in general. In a completely normal, un-stalker-ish sort of way, of course.

Goofy smile still in place, James walked confidently over. He paused dramatically when her reached the end of Lily’s table, waiting for some sort of sign of recognition, but Lily simply kept studying.

He cleared his throat loudly.

“Hello, Lily.”

A rather loud Shhhh! Came from the direction of Madam Pince’s circulation desk located in the centre of the library and Lily winced visibly before lifting her eyes almost lazily as if resisting the urge to roll them as she acknowledged his presence.

“I’m busy, Potter…” Lily sighed in a bored voice before going back to her book.

“I know, and I’m sorry for bothering you…but I promise, I won’t be long…”

Again, there was no answer and James took this as a good sign-- at least she had not yet flat out told him to go jump off the North Tower.

James pulled out the chair directly across from hers and took a seat.

“I don’t recall inviting you to join me…” Lily said still not looking up from her book.

“Sorry, it’s just…well, the reason I came over was to see if maybe you’d like to--”

“No.” Lily said, cutting him off before James could even get the question out.

“I…W-what?” James said, not expecting to get cut off before he even got the chance to ask his question.

“The answer to your question, Potter, is no.”

“Okay…. but, don’t you think you should at least let me--”

“No.”

“But, I haven’t even asked you--”

“No.”

“Do you even plan on letting me--”

“NO.”

“--LET me get a coherent sentence out?” James asked, finishing the second part of the statement he had started before Lily had cut him off.

Another angry shushing noise came from the Librarian’s direction.

Lily put down her book, clasping her hands in front of her, shooting James a sweet but rather deathly glare.

“Hmm…let me think about that for a second,” Lily averted her eyes up to the ceiling as if trying to remember something. “NO, Potter!”

“But why? You don’t even know what I was going to say---”

“Maybe I don’t Potter-- not exactly anyway-- but if it involves you and me in any way, shape or form, or carrying on this pointless conversation any further, the answer is NO.”

“If you two cannot keep your voices down I will throw you out of this library myself!” Madam Pince said in a deathly whisper, now towering above them.

“I’m sorry, Madam Pince!” Lily said in an apologetic whisper, “we won’t disrupt you again-- Potter was just LEAVING.” Lily said, the last part through gritted teeth.

And suddenly James found himself subject to deathly glares from both Lily AND Madam Pince. Not sure which one looked more deathly, James simply grinned sheepishly, letting out a titter of nervous laughter.

He looked up at Madam Pince who’s stony expression was fixated on him, a single stiff arm, pointing toward the door of the library.

“Okay, okay, I’m going!” James whispered, admitting defeat.

“Before I decide to throw you out myself-- forcefully.” Madam Pince nodded.

James didn’t need telling twice-- the wrath of Madam Pince was not to be trifled with.

The remaining three Marauders had barely reached the grand doors of the library before they spotted their fourth counterpart walking out toward them.

Sirius was the one who spotted James first,

“That’s one, boys.” Sirius said, unable to help the laugh that came through in his words.

Remus smiled good naturedly at the fact that James’ supposed infallible plan had quite obviously sunk.

“Cough up, Pete, Prongs here barely stood his ground for one minute!”

“Aw, nuts!” Peter said, scrunching up his nose in disappointment as he fished out the correct amount of money from his robes.

“Ready to go back to the drawing board?” Remus asked, rather teasingly.

“Nope.” James said, a smile on his face that was most definitely sure and confident, “Six minutes. I’m telling you, Padfoot, Moony, Wormtail-- you’ll see.”

James walked ahead of the rest of the marauders, heading for class although there were still a good fifteen minutes left until the period started. Tomorrow, he knew, was another day.

A/N: Chapter three is on it’s way, ladies and gentlemen! Hopefully I can update both this and ‘That Summer’ before I head off to LA-- oh yes, did I tell you all? I’ll be in LA for the OotP premiere! Anyone else out there planning to attend?