I do not own Harry Potter. The amazing JK Rowling does. I just like playing around with the world she has created.
Chapter One
"Empty Promises"
Lily woke suddenly from the sun seeping through her curtains and onto her face. She turned around, looked at the clock and groaned. It was only 8' o'clock, she didn't need to be up for 2 hours. She flopped around onto her back, frustrated because she couldn't get back to sleep. She had just been having a really good dream, weird, but good. About james Potter! She couldn't believe it, she was actually enjoying it. She shook her head to clear those thoughts and got up out of bed. She grabbed her bathroom bag, laughing at herself and walked across the hall to the bathroom.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror and sighed. That 2 extra hours of sleep would have definitely been beneficial. She looked pretty tired. She had bags under her eyes and her hair looked like a birds nest. She quickly yanked a brush through her hair so it would be a lot easier to wash and brushed her teeth thoroughly. She grabbed her favourite shampoo and conditioner from her bag, one that smelt like cucumber, and jumped in the shower. The hot water felt good on her skin, slowly untensing all her muscles and waking her up. After a nice long relaxing shower she jumped out and wrapped a towel around herself. She felt so much better now. She gathered up her stuff, put it back in her bag and walked back in her room. She put her bag on her bed and threw open her closet doors looking for something to wear. She finally settled on a dark pair of jeans and a nice long sleeved top. Once she got dressed she went over to her dressing table to do her hair. She decided to just go all out and blow dry it.
She actually jumped when the phone ran, then laughed at herself as she leant over and picked it up.
"Hello?" She said into the phone, turning off her hairdryer because it was really loud.
"Hey, Lils" She recognized Leah's voice immediately. How could she not, she knew her since first year. She was so nervous on the Hogwarts Express that first time, she thought she'd be the only muggle born there, but then she meet Leah, hiding in a compartments shaking in the corner. She went in and sat with her and found out they both had the same fear, so they decided to stick together. And soon became best friends.
"Oh hello Leah. How are you?" She replied, snapping out of her reminiscing.
"Good, good. Still alright for today?"
"Yea, but I haven't got my letter yet. Do you think there could be something wrong? I usually get it by now."
"Hmm, I don't know. Well if you don't get by the time you leave you can just look off mine, we have all the same classes anyway."
"I guess I could do that.." She mumbled into the phone.
"So did you just wake up?"
"Nope, I've been awake since 8, I'm just drying my hair"
"What? Lily Evans up before 10 AM, when she didn't have to be? Are you feeling okay Lily?" She asked in mock concern. Then laughing loudly into the phone, Lily had to move it from her ear.
"Ha ha, very funny. But i do think i'm losing it a little. I had the weirdest dream."
"Really, weird how?" She sounded excited. Like she always did when there was fresh news or gossip.
Lily just laughed at her "I'll tell you later"
"Okay, well Alice said she'll meet us at the cauldron at 11."
"Kay, see you then"
"Yep, bye!"
She hung up the phone and put it back into the stand then turned her hairdryer back on and continued doing her hair. After bout 10 minutes she finished and put the hairdryer back in her draw and quickly brushed on some mascara. She left her room and went downstairs to bring the mail in. There were no letters for her, not that she was expecting any, she put the others on the table near the door and walked over to the kitchen to make something to eat. She simply just put some bread in the toaster, too lazy to do anything more complex. When it popped up she spread some jam on them and walked over to the T.V.
After flicking through the channels for 10 minutes she realized there wasn't anything good on and switched off the T.V. She just sat on the couch for a while, letting her mind wander. For some reason it kept going back to the dream, that she still remembered perfectly. To how his arms were holding her so close to his body, how his lips were brushing against hers. She snapped out of it when she heard a tapping at the window. She looked over and saw one of the Hogwarts school owls with a letter in its beak. She got up and walked over, opened the window and watched as it flew in and landed on the table, dropped the letter and flew straight back out.
She picked up the thick envelope with relief and ripped it open. When she emptied out the contents she heard an unfamiliar 'clunk' on the table. Wen she looked down she almost screamed. Instead she just picked it up and jumped up and down.
She had been hoping to get Head Girl since her first year at Hogwarts. Now it actually finally happened! She stared at the little H with pride. Then she ran upstairs and saw her Mum in the hallway.
"Mum" She screamed until her Mum looked her way."Look!"
"What?" she paused then looked at the badge "Oh sweetie, I told you not to worry, I knew you would get it. They'd be crazy not to pick you."
"Aw thanks mum." They hugged then her mum walked down the stairs, calling over her shoulder.
"I'm making pancakes, come down if you want some. Then we'll leave."
"Kay, be down in a minute." Lily replied walking over to her room. She decided she would get her things ready so she would be able to leave as soon as they were done. She bent down and grabbed one of her rarely used handbags from under the bed, she picked the pretty black one and put her booklist, wallet and badge inside. She grabbed the bag and walked down stairs, looped it around a chair and sat down in it. She talked to her mum while she made breakfast. Mostly about school and how excited she was.
When they all finished eating her mum cleared the table and her dad went to hunt for his shoes. Then they all walked out to the car, her Dad got in the drivers side, her Mum in the passenger, and Petunia and Lily in the back seat. They drove in comfortable silence to London and dropped Lily off at the Leaky Cauldron, while she got out her Dad leant through the window and handed her some wizard money that they had changed over last year. She had more than enough to buy everything she needed now. Then they drove off to do some of their own shopping and drop Petunia off at her fiance's house. Lily hated that man so much.
He was the reason Petunia had been even more horrible. After Lily's Fifth year, Petunia came in to her room to talk. something that hadn't happened since they were 10.
"Hey Lily?" She paused at the door, looking quite uncertain of what she was doing.
"Uh, Hi, You can come in" Lily tried not to sound to surprised, but seeing Petunia and having her call her my name instead of 'that girl' was very different.
Petunia walked in slowly, her hands behind her back, and walked over to the bed and sat down. Lily was by the cupboard unpacking some of her things from her trunk, that lay open in the middle of the room, overflowing with clothes, books and other objects.
"Can I help you with something?" Lily asked her politely, wondering why she hadn't said anything yet.
Petunia let out a deep breath, one Lily hadn't even been aware she was holding, and then just whispering "I miss you" she paused looking at the ground. "Its too quiet here with you gone, I feel like I lost my best friend. I didn't want you to go to that freak school, be with those freak people, I wanted you here. So you could be normal with me. So when you left I got angry, because you chose those people over your own sister." she said in quite a rush, like she just wanted to get it over with.
"Tuny, I'm sorry but I am one of those 'freak people'. I cant change who I am. But i have missed you, i missed being able to talk with my sister. We can go back to normal, I'm still the same person." Lily said, moving across the room and sitting beside her.
Petunia breathed out in a huff and just said "Don't worry about it, forget I said anything" And then she ran out of the room. Lily just looked at the door, dumbstruck.
After that, and over that summer they had slowly, very slowly, started building their relationship again. It was hard, all Petunia kept saying was "Just drop out of that horrible school, and come to mine. please" But Lily couldn't, she loved Hogwarts way too much.
But they slowly started becoming something along the line of friends again. Then she met that stupid Vernon Dursley. Lily hated everything about that man. He made her very blood boil at the thought of him. When he found out about Lily, he didn't talk to Petunia for a month. So she hated Lily again, thinking it was her fault that Vernon wouldn't return her calls, or answer his door. So now they were just like before. Petunia hated Lily, and Lily was just sick of trying. She ended getting back together with Vernon, but he didn't like her being around Lily. So most of the summers she just spent at his house. Then this summer he proposed. Lily gagged just thinking about it. If she wanted to be with that idiot of a man, fine. she wasn't going to waste her time on her anymore.
When she walked into the Leaky Cauldron she immediately saw Leah and Alice toward the back, waving at her. She walked over to their table and sat down.
"You's haven't been wait long, have you?" She asked, she noticed she was a bit late.
"Nah, about 5 minutes, you ready to go?" Leah answered.
"Yep," She readjusted her bag onto her shoulder and they walked out to the entryway to Diagon Alley. Leah tapped the bricks and the doorway opened up.
They walked through and Lily took a deep breath, she felt better now. She was always happier when she was with people like her, like she wasn't the freak her sister called her at home. They started walking towards the bookshop, thats where they usually started when they went shopping.
Alice was the first to speak. "So Lil" She started in her usual chirpy voice. "About tis dream. What exactly was it about?"
Lily blushed "I don't know if I want to tell you guys" she laughed at the look on their faces before continuing "You's will never leave me alone about it!" Denying Leah and Alice news is like drowning kittens in their books.
"It must be good, look how red she is!" Leah said to Alice then they both laughed at Lily.
"So..." Alice continued, sounding excited and frustrated that she wasn't telling them already.
"Its not even that interesting, you's are so annoying" But the look on their faces made it obvious they weren't going to give up.
"Okay, fine." she started. she absentmindedly started twisting a piece of hair around her finger. "Well, it started off pretty normal. I think we were in the library or something? Then you'll never guess who decided to show up, James potter" She paused looking at the stupid smirks on their faces, they've been convinced since third year that she liked James. No matter how many times she told them she didn't. "Anyway, it was just normal for a while, then we started kissing, and....stuff." She looked down, knowing what they were going to say.
"See, you like him! Why else would you have sexual dreams about him!" Alice and leah said almost at the same time.
"It wasn't exactly sexual.. yet. I woke up before that" She went even redder. It was so weird talking about James in that way with them. "And I don't like him! I've been telling you both that for years! He's so arrogant and annoying, I could never like him."
"You know, he isn't so bad anymore. He grew up a bit. He was pretty normal last year." Alice said thoughtfully and Leah was nodding her head at them. "Whatever, can we just drop this now, please? She begged them, she didn't want to talk about it anymore. They agreed, somewhat disappointedly and they entered Flourish and Blotts. When they found all their books they paid then moved on to the potion shop to get some new ingredients.
"Eww, guys? what the hell is this thing?" Leah picked up a jar that looked like it had intestines in it. Lily and Alice just laughed at the look on her face. They finished up and moved on. By the time that they were finished with everything they were starving. They found somewhere to eat, ordered then sat down.
"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you guys, look what I got today!" She reached for her bag and dug through it until she found her Head Girl badge. She pulled it out and placed it on her hand and watched their faces. First confusion and anticipation, then excitement, then huge grins spread across both their faces. "Oh my god, congratulations Lily! I know how much you wanted that." Leah exclaimed and leant over the table to give her a huge hug. When she let go Alice grabbed her and gave her another one. "Oh, I'm so happy for you Lils." she told her.
"Thanks guys" She said generally happy. But then the smile suddenly sipped from her face and she dropped her head. Leah and Alice looked in the direction she was looking in before and then both had identical evil grins on their faces.
"Hey! Sirius, James! Over here!" Alice called over to the two boys, well almost men now. They waved at them and started walking over. Lily groaned "Why are you guys doing this to me!?" But then she was quiet because they were in hearing range. They grabbed two chairs and came and sat down, "Hey guys" Sirius said to them before turning around and talking to Leah. Of course trying to hit on her again. He became obsessed last year after she said no to him, I don't think any girl has ever said 'no' to Sirius Black before. All the girls in our year were outraged. Lily thought it was quite funny. She shook her head at him then turned her head back around.
Then she noticed James starting at her. She blushed 'What the hell?' She thought. 'Why would he looking at me make me blush, I don't like him like that.' "Hello Evans" he said and for some reason she blushed harder. "How are you? He asked her politely.
"I'm good, thanks. How are you? She replied nicely, trying very hard for the words to come out clearly. He smiled showing all of his perfectly straight white teeth and answered, "I'm good". Lily felt her pulse quicken, and again she was confused by it.
She had been relieved last year when James had finally stopped asking her out. It's not like he even liked her. It was just like Sirius with Leah, they both just have massive egos, and don't like to be turned down. So they would keep going until you said yes. But Lily refused to let him get to her. She just kept saying no and walking away from him. He was determined though, practically stalking her through the school. Asking her every second, coming out behind bookshelves in the library, around corners. But he did eventually give up. But what she didn't understand, is why she felt a bit disappointed now, that he did?
The whole group talked about unimportant things for a while, Sirius kept trying to flirt with Leah, quite unsuccessfully, and James kept looking over at Lily, she would find him staring occasionally too. But not like he used to, different somehow.
They left after a while, Lily just thought Sirius was getting tired of being rejected so much. After they left leah let out a sigh of relief. "Geeez, will he ever give up!?" She threw her hands up in the air, frustrated.
"Aw, come on Lee. You know you like him, and want to say yes. I don't know why you don't just put him out of his misery."
"I know, thats the annoying thing about it, I do want too, he got so much hotter over the summer, if thats even possible, but I don't want him to win!" Alice and Lily laughed at her, she was so strange with things like this. "And anyway" she continued. "He's the biggest slut, he's probably been with more then half the school!"
They all laughed before getting up, they decided to look around a bit more before leaving. They looked in all the shops and found some pretty cool things. They passed sirius and James again and James winked at Lily, and of course, since she was weird about him now, she blushed. Over something so simple as a wink! She was definitely losing it, or did she like him? Impossible she thought. She couldn't, could she? She just thought of James while they walked back through the doorway into the Leaky Cauldron. She would be leaving in about 5 minutes. She walked outside to wait for her Mum, still thinking of him.
When she saw her Mum she turned around and hugged Leah and Alice goodbye, then ran over to the car and jumped in. She waved at then until she could no longer see them, Then she just leant back in her seat.
"How was your day, hon?" Her mum asked turning her head to look at her.
"It was good, I got everything on my list" She replied, while she was looking out her window.
"So your all ready to go now? I cant believe your already leaving in a week, it seems like you've only been home a few days" she said, sounding upset.
"Aww, its okay Mum, It's my last year. I'll be home so much after this, that you'll get sick of me" It was Lily's turn to sound upset, she would really miss Hogwarts. She felt so at home there, like she actually belonged somewhere.
They drove the rest of the way in silence, Lily just stared out of her window the whole time. When they got to the house Lily grabbed her bags and went to her room. She decided to pack everything now. She liked to have everything ready at least 3 days before she left.
She didn't feel tired so she went to have a long, hot shower hoping it would make her sleepy. It didn't really help. She got out and dressed in her favourite pajamas. When she opened her bedroom door, she smelt dinner wafting up the stairs and her stomach rumbled loudly. She didn't notice how hungry she was. She ran down the stairs and sat down. After stuffing her face she kissed her parents goodnight and walked back to her room.
She still wasn't that tired so she decided to clean her room up a little. But quickly gave up after a few minutes. She sighed, trying to think of something to do. She just laid back in her bed thinking. About the year, her last year at school. She would be an adult soon. She didn't even know what she wanted to do when she was finished, no idea of what kind of job she would enjoy and be good at.
Her mind wandered to James again. It was weird, she thought more about him today then in the last 6 years that she's know him. She must like him, she had too. That would explain the blush, the racing heart. She wondered how she could change her mind about him so quickly. Yesterday she hated him, now she liked him? It was confusing. Now she was worried, he doesn't like me. Kept going through her head. He stopped asking me out, he gave up. She didn't want him to give up. She wished in was her fifth year again, so she could say yes. But he wasn't the same then, he was annoying. Leah was right. He did grow up last year. And Lily was grateful. She fell asleep quite uneasily that night. Worrying about her first day back, when she would see him again. worrying and also feeling excited.
James was laying in is bed, unable to sleep. It was getting late. The house was silent, except for the faint snoring coming through the wall from Sirius's room. He was thinking about the conversation he was having with Sirius the other day.
James had mentioned Lily Evans again. Sirius was getting sick of it.
"You need yo get over her James. She doesn't like you, obviously. You need to move on, find some other girls. I know Thalia's friend Rebecca likes you. Go ask her out when we get back to school." he said.
"I don't know." Was all he replied. He didn't want to give up on her. He loved her, he knew it. He wanted to spend his life with her. It was strange but he felt like she was meant for him. Like soul mates. And whenever he did find another girl, he kept comparing her to Lily, but there was no comparison. Lily was beautiful, smart, caring. All the other girls in the year were just shallow. All they cared about was how they looked. Lily wasn't like that.
"Come on James. Look what she's doing to you! Its not healthy to be hung up on one girl. Actually have some fun this year." He whined.
"Hmmmmm, I'll try Sirius. I really will." He said.
Sirius just shook his head and went back to polishing his broom, for the fifth time that day.
"You don't sound like you mean it." Sirius said.
"I do, I guess I cant wait for her forever, if she doesn't want me, which she has made quite clear, then what am I doing?" James replied, actually sounding like he meant it now.
"Actually you know what? I am going to ask rebecca out! I will quit Lily Evans, before I go crazy."
"There you go, thats more like it." Sirius sounded a lot happier then.
He was now thinking that he couldn't keep that promise. When he saw her today, there was something different. She looked so much more grown up now. So much more beautiful, so much more confident. How how long red hair fell around her shoulders, her sparkling green eyes with long, thick black lashes. How she held her body, her newly acclaimed curves. It made him fall in love with her all over again. He had to try again. He was determined. As he laid in his bed he thought of her, wondering what she was doing right at that second. He couldn't help himself today, even after the promise he made sirius, he couldn't help looking over at her, staring at her. And she would blush, what was that about? She never blushed around him no matter how he would try to flatter her, compliment her. He rolled over onto his side. Maybe this year will be different. He thought as he tried to sleep. Maybe ill get lucky. She looked at me differently toady, that has to mean something. Sirius won't be happy. Then he laughed. Sirius will get over it eventually. This year was going to be different. I can feel it. With that last thought he fell asleep happily.