Look at this. James/Lily. With no mentions of Sirius at all.
…And then the world exploded.
The fact that it was a Monday was perhaps a contributing factor to Lily Evans's bad day – however, she was in complete denial of that fact, and was instead blaming it completely on one James Potter.
Of course, she conveniently forgot about the rest of the marauders. Because it was always James's Potter's fault. Always.
"I think the world hates you," Alice Prewett was telling her, as she climbed to her feet. Somehow, Lily had managed to trip over the leg of a non-existent person and had sprawled on the floor. In front of the whole of the Great Hall. And James Potter was smirking at her. And she was annoyed. And embarrassed. And – damn, was she blushing?
"You're bright red," Alice informed her amusedly as Lily stood and sat down on the bench beside her.
"Thanks for that comment, Alice," Lily gritted out, trying hard not to lose her temper.
"It's quite impressive how you managed to trip, though – OW!"
Glaring at Alice, Lily withdrew her hand from the back of the offending girl's head. After a moment of contemplation, she reached out her hand and grabbed a glass of water, filling her mouth with ice to keep herself from talking. It wouldn't be good to lose her temper and start shouting while everyone was still staring and sniggering amongst themselves. No, she wasn't being paranoid, they were definitely staring and sniggering!
"How'd you trip?"
Lily almost choked on her ice. She whipped her head around, and narrowed her eyes at a sheepish-looking James Potter. After a moment of silence, James raised his eyebrows.
"What, aren't you talking to me?"
Lily continued glaring, because she was now faced with a dilemma. She could continue glaring and not talking, with the ice in her mouth, but then she couldn't shout at and hex him, because she just knew this was his fault. Or she could spit out the ice in her mouth – but that would cause her to lose more of her dignity, and she had already lost quite a lot that day.
"She's got ice in her mouth," Alice supplied helpfully. "She doesn't want to lose her temper and embarrass herself, poor thing."
Lily promised herself that Alice was going to die a very slow and painful death later.
James nodded slowly. "Well, okay… I was just going to tell you that Sniv – Snape is looking at you weirdly, so yeah… Bye…"
Awkwardly, he turned and walked away. Alice snorted.
Lily continued to glare, but this time at the other girl. Patiently, she waited for the ice in her mouth to melt.
It was a few hours later that Lily sat in the Gryffindor Common Room, having finished the school day and now doing Defence Against the Dark Arts homework. She was sitting on an armchair by the fire, her parchment was on her knee, and her book was balanced precariously on the arm of the chair, her elbow keeping it on the correct page. She was writing quickly, her hand flying across the page – she wanted to get this homework finished as soon as possible, so that when Alice came back from her little rendezvous with Frank Longbottom they could have a nice chat. About James Potter. Great.
As soon as this thought crossed her mind, as if on cue, the inkpot held in her left hand exploded, covering her entire person in ink. The sound of shattering glass turned heads to the ink-splattered girl – flushing a dark and brilliant red, Lily gathered her homework together hurriedly and turned on her heel, striding out of the Common Room and down the corridor.
On reflection, it probably would have made more sense to go up to the girl' dormitory, but, in her current state, Lily was not thinking as clearly as she usually would have. As it was, she walked aimlessly, but quickly, down the corridors, trying to ignore any curious looks she was getting. Eventually, she just simply walked into an abandoned Charms classroom and shrugged off her robe, groaning when she realised her uniform underneath was just as covered in ink.
"You okay?"
Lily almost jumped out of her skin. Pivoting around, she managed to suppress a groan when she realised it was someone who she decidedly did not want to see right now.
"I'm covered with ink, Potter, and I've had a terrible day. What do you think?"
James wisely didn't answer, deciding instead to venture slowly into the room, offering her a towel. Lily wasn't quite sure how he had acquired the towel, but she wasn't going to turn it away. Accepting it, she dabbed ferociously at her clothing, sighing when it did next to nothing.
"Why have you had a terrible day?" James asked slowly, obviously hoping he wasn't going to be dismissed.
Lily gave him her best are-you-serious-and-don't-use-that-pun-again-it-wasn't-even-funny-the-first-time look, and did not deign to reply verbally. James sighed and sat down on a desk.
"Really, I don't know. Why?"
"Because of your stupid tricks, that's why!" Lily burst out. "My stuff randomly disappearing, losing my voice in the middle of Transfiguration, falling over in the middle of the Great Hall, and now my inkpot exploding! Why is it always me?"
James looked completely lost. "I didn't do any of that!"
Lily wasn't having any of it. "Well, your marauders did then, and I know they would only do those things if you told them to! So, ultimately, it's still your fault!"
"No, Lily, they didn't do any of that either – I've been with them all day," James told her, his eyebrows furrowing and drawing together. "I don't know who is doing these tricks, but I do know it isn't any of us?"
Lily remained unconvinced. "And can you prove that?"
James almost sighed. "Look – I'll try and find out whoever is playing these tricks on you. You'd better get cleaned up – there's a secret passage up to the girls' dormitory behind the statue of the artichoke a few corridors along." He gave her a tentative smile and left.
Lily didn't really want to know why or how he knew that.
Sadly, Lily's day continued to get worse – she kept standing on small pieces of stone, whatever chair she sat on was wet, and when she went to the kitchens to get herself a hot chocolate, it was cold, and the house-elves could do nothing about it. It just would not heat up. Even when she lay down in bed that night, it came as no surprise to her that her hot water bottle was not working and her pillow was strangely hard. Overall, it was thoroughly unpleasant.
After what seemed like hours of bunching her duvet up around her in an effort to generate even the slightest amount of warmth and endless amounts of trying to fluff her pillow, Lily had had enough. James had better have found out whoever was playing these tricks on her, because that person was going to have hell to pay. It was not going to be pretty.
Sighing, she lowered her feet over the side of the bed, wincing as they touched the cold floor. Only pausing to slip on her slippers, she made her way down the stairs of the girls' dormitory, and up the stairs to the boys'. Bracing herself, she opened up the door and walked in.
Lily, who was expecting a waft of stinking air and an extremely messy room, was pleasantly surprised – it was actually very similar to the girls' dormitory, besides the fact that they were, well, you know, not girls…
James's bed was the third along, after Remus's and Peter's. She crept towards him, then, after a moment of deliberation, shook him gently.
His eyes opened slowly. "Evans?" he managed.
Lily glared. "Common Room."
James followed her blearily, then flopped down onto an armchair. "What – "
The rest of his sentence was obscured by a yawn.
"Have you worked out who's tricking me yet?" Lily demanded, deciding to stand. "My bed's cold, and my pillow's hard."
James rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Alice."
Lily was momentarily caught off-guard. "Alice?"
"Mmm – I asked her why. She said it was worth it and you'll thank her later." Yawn. "Can I go back to bed now?"
Lily contemplated him for a bit, then, to her surprise, felt a small twinge of guilt for waking him up. And really – Alice? Why would she think a terrible day would be worth it?
Then it struck her. While Alice did aggravate her, Lily respected her opinion entirely; and if Alice thought so, so did Lily.
"In a minute," she murmured, then walked over to him and cupped his face in her hands. Not even stopping to think, she leant forward and captured his lips in hers.
And they were kissing.
And then they were dating.
A while later, they were married.
Lily forgave Alice, agreed that the terrible day was worth it, and remembered to thank her profusely.
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