Chapter 1
"Evans! Party. Common Room. Tomorrow night. I better see you there!"
"Because shouting across the potions classroom is a sure-fire way to gain my affection." Lily muttered under her breath sarcastically, "God! Why must James Potter be such a prat?"
"Oh come on Lily. He's captain of the quidditch team—"
"Alice, I don't care about quidditch."
"You're head girl… He's head boy…" Alice said, suggestively elbowing Lily as they put Slughorn's assignments into their bags.
"How he somehow managed to work his way into that position will forever astound me."
"Oh come on, Lily. He's gotta to be the second hottest seventh year."
"Frank's the first, I presume."
"You know me so well!" Alice said with a wink. She then skipped out of the classroom to meet Frank who was waiting outside the door. He immediately wrapped his arm around her as they kissed.
Laughing to herself, Lily grabbed her bag and went to leave the classroom, but the door was suddenly blocked by another student. A certain student. One with dark, messy hair and round glasses. He also just so happened to be the Gryffindor Lily despised the most… just before Sirius Black (Okay, Lily supposed Sirius could be funny at times but most of his jokes were about sex and were at Lily's expense).
"Potter, move out of the way."
"What's the rush, Evans? The library doesn't close for a few more hours. You'll have plenty of time to get all of that studying in."
It was annoying how he somehow knew she was going to the library. "Potter, you are such an imbecile. Move out of the way." Lily reached for her wand. She wasn't in the mood to deal with him today.
"Lily Evans!? Head Girl!? Threatening to use her wand on the Head Boy who is simply trying to make polite conversation!?—"
"There is nothing polite about this conversation."
"—Oh I can see the headline now! Head Girl of the Gryffindor House, Destined for Greatness (Maybe Even Set to Become the First Minstress of Magic), Uses Unforgivable Curse on Head Boy Simply Because She Cannot Take a Joke."
"That's a really long headline. The prophet would never print it."
"Oh, but Rita Skeeter wrote it. So it needs a long headline to truly capture the bravado and immense drama of the article."
"Whatever you say, Potter." James had leaned to the left side of the door and started to ruffle his hair (he always annoyingly tried to make his hair look messy, as if he had just walked off the quidditch field). Lily saw an opportunity and she went for it. She dashed forwards to make it out of the classroom, but, being her clumsy self, she tripped over James' foot, which was still partially blocking the exit, and fell flat on her face.
Lily was just glad that she decided against wearing a skirt today. She couldn't begin to imagine the jokes that would occur if that were the case and her skirt had flown up as she had fallen.
"Nice going, Potter!" Lily's anger only increased when she heard Sirius' voice.
"Nice going, Prongs! You finally got Evans to fall head over heels for you!"
"Shut up, Sirius." Lily then stood up to scold James, "You are always goofing off, you know. You just can't take anything serious!"
"Hey, he loves me! He takes a lot of Sirius time. We sometimes even snuggle at night."
"Black! Shut up!" Lily snarled at Sirius and then turned back to James.
"You somehow bribed a teacher into letting you be Head Boy— and to this day I don't understand how that happened, being that McGonegall is the Head of House… You don't bother to study! You have those parties and get drunk and confuse the first years and you leave the common room a complete mess for me to clean and you always say you'll help with clean up at the next party, but then you're hung over and can't!"
"Umm… Evans?"
"Do not interrupt me! You're on very thin ice, Potter! I know it was the four of you who hung all of the seventh year girls' underwear on the ceiling of the common room— and I am going to figure out how you keep getting into our dorms!"
"Damn… She's hot when she's angry"
"SIRIUS BLACK! Could you just stop being such an ignorant, loud-mouthed, miscreant for ten minutes? I know it's awfully difficult for you to count that high, but if you go sit somewhere and try really hard, you may count to ten by the time ten minutes is up."
"Evans, I know you don't want to be interrupted, but—"
"Potter! Now is not the time for one of your jokes! I've had it—"
"Evans, your nose is broken."
"What?"
"Your nose. That thing that pokes out of your face between those pretty green eyes of yours. It looks pretty broken."
Lily put her hand to her face and when she looked at her fingers, they were covered in blood.
"Bloody hell!"
"Get it, bloody hell!" Sirius laughed to James.
"I have to study! McGonegall's test is in less than a month and I've barely started preparing! This will put me so behind in my schedule if I go to Madame Pompfrey. I bet I could fix it myself. Potter, where's my wand?"
"It's wherever you left it Evans. I like you and all, but I don't watch you that closely"
"Yeah, right Prongs." Sirius said laughing and rolling his eyes, "What about last week in the common room when she was brushing her hair, you're eyes seemed pretty glued to her—"
James tackled Sirius and covered his mouth with his hand before he could say more. The two guys laid there for a second working out some deal to appease both of them and keep all their secrets.
Lily was annoyed about Sirius's comment and called James a creep, but her mind went immediately to her study schedule and the best way to make up for any time that may be lost from getting her nose fixed. Lily wanted her nose to be properly mended, and she doubted that it would be possible for her to properly cast a spell when she was this angry with James and Sirius.
Looking down on the two boys that were still laying on the ground, talking in low voices, Lily said, "Okay, I'm going to go to Madam Pompfrey's, but you two should feel free to stay snuggled up on the ground— especially if you sleep in the same bed at night anyways. Might as well get a nap during the day."
Lily started to make her way up the stairs but only got to the fifth step before she slipped. Majorly slipped. Lily fell down the five steps she had climbed and hit the ground hard. She knew that this wasn't one of her clumsy, "Lily" falls. She was actually hurt. James noticed the change of spirit, too.
"Evans? You okay?" He was actually talking in a serious voice for once.
"My stupid leg. My stupid, stupid leg broke because of the stupid stairs because I was going to the stupid infirmary because stupid you had to be stupid."
"Seven times. I bet I could beat that." Sirius cleared his throat, "The stupid guy that stupidly broke your stupid leg will now stupidly take you to the stupid infirmary to stupidly get your stupid leg fixed by the stupid nurse."
"Sirius, 'stupidly' is an adverb, different from the adjective 'stupid,' so it doesn't count." Lily knew she was being too stubborn for her own good, but she couldn't resist correcting him when he was being so annoying. She was going to have to find a way to get to the infirmary without causing further damage to her leg. Or her nose. God, how had she managed to hurt herself so badly in less than 10 minutes?
"C'mon, Evans." James reached down and scooped Lily up in his arms, being extra careful not to hurt her leg. Carrying her, he turned to the stairs and began to climb them. Unlike Lily, he walked steadily and didn't seem likely to fall.
"I swear to God, Potter, if you try to make a move on me or turn this into one of your romantic endeavors, you will need more than a wand to fix what I'll do to you."
"Interesting threat for someone who can't even walk."
"Just… Don't drop me… Please."
"Well, since you said please." James smiled and he carried her up the stairs to the infirmary, Lily's arms wrapped around his neck as they went.
—
"Oh goodness, dear! How did you get so hurt? You didn't go into the forest did, you? There are all kinds of vicious creatures out there!" Madame Pompfrey was shocked to see Lily Evans in her infirmary. She could only remember having to treat Lily once when she had a slight cold; Never had Lily been seriously injured.
The shock to see an injured Lily was overshadowed by the fact that James Potter was carrying her! That girl was one of the sweetest students at Hogwarts, but she absolutely despised Potter! It was odd how they were the Heads of the Gryffindor house, yet they had such a complicated relationship.
"Sit her down on this bed, right her. Oh dear, I'll get some medicine."
"Madame Pompfrey, don't worry. I wasn't in the woods. I just slipped on the stairs and landed quite badly."
"Oh honey, don't worry. We'll get you all fixed up in no time."
—
Lily fell asleep in the infirmary bed after Madam Pomprfey had mended her legs and nose. She was quite comfortable despite the fact that her leg had been bent in a very painful, very gross way not too long before.
Lily, still in the hospital bed, woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of snoring. She turned on the bedside lamp to see who else had been injured and had to stay in the infirmary.
When the lamp flickered on, Lily found that James Potter was asleep in a chair pulled up next to her bed.
"This boy sure is persistent." Lily mumbled to herself, annoyed that Potter was acting like she was his injured girlfriend, but also comforted by the idea of someone watching over her.