Some Kinda Love

Chapter One

By Mrs. Padfoot

Disclaimer: As usual, a lot of it doesn't belong to us, but rather to J.K. Rowling. The plot is actually ours, too! As well as four whole characters.

Author's Note: I know, I know, it took awhile. And actually, it's the PoA DVDs that made us write this at all (I really honestly adore that movie). We were considering writing a WY-universe tie-up one-shot thing, but then we didn't feel like it. And then we were thinking of writing a Christmas fic, because we are both quite Christmasy people. But we thought that it would be hard to top last year's Christmas story. Anyway, the first scene of this was actually written a long time ago, but being us (our absence was kindof mostly my fault this time) it took awhile to finish. Anyway, Mrs. Prongs is in a writing sort of a mood, so the next chapter shouldn't be too far along, and if it is, I give you permission to rip out both of our throats.

&&

The miniscule flat inhabited by James Potter and Lily Evans was always in uproar in the morning.

Lily was convinced that there was a rule somewhere that said that in every relationship, there was a morning person and then the one who was not a morning person. Right next to the rule that said that one half of every couple was neat, while the other was a slob.

Just her bloody luck that both she and James were messy night owls.

"Crap, where's my wand, Lily?" asked James, sloshing some hot coffee onto her as he passed her.

"Ow," she whined, "why the hell are you asking me? And be careful with that coffee, goddammit."

"Sorry," called his muffled voice from their bedroom. "When did I have it last? Wait, here it is... no, this is yours..."

Lily sighed and rubbed at the brown stain on her blouse, wondering if it was worth rubbing out. It was another one of those bloody which bad situation would you rather be in questions. And Lily didn't particularly fancy going to class with a wet shirt or a coffee stained shirt.

James whizzed past her again, managing to slide her wand into her hand as he slid past.

"Wait, James," said Lily. "Should I change my blouse? Coffee stains, you know."

"No time," he said distractedly, coming back out of the kitchen with his wand in hand. "We have to go."

"No, but, this is my favorite blouse," she moaned, picking at the stain with her dirty fingernails.

"Come on," he groaned.

"You just don't get it," she whined loudly.

"Well, you just don't get that class starts in ten minutes," said James, already at the fireplace, "so come on."

"Fine," mumbled Lily grumpily, shrinking through the tiny hallway towards the fireplace, where James was standing, looking vaguely confused.

"Where's the floo powder, Lily?" he asked, bending over and looking up the fireplace, as if expecting it to magically appear in the chimney.

"Not up there, stupid," she said with a touch of irritation and fondness, "How did you manage to lose the floo powder, anyway? Isn't it always on the mantle?"

"Apparently not," said James, suddenly pulling the red and blue jar (handmade by James, Age 6) from the pocket of a worn green jacket hanging nearby. "You left it in your pocket?"

"Oh," said Lily, a flush creeping up her cheeks. "Sorry."

"S'okay," he mumbled, grabbing a bit and stepping into the fireplace, handing the jar to her.

She flinched a little as the green flames engulfed him before climbing into the sooty fireplace herself.

&&

"Morning, James," said Professor Wells (of Astronomy) as James emerged from the fireplace, dusting himself off lightly. "Running a little late?"

"Just a bit, sir," said James, glancing at the clock. Three minutes to go.

"James, it's Harold," said the balding astronomer, casually sliding his arm around James. "I'm not your teacher anymore. We're colleages."

"Right," said James, pushing the middle-aged man's arm away, "Sorry, sir."

"Anyway, I'm walking your way," said Wells. "Come with?"

"I'm waiting for Lily," said James quickly, knowing that Wells' statement was utterly idiotic, considering a) he couldn't have class while the sun was out and b) the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom wasn't anywhere near the Astronomy tower.

"I'll wait for you," said Wells with a large smile.

"I wouldn't want you to be late," said James quickly.

"I won't be," grinned Wells.

James gave him a mostly fake smile as he glanced at the clock. Two minutes to class. Where the hell was Lily?

As he thought it, Lily came crashing out the fireplace, mumbling something about how much she hated flooing anywhere. Somehow, she had managed to come out dustless, although her hair was looking a little frazzled, and she had a coffee stain on her blouse.

"Lily," he questioned, "why is there a coffee stain on your blouse?"

"Gee, I wonder," she said acidly, rubbing at it furiously and heading for the door.

"Might want to magic it out," he said. "Before class. Those Slytherin third years can be vicious."

She blinked for a few seconds before muttering the incantation and watching the stain fade away. Then, she turned on her heel and briskly exited the teacher's lounge, sending a glare back over her shoulder. James couldn't for the life of him figure out why. He thought it had been particularly sensitive of him to know her schedule. Maybe he had gotten it wrong? He would have to verify it at lunch. Hmm.

"James? Going to class today?" said Wells. "You've got a minute."

"Shit," said James, snapping back to reality. "Nice seeing you, sir. I have to, um, run."

&&

The bell rang just as James dashed into his classroom. Inwardly, James congratulated himself for making yet another close one. Outwardly, he gave the staring sixth years his most charming smile.

"Wands away," he told them. The class moaned reluctantly, the classroom suddenly full of the clatter of bags opening and closing. The clumsy one in the back managed to drop it several times in the process.

"Sorry," he said, heading to the board. "But we really have to study the theory behind all these hexes and all that cra—er, crud, before I let you attempt them on each other. Honestly, Pomfrey will have my throat if I let anyone get hexed more than once. And let me tell you, when that woman is really mad – "

He didn't finish his joke because the class had already erupted in laughter. Satisfied, James turned towards the board and flicked his wand so that the chalk began scrawling 'The Twitching Ear Hex' across the board.

"Sir," said the prissy one in the front with glasses, "you've got the hex name wrong."

"Ally – " hissed Lily but with freckles beside the prissy one.

"It's the twitchy ear hex, actually," continued the prissy one. "Trust me. I've cross-referenced all this month's material."

"Um," said James nervously, flipping through the course book. "So it is. You should just be glad I didn't call it that one we used on Snape second year, I'm a little bad with names sometimes."

"Obviously," said the prissy one in the front with glasses, and a few other students murmured their assent. A few more were laughing, because James' jokes never fell flat. Ever.

James turned back to the chalkboard, wondering why it even bloody mattered whether it was twitching or twitchy. Honestly. The chalk, which had been scribbling all the while, was now drawing the wand movements for the Knee-Reversing Hex (a complicated eight-flick pattern that James had been looking forward to demonstrating). He sighed and opened his mouth, knowing that after a double class his throat would be dying by lunch. He liked talking, but he didn't like talking that much.

&&

James was late to lunch, as usual. Which was actually good, because Lily hadn't decided how she was going to act towards him yet.

"I s'pose you could give him the cold shoulder," Felicity Summers of Divination was advising. "I mean, honestly."

Felicity absolutely thrived on gossip, mostly because she was rather mousy herself and had never had a boyfriend. (And, Lily suspected, the more gossip, the easier it was to make up predictions. Not that Lily had any first-hand experience with Divination. She had managed to avoid that particular escapade.)

"...should listen to you, of course! Not to mention that the coffee was his fault in the first place," Felicity was rambling. "Of course, there's always a chance that he was listening and he suggested the spell to be malicious..."

At this point, the asian's woman's eyes were getting that glazed Divination look in them, and Lily grumpily wondered why there weren't better Hogwarts friends to be had. Or actually, better friends in general.

"'Lo, Lilikins," said James, plopping next to her and promptly beginning to stuff his face. Jerkass. She stood up, pushing his pumpkin juice over in the process.

"Lily!" he called after her around a mouthful of peanut butter and jelly. "I don't get it! You did have third year Slytherins this morning. And Hufflepuffs!"

"You are such an insensitive prick!" Lily yelled, her mouth agape. "As if I would get mad at you for something as silly and superficial as that."

And she stormed off.

"Well, she has before," James said to no one in particular.

&&

Lily had apparently not forgiven him for whatever the hell he had done by the end of the day, as she had floo'd home without him. James grumbled to the room at large as he grabbed his stuff, and not even Wells tried to comfort him. While usually this was a good thing, as the older man made him rather uncomfortable, but at the moment, James felt like being comforted.

"Lily?" he called as he exited the fireplace. She didn't answer him, but with some very clever Marauder sleuthing, he managed to find that she was in the bedroom because the door was locked.

Still, his tickets to Wimbourne Wasps v. the Appleby Arrows ("the game of the year", said Ferdinand McPheez, Quidditch correspondent, Daily Prophet) were on the table, so apparently Lily had accepted them from the owl, which implied that she didn't completely hate him. He stared at them for a moment, watching the moving players get into a catfight, before turning his attention back to the problem at hand.

Lily hadn't seem particularly irritated with him that morning, and had in fact shown no signs of hostility until she glared at him in the teacher's lounge. She hadn't even seemed mad at him when she came, although she had seemed a little frustrated in general.

So he must have been an innocent bystander.

Except that argument never ever worked with women. No matter how innocent bystanderish the situation might seem, they always had some stupid detail that had you had accidentally incriminated yourself with.

James mentally reran their conversation from the teacher's lounge through his head, wishing desperately that he had a photographic memory. Wells had been there – maybe she was jealous because Wells was making moves on him again? – except that was stupid – Lily knew he didn't swing that way...

So obviously the offending moment had been in the actual conversation – which wasn't so good because he couldn't really remember what they had been talking about. Maybe it had been important and she was mad because he didn't remember? No, that couldn't be it.

James slumped back into his chair grumpily, squinting his eyes in deep thought. A lone teacup in front of him began to do a tapdance. James groggily took notice of it, and flicked his wand, muttering the countercurse.

"C'mout, C'mout, wherever you are," he mumbled.

"You're no fun, Prongs," grumbled Sirius Black, pushing past James and plopping into the chair across from him.

"What, you expected me to scream or something?" said James, rolling his eyes.

"Well, when you put it that way..." said Sirius grumpily. "But I guess I'm just used to scaring girls."

"Right," said James boredly, "because you are living up the bachelor life. Whoop-de-doo."

"Well, someone's grumpy," said Sirius.

"Mmph," grunted James. "Where'd the others go?"

"Where's Lily?" asked Sirius, shrugging.

"I asked first," said James, not exactly wanting to get into the whole Lily thing quite yet.

"Oh, they've got dates," said Sirius with a decided last of interest, flicking his wand at the teacup again. This time, it grabbed the other teacup across the table and whirled it around in a vivid waltz.

"And you haven't?" questioned James, raising his eyebrows.

"I got stuck with the high maintenance one," mumbled Sirius, "'do I look fat?' was practically the first thing she said to me. And then she got a salad and I asked if that was all and the bloody girl burst into tears and told the couple at the next table that I thought she was anorexic."

"Sorry," said James.

"Doesn't matter anyway," shrugged Sirius, "but what's up with you, mate? You look about fifteen kinds of miserable."

"Oh, Lily's locked herself in the bedroom," mumbled James, slinking even further back into his chair, if that was possible.

"What'd you do this time?" asked Sirius, looking slightly alarmed.

"Hey, what makes you think it was me?" asked James, offended.

"Um, it's obvious?" said Sirius.

"No, it's not."

"Oh, give it up, mate," groaned Sirius. "Just tell me what you did."

"That's part of the problem," sighed James, scratching the back of his neck dismissively, "I'm not exactly sure. So I can't apologize because I'm not sure what I did! She yelled at me at lunch – half the school could hear her, I swear, and she glared at me in the teacher's lounge this morning – but I can't remember what we were talking about that would have set her off and – "

"You're ranting a bit, Prongs," said Sirius calmly.

"Yeah?" said James grumpily.

"Anyway," said Sirius pompously, "I have the solution."

"You do?" asked James incredulously.

"Uh huh," said Sirius, reaching across the table for an almond and staring at it to lengthen the dramatic pause. "Just knock on the door, and tell her you're sorry you're such an insensitive prick and that you'll never do it again."

"That won't work," said James, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, it will," said Sirius indignantly, "I'm a master of the ladies."

"Which is why Remus and Peter are out and you're here?" said James smugly.

"Hey," said Sirius, "That was a low blow. 'Snot like you're much better, anyway."

"I have a girlfriend," said James.

"Who locked herself in the bedroom and isn't speaking to you?"

"Right," said James miserably, distractedly putting an almond into his mouth. "How did this happen, Padfoot? We were always the hot ones at school. Remus and Peter have better love lives right now. And that's just bloody pathetic. Although, it's your fault you've dated all the good ones..."

"Just like it's your fault you chose a girl whose mood swings to Pluto and back," said Sirius, standing up and clapping him on the shoulder. "Anyway, Prongsie, I have to run. Oh, and just so you know, the electric bill's late."

"Just be glad I pay it at all," James called after him.

"Bye, Jamesey," called Sirius as the door slammed.

&&

"Lily?" James called timidly as he rapped on the bedroom door. In the background, the old clock was chiming nine thirty. James tried to suppress a yawn. He was getting downright senile – it was way too bloody early to be tired.

She didn't answer.

"Look," said James. "I'm sorry I was such an insensitive prick."

Still no answer. Perhaps she was asleep.

"...and I'll never do it again."

James supposed that it was stupid to try Sirius' plan anyway, but it really was better than anything he had thought of. Sighing, he turned away to go lay down on the couch, but the doorknob clicked and turned before the door pushed open, revealing Lily, looking drained and miserable.

"You're really sorry?" she whispered.

"Uh huh," said James sincerely.

"I am too," she said with her silly half-smile he adored so much.

"Does this mean I can hug you?" he said awkwardly after a pause.

"You just want to hug me?" said Lily indignantly.

"Er – " James began.

But the door had already slammed in his face. And as he reached for the knob, the lock clicked into place.

"Bugger."