Me Against A Marauder
Guess who's back?
Back again
Shady's back
Tell a friend
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Eminem, Without Me
Chapter One: One Simple Word
"LILY, GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE OR YOU'LL BE LATE FOR THAT FREAK SCHOOL!" Petunia Evans screamed at the top of her lungs. Lily Evans stirred in her bed and opened one eye. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was 10:03, and if she didn't get up, she would indeed be late. She heaved herself off of her bed and stood in front of the mirror. Her reddish-auburn hair was strewn across her face and she looked only semiconscious. Lily quickly brushed through her hair and twisted it into a ponytail. She put on the closest pair of jeans and a tee shirt she could find and bounded down the stairs and almost knocked over Petunia.
"Watch it, freak!" Petunia snapped, "My father said you should put your bags in the station wagon."
"Petunia, he's my father, too. Despite what you said when we were younger, I was not adopted." Lily said, rolling her eyes. Petunia stuck out her tongue. Lily picked up her luggage and walked out of the house. Her father was waiting for her in the car and Lily gave her mother a kiss.
"Bye, Petunia." Lily said shortly. She and her sister hugged stiffly. She and her father, Mark Evans, drove away to King's Cross Station. They arrived in a matter about ten minutes and Lily kissed her father good-bye and walked through the brick wall separating Platforms 9 and 10. She and her best friend, Nidale, found a compartment at the end of the train. Nidale sat on the lap of her boyfriend, Bradley Hank, and Lily left to go to the Head's Compartment, wondering who would be Head Boy. Remus Lupin maybe? Or possibly Amos Diggory?
"Evans!" came that oh-so-familiar voice.
"No. Way. Potter? You're Head Boy?" Lily said disbelievingly. James smirked as Lily took a seat across from him, looking like she was in a state of shock.
"Did you blackmail Dumbledore or something?" Lily asked, eyebrows raised. James shook his head, still smirking. Lily glared at him for smirking so much at her.
"Fine. Let's go tell the prefects what to do so I can get back to Nidale." Lily said angrily. They both got up and James held out his arm.
"Ladies first." he said happily. Lily rolled her eyes and walked out of the compartment, James following her like a new born puppy. They entered the prefect's compartment to about twenty-four prefects chatting among themselves. James plopped down next to Remus, who had become a prefect in his fifth year, and joined in the chatter.
"All right, everyone, I'm Lily Evans and this is James Potter," Lily said, gesturing to James, "We're the new Head Girl and Boy and Potter is going to be passing out the schedules for you all. These will be your patrol schedules. If you can't make your time, just contact Potter or I and we'll switch you around."
James started to pass around all of the schedules. He stood in front of Lily and handed her one.
"Here you go, Ms. Head Girl." he said promptly. Lily took the paper grudgingly.
"Well, you can all leave now, the meeting is over." Lily said loudly. It was a mad rush out the door as the prefects squeezed out the door and into their separate compartments. Lily and James were the last ones to leave. Lily said nothing as the two of them walked in silence to their compartments. She glanced over at James stiffly before entering her compartment to her two closest friends, Nidale and Rochelle.
Nidale was short for her age, with dark brown hair down to her shoulders and dark brown eyes to match it. She had a caramel tint to her skin and was always scribbling away, writing about some story she recently thought up. This coming October, she would be moving to Morocco where her grandparents lived. There, she would get a different type of training to become a healer. Rochelle was even shorter than Nidale and had strawberry blonde hair. She had bright blue eyes that were always teeming with life. The way boys look at Rochelle you'd think she was part veela. In fact, Lily had a strong suspicion that she was part veela. She also had a big mouth and a good memory. She would need that memory to remember all of the gossip she hears and collects.
"Where's Brad?" Lily asked as she plopped down on the seat opposite of Nidale. Random snacks were spread out on the seats.
"He went off with Andrew and Matthew." Nidale said, taking a bite out of a cauldron cake. Andrew and Matthew were Brad's best friends. Brad, who used to be VERY short, somehow sprouted about a foot over the summer. He had dark, black hair and brown eyes. Andrew, a Chinese boy, had pitch-black hair and was probably the one with almost the most common sense, only behind Remus. Matthew was a dirty blonde, short boy who had a monotone voice and would always be asleep during classes. Rochelle was very quiet, staring out the window as the train passed by the fields and tall grasses.
"Rochelle, you're actually not talking for once. Something wrong?" Lily asked apprehensively. Rochelle turned to look at Lily, her blue eyes sparkling with tears.
"I got a letter today. My foster parents can't afford to keep me anymore and I may have to go to live with my real father, over in America." Rochelle said quietly. Lily's eyes grew wide and Nidale dropped the Bertie Botts bean she was studying carefully.
"You're leaving?" Nidale asked disbelievingly. Rochelle shrugged as tears started to roll down her cheeks.
"I may have to, but I really don't want to leave, I" Rochelle stopped halfway through her sentence and Lily and Nidale understood why. Somebody was knocking at their door. Lily sighed.
"Who is it?" she called.
"Sirius Black." Came a voice from the other side of the door. Rochelle put her head in her hands. Sirius was always trying to get her to go out with him and it hasn't worked yet. But, don't think that stopped him from making out with every other willing girl in his year.
"Is it important? We're kind of in the middle of something." Nidale said, opening the door. Sirius was there, his arms crossed.
"Yes, have you seen Rochelle, is something wrong?" Sirius asked uncertainly. Head still in her hands, Rochelle shook her blonde head. Sirius shrugged and continued,
"Well, I wanted to ask if any of you have seen James? Remus came back from the prefect meeting but he didn't."
He looked over at Lily, as if directing the question more to her than to Nidale and Rochelle. Lily shook her head.
"I left him after I got to my compartment." Lily said nervously. Sirius nodded and left. Lily and Nidale shrugged at each other and continued to console Rochelle.
James had not returned to his compartment like Lily had. He had gone to the very end of the train, where a little bench was. He sat there, thinking hard about this coming year. It was the last year he had to get Lily to go out with him. "Let's see all the things she said she hates about me ... hmm ... she said I'm arrogant, I have a big head, I jinx people for no reason, I ruffle my hair to make it look like I just got off my broom, I'm a bullying toe-rag ... hmm, this could take a while." He thought to himself. He sat there for a while, just thinking about Lily, which made his stomach flip-flop repeatedly, until he spotted Sirius at an open compartment. He was saying something to the people inside and James immediately recognized who replayed. It was Lily's voice. James stood up in an instant, which was rather difficult, since his foot had fallen asleep. He watched as Sirius closed the compartment door and turned.
"Prongs, where've you been?" Sirius called, walking towards James. James put his hands in the pockets of his robes.
"Just been thinking." He said shyly. (A/N James Potter shy is kind of hard to imagine, no?)
He and Sirius walked back to the compartment. Somehow, they had gotten on to the subject of Quiddich.
"Rochelle, we're going to miss you so much!" Lily said sadly, embracing her best friend. She and Nidale had joined in Rochelle's tears and now they were all a big, wet mess and had no time to clean themselves up. The train had stopped and it was time to get off. The three of them, still crying, walked off the train.
"Evans!"
Lily gave off a frustrated sigh as James Potter came running towards her.
"Did you what happened? What's wrong? Why are you crying? It was Snape, wasn't it? I'll kill him!" James said this very quickly and had already started to run off, most likely to find Snape and Lily had to hold on to his robe to restrain him.
"It's not Snape, Potter. In fact, it's none of your business." Lily said, sniffling. James cast her a concerned look.
"Could you just tell me what's wrong? I might be able to help." James said slyly. Lily just shook her head dramatically as more tears fell down her face.
"You can't do anything." She said through sobs. But James wasn't about to give up. As they entered the school, he still badgered her about it.
"Please? You never know, I could help." James protested. Lily rolled her puffy eyes.
"It's me, okay? My foster family can't afford to keep me and once the first term is over, I have to go live with my jackass of a father over in America!" Rochelle screamed. She glared at everyone and rushed to the girl's bathroom, closely followed by Nidale. Lily was about to follow them, but a strong arm stopped her. She turned and was not surprised to see it was James.
"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't of pestered." James said defiantly. Lily scowled at him as another tear came down her face.
"You? Sorry for something? Yeah right." she said angrily. James sighed.
"I've been sorry for a lot of things before, Lily, you just haven't noticed." he said with a shrug of his shoulders. Lily raised her eyebrows.
"You just called me Lily." she said, shocked. James turned a light red, almost pink, color.
"Well, I" James was cut off.
"OI! YOU'RE HOLDING UP THE DOORWAY!" Sirius yelled from a few feet behind them. Lily glanced at James and ran off to the bathroom, following Nidale and Rochelle's foot steps. James turned around and glared as Sirius, Remus, and Peter joined him.
"Just when I got her to actually talk to me without cursing me, you come along." he muttered grumpily. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"You guys are the Heads. You'll have plenty of time to talk to her." he said, brushing the subject off.
James was disappointed when Lily and her friends did not show up at the feast. He listened to Dumbledore's usual speech, only half aware of what went on around him. He didn't eat much. That always happened when he came to a meal with Lily Evans on his mind. He just kept glancing up at where Lily would normally sit and it hurt to see it empty. The fifth years started to bring the first years to their respective common rooms. James didn't join in the conversation as they trudged up to Gryffindor Tower. Remus said the password, "Billywig", and they entered the common room they had grown to love over the last six years. James's eyes wandered around and he immediately spotted Lily's vivid red hair. She and Nidale were sitting on squishy armchairs. Without really thinking, James ran over to Lily. Nidale glanced up at him nervously and made an excuse about going to unpack and walked up to the dormitory.
"What do you want?" Lily asked grudgingly. She turned to look at James. Her eyes were red from crying and there were teeth marks where she had chewed her fingernails.
"I want to know if you're okay." James said cautiously. Lily sighed and to James's complete surprise, she started to spill out her feelings for him
"Of course I'm not okay. Rochelle is going to move to America right after the first term ends and Nidale is moving to Morocco in a month and you know what'll happen then? I'll be alone! I'm not even going to be able to spend a lot of time with either of them before they leave because I have to be the Head Girl and I'll have even more responsibilities! I can't deal with this!" Lily said sobbingly. She bit her lip and turned to look the other way. James was lost for words.
"C'mon, Prongs," he thought to himself, "This is your chance! Comfort her!"
"You'll never be alone. You have all of the other seventh years and you have plenty of friends." James said soothingly. He had almost said that she would always have him, but something told him she wouldn't find that very comforting.
Lily turned to him silently. More tears filled her aching emerald eyes and she ran up to her dormitory. James sighed and leaned back against the cushion of his armchair. Sirius sat down next to him.
"What did you do to make her cry?" Sirius asked disbelievingly. James threw a pillow at him.
"I didn't do anything. I'm going to bed." he said tonelessly. He trudged up to the empty dormitory and was surprised to see a sleek, golden owl on his bed. It dropped the letter in its beak on his bed and flew out the open window. He glided over to it and ripped it open. It was very short, but nothing meant more to him. James instantly recognized who wrote it and went to sleep feeling all fuzzy inside. He left the letter on his nightstand, which on it was written one simple word.
"Thanks."
A/N- I have this story posted on another sight, but it isn't finished yet. Please leave me some reviews: )