This is a re-imagining of a fanfic by aeaflo. He/she originally wrote a songfic based off of Taylor Swift's You Belong with Me. While I liked the general premise of the story, I wanted to improve upon the grammar a bit, and there was some story lines I wanted to change. For instance, I have never understood why so many fics have a dance at Hogwarts. The only one in the entire Harry Potter series was because of the Triwizard tournament, and they obviously didn't have that in the 70s. I suppose it's for convenience. Aeaflo may have done it to parallel Taylor's music video. But, I digress. The general idea was his/hers, and here is a link to the original story: s/5253298/1/bYou_b_bBelong_b_With_bMe_b.

All credit goes, of course, to aeaflo, Taylor Swift, and J.K. Rowling.

Quick A/N. I just want to mention that, while cannon, this story doesn't seem extremely plausible or realistic to me. And, by keeping (relatively) close to aeaflo's timeline, I acknowledge that the amount of Hogsmeade days, time of Quidditch, etc... may be off from Rowling's work, and I apologize. Any other writing I do will be written differently, and most likely be shorter. I wrote it mainly to parallel/redo aeaflo's fic. Carry on.

Background:

It's James and Lily's seventh year. After Lily's accusations by the lake at the end of OWLs, James contemplated her words over the entire summer. He matured and grew, and gave her space for half of sixth year. After Christmas break of sixth year, they started a tentative friendship. That friendship continued to grow throughout that year and summer, and they were close friends by the time seventh year rolled around. About a week into seventh year, James gets a girlfriend. This takes place about a month into seventh year.


Location: Gryffindor Common Room

WEEK FIVE of 7th YEAR

Normally, I am a rather patient person.

I tried to be understanding and tolerant of the underclassman. I put up with constant noise in the common room when I was trying to study. My efforts even made me a prefect, an honor which I lived up to (mostly). But there was one thing, more than any other, that grated against my nerves.

Whining. I hate whiners. I never made it as babysitter because of this, and I still can't stand to be around most children. The sound of whining is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears. And this trait, normally demonstrated by three year old privileged children, was all I had been hearing out of James's girlfriend for the past twenty minutes.

James and Haley (his girlfriend) were about thirty feet from me, but I could hear her voice perfectly. She sounded like a petulant child on helium. I was not usually a meddling person. I really didn't care who was fighting with who, or who was dating who, or any other trivial teenager type conversation topics. In my eyes, anyone could date whomever they pleased, and I didn't really give a damn.

Usually.

But my GOD.

I kept hoping, wishing, and praying that she and James would break up, if only so I didn't have to hear her voice in the Gryffindor common room ever again. The second week of school, Sirius and I actually started a bet on how long their relationship would last. I, personally, was optimistic and gave it a whole week. Sirius, who knew James's relationship history much better than I, surprised and worried me by giving it an almost an entire month. We, of course, were both wrong. Sirius still tried to connive the money out of me by saying that his guess was closer (which, to be fair, it was. But that wasn't the bet). I ignored him, which he took with surprising grace. I had wondered aloud how long James's relationships normally lasted. For the seven years we had been going to school together, I actually knew frightfully little about James's personal life. According to Sirius, James always tried to force as much out of a relationship as possible. He kept them going long after they should have been terminated.

This one never should have started.

No one—and I do mean NO ONE—understood how they got together, let alone how they had stayed together for an entire month. James was a jokester. He was almost never completely serious; he could and would take any situation and turn it lighthearted. But, he was also fiercely and blindly loyal to his friends and beliefs. No matter what they had done, he stood strongly by their side. He would defend what he cared about until his death. Haley, on the other hand, was a uptight, pompous, Ravenclaw bitch. She took everything far too seriously. Everything, including how much syrup was on her waffles, was a do-right-or-die situation. And don't assume that she was smart just because she was in Ravenclaw. Oh no, she was not book nor street smart. She was just pretentious as hell. She was the school gossip, and due to that, I doubted she had ever kept a friendship longer than a year. She was always spreading rumors and whispering other's secrets. She had no loyalties.

I hated her, and I was not alone in this. Sirius could barely stand to be near her for more than a minute. We all used to sit together at lunch (house tables pretty much ceased to matter by the time we made it to 7th year), but he could never contain his insults and mocking to and about her. She always got offended, and James was forced to take her side. Eventually, Remus, Sirius, and I all moved and sat together at the other end of the table. While I hated the situation, this did contribute to the growth of my relationship with the two other Marauders, of which I am devoutly thankful. While I truly loved getting to know the people who would become, and remain, my best friends, I missed James (and I am sure Remus and Sirius did as well). Other than James ditching her, there was no real solution. James wouldn't sit without her, and no one else could stand to be with her for an entire lunch period. Even give-everyone-the-benefit-of-the-doubt Remus had admitted that he couldn't take her personality. Personally, I think it was because she always tried to sound intelligent, and made comments about theories, books, and lectures. Remus, who was not a pseudo intellectual, actually understood what she was talking about, and knew that what she was saying made no sense. He politely tried to correct her once about a comment she made about a McGonagall lecture, but she screamed in his face that he was ignorant and huffed off. That was the last time he ever initiated conversation with her.

So, in summary, everyone hated James's bitchy girlfriend. To be honest, I can't believe James didn't hate her. They fought more than he and I used to, and that's saying something. Near every night they got in a shouting match. It was usually over some joke he said that offended her. She just didn't seem to understand that he was joking, and it wasn't meant to be taken seriously. God, anyone who knew James in the slightest understood his sense of humor, but she couldn't ever seem to figure it out. I sometimes thought she willfully misunderstood him, just so she could hear him grovel. I couldn't stand that he gave her the satisfaction. It was always her that was in the wrong, and he was always the one that apologized. I once talked to him about it, but he told me to mind my own business. So I did (to him, anyway. My internal monologue was another matter entirely).

So, I kept my mouth shut and silently brooded as I watched the two fight over and over again. This particular time, it was quite obvious that Haley was fighting crocodile tears, which aggravated me in an inexplicable, yet intense, way. I was watching the scene when Sirius came and took the seat next to me. I leaned over to him.

"Hey Sirius." I greeted him. "Any idea what this one is about?"

"If I am correct, he said that she looked pretty today." I stared at him for a second, but he didn't correct himself.

"Um, she's yelling at him for that?"

"Yeah. Apparently that means that she didn't look pretty yesterday?" My eyebrows shot up. Holy hell. "Is that girl-code or something?"

"No. That's psycho code. Sirius, come on. You're his best friend. Talk some sense into him. Get him to dump her."

"I can't, Lily. I tried once and he about bit my head off. We don't interfere with each other's love lives. It was decided fourth year. We stay detachedly supportive."

"As good of an idea as that is, don't you think desperate times call for desperate measures?"

"I wouldn't know how to make him stop. He tends to like to do the opposite of what I say just to piss me off. I think we'll just have to ride this one out. Why can't you talk to him?" He asked. I squirmed a little in my seat, a little embarrassed by my truthful answer.

"I don't want to interfere. Coming from his best friend, he'd think it was advice. But from a girl, he may think I have ulterior motives or something." Sirius was about to interrupt, but I hurried on. "Plus, I don't want to seem unsupportive. Our friendship is a lot newer than yours and his. If you talked to him, there was a less chance that he'd get permanently mad." Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Lame excuses."

"You can't accuse me of lame excuses when yours is based off a promise you made in fourth year."

"A promise is a promise, Lily! We can't break them because they're old! That actually just increases their strength!" I was about to reply, but Sirius kept going. "But it's a moot point, in the end. No matter what we say, he'll dump her eventually. I mean, seriously, how much longer could he really stay with her? James'll get sick of her; he has to."

"James will do what?" Speak of the devil. Sirius and I had gotten caught up in our conversation and failed to notice the apparent end to their fight. But the evidence was there: Haley was nowhere to be seen, and James was walking towards Sirius and I. He flopped down in the chair next to me before repeating the question. "James'll do what?"

"Hey, James. How are you?" I purposefully evaded his question. He gave me a pointed look before letting his face fall into one of tiredness and exasperation.

"I just can't win." He said, sounding frustrated and sad.

"Let's get your mind off it." I suggested. I didn't want to talk about Haley, and I didn't really want to hear him speak of her either. "How about a game of chess? A trip to the kitchens?"

"No, I had better go after her. She's probably already halfway to the lake."

"Prongs, maybe you should let her blow off some steam." Sirius said.

"No, I should apologize."

"For what? What exactly did you do wrong?" Sirius asked, more harshly than I am sure he intended.

"I did offend her. She's my girlfriend, and it's my job to make her feel special, not hurt." With that, James stood, and my stomach rolled in that not-quite-unpleasant way. As he left to make amends with her, I was left to contemplate the sheer unfairness that most decent men who believed that were with girls who didn't appreciate it.