Summary: It's Lily and James final year, and with head prefects duties, jealous rivals, a dangerous stalker and the threat of Voldemort looming ever closer, they are in for a hell of year indeed. Slightly AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Gideon Prewitt or any of the characters that are recognisable from the Harry Potter Books. They belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury and Scholastic, no infringement intended. Isabelle and Giselle McKinnon are mine.
Author's Note: Yep, it's another Lily and James fic. OoTP seems to have fuelled a lot of these, and I just went along for the ride. While I will try to make this as original as possible, I'm not going to promise anything. I happen to think some clichés are just too cute not to use, and chances are, you'll run into one or two or more of them during the course of this story. The first few chapters are going to be nothing but fluffy fluff , and I admit, I don't write it well, but there are ya go. Brit picking, pointing out errors about the details of the Wizarding world is very welcome and appreciated. Reviews are welcome, constructive criticism even more so. Basically, tell me if I should go on or just forget about it and stick to reading fanfic. J
Chapter One
" It's so beautiful,"
Sixteen year old Lily Evans sighed blissfully, snuggling further into the warm, strong body behind her. The starry night sky was stretched out in front and below her, like some beautiful, enchanted carpet laid out at her feet. Her companion chuckled, and she felt it rumble through his chest.
" I've seen better,"
Lily grinned and glanced over her shoulder, meeting his gaze.
" You have, have you?" She inquired playfully. " Enlighten me then."
" Gladly. There's this girl, you see,"
" Oh a girl," Lily interrupted with a grin. " I don't think I'm going to like this very much."
" Sshh." The arms around her squeezed a little. She felt his breath on her ear as he leaned close to whisper to her, amusement clear in his voice. " You are so impatient, did you know?" Lily giggled. He cleared his throat. " Anyway. This girl. She's got so much going for her. She's smart, well, actually, brilliant is a more appropriate word. I don't think I've ever seen anyone pick up spells and incantations so quickly."
" Oooh. Sounds like you're a little envious of said girl."
He poked a finger into her ribs, and Lily giggled again. " Stop that! You know I'm ticklish!"
" Well then, stop interrupting me." He chided pretending to be annoyed. " If you'd let me finish, I would have told you that she's the best I've seen… apart from me that is." Lily snorted in disbelief, but he let this pass, and continued. " She's also sweet. Always there for you when you're down, and doesn't ever take no for an answer, especially when she thinks you're going about things the wrong way and could hurt yourself. Actually, she's quite bossy in that respect,"
" Hey!"
" But she's got a heart of gold. She always means well, even if she can be a bit annoying."
" And here I thought you liked this girl."
" Oh I do. I'm completely mad for her. Of course, it doesn't hurt that she's built like Aphrodite incarnate. Better in fact. She's absolutely gorgeous."
" So you think she's pretty enough to compare to all this?" Lily swept her arm to the celestial bodies all around them. " Somehow I doubt that."
" She's not just pretty, she's beautiful. But her looks aren't what makes me say she's better than all this."
" What, then?"
" It's her heart. And her soul. It's the way she's always ready to give her help when she's asked. It's how she knows to give her help even when she's not asked. The way she comforts a homesick first year. The way she can think up the most devious of pranks and still look like an innocent angel when she denies it. And how she never backs down in defence of her friends. How she's brave enough to stand up against her enemies when she's outnumbered. And how she's not afraid to let you know what she's really thinking or when you're out of order. She's not afraid to be who she is. Not afraid to give you all she's got." He looked uncertain now, as if she would laugh or scoff at him.
Lily had turned to him when he had first started speaking, and her eyes had steadily filled with tears.
" Oh James."
" I love you Lily. For being all those things I said, and so much more. And I swear, I will spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you've made me." James smiled at her, his gold-flecked hazel eyes shining at her. " That's why I wanted to bring you up here. I wanted to give you the world."
Lily shook her head, smiling at him tremulously, for she was very close to tears.
" I don't want the world, James. I just want you…"
He smiled, and it was more dazzling than the light of the sun. Slowly, he leaned in, intent on her lips. Lily held her breath, anticipating the moment when they would kiss…
" MUM!"
The ear-piercing shriek cut through the relative peace in the Evans family's cosy two-storey home, shattering the calm. Lily Evans awoke with a start, blinking sleepily around the room. Where were the stars? Where was the flying carpet? And most important of all, where was James?
" MUM! HELP!"
Another screech rent through the house and Lily winced. She tried desperately to hold on to the dream, to how she had felt as she hovered in the sky with James but another panic-stricken scream broke her concentration completely. Lily groaned with heartfelt disappointment. One inch left, if that, and she would've had him! Why couldn't whoever it was who was screaming their head off have waited just another minute?
Wait a minute.
Someone was screaming.
As sleep left her, Lily's brain finally kicked into gear and she recognized the screams as her sisters' own. Alarmed, she leapt out of bed, flinging her duvet to the floor in her haste, stopping only a moment to grab her wand. Lily flew down the corridor, towards the bathroom where the screams were coming from. Already her mother was running to the door, an extremely worried look on her face.
" Petunia!" She called. " Petunia, what's wrong?!" Grace Evans threw the bathroom door wide open, and then shrieked as well.
" Good grief!" Lily exclaimed at the scream, running towards her mother. " Mum, what is it? Why is everyone screaming?"
Mrs. Evans was standing stock still, her hands over her mouth, face frozen in horror. Fearing the worst, Lily leaped in front of her mother, wand out, pointing at whatever had terrified her mother and sister so. She had expected to find some kind of intruder, or even a creature of some sort. What she found instead, was her elder sister, sobbing hysterically, greenish slime covering almost her entire body. Petunia looked very much like the creature from the Black Lagoon, and Lily couldn't help herself.
She screamed.
Of course, her scream attracted Petunia's attention enough for her to realize that a wand, (a dreadful, dangerous weapon her younger sister insisted on carrying around everywhere) was trained on her. It sent her into a fresh bout of screams as she attempted to hide behind the shower curtain.
" Mum! Mum! She's pointing that THING at me! HELP!"
Lily recovered her senses and quickly stowed her wand away in a pyjama pocket. Grace hurried forward and hugged the cowering and very wet and slimy Petunia, reassuring her that Lily had put her wand away.
" She was just trying to protect you, Petunia, darling, it's all right, Lily would never hurt you."
Lily had crept into the bathroom after her mother and was quite startled to see Petunia's head snap up from their mother's shoulder, where she had been bawling to glare at Lily.
" She did this to me!" Petunia accused in a low, venomous hiss. " She did it with her, her w-wand, I know she did!"
Lily gaped at her. " I did no such thing, Petunia, I been fast asleep this whole time, I only woke up when I heard you screaming!"
" Liar!"
" I'm not lying!"
" Petunia, calm down! Lily was sleeping, I saw her." Mrs. Evans broke in, trying to stop another argument from breaking out.
" Then how do you explain this?!" Petunia demanded angrily, gesturing at her green slimy skin. Lily took a step forward and realized what it was.
" Frogspawn soap." She announced.
" What?" Mrs. Evans looked alarmed. " But…how? How did you-"
" I told you!" Petunia interrupted, looking triumphant
even though she was covered in slime. " She did it!"
" No, I didn't." Lily denied flatly. She frowned at her sister. " I told you not to go into my room, Petunia. You've been going through my things again."
Petunia glared. " You've done something horrible to me and you still stand there and accuse me? Mum!"
" All right, all right, girls! Lily, why would you say such a thing?"
" Because, mum, I recognize that bar of soap," She nodded towards the ordinary looking bar and it's paper wrapper, tossed carelessly on the floor. " It came with the gift basket Sirius sent me."
" We were out of soap!" Petunia defended her actions. " Mum and I have been so busy with the preparations, we hadn't had time to shop for groceries! I wouldn't have taken it if you'd only have let me borrow some of your toiletries but you're too selfish to share, even though there are five more bars in that basket!" Tears of fury filled her eyes again. " And to pay me back, you…you turn me into a frog?!"
Lily shook her head, amazed at how easily her sister could go from being the weak and defenceless victim to the aggressive accuser.
" Petunia, I told you I couldn't give you any of those things because they came from SIRIUS BLACK. If you listened to me at all, you'd know that he's a prank loving hooligan who loves to give out jinxed gifts and bewitch everyone's personal belongings on the last day of term! I didn't want you to come into my room because I'm still checking everything for jinxes and I hadn't gotten round to looking at the gift basket yet!"
" You're lying!"
Lily threw her hands up. " I DON'T lie, Petunia, that's your forte, remember?"
" You're a freak, an abnormal-"
" Enough!" The command silenced Petunia effectively and Lily stopped glaring at her sister so that she could look at her mother. Grace Evans was generally easy going and jovial, but if roused, she had a formidable temper to contend with. " Petunia, what have I told you about speaking to your sister that way?"
" But mum-"
" What did I tell you?" Grace overrode her, eyebrow raised.
" That I shouldn't," Petunia muttered sullenly.
" And Lily, how many times have I told you to go through your things in the first week of the holidays?"
" But Sirius-"
" I should think that after two years of being that boy's Prefect, you would know to throw away anything he sends you immediately."
" I know I should have," Lily admitted guiltily. She glanced up at into her sister's reproachful eyes. " I'm sorry I didn't get rid of the basket sooner Petunia. I could have given you normal soap, you know, I have some left over."
Petunia sniffed, apparently not ready to accept Lily's apology or make one of her own.
" Petunia," Grace began warningly.
Petunia sighed and gritted her teeth. " I'm sorry I went into your room and took the soap."
" There." Grace said, all smiled again. " That wasn't so bad was it?"
Neither of her daughters replied. She sighed. Oh, how she wished David were here. He was their father after all, and he certainly knew how to keep the peace between their two vastly different daughters. Unfortunately, he was only coming back from his business trip tomorrow, and until then, she would have to muddle through by herself. She put on a businesslike façade.
" Right. Lily, I assume you know how to get rid of…this?"
Lily glanced at Petunia, highly tempted to say she didn't know.
" I'm meeting Vernon and Marge this morning!" Her sister squealed in a panic. " I can't let them see me looking like this!"
Lily sighed in defeat. She knew how important appearing normal was to Petunia, especially to her fiancé and his family. Personally, she didn't know what was so appealing about it, she found normalcy rather boring actually, but to each her own.
" All you have to do is take a cold shower."
Petunia made a face. She hated the cold. " How cold?" She inquired snappishly. Lily grinned inwardly. Well. Nobody said she couldn't have a little fun, hadn't they? After all, Petunia had brought this onto herself and she had interrupted Lily's dream… Lily might've been a model student, but she was hardly a saint.
" Ice cold," she answered, her tone very matter of fact.
" Ice cold?" Petunia parroted, looking horror struck.
" The colder it is, the less…green you'll be in the end. I suggest filling a basin with cold water and then adding several trays of ice cubes to it. And then, to finish it off, a nice cool shower." Lily yawned and turned to walk out. " I'm going back to sleep. Any problems, just scream."
Grace Evans sighed as Petunia reluctantly turned the tap to the cold-water setting and stepped under the spray.
" I'll go get the ice."
Once in her room, Lily carefully shut the door and locked it. Giggling quietly, she jumped into bed, retrieving her duvet from the floor. Just as she was about to pull it over her, a tap came on her window. Through it, she could see a handsome barn owl, with a letter in it's beak. Recognizing it instantly, she leaped out of bed and opened the window. The owl flew in, dropped the letter on the desk and landed on her outstretched arm.
" Hello Goliath," She crooned, petting the owl. " I've got a treat for you."
Walking to the dresser, she opened a drawer and pulled out a bag owl treats. Offering one to the owl, she smiled as he hooted gratefully.
" So…how is he, hmm?"
Amber eyes blinked at her, and then to the letter on the desk, as if saying, " Well, read the letter and you'll find out."
Lily petted him one last time and laughed, kissing the owl's feathery head.
" I'd ask you to give that to him for me, but I don't think he'll appreciate it in quite the same way." She carried the owl back to window and set him down on the sill. Opening a drawer in her desk, she withdrew a letter from it and gave it to the owl. It had a purple wax seal on it, and a drawing of a lily was etched into it. " You make sure he gets it, won't you?"
Goliath hooted. Lily smiled.
" Off you go then."
His great wings spread out wide and away he went. Clutching the letter to her, Lily jumped back into bed. She carefully slid a finger under the red wax seal that for some reason, bore the legend of a stag, and began to read. The letter was short and to the point.
Lily,
Can't wait for school to start, bet you never thought you'd hear me say that did you? At least then I'll be able to see you everyday. I'm going out of my mind here, Sirius says if you don't rescue me from this madness, he's going to hex me into the next century.
We'll be in Diagon Alley tomorrow, picking up my and Sirius' things for school. My parents say they need a break from me, can you believe it? So what about it? Care to rescue this incredibly talented, incredibly athletic and incredibly handsome Quidditch captain from himself?
I miss you. Please come.
James
PS: You sister is a menace, did you know? I don't know how your parents let her survive past her tenth birthday. If she tries anything with you, tell me, and the Marauders will sort her out, yeah?
Lily laughed at postscript. Though she fully intended to give Sirius a piece of her mind for putting her in such a situation, she could help but be tempted to agree to it. Lord knew, if anyone deserved a Marauder prank fest, it was Petunia. Perhaps it would loosen her up. Lily shook her head. She knew better. It would never happen. Her eyes lingered on the last sentences before he had signed his name. She traced them with a finger, and fell back onto her pillows, already thinking of a way to get there. Checking to see that the door was indeed locked, she lifted her pillow and removed the wizard photo of James Sirius had pressed into her hand last year, when she was leaving for the Easter holidays.
Back then, things between her and James weren't exactly…amicable and Sirius had given her the photo, asked her to just think about it, and think about James and how he was trying. Several times during the rest of the year, Lily had been tempted to throw it away, but for some strange reason, she had kept it. Now, she stared down at it affectionately, grinning at how completely adorable James looked, a pensive look on his face as he looked out into the distance. Lily often wondered what he had been thinking when Sirius had snapped this photo. As if realizing that he was being stared at, photo James looked up at her and smiled. True to form, he then winked, blowing her a kiss.
Lily chuckled and her eyes softened. They had certainly come a long way from bickering any time they came within five feet of each other. James had shown her that he was capable of consideration towards others and Lily herself had learned not to take everything too seriously, to laugh once in a while. He horsed around, she had realized, not because he enjoyed inflicting humiliation on others (well, with the exception of some 'deserving' parties) but because he truly believed in living life to the fullest. They had reached an understanding, and Lily had finally seen what it was about him that drew girls like bees to honey. Initially, she had fought against her developing feelings with all her might, aghast at the thought of falling for James Potter of all people, but slowly, he had worn down her defences and after many misunderstandings and too much deliberation, at the very end of last year, in fact, at Platform Nine and three quarters just before they had left to join their families, Lily and James had finally become a couple.
Photo James lifted a hand to mess up the back of his hair, and Lily shook her head at him with a sigh. Surely he didn't think she found that attractive? He smiled up at her again, and Lily remembered the dream, a wistful smile claiming her lips.
" I miss you too."
TBC.