a conversation

james/lily

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"What?" Lily spun around to face the person -or thing- that had tapped her on the shoulder. Her tone quickly changed from slightly exasperated to icy cold as she acknowledged him: "Potter."

"Nice to see you too, Lily." James continued, quite civilly, "Did you get McGonagall's assignment? I didn't hear."

Lily was momentarily stunned at the pleasant, not arrogant, manner of speaking he was using. She shook herself out of her reverie and asked, "Couldn't you ask a friend?" Lily knew she was being rude, but she couldn't help it.

James didn't look at all offended and merely said, "Sirius and Remus don't have that class until tomorrow. You know that."

Lily did know that. "Um, Peter, is it? What about him?" she suggested.

"Hospital wing."

"What'd he do, trip over himself?" she scoffed.

"Quidditch accident."

"He doesn't fly. He's far too uncoordinated."

"I ran into him..."

"Still not seeing the Quidditch connection here."

"...On my broomstick," James finished with a grin.

Lily couldn't help it; she laughed aloud, both at the humor of his statement and the fact that she, Lily Maria Evans, was laughing with James "Pot-head" Potter in the courtyard like she did it everyday.

"Soo, ummm, how 'bout that assignment?" James said to her, and Lily was once again shaken out of a daydream.

"Oh, yeah, sorry." She ripped a piece of scrap paper off of her tablet and dashed off the essay assignment with her pen. After handing it over, James skimmed it over and commented, "It's easier than I thought."

"Really? Most of us thought it was kind of hard," she said as she lifted her bag onto her shoulder.

Lily wasn't bad a Transfiguration, but she certainly wasn't fantastic. She grasped the theory well enough, but she struggled at the complicated wand movements and strange incantations Professor McGonagall put them too.

"Not for me. Ollivander told me my wand was made well for Transfiguration. I probably would get an 'O' if I turned in my assignments more often," he grinned.

"Ah, that tricky responsibility thing again: always back to annoy you with its pesky rules and deadlines," Lily teased him.

"But I stay ahead of the game; I'm too smart for it. I don't let it get to me by doing what it wants," James responded with an air of valor.

They laughed together, but soon an awkward silence fell, and both students were desperately casting around for a topic.

Finally Lily remembered something: "Oh! Professor Dumbledore told me, we have duty tonight." Lily pulled her Head schedule and leaned over to show him the change of mind, James listening.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was a strange sight, both Sirius and Remus agreed. But the cause, neither could fathom. Sirius guessed that either Lily had been bewitched with a personality-switching spell, or she'd been Confunded. Remus said that maybe they'd been partnered in a project together; Professor McGonagall had a way of buddying you up with your worst enemy. As they strolled across the courtyard, the duo argued over the matter.

"She couldn't have given into him that easily. She's been Confunded. This morning at breakfast her eyes were all glassy; that's supposed to be the major sign of the Confundus Curse," Sirius said stubbornly.

"She looks like that every morning. She's not a morning person, Alice told us. Remember?" Remus reminded him. "And last class period McGonagall hinted that we'd be getting a research project soon," he argued.

"Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?" Sirius said with an evil grin.

Before his friend could stop him, the teenager began to weave through clumps of students on nearly silent feet. Remus followed uneasily, knowing that this would not end well.

Sirius approached the two stealthily and Remus thought wryly, "No wonder he's a Marauder: he can't go three steps without poking his nose into someone else's business!"

On quiet feet, Sirius approached the two, and without warning, flung his arms around each of them and said, "So, was there a shift in the universe? Because Lily hasn't drawn her wand yet."

Lily didn't respond, just gave a little yelp when Sirius had first appeared. James, however, looked annoyed and said irritably, "We were actually trying to have a conversation, one without arrogant pricks butting in."

"Ah, well, sorry 'bout that," Sirius said. "Remus and I'll just leave Romeo to his work, although I don't think your story will turn out quite like his did. Juliet actually fell in love with him," he continued sarcastically.

"And Romeo also died," Remus said to Sirius. "I would hope James's story won't turn out like his."

Lily was silent throughout the rest of the little tirade, but after listening in amusement for a while, she picked up her bag, and started to walk away.

After a few steps, she turned around and said, "Hey James, thanks for talking with me. I'll see you at duty tonight." She gave him a little wave and a smile, then resumed her journey up to the castle.

James's mouth hung open for a full minute before Sirius said, "Yes, James—she waved goodbye to you. Now please close your mouth; it's quite unbecoming of you and people are beginning to stare."

"Too late," Remus said, fighting a grin. "Their little conversation started the staring way before goodbye."

My first try at an LJ, and my first try at a romance/humor. This was gathering dust under my bed (I wrote it back in the good ol' days when I wrote things in spirals).

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