After asking around the castle for almost an hour, James Potter finally got an answer. It was one he should have expected, to find her in the library. She was always there. What he didn't expect was to see Lily Evan crying.
"Why are you here Evans?"
"Because I like the quiet, not that you would understand. Now leave me alone Potter"
"But you aren't doing anything"
"I said I liked the quiet, and you're disturbing it."
"Come on now, I thought we were friends."
"We are. And friends respect each other's wishes."
"Really?"
"Yes, James."
She turned towards the window. He couldn't help it, but he also couldn't stand to see her so sad.
"Okay. Go out with me, Evans?"
He saw the faintest of smiles on her face because she regained her composer.
"Will you leave please?"
"Is that a yes?"
"No. It's me asking you to leave"
And James walked out because, according to Lily Evans, friends respect each other's wishes. That, and there was a smile on her face, his job.
Later that week, when the Head Girl would be doing her rounds she would stumble across the Marauder. He would be sitting in the middle of the 3rd floor corridor. Silent. It would be the first time she had ever seen him not causing ruckus.
"Why are you here Potter?" She would say.
And he would reply still looking straight forward, "Because I like the quiet, not that you would understand."
And she would stop in her footsteps and consider his words. They was exactly what she said to him in the library last Saturday morning. It would catch her by surprise at first, because it was so unexpected. But she did the unexpected, too. She walked over and placed herself next to him. Because they might be different in every sense, but they had one thing in common.
They were both caught up in noise but craved the silence.
Granted, they were different kinds of noises and difference kinds of silences.
He was pranks. She was papers.
He was daring. She was drama.
He was arrogant. She was absolute.
He was sports. She was smarts.
He was hectic. She was Head Girl.
He liked the silence of the third floor corridor on a Tuesday night.
She liked the silence of the third row of the library on a Saturday morning.
And Miss Lily Evans would be thinking this when she would take out the points sheet and start to write. She would rip the paper off, cutting through the silence. And the paper would have five words drawn in her perfect script.
"Go out with me Potter?"
And he stopped and considered her words. Words that he never thought she would say. Words only spoken in his dreams. But this was real. Because it was quiet. His dreams were always noisy, coming up with a new crazy way to ask her out. His mates were always noisy, coming up with pranks for the teachers. His head was always noisy, trying to figure out the world. In the silence, everything slowed down. He could understand it all. Silence was his escape, just like her. And he realized that she was more than the beautiful co-Head. She understood.
So he didn't break their silence. He kissed her.
Because they both craved the silence.
