"That's enough!"
The wand was snatched from Sirius' hand with a violence that jerked his whole arm down. He moved, reflexively, to try and get it back, but it was suddenly pointing straight between his eyes. He froze, along with James, Remus, Peter and the first year on the floor in a heap. He couldn't see past the wand-tip he was going cross-eyed to keep in sight, but he could see some sort of bright red blur about arm's length away from him. There was a horrible, expectant hush in the whole corridor, and the group of six were suspending in a little bubble of space in the crowded hall.
The girl, because it was a girl who had just disarmed Sirius, slowly pushed her hair back from her face with one hand. The other, clutching Sirius' wand with white knuckles, trembled with suppressed rage. The first year on the floor sat up, eyes wide. James tried, slowly, to reach for his own wand in his pocket, but her other hand darted up and her own wand was pressed against his throat. He suddenly wanted to swallow, but it was so close to his skin he couldn't. She was seriously pissed, and he let his hand drop. She was wearing a prefect badge and a Gryffindor scarf, but the red wool of the stripes was dulled by her hair, which was so bright red it was almost blood-coloured. He knew her, vaguely. She was in their year, and her name was some kind of flower, but he had no clue which one. Remus stepped forward, very slowly, and she snapped her eyes to his face.
"Miss Evans… maybe you should calm down…"
James started to let himself relax as he recognised Remus in peace-maker mode, but her eyes narrowed, and she seemed to bristle like a huge, furious red cat.
"Don't-" The words were clipped and short, and her jaw moved stiffly, "-Even talk to me, you bloody coward."
Remus flinched, and Sirius jerked in anger, but she merely pressed his own wand harder against his skin. Evans turned back to him, and whatever Sirius saw in her face made him freeze.
"You." -James suddenly realized where the saying about red-heads and tempers came from, because this girl was fucking scary- "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't Charm your ears to your chest with your own wand and then beat you senseless for this stunt."
Sirius was somehow brave, or stupid, enough to answer, "-had it coming, little brat-", then yelped as sparks jumped from his wand, the same colour as Evans' hair and stingingly hot. He managed to half dodge away, but she merely repositioned his wand so it hovered under his nose. She moved it forward, making his head tilt back to keep it from touching him again.
Peter was frozen feet away, hands twisting nervously, and Remus was still standing close by, face flushing. Sirius and James himself were definitely out of action, and James suddenly found himself wishing that a teacher would come along, embarrassing as that would be, to get them out of this. There was a ripple in the crowd, and he strained his eyes to see who it was, but it was merely Grace and that other girl with glasses, Emmaline, both Evans' friends. They stopped, Emma looking horrified and Grace amused.
"Lily, are you sure that's wise?"
Lily didn't turn to look at them, merely glared at Sirius. James wondered if she even knew he was still here and if he could run for it. Sirius' wand was glowing, and her own was heating up against his throat. Please, teacher please. Sweat was dripping into his eyes behind his glasses, because he had just realized that Evans was the best in the year at Charms and pretty damn good at everything else as well, and could easily enchant him and Sirius, and probably Remus and Peter, into next week before anyone could move.
"Lily, seriously." Grace was laughing still, but now slightly too high-pitched to be as casual as she was acting. "You've got James Potter and Sirius Black at wand-tip here-"
"Yes, I know." Her voice had lost some of the red-hot rage and was now just coldly angry, which was somehow worse. "Just like I know that on the floor right now is Sirius Black's brother Regulas who is a first year, and has probably spent the last week in a fit of panic because this is Hogwarts, after all, and he's grown up on stories of what his father and brother did and do here and so to make himself feel better and maybe show off to his new friends who he still doesn't know very well he decided to prove that his big brother is the Sirius Black and will at least acknowledge his existence in the corridors when he says hello. And-" Evans laughed, though there was absolutely no humour in the sound. "And do you know what actually happened, Grace?"
Sirius was glaring for all he was worth, but he was flushing red, and James was feeling a tight ball of shame curl up in his gut at Evans' words. The surrounding crowd, who at the time had either ignored what was happening or laughed along with James and Peter and Remus' little indulgent smile, were muttering or looking at the floor or downright glaring at the four of them now.
"He gets an OWL level spell to the gut, and while he's curled up on the floor he can hear his brother and his friends and, hell, a whole corridor all laughing at him."
Lily was breathing hard, but when Sirius' words filtered through her rage, she went strangely still. Silently, in his head, James willed his best friend to just shut up.
"He insulted me-!"
"He did not." Out the corner of his eye, James saw Remus whisper to Peter, who bolted off down the corridor, trying to barge past people and failing, but moving away, and hoped like hell he'd gone for help. "He asked you why you were walking through the halls with a Potter, because if what Grace told me is true, your families don't really get on, do they Black? And frankly, as both your parents, Black, appear to be not very pleasant people it's no wonder he was a little concerned. If you're so insecure in your choice of friends that you feel you have to hex your little brother when he points out it's just a bit odd, what the hell are you doing still hanging out with them?"
While Sirius was spluttering she turned her head to James, making her red hair stream out behind the movement and he noticed, in a strange, cut off from reality fashion, that her eyes were a strong emerald, green, and she was really, quite pretty…
"While you are just an arrogant bully who is paralysed in fear the moment he isn't in control of the situation." Evans' grinned a feral, scary grin, "Like now, for instance… and Peter doesn't know any better than to follow along, you, Remus Lupin, are a prefect and should damn well have done something."
As she turned on Remus, both Sirius and James moved, because they were horribly protective of Remus, and knew he had already, in the last week, been torn between his friends and his responsibility as a prefect.
"Well, as you seem to be doing his job for him Evans, I don't think-" James tried to keep his voice light and charming, but felt, when she didn't even look at him, that he failed miserably.
"Can you remember what that's like Remus?" Lily's voice had gone conversationally pleasant, and Grace and Emma buried their faces in their hands, which was really not comforting. "Can you remember your first week? Because I remember looking at you and thinking, every time I saw you, 'Thank God, there's someone who looks just as lonely and scared and unsure as me'. Well, Mr Lupin, that is just what young Mr Black here was feeling, and he got all his insecurities shoved down his throat and then kicked while he was down. And, like older Mr Black here, if you are so worried about your friends leaving you that you just stand there and let them bully a child, then you really don't deserve any."
Lily suddenly dropped both her arms, and Sirius' wand, and he and James both shivered in relief. She gently poked Regulas with her foot.
"Get up."
He shot up, red with embarrassment, and glared at Lily.
"I didn't ask for your help! I didn't-"
She didn't look at him, or any of them, and Regulas went quiet. She patted his head absently. Remus was staring at the ground, James at the wall above everyone's heads, and Sirius had his head forward and his eyes shadowed by his fringe. Lily twirled her wand through her fingers, like she wasn't quite sure what to do next, and James realised that all her anger had been burned up. Finally, she glanced down at the still furious Regulas.
"You alright?" When he didn't answer, she shrugged. "Fine. Get out of here before I kick your shin."
For some reason, that managed to send Regulas scurrying into the crowd with a slightly shell-shocked expression, where, to his and James' surprise, several people patted his shoulder or stopped him to check for bleeding head wounds. Lily sighed and ran a hand through her red hair, messing it up.
"Right then."
She rolled her shoulder, pocketed her wand, and turned back to her friends, but Sirius suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her towards him until he could whisper furiously in her ear. James couldn't hear what he said, but whatever it was had her turning and slamming the base of her palm onto the bridge of his nose just as Professor Slughorn forced his way to the front of the crowd in front of a cringing Peter.
"What did you say to her?"
They were all in McGonagall's office, where she had left them with the furious command "Stay," and then stormed out like the sight of them all made her too angry to think of cutting remarks about their intelligence. Lily Evans was sitting as far away from the others as the room would allow, but James and Sirius, whose nose was still slowly bleeding, and Remus were sitting close together. James and Sirius were talking quietly, but Remus was just sitting still, blankly staring at the wall.
Sirius turned a white, disbelieving face to James.
"I… I really didn't mean to. It was just… her mentioning my parents… in front of half the bloody school. Knee jerk reaction I guess." He blushed; looking so un-Sirius like that James was getting seriously worried. "I said my brother would be less than grateful for her help and then… I… I called her a…" his voice lowered, "a… mud-blood…"
Both James and Remus stared at him, shocked and slightly offended.
"You! You called her a… wait, she's muggle-born? Whoa." James whistled under his breath and glanced over at the silent red-head. "She's good. And scary. But mostly good."
"She's right too." They both glanced at Remus, knowing exactly what he was talking about. Sirius looked away, but patted Remus on the back gently. James felt very uncomfortable as he recalled what Lily Evans had said to him, because he had been terrified by her anger. He was almost glad when McGonagall swept back into the room, because it meant he could stop thinking while she yelled.
Only she didn't yell.
"While I am quite grateful for Mr Pettigrew fetching the first teacher he found, I do wish it had been me and not Professor Slughorn. He will no doubt subtly wave this in front of my face for the rest of the year. Both of Gryffindor's new prefects in my office within the first week."
James and Sirius winced. Disappointment, they had discovered over the course of their career, was much harder to deal with than outright furious. If Evans wasn't here dirtying her perfect track record, James suspected that McGonagall would have been yelling till their ears bled.
"Professor." Lily was still stubbornly staring at the wall, but she spoke with hard confidence. "Remus wasn't involved. He sent Peter to find a teacher and stayed to keep an eye on things. It was just me and Potter and Black."
McGonagall sent her a calculating look for about half a minute then nodded.
"Alright Mr Lupin. Off you go."
Lupin would, James knew, wait outside the door for them. Probably along with Grace and Emma and Peter, who had all followed them from the corridor.
"Now then. While I am sure that Potter and Black both deserved to be held up at wand-point, and while I do commend your quickness to take your prefect duties seriously Miss Evans, I must ask that you stick to simply hitting your opponent's weak spots with your knowledge of the inner workings of their minds and your grasp of the English language rather than actually hitting them."
They all stared at her. Professor McGonagall smiled, thinly.
"Several of the witnesses I spoke to commended you on your worrying ability to reveal people's insecurities and crush their self-confidence with words."
Lily blushed, and next to James Sirius clenched his knuckles.
"Now, if you had merely left off at threatening magic but not actually using it, I would have merely told you to carry on and good luck, but what on earth did Black say that made you attempt to break his nose?"
As the two of them stared at Lily, James knew Sirius was feeling the same sink in his gut that James was. If she told McGonagall what Sirius had said…
"It was nothing, Professor. I overreacted."
By the way her voice was perfectly even and had no emotion at all she clearly thought she hadn't overreacted, and that Sirius deserved everything he got. James silently agreed because some things, to him at least, were just unforgivable, but he admired her unwillingness to rat them out. McGonagall obviously didn't, she drew herself up, and James braced for the inevitable yelling, but Sirius spoke first.
"I questioned Evans' parentage." He was forcing the words out, feeling that he had to now Evans had tried to shield him and got Remus out of trouble. "Because she questioned my handling of my brother."
It took McGonagall about four seconds to get what Sirius was saying, but when she did she said softly and dangerously, "Evans, out. Remember what I said. Now." As Lily scurried for the door, James and Sirius glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes and winced as McGonagall turned on them.
James had been right. As soon as both prefects were out of both her office and trouble, McGonagall had really let them have it. They had been nearly an hour in her office, and Remus and Peter told them, when they finally left, that they had heard most of it through the door.
They were halfway down the corridor when Sirius turned to James and said "Right." in a businesslike tone and rolled up his sleeves. Guessing what was coming; Remus reached over and pulled his sleeves back to his wrists.
"No. Sirius we are not pranking Lily Evans."
"Why not?"
Remus rolled his eyes.
"She didn't really say anything that untrue, and Padfoot, yesterday you didn't even know her name, she was 'that girl whose head is always on fire'. I heard you call her that. To her face." James winced. "I'm actually surprised, given her performance earlier that she didn't blow up at you back then as well."
"She was probably ignoring it and just feeling more than normally ticked off with us Marauders when she saw Sirius and Regulas." James stretched, considering the way her eyes had glowed when she turned on him and finding he liked it just a little bit too much.
"Well, he did have it coming. I'd hexed him at some point this term. I can't stand him for a month over the summer, yet alone a whole year." Sirius' face turned dark again. "But she didn't need to yell at you, Moony. We need to pay her back for that at least."
Peter smiled gently. "She came up to us when she left and apologised. And she hugged Remus when he said he was fine with it and probably needed the kick up to arse to remind him he was meant to do something about stuff like this." Peter looked thoughtful. "She hugged me too, and I didn't even hear what she said about me."
"And-" Remus led them through an invisible door along the shortcut to Gryffindor Tower. "-She managed to shame most people onto her side when she reminded them about their first weeks at Hogwarts. If we prank her now, we'll look like bad losers and reinforce what she said about us. Seriously, we mess about because we want people to laugh, not because we want to make their lives hell. We can't really do anything to her now, not for a while."
Sirius sighed. "Yeah. Your right, as usual." He kicked the wall moodily. "We do it for the shits and giggles, not to hurt people. Mostly. I've a feeling soon some of the Slytherins will be asking for it. Malfoy and my cousin, Bella-" he spat the name, "-and Snivellus."
"That's another thing." Said Peter, "She's friends with Snape. Since first year I think."
James and Sirius shuddered.
"No wonder she has a high tolerance for idiots." Remus widened his eyes in mock admiration. Sirius punched him, and turned to James, grinning evilly.
"I've thought of the most awesome way to annoy Snape, ever."
"I'm listening." He wasn't really. James was thinking of earlier, because her hair was still twirling past his eyes in his memory and she seemed far too much a Gryffindor to be friends with such a Slytherin-like Slytherin…
"She was awful cute. And her hair is… nice, when you get used to it blinding you. And she hugged Remus and Peter-"
"Brave girl." Laughed Remus, before ruffling Peter's hair.
"-I'm starting to feel left out. Maybe when she's calmed down tomorrow we can-"
"I've just realized where you're going with this." Remus looked slightly horrified. "You're going to act like you're really sorry and try to get Evens to go out with you, which will never-! James!"
James had suddenly snapped back into the conversation and turned around to slam Sirius against the wall.
"You-" He growled, right up in Sirius' face. "Stay away from her. Got it?" He suddenly turned and glared at the other two. "All of you. Got it?" He dropped Sirius, who dusted down the front of his robes.
"Sheesh, Prongs, we got it. What's your problem?"
"I've been thinking…"
"Novel." Muttered Sirius.
"And I think… I think I'm going to marry her."
You can just imagine Sirius' reaction to that hey? lol.
This is what i think would have happened to make James notice Lily, cos she would ignored him otherwise and he wouldn't have bothered to get to know her unless she did something interesting like threaten him. Quite well really :)
In my mind at least, Lily isn't that lovely, gingery orange colour you see, that's the colour of the Weasleys. Lily is a true red-head. Like, really, really red. Like someone got crimson paint and tipped it on her head when she was little and it stuck. And as she wasn't all that interesting to the boys before this, she was just 'that girl whose head is on fire'. But now she's 'that girl james wants to marry who hates his guts and has a flaming head and oh god she killed Sirius'. (at least till seventh Year ;) lol)
I might continue this as a bunch of one shots, cos i've got some ideas and stuff. But i also have an idea for HP next generation with Lily and Hugo and Rose and Albus and maybe a lit of new!James in there as well, but nothing might happen with that. I'm so lazy... :'(
Enjoy!