Maturity Levels
Summary: If the only thing standing in the way of a relationship between James Potter and Lily Evans is James maturity level, then why shouldn't he become more of a gentleman so he can score the girl of his dreams? Yet, maybe this new James will be just a little too boring? Read and Review…Thank you!
"What time is it?"
"It's time for you to find someone who has a pocket watch, because I don't have one and you obviously don't either."
"This is serious Sirius, we could miss the train."
"Well then I suggest you really do try and find a watch, so we can know what time it is so we won't miss the train."
"Oh dear god Sirius, we don't have time to find a watch to know what time it is. We're going to miss the train!"
"Well then why did you ask what time it was?"
"Oh just shut up Sirius and hurry up!"
"But I want some of that fluffy pink cotton thingy. It looks all sugary and sweet!"
"We can get treats on the trolley once we board the train now let's go."
"Fine, Mr. Bossy Pants."
The first black haired boy sighed as the second stuck out his tongue. They both picked up their pace through the gates of the train station.
"Race you?" Sirius asked grinning.
"You're on!" James sneered; he could never pass up a challenge. "See you at platform nine and three quarters."
"Ready…. Set…. See you loser!" Sirius blasted off towards the platform at full speed as James swore loudly and ran after him.
Sirius had a fair head start, yet James was the faster of the two and he knew it. He was already catching up to his best-friend when a certain red head came into view and made him slow down. But he couldn't stop. His cart was going out of control and before he knew it packages were flying everywhere, ink was spilling and he found himself lying on top of Lily Evans.
"Potter! What do you think you are doing? Get off me this instance!"
He scrambled to his feet and offered her a hand up which she refused.
"Hum..." He answered awkwardly. "Los...Lost control of the trolley." He smiled sheepishly hoping she might smile back, yet she merely grunted.
"I bet you where racing Sirius again!" she accused. "James, when are you going to grow up? If you weren't Head boy this year I would have reported you for demonstrating a bad example to the younger students. Show a little maturity for once please!"
"Maybe if you begged me" he chuckled running a hand through his messy black hair.
Lily groaned while she picked up the rest of her packages, set them on her trolley and turned swiftly back towards James. "In your dreams." She hissed through clenched teeth before she walked away towards platform nine and three quarters.
James sighed. The affect she had on him was almost unbearable. Every word out of her mouth was like a symphony playing just for him. He bent over and picked up his own packages off the ground along with his bird cage. He wheeled his trolley around and followed the blur of the red head in front of him. Once he had passed the gateway he caught up with Sirius who was in the company of two other familiar faces.
One was a little shabby looking, holding a book in his hand and a chocolate bar in the other. He had light brown hair and a friendly smile. The other boy was round and porky. He was short and looked a little out of place with the other three.
"Hey Moony! Wormtail." James greeted his old friends as he advanced towards his fellow marauders.
"There you are James! I've been waiting for over 2 minutes! You slow poke! I thought you would give me a little more of a challenge, but I guess I was wrong." Sirius shrugged. "So what happened?"
"Oh just had a little run in with a certain red headed beauty." He sighed.
"You mean Mrs. Bossy Pants." Sirius teased while James blushed slightly and hit him on the head.
"I didn't know pants could be bossy?" the chubby kid said, trying to take part in the conversation.
"Their not referring to a pair of pants that are being bossy they are simply identifying that Lily is a person who enjoys to tell people what they can and cannot do Peter." The shabby kid corrected.
"Ok can we please stop talking about Lily and her… pants?" James gulped.
"Yeah the only time he wants to talk about that is when he'll get in them!" Sirius barked a laugh.
"But won't they be too small for you James?" Peter asked confused. "Why would you want to wear Lily's pants?"
James just grunted irritated and stalked off towards the train.
"You shouldn't have said that Sirius, you know how sensitive he is about Lily." Moony said soberly.
"Come on Remus, it was just a harmless joke. He'll probably have forgotten all about it by the time we board the train." Sirius grinned.
"I still don't understand?" Wormtail pestered getting a little annoyed.
"You're still too young to understand Peter my lad." Sirius said patting him on the shoulder. "One of these days my dear boy, one of these days."
Remus rolled his eyes, as all three of them grabbed hold of their trolley's and made their way towards the Hogwarts Express. They all boarded with their luggage in tow and made their way towards the compartment where James sat alone facing the window.
"Knock, knock." Sirius joked, yet James remained silent, his expression blank as he stared out at the parents waving goodbye to their children.
"Oh come on James." Sirius moaned. "You're supposed to say who's there?"
"Who's there?" James mumbled.
"Owl"
"Owl who?"
"That's right owl's go hoot hoot! Haha get it?" Sirius laughed at his own lame joke as Peter joined in.
"You really need to think about something before you say it Sirius." Remus rolled is eyes again as he sat next to James and opened his book.
"Oh come on James, it was just a joke." Sirius sat down across from his friend and looked him soberly in the face.
"I know" he smiled slightly. "It's just Lily and I, me and Lily, I've been dreaming about that since the first time I saw her board this train, and yet it's seven years later and what do I have to say about our relationship… Not much apart from the fact that she hates my guts."
"Oh come on now remember the time in third year when you two got stuck alone at the top of the astronomy tower for a few hours. I thought you really connected there?" Sirius remembered.
"Not really." James confessed. "She threatened to jump off the Astronomy tower if I didn't stop trying to use pick-up lines on her."
"Oh yeah…" Sirius scratched his chin in deep thought. "Well then what about the time in fifth year when you helped her find that necklace she lost, the one that her grandmother had given her."
For a second James features seem to soften at the thought of the memory and then he frowned and shook his head. "Yeah I remember that, everything was going really well between us and then she found out that I was the one who had stolen her necklace in the first place." He sighed. "I had hoped that by stealing it and then finding it for her she would have been grateful to me. Well that plan blew up in my face! She ended up not speaking to me for a month after that. Only the occasional glare, insult or grunt."
"Yeah…" Sirius furrowed his eyebrows and thought for a few seconds. "Oh I've got one! How about the time in fourth year when you fallowed her around almost all day under the invisibility cloak whispering things like 'Lily loves James' an vice versa in her ear, and then by the end of the day she had to go see Mrs. Pomfrey because she thought she was going crazy. That was so funny." Sirius laughed.
James turned to face his friend and smiled.
"Hey… What about the time in fifth year when you glued a piece of paper written 'Kiss me James' on her back." Peter piped in.
"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten about that one." Sirius smacked himself on the head. "And then every time you saw her you smirked and leaned in for a kiss."
"I don't think I've ever been slapped so much in one day." James remarked laughing.
"And then that time in sixth year when you sent her a chorus of house elves to sing her cheesy love songs!" Sirius said rolling over in laughter.
"Oh and the time in second year when you accidentally walked on her robes and they ripped revealing her Care Bear underwear." Peter giggled.
"And the time in third year when you where caught cutting off a piece of her hair." Remus joined in.
"In fifth year when you named your broomstick after her and then when we won the Quitditch Cup you got drunk and started French kissing it!" Sirius barked.
"And then what about in sixth year when you went out with another girl just to make her jealous."
James stopped laughing and sighed. "Ok guys I get the point, but that still doesn't change anything! She still hates my guts! In all those stories there wasn't once that she said 'I love you too James' or 'Please be mine James'. Now that I think about it, all those stories pretty much finished with me getting either slapped, yelled at or given the silent treatment."
"Oh cheer up mate!" Sirius encouraged. "This could be your lucky year. Lucky number seven! How about we start planning right now? Will try and find the perfect way to match you two up! Oh I know! Take notes Padfoot this is going to be good…"
"Actually Sirius, James and I better get to the prefect meeting." Remus mentioned getting up. "We don't want Miss Head Girl on our tail first day back. Well maybe James would." He winked and walked out of the compartment. "See you two later!"
James groaned and got up to follow Remus as they silently walked to the end of the train where their meeting would be held.
"Let's just hope this doesn't take to long…" James whispered to Remus as they both entered the selected compartment for the prefect meeting.
Author's note: Well, this is something that I wrote a while ago… I was just cleaning up my computer when I stumbled upon it… I was debating on whether I should post it or not and I decided I'd rather share it then keep it for myself. I'm hoping that you will all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it… If many people like it, I'd love to continue writing it… I had so many good ideas for this one! Anyways, thanks to all our fans! Please Read & Review! Thanks a million!