Unlike Any Other
Hagrids Hut
Summer was approaching; you could feel it in the air. The usual cool Scotland climate seemed to evade Hogwarts castle, leaving the students fanning themselves in the shade, or splashing in the cool waters on the edge of the lake. With the sun high in the sky, cloaks were abandoned and top buttons undone, as witches and wizards lazed about the school grounds, making the most of their time now that exams were over.
All except four.
The sixth year boys were to be found in the stifling heat of the Gamekeepers Cabin, where it appeared there was a fire dancing merrily away in the hearth regardless of the season.
"Hagrid, she hates me!"
"Now I doubt that," the giant replied, taking the copper kettle off the fire with large pink oven mitts.
"Prongs, give it up will you? She thinks you're an arrogant prat and I doubt you can change her mind – especially considering you've managed to convince her so spectacularly to this point."
"Shut up, Padfoot. You have no faith in me."
"I did; but you slaughtered it so many times, I thought I'd put it out of its misery and let it stay dead."
Glasses glinting in the light, James Potter snorted at his best friends words.
"Ah, be quiet the four o' yeh. The tea be ready," Rubeus Hagrid muttered, lowering himself into the large armchair, eyeing the boy with glasses and a scowling face that was lounging on the floor. "Now, James. Tell me about your problem with Lily, and don't skip over bits, mind. I can't well help if I dunno the 'ole story, see?"
"I've tried everything, Hagrid." James threw his arms in the air in exasperation. "She just keeps cutting me down. Every turn, every new strategy, she just rolls her eyes, turns me down or ignores me completely!"
"'ave yeh tried being charmin'? Lily isn't like 'em other girls, James."
"That's his problem, Hagrid," the boy sitting on the edge of the bed piped up, stirring his tea but undoubtedly had no intention of drinking it. He pointedly turned towards his best friend. "You have as much charm as a dead slug."
James scowled at his best friend, all the while wondering if he were right. "Shut up Padfoot. You're just jealous mine is at slug level. I'm sure girls would much prefer a dead slug to a living Huntsman Spider.
"Oi! There be nothing wrong with Spiders, yeh 'ear me? Some of 'em can be quite gentle creatures."
"If you say so, Hagrid." Peter Pettigrew, a boy slightly smaller than his friends, scrunched up his nose at the thought.
"I just wish I knew what it is I have to do to win her over. Knew what's going through her head, you know?"
"The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure.* You should know that, Prongs."
James's eyes turned to the boy casually sipping his tea in an armchair several sizes too big for his gangly frame, with annoyance. "You go all philosophical on me, Moony, and – and –"
Unable to think of a sufficient threat, James just gave Remus Lupin a scowl before running his hands through his hair in exhaustion.
"I still think you boys oughta' stop with these here pranks I been hearing so much about, and start thinking 'bout your N.E.W.T.s. They be mighty important, those tests be, and try being more charmin' to them girls. Yeh might be surprised how it works, eh?"
"Maybe you're right, Hagrid. But we'll see what the next year brings, won't we, Padfoot?"
"Ha! You're on your own on that one mate. I, unlike you with Evans, have no problems with the arrangement I currently have set up. Maybe we'll," Sirius gestured to Peter, sitting on the other end of the bed, and Remus, still in the armchair by the door, "have to pull enough pranks next year that no one notices you've put yourself on the path of the straight and narrow. It'd be bad for our reputation after all."
Peter grinned at the idea, eyes alight, while Remus just raised an eyebrow at his friend, indeed daring him to try and involve him in pranks during his N.E.W.T. year. Sirius just beamed at the prefect, already thinking of ways to involve his friend's brains in their scheming.
"You lot are hopeless, you are." The giant finished his tea and placed the cup on the floor next to his chair. "Oh, look at the time. You all better be headed back up to the castle, or you'll all be in trouble and it'll be me fault."
The four boys grunted and muttered at the prospect of moving from where they were, despite the overwhelming heat of the cabin, but eventually they were on their way up to the castle, waving and calling goodbyes and thank you over their shoulders.
Trekking back up the hill to the school was slow, despite that the sun was halfway set and the temperature had dropped. Their speed wasn't helped by the fact that James was deep in thought about what Hagrid had said.
Perhaps he should be charming, as the Gamekeeper had suggested. Or, James argued to himself, he could just stop picking arguments with the red head. That would probably increase his chances of getting her to Hogsmeade significantly.
The problem, however, was that James Potter loved the debates he and Lily Evans had. He loved her wit and snappy replies, accompanied by the face she pulled when she was mad at him. This was the reason the prefect hated him, as James Potter just wouldn't quit in her eyes, while it was really due to the fact that he found her intellect a challenge for his own, one of the many things he loved about her.
"C'mon, James. I'm hungry and we're missing dinner," Sirius whined on top of the hill with Remus and Peter by his side. James glanced at them briefly, but proceeded to make his way up the hill at his own pace, still frowning at the memory of the red head with green eyes.
By the time he entered through the double doors into the Entrance Hall, James Potter was quite determined to take a different approach to pursuing Lily Evans. One, that might indeed, not involve her getting angry with him.
Rubeus Hagrid, Gamekeeper and Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, slowly closed his front door before sitting back down in his armchair. The Bloodhound puppy he'd recently become the owner of, crawled out from under the bed now that his guests were gone, and made it's way over to the half-giant, presenting itself for a scratch behind the ears. Sighing, Hagrid complied, while hoping that James Potter would take his advice.
Lily Evans had been down to visit him only two weeks before, and had let her tea grow cold while telling Hagrid of how infuriating and ungentlemanly the Quidditch Captain always appeared to be. Hagrid had chuckled and sympathized with the girl, telling her that perhaps giving him a chance to change might be a good idea, for surely, nothing worse could happen. While arguing profusely at first, eventually Lily had agreed, that, if he were to deflate his ego, he would be quite tolerable.
And perhaps while she didn't see how similar in character they actually were, Hagrid did. Because after many years of performing his duties, and seeing students come and go, some his friends, some not, Rubeus Hagrid had never seen a pair quite like Lily Evans and James Potter, and he was quite sure he never would again.