DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter. Wish I did, but I don't. All things HP-like things you recognize belong to the lovely Ms. Jo Rowling.
…And So It Begins
"Lily! Lily, over here!"
Lily Evans turned around at the sound of her best friend's voice. She ran towards Emma Austen, and gave her a big hug.
"Hey, Emma! Where's Nat?" Lily asked, naming their other best friend, Natalie Walsh.
"Hey!" responded her friend, breaking the embrace. "No, I dunno where she is, I was just trying to find-whoa." She gazed, wide-eyed, over Lily's left shoulder.
"What?" questioned Lily as she turned around to see what Emma was looking at. "Ah. I should've known."
James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew were striding across Platform 9 3/4. Sirius, ever the ladies' man, had just stopped to chat with a group of Ravenclaw seventh years. James, Sirius' best friend, generally joined in on the fun and flirting, but today he seemed completely uninterested, distracted almost; he seemed to be looking for someone. He tapped Sirius on the shoulder and said something, to which Sirius responded with a shrug.
Seemingly finished with his conversation with the girls, Sirius bade them goodbye and he and the rest of his friends started heading straight towards Lily and Emma.
"Oh god! He's coming over here!" breathed Emma, clutching Lily's arm. "Oh, wow. Look at him move. He's so gorgeous..."
Lily rolled her eyes. Sure, Sirius Black was good-looking, what with his long, dark hair hanging oh-so-dreamily in his sleepy gray eyes, but why the obsession? She was used to her best friend's infatuation with the charming and trouble-making Sirius, but honestly! What did Emma (and about 3/4 of the rest of the girl in school) see in him? He was arrogant, mischievous, cruel, and an infamous heartbreaker.
As for his best friend...
No, Lily, don't think about that.
They were coming closer: Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter. It had always surprised Lily that this strange combination of boys was such good friends. Well, James and Sirius, not so much (they were a match made in heaven), but Remus and Peter? Talk about oddballs. Remus was quiet, intelligent, very sweet and nice, and handsome, but in a different way than Sirius Black. Tall, with longish, light brown hair and kind, blue eyes, Remus was a friend of Lily's. Peter, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of his three best friends, which always amazed Lily, along with everyone else. Short, weak, and not the brightest of people, it was common knowledge at Hogwarts that Peter "hero-worshipped" Sirius and James.
James...
James Potter was...what? Lily couldn't decide, couldn't find the right word for him. He was popular, talented, very bright, funny, charming...
Stop it, Lily, stop it.
He was handsome, too, just as handsome as Sirius, although some said (all right, Lily thought) he was even more so. He had a tall, athletic build, with messy, jet-black hair that always stuck up all over the place (but ever-so-adorably), glittering, deep-set hazel eyes, and round glasses.
James also happened to be Lily's stalker. Or something.
Everyone knew he had been after her for ages; since the middle of fourth year, to be exact, because that was when she had pummeled him with snowballs after he'd "accidentally" (okay, maybe not) kissed her on the cheek, claiming there had been "mistletoe" above their heads (it was actually a sprig of parsley).
But Lily never gave in. She remained adamant that James was arrogant, pompous, bullying, egotistical, cruel, trouble making, mischievous...
And completely perfect for her.
"Um, earth to Lily?"
Lily snapped out of her thoughts to see Emma waving an impatient hand in front of her face.
She shook her head, trying to rid herself of those thoughts. "Sorry," she said. "I was thinking about…things."
Emma laughed. "That's never a good sign. Now that you're Head Girl, you're probably plotting to take over Hogwarts, or something." She chuckled at her own joke, but stopped very suddenly, as Sirius Black had just stepped in front of her.
"Hey Emma," he said casually, "Lily," he added, nodding in acknowledgement; Lily returned the gesture.
"Hey, Evans."
Lily froze as that voice sounded. That voice always made her freeze.
It was the voice of James Potter.
James' POV:
She looked beautiful.
Then again, Lily Evans always looked beautiful.
She was about 5'7", a tall, lanky girl, with long, wavy, red-gold hair. Plump red lips and the most alarming eyes set off a pale, lightly freckled face; everyone said Lily Evans' eyes were disarming.
They were the most amazing shade of clear, sparkling emerald, almond-shaped, with extremely long, pale lashes. Most of the time, her eyes glittered with humor and intelligence, but when Lily Evans got mad, they were on fire.
And that's when James Potter loved her the most.
Actually, he loved Lily Evans all the time, but when she was mad…
She was gorgeous.
Her eyes, of course, burned with anger, the light dancing off them. She'd shake her long, silky hair out of her face, her cheeks flushing a bit. She'd speak (or sometimes shout) in that strong, clear, melodic, Scottish-tinged voice of hers, generally using rather big words, speaking in riddles and smirking that adorable little smirk of hers when her opponent couldn't figure out what she was saying. It was fairly amusing, and James thought…
Well, James thought it was a bit of a turn-on.
But her physical appearance and positive sexiness when she got angry were not the only reasons James Potter loved Lily Evans. Mainly, it was because of who she was.
First of all, the girl had brains. She was smart, not only in school (where she was among the best in their year), but in other situations as well. Lily was extremely funny, very witty. She was always talking back to teachers, but not in an obnoxious way; in fact, it was very endearing.
Not only was she terribly clever, but also incredibly brave. Lily was a good and loyal friend, and James, who was big on friends, absolutely adored that about her.
He just absolutely adored her anyway.
Lily's POV:
She really wished he'd called her by her first name.
"Um…h-hey, Potter."
She really wished she'd called him by his first name. And that she didn't stutter. She only did that when she was nervous.
Why would James Potter make her nervous?
He looked good, as usual. He looked like everyone else, in his uniform, but still, he looked good. She liked looking at him in his uniform.
Oh, god, don't think like that.
Lily noticed something a bit different about James this year. He looked a bit older, he was a bit taller, but there was something else. Something about his demeanor, something…she just couldn't figure what. Maybe it was the fact that he hadn't already asked her out ten times, or maybe the way he was looking at her, as if he liked what he saw, but it was different, not in a perverted, teenage boy way, as he usually did. He looked at her as if he had never seen anything quite like her.
And as she looked him up and down, she noticed a badge pinned to his robes that looked slightly familiar…
…And realized with a jolt, as she looked down at her own robes, it was exactly the same as hers.
Apparently, James Potter was Head Boy.
"Um…wow," she said, not quite knowing what to say about this. "Looks like you're Head Boy!"
Well, obviously, you idiot, why else would he be wearing the badge?
James grinned. "Looks to be that way." He nodded. "Looks to be that way…"
He trailed off and looked expectantly at Sirius, who was still talking to Emma, so he turned back to Lily. They stared at each other for a moment, Lily smiling nervously, James grinning slightly. Why in the hell was James Potter—James Potter—making her so nervous? He was James Potter!
Exactly, went a little voice in her head. She cursed it.
James' POV:
Why hadn't she insulted him yet? Why hadn't she walked off yet? Better yet, why was she smiling at him like that?
Why hadn't he asked her out yet?
He may not know the answers to the first three questions his brain had spit out at him, but he knew the answer to the last one: this year, he'd win her heart. This was the year that he'd finally get Lily Evans. He'd done a lot of growing over the summer, and a lot of thinking as well. As he thought about how he had acted in front of her, and how he acted in general, he realized he was--well, a bit of an idiot. This year, he had resolved, this year, he'd be himself. He just hoped that would be enough for Lily.
The whistle of the Hogwarts Express sounded, interrupting his thoughts. He looked at Lily. "See you on there," he said, raising a hand in farewell.
"Yeah," she responded. "See you on there."
Sirius and Emma said goodbye, and with that, he, James, and the rest of the gang made their way towards that familiar scarlet steam engine.
Lily, my one and only
I can hardly wait till I see her
Silly, I know I'm silly
'Cause I'm hanging in this tree
In the hopes that she will catch a glimpse of me
And through her window shade
I watch her shadow move
I wonder if she...?
"Lily (My One and Only)"—The Smashing Pumpkins