Misjudged

Characters: Lily Evans and James Potter

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.

Lily Evans was not having a good day. Actually, that could be the understatement of the year, she thought bitterly to herself.

She had woken late to find that someone had forgotten to set the small, clockwork bird that was the seventh year girl's alarm. Then at breakfast, the marauder's, Hogwarts infamous pranksters, had decided that the school needed a stress reliever, in the form of three hundred fireworks going off in the Great Hall.

To top it off, Lily was now in transfiguration, as her class was berated by a fuming McGonagall. They had been attempting to transfigure their desks into gorillas, but only James Potter had succeeded. Professor McGonagall was especially displeased, since somehow Alice Jones had managed to turn the entire room into a replica of the Forbidden Forest, complete with disturbing werewolf-like howls, with no idea how she did it.

"Really!" McGonagall fumed, "I would expect much better from my NEWT students! So far, only Potter has managed to come even remotely close to the level I expect from seventh years! You could all do to follow his example!"

Lily snorted into her hand. Her? Follow Potter's example? You have got to be kidding. Potter was an arrogant, bullying toerag, and Lily wanted nothing to do with him. But almost unwillingly an image popped into her head, of about two weeks previously.

Several Slytherin sixth years had been tormenting three Gryffindor muggle born first years again, and when she had tried to stop them, as was befitting of her role as head girl, they had attempted to hex both her and the first year students. Before she could even raise a shield spell, Potter and his friends were there. The four marauders had immediately leapt into the duel, throwing curses and charms everywhere, making it impossible to see. When the sparks and dust had finally settled, Lily looked up to see that the four Slytherins who had instigated the fight, now resembled a ghastly cross between a platypus and a cauldron.

To make matters worse, all of the first years were injured; one tiny girl had turned green and was covered in large, pulsating boils.

Black immediately picked up the small girl, and started carrying her to the Hospital Wing. Peter began sheparding the other injured students there as well, while Remus followed behind, levitating the injured Slytherins, as they were in no condition to walk themselves.

Potter stuck his wand in his pocket, "Come on, we should report this to McGonagall." Silently, they began walking towards her office.

Potter finally spoke, looking at her with concern.

"You all right, Evans? You didn't get hit did you?"

Lily was suddenly furious. How dare he! She was head girl, she was fully capable of dueling, had been proficient in it since fourth year.

"Of course not, Potter, and I don't need you to come running to my rescue like some knight in shining armor! I am fully capable taking care of myself! So mind your own bloody business!"

Potter went from concerned, to furious. "Bloody hell, Lily! I know you can take care of yourself! I've seen you duel, I've had you curse me! This wasn't just about you, you had three first years with you! I am not going to stand around and let those foul Slytherins curse students just because they were muggle born!"

"You cursing them just makes you as bad as them!" She shouted.

Lily had then stormed away without waiting for his reply.

Neither of them had spoken a word to each other during the interval weeks, and while Lily would never admit it, even to herself, she actually missed talking to him. He added comic relief to her life.

Lily stared at the desk, ashamed and guilty. Potter had only been trying to help, and he had been right, there was no way she could have handled the Slytherins and kept the first years safe. She really had overacted. And now to top it off, she was jealous of his performance in Transfiguration. It was no secret that she and Potter were always competing against each other. She was consistently at the top of her all her classes, except transfiguration. In her melancholy, she briefly considered dropping it, but she refused to give Potter the satisfaction of knowing he beat her in anything.

"Evans."

Lily looked up startled.

James Potter was standing in front of her looking exasperated; while Sirius Black and Remus Lupin continued out of the classroom looking bored (Pettigrew hadn't made it to NEWT level transfiguration).

"Blimey, Evans. No wonder McGonagall was so peeved, were you paying attention at all?" James was trying not to smirk.

Still feeling guilty, Lily wouldn't meet his eyes. "Sorry, Potter. I was just… thinking."

She gathered up her things, still not looking at him.

"Don't worry about it, Evans. Listen, I know you aren't doing so well in transfiguration, would you like me to help you with it?" Lily looked up, startled. James Potter actually sounded sincere.

Suddenly, Lily was suspicious. "This isn't you trying to ask me out again is it?"

Potter looked exasperated, "No, Evans, this is about you not failing transfiguration. Look, if it makes you feel better about this, then I can get Padfoot and Moony in on our study group as well, I know they are both struggling."

Lily looked up at him, frowning slightly as she considered his proposition. "Fine, you're right, I really do need the help. Thank you."

Potter smiled, "No problem." He turned to walk out of the classroom, as Lily continued to gather her things.

Spontaneously, Lily turned to him, "Hey, James." He turned around. "Thank you, you know, for earlier. With the Slytherins. I overreacted, sorry." Lily groaned to herself, she was sure he was going to make a big deal of the fact that she had just apologized to him. Maybe he wouldn't respond. Too embarrassed to look at him, she slowly put her books in her bag, hoping he would just leave. But still he didn't answer, she could just feel him looking at her. Finally, when she couldn't even pretend to dawdle any more, she looked up at him.

A smile had lit up his face, and as she looked at him, he chuckled quietly, "No problem … Lily." With that, he finally left the classroom.

Lily watched, the bemused smile on her face echoing his.

Maybe she really had misjudged James Potter.

o.O.o.O.o.O.

A/N: First time submitting, so I would really love to see what you guys think. Not what I started out writing, and it's probably been overdone, the whole "how Lily and James get together" but I couldn't really think of any ideas.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and if not, let me know so I can improve it