The Great Hall was looking very festive. Even more so this year than ever before, for the headmaster had asked every teacher in the castle to help decorate with their own specific kind of talent. The usual twelve Christmas trees that stood in their respective places around the four house tables were purely enchanting. Each tree was sporting a different themed assembly of garlands, angels, and real live exquisite fairies. They danced around the pine needles, flew gracefully from branch to branch, and sprinkled the occasional passerby with shiny pixie dust. Naturally, girls loved passing by the trees, but boys, quite understandably, did not feel like walking around with sparkles all over their hair and face for the rest of the day, and thus tried to steer clear of the mischievous little creatures.

The colors were vibrant, the textures were jubilant and the atmosphere was priceless. The ceiling was the most fascinating of all. The raging snowstorms turned into pulsating sunshine, that became autumn's beautifully colored, rhythmically falling leaves in the matter of seconds, before turning back into the gorgeous white sheltering blanket, which enveloped the sleepy, breakfasting students in a dream-like cocoon, while accurately reflecting the weather outside.

Enormous, intricately shaped snowflakes were making their way down from it right now. Having been enchanted by the Charms Teacher, they stopped dead inches before reaching a surface in the famous old dining hall and melted away into thin air, always remaining just slightly out of reach.

The mood around the castle this year was extra lively, animated and well…magical.

"Oh good god, would you check this freak show out?! Hey! Are you so engrossed in that damn crème brulee of yours that you can't even see it?"- Peta Evans, a skinny brown-haired Slytherin, was squealing and nudging her in the arm.

Her friend has zoned out, and apparently didn't hear a word that was said. But Peta was very persistent and wouldn't stop the incessant poking until her best mate looked up. Obviously it was something rather important.

"What P? Can't you see that I'm trying to eat."

As soon she had her full attention, Peta jerked her head at the Gryffindor table and smirked. Lazily following the direction in which P was pointing, the blonde girl slowly looked over and froze.

"He has been doing that for ten minutes straight now." Peta whispered triumphantly.

James Potter was staring at her from across the Great Hall.

Her pretty little mouth fell open and over a million thoughts filled her brain at once. Countless questions were simultaneously running through her head, forming answers, doubts, ideas, scenarios... She could no longer concentrate on food and immediately lost all of her remaining appetite. She could do nothing else than simply stare back.

Now that she had noticed, she expected him to look away, but he didn't. In fact, her noticing him and so obviously challenging his stare, was far from bothering James. It didn't even make him blush. Instead of averting his eyes and acting embarrassed, he grinned arrogantly and gave her an approving head nod.

At this, her dinner napkin inadvertently dropped to the floor and her gorgeous almond shaped blue eyes turned themselves into two big O's. Potter looked at her for about ten more seconds, before turning his attention back to the chocolate pudding and calmly continuing a lively conversation with her very own cousin, Sirius Black.


It was snowing heavily outside the windows of the Transfiguration classroom; most of the class was sitting in a dreamlike state, thinking about all the sledding, and skiing and snowball fighting that they would be doing later on, and therefore not listening to what McGonagall had to say. Lily Evans was sucking on her quill and absent-mindedly doodling on her notes. It was the last period of the day, and even an over-achiever like her was not in the mood to be learning. She was thinking about the latest row she has had with her boyfriend, reliving it step by step in her mind. She should have felt like the luckiest little witch in the entire school for having such a man on her arm. For making him chase her for years before agreeing to go out with him. For having him eat right out of her hand, when in reality it should be her busting her ass to be with him and not the other way around. He after all, was the most popular guy in school. He was pureblooded and handsome, top of every class in his house, Prefect, captain of the Quidditch team and not to mention Head Boy. And who was she - a muggleborn nobody, who was gifted enough at Potions and Astronomy to have earned herself the Head Girl badge...

And yet he loved her. Or so he has always said. For years he tried his best to make her fall for him and she could never figure out why. In fact, the main reason she kept refusing him was because she thought she did not deserve him. Until finally a year ago, on Christmas of their second to last term at Hogwarts, she had agreed to go on holiday with him and his gang. During that week in Vienna and Paris, Lily managed to fall for him so hard that she no longer had the strength to keep pretending to refuse him, and confessed her real feelings. They have been together ever since. Everyone was jealous. Half of the girls at Hogwarts nursed their broken hearts for weeks after they initially got together. The Gryffindors simply hated her for taking their idol away, the Ravenclaws were impressed that one of their own has done so well, and the Slytherins were ever scheming and thinking up ways of stealing him from her.

Yes, she should have been on top of the world. She had James Potter.

Except that she has done a very stupid thing two days ago… After seeing him talk to the two female Hufflepuff chasers for over twenty minutes after a co-house practice, while compulsively fixing his hair, laughing, and touching the girls' arms, she had flown off the handle. Overwhelmed with jealousy, she immediately accused him of cheating, making up a story of how he was probably going with one or both of those Quidditch girls behind her back, using practices and matches to sneak around in the stadium locker rooms. Calling the taller one a whore and the shorter one a pug-faced beastess, she went on for thirty minutes about how much of a heartless player he turned out to be.

Obviously it was not true, and after she calmed down, Lily immediately realized what she has done and apologized profusely. But it was too little too late, for James has gotten so incredibly offended that he stormed out of the room without another word to her, and they haven't talked since.

That was two days ago. Today Lily was going out of her mind, missing him, and blaming herself like she never has before. She had a good reason to blame herself. She wasn't stupid, and now, now she was afraid that by doing what she did, she was actually single-handedly driving him into another girl's arms. She was pushing him away with both of her hands, and even though he was kicking and screaming not wanting to go, soon enough he will stop fighting it and find a girl who was not a fan of similar ridiculous scandals. Once he did, she would have no one else to blame, but herself.


Although Lily didn't know this yet, she was right about one thing. James was certainly considering other possibilities and has been for a while. The latest fight had pushed him to start doing so more actively. There was a certain girl whom he has liked for a really long time now. It was the same girl that he was about to go for, almost precisely one year ago, right before Lily Evans all of a sudden decided to change her mind. He was too shocked to say no to her after all the time that he wasted pursuing the hotheaded strawberry-haired beauty. She intrigued him so much, she tickled his mind and toyed with his ego for ages, and there she was - finally approaching him all of her own accord.

She explicitly asked him if she could come on the holiday to France that he and his friends have been planning, and made it clear that she would be going alone. In shock, he forgot all about the beautiful blonde he's been eyeing, and went back to being in love with the girl who has had a hold on him forever.

But now, he suddenly remembered all about the Slytherin knockout, and how he felt about her almost a year ago. He figured that it was now or never, he simply had to find to out if there was anything there, or if there ever could be anything between them. He would have to do this secretly and go about it the right way if he was to make sure that none of his friends, or his current girlfriend found out. With that in mind, James was about to make a play for her. And it was not going to be easy.

It just so happened that she was his best friend's cousin. Narcissa Black.


Author's Note - I don't usually like to write authors notes in my stories, but seeing as this is the first time I posted on this site, I should say something to kick off the story. As you can see this is a Marauder Era romance that is just slightly AU ( such as having Petunia there and etc.) but only slightly. I always thought that the lily-james story was far too idealized and perfect to be realistic so I wanted to write something that showed that everyone has problems and that young teenage boys are more fickle that some would think. At the same time I hope James doesnt come off too horrible, just realistic as a seventeen year old boy.

So to sum it up - please review and tell me what you think. Tell me if I achieved the effect I wanted, and anything that you think I might find helpful and constructive! Thanks, and enjoy the read!

-Devonnie