Ok, this is my version of the first day Lily met James. This is kind of an add on to one of my other short stories, "How the Marauder's Met", so you might want to read that first. Flourish is being very evil and would rather watch the Antique Roadshow than help write this story, so I am writing it all on my lonesome. Boo to that, she uses bigger words, so sorry. I mean my grandmother watches that show!!!! There is something wrong with her. Rant over, enjoy the story!!! And Please REVIEW!!!!!!!!!! ~Blotts
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, I don't own it.
Adventures with Lily
"I think we're here," an excited Peter Pettigrew squealed as the Hogwarts Express gradually began to slow. Instantly, the other two boys in the compartment, Remus Lupin and James Potter, rushed to the window to see if, in fact, they had actually reached Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Staring into the darkness, the boys caught their first glimpse of the castle, illuminated against the night sky, that they were soon to reek havoc upon.
"Cool," James said to his new found friends, "If we leave right now we can be first into the castle!" he continued, a mischievous smile on his lips.
"I don't think we're supposed to be out in the corridors until the conductor tells us to," Remus said.
"Remus, buddy, do you always play by the rules?" James asked slapping Remus on the back.
"Yes," Remus replied, giving James a stern look.
"Well, I want to find that other bloke, Sirius, that I was telling you guys about, so who's with me?" James asked.
"I'm in," Peter said.
"Oh, fine," Remus sighed, but he couldn't help the smile that was forming on his lips. James definitely knew how to have fun.
"Excellent!" James exclaimed beaming, "Let's go then."
No sooner had they opened the compartment door, however, than the train suddenly lurched to a stop and the conductor's voice could be heard throughout the train instructing the students to leave their luggage and disembark.
"Oh well," James sighed, "I guess we'll have to find Sirius later." The three boys exited the train and found themselves on a crowded platform across the lake from Hogwarts.
"Do we have to walk?" James groaned, "It has to be at least a couple kilometers to the castle." The others were prevented from answer by a loud voice, "Firs' years, over here!" A giant of a man was calling them over to the edge of the lake.
Noticing the other first years piling into the boats docked at the edge of the lake, James led his new friends to a boat that contained only one other person. A girl, with shoulder-length coppery red hair who looked rather frightened and cold. James sat next to her, allowing Remus and Peter to sit together, a gesture that he thought was very generous, after all, this girl could have cooties or some other horrible disease.
"Hey," James said to her, feeling slightly akward,"Uhh...I'm James and that's Remus and Peter," he stated pointing at the respective person.
"Hi," she replied with a smile, "I'm Lily Evans, nice to meet you guys." There was a moment of silence where no one knew exactly what to say, and then the titanic man that had directed them to the boats shouted, "Evre'one ready?"
At that, the boats began to row themselves across the lake. Lily Evans let out a huge gasp at this.
"Are you Muggle born?" Remus questioned her.
"Yeah," she replied. James laughed, "you'll get used to it soon enough, my sister had this friend, who was Muggle born, and she came to our house a couple summer's ago to visit. Well, I guess she didn't know about...Hey, that's Sirius," James suddenly exclaimed, jumping to his feet and pointing at a boat across from them. He, however, had not thought about the result of this action. As soon as he was standing, the boat rocked sideways and tipped it's four occupants into the icy lake.
James's head popped up from beneath the surface. He could hear the other first years yelling for the big man to come and help, and saw Remus and Peter treading water a few yards away.
"Where's Lily?" he shouted to them, a slight panic in his voice. From the confused looks on his friend's faces, James gathered they didn't know and began desperately searching for any sign of her. It didn't take long before he saw her flailing and then plunging back beneath the surface. Swimming quickly, James reached Lily in seconds and grabbed her under his arm. Lily, however, did not quite understand that she should stay still and threw her arms around James, still flailing.
"L-l-lily," James gasped as he was plunged beneath the surface, "you're gonna drowned both of us." James managed to spit this out before his head was forced under the water again. Lily, getting the message, stopped flailing and allowed James to pull her back to the boat.
Remus and Peter had managed to climb back into the boat and with both of them pulling, heaved Lily back in. James was then left to pull him self into the boat. As soon as they were all in, the boat resumed it's course of rowing them to Hogwarts.
James lay collapsed on the floor of the boat for a few moments, panting. When he returned to his seat, he found a glaring and shivering Lily sitting next to him.
"What?" James asked.
"Oh, nothing," Lily replied sarcastically, "just thanks for nearly killing me, that's all."
"I got you back to the boat," James cried defensively.
"Yeah, well I wouldn't have needed to be brought back to the boat if you hadn't have tipped it over," Lily replied angrily. "Now I'm probably going to contract pneumonia or something," she added bitterly.
"It's not like I knew the boat was going to tip over," James yelled. What was wrong with this girl? He had saved her life after all, shouldn't she be grateful?
"A five year old would know that the boat would tip over if you jumped up and down in it," Lily said coldly. James opened his mouth and then closed it again; for the first time in his life he had nothing to say. Little did he know that this was how much of his life at Hogwarts would be. Lily Evans could always leave him speechless.
The rest of the boat ride passed in silence, except for the chattering of teeth as the cold wind whipped at their already soaked robes. They reached what appeared to be the edge of an ivy covered cliff that Hogwarts was perched upon, but were surprised to see that there was an opening into a lagoon. The boats stopped at the shore and the nervous-looking first years piled out. The large man walked up to an enormous oak door and knocked three times. All of the first years stared as the door opened and a stern looking witch entered.
"Good Evening," she greeted them," I am Professor McGonagall."