Ok. So a little background on this story. I've been an L/J shipper for years. Since I was thirteen, I think, or maybe twelve. Since 2000. Anyway, I wrote a fic, some of you might have heard of it, I Bet You Can't. I started it when I was thirteen and I stopped writing it when I was fifteen or so. It was a huge hit on Because of that, I kept it on, even though I thought it was stupid. But 2000 reviews is just such a pretty thing. However, for one reason or another, I did something wrong and they deleted my fic. I was pretty pissed off, and I didn't think I'd be using this site again. Well, anyway, I've been at boarding school for the past year and I hadn't really been planning to write any more fics. So I was going through one of my old journals, and I found the beginning of this fic that I wrote maybe a year back. Well, I read it and I thought it was pretty good, so I decided that I might as well type it up and post it on to see what other people think. Heh. I know that was a pretty long and unnecessary explanation but I felt I needed to put that out there, just in case one of my old readers recognizes me, or just for anyone who was remotely interested. Well, here's the story! I hope you enjoy it!

Much love,

Lethe

Lily Evans slowly ascended to the library, lugging a load of books in her arms. Her long auburn locks slipped form the messy bun atop her head, falling annoyingly in front of her face. She sighed exasperatedly and trudged on.

"Hullo."

Lily looked up to see two boys smiling pleasantly at her. Both were relatively tall, within a few centimetres of each other. One had an untamed mass of jet black hair and deep, brown eyes hidden behind thin, black-rimmed squarish glasses. He was skinny, but strong looking and toned. The other one looked slightly more groomed, and more built for that matter. He had short black hair and stormy grey eyes, which were slightly intimidating.

Lily smiled weakly. "Hello James, Sirius."

"Hello fellow Gryffindor," Sirius said.

"Need any help?" James asked, motioning towards the pile of books she was carrying.

"Me? Oh, no. I'm fine," she said, blushing slightly.

"Are you sure?"

"Really. Thanks."

"Well now I feel useless."

"And useless you are, Potter," a soft, snarling voice said from behind them.

They all turned to a boy sneering at them. He had long black hair matted down with grease, a long hooked nose, and fathomless black eyes.

"Shove it, Snape," Sirius snapped.

Snape smiled maliciously.

"Tsk, tsk," he clicked his tongue mockingly. "James Potter, what are you doing? Your parents would be very disappointed in you. Black, you should have known better, allowing him to do such a thing."

"What are you getting at, Snape?" James asked coldly.

Snape ignored him and shook his head. "Associating with a mudblood. How inappropriate."

Lily cringed, but didn't say anything.

"Watch your mouth, Snape," Sirius growled, fists clenched.

Snape grinned evilly. "I'm only trying to protect the Potter heritage. We wouldn't want the line being dirtied by a mublood, now would we? She'll destroy the Gryffindor legacy. Godric would turn in his grave!" he laughed and disappeared down the staircase.

James glared after him. He then turned to Lily, who was looking slightly bemused.

"That wasn't about anything," he said quickly, lamely. He forced a grin. "Are you absolutely sure you don't need any help? It'd be the good deed I need."

"I'm sure. Why would you need a good deed?" she asked, crinkling her nose, trying vainly to get the stray hair from her face; it was making her nose itch uncontrollably.

James laughed at her antics, and brushed her hair behind her ear. Her cheeks burned at his touch. Lily groaned internally. If there was one thing she hated about herself, it was how easily she blushed.

"To make up for what I'm about to do now. Come on Sirius," he said, running down the stairs.

"Ooh!" Sirius said gleefully. "Snake hunt!"

He ran past her and slid down the banister.

"Bye!" they both yelled simultaneously.

"Bye," she mumbled, and continues up the seemingly endless staircase; a stupid grin refusing to fade from her face.

000

"Sweet kid," Sirius remarked.

"Yeah," James said.

"She's pretty. What's her name again? Something with an 'L', I think," Sirius asked.

"Lily."

"Do you know her?"

"Vaguely. She's a year below us, a Prefect. That's where I've seen her around mostly, at the meetings. She's also very close to Julian; she usually waits for him at the edge of the Quidditch pitch after practice."
"Well, Snape certainly knows her. Did you see how he looked at her? It was rather unsettling."

"Yes. I suppose we should keep an eye on her."

"We should. Do you reckon there was any truth in what Snape said?"

"You mean about the muggle borns? I don't suppose so. My father says he doesn't suppose is would, but there are many things I still don't understand. He always says that."

"He's probably right. Now shall we get back to our little…escapade?"

James grinned. "What do you want to do first?"

Sirius reciprocated the grin. "Well, I think it's about time Snape showed a little Gryffindor House pride."

"Too true. What do you have in mind?"

000

After Lily finally reached the library, she walked to her friends' table, sat down, and dropped her books, smiling stupidly.

"Where have you been Lily? We've been waiting for over twenty minutes!" Lily's best friend, Rebecca, exclaimed worriedly.

Lily didn't reply. She stared off into space, elated. Rebecca flipped her straight brown hair back, impatiently.

"Lily!"

"Hmm?" Lily responded absentmindedly.

Rebecca sighed and surveyed the others. Tassia just shrugged. Tassia was a Gryffindor, a year above them. She had a large mass of curly brown hair and light brown eyes that darkened dramatically when she was overly emotional. She was always happy and smiling, which made her very attractive.

Rebecca then looked at Zoë, who was immersed in her studies and hardly paying attention. Zoë was a Ravenclaw with long, straight, bluish black hair that contrasted greatly against her pale complexion. She had light grey eyes that almost looked silver. She wore hand-me-down robes, which were much too large for her petite frame.

Rebecca turned to Danielle and Shannon. They were twins, both in Hufflepuff. The looked almost exactly alike, except Shannon had a small scar above her left eyebrow. They were both rather pleasant looking, with curly dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Danielle was doodling furiously in her notebook, while Shannon looked right back at Rebecca, smiling mischievously. It was infectious. Rebecca's exasperated scowl faltered and a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips.

Rebecca allowed herself to smile. They were all utterly hopeless. She then turned to Julian, who had an annoyingly self-satisfied and knowing grin on his face. Jules was a Gryffindor, a year above them. He had dark brown hair which he lazily let grow to right below his eyes in a way that many girls found rather sexy. He had cat-like yellow eyes, and a body built to be the greater beater he was.

Rebecca's eyes lingered on Julian for a moment, and then she shifted her gaze to Lily. She was undoubtedly pretty, maybe even beautiful. Not exactly gorgeous, but that was debatable. She had dark red hair which was a cascade of waves, which she always kept tied up. She had pouty lips which always made her look sad when she wasn't smiling and a small, slightly upturned nose with a splash of freckles across the bridge. Her most stunning feature was her eyes. She had immensely large, round eyes. They were several shades of green. Forest green lining her pupil, lime green lining her iris. Emerald green streaked with sea green. From far away they looked uniform, a strange solid green, but up close they were an array of colours. One could stare at her eyes all day, and not even begin to imagine how to describe them. However, she managed to get not many people to notice them. It was ingrained very early on in Lily (By her sister, most likely) not to look people in the eyes. Because of Lily's depressing habit to be fixated on the ground most of the time, few people besides her closest friends have seen her eyes to the fullest extent. Lily's eyes hold so much emotion, they can easily betray her. For example…

Rebecca's jaw dropped. "I know that look!"

Lily's head snapped up. "Look? What look?"

"That look you get whenever something happened with him."

Lily blushed. The whole table looked at her.

"I'm over him," she mumbled unconvincingly.

"Obviously not. He dragged you back in, at the very least."

"That's not true."

"Yes it is."

Lily looked helplessly around. "Julian," she pleaded.

Julian shrugged apologetically. "Sorry Lils, but you can't argue with a 'Claw. Besides, I rather agree."

Lily sighed. "Fine. But I hate it. He barely knows my name, if he does at all. Five years of unrequited…er…like is too long."

Zoë smiled sadly. "I know, dear. But at least you had the other him for a while."

"And that ended in disaster," Danielle said.

Shannon rolled her eyes. "Tact, Danny, it's called tact."

"Anyway, get on with it. What did he do?" Tassia asked impatiently.

Lily recounted the story.

"How could you let Snape treat you like that? I'd cry," Zoë said.

"She doesn't cry," Danny said.

"Very true. I've known you for five years and I don't know if I've ever seen you cry. How can you just decide not to cry?" Becca asked.

"I just did."

"Why?"

"You know why," Lily muttered. She stood up. "I think I've had enough studying for one day. I'll see you all later."

With a mumble and a flick of her wand her books floated to the library desk and Lily got up and walked out. Julian stood up and chased after her.

"Come on Lily…" he began.

Just then, someone resembling Snape rushed past them on his way to the hospital wing, his skin and hair gleaming maroon and gold, cursing angrily under his breath.

Lily gasped and dropped all her parchment papers on the ground.

"Merlin…" Julian began.

They heard laughter coming up from behind them. Soon appeared James and Sirius, laughing uproariously. Julian began to laugh as well, and Lily smirked, somewhat disapprovingly. After the laughter died down James looked up at them.

"Hallo Julian! Fancy seeing you again, Lily." He said good naturedly.

"See? He knows your name." Julian said.

Lily surreptitiously pinched Julian on the side. He flinched.

"Pardon?" James said.

"Nothing," Julian said, rubbing his side.

"Wanker," Lily said, leaning into him, half smiling.

Julian grinned.

Sirius finally looked up, still hiccoughing from his laughing fit.

"Oy, Julian! Just the man I was looking for. Come here, we need to discuss some beating tactics!"

Julian marched over to Sirius, and they immediately fell into discussion. James looked at Lily and surveyed the mess of parchments.

"Well, here's something I can certainly help you with."

Lily was already lifting her wand. He bounded over to her.

"No, no, allow me," he said with mock chivalry. He waved his wand and all the parchments gathered the parchments. He gave them to her with an exaggerated bow.

"Here you are m'lady."

"Thank you, kind sir," Lily said, laughing.

Their eyes met as she took the parchments. The grin lay frozen on James' face. He stared at her, amazed. He smile faltered as she looked at him, perplexed. She then realised she had let her guard down. After what seemed like hours she broke eye contact and turned away.

"I have to go," she mumbled, her face burning.

She ran down the stairs, past Julian and Sirius, causing them both to look up. James just stared after her. The pair looked bemused.

"Oy, James. What's wrong with you?" Sirius asked.

"Have you seen those eyes? Bloody hell Sirius. Those eyes," James muttered half to himself, half to Sirius.

Julian realised what happened and grinned. He had a feeling that things would be very different for Lily from now on.

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