Platform 9 ¾ : 1977, End of Sixth Year
He was too tall, she decided as she stood there looking at everything but him. They would see each other never be on an equal level.
She stood facing him. They were a respectable distance apart. This was not a lover's good-bye after all. But she could still smell his cologne in the small space, although she tried her best to ignore the familiar, welcoming scent.
How had she managed to get herself trapped here? With him of all people? What was he even doing here, in the narrow corridor between compartments 6 and 7 where she had left her favorite sweater knitted for her last year for Christmas by her mother. He always did have the nasty ability of cornering her whenever she didn't want to be found.
He stared straight at her, pointedly, and she looked everywhere but his eyes.
Her gaze scanned the backdrop of this soap opera scene. She looked past him through the dusty little window on the train door, which his body blocked. She could see the sign pointing towards the main platform, her friend Marlene McKinnon waving to Alice Prewett, her trolley resting outside next to the bench where Mary MacDonald and her longtime boyfriend Gideon Prewett were sitting close together murmuring quiet goodbyes in each others' ears. Lily briefly wondered why she couldn't have something like that with the right boy. Something easy.
"Evans?" he spoke quietly, but it broke her out of her reverie of prince charmings who would offer to collect her sweater for her and kiss her goodbye on the bench...
Her eyes flicked to meet his hazel ones for half a second before deciding this was much too dangerous and moving down to look at her scuffed leather sandals.
"Yes?" She asked him carefully; the air inside the train suddenly seemed cold to her and she hugged her sweater tighter over her shoulders. "My parents are waiting outside. Can we keep this brief?"
"Listen. Evans," He ran a hand though his already messy black hair. "I'm sorry. For the thing with Snape. It was stupid. I—it won't happen again."
"Yes, well," she averted her eyes "that doesn't really change anything for me. Have a good summer then, Potter." She then squared her shoulders and pushed her way past him.
"Wait." She turned to him, her green eyes blank.
"There's nothing left for me to say." As she turned to leave, he caught her wrist. She didn't pull away, but didn't turn to face him, allowing herself to indulge in the oh-so familiar feel of his touch.
"You know we had something Lily." She could feel his level gaze on the back of her head.
"Let go of me Potter." She said as coldly as she could.
She jerked her arm away, slid the door open, and pushed her way off the train. He let the door close behind her. He turned and watched her dart away through the sea of students, pausing to collect her trunk next to the now vacant bench before making her way through the barrier.
James waited until the remaining students had left the platform until he stepped off of the train. As soon as he was off the train, a whistle sounded, and it began to creep slowly along the platform until it rounded the corner and picked up speed disappearing from sight.
James Potter was left standing by himself on the empty platform. He muttered a curse and whirled around, disapparating on the spot.
xxxx
To anyone who made it this far,
I started this three years ago and recently decided that I want to resurrect this story. I already have a plot outline and quite a bit written, and I am feeling really excited about it. The structure I have planned is a little different. It will pick up next chapter with the end of the summer before Lily and James' seventh year, with flashbacks to the events that occurred during sixth year, so this prologue is actually going to be kind of the middle of the story. The chapters will definitely be longer as well, aiming for ~2000 words each. Please let me know what you like or don't or if anything is confusing (I'm not scared of the flames).
SomewheretoParis
