Disclaimer- I do not own anything that you recognize…
Mother's Intuition
A flash of green.
It was a new color to James, as he had never seen an emerald quite so bright anywhere.
Much less in someone's eyes. He was used to his mother's blue, a pale, sky blue. His father's hazel, a warm brown with hints of moss. That color was his as well. His cat didn't have anything like it either. All it had was a dull, grayish brown. James didn't like the cat very much. The cat didn't like James that much either.
He was thoroughly intrigued, so he followed the flash. It kept reappearing, as it's owner turned her head to look around her. James was only five, and was in his "curious stage." As is mother liked to call it. That meant that anything, anything at all that caught his fancy, James would go after it.
And this had caught his fancy. He knew that his favorite color was green, because his favorite character in "The Fantastic Adventures of Vampy the Vampire" wore a green hat. So naturally he had to go after any type of green he saw, especially if it was a new kind. How exciting, a new color!
He caught up with the girl at the swing set. He was at a muggle playground. He knew that he shouldn't talk about magic, but he found it so hard, surrounded by people who didn't already know everything about it. His mum often came down here, to visit her sister. James liked her, his aunt Lucy. She was nice, and gave him cookies. They tasted extra good because she always put her secret ingredient in it. James had often begged her to tell him, so he could sneak some into the cookies his mother made, but she always smiled and shook her wooden spoon at him, after she had let him lick all the dough off.
He sat on a swing, next to the girl, and stared at her for a bit. His mum's words kept ringing in his head, "Don't stare, James. It's rude, dear." But her eyes were just so green!
He began swinging his legs back and forth, extremely proud of how well he was getting himself up in the air. He wanted to talk to the girl next to him, but he didn't know how. So, naturally, not knowing anyway other than that, decided to call her a name and challenge her to a competition.
"Frog eyes! I bet I can swing higher than you!" He said, waiting for her reaction. He hoped she wouldn't cry like some girls he knew. It would get messy, and he would have to apologize. And like any five-year-old boy, James did not like to apologize.
Her head snapped towards him, and confusion registered in her emerald eyes. She didn't know this boy, and suddenly he had called her a mean name. She had no choice but to answer his challenge.
"I don't know you… but I can totally swing higher than you." She scoffed. She tried to sound as grown-up as she could, maybe it would scare him if he thought she was older.
But James just grinned. He was glad she didn't cry. And now, the race was on.
The two five year olds began pumping their legs as fast as they could, and both soon began to swing back and forth from the beam overhead, almost swinging fully around. James looked at the girl swinging next to him- he was shocked. She was higher than him!
No, no, no! James was not going to lose, he had challenged her! That was not how it worked! No, because she was a girl, and everyone knew that boys could swing higher than girls. So he swung his legs even faster, in an effort to catch up to the green-eyed girl next to him.
She noticed his renewed efforts, and began pumping harder herself. Just because she was a girl didn't mean she couldn't win… what had her mum taught her about it? About gender- gender equa- equal- about girls being just as good as boys? No, she was going to win. She didn't even know this boy's name, but she knew she needed to beat him.
The two children swung higher, and higher, and higher still, and neither would give up. James could have sworn she had slowed down, but then she had sped right back up. He turned to look at her, and decided that if he couldn't win the height contest, that he would win the jumping contest.
"Hey! If I jump higher when I get off, then I win!" He shouted to her. She turned to look at him, and it was her turn to grin. She nodded.
James looked ahead, and counted to three, adjusting his hands so that he could push off the swing, onto the ground, that seemed so far away now that he had gotten so high.
"One, two, THREE!" He soared through the air, and tried not to look down at the fast approaching ground, praying his mum didn't see him. She hated when he did stuff like this.
He felt a sharp jolt, and there he was, on the ground, on his knees. He looked towards the swing set, surprised to see how far it was from where he landed. He saw the girl, still swinging high, looking vaguely impressed. He smirked.
No way was she going to beat that, no matter how good she was. That might have been the best swing jump he had ever done. No, maybe the best one ever. Yeah, that sounded about right.
The girl swinging looked at how far James had jumped. That had been good. Good, but not as good as hers, she had practiced on this very same swing for two years. So she closed her eyes, and when she felt high enough off the ground, she jumped.
James looked at the girl as she pushed off the swing. He watched as she reached the peak of her jump, still sure she was going to lose. That was just how it was going to be.
But that is where he was wrong, at the peak of her jump, time seemed to slow. She seemed to stop. James rubbed his eyes. She couldn't do magic, could she? I mean, they were in the middle of a muggle town… muggle did mean non-magical…
She was still in the air when he looked up again, but time returned to normal, and she landed a few feet in front of James. He felt his jaw drop, and he stood up, red in the face.
He just couldn't believe it. The girl with the pretty green eyes, the girl, she had beaten him!
He was about to walk over to her and protest that it hadn't been fair when he heard a faint snort. The girl had walked over to him, and was smirking just above his head.
"Girls can so beat boys. Now say sorry for calling me frog eyes." She demanded. James shook his head. He wanted to say sorry, and tell her that her eyes were pretty, but when her opened his mouth, all that come out was,
"Nu-ah, frog eyes." The girl blinked, and then glared at him. She flounced away angrily. That was so mean! He was mean. Ugh. Maybe her sister would want to play with her.
James watched her, not entirely sure why he said that. He thought she should just know what he meant to say. He walked back to his mother, who was still standing with his aunt. She smiled when she saw her son approaching.
"Hello, James. Did you find anyone to play with?" She asked. There weren't very many children James's age where they lived, so Doreah Potter always brought James to the playground in hopes that he would find a friend. He always found someone, but they usually didn't keep in touch. That sort of relationship was hard for a five year old to understand.
He nodded, and tilted his head in the green-eyed girl's direction. Doreah raised an eyebrow. She was surprised her son had played with a girl. He was not very aware of the other gender.
"What's her name, honey?" James shrugged.
"I dunno. We had a competition." He didn't divulge and more information, his mother was guessing this was a sore subject- James hated to loose.
She looked at the small girl playing with another child, and looked at her son. She smiled. She had a feeling, a sort of motherly intuition, that James might encounter this young lady again.
She was right. She thought she might have been wrong for a while, as there was no sign of her for six years. Then James wrote a letter to home, from Hogwarts, updating his family on his first year. He had met two new friends, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. He had already gotten ten detentions, and he was in Gryffindor. (James's father had punched the air and let out a victory cry when he read this.) And, he had met a girl named Lily. He mentioned that there was something familiar about her, and that she hated him.
Doreah had had her chance to jump up in the air at this point, for she had a feeling that this was that girl from the playground all those years ago.
Through James's years at Hogwarts she heard all about their fights and competitions, their pranks and detentions, and Doreah was waiting for them to kiss, waiting on the edge of her seat the entire time, as the story of James and Lily unfolded.
It was in seventh year when she finally stopped waiting. She could remember the letters that had been sent that day, one from Gringotts, one from Madam Malkins, and one very hasty looking one from James. Doreah had ripped it open, fearing that something awful had happened, only to find a very quick, but emotional description of his and Lily's first kiss.
And this is what Doreah was thinking of, as she watched a green-eyed girl walk down the aisle, with a nervous, hazel-eyed boy waiting at the end.
And, voila! I just wanted to write a little one-shot of when James and Lily first met, so there it is! I hope it is okay… I may have just written it on a whim, so it may not be the best of stories, but hopefully you guys will enjoy it. I promise that new chapters for everything will be up the weekend. I've been gone, busy with school, so I haven't gotten the chance to write. Please review, I really could use the constructive criticism, and it makes my day when you do.
Love you all!