Any Other Way
By: Twilly-rose
Disclaimer: I do not own Lily Evans, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirus Black, Peter Pettigrew, or Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Slughorn.
"You know James, maybe you shouldn't be such an idiot." Remus said.
"I know, I know, Remus. But, when I'm near her I just can't help but be everything she said."
"You mean a bullying toerag of a git?" Remus replied amusedly.
"Yeah, that."
"You could for just as a start NOT ruffle your hair, be annoying or change the way you do stuff. You be natural."
"Sure, Remus, sure." James said clearly not believing Remus. "How can I do all those things you say without screwing the whole bloody damn thing up? I mean, I made the girl just bloody cry."
Flashback to 'The Fight'…
"Oi, James. Here comes Snivellus, wanna have some fun with him?" Sirius asked lazily but still upbeat like always.
"If it amuses you, Sirius." James answered. "Hey, Snivellus, washed your pants lately?"
Severus, as if on guard the whole time stuck his hand into his back robe pocket and whipped out his wand and shouted, "Incendio!"
Sirius too took out his wand and at the last moment yelled, "Protego!" and did the spell with such force that it deflected Severus's spell so fast that he wasn't able to dodge it in time and made a bad burn on his left arm before he could wash it away with a quick, "Evanesco!"
By now James had his wand out, Remus was trying not to look too guilty for letting them fight on even though he was a prefect and Peter was looking giddy, anticipating the action that was about to come.
"Who wants to see me that his pants off like 5th year!" James shouted. The crowd that had gathered to watch the weekly fight cheered and it was quite loud to because they had all just finished Christmas exams and were looking for something to er… release their bottled up excitement.
Quickly Snape went up and when I say up I mean both meanings, up as in floating up and up-side down.
Behind them they heard three voices of anger shouting at them, in fact, they were the voices of the 3 most popular and sought after girls at Hogwarts. Number one, the angriest, loudest and the leader of the three, Lily Evans yelled, "What are you doing, Potter, Black!"
Then one of her best friends, an outgoing person and famous star chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Coranitelia (or Cora) Birch, shouted, "Put him down, NOW, Potter, or I'll tell your mother!"
Finally, the last of the three best friends, who was rather shy but was now furious, named Taylor Reigh, exclaimed, "Bloody hell, you idiots! Look how you've hurt his arm!"
"Well, you see, Evans, Birch, and Reigh." James replied calmly to their ravings, nodding to each of them in turn. "We were just having our daily supply of fun, which you obviously don't seeing you being so uptight. But… I can show you fun if you'll go out with me, Evans." James added, winking at her.
"Not on your life, Potter." Lily snarled back. "Now, put him down." She raised her wand to him and felt that beside her both Cora and Taylor raise their wands too.
Both Sirius and James looked startled, clearly thinking that no one dared to raise their wands at them, what with their big egos and everything. Slowly, both lowered their wands, severing the spell. "Count yourself lucky, Snivellus! Lucky that these three ladies were here to help you, I mean." Sirius called.
"Is that so, Black? Well I don't need Birch, Reigh or that mudblood."
There was an uproar. Taylor and Cora's faces grew bright red due to the anger on their friend's behalf. Sirius' and many other Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, and Gryffindors' faces churned in disgust at him. Even though Lily did nothing but simply stare at Snape, James went ballistic. He ran, body slammed Snape to the floor and started pummeling him.
A shaking but steady voice of suppressed anger said, "Stupefy." Then, another voice said, "Ennervate. Minerva, please, I understand but no stunning the students."
"Albus, we had to get them apart somehow, you know."
"Of course, Professor McGonagall."
The two came into the light with another at their side. The students', including, James, Sirius, Severus, Lily, Remus, Peter, Cora and Taylor, heads all turned to the newcomers. They were Professors McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Slughorn.
"Professors, they were fighting, they were!" Lily said.
"Potter, Black and Snape, she means, Professor." Cora added.
"Terrible, it was." Taylor finished.
"Yes, yes, girls, I'm sure. And… I'm also sure that you, Miss. Evans, and Mr. Lupin used you authority to stop the fight but were unsuccessful, am I right?" Dumbledore said.
With a side glance at Remus, who was her friend, she decided to say, "Yes, that's right, Headmaster." and cover for him, this time.
"Albus, we must dish out punishments." Slughorn interrupted.
"I know, Horace. This fight will not go unpunished. Of what did you say, Minerva? Two-thirds of them were from your house, so surely you have a suggestion."
"I do, Albus. I shall deal the punishments out. One-hundred points from Gryffindor and 50 points from Slytherin. 3 weeks of detention for all three of you boys."
There were cries of outrage from the crowd and, Sirius, James and Severus including, "Not fair!", "Why did Gryffindor lose more points!" and "We've lost the cup for sure!"
"Be quiet!" McGonagall remarked sharply. "All three of you have deserved what you've got, if not more, but I will give five points each to Ms. Evans and Mr. Lupin for trying their hardest break the fight. That is all. Perhaps, this will end all the rivalry."
Boy was she wrong, because off these punishments the rivalries just got even more intense than ever, if that's possible.
Present…
"Kiss her."
James was startled out of his musings of the past by what Remus said. "Could you repeat that! I didn't quite get it."
Remus sighed, "James, are you doing one of those 'I am temporarily deaf' things again? I said, kiss her."
"But, I can't do that!" James replied, outraged. "Besides, she's still mad at me!"
"Then, soothe her nerves with a damn kiss!" Remus said impatiently. "You've done it lots of times with other girls before. Just yesterday, with that Mary Enersk!"
"Well…"
"James, I know you, you couldn't pass up the chance to kiss Lily Evans."
"No, I couldn't, I suppose I could give it a shot, anyway."
"Then go, go and kiss Lily."
Without another word James zoomed out of the empty classroom up to the Gryffindor common room to find his Lily. To his good luck, she was sitting in an armchair by the fire on her own.
He strode up to her, not saying a word, swooped down, and kissed her right on the lips. To his surprise she kissed him back and very passionately, too.
Finally, after minutes, hours, days, or what felt like weeks to James, he broke the kiss for oxygen. He said breathlessly, "You better be mine, Lily Evans. Mine to love forever until the end of our days."
"You know… I wouldn't have it any other way."