Lily & James
A Prologue of Remembrance
Lily stared out the window of her bedroom, looking at the passers-by. It was winter and the trees had frosted and shed their leaves in the freezing temperatures. Almost out of the blue, a dark haired boy around Lily's age walked up and Lily, bursting with excitement, bounded down the stairs to her house's front door. Just as her hand reached the glossy door knob, the bell rang. Lily threw open the door happily and gazed around her, confused. Where did he go?
Then, as suddenly as he had arrived, someone jumped out from behind her.
"Sev!'' Lily exclaimed, trying to look annoyed but failing and breaking into a huge smile. "I thought you weren't going to come!"
"Course I was," he replied "I just got delayed talking to Rolokhov about, uh, things…" he finished lamely. The bright spark in Lily's eyes darkened and Severus flinched, but when he looked at her again, the moment had passed.
"Never mind that! Come inside, you must be freezing!"
"Ever heard of a drying spell?" He smirked at her.
She just shook her head, wondering how Severus got away with doing magic outside school and when her turn to do magic outside school would come. Well, she knew the answer, 3 years on her birthday, the 30th of January. She would just have to wait patiently.
She suddenly realised that Sev had been trying to get her attention. Snapping out of her thoughts, lily glanced at him, trying to catch up.
"… trip this weekend, and I was just wondering if maybe you'd like to come to Hogsmeade with me?" He finished anxiously awaiting her reply.
"I, uh, what? Hogshead? Oh. I'm, um, already going with Robert Diggory, you know, the Hufflepuff Quidditch Captain?" she looked at him apologetically.
"Well, okay," he said resignedly, "I'll probably go with Gemina then. Look, I've gotta get home. See you on the train tomorrow." And just like that, he left Lily as confused as ever, her thoughts turning away from Sev, to Robert, then to the un-mentionable other.
Severus walked home, his thoughts swirling around his head, threatening to escape. He had planned to stay a lot longer, but when Diggory was brought up, he'd just felt an overwhelming urge to leave. Huh, As if I don't know who Diggory is. He's just a twat who cheats on his girlfriend, Severus thought. Lily didn't know it, but once he had caught him kissing Amanda Wilkinson but when he'd tried to tell Lily, she didn't believe him and ignored him for a week after. The twat.
3 years and 1 day later
"Bye Lily!" called her care mum dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, her sister staring moodily at the ground, and her care father, who looked bemused by the toads, cats and owls that escaped from the hidden platform, only to be snatched back again by bodiless hands.
"Bye Mum!" Lily called back, "I'll write to you when I can!" and Petunia, who had been staring at the entrance to Platform 9 ¾ almost wistfully, snapped her head up at the last comment and settled into a moody demeanour. After saying goodbye to her mother, Lily watched her family finally go away before allowing herself a grin. This was going to be her year. She made her way over to the Hogwarts express, and happily noted the same chip on the sign, the missing bricks, and positioned herself at the door, but before she could run however, a voice by her ear said,
"Let me Evans," and Lily turned around to see that annoying James Potter. "It's been a while, huh? I suppose you wouldn't consider going to, erm, Hogsmeade with me?" He smiled his lopsided smile at her.
Lily sighed and just ran at the door again, this time making it into the huge area reserved for the Hogwarts Express. Pushing her way through the crowd, she spotted her best friend Phoebe Eton and ecstatically hurried over to her. They both dumped their stuff into a compartment then they did the routine stuff like hugging, commenting on each others hair, but then Phoebe's tone of voice changed and Lily knew she was going to talk about something serious.
"So, what about James Potter?"
Lily scowled at her friend and reminded herself that to Phoebe, this was important. "I heard you bumped into each other in the station."
That was fast! "Uh, No. He was just asking me out. Again."
"Oh, well, if you won't have him then I can, right?" She grinned at Lily.
"Well, Lily didn't actually say no to me." James had snuck up on them, without either of them noticing.
"No." Lily snapped at him.
"Well then if I can't have Lily, I can definitely have her best friend." He smiled flirtily at Phoebe, who replied,
"Hogsmeade?"
"You, me, one night of love" James waggled his eyebrows at her causing her to giggle.
Lily groaned inwardly.
"Well, come on Evans, we've got to go to the Prefect/ Heads thing."
"Oh my gosh! I totally forgot! Uh, wait a sec…" She studied him closely. "What did you say?"
"That we have to go to the Prefect/ Heads meeting?"
Lily frowned wondering how he could be chosen for head boy but then she paused and smiled mischievously at him then ran without another word down the train to the scheduled cabin section. James raced after her and they both reached the door at the same time and fought to get in first. They ended up both squeezed in the door frame, in proximity to each other, both jostling for the door handle when Lily paused and stared up into James' eyes, breathed in, then he leaned in a little closer, then… SLAM! The door opened and Lily fell on top of James and felt heat rise to her cheeks. What had happened back there?
"There are easier ways to drop a hint, Evans." James' muffled voice spoke from beneath her. Lily hastily stood up as the prefects around them laughed and she straightened her robes, taking control of matters at once.
"Well, lets start then shall we? And James, you're not a swimsuit model, so stop posing on the floor." The prefects laughed even more. Lily was very popular and everybody liked her. Apart (of course) from the Slytherins.
"So mud- I mean, Evans, are we supposed to follow orders, from you? I don't think so. I wouldn't want get dirty," the Slytherin coughed. "After all, I think Zainab should have been head girl, not" She paused to let the words sink in, "mudblood Evans."
There was a sound of outrage and the next thing Lily knew, Rosier (for that was his name) was on the floor with tentacles sticking out of his ears. James calmly walked over to him, wand in hand, paused, punched him hard in the face, then walked over to stand by Lily.
Lily gaped at him with a wide mouth. "Was that necessary? Did you have to punch him?" Lily exclaimed, looking shocked at him.
"He called you a MUDBLOOD. You don't think that's bad enough?" James looked at her disbelieving-ly.
"You PUNCHED him James!" She cried exasperatedly. " You just don't DO that! What if you've permanently hurt him! It could ruin your reputation!"
"Well maybe I don't care about my reputation! Maybe, I care about you!"
Lily paused and looked up at him with wide eyes, then shaked off the feeling. "Well maybe for once in your life…... you should!" she finished angrily and stormed out. A few of the girls followed her out, whispering to each other. Soon the other prefects realised nothing more was going to happen and walked to their compartments.
"What was that supposed to mean?" James looked confused so Remus went over to him and patted him on the shoulder.
"I'm sure she'll have calmed down in time for your heads meeting tomorrow..." Remus said in an attempt to help his friend. He had almost thought it hadn't worked when James' face suddenly brightened.
"Oh My God! Yeah! I have private time after school with her! If somehow (Sirius) she failed divination, I could spend even more time with her, and then I could tutor her! Because we all know that Trelawney loves me, of course." He finished with a confident smirk.
"I don't think Lily would appreciate any attempts to sabotage her divination marks, James." Remus wondered if his friend would ever learn. "Look, what you just said to me came off a bit cocky." He ignored James protests and carried on. "Remember when she was upset in third year?" James nodded. "That was because you got better transfiguration marks then her and showed her the paper to prove it. Now, as you ought to have realised, she doesn't like things like that. She wants someone who won't try to make her feel bad. All girls do."
"I was just trying to show her that I was smart, not some half-witted, toe-nail eating, giant kissing, flobberworm stomping idiot." James' face had screwed up trying to remember the previous insult.
"She knows that now mate, she knows that now." Remus finished, remembering the look Lily's face when James when he said he cared about her. There was obviously something going on between them, he just had to find out what.