Lily Evans stared at flames crackling beyond the table she was standing around with her friends. The endless gossip about some fifth year Hufflepuff chaser who had ruined Gryffindor's chances at the Quidditch cup was being reiterated by eighteen different people and she had stopped listening by the second complaint. She was still warming up, the wind had been blistering cold and cut through her scarves that day and she couldn't feel her cheeks as she sipped the hot chocolate that Nigel had gotten for her. Her fingernails were still painted scarlet, showing her house pride, but she had long changed out of her Gryffindor robes and had settled for jeans and her coziest sweater. Around Lily, her friends were still in their Gryffindor apparel as if to protest Hufflepuff's extraordinary winning.
Personally, Lily thought Hufflepuff had played a good game. She was immensely sad that her boyfriend Nigel's team had lost, but Hufflepuff had unleashed a secret weapon at last minute. They'd pulled their fifth year reserve chaser off the stands and put him in the game halfway through, resulting in goal after goal. Lily had never seen anything like it.
"What the hell is he doing here?"
Everyone standing around the small table laden with cups and treats looked up when Marlene McKinnon dropped her treacle tart from her lips to state her surprise at something she had spotted behind them. Lily lowered her mug and examined Marlene's furrowed brow before turning to look at the portrait hole at the same time as everyone else. Eric Mathews slammed his cup down beside Lily in anger and Lily jumped a bit, eyeing Eric irritably.
"Does he have a death wish?" Eric hissed to Marlene who shrugged, eyes zeroed in on a boy coming though the Gryffindor portrait hole.
A boy who was most definitely not a Gryffindor (based on the knitted Hufflepuff sweater adorning his broad shoulders) was stumbling through the portrait hole behind some giggling first years. Lily swirled the contents in her mug, as she looked the boy up and down with interest, instead of apprehending him like she ought to have done as Gryffindor prefect. Lily had to admit that the Hufflepuff was either extremely brave (or extremely stupid) for coming to the Gryffindor common room at that particular moment. After all, showing up after Hufflepuff had destroyed Gryffindor in the quidditch game was a good way to get jinxed.
The Hufflepuff seemed unconcerned by the number of eyes glaring his way as he looked around the common room through thick-framed spectacles. In his hands, he held a tray of cupcakes iced with scarlet frosting, looking quite out of place against his yellow sweater. He spotted someone he knew at the table near the fireplace and perked up. He strutted over with a confident gait and placed the tray of cupcakes onto the table that Lily and her friends were standing next to.
"Hello." He said with a cheery air that insinuated he didn't care what they were all thinking about him.
"You've got a lot of nerve showing up here." Marlene crossed her arms at the intruder.
"Especially dressed like that." Lily ridiculed, taking a sip of her drink.
"You don't like my sweater?" the boy looked affronted, "My mum knitted this with her own two hands just for me."
She appreciated the curve to his smile; the one that promised he liked what he saw when his eyes fell on her. Lily took another sip of her drink to hide her own smile, animated by the Hufflepuff. Marlene tossed an arm over Lily's shoulder and stuck her tongue out at the Hufflepuff.
"She's out of your league."
"Actually," the boy contradicted, "Since Hufflepuff won the game—aren't I technically out of her league?"
Lily raised a brow, "You're bold."
"Hufflepuff's aren't welcome here." Marlene stated resolutely, cutting in between Lily and the intruder.
The boy leaned his lanky body against the nearest wall, "Well, McKinnon, I'd say sorry for kicking Gryffindors arse on the quidditch pitch but my mum didn't raise a liar."
Lily's almost spit out her mouthful of hot chocolate. She lowered her mug and exchanged a glance with Mary MacDonald. The Huffelpuff had mistakenly walked over to a table filled with Gryffindor quidditch players and unleashed Gryffindor's competitive side. All of Lily friends looked like they were about to throw the boy off the tower as a sacrifice to the Quidditch Gods.
The boy remained relaxed as if he didn't just shite on their house in front of them.
"How did you even get in here?" Eric asked the boy, looking him up and down with pure loathing.
The boy shrugged, as it was a matter of little importance, "Gryffindor's common room is the easiest to get into."
Mary's nose wrinkled in protest, "You need a password."
He leaned back farther into the wall, "Not when the first years hold the portrait hole open entirely too long."
"How 'bout you leave and let the portrait door hit you on the way out?"
Lily winced as Nigel Babbington entered the rivalry circle by the sweet table, fuming at the ears. Nigel was the sixth year Gryffindor quidditch captain and wouldn't take any challenge without a fight. Big, burly, and a beater since joining the team at twelve...Nigel would murder the lanky fifth year Hufflepuff. As Nigel's girlfriend of two months, Lily wondered how long it would take before she'd have to break up a fight because of the senseless Hufflepuff sending Nigel a snarky look.
"Babbington," the Hufflepuff broadcast as if he and Nigel were long-lost friends, "Looking as lovely as ever, mate, you took that bludger to the head like a champ."
"You little sh—"
The boy pushed a cupcake into Nigel's mouth so Nigel couldn't curse him out, "Have a cupcake."
Cupcake and frosting spewed from Nigel's mouth and Lily jumped forward to intervene before there was Hufflepuff blood spilled on her common room floor.
"Did you really just force feed my boyfriend?" she asked, stepping in between Nigel and the boy.
Hufflepuff tilted his head at her, "Boyfriend?"
"Yeah." Lily, taken aback, stared at the Hufflepuff indignantly, "Why are you shoving cupcakes into my boyfriends mouth?"
He smiled, "I assumed it was the only way to shut him up."
"Take your fucking cupcakes and go Potter." Marlene shoved the tray back at the boy, James, irritably.
"Potter?" Lily queried, mildly surprised as she recognized the name from the quidditch pitch earlier.
Lily hadn't ever really met Potter but she knew of him. She was surprised to find that he was taller than she would've surmised...he easily cleared the rest of the boys at Hogwarts. Despite having wide shoulders, he was incredibly lanky. Lily wondered how he had so much stamina in quidditch but she also knew his long arms and legs gave him ample leverage on the field. Half of Gryffindor's chasers were girls under 5'3 with short arms; James could easily swipe the quaffle off any of them.
She'd seen him around before, once or twice, in the halls talking with Sirius Black. She's assumed he was a sixth year, not the fifth year Quidditch player who had swiped Gryffindor off their brooms. His spectacles slid down his nose as he turned his gaze to her, the questioning tone in her voice astonishing him.
"I said get out of here Potter, before I jinx you."
"That would involve you actually having to catch me, Babbington." Potter surmised, "And we both know you weren't fast enough on the pitch."
Lily wasn't going to be able to save the Hufflepuff now. Nigel rolled up the sleeves of his robe as Lily tried to hold him back.
A new voice shouted amongst the red and gold students, "Potter!"
"Enjoy the cupcakes." The Hufflepuff simply saluted them before swiping a bit of icing off one of his cupcakes.
Sirius Black appeared through the crowd wearing a dressing gown and his hair in light waves atop his head. Half the girls in the common room turned to look longingly at the pureblood wizard, his looks being hard to ignore. Lily was surprised to see Sirius downstairs; he normally stuck with his mates upstairs. Of course, when Peter Pettigrew appeared behind Sirius waving at James excitedly, Lily knew Peter and Sirius must've made their way from their dorms simply to find the Hufflepuff.
Lily recalled seeing James and Sirius together a couple times in the hallway and knew that James must've been the Hufflepuff that Sirius always said he was going to hang out with. Lily had to admit that Sirius being friends with a Hufflepuff had been a little surprising to Lily as Sirius was a little rough around the edges...but James Potter seemed like the perfect friend for high-spirited Sirius.
"Fucking finally, James!" Sirius shouted over his fellow students, "Did you stop and smell the roses? Bloody hell!"
"More like stopped and baked some cupcakes." Peter sniggered, swiping a cupcake from the tray.
"Shove off Wormtail," James protested, "You love my baking."
"So does my gut." Peter patted his belly and the boys laughed.
Lily's interest was peaked but it was too late, Sirius had systematically shoved a butterbeer into James' empty hands and was suddenly pulling him away from the sweets table. Peter followed, licking icing off the cupcake he'd swiped.
"We've been waiting down here ages and poor Pete's hard of hearing now!"
"I'm sorry!" Potter looked ashamed, "I stopped by the kitchens!"
"I had to listen to Annabeth Chase sing Celestia Warbeck three times!" Peter protested, one of his hands covering his ears like he could still hear Annabeth's soprano voice.
"Potter?" Lily asked her friends, eyes trying to glimpse the boy disappearing through the crowded commons, "As in Hufflepuff's star chaser, James Potter? The fifth year that just kicked our arses? That James Potter?"
Marlene took a swing of her drink before replying coldly, "I'd recognize his smug grin anywhere."
"Did he really bring us cupcakes?" Mary asked, blue eyes scanning the tin of cakes.
Nigel muttered, "They taste weird, like cinnamon."
"You know what's weird?" Lily asked, "You'd think the bloke that led Hufflepuff to victory would want to celebrate with his own house, not with our designated troublemakers."
"He sneaks in here all the time to hang out with Black, Pettigrew, and Lupin." Nigel slug an arm around Lily's shoulders as he picked up a cup closest to him to wash down the cupcake James had shoved into his mouth, "I've caught him in the fifth year dorm at least fifteen times this year."
"Didn't Black get written up for telling Potter the password to the common room just last week?" Marlene complained, taking another swing of her drink, "God, they're house common rooms for a reason."
"Black doesn't care." Nigel snorted into Lily's shoulder as they stood around with all their friends, "And I don't think Potter does either..."
Lily's eyes dropped to the cupcakes on the table in front of the girls. They were precariously iced red and gold with a ribbon pattern. The tin holding them was black and had JP etched into the side haphazardly. It looked like chicken scratch and seemed to fit the bespectacled boy that had disappeared into the sea of scarlet and gold.
Lily let her eyes scan the crowd, determined to get eyes on the crashing Hufflepuff again. The cupcake in her hand was soft and enticing. Lily licked the icing off her fingers and was surprised to find a little kick of something in the frosting. She leaned against the bookshelf to her left and took an investigative bite of the cupcake.
The soft bread rumbled in her mouth at the same time that a jelly substance fell onto her tongue from the middle of the cupcake. The jam had the same kick as the frosting and this time, Lily knew the kick as soon as she tasted the artificial cinnamon. Lily hissed in wonder, eyes staring at the cupcakes containing jellied firewhiskey...alcohol.
"Nigel these are firewhiskey cupcakes!" she told her boyfriend, amazed, "Potter brought us cupcakes laced with firewhisky!"
"No way," Eric leaned forward to smell one of the cupcakes, "What the Hell? I didn't know fith years could buy firewhisky."
"They can't Eric," Lily said with a roll of her eyes, "That's the point."
She swiped another cupcake and Nigel looked at her disapprovingly.
"Lily they're enemy cupcakes, firewhiskey or not."
"What's this about firewhiskey cupcakes?" an older Gryffindor named Theo Hawkins perked up from the couch nearby where he'd been sucking face with Savannah Knox.
Lily grabbed the whole tin, "Nothing!"
"Pass 'em over, Evans!" Theo motioned with a hand and seeing as he was Head Boy, Lily ought to have listened but she knew if she gave them to Theo he'd eat them all himself.
Mary tried to take the cupcakes from her, "Give them to Theo, Lily..."
"Potter could get in trouble!"
"We all could get in trouble!"
"Uh, Lily, why are you hugging James' cupcake tin?"
Lily turned to see Remus Lupin walking up to their table. His prefect bade was lopsided on his robes and he looked exhausted but Remus often looked perpetually tired. His hair always lay flat against his forehead like he slept on it half the day and he had dark circles under his eyes despite the bright smile on his face.
"How'd you know this was Potter's?" Lily asked.
"James initials his cupcake tins so no one can steal them." Remus pointed out with an amused, yet affectionate, glance at the cupcake tin in Lily's hands.
"Lupin," Nigel puffed out his chest and Lily managed to lick the icing off another cupcake, "Did you happen to see your mate Potter?"
"Can't say I did." Remus said, leaning over Lily's arms to grab a cupcake so that he couldn't meet Nigel's stare, "But judging by these cupcakes, I'm assuming he stopped by?"
Remus Lupin was the only other Gryffindor fifth year boy and despite being made prefect by the Headmaster, was far from prefect material since he skipped class quite often and was very into zonko's joke shop pranks. Lily had been at the receiving end of Remus' fake wands more than once and didn't trust Remus' wink in her direction as he extracted the firewhiskey jam from his cupcake.
Lily focused on the cupcakes, "Potter made these?"
"He's got a thing for baking." Remus told her.
"Baking with alcohol?"
"His best cupcakes are the triple chocolate." Remus told her, "But it seems he finally managed to get into Pamona's desk to nick her whiskey stash. He's been wanting to make these kind for ages after reading about them in a magazine."
"He reads baking magazines?" Lily grinned and Remus grinned back nodding.
"He's got ten stashed in the loo at home."
Lily laughed out loud.
Nigel slung an arm around Lily's waist as he repeated to Remus, "Potter isn't allowed here, Remus, it's against the rules."
"Rest assured Babbington," Remus raised a eyebrow at Nigel, "I think James is well aware of the rules."
"You better not be giving Potter the common room passwords." Eric said to Remus despairingly, "After all, Black got in so much trouble when he did. Gryffindor lost twenty points!"
"How dare you Eric." Remus gasped theatrically, "I wouldn't ever betray my fellow Gryffindor's by dropping the password list on James' desk every morning in Transfiguration."
Remus' sarcasm was so dry, it was hard to pick out, but Lily caught it and sniggered. When Nigel frowned deeply Lily changed her laugh into a cough that she covered with her forearm. Remus winked at her and walked away from the table, but not before swiping one more of James' really delicious cupcakes. Lily took another cupcake for herself and placed the tin on the table. Theo's best mate swiped the tin and it disappeared into the hands of the seventh year Gryffindors.
Nigel knocked the cupcake out of her hand, "Don't eat that Lily it's probably poisoned."
Lily snorted as she bent down to pick up her discarded cupcake, "Nigel it's just a Hufflepuff with a cocky attitude and good baking skills."
"He helped beat us in quidditch!"
"I know! I was there! But Merlin, enjoy the fucking cupcake."
Marlene muttered to Nigel, "Hufflepuff is the enemy."
Nigel grumbled, "We could've had the chance to win the quidditch cup if Hufflepuff didn't have Potter."
"We still have a chance." Lily told them with half laugh, ruffling Nigel's hair.
Nigel flattened his hair immediately with a sour look, "Lily, babe, I've told you not to mess with my hair."
Lily playfully wiggled her fingers in Nigel's direction and everyone laughed as he covered his perfectly jelled hair. Nigel's sidekick, Gryffindor Beater Alec, tapped his fingers against the table, annoyed at even the slight mention of Hufflepuff.
"Unless Hufflepuff loses the next game to Slytherin by 260 points...we're doomed." Alec complained, "Hufflepuff are going to be the quidditch cup champions."
The thought of losing to Hufflepuff was slightly disappointing but Lily decided to see the positive in things, "Well, at least we aren't losing to Slytherin."
"Lily!" Everyone in the vicinity shouted at her in horror, "Don't say that!"
"You were the ones throwing a pity party!"
Lily threw her hands up in the air, fed up with the lot of them, and made her way over to another table where some of the girls were painting their fingernails. Lily sat down next to a girl with perfectly pinned curls and a very white smile.
Dorcas Meadows looked up from her vivid pink fingernails and beamed as Lily sat down, "Had enough of the quidditch loons for now Evans?"
"Remind me why I'm dating one of those loons?" Lily asked as she braided her hair over her shoulder.
"Because he looks like a blonde David Cassidy?"
"Because he's hot?"
"Because he's good at quidditch?"
Lily placed the polish on her fingers; "He's not so bad with his mouth either."
All of the girls sniggered.
Eventually Nigel found Lily again and (as any good boyfriend would) pulled her into the nearest alcove for a snog. Several minutes later his fingers were playing with the buttons on her shirt, popping them open one at a time. His fingers grazed the lace of her bra and Lily supposed she ought to have encouraged him since they had nothing better to do but the sound of someone's laughter made her attention go elsewhere.
Her eyes searched the dark hallway while Nigel's hands continued their assessment under her jumper, his lips attached to her neck. Lily looked around Nigel's flaxen hair to spot a blaze of yellow skipping down the nearest staircase. The yellow was bright in the darkness, glowing every time it flew past a torch. Lily spotted a smile and knew it was James Potter, leaving the Gryffindor common room well after curfew. Lily was about to push Nigel off her person and tell James he'd better have a good excuse for leaving after curfew but Lily paused when she saw James had a Gryffindor tie strung up in his jet-black hair like a headband. He was miming playing a guitar and snickering as he disappeared down the stairs.
She had to hide her snort as a cough.
"You alright?" Nigel asked, flush against her skin.
"Fine," she lied as her shoulder shook from laughing.
"Lily," Nigel pouted, "Stop laughing, it's ruining the mood."
She couldn't help it, not even after Nigel broke away from her to glare as she continued laughing, the imagine of James Potter playing air guitar with a Gryffindor headband in his messy black hair..
Potter was the cockiest, dorkiest, and weirdest person she'd ever met, plus a Hufflepuff to boot. She was happy they'd met officially because she was certain they could be friends if it weren't for her boyfriend, currently pouting beside her as they walked back to the common room.
Lily was curled up on a staircase a week later by the greenhouses reading Charms: A Theory when she spotted four boys. They were walking up from the forest and wearing smiles as wide as any. At the front of the group, leading the pack with his glasses askew, James was jumping onto the back of Sirius. They were loud and their voices carried over to Lily with the wind.
"I won!" Sirius shouted to the sky, "Fastest!"
"Only because you tripped me!" James protested.
"You're the one who wasn't watching where you were running, Prongs."
"Carry me back!" James whined, his hair shining under the sunlight, "I think I broke something!"
"Yeah Potter," Sirius grunted as he held James on his back, "You broke your pride!"
All the boys cracked up and Lily smiled herself when Sirius dropped James to his arse on the grass. James kicked out when Peter laughed and Peter tripped over James' long legs. Like a pack of rabid animals, all the boys then began tackling each other. Even Remus, who often strayed from physical exertion, was taking part in kicking the ever-loving shite out of the Hufflepuff.
"Ouch, not my glasses Remus you little shit!"
James rolled off Remus and Peter. In James' hands were glasses, the frames broken in half from the childish roughhousing. Sirius rotated onto his back in the grass and was holding his stomach laughing while James pulled his wand from his pocket. Lily curled her knees up so she could rest her chin on them while she watched the boys, fascinated.
"Professor Sprout will kill all of you if I can't fly in the next game because you've killed me." James dramatically spat, repairing his glasses with a wave of his wand.
"What a shame that would be," Sirius got up off the grass and cracked his knuckles, "You, actually letting another team have a fighting chance."
"Yeah but this is Slytherin." James stressed, "No one wants them to win anyways."
"What if I want them to win?"
All four boys turned to glance her way. Remus waved as he pulled grass strands from his robes and Sirius saluted her. James looked at her like she was the devil reincarnate.
"Pardon?" James asked, using his middle finger to push his specs up his long nose.
"You said no one wants Slytherin to win..." Lily stated, "Haven't you considered that the other houses might want Slytherin to win so that we can have a shot at the quidditch cup?"
James put a finger to his temple, "I've considered it but I don't really care."
"You're a cocky bastard." Lily reputed, "All because you're good on a broomstick."
"I'm good at other things." James protested.
"Yeah," Peter snorted, "Like baking."
"Baking is cool." James argued insistently.
"You know what's cooler?" Lily dropped her book in her lap and maimed playing a guitar with a wink in James' direction, "Your air guitar the other night when you left the common room after curfew."
All of a sudden, James blushed, the red flush reaching to his black roots.
"How's that pride of yours Potter?" Sirius tormented roguishly, "Still broken?"
"We keep you grounded James." Remus slung an arm around James and grinned at his friend.
"Come on James, let's go." Sirius slung an arm around the Hufflepuff's shoulders, dragging him away, but James waved at Lily as he was dragged away and Lily (Merlin help her if Nigel ever found out) waved back.
In the next Quidditch game, when James helped Hufflepuff absolutely murder Slytherin, Lily had to hold back cheering for the star chaser as he did victory laps around the field. Nigel was moaning into her hair and Marlene looked like she was going to cry when Headmaster Dumbledore passed James the quidditch cup.
"We'll win next year." Nigel told Marlene firmly, "Potter just had a stroke of luck this year."
Lily and Nigel walked hand in hand down the stairs to reach the field. They were stuck behind all the students in front of them, everyone struggling to leave the field to get back to their common rooms. When the Gryffindors passed the Hufflepuff's there was serious tension. The only exception was when Sirius, Remus, and Peter made their way over to James. Lily watched as the boys hugged and congratulated James. One of them said something that made James knock them over the head.
Lily's eyes met James Potter's for just a moment as she and her friends passed the party on the pitch. His smile was sugary sweet as he waved to her, surrounded by a sea of yellow speckled with red and blue as the students admired the silver quidditch cup. His goggles were pushed up into his hair, making it more flyaway than usual and he was sporting a bleeding cut on his left cheek.
"Come on Lily," Nigel tugged on her hand, "We can go get lunch and sit by the lake with the rest of the team."
Lily smiled back at James before turning her gaze into the sea of scarlet robes.
"We'll win next year." She told Marlene and Nigel, but she really didn't know if she believed the words herself.
Hufflepuff was a force to be reckoned with now that they had unleashed their secret weapon: the cupcake baking fifth year chaser with a cute smile.