Prologue
"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's trousers?" James Potter's voice rang across the grass and the crowd gathered around were laughing.
"Do it! Do it!" Came the chant, mainly led by his best friend Sirius Black.
"I think you should have the honour Padfoot old friend." James grinned, his free hand pushing through his unruly black hair.
"With pleasure my dear Prongs." He replied, using his own wand to begin humiliating Snape even further.
"Mr Potter! Mr Black!" Professor McGonagall was thundering towards them, glasses glinting dangerously in the summer sunshine. "Put him down this instance!" She demanded, drawing closer as the crowd began to dissipate quickly. The two friends waved their wands and Snape fell in a heap on the floor. He leapt to his feet, his face a blotchy red with embarrassment and anger. Then he stalked off in the direction Lily had gone.
"Detention with me every night until the end of term and fifty points from Gryffindor from both of you." She glowered at them. "How dare you humiliate another student like that. You are sixteen not six. Act like it. And you, Mr Lupin." She whirled about to the boy who was still sitting under the tree, looking at his friends anxiously. "You are a prefect. It is your duty to put a stop to behaviour like this. If you cannot live up to that responsibility then I will have to think about whether you are the right choice for prefect."
"Yes Professor." He replied quietly looking slightly ashamed. James felt slightly bad for his friend. He knew how much being a prefect meant to Remus and he didn't want to be the cause of that being taken away from him.
"You two, 7pm sharp, my office." With that, she turned and walked back up to the castle. They all watched her go and then returned to sitting under the tree together.
"What do you reckon it will be this time? Lines or cleaning?" Sirius asked James with a grin.
"Maybe a few hundred lines of 'I must not embarrass Snivelly Snape because my friend was bored.'" James replied, smirking.
"James, please." Remus butted in quietly. "You know you went too far."
"He called Lily a you-know-what. There is no such thing as too far."
"Because you forced his hand. You might well have cost Lily one of her good friends."
"Good. I don't like him near her anyway. About time she saw what he is really like." He shrugged.
"That may be, but think how Lily will be feeling about this. You just humiliated her friend in front of a large crowd, she wasn't impressed with you and you lost her that same friend. Not really the way to go about convincing her to go out with you." Remus pointed out, rolling his eyes.
"I don't know what she gets so worked up about. It's not like he would ever lose an opportunity to curse us." Sirius interjected.
"I give up." Remus threw his hands in the air. James drew out the snitch again and began letting it fly away before catching it. Peter was clapping and whistling excitedly.
"Seriously Prongs. Peter is going to wet himself." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Let's go have a practice game then." James suggested.
"Or you could study for your exams." Remus put in. "Just a suggestion."
"Oh pshh, we know it all." James grinned.
"Remus, can I borrow your notes for History?" Peter asked shyly.
"You really should have made your own Pete." Remus sighed. "But ok, they are up in the Dormitory. If you want them."
"How come you let him have them? You make us take our own." Sirius protested indignantly, looking wounded as he gestured to himself and James.. Remus didn't dignify that with a response. The four friends started to make their way inside and made their way through the crowd up to Gryffindor Tower. They had only just walked into the common room where there was a loud crack and James staggered backwards from the force of the slap.
"Ow! What the hell?" He clutched his cheek with one hand and looked around to see who had hit him. "Oh, hi Evans." He quickly mussed up his hair with his free hand.
"What do you think you were playing at out there? He did nothing to you. You are an arrogant, pathetic, toerag Potter. No matter what you say I will never, ever go out with you!"
"Never say never my dear Evans." James replied calmly, giving her a lopsided grin. As he took in her flashing green eyes in her face that was contorted in anger and framed by her fiery red hair, he thought he had never seen a more beautiful sight. He watched as she flounced off up to the girls dormitory and silently vowed that Lily Evans would be his.