"Dad! Where are we going?" the small kid asked his father.
"You'll see soon enough. Be patient," his father replied.
"A king does not wait. Much less on his birthday," James said, imitating his mother when she gives him lessons about manners and being a gentleman.
"Ah, but then the surprise would ruined, James. Trust me, you will love it," said his father.
James exhaled loudly and, exasperated, he reclined his forehead against a window of the car, noticing it was raining.
"Worst. Birthday. Ever," James thought.
All of a sudden, they stopped, the car giving a shake as his father turned off the ignition.
"Mom, where are we?" said James, getting ever curious with every passing second.
"Well, remember when you said you wanted to know that crazy muggle song we heard when we were last in London?" replied his mother.
"Yes… What of it?" James asked.
"Since we did not know who sung it, we decided to create an adventure. A quest of sorts." said James' dad.
"You had me at adventure," James said seriously.
"But that was the last thing she said," his dad replied.
"Well then what are we waiting for?!" James exclaimed.
Both parents grinned and opened their doors. Mr. Potter took his umbrella and offered his wife his hand to the door, and James sat anxiously awaiting for his father to take him to this new place. As his father arrived he jumped out of the car and as he came out he stopped and stared at the (very) muggle building in front of him. With his parent's urging, they entered.
A store clerk welcomed them as he continued stacking records on the shelf behind his counter.
James' father crouched down and said, "So James, here are the rules for your quest: You have to look for the record. There's only one in the entire store -we checked earlier- and told the clerk to hide it somewhere in the store. If you find other records that you find interesting or have heard before and you like them, bring it to the nice man and we'll pay for the when you find the record. You are not allowed to ask for help from the clerk to find the record. Are the rules clear?"
"Yes," answered James while his eyes glinted mischievously.
"Oh no. NO magic. You are underage and just… No," said his mother whispering harshly.
James protested, "But mom-" His mother interrupted, "Absolutely not and that is final," she said sternly. Then, she grinned and said, "Now go and have fun."
Heaving an exasperated sigh as agreement, he went over to the counter and asked for a basket to place the acquired records
James gave the man a charming smile and proceeded to start his quest. As he walked down the aisles, he picked up a record. It was the most recent Beatles record and one of his favorites. He ran back to where the clerk was stacking but his trip was prevented by a flash of red. With the force of the collision, he fell down and grunted. A voice said anxiously, "Oh my! Are you alright!?" Opening his eyes, he saw a blur standing over him. "Are you an angel?" he asked the girl, for it was in fact a girl.
"If I was, you probably would have seen me BEFORE you decided to tackle me. Here," she said handing James his spectacles back. He placed his glasses back on, and took a look for the first time at the girl now smiling before him. "Well, I'm sorry. It was really hard to walk after I was blinded by that bright red hair." The girl offered him his hand and smiling he accepted it and got up.
"Hello. The name's James," he said to the red head.
"That's a nice name. And I like this record. I absolutely adore John," the girl answered.
Frowning, he looked at the record he previously held in his hands, which were in the hands of this strange girl. "They're weird. But they're good," he said shrugging.
"Good? You looked like you were looking at a unicorn for the first time," the girl said, finally looking up at him. For a moment James was speechless, as his gaze met the prettiest green eyes he had ever seen. He wasn't a fan of green, he preferred red, and he smiled as he saw that she had both colors. "What?" the girl said grinning too.
"Well, unicorns are pretty amazing too," James replied.
The girl giggled and said "THAT they are. Here," and she gave back the record to him.
James looked at her for a few more seconds before frowning once more at the record. "It was nice, uh, crashing into you, but I'm on a mission, so…" he paused so she could get what he was saying, but she surprised him when she said, "A mission? What is it? Can I help you with it?"
He grinned at the red hair's enthusiasm. "You see, I heard this song and it was really, really great but I don't know the name, so I'm looking for the record, and there's only one copy in the store, which is hidden somewhere, and I really want it."
"Whoa, take it easy there. Do you remember how the song went?" she asked amused.
"Well, it's quite repetitive, it starts with 'Hello, I love you, won't you tell me your name?'" he started singing.
"Oh that one's easy. That's The Doors. And the single is called just like that. You may want to search over there," she pointed over to the stack of vinyl records that the clerk had just stacked. Then, she whispered: "I think I saw him hiding it in the middle of it. Good luck with that!"
"Thank you. Hey, you never told me your name," James said.
"Right! Well it's-" Lily was interrupted by a man that looked like her father, "Red! Let's go! I thought you wanted to listen to the new record!"
"On my way!" she looks at James and says, "I'm really sorry I have to go and it's The Bee Gee's new record." Then she walked away. Just like that, she had entered his life and not even said her name. And all James could say was, "Bye Red!" and try not to look disappointed. Ruffling his hair, he put The Beatles' White Album back where he had taken it from, already forgot why he had taken it in the first place.
This time, he looked around before making a dash towards the counter. When he saw that the coast was clear, he made a run for it. Unfortunately, forgetting he had to stop BEFORE the stack of records, he stopped on top of the now crumbled tower of records. This time, there was no red angel to help him, but after locating his glasses, for he saw that beside them was the very point of this entire day.
The Doors' "Hello, I Love You" single.
Grinning, he got up and searched for his parents, but took a second to realize that they were looking at him quite seriously. "Uh-oh. Not again," James thought. He walked over to them, handed them the record and said, "Here, thank you, can we please go? And, since I'm underage, could you take care of the stacks business?"
James walked up to the counter, gave the clerk the empty basket, shrugging as if saying 'sorry man'. Then, he walked out of the store and stayed outside while his parents fixed everything.
He was growing very entertained with a pebble on the sidewalk by kicking it around, when his parents came out and handed him his record. "So, how did everything go with the muggle?" James said grinning.
"Just get in the car," his father said sighing as he ruffled his hair just like his son had done a few minutes before.
"Fine," the boy said.
For most of the ride home, his parents did not say anything. Just as they were arriving to Godric's Hollow, his mom turned around and asked James what he wanted to eat.
Smiling, and remembering his encounter with the mystery girl, he said, "I want something red."
His father chuckled and said, "Of course he would say that, he's a Gryffindor at heart, like his father."
"Oh shut it, you should know by now that you should not be encouraging your son to that kind of narrow-mindedness," his mother said. James laughed along.
That evening, when James was listening to his new record in his room, all he could think about were green eyes and red hair. And the way she made him laugh. In that moment, Pip arrived with his food and a cupcake with a lion drawn with frosting. Nine candles appeared out of nowhere and placed themselves around the cupcake. He looked up and saw both of his parents smiling from the door. His father had his arm around his wife's back and said, "Happy Birthday kid. Make a wish."
And, in that moment, the only things he could think of were green eyes and red hair, so he wished to see them again. This would not happen for two more years. But those two years he wished for the same thing he did on March 27th of 1969.
And on September 1st of 1971, he was granted that wish.
As he got unto the Hogwarts Express, he couldn't help but keep smiling. At last, Hogwarts would be awaiting! Twirling his newly bought wand between his fingers, he walked down the aisles. In his daze, he thought he saw a blurry red smudge in the corner of his eyes in one of the compartments. Walking back a few steps he looked inside the compartment that had appeared empty. But he was wrong.
There was a girl inside. And she was sitting in the corner of the compartment looking out the window, mesmerized with the people walking around the Platform 9 3/4, not even noticing that he was standing at the entrance of the compartment staring at her. More specifically, he was staring at her glowing red mane. That red mane that had appeared every time he listened to the record he had gotten all those years ago and he closed his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he gathered all his soon-to-be-Gryffindor courage and sat down in front of her, grinning confidently at her.
It wasn't until he cleared his throat that the girl looked at him and made a double-take. "Hi Red," James said, "Miss me much?"
"Of course you're a wizard. Just my luck," she said rolling her eyes and turning her attention back to the window.
James was startled at the girl's reaction. He was expecting at least a smile from the girl, and her name, which reminded him, "You never did tell me what your name was."
"Wouldn't you like to know," she said sarcastically.
"Well yes, it's the least you could do, after shoving me so hard on my birthday two years ago that I fell on top of a stack of muggle records," James replied.
"I did not shove you nor did you fall on top of a stack of records!" the girl said indignant.
"That's half true. While you did not shove me, I did fall on top of the stack. But that was after you left without saying your name," James said smirking at her.
The girl snorted and said, "Surprisingly it does not surprise me." As she saw him, she smiled, and continued, "In any case my name's L-"
She was interrupted once more when they heard some racket outside their compartment and saw as a boy with black hair and fair complexion got into their compartment and sat down besides James, pretending nothing had happened. He looked at James and then at the girl and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, did I interrupt a snog fest?"
The girl looked at him like he was something repulsive and turned back around to her window. James looked at him incredulously and asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm the infamous Sirius Black, and I'm hiding here from my dreadful cousins. They can be quite evil. But I left a present in their compartment," the boy named Sirius said.
"What was it?" James asked smirking.
"Dung bomb," Sirius said proudly.
James gave him a look of approval that clearly said 'Not bad.'
"I might have guessed, since you entered almost as fast as the Nimbus 1500 into the compartment," James said.
"Quidditch fanatic, are you?" Sirius asked excited.
"Only with the Holyhead Harpies. The Lead Chaser is quite pretty and has insane moves," James exclaimed.
"Merlin yes. My goal in life is to perfect The Chasing Bee," Sirius said.
James looked at him again and said, "Mate, we're going to have so much fun."
Sirius gave a bark-like laugh and both boys continued their conversation about Quidditch. At least, until another boy entered the compartment. The rest of what happened in there you already know.
Evans, Lily. Lily. It was such a pretty name. And she's a Gryffindor. Of course she would be in Gryffindor, as if she needed more red in her life. But James smiled as he sat down next to her and thought that there should never be TOO MUCH red for her. It's the prettiest color of them all.
After meeting Lily, when he turned 12 he wished she would become his friend. When he turned 13 he wished to kiss her. On his 14th birthday he wished he could make her laugh. On his 15th he wished she would just stop ignoring him and agree to go out with him after asking her three times already.
When he turned 16, he wished Lily would smile more often after her mother had died five months earlier.
He watched the years pass and all of a sudden he was turning 18 and on his last months of 7th Year at Hogwarts. And he still had not gotten the girl. He was her friend. Her partner when Dumbledore and the professors decided to have a laugh and place them both as Heads of Hogwarts. Her rival when the Defense against the Dark Arts professor decided to pair them off. Her confidant when she felt scared (which was not often) or insecure (which happened a lot more often). That year, he wished that Lily would just see him as he truly was: he was just James.
And the thing about James is that he does not give up.
And so, on the day before his last birthday at Hogwarts, he asked his friends for a quiet day. He really needed to finish his homework for the next day and some Head Boy reports. He was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room at 2am and he was completely frustrated with his homework.
James decided that he needed to stretch his legs and take a bit of fresh air. When he was about to get up and take out the Invisibility Cloak his father had given him on his eleventh birthday, he heard a whisper coming from the stairs. "James? What are you doing? Why are you still up?" He turned around and saw it was Lily. She approached him and he was taken aback. The dying fire and the approaching darkness made her look so lovely. He was momentarily at a loss for words as he stared into her eyes. Those beautiful green eyes that had captivated him even when he was nine years old, almost ten years ago.
"Well, uh, I was going to go for a walk around the grounds for a bit of fresh air and to stretch my aching limbs," James said when he found himself able to speak to the beautiful red head.
"Oh. How were you thinking to get there?" Lily asked. But the look that James gave her was explanation enough. "Invisibility cloak, right. I don't suppose I could come with you? You know, as a bodyguard of sorts. Nothing suspicious I swear!" Lily said kind of rushed. He watched as she took a deep breath as she awaited his response, biting inside her cheek.
James laughed and grinned, and said, "Of course, Red. But are you sure you want to go out like that?" nodding to her sleeping attire. She opened her eyes even bigger than they already were and it was as if she were taking notice for the first time what she was wearing: some plaid pants that were full of holes and a shirt three times her size. "I'll be right back!" she said as she dashed swiftly up the stairs to her room.
She came back in less than five minutes in jeans, trainers and a coat with a long-sleeved shirt underneath it. She paused at the bottom step and tilted her head to the side and smiled while asking him if he was alright. He assumed he made some sort of noise of assent, but he took out the cloak as an invitation for her to join him beneath it.
They were so close. James had to fight to breathe regularly while being so close to her. "Come on," he said breathlessly.
Both of them walked silently down the corridors they've become so accustomed to after so many years. James walked with the Map in his hand, consulting every now and then, but there was no one patrolling near them at that hour.
Once they were outside, they walked around in the moonlight. James sneaked a glance at Lily, noticing she had a sort of bashful smile. "May I ask what are you smiling at?" James asked her.
"It's already your birthday," Lily replied.
"Well, I know my birth was one that would be historical and would mark humanity," James said smiling
"Oh sod off!" Lily said laughing at his silliness and shoving him lightly with her shoulder, "I only wanted to say Happy Birthday."
The lake came to view and James said, "Would you like to sit down over there? Under that tree."
Lily only shrugged and followed him. They plopped to the grass side-by-side, looking towards the horizon.
Out of nowhere, a cupcake appeared in front of him and James looked at Lily smiling, remembering that fateful day nine years ago. It even had the lion. Eighteen candles appeared lit around the cake and Lily whispered, "Make a wish."
James looked at the green eyes that had hooked him since he was nine, and whispering: "It's almost come true." He blew the candles out. "Ask me what I wished for."
Lily was leaning slightly towards him, "What did you wish for?" her voice was slightly raspy, as if waiting for him to make the decision he had made thousands of times in his dreams.
"You," and then he leaned over to kiss her lips. Or maybe she leaned over to kiss his lips. What James knew was that the queen of the angels, that had for so long made him sigh, was there kissing his lips too. After a minute, in which both were out of breath, she sighed and said: "Happy Birthday, James."
And then she granted him his wish once more.