Author's Note:
Important: If you have read any of my other stories, than you know that they all focus on ballet. I don't intentionally write all my stories about ballet, but they always come back to it, so I'm sorry in advance if you are sick of hearing it from me. I'm saying this because this story will once again have ballet in it... but not too much, promise!
James Potter couldn't pinpoint the exact moment that he fell in love with Lily Evans.
He assumed that it was sometime around the first 5 to 10 seconds that he ever saw her on the train ride to the first year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; but that was just a guess.
There was something about Lily that made James go crazy. Maybe it was her silky wavy red hair, or maybe it was her almond shaped green eyes, or maybe it was the fact that she seemed oblivious to his charm, and much preferred to yell at him. Whatever the reason was that James fell in love though, the point was that he fell... hard.
It wasn't a secret that James was in love with Lily, in fact the whole bloody school knew. The teachers knew, the students knew, the house elves knew... even the damn portraits knew (although they couldn't have cared less).
Unfortunately for James, there was just one thing stopping him from marrying Lily and living together happily in a yellow house with a porch and flowers and a garden and such. That one little thing was the simple fact that Lily Evans hated James Potter. She couldn't stand him, and there wasn't enough galleons in the world to make her go out with him... let alone marry him!
Lily's reasons for hating James were pretty obvious. Once you got past the very good looks James possessed, there was little left in him that Lily saw as attractive. In her opinion, James was a show off, a problem-causer, egotistical, and rude... to name a few.
James and his friends, the Marauders they called themselves, made it their sole responsibility to carry out all pranks in Hogwarts, and they did this as frequently as possible. To many people in school, this was a good thing, providing amusing distractions and stories to tell throughout their long days of classes. Lily however, obeyed the rules more often than not, and so the pranks did not sit well with her.
Another thing about James that bothered Lily was the fact that he liked her. To any other girl in the school, the attention of James Potter was something to die for, but to Lily, it was an annoyance. James would always follow her around, showing off and doing stupid things to impress her, which she was decidedly not. Also, he made it a point to ask her out at least once a day, despite the daily rejections she sent his way.
Currently, in the seventh year of Hogwarts for James and Lily, their relationship was at a standstill. James was working hard to create one, and Lily was denying one existed.
James had long ago given up pulling pranks on Lily to impress her, but that had not made her like him any more. He knew he needed to change something if he wanted to win the love of his life.
...
It was the first Monday in November, and James and his friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Petigrew, were sitting at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Lily was on the other end of the table sitting next to her best friend Alice Prewitt, and surrounded by various other Gryffindors she was friendly with.
"Prongsie, if you continue to stare at Lily any longer, I will personally gouge your eyes out with this spork," said Sirius, referring to James by his nickname.
"Grouchy today are we Padfoot?" James replied while glaring at his best friend and turning away from Lily.
"I stubbed my bloody foot on the bloody bed this morning," mumbled Sirius almost incoherently.
James rolled his eyes and looked down at his empty plate of food, suddenly feeling a surge of hunger.
"What in Merlins' name is a spork?" asked Remus who had put down his Daily Prophet to look at Sirius with a "is this bloke crazy" kind of look.
"Well Moony m'boy, a spork is a spoon and a fork combined. I was having difficulty eating my fruit cup because I wanted to use a fork for the fruit, and a spoon for the juice at the bottom, so I transfigured my spoon into a spork!" answered Sirius, beaming as though he expected to be praised for his genius.
"Why couldn't you jsut scoop the fruit into the spoon?" asked Remus.
"I a..agree with Remus. It s..seems a l...little silly," stuttered Peter.
"Well..." Sirius began to reply. James tuned them out. If they were just going to argue about something as silly as a "spork" than James was going to resume his watching of Lily.
He was watching the way she tilted her head back slightly when she laughed, and the way she showed her perfect set of teeth when she smiled, and the way her emerald eyes glistened when she got excited by something, when he something sharp poking him on the side of his face.
"What the bloody hell are you doing!?" James exclaimed, as he turned to see Sirius brandishing his "spork" like a weapon aimed at James' face.
"I am proceeding to gouge your eyes out since you won't stop staring at Lily!" Sirius stated as though he were discussing the weather.
After sending a quick binding spell towards his friend to make sure Sirius didn't permanently maim him, James said goodbye to his friends and left the Great Hall glancing once more at Lily.
He headed off towards his room to grab his books for class, hoping that Lily would come to her room as well.
Lily had been made Head Girl, to no ones surprise, but what shocked everyone was that James had been made Head Boy! The general opinion of the school was the Dumbledore had been on some strange medication that made people do crazy things when he had made James Head Boy, after all, there was no way a sane person would make the biggest pranker in the school a figure of authority.
Regardless, James was the Head Boy, and as such, he was given his own room and common room. The brilliant thing about this setup was that Lily was also given her own room, and they shared a common room, just the two of them!
When James had discovered this during the summer, he had practically flown to Hogwarts on his broom, went to the Headmaster's office, and given Dumbledore a kiss! Who cared if he was crazy, Dumbledore had made James Potter the happiest man alive!
So there James was, waiting in the common room before classes, hoping Lily would come up so they could talk. For once, James actually had something he legitimently needed to discuss with her, and what better opportunity than to discuss that topic in the private common room...with the comfy couches, and the romantic fires.
James shook his head to remove that pleasant although inappropriate thought from his head.
He waited until he couldn't wait any longer without missing class, before he headed off.
...
His first class of the day had been Care of Magical Creatures, which he shared with Sirius but which Lily was not in. Second though, he was in Transfiguration, his best topic, and also the class he conveniently shared with Lily.
He entered the classroom on the lookout, trying to spot the bright mass of red that was Lily.
He saw her sitting in the middle of the room, seated next to a friend of hers. James glanced back towards the front of the class to see if McGonagal was in the room yet. He was in luck as she wasn't, and there was no sign of her coming in yet.
James took advantage of the opportunity to go talk to Lily.
"Hey Lily, got a minute?" James asked, pointedly calling her Lily instead of Evans to show he was being serious. It seemed Lily didn't quite catch on.
"For you Potter, no," she said, beginning the statement as though she were going to say yes.
James looked directly into her green eyes, which he really loved to stare into, and pulled a serious face.
"Please Lily, it won't take long, I just wanted to ask you something."
James could see the desire Lily had to make a quick retort, but he also saw her eyes analysing his face. Apparently something in his eyes told her she was serious, because she gave in and stepped aside from her friend so that she and James could talk more privately.
"What's wrong Potter? Does your large head no longer fit through the doorways?" Lily snapped.
James couldn't help but grin a little. He loved her fiery personality.
"Nope, my head is still travel size it seems," James joked. "Actually though, I wanted to ask you about patrol last night."
Every night, Lily and James were required, as Head Boy and Girl, to go around the school and check for any students out of bed or whatnot. Sometimes, James would skip out on those duties and let Lily handle it seeing as she didn't really mind, but last night for the first time ever, Lily had left James to do it alone, something which was very unLily-like.
James saw something flash through Lily's eyes, almost as if she were hiding a secret, but it passed before he could make anything of it.
"Oh, yeah, sorry I left you hanging there. I had some work to finish and then I... fell asleep halfway through I guess." Lily said cautiously.
James picked up on the slight hint of fakeness in her voice, and he knew that something wasn't right, but it didn't seem urgent, and as long as she wasn't sick or hurt, James wasn't going to push it, especially after she actually apologized to him! She never said nice things to him, although in retrospect he deserved it after everything he had done to her over the years.
"Well alright then, if your sure your okay," James started.
"Yeah, I was fine, not like you really cared. I'm sure you were just nervous I'd make you do rounds by yourself every night." Lily said exasperated.
Truth was, the thought had crossed James mind the night before, that is until he got worried about Lily's safety. It was funny how well she could read him sometimes.
"Of course I wasn't!" James replied pretending he was outraged. "I was merely concerned over the well being of you dearest."
Lily rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something James was sure would be quite nasty, but luckily McGonagal walked into the class at that moment and called the class to order.
James took an empty seat towards the front of the room, his normal seat taken for some reason. He glanced over at Lily and noticed that she was quite red in the face, possible through anger in James, although he dearly hoped that wasn't the case.
The class began, and James found himself drifting off into thoughts off Lily... just like always.
