Disclaimer: If I owned these characters, I'd be rolling in all y'all's money instead of sitting here typing this. Thank you.

Chapter One

Broken

Lily Evans banged her head against the carriage window she shared with James Potter.

It was her seventh year here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had loved almost every moment of it, from the Halloween feasts to the Great Hall's Christmas trees to the Hogsmeade trips to the exams.

But she had not loved the moments spent with James Potter.

In their first year, he turned her hair green. Second year, he read her diary to the whole Gryffindor common room. Third year, he made her face break out in blemishes that even Madam Pomfrey spent weeks trying to get rid of. In fourth year, he used a spell so that her robes blew up so high that her knickers were revealed to everyone in Hogsmeade.

And those weren't even the worst.

In fifth year, he asked her out. And that was the way of things since then.

Not a week passed in the past two years without him asking her to Hogsmeade at least three times. She always refused. And the pranks kept coming, on top of that.

And now, on her first day of seventh year, the day she wanted to be perfect, she was stuck in a carriage with him. And not only that. She was made the Head Girl. And he was the Head Boy.

He was talking to her, but she didn't hear any of it. There was a roaring in her ears, the kind you get when you're dreading what's to come. And Lily dreaded the whole year to come.

"Evans?" James reached over and prodded her arm, and she jumped in alarm, turning to glower at him with fierce green eyes.

"Don't talk to me," she snapped. "Don't touch me."

He looked startled. "I mean, hey, if you don't want to know about what Sirius and I—"

"No, I don't particularly," Lily shot at him, returning to bumping her forehead on the window. It was a wild attempt to knock herself out before she had to stand anymore of James's mindless chatter.

"This looks fun. Can I play?" He threw his own head against the glass.

Lily stopped. He continued.

Finally, the carriage stopped in front of the wide double doors that were already clogged with an influx of students. Salvation was here.

Lily shot out, and James toppled from the carriage behind her, as he had been using the door to support himself. He rubbed his backside, watching her hurry students through the double doors that had been opened by Filch.

"Come on, no, put that wand down! Through the doors, you lot."

Once all the students were shepherded into the Hall, with minimal help from James, whose left buttock was still throbbing painfully, the two Heads entered, Lily striding determinedly in front of him. But James's long legs allowed him to sail forward to walk beside her.

"Evans, Evans, Evans…" He almost sang it. Lily bit back her nasty reply, for Professor McGonagall beckoned to them from the small chamber beside the Great Hall that the first years would soon be taken into.

"Good evening, Miss Evans, Mr. Potter," the professor said, her eyes roaming over James with almost a sense of distaste. It seemed that the Headmaster had not given the staff very detailed reasons as to why he had chosen the boy for such a position.

Lily listened attentively as McGonagall went into a lecture about school policy and how they were supposed to be roll models for all the students. Curfew for them was eleven, and they patrolled the halls on every school night, and they could take points and give detentions, and they had special privileges and were expected to behave according to their age.

"…And there are Heads bedrooms in Gryffindor Tower, if you take a left once entering through the portrait hole. The password to Gryffindor Tower is Leoviscus, and I've already told your prefects. That is all. The first years are just arriving." McGonagall hurried them into the Great Hall, straightened her pointed hat, and went to the still open double doors in the Entrance Hall to greet new students.

"So, mind telling me what she just said?" James asked Lily casually as they walked towards Gryffindor's table. The Hall was lit up with thousands of floating candles, as always, and even in their seventh year, the two were still impressed by the sight.

"Yes, Potter, I do mind," she growled.

"Would you mind going out with me, then?"

Lily whirled around to face him, her long red hair flying up to smack him in the face. "Potter, leave me alone! I don't want to have anything to do with you. We're going to be together a lot this year for Heads stuff, but I don't want to talk with you besides. You have done nothing but pester me since we were eleven, and it has got to stop. Stop asking me out, because I hated you at the end of last year, and—surprise!—I still hate you. So go find some other girl who is willing to rendezvous in the broom closet with you. Because I'm not."

Lily turned to take a seat beside her friends, leaving a broken James behind.

Sirius Black stood and flung an arm around James. "Tough break, man. But you know how girls are. By tomorrow she'll probably be in love with you." He led his friend to a chair next to himself, with the other two Marauders across the table.

James didn't have time to reply, for just then the first years entered, Professor McGonagall leading them. They looked as small and helpless and frightened as always, stumbling on their journey towards the staff table. But there was one at the very end of the line whose head was at least seven inches above the rest.

The one who was taller than the others was a girl who looked like she could be a sixth or seventh year. She wasn't supposed to be there!

But James hardly cared, for she met his eyes, and he was stunned. Her eyes were a deeper blue than he had ever seen before, so deep that he could tell what color they were from even a few feet away. She had a mass of long, silvery blonde hair that fell in waves all the way to her waist, and was probably the most beautiful creature he had ever beheld. She made Lily look dull, and James thought the redhead girl was very unique looking. At least, up till now.

James wasn't the only one who noticed her. Every single other boy in the Hall had his eyes locked upon various other parts of her, the most popular being the two bulges in the front of her robes that stood out even more than they would on any other occasion as she walked among the mostly flat-chested first-years.

The girls were disgusted.

Professor McGonagall reached the back of the Hall, just below the Staff table, and set a stool she had been carrying with her on the floor and placed an old, patched hat on top of it. The girls of the school watched it with attentiveness, while the boys still focused on the blonde girl.

After a wide rip in the brim of the hat opened and began to sing, James only caught small snatches, like 'Or you could be in Ravenclaw…' The girl in the line of first-years also seemed to not be paying attention, as she scanned the Hall with interest, her eyes lingering on Sirius and James.

"Of course," Sirius muttered out of the corner of his mouth, nudging James with his elbow. "She's looking at us, best-looking chaps in the school. Ten Sickles for the one who snogs her first?"

"You have no class," James said, smirking. "Deal."

When the hat finished its song, James applauded along with the rest of the boys, pretending he had listened. Professor McGonagall's voice rang across the Great Hall, saying:

"When I call your name, come forward and place the hat on your head and wait for it to sort you in the correct house. You may then go to the table of your new house."

James waited for the girl to be Sorted. Apparently, her surname was near the end of the alphabet, because they were at the M's already and she had not yet been called forward. James was beginning to get impatient, when…

"Nelson, Gwen!"

The girl stepped forward and seated herself primly on the stool, a look of aversion crossing her face for a split second as she looked at the hat Professor McGonagall handed her before she placed it on her head.

James crossed his fingers. He saw that Sirius had clenched his fists. Every human being in the room who possessed testosterone (besides the staff) waited in anticipation. And then…

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"YES!" James and Sirius leapt up in unison to applaud ferociously. Sirius whooped. The people in the Hall raised their eyebrows at the two, and James became aware that even the boys in the room turned to stare at them.

"Er, sorry." James sunk back into his seat, dragging Sirius down with him.

Finally, the Hall applauded for her, the boys of Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin rather disappointedly, while the Gryffindor boys roared. The girl—Gwen—headed for James and Sirius and seated herself right between them.

The Sorting continued.

"Hello, I'm Sirius Black," Sirius said, holding out his hand for the girl to shake.

Gwen took his hand. "Hi! I'm Gwen Nelson. I come from America." She did possess an American accent.

"America, eh?" James took her hand and kissed it, first looking at Sirius maliciously, and then glancing and Lily to see if she was watching. Her eyes were fixed on the Sorting, and she showed no signs of caring about James or Gwen.

Damn.

"Yes. I come from Los Angeles, and I went to Cowmoles Academy of Magic. But I moved here with my aunt because my mother died when I was seven, and my father abused me after that."

James and Sirius exchanged glances, surprised at her openness.

"Er, sorry about that," James offered.

She kept talking as though she had not heard him. "But I took care of the animals at the local Muggle Humane Society to get my mind off things. My dad is a Muggle, see. The only reason I could go to Cowmoles was because my Grandma, my mother's mother—my Grandma's half veela, by the way—anyway, she was very fierce and told my father she would curse him for all eternity if he didn't let me go."

Intelligent people have a certain way of talking—a quickness of mind and an ease to get the right words out.

Gwen didn't talk like that.

Sirius didn't seem to have noticed the fact.

She kept rambling throughout the rest of the Sorting—about how she established the Quidditch Cheerleading Team at Cowmoles and became the captain, about her love of animals, about her veela heritage. James was not surprised by the fact that her great-grandmother was a veela; he knew she was almost inhumanly beautiful. But he thought she might be a bit more intelligent, and found that her talking was uninteresting, with the occasional stupid giggle to break the monotony.

"…And when I was finally allowed to become an Animagus this summer after I came of age, my dad—"

"Whoa! You're an Animagus!" James was roused from his thoughts of Lily and stared at Gwen with amazement. "What animal form are you?"

He almost knew the answer before she said it. "Unicorn!" she replied brightly. James sunk back into his thoughts, thoroughly depressed.

Of course. He suppressed a snort. Unicorn.

"They're just so happy and fun, and..."

At last, Dumbledore stood as McGonagall took the Sorting Hat and stool away. James didn't hear what he said, as he was picturing what it might feel like to kiss Lily. In fact, he had already devised an entire broom cupboard scene for the two of them before the food appeared.

Then, he ate. Because not even Evans could stand between him and treacle pudding.

Gwen droned on some more, but this time he didn't even bother listening. All she wanted to talk about were the animals she took care of at the Muggle Humane Society.

James just wanted Lily to feed him treacle pudding from a spoon.

He looked over at her. She didn't even offer him a glance, just asked her friend Rosie to pass the boiled potatoes, brushing a bit of fiery hair behind one ear. She laughed at something a boy across the table said to her.

How could she laugh when she had just crushed James Potter's heart?

A/N: Who else is tired of Mary Sues coming through and ruining all the OTPs! Fight back against the canon butcherers!

Anyway.

This isn't the start I'd hoped for, but starts are never that good for me. I actually had two chapters written of this plot before (so if you've read something similar, don't freak and think I'm some psycho plot-thief), but it was no good, so I started over.

I promise, it will get better, and hopefully funnier. I have trouble getting humor down on paper, so bear with me. I swear it'll improve.

Virtual cookies for reviewers!

-Carrie!