A/N: This is my first story on here; it's a multi-chapter Jily fic that I was inspired to write because of the ever-beautiful Life and Times. And if you're reading it, thank you! And I hope you like it! And though I wish I did in fact own these characters and this world and have James Potter as my own...alas, it all belongs to Queen Rowling. Warning: this story contains swear words
Prologue
1 September 1971
James Potter entered Lily Evan's life like a thunderstorm. She was 11 years old, sitting on the Hogwarts Express and watching all the magical families on the platform, in their rainbow of robes, everyone with their own special wands and odd gadgets that she had never seen before. It was his first day at Hogwarts too, but he strode onto Platform 9 ¾ with a confidence that only comes from growing up in this world of spells and enchantments, his glasses and smile both crooked and, to her at least, very endearing. The first thing she noticed was his hair, messy and almost as black as his robes. Lily's 11-year-old self found him as good-looking as the singing rockstars on her telly. She was quite sure that she was deeply in love with him. But of course, that was before she actually met James Potter.
30 May 1975
Lily stumbled back into the Gryffindor Common Room, ready after this exhausting day to curl into her bed upstairs and just forget about the shite that was constituting her life. She had just lost her best mate. The image of Severus begging her for forgiveness outside the Common Room just moments before kept playing in her head, like a sad scene in a just-watched film. But Lily, deep down, knew she had done the right thing… no matter how hard it would be to not turn back. He had called her a… a mudblood in front of her entire year. Something that, in these times, was unforgivable. But worse than the actual words was the way he said it, like he wanted to cause her pain. Friends didn't do that to other friends. It was, unfortunately, horribly, as simple as that. The longest friendship she had ever had was… over.
In a daze she walked across the common room, ignoring the worried looks on the faces of her friends and classmates. Even the girls she had roomed with since first year knew better than try to talk to her, simply sending her weak smiles of support. But one Gryffindor, never having been able to understand the importance of personal space, ran up behind Lily and grabbed her shoulder. "Hey, Evans, how did that go?" James Potter, looking at her with a mixture of concern and pity on his handsome face. Lily was angry, and rightly so. But, as young, upset teenagers (and people in general) so often do, Lily directed it towards the wrong teenage boy. Lily instantly connected Severus's actions with what had been happening immediately before Lily tried to intervene. And Lily instantly realized (falsely so) that Severus was only treating her cruelly, had only been growing apart from her, was only befriending those obsessive Slytherins, because of horrible, bullying James Potter.
"Wonderfully, thanks to you." Sarcasm dripped out of every syllable as Lily shrugged his strong hand off of her shoulder.
"Wait. Are you seriously blaming me for what just happened?" She stopped walking, turning around to listen to him, but too upset to bother answering. He wouldn't listen even if she did. He never did (Lily told herself angrily).
James stared at Lily expectantly, his worried expression transforming into one of fury and frustration with every passing second. Finally he couldn't take the silence anymore. "Honestly? God, Evans, you are mental. Fucking mental. I would never dare to, even think… that word! Especially not about you. He's the one that said it! I never made him… if he was half a decent bloke he wouldn't have gotten so bloody pissy about your attempt to help him." He continued, saying every word with such animosity that it was obvious that the day's events had also put him on edge. "You think you have everyone all figured out, but you don't. You are so stuck in the images your mind created five years ago that you won't notice how much people can change." Lily turned around and started walking away, too emotionally drained to deal with James Potter. But he continued, "for Christ's sake Evans, it took Snivellus's calling you a mudblood for you to finally realize what I have been trying to tell you for years! Maybe if you had listened to me for once…" James's voice trailed off, his meaning evident.
Lily didn't care that the entire common room was watching expectantly. They had seen enough James and Lily arguments that this one would fade away and lose importance by this time tomorrow. With her voice cracking and her face redder than her hair, Lily yelled out at James, "you, Potter, are the largest, most insufferable, most horriblearse that I have ever had the displeasure of meeting. And honestly, if you cared about me about a centimetre as much as you claim to, you would do me one favour. And never, ever speak to me again! Your very presence sickens me. You always want to appear the hero don't you? Well you're not. You're as much of a git as he is! Just…" Lily searched for the right word to say (even in the heat of the moment she understood that there are some words a prefect should never utter in front of first years), "just bugger off!"
With that, Lily ran up to her empty bedroom and fell onto her bed in a painful mixture of exhaustion and anger and sadness. But mainly sadness. Fully clothed, Lily Evans fell asleep on her curtained bed, with her final waking thoughts on blurring images of two soot-haired boys, one mousy and sullen, and the other handsome and cocky. One she (unfortunately) understood, the other still a mystery.
