Disclaimer: JKR all the way…only the plot is mine!
"Hey Evans will you –"
"No Potter!"
"Sheesh Evans, can't you just pass me that quill on the floor next to you?" James whispered, smirking.
Lily blushed.
"Oh – er – here then Potter…" she said quietly, keeping her eyes on Professor Flitwick.
Grinning, James took the quill from her, making sure that his hand brushed against Lily's. Lily wrenched her hand backwards and glared at James.
"Do you mind, Potter?" she snapped. "Do you use every possible advantage to touch me?"
James held in his laughter as Flitwick looked around the room and Lily suddenly realised how wrong what she had just said sounded. Blushing furiously once more, she lowered her eyes to her parchment and resumed her note-taking, trying her hardest to ignore the whispering from the four boys next to her.
"Evans! Psst…Evans! Will you go out with me?"
Lily gritted her teeth and she could distinctly hear Sirius and Peter laughing whilst Remus was busy whispering something angrily to James. Lily knew she could count on Remus. Black, Pettigrew and the arrogant prick, Potter on the other hand…
Ignoring him and sharing an exasperated look with her best friends, Alice Corner and Marlene McKinnon, she shook her head very slightly, hoping that Potter could get that hint through his inflated head.
She glanced over at the boys and saw Sirius take a small notebook out of his robe pocket and make a tally mark. The blood rushed up to her face once more.
"Black, are you keeping track of how many times I turn down your sorry excuse for a friend?" she hissed angrily.
Even Alice and Marlene looked interested to see how Sirius would handle this enraged Lily.
"How do you get her to talk to you Padfoot?" James asked eagerly.
"It's my skill with the ladies," Sirius smirked. "Not that I'd go for Evans though!" he added quickly, noticing the suspicious look on James' face.
Lily heard everything.
"Can you stop talking about me as though I'm not even here? Besides, Black, I wouldn't go for you in a million years so get over yourself!" she said as quietly as she could, without attracting the attention of Professor Flitwick.
Sirius only grinned. "I didn't hear you say anything about ol' Jamesie here…Does that mean you'll go out with him?" he asked shrewdly.
Lily's face went the same colour as her hair for about the third time that lesson.
"I just didn't want to say his name, okay?" she said quickly.
Alice and Marlene exchanged a 'look'.
"Black actually brought up quite a good point there," Alice whispered to Marlene.
"Ooooh…we'll have to ask her about it later!" Marlene said excitedly.
Giggling, the two girls turned back to the conversation.
James' face went from excited to disappointed straightaway. Lily rolled her eyes. She saw that look on his face every time he asked her out and she turned him down, which was at least once a day.
But then she saw Remus looking at her strangely. She gave him a 'look' that clearly said 'what?' He shook his head slightly, but continued to look at her shrewdly. James did not fail to miss this. He whispered something into Remus' ear, so Lily couldn't hear. Remus was quiet for a moment and then he whispered something back to James, who broke into the biggest smile Lily had ever seen on his face. (Even bigger than that time when he had unknowingly stuck a note on the back of Lily's back that said in big, bold letters, James Potter is MY man!)
The moment was spoilt as Sirius practically leapt onto Remus' desk to know what the secret was. Peter too, was looking warily at James, who looked as though he were about to float into the air. (Or perhaps that was just because Lily was on the edge of hexing him with the Wingardium Leviosa spell)
The four boys started whispering amongst each other once again. Giving up, Lily turned back towards her notes, deeply confused by Remus' actions. He was usually the sensible one. But it wasn't long before she felt tugging on her robes. She looked around and saw Marlene pointing towards the boys table and trying not to laugh Alice herself was already giggling as quietly as she could, though it seemed to be taking up all of her will power not to burst out laughing and bring Professor Flitwick towards them. He was currently busily writing something on the blackboard.
Dreading what she was about to see, Lily turned around to face the boys…and gasped. James had somehow, in the space of a few minutes, conjured up a huge signboard and pasted all over it, were pictures of her and him and they seemed to be holding hands and even, in some pictures – Lily nearly fainted – kissing.
James and Sirius were smirking but Peter looked scared at the look on Lily's face and Remus was looking at James with an annoyed look on his face, as though James had done something wrong…
"Well of course he did something bloody wrong!" Lily thought to herself. "He's got freaking pictures of me and him KISSING! How the hell did he do that?"
Fuming, Lily made a grab for the board, but James moved it out of the way and Lily snatched at the air, lost her balance and felt flat on the floor…
Everyone swivelled around in their seats and stared at her wide-eyed.
"Just when I thought this bad lesson couldn't get worse…" she thought to herself, her face giving of enough heat to fill up the whole room.
Professor Flitwick finally noticed the commotion at the back and began walking towards them. Lily meanwhile, was still sitting on the floor, rubbing her knee that had knocked the desk. James stretched out his hand, but ignoring him she instead took Alice's offered hand.
"What the hell did you do that for, Potter?" she almost yelled, noticing that the board of pictures had disappeared instantly.
"What! You were the one who missed and fell over!" he said feebly, knowing he was in for another yelling from Lily.
Professor Flitwick cleared his throat and glanced between the two feuding students.
"Miss Evans and Mr Potter! I would appreciate it if you left your fighting out of this class and concentrated on the work at hand." he said in his squeaky voice.
The end-of-class bell rang and Professor Flitwick sighed.
"Class dismissed."
Taking full advantage of the fact that the lesson had ended, Lily started yelling at James once more.
"Where did you get those pictures from?" she demanded, whilst walking out of the classroom.
"That's for me to know, Evans, but if you want those pictures to come true then I'm all yours…" he said casually.
"SHUT UP POTTER!" Lily shouted. "When will you just take the hint and leave me alone?"
"Never, Lils, never. Because I know we are meant to be."
Letting out a frustrated sound, Lily grabbed hold of Marlene and Alice and dragged them away.
In a last ditch attempt, James yelled, "So you really don't want to go on the next Hogsmeade trip with me?"
Swearing obscenities that the four boys could hear from the other end of the hallway, Lily turned around the corner and was lost from view.
"She digs me," James said matter-of-factly.
Even Sirius looked at James weirdly.
"Prongs," Remus said. "She might've liked you a tiny bit before, as I told you in the classroom, but I think you blew it…again."
James looked dispirited, but then he perked up.
"Lightning has just struck my brain!" he said happily.
"That must've hurt," Peter said.
"Come on. Let's go. We've got to find Peeves."
"Peeves?" Sirius said incredulously, whilst following James down the hallway.
"What? Why?" Remus asked, fearing for James' sanity.
"If what you told me was true, Moony, about Lily maybe liking me, then we'll need that Special, Emergency, Once-in-a-lifetime, Only to be used in dire situations Potion we kept with Peeves all those years back." James said in one breath.
"What? Prongs, have you gone crazy! We can't use the Special, Emergency, Once-in-a-lifetime, Only to be used in dire situations Potion! I mean, it's only for – for special, emergency, once-in-a-lifetime situations!" Sirius said desperately.
"And isn't this one?" James said excitedly. "I mean if my precious Lily flower is actually falling for me then who knows what will happen? I HAVE to know!"
"Ok, ok, Prongs!" Sirius laughed. Even Remus and Peter grinned at James' obvious excitement. They skidded across the hallway, spotting Peeves bobbing along one of the corridors, whilst dropping paint balls on some first years.
"Peeves! Come here! We need something from you!" James called.
Peeves came floating towards them at once. He was always willing to help any student that caused havoc within the school wall and the Marauders had found that Peeves could be a very good person to have on their side (when it came to pranks that is). The first years scuttled away, relieved.
The four boys and one ghost gathered around in a group in the middle of the hallway.
"Peeves, do you still have the potion we gave you all those years back?" James asked quietly.
"I has it right here," Peeves said, drawing a small bottle out of his brightly coloured jacket.
"Wow. You've been carrying that around since all those years back?" Remus asked interestedly.
"Wicked!" Sirius said.
Peeves looked proud of himself and all four boys grinned at him.
"Okay, so here's the plan…" James said and leant forward into the group a bit more.
A few minutes later all four boys and one poltergeist were grinning wickedly.
"So, got it?" James asked.
"Yes," four replies came.
But then –
"What are you four doing with Peeves?" came the stern voice of Professor McGonagall.
All four boys nearly jumped out of their skin and Peeves would have too…if he had any skin.
"We didn't do it!" James and Sirius said together.
"I never even accused you of doing anything…yet," Professor McGonagall said, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly.
"Oh," James said after a pause.
"Well I guess we'll just go now then, Professor. We don't want to waste anymore of your valuable time." Remus said suddenly and all four boys started walking away towards the Great Hall and Peeves floated away.
Professor McGonagall stared after them, trying to shake the image of their grinning faces from her mind. They were up to something again…only time would tell what.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed that! The next chapter may be a while because of that annoying thing called school…bleagh. So please leave a review if you liked it! James/Lily all the way!