Lily Evans absentmindedly brushed her hair out of her face as she watched the scenery speed by. She was on the Hogwarts Express, heading towards her sixth year. She could hear the mindless chatters outside her compartment. She sighed and wished someone was there with her. She didn't have any friends, unless you counted the books in the library. Lily leaned her head against the glass window and saw her reflection. A fifteen-year-old girl, with dark, red hair, and sparkling, green eyes stared back at her. Lily continued to stare at herself, soon falling asleep, getting lost in her thoughts and dreams.

BAM! The compartment door burst open, and James Potter sauntered in, pulling the door shut behind him. He sank into the open seat; not noticing a sleeping Lily occupied this compartment. He had just hit snape with a load of dung bombs and the air smelled full of it. Lily stirred at the smell and finally caught James's attention. He could pick out who she was even though she was curled up in the corner of the seat, her hair draping over her face. "Purificus," he muttered quietly, and the air smelled clean again. James watched Lily sleep peacefully, her chest moving up and down to her small breaths. Lily soon began to wake, and James's expression became cold.

"Evans," he sneered.

Lily was fully awake now for being addressed to. She opened her eyes. Everything was blurry at first, but became clearer. She found herself staring into James Potter's dark eyes.

She scowled and said, "What do you want?"

It was her old stalker. Last year, he would follow her around everywhere, messing with her. But at the end of that dreadful year, he had promised he would leave her alone. But Lily had a great, distinct feeling that he had broken it.

James clicked his tongue softly. "Don't set that tone of voice. Or you know what I could do."

"No, I don't know what you could do." Lily shrank back into her seat. "And I'm not afraid of you." But even to her own ears, her voice wasn't convincing.

James grinned maliciously. "We're not, are we? Well, we'll just have to see about that." He slowly stood up and made his way to her side of the seat, where she shrank back even more. He towered over her and placed his hands on her wrists and squeezed hard, hard enough to bring tears to Lily's eyes.

"Stop!" she gasped, squirming to get free, but his hold was too strong for her.

Leaning down, he put his face right in front of hers, their heads only a few inches away. "And why should I?" Lily turned her face away. James let go of her wrists, and put his hands on her face, turning her head to force her to look into his eyes. "Why?"

Lily stared into his cold eyes before she slapped him as hard as she could. He gave a loud grunt and stumbled back. His hand went up to his face where she had hit him. It was turning bright pink. She quickly scrambled away, crawling towards the compartment door, and standing up, when James dragged her back down. She landed in his lap, struggling to stand up. "You're not going anywhere," he whispered softly into her ear. His warm breath tickled her and she shivered.

"And why the hell not?"

"Because I don't want you to leave yet," he countered back.

"Please, Potter. Just leave me alone. I haven't done anything to you...and you promised," she pleaded.

James noticed a weakness in her. He let her go and menacingly said, "I know I promised, but that was last year. I'll give you twenty seconds to run away from this compartment. Twenty seconds and that's all. If I find you, you'll wish you were never born." Lily shakily got up.

"Go," he scoffed, without any emotion in his voice. "Go now!"

Lily pulled the door open and ran. She got many weird looks from other students as she forcefully pushed people out of her way, in fear of getting caught by James. A few seconds later, she found her way into an empty compartment at the other end of the train. She performed a locking spell on it so not even "Ahlohamora!" could open it. She knew that it wasn't a good place. She knew that James was going to find her sooner or later. But what she really feared was what he had said before---"If I find you, you'll wish you were never born"---she shuddered at the thought of what he would do. Moments later, she could hear his loud, booming voice go, "Evans!" There were loud banging noises on compartment doors as he would pound on every single one he passed by. With each bang, he got closer and closer until he finally reached hers.

"EVANS?!" Lily cringed back as he hammered on the door. "Alright, I know you're in this one. It's the only compartment I haven't checked." James fiddled with the lock. Lily could hear him mutter, "Ahlohamora." But it wouldn't unlock. "So, Evans, you putting a locking charm on the door. But that doesn't stop me from getting in."

Lily could almost see his evil face through the door. He started kicking and punching the door, without forgetting to put a silencing charm on it, trying to get in with every possible way. It wouldn't draw too much attention since this compartment was towards the end of the train where no one else was, except for a few seventh years, who didn't pay any attention and thought that it was just a little hopeless flirting. And that's when he started putting charms on the door. Lily knew it was the final way of breaking down the door.

"Why are you doing this to me, Potter?" she decidedly said through the door, as she figured frightfully that he knew it was her. "Why me?"

"Because..." he said, playing with the answer. "I like torturing you." Within every hex, the door started to break down. Lily could see little splinters of the door coming flying at her. Then she heard the move relieving voice ever.

"Alright, come on, students. We'll be arriving at Hogwarts in one minute. Please change into your robes."

James kicked the door for the final time as he heard the announcement. "Don't worry, Evans. I'll see you around. Be sure of it." Then he stalked away, his heavy footsteps fading away as he got farther from her end of the train.

By the time Lily was seated at the feast in the Great Hall, she had calmed down from the events that had happened earlier, but was quickly tense again as James and his friends, the Marauders, sat down next to her. She knew that his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew didn't know what James did to her. If they had known, she doubted they would let James do what he did to her in the first place.

"Hello, Lily," James said in a sweet voice, but his eyes told her he was going to do something. His friends nodded behind him. "Having a nice dinner?"

Not looking into his eyes, Lily mumbled, "Fine. Just fine."

"Oh, alright then."

The rest of the dinner was quiet for her. Lily could hear the Marauders discussing what pranks to play on the Slytherins. If Lily didn't know the other side of James, her first impression of him would be a fun-loving, handsome guy, who was extremely smart and love to play Quidditch. But she knew she was wrong.

It angered Lily whenever she saw James and another girl flirting and on top of each other, as he was doing right now. She always wondered why James was so cruel to her. Only her.

The mob of students was crowding out of the Great Hall, and Lily was heading towards her dormitory when an all-too-familiar arm steered her out of the main hall, and into one of the dark, side corridors. Lily struggled to get away from the grasp but failed. James wrapped his powerful arm around Lily's tiny waist and kept his hold on her. Lily's petite, 5'4 figure was nothing compared to James's 6'0 muscular body. After the crowd was gone, he let her go and turned her around so she was facing him.

"I want you to meet me by the lake at 12:30 tonight," James promptly said.

Lily glared at him and said, "What the hell is your damn problem?"

He ignored her question and said, "You better be there."

Lily turned away and scoffed extremely softly. "Ha. Yeah right."

James obviously had heard her because he was facing her again, fire in his eyes. He raised his hand as if to hit her, breathing very heavily. Lily was now positively scared, her green eyes wide with fear. James took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm himself down, and he lowered his hand. Then he swept off, breaking into a run, away from her.

---------

Lily rolled over in her bed. She had fallen asleep for a while and had woken up again, for the third time, in fact. She looked at her clock, which was lying on her night table. It read 12:52. "Oh, God," she thought. She quickly got out of bed and went into the Common Room. As she almost got to the portrait hole, a figure that was in shadows of the room came out.

"I told you to go to the lake," he said in a soft, hissing voice.

"I for-forgot," Lily stuttered.

"You forgot to? What a pitiful answer," James said, his voice getting slightly louder. "You know I hate getting ignored."

James then grabbed her and forcefully pushed her out of the exit of the Common Room. Dragging her along at his side, he lead the way, going deeper into the dark. Finally, he reached a door, which lead outside towards the lake.

Lily kept silent the whole time, not having a good feeling of what he was about to do. The cold breeze by the water chilled her greatly, and she shivered.

"Cold, Evans?" James asked, laughing nastily. "Good."

She looked around, helplessly and hugging herself to have some warmth. "Why am I here?" she asked timidly.

"I just want to get a few things straight with you," he said, in a loud, demanding tone. "You are to listen to me at all times. Do you understand that?"

She nodded, scared.

"By not coming to the lake at exactly 12:30 is not listening to me," he said.

"You are to sit with me during mealtimes, even if I'm alone. It doesn't matter who is with me. You will watch every single Gryffindor quidditch game. If you do not come, I will know. In every class that we have together, you are to sit next to me. Again, it doesn't matter who else is there. You are always going to be with me. Do you get that clearly, Evans?"

She was staring out towards the lake and was silent. James took her quietness as a yes to his question.

"If you do not follow what I say, the consequence will be a nice dip in the lake for you." He smirked. "At night," he added, as an afterthought.

He knew she was afraid of the murky waters. Unknown creatures dwelled in the very waters that they were standing next to. There was a difference at the lake between day and night. During the day, the lake was a pleasant sight, a light blue with little waves going about. But at night, the water was completely still. Black and frightening, who knew what lived beneath the water when the sun was gone.

"And hence, that's why I took you out here. In case you refused, you would've gone for a delightful swim."

Lily finally spoke up. "I just have one question, Potter," she said softly. Asking for the second time that day, she said, "Why do you do this to me? Why only me?"

He laughed vindictively. "Because I can."