Title: Is It About The Chase Or The Girl?
Author: Sishopper
Rating: Rated: T
Genre: Romance/Angst

The relationship between James Potter and Lily Evans hasn't always been trustworthy, their arguments most often heated. What changes between them, to the point that James finally gets the girl of his dreams? And just how do the Marauders factor in? Starting from the summer after fifth year, hoping to be as canon compliant as possible. Rated T for swearing and hinting.

I hope you all enjoy this fanfic and that you add it to your following/favourites. Please don't forget to review, it really goes a long way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything else in that world, I can't even afford gum.

Chapter 1

The rain pours down, shattering the cement. It tears the road and rips out the grass. Pouring through the cracks in the roof, it swells through the holes in the windows, and tears through them until they're twice their size. You can feel it in your bones and so you rejoice and praise in it's homecoming. The way it is calming while being catastrophic, to people and nature around it. It's coming, you can always tell. It arrives with dark clouds, in a deep grey sky and it changes the world to match. If you're outside when this happens, it's like you can almost smell the change and destruction of wildlife and the rips and tears of human life. It is powerful and strong, a force not to be reckoned with. And yet some do not realize just how murderous it can be.

For it has no fear, as there is nothing that can harm it. But it is the thing most victims fear, because it holds the unknown.

The sky seemed to be looming over the family car, just coming from King's Cross Station in London. Lily Evans had spent most of her day looking up at the sky, admiring the rain and ignoring the painful memories that beckoned from the corners of her mind. When she paused long enough, they all came rushing back to her.

Lily had been at the lake's edge after writing her O.W.L. exam for Defence Against the Dark Arts, looking over her transfiguration notes while her friends relaxed beside her when she saw a crowd gathering around a clump of students. Lily had a bad feeling that it had something to do with Severus and Potter and, all the while muttering to herself (all her friends could hear was 'James Bloody Potter'), she stood up and stormed over to try to dispatch the crowd. She arrived just in time to hear James utter what she was sure was some cutting remark, followed by 'Scourgify!', causing pink soap bubbles to stream from Snape's mouth at once; the froth was covering his lips, making him gag, choking him until Lily was close enough to do something.

'Leave him ALONE!' She bellowed, pink patches covering her cheeks in her anger. She wanted to punch James in the face –and she would've too, if they'd been alone. But as it stood, she didn't want the younger years to think that physical violence was the way to solve a problem –even though it sure as hell made Lily feel better.

James and Sirius turned round with James' free hand immediately jumping to his hair, just as Lily approached the boys. 'All right, Evans?' said James, and the tone of his voice was suddenly irritatingly conversational, as if he wasn't just choking her best friend on the ground with soap.

'Leave him alone,' Lily repeated. Lily stared at James, every sign of her great dislike of him evident in her expression. 'What's he done to you?'

'Well,' said James, appearing to deliberate the point, 'it's more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…' Many of the surrounding students laughed, Sirius and Peter included, but Lily didn't, and nor did Remus Lupin –she gave him points for that, though they merely cancelled out the negative ones for not doing anything to dissuade the confrontation from happening in the first place.

'You think you're funny,' she said coldly. 'But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone.' She swore in her mind as soon as she saw James' response cross his mind. She knew before he even opened his mouth what he would say and she swore vehemently when she was not proven wrong.

'I will if you go out with me, Evans,' said James quickly, practically jumping at the opening that Lily had inadvertently given him. 'Go on… go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.' Behind him, the Impediment Jinx was wearing off, though James was so focused on the redhead before him that he paid no attention to Snape; spitting out soapsuds as he crawled, Snape was beginning to inch towards his fallen wand.

'I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid,' exclaimed Lily adamantly.

'Bad luck, Prongs,' said Sirius briskly, turning his focus back to Snape. 'Oi!' But too late; Snape had directed his wand straight at James; there was a flash of light and a gash appeared on the side of James's face, spattering his robes with blood.

As Lily's heart froze and her mind went blank, she was unable to prevent what happened next.

James whirled about and a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside-down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants. Many people in the small crowd cheered; Sirius, James and Wormtail roared with laughter.

Lily shoved away her feelings to deal with later –though she was unable to stop her furious expression from twitching into a small smile and, after forcing the ironic memories of when she had cast the very same jinx on her best friend –in private! –after he made a sarcastic comment about wanting to see what type of undergarments Professor Taylor wore out of her mind, turned back to James and snarled viciously, 'Let him down!'

'Certainly,' said James and he jerked his wand upwards; Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground.

After disentangling himself from his robes, he quickly got to his feet, wand up, but Sirius said, 'Locomotor mortis!' and Snape keeled over again at once, rigid as a board.

'LEAVE HIM ALONE!' Lily shouted furiously; she had her own wand out now and James and Sirius eyed it warily –with good reason, as they had both felt the brunt of her fury coming from her wand's end many, many times in the past.

'Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you,' said James earnestly, though he looked rather reluctant to do so; his fear of retaliation was great and he did not look forward to the pain it would undoubtedly entail.

'Take the curse off him, then!'

James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the counter-curse.

'There you go,' he said, as Snape struggled to his feet. 'You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus—'

'I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!'

Lily blinked. She opened her mouth, paused, closed it and opened it with narrowed eyes once more, 'Fine,' she said coolly, nudging aside her fury. 'I won't bother in future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.'

'Apologize to Evans!' James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.

'I don't want you to make him apologize,' Lily shouted, rounding on James. 'You're as bad as he is.'

'What?' yelped James, suddenly looking affronted and upset. 'I'd NEVER call you a - you-know-what!'

'Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just got off your broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can - I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it. You make me SICK.' She turned on her heel and hurried away, furious with everyone there, but most importantly, herself.

'Evans!' James shouted after her. 'Hey, EVANS!'

But she didn't look back. She hadn't spoken to either Potter nor Snape since then, not even five days later once they were all on the Hogwarts Express heading home.

Try as she might, not speaking does not mean that she didn't think about them. She spent the lengthy train ride to London from Hogsmeade staring out the window up at the sky and thinking about them, (much like she did now) ignoring her friends and only murmuring some vague response when they tried to bring her into their conversation about their extensive traveling plans for the summer. Now, in a different kind of car, with the same sky and thoughts on the same boys, she did the same thing when her parents tried to ask her how her fifth year at Hogwarts, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, went. Because, you see, Lily Evans was not normal. In fact, she was as far from normal as one can be –much to her sister's chagrin. Lily Evans was a witch and, coming from a family of muggles (non-magic folk), she had grown up knowing nothing of the amazing world that was just under her nose. That is, until she met a certain hooked-nosed, greasy black-haired boy, who happens to be the very Severus Snape that she couldn't stop thinking about, along with the annoying prick of a boy called James Potter that has been obsessed with her since the end of first year. But, looking up at the sky, Lily could forget about all that –she certainly tried, even as tears streamed quietly down her face like they'd been doing all day. As the car pulled into the driveway, Lily looked up and saw a curtain shift. She hoped it was the wind, rather than her older sister, Petunia. Oh well, thought Lilly, maybe this summer will be better than the school year.

She tried not to let the roll of thunder feel too much like an omen; even if she didn't put any stock in Divination, that didn't mean she couldn't take a hint.

The beginning of Lily's summer passed quite unexpectedly, because to the Evans household, normal meant days filled with condescending remarks, furious and embarrassing reprimanding and tearful conversations with so much built up regret, rage and loss between two sisters that it became almost unbearable. This certainly dubbed as normal for the two Evans sisters, as relations between Lily and Petunia only continued to deteriorate. After the first two weeks of July passed, Lily took to passing time at the neighbourhood park, like she used to when she was a child. Only this time, she was there all by herself.

On days that she couldn't bear the loneliness at the park, she'd stay at home and read a book to ignore the loneliness there. Lily was alone throughout the days, due to the long hours her parents kept–her mother was a nurse, her father a history Professor –and Petunia leaving first thing in the morning; she'd come down the stairs into the kitchen fully dressed, grabbing an apple on her way by, and, without any words to her family, leave to spend the day with Vernon.

Vernon Dursley, or Vermin as Lily calls him when Petunia wasn't nearby, was Petunia's boyfriend of five months, two weeks, and three days –Petunia had taken to bragging about her exploits in the letters their mother forced each sister to write, and she ridiculed and taunted her sister whenever she had something that Lily didn't. In this case, that just so happened to be a boyfriend. Vernon was a beefy blond 18 year old, with very little neck and a nose that was constantly turned upwards in distaste. One could always count on Vermin to have something negative to say when Petunia invited him for supper. On those occasions, when the young couple were not in the room, Lily and her parents would discuss rather hopefully the possibility of a breakup rather than a proposal. It seemed that one night, Petunia heard Lily say so, as Vernon was then invited over for dinner every night for the following week.

Briefly, Lily considered inviting Severus to the park, as she used to, if only for a break from the constant loneliness that followed her everywhere. But she reminded herself that things had changed between them, and that some things could never be forgiven. She told him as much, when one day, he surprised her at the park and had begged for her forgiveness. She left him standing there, staring after her, and went home. She preferred even the empty house to her looking at Snape, even as both left her feeling drained and weary.

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