Disclaimer: Any of the characters/places/things you happen to recognize in HP don't belong to me. Anything else is mine mine MINE! Enjoy!

Summary: James is convinced that Lily is the girl for him but Lily's isn't quite so sure. In this time of uneasy unrest as the Dark Lord rises to power can James prove that he's more wizard than boy and can Lily come to accept that James means more than she dare admit?

---

CHARM ME

A chill that cut slowly seeped into Lily's bones. Her breath collected in puffs of mist in front of her face. Where was she?

In all four directions all she could see were trees, dark trees grown so dense that it was hard to make one out from another. The foliage curled around, rustling, appearing to move out of her way with each step she took and entwine together again behind her back…

Lily!

Lily spun around but could see nothing but leaves and more trees behind her.

Lily!

This time it was more of a hiss. Around and around she turned trying to discern the direction of the voice.

Something grabbed her arm and Lily jumped-

---

"Lily!"

Cerise shook her best friend's arm again, this time harder but she kept her face carefully neutral as she hissed her name out of the corner of her mouth. Lily jerked awake now wide eyed and confused.

When had she fallen asleep?

Lily Evans, fallen asleep in a lesson? Instantly ashamed that she had let her mind drift enough to fall asleep she sat up straight and brushed her hair away from her face determined to work twice as hard. Around her everyone was busy flicking their wands at crystal balls not unlike those that the divination teacher favored.

"This is a very good exercise on wand control." Professor Flitwick said loudly over the chattering class, he stood high on a stack of thick books frowning as the majority of the class ended up picking up the crystal balls rather than making them float as instructed to do. "You see, the smooth spherical surface makes it very hard to levitate and more importantly to maintain in one position suspended in the air."

Beside Lily, Cerise was biting her lip in frustration. She had succeeded in making the sphere of glass float but was having a very hard time keeping it there. Her wand darted this way and that according to which way the ball looked like it was about to topple to. It was much like someone balancing a book on his or her head and it was certainly taking the same amount concentration. Lily picked up her wand feeling the familiar movement inside of the polished wood as the three Great Pearls within it rolled from one end to the other.

"Ebony with three Great Pearls, ten inches, excellent for charm work. Hard to control but will do many great things once you learn to understand its qualities." Mr. Ollivander had said to her when she first purchased the wand seven years ago. Lily found out just how hard it was to control pretty soon and had spent most of her first year suffering from what she termed "a disobedient wand". The movement of the Pearls inside of the wand had affected her spell casting many a time often missing targets and occasionally backfiring. Lily was thankful in some ways because thanks to her "disobedient wand" she had learnt a very useful new trick that she was about to use.

She placed her wand carefully on her desk and picked up the cool crystal ball in her palm. With a gentle push the ball levitated until it hung six inches from her desk rolling as if it were running away but all the time in the same position. Content that it was almost effortless she looked up at her classmates. Many of them were bent over picking the crystal balls off from the floor a few were carefully balancing theirs like Cerise.

Opposite her she could see Sirius who apparently wasn't interested in trying, beside him was Remus who was making a decent attempt and then beside him was James Potter. He caught her eye and grinned at her as his crystal ball hung perfectly still in the air over his head. He was casually tapping his wand against the side of his desk, not noticing that red sparks were shooting of the end and distracting Peter Pettigrew.

Lily automatically returned his grin with a frown and turned to help Cerise. It was a small wonder that he hadn't suddenly lunged at the ball believing it was a Snitch such were his tendencies. It came with keeping a constant image that he was some Quidditch star with broom swept hair and bore no relation to the fact that he was just a braggart with a very big ego.

James Potter was not at all surprised when Lily pointedly turned her back to him but truth be told he was rather used to it but that's not the point; the point was he didn't mind because in his eyes Lily Evans was perfect. She was smart yet cutely stupid, a dreamer yet firmly grounded and not to mention that she was gorgeous and yes, in his opinion even the back of her head was very pretty.

From the very first time that James had set his eyes on her he knew that they were perfect for each other. There was only one teeny little problem: Lily couldn't stand him. It was one of those many things in life that were sad but true.

With a thunk her friend's wand slipped and the crystal ball hit the floor accusingly as if to point a finger at her shaky control. Lily leant over to pick it up for her offering encouragement as she did and happened to catch him still looking at her. Their eyes connected for the briefest of seconds but it seemed like an age as James received a clear message from her.

Get lost, Potter.

James had heard it over so many times that it became somewhat of a disappointment when he didn't hear it. He could tell that this was going to be one of those non-verbal days, which to him still held its charm even after so many years.

Finally, she straightened and he was faced with her back once more. James took in a deep breath finally able to breathe again. Man alive that was one death glare but that didn't stop his heart from doing a familiar odd flicker. So she still wasn't exactly fond of him yet…

"Minor." He finished aloud.

Sirius yawned widely and stretched. "What's that?"

"I said it's a minor."

"Yeah I heard you first time but what is 'minor'?"

"Lily's distaste for me."

"Is that what you're calling it this month?"

James gave his best friend a withering look. "One day she's going to realize what a charming-"

"A charming git you are." Remus said still concentrating on the task. "The girl can't stand you, mate."

James opened his mouth but Sirius was already ahead of him. "Moony's right. Like I've said a million times, she thinks that you're conceited."

"Big headed." Peter added.

"Arrogant."

"Rude."

"A show off."

James looked helplessly from one Marauder to the other as they insultingly took turns to diss him. How was he supposed to even get a word of defense in when they bombarded him like that?

"Hey!" He squared his shoulders standing up to his full height as he did and conveniently smashed the top of his skull into the crystal ball he had levitated so perfectly. The ball flew off course and landed with a spectacular crash on the floor and broke into pieces.

James fell down to his seat with his hands pressed to a sore spot on his head while Sirius, Remus and Peter guffawed and howled with laughter. How can it be that out of all the dropped crystal balls in that hour his was the only one to break?

When something like that happened it would only make sense if the girl of his dreams whom he most wanted to prove that he was a suave and cool guy of her dreams to, had witnessed it all. With one eye he peeked over in her direction and sure enough she along with the rest of the class had seen his little accident.

So much for being charming.

---

A/N: I would like to welcome new readers and to thank my lovely returning readers! This chapter has been reworked a bit otherwise it's pretty much the same as the original. Hopefully I'll see you all at chapter 70!