A/N: Dedicated to the lovely Vicky [blurs of red and blonde] for her birthday - happy 18th, darling, and I'm so sorry it's late! (And your MV present is coming soon :P)
"Morning, Evans!" came James Potter's deafening voice, he and his irritating little friends catching Lily up as they made their way towards Charms, their first lesson of the day. Lily wondered for a second if James was capable of going anywhere without the company of those three; it was like they were his bodyguards or something.
She rolled her eyes. "What do you want, Potter?" she asked, although she knew full well what the answer would be.
"Not a very nice way to greet your most favourite person," James said, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Anyway. I've heard there's a Hogsmeade weekend soon; fancy going with me?" he asked hopefully.
"You'd think after three years you would have learnt the meaning of no, Potter," Lily said despairingly. "For the last time, no I will not go out with you."
James shrugged, the grin remaining on his face all the same. "Your loss if you'd rather go with Snivellus the slimeball." Sirius snorted while the other two at least had the decency to look slightly uncomfortable.
"Grow up, Potter," Lily told him angrily. "His name is Severus, not Snivellus, and he is not a slimeball. He also happens to be my best friend, so I'd appreciate it if you stopped insulting him." Boys were so infuriating - how did it make any sense at all for James to be asking her out one second and degrading her best friend the next? And... he looked so cheerful about it.
"Whatever. Just make sure to buy him some shampoo while you're there," James instructed, and this time Sirius actually burst out laughing as they arrived in the classroom and Lily took a seat as far away from the boys as possible.
"Morning, Evans!" James greeted Lily cheerfully as he arrived, unusually alone, down in the common room for the first time that morning.
It should be illegal for anyone to look that happy at this time in the morning, Lily thought, disgruntled. She could only imagine what she looked like after spending the night asleep on a desk.
"What?" he demanded at Lily's answering glare.
"Don't call me Evans. And I've been up writing this essay all night," she informed him grumpily, gesturing towards the crumpled piece of parchment on the table, "except for the part where I fell asleep on it. Why do you have to be so damn cheerful?"
James shrugged. "My natural state, I guess." Lily snorted - throw Severus Snape into the equation, and that definitely wasn't true. But she supposed he was a ridiculously happy person most of the time. "Who's the essay for?" he enquired. "It's not like you to leave your homework this late. Am I a bad influence on you?" he asked her teasingly.
"Don't flatter yourself. Why would I be influenced by you? It's for Slughorn," Lily replied, "and I don't know why I delayed it so much. I just... had no inspiration."
James laughed. "Since when did you need inspiration to write an essay? Especially if it's for Slughorn - he'll think anything you write is genius. He thinks the sun shines out of you... an assessment most people tend to agree with," James added, and Lily couldn't help smiling despite herself.
"You see, the difference is this. When you write an essay, you write it as quickly as possible so it's done and you can run along and play with your Marauder pals, or whatever it is you call yourselves nowadays," Lily said, maybe a little harshly. She'd overheard the name in a conversation between the four boys and never let it go since. "When I write an essay, I want to write something worthwhile. If I do something, I do it properly."
James looked for a moment like he was going to argue, but seemed to decide against it. "True enough," he said, shrugging.
Lily stared at him curiously. "Why are you being so nice today?"
"I'm always nice," James protested indignantly. "Although I'd like to point out that looking at my OWL results would indicate that I can produce good quality writing when it matters, and I didn't earn this badge for nothing," he said, pointing towards the Head Boy badge gleaming on his chest.
"Whatever," Lily said, shrugging indifferently. Their conversation seemed to have run out of steam. "I guess I'll-" Lily began finally, gesturing to the staircase, as she needed to change into some clean clothes.
"Okay. I'd better-" James said similarly, but pointing instead towards the portrait hole. "I'll see you around... Lily."
Lily made her way up to the girls' dormitory, lost in thought. James Potter had just called her by her first name, and, what's more, she'd just managed to have a whole conversation with him without getting infuriated. And, now she thought about it, he hadn't asked her out once in the week since they'd arrived back at Hogwarts for their seventh year. What was the world coming to?
"Good morning, Mrs Potter."
Lily smiled. She felt simply radiant; it had to be the best feeling in the world to wake up in the arms of her new husband, and she knew she would never tire of hearing herself referred to as Mrs Potter. She looked into the face of her husband, and thought about how far they'd come. If someone had suggested to her a few years ago that they'd end up married, she would have told them they needed to see a Healer. But in that moment, she couldn't imagine anywhere she'd rather be.
"Good morning, Mr Potter."
A/N: For the prompt "early morning cheerfulness can be extremely obnoxious" on the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp on HPFC. I guess he isn't particularly obnoxious in the second two, but I thought it would be nice to explore three completely different stages in their relationship. :)
I'm not JKR and I own nothing.