Author's Note:

This is my first fanfiction. All criticism is welcome. I'm open to requests and AU's for any Harry Potter ships you have in mind, and you can request them. Any era (Founders, Marauders, Post-Hogwarts, etc.) is acceptable. I apologize for any conventional errors and for anything that might be incorrect from the book series. This is based on my knowledge from the books. I have read a lot of Jily fanfiction and decided to make one of my own.

Thanks for reading!

Rated T (I'm overcautious; this could be a K by a stretch.)

Disclaimer: I do not own James or Lily. All rights to J.K. Rowling.

Lily entered the library and inhaled the smell of parchment, the corners of her lips quirking into a smile. She shouldered her bag and walked to the aisle dedicated to Potions. "Felix Felicis," She muttered under her breath, scanning the wall of books.

The Hogwarts Library was like Lily's second home. She spent hours in it each day, poring over thick volumes and practicing spells. Reading was her meditation. Studying was familiar from her first eleven years as a prodigious Muggle attending a precocious school.

Her eyes caught a tall, thin book with a curling golden title. It was located higher up, and although Lily knew that she was average height, the book was out of reach. "Oh, bloody—"

"Language," scolded a mocking voice from behind her. Lily's hand dropped and she whirled around.

James Potter leaned against the bookshelf, his mouth in a tilted smirk and his hair untidy. "Didn't know that you were trying to get lucky, Lils."

Lily blushed furiously and stepped away as he stepped forward. "Stop being such a cad, James, and leave me alone."

He rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his already-messy hair. "I'll get the book for you." Standing from his position, he made a grab for the book. Lily hit his arm away. He backed away as the smile dropped from his face.

"What, and taunt me for it?" Lily frowned and she tried to read his expression. "Why are you in the library in the first place?"

James put a hand over his heart and gasped in mock horror. "I'm offended, Miss Evans! A man can study as he pleases." His façade dropped, and he shifted his weight. Lily noticed that his brown eyes were sparkling. "NEWTS are coming up. Not studying would mean not becoming an Auror."

Her interest piqued at his statement. "An Auror?"

"Yeah. Like my parents." James looked embarrassed to have admitted this, but he masked it with a cool grin. "I want to help defeat Dark Wizards, help out the Wizarding World. I've got acceptable OWLS, but I'm rather worried about the NEWTS. What about you?"

"I…um…an Auror." Lily looked down meekly. Her hands were stained with ink, and she absentmindedly rubbed at the black blotches until they smeared on her pale skin. They stood in silence. The library was quiet, mixed with the subdued tones of students speaking.

Lily hesitantly attempted to make conversation. She made an effort to keep her voice quiet as Madame Pince walked by and gave James an accusing glare until seeing Lily and her prefect badge. "How are Remus, Sirius, and Peter?"

James shuffled awkwardly. "Fine."

"Do you understand the nonverbal spells?" She blurted suddenly. "I was having trouble on those, and I was wondering if someone knew how to do them."

His expression was guarded, and Lily could feel his eyes searching her face for a sign of deceit. She self-consciously brushed back her hair and bit her lip. He stiffened slightly.

"Why couldn't you just ask Remus?" James's voice was dry and bitter. "You are both the prefects." He added, sticking his hand in the pocket of his robes.

Lily stepped back, knocking into the bookshelf. "Fine," She was offended. "Maybe I will. He'll probably know the spells better than you do, seeing that he is a prefect and doesn't flaunt his stupid Quidditch skills!" Turning on her heel, she stormed out of the library and flew through the corridors until reaching the portrait.

"Password?" It asked.

"Essense of Dittany," She huffed out. The painting swung open, and she crawled through the doorway.

It was only until she had organized her parchment on the desk and set the tip of her quill on the page that she remembered the Felix Felicis book she was supposed to check out.

The Gryffindor Commons Room was warm and comforting. Lily was sitting in a plush, red and golden armchair with her parchment and books laid out in front of her. She shuffled the papers. Reading the small notes that she had made in Potions class, she remembered about the Slug Club.

Lily was aware that she was Slughorn's favorite, despite the fact that she was Muggle-born. She reluctantly attended his parties and had managed not to forget one.

"Lupin!" Lily tapped the prefect on the shoulder. He was reading a book on latest werewolf discoveries, a topic that Remus was well informed about. Lily had guessed that he was a werewolf.

Remus turned. "Yes, Lily?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go with me to the Slug Club party that Professor Slughorn is hosting tonight." She tried to stop thinking about James's hair, his smirk, his glasses, his callused fingers—she was startled by Remus cock his head to the side.

"I mean, just as friends." Lily was quickly turning red.

Remus stuttered, his face slightly tinged pink as well. "Oh, of course. I thought that you were going to ask James, though. I knew that he was planning to ask you today in the library." He gave a quiet laugh. "He was talking about asking for days. I thought that he wouldn't shut up." His gaze was sharply curious. "Did you turn him down, then?"

Lily's jaw dropped as she looked at him in shock and surprise, but she remembered. Stop thinking about James. No, not James. Stop thinking about Potter. She couldn't bear thinking of him as the mature, kind, intellectual person that he had grown up to be in sixth year and not as the obnoxious, annoying, arrogant toerag that he had been. "No, I wasn't at the library today." She lied. Her voice held slight tremors. Remus could see through her, and his eyebrows raised.

He chose not to say anything. Instead, he gestured to her papers. "Studying for NEWTS?"

She smiled ruefully. "Yes." Lily paused. "Actually, I was wondering if you could help me with the nonverbal spells. And resisting the Imperius curse."

"Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Remus's eyes lit up. "That's one of my favorite subjects. I'll help right now."

"Thanks," She grinned at him.

Remus set down his wand, and she did the same. "What's the problem you're having?"

"I can't get the spell to work. I know what it means and what it's supposed to do, but I can't get myself to really concentrate. I'm too distracted. And my memory doesn't help in this case, either." Lily retorted. "If I'm going to be an Auror, I need to know how to defend myself with spells like these."

He shook his head. "You say that you're getting distracted?"

"Yes," She said nervously.

"Try to embrace the distraction. Focus on it as well as the spell. I used to be very distracted," He chuckled. "It's not about devoting all of your attention to something you don't feel passionate about."

Lily couldn't believe what she was hearing. She was supposed to think about Potter, about her stupid crush on him. "Okay," She swallowed her fears and tried not to let Remus see her conflict.

She thought about James and about the spell. A small pop! sound was heard, and Remus was blown into the wall beside her.

"Remus! Are you alright? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for that to happen."

He brushed himself off and ignored the looks from the other Gryffindors in the room. "I'm fine. And good job; I couldn't get it on my first try." He observed her happiness. "You must be really passionate about this distraction."

Lily flushed fiery red and looked away. "Thank you for helping me out."

"Of course. Anything for a fellow prefect." He replied pleasantly. His eyes flickered to behind her, towards the boys' dormitory. "I need to talk to Sirius before the party. Sorry, Lily, I'm going to need to excuse myself."

"Oh! Could we review resisting the Imperius curse after the Slug party, then?" She asked hopefully, gathering her papers and wand.

Remus cleared his throat. "Actually, I'm not quite so great at those myself. But I know that James is great at it. The other day Sirius tried to Imperio him...Well, you know how Sirius is." He added hastily after Lily gave him a stern look. "And James had almost no response! If you want to really know how to do it, especially if you're going to become an Auror, you're going to have to talk to him."

He stood and left.

Lily sat at the table, thinking and trying not to think. Her mind was in scrambles. She decided to try the nonverbal spell without thinking about the distraction and failed again.

"Stupid spell," She murmured. Allowing thoughts of James to flood her brain, the spell came almost naturally. She nearly bashed her head on the table.

Stop thinking about Potter.

"Who wants a game of Exploding Snaps?" Sirius was grinning, his face red from laughing and from drinking firewhiskey snuck in from the Three Broomsticks. "Peter? Remus? James?"

Peter was gorging on candy from Honeydukes. He popped a Bertie Bean's bean into his mouth and his face shriveled in disgust. Remus was in the library studying and patrolling for first years outside of their zones. James was sitting on his bed, playing with his wand and not speaking.

Remus looked at him, concerned. "Are you alright, James?"

"Yeah, mate." Sirius said. His handsome face was blacked with soot from Exploding Snaps. "You seem blue since the library. What happened?"

James stared at the Marauder's Map, his eyes following the dot that was labeled Lily Evans. She was in the Commons Room, by herself. Remus had left to speak to Sirius before setting off to the library. His hand clenched around his wand.

"Oi, James! Don't break your wand," Sirius spoke, swinging a friendly punch into James's shoulder. "How would you ace the NEWTS then?"

James swung his feet onto his bed and looked down the stairs that led from the Commons Room to the boys' dormitory. If he strained his ears, he could hear her voice, floating above the others. She was talking to Remus about NEWTS and the Slug Club. He gave up on trying to eavesdrop. Instead, he thought about her auburn hair and green eyes.

"James! Are you even paying attention to me?" Sirius demanded. "Stop thinking about Evans."

James laid down on the bed and rubbed his eyes. "Shut up, Sirius." He groaned. "At least I don't snog every girl I meet."

Sirius ignored him. "How did asking her to the party go?"

"Not good," James replied.

"Well, what did she say?" Sirius stole a bean from Peter, whose outraged squeak he also ignored. "Oh, yum, treacle tart."

James sat and adjusted his glasses. "I didn't get a chance to ask. She left the library after we spoke."

"Really? Remus told me that she said she never went to the library." James felt a heart wrenching pain, and he winced. Sirius didn't notice. "And that she asked him to go with her to the party Slughorn's hosting."

"What?!" James jumped to his feet. "Did Remus agree?"

Sirius had the decency to seem ashamed, but James could see that he had a mischievous glint in his eyes. "He agreed."

"That—!" James was at a loss for words.

"Calm down, James. Remus wasn't trying to disregard your crush for Lily." Sirius tried consoling him. Peter snickered, and was glared at by James. "She likes Marauders, which means she has a chance to like you, no matter how narcissistic you were in fifth year. And besides, they're only going as friends. Remus isn't dating Lily."

"Stop calling her Lily." James said.

"But that's her name!"

James fell back onto the bed, his hair ruffled up. "Just call her Evans." Evans, not Lily. Evans.

Stop thinking about Evans.

Lily fidgeted. She had made an effort to smile at Remus and had even tried small talk, but being social when she was distracted wasn't her forte. The distraction, of course, was James Potter.

He was in the corner of the room, snogging Miranda Brown. Lily felt a surge of jealousy. "Remus," She said.

"Lily?" He responded, setting down the butterbeer he had been sipping at.

"Can we go study? I don't feel like staying at the party any longer." She eyed James and Miranda with disgust. Remus followed her gaze and nodded.

"I can get him to stop, if you'd like."

Lily adamantly told him not to. "I think I'll avoid him until I die." She said, thoughtful. "He certainly wants to avoid me."

Remus turned to look at her. "What makes you think that?"

"He's so mean. He ignores me. When I try to talk to him, he blushes and looks away. And the fact that he's constantly staring at me, as if he hates what he sees."

To her surprise, Remus chortled. "Hates what he sees?" He echoed her words. "Are you bleeding mad, Lily, or just overly modest? He's been in love with you since the beginning of the year! Sure, he had a crush on you in the first five years, but now you're all he talks about. It's beginning to get quite annoying, actually."

Lily was stunned. "I—I…"

"In fact," Remus had recovered his steady composure. Gesturing to the direction that James had been, he grinned at Lily. "he's coming over here."

She opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by James.

"Hey, Remus." And turning to her, he spoke coldly. "Hello, Evans."

Lily looked at Remus before nodding politely at James. Remus clapped James on the back, and whispered something to him. Potter's eyes widened. Remus gave a short laugh before locking eyes with Lily. "I'm off to find Sirius. I'll leave you two alone to talk about... Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Remus, wait-." She tried to stop him, but he had disappeared into the crowd.

James regarded her with an unreadable expression. "Defense Against the Dark Arts?" He asked curiously.

"Yes, I've been having trouble with resisting the Imperius curse. Remus told me to speak to you about it. I understand if you don't wish to speak to me."

He was confused. "Why wouldn't I wish to speak to you?"

Lily looked incredulous. "You hate me! Remus tried to convince me that you liked me. Honestly, I can't believe he tried to make me feel better on your expense. And lying about it. That seems so beneath him."

"I don't hate you." James said.

Lily gave him a sarcastic, sardonic smile. Her voice was saccharine. "Oh, great. I feel blessed." She turned to leave, but a rough hand snaked around her wrist.

"Let go of me!" She protested. James grunted as she tried to pull away, and dropped his hand. Lily watched him.

He was struggling for words. His eyebrows knitted together.

"Lily, wait."

She waited.

"Are you going to the Quidditch match tomorrow?" He finally asked.

"Yes." She replied. "It's the last game before NEWTS. We all want to take a break."

James shrugged. "I was wondering."

"How is being a Chaser?" Lily asked.

He looked surprised that she knew that he was a Chaser. "I like it." James said lamely. "Scoring points and everything. Seekers have got to be nimble, and I'm too broad and tall for it. Beating bludgers isn't something that I find fun. Keeper has to be defense instead of offense."

Lily stepped to leave. "James? Beat Slytherin, okay?"

His face broke out into a huge smirk. "No doubt about it."\

James dressed in his Quidditch robes and stared at himself in the mirror. He had his broom in his left hand and his wand in the other. Before leaving, he ran a hand through his hair.

The cool morning dew dripped on the field. He looked at the Gryffindor team in flight, practicing different maneuvers and movements. The three rings stood, and behind it, the crowd was seated. His eyes roamed the bleachers, searching. He spotted Moony, Padfoot, and Wormtail and gave them a wave.

And then he saw Lily.

She was sitting alone, further up the stands than most. Her hair was pulled back into a side braid and her eyes were startlingly green even from the distance that James saw her at. She wore a Gryffindor scarf and her schoolbag was placed next to her. Her pale skin was flushed from the early cold, and her posture was rigid. He grinned and waved frantically at her.

She caught sight of him and waved back, standing.

James mounted the broom and zoomed off. Hovered in the air was the Gryffindor team. One of the Beaters was in charge of the team.

Don, the Beater, nodded as James joined them. "All right, Gryffindor. We're going to kick Slytherin's ass today." There were a few cheers within the team. "Everybody remember their positions and play well. Play fairly, and have good sportsmanship. But we're going to win." He cracked a smile. "Diana, remember that your broom veers right. Sarah and James, just score some bloody points. Over 150 would be good, we can't risk their Seeker getting the snitch. Mark, cover Carrow. I'll get Malfoy. Hailey, be sure to watch quaffle at all times. And Drew," Don addressed the Seeker. "Look. We'll cover the rest."

"GRYFFINDOR!" The announcer yelled through a Sonorus charm. "Versus SLYTHERIN." Professor Mcgonagall stood beside him.

"And they're all in positions..." Madame Hooch's whistle pierced the field. "They're off! Looks like Potter's got the Quaffle - already, I might add - and shoots! Slytherin Keeper dives for it, and... Potter scores!" Gryffindor in the bleachers cheered. "10 to 0 Gryffindor."

The game continued, with Gryffindor leading about thirty points. Diana was struck by a bludger, and Carrow continually was scoring points. The Snitch was nowhere in sight.

"Looks like Malfoy of Slytherin has caught sight of the Snitch! Drew Cromwell is chasing him... and they seem to miss the Snitch. It's gone again. Oh! Potter scores! 110 to 70. This is a close game, but Gryffindor has a slight advantage."

Perspiration beaded at James's forehead. He focused on the Quaffle.

Something was hurling towards him. Something large and brown, getting closer.

The Bludger hit James in the head. He felt the pain lance from his skull to the rest of his body, and he clutched onto the broom. The whistle of Madame Hooch was faintly heard in the distance. Warm, sticky blood poured from a sharp cut in his head. His glasses had been smashed. Shouts and panic ensued around him.

He could remember falling, and then...

Lily's long, red hair and watery green eyes above him, and her scent.

Lily paced the Hospital Wing, her eyes focused on James. Madame Pomfrey had cared for him already. The Gryffindor team had won without James - she knew that he would disappointed to hear that he had missed out on the victory. After all of the madness, Malfoy was too busy laughing to notice that Drew Cromwell had gotten the Snitch.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team was huddled around James's bedside. LIly had excused herself. She remembered the events leading up to it, and how after, she had ran down the bleachers from her high seat and followed as they carried him into Hogwarts.

The Marauders came with her. They were squeezed in with the Quidditch team, buzzing in fear and anticipation of telling James that they had won.

"He's awake!"

"Oh, James!"

"Are you feeling alright, mate?"

Lily rushed over.

"I - I was knocked over by a Bludger, right?" James blinked heavily. "Blimey, my head is killing me."

Madame Pomfrey was by him almost immediately. "Drink this," She instructed. "You suffered a few wounds from the glass in your glasses, and some bruising from the impact. You also had a concussion. It should be solved. Your head will hurt for about a few more days. And no Quidditch until I confirm that you may. I have spoken to Madame Hooch, and she will let me know if you break these rules. Why do young lads play Quidditch? Injuries,"

James nodded. He scanned the crowd surrounding him, before he saw Lily in the background. "Lily!" He exclaimed. All eyes turned to her.

She blushed. "Are you okay, James?"

"I - yeah, I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

Lily felt hurt flash across her face. "I can leave."

"No! No, it's fine."

The Marauders looked amused at their exchange. Don cut them off. "James, we won! Drew here caught the Snitch right after. Malfoy was too busy being an arse to notice that it was fluttering by his face."

James's face broke into happiness and relief. "I'm so sorry for getting hit. I could've swerved or ducked. That was stupid of me." He said.

Lily couldn't stand seeing James berate himself. "Oh, shush, James." She said. "It happens."

Don nodded in agreement. "Madame Pomfrey?" He called. "Can James join us in the Commons Room for the celebration?"

She pursed her lips and sighed. "I suppose."

The Marauders, Quidditch team, and Lily whisked James to the Commons Room. Red and gold streamers filled the room, and everyone crowded around James. Sirius disappeared and reappeared later with arms full of Honeyduke's treats and butterbeer. "For Gryffindor!" He yelled as he downed a barrel.

James made his way through the crowd and spotted Lily. She was sitting on the armchair that she usually claimed. Her eyes were crinkled as she smiled. In her hands was a mug of butterbeer. She didn't notice him approach her.

"Hi, Lily." He greeted her.

She looked up in surprise. "James! Hi."

She could see his endearing, little habits. Like when he was agitated, he ran his hand through his hair. He would fiddle with his glasses or wand when nervous. He would have a tiny crease in his forehead when in deep thought.

She saw through his annoying arrogant attitude, through his tough exterior. She knew that he was brave and smart and kind and that he would do anything to help anyone, like standing up for his friends or anyone he cared about. She knew that he was determined and selfless, and that she admired him.

She realized that she loved him, right then.

He could see beyond her intelligence and outward beauty, and had decided that she was the most beautiful being he had met. Her bravery. Her humor. Her loyalty. Her diligence. How she was stubborn and friendly and perfect.

He knew that she was clever and ambitious and that if she weren't so brave, she could be in any house she wanted to. He knew that he was lucky she even looked at him, that he was lucky he could even loom at her.

He realized that he loved her, right then.

R&R. More to come.

-vivi