Disclaimer- I don't own anything, yada, yada, yada.
Summary- James has always been in love with Lily, and Lily has always though that James was a bigheaded toe rag. It is there last year at Hogwarts, and James knows that it is now or never to finally get Lily. James even has the advantage of being head boy and Lily being head girl. Well we all know that he gets her in the end…but here is how he did it.
Chapter 1- On the train
Lily arrived at platform 9 ¾ and found herself feeling more at home every moment. She searched around, and found her best friend Kendall. Kendall was tall and beautiful with long blonde hair and side bangs. She was shy most of the time, but crazy and loud when she wanted to be. She has been going out with Remus since the beginning of 6th year.
"Lily!" Kendall yelled when she spotted Lily. She gave her a big hug, and then they boarded the train together.
They found their way to an empty compartment, sat down, and started chatting about their summers. Not too long after that none other then the marauders came in and sat down with them. Lily was very unhappy about this of course, but to her surprise, a certain James Potter didn't enter with his friends.
'Where's Potter?" Lily asked.
"Oh did you hear that Remus, Lily is wondering about Jamsie!" Sirius said.
"Oh shush it Black, I was overcome with joy when you walked in without him, I just wanted to know why." Lily explained.
"Well if you must know Lily flower, he had to go to meet the prefects, he got head boy you know, if you haven't heard." Sirius said.
"WHAT? POTTER IS HEAD BOY? Oh my god! I have to get to the heads compartment, I'm late! How did I get so unlucky to have Potter has head boy when I'm head girl." Lily looked to Kendall for support, but she is in a major lip lock with Remus.
Lily sighed and ran out to the head's compartment.
Thankfully the prefects weren't there yet, but to Lily's great disappointment, James was sitting in the compartment, and when he heard her come in, a huge grin spread across his face. 'God she looks beautiful.' James thought to himself. 'I have to keep my head, I am going to be extra nice to her, and show her that I have changed, and then maybe she will finally go out with me.'
"What are you smiling about Potter?" Lily said. James' smile faded a bit, and he didn't say anything.
"I cant believe it, Dumbledore must be off his rocker making you head boy, he doesn't know what he is gambling on here."
"Well you know Lily, I might have changed over the summer, and you could maybe give me a chance, I haven't even said anything to you yet and already you are mad at me!" James said defending himself.
Lily sighed. "Sorry Potter, but what can you expect, its not like you have ever given me a reason to even maybe assume that."
James shrugged.
Then sat there and waited for a while. Lily took out some parchment and started writing down passwords to get the prefects for their houses.
James was looking at her. She knew it, but tried to ignore him.
"You know you really look beautiful." James said.
"Oh don't start with me Potter, I'm not going out with you." Lily scoffed.
"I didn't ask you to go out with me!" James said. "I just said you looked beautiful." James said slightly softer and frowning.
Lily could tell he was hurt. She even felt bad for him. 'Wait a minute,' Lily said to herself. 'This is Potter remember, you don't feel sorry for Potter, he's the guy you hate! But what if he really has changed, I mean he didn't ask me out yet, and we have been in here for almost 30 minutes.'
"T…thanks…I think." Lily stammered. "And I'm sorry Potter"
"Listen Lily, if we are going to be working together all year, can we at least go by first names? I really am sick of you calling me Potter. And I'm sure that you aren't fond of Evans either." James said.
Lily was a bit shocked. "Um…I guess so Po…James."
James smiled. 'She actually called me James! I can't believe it!' James thought.
Lily handed her the piece of parchment where she wrote down the passwords. "Here, it's the passwords, tell me if you think it is okay."
"Looks great to me." James said. "So…er…um…how was your summer?" James said awkwardly, trying to make civil conversation.
Lily looked surprised at the way James was acting. Maybe he really did change.
"Uh…it was fine. My sister has this new boyfriend, who is totally repulsive, but mum and dad are happy, at least someone actually is going out with her. How…how was your summer?" Lily replied.
"It was great! I went to quidditch camp with Sirius for the beginning of the summer, and then I kind of hung around my house." James said. Lily nodded. Then James added, "I…I missed you a lot though." He said somewhat embarrassed, a very un-James-like emotion.
Lily half smiled and looked down. 'Did he actually just tell me that he missed me over the summer?' Lily thought. 'He hasn't asked me out once, and he is being nice to me, what is with that, this is definitely not the Potter…I mean James, that I hated. I mean, he is actually being nice. And he did fill out quite nicely over the summer. His hair looks messier then ever, but in a good way, it looks really soft…gosh what am I thinking? Did I actually just think something good about Potter…James? He does look nice though…'
To Lily's great fortune, the prefects arrived.
"Oh! Uh…hello! We don't want to make this too long, cause I'm sure you would rather be elsewhere, but uh…" She pointed at James to hand them their passwords, being as he still had her parchment. "Here are your passwords, you will be responsible for telling them to the other students in your houses. We will have meetings once the year gets going, and um do you have anything else to say James?"
James was shocked that she used his first name so casually like that. "Well, I don't think so. If you have any ideas on activities or anything else come and let us know, and then we will discuss it in our meetings." James said rather proud of himself.
"Right. So you all can go, that's all for now. Thank you!" Lily finished.
The prefects leaved, which left James and Lily alone. And to even Lily's astonishment, she didn't barge out of the door running away from James, but instead sat down.
James was very much taken back by this. He half expected her to either yell at him and start arguing for some unknown reason, or run out of there leaving him alone.
"Uh, do you want me to go?..." James asked.
"W…whatever you want." Lily stammered. Then catching herself, she added quickly, "I'm not quite ready to go back into the other compartment with all the commotion, I'm a bit tired, and I don't quite fancy seeing Kendall and Remus have a snog fest in my presence."
James laughed. "Well if you are sure you don't want me to leave, I'd love to stay."
Lily gave him a smile, and then James sat down. Lily switched her position, so she was now taking up the whole seat laying down.
'I can't believe that this is happening.' James thought to himself. 'She actually wants me here! This is almost too good to be true!'
"Now don't take this the wrong way or anything," Lily said. "But why did you do all of those horrible things to me all these years, and now you are suddenly nice to me?"
James was taken back. That was not what he was expecting her to say.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Well you always bewitched my hair so I would wake up with purple or lime green hair almost every morning of third year, you left dungbombs on my chair, and you constantly asked me out as if I was some sort of prize you were trying to win, or you were just in some stupid bet with your friends."
"Lily how could you think that? How could you think that I think of you as just some sort of prize! Do you think I was asking you out just for the heck of it?" James said, feeling hurt.
"Well…yeah." Lily said.
"Lily from the first time I saw you I wanted to go out with you, and you were always the only one who ever said no, which made me want to ask even more. And I suppose the reason that I did all those things to you was, well, I knew it would get your attention, and you would notice me, so I figured if you wouldn't go out with me, I'd get your attention some other way. Childish I know."
Lily was flabbergasted. "I…I didn't know." Lily said. "Wow, I'm really sorry, and you know what, you…you have changed, and how bout, well because of head duties and all, we start off this year being, you know, um friends, kind of, sort of, maybe…?"
"Really!" James said. "I uh mean…Really?"
"Sure." Lily said. A huge grin spread across James' face. "We should probably get changed, we will be arriving soon."
"Right. Well, yeah, sure, okay."
They both went to the bathrooms to change. Then on the way out Sirius caught James, pulled him aside and asked, "What, did you ask Lily out and she said yes or something? Why do you have that huge grin on?"
"We're friends now!" James said excitedly.
"Your kidding me Prongs. What did you do to her? Did you jinx her again? Pleas tell me you didn't jinx her again." Sirius said.
"No, no. We just talked, amazing as that sounds." James said realizing how remarkable that truly was.
Sirius slapped James' back. "Well good for you mate, good for you."
Then James heard something that made him spin 180 degrees around, his face turning scarlet.
"Move you filty little mudblood! Out of my way, how dare you get in my way!" Said by none other then Snape.
Tears filled Lily's eyes, but she refused to let them go. Snape had pushed her down after she accidentally ran into him on her way to find Kendall.
"YOU TAKE THAT BACK!" James yelled, fuming with anger.
"Oh would you look at that, Mr. Potter standing up for a poor little dirty mudblood." Snape said.
"James stop it!" Lily said, as James was about to curse Snape. "I thought you said you changed." Lily said, tears strolling freely down her cheeks now.
James paused, lowered his wand, reached his hand down to help Lily up. She took it and stood up. James then quickly turned to Snape and kicked him in the unmentionables.
Lily was taken back by his actions, but wasn't mad, because of what he said to her.
Lily quickly gave James a little hug. Shivers went all the was down James' spine from the touch of her.
Lily started to say, "Thanks James, I-" but was suddenly struck by a spell from behind her, and fell limp to the ground.
Snape had cursed her, and gave her a deep gash across her back.
James was raging with fury. He hexed Snape so that he was not able to move, and then picked Lily up in his arms and rushed her to the compartment with Kendall in it.
"Kendall!" James yelled.
Kendall broke away from her embrace with Remus in shock and said. "What happened?"
James could now feel Lily's blood on his hands, and she felt cold. "Snape cursed her, I'm not sure what he did exactly, but you are good at charms, can you fix her please! She feels cold." James said, almost in a crying voice, he was so worried. Kendall quickly rushed to Lily and James.
"Put her down! And then leave with Reums, let me try to heal her." She looked at James and Remus still standing there. "GO, GO! Do you want me to help her or not?"
James and Remus rushed out, and heard Kendall attempting to heal her. James then started to rush towards Snape.
"Whoa there mate, slow down, don't do anything drastic, Lily wont fancy you for that!" Remus said advising his friend.
"Lily might not even be able to fancy me, after what Snivelius did to her, I don't even know if she is going to be okay!" James said angrily.
"James, she is going to be fine, I know Kendall, very well actually, and I know she can help her, don't do anything irrational, okay? For you own sake?"
"Yeah, yeah, okay. But I am definitely going to give Snape what he deserves, or at leas part of it."
James rushed over to Snape, unfroze him, and then yelled in his face. "50 points from Slytherin! You are to go see Profesor McGonagall after this, I will inform her of your actions! You will also keep your distance from Ms. Evans, or you will not be too happy with the way you face will look afterwards. And believe me, I am sure I can make it look worse then it already does! Go back to your cabin now! Or further points will be taken away!" James yelled.
Snape had no choice but to listen. He muttered some swears while he was leaving. James then rushed back to see if Lily was okay.
Kendall was standing outside of the compartment talking to Remus when James showed up.
"Is she going to be alright? Is she okay? What happened!" James asked.
"Don't worry Potter, she is going to be fine. I fixed her on up. You can go in and see her if you don't believe me." Kendall replied.
James was already in before Kendall could finish. He closed the door behind him, and sat on the seat across from where Lily was laying.
She started stirring, and James sat up straight, hoping that she was okay.
"J-James, is that you?" Lily asked.
"Yeah Lils, it's me. How are you?"
"Well to be honest, my back is killing me like no other, but I think I'll be okay."
"Oh, thank god you are okay. Hold on one second while I ask Kendall something." James said. Then poking his head out of the compartment he said to Kendall, "Listen, can you tell Hagrid that I am on the train with Lily, and I'll wait here 'till she is able to get up, and then tell Profesor Dumbledore that we might be a tad late due to an accident?"
"Well sure, but I'll stay with her if you like, so you can go in and to head boy duties, or whatever you have to do." Kendall said.
"No, that's okay, I'll stay, just can you tell them that?"
"Sure James, we will see you soon." Kendall said.
James then went back and sat down across from Lily. "Don't worry Lils, everyone is leaving, but Kendall is going to tell Hagrid and Dumbledore what happened, so you can stay here as long as you want, okay?"
"Uh…yeah, sure, okay. You know you can go James, I am fine here by myself." Lily said.
"I wouldn't dream of leaving you here like this! Just tell me when you are up to it, then we will leave the train, and to go the hospital wing and make sure you are alright, okay?" James said.
Lily smiled. "Thanks a bunch." Lily dozed off a bit, an after affect of the curse. And James just sat there, watching her, realizing how much he really did love her, but for now, friends they would stay, he could settle for that for now.