It is a quiet Sunday night and the flicker of the fireplace fills the cozy Gryffindor Common Room, casting orange glows on the crimson upholstery and gold accents. The murmurs of students along with the occasional giggle create a soft, gentle atmosphere and a girl with wavy scarlet locks sits beside the fireplace. She looks to be about thirteen and her emerald eyes are carefully scanning over a freshly scripted essay, analyzing and evaluating her work. However, she can't properly concentrate.
This girl is Lily Evans.
Lily looks to her left to see Alice, her friend in the same year, curled into a single person armchair with Frank Longbottom. Disappointed, Lily searches for Marlene, also a friend in her year- only to find her exchanging flirtatious conversation with a handsome fifth year who seems quite willing to flirt back.
This is Lily Evans's predicament.
Aggravated, Lily sighs. This is not how she should feel. She's a mere thirteen and her friends are absolute ninnies who are over exercising their hormones. Lily stares down at her Charms paper and it seems to look sadly up at her.
She sighs. How far has one gone when they've begun to resort to homework for release and company?
Raucous laughter interrupts her utter dismay and her head whips around, cracking painfully with the sudden movement. She spots the targets of her attention. Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew are draped around the railings of the boy's dormitory stairs wearing expressions of glee and humor, laughing at something that is likely incredibly stupid. The four take notice of her staring and smirk at her. Lily blushes, sniffs, and turns back to her homework, embarrassed and not a bit happier.
She's desperate, but not that desperate, she thinks, as she observes two giggling girls approaching the so-called Marauders.
"Ohmigod, what a bitch," Sirius imitates in a high falsetto, effeminately emphasizing his words. The Marauders and their company laugh at this act and turn back to the redhead by the fire. She's examining her textbook as if – merlin forbid – she gets some sort of enjoyment out of it.
"She's a strange one," Remus comments.
"Lily Evans! You have no idea," says the girl who's just introduced herself. Her name is…Eve? Or something. The boys can't be bothered to remember.
"She's, like, totally crazy. She does all these really weird things, like write notes to herself on her four-poster, and says the most idiotic things. She asked me the other day if plants swallowed rats," Eve-or-Something continues.
"Rats?" Peter says, concerned.
"Yeah, rats! Can you believe that?"
"Why'd she say such a thing?" James asks, nudging into the conversation.
"She was having a fight with her friend, whatever. And in the mornings we can actually hear her singing in the shower, it echoes all the way into the dormitory hallway," Eve-or-Something laughs. Her companion, Jacey-Maybe, giggles wickedly. James's eyebrows knot together –he regularly sings in the shower. Loudly.
"I see a prospect on the horizon," Sirius says, grinning slyly, nudging James with his elbow. "I dare you to ask her out."
"No way!" James yelps, more out of surprise than anything.
"Yeah, what did poor Ginger ever do?" Peter says, and Remus chuckles alongside.
"Well, she's weird, that pretty much makes up for everything," Jacey-Maybe sniffs.
"C'mon, Potter, just once, for a laugh," Sirius urges him, earnestly pleading. Eve-or-Something erupts into a waterfall of trilling giggles.
"I dare ya," Remus adds, and Sirius and Peter begin to repeat him.
"I dare ya."
"I dare ya."
I dare ya. James has never heard a more annoying three words in his entire existence. He slaps each one of them upside the head, in turn, then spins around to Eve-or-Something and Jacey-Maybe.
"Farewell, my good ladies, Eve! Jacey! My prospect waits for me on the horizon," James says dramatically, slyly glancing at Lily Evans by the fire.
"I'm Eva," says Eve-Or-Something.
"Jane," says Jacey-Maybe.
"Oh," James says, shrugging nonchalantly. He jumps off the railing of the staircase, readying for his mission.
He descends the steps and says quietly to himself, "Lily Evans." As he heads to the armchair by the fire, he repeats her name over and over.
"Lily Evans. Lily Evans. Li-ly. Ev-ans." He enjoys the sensation of her name as it trips off his tongue. "Lily, Lily, Lily Evans."
"Yes?" a voice says sardonically in response. Broken out of his reverie, James lets out a small grunt of surprise before realizing that the Lily Evans is sitting in front of him, gazing at him with quirked eyebrows and a small frown on her pretty face.
"So, Evans," Potter starts off, leaning his body casually against the armchair. "Guess what?"
"Who are you?" Lily says, interrupting James's train of thought.
"James. James – "
"Bond?" Lily says, smiling slightly to her self.
"What?" James says, looking down at her, most confused.
"Nothing," Lily grumbles, turning her attention back to her homework. Hey, hey! An alarm goes off in James's head. She's supposed to pay attention to ME.
"James Potter, actually. In my opinion, so much better," he says charmingly, his lanky figure leaning over her, peering at the scroll filled with untidy script.
"In your opinion," Lily mutters, still not turned to James. The alarm in his head is blaring louder than ever. Why won't this girl give him just a second of her time?
"Yes, in my opinion," James says, coming around to the front of Lily's armchair. He blocks the firelight and now she has no choice but to pay attention to him.
"You're blocking my light," Lily pouts petulantly.
"So I noticed," James says, carelessly. "So, guess what?"
"I don't want to," Lily says stoutly, trying to move James, and when that proves unsuccessful, attempting to escape from her chair. He however blocks her with his arms, leaning over and trapping her between the chair and himself.
"I said, guess what?" James insists cheerfully.
"What, Potter?" Lily spits out exasperatedly.
"I seem to have found you pretty," James says pleasantly, he says, waiting for her reaction. Her eyes glimmer for a second, then become guarded.
He leans back from the armchair and rocks on his heels before taking the dive.
"Go out with me?" James says casually.
The look on Lily's face is exceptional. Twisted into a mixture of shock, disgust, and amusement, it somehow still manages to look lovely. The Marauders, Eva, and Jane, having edged closer during this display, suddenly burst into peals of laughter having heard the whole thing.
Lily's head suddenly whips around and she glares fiercely at the group nearby.
"Pretty! As if!" Eva cries in mirth, rolling on the ground, laughing hysterically.
Lily's gaze slowly returns to James, and instead of irritated, it's now steely and, from what James can tell, hurt.
He gulps, feeling slightly guilty. He hadn't meant to hurt her, it was just a dare, some playful fun –
"You think this is funny?" Lily starts off calmly, quelling her anger, assessing the situation. James doesn't know how to react to her attitude. Quite frankly, he can't help but be scared.
"Honestly?" James says, hoping to maintain a little bit of humor.
"Yes, honestly," Lily says, still calm.
"Well, a little bit, yes," James confesses.
A smile begins to grow on Lily's face. Not a smile, James corrects himself – a smirk. A downright evil smirk.
"Well then, I hope you'll find a laugh in this," Lily hisses, pushing him backward into the coffee table and pulling out her wand. She sends a spell shooting at James, aimed toward his hair.
Before anyone can do anything about it, James's already messy hair has become a bird's nest. Literally. Gryffindors throughout the common room are trying desperately to hold back howls of laughter, unsuccessfully, and occasional snorts and hoots of delight echo from around the room. Everyone watches in fascination as James's dark locks weave themselves into a teased up frizzy nest mess. James, horrified, reaches up to touch his head, finding the strands of hair stiffened like twigs.
Lily conjures two birds that immediately settle on his scalp. She smiles in satisfaction as the common room roars in amusement.
"Ohmigod, what a bitch," Sirius repeats in his falsetto, sending the common room into yet another wave of hysterics. Sirius approaches Lily and James, accompanied by the Marauders, and with a wave of his wand takes away the result of Lily's hijinks. James ruffles his once again normal hair in relief.
Lily turns to Sirius and he nearly shrinks back from the intensity of her glare.
"Don't you dare call me a bitch, you filthy dog! You were probably the reason why you lot started to pick on me in the first place." Lily feels the pricking, hot sensations of tears, and fights it back to no avail.
"Oh, look, she's crying," Jane says, sneering.
Lily chokes on a sob. She turns to James, as if to say something, but all she can do is gaze at him. He looks immensely guilty, his hazel eyes now more concerned than teasing.
Lily can't say anything. She would rather have anything other than the pity of James Potter. She turns on her heel and runs for the comfort of her four-poster bed. However, in her state, she can't control herself, and turns the opposite way, heading toward the boy's dormitories in a loss of sense.
The Gryffindors in the common room wait with bated breath, realizing that Lily has walked in the wrong direction. Suddenly, they hear a resounding shriek, and Lily has reappeared, her face now a red that could match her hair. She attempts to walk, dignified, back toward her dorms, and through her haze she can hear the wash of merciless chiding as she climbs the staircase and retreats.
James, smiling slightly from the sights in front of him, is brought back down to Earth by Remus muttering in her ear.
"We've really hurt her," Remus sighs, a little on edge.
"So what?" Eva says, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
"That," Sirius pants, still doubled up on the ground, "was the most hilarious thing I've ever witnessed. Would you do it again, James? I can't wait to see how many other ways that Evans can make me laugh."
"C'mon, Potter, just once, for a laugh," Sirius had said before.
James flops into the armchair previously inhabited by Lily, and sighs.
"Maybe, another time," he says, staring into the fire, feeling strangely lonely as he watches the Marauder's attentions return to Eva and Jane.
It is a quiet Sunday night and the flicker of the fireplace fills the cozy Gryffindor Common Room.
Lily and James are lonely, but things have only just begun.