Disclaimer: It's all JKR's sob I'm just borrowing it.
The Epic Journey: Lily and James
Chapter 1: Homework
"Rrrrr!"
Lily Evans let out a growl of frustration and slammed down her quill, which splattered ink over her already be-speckled essay. Having been working on it for three hours and still having two feet to go, her patience had reached its breaking point. Involuntarily, her eyes wandered across the Gryffindor Common Room to a black haired, hazel eyed boy sitting alone in one corner.
She blinked quite unable to believe the occurrence in front of her. James Potter was, well, never without his friends, the little gang that called themselves the Marauders. Yet here he was, working studiously, late at might and completely alone. She shook herself and attempted to return to her essay:
'…wandless magic is among the most difficult to do as it requires a level of concentration and will power beyond that most creatures possess. However, house elves do apparate and perform their other magic without the use of a wand which therefore proves it is possible. There have been several recorded incidents in the last century, the most recent of which was in 1908 and oh my god his hair is gorgeous!'
Lily stared at the parchment, stunned and betrayed by her own hand. She usually trusted herself to be able to focus but this was going too far. She pushed her chair back, shoving it so hard against the wall that one of its spindly legs broke and it over balanced, landing on the floor with a cloud 'crash'. Swearing under her breath, Lily muttered 'Reparo'.
"Hhhhh…"
She gave and aggravated sigh as she once again forgot her need to practice non-verbal spells for her NEWTs. She briefly considered slamming it into the wall again for another go but stopped as soon as she realised she was only postponing what had to be done. Deep breaths, she told herself, squaring her shoulders and striding across the Common Room. As she got closer to him, her breath started to speed up, completely involuntarily of course, and she decided to focus on the task ahead.
"Potter."
He looked up at her and she couldn't help noticing that his deep hazel eyes danced with the reflection of the fire.
"Yeah?"
"Um," Lily's eyes wandered away from his far too handsome face. She noticed that he was just finishing the same essay she was having such trouble with. And by the looks of it, almost all of the rest of his enormous seventh year workload. Well. She begrudgingly admitted to herself, he can be industrious when he puts his mind to it. She bit her lip to keep from smiling as she remembered how he had persisted in asking her out for the past two years.
"Hello, Lily?"
She was brought out of her reverie by a pleasantly mature voice.
"Oh, um,"
Thinking fast she said the first excuse that came into her head,
"I'm wondering if I could borrow Major Magical Events of the Early 20th Century."
She pointed to a fat book at the bottom of the pile next to James' chair.
"Sure."
He bent down to grab it but the precariously balanced books on top betrayed him by tipping over. Lily quickly leaned over to stop the downpour at the exact same instance as James. Their arms brushed and a blot akin to 100 bolts of electricity swamped Lily, sending a pleasant tingling sensation down her spine, right to the tips of her toes. Her face turned bright red.
Startled, they stared at each other until James broke the silence by retrieving the requested book and righting the others.
"Here."
James held out the book to her, almost like a peace offering and, without looking at his face, she took it, gave a mumbled 'thanks' and hurried back to her seat.
She heard James sit and the scratch of a quill as he continued with his essay. Glancing up cautiously, she saw he had a smug little smile on his face. Something boiled up inside of her and she fought the urge to run up and kiss it off his face… No! Slap it off, hex it off, curse it off but not kiss it off! Usually Lily was a little proud of her ability to listen to her heart when need arose but this was going too far! No way in the world could she fancy James Potter – he was arrogant, conceited, aggravating, a rule breaker and had no respect for others. She bit the inside of her cheek to distract herself and opened Major Magical Events of the Early 20th Century, determined to focus on her homework.
'…This was performed by…'
She checked her book, brushing a few strands of her long red hair back behind her ear when she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, that James was staring at her. Lily focused on her parchment:
'… by David Puckle, a wizard living on the outskirts of Otterly St. Catchpole, whose family was attacked. During this attack, Mr Puckle is known to have lost his wand but was able to perform the Impedimenta jinx upon his family's attackers. This wandless magic was not fully appreciated until 1956 when…'
She was once again interrupted by the sound of another person packing. Looking up, she saw James Potter picking up his remaining books and walking over to the staircase to the boys dormitories. Lily couldn't seem to take her eyes of his permanently messy hair, a part of which was sticking up right where she was staring.
Suddenly he turned and looked right at her.
"Just return the book to the library, okay?"
She nodded and he winked, disappearing in a flash. Had she imagined it? Lily didn't even permit herself to hope that… No, none of that now. NEWTs were coming up and Voldemort was on the loose and… Lily sighed at the thought of that wink and went back to her work, smiling broadly as she sat into the night.
