It was a new year full of possibilities thought Lily Evans after the sorting ceremony, while she was munched down at the first feast of the year.
Lily was so happy to finally be back at Hogwarts, especially after her sister's wedding this summer. It was absolutely horrid, she got blamed for doing absolutely nothing and it just ended up being a weekend of stress. Add on the fact her sister's husband was so dull and thought he was better than everyone and just plain boring.
As Lily was in deep thought about how happy she was to be back in Hogwarts she was interrupted by a sudden voice next to her, coming from her best friend Scarlett.
"Lily look who's commin' over here. Real shocker, huh?
As Lily turned her head she saw the two most well-known guys in the school strutting over as if they owned the place.
As Sirius Black and James Potter plopped down across from each other, Sirius next to another fellow Gryffindor, that Lily faintly recognized by the name of Gina and instantly started flirting her. Another one weeker Lily thought. James happened to end up sitting next to her, which Lily was sure wasn't a coincidence. Lily and James had been quite harsh to each other during there years at Hogwarts but had begun to get more civil with each other the start of term last year.
"So Lily how was your summer?" James asked politely
Lily glanced up from her food to answer sarcastically, when she saw his smile. When she saw the slightly sad looking, crooked smile on his face she instantly had a flashback to the night a few days before they left Hogwarts for summer break. The sun was just beginning to set and it was there last day of classes, Lily was by the lake, depressed about going home and all of a sudden Potter showed up. He looked at her the same way he was now. He just sat down like somehow he knew what was going on and just held her, and when she looked up something inside her leaned her forwards, her face closer to his. He just stared at her for a minute, and then leaned toward her. She closed her eyes and instantly filled with joy the moment his lips touched hers. It was the most amazing thing she had ever felt before, and then all of a sudden it stopped. He sat there staring at her. Then he pulled her against his chest, and she began to cry. She didn't know why she cried, it might have been how she felt unneeded at home or maybe she had feelings for him, she didn't want to get into too much thought with either of those though.
"It was swell, how was yours?" She answered making the conversation a light one, and lying because she knew her summer was a horrible one.
"It was decent" James replied. Lily thought something looked wrong but she didn't question it, that could wait for another time she figured. She just hoped he didn't ask her out again. Of course she'd been out with people before. She just didn't know what it was, maybe it was just so use to turning James down because he has always seemed like such a git but now something changed. She suddenly wouldn't want him to get hurt. Maybe she just wasn't ready.
They went through the rest of dinner in a kind of awkward silence, till James asked if Lily would like to be walked up to the common room.
Scarlett, who has always thought her and James would be good together and was thoroughly excited when Lily told her about the night by the lake, was giving her a look that said IT''S JUST A WALK! GO!GO!
Lily figured she was right, so she walked upstairs with James to the Gryffindor common room. They talked about little things like how excited for the new term they were and what classes they were taking. Once they got in the common room James walked Lily to the stairs. He leaned in to kiss her, then quickly leaned his head down and turned away mumbling a goodnight.
Lily stood there wondering what she was going to do. I mean she hated James for so long and then something happened. She didn't know what, it just clicked that all she really wanted was him. She stood there mentally getting mad at herself. I mean come on she was in her 7th year at top of her class! She was also head girl and her first meeting was in just a few days and she didn't even know who Gryffindor's head boy was yet. She couldn't like anyone, especially James Potter.
She realized she was just standing there so she went upstairs to her dorm.
The next morning she woke up and thank goodness there first day back they didn't have classes because she looked at the clock on the wall and realized it was already 10:45 in the morning. Gosh she hadn't woken this late in.. In… well never.
Lily wasn't sure what she wanted to do so she headed in search of her best friend Scarlett, who she found in the courtyard talking to a Ravenclaw. Scarlett looked over real quick to see Lily and immediately ran over and hugged her, gees she'd almost forgot how much she loved her friends.
"How are you doing today sleepy?" Scarlett asked
Lily knew she was getting at the fact James walked her upstairs.
"Fine" Lily replied trying not to smile because she wasn't sure if she should be happy.
"How was James?" Scarlett asked excitedly
"James? James who?" Lily said trying to change the topic.
"POTTER, of course. Did he ask you out again last night?" Scarlett asked practically screaming by now.
"No! Now can we go get something to eat?" Lily asked, now clearly annoyed by her friends questioning, because even though they were best friends, it wasn't really any of her business, especially if she wasn't even sure how she felt about Potter.
On their way down to breakfast they saw the Marauders, and they started to follow them. Lily tried to get them not to follow but in the end it was a lost cause and they ended up eating with them in the Great Hall. James of course was next to Lily, with Sirius on the other side of him, and Scarlett ended up being sandwiched between Remus and Peter. It ended up not being as bad as Lily thought, it actually was kind of enjoyable. They talked about little things like quidditch (which Lily was not a fan of), little parts of their summer, the new term and such. As they were in the middle of one of their conversations Lily felt James put his hand on her upper thigh and she jumped a bit out of her seat. She brushed it of as a chill but James put his hand back where it was again and she decided it felt nice there and she didn't really care. As they parted ways outside of the entrance hall Lily and Scarlett went to hang out by the pond and relax and eventually went to the Gryffindor common room and spent the rest of the evening by the fireplace playing wizard chess. They ended up going to bed early because it was the first day back, but as everyone feel asleep Lily stayed awake, unable to sleep.
She walked down to the common room to go get a cup of water and when she got down the stairs she saw James step in through the portrait hole.
"Hey" he said when he saw her.
"Hi, how are you? Why aren't you in bed?" She asked
"So many questions. I think the more important question is why you are out of bed?" James asked suspiciously.
Just as Lily was about to answer, James grabbed her by the waist and held her from behind. Lily was focused too much on how nice it felt to be in James's arms that she didn't realize how long it took her to answer.
"Couldn't fall asleep" she replied.
"Lily, Can I ask you a question?" James asked.
"Yes." She replied, not thinking too much about the question.
"Will you go to lunch with me in Hogsmeade this weekend?" James asked.
Lily must have been too caught up in the moment and the fact that his arms felt so good around her waist because as she was about to say no, she heard herself say "yes".
