Disclaimer: All this belongs to JK Rowling. But I'm sure you knew that already.
Year One, Chapter I: A Beginning, of Sorts
Their first meeting doesn't go exceptionally well; after all, James is only eleven, and he's trying to impress the dark-haired boy sat next to him. The thin sallow boy with the greasy hair makes an easy target, and James uses that fact to his advantage, much to the chagrin of the boy's friend, a small girl with a shock of red hair and a penchant for speaking her mind. And speak her mind she does, temper flaring in defense of her friend.
James is more amused than anything else, and (although he would never admit it) intrigued by the slight figure in front of him, the one currently giving him an earful. There's something about her that resonates with him, and James finds himself looking into her eyes, completely oblivious to what she is saying. The girl is Lily Evans, and one day it will be her sacrifice that saves the Wizarding World, but it is today that her need to stick up for her friend will cause her to become firmly entrenched in the thoughts of James Potter.
After she leaves in a huff, dragging her friend with her, James and the dark-haired boy commiserate and think of all the ways they could prank them in the future. The boy's name is Sirius Black, and eventually he will be the closest thing James has ever had to a brother, but for now he is simply a kindred spirit, equally as adept as James is at coming up with insults. James enjoys his company, even though he's a Black; he wishes that Sirius will be sorted into Gryffindor so that they'll be able to get up to all sorts of things. He tells him so, and Sirius wholeheartedly agrees. For both, it is the start of the most important friendship that each of them will have in their life, one that will grant James resolve as he faces down Voldemort in Godric's Hollow without his wand; one that will bring Sirius comfort as he rots away in Azkaban for a crime he did not commit.
Secretly, James wishes that the red-haired girl is sorted into Gryffindor too, if only for the simple fact that it means he will be able to rile her up more often (and, unbeknownst to even James, because he is fascinated with her eyes and her spirit).
For Lily, the meeting on the Hogwarts Express is a minor frustration, one that she deals with often when defending her friend Severus from those who pick on him. To her, James and Sirius are simple bullies, preying on the weak because it makes them feel good (it would take her until much later, after both James and Sirius have matured, to realize that Severus associates himself with far worse company). As her and Severus find a new compartment, she thinks about the small boy with the messy hair and hazel eyes, and vows to never let him get away with bullying again.
She'd seen enough of it from her own sister, who turned against her as soon as she got her letter from Hogwarts. To Petunia, her exclusion from the world of magic was the ultimate betrayal, a sign that extraordinary things served only to divide. And so she used her hurt as an excuse to bully her younger sister, building a barrier between them that would only start to crack with Lily's death.
At the Sorting, James holds his breath as Sirius makes his way up to the dais, depositing himself gracefully on the rickety stool. The Sorting Hat takes its time with him, and as the silence stretches on, the unrest at the Slytherin table becomes palpable. James imagines it's because no Black has ever been Sorted into any house besides Slytherin, and one look at the table confirms his suspicions, as it is populated with many people who possess the same regal bearing that Sirius does. James adjusts his glasses and manages to pick out who he thinks is Bellatrix ("The sadistic one", Sirius had said on the train) before his sleuthing is interrupted by the sound of the Sorting Hat calling out 'Gryffindor', and the hushed whispers that break out immediately afterwards. To his credit, Sirius appears unaffected, removing the Sorting Hat and coolly strolling to the Gryffindor table, where he finds a seat right in the midst of the confused upperclassmen.
After locking eyes with Sirius and flashing a grin, James turns his attention back towards the front of the line, where he picks out the red-haired girl from the train. Unlike the children flanking her, she doesn't seem to be nervous, as she stands at ease, eyes trained on the enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall above her head. James likes to think that he appears as unflappable, but inside, his stomach is knotted with anxiety. He imagines a world where he isn't sorted into Gryffindor; one where his hundreds of Gryffindor ancestors shun him, and his father is forced to write him out of the will because he shamed his family by being the first Hufflepuff in generations. He and Sirius had joked about that on the train, but now, as James moves slowly closer to the front where the Hat is situated, the possibility looms large and it ceases to be funny.
His gloomy thoughts are interrupted when he notices the red-haired girl get to the front of the line. The severe-looking woman with the tight bun he knows as Professor McGonagall calls "Evans, Lily" and the girl ascends the dais, perching on the stool and placing the Hat on her head. It slips down the brim of her nose, and there is silence for around thirty seconds before the Hat calls out "Gryffindor!" and James lets out a sigh of relief. At least she wasn't in Slytherin.
Lily manages to take a shuddering breath, removing the Hat and depositing it on the stool before walking unsteadily over to the Gryffindor table. Those moments she spent under the Sorting Hat felt like an eternity, and she's sure that everyone in the Great Hall is still staring at her, even as she takes a seat a few spaces down from the rude boy with the long hair from the train and "Everett, Lucy" becomes a Hufflepuff. She scans the rest of the scared first years waiting to be sorted, picking out Sev towards the back and giving him a smile of encouragement. He manages a weak grimace in return; she remembers that Sev hoped they would both be sorted into Slytherin. To Lily, it doesn't matter all that much. Just because he might end up in a different house doesn't mean that they're going to stop being friends; she refuses to allow it.
A handful of people separate Sev from the annoying boy with the messy hair and glasses who insulted him on the train. Lily takes the opportunity to size him up. He is short and scrawny, with a thin face and thin features. Despite that, he carries himself with a pampered air, as if he has had people waiting at his beck and call since the day he was born. Lily hopes with all of her heart that he doesn't join his friend in Gryffindor; she doesn't think she can survive seven years of them together.
After "Pettigrew, Peter" becomes a Gryffindor, it is time for the messy-haired boy to be Sorted. Lily looks up from her empty plate with interest as the woman standing next to the stool calls out "Potter, James", and Lily crosses her fingers under the worn oak table, wishing that he would be Sorted into a different House. She notes with a savage sense of satisfaction that the Potter boy looks almost ill, his face the color of curdled milk as he sits on the stool and jams the Sorting Hat on his head. Her satisfaction is short-lived, however, when the Hat immediately calls out "Gryffindor" and Potter's friend lets out a raucous shout of approval. Potter tears the Hat off his head enthusiastically and practically bounds to the Gryffindor table, depositing himself next to his idiot friend, who claps him on the back and offers him congratulations. Lily rolls her eyes. They're acting as if getting Sorted is some grand achievement, when literally every student in the history of the school has done it. Potter catches the movement and sends her a wink, causing Lily to huff and direct her attention back towards the front.
James lets out a snicker as Lily turns away from him, her cheeks ablaze. He feels exhilarated at being so quickly Sorted into Gryffindor, and his prior panic attack seems incredibly silly in retrospect. Sirius elbows him in the ribs and nods his head at the shrinking column of students. "There's the slimy git from the train. Two galleons says he's Slytherin in less than thirty seconds."
James smirks. "Five galleons the Hat refuses to even touch that greasy hair." Sirius lets out a bark of laughter next to him, cutting off McGonagall as she calls out the names and earning him a glare.
Sure enough, "Snape, Severus" becomes a Slytherin, earning a snort of amused disdain from James and Sirius. To James, he was the ideal Slytherin: oily, sallow, and presumably not very bright. His father used to joke that Slytherins were as dumb as Hufflepuffs, only they take less showers. He mentions it to Sirius, who frowns thoughtfully. "You know, I'm not sure that's true. My family knows about hygiene, they just happen to be a bunch of tossers."
James thinks about it. "Do you reckon that's the only requirement then? The desire to be an evil tosser?"
Sirius nods. "Reckon so."
After "Zaire, Ife" becomes a Ravenclaw, Lily watches as the man in the midnight purple robes stands up, his conical hat askew and his long white beard tucked into his belt. He surveys the room with piercing blue eyes set behind half-moon spectacles, his severely broken nose serving as a focal point for his kind face. He clears his throat. "I'm sure there are many things that I am obligated to say as Headmaster of this fine school, but I'm afraid that as of now I only have one command for you all. Eat!" He sits back down and promptly unwraps what Lily believes is a lemon drop. Lily's reaction to his bizarre welcome speech is interrupted by the sudden arrival of food to the Gryffindor table. Her mouth hangs open in surprise as a veritable feast pops into existence before her, more food than she's sure she's ever seen in her entire life spread out across the table.
A few feet away Potter and his crony Black are already stuffing their faces, apparently having a competition to determine how much food they can shove into their mouths whilst still forming intelligible sentences. "Honestly," Black says through a mouthful of roast turkey, "I always knew Dumbledore was an alright bloke. A bit batty, but alright."
Potter nods in agreement, a hefty chicken drumstick in each hand. "He sure knows how to give a welcome speech. Plus, my Da says he's the most powerful wizard alive. Defeated Grindelwald and all that."
As much as Lily loathes him, her curiosity gets the better of her. "Grindelwald? Who's that?"
Potter quirks an eyebrow. "Did you used to live under a rock? He's only the most evil Dark Lord to walk the Earth. Took over most of Europe, until Dumbledore stopped him."
"My Uncle Alphard says he was a dead good duelist. Only lost because Dumbledore ambushed him." Sirius adds. Lily looks up at the head table, as if seeing the whimsical old man for the first time.
"That's really interesting. I don't know much about it, since my parents aren't magical." she says, chewing thoughtfully on a piece of treacle tart.
Potter puts on a lopsided grin. "Muggleborn, eh? Bet your parents got a right shock when old McGonagall showed up at your house."
Lily shakes her head. "They took it pretty well, actually. They've always believed in mysticism and the like, so my being magical wasn't that much of a stretch for them."
Potter frowns, his brow furrowed in confusion. "Evans, are you sure your parents aren't a bit loony? Most Muggles I know wouldn't take it that well." Lily's cheeks color in anger. This tosser has some nerve, she thinks, insulting her parents within minutes of their second extended conversation. She tells him to sod off and angrily turns her attention back to her food.
"Was it something I said?" James asks, amused. He, of course, knows that it in fact was something he said, but Sirius finds the interaction hilarious, so to James it's worth making Evans angry. Plus, her cheeks flush when she's upset, and James finds it captivating for some reason that evades him. He doesn't mention that part to Sirius.
After dinner, and after Dumbledore makes a proper welcome speech, James and his fellow first years follow a tall prefect named Fabian Prewett through a grand corridor filled with undulating staircases, carefully navigating through the castle until they arrive at the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Prewett and his counterpart, Alice Stephenson, direct the first years to their dormitory, and James claims a bed next to Sirius before introducing himself to his fellow dormmates.
Remus Lupin is a shabby boy with sandy hair and a plethora of scars crisscrossing his face (a feature that Sirius calls "absolutely wizard" on an annoying number of occasions throughout the night), and it seems to James that he's incredibly shy, as it takes awhile to coax any information about his family out of him. Despite the shyness, Remus exhibits a dry wit that quickly endears him to both James and Sirius, and James decides then and there that they'll be good friends.
The other boy, Peter Pettigrew, is unremarkable to say the least. He's small (shorter than even James) and mousy, with watery blue eyes and a high voice. James finds him to be agreeable enough, but there's nothing in their interactions (to James, at least) that they'll be anything more than roommates.
Content with the day's events, James jots out a quick letter to send to his parents in the morning, wishes his new friends a good night, and is asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.
Lily often prides herself on being able to make friends with anyone, and her initial interactions with her new roommates reflect that. Of the four other girls, she finds Marlene McKinnon, a fellow Muggleborn, the most agreeable. Like Lily, she enjoys schoolwork, but she also knows how to laugh, and the two spend most of the night commiserating about how awful the boys in their year seem to be, and wondering which subjects they'll like the best. A tall, willowy girl, Marlene speculates that she'll be best at Potions because it doesn't require them to do any actual magic. Lily has to agree.
After Marlene, Lily enjoys talking with Vivian Ledoux, a pretty girl with big blue eyes and a soft-spoken countenance. She offsets her quiet voice by being devastatingly funny, and by the end of the night she has Marlene and Lily in stitches with her anecdotes about her many brothers and sisters. The other two girls in Lily's dorm, Dorcas Meadowes and Eliza Blackwell, seem nice enough, but Lily finds them a bit too flighty, and she's happy when they start their own conversation about how cute they think the boys in their year are.
Lily can't find common ground with them at all when it comes to that particular topic. She's sure there will come a time when she finds some boys bearable, but for now, her only experience with their male counterparts is arguing with Potter and Black, and neither of them give her much hope for the rest of the Gryffindor first year boys. Especially Potter, she thinks as she snuggles into bed for the night, that one's an absolute git.
Author's Note: So yeah. First thing I've posted since 2013, so hopefully the writing's improved. In a perfect world this is the start of a novella-length fic about James and Lily's years at Hogwarts, but we'll see. I'm usually extremely lazy, but I feel more inspired than I have in years, so we'll see what happens. Reviews validate my existence. Toodles.