A/N: I always wanted to do a Lily/James fic, but I wanted to start with something less romantic than other fics, so I decided to start with friends. ENJOY!
Lily Evans walked down the hallway quickly, as if she was late for class.
Except she wasn't.
Lily Evans was running away from someone. And she wasn't running fast enough.
"Lily! Lily, I- Lily, wait!" the skinny black haired boy called out as he pushed through the stream of students hurrying to class.
"Wait for WHAT, Severus? For you to call me mudblood again?" Lily spat.
"Just- I wanted to say- I'm really sorry," Severus said pathetically.
"Oh, yes, you're SORRY. Well that makes it PERFECTLY all right. Bumping into me in the hallway, causing me to drop my books and telling me to 'move, filthy mudblood-' you're exact words- is absolutely wonderful, so long as your friends are laughing and you catch up with me afterwards to say you're SORRY!" Lily, desperately fighting against tears, slipped and let one dash down her cheek. Severus's eyes widened.
"I didn't mean it! Malfoy and Mulciber and Avery were right there, they'd beat me up if I didn't say anything-" Severus protested feebly.
"Great, you did it to impress your fellow Death Eater friends. That makes me so warm inside," Lily said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Lily, I-" Severus started.
"Oh, Sev, you have no idea how much I HATE you," Lily said quietly. Severus fell back, shocked, as someone watching whistled. As Lily glanced over to the crowd, distracted, he took the chance to compose himself.
"Can we go somewhere more- private?" Severus asked smoothly. Or, attempted to ask smoothly. He sounded as if he was choking.
"No. I'm not going anywhere with you," Lily said, breathing deeply. Then she hesitated. She wanted to hurt him, but did she really want to go that far. Yes. She did.
"See ya, Snivellus."
Without waiting for a reaction to the exact phrase James Potter had used to torment Severus for the last six years of his life, Lily fled the hallway, the tears breaking the dam she had set up and rushing out.
There was one minor difficulty about running down the corridors at top speed while spraying water all over the place like a garden hose.
People noticed.
Like one arrogant, bigheaded, messy-haired git. Although at the start of sixth year he'd been less of a prat and more of a… nice guy.
Potter was still an idiot, though.
"Evans? Where are you…?" Potter called as Lily raced by, almost slamming into him and making him drop his coffee. "Sorry, Pads, I can't. I have to go," he said to a black haired boy at his right and rushed down the corridor, all thoughts of spilled coffee gone from his head.
James Potter is a fast runner. Quidditch keeps him in shape, and running away from the scene of the crime has kept his legs in prime condition. So it wasn't a big surprise when he caught up with Lily right as she rushed inside the portrait hole.
"Candle wax," he gasped and the Fat Lady swung open, giggling.
Lily sat on the closest couch to the fire, her head buried into the damp pillow as she shook slightly. James wasted no time sitting right down next to her and wrapping her up into a bear hug.
"Hey, Lily, it's okay," James soothed.
"Oh, it's y-you," Lily said, chuckling softly. "I'm s-sorry, it's just that- that he called me- that- again, and I w-was going to-to tell him that I wanted to m-make up! H-he used t-to be so nice!" Lily broke down into tears again.
"SNAPE did this? I'm going to kill that git, making you cry like this…" James stood up, fists clenched. Lily latched onto his arm and pulled him back down.
"It's not as if I wouldn't love that, but could you… maybe… stay?" Lily said cautiously.
"Yeah, I'll… I'll stay," James said with a sigh.
"You know… you haven't been half bad this past year," Lily said slowly. "You're not as… messed up as you used to be. You're still messed up, mind you," Lily added, with a glance at James's grin.
"I'm trying to be more mature. For this girl I'm trying to win over." James ruffled his hair.
"If you keep doing that to your poor hair, it'll stop working," Lily laughed, wiping her eyes.
"You mean it's working?" James asked excitedly.
"Yes, yes, it's working!" Lily said quickly. "Now calm down, you're going to have a heart attack."
"What made this attempt better than the others?" James asked, not at all calming down.
"It's definitely helped that you haven't asked me out since the beginning of the year," Lily mused. "And your pranks are more funny now than mean. But that's about it. You've still got quite a big head."
"And you're still out of my league, but that doesn't stop me from asking you out to Hogsmeade this weekend," James said, grinning.
"You just got less likeable," Lily told James, laughing softly. "But yeah, sure. As FRIENDS, and don't you go forgetting that."
"Can you excuse me for a second? I need to go let out my joy so that I don't explode," James said seriously.
"No, you aren't going anywhere. I've just gotten you." Lily snuggled closer to James on the couch.
"No," James said, sighing contentedly, "I've finally gotten YOU."