A/N: This is pretty cool, huh? Two stories out, and I haven't waited a year between posting dates. Yes! Points to me! Anyway, those of you that have not read my other recent story, go do that now, it's called Beautiful Mess, and it's a Harry/Ginny song fic. Okay, enough tooting of my own horn (weird expression, I know), let's move on. I quite like this story, and I thought that this song was perfect for a James/Lily story. Actually, this is my first J/L fic, so I hope I didn't botch it too badly. I was trying to think of a couple to use for this song, and at first I was all, hmmm… Harry has green eyes, but, seeing as he isn't female, that wasn't going to work (unless, of course, I changed his gender. Surgery, anyone?), and then I moved on to the fact that he's always being told he has his mother's eyes. Then, of course, the idea hit me like a bucket of cold water (anyone know the scene with the boat and the step-dad from The Wedding Date?), and voila! Here is your story!
Ok, now that I have rambled enough, let's move on and enjoy the fic.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot… although I would really like to own a giant vat of pudding. That could be fun…
Andy Griggs and his posse own the song, She's More. Oh, and I shamelessly ripped off his lyrics for the last couple of lines…
She's More
I
like blue eyes, hers are green
Not like the woman of my dreams
And
her hair's not quite as long as I had planned
Five foot three
isn't tall
She's not the girl I pictured at all
In those paint
by number fantasies I've had
Sirius Black watched James Potter watch Lily Evans for the thirteenth time that day. As James sighed again, Sirius rolled his eyes and reached over to push James off his chair. Normally, the slight pressure wouldn't even have caused James to flinch, but because his entire concentration was focused on the redhead in front of the fire, Sirius succeeded in knocking him to the floor.
"Oi! What the bloody hell are you doing?" A highly affronted James called from his dignified position on the floor.
"Oh dear, sorry James," Sirius drawled, "Please, please, please forgive me."
"Well, alright, just this once." James grumbled as he picked himself up off the floor. Sirius was surprised, to say the least, at James's calm acquiescence.
"Mate, I'm worried about Loverboy." Sirius said, turning to address Remus, who was seated across the table from him and James. When James didn't even respond to Sirius's comment, Remus raised his eyebrows in surprise. "See?" Sirius told him, "He's completely off his rocker."
"It looks like you might be right." Remus replied, reaching over to get James's attention. "James. James! Can you hear me?" When James did nothing but nod vaguely, Remus returned Sirius's questioning look.
When Sirius pushed James out of his chair for the second time in as many minutes even the oblivious one now on the floor figured out that someone was trying to get his attention. "What?" He scowled at the two Marauders watching him with amused looks on their faces.
"James, why won't you stop staring at Lily?" Remus asked, turning to look at the girl in question.
"I'm not staring at Evans." James replied, now making a concentrated effort to keep his eyes gazing anywhere but at the area before the fireplace.
"Right and I've shagged a Slytherin." Sirius scoffed.
"Um, Sirius, you have shagged a Slytherin." James told him.
"No I haven't." Sirius told him, smugly.
"Yes, you have."
"Who, then?" He replied, still looking distinctly superior.
"Jasmine Umber."
"What? What! I have done no such thing!"
"Fifth year, Room of Requirement, night we beat Slytherin's Quidditch team, you were completely smashed off your head." James grinned, "You were also in there for three hours."
"I was not!" Sirius replied, looking scandalized, "And certainly not with Jasmine. She must weigh at least three stone more than I do! And she failed Divination. Nobody fails Divination."
"Anyway," Remus cut in, hoping to distract the two, "Our point here is that James has done nothing but sigh after Lily for the past seven years. We were not discussing Sirius's very, very unhealthy dating habits."
"Right you are, Remus, m'boy," Sirius responded jovially, happy to have shifted the attention off the night he was having a great deal of trouble remembering. "James, would you at least tell us why it is you spend a great deal of your time staring at Lily?"
"Why? Why do I like Evans? I can't believe you have to ask that question. Can't you see her beautiful green eyes? Sometimes I just want to drown in those gorgeous emerald pools." As James drifted back into a stupor, Remus and Sirius exchanged rather worried looks.
"But…but I thought you liked blue eyes?" Remus said, turning back to James.
"Hmmm?" James sighed.
"James, your hair is on fire." Sirius told him, straight-faced.
"Ahhhh!" James cried, leaping out of his seat and beating himself about the head. "Is it out? Is it out?"
"Yes, James, your hair is no longer in danger of spontaneously combusting, now will you please pay attention." Remus told him, ignoring the odd looks people around the room were giving the trio.
James heaved a disgusted sigh, and turned his entire body away from the hearth, "All right, what?" He asked.
"Why are you so entranced by Lily's eyes? We thought you fancied girls with blue eyes, not green." Remus told him.
"Hmmm… So I did. I suppose there must simply be something special about Evans." James told him, valiantly restraining himself from turning to gaze at her.
"And I distinctly remember you telling me that you wanted a tall girl, with hair down to her waist, and Evans is neither tall, nor long-haired." Sirius pointed out, running his eyes down Lily's just-over-five-foot frame, and shoulder-length red hair, as she stood to wave to a friend entering the Common Room.
"So?" James asked, finally giving in to the temptation to watch the girl they were discussing. "Maybe what I need is the exact opposite of what I thought I wanted."
Sirius and Remus exchanged bemused glances at James's thoughtful words.
So
it took me by complete surprise
When my heart got lost in those
deep green eyes
She's not at all what I was looking for
She's
more
"So, Evans, ready to go out with me yet?" James asked, plopping down next to the redhead at breakfast the next morning.
"No, Potter, please go away." Lily replied, not even bothering to look up from her copy of The Daily Prophet.
"Come on, Evans, at least look at me while you brutally reject my offer." James pouted, ruffling his hair, and peevishly poking out his bottom lip.
Lily turned to look at him, a bored expression crossing her features. It wasn't until she noticed his pitiful appearance that her eyes turned warm with suppressed laughter.
Watching those beautiful green eyes turn bright and sparkling, James felt his heart stagger to halt inside his body. Rubbing his chest, he quickly looked away, not quite sure what to make of this odd feeling inside himself. "Uh, I've…I've got to get to class." James muttered, "See you around Evans." He stood; ignoring Lily's confused expression as he quickly hurried away.
This was supposed to be a joke, James thought to himself, I wasn't really supposed to feel anything. Still disturbed, and still holding his hand protectively over his heart, James hurried off to find the other Marauders.
No
it wasn't at first sight
But the moment I looked twice
I saw
the woman I was born to love
Her laughter fills my soul
And
when I hold her I don't wanna let go
When it comes to her I can't
get enough
Later that night, James sat in Lily's previous seat before the fire, and continued to ponder the strange feeling he'd had that morning at breakfast. He remembered the first time he'd seen her, looking so young and intimidated. At least, he'd thought she was intimidated until she'd nearly castrated him for some prank he'd pulled in Charms. That was when he'd decided to ask her out for the first time, knowing she'd refuse, and when she had done as expected, he decided to ask again. At first, it was simply a joke, something to get under her skin and make her furious. Lately, however, James had found himself asking her in anticipation of the spark that came into her eyes, and the way her entire body seemed to pulse with fury. She was magnificent when she was angry.
Actually, if James were honest with himself, he knew it had been several years since he'd asked Evans out simply as a joke. Each time he saw her, he couldn't stop the compulsion to ask, on the off chance she might finally say yes. Despite what she seemed to think, he was deadly serious in his propositions, and every time she rejected him, he felt another piece of his heart shatter.
She was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen, as well as the smartest, the kindest, and the most determined witch he'd ever met. She didn't seem to realize she was meant to be with him, and that the longer she turned him away, the more of their time together she wasted.
Hearing the sound of laughter near the Portrait Hole, James turned to look; already knowing it belonged to Lily. Seeing her happiness, James felt something bubble up inside him, and he had to duck his head to keep anyone from noticing his answering grin. Watching her from the corner of his eye as she came near him, he noticed a first year running towards her, not paying attention to anything in his path.
As the little boy stumbled straight into Lily and knocked her off balance, James was out of his chair and reaching to catch her before he even had time to think. Cradling her in his arms, he looked down into her startled eyes, and found himself frozen, unable to move away from the delicious sensations spreading from every place their bodies touched. After several moments, Lily finally realized that she was still lying in his arms, and that people were staring at them in wonder, and pushed herself away from the comfort of James's arms. "Er, thank…thank you, James." She told him, staring down at the floor as she felt her cheeks heat.
"You said my name." He told her softly. When she looked up at him in surprise, she saw something in his eyes. Something strong, and safe, and wonderful. Something she didn't understand, so she quickly looked away and moved past him, shivering as her shoulder brushed his arm.
So
it took me by complete surprise
When my heart got lost in those
deep green eyes
She's not at all what I was looking for
She's
more
That night, James was doing his best to block the sound of his dorm mate's voices from his mind so he could concentrate on the look in Lily's beautiful eyes as she'd lain in his arms. Suddenly his bed curtains were wrenched aside, and he found himself looking up, not into marvelous pools of green, but into murky, laughing eyes of brown. "Do you realize, Remus, that your eyes are the color of shite?" He asked, as he shut his own eyes, resignedly.
Remus frowned as Sirius's bark of laughter nearly deafened his eardrums. "Shut it, Padfoot." Remus told him, turning back to the boy on the bed in front of him, "James, are you going to spend the rest of the evening in here?"
"Yes," James replied, pulling the bed sheets over his head.
"Why, Prongs, what happened?" Sirius asked, walking over to stand beside Remus. "Did Snape do something?"
"No." James's muffled voice said. "It's not Snape."
"Well, what is it then?" Asked Peter, joining the other two at James's bed.
"It's nothing." James responded.
"Yes, and I've snogged a first year." Sirius said sarcastically.
"Padfoot, you have snogged a first year." James told him.
"I have not!"
"Rebecca Smothers."
"She's a fourth year!" Sirius cried, turning to Remus and Peter for confirmation, only to find them convulsing with laughter.
"Sorry, mate, she's eleven." James said, finally pulling his head out from beneath his sheets.
"Ok, anyway," Remus intervened once again, trying to prevent anymore of Sirius's disturbing romantic escapades from being revealed. "Prongs, will you please just tell us why you are hiding in bed?"
"I'm not hiding, I'm thinking." James told the three boys, turning his face towards the blank wall.
"Thinking of what?" Peter asked.
"Lily." James flushed as he realized what he had just revealed.
"Oh?" Sirius grinned, "Why might that be?"
"No reason." James grumbled.
"Oh, I think there is." Sirius continued, grinning wider.
"There isn't."
"Yes there is, why don't you just tell us."
"No."
"Did she say she hates you again?"
"No."
"Did she start going out with someone else?"
"No!"
"Did you figure out a better way to prank her than asking her out every day?"
"No, I figured out that I love her, you bloody great prick!" James shouted, tossing the bed covers off and landing his fist in Sirius's eye.
More
than I dreamed of
More than any man deserves
I couldn't ask for
more
Than a love like hers
"Oh, Sirius, what happened?" James heard Lily's worried voice say the next afternoon in the Great Hall. "That eye looks like it hurts."
"Oh, yeah, really painful." Sirius replied. James clenched his fists, furious that his so-called best friend was taking shameless advantage of Lily's kindness only three seats away.
"You poor dear, did Madam Pomfrey give you something for the pain?"
"Er, no, she said the eye was too damaged to risk using magic on it." James nearly punched Sirius again for insulting Lily's intelligence like that.
"Uh huh…" James heard the skepticism in Lily's voice and it made him feel slightly better. If a bloke couldn't realize how intelligent Lily was, he didn't deserve her sympathy.
"It's true," Sirius continued, "She said I might even lose the eye."
"Ok, Sirius, well, I just hope it heals quickly." Merlin, she's far, far too kind. James thought to himself, as he watched Lily pat Sirius's shoulder out of the corner of his eye. Why did I ever think she'd fancy me? She could have any bloke she likes and he probably wouldn't even realize how lucky he was to have her.
So it took me by
complete surprise
When my heart got lost in those deep green
eyes
She's not at all what I was looking for
She's more
Once again sitting before the Common Room fire, James's unseeing eyes gazed out a nearby window as he thought of all the reasons he loved Lily. She was gorgeous, intelligent, compassionate, understanding, gifted, kindhearted, considerate, accepting, amusing, witty, and most of all, she had those amazing green eyes.
At that moment, James was distracted by a movement in the grounds, and as his eyes focused, he realized Lily, perfect Prefect Lily, was breaking the rules. Quickly looking around to be sure that no one else had noticed her, James ran to his dorm and collected his Invisibility cloak, then made his way to the main doors.
Slipping outside, he followed the footsteps in the freshly fallen snow down to the edge of the lake. There he could see Lily clearly illuminated by the light of the moon. Silently walking towards her, he stood next to her and removed his cloak. Seeing the surprise in her eyes, then the quickly masked fear, James apologized.
"I'm sorry, Lily, I didn't mean to scare you." Several minutes passed in silence until Lily softly spoke.
"You said my name."
James grinned. "It only seemed fair, after you called me by mine." He told her, "What were you doing out here?"
"Thinking." Lily replied, turning her gaze back towards the calm surface of the lake.
"About what?"
"You." Quickly she turned to him with panic in her eyes. "I—I mean, not about you, but about, um, about the—"
"It's ok, Lily, I've been thinking about you a lot lately, too." James told her, feeling a jolt of something—hope—inside his chest.
"Really?" She asked, looking at him with confused eyes.
"Yeah." Silence filled the air until she spoke again.
"Why were you thinking about me, James?"
He sighed, and dropped his eyes to the ground, nervously ruffling his hair. "I'm—I'm not really sure." Darting his gaze to her, he found her watching him, and couldn't look away. "I mean, when I was younger, I had this image of the girl I'd fall in love with, she was tall and blue-eyed, and had hair down to her waist, and let's face it, you're none of those things." While he'd been speaking, a cloud had covered the moon, obscuring his view of her eyes. Now it moved away and he could see the all the hurt and pain his words had caused her. "But Lily, now that I'm older and wiser," she made a small sound of disbelief and he frowned at her, "I've realized that this girl I had in my mind—the one I thought I wanted—is nothing like the real girl I've fallen in love with."
Comprehension began to dawn on her face, and she started to speak, "Do…Do you—"
"This girl, Lily," James interrupted, "the one I've fallen in love with, is so much more than the girl I thought I wanted. She's more intelligent, more beautiful, more caring, more in every way that could possibly matter." Lily opened her mouth to speak again, and James rushed on, "And I love her more than I ever thought anyone could love another."
Lily moved forward until their boots were touching, and their frosty breath mingled in the air. Smiling, her green eyes filled with love, she reached up and kissed him. As snow began to fall softly around them, James realized that Lily wasn't the girl he'd been looking for. She was so much more.
A/N: Ready? Awwwwwwwwww…
Ok, now that you have spent all this time reading the product of my imagination (and JK Rowlings, and Andy Griggs'), would you be so kind as to put your own imagination to work for a few seconds and leave me a review?
By the way, did anyone notice the bit of foreshadowing I managed around the lines "the longer she turned him away, the more of their time together she wasted…?" Oooooo… spooky…
