Flower of My Dreams
Lily Evans woke up to the sound of music, piano music, to be exact. It was coming from outside of her dorm. This confused her to a great length because even though the Head's Common Room did have a Muggle Grand piano, no one knew how to play. So as to who was out there playing the music, was beyond Lily.
Lily was a seventh year at Hogwarts. She had grown into a beautiful young woman. All of her awkward teenage years were behind her now. She was of average height—5'5—and had a fiery temper. Of course, this was connected to her most known trait, her red hair. Lily hated her hair. She hated how it basically clashed with every single wearable color. She hated the fact that because she had red hair, she was prone to freckles and sunburns. She hated how it always stayed wavy, even under potions and charms; it just wouldn't straighten or curl. She hated how everyone, especially James, could make fun of her for it. Most of Lily's friends would disagree; they thought Lily's hair was her best feature. Of course, Lily thought they said this to make her feel better. Lily also had her father's striking green eyes that flashed when she was angry. And being a redhead with a quick temper, that happened a lot.
Lily was smart, the smartest in her year. She hadn't got Head Girl for nothing after all. Of course, she worked harder than most people, since she felt the need to prove herself because of her blood status. She was always determined to do her best and be the best, often through hard work. That was one of the reasons that she had disliked James for so many years. Actually, disliked would have been an understatement. She mostly loathed James and couldn't stand to be in the same room as him. She hated how he had so much money, which he always flaunted. He was arrogant and lazy. He was at the top of their year without any effort at all. And because of that, Lily was insanely jealous, jealous that he could get by with so little work, while she worked day and night. He would always think he was the best, running his hand constantly through his already messy dark brown hair. Lily suspected he did this to make it look windblown, thus making him look cooler. He always had a snitch with him, letting it go and capturing it again, especially after Quidditch games. James was around his dumb friends. Well, Lily would admit that not all his friends were dumb. Remus Lupin was not dumb; he was actually the smartest, and one of Lily's best mates. Lily had no idea as to why he hung around them, but she respected his choices, just not his friends.
From the beginning, Lily had disliked James ever since their first train ride to Hogwarts. Of course, their relationship had not improved much, it only got worse. Over the years, Lily didn't know how many times she had turned James down, sometimes rather rudely. She had called him names, let him get the best of her temper, and spent hours having rows with him. She had probably sent him to the Hospital Wing three dozen times. And he had no doubt asked her out twice as much, but no matter how many times Lily turned James down-sometimes quite creatively, mind you, he kept on coming back. Most of the older years knew. Scratch that, they all knew, unless they were living under a rock. Hell, even the younger years knew to stay away when they quarreling. By the end of fifth year, Lily was completely and utterly done with James bloody Potter. After the exams, she decided to ignore him. When he asked her out, her answer was a polite yet firm "no". When he taunted her, she ignored him and went on with her business. When he tried to talk to her between classes, she made an excuse and brushed passed him. She simply would not let him get to her anymore.
Sixth year worked out pretty well. James finally got a girlfriend, Emmeline Turnet. She was a Ravenclaw seventh year with a striking figure and beautiful curly locks. That year, James and Lily became friends. They were on a speaking basis, at least. They didn't yell at each other anymore. James didn't ask Lily out, and Lily was beyond grateful. She thought that James had finally gotten over her. She loosened up a bit that year, allowed herself to have more fun. Her sixth year summer was awful. Petunia was getting married to a terrible bloke in Lily's opinion, Vernon Dursley. But Lily wanted what made her sister the happiest, and if it was Vernon Dursley, so be it. She endured a summer wedding, wearing a pale pink dress that clashed horribly with her flame colored hair. Of course, Petunia wanted her perfect wedding. And their mum wanted them to get along. And Lily wanted to lessen the stress her mum had to go through. So Lily became the compromiser and agreed to wear pink to the wedding as a bridesmaid. Lily also behaved herself in every way possible, being nice to Vernon and his sister, Marge, whom Lily disliked a great deal. Not that she told anyone. The wedding was nice; Lily held back the urge to pour Champaign all over Marge. And of course, Lily would look like a fashion disaster in the pictures, but who was asking?
Needless to say, after that summer, Lily was more than elated for her return back to Hogwarts and it magical walls of safety. Except that they weren't that safe anymore. Lily knew about Voldemort, she also knew about his followers, his Death Eaters. There were deaths now, deaths linked directly to the Death Eaters. Of course Lily was scared. She was scared out of her mind. What would they do to her? And her family? Lily decided not to tell her mum about what was going on. She didn't want to scare her, or put her in any danger.
Lily was so happy that she had got Head Girl. That was what she had worked up to since first year, when she had the conversation with the Head Girl back then, Marlene Prewitt. Lily was determined to be the best Head Girl ever, no matter what happened that year. It just so happened that a lot could happen, namely, James Potter getting the Head Boy position. At first, Lily didn't believe him. James had to have stolen the badge from Remus. That was the only logical explanation as to why James had the badge. James had quietly sat there while Lily laughed at his whole prank, except there was no prank. Dumbledore had chosen James. James had been chosen to be Head Boy. Lily was positive Dumbledore was off his rocker.
The two worked together pretty well; pretty well when James wasn't running off with his Marauders, having Quidditch practice, or off somewhere with his girlfriend, Emmy. James and Lily now shared a Common Room, each with their own room but a shared bathroom, which they worked out at the beginning of the year. At least now, they were on a first name basis. Gone was the whole "Potter" and "Evans" deal. Right after Thanksgiving, they had a huge row. Even now, Lily still wasn't quite sure what it was about. It started up as nothing, Lily thought, but she wasn't exactly sure either. She and James had spent nearly an hour shouting at each other. And for what? Stupid meaningless stuff that probably meant something a year ago, but wasn't supposed to matter to them anymore. Either way, two days later, James and Emmeline Turnet broke up. No one really knew why they broke up, only James, who told his best mates, and Emmeline, who told no one, because for her, it was just too embarrassing. She didn't want the whole school knowing that her boyfriend had broken up with her because he was still in love with Lily Evans.
Remus insisted to Lily that James broke up with her for a reason, but he refused to tell her. To Lily, it seemed as of everything was going fine, then bam. She and James have a row, and then another bam, James and Emmy break up. It was all beyond her comprehension. Slowly, Lily and James start talking again. They slowly build up another friendship. And this time, they're both careful not to screw it up, which was hard to do since they spent almost all their free time together because of Head duties and sharing a Common Room.
Lily learns a lot of stuff about James that she didn't know, or didn't necessarily want to know. She found out that he lived with both parents, who were Aurors. He had a great taste in music, even listening to some Muggle bands. He read a lot of books and wanted to become an Auror like his parents. He was very smart and often did his homework last minute. Also, he tutored younger students who needed help in Tranfiguration. He even offered to give her a few pointers, which she readily accepted. She even got to hear him talk about Quidditch, how he would like to play professionally, but knows that wouldn't be for him.
Although she would never admit it, there was one thing about James that amazed Lily, even when she hated him. And that was Quidditch. Of course, she had been to every single Gryffindor Quidditch match, except once in second year when she had caught a cold. Of course, she went to all the matches to support her best mate, Marlene McKinnon, who was the Keeper for the team. But James's flying skills amazed Lily to no end. During the match, her eyes sometimes could barely follow his movements, which were quick and precise. He had an uncanny aim, and he cooperated with his team like a well oiled machine. Lily thought she could never get tired of watching him weave intricate patterns in the air. At all the after parties, he would retell the game. And everyone in the Common Room would crowd around to listen. Even Lily, in her usual corner would only fake reading a book. The way he talked about Quidditch was very inspiring. He included all his teammates and made them look good. He never gave himself all the credit. He always made it sound as if he could not have done it without a single one of them, which Lily knew wasn't true. She only wished that he treated school as seriously as Quidditch.
Now they helped each other with their homework. James tutored Lily with Transfiguration every Monday night. And they patrolled every Friday. There was some unspoken rule of how those two nights were reserved for each other, unless Remus had his furry little problem, which Lily completely understood.
It was not until Christmas break did Lily realize that she liked the way that James had changed. She liked the way that he cared a little more about school, how he stopped hexing kids just for fun and stopped picking on her. He was much nicer, and she actually cared about him. And she was pretty sure he cared some degree about her. She realized that she called him "James" effortlessly now. Whereas before, she could barely choke it out. Potter had definitely changed. And Lily definitely liked those changes. And then she realized that she fancied him. She, Lily Evans fancied James bloody Potter.
She lived with this all break long. She told Alice of course. Alice had been so excited, going on and on about how she just knew it was going to happen. Lily had asked Alice the question that had been bugging her the most: Does he still fancy me? Lily wrote to Remus about it; asking his opinion and such. They had met up in Diagon Alley. He had looked at her seriously and asked, "Why do you think James broke up with Emmeline?"
Why did he? Lily didn't have an answer. Blokes were too bloody hard to predict. But Remus wouldn't tell her, he said that she needed to figure out for herself. She spent the rest of break with it on her mind. She told her mum, of course. Her mum had been thrilled, saying the last time Lily dated was nearly a year ago. Mrs. Evans had told Lily to give James a chance. So she returned to Hogwarts, full of doubt and hope at the same time. He wasn't on the train. His parents had to keep him longer for something. He would floo back to Hogwarts. That night, James had not been back yet, so Lily had gone ahead and went to sleep. The next morning, she woke up to piano music, which brings us to the beginning.
There was a Muggle piano in the Head's Common Room. Lily knew this because her Grandma has owned one. Except hers wasn't as exquisite as the one at Hogwarts. This one was pure white, with elaborate designs engraved in it. And the music being played, it was so beautiful, almost like a lullaby. Lily could have definitely fallen asleep again, listening to whoever was playing, but her curiosity was greater. She quickly got out of bed, wrapping a robe around her and going out into the Common Room to see who it was. It couldn't age been James. He had owled her yesterday, saying that he would probably be two days late. And it couldn't have been anyone else besides James, since he was the only one who knew the password besides her.
Lily cautiously went down the stairs to their common room. The piano was tucked into the corner, behind the couches. Sitting at the piano, Lily saw a rather handsome looking boy with a messy mop of dark brown hair-James Potter. Lily was really surprised at this. Yes, she had learned so much about him over the past year, but never once did he mention that he could play the piano. Not wanting to disturb him, Lily quietly went down to sit next to him. Without stopping the music, James looked up and smiled at her and continued to play. Lily watched in amazement as his fingers moved up and down. It seemed as if they had a mind of their own, dancing gracefully on exactly the right keys. Lily saw that right hand literally flew across the piano, weaving an intricate melody while his left hand provided the harmony, mainly in the bass. Lily studied James's face. It looked so serene, he barely made any effort to get the notes right, it just came to him. Lily decided that she liked this James very much indeed. After a few more minutes, the song finally ended with a soft chord. The two Heads sat there in a comfortable silence.
"That song was for you, you know," James finally broke the silence.
"Come again?"
"The song," he repeated. "I wrote that for you. Er, not for you, but like, in honor of you." James was stumbling over his words now, which Lily found very cute.
"You— you wrote that for me? You wrote it?"
"Er-composed actually," he grinned cheekily.
Lily smacked him lightly, "You know what I meant. What's it called?"
"Flower of My Dreams."
Lily sat there; shocked that he could do something so nice. She caught the meaning of the title. It was about her, after all. At that moment, she really regretted some of the horrible things she had done to him. After a while, she spoke up again, "I didn't know you could play."
James looked down at the keys, embarrassed, "Yeah, well, I don't try to advertise the fact. I mean, Head Marauder, playing the piano?" he snorted.
Lily laughed, "That's nothing to be ashamed of. I wish I could play."
James smiled, "I could teach you. When I was little and my parents were away a lot, one of our house elves, Sparky, taught me how to play. He was always so patient and understanding. He was also the one who taught me how to read."
Lily took this new information about James in. So he was basically raised by house elves. And he was musically talented. The two seventh years sat in silence at the piano bench.
"Thanks," Lily whispered.
"For what?" James turned to look at Lily.
"For playing that, for writing-composing it for me," she looked into his warm chocolate eyes. "I wish I could do something like that for you."
What happened next, Lily did not know what prompted her to do it. Perhaps it was his eyes, or his messy hair that she now found so attractive. It might have been the fact that she had just woken up. Or maybe because he had just played a song that he wrote for her, a very beautiful song at that. Later, Lily would say that it was all of these reasons that caused her to lean in, and kiss James lightly on the lips.
"I've wanted to do that for quite some time now," she breathed lightly.
James looked at her in shock. The girl he had fancied since first year had just kissed him and declared that she had wanted to kiss him for quite some time. That had to mean she fancied him, right? He broke into a huge smile and leaned in first this time, cupping her face with his hands. She kissed him eagerly, twisting her fingers into his hair. His hands wound around her back, pulling her closer. They stayed like this for a long time, missing passionately in front of the piano, until they had to break apart, breathing rather heavily.
"Go out with me, Flower of My Dreams?"
Lily smiled and pulled him in for another kiss. Little did she know, he had been working on that piece since first year.
I hoped you liked it! That was my first James/Lily fic.
Reviews are like Sugar Quills! :D
-chenchen97'