"You're different, you know that?" "Different how?" "I'm not quite sure, but let me just say it's quite intriguing." A story of how one's curiosity can become love. JamesLily.

Hey Everyone! So here's chapter 1 in the story. It does take place in James' perspective, just to change it up, and i think the rest will be in his perspective so Lily will remain a bit more a mystery. So anyways, i hope you enjoy it, and please tell me what you think; review! Thanks!


Ignorant Devotion

Chapter One: Intriguing Introductions

I couldn't stop staring at her. The way she drew circles in her oatmeal with her spoon, the way she stared tiredly at the enchanted ceiling, the way she bit her lip while do ing so. Ever since the previous night, she'd been all I could think about. She was an enigma; something unknown and mysterious. I had no idea what was so intriguing about her; maybe it was because of that; because I knew nothing of her.

Or maybe it was not only because I knew nothing of her, but that I should. She's the only sixth year Gryffindor girl I didn't know well. Heck she practically the only sixth year I didn't know well, and that struck me as a little strange.

"Prongs mate, you alright?" Sirius asked, snapping his fingers in front of his face. I unwillingly broke my gaze away from Evans and turned to look at him.

"What? Oh yeah, I'm fine," I answered.

He didn't look convinced.

"Seriously I'm fine," I reassured.

"Then why have you been staring at Evans for the past half hour?" He asked. Damn he caught me. Well I guess I was kind of obvious, but still…

"No I haven't," I defended. There was no way I was telling Sirius about my new… fixation on Evans. I'd never here the end of it. "I've just been staring over in that general direction."

Good one James. That doesn't make me sound suspicious at all.

"Right," Sirius said skeptically. "You know mate, you can tell me honestly, because I think I get it—"

"What?" I interjected, my heartbeat speeding up.

"—she's going to be your latest conquest, and let me just say that's a bad idea. I mean she's hot and all, but kind of weird." Sirius finished.

Okay there was so much wrong with that sentence I didn't even know where to begin.

"No no Sirius. First of all, I was not staring at her," I said. He scoffed and I glared at him. "Secondly, I do not have conquests," I said as he coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'Maggie Asher', however I dismissed it and continued with my denial, "and thirdly, Evans is not hot," though I knew she really was.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at me. "You seriously don't see how hot she is. Come on mate," he said insinuatingly. I glared once more, hinting for him to drop the subject. I don't want to have even more thoughts of Evans crowding my head.

We sat in silence for a bit before he asked, "So who is your newest conquest."

I grinned reluctantly. I had a feeling this was coming again; He knew me all too well. I however, did not have a girl in mind seeing as Evans had been the only thing on my mind since last night, so I said the first hot girl that came to mind, "Alexis Cassidy."

"Nice one," Sirius said grinning himself. "She's a total nine…she'd be a ten if her boobs were just a little bigger…"

I have sufficiently distracted him from my staring.

Oh I am good.

"You are disgusting Sirius," I said, and his grin widened.

"Oh come on prongs, you know it's true."

I rolled my eyes, and they came to rest back on the spot where Evans was previously sitting. I say previously because the seat was now vacated. I ever so casually turned my head more and saw her red hair just disappearing out of the great hall's doors. "Sirius, I gotta run. Have to finish that potions essay before class tomorrow."

I had slung my bag over my shoulder and left before he could say anything other than, "Wha…?"

As inconspicuously as possible I followed Evans to—as suspected—the library. One thing I did know about her was that she spent the majority of her free time in the library.

When I arrived, she was already seated at a table on the far left corner. Many of the tables were already taken, but I managed to snag one on a diagonal from hers. Perfect distance for me to still see her yet not get too close—

Holy mother of Merlin I've turned into a total stalker.

I have got to learn more about this Evans girl so I can finally stop being such a creeper. It'll totally ruin my reputation.

God now I sound like such a girl.

What is this girl doing to me?

I put my bag down on the chair beside me and sat down. I took out a spare bit of parchment and a quill and began pondering. Other then the stalking thing I actually did have to do this essay.

However my chosen seat was a little distracting. Evans was frantically writing, her head bent close to the page. She was biting her lip in concentration, and after she finished a paragraph, she'd lean back to admire her work and smile.

She continued to do so, until I saw her visually stiffen. Moments later, she slowly looked up, locking eyes with me. Green on Hazel. She looked puzzled. "Yes James, can I help you?" She asked in a strange tone. It was a cross between confusion, awkwardness, and kindness.

I had to think quickly.

"Uh, yes! I was uh…just wondering if you could uh…possibly help me with my potions essay," I finally said. I let out a deep sigh. I cannot believe I just came up with that on the spot. I really am good.

She smiled, the confusion still etched on her face. "Sure. Come here and let me see what you've got."

I got up and grabbed my things. After sitting down across from her, I handed her my blank parchment.

"Uh James, there's nothing here," She said, indicating to the parchment.

I smiled sheepishly. "Uh yeah I know. I haven't exactly been able to start it yet." To my surprise, she laughed. There was something about her laugh that made me want to smile. It was so gentle and pure; I grinned.

"Well, then I guess we should get started," she said.

She was a lot of help, and what we knew about her was confirmed once more; she was smart. Like seriously brilliant. That was also sort of intriguing.

I should seriously just create a list of everything intriguing about her.

She actually helped me finish my essay in under an hour; that's how unbelievably brilliant she is. However in that hour I found that Sirius was right; she was seriously strange. I mean she seemed to have all this knowledge and wisdom, and sometimes made absolutely no sense while she talked.

After I finished my essay, she went back to her work, but I didn't leave. I thought I'd take that opportunity to find out a little more about her; you know…crack the code and whatnot.

"So Evans," I started, and she looked up from her own essay. "How are you enjoying Sixth year?"

Stupid question James. You. Are. An. Idiot.

"Um, it's quite pleasant. I must say that the classes are all much easier than I expected, but what can I say, I guess I just had high expectations," she said.

I'm sorry, is it just me, or was that a little bit of an odd answer for a sixteen year old girl?

"Hmm…" I responded. I was drawing a blank, and said the very first thing to come to mind, which was probably pretty stupid seeing as it was, "So, do you like Quidditch?"

The smile on her face fell slightly. "Not really, I think it's positively barbaric," she said and I felt my jaw drop. "I mean it's just a bunch of people flying around randomly throwing balls at each other hoping to injure each other—"

"No it's not!" I interjected.

"—however I do enjoy the theory behind it, it's quite fascinating."

The…theory of Quidditch? Who in their right mind likes the theory of Quidditch? What even is the theory of Quidditch?

From this small conversation I had with Evans, I realized something.

She's crazy. Absolutely barking mad.

She's got these strange opinions on some things and she's just so different from normal people our age. But the thing is, I liked that. I liked how she was different, and kind of mad, and odd.

In the period of an hour, I went from admiring her from a far (stalking), to admiring her brilliance and finding her intriguing, to realizing she's mad. But the strange thing about it…

…Was that even though she was mad, it was kind of intriguing.

Arg, why did she have this weird pull on me?

I had to get out of there before it got worse. "Well Evans—"

"Lily," She interjected. "Please call me Lily."

Ah, so that was her first name. What a pretty na—no James, snap out of it!

"Yes Lily, thanks a ton for your help on my essay, but I'd better get going."

She smiled knowingly. "More pranks with your Molester buddies?" She asked, and I nearly choked. Where did that come from?

Molester?

And then I realized, "You mean Marauder," I told her and she laughed.

"Oh yes right, I always do seem to mix that up," she said, but I wasn't convinced. "Goodbye James."

And with that, I practically ran out of the library.

"She called us molesters?" Sirius asked, actually sounding a little hurt.

"She said it was an accident but I wasn't too sure about that," I answered, "and that was not the point of my story Padfoot—"

Sirius continued ignoring me, "and what is this theory of Quidditch? Who even knew there was a theory of Quidditch? And how can she find it barbaric?"

"No idea," I said.

Sirius made his way over to our dormitories lavatory. "God I look good today," he mumbled to himself before saying to me, "well at least she helped you with your essay. Can I copy?"

"Course," I told him, and then remembered, "But change things, unlike lastime. Thank god it was for Binns class or we would have been murdered for that."

Sirius rolled his eyes and looked at him pointedly. "I'm not that much of an idiot prongs; I only did that last time because it was Binns."

Remus, who had been resting on his bed reading a book (we've learned never to disturb him while he reads, he usually doesn't even listen to us when we talk to him while he's reading), looked over to us. "First of all, you two are pathetic," he said. Sirius and I let out words of protest, but he looked pointedly at the essay I was currently holding and we stopped. "Secondly, Lily Evans is a perfectly nice girl, and you two are exaggerating her madness due to the fact that she's a little different."

"She doesn't like Quidditch!" Sirius interjected, trying to make a point of her craziness.

"Yeah and…Wait how do you know that about her—wait how did you know her name is Lily, I didn't tell Sirius that, you couldn't have overheard it," I asked Remus. Did Remus know Lily, and if he did, why had he never mentioned it?

"I know that because Lily Evans is a Gryffindor prefect, as am I. Therefore, we spend a significant amount of time together, and I must say that—"

I went to interrupt him, but he glared.

"—you should give her another chance. She's a very nice girl."

Sirius rolled his eyes at Remus as he returned to the room and collapsed down on his bed. "Whatever."

I however, agreed with Remus. I was going to get to the bottom of the puzzle called Lily Evans. Dear mother of Merlin what has this girl done to me?

I waited a few days before approaching her again. I thought I'd give us some space so I didn't seem too strange and stalkerish. But I continued to observe her, and the more I did, the more interesting I found her.

For example, every day she had some sort of new flower on her. I hadn't noticed, but the first day in the Library, she'd had on a little ring with little roses on it. Then the next day she came to class with her hair pinned up with a Lily. Yesterday she wore a bunch of bracelets with different flowered charms around them. As well, everyday she'd wear a pendant around her neck shaped like a Lily, and would fiddle with it while she thought or was worried.

As well, she was incredibly kind to everyone. She'd say hello to almost everyone in the hallways, she stopped people from bullying the first years and helped them out, and even helped a second year to the hospital wing a few days ago who had broken his ankle.

These little things—her little quirks—made me want to know more about her. It was like a vicious circle, I'd find out more about her, and then want to learn more, so then I learn more, but the only result in this is me wanting to learn more.

Today, I plucked up the courage to sit down with her once again in the Library. I just walked straight up to her table—the same one as the last time—and plopped down in the chair.

She looked up startled. The light from the window was streaming through in her direction and her green eyes were glowing brighter then every. "Oh hello James," she said in her quiet musical voice.

"Hello Lily," I said.

And then we sat there, staring at each other, in complete silence. Stupid James; now that I had the courage to sit, I didn't know what to say.

"So…" she began. "Can I help you with something?"

And that was another thing about her; she always wanted to help people. It was amazing that she never got tired of it.

As per usual around her, my mouth moved without my brain giving it permission, making me utter, "You're different, you know that?"

She looked a little confused, but surprisingly not insulted in the least. She however, looked quizzically in my direction and asked, "Different how?"

That was the question I had been trying to figure out for the past four days, and still no luck.

"I'm not quite sure, but let me just say it's quite intriguing," I told her, and before I could regret it or even feel embarrassed, she smiled.

"And is that a good thing?" she asked. She closed the book that she had open in front of her and leaned on it, putting her face in her hands, making herself closer to me. I could smell her sent; a mixture between vanilla and just a natural sent; it was intoxicating.

"I'm not sure," I answered honestly.

"You're not sure of many things James Potter," She stated standing up. "Maybe you should figure them out before getting in too deep."

And then she was gone.


So there's the first chapter, please let me know what you think! As well, if you have any suggestions or whatnot, please let me know, i'd love to hear them! Thanks a ton!