Author's note: Hello, hello. The plot for this fic is still shaky, so bare with me. All right, on with the chapter, yo.
Disclaimer: Jo is air.
Chapter two:
Paralysis
After the first time Lily met James, she hadn't been the same since. Three years had passed since that day and if anything, James was a starting to become a large part of her life. There was nothing romantic about it. If anything, James William Potter was a very large thorn in her side. All he did was make lewd and offensive comments to her on a daily basis. She would never understand boys. It seemed that James was the biggest prat Lily had ever encountered in her 14 years of life. And that statement would stand true for several years after.
"Lily Evans!" She heard the voice she didn't want to hear that morning.
Her red head turned around as a tall boy with unruly black hair and glasses gracefully loped towards her. She sat at the Gryffindor table with one manicured, red eyebrow raised. James stopped in front of her and smirked.
"What do you want now, James?" Lily asked uninterested.
"You, you silly little minx," James said with a wink.
Lily's gaped at him. His devilish smirk only got more mischievous.
"I was kidding, Evans. Can't you take a joke?" He asked blinking his hazel eyes at her.
"I can take a joke, thanks. Your little comment was a bit shocking and lewd, that's all," she said with a sniff.
"What's the matter, Evans, thought I fancied you? Would it be a dream come true?" James sneered down at her.
"No, not at all. That would be a nightmare, not a dream," Lily said blushing as anger rose to her cheeks.
An emotion flickered over James' face, but it was too quick for Lily to see.
"It's all right, Evans, I know you fancy me. You can tell me," James said smiling at her.
"Excuse me! Do I look like one of those mindless bimbos that follow you around like lost puppies? You know what, don't answer that because some stupid insult will come out of your mouth," Lily said starting to get frustrated.
"Well, I was going to say no, you don't look like 'a mindless bimbo'. You look better and you're a lot smarter," James said seriously.
For the second time that morning, Lily was shocked by James.
"But please, don't let that statement go to your head," James said rolling his hazel eyes.
"Believe me, it won't. Now, what do you want?" Lily asked crossing her arms.
"Oh, the last Hogsmeade weekend is coming up and I was wondering if you would like to go, with me," James said not looking at her," I mean, Sirius, Remus and Pete will be there, too. So, don't get any ideas that this is going to be a date."
"I wouldn't dream of you asking me out on a date," Lily said with a look of disgust.
"I'm sure. So, will you?" He asked looking down at her. His hazel eyes were more memorizing. The middle of his iris was mainly green with a few flecks of gold. Then as the color gradually went out towards the edges the brown, green and gold mixed together to swirl around like molten lava. Lily had never paid much attention to the boy over the years. She never allowed herself to. She could see why these dumb girls followed James Potter around like a lovesick puppy. She snapped out of it and looked up at him.
"I'll think about it and let you know," she said.
"Well, don't keep m–I mean, us waiting," James said over his shoulder as he walked down the table towards where the Marauders typically sat.
Lily swung back around as she shook her thick mane of red hair. She heard her two friends giggle as she looked up at them across the table from her.
"What?" Lily asked incredulously.
"I think Potter has a crush on you," Tegan said knowingly.
"Why would you think something like that?" Lily asked widening her eyes in sheer disbelief.
"Oh, c'mon Lils! You can't see it? He just asked you to go to Hogsmeade with him. And may I add that it's the last weekend too. Are you daft?" Jenna said.
"It's not like it's going to just be he and I, Jen! The other Marauders will be there. Frankly, I like them all. They all may be mental, but their all sweet guys," Lily said digging into her scrambled eggs.
"Sure, whatever you say," Tegan said smirking at her.
"Are you two the daft ones?" Lily asked looking from one friend to the other.
"No, not at all. Once you're not blind anymore Lily, you'll see what I mean," Jenna said smiling.
"I don't believe the both of you. I cannot believe the both of you. You two are mental," Lily said continuing to eat her eggs.
"When will she start believing us?" Jenna asked Tegan.
"Probably after this weekend," Tegan said with a smile.
The two girls laughed as Lily glowered at them.
James sat down on the bench next to Sirius. He looked up at his best mate with a question in his gray eyes. James nodded to him and smiled.
"So did you do it then?" Peter asked looking up from his plate.
"Ask her, you mean?" James asked Peter.
"Yes, what else could I be talking about?" Peter asked.
"A lot of things, Pete. Did I have sex? Did I go to the loo? Did I ask Lily Evans to Hogsmeade? See, the list goes on," James said with a smile.
Peter rolled his eyes and gave James a look.
"Well, the answer is, yes I did ask her," James said putting his elbows on the table.
"And?" Peter asked.
"She said she'll let me know," James said as the smile disappeared.
"I'm sorry, mate. Usually that means, no," Remus' light brown head said from the Daily Prophet that blocked his face from view.
"Moony, why are you always so depressing? You can't let me hope, can you?" James asked his friend.
"I'm sorry," he said putting down the paper, "I forgot you don't live in reality."
"Thanks, Moony," James said giving Remus the finger.
"Really mature, Prongs," Remus said laughing.
"Isn't he?" Sirius said.
The four boys laughed.
"Don't worry, mate. I'll butter her up for you," Sirius said smiling at his best mate.
"And what does that entail?" James asked eying Sirius.
Sirius rolled his eyes.
"I'm simply going to talk to her. What else would I do? I know you like her, mate. She's off limits, even if she is delicious. Plus, she's become sort of like a little sister to me," Sirius said with a shrug.
"Damn right she's off limits," James said looking around the table to the three boys sitting around him.
The three boys all rolled their eyes. They had heard this speech for a year now. They knew exactly how off limits Lily Evans was.
"Prongs, we know," Remus said.
"I'm only reiterating the point," James said gruffly.
"When did you learn that word? Have you been reading the dictionary again?" Sirius teased.
"Fuck off Padfoot! Do you even know what the word means?" James asked raising a black eyebrow.
"I'm only teasing, mate. When any conversation comes up about Lily Evans you get all PMS-y," Sirius said wagging his black eyebrows.
The two other boys snorted.
"Sod off. That is not true. Is it?" James asked looking around the table.
The three boys nodded slowly as he caught their gaze.
"Shit," James said softly.
Sirius clapped James on the back, while the other two Marauders smirked at him.
The bell sounded as it was time for their first class of the day. Lily, Jenna and Tegan all grabbed their bags and slung it over their shoulders.
"You know, the books we have to get every year are steadily getting heavier," Jenna said swinging her shiny, chestnut brown hair over her shoulder as well.
"I think you're right," Tegan moaned.
"I don't mind, really. I mean, it's more for us to learn about," Lily said smiling at her two friends.
"Listen, Miss-treasured-student-in-Slug-Club, you're not normal. You should try to be a normal 14 year old girl sometime and not like you're 40. We haven't graduated, yet. You may like this back breaking 'learning material', but a lot of us normal people, do not," Tegan said holding out a brown hand.
Lily giggled.
"I assure you, I'm quite normal," Lily disagreed.
"Since when? The first day I met you in first year, all you talked about was how you were excited to learn. Don't get me wrong, so was I, but you took it to new extremes," Jenna said smiling at her best friend as they walked down to the dungeons.
"What's wrong with being excited to learn?" Lily asked as her lower lip turned into a pout.
"Nothing, but you're an over achiever," Tegan said laughing.
Lily rolled her green eyes and laughed. She loved her best friends no matter how much they teased her about her ridiculous work ethic. Her friends were quite smart, but they were happy with doing the bare minimal.
The three girls walked into their potions class that they had with the Ravenclaws. Lily, Jenna and Tegan sat right in the middle of the classroom. Lily wanted to sit in the front, but Jenna and Tegan thought it to be social suicide to sit in the front. Lily got them to agree to the middle of the class, but that was a struggle in itself.
Lily quickly got all of her supplies out as she happily waited for class to start. She bounced in her seat as her two friends watched in awe. Moments later, four very famous boys walked into the room. Lily rolled her eyes at their uniformed entrance. James and Sirius in the lead as Remus and Peter were two feet behind them lined up in perfect unison.
Lily always wondered how they always seemed so perfect. As the boys passed, Sirius gave her a sly wink. Lily covered her mouth and giggled. She and Sirius were fairly close. Unlike her and James, she and Sirius got on quite well. She felt extremely comfortable around him. They talked about anything and everything as well as being able to enjoy silence together. Whenever Lily was around James, he always filled their silent gaps with some kind of ridiculous story or comment.
Lily often asked Sirius how he could stand being around James. Sirius always replied that James is a lot different than he comes off. Lily refused to believe it. Until she saw that James Potter could be "different", she'd completely and utterly believe he was the biggest prat in England, maybe the world.
Her train of thought was broken when Slughorn made his way into the classroom. His large walrus-like mustache bristling as he panted. Lily assumed that he had briskly walked down from the Great Hall or he may have jogged. Lily couldn't help but smile at the thought. Slughorn looked up at his prized student and smiled back. Lily's eyes got huge for a moment when she realized Slughorn was smiling at her. He must have thought that she was smiling because of him. She was, but not for the reason he possibly could be thinking.
"All right class, settle down! Today I will be passing out cups of pumpkin juice to you all. Some of these cups will have paralyzing potion in it. I will not tell you which cups have it, but whoever isn't paralyzed must brew an anti-paralysis potion. All right, now come up and pick your partner's name out of this hat and grab your cup of pumpkin juice. Quickly," Slughorn said clapping his hand.
The class lined up in a single line. Lily, Tegan and Jenna were together in line as were the Marauders. Lily hoped she wouldn't get stuck with anyone she couldn't stand, like James. Lily realized it was her turn to pick a name out of the hat and grab a small glass of juice. She opened the small parchment of paper and read: James Potter. Lily almost screamed.
She couldn't believe this. Out of all of the names in the hat, she had to pull out the one person she didn't want to be paired with. She grabbed her glass of pumpkin juice and walked over to James. He raised a black eyebrow at her. She held out the paper for him to read. He looked up at her and smirked.
"I knew you couldn't stay away from me," he said seductively.
"You act like I wished to pull your name out of the bloody hat," Lily said through gritted teeth.
"I think you did," James said with a wink.
"Sod off, Potter," Lily said, "now, go grab a cup so we can get this over with."
James shook his head as he laughed at the frustrated redhead. He came back a moment later with his cup in hand. Lily was already seated next to her stuff staring at the liquid. James walked over to her table and looked at her.
"All right, ready to do this?" Lily asked glumly.
"I've been waiting to do this for some time," James said with smirk.
Lily looked up at him appalled.
"What's wrong?" James asked innocently.
"Nothing, Potter. Let's get this over with," Lily said.
James held up his glass and waited for Lily to hit it. She rolled her eyes and hit it. They both drank the juice quickly. They both stood there waiting for something to happen. Moments later, Lily leg started to lock, then her arms. James quickly laid her onto one of the benches before she fell to the ground.
James looked down upon her face. A small smile spread upon his as he looked at her. Lily's mouth was also locked. All she could do was try look sternly at him. James smile got bigger.
"This is hilarious. Who knew it'd be you that got paralyzed. Well, I suppose it's up to me to fix this, huh?" James said devilishly.
James looked around and saw that Sirius was working with one of Lily's best friends, Jenna. Remus and Pete happened to be working together. And Lily's other best friend; Tegan was working with some dubious looking Ravenclaw. James turned back to Lily's lifeless form. Even if she couldn't move, her eyes were alight with anger. James quickly smirked and opened the potion book on the table to start.
"Don't worry, Evans. I'll take good care of you," James said smiling down at her.
Her green eyes were clouded with worry.
"Oh, Evans, have a little faith in me. I'm actually really good at potions," James said eying the book.
Lily rolled her eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, you'll see," James said still looking at the book.
Lily wondered to herself how he had seen her do the small motion when he was staring directly at the textbook. The many wonders of James Potter.
As James was waiting for the potion to come to a boil, he sat down by Lily's head and talked to her.
"So, have you given my proposal any thought?" James asked,"oh, yeah. I forgot you can't speak. Um, blink once for yes and twice for no."
Lily blinked twice.
"Really, Evans? You haven't thought about it at all? That hurts. I've been thinking about this for some time," he said with a grin.
Lily rolled her eyes again.
"You know, Lily, your eyes are really pretty. Don't let that go to your head either. Your ego should be huge by now. I mean, the last two comments I gave you would have any girl in this school wooed. I wouldn't have to seduce her, not at all. That makes my job easier, you see," James said looking at her.
Lily's eyes were alight with anger. She didn't want to hear about how James extracurricular activities. James got up and checked the potion. He stirred it a few times and added something that Lily couldn't see. He then came to sit down next to her again.
"But really Evans, you should think about my question," James said seriously.
Lily balefully looked at James. He smiled down at her and got up to check on the potion again. He poured some in a vial and brought it over to Lily. He wafted it under her nose and slowly the potion started working. It started with her mouth, then her arms and lastly, her legs.
"I told you you'd be fine," James said with a smirk.
"Well, forgive me for doubting you," Lily said stretching her limbs.
"What? You're apologizing for something?" James asked shocked.
"Don't let it go to your head," she said smiling at him.
"Using my own words against me," James said shaking his head.
Lily nodded her head and smirked.
"Very funny," James said smirking.
"Oh, I know I am. Anyways, I don't ever want to hear about your extracurricular activities again," Lily said crossly.
James rubbed the back of his hair. "I won't. Promise."
"Good," Lily said crossing her arms.
Lily looked around the room and saw that Sirius was slowly regaining the use of his limbs again. Lily smiled at him and he smiled back. She also saw who he was working with. Lily secretly smiled to herself. She looked across the room and saw poor Tegan still paralyzed and saw she was paired with a Ravenclaw. Lily frowned and felt horrible for her friend.
She turned back and looked at James leaning on the desk. Lily walked over and stood in front of him.
"Thanks, by the way," Lily mumbled.
"What for?" He asked nonchalantly.
"Brewing a good potion," Lily said turning pink.
James rolled his eyes. "It's not that big of a deal, Evans, but you're welcome," he said laughing.
"Well, you could have been a big git and left me paralyzed."
"I wouldn't do that," James said quietly.
Lily looked up at him. James stood up to his full height and looked down at her. Lily was a tall girl (about 5 foot, 8 inches), but she wasn't nearly as tall as James. James felt as if her green eyes were x-raying his soul.
"You know what, James Potter?" Lily asked in a dazed voice.
"Hm?" He grunted.
"I will go with you to Hogsmeade this weekend," she said finally taking her eyes off of him.
James raised a black eyebrow. He was rather confused about this abrupt answer to his question he proposed at breakfast. Before he could inquire why, Slughorn clapped his hands together and the class grew quiet.
"I'm proud all of those who brewed a successful anti-paralysis potion. For those who have not, I would like you to write a 3 foot scroll on the importance of the potion and what you did wrong. I will come around and administer to those who still need the potion."
Lily was quickly putting her things in her bag and was hurriedly going over to her best friends. James decided to ask her why this weekend. He had to talk to his brothers to help him plan for the weekend.
A/N: Pretty long chapter (for only the second). Lots of James and Lily interaction. They're just so darn cute! Anyways, enough about that tell me what you think!
Reviews are a large bowl of mashed potatoes. Oh, goodness! I really want some.
