September
It was two weeks into classes and Seventh year wasn't going as smoothly as Lily had planned. With NEWTs she knew it wouldn't be much of a picnic, but with all the Head duties on top of it, her Seventh year was starting to be more of a hassle than she'd bargained for. She'd been up late nearly every night since the feast working on Potions essays, decoding Ancient Runes, and she was beginning to doubt if she was really able to handle NEWT level Transfiguration. Not to mention, she was doing all the Head duties herself since Potter was always busy with something or other, and she seriously doubted his competency anyway. As she sat in the common room pouring over the same Transfiguration chapter for the second time this week, a fourth year came over and handed her a stack of parchment.
"Lily, Professor McGonagall asked me to give you this. She said she needs it before Thursday." The girl said and walked away. Lily sighed as she saw all the changes that needed to be made the schedule she'd done. Not wanting to deal with it on her own once again, she searched the common room for her partner. She found him huddled over a table in his Quidditch robes, writing vigorously. After a glance at his paper Lily was surprised to see that it was Potions work and not Quidditch plays.
"We have to re-do these Prefect schedules, Potter." She said, walking over with the papers in hand.
"Er, can it wait? I have Quidditch practice tonight." He told her, giving her a pleading smile which she tried not to roll her eyes at. It annoyed Lily how he thought he could get out of anything with the right look on his face. Admittedly he was good looking, but his attitude about it made him completely unattractive.
"McGonagall needs them by Thursday, but I guess we can do it tomorrow night." She told him, mentally noting that she'd have to be sure to finish her Charms essay tonight.
"You hear that, Prongs, your dreams have finally come true. She wants to do it tomorrow night, if you know what I mean." Sirius said with a wink at Lily. She shot him a harsh glare but chose not to say anything as Remus elbowed him sharply, but with a slight smirk on his face. James put a hand over his face to cover his smile.
"Tomorrow night's fine." James told her, trying his charming smile on her which didn't come close to working. Then Sirius cleared his throat and jerked his head in the direction of the window and the Whomping Willow that stood in the distance. James eyes widened and he nodded back to his friend.
"Actually, I can't tomorrow either cause I have… er more Quidditch practice." He told her, sounding unsure.
"It's Tuesday, Potter, when else do you think this can get done?" she asked, getting annoyed.
"Can't we just turn it in a little late? McGonagall won't really be too mad, I expect. She'll get over it easy enough." He told her nonchalantly as if the solution was obvious. This was not the right thing to say, he could tell as he saw the red flush that crept to Lily's cheeks. Before he could really admire how beautiful she was when she was angry, she began yelling at him loudly.
"Listen Potter, just because you obviously don't take this seriously doesn't mean I don't either. There are other things in life than Quidditch, and you have a responsibility even though you clearly have NO idea what that word even means. You should just tell Dumbledore to make someone else Head Boy since you are too much of a PRAT to actually do your job, and against what you may think I really don't fancy doing all this work by myself! I can't believe anyone expected you to be good at this; you're just a big JOKE."
She threw him a glare as she finished, threw the papers onto her Transfiguration book and stormed upstairs before James could do any more than yell "Evans, wait!" hopelessly after her. She didn't even turn around, and he stood there dumbstruck for a minute before he walked over to pick up the papers now strewn across the table.
"Listen, Prongs, you don't have to come out tomorrow night. You have more important things to do, and really I don't mind." Remus told him, patting him gently on the shoulder.
"You think I have more important things than my best mate's furry little problem? I'll get these done tonight, some time." He said with an attempt at a smile, thinking in the back of his mind about the Defense Essay he hadn't started yet. He tucked the schedules into his bag and headed towards the Quidditch pitch for the practice that was about to begin.
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Lily was fuming as she paced the floor of her room. Mary and Alice watched her from their beds, knowing it was best not to interrupt her ranting.
"And I don't care if he is the bloody Quidditch captain, he can't just stiff me with all the work! Who does he think he is, really? As if being the Head Boy doesn't matter at all! He thinks it's just another award to add to his stupid trophy case and make his FAT head even BIGGER, if that's even possible!" She finished, breathing a little uneasily after her tirade. Mary and Alice exchanged looks asking each other how James once again annoyed the girl who he tried so hard to impress.
"Listen, Lily, you will be bothered by this all night if we don't change the subject soon. It's not that bad. My mom just owled me this tin of cookies so have one and then Mary can tell us about her new lover boy, Gregorius Davies." Alice said, holding out a tin. Lily took one and bit it fiercely as she sat on the spare bed. Then she noticed the vase of flowers on Mary's nightstand and her friend began to tell about him very excitedly. Soon Lily was wrapped up in the story and pushed the encounter with James briefly out of her mind.
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Hours later, as she put the finishing word on her Charms Essay, Lily remembered her disagreement with James and the books she'd left in the common room. Yawning as it was quite late by then, she crept down the stairs into the quiet room to retrieve her things. She picked them up and walked quietly back to the Head's dorm. When she got there she was surprised to see James snoring lightly with his head slumped on the desk. As she walked over she realized he was drooling on the old prefect schedules, with the new ones lying under his resting arm. She gently pulled them out from under him and looked over them critically. To her surprise they were all finished, and, to her even greater surprise, looked pretty good. Smiling to herself in the dark room, she nudged him gently. He merely grunted, and she nudged him a little harder and whispered "Potter, wake up." His eyes opened slowly, but when he registered that it was Lily he shot up in his seat, looking very confused. She laughed and motioned for him to wipe the drool from his cheek, which he did sheepishly.
"I finished the schedules." He told her needlessly, seeing them in her hand.
"I noticed," she said, waving them slightly. "They don't look half bad."
"Really, because I wasn't sure how they were supposed to be so if you want to, you know, throw them into the fire or something I wont really be offended." Lily was very surprised to hear James Potter not talking about how great he was at everything and actually admitting that he could be wrong, but was sure to keep her expression from letting on.
"They're fine, don't worry. Just go to bed, you look dead tired."
"Listen, Evans," he continued, not heeding her advice, "I'm really sorry. You were right. I'm not doing that great of a job as Head Boy, and it isn't fair to you… I didn't realize it before but I do now. I'm going to Dumbledore in the morning to resign."
"No, don't, I mean unless you really want to, but maybe I was being a bit harsh. I reckon you just needed a wakeup call. If you're going to take it seriously from now on then don't resign all because of me." She said, hoping she wouldn't regret it later on.
"If you're giving me another chance, I'll take it." He said with a grin, vowing to himself that he would not disappoint her again.
"Goodnight, Potter" she told him with a nod, slinging her bag over her shoulder and walking to her room.
"'Night, Evans" he answered, smiling widely while shoving his things back into his bag. For once he wasn't cursing himself for falling for Lily Evans.
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"You okay, Prongs? You look almost as bad as Moony over here" Sirius questioned the next morning over breakfast. Remus, whose face looked positively gray, muttered irritably as he took a sip of his pumpkin juice. While this was a clear exaggeration, James had dark circles under his eyes and looked as though he might fall asleep in his waffles at any second.
"No I'm fine. Didn't get much sleep though." He told them, punctuating it with a yawn.
"Good thing you're not upset about resigning from Head Boy anymore. Who wants to be a know-it-all Head Boy anyway? You'd probably end up miserable, having to do all that work with Evans yelling at you every other night. I know you fancy her or whatever but she was worse than McGonagall. I don't know how you can stand it and-"
"I'm not resigning, Padfoot. And I do fancy Evans so shut it." James interrupted. Sirius merely pulled a face and reached across the table for another croissant.
"Why don't you go show the future Mrs. Potter the new schedules?" Peter asked, trying to be helpful. James smiled widely at him and Peter blushed faintly. Sirius was miming throwing up into his breakfast.
"Atleast someone is supportive. She already saw them last night. She said I did a good job and convinced me not to resign. And she told me that she wants me." James told them all proudly. Sirius snorted into his porridge and even Remus chuckled a little at the obvious lie.
"What did you do after that, think up more ways to ask her out?" Sirius mocked.
"I've got to have a plan." James answered reasonably.
"Why don't you try spelling it in fireworks at dinner again, it worked so well the last time." His best friend said sarcastically.
"Evans is classy, Padfoot. She's not going to say 'yes' to fireworks."
"Why don't you try calling her Lily then, mate? Your future bride probably doesn't like being called by her surname." Remus said sensibly as Sirius laughed at the 'future bride' statement.
"You can't call her 'Evans' when she's your wife. She wont even be an Evans then." Sirius told him and James had to roll his eyes at his friends.
"Fine I'll call her Lily. Just stop calling her my wife, she might hear you." He said, shooting a look down the table to where Lily and her friends were sitting.
"What, you mean she doesn't know about the engagement? Or maybe you haven't popped the question yet. I say do it through fireworks at dinner…" Sirius teased as James groaned and covered his face.
"All of you can go shove it." He told them, but was still smirking slightly.
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"Lily, I think the Marauders are talking about you as James's 'future bride' if I heard correctly." Mary told her, trying to hold back laughter.
"I knew I should never have been nice to him. He doesn't need any encouragement." Lily grumbled as her friends giggled. She had already told her friends what had transpired in the Head's room last night, relieved that she wouldn't have to spend her spare time with the schedules. Alice tried to imply that it was because she was pleased with James's behavior, but Lily vehemently denied that.
"Yeah, I expect he thinks you're half in love with him now." Alice said, egging her on.
"Luckily he's right though, or else you'd really be in for it." Mary chimed in, dodging the napkin Lily threw at her. Mary didn't think it was true as much as she enjoyed teasing her best friend.
"Can we not talk about him, please? I don't want to lose my appetite."
"Are you lovesick over Potter?" Mary taunted, clearly enjoying the opportunity to do so.
"Keep it up and see who lets you copy her Charms essay later." Mary grumbled and the girls grabbed their bags to go to class.
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That night as Lily was finishing up Arthimancy she realized that it was midnight and James had still not returned from "Quidditch practice". It crossed her mind that he could've been in the Gryffindor common room, but he hadn't come back to change and all his books were sitting on his desk so that was hardly likely. As she gazed out the window at the full moon her mind wandered to Severus' theory that Remus was a werewolf and somehow the Marauders were with him on every full moon. Even if he wasn't with Remus, James certainly wasn't in his bed and Lily intended to find out why.
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The next afternoon in their common room Lily cornered him.
"What time did you get in last night?" she asked, making her voice sound casual. James was so surprised by her address to him about something other than business that he didn't give much thought to his cover story.
"Around one. I was in the dorm with the boys."
"Oh you went up after Quidditch?" she questioned, barely able to keep an accusatory tone out of her voice.
"That's right." He answered, wondering why she would be asking. She was acting normal, which was not how she'd normally act around him. It made him suspicious.
"How come Victor Keesling and Jordan Oleander didn't know about practice?"
"Well, er, it was a special Captain's practice. Only for Chasers and the Keeper." The ease with which he lied to her was surprising to both of them, although neither voiced this.
"Mhmm" Lily mumbled, allowing this to pass as an excuse for the time being. She knew it wasn't true by any stretch but she wanted to have more proof before she made any accusations.
"Gryffindor'll win with all the extra practice you're putting in. I guess it's a good thing that you're so obsessed; it makes you a dedicated Captain." She said simply and was glad of the guilty look that cropped up on his face for a moment. When she sat at her desk to resume her homework James settled into the couch with his Defense book, trying to read up for their essay on wordless magic. His conversation with Lily was distracting him, however. Why was she asking about Quidditch practice? And why did she give up so easily when, James knew, she didn't believe his lies? He consoled himself with the thought that whatever she thought he was doing, it was not that he was running around as a stag trying to keep a werewolf in check in the Forbidden Forest.