Lily I
The first time Lily Evans is aware of James Potter's existence she doesn't even know his name, but she is pretty sure he is prat. He thinks he knows everything and he's probably even worse than the other dark-haired boy who made fun of Severus. Gryffindor, she thinks spitefully. If making to Gryffindor means sharing the Common Room with an idiot like Potter she really hopes she will be Sorted in Slytherin as Severus wants.
McGonagall
Minerva McGonagall is not sure who is it worse, Potter or Black.
True enough, at first she felt it was her duty to protect Sirius –the heir to the most prominent of the 28 families- in his journey in Gryffindor. She had met the boy's stare when he had returned the Sorting Hat to her and she had spotted fear and confusion and a glint of something she will later come to recognize as Marauders. She had feared for the boy; she had feared his family's rage and, most of all, that he would not have been accepted among his fellow Gryffindors. At first, she had been glad to watch James Potter coming to sit next to Sirius and sharing a wide grin with him.
Boys, she had thought, almost affectionaly.
Naturally, it had only taken a week to make her regret that thought. Potter and Black. Her personal nightmares.
Potter, of course, is as mad as hatter as his own father was and Minerva remembers Fleamont Potter's crazy stunts from when they were classmates. Sometimes, she has a feeling that James will simply be much worse than his father, but she is anyway glad that to have Potter in her House.
True, as Minerva shouts "Black! Potter!" panting after the two snickering twelve-year-old "You will get detention until your O.W.L.s are over!" she feels like retiring or killing the two boys.
Anyway, the boys are brilliant in Transfiguration and she cannot help but smile when she watches them together, frowning and plotting and laughing. It's a sight that makes her hope for the future of the Wizarding World; a blood-traitor and a Black, mates for life.
Naturally, she will kill them off before Black can even inherit the title, and James can enter the Quidditch team he is so obsessed with, but that's a completely else matter.
"Boys" she says, still panting, her lips dangerously thin "Who put the Lassie Lassative Laughing Lysanders in the Slytherins breakfast?"
Sirius lifts his chin defiantly, his grey eyes sparkling with crazy joy and Minerva shivers reminding a similar conversation with Miss Bellatrix Black and her habit to hex Muggle-Borns during breakfast.
Blood is blood, she thinks sadly.
But then Potter speaks and Sirius has to lower his gaze, his young body shaking with the laughter he is comically trying to suppress.
"We did it in their best interest! You see, they are so uptight that if they were just able to get that broom out of their…"
"Potter!" Minerva warns.
"But Professor!" this time is Black who protests and Minerva stares at him curiously for a fraction of second; all the aristocratic arrogance is gone from his expression and any resemblance with Bellatrix Black is nothing more than a ghost, some high cheekbones and black hair. His smirk is so much Potter that Minerva feels hope once again. "James is right! You see, my cousin Narcissa has always her nose up because she smells all of the fart-"
"MR. BLACK" she shouts this time, while Potter finally bursts into laughter "I've had enough! Double detention for two weeks and thirty points from Gryffindor!"
Some hours later, Minerva is still fuming with rage and she is glaring intently at her dinner, as if Potter or Black were capable to change the flavor of the stew.
(She is actually pretty sure they could).
"Minerva" says Dumbledore amiably "You don't like the stew?"
Albus is smirking in such a way that now McGonagall is really convinced that Black and Potter did change the flavor of her stew in some vomit-tasting thing.
"Potter and Black are going to kill us both or make us prematurely retire" she retorts spitefully "That is, if I don't expel them first."
Albus lets out a small laugh "And yet" he says gently "They are such a happy, funny, group"
Minerva follows his gaze and sees them, Potter and Black and it takes her a whole second to notice that Remus Lupin is seating between the two laughing friends. Remus is saying something, witty probably because she spots Black letting out a full laughter and patting the other boy's back. Lupin gives him a wide smile and Minerva cannot help but grin herself.
She wonders if Black knows Lupin's secret and if he doesn't if he would be so willing to be his friend if he knew. She watches as Potter adds something, gesticulating wildly, and the three friends laugh even harder. Pettigrew comes to sit next to Potter, a tired expression plastered on his face, and Minerva is surprised once again when Potter starts filling Peter's plate with the same stew that she really doesn't feel like eating.
Peter smiles surprised and smiles even wider when Black greets him with a small touch on his forearm.
Boys, Minerva thinks once again.
"Indeed" she tells Albus. This time she openly smiles.
Lily III
Lily hates Potter even more when she actually gets to know him.
She hates him because he walks around as if he owns the castle, as if he is the king of Gryffindor and every last of them is his fucking servant. It gets even worse when he makes to the Quidditch team; now he thinks he is better than anyone else just because he is able to catch a stupid ball four times a year.
But what infuriates her most is the way everything comes so easy to him. He doesn't need to study –no, he is a Pureblood, after all- magic just happens for him. Potter is even worse than Black –not that Lily doesn't hate him as well, the only person she really loathes, aside from Potter, being Black. At least, Black doesn't even pretend to be surprised when he performs the most complicated charms with a bored grin, as if they were a piece of cake for him.
"Ehy Evans" Potter salutes her with a wide grin "How's your greasy boyfriend?"
Lily is about to cast him a nasty spell, when she spots Remus's apologetic smile.
"Don't be silly, Prongs" the prince-of-Purebloods interjects "Old Snivelly doesn't have time for birds, not when dear old Malfoy is around!"
The hex is so powerful that both Potter and Black have to skip the afternoon classes to recover in the Medical Wing.
Lily is almost ashamed of her actions. They both deserved it and, besides, it really pains her to see Severus spending so much time with Head Boy Malfoy, someone who thinks that Lily's very existence is a shame for the Wizarding kind. But she is not one to break rules and hexing classmates is never justifiable.
"Evans" McGonagall says with a hard look "I am very disappointed in you"
"I am very sorry, Professor" Lily murmurs, lowering her gaze.
"That will be ten points from Gryffindor, young lady"
Lily feels her cheeks reddening and hopes McGonagall won't notice her attempt to become as small as she can.
"A Bat-Boogey Hex, eh, Miss Evans?"
Lily stares at the professor for a long moment and then she nods tentatively.
McGonagall seems to consider her for a while, a curious expression on her face.
"Five points to Gryffindor for the perfect execution of the spell" she declares "I am sure Professor Flitwick would be as impressed as I am to see such a young witch performing such a difficult spell"
Lily's jaw drops and her green eyes are wide open. Five points? Flitwick?
"And" McGonagall stares into her eyes intently, apparently feeling no emotion "Five points for your perfect aim, that is five points for Potter and five points for Black"
Lily opens her mouth but she is still incapable of producing any sound.
"I cannot hex them myself, Miss Evans" McGonagall explains briskly even if Lily can spot the ghost of a smile forming on her lips "Now, go, before I change my mind and give you detention".
Padfoot or Lily VII
Lily tries to cast James a scornful look when he throws himself on Remus' sorry figure, howling "Mooooony", but maybe she is too tipsy to react properly. Her boyfriend is very drunk and Remus is moving too carefully to be completely sober. The only one who seems to be really holding it together is Sirius, but then again she is tipsy and the Marauders are never completely normal by any standard.
She even snickers when Lupin replies "Now I really regret becoming your friend, you stupid Pureblood"
"Blood-traitor" Sirius corrects with a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. The marauders laugh darkly but Lily is suddenly very conscious of the Black boy's proximity and when she meets his eyes she has to fight the urge to lower her gaze.
To her surprise, it is Sirius the first to break the eye contact. "Don't take it as an offence" he says, sounding almost sheepish "We… We have to laugh about these stuff, don't we?"
He looks at her again and it takes some time for her to realize that he intended it as a sentence and not quite as question as it sounded. Yes, Lily thinks humorlessly, we have to laugh about these stuff, and how bad the world is, and the fact that they want to kill me and you and James and Remus and the reality is cold and frightening out there, and there is a war going on and…
"Don't worry, Black" she says mockingly "I am a tough girl" she adds grimly, thinking of all the times she has been called Mud-Blood, and how it had hurt every single time, no matter how much she told herself that they were only stupid Slytherins. And how it had broken her heart to hear that world escaping from Severus' lips.
"Of course you are" Sirius says sincerely "Or you wouldn't be able to put up with James" he adds, with a grin. As if to prove his point, James takes the bottle of Firewisky they had been drinking all night and finishes it with satisfied expression. "To the N.E.W.T.s" he cheers, holding the finished bottle as if it was a sword and Lily chuckles, remembering an eleven-year old James making the same exact gesture on the Hogwarts Express almost eight years before. Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart, like my dad.
(Lily has never felt less a Gryffindor like right now).
"You are a great witch, Evans" Sirius whispers suddenly and Lily knows that he is as drunk as James is, because he has been calling her 'Lily' since she and his best mate got together.
"I know" she says. Not quite as good as you are, she thinks.
"No, you don't know" Sirius retorts and he must be, really, really, intoxicated because since Lily and James have started dating, he has tried to keep his shit together, but he has never been close to the girl, not like Remus who is always gentle or Peter who always makes her laugh. Sirius has been cordial and polite enough, but he is James's and it's not like it made any sense to become Lily's friend.
Not until a bottle of Firewisky ago.
"You think me and James are better than you because we are Pureblood" he blurts out fervently.
"James and I" she corrects him, incapable of a producing a decent answer.
"Whatever" he shrugs dismissively, even if cannot believe he made an actual grammar mistake "But you are not, you are great and you are better at potions than me and Prongs put together"
"I know" she whispers again, her cheeks flushing with sudden pride.
"No you don't…" Sirius repeats "Look, everybody thinks that it was James who skewed my path and brought me to become the disgrace of the name of Blacks' and the run-away-heir and…" he stops, eyes wide with sudden fear, because it's not likely for Sirius to open so much about his situation as the disowned Black, let alone with Evans. "But it was you" he concludes simply, getting finally to the point.
"Me?" Lily asks, eyes wide with surprise.
Sirius nods fervently "You showed me that a Muggle-Born could kick a Black's arse in Potions and that made me realize for the first time that a wizard is a wizard and a witch is a witch, no matter what."
Lily stares at him intently and for the first time in her life she sees Sirius through James' eyes. An intelligent boy, a brave man, a loyal friend, her best mate.
"You are a true witch" he repeats.
"Thanks, Padfoot" she says, calling him with his nickname for the very first time "You are a true Gryffindor" she adds, pressing a small kiss on his cheek.
James spots them and lets out an 'OI' with fake rage.
"Get your dirty hands off my girlfriend, you, ungrateful dog!"
Sirius grins "Jealous, Potter?" before pinning James down to the floor and starting a wrestling match with his best friend.
Lily rolls her eyes, but she smiles fondly at the sight. Thanks, Padfoot, she repeats to herself.
She is not so afraid anymore and she will call him 'Padfoot' for the rest of her life.
