A/N: So, here's the first official chapter. I've been toying with another story idea in my head for a few days. It's a little more AU, so I'm thinking about actually sitting down to write some of it one day soon.
Please R&R!
Thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter!
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James Potter grinned as he swiftly boarded the Hogwarts Express and then proceeded to find his friends. It wasn't hard, they were so loud you could hear them from almost anywhere on the train. His grin widened as he threw open the compartment door.
"Prongs!" Sirius Black shouted excitedly, and ran across the compartment and engulfed James in a hug. "I've missed you!"
James rolled his eyes and pushed Sirius off him. "You've lived with me all summer. You saw me an hour ago."
Sirius pretended to be hurt. "Can't a guy miss his best friend?" James responded by simply shaking his head and sitting next to Remus Lupin.
"So," James began, bursting to tell his friends what had him grinning so widely this morning, "this is my year!"
His friends looked at him, their faces etched with questions. "To get Lily," James clarified, dreamily. And, for a moment, James forgot everything around him. Simply at the mention of her name. He was brought back to reality by the snorting and cackling of his so called best friends.
"You say that every year, James."
"But I'm serious this year," James blurted out, and instantly regretted his unwise word choice.
"Aha, I knew all you had to do was be me. Lily always has fancied me, I believe," Sirius joked. However, his joke was promptly ignored by all three of his friends. In turn, Sirius pouted at the flop of his joke.
"I have a plan this year. A good one," James insisted.
"It better be a good one, it's your last year."
"I know, Moony. It is a good one I swear," James' eyes pleaded with his friends to ask about the plan. He was just dying to share. Finally, Remus gave in.
"Ok," he sighed, "what's your brilliant plan?"
"I'm not going to ask her out anymore," he began laying out his plan excitedly. Sirius looked confused. Apparently he did not follow how not asking Lily out was going to benefit James. And so, James continued, "I'm going to do that thing. What she does. I'm going to play hard to get!"
Sirius scoffed. He didn't think James had it in him, really. He'd been head over heels in love with Lily Evans since they were fourteen. "You know, Prongs, if you ignore her and stop asking her out, and stop trying to kiss her all the time, she's likely to ignore you all together."
James' eyes widened. "No, Padfoot, she won't," he spoke with wavering confidence. It was a thought that had crossed his own mind several times.
Confused, Sirius turned to Remus for an explanation. Remus chuckled. "Ah yes, head boy and head girl are bound to be forced to spend a ridiculous amount of time together."
"Exactly."
Sirius snorted. "Have you told her about that yet?"
A small trace of nervousness passed through James' hazel eyes. He shook his head. He was afraid to tell her, to be honest. She would probably scream and curse him before pleading with Dumbledore to make someone else head boy. Anyone else. And, even though James wouldn't admit it to anyone, his heart ached a little bit every time he thought about it.
Noticing the look of hurt clouding James' eyes, Sirius switched the conversation back to the plan. James didn't know it, but his friends could tell when he was hurt. James tried to hide it the best he could, but Sirius and Remus could see right through him. Peter, on the other hand, well Peter was slightly daft.
"So, not going to ask her out, huh? Not even once?"
James instantly perked up as he remembered his, as he called it, brilliant plan. "No, not once. Well, y'know, not until I can be sure she'll say yes."
"I'm not sure you have it in you, Prongs," Remus remarked, voicing all of their thoughts.
James insisted he did, however. Sirius chuckled. "Well then, mate, now's your chance. She's in that compartment right across there," he stated, pointing across the train aisle, "Why don't you go tell her about that head boy badge of yours?"
James stood, knowing that Sirius was silently daring James to go. And, his three friends stood up right after him. "You can't be serious," James started, before looking at Sirius and saying 'don't' firmly. "Surely you're not planning to come with."
Sirius smirked. "Of course we are, Jamsie. You didn't think, not even for a second, that we would miss seeing her either A. scream her head off at you when she finds out or B. watching you try to stick to your plan, did you?" As Sirius finished, he opened the compartment door and barged quickly in the compartment that apparently held Lily Evans. James rolled his eyes, prepared himself mentally for the screaming he knew was coming, and followed his friend.
"Lily!" Sirius bellowed loudly as he entered her compartment. Lily, looked up when they heard the loud, screeching voice of the one and only Sirius Black.
Lily rolled her eyes, but could not suppress a small smile. "Yes, Black?"
But what exactly Sirius planned to say, Lily would never know. At that second James Potter entered the compartment, and Lily's mood worsened slightly. She looked at him, expecting him to do something that would infuriate her. Instead, she was surprised to see a polite small gracing his lips.
"Hullo, Lily. Have a good summer?"
Lily was shocked, to say the least. Too shocked for words, in fact, and so she simply nodded. James sat across from her, not sure what to say.
"So," Sirius started, trying to break the awkward silence that had fallen over the group. "James got head boy," he blurted out quickly, looked at Lily, hoping for something entertaining to happen.
"I figured," Lily began.
"Really?" Sirius squeaked out, genuinely surprised. "We were all downright shocked, to say the least!"
"Yes, well," Lily looked thoughtful for a moment, "I wasn't exactly thrilled about the idea. But it was bound to be one of you four. And James, well," Lily paused, not sure exactly what she was trying to say, "Well, is the most qualified in our year, I suppose," she finished her thought quietly.
No yelling, James thought, and a compliment, of sorts. James' heart swelled slightly as Lily Evans uttered something nice about him. It happened very rarely. In fact, James was sure he could count the times on one hand. But boy, when it did happen, James' mood could not be brought down for days.
And so, James Potter said the first thing he could think of to say. "Lily, go out with me?"
Lily huffed slightly. "Back to that, are we Potter? I was hoping you'd stop that. I guess it was too much to ask, to think that you'd have grown up a little bit? No, I will not go out with you, for the 347th time," she finished, as she stood and threw open the compartment door, trying to suppress her anger as she exited through the door quickly.
James smirked, and called out after her, "So you've been counting too, then?" The door was promptly slammed in his face.
James, Remus, and Peter all proceeded to burst out laughing, and gave James a pointed look, as if to say 'way to follow the plan.' James shrugged. "Old habits die hard, I guess."
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Lily Evans stormed down the aisle of the Hogwarts Express, one she could be sure that James could no longer see her. She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing he had ruffled her feathers. She could not, for the life of her, figure out why James Potter insisted on making her life miserable by repeatedly asking her out. It was not as if he really fancied her. She was sure of that.
And even if he did, everyone knew that she despised him. Yet James kept trying, in order to boost his ego, she assumed.
Lily let out a frustrated sigh. Where were her damn friends when she needed them? Finally, after many minutes of searching the train recklessly, Lily found them, and then she burst violently into their compartment.
Her doe-like green eyes surveyed the compartment quickly, and one she could be positive they were the only three inhabitants of it, she let out a loud, frustrated growl. "I swear I would kill James Potter if it wouldn't get me locked up in Azkaban!"
Marlene McKinnon chuckled. She had always been quite amused by Lily and her blunt hatred for James Potter. "What happened this time, Lil?" She asked tentatively, her bright blue eyes clouded with wonderment.
The third girl, sitting across from Marlene, set down her book in order to glance at Lily as well. This girl, Mary MacDonald, narrowed her brown eyes inquisitively, and then patted the seat next to her. "Yes, Lily dear, pray tell what James Potter did this time to get you in such a puff."
Marlene laughed slightly at the expense of Lily. Lily, on the other hand, did not find it amusing. Not one bit.
"He-he-," Lily sounded exasperated, and like she couldn't string together a coherent sentence no matter how hard she tried. "He asked me out!"
Mary raised and eyebrow as Lily finally threw herself in the seat beside her. Glancing slowly at Marlene, she was relieved to find the same look of confusion washed over her face as well.
"Not to sound rude, Lil," Marlene started slowly, careful not to upset Lily, "but doesn't he always?"
Lily let out another growl, and a ferocious look passed through her eyes. "Yes. But he didn't. At first, that is. I thought he had finally grown up. But alas, no. Of course not. It is James-freaking-Potter after all."
Mary chuckled. "This is your 7th year, Lils. Why not try to have some fun with Potter? What do you have to lose, really?"
Lily's green eyes widened. "What do I have to lose? My dignity. My pride. My-my-" Lily shrieked as she began to run out of words so quickly, "My everything," she finished with a dramatic sigh.
Marlene rolled her eyes. "Or, maybe you'd end up taking away something worth much more than anything you could ever lose."
Lily returned Marlene's comment with a glare. She hated when Marlene got all philosophical on people. She always ended up sounding so wise, and absolutely bloody brilliant, when really, she was just pulling it out of nowhere.
"What I'd gain would be a pain in my arse!"
And with that, the three girls silently agreed to stop discussing James Potter for the rest of the train ride. Or, at least for as long as they could avoid him and his friends.