A/N: Hello! This is the first full chapter of Love and Other Disasters. Thanks to everyone who reviewed so far, and I hope you all enjoy!

(This chapter was edited on 11/21/12)

A Beginning and An Ending

Beginnings are always messy.
- John Galsworthy

(Lily Evans)

History of Magic has got to be the most boring class in the world. I think to myself as I bundle up all my hair and hold it above my sweating neck.

Sun streams in, making me feel sluggish and hot.

I glance lazily out the large window in the front of the room, resting my chin on my palm. From here I can see the field leading down away from the castle. A few birds fly low to the ground past the window.

Usually, I enjoy History of Magic. I'm one of the few Hogwarts students that do. Maybe it's because I had to go through years of Muggle history before I turned eleven, and let's face it, Goblin strikes and dragon egg poaching laws are a hoot compared to that.

But it's 90 degrees on the last day of term, and all I want to do is go lie out on the grass in front of the lake and relax.

I roll up the sleeves on my school shirt and try to focus back in on what we were supposed to be learning, but I just go back to staring around the room after few minutes.

I looked over at Isabel, sitting next to me. She flips her dark brown hair over her tan shoulder, staring the opposite direction as me. She was a pureblood, from old money. She was what most people considered a stunner, she was one of the most well-liked girls at Hogwarts and seemed to have been asked on more dates by more boys than you could count (including most of the year above us). I'd always wondered why she chose me as a friend, but I guess spending years sleeping in the same dorm has a way of bringing people together.

I huff loudly.

"God, Isabel, would you stop doing that?" I hiss at her. She turns her head slowly and stares at me with rebellious eyes.

"Whatever are you talking about?"

Also, for the past hour, she's been sucking on a Sugar Quill. Of course, if it had been any normal person enjoying this sugary treat, nothing would have come of it. But because it was Isabel, she seemed to insist on sucking on it as if it were the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted in her life. It was safe to say the division of males in the class had thoroughly checked out of the lesson and were focussing solely on my seat-mate and her candy.

She drags her tongue over the quill and then releases it from her mouth with a pop. I hear a few strangled sighs from around the room, and struggle not to roll my eyes.

She sees my face and laughs softly.

"Come on Lily. It's just a little fun. You've got to admit, it is pretty hilarious to see their faces."

I glance around the room again and observe the many glazed-over looks of the boys, particularly the ones closest to us. I finally roll my eyes at her and surrender, looking back down at my blank piece of parchment again.

A note floats over onto our shared desk.

Would you tell Is to stop giving a blowjob to that sugar quill? Clark keeps licking his lips and I'm about to throw up.

I look over to Mary, sitting with Dorcas at the desk next to ours, who tilts her head over to where Evan Clark is sitting. I snort loudly at his blank looking face, and Isabel elbows me in the side. Luckily, Professor Bins is paying as much attention to us as we are to him.

Mary MacDonald is my closest best friend. Golden-haired and green-eyed, a bloody sarcastic girl. Well-liked by most, good grades, and a muggleborn like me. Always up for anything, she only seemed happy when she was doing something that scared her, and she swore like a sailor. From the moment her and I met, we were best mates. And she's one of those girls that are classically pretty, in that way that you could catch them at any moment and they would look beautifully ordinary.

And Dorcas Meadowes was as well. We met on the boat ride to the castle in first year. She's a quiet one, but you get her riled up about something (i.e. injustices against the Hogwarts house elves, or when Thea Nott made Mary cry in third year) she's definitely a force to be reckoned with. She was an artist too, always scribbling and sketching in that black sketchbook she carried around.

Class finally ends, I jump up and collect my books. Everyone eventually starts to clear out, and the four of us walk out of the classroom.

Isabel is still sucking on the sugar quill as we leave, and Dorcas rips it out of her mouth.

"Would you stop that?"

"Stop what?" Isabel asks innocently, and then laughs. We start our way down the stone stairs.

"One of these days you're going to give me a hernia."

"Whatever that is, it sounds painful. And you know I would never do anything to hurt you, Dorcas darling." Isabel says, throwing her arm around Dorcas' shoulder. Dorcas shakes her head, but smiles too.

We exit the castle, and the warm sun shines down on us through the trees planted around the path leading down the field. I wrestle my heavy bag farther up my arm.

"Oi! Evans!" I hear a pain-staking familiar voice from behind me. I keep walking.

"EVANS!" Black's voice calls, louder. Isabel stops, and Mary does too. I whip around.

"What do you want?" I ask with disdain as I watch them saunter up to us. The usual gang, Potter, Black, Remus, and Peter with Potter and Black in the front.

"What brings you girls down to the lake this fine June day?"

"Thought we'd take a dip." Isabel says to him, articulating the "p". She then looks at Black. "Care to join?"

"No. They don't." I say through gritted teeth to her.

"Now, now Evans. No need to be rude." Black sneers, stepping closer to me. "Don't sneer. It doesn't look nice on your pretty face."

Potter grins from next to him, and I roll my eyes. Today is a good day, and I don't intend on having them spoil my good mood. I link my arm with Mary's, and start walking down the hill to the lake. Mary comes with me, like the good mate she is.

"Oh Lily." She laughs.

"What?"

She looks sidelong at me meaningfully. "He really does like you…"

"Oh not this again."

"What? I just think that sometimes you overlook the fact that the Marauders are pretty alright blokes. They're funny -"

"Funny?" I ask, appalled at her. Isabel always defends them, but Mary? "You think it's funny how they terrorized Sev - "

"Alright. Nevermind. Whatever." She says, changing the subject. "Did we have any homework from Potions?"

"Yes." I huff, jumping at the chance to forget our previous conversation topic. "Including all our summer work. We've got to basically write a whole dissertation on the background of a potion assigned to us by Professor Slughorn. Luckily, though, I have Polyjuice Potion, which I'm vaguely familiar with - "

"Didn't we learn that last year?" She asks, whining.

"Yes, but it's supposed to be a refresher for the N.E.W.T.s next year." I explain.

"I can't believe we're already preparing for the N.E.W.T.s. Isn't that a bit overkill?" She complains, shielding her eyes against the blazing sun. I shrug.

I can feel myself sweating through my cardigan, and peel it off. I bloody hate having to wear the thing in the first place, but unfortunately, the Hogwarts dress code demands it.

We stop close to the lake. There's a few kids swimming farther out, but other then that there aren't many people here.

I put down my bag and drop with it onto the fresh-smelling grass. I stare up at the clouds, putting my head on Mary's shoulder to my left. Clouds float by slowly above us in a blue sky.

A few minutes after Mary and I settle ourselves on the grass, Dorcas comes and plops down next to us.

"Where's Isabel?" Mary asks, though it seems like she already knows the answer.

Dorcas tilts her head up to the top of the hill, where I see Isabel tredding down the hill, walking in between Black and Potter.

"Damn. They ruin everything. It was such a nice day." I say. Mary looks at me pointedly, and I just shrug. "What?"

Isabel and the Marauders (a completely dim name the four idiots thought up to call themselves) arrive at our spot.

"- and my parents insist on simply inviting everyone. It'll be bore without you two, you've got to come!" Isabel finishes. Black shrugs, as does Potter.

"We'll think about it." Black says shortly.

Isabel smiles. She begins to take off her school shirt, unbuttoning it slowly to reveal a stringy bathing suit underneath.

Suddenly, I wished I'd done the same. It's far too hot out to sit here baking in a shirt and tie.

Black leans against a tree and watches a little too closely while she disrobes. Potter also stares, refraining from playing with that blasted snitch he always carries around.

I scoff at him, but his gaze stays on Isabel. Pervert.

Isabel's wearing a red bikini she must've gotten from Muggle London, and it doesn't quite cover her bum.

Dorcas and I share a look, but don't say anything. We both watch Isabel wade about calf-high in the lake before turning around and calling flirtily, "Anyone else coming in?"

Black strips down quickly, running into the water quickly as Isabel tiptoes deeper.

"It's cold!" I hear her say in a higher voice then normal.

"Of course it's cold. It's a lake." I mutter to myself.

Before I can inwardly chide myself for saying that, Potter sits down next to me and leans back, sprawling out on the grass but unbuttoning his shirt with one hand.

"So… Evans…" Potter starts. "Going to go for a swim? I'll strip if you will…"

"That won't be happening." I say tensely. He moves a bit closer. My hands fist the grass below me.

"Come on… I know you're just dying to get a look at my body…" He says, leaning into me.

"Actually Potter, I'd prefer if you'd keep your shirt on. Otherwise, I might lose my lunch." I say coldly.

He only scoffs. "Oh please. Evans, stop acting like you don't want to rip off my clothes every moment of every day…"

And right on cue, I jumped up and grabbed my bag, racing up the hill before I took off his head.

"See you Evans!" His voice calls languidly.

My head swam with a multitude of insults, but instead, I just stalked up the hill back into the castle.

When I finally cool down from this afternoon, I lay lazily on my bed in the Gryffindor girls dormitories, reading WitchWeekly.

A clatter comes from the corner of the room. It makes me jump, but upon further inspection, I saw that Paige's Olson's Quidditch equipment, which had been piled up, had fallen off the chair.

Paige is another 6th year female Gryffindor, and one half of the Gryffindor beater team. She's got thick brown hair that falls in waves, and she's got the height of an amazon woman. She's quiet, though, and keeps to herself most of the time.

There was a faint noise from the bathroom (Paige had been flying that afternoon and was in the shower), but besides that, the room had been silent for at least ten minutes. I begin to relax my body, setting down the magazine and stretching out on my bed. I feel tired from the heat, and the silence was lulling me into a doze.

But the door opened and the echoing sounds of Mary and Dorcas' voices bounced off the stone walls.

"Merlin Lily, why do you always have to be so mean to him?" Isabel started as soon as she entered the room, Dorcas and Mary behind her. She was wringing out her hair, which had been wet, and she was wearing her white school shirt over her bikini.

I watched her hair drip onto the carpet for a minute.

Mary dropped her bag down and sat next to me on the bed, looking over my shoulder and reading the magazine. Dorcas came meandering in last, looking at something in her sketchbook. She sat down aimlessly in a chair by the window, and continued shading in something on the paper she was drawing on.

"Because he's an arse." I reply evenly, just like I have for years. She looks at me pointedly.

It's always been this way between Isabel and I when it came to Potter. They'd known each other when they were little, both being from large pureblood families. They were good friends, to say the least.

"Whoa." Mary says next to me.

"What?" Isabel and I ask in chorus.

"You know that singer Celestina Warbeck? It says here that she's expecting a baby!" She says, pointing to one of the glossy pages of the magazine in my hands.

"Listen, Is–"

"She'll probably name it something barmy like 'Hat' or 'Cloud'."

"- He's not - "

"Why is it that all celebrities seem to think they need to make a statement with their baby names?"

"Lily, he's a nice bloke. You should at least be - "

"I wonder who the father is…?"

The door flies open, and Nicole comes trudging in, throwing herself down on the nearest bed and kicking off her shoes.

Nicole Roux is the sixth and final member of the Gryffindor 6 Year girls, and slowly becoming one of my best friends. Nicole was one of those girls who "doesn't give a damn what you think of her, and is damn proud of it too". She's the first one to step up and defend any of us, and she's rather reckless. Her and Mary often get into trouble together, and Dorcas and I usually get them out. She had naturally extremely long blond hair. The time she spent combing it and taking care of it was probably the only hint of girlish qualities within her. Sure, she wore dresses and heels and bows, but she was a heavy drinker, had a true talent when it came to dueling, and knew Quidditch better than any of us (well, besides Paige).

"Hi girls." She says. Her greeting is met with mumbled 'hellos'.

"Where have you been?"

"With Rich." She replies happily, sighing and turning over on her stomach.

Paige finally opens the bathroom door, finger combing her hair in an oversized t-shirt. Isabel gives me one last disapproving look, and then gets into the shower, closing the door firmly behind her.

I sit between Paige and Dorcas, thoroughly enjoying my last Hogwarts dinner I'll get in months.

The Great Hall is loud today, with students chattering on about plans for the summer. I look up from my meal, making eye contact with Mary across the table.

She smiles back at me.

"Hey." Black says, elbowing Mary in her side. She jumps, and then glares at him with slanted eyes.

"Buggering hell Black, you almost made me choke to death on my dinner. What is it?"

"You girls should come hang out with us in the common room tonight. We're having sort of a last hoorah before next year, when we'll actually have to do work."

"Yeah whatever. Maybe." Mary says, turning back to her food.

"We'll be there." Isabel says to him. He smiles satisfactorily, and turns back to gabbing to Potter.

I widen my eyes at Dorcas, and she giggles.

"I hate to sound like Is, but they're not actually that bad." She says quietly.

"Black and Potter just... well, sometimes they get on my last nerve."

And that's how, a while later, I found myself sitting on the floor in a circle in the common room with the Marauders on the last night of sixh year.

Peter sat leaning back against the couch arm, clearly out of it from only a few sips of firewhiskey.

I'm not a big fan of drinking, but I can definitely hold my alcohol. And yes, I'm a little proud of that fact.

Dorcas was curled up on the couch, staring up at the ceiling. Isabel was sitting next to Potter, and they were laughing at something that seemed to be the most hilarious thing either of them had ever heard. Potter seemed pretty pleased with himself. It probably wasn't even that funny, and it was so Isabel to laugh at anything a boy said, regardless if it was funny or not.

Black was sitting close to Nicole, and she surprisingly not moving away. I watched him move his arm behind her back and wrap it around her side, but only a moment before extracting it and looking the other way.

That's strange...

"Alright!" Black announced loudly after taking another swig of firewhiskey. Somehow the night had ambiguously taken a turn for the gross as everyone started snogging each other just for the drunken hell of it.

Now, don't get me wrong. I do, in fact, love parties. As do I love snogging. Though usually it's much more appealing when I'm with blokes I actually want to snog. When it's with the Marauders...

"Isabel. I dare you to… kiss Padfoot!" Potter slurred drunkenly. Black waggled his eyebrows, and leaned closer to Isabel.

She leans over, skirt ridding up considerably, and pulling his face to hers. After almost a minute, she pulled away with a squelch sound.

Yuck.

He winked at her again. She simply giggled and moved back to her spot next to Potter.

I stare up at the clock. How long before I can make a run for it?

"Mac, I dare you to kiss Moony here!" Black yelled, grabbing the bottle again.

Everyone turned to them, and Remus coughed awkwardly.

Blushing (though considerably less than if she had been sober) Mary threw her arms over the back of Remus' neck and planted one on the bloke.

A few minutes after that, I watched her stand up and pull Remus by the hand up to his dorm room. He looked a bit anxious, and Black managed to slap him on the back before yelling "use protection!"

Eventually, with Dorcas stumbling upstairs and Peter asleep, and Mary and Remus doing God knows what, the group slimmed down to just the five of us.

By this time (and by this many drinks) the corners of my vision started to go fuzzy. I figured I might as well have fun, even if I am here with this less-than-good company.

But even with this, when I heard Black slur out, "Prongs I dare you to kiss Evans!" I still had my senses.

"No. No, absolutely not." I said, even as Potter stood up and came over to my spot on the couch.

"Come on!" Black says loudly. "It'd be the bloody thrill of his lifetime!"

He grabs my hand and pulls me out of the room into the corner. I go with him, putting one foot in front of the other.

I'm drunk, obviously.

He pulled me into a darkened corner of the room, away from the loud group of drunk Gryffindors still left, and leaned his hands onto the wall on either side of my body.

His body was almost touching mine. An inch or two away. I thought I could hear his heart beating.

"Potter." I say dreamily, stumbling. I leaned against the wall for support. "Po-tter. You know I'm not going to kiss you." I felt him move closer to me.

"Come on Evans." He says just as drunkenly. I can barely focus on his face in the darkness of the corner. I felt his hot breath on my ear, and I fought a shiver.

For a moment, I thought maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing…

What?

"Potter." I say sharply. "When are you going to get this into your head? I don't like you. I despise you actually. I would rather go out with the giant squid than you. Stop asking me out… stop flirting with me. It's never going to happen. I hate you."

God, that sounded bad.

Suddenly, everything seemed clear. Too clear, in the way that every single detail was painfully visible and your head starts to ache.

His head dropped down, and I heard him sigh, like the kind of sigh you get when you receive a hit to the stomach.

When he looked up again, my eyes darted away from his face.

He didn't say anything for a moment, and I, out of curiosity, looked to his face.

For a minute it looked like he was going to shout. But then all he said was, "Ok. I'll stop. Sorry."

He took his hands off the wall and turned away from me. A bit dejected, but standing tall. As he walked back into the common room, I say something like, "Well… good!"

I was flustered and confused.

I think I stand there for a good two minutes, head against the wall and eyes clamped shut.

What just happened?

I didn't see him in the morning.

The train ride home is awkward. Mary is telling Nicole all about how her and Remus are going to go out sometime during the summer, and Nicole is listening with slight interest. Dorcas is sketching something, not paying attention to anyone else, and Isabel is, naturally, doing her rounds to everyone she knows on this car and telling everyone about a party her parents are having over the summer.

And I stare out the window.

I can't help feeling bad about what I said to Potter.

I have the urge to go find him or something, but I stop myself. What am I thinking? This is Potter, for Gods sake. He's an arrogant bully. Why do you care what he thinks?

Nevertheless, I can't stop thinking about what he might be feeling.

The train finally stops at Kings Cross, and I hurry out of the train. Not that I'm particularly keen to get back home, on account of the fact that I'm called names on a daily basis, but my stomach can't help but feel nervous I'll see Potter.

Maybe summer vacation will do me some good.

I make it to my parents, who hug me and say they've missed me. Fortunately, my sister Petunia couldn't be bothered to make an appearance.

Just as I'm leaving, though, I see him. With Black, he walks over to an older woman who I assume is one of their mothers. The older woman moves to hug Black, and as she does I watch Potter look over to me.

Our eyes meet for a second, and then I quickly look down at my shoes.

"Come on." I say to my parents, trying to smile. "Let's get home."

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