In the Cards…
The day had started relatively sunny, but looking up at the ceiling of the Great Hall that night, James Potter could only see a solid roof of clouds. Although there were regular dinner affairs going on around him, James was extremely focused on the clouds above him. That is, he was extremely focused on the clouds above him until a poppy-seed roll hit him in the face.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, glancing at the roll's landing spot in his mashed potatoes. "Padfoot! Not the mashed potatoes! What is wrong with you?" James looked panicked as he hurriedly tried to save his mashed potatoes from becoming infested with poppy-seeds and roll crumbs. Then he carefully reconstructed the perfect mountain of mashed potatoes before looking up to glare at his best friend.
"I'm all for roll tossing, but watch the potatoes," James stated, while Sirius just laughed.
"You and those potatoes," Sirius sighed, eying his friend warily, "I just don't understand it."
"What is there to understand?" James asked, eyes focused on the forkful of mashed potatoes he held before him. "They are the most wonderful food in the world!"
"Mashed potatoes?" Sirius said, disbelieving what he was hearing.
"Yes, and these are Hogwarts mashed potatoes. And they only serve them once a every two weeks because they're always serving those damn roast potatoes, or baked potatoes, or potato wedges…"
Sirius wasn't listening to James anymore ("Mmm, potato wedges…"), as Lily approached the other end of the Gryffindor table. James saw her and looked away, but only Remus noticed.
"So, James," he said, "Lily hasn't been giving you any crap since last Tuesday, what did you say to her?"
"Nothing," James replied quickly, "Can we not talk about this? It's ruining my mashed potatoes."
"Yeah sure." Remus turned to Sirius, "He seems down."
Sirius nodded, "Maybe we should play extreme quidditch later," he said in James' direction.
"I'd be up for that," James replied noticeably in a better mood already.
"Good, sounds like a plan."
Now, extreme quidditch, or SuperSlam as it was occasionally called, is a surprisingly well thought out game. The Marauders, being smart, fun loving boys, always thought out their games well, for they knew the dangers of shaky rules. Once Peter and Sirius fought for a week because of a glitch in one of the Frogtag rules (a game much like regular tag except, you had to hit the person with a frog).
But, extreme quidditch had been well thought out by the boys. It was a highly illegal game, as it was played in the boys' dorm room on brooms that had been bewitched to fly at extreme speeds only. The object of the game was to avoid the bludgers (of which there were 10) while trying to hit your opponent's targets (which were located on the back of their robes). Obviously, this was a dangerous game, which is how the boys reasoned to play it in the dorm room. They figured the odds that you would fall off your broom onto something soft, like a bed, were higher in a room with beds (Sirius' idea), and that if they were in the dorm the height they could fall from was limited (James' idea). Somehow they overlooked the fact that there would be no dangers at all if they didn't play a game entitled "SuperSlam."
Nevertheless, extreme quidditch had been invented and all of the boys enjoyed to play it, no matter how many times they were accidentally pegged in the head and knocked off their speeding brooms into a bed poster.
So, later that night, after Sirius' detention for putting pudding inside of Professor Klyne's lecture book ("To make it taste better!"), the boys scrambled around the room making preparations.
"Who's gonna let the bludgers out this time?"
"Peter, close that window!"
"Are we playing with water quaffles?"
"Tie back those curtains, James!"
"How long a round should I set the counter for?"
Just as the game was underway, there was knock at the door. Of course SuperSlam isn't exactly the kind of game where you stop to answer the door, that is, if you could stop. The brooms were enchanted to be connected to the counter, a magical counter that showed the time left in the round, the number of points each player had, and who was still in the game (once you fell, you were eliminated unless you could jump on someone else's broom and knock them off). Anyway, there was a knock on the door. When no one answered, the knocker opened the door herself—
"--DUCK!"
Lily dropped to the floor faster than she knew she could as something—or was it someone?—whizzed past her head.
"POTTER!" Lily yelled.
"EVANS!" The four boys yelled back.
"YES!" she said directing her voice at one of the speeding blurred blobs that was flying around the room. "I CAME TO APPOLOGIZE! AH!" she dropped to the floor once more.
"APPOLOGIZE FOR WHAT?"
"ABOUT WHAT I SAID CONCERNING YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!" Lily was more than frustrated at this point. "POTTER COME DOWN SO I CAN TALK TO YOU!"
He flew past her head, causing her to jump, "I CAN'T! THERE'S STILL TIME ON THE COUNTER!"
"COME DOWN NOW AND TALK TO ME OR I'M GOING TO REPORT THIS!"
"NO ONE INVITED YOU IN! YOU'RE HERE ILLEGALLY!" he called back, from somewhere else in the room.
Lily sighed, but decided to wait. She had felt badly for a week now and knew the only way to make herself feel better was to apologize properly. But as she waited she became more and more interested in the game. Once she figured out the rules, and learned to keep her eyes open for stray bludgers, it was quite an entertaining sport. Lily found herself strategizing how she would sweep behind someone to expose the target on their back and get a clear shot. As she continued watching, Lily realized it wasn't the game that interested her so much, but the way the boys were interacting while playing. The forced speed of the game caused them to forget her presence quickly so as to focus on their actions, and Lily found herself able to watch them in their "natural habitat." It was just the four of them, four best friends, four boys, having fun. She saw them all in a new light, especially James. Lily always thought of him as immature, but watching him play with his friends, she found it endearing. It wasn't immaturity, it was fun.
Suddenly James landed beside, "Game's over. I won. Of course."
Lily lost her new found vision of the innocent James, and returned to seeing him as an arrogant prat. "You're such an arrogant prat."
James grinned, "You're sitting on my bed."
Lily jumped up, she hadn't realized that she wandered over to a bed and sat down while she was watching.
James continued while Lily tried to compose herself, "What are you doing here exactly? Watch out!"
As they were talking, the other three boys started a new round and a bludger zoomed past Lily and James. Lily wasn't sure how it happened, but they both ended up on James' bed. Too stunned to do anything at first Lily just lay there awkwardly, waiting for James to move off of her. But he stayed on top of her longer than she would have liked, as his gaze lingered on hers for a few seconds before standing and pulling her to her feet.
Lily stuttered, "I-I came here to apologize."
"Di-did you?" James mocked.
"Yes, I'm sorry for what I said about your family. I'm sure they are very proud of you."
James' face darkened some, but he was still smiling as he spoke, "I'm sorry too, I shouldn't have been so rough with you. But you kind of hit a nerve." He said looking down, not really sure why he was telling her things he didn't talk to anyone about.
"Well, I didn't mean to," she replied, confused by his honesty. As she turned to leave he said:
"You were right, you know."
"About your parents?" she asked turning back to him.
"Yes, and my 'B' average," he said sitting on the edge of his bed.
She walked back over to him, fighting a confused smile, happy that they were actually having a conversation, but not really sure why. "Why don't you try harder, I'm sure you could do better. I mean, it's the beginning of a new year."
"But if I couldn't I would know I was a failure." James said hoping he wouldn't regret opening up to her. To his amazement, she started to laugh.
"I don't believe it," she started, "James Potter is chicken shit."
He started to laugh, too, "And Lily Evans just swore!" She shoved playfully at his arm, before sobering and remembering she was in the presence of the biggest asshole she'd ever met, or at least that's what she used to think.
Brown eyes met green ones as she said, "You're afraid. You, James, are afraid to take risks."
James couldn't believe what he was hearing. "I most certainly am not! Have you ever played extreme quidditch?"
Lily smiled at the name but continued, "You won't risk trying to do well." She moved towards the door once more. "I guess James Potter just isn't a risk taker."
"Is that a challenge, Evans?"
"Yes, Potter, I believe it is."
"This is outrageous! Lily Evans is saying I don't take risks. How risky is your life, Lily?"
At this Lily faltered. "Well, I—"
"Oh, I see. Little miss no risks is telling me about fear."
Lily became defensive, "I take risks!"
"Okay, so then play a round of SuperSlam with us." His evil grin was back.
"I don't know the rules."
"No excuses, Evans. Play a game, or be a chicken."
Lily felt powered by her indignity at being called a chicken and mustered her courage, "Fine, but you have to apply yourself to your studies."
"Deal." He held out his hand and they shook, not really sure how he had come to this bizarre—and personal-- agreement with his previously sworn enemy. This year was certainly turning out differently than he thought, and it was only October.
A/N- Did this go too fast? I mean, their transition to relative friendliness? I figure, it would have happened a long time ago, just neither one of them took the time to try and see… Questions? Comments? Mashed potatoes?