AN: special thanks to my loverly reviewers: Veronica Willis and BlueSkies13, MayFairy, In Love With Prongs, and SiRiUs-PaDfOoT-bLaCk23451
*SEE END OF CHAPTER FOR SUMMARY OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS*
Red
Chapter 2
I was awakened by the sharp tones of my alarm clock. The light streamed through the window and bright bursts of colors flared behind my eyelids. I flopped over on my stomach, reached an arm out to my dresser and banged around until I found the off button. I knew I had to get up. This morning we would receive our timetables, and classes would begin. I smiled as I rubbed the sleep from my eyes; I couldn't wait to get a great start to the year.
I had already planned out my mornings, coordinating my alarm clock and time to get ready so that I would be in the Great hall for breakfast by 7:30; classes started at 8. I gave myself one minute to get out of bed, eleven minutes to shower, three to get dressed, and ten to do my hair. Thus, I set my alarm for 6:05.
Everything went according to plan, and right when I was ready to head out the door, I noticed that I hadn't seen James the whole morning. I walked to his closed door, my fist raised above the wood. I rapped my fist on the door, but I actually ended up smashing it into James's nose; he had opened the door right when I pushed my fist forward.
"Oh, sorry!" I exclaimed, as he let out a yelp of surprise, hand jumping to his nose.
"It's fine," he pardoned me, letting his hand fall to his side again. There was a red mark on the bridge of his nose.
"Here, let me see if I can fix that…" I muttered a charm and the redness started to fade. He grinned.
"Thanks, Evans. You're not that bad when you're not punching people's noses."
"Oh, sod off."
We walked to the Great Hall together in silence. He was uncomfortably close to me, and his hand brushed against mine a few times. I snuck a glance at him. He was walking along easily, and I had a hard time keeping up with his long, loping strides. He turned suddenly, catching me staring at him.
"Enjoying the view?" he asked.
"Very much so," I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Especially the back."
"You'll pro'lly enjoy rounds then. Hours of my charming company."
"Looking forward to it."
"And we can tutor the firsties together, well except when you're PMSing," he added suddenly. "Then I think we'll have to get someone to take your spot,"
"Potter, you're toeing the line," I warned.
"The poor things wouldn't know how to deal with your…irritability," he continued, ignoring my cautioning. He grinned. "You know I was only joking," he added when I shot him a death glare.
"Still, that was rude. You never talk to a girl about her time of the month."
"Unless you wanna, you know, and you need to ask her if she's on the pill, and she says no, then you have to ask if there's a chance she's nearing her—"
"THAT'S ENOUGH!" I yelled, covering my ears. James was a 'babe-magnet', and was admittedly almost as bad as Sirius.
"What?" he asked innocently, but his lips were twitching.
"You're perverted!" I cried.
"No—well, yes. Slightly. Only one more reason for you to love me."
"That makes no sense at all."
"Exactly."
I just laughed. He wasn't being overbearingly annoying, like last year, but he was still James. We had arrived at the Great Hall, and received a few questioning glances from others; James Potter and Lily Evans never walked together. But this year, I had decided to put all juvenile ways behind me, and grow up a bit. James had too, apparently. He sat next to Sirius, across from Peter and Remus. I sat by Brittani, a few seats away.
"Come, now ladies, I can't smell that bad; I took a shower last week! Sit by us," Sirius said.
Brittani gave me a look that clearly said boys will be boys and I agreed with a silent raise of the eyebrow. We mastered the art of silent conversations a long time ago. We both slid down though, so that I was sitting next to Sirius, and Brittani next to Remus.
"See, not that bad, eh?" Sirius grinned, slinging an arm casually over my shoulders. I shrugged it off.
"I can't say I agree with you," I joked, wrinkling my nose.
"Timetables!" Remus exclaimed, as the papers appeared next to our plates.
"Oh, joy. What a way to ruin my day," Brittani muttered, sparing them a glance. I eagerly looked at mine; I was always eager to go to my classes again. Yes, I was a nerd, and loved to learn; and had a bit of a reputation for it.
I read over my timetable. It was full, as usual, but I noticed I had a few free periods. We all compared schedules, and gladly most of my classes were with Brittani. I had a few with the Marauders. The first one of the day was potions, my favorite.
"Potions, what a great way to start the year," I sighed happily.
Sirius snorted. "Hardly. We barely even do anything in my class. All Slughorn does is say 'Sirius m'boy! Brilliant job, brilliant job,' and not even look to see that there's nothing in my cauldron."
"He does not," I defended.
"It's happened before!"
"Right—no."
"Pads, I've argued with Evans before. It's impossible to win."
"Thanks, Potter. But I'm not as bad as you," I shot back.
"Well, you only punched me this morning?"
Brittani howled with laughter. "What did you do?" She asked between bursts of mirth.
"I didn't mean to," I muttered. It was a little annoying that James knew it was an accident, but he told the story like I had deliberately socked him in the face—on purpose. And I didn't. I was making sure that he got up on time for Merlin's sake!
"No, she was just about to knock on the door and I opened the door and her fist hit my nose. And my glasses jammed into my face. But it was an accident, Right Evans?" He asked, grinning at me as he spoke. I raised an eyebrow and nodded.
"Well I still think that was bloody brilliant," Remus grinned. "Even if it was an 'accident'," he added.
We finished breakfast soon after, and then we were off to our classes. Brittani, Potter, Sirius and I all headed to potions, and Remus and Peter to herbology. We took our seats, Potter and Black a few tables way. Brittani and I were sitting next to some Ravenclaws, Gwynn and Celine. Slughorn waddled into the room, grinning jovially as usual.
"Welcome to NEWT level potions!" He exclaimed, clapping his hands twice to get everyone's attention. "You all have done quite well on your OWLS and sixth year exams, so that proves you have talent. This year will be much harder than all the years prior, but you all will do well; there must be a reason why you qualified for this class!
"Now since these potions are much more complex and time consuming, you all will be receiving partners. I have the list of pairings somewhere…"he trailed off, rummaging around in the pockets of his robes. "Ah, her we go! Let's see here. O'Neil and Jackson, Kaufmann and Bowers, Meyer and Clarke, Black and Schmidt, Evans and Potter, Roux and Bennet, and Black and Li," he read off the list of surnames. Brittani looked fairly pleased, she was with Jacob Meyer, a good looking guy who was on the Ravenclaw quidditch team. I was not happy nor mad, just indifferent. Potter was okay. But I could think of many other people to replace him with…Jacob Meyer, for instance.
"Hullo, Evans," he said heading over my way as he ruffled his hair.
"Potter," I nodded.
"Aw, c'mon w you can do better than that! We are best friends after all," he grinned.
"Oh really?" I asked raising my eyebrow. Slughorn put the directions to the potion we were to make on the board, it was called Amortentia.
"We'll start off easy, but things will get more challenging soon enough," Slughorn said with a wink. I went to the cabinet and got the necessary ingredients.
"We are, don't try and deny it," Potter told me as I set down my armful of vials and herbs and boxes.
"Are what?"
"Best friends," he said like it was the most obvious.
I scoffed. "Right," I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm.
He slung his arm around me. "Glad you see clearly now."
I shrugged it off. It fell limply to his side. "Let's just get started," I said hastily.
"A'ite. I'll cut the root, you do the juice."
We finished fairly quickly, and it turned out not to be as much of a disaster as I thought it would be. Potter proved to be decent at potion making—but anyone in that class would have to be. Slughorn approved heartily, and gave his compliments. I met us with Brittani as we both headed out the door.
"How'd it gooooo?" she asked as she slung her bag over her shoulder.
"Ok. You?"
"Well, I was planning on injuring him so maybe he wouldn't be able to try out for Ravenclaw's quidditch team, but then I found out he's the captain. So I didn't bother. But it was nice because I didn't really have to do anything."
"Always the hard worker!" I teased.
"Of course," she grinned back. The rest of the day passed easily, classes went by quickly. I was in the Heads' common room getting a head start on transfiguration notes after I had eaten dinner.
"Evans, you have to be kidding me." James said after noisily baning the door open. He was standing in the doorway, a look of disappointment on his face.
"What?" I snapped. I was trying to work here.
"We don't even have homework assigned yet! And you're up here wasting your time 'working ahead."
"Well, I just wanted a head start!"
"It's the first day of classes!"
"It's never too early to get ahead."
James sighed, and took my book from my lap, threw it in his room, and locked the door.
"Potter!" I cried.
"Evans!" he mocked.
"Give me my book. Now."
"Now, manners like that won't get you anywhere," he admonished, wagging a finger.
"Please," I growled.
"Nope. You are going to do something fun. C'mon, everyone's outside! Just for an hour?"
"Half?"
"….Forty five minutes."
"Fine. And then do I get my textbook back."
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, you will get your bloody book back. Why do you hate fun so much?"
"I don't hate it. I can be fun when I want to be," he shot me a look. "Really! I just wanted to do a few notes and then I was planning on going to Brittani's dorm and doing something fun."
"Well, too bad 'cause you're going outside with me."
xxx
Previously…..Lily Evans is back for her seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and has been appointed Head Girl. With just her luck, the person who irks her the most is Head Boy.
