4 Lily Evans
James Potter was the last person Lily Evans wanted to think about as she sat in the library, talking to her half-blood friend, Erin-Lee Chalk, a Hufflepuff, whose mother had been a muggle. Her mother had thought Erin-Lee a freak, just as Lily's awful sister, Petunia had. This was what her and Lily were talking about the day Sirius Black had apologized for James' behavior the previous day.
"My mum left me with my dad after she found out I was going to be a wizard. It took her a while to come to terms with marrying a wizard, let alone having a witch as a child. She hoped I'd be a squib, but when I was 3 and I set her new pink dress on fire simply by glaring at it in one of my toddler moodswings, there was no chance." Erin told Lily, as Sirius Black, followed closely by an angry-looking James Potter, who really didn't seem up to what Sirius was forcing him to do.
"Hi, Erin! Hi, Lily!" Sirius said in a very cheerful voice, opposite to how James looked.
"Hi, guys!" Erin replied, but Lily went quiet suddenly, refusing to greet them at all. This shocked them all, who had been thinking no greeting would be worse than James Potters, who simply grunted at them.
"Well, James here would like to talk to Lily, so why don't we go sit at another table, hey Erin?" Sirius gave Erin a meaningful look.
"Oh, yeah. I actually wanted to ask you about this thing..." She played along well, and the two of them sat at the opposite table, ready to pull James and Lily from each other if things got ugly.
"So, um, what you reading?" James asked, looking down at him grubby shoes. The Gryffindors had just got back from Quidditch, and Professor McGonagall was even considering picking him for the team, but now the smug expression he had worn on his face earlier faded into a shy expression Lily had never seen him have before.
"Honestly, James, lets just get this over with. What were you hear to say?" Lily asked, pretending to sigh impatiently.
"I, uh, wanted to apologize for calling you a Mudblood. And for hexing your broom to not move and make Monsieur Ogden fail you."
"That was you?" Lily said, partially shocked, partially glaring.
"And there's more. I'm sorry for putting mud on your bed sheets and saying it was your kinds version of a period, I'm sorry for sending your owl to people that didn't exist, I'm sorry for-"
"Look, James," Lily interrupted him, "I understand. You just don't like me very much, and I'm okay with that. To each his own, right? But I'm still not very happy about all that stuff, and I'd like to ask you to kindly remove yourself from this library."
James gestured at Sirius for him to follow, and Sirius left Erin-Lee, smiling at her. "This has been a very nice conversation we've had, but now I have to leave." and him and James left the library, muttering quietly to each other so the girls couldn't hear. Erin returned to where she was sitting previously, her green eyes glinting in interest.
"So, what did he want to tell you?" She said, a big smile spread across her face, her perfect teeth dazzling in the light.
"Just an apology. You know the person we discussed was out to get me? That it was probably a Slytherin girl? Maybe Mandy Moss, because you know how much Slytherins hate Mudbloods and muggles?"
"Yes, yes, and yes," Erin-Lee answered, acting bored, "But what does that have to do with anything he said? Tell me, Lily, before I beat it out of you with the Imperious Curse!"
"That is illegal, and it has a very great deal to do with all of that stuff. Because, as a matter of fact, it wasn't Mandy Moss, it was the oh-so Great and Perfect James Pureblood-Shoul've-Been-A-Slytherin Potter." She replied, the last part coated with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes at the sound of James Potter being anything other than a huge jerk. How James managed to get himself friends like Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, 3 of whom had been exceedingly nice to Lily Evans ever since the day they all met, she did not know. She continued to read Hogwarts: A History, ignoring Erin-Lee's attempts to get her to take back everything and just start off a clean slate with James. Obviously she didn't hate him as much as she pretended to - they're weren't 2 less perfect people to be friends. Both we're kind people, both smart and skilled at magic, both exceedingly talented, however both enjoyed to act like huge fools at times. Erin soon gave up, gave Lily a raised-eyebrow look Lily pretended to ignore, but Erin didn't say anything more. She simply sat there in silence, almost mimicking Lily's behavior, and continued doing her Transfiguration homework.
