What Are the Chances?
Fourth Year
"Marlene McKinnon."
"Of course. Those endless legs…Um, what about Mary Macdonald?"
"Nah. Blake Zabini."
"Um, Padfoot, I don't know about that. She tried to hex you, remember?"
"No, Prongs, she tried to Crucio me." Sirius says, and then grins at his friend. "That's hot."
James looks at Sirius, considering this, and then he says, "Yeah, ok, that is hot."
Remus rolls his eyes at the two of them, mutters something about having delusional friends, and goes back to reading a book entitled Outcasts In the Wizarding World.
"Narcissa Black." James states.
"Eh!" Sirius gags, revolted. "She's my psycho cousin, Prongs! And she's not even at this school anymore."
"Yeah, well, she is psycho," James agrees. "But, she's not my cousin, and she's a knock out."
Sirius makes a face, but continues, "Heather McLaggen."
"Lily Evans."
Silence.
"The red-haired one?"
"How many others do we know, Padfoot?"
"She called you an insufferable git."
"Yeah."
Silence.
"She's skinny and small."
"And pretty." adds James.
Sirius grins. "You fancy her."
"No!" James exclaims. Remus, who had put away his book, is looking at James with raised eyebrows.
"Remus, what do you think, pal?" Sirius asks. "James and Evans." He sighs dramatically. "He's growing up, Moony. Our James is all grown up."
"Put a sock in it, Padfoot!" James says, irritated.
Sirius fakes a serious face, and says, "She hates your guts, Mr. Potter." He leans forward, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands fisted under his chin. "Now, how does that make you feel?"
James throws a pillow at him, and gets up. "I think I'll be leaving now," he says, and starts to walk out the door.
"Want me to put in a good word for you, mate?" Sirius asks. James turns around really fast, stumbling over Remus' trunk in the process.
"Don't. You. Dare." He says dangerously. Sirius laughs his bark of a laughter. "Say even a word to her, and you, Padfoot, won't be able to sit on your behind for weeks." This said, he storms out of their dorm, his face an unusual crimson.
Long after James is gone, Sirius is laughing. Remus is trying very, very hard to drown out the loud laughter. But, in vain. He sighs loudly, and shuts the book he now can't concentrate on.
"This is just way too amusing." Sirius says, his laughter finally subsiding. "Prongs. His first love."
"Yes, very amusing," mutters Remus. "Think he'll ever actually have a chance with her?"
Remus and Sirius consider this, deep in thought. Then arriving at a conclusion, they say simultaneously -
"No. Absolutely not."
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"Fancy her?" He asks, incredulous. "Fancy?" He laughs. "How come you didn't ask if I fancied Narcissa Black or Mary MacDonald, then?"
"Well, mate, it's the way you said her name, isn't?" Sirius says, holding in a grin. "Liiiiily Evvans."
"You're completely demented, you are." James says.
"You didn't answer my question. Do you, or do you not fancy her?"
"I don't, alright? No chance." James says, throwing a pair of trousers into the open trunk. He then stops, frozen. "Hang on. Why are you asking me over and over again." His eyes widen. "Do you fancy her?"
This is way too good to pass up, Sirius thinks. He puts on his best grave face, and looks at James. The look clearly conveys what Sirius wants it to convey - I'm sorry, mate. Yes, I do fancy her.
"You fancy Lily Evans!" James accuses him, his eyes narrowing. When Sirius doesn't answer him, he blinks, his mouth hanging open.
And Sirius can't hold it in any longer. He laughs.
"What? Why the hell are you laughing?" James asks.
"You sure do seem like you fancy her, mate." Sirius says.
………………………………......................................
Spring is in the air. Everywhere Sirius looks he suddenly notices love blooming. It's really strange. Sitting in their Defense Against the Dark Arts class, he sees Benjy Fenwick over there, his arm slung around a blushing Mary MacDonald. On the other side of the classroom, there's Alice, her eyes fixed on Frank, sitting only a couple of seats away from her. Sirius looks around, finding a group of Ravenclaw girls, who, incidentally, are looking at him. Sirius gives them all a grin that sends his fan-following into a fit of giggles. Dorcas Meadowes, sitting in front of him, looks over at the group of girls. She then turns around and literally glowers at him. He grins at her, too. She blushes, and looking like she has no idea what hit her, turns away.
Sirius turns to his left, and finds James Potter. Ah yes, James is looking at the red-haired girl. Of course. Why is he surprised?
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Fifth Year (Beginning)
"Detention, Mr. Black!" Professor McGonagall is saying, her lips pressed in a severe line. She turns to James, and says, "And you too, Mr. Potter." She paces back and forth behind the desk in her office. "Really, this is the limit! Hexing a student in the middle of a class!" She stops pacing, and turns towards them with a sort of defeated look. "Thirty years of teaching, and I have never -" She looks at them. "Never have I had to deal with such a troublesome pair of students." She leans forward, her hands resting on her desk. If possible, her expression becomes more severe. "You have both served fifteen detentions already."
James has the audacity to say, "Only fifteen? Surely it's more than that?"
McGonagall is not happy. "That's only this year, Mr. Potter."
Sirius grins over at his friend.
She sighs, and asks, "What on earth led the pair of you to hex Mr. Snape in the middle of your Potions class?" When neither of them answers her, she looks at Sirius and asks, "Mr. Black?"
He looks her right in the eye and says, "He insulted us."
She looks skeptically at him from over the top of her glasses. "Insulted you? How?"
"Not us in particular." Sirius says, gesturing at himself and James. "It was R-"
But, before he can finish the sentence, James discreetly nudges him.
Sirius changes track fast. "It was just an insult directed towards the lot of us… you know, Peter, Remus, James, and me."
McGonagall looks at him critically, but she doesn't press any further. "I won't even bother telling you boys to stay out of trouble… It only encourages you more and more. But, the next time this happens I will make sure that you don't play for the next Quidditch match." She lets this sink in. But, this is Sirius and James. They remain unfazed by such threats. "You're dismissed." They are almost out the door, when she calls out after them, "Detention next Friday, boys!"
They walk out of the office, grinning. Hexing Snape was so worth it - even if it got them detention. Only a few steps out they bump into Lily. The huge stack of books she is carrying crash to the floor. She curses, and Sirius nods at her appreciatively. "Didn't know you had it in you to use such colourful words, Evans."
James immediately bends down to help her with the books. He hands her a book entitled The Patronus: The Meaning Behind Your Patronus. She looks up at who she has bumped into. She then snatches the book from James, and stands up, hugging her books to her chest. "Hello, Black, Potter." There is a certain coldness in her tone.
"Hey, Evans…" James says, his hand immediately going up to fix his hair… or to mess it up even more. The three of them stand awkwardly. Or rather, Lily and James stand awkwardly. Sirius is rarely ever awkward.
Lily then remembers the incident from that afternoon in Potions class. "I can't believe you two."
James looks at her, confused, while Sirius waits for her to continue.
"In Potions today!" she reminds them.
"Oh, that." Sirius says. "Yeah, 't was cool… Thanks for the compliment."
She glares at Sirius. "I hardly thought it was cool, Black. What did Severus ever do to you?"
"'S not your business, is it, Evans?" Sirius asks.
"Yeah, and since when does Snivellus have to do something for us to hex him?" James asks, grinning.
She shakes her head at him, and says, "That's just pathetic." She then looks at Sirius and says, "And it is my business. He's my best friend."
James frowns. "Look, Evans, your best friend was out of line, and that's why we hexed him."
"Out of line?" she asks incredulously. "Are you serious? You lot are out of line almost all the time, and as much as I'd like to, you don't see me hexing you, do you?" She scoffs. "You just want a reason to show off, Potter." She says "Potter" like it's venom.
His frown deepens, and there is even an angry red staining his cheeks. "Showing off?" He splutters. "That's- that's just - "
"James Potter," She says loftily. "Knows all these awesome hexes. Look at him - he's the height of cool!" Her face shows every sign disgust.
"Evans," he says, warning her. "You're crossing the line here."
She turns around, and walks away, her long red braid swinging behind her. James looks after her, stunned.
He looks over at Sirius, who is quite amused.
"How is it that we both hexed Snivellus, and yet, Evans just made me look like the bad guy?" James asks. "I mean, did you hear that? Showing off? Me?"
Sirius shrugs. "I guess it didn't help your case when you said, 'Since when does Snivellus have to do something to hex him?' I mean, mate, you don't say that about the best friend of the girl you like."
"I don't like her, Padfoot." He sighs. "I mean, she's so uptight…"
Sirius nods. "She does seem like a younger version of McGonagall…Better looking, of course, but I suspect McGonagall herself was quite a catch when she was our age…" Sirius looks up at the ceiling, as though imagining Minerva in her teenage days.
James stares at Sirius, wondering whether his best friend had completely lost his marbles.
Sirius shakes his head like a puppy dog (Shaking off the apparent image of a younger McGonagall) and then says, "Anyway, Evans is uptight… but you do fancy her."
"I used to fancy her." he says. "Remember? Fourth year, Slug's party? I asked her out. She turned me down." He tries to look like he doesn't care. "Her loss, yeah?"
When Sirius and James sit down for dinner that night, James asks him, "What does she see in Snape anyway? Bit of a git, isn't he?"
"Bit? Huge, more like."
James raises a spoon of French onion soup to his lips, and then stops midway. "Hang on." He looks over at Sirius, his eyes wide. "You don't - you don't think she fancies Snape, do you?"
Sirius looks at James and rolls his eyes. "No chance." He looks over at the Slytherin table, and spots Snape. Predictably, the Slytherin is furtively glancing at Lily, who is sitting a couple of seats from Sirius himself. "He might fancy her… but, not the other way around."
James nods, a little assured. Snape can never be competition for him. Can he? What are the chances…?
……………………………….....................................................
Fifth Year (End)
He has done it again.
"Thought you said you didn't fancy her anymore, Prongs?" an amused Peter asks him.
"We all thought so, Wormy." Sirius says, letting out a laugh.
"I didn't." Remus says.
"Well," James sighs. "It's done, isn't it? She hates me."
"It isn't your fault, Prongs." Padfoot says firmly. "Snivellus ruined it for you… the next time I get my hands on him…"
Remus sighs. "Sirius, you fail to see that the reason why Lily yelled at James today was because of what you two did to Snape. I suggest that you don't 'get your hands on him.'"
"So, you're saying it is my fault." James snaps.
"Well," Remus begins, and then hesitates. "I -" But feeling as though his friend needed to know the truth, says, "I'm afraid it is, Prongs."
"Remus, who's side are you on, anyway?" Sirius asks.
"Don't be silly," Remus replies. "James', of course. It's just really stupid what you two did today. Using Levicorpus on Snape… well, it's petty."
"He called her a- a -" James struggles to say the word, and then settles on saying, " a you-know-what!"
"Yes," Remus replies calmly. "But, Snape's a git. What else is new?"
"What's new is that I tried to defend her!" James says.
"It was very noble of you," Remus says, as if talking to a child who was being unreasonable. "But, you had just humiliated her best friend in front of everyone."
"Best friend?" James yells, incredulous. A couple of first years sitting by them jump a little. "Best friend, Remus? Are you serious?"
"Look, I'm just saying, you've got to stop hexing people, Snape in particular, if you want Lily Evans." Remus concludes.
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Sixth Year
He sees her walking towards him, and he looks away. Doesn't try to catch her eyes, or say hello, or wink at her. Nope. He walks right past her, even as Remus says, "Hey, Lily."
When they have passed her, Peter says, "Wow, James, did you just see who passed us?"
"What?" James asks. "Who?" He, of course, knows.
Sirius says, "Well, this is an improvement."
…………….
Seventh Year
Christmas Day
He wakes up with a blow to his head.
"Wake up, arse!"
His eyes open to find a blurry person sitting on his bed. He reaches over, gets his glasses from the desk next to his bed, and shoves them onto his face. Sitting next to him is Sirius, a goofy grin plastered on his face. "Merry Christmas!"
"Yeah, yeah, Merry Christmas…" James says grumpily. "Why did you have to smack me on the head?"
"It's tradition, innit?" Sirius replies, still grinning like a maniac. James notices.
"What have you got that grin on your face for? Did my mum send you extra cookies, or something?"
"Yeah, that…" Sirius says. "And more importantly, Evans was here a while ago…"
James sits up from his sleeping position immediately, his own mouth forming a silly grin. "What?"
"Yeah…" Sirius says. "Wanted to know whether you were up. I told her you were still sleeping… asked her if it was something important." He raises his eyebrows in amusement. "Said she wanted to wish you 'Merry Christmas'… So, are you going to tell me why you still weren't in bed when I came in last night? Especially since you both left long before I did…" When James only grins more, Sirius gives him another blow to the back of his head. "You bloody arse! I knew it!"
The two of them sit on the bed, both immersed in their own thoughts.
Sirius thinks back to all those years ago when he and Remus had conversed about the day this - James and Lily - would happen.
What are the chances?
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Note: Thanks for reading!
I, once again, want to thank my reviewers - you have no idea how happy they make me. Seriously. I love them. Please keep them coming :)
So, this chapter... I like writing about Sirius' role in the James/Lily romance. And yeah, I know, this doesn't even have too much of Sirius' point-of-view, but he is present in most of the scenes. Anyway, let me know what you think.
- Cordelia Blythe