It's their seventh year at Hogwarts and James refuses to give up. Will his efforts finally get him a chance with Lily Evans?
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Kind, loving, and James hating.
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An hour and a half later, James walked into the Great Hall and spotted Lily talking to Eleanor at the Gryffindor table.
"El, I think it's to early to be planning the party-"
"What do you mean? We have to find decorations, food, music..."
"It's more then a month away!" Lily said splashing porridge around in her bowl.
"But look, the first Hogsmead trip was canceled, so that must mean McGonagall wants us to start-"
"Or that Dumbledore is concerned for his students and doesn't want them in the village because of all the Death Eater reports."
"Well, fine. Can we start planning soon though? The next Hogsmead visit is on the 7th... So then can we go shopping? That way it'll be less than a month..."
This is when James chose to cut in. "Hi Lily, hey Eleanor." He sat beside Lily and pulled a plate of sausages toward him.
"Potter." Ellie said looking at him with great dislike.
Lily noticed the look in her eyes, but chose not to address it. "Hey James." She smiled at him and then continued to eat her breakfast.
Alice came wandering towards them, laughing with Frank.
"Hey Franky! How was detention?" James asked grinning.
Frank grinned back. "Slughorn forgot why I was there and gave me Bertie-Bots-Every-Flavor beans as an apology."
"Then why didn't you come to dinner?" Alice whined.
"He started talking to me about my grandfather or something... Not really sure, since he lost track in the middle." Frank laughed, stacking pancakes onto his plate.
"Did you guys hear about the trip being postponed till the 7th?" Frank asked, drizzling maple syrup onto his stack.
The others nodded.
"It's sucks, doesn't?" Alice complained.
Lily shrugged. "Not so much, I mean if it's for our own safety..."
"Yeah, I'd hate to see anyone - well maybe not the Slytherins - get attacked..." James shuddered, then spotted Remus and Sirius, who had just entered the Hall.
"Oi! What's the big deal, not waiting for us?" Sirius asked, sitting across James, beside Alice.
James grinned. "Sorry mate, but you were to busy talking in your sleep about flying zebras."
The others laughed, even Sirius.
"What did I say, mate?"
"Help! Help! The zebras are going to get me!! The revenge of the flying zebras!! Alright, I'll give you back your pet Niffler..." James imitated Sirius, who was doubled over laughing.
"Eh, that's what you get for stumbling into the dorm at 3:00AM drunk." Remus laughed.
"Oh, did I?"
"Yeah, and I had to open the portrait hole for you, before anyone came by..." Alice said, shaking her head. "You got to stop drinking Sirius."
Sirius put a hand to his heart. "Never!" He gasped.
They laughed it off and the conversation slowly drifted back to the Halloween party.
"So, thanks to Bagman, you never told me if you'd like to come watch today." James said to Lily.
She thought back to dinner, and remembered what he had asked. She nodded. "Sure, I'd love to!" She grinned, and the post owls started to fly in.
James' owl, Vanilla, a creamy white owl soared towards him, holding a letter in her beak.
"Look it's Vanilla!" Sirius pointed out.
"You named your owl Vanilla?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow.
James grinned. "Wasn't me, mi mum did." He took the letter out of her beak and offered her some of his breakfast.
"Who's it from mate?"
"My dad." He said and opened the letter under the table.
James,
I'm so sorry to hear about Lily's father, please give her my condolences. I gathered a team of Aurors, and we set up defenses around her home. However, we can not garuntee that this will keep Death Eaters out permanently, and we are working on relocating her. It may need some persuasion from Lily, so if she could send a letter to her mother, asking if she is comfortable with moving to a safer place, it would really help. If her mother is not comfortable moving, we may have to take extra precautions and station Auror's in her neighborhood.
Keep your eyes open for any strange behavior among fellow students, I read in the Daily Prophet that there have been Death Eater reports in Hogsmead.
Tell Kat I said hi, keep yourself and your friends safe.
Nicholas.
"What's the matter?" Sirius asked, spotting the worried look on James' face. "Is everything alright? Isabella, and Nicholas?"
"Who and who?" Alice asked.
"James' parents." Sirius explained.
James nodded. "Yeah, they're fine. It's just a weekly letter..." He said, and handed the letter to Lily under the table, who took it with shaking hands and pocketed it, making a note to read it when she was alone.
Remus watched the two, and even though the others had not noticed the exchange, he had. Being a werewolf wasn't all that bad. It gave you killer instincts.
James caught Remus looking, and blinked innocently at him. Lily however, didn't notice Remus looking.
"Okay, we'd better get going..." Sirius said standing up.
"Where are you off to?" Eleanor asked, looking up at him.
"Quidditch practice. Oi! Sanders!" He called to a brunette sixth year, who looked up from her conversation to Sirius.
"What?"
"Get McKinnon, Finnigan, Wood and Bell! Meet us at the pitch in ten minutes"
The girl shot him a thumbs up and turned back to the other end of the table and started calling the other two chasers, one beater, and the keeper.
"Come on Prongs..."
James nodded and stood up, winking at Lily and followed Sirius out of the Great Hall.
Eleanor and Alice rounded on Lily at once.
"What was that all about?" Alice asked incredulously.
Frank looked up startled.
"What?" Lily asked innocently.
"James winked at you!" Eleanor hissed.
Lily shrugged. "I'm going to go watch him practice... He asked me if I wanted to and I said yes."
Alice and Eleanor exchanged looks, then smiled cockily at Lily.
"Lily loves James!" They sang.
Lily shook her head furiously. "No! We're friends, I swear!" She looked to Remus, pleading for help.
Remus shrugged and finished his breakfast.
"Well, I gotta go." He said wiping his mouth and standing up.
"And where are you off to?" Eleanor asked suspiciously.
"I gotta practice commentary." He said and with a quick goodbye wave, darted out of the hall.
"What's the big deal about commentaring? I can do it in my sleep.." Eleanor muttered, turning back to her empty plate.
"Okay, I'll see you guys later..." Lily said standing up and heading to the door, where she saw James waiting for her, with a grin on her face.
"You didn't have to wait you know..." She said.
"I know, I wanted to talk about the letter."
"Oh." Lily looked away from him, back into the Great Hall.
She felt his arms around her suddenly and jumped a bit.
"Lils, it'll be okay. My dad won't let your mum or sister get hurt." He said reassuringly.
Lily nodded and pulled away. "Thanks." She said smiling weakly at him.
He smiled back. "Don't worry about it."
He kept his arm around her and they walked off towards the Quidditch Pitch.
Melissa, who had been hiding behind a statue of a man looking lost, watched them go, Anger rising inside.
"Hey Melissa." A voice said and she jumped. "Not spying, are we?"
She looked up and saw Matthew sitting on the banister of the Marble Staircase grinning at her.
"Shut up Davis."
"Alright Hart. But I thought you and I could be considered friends? Besides the fact that you want James, and I want Lily. And they seem to want each other..."
She glared at him for a second, then sighed. "Fine, what do you want?"
"Same thing you do. I want Lily to lose interest in James, and I want him to leave her alone and find someone else. You know what I reckon?"
"What?"
"I reckon he gave her some sort of potion... Or hexed her into liking him."
Melissa shook her head. "She asked him herself if he wanted to be friends yesterday at lunch."
"How do we know he didn't do anything before?"
"Because-"
"They both were up all Friday night. Easy chance."
Melissa watched him cautiously. "I don't trust you."
"Why not?" He asked, sliding down to meet her. "We both have a common goal... Sort of. I want Lily, you want James. Don't see why, he's a blundering, attention seeking git."
Melissa scowled. "Don't insult him."
Matt put up his hands in surrender.
"Alright, but the fact remains, they want each other."
"She doesn't want him! She wants to be friends... Idiot girl." Melissa said sourly.
Matt grinned evilly. "I still think he did something to her."
"James wouldn't-"
"You never know, do you Hart?"
Melissa glared at him.
"What do you say, we team up?"
Melissa didn't break her glare, thinking hard about what he had said.
"It could be possible she did something to him as well..." Matt said tauntingly.
At this, Melissa's rage got the best of her.
"Deal. We'll team up."
"That's what I thought."
---
"Lily! Watch this!" James called from fifty feet in the air.
She shot a golden thread out of her wand, that spelled out "OK!" In the air in front of her, so James would know she was watching.
He shot forward, like a dart. He threw the Quaffle in the air then, with a quick turn, spun around in the air three times, the tip of his broomstick hit the Quaffle, which soared lightning fast across the pitch and into the middle goal post.
A few fangirls that were sitting a few rows away from Lily stood on their feet and cheered.
James ignored them, and spotted Lily, who was laughing and clapping her hands. "Yeah James!" She called.
He punched the air triumphantly and turned back to the rest of the team.
"Come on Wood! You could've stopped that!"
Thomas Wood, the Keeper waved feebly from the goal posts.
"Alright! McKinnon and Sirius! Let the bludgers out, Sanders! Get ready for the Snitch!" He instructed, and Lily watched in amazement as the team obeyed.
The other two chasers, Stephanie Bell and Samantha Finnigan had retrieved the Quaffle, and were passing it back and forth while flying up to meet James.
"Alright!" James called for his teams attention. "Let's do play four... And remember Steph," He added, looking at the fourth year. "Don't let the pressure get to you, focus on the goal posts as if it's the only thing around. But at the same time, watch out for the opposing teams chasers. Come on... I know you can do it!" He said encouragingly, and Stephanie nodded.
The bludgers were released, along with the Snitch.
"Sanders! Don't lose the Snitch this time!" Sirius called, flying into the air, his bat ready.
Andrew McKinnon flew up to the same height as Sirius and hovered across the pitch from him.
"Okay, let's go!" James said and tossed the Quaffle into the air, and immediately flew away from it, letting Samantha catch it in her arm and turn her broom around, and fly towards the goal posts. Stephanie flew under her, preparing herself for the catch. Samantha dropped it, and Stephanie caught it smoothly.
"Good job!" James called from twenty feet away.
Stephanie darted forward, rising as she did so, she raised her right arm, ready to hurtle the Quaffle through the goal post, where Thomas hovered, ready, when a bludger Andrew hit went astray and instead of going towards the ground, flew up and hit Stephanie in the left arm.
She let out a gasp of pain, but remembered James' advice. With one final thrust, she threw the Quaffle, which Thomas failed to block and it soared through the left-most goal post.
The team started clapping, while James flew to Stephanie, who was floating in the same spot, holding her left arm, but grinning broadly.
"I knew you could do it!" He said, patting her on the back. "Let's get you to the hospital wing..." He said, and flew down with her, the rest of the team following.
"Lily!" Alice called from the top of the stands.
Lily turned around and waved.
"How's it going?" She asked, jumping down a few steps and coming to meet her, Frank following.
"It's going great! They're really good..."
"Uh-oh... What happened to Steph?"
"Hit by a bludger."
Alice shook her head. "Gosh, this is such a dangerous sport. I don't see why we have it at school..."
"Cuz it's fun!" Frank said grinning. "You don't have to play!"
After that, Alice seemed to take a different opinion of the game.
"I'm gonna go help James take her to the hospital wing!" Lily stated, jumping to her feet.
Alice rolled her eyes, but let Lily go.
Lily ran down the metal steps and met James on the ground.
"This seems familiar..." He said laughing.
She stuck her tongue out at him playfully. "I didn't throw my arms around you."
He shrugged. "Pretty close though."
She ignored that and looked at Stephanie, who was supporting her arm while talking animatedly to Andrew about the play she had just pulled off.
"I'm really sorry about this Steph..." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "How bad is it?"
She shrugged. "Not so bad. I can't really feel it though."
Andrew knocked his head with his fist angrily.
"Hey, stop! It's alright. I'm fine. And if we're lucky, you'll do that to Slytherin on Thursday." She said grinning.
Andrew grinned back.
"Okay guys... I think we did great today, Slytherin doesn't stand a chance!" James said, and the team cheered. "Sanders, did you catch the Snitch?"
Jessica Sanders nodded, and held up her fist, where a golden ball was concealed. "Caught it right before she got hit."
"Awesome." James said. "Let's get changed. Steph, do you need someone-"
"I'll go!" Andrew volunteered, shooting his hand into the air.
"Okay, get her to Madam Promfrey, the rest of you, let's go get changed."
The team nodded and started walking away, James turned to Lily. "Do you want to come, or do you want to wait?"
She laughed. "I'll wait outside the changing rooms." She said, and walked with him to the little cabin on the side of the pitch.
"Where's Remus?" She asked, scanning the stands. She hadn't seen him commenting at all.
"What do you mean?"
"He said he had to practice commenting..."
James chuckled. "He's a good commentator already. I bet he just said that to get out of the Great Hall."
"Oh, okay."
James waved goodbye to Lily, before walking into the cabin to change out of his Quidditch robes, and back into his khakis and button down shirt.
"Hey mate, do you know when the next game is?" Sirius said in an undertone.
James nodded. "Thursday..."
"Yeah, and guess what's on Wednesday?"
James thought for a minute, then his eyes fell upon the moon calender.
"Uh-oh..."
"Exactly."
"Well, I'm sure reserve commentator can-"
"We don't have a reserve."
"Dumbledore must know, right?"
Sirius shrugged.
"Poor Moony... First match and all."
Sirius nodded.
"Well, I guess... I dunno. I'll talk to McGonagall. See you back inside." He said and left the room to meet Lily.
"What's the matter?" She asked, spotting the nervous look on James' face.
"What? Oh um... Nothing, I'm fine..." He said.
As much as he loved Lily, he could not give up his friends secret.
She didn't fully believe him, but left the topic alone.
Hope you liked the extra long chapter!
So.. What do you think?
James is a great guy, and there is definitely some drama coming up..
And some funny stuff!
:) Take carez until next update my friends. Which will be soon, since I have no life.
