A/N: Well, here you go. Not much to say. Just thought I'd keep in touch.
Chapter 2: Casual Encounters
The sun shone brilliantly down through the windows of the great hall as Lily, Alice and Wilona entered for breakfast. They strolled over to the Gryffindor table, chatting and laughing merrily, despite the fact that today was the first day of classes.
Lily stopped at their usual spot at the table, looking at the first years who were sitting there staring at them with huge liquidated eyes. Seeing how terrified they looked, Lily and her friends compassionately told them that they would sit somewhere else.
Glancing down the table, Lily spied empty seats down towards the middle and dragged her friends along towards it. She stopped short, however, noticing that these empty seats happened to be right next to a few boys whom were the last people she wanted to sit next to this morning, or EVER for that matter.
Wilona, on the other hand, couldn't have been more pleased. Before she knew it, Lily was whisked off and plopped down on the bench right next to Remus Lupin.
"Good morning, Lily. Ready for classes?" Remus said, buttering a piece of toast slowly. "I would imagine you'd be excited, being best in the class and all."
Even though Remus was probably the nicest of the Mauraders, Lily said good morning and then tuned out. She glanced at James and saw him grinning pointedly at her, his hair looking disheveled as always. She looked away and focused on Sirius, who was shoveling pastries and scones into his mouth very rapidly, pausing occasionally to down a gulp of pumpkin juice. Wilona sat next to him, staring in fascination at his eating antics. Though Sirius was good-looking, Lily had to admit that she found him revolting at the moment. She looked down at her own empty plate and realized she was not very hungry.
"Lily, you have to eat," said Alice, putting some toast on her friend's plate.
"Yeah, Lily, gotta keep your figure in shape and such, we wouldnt want anything bad happening to you, would we?" said James.
Lily chose to ignore him and did not speak to anyone but Alice and Wilona the whole breakfast, though Wilona wasn't talking much herself. After a while, James gave up on trying to speak to her and resumed talking and whispering to his own friends until it was time for class.
In the hallway on the way to Charms, Lily smiled to herself thinking about how she had 5 N.E.W.T. classes this year. While the thought may have made any other student cringe, Lily loved it. She shared all of her classes with Alice, but only one with Wilona (which was transfiguration).
Lily went throughout her day listening attentively to each teacher from her seat in the front of each classroom, next to Alice of course.
On their way to Advanced Potions, the last class of the day, Lily commented to Alice about how three of the Mauranders happened to be in all their advanced classes as well (Peter was in only andvanced transfiguration. Both girls found it very disturbing and perplexing and then convinced themselves that the boys must have cheated their way in, except maybe Remus, for he displayed much more intelligence than the other two.
In the potions dungeon, they took their customary seats at the front and waited for the teacher to assign directions. The girls were thrilled when he told them they would be working in partners for the first potion, which was complex and required teamwork. Alice and Lily immediately looked at each other, but their grins faded when the teacher said he would be assigning partners, saying that they would need to get used to working with unfamiliar people, as they would surely be doing that somewhere down the line in their careers. Lily was fine so long as she was not paired with Potter.
"And Lily you will be with James."
So much for that.
Of all the people in the whole entire classroom WHY did he have to pick Potter, Lily thought to herself. James, however, was beside himself and Lily caught Sirius giving him a little wink and a nod before he came walking over.
"Well, what do you know, Evans, we're Potions partners!" he said, smiling brightly.
"Right, now let's just not talk and get this potion done, ok?" Lily said commandingly and she began to read the directions on the board.
"Aww, I thought be might be able to chat a bit, you know, break the ice a little. I'm an interesting man. There must be something we could talk about," he said, collecting ingredients and measuring them.
Lily noticed that he did this almost effortlessly . He seemed to know exactly what he was doing, as he held up a vial and squeezed a few blue drops into it. Maybe he was smarter than she thought.
"Fine, just one question, and then no more talking. How come your in Advanced potions? I mean, it's a hard class, not many people end up passing. Not many people want to take it in the first place.Not unless they want to be a potions teacher.or an Auror or something." she trailed off, quickly chopping up some roots.
"Which is precisely what I want," stated James, eyeing her rapidly moving knife a little anxiously.
Lily faltered and stopped chopping. "You.You want to be an auror?" she asked, extremely taken back.
"That I do," he responded proudly while expertly measuring out some powdered batwing. "All I've ever wanted to be. Why do you think Remus, Sirius, and I are in all these advanced classes?"
Lily stared at him disbelievingly and then looked down into her lap. "I've always wanted to be an Auror too," she began hesitantly, "I mean, ever since I first heard of them. I've read so many books about them and." she drifted off as she noticed James gazing at her keenly, his eyebrows slightly raised.
She's actually talking to me as if I'm a human, James thought, quite pleased with himself.
He actually looks like he's listening to what I'm saying, Lily thought disbelievingly, but then she began to fidget under his unwavering stare. She stared powerlessly into his sparkling light brown eyes, noticing they were flecked with bits of gold towards the center, with darker smudges around the edges.
"You have hazel eyes?" she blurted out suddenly, a little shocked. They're so much more than hazel though, she thought, I can't believe I've never noticed them before.
James rolled those eyes of his and said, "Uh, yeah, Evans, I've had them for about seventeen years now. Nice of you to finally notice."
"Uh.oh, well.I always thought they were just brown," she stuttered, slightly surprised by his snappy answer. She narrowed her eyes and mentally scolded herself for stepping out of her iron shell and talking to him. She hated him, after all.
James shrugged off her explanation and seemed to stare right into Lily's soul. "And YOUR eyes are green, Evans. Well, they're more like emerald... and forest green... and sometimes a light green all rolled into one, like a stained glass window. And when you're in the light, they sparkle like jewels. Or even when you smile."
He paused and glanced at the chalkboard to check if they had the right amounts of ingredients. He seemed to not notice Lily gaping at him, or how she had almost poured an extra liter of bubotuber pus into the cauldron. She opened and closed her mouth slowly, digesting what she has just heard from the mouth of James Potter.
But he wasn't finished. "It makes you so easy to read, Evans. You can tell anything about you by just looking into those eyes of yours." He smirked.
Any change of heart that she might have had about James disappeared quicker than one could say "Chocolate Frogs," and the redhead's rage was ignited.
"Easy to read? EASY to READ? JAMES POTTER, if you think you know ANYTHING about me, THINK again! WHO do you think you are?" She slammed a vial of smoking red liquid down so hard on the table that the bottom broke and red splashed everywhere.
"OH MY GOD! Look what you made me do!" she shrieked, looking like a bloody mess, literally. Red liquid was splattered all over her flushed face and some began dripping down her neck.
James was tiny bit shocked at the outburst, but recovered in a matter of seconds. "Eh, a little more red doesnt really make any difference, " he said eyeing her hair.
Lily's eyes widened and her chest fluffed up twice its size. She seemed to grow a couple inches and the red liquid on her facing began to boil and steam, creating quite an interesting effect. Students began backing away from her with whispers of "Oh Merlin, she's steaming! Get away from her!"
James seemed nonplussed though, as he stood there with his eyebrows raised and a curious expression on his face.
"You disgust me," Lily whispered simply, before she was whisked away by the potions teacher and sent up to the hospital wing because of the ugly red burns on her skin.
On her way out the door, she heard Sirius say to James loudly, "Yep, Jamesie, you really got THIS one in the bag!"
(*I'm not sure how to put extra spaces between things; If I did, there'd be one here. Can anyone tell me? Pressing the space bar doesn't work when you upload docs.)
"Oh, Wilona..." Lily moaned, her face pressed into a pillow. "It was horrible, everyone was staring at me and then that stupid red stuff started to steam...and he was just standing there, all conceited and stupidlike...I hate him so much!" she said, rolling onto her side. She lay curled up on her bed in her nightgown, tears trickling down her face.
"Oh Merlin! I wish I was there! I would've hexed him for you!" cried Wilona indignantly.
"Yeah but after you left, Lily, Professor took 10 points from Gryffindor for disrupting the class and then everyone was mad at him," Alice stated, in hopes of comforting her friend.
Lily found a little satisfaction in the thought that people had been annoyed with James. It was about time they realized how arrogant he really was.
"He thinks he's so great, hexing everyone that annoys him, getting all the popular girls, being super Quidditch seeker and all. I can't stand him! And why... WHY is he after ME? I mean, of all the people in this whole school, he has to pick Lily Evans," exclaimed Lily, riled up at the thought of James. Anger boiled inside her just like the red liquid boiled on her face earlier that day. But this is stupid, she thought to herself. Why am I getting all worked up over James Potter? Like I told him, I have way better things to do with my time.
Lily shook her head and sat up on her bed. She wiped the useless tears off her face with the sleeve of her nightgown and sighed. Alice and Wilona exchanged looks with each other, slightly surprised by her sudden mood change, as it usually took Lily quite a while to calm down if her rage was ignited.
Lily saw the exchange and said quietly, "He's not worth it." They nodded in agreement.
All three sat in silence for a few minutes, until Wilona started up timidly, "Um well, Lily, even though you might not like James, there ARE other people...." She looked at Lily almost pleadingly.
Alice backed her up slowly, as if they had both rehearsed this conversation.
"She's right... You work way too much, Lily, you don't have fun like you really should. I mean, yes you have us, but that's not enough sometimes...When was the last time you went on a date?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.
"Ummm, Billy Dunbar...a couple years ago maybe.." said Lily meekly. She could not believe this conversation was happening.
"Right, so...just find someone," said Wilona, looking at her hopefully. Lily noticed that Alice had the same look on her face, though with a little bit of fear (probably because she was afraid of setting Lily off).
"We have that graduation ball thing, right? I know you don't like the idea of it, but it'll be loads of fun, WE'LL be there, don't forget. Of course, I'll be there with Sirius but.."
"It's our last year, Lily... We have to make the best of it, remember?" said Alice cutting off Wilona quickly.
Lily sighed again. "Okay. I'll try," she said without looking at either of them. She was too tired to think, let alone argue. Without another word, she flopped down on her bed and closed out her friends' faces with the bed curtains. She squeezed under her blankets and drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.
Meanwhile, at about the same time the girls had their little conversation, the 7th year boy's dormitory was also awake, active, and completely oblivious, as usual.
James Potter pounded on the bathroom door with his fists and began yelling, "HOLY MERLIN, SIRIUS, YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE FOR TWO HOURS ALREADY! THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM WHO REALLY NEED TO PEE!" Remus, Peter, and Frank Longbottom all stood squirming in a line behind James.
"Okay! Okay! I'm just about to get out," called Sirius, unconcerned for the welfare of his roommates.
The bathroom door swung open unexpectedly, knocking over James who accidentally started a domino affect as Remus, Peter, and Frank all fell over on account of their inability to move their legs. They scrabbled about on the floor wildly as hot, white, steam billowed out of the bathroom, condensating on their skin and making them sweat profusively.
"Ahh! I'm blind, I'm blind!" cried Peter, grabbing James's left leg and hanging on for dear life. James kicked him in the stomach and accidently pulled Frank's boxers down in a wild attempt to stand up.
"Need. To. Pee."grimaced Remus, slowly making his way to where the steam was coming from but knocking into Sirius, who had just stepped out of the bathroom. He was wearing his green plaid boxers and rubbing a purple towel on his head.
"Well, there ya go. It's-" he began but stopped abruptly as his eyes fell upon the tangled, sweaty boys on the ground before him, all of whom, except for Frank who had been de-clothed, were in their boxers since it was bedtime. His mouth dropped open and he stopped drying his hair.
"You made me get out of the bathroom to watch you guys do THIS? You've GOT to be kidding me!" He then watched on in total awe as all four boys ignored him and grappled a bit more on the floor until Remus broke free with a triumphant look on his face and sprinted into the bathroom, slamming the door in their faces. James, Peter, and Frank (after pulling up his pants) all groaned and curled up into fetal position.
"What the...? Actually, I'm not even going to ask. I'm just going to walk over to my bed and sit down. Yes, that's what I'm going to do," said Sirius vacantly as he resumed rubbing his head with his purple towel.
Chapter 2: Casual Encounters
The sun shone brilliantly down through the windows of the great hall as Lily, Alice and Wilona entered for breakfast. They strolled over to the Gryffindor table, chatting and laughing merrily, despite the fact that today was the first day of classes.
Lily stopped at their usual spot at the table, looking at the first years who were sitting there staring at them with huge liquidated eyes. Seeing how terrified they looked, Lily and her friends compassionately told them that they would sit somewhere else.
Glancing down the table, Lily spied empty seats down towards the middle and dragged her friends along towards it. She stopped short, however, noticing that these empty seats happened to be right next to a few boys whom were the last people she wanted to sit next to this morning, or EVER for that matter.
Wilona, on the other hand, couldn't have been more pleased. Before she knew it, Lily was whisked off and plopped down on the bench right next to Remus Lupin.
"Good morning, Lily. Ready for classes?" Remus said, buttering a piece of toast slowly. "I would imagine you'd be excited, being best in the class and all."
Even though Remus was probably the nicest of the Mauraders, Lily said good morning and then tuned out. She glanced at James and saw him grinning pointedly at her, his hair looking disheveled as always. She looked away and focused on Sirius, who was shoveling pastries and scones into his mouth very rapidly, pausing occasionally to down a gulp of pumpkin juice. Wilona sat next to him, staring in fascination at his eating antics. Though Sirius was good-looking, Lily had to admit that she found him revolting at the moment. She looked down at her own empty plate and realized she was not very hungry.
"Lily, you have to eat," said Alice, putting some toast on her friend's plate.
"Yeah, Lily, gotta keep your figure in shape and such, we wouldnt want anything bad happening to you, would we?" said James.
Lily chose to ignore him and did not speak to anyone but Alice and Wilona the whole breakfast, though Wilona wasn't talking much herself. After a while, James gave up on trying to speak to her and resumed talking and whispering to his own friends until it was time for class.
In the hallway on the way to Charms, Lily smiled to herself thinking about how she had 5 N.E.W.T. classes this year. While the thought may have made any other student cringe, Lily loved it. She shared all of her classes with Alice, but only one with Wilona (which was transfiguration).
Lily went throughout her day listening attentively to each teacher from her seat in the front of each classroom, next to Alice of course.
On their way to Advanced Potions, the last class of the day, Lily commented to Alice about how three of the Mauranders happened to be in all their advanced classes as well (Peter was in only andvanced transfiguration. Both girls found it very disturbing and perplexing and then convinced themselves that the boys must have cheated their way in, except maybe Remus, for he displayed much more intelligence than the other two.
In the potions dungeon, they took their customary seats at the front and waited for the teacher to assign directions. The girls were thrilled when he told them they would be working in partners for the first potion, which was complex and required teamwork. Alice and Lily immediately looked at each other, but their grins faded when the teacher said he would be assigning partners, saying that they would need to get used to working with unfamiliar people, as they would surely be doing that somewhere down the line in their careers. Lily was fine so long as she was not paired with Potter.
"And Lily you will be with James."
So much for that.
Of all the people in the whole entire classroom WHY did he have to pick Potter, Lily thought to herself. James, however, was beside himself and Lily caught Sirius giving him a little wink and a nod before he came walking over.
"Well, what do you know, Evans, we're Potions partners!" he said, smiling brightly.
"Right, now let's just not talk and get this potion done, ok?" Lily said commandingly and she began to read the directions on the board.
"Aww, I thought be might be able to chat a bit, you know, break the ice a little. I'm an interesting man. There must be something we could talk about," he said, collecting ingredients and measuring them.
Lily noticed that he did this almost effortlessly . He seemed to know exactly what he was doing, as he held up a vial and squeezed a few blue drops into it. Maybe he was smarter than she thought.
"Fine, just one question, and then no more talking. How come your in Advanced potions? I mean, it's a hard class, not many people end up passing. Not many people want to take it in the first place.Not unless they want to be a potions teacher.or an Auror or something." she trailed off, quickly chopping up some roots.
"Which is precisely what I want," stated James, eyeing her rapidly moving knife a little anxiously.
Lily faltered and stopped chopping. "You.You want to be an auror?" she asked, extremely taken back.
"That I do," he responded proudly while expertly measuring out some powdered batwing. "All I've ever wanted to be. Why do you think Remus, Sirius, and I are in all these advanced classes?"
Lily stared at him disbelievingly and then looked down into her lap. "I've always wanted to be an Auror too," she began hesitantly, "I mean, ever since I first heard of them. I've read so many books about them and." she drifted off as she noticed James gazing at her keenly, his eyebrows slightly raised.
She's actually talking to me as if I'm a human, James thought, quite pleased with himself.
He actually looks like he's listening to what I'm saying, Lily thought disbelievingly, but then she began to fidget under his unwavering stare. She stared powerlessly into his sparkling light brown eyes, noticing they were flecked with bits of gold towards the center, with darker smudges around the edges.
"You have hazel eyes?" she blurted out suddenly, a little shocked. They're so much more than hazel though, she thought, I can't believe I've never noticed them before.
James rolled those eyes of his and said, "Uh, yeah, Evans, I've had them for about seventeen years now. Nice of you to finally notice."
"Uh.oh, well.I always thought they were just brown," she stuttered, slightly surprised by his snappy answer. She narrowed her eyes and mentally scolded herself for stepping out of her iron shell and talking to him. She hated him, after all.
James shrugged off her explanation and seemed to stare right into Lily's soul. "And YOUR eyes are green, Evans. Well, they're more like emerald... and forest green... and sometimes a light green all rolled into one, like a stained glass window. And when you're in the light, they sparkle like jewels. Or even when you smile."
He paused and glanced at the chalkboard to check if they had the right amounts of ingredients. He seemed to not notice Lily gaping at him, or how she had almost poured an extra liter of bubotuber pus into the cauldron. She opened and closed her mouth slowly, digesting what she has just heard from the mouth of James Potter.
But he wasn't finished. "It makes you so easy to read, Evans. You can tell anything about you by just looking into those eyes of yours." He smirked.
Any change of heart that she might have had about James disappeared quicker than one could say "Chocolate Frogs," and the redhead's rage was ignited.
"Easy to read? EASY to READ? JAMES POTTER, if you think you know ANYTHING about me, THINK again! WHO do you think you are?" She slammed a vial of smoking red liquid down so hard on the table that the bottom broke and red splashed everywhere.
"OH MY GOD! Look what you made me do!" she shrieked, looking like a bloody mess, literally. Red liquid was splattered all over her flushed face and some began dripping down her neck.
James was tiny bit shocked at the outburst, but recovered in a matter of seconds. "Eh, a little more red doesnt really make any difference, " he said eyeing her hair.
Lily's eyes widened and her chest fluffed up twice its size. She seemed to grow a couple inches and the red liquid on her facing began to boil and steam, creating quite an interesting effect. Students began backing away from her with whispers of "Oh Merlin, she's steaming! Get away from her!"
James seemed nonplussed though, as he stood there with his eyebrows raised and a curious expression on his face.
"You disgust me," Lily whispered simply, before she was whisked away by the potions teacher and sent up to the hospital wing because of the ugly red burns on her skin.
On her way out the door, she heard Sirius say to James loudly, "Yep, Jamesie, you really got THIS one in the bag!"
(*I'm not sure how to put extra spaces between things; If I did, there'd be one here. Can anyone tell me? Pressing the space bar doesn't work when you upload docs.)
"Oh, Wilona..." Lily moaned, her face pressed into a pillow. "It was horrible, everyone was staring at me and then that stupid red stuff started to steam...and he was just standing there, all conceited and stupidlike...I hate him so much!" she said, rolling onto her side. She lay curled up on her bed in her nightgown, tears trickling down her face.
"Oh Merlin! I wish I was there! I would've hexed him for you!" cried Wilona indignantly.
"Yeah but after you left, Lily, Professor took 10 points from Gryffindor for disrupting the class and then everyone was mad at him," Alice stated, in hopes of comforting her friend.
Lily found a little satisfaction in the thought that people had been annoyed with James. It was about time they realized how arrogant he really was.
"He thinks he's so great, hexing everyone that annoys him, getting all the popular girls, being super Quidditch seeker and all. I can't stand him! And why... WHY is he after ME? I mean, of all the people in this whole school, he has to pick Lily Evans," exclaimed Lily, riled up at the thought of James. Anger boiled inside her just like the red liquid boiled on her face earlier that day. But this is stupid, she thought to herself. Why am I getting all worked up over James Potter? Like I told him, I have way better things to do with my time.
Lily shook her head and sat up on her bed. She wiped the useless tears off her face with the sleeve of her nightgown and sighed. Alice and Wilona exchanged looks with each other, slightly surprised by her sudden mood change, as it usually took Lily quite a while to calm down if her rage was ignited.
Lily saw the exchange and said quietly, "He's not worth it." They nodded in agreement.
All three sat in silence for a few minutes, until Wilona started up timidly, "Um well, Lily, even though you might not like James, there ARE other people...." She looked at Lily almost pleadingly.
Alice backed her up slowly, as if they had both rehearsed this conversation.
"She's right... You work way too much, Lily, you don't have fun like you really should. I mean, yes you have us, but that's not enough sometimes...When was the last time you went on a date?" she asked, even though she knew the answer.
"Ummm, Billy Dunbar...a couple years ago maybe.." said Lily meekly. She could not believe this conversation was happening.
"Right, so...just find someone," said Wilona, looking at her hopefully. Lily noticed that Alice had the same look on her face, though with a little bit of fear (probably because she was afraid of setting Lily off).
"We have that graduation ball thing, right? I know you don't like the idea of it, but it'll be loads of fun, WE'LL be there, don't forget. Of course, I'll be there with Sirius but.."
"It's our last year, Lily... We have to make the best of it, remember?" said Alice cutting off Wilona quickly.
Lily sighed again. "Okay. I'll try," she said without looking at either of them. She was too tired to think, let alone argue. Without another word, she flopped down on her bed and closed out her friends' faces with the bed curtains. She squeezed under her blankets and drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.
Meanwhile, at about the same time the girls had their little conversation, the 7th year boy's dormitory was also awake, active, and completely oblivious, as usual.
James Potter pounded on the bathroom door with his fists and began yelling, "HOLY MERLIN, SIRIUS, YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE FOR TWO HOURS ALREADY! THERE ARE PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM WHO REALLY NEED TO PEE!" Remus, Peter, and Frank Longbottom all stood squirming in a line behind James.
"Okay! Okay! I'm just about to get out," called Sirius, unconcerned for the welfare of his roommates.
The bathroom door swung open unexpectedly, knocking over James who accidentally started a domino affect as Remus, Peter, and Frank all fell over on account of their inability to move their legs. They scrabbled about on the floor wildly as hot, white, steam billowed out of the bathroom, condensating on their skin and making them sweat profusively.
"Ahh! I'm blind, I'm blind!" cried Peter, grabbing James's left leg and hanging on for dear life. James kicked him in the stomach and accidently pulled Frank's boxers down in a wild attempt to stand up.
"Need. To. Pee."grimaced Remus, slowly making his way to where the steam was coming from but knocking into Sirius, who had just stepped out of the bathroom. He was wearing his green plaid boxers and rubbing a purple towel on his head.
"Well, there ya go. It's-" he began but stopped abruptly as his eyes fell upon the tangled, sweaty boys on the ground before him, all of whom, except for Frank who had been de-clothed, were in their boxers since it was bedtime. His mouth dropped open and he stopped drying his hair.
"You made me get out of the bathroom to watch you guys do THIS? You've GOT to be kidding me!" He then watched on in total awe as all four boys ignored him and grappled a bit more on the floor until Remus broke free with a triumphant look on his face and sprinted into the bathroom, slamming the door in their faces. James, Peter, and Frank (after pulling up his pants) all groaned and curled up into fetal position.
"What the...? Actually, I'm not even going to ask. I'm just going to walk over to my bed and sit down. Yes, that's what I'm going to do," said Sirius vacantly as he resumed rubbing his head with his purple towel.