Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling, as everyone knows, except the characters I created.
A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long! I had absolutely NO TIME last weekend to do any writing whatsoever. Well... this is the next chapter, obviously. It's a bit shorter than the last one, but it has a LOT of action. It sorta ends in a cliffy (SORRY, I had no where else to go with it), but it will all be answered in the next chapter. Also, the lecture with Professor Armando was told to me by a magician/clown named Armando in Las Vegas. If you ever see the circus, "O", he's supposed to be one of the clowns in the very beginning, who also reappear throughout the show. Anyways, his lecture totally fascinated me... what exactly is magic? Well, review if you get the chance (PLEASE), and I hope you enjoy this!
Love, Kate
The Rivalry of James and Lily
Year 4 - Chapter 2
The Beginning
It was a cool, crisp Saturday morning, and James had woken up early to get a bit of fresh air on his new broom, a Silver Arrow. After he had made his way out to the quidditch pitch, and pushed off into the air, he couldn't help but leave all of his troubles from the past week behind. He felt at ease and free as he soared through the air. It was just so perfect and right. As the wind blew though his already messy hair, and he felt the cool September sun beat down upon his back, he felt himself finally start to reflect the past week's events.
His first week of classes hadn't been that horrible. Professor Karakaroff was still as evil as ever in potions, and McGonagall was still extremely strict, but the school did have a new DADA teacher (what a surprise). His name was Professor Armando, and he was actually a very smart and interesting man. He had brought grindylows for their first lesson, which the fourth years were all supposed to learn about in their previous year, and it had actually been a pretty fascinating lesson.
But, still, during the week, something definitely was missing. Yes, Lily Evans. So far, their constant fights and pranks had been competely absent. They hadn't spoken a word since their awkward conversation during the welcoming banquet. And although he didn't want to admit it, he knew he missed her. But how could he be? It was Evans! His stomach gave a growl. Hungry already? James decided to head to the kitchens and feast on some chocolate chip cookies.
***Meanwhile***
Lily was already at the kitchens. Sybill had been crying since daybreak, for her and Peter were having "problems," so Lily had volunteered to get her some sweets. She personally thought Sybill was acting rather ridiculous, but she didn't exactly want to stay in the dormitory and listen to her pout.
As she was gathering the last remains of the cakes the house elves had brought, she noticed another person had entered the kitchen; James.
"What are you doing here?" they both asked, horrified.
"I'm getting sweets for Sybill. Her and Peter are having problems," she said stiffly, but she was having trouble keeping a straight face, as Peter's and Sybill's relationship was such a joke.
"Oh how awful," said a laughing James. "I seriously don't see what they see in each other."
They paused awkwardly for a moment then Lily repeated her question, "So what are you doing here?"
"I'm stalking you, Lily," James said sarcastically. "No, I'm actually getting some chocolate chip cookies."
"For breakfast?" Lily asked.
"No for an after tea snack... Of course for breakfast, Evans. It's daybreak!" said James, impatiently. These snippish conversations were really beginning to annoy him.
"Whatever, Potter," she replied, sharply. She was just about to leave, when James grabbed her arm.
"Listen, Ev- Lily. All of this tension, it's getting on my nerves. What happened last week, let's just forget it. Can't we just go back to what we had before?"
"So you want to go back to what we had?" she asked. "Okay, Potter." And she turned and left.
James turned to the cookies the house elves had brought him a few minutes before and bit into one of them. However, he almost immediately spat it out. It tasted of liver! He was about to tell the house elves off when he realized the taste probably wasn't the work of the house elves, but his redhead, green-eyed, enemy. He couldn't help smiling at the spot where Lily had been.
Life between James and Lily had gone back to normal. They were back to pranking each other, and surprisingly, even ganged up and pulled some pranks on Snape that were pretty bloody awesome. They made a really good team. Almost a better team than Sirius and James. But of course, no one could ever replace Sirius. Not even Merlin himself.
Over the next few months, the castle was unusually quiet (if you didn't ignored the constant pranks that were always causing havoc in the Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms, primarily).
On a particularily stormy day in November, the Gryffindors were in a DADA class sitting in rapt attention, like usual. Today, Professor Armando had brought up a very interesting subject.
"What exactly is magic?" he asked the class. "Is it saying a couple of funny words and twirling your wand? Or does it include studying the late night skies? Or is it perhaps something more?"
The class sat in silence. No one could think of a reasonable answer to the explanation.
"Here, let me rephrase the question. How does magic work?"
Slowly, Remus rose his hand. "I'm not sure if this is right, but I'm guessing it works because we all have magical blood," he said motioning towards everyone in the room. "This allows us to make non-ordinary things occur when we say an incantation."
"Nice explanation, Remus. 10 points to Gryffindor. I have another question for you, however. What is happening when you make that non-ordinary thing occur?" questioned Professor Armando.
"Well, I guess a strange force or something causes an attraction or something that allows us to control it," said Remus, timidly.
"Yes, very nice again, Remus. But what is that force between the object and us?"
This time, Remus remained silent. Then the Professor turned to the rest of the class, waiting for an answer. Sirius mumbled, "Magic is that force," assuming it was too obvious of an answer.
"Haha! You are right, Mr. Black. But I ask again, what is magic?"
The class remained silent for another good couple of minutes. Lily was thoroughly confused. Magic was magic, wasn't it?
After some puzzled thinking, James decided to speak. "I think magic is... well... it's almost the impossible. It's what the human can't explain. I mean, I think if we knew exactly how magic worked, it wouldn't be half as interesting. Magic can't be explained, for no one knows exactly how it works." The class stared at him in bewilderment, but the professor looked rather pleased.
"Oh Bravo, Mr. Potter. Twenty-five more points to Gryffindor. And class, here is an example of what Mr. Potter is trying to explain." He said, while pulling out a pair or ordinary magnets.
"I presume you all know what magnets are?" he asked, and was greeted by a bunch of nods. "Very good. See, when muggles first learned how magnets worked, they were absolutely astonished. This was magic to them! I mean look at these things! Two solids that repelled and attracted to each other on their own will, and they didn't even have a brain! But soon, they began to realize that the solids had poles, which caused the attractions. After a short while, the magnets were not intriguing. People disregarded them, for they knew how they worked."
"So are you saying that if we knew exactly how magic worked, we wouldn't want to study it anymore?" Kate asked.
"In a way, yes. The mystery of magic is just one its many beauties. It's almost like an added bonus to what we learn about. We get to study something that has no real answer. Let me ask you this, is any answer about magic wrong?" he questioned.
The already confused class, looked at him is distress. "Alright, nevermind. We will pick up on this topic next week. Homework; write a 8 inch essay on what magic is to you, and it is to be handed in at our next class," said Professor Armando with a smile.
Although the class did not approve of the essay, they they couldn't help but be fascinated with the lesson.
As November turned to December, Lily found herself the center of every boys attention. Well almost every boy. Most still drooled over Kate and Alex as they passed, but as Kate was with Sirius, and Alex just wasn't that into dating at the moment (she and Remus had become nothing more than great friends), a new light had begun to shine on Lily. And this new attention had made James very mad, indeed. He scowled as he past Lily if other boys were around her. After was seemed like the hundredth time this happened, Lily decided she had to say something to him.
"Oy! Potter!" she yelled, chasing after him down the hall, leaving behind a group of disappointed Ravenclaws.
"Oh, it's you, is it? Why do you want to talk to me? Looking for another admirer?" he smirked, and continued walking along with an extremely uncomfortable looking Sirius.
"What is up with you, James? And why do you refer to them as admirers? They're just friends!" she replied, frustrated.
He stopped, raised an eyebrow at her, then continued walking.
"Ugh, James! You are so hard to get sometimes! You say I have admirers? Look at them!" she yelled, pointing to a group of Hufflepuffs, all giggling behind their hands as James passed.
"That's different," he replied.
"And how is that different?" she replied, throwing her hands on her hips and beginning to lose her temper.
"It just is, okay? Listen, I'm going to be late for class," he said, looking for an excuse to escape from her.
"It's Saturday," she said smartly.
"Oh yeah. Right... I'm going to Hogsmeade," he continued.
"Why?" Lily asked.
"To meet Kate," he continued.
"What?!" yelped Sirius, who had been surprisingly quiet throughout the whole argument. "I'm going to Hogsmeade to meet Kate!"
"I know. I'm going with you, Sirius," he said, with a pleading look in his eye.
"Sorry James, but not this time. I'm sick of these little stupid arguments. When are you going to admit that you're JEALOUS of Lily's admirers?" he yelled out, leaving the hall ringing. Luckily for James, no one else was in the hall to overhear (that pack of Hufflepuffs had already left). Unluckily for Sirius, no one else was in the hall to stop both James and Lily from kicking him in the shins.
"Ouch! Geez... I'm out of here. I'll leave you two up to battle this one out," he mumbled, and hobbled off in the direction of the one-eyed witch.
As Sirius left, Lily could feel the presence of James's eyes on her face, but all she could do was look down. She couldn't bring herself to face him.
"Look James..." she began, finally looking him in the eye.
She immediately stopped, however. The sparkle in his eyes made her breath get caught in her chest.
And soon, both didn't know exactly what they were doing. James had his arms around her waist, and Lily had hers around his neck. Sparks were flying, their bodies were against each other, and suddenly, they were kissing. Passionately. When they pulled away, both looked at the other in shock. All James could do was gasp.
"Wow, James, Erm, I have to go," said Lily, urgently, and she left James standing in the hall, his head still spinning from the kiss. All James could do was mentally kick himself. It looked as though they were going to be going back to their awkward conversations, once again. Hopefully, however, they would be able to easily get past them and move on to something more...
A/N: Okay! The end! Hope you enjoyed! Well, I'm gonna go check out Samantha Mumba and Aaron Carter in concert, so I'll begin the next chatper later. Thanks for reading, and review please! Oh, and sorry for the typos... I was too lazy to thoroughly edit it, like usual... :)
