THREE/ELBOW GREASE
James was extremely unhappy and bored out of his mind. He was sitting in a dungeon with Filch, cleaning out old cauldrons. With sponges, mind you. Muggle-style.
James looked around the room. It was so unbelievably dark and damp down here. He was surprised that the Slytherins could stand LIVING here. He supposed that it must at least be a bit drier in their house. Or maybe they just got used to it. Then again, they were all a bit cold and slimy themselves, so they probably fit right in. Examples, Severus Snape and Lucious Malfoy.
James was just thinking this, scrubbing his first cauldron out of twenty for the third time, when the door opened. He'd expected Professor Whettle, the Slytherin head, or maybe Filch's cat coming in to visit his master. Come to think of it, Filch was a bit cold and wet, too, just like this dungeon. Perhaps he would have been a Slytherin, had he not been a squib. James sniggered under his breath.
The person who walked in a moment later was not Mrs. Norris. It was the last person James would have expected to see in detention, and he almost dropped his scouring sponge in surprise.
"Lily Evans?" Filch asked.
"Yeah, that's right," Lily responded, not bothering to show Filch any respect. James gave her props for that, Filch didn't deserve it, really.
"You're to help Potter here clean out these cauldrons," he sneered, glaring at her. "Until they are SPARKLING clean. Mr. Potter has been working on this one for at least twenty minutes, so I suggest you get started."
Lily rolled her eyes and settled herself at the cauldron next to James, pulling a rough-looking sponge from a bucket next to him.
"'Lo, James," Lily said quietly but cheerfully, talking so that Filch couldn't hear her. He was sitting on the other side of the room, polishing with looked like a very old string of chains.
"Hi, Lily," James greeted her. He silently tried to remember the last time they'd talked. Second year, maybe? He couldn't put his finger on it.
"Been here awhile, eh?" she asked, making small talk. James Potter may be famous school-wide, but she wasn't going to sit here with her mouth shut for hours just because she was on a different social level than him.
"Mm," he agreed. "Half an hour, at the least. Don't know what he's talking about 'twenty minutes.' Trying to make us stay a bit longer, I suppose." Lily sort-of laughed, and they fell into silence for a moment while they scrubbed at the cauldrons.
"What in the name of cleensweeps is on these things?" Lily asked, scrubbing hard on one side of the grime-covered cauldron and making no progress.
"No idea," James said, still scrubbing the inside of his. He'd managed to get most of the outside to it's regular color, but it hadn't been easy.
"Ah, well," Lily said, giving in and scrubbing anyway. Silence.
"So what are you in for?" James asked a few moments later, rinsing his sponge in the bucket.
"Talking back to Professor Esmerelda," Lily said with a joyful tone. "She deserved it though, I told her off good."
James couldn't help but laugh at this. He hated Divination, and told Lily so.
"So do I," Lily agreed, finally cleaning off a bit of the cauldron. "Cassandra and I made a game out of seeing who can cause the most trouble in her class. Never works that well though, what with you, Remus, Sirius, and Peter having teacup fights and such." James grinned.
"Yeah, we figure there are better things to do than stare at the grime in the bottom of a teacup," James said. Lily smiled, and said, "yeah, like cleaning the grime out of the bottom of a cauldron." James laughed a bit, then said, "So what'd she do to piss you off?"
"Eh, gave me an F on a quiz. Funny thing is though, it's the lowest grade I've ever gotten in her class, and the only time I've actually tried." The two of them looked at each other and burst into a fit of laughter. Filch looked up from his chains and glared at them until they quieted down.
"Sounds a bit like me. I get great grades in everything except that class," James said, finishing up his first cauldron and moving to the one on the other side of Lily. She talked while he moved, saying, "Yeah, me too. Cass keeps expecting me to be head girl, but I don't think so, not with Saraphine teaching divination." James snickered and said, "Yeah, Remus says the same thing. I think he's just a bit jealous though, he's a great student but no one really notices."
Lily wanted to say something about James only being noticed because of Quidditch, but she held her tongue. Instead, she just nodded, as if to say, "that's too bad."
"So," Lily continued on. "What did YOU do to get in here?"
"I uh, caused a bit of trouble with the Slytherins," James said mysteriously.
"Oh, come on! Please tell," Lily begged. "Especially if it involved that awful Lucious Malfoy."
"Oh, it does," James reassured her, though he still didn't say what he'd done. He looked up and grinned at her, and she threw her sponge at him, giggling. "Out with it, then!"
"Alright," he agreed, sounding reluctant. Though, in real life, he was having fun talking to Lily. "We lit off a bunch of Fillibuster Fireworks in the Sixth Year dormitory a few days ago," James said with an air of pride. Lily dropped her sponge and burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles and laughter. James smiled and then couldn't help himself, he laughed too.
"Get back to work!" Filch snapped from across the room. They slowed their giggles a bit and scrubbed again.
"I hate Malfoy," Lily commented a few minutes later, when all was quiet again. "He thinks he's a horribly great Quidditch player, and he looks as though he can barely fly."
"Yeah, but Snape's worse," James said, looking at Lily. "The slimy git tried to get me suspended in my third year. Said I was sneaking about the grounds outside."
"Were you?" Lily asked, and she, too, stopped scrubbing. Looking up at James, she eyed him suspiciously.
"Yeah, but that's not important," James said, waving his hand in the air dismisivly. "To make a long story short, I got out of it by telling Dumbledore I'd gone out to pick up some work I'd left at Hagrid's the night before." He grinned at Lily and she smiled back. They sat there, looking at each other and grinning, for a few moments, until Filch's voice rang out from the back of the room. They sighed and got back to scrubbing. By now, they'd finished three cauldrons, and Lily was almost done with the fourth.
"So, what're you planning on for Christmas break?" James asked Lily a few minutes later. "Going home with the family?"
"Nah," Lily said, scrubbing at a particularly green spot on her third cauldron. "I'm sure my folks would like it, but I can't stand my older sister. She thinks she's so great, and that I'm this huge freak."
"Ah," James said, thinking this over. "How come?"
"I'm a Muggle-born," Lily said matter-of-factly. She gave James a look, as if challenging him to say something about it.
"That's cool," he said, still scrubbing. "I think it's dumb, really, when people say Muggle-borns are.not sufficient witches." He looked up at her and she quickly looked back down at her cauldron.
"Thanks," she said finally. "So what are you doing for break?"
"Definatly staying here. No way am I missing a chance to cause trouble with the m- my friends," James said, grinning. Lily smiled.
"The who?"
"My friends," James repeated, giving her an innocent look. She shrugged. "Whatever."
"Yeah." The two of them finished up their cauldrons, leaving seven done and thirteen to go. This wasn't nearly as bad as James thought it would have been. Lily was really great, he'd forgotton what a nice person she was. She simply wasn't popular enough to have hung out with him all these years.
At this thought, he cringed, realizing how stuck-up that sounded.
"What?" Lily asked. She's seen him flinch.
"Nothing," James said, keeping his head down and scrubbing. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was probably true. He needed a second opinion.
"Er, Lily?"
"Yeah?" she asked, still scrubbing. She was getting good at this.
"D'you.d'you think maybe my. large group of friends has gone to my head?"
"What, your popularity?" she asked, dropping her sponge into the bucket and wiping her hands on her robes.
"Yeah," James nodded. "Well?"
"Do you want the truth or a lie?"
"The truth!"
Lily grinned, then her face softened and she replied, "Well, maybe just a bit. After all, you haven't talked to me for, what- four years?"
James thought about taking offense to what she'd said, then changed his mind. Instead, he moved on to the next cauldron.
Lily scoured her cauldron, not paying attention to the pain in her arm from all that scrubbing. So James thought maybe he was a bit of an air-head? She wasn't saying he wasn't but-
"James."
"Yeah?"
"Don't take that the wrong way. You're still a great guy."
James looked up at her. Lily stopped working and looked at him too.
"Yeah, right," he said, "We haven't talked in forever. How would you know?"
"Well, let's see. You're nice, you're smart, though not smarter than me [he laughed], and you're handsome. You're a great Quidditch player and you're hilliariously funny. I mean really, really funny," Lily listed. Then, realizing all of what she'd just said, she blushed a crimson red and looked back down into her cauldron. Was it possible that she might have a crush on James Potter?
Grinning to himself, James shifted his eyes back to his cauldron. He scrubbed as Lily moved to the other side of him, toting the bucket with her. She was definatly a very flattering person, but that was just one of her many features that James found were growing quickly on him.
"So, Lil," he said, changing the subject. "What're you planning on doing after Hogwarts?"
"Mm, I'm not quite sure," Lily responded. "I was thinking maybe something with Arithmancy, it's my favorite subject. Or maybe something to do with Muggles, since I was raised by them. What about you?"
"Quidditch. Or maybe something in the ministry," James said after a moment's thought.
"Or both," Lily suggested. James nodded, that wouldn't be too bad. Then at least he could get his dad off of his back. He seemed to be forever telling James that Quidditch was a sport, not a real profession. //That'd work// he thought as he moved to the next cauldron. They didn't have that many more to go, he noticed. Time was flying by while he talked to Lily.
Lily quietly cleaned her cauldron, thinking about life after Hogwarts. It was a good question, now that she thought about it. She was definatly bright enough to do some good work, but none of that office-type stuff really interested her. She was more of an activist.
"Hey Lil?"
"Yeah?" Lily snapped out of her trance.
"What do you suppose is gonna happen with all of this Voldemort stuff?"
"I'm not really sure," Lily said. "He's definatly a terrible man, I'm terrified to be anywhere outside of the school. Even Hogsmede."
"Especially Hogsmede," James agreed. "Maybe I'll become an auror, and fight him,"
"That'd be good," Lily said. That didn't sound like a bad idea, come to think of it. "Susana Longbottom's brother Frank is planning on being one, he's a few years older. She says he has to work really hard, but I think it'd be worth it, don't you?"
"Yeah," James said. This idea was sounding better and better, though it wasn't really James's thing. He usually either joked around or studied hard. None of this hands-on stuff. But he felt like impressing Lily.
Not that he needed to, of course. Part of his popularity was that he never tried to impress anyone, he just DID. This was strange, feeling like he had to prove something to Lily. She felt like an equal to him.
"Done," she said triumphantly, and moved to the other side of James. Glancing around for Filch, she saw him snoozing in the back of the room, a pile of sparkling, well-oiled chains dangling from his hands. Lily looked down; there were only a few cauldrons left.
"James," Lily whispered, nodding at Filch. He glanced at Filch and looked back at Lily, grinning.
"What d'you say we spell these others clean and skip out?" Lily asked, eyes sparkling.
"I like the way you think," he commented, pulling out his wand in unison with her. "An Appulatus charm?"
"Yes, I think so," Lily nodded.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!" they said together, then, "Appulate!" A flash of a watery-colored light burst from the ends of their wands and poured over the cauldrons. In a moment, they were glinting in the candlelight.
"Race you to the tower," James challenged Lily, shoving his wand back in his pocket.
"On three," Lily said, following suit and putting her wand away.
"One, two-Hey!" James yelled as Lily took off ahead of him, laughing madly, red hair streaming behind her. James ran.
Of course, he beat her. Being a Marauder, he knew far more secret passages than she. James was waiting by the portrait of the fat lady (who was snoring loudly) when Lily arrived, panting hard.
"You-dirty-cheater," she managed to get out between taking deep breaths.
"I'm offended you would ever suggest such a thing!" James protested mock- indignantly. She glared at him, though she wasn't really upset. James laughed and said, "Gugglefish!" loudly, jolting the fat lady awake. The portrait swung open, and the two of them entered the common room.
"Well, I guess this is it," James said in a dramatic voice. She slugged him playfully in the shoulder.
"Nice cleaning with you," Lily said, and with a smile, headed towards her dormitory stairs.
"See you," James called after her. Lily waved her hand over her head in response, not bothering to turn around. Though James didn't know it, Lily'd soon be whispering to Susana and Cass about what a great night she'd just spent in detention.
James climbed the stairs slowly, reaching his dormitory almost five minutes later. He opened the door gently, trying not to wake anyone. He didn't feel like banging it open and messing with them right now, he was thinking about something very hardly.
"Have fun?" Sirius's voice said quietly from where he lay in bed, startling James and sending him feet into the air.
"Er, yeah, actually," James said, climbing into bed. "Dead-tired though. Goodnight."
Drawing the bed curtains around him, he wondered just exactly what Sirius would say if James told him what was on his mind. He'd probably freak. But no matter what anyone did, even Sirius, James's best friend, would change what had happened.
James Potter had a huge crush on Lily Evans.
A/N: You like???????? Take a second and review if u do, ill try to hurry on with more chapters!!! I plan on having some problems for james and lily (what with victoria and other things) but we all know how it ends up :^) cuz look at the title (With or Without You) hmm WHAT COULD THIS MEAN? But itll be happy in the end.so review and keep readin!!
James was extremely unhappy and bored out of his mind. He was sitting in a dungeon with Filch, cleaning out old cauldrons. With sponges, mind you. Muggle-style.
James looked around the room. It was so unbelievably dark and damp down here. He was surprised that the Slytherins could stand LIVING here. He supposed that it must at least be a bit drier in their house. Or maybe they just got used to it. Then again, they were all a bit cold and slimy themselves, so they probably fit right in. Examples, Severus Snape and Lucious Malfoy.
James was just thinking this, scrubbing his first cauldron out of twenty for the third time, when the door opened. He'd expected Professor Whettle, the Slytherin head, or maybe Filch's cat coming in to visit his master. Come to think of it, Filch was a bit cold and wet, too, just like this dungeon. Perhaps he would have been a Slytherin, had he not been a squib. James sniggered under his breath.
The person who walked in a moment later was not Mrs. Norris. It was the last person James would have expected to see in detention, and he almost dropped his scouring sponge in surprise.
"Lily Evans?" Filch asked.
"Yeah, that's right," Lily responded, not bothering to show Filch any respect. James gave her props for that, Filch didn't deserve it, really.
"You're to help Potter here clean out these cauldrons," he sneered, glaring at her. "Until they are SPARKLING clean. Mr. Potter has been working on this one for at least twenty minutes, so I suggest you get started."
Lily rolled her eyes and settled herself at the cauldron next to James, pulling a rough-looking sponge from a bucket next to him.
"'Lo, James," Lily said quietly but cheerfully, talking so that Filch couldn't hear her. He was sitting on the other side of the room, polishing with looked like a very old string of chains.
"Hi, Lily," James greeted her. He silently tried to remember the last time they'd talked. Second year, maybe? He couldn't put his finger on it.
"Been here awhile, eh?" she asked, making small talk. James Potter may be famous school-wide, but she wasn't going to sit here with her mouth shut for hours just because she was on a different social level than him.
"Mm," he agreed. "Half an hour, at the least. Don't know what he's talking about 'twenty minutes.' Trying to make us stay a bit longer, I suppose." Lily sort-of laughed, and they fell into silence for a moment while they scrubbed at the cauldrons.
"What in the name of cleensweeps is on these things?" Lily asked, scrubbing hard on one side of the grime-covered cauldron and making no progress.
"No idea," James said, still scrubbing the inside of his. He'd managed to get most of the outside to it's regular color, but it hadn't been easy.
"Ah, well," Lily said, giving in and scrubbing anyway. Silence.
"So what are you in for?" James asked a few moments later, rinsing his sponge in the bucket.
"Talking back to Professor Esmerelda," Lily said with a joyful tone. "She deserved it though, I told her off good."
James couldn't help but laugh at this. He hated Divination, and told Lily so.
"So do I," Lily agreed, finally cleaning off a bit of the cauldron. "Cassandra and I made a game out of seeing who can cause the most trouble in her class. Never works that well though, what with you, Remus, Sirius, and Peter having teacup fights and such." James grinned.
"Yeah, we figure there are better things to do than stare at the grime in the bottom of a teacup," James said. Lily smiled, and said, "yeah, like cleaning the grime out of the bottom of a cauldron." James laughed a bit, then said, "So what'd she do to piss you off?"
"Eh, gave me an F on a quiz. Funny thing is though, it's the lowest grade I've ever gotten in her class, and the only time I've actually tried." The two of them looked at each other and burst into a fit of laughter. Filch looked up from his chains and glared at them until they quieted down.
"Sounds a bit like me. I get great grades in everything except that class," James said, finishing up his first cauldron and moving to the one on the other side of Lily. She talked while he moved, saying, "Yeah, me too. Cass keeps expecting me to be head girl, but I don't think so, not with Saraphine teaching divination." James snickered and said, "Yeah, Remus says the same thing. I think he's just a bit jealous though, he's a great student but no one really notices."
Lily wanted to say something about James only being noticed because of Quidditch, but she held her tongue. Instead, she just nodded, as if to say, "that's too bad."
"So," Lily continued on. "What did YOU do to get in here?"
"I uh, caused a bit of trouble with the Slytherins," James said mysteriously.
"Oh, come on! Please tell," Lily begged. "Especially if it involved that awful Lucious Malfoy."
"Oh, it does," James reassured her, though he still didn't say what he'd done. He looked up and grinned at her, and she threw her sponge at him, giggling. "Out with it, then!"
"Alright," he agreed, sounding reluctant. Though, in real life, he was having fun talking to Lily. "We lit off a bunch of Fillibuster Fireworks in the Sixth Year dormitory a few days ago," James said with an air of pride. Lily dropped her sponge and burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles and laughter. James smiled and then couldn't help himself, he laughed too.
"Get back to work!" Filch snapped from across the room. They slowed their giggles a bit and scrubbed again.
"I hate Malfoy," Lily commented a few minutes later, when all was quiet again. "He thinks he's a horribly great Quidditch player, and he looks as though he can barely fly."
"Yeah, but Snape's worse," James said, looking at Lily. "The slimy git tried to get me suspended in my third year. Said I was sneaking about the grounds outside."
"Were you?" Lily asked, and she, too, stopped scrubbing. Looking up at James, she eyed him suspiciously.
"Yeah, but that's not important," James said, waving his hand in the air dismisivly. "To make a long story short, I got out of it by telling Dumbledore I'd gone out to pick up some work I'd left at Hagrid's the night before." He grinned at Lily and she smiled back. They sat there, looking at each other and grinning, for a few moments, until Filch's voice rang out from the back of the room. They sighed and got back to scrubbing. By now, they'd finished three cauldrons, and Lily was almost done with the fourth.
"So, what're you planning on for Christmas break?" James asked Lily a few minutes later. "Going home with the family?"
"Nah," Lily said, scrubbing at a particularly green spot on her third cauldron. "I'm sure my folks would like it, but I can't stand my older sister. She thinks she's so great, and that I'm this huge freak."
"Ah," James said, thinking this over. "How come?"
"I'm a Muggle-born," Lily said matter-of-factly. She gave James a look, as if challenging him to say something about it.
"That's cool," he said, still scrubbing. "I think it's dumb, really, when people say Muggle-borns are.not sufficient witches." He looked up at her and she quickly looked back down at her cauldron.
"Thanks," she said finally. "So what are you doing for break?"
"Definatly staying here. No way am I missing a chance to cause trouble with the m- my friends," James said, grinning. Lily smiled.
"The who?"
"My friends," James repeated, giving her an innocent look. She shrugged. "Whatever."
"Yeah." The two of them finished up their cauldrons, leaving seven done and thirteen to go. This wasn't nearly as bad as James thought it would have been. Lily was really great, he'd forgotton what a nice person she was. She simply wasn't popular enough to have hung out with him all these years.
At this thought, he cringed, realizing how stuck-up that sounded.
"What?" Lily asked. She's seen him flinch.
"Nothing," James said, keeping his head down and scrubbing. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized it was probably true. He needed a second opinion.
"Er, Lily?"
"Yeah?" she asked, still scrubbing. She was getting good at this.
"D'you.d'you think maybe my. large group of friends has gone to my head?"
"What, your popularity?" she asked, dropping her sponge into the bucket and wiping her hands on her robes.
"Yeah," James nodded. "Well?"
"Do you want the truth or a lie?"
"The truth!"
Lily grinned, then her face softened and she replied, "Well, maybe just a bit. After all, you haven't talked to me for, what- four years?"
James thought about taking offense to what she'd said, then changed his mind. Instead, he moved on to the next cauldron.
Lily scoured her cauldron, not paying attention to the pain in her arm from all that scrubbing. So James thought maybe he was a bit of an air-head? She wasn't saying he wasn't but-
"James."
"Yeah?"
"Don't take that the wrong way. You're still a great guy."
James looked up at her. Lily stopped working and looked at him too.
"Yeah, right," he said, "We haven't talked in forever. How would you know?"
"Well, let's see. You're nice, you're smart, though not smarter than me [he laughed], and you're handsome. You're a great Quidditch player and you're hilliariously funny. I mean really, really funny," Lily listed. Then, realizing all of what she'd just said, she blushed a crimson red and looked back down into her cauldron. Was it possible that she might have a crush on James Potter?
Grinning to himself, James shifted his eyes back to his cauldron. He scrubbed as Lily moved to the other side of him, toting the bucket with her. She was definatly a very flattering person, but that was just one of her many features that James found were growing quickly on him.
"So, Lil," he said, changing the subject. "What're you planning on doing after Hogwarts?"
"Mm, I'm not quite sure," Lily responded. "I was thinking maybe something with Arithmancy, it's my favorite subject. Or maybe something to do with Muggles, since I was raised by them. What about you?"
"Quidditch. Or maybe something in the ministry," James said after a moment's thought.
"Or both," Lily suggested. James nodded, that wouldn't be too bad. Then at least he could get his dad off of his back. He seemed to be forever telling James that Quidditch was a sport, not a real profession. //That'd work// he thought as he moved to the next cauldron. They didn't have that many more to go, he noticed. Time was flying by while he talked to Lily.
Lily quietly cleaned her cauldron, thinking about life after Hogwarts. It was a good question, now that she thought about it. She was definatly bright enough to do some good work, but none of that office-type stuff really interested her. She was more of an activist.
"Hey Lil?"
"Yeah?" Lily snapped out of her trance.
"What do you suppose is gonna happen with all of this Voldemort stuff?"
"I'm not really sure," Lily said. "He's definatly a terrible man, I'm terrified to be anywhere outside of the school. Even Hogsmede."
"Especially Hogsmede," James agreed. "Maybe I'll become an auror, and fight him,"
"That'd be good," Lily said. That didn't sound like a bad idea, come to think of it. "Susana Longbottom's brother Frank is planning on being one, he's a few years older. She says he has to work really hard, but I think it'd be worth it, don't you?"
"Yeah," James said. This idea was sounding better and better, though it wasn't really James's thing. He usually either joked around or studied hard. None of this hands-on stuff. But he felt like impressing Lily.
Not that he needed to, of course. Part of his popularity was that he never tried to impress anyone, he just DID. This was strange, feeling like he had to prove something to Lily. She felt like an equal to him.
"Done," she said triumphantly, and moved to the other side of James. Glancing around for Filch, she saw him snoozing in the back of the room, a pile of sparkling, well-oiled chains dangling from his hands. Lily looked down; there were only a few cauldrons left.
"James," Lily whispered, nodding at Filch. He glanced at Filch and looked back at Lily, grinning.
"What d'you say we spell these others clean and skip out?" Lily asked, eyes sparkling.
"I like the way you think," he commented, pulling out his wand in unison with her. "An Appulatus charm?"
"Yes, I think so," Lily nodded.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!" they said together, then, "Appulate!" A flash of a watery-colored light burst from the ends of their wands and poured over the cauldrons. In a moment, they were glinting in the candlelight.
"Race you to the tower," James challenged Lily, shoving his wand back in his pocket.
"On three," Lily said, following suit and putting her wand away.
"One, two-Hey!" James yelled as Lily took off ahead of him, laughing madly, red hair streaming behind her. James ran.
Of course, he beat her. Being a Marauder, he knew far more secret passages than she. James was waiting by the portrait of the fat lady (who was snoring loudly) when Lily arrived, panting hard.
"You-dirty-cheater," she managed to get out between taking deep breaths.
"I'm offended you would ever suggest such a thing!" James protested mock- indignantly. She glared at him, though she wasn't really upset. James laughed and said, "Gugglefish!" loudly, jolting the fat lady awake. The portrait swung open, and the two of them entered the common room.
"Well, I guess this is it," James said in a dramatic voice. She slugged him playfully in the shoulder.
"Nice cleaning with you," Lily said, and with a smile, headed towards her dormitory stairs.
"See you," James called after her. Lily waved her hand over her head in response, not bothering to turn around. Though James didn't know it, Lily'd soon be whispering to Susana and Cass about what a great night she'd just spent in detention.
James climbed the stairs slowly, reaching his dormitory almost five minutes later. He opened the door gently, trying not to wake anyone. He didn't feel like banging it open and messing with them right now, he was thinking about something very hardly.
"Have fun?" Sirius's voice said quietly from where he lay in bed, startling James and sending him feet into the air.
"Er, yeah, actually," James said, climbing into bed. "Dead-tired though. Goodnight."
Drawing the bed curtains around him, he wondered just exactly what Sirius would say if James told him what was on his mind. He'd probably freak. But no matter what anyone did, even Sirius, James's best friend, would change what had happened.
James Potter had a huge crush on Lily Evans.
A/N: You like???????? Take a second and review if u do, ill try to hurry on with more chapters!!! I plan on having some problems for james and lily (what with victoria and other things) but we all know how it ends up :^) cuz look at the title (With or Without You) hmm WHAT COULD THIS MEAN? But itll be happy in the end.so review and keep readin!!