UNTIL I FOUND YOU


Disclaimer/AN: Hello guys! All credits to the author, J.K. Rowling. I own none of the characters, nor the plot. This is simply my take on how James and Lily's relationship happened, as well as my take on the tale of the Marauders, during their Hogwarts years. I hope you all enjoy! Please leave a review, letting me know how I've done, if you've got the time :)


Chapter one: Disturbances (Hogwarts, 1975)

"Nice one, James!"

James Potter smirked as the tiny green bird sitting on the table in front of him turned into a beautiful, emerald green quill. He grabbed it and placed it in between his thumb and index finger and held it into the air with pride, showing off his great skills at transfiguration. His eyes met Sirius', who was sitting a few rows in front of him. Sirius' winked. Under any other given circumstances, they would have been sitting next to each other. Remus and Peter too would have placed themselves in the seats behind them. Not today, though; Professor McGonagall had taken the right to decide the students seats, due to as she had stated, certain recurring disturbances of the teaching.

Now, where on Earth could she had gotten this mad idea from?

"Right, Sirius? I think the little guy fits far better as a quill rather than a bird. He just wouldn't keep quiet before with his little peeps. How many years in Azkaban do you recon one would get for permanently turning greasy Snivellus into a bar of soap to make him shut up for once?"

The class burst into laughter. Just the thought alone of a depressed, thin black bar of soap tossed in the corner of the bathroom floor made James crackle.

"It's you who doesn't shut up, you ..." Snivellus obviously wasn't a fan of the idea, though.

"That's enough, Potter!" McGonagall shouted. Everyone went quiet, except for him and Sirius who were still laughing out loud. James noticed out of the corner of the eye that Remus desperately tried to cover his mouth with his hands. "That's enough from your part. I will not tolerate any more of your disturbances in my class. After all, you and Black are the reason why we are sitting, almost halfway though fifth year and still focusing on simple animal transfiguration spells! For Merlin's sake, are you not worried about your O.W.L's?"

"Well, you see, Professor," Sirius said, levitating himself from his chair to the edge of the table, "no, actually we are not worried whatsoever. I mean just look at how well I turned my mouse into a pencil case and how well James turned his bird into a quill. Now, just imagine the greatness that would lie at our feet if only you were to let us borrow Sniv - I mean, Snape for just a couple of hours ..."

"Enough, both of you!" At this point James was starting to feel just a tiny bit bad. She looked disappointed. "Out. Now. Both of you. Don't come back into my class until you have learned basic manures. And I wish to see you both in my office tonight, seven p.m. for detention!"

Complete silence filled the room now. "Yes, professor," Sirius mumbled. James nodded in comprehensibility. He held onto the quill in his hand and grabbed his wand and school bag. Although he had been disappointed when he had walked into the classroom earlier and failed to spot his favorite redhead on the planet, he had to admit that he was rather thrilled that she was not there to witness this. Usually, he was the last person to ever give a damn about what others thought of him. There was something about those almond shaped eyes, though, that seemed to make him no less than absolutely weak.

"Well," Sirius said with a tone of excitement as he shut the door behind them, "that went brilliant, don't you think?"

"Brilliant?"

"Yes, brilliant! That was our last subject for today, meaning that we're now free to do whatever we want. How about we scare off some first years with some of the mandrakes from Greenhouse Three?"

James chuckled once again. Sirius looked at him with a smile that measured from ear to ear. He practically looked like he was ready to conquer the world. That was one of the qualities James liked the most about him; nothing in the whole wide world ever seemed to be able to tear him down or ruin his joyful mood.

"Nah, mate," James finally said after careful consideration. "Perhaps we should take it a bit easy, just until after detention tonight at least. Then we can always go wild. I mean, we can always just get another one tomorrow, right?"

Sirius rolled his eyes far back in his head. "Fine," he sighed. "Since when did you become such a wuss?"

"Careful with your words, Black." James hit his friend hard on the neck with his pencil case.

"AUCH!"

"Lucky for you that you have those long and curly locks, they took some of the impact for you. Now, I wanted to ask you before, have you seen Evans? I haven't seen her since breakfast."

If James thought that Sirius had rolled his eyes far back into his head before, he had been severely wrong. "Blimey ... I should have known, I should have known ..."

"What do you mean?"

"C'mon, James, don't be a twat. That girl's on your mind twenty four seven! Everything reminds you of her, from that bloody bird from Transfiguration to my luscious locks." He dramatically flipped his hair back and fourth.

James aimed the pencil case once again, ready for round two, but Sirius had learned from last and was quick to move this time. "Look, you're making this into a much bigger thing than it needs to be! Yes, I may be interested in her, but you know me. It's not like I'm gonna propose to her in the middle of the Great Hall. I'm just gonna play it cool and ... see what happens, you know? Like I always do." He swallowed a bit hard.

Sirius seemed to have noticed. To James' surprise, he chose to not dig any further. "All right, mate, you just do your thing. You're James Potter, for Merlin's sake! The fittest of them all, well, expect for me of course, and the fastest and greatest seeker Hogwarts has seen in at least this century! She will fall for you in no time, I just know it." The smile from ear to ear was back on Sirius' face and it rubbed off on James too.

"Now," Sirius said, grabbing James by the shoulder while dragging him towards the end of the corridor, "what mischief do you think you and I can get away with without getting caught, before seven p.m.?"


"For the last time," Remus stated with a tone that reminded James of McGonagall's, "we don't target first year's just because they're Slytherins, do we boys?"

"Remus, Remus, my dear friend Remus," James said as he threw himself down in the chair. His abdominal muscles hurt from having just laughed so hard. "Of course we do! What would life be without a little fun, yeah?"

"Took the words straight out of my mouth, my friend!" Sirius agreed. Peter giggled. "They probably had it coming it anyhow, Remus," he managed to get out in between short breaths.

"Besides, we didn't do anything too out of line, did we Sirius ... Spectacular how much entertainment one can get from a simple levitation spell and my old man's cloak ... Did you see the way they were just floating around, having no idea what had just hit them ..."

"Shhh!" Madam Pince appeared between some of the bookshelves in front of them. "Keep - the noice - down! Otherwise I shall kick you out of this library myself!"

"Anything for you, darling," Sirius said while biting his lips and looking straight into her eyes.

"Sirius! Cut it off already!" Remus turned his entire body away from both of them. This time he wasn't just covering his mouth, but his whole face with his hands. "Bloody hell, here he goes ..."

This time James too had to cover up the massive grin on his face. Luckily for the four of them, madam Pince seemed to have chosen to ignore Sirius' inappropriate comment, as she walked away without any further actions. They all burst into another hard, yet this time strongly detained laughter. There was no reason to furthermore challenge fate.

As James took his glasses off to wipe his face, something from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Something he had been missing all day. Something, no, someone with flaming red, absolutely breathtaking, wavy long hair.

"Evans! Evans, over here!" Before he was able to control himself, he raised his hand and waved at her like a maniac. He heard Sirius trying to detain himself from bursting into laughter once again, but James couldn't care less about any of his friends' mockeries at this point.

Lily Evans barely even turned her head to look at him and walked past him, flat out ignoring him.

"Auch," Remus said quietly. "She's even colder to you than usual. Normally she'd at least have given you a look of absolute disgust, but this time, not even that ..."

James' hand was still hangin in the air. Remus was right. At first, it felt like she might as well just have stabbed him in the heart and twisted the knife, but then he thought ... something was wrong. Why hadn't she attended any of her classes today? She clearly wasn't ill, otherwise she wouldn't have left her bed to go to the library, no, she had friends who without a doubt would have picked up some books for her. Lily Evans doesn't skip school, not just like that. Not only because it would make her look bad amongst the teachers; her pure conscience simply just wouldn't let her. He knew that for certain ... In conclusion, something clearly must've been very wrong with her.

Without thinking twice, he got up and followed her. He ignored his friends desperate attempts at trying to make him stay and kept his eye on the price. She hadn't gotten too much of a head start.

"Evans," he called once again. "Wait up!"

"Go away, Potter!"

He finally managed to catch up with her. Her voice cracked as she frankly spat out his name. He grabbed her arm, placing himself right in front of her. He had followed her all the way out of the library, into one of the corridors. She starred intensely at her feet.

"Is everything all right? It's just ..." James found himself stumbling for words. Something he wasn't used to; he always knew exactly what to say. "I noticed you weren't in any of your classes today and I-"

She raised her head to meet his eyes. He could have sworn he physically heard his heart break into a million pieces right then and there. Her eyes were red, flooded with tears that fell one after another onto her cheeks. Her gorgeous emerald green eyes that were always full of life.

"Just leave me alone. Please." She tried to escape his grip and once again looked down at her feet. But he wasn't about to let her go, not just like that.

"Lily," he said in a quiet, soft voice. "Lily, what's wrong? Tell me, please."

She wiped away her tears, still refusing to look at him. "Are you happy now?" she whispered. "You got what you wanted, right, this was what you wanted along, to be right about him ..."

James had never felt more lost in his life, not even in Potions class. He tucked down his sweater around his hand and gently wiped yet another one of her tears away. "Lily, what are you on about? Right about who?"

"Do not play dumb with me. Severus of course, who else? I'm sure that by now everybody has heard about how he humiliated me in front of the entire school. That arsehole." Her voice broke again. James felt his blood freeze. A muscle clenched in his jaw and the one hand that wasn't still holding onto her arm, tightened into a fist. Anger, no, rage filled his body from head to toe.

Her body began to shake as she tried to detain her cries. His anger towards Snape was quickly replaced by pity towards Lily and his eyes softened. Without thinking, almost instinctively, he grabbed her and held her tight in his arms, rubbing her hair and back. She gave in and let it all out, burying her head in his chest.

"What did he do, Lily," James whispered carefully. "I swear to God, if he even as much as put a finger on you..."

"No," she said in between sobs, "he didn't hit me. What he did was worse."

"What?" James raised his hands and held her head, forcing her to meet his gaze. "Just tell me, Lily. What did he do."

Her eyes filled with pain. "He called me a Mudblood, James. A Mudblood."