2

The next morning found Lily Evans eating a bowl of oatmeal at the Gyrffindor table in the dining room. Next to her sat her friends Arabella Figg (Belle) and Eva Thompson. Arabella was on the Quidditch team with James. She was a Keeper, he was a Chaser and the team captain. She waved at him as he sat down, and Lily looked over. Immediately three girls from Gyrffindor and a couple of Ravenclaw girls moved to sit next to or around him. There was a game Saturday; the whole school was quite excited.

"You know, Lily," said Belle through a mouthful of cornflakes, "I hear it's between you and James this year for top grades for our class. No one else can catch up with you two by now, it looks like you'll have to fight it out."

Eva followed Lily's gaze to the throng of James's admirers. "Yeah Lily, and I hear James is really advanced in Transfiguration, you may actually have competition," she said.

Lily looked at the two and then laughed. "Potter? You really think that I'd lose to Potter?" Lily scoffed. She knew he was all show, the only things Lily ever saw him do were tricks and flirt with countless girls.

"You have to admit he is better than you in Transfiguration - remember that time he turned your book into a big log?" Belle suggested.

"Yes, and I didn't find it particularly impressive," Lily said as she shot an angry glance at the culprit down the table. James watched Remus spoon a stackfull of pancakes onto his plate, laughed and shook his head. He was tall, with messy black hair and grey eyes. In class he wore glasses for reading, but now he wore them more and more often.

"Look, James Potter may be the captain of the Quidditch team and a bit influential with the student body, and ok, he may be good at transfiguration. But I'll have you know that he is as overrated as he is conceited and I will take immense pleasure in watching him lose," she asserted.

Eva smiled. Lily was a kind person and well liked, but she had a fiery temper. She had never met anyone else who successfully mastered the combination of being logical and blindly passionate at the same time. And then there was Arabella, who was delighted at the possibility of seeing Lily succeed in defeating James - he had been holding some particularly hard Quidditch practices lately.

"He's a slave driver Lily. Turn his bookbag into a duck," Belle suggested.

"No, no Lily, don't listen to her," Ava said as she gave Belle a shove, "You two are really alike in a creepy way - "

"Very funny, as if I actually like the Every Flavor Beans that taste like Furniture Polish - and date practically the entire Hogwarts female student body, oh, and leave my dirty socks in the common room," Lily recounted.

"Actually I think that was Peter," said Belle absentmindedly.

"Why?"

"His mom writes his name on them." Belle started laughing.

Eva sighed. "Anyways, as I was saying, be careful Lily. James Potter may not be such a pushover," she warned.

"Oh Eva." Lily smoothed her friend's hair. "Don't worry about me, it's all in good fun." But she had a mischievous glint in her eye.

"I suppose that evil look you have would have nothing to do with the fact we have dueling club on Friday, right?" asked Eva.

"No," exclaimed Lily in a mockingly horrified tone. "What kind of person do you take me for Eva?" She shook her head and walked away, trailing off with, "Can't believe it - me? No - "

* * * * * * *

Alice Rowley was giggling at whatever James said. He had just asked Remus to pass the orange juice and she was thrown into a fit of laughter. Remus gave James the sympathy look and continued eating his pancakes. Across the room he saw Evans get up and start to walk of the dining room, laughing. Just looking at her started a fire in his stomach, the annoyance he felt waning last night came back full force. Sirius caught his eye, looked towards Lily. Seeing her as she went for the door he waved and caught her attention. She smiled and waved back.

"Hi Lily!" he screamed across the room. She yelled back.

"Hi Sirius!" she shouted. James hit him on the shoulder.

"What are you doing??" James demanded.

"Saying hi to Lily," Sirius explained with a big grin on his face. James was upset, Sirius was amused. James suddenly understood.

"Oh just you wait for dueling club Black," he challenged.

"I will destroy you Potter," mumbled Sirius while eating his eggs, obviously unafraid.

* * * * * * *

Divination. Not the most popular class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy, however, as most seven years need electives to take, a large portion of the oldest Gryffindor year was gathered in Madame Trelawny's Tower.

Delighted that it made James uncomfortable, Sirius and Lily had partnered up for the day, Belle and Eva were together, James was with a HufflePuff girl and Remus was missing, having opted for an independent study in Defense Against the Dark Arts instead. As was the common practice, the students were concocting several categories of predictions for each other that pleased Madame Trelawny: the others untimely death, the death of each other's family members and or family pet, and the weather.

"Ahhh I see," said Sirius.

"What, what?" cried Lily in fake anticipation. Sirius raised one eyebrow and stared the crystal ball.

"It's going to be sunny on Thursday," he concluded.

"Oh," replied Lily, "and I see here that your Aunt Mildred will be overrun by a herd of buffalo. Sad, sad death."

"I don't think we have any buffalo," chimed in Eva. But she was soon quieted by Madame Trelawny, who was trying to get the attention of the class.

"Class we are going to continue to do predictions, however we are going to add another element into our technique. I see you have chosen your own partners, however I will be pairing each of you with another student whom I feel has similar or complementary energy to your own. You will be working with your new partner for the next few weeks until we conclude our unit on predictions and prophecies," the professor explained.

It was commonly known and joked about on campus that Trelawny may possibly have a few screws loose. James looked at Sirius, who was moving quite close to the Hufflepuff girl next to him, asking in a deep voice if perhaps they shared the same "energy." Belle started examining her nails, Eva counted the tiles on the ceiling. Trelawny looked them all over one by one. Slowly she began to pair them. Eva got stuck with a HufflePuff boy and somehow Belle and Sirius ended up together.

Immediately they began to hover over the ball, making big motions with their hands. Belle put on a bandana and squinted her eyes. Pair after pair, eventually all that was left was Lily, James, his Hufflepuff partner (whose name Lily thought may have been Ann), and Peter, who walked into class late.

James looked at Peter and the other girl, confident that the Professor would place him with one of those two people. There is no way that Trelawny, as loopy as she was, would make the mistake of putting himself and Evans together.

"Ah. This is easy. Lily and James - Peter and Angela (An-gela Lily thought.)" But neither Lily or James said a word. Fuming, both moved and sat at their table with their ball. Lily's arms were crossed, James faced the other way.

"Alright class, continue on," instructed Trelawny. Lily looked at James.

"Go ahead," she said.

"Fine," said James, looking at the ball. He could think of nothing to say to Lily, just sitting across from her was punishment.Then he came to a realization, and changed his expression. "Hmmm - interesting Evans. Very interesting."

Lily turned and looked at him. "What?" she asked with suspicious eyes.

"Very interesting," continued James.

"What? Tell me."

"Well, besides the fact it's going to rain on Saturday.I see a tragedy occurring," he explained. Lily looked somewhat interested, so he continued. "I see - I see - wait - here it is. It's you, but you have blue hair - and you're running around screaming like a banshee, my, that's definitely not your color - "

Lily remembered when James had turned her hair blue. "Oh really?" she asked.

"Yes, yes," said James. "Oh and it looks as if your pet hamster has met his demise. I'll spare you the details, but, oh poor Randolf - "

Lily was angry. She knew she had looked quite bad with that blue hair, it had taken a week to get it out with every spell she could think of. In addition, she wasn't going to give James the satisfaction of telling him that she in fact had a pet hamster at home, although he was not dead and she certainly did not name him Randolf.

"James, wait, wait, I think I see something here too."

"You do?" he replied, not used to hearing her call him James.

"Yes," Lily said sweetly. She smiled and looked again into the ball. "Yep, here it is. James, I see your death."

There was a pause. "Is that right," he said.

"Yes, I see it but I have to figure out what happened. It was.It was a heart attack. Yes a heart attack. But how could that have happened at such a young age? Hmmm - let's see - I wasn't stress from studying, that's for sure," Lily paused, looked a James, and laughed for a moment. "Let's see, it's not Quidditch," she paused and squinted at the ball. "Oh yes, it's right here. I see you under a cloak of sorts, sneaking out at night to meet one of your many, many lady friends. Heading off towards the Astronomy Tower, yes. Past Filtch and Mrs. Norris, but what's this? There's so many girls you're snogging that you can't keep track; panic, and have a heart attack? That is so sad James. So sad."

James glared at her through a barely veiled hate. "You think that I'm out at night meeting girls?"

Lily laughed. "And when I use a plural I mean plural - "

"You - " said James, his voice almost shaking, "Have no idea what I am doing out at night nor would someone as selfish and arrogant as you ever understand. And what right do you have to criticize me anyways? You were wandering around too if you haven't forgotten - "

"Have I hit a soft spot James?" asked Lily in an innocent voice. "And I am sure that my reasons for being in the hall may have some kind of moral superiority to your make out fest with the entire sixth year population," she shot back. "Besides, why do you even care? I'm not talking about Quidditch or women so why do you even give a damn?"

"You're just jealous," James said quietly.

"Me?? Jealous? Oh James, you're so mixed up its pathetic. Tell me, what is it about me that bothers you the most, the fact that I find you completely devoid of charm or the fact that I see though the shiny exterior that most girls throw themselves at?" Lily replied.

She found herself leaning over the table on her elbows as her voice became elevated. James saw her eyes blazing. He was not going to back down. He too leaned across the table inches from her face and spoke in a soft but heated voice. Lily saw it in his eyes as well, the gray color seem to cloud over into a charcoal black.

"First of all you don't know what you're talking about. Secondly, you're jealous that there are people that want to be with me, and perhaps you can't say the same. And lastly, I saved you the other night. You know what I mean. You're pretty ungrateful Evans, you know that?"

"You grab me out of a shadowy corner and you want me to thank you? I skulk around with you under a blanket, you pick me up and carry me wherever you want and I'm supposed to thank you?" Lily's fist clenched. "You probably weren't worried about me James, you were probably worried about losing house points." Lily saw a flash of guilt in the grey eyes. "I'm right aren't I?"

James quickly hid his emotion. "Maybe I should have just left you alone after all."

He was so furious; he felt his face must burn red. As red as her dark red hair, he silently cursed Lily Evans. Lily with those eyes, that tongue that cut him much too deep, oh how he hated her. He hated her and he couldn't help but hate himself because he couldn't stop looking at her - couldn't get up and walk away from her and way she smelled like - raspberries.

Catching himself considering what exactly Lily's hair smelled like, he leaned back into his chair. "I really would prefer to end this conversation," he told her. He glared sullenly into the ball, seeing nothing about Lily's blue hair, or his death.

Lily looked at him, confused, then sat down in her own chair. From the next table over, Sirius and Belle were frozen, looking at the two as if a massacre had just occurred. Sirius had somehow procured giant fake silver hoop earrings. They dangled as he stared at Lily, then James, then Lily, then Belle.

"Oh dear," was all Belle could manage.