Lily and James stayed the good friends they had become, even through the
summer when they were unable to see each other. When James arrived at
Hogwarts, he was anxious to begin the new year. Because students could not
do magic outside of school, he had to go an entire 3 months without as much
as a flick of his wand. James was especially excited that year due to the
fact that second years were allowed to try out for the Quidditch teams, and
James was particularly interested in becoming the new Seeker for the
Gryffindor team, owing to the fact that last year's Seeker had graduated
from Hogwarts. He felt he had a fairly good chance; he had been working on
his reflexes all summer with golf balls his dad had enchanted for him. They
were enchanted to fly around sneakily, much like the Snitch and James had
become exceptionally good at catching them.
Finally the day of the Quidditch tryouts arrived, and James couldn't have felt more confident. When he arrived at the Quidditch pitch, the rest of the Gryffindor team was already there and up on their broomsticks. James leaped confidently onto his broomstick, the latest Cleansweep, which, at the time, was one of the best on the market. He kicked off and flew toward the captain.
"What do I have to do?" he asked eagerly.
"Well, we feel that since its Seeker you want to be, you need to catch the Snitch, and there will be Bludgers and everything else going on. We want you to catch it as quick as you can," explained Andrew Watley, one of Gryffindor's best Chasers, and captain.
James nodded in understanding, eager to show them his skills, and his eyes had a hopeful glint in them. Andrew set the Snitch off, and James watched the golden speck flitter out of sight. He chased after where he last saw it, and found it sitting by another Chaser's ear. He went full speed, and passed the Chaser so fast he almost knocked her off her broom. A few seconds later, he had the Snitch in hand, and was grinning from ear to ear.
Andrew came up, he too was grinning. "Congratulations!" he said. "Welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
James went back to Gryffindor Tower with a triumphant look plastered on his face. Sirius and Lupin jumped up at the sight of him, with looks of condolence on their faces. They obviously did not think he would make it. But when they saw James' grin, their faces changed into huge grins that did not need telling that he had made it.
The next few weeks went very well for James. His grades were as good as ever, even with the fact that he had Quidditch practice a lot. Because of his skills at being Seeker in Quidditch, James became a lot more popular with the girls, and because of this, all the guys wanted to know him. And, by association, Sirius, who the girls had already found handsome, seemed to be getting some extra attention as well. Lily, however, found this annoying, because although they had become friends, James was becoming more and more, well, egotistical. He sort of began to ignore her, enjoying the extra attention. He's brush her off when they had plans to meet to study or whatever the case may be. He was increasingly rude and had a hugely annoying habit of ruffling his hair. James also began to pick on people for seemingly no reason, which Lily found rude and immature. He seemed to take a particular joy out of picking on Severus Snape. They had disliked each other since after Christmas in their first year. Lily had no idea why, because she had gone home for Christmas. James had decided to stay with Sirius because Sirius couldn't bear to go home to his family-he despised them. All Lily knew was that now Severus seemed to be the main target of James' ridicule. James seemed to be oblivious as to how Lily was reacting to his newfound life. It seemed James did not find the need to talk to her because of his newfound popularity.
When James finally did decide to talk to her, she snapped at him.
"Hey Lily. How's it going?" he said in a cool voice.
"Oh, finally decided to come and talk to me, have you?" she spat.
"What do you mean?" he said, dumbfounded.
"Been ignoring me for weeks, didn't bother to tell me you'd made the Quidditch team... completely neglected me... arrogant..." random phrases spilled out of her mouth, and her face was red hot with anger.
James still did not seem to get it. "Oh, are you jealous? Is that it? Because I'm popular? And because other girls like me? Did you just want me all to yourself? Can't handle me having other friends because I'm the only one you've got?" he spat icily.
As soon as he said those words, he regretted them. If it was humanly possible, Lily would have had smoke coming out of her ears. All eyes in the common room were turned on them.
"How...dare...you!" she said slowly.
"Lily. I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean it!" James sputtered, but she never heard him.
She turned on her heel and walked up to the girls' dormitory without a word.
Part of James wanted to go up there after her, but he realized glumly that there was nothing he could do. He especially did not want to talk to Lily when she was so angry. Her face had been beet red! He'd wait till the morning... or maybe next week. He sighed and went to the boy's dormitory, face red with embarrassment. He felt as though people's starting eyes were burning into his face.
Over the next few weeks, James wanted to talk to Lily and try to apologize again, but she would only walk away from him without a word, and he didn't have a lot of time on his hands. The first Quidditch match was approaching, against Slytherin, and Andrew wanted them be completely ready for anything. He was obsessing over every detail, and had doubled their practice time. James tried to talk to Lily between classes, but she would turn around and somehow mysteriously disappear into the crowd of students. It was driving him insane, not being able to talk to her. Although they hadn't been friends for too long, he had a large, empty feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.
Lily felt she had reached the end of her rope. James, she had come to the realization, was an egotistical, arrogant jerk that could not- or would not- ever change. She wanted with all her heart to forgive him for his harsh words, but could not allow herself to make it that easy. She needed someone she could confide in, but she had spent most of her free time with James, and hardly knew anyone else. She decided she needed to get to know the Gyffindor girls in her year.
The day of the Quidditch match arrived, and James felt as though he would throw up at any moment, although there really wasn't anything for him to throw up; he had hardly touched his breakfast. Sirius and Remus came down to wish him good luck, and Sirius tried to cheer James up by making a crack about Snape, but to no avail. They went up to sit in the crowd, leaving James with the team. James had a nagging feeling that if he only had Lily's support, he would feel better. He shook the thought out of his head and walked shakily onto the field with the rest of the team. He was not feeling half as confident as he had at practices, and if he looked how he felt, his face would have been a rather nasty shade of green. As soon as he took off, his nervousness disappeared. This, he though, was where he belonged. He snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that he needed to be on the lookout for Snitches, and keep away from Bludgers. He roamed around the field aimlessly, and then, ten seconds later he saw it- hovering right above Snape's head. Great, he thought sarcastically, and sped toward where he had seen the flittering sparkle of gold.
Luckily for him, the Snitch flew away from Snape, and was now floating over the Gryffindor crowd's heads. He sped toward them and they all gasped and ducked, cautiously peeking over the side of the stands. He chased the Snitch back toward the Quidditch field, and over toward the goals Gryffindor was guarding. He looped in and out of the goals, and one spectacular dive later, he had the Snitch in hand, and was grinning from ear to ear.
People were still congratulating him days later, and the grin had not yet left his face. However, he was still feeling down; Lily would not talk to him. He was doing everything he could to make her forgive him, everything, he supposed, except what she wanted.
In the meantime, James had found the perfect outlet for all of his feelings- Severus Snape. The story that was going around behind why James and Snape hated each other was simple: just another Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. Only few people knew that was only the beginning. It was Christmas break, first year of school. James and Sirius were sitting in the Great Hall, playing a game of wizards chess. Snape walked in with a large smirk on his face, which was odd. Snape was never happy, he had no friends. James shrugged and he and Sirius went back to their game. Just then Professor McGonagall walked in.
"Hello Mr. Potter. Mr. Black." She said angrily.
They immediately knew something was up.
"We have a...er... source," she continued, "who says you two have been using this to get around after hours."
She held up James' invisibility cloak. James swallowed nervously, and gave a terrified glance towards Sirius. Snape stood up, smiling, and James and Sirius immediately knew who the 'source' was.
"However," she said, "since there is no substantial evidence to support that any mischief has been going on after hours lately, you may have this back, and I must ask you to leave it in your trunk."
James looked back at Snape and saw the smile disappear from his face. Professor McGonagall handed the silvery cloak to James and walked out of the Great Hall, without a backward glance.
James and Sirius turned to Snape, grinning. Snape's eyes widened and he headed for the doors of the Great Hall. James pulled out his wand, and Sirius followed suit. Snape, however, was ready for them. There were flashes of light, and the three lay on the floor, each with a different hex on them. James and Sirius knew that Snape had gotten the better of them; Snape had cast two spells in the time it had taken each of them to cast one.
They decided this was not going to happen again, and spent the rest of their Christmas vacation working on learning knew spells and hexes in an empty classroom. They also decided that they would have to try their spells out on someone, and who better than unsuspecting Snape. The only people who knew that story were James, Sirius, Snape, Remus, and Peter. Everyone else thought James and Sirius were just showing off. But they only saw one side of the story.
James found himself feeling particularly angry at Snape after remembering this encounter, and he had a pounding headache. He sat by the fire in the empty Gryffindor common room. Everyone else had already gone to bed, so his sat alone, drowning in his own thoughts, trying to think of ways to get Lily to befriend him again. Then it suddenly occurred to him- back at the train station at the end of last year, Lily's mom winked at her... she blushed!
"James, you're brilliant!" he congratulated himself in a soft whisper.
That's what it is, he thought to himself. It's that I never noticed her for anything more than a friend. That's what she wants, he thought to himself. Feeling better, he tiredly went up the stairs to the boy's dormitory, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
He awoke the next morning feeling happy, and a little apprehensive. How could he confront Lily about this, when he couldn't even get a word in before she walked away? He was walking between Potions and Herbology when he saw her. He opened his mouth to say something, but she turned and walked down an empty corridor.
He ran after her and shouted, "Lily, wait!"
She stopped and turned around, and said huffily, "What do you want?"
He said, slightly out of breath, "I think I've figured it out!"
She raised her eyebrow, obviously not understanding what he meant.
"I mean, why you're mad at me!"
She looked at him skeptically and replied, "Really? Then prove it."
"It's that I never noticed you, isn't it? You've liked me all this time and I never even thought about it. Well I do like you Lily, I always have... just never realized you felt the same way till last night, I was thinking about it..." he prattled on.
She looked taken aback.
"Honestly James, you are so...so.... arrogant!" she yelled a moment later.
James stopped talking.
He waited, and then said hesitantly, "What do you mean?"
"Did you ever stop to think," She said angrily, her face getting red again, "that it's not all about you?"
He had a look on his face that told her he had never even considered it.
"Yes, James, it's not about you. What a crazy idea!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Its that we were becoming really good friends, then you go and join the Quidditch team, didn't bother to tell me, and left me in the dust without a clue! And then, you have the nerve to accuse me of being jealous, well no James, I wasn't jealous. I was angry. You completely left me out of your life, and I thought we were friends."
"B-but we are friends, Lily," he stammered.
"Not anymore James! I refuse to be friends with someone who is so rude and arrogant and who just picks on people because they feel like it! I can't stand people like that, and I won't be making any exceptions for you, James Potter!" and with that, she turned and walked to Herbology, leaving James standing alone once more, looking defeated.
It seemed James had finally realized the he would never have Lily back, but this only made him want her back more. He had always gone for the hard to get girls, the challenges. He made a vow to himself that from this day forward, he would do anything to win Lily Evans over.
~End of 2nd year~
Finally the day of the Quidditch tryouts arrived, and James couldn't have felt more confident. When he arrived at the Quidditch pitch, the rest of the Gryffindor team was already there and up on their broomsticks. James leaped confidently onto his broomstick, the latest Cleansweep, which, at the time, was one of the best on the market. He kicked off and flew toward the captain.
"What do I have to do?" he asked eagerly.
"Well, we feel that since its Seeker you want to be, you need to catch the Snitch, and there will be Bludgers and everything else going on. We want you to catch it as quick as you can," explained Andrew Watley, one of Gryffindor's best Chasers, and captain.
James nodded in understanding, eager to show them his skills, and his eyes had a hopeful glint in them. Andrew set the Snitch off, and James watched the golden speck flitter out of sight. He chased after where he last saw it, and found it sitting by another Chaser's ear. He went full speed, and passed the Chaser so fast he almost knocked her off her broom. A few seconds later, he had the Snitch in hand, and was grinning from ear to ear.
Andrew came up, he too was grinning. "Congratulations!" he said. "Welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
James went back to Gryffindor Tower with a triumphant look plastered on his face. Sirius and Lupin jumped up at the sight of him, with looks of condolence on their faces. They obviously did not think he would make it. But when they saw James' grin, their faces changed into huge grins that did not need telling that he had made it.
The next few weeks went very well for James. His grades were as good as ever, even with the fact that he had Quidditch practice a lot. Because of his skills at being Seeker in Quidditch, James became a lot more popular with the girls, and because of this, all the guys wanted to know him. And, by association, Sirius, who the girls had already found handsome, seemed to be getting some extra attention as well. Lily, however, found this annoying, because although they had become friends, James was becoming more and more, well, egotistical. He sort of began to ignore her, enjoying the extra attention. He's brush her off when they had plans to meet to study or whatever the case may be. He was increasingly rude and had a hugely annoying habit of ruffling his hair. James also began to pick on people for seemingly no reason, which Lily found rude and immature. He seemed to take a particular joy out of picking on Severus Snape. They had disliked each other since after Christmas in their first year. Lily had no idea why, because she had gone home for Christmas. James had decided to stay with Sirius because Sirius couldn't bear to go home to his family-he despised them. All Lily knew was that now Severus seemed to be the main target of James' ridicule. James seemed to be oblivious as to how Lily was reacting to his newfound life. It seemed James did not find the need to talk to her because of his newfound popularity.
When James finally did decide to talk to her, she snapped at him.
"Hey Lily. How's it going?" he said in a cool voice.
"Oh, finally decided to come and talk to me, have you?" she spat.
"What do you mean?" he said, dumbfounded.
"Been ignoring me for weeks, didn't bother to tell me you'd made the Quidditch team... completely neglected me... arrogant..." random phrases spilled out of her mouth, and her face was red hot with anger.
James still did not seem to get it. "Oh, are you jealous? Is that it? Because I'm popular? And because other girls like me? Did you just want me all to yourself? Can't handle me having other friends because I'm the only one you've got?" he spat icily.
As soon as he said those words, he regretted them. If it was humanly possible, Lily would have had smoke coming out of her ears. All eyes in the common room were turned on them.
"How...dare...you!" she said slowly.
"Lily. I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean it!" James sputtered, but she never heard him.
She turned on her heel and walked up to the girls' dormitory without a word.
Part of James wanted to go up there after her, but he realized glumly that there was nothing he could do. He especially did not want to talk to Lily when she was so angry. Her face had been beet red! He'd wait till the morning... or maybe next week. He sighed and went to the boy's dormitory, face red with embarrassment. He felt as though people's starting eyes were burning into his face.
Over the next few weeks, James wanted to talk to Lily and try to apologize again, but she would only walk away from him without a word, and he didn't have a lot of time on his hands. The first Quidditch match was approaching, against Slytherin, and Andrew wanted them be completely ready for anything. He was obsessing over every detail, and had doubled their practice time. James tried to talk to Lily between classes, but she would turn around and somehow mysteriously disappear into the crowd of students. It was driving him insane, not being able to talk to her. Although they hadn't been friends for too long, he had a large, empty feeling deep in the pit of his stomach.
Lily felt she had reached the end of her rope. James, she had come to the realization, was an egotistical, arrogant jerk that could not- or would not- ever change. She wanted with all her heart to forgive him for his harsh words, but could not allow herself to make it that easy. She needed someone she could confide in, but she had spent most of her free time with James, and hardly knew anyone else. She decided she needed to get to know the Gyffindor girls in her year.
The day of the Quidditch match arrived, and James felt as though he would throw up at any moment, although there really wasn't anything for him to throw up; he had hardly touched his breakfast. Sirius and Remus came down to wish him good luck, and Sirius tried to cheer James up by making a crack about Snape, but to no avail. They went up to sit in the crowd, leaving James with the team. James had a nagging feeling that if he only had Lily's support, he would feel better. He shook the thought out of his head and walked shakily onto the field with the rest of the team. He was not feeling half as confident as he had at practices, and if he looked how he felt, his face would have been a rather nasty shade of green. As soon as he took off, his nervousness disappeared. This, he though, was where he belonged. He snapped out of his thoughts as he realized that he needed to be on the lookout for Snitches, and keep away from Bludgers. He roamed around the field aimlessly, and then, ten seconds later he saw it- hovering right above Snape's head. Great, he thought sarcastically, and sped toward where he had seen the flittering sparkle of gold.
Luckily for him, the Snitch flew away from Snape, and was now floating over the Gryffindor crowd's heads. He sped toward them and they all gasped and ducked, cautiously peeking over the side of the stands. He chased the Snitch back toward the Quidditch field, and over toward the goals Gryffindor was guarding. He looped in and out of the goals, and one spectacular dive later, he had the Snitch in hand, and was grinning from ear to ear.
People were still congratulating him days later, and the grin had not yet left his face. However, he was still feeling down; Lily would not talk to him. He was doing everything he could to make her forgive him, everything, he supposed, except what she wanted.
In the meantime, James had found the perfect outlet for all of his feelings- Severus Snape. The story that was going around behind why James and Snape hated each other was simple: just another Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry. Only few people knew that was only the beginning. It was Christmas break, first year of school. James and Sirius were sitting in the Great Hall, playing a game of wizards chess. Snape walked in with a large smirk on his face, which was odd. Snape was never happy, he had no friends. James shrugged and he and Sirius went back to their game. Just then Professor McGonagall walked in.
"Hello Mr. Potter. Mr. Black." She said angrily.
They immediately knew something was up.
"We have a...er... source," she continued, "who says you two have been using this to get around after hours."
She held up James' invisibility cloak. James swallowed nervously, and gave a terrified glance towards Sirius. Snape stood up, smiling, and James and Sirius immediately knew who the 'source' was.
"However," she said, "since there is no substantial evidence to support that any mischief has been going on after hours lately, you may have this back, and I must ask you to leave it in your trunk."
James looked back at Snape and saw the smile disappear from his face. Professor McGonagall handed the silvery cloak to James and walked out of the Great Hall, without a backward glance.
James and Sirius turned to Snape, grinning. Snape's eyes widened and he headed for the doors of the Great Hall. James pulled out his wand, and Sirius followed suit. Snape, however, was ready for them. There were flashes of light, and the three lay on the floor, each with a different hex on them. James and Sirius knew that Snape had gotten the better of them; Snape had cast two spells in the time it had taken each of them to cast one.
They decided this was not going to happen again, and spent the rest of their Christmas vacation working on learning knew spells and hexes in an empty classroom. They also decided that they would have to try their spells out on someone, and who better than unsuspecting Snape. The only people who knew that story were James, Sirius, Snape, Remus, and Peter. Everyone else thought James and Sirius were just showing off. But they only saw one side of the story.
James found himself feeling particularly angry at Snape after remembering this encounter, and he had a pounding headache. He sat by the fire in the empty Gryffindor common room. Everyone else had already gone to bed, so his sat alone, drowning in his own thoughts, trying to think of ways to get Lily to befriend him again. Then it suddenly occurred to him- back at the train station at the end of last year, Lily's mom winked at her... she blushed!
"James, you're brilliant!" he congratulated himself in a soft whisper.
That's what it is, he thought to himself. It's that I never noticed her for anything more than a friend. That's what she wants, he thought to himself. Feeling better, he tiredly went up the stairs to the boy's dormitory, and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
He awoke the next morning feeling happy, and a little apprehensive. How could he confront Lily about this, when he couldn't even get a word in before she walked away? He was walking between Potions and Herbology when he saw her. He opened his mouth to say something, but she turned and walked down an empty corridor.
He ran after her and shouted, "Lily, wait!"
She stopped and turned around, and said huffily, "What do you want?"
He said, slightly out of breath, "I think I've figured it out!"
She raised her eyebrow, obviously not understanding what he meant.
"I mean, why you're mad at me!"
She looked at him skeptically and replied, "Really? Then prove it."
"It's that I never noticed you, isn't it? You've liked me all this time and I never even thought about it. Well I do like you Lily, I always have... just never realized you felt the same way till last night, I was thinking about it..." he prattled on.
She looked taken aback.
"Honestly James, you are so...so.... arrogant!" she yelled a moment later.
James stopped talking.
He waited, and then said hesitantly, "What do you mean?"
"Did you ever stop to think," She said angrily, her face getting red again, "that it's not all about you?"
He had a look on his face that told her he had never even considered it.
"Yes, James, it's not about you. What a crazy idea!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Its that we were becoming really good friends, then you go and join the Quidditch team, didn't bother to tell me, and left me in the dust without a clue! And then, you have the nerve to accuse me of being jealous, well no James, I wasn't jealous. I was angry. You completely left me out of your life, and I thought we were friends."
"B-but we are friends, Lily," he stammered.
"Not anymore James! I refuse to be friends with someone who is so rude and arrogant and who just picks on people because they feel like it! I can't stand people like that, and I won't be making any exceptions for you, James Potter!" and with that, she turned and walked to Herbology, leaving James standing alone once more, looking defeated.
It seemed James had finally realized the he would never have Lily back, but this only made him want her back more. He had always gone for the hard to get girls, the challenges. He made a vow to himself that from this day forward, he would do anything to win Lily Evans over.
~End of 2nd year~
