A Simple Mind
Summary: "Don't you know what I'd do for you?" James Potter loves Lillian Evans with all his heart . . .but his feelings aren't returned. Is there hope for a future that may never come?
Disclaimer: JK is the soul provider for these great ideas and talents; I merely embellish them into what you see before you now.
Authors Note: WOW! I didn't think you guys would like it that much . . .thanks for all of your reviews! (Kisses and huggles my fans(. Anyway, we hear a bit from Lily in this chapter . . .oh, and I have a problem. How do you make bold and italics? I've tried on my other stories countless times (okay, only like 5) and I can never make them. Help!
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Lily looked out the window of the dorm she shared with her friends (I have decided that the Head Boy and Girl still have to have dorms with the people in their year). She wiped the tears from her face, although there were none there. After the feast, she couldn't bear to speak to James, as he would probably call her a baby, so she angrily left him in the Great Hall to explain to the prefects how to escort the first years to the common room.
She smirked. James had never been a prefect before, either. This was rich.
Why did James always say something that made her break down? How he infuriated her so! Since their fourth year, he had begun pestering her, in fifth year he was asking her out. When he realized (finally) that that was the wrong approach, he began calling her polite nicknames (such as Lillian, or Tiger Lily) all through sixth year. She had gotten quite tired of that, and finally sent him a howler on the last day of term for all to hear . . .but he wasn't deterred at all! He merely grinned at the smoking ashes covering his cinnamon bun and said (quite loudly) "She must be warming up - I'm getting letters now!"
The whole of the Great Hall shook with laughter and Lily had stormed off, utterly displeased at his reaction.
Brushing her curly hair, she turned to the mirror. Looking in, she saw a girl of sixteen (yet to be seventeen in November) with light freckles splashing her nose and cheeks. Her emerald green eyes were now red and puffy from crying and her lips were swollen. Her face was pale, and her cheeks were slightly pink. All in all, she looked like a walking fireball (Whoa! A rhyme! I didn't mean to . . .). Suddenly, the door to the dorm opened up, and Lynette and Paige entered the room, looking concerned.
"Lily, why are you crying?" Paige asked, patting the space next to her on her bed. "Come sit down and we can talk."
Slowly, Lily sat next to Paige, and was about to spill her heart out when the door opened a second time.
"God, what I would GIVE to go out with Sirius Black!"
"I've already given THAT away dear."
Two girls entered the room, one with bleach blonde hair, and the other with raven black hair. They were laughing with their heads thrown back, and the pitch made the three other girls want to cover their ears.
"Hello."
The two had finally noticed them. "Hey, Erin." Lynette said, nodding to the black haired girl. "LeAnn." She said, smiling at the blonde. "How were your summers?"
The girls turned to each other as if they had not heard this informal greeting, and Lynette sighed. "Come on, let's go to the common room; everyone's probably asleep by now."
The Erin and LeAnn made no sign that they cared that the three others were leaving. They were still chatting away happily in a corner.
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"Right, I loved when you told the prefects to take a left at the portrait of the nutcracker and ballerina making out, Prongs. Sheer genius. Have you done this before?"
"Knock it off. I'm new to this." James said, his hand slipping a bit from the invisibility cloak. "You and I both know that ever since first year we never walked the normal route. That's the only way I remember going!"
"Sure." Sirius grinned a bit. He held the portrait open for Remus, James and Peter (who had shown up at Hogwarts during the feast) to pass through. They had been out for about an hour, eating some late-night dinner in the kitchens. After all, the Marauders were the house-elves favorite visitors . . .actually, they were pretty sure that they were the only visitors.
"Shh!" Remus held out an arm to prevent the rest of them from going through the hole.
"What?" James asked, and peered out from behind Remus's head. Lily, Lynette, and Paige were all sitting on one of the red couches in the deserted common room. Lily was crying.
"Why didn't you tell us someone was in there?" Peter asked, and James and Sirius turned to look at Remus.
"What?" He asked, then looked at the Marauders Map clutched tightly into his hands. "Oh."
"Why does he have to act this way?" Lily was saying to Paige. She turned to Lynette. "Remus is such a nice guy. It's nice that you like him-"
Remus made a small choking sound.
"- but that's the kind of guy I need! No, I don't like Remus, but you all have to admit, he's a sweet guy!"
"That's true Lils, but there are guys like him out there. Maybe James can change!" Paige said soothingly. "He's James. He's always been immature . . .how much longer can it last?"
"I hope not too long." Lily sniffed. Then a full-fledged sob racked her body, and she leaned into Paige's comforting arms. "He's always so mean." She cried, and right then, James felt extremely guilty for treating Lily the way he did all these years. "I mean, I have no idea how much I can take! He just needs to grow up! Sure, he hasn't pulled a prank on anyone since sixth year, but he's still the same immature, childish, womanizing James Potter!"
"God, James, I never thought you could offend someone this bad." Sirius whispered, concern in his blue eyes. "What have you done to her?"
For a few more minutes, the girls talked, and then Lily shook her head.
"Get out of the way!" James hissed, and the four boys quickly cleared the portrait hole as Lily ran through it. Paige got up to follow her, but Lynette held her down. "No," She said, "Leave her be. She'll be fine. I know it." Paige stared at Lynette in wonder, and then nodded. The two retreated to their dorms.
Lily, on the other hand, was less assured than her friends were. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter stared down at her from under the invisibility cloak as Lily crumbled into a miserable heap outside the portrait of the Fat Lady. They looked at her with sympathy visible in their eyes, and James had a great longing to take her in his arms and cuddle her, hold her, kiss her; anything to make her feel better.
Anything to reverse the damage he had caused this beautiful young woman.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. She cursed the sun for happening to beam down on her particular pillow, and when it didn't go away, she grumpily made her way to the bathroom. After showering, she brushed her teeth, and then used a simple spell to give her hair loose curls. Then she slipped on some jeans and an orange shirt and exited the bathroom.
Lily's black school robes hung on a little rack by her bed; she removed it from it, and then put it on. She grabbed her wand from under her pillow, and was about to make her bed -
Wait. She hadn't fallen asleep in a bed.
Her stomach dropped. She remembered crying in the hallway . . .she must have fallen asleep outside the portrait. Then who had brought her inside? She shivered, remembering James and how horrible he acted. How he always laughed when she was praised by a teacher, how he called her a show-off whenever she happened to know the right answer in classes, how he played tricks and jokes on her when they needed a guinea pig for their stupid experimental pranks . . .how DARE he have the nerve to say that he had a crush on her!
Lynette yawned from the next bed over and sat up. "Early bird." She muttered, and chucked a pillow at Lily. Lily grabbed it easily, and tossed it back to Lynette, who now had a face full of pillow. Lily giggled softly, but unfortunately, LeAnn woke up.
"Will you guys PLEASE shut up?" she shouted and lifted her eye mask up over her head. "We need our beauty sleep if we're to be wooing the guys today."
From the bed nearest to the door, Erin snorted in her sleep, her head covered in curlers.
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"JAMES! WAKE UP!" Sirius yelled to James at seven forty-five that morning. "BREAKFAST IS OVER IN FIFTEEN MINUTES! CLASSES START AT EIGHT! JAMES!"
But no answer. James was far, far away in a land called "Orange County". It was a magical place, where he could -
"JAMIE! PIE!"
Pie?
James bolted up. "Is it apple?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Sirius said irritably, as he had just wasted ten precious eating minutes trying to wake up James. "Peter and Remus are already in the Great Hall. You were dead to the friggen world, man. What's up?"
"It's all good, man." James assured him, but the look of regret on his face gave him away.
"Is it Lily?"
"Well . . .yeah."
James had made Peter, Remus, and Sirius go to their dorm, while he carried Lily up to hers. She had such an angelic face while she was sleeping, and James found it hard not to kiss all her tears away as he laid her down, moonlight bathing her pillow with a soft glow.
He had also stayed up half the night, wondering if he really was as bad, conceited, cruel as Lily made him out to be. He was quite popular, he got great marks in school, and he was an Animagus. That all had to count for something.
But Lily was different. Lily didn't happen to care that James was great looking. She didn't seem to mind that he got high marks. She didn't exactly know that he was an Animagus, as he and his dorm mates were all unregistered, and could get into trouble if someone got hold of that information.
No, to Lily, James was an overly conceited prat.
That fact bothered him. So he pondered over and over, while lying in his four-poster bed the last night. What could he do to change? It would be hard, trying to change everything in his morals. He would need to make sure hundreds of girls didn't flaunt themselves at him daily, and that he didn't try pranking the Slytherins . . .too often. He had to try and control the habit of running his hand through his hair, and most of all, he had to control what he said to Lily.
He didn't want her to end up like last night.
"James?" Sirius repeated. "Are you listening? You now have ten minutes."
With a yelp, James jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom for a quick shower.
Sirius chuckled to himself before turning to the door and exiting the dormitory to get some of whatever was left of breakfast.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily entered the Great Hall, sat down, and spread jam on some toast, not noticing that someone was already seated next to her.
"Hello." Remus said politely.
"Oh, Remus, sorry. Were you saving this seat for someone?" Lily asked, apologetically.
"Nope. Actually, you're just the person I wanted to see."
Lily stopped moving, her toast midway between her teeth. "Yes?" She asked.
"I have heard from a source that someone you know happens to have taken a liking to me." He stated in a very business-like way. Lily choked, and Remus had to whack her on the back so that she could calm down.
"What?" She asked, her toast dropping like a fly.
"I know." He said mysteriously. Lily watched him as if he were possessed. He maintained eye contact with her as he rose from the table, and disappeared behind the doors of the Great Hall. She stared blankly at where he last was.
"How . . .odd." She said, before spreading jam onto a new piece of toast.
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Classes that day went by in a blur, and coincidentally, James's head stuck out very much in it. Lily noticed that he seemed very different that day. He ignored every girl that passed him, and he seemed to be trying very hard to restrain himself from reaching up to touch his hair.
It almost looked cute.
Almost.
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Well, thank you, once again for the reviews, and please don't flame me! I tried very hard to make this chapter work, so please bear with me; it will all get better! Luv ya!
Summary: "Don't you know what I'd do for you?" James Potter loves Lillian Evans with all his heart . . .but his feelings aren't returned. Is there hope for a future that may never come?
Disclaimer: JK is the soul provider for these great ideas and talents; I merely embellish them into what you see before you now.
Authors Note: WOW! I didn't think you guys would like it that much . . .thanks for all of your reviews! (Kisses and huggles my fans(. Anyway, we hear a bit from Lily in this chapter . . .oh, and I have a problem. How do you make bold and italics? I've tried on my other stories countless times (okay, only like 5) and I can never make them. Help!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily looked out the window of the dorm she shared with her friends (I have decided that the Head Boy and Girl still have to have dorms with the people in their year). She wiped the tears from her face, although there were none there. After the feast, she couldn't bear to speak to James, as he would probably call her a baby, so she angrily left him in the Great Hall to explain to the prefects how to escort the first years to the common room.
She smirked. James had never been a prefect before, either. This was rich.
Why did James always say something that made her break down? How he infuriated her so! Since their fourth year, he had begun pestering her, in fifth year he was asking her out. When he realized (finally) that that was the wrong approach, he began calling her polite nicknames (such as Lillian, or Tiger Lily) all through sixth year. She had gotten quite tired of that, and finally sent him a howler on the last day of term for all to hear . . .but he wasn't deterred at all! He merely grinned at the smoking ashes covering his cinnamon bun and said (quite loudly) "She must be warming up - I'm getting letters now!"
The whole of the Great Hall shook with laughter and Lily had stormed off, utterly displeased at his reaction.
Brushing her curly hair, she turned to the mirror. Looking in, she saw a girl of sixteen (yet to be seventeen in November) with light freckles splashing her nose and cheeks. Her emerald green eyes were now red and puffy from crying and her lips were swollen. Her face was pale, and her cheeks were slightly pink. All in all, she looked like a walking fireball (Whoa! A rhyme! I didn't mean to . . .). Suddenly, the door to the dorm opened up, and Lynette and Paige entered the room, looking concerned.
"Lily, why are you crying?" Paige asked, patting the space next to her on her bed. "Come sit down and we can talk."
Slowly, Lily sat next to Paige, and was about to spill her heart out when the door opened a second time.
"God, what I would GIVE to go out with Sirius Black!"
"I've already given THAT away dear."
Two girls entered the room, one with bleach blonde hair, and the other with raven black hair. They were laughing with their heads thrown back, and the pitch made the three other girls want to cover their ears.
"Hello."
The two had finally noticed them. "Hey, Erin." Lynette said, nodding to the black haired girl. "LeAnn." She said, smiling at the blonde. "How were your summers?"
The girls turned to each other as if they had not heard this informal greeting, and Lynette sighed. "Come on, let's go to the common room; everyone's probably asleep by now."
The Erin and LeAnn made no sign that they cared that the three others were leaving. They were still chatting away happily in a corner.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Right, I loved when you told the prefects to take a left at the portrait of the nutcracker and ballerina making out, Prongs. Sheer genius. Have you done this before?"
"Knock it off. I'm new to this." James said, his hand slipping a bit from the invisibility cloak. "You and I both know that ever since first year we never walked the normal route. That's the only way I remember going!"
"Sure." Sirius grinned a bit. He held the portrait open for Remus, James and Peter (who had shown up at Hogwarts during the feast) to pass through. They had been out for about an hour, eating some late-night dinner in the kitchens. After all, the Marauders were the house-elves favorite visitors . . .actually, they were pretty sure that they were the only visitors.
"Shh!" Remus held out an arm to prevent the rest of them from going through the hole.
"What?" James asked, and peered out from behind Remus's head. Lily, Lynette, and Paige were all sitting on one of the red couches in the deserted common room. Lily was crying.
"Why didn't you tell us someone was in there?" Peter asked, and James and Sirius turned to look at Remus.
"What?" He asked, then looked at the Marauders Map clutched tightly into his hands. "Oh."
"Why does he have to act this way?" Lily was saying to Paige. She turned to Lynette. "Remus is such a nice guy. It's nice that you like him-"
Remus made a small choking sound.
"- but that's the kind of guy I need! No, I don't like Remus, but you all have to admit, he's a sweet guy!"
"That's true Lils, but there are guys like him out there. Maybe James can change!" Paige said soothingly. "He's James. He's always been immature . . .how much longer can it last?"
"I hope not too long." Lily sniffed. Then a full-fledged sob racked her body, and she leaned into Paige's comforting arms. "He's always so mean." She cried, and right then, James felt extremely guilty for treating Lily the way he did all these years. "I mean, I have no idea how much I can take! He just needs to grow up! Sure, he hasn't pulled a prank on anyone since sixth year, but he's still the same immature, childish, womanizing James Potter!"
"God, James, I never thought you could offend someone this bad." Sirius whispered, concern in his blue eyes. "What have you done to her?"
For a few more minutes, the girls talked, and then Lily shook her head.
"Get out of the way!" James hissed, and the four boys quickly cleared the portrait hole as Lily ran through it. Paige got up to follow her, but Lynette held her down. "No," She said, "Leave her be. She'll be fine. I know it." Paige stared at Lynette in wonder, and then nodded. The two retreated to their dorms.
Lily, on the other hand, was less assured than her friends were. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter stared down at her from under the invisibility cloak as Lily crumbled into a miserable heap outside the portrait of the Fat Lady. They looked at her with sympathy visible in their eyes, and James had a great longing to take her in his arms and cuddle her, hold her, kiss her; anything to make her feel better.
Anything to reverse the damage he had caused this beautiful young woman.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. She cursed the sun for happening to beam down on her particular pillow, and when it didn't go away, she grumpily made her way to the bathroom. After showering, she brushed her teeth, and then used a simple spell to give her hair loose curls. Then she slipped on some jeans and an orange shirt and exited the bathroom.
Lily's black school robes hung on a little rack by her bed; she removed it from it, and then put it on. She grabbed her wand from under her pillow, and was about to make her bed -
Wait. She hadn't fallen asleep in a bed.
Her stomach dropped. She remembered crying in the hallway . . .she must have fallen asleep outside the portrait. Then who had brought her inside? She shivered, remembering James and how horrible he acted. How he always laughed when she was praised by a teacher, how he called her a show-off whenever she happened to know the right answer in classes, how he played tricks and jokes on her when they needed a guinea pig for their stupid experimental pranks . . .how DARE he have the nerve to say that he had a crush on her!
Lynette yawned from the next bed over and sat up. "Early bird." She muttered, and chucked a pillow at Lily. Lily grabbed it easily, and tossed it back to Lynette, who now had a face full of pillow. Lily giggled softly, but unfortunately, LeAnn woke up.
"Will you guys PLEASE shut up?" she shouted and lifted her eye mask up over her head. "We need our beauty sleep if we're to be wooing the guys today."
From the bed nearest to the door, Erin snorted in her sleep, her head covered in curlers.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"JAMES! WAKE UP!" Sirius yelled to James at seven forty-five that morning. "BREAKFAST IS OVER IN FIFTEEN MINUTES! CLASSES START AT EIGHT! JAMES!"
But no answer. James was far, far away in a land called "Orange County". It was a magical place, where he could -
"JAMIE! PIE!"
Pie?
James bolted up. "Is it apple?"
"Yeah, sure, whatever." Sirius said irritably, as he had just wasted ten precious eating minutes trying to wake up James. "Peter and Remus are already in the Great Hall. You were dead to the friggen world, man. What's up?"
"It's all good, man." James assured him, but the look of regret on his face gave him away.
"Is it Lily?"
"Well . . .yeah."
James had made Peter, Remus, and Sirius go to their dorm, while he carried Lily up to hers. She had such an angelic face while she was sleeping, and James found it hard not to kiss all her tears away as he laid her down, moonlight bathing her pillow with a soft glow.
He had also stayed up half the night, wondering if he really was as bad, conceited, cruel as Lily made him out to be. He was quite popular, he got great marks in school, and he was an Animagus. That all had to count for something.
But Lily was different. Lily didn't happen to care that James was great looking. She didn't seem to mind that he got high marks. She didn't exactly know that he was an Animagus, as he and his dorm mates were all unregistered, and could get into trouble if someone got hold of that information.
No, to Lily, James was an overly conceited prat.
That fact bothered him. So he pondered over and over, while lying in his four-poster bed the last night. What could he do to change? It would be hard, trying to change everything in his morals. He would need to make sure hundreds of girls didn't flaunt themselves at him daily, and that he didn't try pranking the Slytherins . . .too often. He had to try and control the habit of running his hand through his hair, and most of all, he had to control what he said to Lily.
He didn't want her to end up like last night.
"James?" Sirius repeated. "Are you listening? You now have ten minutes."
With a yelp, James jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom for a quick shower.
Sirius chuckled to himself before turning to the door and exiting the dormitory to get some of whatever was left of breakfast.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Lily entered the Great Hall, sat down, and spread jam on some toast, not noticing that someone was already seated next to her.
"Hello." Remus said politely.
"Oh, Remus, sorry. Were you saving this seat for someone?" Lily asked, apologetically.
"Nope. Actually, you're just the person I wanted to see."
Lily stopped moving, her toast midway between her teeth. "Yes?" She asked.
"I have heard from a source that someone you know happens to have taken a liking to me." He stated in a very business-like way. Lily choked, and Remus had to whack her on the back so that she could calm down.
"What?" She asked, her toast dropping like a fly.
"I know." He said mysteriously. Lily watched him as if he were possessed. He maintained eye contact with her as he rose from the table, and disappeared behind the doors of the Great Hall. She stared blankly at where he last was.
"How . . .odd." She said, before spreading jam onto a new piece of toast.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Classes that day went by in a blur, and coincidentally, James's head stuck out very much in it. Lily noticed that he seemed very different that day. He ignored every girl that passed him, and he seemed to be trying very hard to restrain himself from reaching up to touch his hair.
It almost looked cute.
Almost.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Well, thank you, once again for the reviews, and please don't flame me! I tried very hard to make this chapter work, so please bear with me; it will all get better! Luv ya!