Dream on Baby

Thankyou so much for your reviews:

Away with the Fairies4-Sorry for not reading more of your story! I had that dreaded science test. I'll finish it tomorrow I promise. Thanks for your patience and for sticking around to read this story!

Wackyone-Oooh, thanks for your review! Next chapter here!

Firemage-sorry, about telling you that you'll have to wait a couple of weeks until the start of some good L/J action. But there is reason for these preliminary chapters. Hint: Notice their personalities and any new characters placed. There's a reason for them. And they do exist those characters. However, thanks for the review.

Chapter 4-Paths Running on Parallel Lines

"Lily Evans?"

The redhead swiftly raised her hand, but never leaving her eyes of the greying professor, "Yes sir."

"Brilliant Evans, top marks!"

This time her face coloured quickly, "Thanks sir..." she mumbled.

"Well don't just sit there, come and get your paper!" he said heartily.

The class applaud her as she walked hurriedly up, with her head down, to the professor.

"In a hurry Evans? No need to be, oh! Don't worry, we won't be starting the Swelling Potion until next lesson. If there's time, we will have a demonstration at the end of the lesson on it. Evans! Off already? Come back and shake my hand! That's the girl. Congratulations Evans on top marks in the Potions topic test."

With her shoulders uptight and her face set with a grim smile, she gripped the professors what seemed enormous hand and obediently accepted his challenge. She walked back with her face still set but with her eyes wide open and glistening.

"James Potter?"

The tousled hair boy in the corner of the room continued to slap his hand on the table with Sirius, the boy sitting next to him, every couple of seconds, grinning every time he did. At one point he laughed so hard he fell back and messily pulled himself back on the chair.

All this time, the class was watching the silent show.

"Mr Potter?"

The earplugs must have been in that day, because he was still completely oblivious to the teacher's calling. The sandy-haired boy, Remus, nudged him and quickly whispered a spell.

"Mr Potter? Are with us now?"

"ARGH!! My ears!!" James yelled, clutching his numb ears that had just been lifted off the silencing spell.

"Is there something wrong Mr Potter?"

Lily sighed, she was getting rather irritated by that boy's actions, at this rate, she wouldn't be able to learn anything! She thought it was a complete waste of time that he existed.

"No Sir...," he flashed a white grin at him.

"Good now, Mr Potter, you have also received top marks in the Potions test," he gestured for him to come up to receive his test.

"Also?" he mock pouted, "Who else?"

"Lily Evans, she just got the award Potter, where have you been?"

James took a quick glance around the classroom and shrugged it off, "Right here good sir," and he jauntily walked up to get his sheet. After vigorously shaking the Professors hand and giving him a mock salute, he trudged back to his seat to be given a round of high-fives by his three mates.

Three mates? Like the whole class whose eyes followed him back to his infamous back seat, Lily watched with fascination. Never in her life had she met someone who could talk to a teacher so casually. It annoyed her. But yes, three mates? She could only remember Sirius and the sandy-haired boy. Where on earth did the little pudgy boy come in? She secretly thought he reminded her of Winnie-the-Pooh, no offence to the poor boy though. He did seem a little bit isolated. But then again, those four stuck together, now that she came to think about it. It was obvious that James and Sirius were the leaders of their group-if you could have one, correction-two. She didn't think it was right for someone to have more power over another in a friendship group. That sandy-haired boy, Remus, that was his name, though he was quiet, the two boys always went back to him for advice, well she thought so anyway, all that whispering behind those wrinkly hands. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of them. Perhaps they took him...Peter! in out of pity. Odd how life works she thought.

She wondered why out of all omelettes in the world, hers wasn't sunny-side up.

She came to the conclusion that it had been flipped.

And all she had to do now was flip it back the right way up.

Once she found that dreaded spatula.

James stretched his brain out to remember the familiar Lily Evans, he was sure he had heard that name before somewhere. But his already-filled brain just couldn't quite point out exactly where. Perhaps he should ask Sirius...after all he's better at names than he was...

School. Ader. James rolled his eyes, as if he hadn't figured that one yet!

Oh well, she must be another random that just smiles at me. James chuckled at his private joke.

"Whacha laughing at there?" Sirius said as he smoothly turned his head to face his best-friend.

"Ha...nothing, you know that girl? Who also got top marks? Who is she?" He tilted his head as if he was in deep thought and hadn't thought about it yet.

"Rehearsed?"

"Thought about it."

Remus craned his head around Sirius and said looking at him in the eye, "Lily Evans mate. You should know that by now. You always share the smartest with her." Sometimes Remus didn't understand the tousled-haired boy. He was either really smart, or really thick. Take that Lily-girl for example. How on earth can he not notice her existence? She only gets top marks in every subject. She's only known by every teacher in the whole school. Like honestly, she shares basically every title with James. She only sees the teacher after every lesson. Of course, for completely different reasons. She's known for her 'Einsteinity'-if there ever was such a word, where as James is known for his...Remus pondered as he wondered what Filch called them the other day...'Maraudarish' ways. She sees the teacher after every lesson to get extra homework, if it's not that, it's to clarify something that he briefly mentioned would be in their OWLs ten thousand years later, ok three, but that's not the point, where as James would be pulled back-involuntarily-to organise a detention. What's new?

"You make it sound like it's a bad thing."

"I didn't say it wasn't...was..."

"Just because I have more brain cells than you matey," he said in a mock huff.

"Well...I wouldn't bet on that one," he said with a wry smile, narrowly missing a slap on the back from James.

"Watch it," James mock glared. As they walked down the dim corridor, the four laughed loudly, giving it an air of brightness.

As the endless innocent days past, James and Lily, as if it was like a curse of fate, just continually missed each other. When James walked up the Gryffindor table, Lily would be walking down. Sometimes one would be walking in of the Great Hall and the other was walking out. Still the redhead and the tousle-haired never quite catch a glimpse of each other-not that either cared though, despite the fact they both had heard of each other's name enough to last them for a life time and a half.

"James Potter..."

"...so hot!"

"I love his..."

"...that hair..."

Only to have Lily roll her eyes and politely but quickly move on to a different subject.

"Marlene, what else do you know about Potter?"

"You mean..."

"Yeh, apart from his hair, his Quidditch skills and his general appearance."

"Um...I can find out when's his birthday?"

Lily rolled her eyes again.

Seriously, she was getting absolutely sick of hearing about this boy's hair, or Quidditch skills. First of all, who wants a guy who doesn't even own a brush, let alone know how to brush. Secondly, how on earth did they know how he played Quidditch, first years weren't allowed to play Quidditch-she heard from some arrogant complainer called...Galvin Gudgeon. Funny he said that she thought he's like third year and he's still not in the Hufflepuff team yet. I wonder why he's still on about it. Brother, Davy, that's right. Davy Gudgeon was as just as a hopeless case as Galvin Gudgeon was, well actually it was more like getting a snake to use a knife and fork. Exactly, completely hopeless. The more she thought about it, the more she wondered about what was so great about Mr James Potter, last time she looked at him he was a stick and a tennis ball with a black mop artistically plonked on top. The only way to save herself from times like these? Changing the subject. Even if it was always to her friends objections. That was her cue to roll her eyes-her eyes were going to be permanently looking askew if they continued this Potter-talk, especially when the wind blew. Which was quite often seeing Marlene enjoyed talking.

"Shut up Marlene..."

"Oh like shut up shut up? Or shut up about James?"

"Good question."

James on the other hand was only more infuriated when people gushed about Lily's academic successes.

"Top of..."

"Top of..."

"Top of..."

"Best of..."

James whipped around to face Gideon Prewett, a fellow second year in Ravenclaw, "Who's the best?"

"Oh hello James, haven't talked to you in a while. You're going to Quidditch trials next week right?"

"Who's the best?" James, not fazed by the different but favourite subject, pressed on.

"What are you on about?" Gideon, already forgotten about what he said in passing conversation, looked at him with the upmost weirdness.

"You just said that someone was the best?"

"Oh! That!" he laughed at not realising earlier, "Lily! Lily Evans, you know the one with the red hair?"

"Red hair. Is that all she has? What's she the best of?"

"Funny you say that, since I'm in Ravenclaw, but I heard she's the best in the grade."

"The what?" asked a horrified James.

"The best!" said Gideon exasperatedly. "Are you feeling alright James? You seem to be losing it a bit. Maybe you should go see Madam Pomfrey, she can fix your ears, or your head if that's the problem, in a jiffy."

James glared at him, "I am perfectly fine, thankyou very much."

"Sorry, just worried."

James shook his head in frustration, Lily Evans, the best in the grade?

"Hey Gideon, but the year's not even over yet?"

Gideon looked up, surprised at his mood-swing, "Yeh I know, but there's no doubt she will be anyway!" he gave a small smile and sidled away, not wanting to be caught at the bottom of his mood swing again.

James looked up and held his head high, his face looking triumphant. He still had a chance.

"Whacha so happy about James?" Sirius asked, catching a glimpse of that gleeful face.

"Nothing..." he wasn't giving it away yet.

Sirius rose an eyebrow but continued on with his lunch, already knowing his friend too well. He decided to give it time, it wouldn't be too long before he let his secret out.

"James!"

James shuddered, that voice was annoying him already, and he hadn't even seen the face yet! He turned around, catching Sirius clutching his stomach, crying with laughter, to face the inevitable.

"Hi Courtney."

"How are you feeling James?" her blonde hair seemed bigger than before. He felt the urge to stick her under the cold shower, not just to squish that big hair, but to wake her up!

"Better before."

"Aw...what happened?"

James turned to look at Sirius, eyes opened. Sirius refused to look at him in the eye.

James turned to look at Remus. Remus's back make that, apparently he had to tie his shoelaces. With fifty thousand knots probably. And magic just never crossed his mind it appeared.

James sighed. Now he had to recover after a little slip.

"Oh nothing...ate to quick...got myself a bit of a headache...," he flustered, he turned to continue eating.

"Want me to kiss you better?"

"I'll pass."

"Then why are you eating so fast," she demanded, with her hands on her hips.

He slowed down, noticeably. "You think?"

Courtney was still glaring. Funny he felt intimidated he thought, she's just some blonde idiot.

"This is very slow compared to the speed I normally eat at."

James was certain that Lily was much brighter than her.

Courtney bounced off her blonde hair irritably bouncing off after her.

"One day, I just want to chop all that off with a sword," muttered Sirius.

"Join the club."

James Potter was determined to find this Lily-girl, he was determined to get rid of her title as 'Top of the Class'. After all, what kind of ego would he have if a girl beat him He was sure that it would be a very small one. How embarrassing that would be! And that was exactly the reason why he had to win.

Disclaimer: All J.K. Rowlings. (Who else?)

A/N: Sue me. Sorry for the delay. And for the short chapter. And for the very weak LJ action. It was kind of forced. But there is a reason for these chapters. I'm trying to develop the characters. For example. Lily's character. But I'm really sorry for boring you. Seriously sorry.

But I did put effort into this. Lots of time and research was done to fill in the extra characters. Like, they do actually exist. Ask me if you want to know.

I've had the worst two-weeks ever. Well it had it's fair share of ups and downs let's say. For example. The first week after posting Chapt3, I had a science test, I got my results back and not too depressed-82%, seeing the highest mark was 88%. Put it this way, the last science test, our whole class failed with the average of 35%. I got 48%. Still a complete joke. Ironically, I love science, it's one of my favourite subjects. Still completely sad though. Then, that Wednesday, my swimming coach got sacked. Just like that, no warning, no two weeks cooling period or whatever that's called. Just sacked. Odd? Totally. Awkward? Very. That Thursday morning, a new coach was shipped in. He turned out to be the Head Coach's old Assistant Coach. Fishy? Just a tad. He claimed to bring all sorts of new formulas to help us improve our times. Which includes yoga. I'm not a very spiritual person I admit, the most spiritual thing I've done is probably visit the Tree of Life shop to buy some bracelets for my friend's Christmas Birthday. And after that would burn some incense candles to get to sleep. Lavender in fact. It helps. Last week, I got moved up to the Head Coach's squad. Honoured? Very. Happy/Sad? Both. Now the whole old-squad has fake-turned against me. They'd btch about me behind my back, but when I'd confront them, individually they'd be like, 'Oh, that was (name) not me!'. What a load of crap. Now I have to have a strict diet before I go swimming because it's so hard. I use to have yoghurt, banana and a whole list of what-not. Now it's a banana and water. Boring! (I'm a big-eater, thank goodness for swimming or I'd be a beach ball) Now, I reach today. I suffer from insomnia and must wake up early to go to school. Including tomorrow since I have netball training. So I'll leave now...:D

I can't post it now by the way. I haven't put my thankyous on. Another day...Nup, this won't put me to rest.