A/N: I don't have a great idea of where on earth this story is going, I'm just following it... it's kind of like when some one (like Sirius) calls you and says "Hello, ma'am, is your refrigerator running? " and you say "Well, yes I think so...?" and the person goes "well you better go catch it! " and then I run out the door, and follow it... even though I can't see it forget where it's going!... oh well, it's always at home whenever I get back...
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Chapter 1: For You To Notice
James Potter, known to his three infamous friends as Prongs, sat alone in his house, in his room, on his windowsill. He was hugging his knees and looking out at the world. He didn't really know why, but whenever he couldn't sleep (which happened a lot recently) he would carry out this ritual. He would get out of the bed and watch everyone else sleep. It wasn't all that fascinating, watching dormant buildings and suburban plant life, but it helped. It helped him to think.
Tonight happened to be the night before his return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he only had about a million thoughts racing through his brain. It was to be the start of his seventh and final year at Hogwarts, and in ten months, he would be out in "the real world." He would have a career; he would have to be serious and stop screwing around all the time (as he usually did with the aforementioned friends), and mostly he was afraid. Of course, that was ten months away, but these had to be the ten months in which he prepared for that time... And that was only the beginning of his concerns. Another was that he was to be Head Boy. Head Boy was a big responsibility, and James wasn't all that confident that he was prepared for it. But, he reasoned with himself, if I'm not prepared for this, how will I ever be prepared to be an Auror? Ah, yet another worry. Amid those worries was another prominent one: there was a girl. Not just any girl, but a very pretty and very intelligent and very... okay, basically, he had the world's greatest crush on one of the world's most impossible girls. Her name: Lily Evans.
James had had this "crush" on Lily since he first saw her (although he didn't recognize it in himself at first), but for some reason he didn't think he'd ever get her. She was a very serious, very intelligent muggle-born girl who could sometimes be... stubborn. She and James were friends, they were in the same house at school, but James figured that he had messed up his chances of ever going out with her, numerous times. It probably got the most screwed up when he first asked her to go out with him. He had been fifteen and he was nervous (boggarts were simple for James Potter, but Lily Evans made him sweat... big time). He was afraid of being turned down and afraid she would just think him some stupid prat if he'd asked her seriously... and plus there was Sirius, one of James' best friends, and he had this terrible effect on him of making him a complete prat. Of course, James's attempt to ask her out had the result of her thinking him an insufferable, arrogant, egotistical prick all the same. James, of course, had grown up since then, and he realized that he had, indeed been, an arrogant... well you get the idea. This summer, he and his friend Sirius had come off the childish pranks a bit and James was ready to be positively cavalier towards Lily. This was, after all, his last chance. Besides: James had a lot of things going for him this year...Lily was to be Head Girl (a lot of shared responsibilities), and James was going to try his very hardest to be nice to her. Okay, so maybe he only had two things going for him... but that's still better than none, am I right?
James continued to stare out the window and watch the world sleep.
The Hogwarts Express was, as usual, overflowing with children, and James was sitting pensively in an empty compartment waiting for his friends to arrive. First came Sirius.
"All right, mate?" Apparently he'd noticed the apprehension in James' face.
"Ah, sure, sure! How was Diagon Alley?" Sirius stayed with the Potters a lot over the summer; he'd stayed in Daigon Alley the previous night, however, to get some extra school supplies (most likely meaning dung bombs and other prank supplies).
"Ah! It was a blast! Should see the load of stuff I got!" he cackled in an evil fashion as Remus Lupin stepped into the compartment.
"Hey Padfoot, Prongs!"
"Moony! How's everything? Haven't seen you since last full moon!"
"Ah, yeah, well I've been busy... That summer work was mad! Eleven rolls of parchment on the charms alone!"
James smiled to himself as he was reminded of Lily—Charms being her best subject and all.
Sirius nodded his head dramatically in agreement "What was he thinking?! ELEVEN ROLLS? I've never written that much on anything before! Not even girls!"
James rolled his eyes... and Sirius spotted it. "Ah c'mon mate! What? You didn't think 11 rolls was insane?! I know you're Head Prat and all but..."
James scowled, "Well I rather like charms..."
"What my esteemed friend Prongs is trying not to say is that it's LILY's favorite subject!" Moony was always on top on things. James rather thought he should've been Head Pr— Boy.
James rolled his eyes again.
"Prongs, love, if you keep doing that YOUR BLOODY EYES'LL GET STUCK!!"
James shot a death glare to Sirius.
"Let me guess," started Remus. "This year Lily is going to realize that she's madly in love with you..."
"and agree to have tiny Jameseses and wittlle Wiwieseses? " continued Sirius, batting his eyelashes at James in a madly-in-love damsel-in-distress fashion.
James put on a false look of innocence, "Oh you jest!"
"Honestly, Prongs..."
James smiled in spite of himself. "No, I am serious this time."
After the hanging-Snape-upside-down stunt he and Sirius had pulled at the end of fifth year, Lily had really gotten her knickers in a bunch at James. They had, by NO stretch of the imagination, gotten along before then, but this incident had thrown Lily over the edge. She refused to even be in the same room as him. During classes in the beginning of sixth year, she sat as far as humanly possible away from James Potter. James had noticed he wasn't running into her so much but didn't really give it a second thought (since he was so busy with Quidditch and, well quite honestly, with himself). Then he and Lily were assigned to do a project together in Charms. They'd had to pick a very advanced charm and write... a lot about it. Their working together was not their decision, but Professor Flitwick's. When Lily found out they were working together, she begged Professor Lucas to change his mind. Charms was Lily's best and favorite subject. But since the professor needed a good, solid reason to change their being partners, and because Lily didn't want to rat anyone, even Potter, out, they worked together. What Lily hadn't known was that James had overheard Lily telling one of her friends her dilemma and her unwillingness to rat on him. James was shocked to hear her saying this—she was going to put up with this boy, who she strongly disliked, because of her morals. What had he ever done to her to justify her being really—nice to him?? So, James worked his best on the project.
One night, just as Lily was beginning to see a good side to James, they were supposed to meet in the library to finish the project. She waited for him for over an hour... he never showed up. That was IT! Lily stormed out of the library in a hurt rage. James Potter could never be trusted. Ever. Period. But on her way back to the common room, she saw a scene she wouldn't live to forget. Bruised and battered, James and Sirius were struggling down an empty corridor to the hospital wing, carrying on their shoulders an unconscious Serverus Snape. Lily couldn't believe her eyes to the extent that she refused to believe what she saw; she started yelling at James, "STUPID! USELESS! GOOD-FOR-NOTHING POTTER!!!!" But when the sight before her fully registered, she gasped, "oh my God!" Of course, she forgave James that night in the common room but James still hadn't been able to tell her the truth about what had happened that night. That night had been the night Sirius had told Snape the secret of the Whomping Willow and the night James had saved Snape's life. Two other things had happened that night, though. That night was also the night that Lily saw the side of James that she had been missing for the past 5 ½ years—the mature, caring, and un-Potter-like side... and yet she sort of always knew it was in there somewhere. This night was the night that James Potter acknowledged that he was in love with Lily Evans.
He had told his trusty Marauders that same night but they didn't really seem to understand. They were convinced that James would get over her in a month or so. But this was unlike any crush James had had before; Beyond any feeling he'd ever had. This was when he'd started the late-night window-sill sessions. And it changed him. He was still a Marauder... dung bombs and pranks... but he'd realized there were other people in the world; People smarter, wittier, and even better at Quidditch than he was.
As for the present, he was sitting with 2 of his best mates on the Hogwarts Express, heading to his final year of school and final chance to woo Lily Evans!
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A/N: In case you were wondering, when Sirius says "Wiwieseses" he's saying Lily three times the plural and in baby talk. Lol Oh, and reviews are a girl's best friend! Chapter 2 and 3 should be up soon... 3, Ella
