The Preferable Maiden Fair
By Solarism
Chapter One—The Strange Beginning
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Overly fussy people always annoyed Lily Evans, which was precisely why she didn't care very much for James Potter. She'd sized him up the first time she'd met him in the shrewd way that she had inherited from her mother before her, and had found him to be wanting in all of the major departments of something that she called 'life living'. Her messy, haphazard soul did not harbor even an ounce of respect for her overachieving classmate, although she was intelligent enough to realize that she was in an incredible minority with this stand. She watched James in their classes, calculating him in a way she was very good at doing, and looking on grimly as he continued down a path of unshakable clarity. With tight lips and a far away look in her big, long-lashed eyes, Lily found James to be her opposite, and not an adversary worth her attention or concern.
Perhaps, she would come to find, this had been an oversight on her part. But Lily loved mistakes, especially ones that belonged exclusively to her, and took great pride in never making the same one twice. Her theory was that if you made all the mistakes in the world and got them over with early in life, you could proceed on fairly perfectly from then on out. Her own mind argued with her logic and told her that there were an inexhaustible supply of mistakes to be made out there in the great, wide world, and since she usually agreed with this latter side of consciousness, she ended up learning from her mistakes after all and always looked forward to making new ones. Why repeat an error and be boring when you could be a pioneer and test out a new one?, thought Lily.
Her first mistake with James Potter was underestimating his craziness, though perhaps it was also overestimating his perfectionism disorder. She never could decide which mistake she liked better, so when asked, she explained she counted it as a "two for one special on aisle seven", and everyone seemed happy enough with that in the end. It must be said that the mistake cannot be wholly credited to Lily though. Yes, she did have an unusual perspective of her athletic schoolmate, and yes, she did make assumptions based on first impressions, but then, she also backed up everything she thought with answers so logical they seemed peculiar for such an illogical person to harbor. However, these mistakes may also be credited in part to James Potter himself, who encouraged her queer perception of him. In secret, he enjoyed the redhead's critical looks and sideways glances. In secret, he enjoyed the way her hair splayed across her face and got frizzy on the top when the days grew damp near late October. James loved Lily's image of him and went so far as to act it out for her in excruciating detail, just so she might keep thinking the same of him year in and year out.
Neither had the slightest idea the other was hardly what they assumed by outward appearances and chance off-handed conversations, and this was the way they were content to leave it for awhile.
It all began first year, when both boy and girl had been sorted into Gryffindor house. Lily was Muggleborn and messy, with smudged eyeliner and sporadic freckles. She was good with charms but much preferred air guitar and belting out songs she didn't know the lyrics to. She was proud, unusual, and held in high disdain by her classmates and most of her teachers. No one was quite fond of the unpredictable girl with the disregard for manners.
On the contrary, everyone loved James Potter. He wasn't so much James as he was the first half of James and Sirius. You couldn't see James without his pal Sirius Black around him. People adored James for his handsomeness and his perfectionism, his good grades and witty comments and athletic abilities. The Gryffindor house Quidditch team had their eye on him since his very first week at Hogwarts. Even when he broke the rules, which he did often for the sake of humor and good times, it was largely overlooked. People found everything he did endearing. He was a pureblood and the Potter family was deeply revered in wizarding society.
James barely noticed Lily at first. They shared the same classes and the same common room, but neither had any mutual friends (James had many friends, Lily had none) or any shared interests (Lily was interested in everything, James was interested only in thrills). Lily noticed James because everyone doted on him and he seemed to enjoy the limelight. It was difficult not to notice the most popular boy in your year, particularly when he paraded about with people like Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. He raised his hand and called out in class a lot. Lily was fond of his voice, which was warm and strong, but not of his opinions, which where entirely too conservative and closed-minded for her tastes.
Lily kept her mouth shut and drew in her notebooks instead of paying attention in most of her classes. Rapt acknowledgments of the powers-that-be were more for people like James than for people like Lily. In her opinion, the less interaction she had with the people she would have to obey if it came down to it, the better. Besides, Lily was an artist who felt her talents were being squandered on the many hours she was forced to learn Transfiguration and Potions. She may have been a witch but she didn't feel that the magic that ran through her should define her life. Naturally smart and naturally bored by anything that seemed like a by the book teaching method, Lily was content to sketch and listen to James Potter pipe up every thirty seconds about his opinion on the ancient goblin wars.
She supposed, despite the fact she disagreed with all of his opinions, that at least he spoke his mind. That was more than she could say for herself.
James began noticing the redheaded girl when she started to become Remus Lupin's love interest. Remus was one of James' best mates and James wasn't one to play a passive role in his friend's life. When Remus pointed out Lily's prettiness and all of her many wonders, James began to take note of them too. He decided right off at eleven years old that Lily was definitely not his type. He didn't like her shoes, which were tie-dyed, or her hair, which was a flaming, carefree red. In a sea of brunettes and blondes, Lily's hair looked obstinate. James did not care for things that were obstinate.
James was a very ordered, involved person. He went to every Quidditch match and was wildly supportive of the Gryffindor team. His house pride sickened Lily, but James thought their house was the best house ever. He would rant when the Gryffindors lost and flaunt their clear superiority when they won. James never skipped class, befriended the house elves, made the prettiest girls swoon, and sauntered around campus very comfortable in the belief that he would stay young forever.
He was what Lily would call a young soul. She, herself, was an old soul and was as proud of this as James was proud of Gryffindor house.
Lily was not an incredibly social creature; she did not need people the way James needed them, but nor was she an introvert. She enjoyed conversation if it was intelligent, which usually was the reason why she found herself was talking to James' friend Remus so much. Remus was the closest thing to a kindred spirit that Lily had at school, and she made good use of him. Remus always loved Lily's drawings, and through Remus, Lily heard many stories about James.
Everything she heard more firmly planted the idea in her mind that James Potter was certainly no one to bother with.
Also through Remus, James became more and more confident that Lily Evans was a queer girl that needed someone to lighten her up.
It became James' preoccupation to get to know this interesting specimen of a wild child and to tone her down a bit. It bothered him the way she was so different from him and it seemed to him that taming her spirit a little would be doing everyone a favor, including Lily herself. Certainly, it would make her a more suitable friend for Remus. It simply wouldn't do for this weirdo to turn one of his best mates into a queer too. James thought of Lily as an old house that desperately needed a renovation. He felt self-righteous because he and he alone knew how to give this to her.
At eleven, James figured everyone needed to be exactly the same. The world was a place of carbon copies and that was why everything in life was always so flawless. If everyone was alike, everyone agreed. Controversy scared James. He pretended it didn't exist.
Projects were so logical.
Lily had no idea of James' resolution. She watched him in class and gave him sweeping sideways glances while her pencil still moved, still sketching in her many books. She had no way of knowing of his growing preoccupation and distrust of her personality. They'd never, in all their first year, said much more than three words to each other. Lily thought that it would always be that James was a boy to be watched from afar. She disapproved of his outspoken, narcissistic ways, but she was in no way concerned about his presence in her life. He was simply a person she observed often because of their close proximity, and she was content to let him float on by in the stream that she referred to as time. Lily was clever enough to grasp a concept most eleven year olds never even think of; she realized that time did indeed pass, and that someday, her education at Hogwarts would be a thing of the past, as would James Potter.
To Lily, things were temporary. She liked them very much that way.
Two people, both very different in all respects, were slowly being drawn together. James was attracted to improving Lily as he saw fit—Lily was interested in James' voice and his gumption. Though neither actively realized it, these things would come to bind them in an unusual and yet a totally unbreakable way.
Had you asked either of them what they thought of this, they would have told you in tones incredibly similar for two people supposedly so distinctly different, that it was the pits.
Time past and both were aware of each other as it did, James perhaps more so of Lily than Lily was of James. The night before their third year at Hogwarts, they similarly lay down peacefully for the last time that summer in their own beds. They murmured prayers—the same prayer—
As I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
And if I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take
God bless, Amen
—and closed their eyes, strangely, at the same time. They slept peacefully, unknowingly, of the changes that lay before them.
They were left to sleep sincerely, for that would be the last night either of them would remember as truly peaceful for years to come.
It had begun.
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Disclaimer: I don't own anything Harry Potter related. That belongs to JK Rowling and WB Entertainment. I do own the plot, so please don't steal it. If you want to sue me, don't. Thanks.
Author's Note: This was basically a prologue. It was a short, short, short beginning to a story that will undoubtedly become as long as Deconstruct. I wanted to premiere it before I go back to Deconstructland, so here you are. Reviews are always appreciated!
