Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter Seven

Confessions and Memories

James stared at the floor, not knowing what to say.

"Er... James are you mad?" James looked up at Sirius' weary face.

"Why would I be mad, Sirius?" he asked, trying to sound nonchalant, as though the news that his best friend had just snogged the girl that he... well he wasn't sure how he felt about her now.

"Well... didn't you kinda have a "thing" for her? I mean you stare at her an awful lot--"

"I don't like her, okay? She's pretty, alright, but I don't like her!" James said vehemently.

"Okay, okay, James," Sirius said, raising his hands up in defeat.

"Was there tongue?" Peter asked eagerly, seemingly unaware of the tension in the room. James glared at him. Merlin, he could be so thick at times. Sirius laughed shakily and glanced at James again.

"If it makes you fee– well, the thing is, she didn't really kiss me back." Sirius said hurriedly.

"She didn't?" James responded automatically, then almost kicked himself for sounding so hopeful and pathetic.

Sirius seemed to take heart in James' response and continued. "Yeah, I mean she was just so cold! It was like she didn't even feel anything. I was trying to spice it up a bit, you know? Like, if you're gonna kiss a girl you might as well do it right. So, yeah, I tried tongue, and the second I did, she pushed me away."

"She pushed you away?" James sounded surprised.

"Yeah. She basically told me she didn't like it. She looked dead disappointed."

James couldn't help it, but the idea that Lily didn't enjoy kissing Sirius made him feel much better. He didn't know who he was kidding, though. If Lily didn't like kissing Sirius, champion lady's man, then what was to say she would ever enjoy kissing him, when he'd barely had any experience at all with girls? And why was he thinking about kissing Lily as though it were an option?

"So men, about the patronuses, how are we progressing?" Sirius changed the subject.

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The first words James had ever spoken to Lily were "Well, you're not an animal!"

They had met when they were six, quite by accident. It was actually an extreme coincidence or, if you believed in that kind of thing, you could have called it fate.

It was an odd story really, not one they shared with others. Probably the only other person who knew about it was Carrie (having been there for some of it).

James and Carrie had been with their mother, Rhia Potter, visiting her favorite place in the world: Ynes Mon, known to most people as the Isle of Anglesey. It was a little area in the North of Wales and it housed a community of witches and wizards that practiced the "old magic." Rhia Potter herself was a practitioner of the old magic and brought her children there frequently to enjoy magic at it's purest and most basic form.

At the time, James' father, Charles Potter, had been the Minister of Magic and thoroughly disapproved of these treks to Ynes Mon. Most modern wizards looked down on the "old magic" as primitive, though they did give a certain respect to those who practiced it. This was a cause for many fights in the Potter household during James' childhood, Mr. Potter's insistence that it was inappropriate for the Minister of Magic's family to be seen frequenting "places like that." But regardless of his objections Rhia Potter took her children there on a regular basis.

There was a small wooded area at the edge of Ynes Mon that James and Carrie would play in. Rhia Potter always made sure to warn her children not to go too far into the woods. Supposedly there was a small muggle town near the end of it and, as children, both James and Carrie harbored a fear of muggles.

One day, near James' seventh birthday, he had been playing in these very woods when he heard a strange sound nearby. Normally he would have had Carrie by his side but that day she hadn't felt well so he was left to play alone.

His mother had warned him to walk away slowly if he heard strange noises in the woods but, on this occasion, James was far too scared to walk away, so instead he did the entire opposite and leapt head-first into the bush where he'd heard the sound, tackling the "animal."

Imagine his surprise when he opened his eyes to find that, instead of an animal, he'd tackled a little girl with bright green eyes. He scrambled off of her and went on to proclaim the stupidest sentence in history: "Well, you're not an animal!" The green eyes blinked. She was in the process of getting up off the forest floor as well.

She stood up straight and stared at him, puzzled. Then, speaking in a way that only a six-year old know-it-all could have, she responded to his stupid proclamation.

"Well actually, we are animals. You see we're mammals and mammals are types of animals so, you're wrong, I am an animal."

James' jaw dropped. He knew no one his age that could come back at him like that. Most kids accepted his word as law, due to his unusual intelligence, but this girl seemed to be able to hold her own. He continued to stare at her stupidly like this as she brushed leaves off of her skirt. He suddenly noticed the state of her clothes. She was wearing a skirt and blouse that looked expensive but as if she had rolled around in the forest with them. Her striking red hair had leaves in it and her shoes looked as though she'd walked miles and miles in them.

She had probably noticed him staring because she went on to say, "I've been lost."

"Oh" was all James could think to say. He was still entranced by her. Despite her disheveled appearance, she exuded a sense of gracefulness that captivated James. The sunlight was flickering through her hair and her green eyes seemed to stand out more than ever. She was still staring at him oddly, as though sizing him up and determining how big a threat he posed to her.

"Would you be able to tell me where I am?" she asked, businesslike, as though she were asking about the weather or something similar. He gaped.

"Erm, you're in Wales," James answered lamely.

"Well, I know that," she said, frowning at him. "I was wondering what town this was." It suddenly struck James that perhaps this girl was a muggle and had no idea that she'd stumbled into a wizarding sanctuary.

The thought that she was a muggle, instead of scaring James (since he was afraid of muggles after all) made James feel more secure. This was his territiory and therefore he had the upper hand here and knew more than this precocious red-head girl did.

"Well, the people here call it Ynes Mon," he began.

"Ynes Mon?" she repeated, sounding as though she was processing this information.

"Yes."

"I've never heard of it before," she said, sounding concerned.

"Well most people haven't. You see only wiz--" he stopped abruptly. She looked up at him sharply.

"Yes?"

"Err, maybe we should find my mother. She could help you get back wherever you came from," he said, thinking quick. She still eyed him suspiciously but began following him.

"So, where'd you come from?" he asked her, trying to change the subject until they reached his mother.

"My grandmother's house," she replied slowly, as if still unsure whether to trust him or not. "She lives right on the edge of the town, near the forest, and sometimes I go out to play, and, well I got lost this time."

"You live with your grandmother?" he asked, curious.

"Not usually. My parents sometimes dump me there when they go traveling. My dad has a very busy job and he has to travel to a lot of different places and my mother loves to follow him wherever he goes. Sometimes I go with them and other times I stay with relatives. My sister goes to a boarding school in England, so she doesn't have to worry about moving, but I do." She blurted this all out in one breath. James noticed the bitterness in her voice and felt bad for her. The few times his dad had to leave them for business trips he'd also felt sad.

"What kind of places have you been to?" At this she brightened up.

"Whenever they let me come, I always have a lot of fun because I love to see new things! I've been to Japan, I've been to Italy, I've been to France, but only because my other grandmother lives there. She's the mean one. I like this one much better." She stopped and a worried look came over her face. "Do you think I could call her when we get into Ynes Mon? I think she'll be very worried, and I just want to let her know I'm okay." She turned to him.

He was confused. He had no idea what she meant by "call" so he shrugged and said, "We'll see."

She nodded and continued walking. Then suddenly something seemed to occur to her and she stopped. James stopped as well. "I never asked you who you were," she exclaimed, looking at him expectantly.

"Oh, my name is James Potter," he said, suddenly feeling a bit shy. He held out his hand, as he was taught to do at introductions. She looked at his hand for a moment, then held out her own hand and shook his firmly. Then, almost unexpectedly, she smiled. James was, yet again, taken aback by her. She had one of the most beautiful smiles he'd ever seen. It lit up her whole face.

"Pleased to meet you, James Potter. My name is Lily Evans."

They smiled at each other.

A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers.

Quick note to Miss Myrtle360: Your review had me laughing so much. You seriously thought everyone was horny? I went back and readmy entire fic and I really can see it now. It's funny how you can write something, not really meaning it a certain way, and people interpret it differently.I guess some of them are horny. Among the girls, they're not really horny so much as competitive in order to get Sirius to go out with them. Carrie acts horny to rebel against James but she has yet to really understand sex. The boys (excluding Sirius of course) are quite inexperienced. Just ask James or Will. James is horny but he won't admit it to himself. I don't know. Interpret things the way you want. I'll only clarify things for you. But anyway, thanks for the review! It really made me laugh. And, yeah, Lily is mean. She's developing as a person.

Review! It makes me update quicker...