James taped the paper with his wand and grinned as it transformed into a paper airplane and flew across the room to Sirius. Flitwick stopped speaking and turned towards him, and James was scared for a second that he would claim the note and read it aloud. Flitwick chose to ignore it though, and went on with his lesson. James leaned back and glanced around the room. Most students were industriously taking notes, hanging on every word Flitwick said. James would get notes from Remus later. He glanced at his friend sitting on the other side of the room next to Sirius. James had gotten there late and the only seat left had been next to Lily Evans. He glanced over at her, but all he could see was her mane of red hair. It really was pretty, he realized. He'd never thought about it before. She was intently reading her charms textbook, her two best friends, Emma and Jane, doing the same in the bench in front of Lily and James's. Suddenly Emma turned around and handed a tiny piece of parchment to Lily, who immediately sat up to read the note. James glanced down at the book, and noticed it wasn't a charms textbook at all. He glanced at the title written across the top of the page, The Encyclopedia of Complex Charms for Advanced Witches and Wizards. Why one earth was she reading that? He had that book at home. His parents used it occasionally for a really complex spell that they might need, and he'd tried some of them before, mostly unsuccessfully. He glanced at the note in her hand, but he couldn't make it out. The symbols on the page were strange, and then he recognized them: ancient Greek. Why on earth would they pass notes to each other in Greek? It made sense to learn it, maybe. Some spell could be made more powerful if spoken in an ancient tongue, but to be fluent enough to write in it? These girls must be crazier than everyone thought.
He was slightly annoyed, too, that he, James Potter, one of the most popular guys at Hogwarts, didn't know what these girls were passing each other notes about. Actually, he realized, he didn't know anything about them. They were in Gryfindor. He knew that. The red-head, Lily, was a prefect, and so her grades must be good. She'd stopped the Marauders in halls several times, he remembered, but that didn't mean he remembered her distinctly. He knew the three were best friends and rarely talked to anyone but each other. In fact, Lily was so quiet and distant from the rest of the school, James and his friends had long ago nicknamed her "the Ice Queen," and it had spread through the school and stuck. It was appropriate. Lily seemed to glide through the halls room, her chin tilted up, her back perfectly straight. She acted as if she owned every room she entered, not glancing at anyone. Rumor had it that she had never had a friendly conversation with anyone but her closest friends. In fact, unless they were talking about schoolwork, Lily was rarely heard talking, and then only to her friends. She had reminded James of the queen in the book he had been reading at the time, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with her almost translucent skin and startling green eyes. She seemed to belong in a wintry land, hence her nickname.
Emma and Jane found the nickname funny. Lily was well aware of it, and she and her two best friends, Emma and Jane, all found it quite amusing. Lily was anything but icy. She was just shy and private. But the rest of the world didn't need to know that. It was much more amusing this way. Besides, there was a lot about the three friends that they couldn't afford for the rest of the world to know. The reputation they held was certainly not problematic for the keeping of these secrets.
Now James was suddenly curious. Why could Lily read a book completely unrelated to class and still get marks good enough to be a prefect. He could tell her friends weren't taking notes either, and if she didn't talk to anyone else, she must be learning this stuff somehow. The textbooks didn't have everything in them. And what were the girls passing notes about? He decided that he was going to solve the mystery of the Ice Queen and her Ladies.
Sirius's note came flying towards him. James reached out to get it, but didn't catch it in time, and it hit Lily Evans in the head. James glared at his friend, who had proceeded to crack up. Lily glanced up at James, not saying anything, with a glazed unreadable look in her eyes. For a second, those eye's caught James's, and his heart stopped. Her eyes were beautiful: emerald green with flecks of gold, and they seemed to go on forever. He could feel himself getting lost in them. He tore his eyes away and examined the rest of her face, the long eyelashes, the pale skin, slightly flushed in the cheeks, the pointed button nose, perfectly shaped red lips. She reminded him of Snow White, skin as pale as snow, lips as red as blood, but her eyes were green, and of course there was the cascading red hair that seemed to float around her head in an unwieldy mass. It wasn't a true red though. It was more auburn, deep and rich. She was beautiful, he realized. He'd never noticed it before, but she was probably one of the prettiest girls in the school. She handed him the note nonchalantly, and then turned back to her book, as if nothing had happened, but James simply took the note and leaned back against his chair, staring off into space, occasionally stealing a glance in Lily Evan's direction. She was a mystery indeed.