It was the following Monday and Lily just earned Gryffindor another 10 points in Charms. She really enjoyed that subject. Everything seemed to be going her way, until a certain James Potter showed up.
"Hey, Lily!"
'Just keep walking...ignore him...he'll stop sooner or later,' she thought.
"Are you not speaking to me? Come off it, Lily! I didn't mean to be a jerk the other day."
"Did James Potter just apologize?" said Lily, sarcastically.
"I thought you weren't speaking to me," he smiled, "Anyways...I thought we could, you know, try and get along?"
"And why on earth would we need to get along?"
"Why? Well, Remus thinks you're a neat girl. So, therefore, we must get along."
Lily thought for a second, 'Remus thinks I'm neat? What does he mean by that?...'
"Argh, Potter! I'm running late for Potions!"
"How about I walk you there? You know, a form of my apology?" asked James. He didn't know why, but her apology meant a lot to him.
"No!" Lily shouted, her eyes blazing. It was obvious how much James Potter could get on her last nerve.
'Well,' he said to himself, 'I guess that's the end of that.'
Potions began when Professor Linkstam entered the room. She was a strange teacher, that loved deducting points from every house but her own.
"Good evening, class!" Linkstam roared, "Today we will begin a potion to heal grindylow stings."
"Can we choose our own partners?" asked Sirius.
"No. I will be choosing your partners today, Black," she said coldly. Linkstam knew that when James and Sirius were partners, trouble arose.
"Black, you'll be working with Lupin. Ms. Steubing, you may be paired with Ms. Clark. Ms. Evans, you will be with Potter..."
Lily froze. 'Potter? Did she just say Potter? No, I must've heard wrong...'
Lily raised her hand in the air. "Professor Linkstam?"
"...Snape, you'll be working with Higgins. Ah, yes, Ms. Evans?"
"I'm awefully sorry, Professor, but who am I paired with?"
"Mr. Potter, now get to work!" said Linkstam, annoyed.
"Don't look so cheerful, Lily," said James. He walked up to her desk and pulled up a chair.
"Er, right. Well, lets begin," she said, stiffly. She thought she'd act as if nothing happened. Maybe they could get through this class with a decent mark.
"I'll get the ingredients. You get the cauldron."
Lily was lost in thought. 'What? Was James taking charge? We'll see about that...'
Lily gathered the cauldron and headed back towards her desk. She organized the ingredients and made sure she had everything set.
James sighed, "Lily, you're not going to work on this alone. That's why we have partners."
"Fine! But if you mess this up, you're done for."
James glanced at the board and began cutting the ingredients. Lily was shocked that he was helping. Usually if you get paired with James or Sirius, you might as well be alone. Remus would help, though. Lily stole a glance at Remus. He was stirring his potion, while Sirius was secretly throwing jinxes across the room at Snape. This made Lily scowl.
James heard her and followed her gaze. "You know, we're not that bad, Sirus and I."
"Wha-at? I don't know what you're talking about."
"And I don't see you scowling at Remus. Say, do you fancy him?" asked James wide-eyed.
Lily dropped her spoon in the cauldron, shocked at what James asked her. "Remus? Me? No!" She said this a little too quickly for James's liking.
James didn't know why, but the thought of Lily with Remus made him extremely angry. He tried to brush it off, but not before Lily noticed.
"Even if I did fancy Remus, what would it matter to you?" she asked coldy.
"Well, Remus is one of my best friends," he covered up smoothly. They were letting the potion set for 5 minutes.
"And your point is?"
"Obviously, you wouldn't last long as a couple if you didn't like his best friends," James pointed out.
"Who said anything about us becoming a couple? Listen, Potter, get that idea out of your head!" she said, angrily.
He didn't know why, but James was very relieved to hear that.
"Alright, times up! Bring your samples to my desk!" called Linkstam.
"I've got it," said James. He was determined to show Lily that he wasn't as immature as she thought he was.
"So, James, how was working with Lily?" asked Sirius with a knowing look. He, too, was in line.
"Not too bad," he said, "We actually had forms of communication." He didn't have to mention they agrued the entire time.
"Well, something's better than nothing."
"Right you are," said James, nearly at Linkstam's desk.
"Potter and Evans. Well, the color looks about right. Lets test it!" She put a spoon full of their potion onto what looked like grindylow venom. The venom was bubbly and looked a violent shade of purple. The moment the potion touched the venom it mysteriously turned transparent.
"Well done, Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans. You've received full marks," she said, somewhat displeased.
'Lily's going to love to hear this!' James raced back to their desks and informed her.
"We did? That's wonderful!" she said, excitedly. She put her hand forward for James to shake.
James shook it, confused.
"Well done, James. Think of this as a sort of peace offering."
"Friends?"
She snorted, "I wouldn't get carried away. I'd like to think we're only two people that are polite towards eachother, if you know what I mean."
'Of course, why would she want to be friends already? I'll show her, James Potter can be mature.'
"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean," he finally said.
When Lily got up to leave the Potions classroom, Natalie and Claire came up behind her laughing.
"You and James sure looked like you were having fun!" Natalie said sarcastically.
Claire laughed and said, "I hope you two aren't thinking of becoming a couple.."
"Stop that, you're becoming more immature than he is." Lily said, she was really getting sick of those two.
"Ohh Lily, did you forget about Paul Schmidt? I thought he was your one and only, not James Potter." Claire said with a disgusted look on her face, "I told you to give him a chance, not become his best friend."
Lily had had enough. She didn't understand why her friends acted this way anytime James was brought into the picture. Having been forced to work with him today, she noticed he actually could have a gentleman side to him if he tried. She could almost see herself being with him more often, but she didn't want to take it that far yet. "I'll see you guys later," she said, and she left to go to the library.
