Summary: James Potter has seen only the dark side of life since he discovered a secret when he was thirteen, and since then, he has been becoming increasingly cynical until he has reached the point he could be described as misanthropic. He begins his search for the answer to questions that will change his life, and along the way he encounters a bright patch of light in his dark world, namely Lily Evans.

Disclaimer: I unfortunately don't own the concept of Harry Potter, of Muggles and Magicals, and all that great stuff.

When Dawn Breaks The Night

Part One-Meeting the Dawn

Chapter Seven-Twisted

For Lily's part, she mostly observed James's appearance. He seemed angry, a dark scowl ornamented his face, and there was a large crease in his forehead from drawing his eyebrows toward each other. And he was the only Quidditch player she had ever seen, not that she had seen all that many, who didn't look comfortable in his robes.

The red and gold of the Gryffindor team uniform seemed out of place with his usual wardrobe of staunch black Hogwarts robes, and equally staunch causal clothes, always ironed perfectly, probably even starched if Lily's diagnosis was accurate.

James's main observation was that she looked entirely too cheery after having dealt him a blow, that was in his opinion, below the belt.

"Well, I can see you're angry, and I do believe we're far enough from the inhabited portion of the castle, so do you want to tell me what's wrong? Or, you could sit there and chew on it, and probably get indigestion from your ire."

"You know what's wrong."

"Do I? I see no reason for you to be mad at me. I suppose you'll have to spell it out."

"You did not come to my game."

"You never asked me to."

"I shouldn't have to."

"I can't read minds. I never watch the Quidditch games, so I saw no reason to change my routine. I probably wouldn't even know where the pitch was if I didn't have to walk past it on my way to Herbology."

"I'm sure."

"I'm being serious!"

"It was humiliating for me."

"Come on, nobody besides Millie probably even noticed."

"Porter asked me about it."

"Oh."

James's face was increasingly turning red. "It's expected for you to be there! I looked like a moron."

"I don't see the big issue about me going to Quidditch games."

"Maybe I would like a little friendly support."

"You can have a little friendly support any time you ask. However, you do have to ask, because I can't read anybody's mind, let alone yours."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you are so mentally twisted that I don't know what to expect next. You have a family no one talks about, you have a secret connection with Millie that no one knows about, and you are hot under the collar every five minutes about the injustices of the world."

James's jaw dropped in astonishment, and he stared for quite a little bit. "I cannot believe that you said that to me."

"You shouldn't be the only person allowed to dish out raw honesty."

"I suppose you're right. But I do not get mad every five minute over the injustices of the world. Only the injustices dealt me."

"Which I know are large in number, but you need to learn how to shake things off…just let it roll on by. I believe you're a prime candidate for cardiac arrest."

James narrowed his eyes, in just a slightly intimidating way, but Lily wasn't persuaded to stop the conversation, instead, she patiently said: "It's the honest truth, and I'm sorry if you don't like it. I'm not trying to be mean, I'm trying not to be stepped on too terribly."

James continued to watch her, and Lily stuck out her hand, as if to shake. "Let's make a deal: you have the right to expect me at your Quidditch games, providing you still want me to go, if I have the right to tell you what I think."

"I don't really think that's fair."

"I do. I don't like to watch Quidditch and you don't like to hear an honest opinion."

His jaw dropped. "That is not true. I like an honest opinion when it is requested. Yours wasn't requested. It was too honest."

"I'm sorry I didn't sugarcoat it for you."

I-well, I don't, ugh. You, Lily, are impossible." He pointed his finger at her accusingly, and she grinned.

"You do realize that three fingers are pointing back at you."

"How creative."

"Classic material, sir, classic material." Lily took his arm and started directing him down another hallway.

"Where are we going?"

"The unknown will be healthy for you."

"I don't like the unknown. Not one bit. I can't plan it to fit my needs."

"That would be the reason it's called the unknown…imagine that."

"Shut up."

"Anyway, I have prefect patrol, and I thought it would be a prime time for you to tell me about your game, since I did miss it."

"Prefect patrol?"

"Remember, you assigned it to me."

"I did not."

"Yes you did."

"I did not."

"Umm, yes, you did. Head Students create the patrol schedule. Remember?"

"I guess I did. Sorry. So what do you want to know?"

"What position do you play again?"

James stared at her incredulously, but he looked highly amused, "How can you be so unaware?"

"You would be surprised how easy it is. For me, at least."

James and Lily spend Lily's patrolling assignment discussing the Quidditch game, or rather, James telling Lily about it. She listened intently, and James was thrilled to have somebody's attention solely on him for one of the few times in his life. And at the end, she had one really excellent question. "So why do you play Quidditch even though you don't like it?"

"What?! I never said I didn't like Quidditch! I play, don't I?"

"I caught the implication, James. It's obvious you don't like Quidditch. You see, Amos likes Quidditch, and when he talks about it, he acts like the game is a Veela that happens to have his name on it. You don't."

"I-I…I don't want to talk about it."

"Why do you play?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm curious! You don't seem like the sort that does anything they don't want to, but yet you are."

"Can I have a bit to think on it?"

"I think you know the answer."

"Of course I know the answer. I just want to decide how much I can tell you."

Lily shook her head. "If I wasn't incredibly optimistic, I would say you were a lost cause."

"I'm glad to know you haven't entirely given up." James smiled and took the large bag she was carrying that they had found in the halls. "I'll drop that by Figg's office on my way to the Tower. I'm going to shower, and I'll meet you if that's okay."

"It's fine."

"Where do you want to meet?"

"I don't care."

"The Quidditch pitch?"

"Uhhhh." Lily stared blankly.

"Joking, joking. How about by the oak tree on the lakes north shore?"

"I'll be there in forty-five minutes. Is that enough time for you?"

"Enough for twenty showers."

Lily rolled her eyes and let him kiss her before he walked away.

*~*~*

"You're late." James said from his seat in the oak tree. Lily looked up, shading her eyes with her hand.

"I was unavoidable detained. Are you going to come down?"

"Why don't you come up?"

"I don't know how to climb a tree."

"I'll teach you." James hopped down lithely. "You see, it's all about footing and grip. Watch me once."

James hoisted a foot up into a notch about waist level in the trunk, and pulled himself up to a new notch or knot. He repeated the process a few times, until he could lift himself onto a thick branch. James jumped next to her. "Now you try."

"Alright, where do I put my foot?"

"Where I did." James indicated, and Lily jabbed him with her elbow.

"Seriously."

"I'm being serious."

"I can't lift my leg that high!"

"Sure you can, it's easy. And you're not that short. If you were Millie, I'd say you couldn't, but you're tall for a girl."

"Thanks," she said dryly, looking the tree up and down appraisingly. "Well, my leg doesn't move like that, sorry to disappoint. Maybe we should just discuss your Quidditch problem on the ground."

"Nope, it's in the tree or not at all."

"You little turkey!"

"Can I be a slightly more masculine animal?"

"Fine. You little tom turkey!"

"Excellent display of animal knowledge. Now about that tree…"

"I'll get it!" Lily was glad today was Saturday and she wasn't wearing her uniform skirt and robes. Somehow, she managed to get about eight feet off the ground. "What now?"

"Grab the branch and push yourself upwards."

Lily glared down at him, making it rather obvious she couldn't do that.

"Maybe you should try swinging your legs over it like an opossum hanging upside down."

She tried that, and after five minutes of heavy physical exertion was sitting on the branch. "I did it! And you enjoyed that very much, didn't you?"

"It was the most amusing thing I've seen all week." He was standing there with is arms crossed, looking near laughter.

"Oh shut up!" Lily took the opportunity to throw an acorn at him, making him jump to one side. James quickly shimmied up the tree, thoroughly aggravating her. He leaned against the trunk, looking relaxed.

"I found the owner of the book bag. It was a second year's."

"You weren't mean, were you?"

James opened a hazel eye caustically. "Me? Be mean?"

"Yes, you."

"No, I didn't do anything besides recommend that they put their name on the flap if they're going to make a practice of losing it. I was nice since they looked ready to cry anyway."

"How marvelous of you. I think you'll qualify for sainthood after that one."

"And they call me sarcastic." James laughed and smiled, and Lily looked at him strangely. "What?"

"Nothing. So what's with the Quidditch thing? What have you decided to tell me?"

"A surprisingly large amount. I play Quidditch to please my parents."

"I thought you hated them."

"I do, but I guess it's just easier than arguing with them. I've always been good at flying, even when I was little, so it's not something I can lie about. And I started playing at Hogwarts at a particularly traumatic time in my life, and I thought it would please them and maybe earn a little attention. It did, just not from them."

"So why do you still play?"

"I basically don't want to argue with them. I don't really care if I play or not, it's not any skin off my back. It just takes a little time, and school isn't particularly hard for me, so I might as well. If I quit, Dumbledore would feel the need to counsel me, and ask me dozens of questions about my life, then contact my parents, and one of them would undoubtedly come up here. I come to Hogwarts to get away from them; I can't handle it if they break into my ten and a half months away from them. It's not like I hate it or anything."

"Would you quit if you hated it?"

"Definitely. There are very few people I would do things I hate for, and my parents are not on that list."

Lily watched him for a bit, examining his face while his eyes were closed. "Why do you hate your parents so much?"

"Don't you think you've pressed your luck enough tonight?" he answered, not bothering to open his eyes, which sort of scared her more than a little.

"I think you're right. Would you mind moving so I can get down?"

"Just jump down."

"I'd rather not."

"You won't get hurt."

"I'd rather not risk it. I don't always land on my feet like some people."

"Witches don't get hurt like Muggles do."

"James, I want down. Now," Lily said icily, making him open his eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just want to go back inside."

"Oh. Okay." James jumped down while she climbed more slowly. Lily had intended to go back alone, but that wasn't happening. For the first time around him, she was actually scared. Something about the scene of him sitting in a tree in the twilight with his eyes closed had truly been frightening. She wasn't sure what it was, but it made her shiver. "Are you cold?" James put an arm around her shoulder, which she stepped away from.

"I'm not cold! Not at all!" Lily said hastily, speeding up. "Just preoccupied, that's all."

"Are you mad?"

"Me? Mad? I don't get mad. Merely disgusted."

"In that case are you disgusted?"

"Why would I be disgusted?"

"Because I didn't tell you about my family."

"I'm not disgusted! That's your business, not mine. I don't even know why you think I'm disgusted."

"Normal people don't act like they've consumed a cauldron full of caffeine. You're very antsy all of a sudden."

"I'm just thinking about something."

"What?"

"My Transfiguration project!"

"I can help you with it if you want."

"That's quite all right. I can get it."

"If you're sure…"

"Very sure." Lily hastily threw open the doors to the castle so hard that a suit of armor turned to glare at her. Or at least, if armor could glare, that's what it would be doing.

"Would you stop it?" James grabbed her hand to make her pause. "What the hell is going on?"

Lily looked down at their clasped hands, then without lifting her head, she looked up at him. "Nothing is going on."

"Really? I think there is. One minute we're sitting in the tree talking, and the next you're running away from me. What happened?"

Lily stared down at their hands again and didn't say anything.

"I really want to know. What did I do?"

"I…I'm not sure," she sighed. "I really don't know."

James was frowning heavily. "I thought you were different. Apparently I was wrong."

"What's that about?" Her head immediately snapped up, not liking the turn of events. This was his fault, not hers.

"I thought we could last a little longer than ten days. It was a match made in Heaven. The only witch in the entire world who doesn't know my family. It was perfect!"

"I don't see the problem here," Lily said stiffly, hiding her hands behind her back. "Besides, you didn't even wait to see what was wrong."

"You don't like the issue of my family."

"Your family is not even a part of this! I am not so small-minded as to make a judgement on you based on your family, whom I don't even know!"

"Then what is the problem?"

"You scared me!"

James looked at her in disbelief. "How did I scare you?"

"I don't really know. You've never scared me before. Granted, I've only known you for two months, but you weren't even being mean and nasty."

"So do you want me to be mean and nasty in the future?" He looked surprisingly serious about this whole thing, which greatly surprised Lily, it was something she wasn't expecting at all.

"No! I think…I think it just scared me that you were so nonchalant about your parents and Quidditch, and it's so completely different than how I would act." Lily put a hand to her forehead to shove hair out of her face. "I'm sorry for acting so weird, I'm still not sure what exactly happened."

James nodded and started to walk away from her.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Not really. I'll live."

She ran to catch up, "You're mad, aren't you?"

"No, I am not mad. I don't know. Can we just drop it? It's not really a big deal unless I scare you with regularity, then that could be a problem."

"If you're not upset, I'm not upset."

"I'm not the one that was scared."

*~*~*

Autumn passed, the weather being unusually cold in that particular portion of Scotland, making Lily dream of her thick carpeting and unending supply of hot cocoa from home. Granted, she didn't live in any sort of tropical climate, but her cozy house would be much warmer than the drafty castle.

She was also looking forward to Christmas.

The sixth year girls' dormitory had been decorated to the nines since mid-November, a magically ticking countdown clock hanging over the door. The occupants were continually griping about being bombarded by tinsel and Christmas carol head aches, but Lily was enjoying it.

So, when they had a Hogsmeade trip on the second Saturday before Christmas, she was concerned for very little besides gifts. So far, she had a gift for the Marauder, minus James, her parents, Vernon, Petunia, and some small gifts for her roommates. That left the people who were hard to buy for: Millie, Amos, and James.

*~*~*

The Marauders were all sitting in The Three Broomsticks, more than ready to idle their way through the last hour of the scheduled excursion. Sirius and Peter both had butterbeer while Remus and James preferred limebeer, which was basically butterbeer mixed with citrus juice. Most of the wizarding world abhorred the vile concoction, but somehow the dark friends managed to swallow it and live to tell the tale regularly.

"You know, personally, I think she's great." Peter said, giving his opinion on Lily, as had the other Marauders. The general consensus was that she was a keeper. They all liked her, and she liked them, what more could you ask for.

"She's snoopy." James said moodily, "I don't like that very well."

"But think how amusing it is."

"It would be more amusing if she was on time."

"Since when are you a defender of punctuality?" Sirius asked, not at all perturbed by James's mood. He was always out of sorts during the Christmas season.

"Since she's eighteen minutes late. I was instilled with the importance of being on time."

"You were also instilled with distrust of human kind, dislike of human kind, pure meanness, an awful temper, grim humor, and just a tiny bit of cunning sarcasm," Lily said as she simultaneously gave him a greeting kiss on the cheek, sitting in her chair, and stuffing a large multitude of shopping bags at her feet. "But we still all love and adore you, all the same. I would send my apologies, but I see you've already had a good gripe about it."

"Hello to you too."

Lily positively beamed, "What can I say, I got stuck in a check-out line, spent an hour trying to decide if Amos would rather have a red or a blue edition of 'The Ultimate Magical Beast Encyclopedia', tried to find my best friend Millie something, and still figure out what in the world you would like! By the way, if you were Amos, would you prefer a red or a blue edition?"

Four blank stares hit her.

"Hello?"

"You're very…uh…intense today, Lily," Sirius observed, his eyes wide. Nobody was too concerned with James's reaction, because over the months since school started back up, he had mellowed somewhat. It took a little bit more to make him fly off the handle, or have an emotional block these days.

"So what about that book? I am stumped. Christmas is going to kill me. I can't handle this sort of stress. Can I have a drink of that, I am so thirsty. I nearly got in a wrestling match with a fourth year Ravenclaw over the last Christmas card in the entire town of Hogsmeade."

"You must be over reacting," Peter said, watching in disbelief.

"Sadly, I'm not. There won't be another shipment to Flourish and Blotts until December 23rd, and nobody wants to wait that long, especially if they're owled cards."

James returned with a butterbeer for her. "So did you get the card or not?"

"Well, yes."

"Way to make us proud."

Lily laughed, "I'm not even going to try to decide whether that's your nasty sarcasm or you're being serious."

"Nobody actually does, Lily." Sirius winked at her teasingly, then nudged James for no apparent reason.

"That's always good to know. So what is everyone's plans for the holidays?"

"We'll all be wallowing in good cheer, I assure you."

Lily didn't know Remus's comment was sarcastic until she heard James snort in that mean and nasty way of his. "What?"

"I'll explain later," James promised, catching looks from his friends. "Do you want to go for a walk with me?"

"Uhhh.," Lily hesitated, looking at her large pile of Christmas gifts.

"I'll split them with you."

"Okay. I think I can handle that." She handed him several sacks, just a few more than she kept for herself. "You do realize that I have to be at the carriage dock in fifteen minutes to watch for students ready to leave?"

James groaned, "Remind me never to make another schedule in my entire life. It always ends up coming back to haunt me."

"It was rather stupid to give me Christmas patrol."

"I know, I know."

"So, what is everyone doing for Christmas?"

"I'll only tell you if you promise not to go into of that pity crap of yours."

"Okay, I promise not to pull any of that pity stuff."

"Alright, well, it's actually worse than it usually is. Sirius is going home, his dad is dying. It's probably going to be the last Christmas of all three of them together. Remus has a werewolf clinic thing that he's going to. They want to see if some new herbs can put it in remission. Peter is the luckiest, everything is fine with him."

"And what about you?" Lily asked, looking up at him. She moved her packages around so that she could link arms with him.

"I'm staying at Hogwarts. It's what I always do."

"Why?"

"I hate going home."

"Alone at Hogwarts isn't the best of ways to spend the greatest holiday of them all."

"Christmas is only great if you have family and friends, and a disgustingly perfect life to begin with. For us miserable despots, it's just another day for us to see what we don't have."

She sighed and rolled her eyes. "James."

"Please hold off on all lectures."

"If you wish."

"I do." Lily couldn't believe anybody could have that sort of opinion on Christmas. Christmas was wonderful.

*~*~*

Author's Note: If anybody read off of e met her little brother. The Prequel can be read at reddholly.tk