Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Only the plot.

Beta by: ilovethedotgame

Chapter Eleven: Being Her Friend

This Chapter is dedicated to Dragonzflame, who gave me an idea for this story along (a really long)time ago, and now I'm finally getting to use it.

James Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Peter Pettigrew

I'm still reeling from recent events. Lily's my friend. I can have conversations with her. I can walk to class with her. Not that I didn't do all those things before, but it was mostly me following Lily and her yelling at me. Now we have civil discussions and help each other with homework.

I noticed something about Lily and her friends. She smiles at them and laughs with them. That's what I wanted with my friendship with Lily. And now I have that.

Life is so good.

Prongs is currently singing in the shower.

And sounding like someone who's being tortured. Good Merlin, make him stop!

Someday I'm going to get fed up with Sirius and find a replacement for his best friend position.

Today in Potions, he told Lily about my shower singing. Or more accurately, he told her that I sounded like, and I quote, "A seagull that was being strangled".

She laughed so hard that she knocked over the cauldron she was working at with Sirius (they were paired together for the day) and the potion spilled onto the floor. Lily got off lucky with only a hole burned in her shoe, but alas, most of the potion ended up on Sirius.

Needless to say he's up in the hospital wing as we speak. All the skin on his stomach needs to be re-grown andhis feet are pretty bad off too.

I'm going to go visit him now, take him some Zonkos stuff to cheer him up.

Just when I thought that life couldn't get any better, it did! I'm so happy I could sing! Well, I'll spare my friends that agony, but that's how good I feel!

While I was visiting Sirius, Lily showed up with a box and a card for him. I guess she felt bad about getting him sent to the hospital wing. She really shouldn't, it was an accident.

All three of us started talking about school and classes and then Sirius fell asleep. At least that's what Lily thinks. I happen to know that Sirius was faking it. He normally snores loud enough to wake the dead, but he was only breathing heavily.

Deciding to take advantage of the situation, I kept talking. Lily didn't seem to mind. I ended up telling her about the time that Sirius and I thought it would be great fun to try and jump off the stands unto our brooms. Bad idea that. I broke my arm in five different places.

Then I told her about the time that Peter hit me in the head with a telescope while I was walking in front of him. I spent five days out cold in the hospital wing after that incident.

Why I told her these things, I'm not sure, but it felt right to be talking to Lily about them. She didn't laugh, even though my stories were laughable.

It was when she called me Potter that I realized something. She calls Sirius, Remus and Peter by their first names, but I'm always Potter. Never James.

I asked her why she always called me Potter. Lily looked thoughtful for a moment, and then told me that she guessed it was out of habit.

So, I asked if she could start a new habit and call me James. She said she could.

James! I'm not Potter anymore! I'm James! Hallelujah!

I forgot to mention that yesterday on our way back to the dorms, Lily say that she was having trouble with transfiguration. So I offered to help her. We're meeting in the library today at 7:30. Dear Merlin, it's 7:20 now! I have to go!

Lily's smarter than I thought. Not that I thought she was stupid or anything, but she picked up on this material really quickly. I have the sneaking suspicion that she had an idea about the stuff, she just wanted to make sure she knew it 100. Lily's like that.

Working with her tonight, I realized something. (I seem to be doing a lot of that this year) I know when her birthday is, who her friends are, what classes she enjoys, what classes she can't stand and some other random facts, but the truth is, that I don't really know Lily Evans at all.

I don't know her dreams and aspirations. I don't know anything about her family. I don't know her values and principles. I don't know her as a person.

Must do something about that.

Bravo James! That was extremely perceptive! You've come so far.

Let's not get all sentimental. I just ate you know.

What do you mean you don't know Lily? Sure you know her.

I'll explain it to you later, Peter.

Okay.

I was just released from the hospital wing. Actually, half of the sixth year Gryffindors were just released from the hospital wing. You see, it all started three days ago on the second floor corridor on the way to Transfiguration.

I was walking next to Lily (because we're friends and that's something that friends do) when she accidentally bumped into Snape. A few of his books were knocked to the ground and Lily was in the process of picking them up when he told her that her that he didn't need a Mudblood touching his stuff.

I was ready to beat Snape to a pulp, but Lily placed herself between us. Honestly, I know the girl means well, but that's the second time he's called her a Mudblood.

I told her to move, but she wouldn't. I tried to make her see reason, that I had to defend my friend's honor, but she said that she wasn't going to let me degrade my self-worth by sinking to the level of a Slytherin.

And I started to believe her. It reminded me of the lake incident last year. When I call Snape names and treat him like he treats Muggleborns I'm no better than be is. I won't forget that lesson again.

Then Snape hit a low blow and said, "So, this is what has become of the high and mighty James Potter, taking orders from Mudbloods…" He didn't get any farther because from behind Lily and me Sirius came running and sent a hex towards Snape that threw him into the air.

Snape got up and sent a curse back at Sirius that caused a gash to open in the side of his head, spattering blood everywhere. I couldn't just stand there, watching, so I had to help Sirius. What are best friends for?

We started fighting, both with wands and fists, with more people from both Gryffindor and Slytherin joining in. What really surprised me was that Lily joined in the fight. I'm not sure why or how, but for reasons unknown to me, she did.

The fight got pretty nasty. Someone's wand, (we found out later it was a Slytherin named Nott) was sent flying, Peeves caught it and started setting fire to the tapestries hanging on the wall.

I had a black eye, a large gash in my shoulder that wouldn't stop bleeding, and it felt like someone had kicked me in the side, which they might have. Sirius's robes were torn, and he had blood all over him. Remus got his nose broken and poor Peter was knocked unconscious. Lily was covered in boils, no thanks to Narcissa Black.

And then Professor McGonagall was there, pulling me away from a Slytherin by the name of Lestrange. I knew that McGonagall could be scary, but dear Merlin, the tone she used…I never, ever, ever, ever want to hear anything like that as long as I live.

McGonagall yelled at us for what seemed like hours and then we were escorted to the hospital wing. All of us spent the night there, the Gryffindors on one side of the room and the Slytherins on the other. Professor McGonagall herself set up a magical barrier between us so that no one would try and carry on the fight.

Yesterday the Gryffindors and Slytherins had a talk with Professor Dumbledore. Or rather he reprimanded us some more. Everyone received detention for the next three weeks at seven o'clock. I'm also on probation as quidditch captain.

If I mess up one more time, that's it for me. I'd better stick to the straight and narrow. I don't want to have to loose my position as captain, not when I've worked for hard for it.

As our Gryffindor prefects, Remus and Lily are both on probation too. I feel bad, that I got Lily into that situation. She didn't have to get involved.

I have to go polish the trophies now. Without magic. Joy. At least I get to serve this detention with Lily.

You conveniently forgot to mention that during the fight, someone charmed your hair to be bright pink. If you look at your head at just the right angle, you can still see a hint of pink.

And you didn't get Lily involved in anything. She willingly joined that fight to keep Nott from hexing you to kingdom come.

Lily joined the fight to help me out?

Yeah, she was the one who disarmed Nott.

You mean she's responsible for the burnt wall tapestries?

Indirectly. Peeves set them on fire, but Lily was the one who supplied the wand.

She joined in to help me…I'm still comprehending this fact…

She's your friend. It's what any friend would do.

That's right! Lily's my friend!

You know those two-way mirrors we made to use when we have separate detentions?

I should hope so. I thought of the idea.

You remember when I called you using them tonight during detention?

It was two hours ago! Of course I remember!

Just checking. Anyway, Lily was there and saw me use it!

Is that supposed to be good? That our prefect now knows about the mirrors?

Remus is a prefect and he knows about them. Why should Lily be any different?

Because unlike Moony, she actually enforces the rules when it comes to you. Or have you forgotten the number of points you've lost our House because of her?

I haven't forgotten, but she's different this year.

No, you're different. Lily's not any different; you're just seeing her differently.

This is true.

Why do we always talk about Lily?

Because she's the only thing Prongs thinks about.

Can we get back to what this entry was about?

Wasn't it about Lily?

Well we knew that.

About the mirrors?

Oh, yeah.

Anyway, to get back on track here, when she saw me using the mirror she wanted to know where I had bought it When I told her that you and I had made them, she was really impressed. So I offered to help her make ones for her and her friends. Isn't that great?

I'm hungry.

Does nobody care about me?

I'm hungry too.

Can we borrow your cloak James?

Fine! I'm coming too.

If I didn't already think that Mrs. Evans is one of the nicest people I've ever met, I would think so now.

This morning, Lily received a post from her mother. Now, normally this isn't a big event, but it was this morning. Lily read her letter then said something to Hestia, which caused Hestia to snatch the letter from Lily and give it to me.

At first, I was slightly puzzled why she was giving the letter to me, but once I had read it, it made perfect sense.

Mrs. Evans asked about me more than she did about Lily!

Lily seemed slightly miffed, but then I might too if my mother wrote a letter to me and barely asked after me at all. Unless of course, she asked about Lily. Because then I wouldn't mind; after all, as we all know, Lily is my favorite subject to talk about.

I have decided to try a new route and attempt to make Lily jealous.

I'll ask some random girl to go to Hogsmeade with me. Lily will see me and realize what she's missing out on.

Now who to ask? A Hogsmeade weekend isn't for a while so I have plenty of time. What about one of Lily's friends? That way I wouldn't inadvertently get some girl's hopes up about dating me, because it's not happening. Lily is the only girl for me.

I'd be willing to bet a galleon that Hestia or Emmeline will help me. Alice might not think it's a good idea, but if I can get the other two girls in on it, I'll be good.

You are going to do no such thing! Do you want to ruin everything?

How would that ruin everything?

You think if Lily found out that she'd be happy about it? Don't you think she'd be a little unhappy that you tried to manipulate her?

Okay, so she would, but she doesn't have to know.

Oh, she'd know.

How?

If you use one of her friends that's a dead give away. And it would look just a tad suspicious if you suddenly went to Hogsmeade with another girl when you're supposed to be head over heals for her.

She knows I still fancy her?

How could she not?

But we're friends now.

And Sirius just told her the other day you still have feelings for her. Besides, she knew anyway.

How?

I'm not even going to answer that. You're not going to try and make her jealous and that's final.

Yes, mother.

I mean it, if you try it behind my back, it won't work. And I'll tell Lily what you're doing.

Fine! I get the point. Sorry, bad idea. Nothing good comes from a lack of sleep.

I attended a quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. And I got to sit by Lily. I explained the rules to her (again) and helped her to understand what was going on.

She actually seemed to enjoy my company too. I like that she likes me. As a friend of course, but that's fine. Lily's a wonderful friend. She's kind, caring and understanding. I couldn't ask for a better friend than Lily Evans.

I was planning to update sooner, but our firewall decided to block my internet, so I haven't had a chance to update before now. As it is, I have to update at the library, so I'm very sorry to say that I can't respond to your reviews. I feel really, really, really bad about this, but I only have so many minutes on the computer and I just don't have time to respond. I have read them though and thank you to all who reviewed! I'm glad that everyone is liking the new James and please keep reading and reviewing!