Chapter Four: A cute kind of Crazy

A/N: Thank you for all your lovely reviews. They mean a lot to me. Cylobaby, I'll explain about that train thing later. (psst - that means she doesn't know yet, but she's going to figure it out by the next chapter. /). Its not going to be anything special, probably just her contacting the school somehow, unless you know I can think of something great (doesn't happen that often). Thank you for finding the hole. And for those of you who don't think fourth year is an old enough year for James to fall in love, I didn't realize I hadn't made it clear that this story will cover way more than fourth year. This is just the beginning. So if you want to back out, do it now because you're in for a long ride. ;P

Disclaimer: Any recognizable material does not belong to me.

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A cute kind of Crazy…

There were some things that Lily Evans would never be able to change about herself. Ever. No matter how hard she wished or tried… no matter how many real magic spells she cast. There were a few things in her life that plagued her like an annoying five-year-old and she just couldn't get them to go away and leave her alone.

One of these things was the fact that she was the only non-muggle in her family since before anyone could remember. And also, that her older sister, Petunia, condemned her for it. Petunia Evans absolutely hated her younger sister's guts. An apparently it was for no other reason except that when Lily 'waved around a stupid stick of wood' and said some magic words, things that she couldn't explain just seemed to happen. Magic things. Things that scared Petunia to death.

Another thing that Lily Evans would never be able to change about herself was her bad luck with breakfast beverages. Yes, breakfast beverages. No matter how many times she tried, or how hard she tried, she always seemed to spill them. Even when she was doing her very best not to.

She couldn't even remember all the times she and her sister had gotten into fights over a spilt glass of extra pulpy orange juice that always fell onto the lap of Petunia's hand dry only skirt. It was always a disaster. Even when Lily offered to risk being expelled from Coverfield and fix it magically, which she wasn't allowed to do because of underage wizarding rules, Petunia would wail and moan and scream that her absolute favorite skirt was ruined, and she wasn't going to let her freak of a sister make it any worse by casting magic spells on it. It seemed to Lily that Petunia had a lot of absolute favorite, hand dry only skirts.

Lily Evans often cried around her sister. And she absolutely hated herself for it. Petunia was one of the onlypeople in the world who could make her cry, and it was mostly because of this that Lily couldn't stand Petunia. And Petunia made a point of constantly mentioning that she hated Lily. But it was hard for Lily to actually hate Petunia, because she kept on thinking, despite herself and the countless times she had been proven wrong, that someday, somehow she would be able to get her sister to love her again. Maybe…

Monday morning it was pumpkin juice.

The breakfast beverage was sitting harmlessly in a glass goblet on the Gryffindor table, inside the bustling breakfast commotion of the Great Hall, minding its own business when Lily Evans came along and knocked it over. She had been reaching for a blueberry muffin. She winced as she felt the familiar feeling of her arm knocking against something light and liquid-filled. Her insides became hot and uncomfortable, twisting themselves into slow, apprehensive knots as she heard the familiar sloshing, the dreaded clattering and finally the gasp of surprise. The bench scraped loudly against the floor as the innocent victim jumped to a stand. Lily nearly choked when she heard the little cry, the one that sounded just like Petunia's.

She half expected to see her older sister standing there, glaring at her with hateful brown eyes, letting her know that she had screwed up again, reminding her that she was an uncoordinated freak of nature again, that her older sister hated her… again. So when the eyes she met were only a wide, shocked shade of a much lighter russet brown, her heart started beating faster inside her chest.

It wasn't Petunia. It was someone else.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry!" Lily said, immediately looking for something nearby to mop the mess up with. Her desperate gaze fell on a napkin. It was triangular and white, folded neatly and decorated with red and gold stars. It was small, but it would do. "I swear I didn't see your glass there! I am such a clutz!"

"Uh - It's OK-"

"I do this all the time."

"Yeah, that's OK-"

"I'll – I'll go get you another drink," Lily said as she dabbed at the person's robes. The juice was sticky. That was the worst kind. "I'll – I'll – I promise. Here, oh God, I'm so sorry."

"H-hey, it's OK…" the person said, now a little exasperated at Lily's unexpected fever. "It's only juice-"

"I really am sorry, I didn't mean to." Lily repeated for the third time. "It's just I… I have this thing with breakfast drinks… Oh, God, this isn't dry clean only is it?" She asked desperately, her green eyes flashing up to the face but then darting back down again before she could even get a proper hold on whom it was she was apologizing too.

"No, they're-"

"These aren't you favorites are they?"

"No-"

"Because I can get you new ones if these are your favorites, really I'll have my parents ship them, they aren't ruined are they?" She said, inspecting the wet material with worried green eyes. "Because-"

"Hey, relax!" The person finally said, loud enough to get Lily's attention and keep her from dabbing at the stranger's robes. Lily looked up finally to meet a pair of dark brown eyes. "Just relax. It's pumpkin juice, not the end of the world."

It took the girl's sweet, and slightly bemused smile to convince Lily that she wasn't in serious trouble, the robes weren't the girl's favorites, they weren't dry clean only, and pumpkin juice actually wasn't the end of the world. Just a bit of a mess that was easily cleaned away with the help of some magic.

The girl's name was Cara. Cara Lightly. And she was one of those girls who could have dropped her education on the spot and signed a contract to be a supermodel and become internationally famous. She had beautiful honey blonde hair that Lily's sister would have killed for, warm, russet brown eyes and a stunning smile. And as it turned out, she didn't even like pumpkin juice that much, she had merely gotten it because it was the only thing left. "And I don't know how to conjure up two percent milk." She said with a smile twisted into the corner of her lips.

Cara and Lily hit it off immediately. They spent most of breakfast talking, first about milk, then about Cara and then about Lily. Cara had one older brother who had just graduated Hogwarts last year, two younger sisters who weren't old enough to be away from home yet, a mother and a father and also a deranged, senile granddad who liked to chew up Jelly Beans and then spit them out at people, pretending he was a muggle machine gun during World War II. Cara didn't have a familiar, but she liked dogs and had three back at home. She was also in love with Quiddich.

Lily told about how her family had just moved away from Ireland because her old school, Coverfield, had been forced to shut down due to financial issues, thus forcing Lily to go to the nearest magic school around, which happened to be Hogwarts in England.

"Don't they have other magic schools in Ireland?" Cara asked, as she chewed on the corner of a strawberry jam biscuit.

"No." Lily said, rolling her eyes a bit. "Closet school was here."

"That's a bummer." Cara said sympathetically, "don't you miss your home?"

Lily sighed heavily. "More – than – you – can – imagine."

At that Cara smiled.

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James watched from across the breakfast table as the red headed girl from the night before knocked a glass of pumpkin juice onto a tall blonde who he recognized from his Quiddich team but had rarely ever talked to before. However, instead of being calm and collected like he had imagined she would be, the pretty red head – and she was very pretty he realized, now that he had the chance to look at her when she wasn't sopping wet or standing in a dark room – had fussed over the tall girl nervously, and all the while bubbling away with talk about dry cleaning and being so sorry and possibly shipping the blonde girl new ones… James shook his head in bewilderment as he took a bite of his charcoaled toast.

'Shipping new ones? The girl must be insane…' But… James kind of liked this girl's version of insane. While it was a little puzzling at first it was very… cute. She was very cute. Not only because of her almond shaped, cat green eyes and dark red hair – not the orange stringy kind that he couldn't stand on girls, but an actual, heavy dark red color, like rubies or sunsets or… the Gryffindor banner – that fell in slow waves to her shoulders, or the charming little freckles that were sprinkled across her nose, or her pretty, delicate mouth but also just the way she was. It was kind of hard to place… He didn't even know insanity could be cute. He had always thought that crazy was just… crazy. And was he crazy for having these insane thoughts? He sure as hell had never had them before…

It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling of interest that overcame him while he watched her… and it took him a while to realize that she was making him smile. Once James caught himself he tried to shake it off. It was probably nothing.

He was very, very wrong.

"Reckon it'll be a nasty surprise for the Slytherins when they wake up." Sirius was saying happily as he tossed a chocolate frog into his mouth. "I still say it was sheer brilliance the way we thought to bake the dung bombs into the furniture like that… 'ey Mooney?"

Remus smirked, though he tried his best to hide it. "It was… creative." He said at last, trying to be immune.

"Creative?" Sirius asked. "It was bloody brilliant, and you know it. Admit it Mooney, no one else in the entire history of Hogwarts has ever thought to melt dung bombs into furniture. I mean, come on-"

"Alright, fine." Remus said, putting up his hands in defeat and dropping his bagel in the process. "It was brilliant. I admit."

"Thank you."

"Hey…" James said finally after a breakfast of silence, tearing his eyes away from the girl on the other side of the room.

"Hm?" Sirius asked while chewing down the last of his chocolate and then swallowing it down with some milk.

"What's that girl's name? The one from last night. Did you manage to catch it?"

Sirius frowned. "What girl?"

"You know… the one with the kitten I stepped on."

"That crazy chick who practically bit your head off?"

A hint of a smile flitted across James's face. "Yeah, that one. The crazy one."

"Don't remember." Sirius said bluntly, his voice was a little cold. James for some reason got the impression that his best friend was annoyed.

"Wasn't it… -erm- well… was it Daisy or something like that?" Peter suggested. "Some sort of flower?"

James frowned distastefully. Daisy wasn't right.

"Crazy Daisy…" Sirius said absently, a cold smile on his face. "Has a kind of ring to it…"

James scowled. "Her name wasn't-"

"Lily." Remus spoke up suddenly, putting down his pumpkin juice. "Her name was Lily."

"That's it." James said, satisfied that he had the right name. "Lily…" he tried out the sound of it. "Yeah…" It fit in his voice… felt right in his mouth. It sort of rolled off his tongue like water… Lily. "Hey, how'd you remember that, anyway?"

Remus shrugged. "Gifted I guess."

"Werewolf thing." Sirius said, grinning.

"Not so loud, you oaf." Remus said as he stood. "And its not a… you know… it doesn't have anything to do with that."

"Uh-huh, suure." Sirius said, as he stood up too cramming the last of a frog leg into his mouth.

James stuffed the last bit of toast between his lips and stood up beside his best friend, Peter hurriedly finishing his breakfast and then standing up by James.

"So, Moony what've we got first?" James asked casually, ruffling up his hair as they passed a crowd of girls.

"Potions. Slughorn."

James winced. "With…?"

"Slytherins."

Sirius and James exchanged a look. If there was anything in the world they hated – other than cheesy pranks and over told jokes that weren't even funny the first time they were told – it was the Slytherins.

"Oh joy." Sirius said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Couldn't have asked for a more fantastic way to start my first day."

Beside him, James smiled tartly. "You're telling me."

A/N: Bleh… can't get this thing right. Oh well… if at first you can't succeed and all that.