Title: In Hearts We Leave Behind
Summary: When Lily was perfectly honest with herself, which she almost never was, she had to admit that, if he weren't so completely impossible, she might have had a bit of a girlish infatuation with James Potter. He was an excellent quidditch player, an engaging conversationalist, and a loyal friend. But in spite of all this, James Potter was completely intolerable. James thrived on chaos; if a room was too neat or his hair was too tidy, he would immediately go about the task of messing it up. Or so it seemed to Lily. But as the Dark Lord gains power, all of her perceptions are completely shaken by the harsh reality of war. Suddenly, all those things that seemed comforting and familiar are not what they seemed to be. Even James Potter, with his incurable arrogance, seems different somehow. Perhaps even for the better.
Rating: PG-13
I don't own JKR or any of her work. I merely borrow it. Without asking.
It was the sort of lazy afternoon that one hails as a refuge from a busy week in late October. The strong, chilly autumn winds whipped the trees with a fierce resolve as yet another maple leaf was thrown from its flailing branches, glistening golden brown in the burst of dappled sunlight through the tree's sparse foliage. It joined its fellows in a heap on the slightly overgrown grass, almost undetectable in its cloak of red and gold.
Hidden in the dense foliage, enjoying pleasant afternoon and the crisp, fall sky, was a girl by the name of Lily Evans. She was tall, slender and sixteen years of age with a long, thick drape of vivid red hair, a pale complexion and brilliant green eyes that resembled cut emeralds in hue and luster. She leaned against a tree, sitting on a jutting root with a library book in her hand, gold lettering on the front cover wearing away with age and frequent use. Next to her was a shorter girl of average build, whose soft brown hair brushed her shoulders and accented a round, kindly looking face with wide set brown eyes and thick, dark eyelashes. The girl, Alice Tuft, was flipping idly through a catalogue with many pictures of witches in elegant silk robes flashing toothy grins at any who chanced a glance at the pages.
"How can you do any sort of work on a day like today, Lily?" asked the half exasperated voice of a third girl, Marlene McKinnon, sitting on a lower limb of the tree. Her skirt was hiked up a bit too high, and red athletic shorts were visible underneath, as were some rather obvious scabs on both knees and a scratch that ran from one end of her thigh to the other. She tucked straight, chin length, dirty blonde hair behind her ear and stretched out on the branch, blinking her stormy grey eyes at the redhead expectantly.
"It rather helps that I have to," Lily replied, rolling her eyes, "And as do you, which means that you really should get down here and get some work done. I'm nearly finished." But Marlene harrumphed at this suggestion and gave a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Oh, and it's only taken you what, 3 hours? I'd rather not waste daylight doing homework, thank you very much. Besides, I'm off the period before I have anything due. Bloody Transfiguration homework," explained Marlene, shrugging softly before rolling onto her stomach and allowing her arm to dangle lazily down from the tree branch.
A fourth, very pretty girl with gingery blonde hair that draped across her back and pale blue eyes, who had been standing up and leaning against the tree, retorted, "Of course not, you'd rather sit on a tree branch doing absolutely nothing, because that's a much more valuable way to spend your time."
But before Marlene had a chance to retort, Alice butted in, saying, "Oh, leave each other alone, you're acting like third years," Lauren looked indignant and opened her mouth to refute this, but realized that, if anything, it would just be proving her point. She flipped her hair over her shoulder gracefully, but habitually and frowned at Alice, who seemed unaffected.
"Finished, though no thanks to Marley and her 40 minute rant about the new Gryffindor chaser," Lily interjected, placing the leather bound charms book gingerly into her bag and leaning comfortably against the soft bark. Marlene was a chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and a very good one as far as Lily, who'd actually never played a day in her life, but enjoyed watching it, could tell. Her brother, Josef, a 7th year, was captain and keeper for the team. Because of this, many had assumed that Marlene's position had merely been a product of overzealous nepotism. However, they were immediately prooven wrong when Marlene, or 'Marley' as her friends called her, scored 3 goals in the first 15 minutes of the first match. She was good, all right, though she was no James Potter.
"What?" Marlene asked, obviously annoyed at being addressed in such a way, "It's a big deal, Lily. Kingsley Shacklebolt has never played quidditch before, shows up and wows Josef at auditions, and now James and I are set to training him. We have to get to where the three of us are working together like our own individual team in the larger Gryffindor quidditch team, or else it's all over but the crying. And to cap it all off, James has landed himself in detention all week and can't come out and work with him until next Thursday, and that's little more than a week before the next match." Alice, who had no particular interest in quidditch, gave an exaggerated yawn, much to Marlene's irritation.
"Just like Potter to land himself in detention," Lily muttered, shaking her head. Lauren looked down and bit her lip. The Prewetts had been long time friends of the Potters, and as such, Lauren had always got on well with James, and since she'd been instated as the new Gryffindor seeker since the last one, William Jefferson, took a blow to the head and was forced to quit by his mother, she and James had become especially close friends. His arrogance seemed not to bother Lauren nearly as much as it did Lily, or at least, not nearly as much as Lily liked to think it bothered her.
When Lily was perfectly honest with herself, which she almost never was, she had to admit that, if he weren't so completely impossible, she might have had a bit of a girlish infatuation with him. And who wouldn't? He was tall and lean, but with a sort of musculature that defied, but certainly suited his otherwise lanky frame. Staying in good physical shape had always been a high priority for him, and Lily had seen him swimming in the Black lake in the middle of November just to stay in shape. Madness, she'd call it later, though it did translate into many points scored by him at Gryffindor Quidditch matches. Additionally, he was very friendly and outgoing, the leader of a group of Gryffindor boys known infamously as the "Marauders," a title no one but themselves understood.
But in spite of this, James Potter was intolerable, even if he did have a nice, bright smile and pretty hazel eyes. Nice smiles and pretty eyes just weren't enough to excuse the arrogance and excessive hexing that Lily had come to associate with the messy-haired Gryffindor. By his own admission, the reputation was entirely deserved. James thrived on chaos; if a room was too neat or his hair was too tidy, he would immediately go about the task of messing it up. Granted, his hair was probably never tidy, which was due more to genetics, it seemed, than any act on his part.
"Give James a break, won't you?" Marlene snapped, swinging her legs around and hopping down from her perch, "Sure, he's an arrogant prat ninety-five percent of the time, but he's a damn good chaser, and you'd be daft to deny it."
"I wasn't planning to. I just think that one of these days, his head will grow so large that he'll have trouble getting in and out of the portrait hole," Lily countered, standing up and dusting off her robes. Marlene looked as though she was about to respond when something whirred past her left ear. If continued on until it hit Lauren, who shrieked and jumped back before Alice, thinking quickly, stunned it. Whirling around to see what it was, Lily saw that it was a fanged Frisbee which had just flown into their midst, and that Lauren was nursing a spot on her arm that the Frisbee had nipped.
"Sorry 'bout that," a male voice Lily recognized immediately said, "Peter's an awful catch. And he's afraid of the fangs, the poor sod," James Potter finished. He gave Lily a lopsided smile, putting a hand on the tree and leaning nonchalantly, supporting his weight with that hand. Lily picked up the Frisbee, holding it loosely in one hand, and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Your Frisbee just bit my friend," Lily reminded with a hint of sarcasm in her tone, "I'm afraid I can see his problem with being asked to catch it."
"Oh, come off it Evans," James replied, shaking his head with a chortle, "It's only a Frisbee. Well, a fanged one, but a Frisbee none the less." Lily rolled her eyes impatiently at him.
"Well, if it bites any of my friends again," Lily threatened half-jokingly, "I suppose I'll have to bite you back, or something."
"Promise?" James grinned cheekily, causing a pink flush to tint Lily's cheeks. She glared at him for a moment and decided to pretend it never happened.
"I was joking, Potter. Joking. I thought surely you would understand, since that seems to be the only thing you do." A look flashed on James's face that looked astonishingly like hurt before his cheeky grin was restored.
"Well, since it's something you almost never do in front of me, I suppose I just wasn't expecting it."
"Only reason I'm not funny around you is because I feel my witty brand of humor would be wasted on you," Lily retorted rather childishly, placing her hands on her hips in a confrontational way.
"Oh, Evans, didn't you just say that all I did was joke? Wouldn't I be able to appreciate your witty brand of humor more than most?" His voice contained more than a hint of sarcasm, and Lily didn't care for it.
"I said you joked, Potter. I never said it was funny," Lily stated clearly, raising her eyebrows at him in challenge. James looked slightly taken aback before smirking slightly and shaking his head.
"Well played, Miss Evans. Well played. And now that you've had another jab at my ego, would you mind giving me the Frisbee?" James asked politely, looking at her and holding out his hand expectantly. She reluctantly placed the Frisbee in his hand, rolling her eyes and feeling very tempted to say something like, "boys" and be done with it.
"Just don't let it happen again or, well, you get the general idea," Lily replied, waving the idea off with a vague hand gesture and a slight smile.
"The general idea, yes. Though it may not have been the intended general idea, I certainly got a general idea. See you, Evans." She rolled her eyes and turned her back to him as he traipsed in the direction of his friends, who were giving him impatient stares which James responded to with a shrug.
"I think he likes you," Lauren teased, laughing and sitting on the grass and golden leaves next to Lily's book bag. Lily responded, as any normal girl would, by picking up a heavy, paperback book and hitting Lauren over the head with it.