"The thing about charms is that you have to keep renewing them," Lily said to the small first year who trotted along beside her, "otherwise they slowly fade."
He looked up at her, a rapt expression on his face. Lily was nice, not intimidating like the other sixth years. "Then if you want a charm to last a long time then why don't you renew it everyday?"
"Because it won't work the same," she explained patiently, "you know the candles in the hall? Well Professor Flitwick renews them every week, if you take a careful note, you'll see that over the week they drift lower and lower. But if he did it every day then by the end of the week they'd be on the ceiling!"
"I see," they stopped outside a portrait of a rather plump looking lady in a pink silk dress. "Thank you," he smiled shyly.
"Anytime Patrick," she replied with a smile.
"You can call me Paddy," he replied with the same smile.
"Ok then, I'll see you around Paddy," she turned and was about to walk away when she was hit from behind and fell face first to the ground.
"Sorry!"
She looked over her shoulder to see James Potter, he held out a hand, "Like I said, I'm really sorry, I guess I was in too much of a rush."
Taking his hand she got to her feet, "no harm done," she replied, her hair swung away from her badge.
His eyes spotted it, "you're a prefect? I don't think I remember you."
"Lily Evans," she replied automatically, she knew he'd have forgotten about her by the morning.
"That's so odd," he scratched his head thoughtfully, "you would have thought that I'd know all the prefects being one myself, after all there are only eight of us."
She smiled politely. For some reason the instinct that usually kicked in telling her to make a polite excuse and leave hadn't kicked in. He was looking thoughtfully at her, his dark brown eyes gazed searchingly at her.
"Well, I guess I'll see you again soon," he said eventually.
"I expect so," she replied with a smile. She turned to go.
He flashed her a smile, "And next time I'll definitely remember your name!"
"No you won't," she said softly as she walked away to her own common room.
James rubbed his head thoughtfully as he watched her leave. It was just so odd! How could he possibly have no memory of her? They'd been in the same school for six years and yet he still couldn't remember ever having seen her before. He turned and headed off down the corridor, what was her name again? He frowned, Jilly something? No, that wasn't right.
Sirius came running round the corner, "there you are James! I've been looking all over for you!" He looked closely at his friend. "What's up? You look thoughtful."
"Oh nothing, something about…oh never mind, I've forgotten. What did you want me for?"
"It's ready!" His eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Really?" James rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "I can't believe it! It's finally arrived, the day we've all been waiting for!"
Sirius laughed, "no need to sound so dramatic about it. Just get a move on, Peter and Remus are waiting for us."
They wandered off down the corridor. All thoughts of Lily had completely vanished from James' mind.
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A/N: thanks for all the encouraging reviews people!
Wistful slytherin, I like that poem a lot!
No worries Wind-Rider Damia, this is definitely going to keep going! I like to keep several chapters ahead of my posting in case I need to change things and generally to try and improve it before I post and I have about 14 chapters so far.
Sorry this is a bit of a short joiner chapter but it has important hints in it. Plus didn't I update quick? ^__^ I'll try and update every 4 or 5 days but if I get a lot of reviews then I'll post sooner k?