Author's Note: This chapter and the ones that follow are dedicated to the following people:
neosildrake, because you were the only person to review any of my other chapters! glares at all other readers
houguilter, SweetSmiles, and Tina1587, because you three put me on your alert lists. Thanks so much! You have no idea how warm and fuzzy that makes me feel!
Lily wanted to strangle Professor Ramla. The idiot teacher had announced that the person they were partners with yesterday were to be their Divination "buddies" for the entire year. This meant that Lily Evans was to be partners with James Potter… all year long.
Lily groaned as she dropped her school bag at the table James had saved for them. She sat down in the chintz chair across the table from him, glaring at her shoes. She was determined not to look at him for as long as possible, especially since she had caught James dangling Severus Snape by his ankle yesterday. She had told him to stop, but James wouldn't put the poor guy down! And Severus wasn't much better; when Lily had tried to help him, he had called her a mudblood and told her to go away.
Professor Ramla gathered everyone's attention, standing on her own armchair so that everyone could see her. She held her right hand up and, pointing to her hand, began explaining what each and every wrinkle on her hand meant. Lily drew a diagram of the professor's hand, labeling the wrinkles just in case there was going to be a test on this later. When Professor Ramla had finished, she asked, "Who can tell me why this aspect of Divination is a load of crap?"
Many hands flew into the air, but Professor Ramla called on Sirius Black to answer the question: "Because wrinkles and lines on your hand are just where your skin folds!" Sirius laughed. "They don't foretell anything!"
Professor Ramla granted ten points to Gryffindor, and then told the students to turn to page 120 in their textbooks. She asked them to read their partner's palm, making up creative meanings for the lines and wrinkles they found there.
Lily opened her textbook, ignoring James's already outstretched hand; she could tell he was euphoric that he had an excuse to hold Lily's hand. Lily ignored him, and opened her book to the appropriate page to find another diagram of a human hand, with labels pointing to the wrinkles.
Instead of giving James her hand, Lily grabbed his and looked for his life line. She was shocked by what she saw. "Potter, you're going to die in early adulthood!" she exclaimed, pointing to his short life line. "And according to this wrinkle over here, you're going to die a martyr… but that means someone is going to kill you, even though you're standing up to protect something you love!"
James smiled at Lily. "Maybe I'll die protecting you," he suggested playfully.
Lily gave him a disgusted look and continued, comparing James's hand with the diagram on page 120. One line predicted that James was going to have only one child, a son. Well, we already knew about the son, Lily thought, then reproached herself; she still wasn't completely convinced that what she and James had seen in the crystal ball was an actual premonition. Another line predicted a painful death. And another line predicted that James's life was going to be filled with anxious fear for loved ones. That doesn't sound like James, Lily thought to herself. It's more likely that he'd see a family member on the ground, and James would start laughing at the weird way the bone was sticking out of their skin. But then Lily remembered the premonition from yesterday, how James had been more… loving. He had been more mature, and infinitely more caring. And that look in his eyes when he had looked down at the baby—Harry James Potter—had been so… there really were no words to describe the emotions that Lily had seen in the future James's eyes.
Now it was Lily's turn to have her palm read by James, who ecstatically drew her hand to him. "Wow," he commented, putting his other hand to cover hers. "Your hand is so warm."
"Just get on with it!" Lily said irritably.
James smiled and pulled his other hand away to look at the diagram in the textbook. "OK, according to this you are going to die in early adulthood—hey, maybe we'll die together, in each other's arms or something—."
"Potter!"
"Alright, alright! This wrinkle shows that you are going to have one son… and then this line predicts the death of a loved one… this one over here says that you are going to die a martyr—well, that makes the both of us—and that one says that your life will be lived in fear for your family and loved ones." James looked up at Lily with a sincerely confused face. "Our palms are reading the same thing!"
Lily shrugged, pulling her hand away. "Well, if yesterday's predictions are correct, along with today's predictions, then we are going to get married and have a son together. That takes care of the one child. And if we're married, then both of us would be worried for the other, along with the boy—Harry James. Also, if we're married then I am going to assume that we will fall in love," Lily stopped here, gagging. When she finished, she continued: "So maybe our martyrdom is because one of us dies for the other, and the other dies for our son."
"But if one of us dies protecting our son, then what happens to the son?" James asked, looking actually interested in the conversation. And why shouldn't he be? He was planning out the rest of his life with Lily Evans!
Lily shrugged. "Maybe he lives through whatever we died protecting him from. Maybe he doesn't. Who knows?" Lily looked down at the table and realized that James was still holding her hand, but in a more romantic way now. She pulled her hand out of his, embarrassed that she hadn't realized that he had been stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.
Professor Ramla came by. "Tell me what you have predicted," she demanded, looking at one smiling James and one blushing Lily.
"Well," James began, smiling across the table at Lily. "We're both going to die painful deaths as martyrs in young adulthood, leaving behind one son. The lives we're going to have before we die will be filled with worry for each other and our son." James smiled up at the teacher, who was returning his happy expression with a glare.
"That is the most uncreative prediction I have ever heard!" Professor Ramla insisted. "Which one of you lovebirds copied the other's prediction?" The teacher glared down at the two confused students.
"We're not lovebirds!" Lily cried at the same time that James yelled, "We didn't copy each other!"
Lily exclaimed, "I hate James Potter, but so far every time we've looked at something to predict the future, it has told us that we are going to be married with one son. Why would I make this up?"
Professor Ramla looked closely at the two students in front of her. "From what I just saw, you do not hate Mr. Potter. What I saw indicated a deeper relationship—."
"James wishes!" Professor Ramla turned to glare at Sirius Black, who hurriedly returned to predicting Peter's apparently traitorous acts against his friends.
Professor Ramla turned back to Lily and James. "I want you to come up with a more creative prediction for your futures," she said. The teacher closed her eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. She murmured something about a beach before gesturing for Lily and James to begin.
Lily grabbed James's hand and said angrily, "Potter will live a long and happy life with a tall, dark-haired woman. He will live in a land with plenty of rainbows and a smilie-face sun. His job at the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office will make him richer than he could ever imagine, and his children will love him and cry when he finally dies at the ripe old age of 72. Congratulations, James Potter!"
Lily flung James hand down on the table and held out her own, but Professor Ramla was already smiling down at her angered pupil. "That's the idea!" she encouraged. Smiling gently, the teacher turned to James. "What do you see in Ms. Evans's future?"
James took Lily's hand and looked closely at it, pretending to concentrate. "Evans is going to marry a black-haired Quidditch player, who will provide enough money for her to live comfortably in Godric's Hollow. Her son, Harry James, will resemble his father in everything but the eyes; his eyes will be green, like his mother's. They will live happily together until the day a dark wizard comes to their house, trying to kill their infant son. Lily's husband will immediately jump to save his family, but will be killed in the effort." James stood up, his voice getting more and more anxious as he continued to "predict" Lily's future. "Evans will try desperately to save her young son's life, but will be killed by the dark wizard." Panting, James looked back up at the teacher and slowly sat back down in his chair.
Professor Ramla looked furious. "That was way too detailed to convince anyone of the validity of your prediction!" she exclaimed. "Double homework for you tonight, Mr. Potter." The teacher walked off to chide Peter, who was predicting that Sirius was going to be convicted of a crime a friend had committed, and imprisoned for twelve years before breaking free and escaping.
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Something happened at Hogwarts that afternoon that had never happened before: Lily Evans, followed reluctantly by her two friends, sat with James Potter and his three companions during lunch.
"All you did was spice up the predictions we'd already made!" Lily exclaimed, tearing her knife through the slice of turkey she was supposed to be eating. "And you threw in some of your idiotic fantasies! How dare you?"
James looked at the angry Lily, trying to keep the smile off of his face. "How do you know I made all of it up?" he asked. "Because to be honest, I saw all that on your palm when I looked at it. I thought the professor would find it interesting to know that I was actually reading your palm, but I guess she just thought I was being a smart—."
"Wait a minute," Lily interrupted. "Are you telling me that that was an actual prediction that you made back there?"
James nodded, loving the way Lily raised her left eyebrow just a bit when she was skeptical. "I saw it on your palm."
"Everything?" Lily asked, amazed. "Every detail, like Godric's Hollow?"
James shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich before answering, "Well, I made that part up. Have you ever seen the houses in Godric's Hollow? They're huge! So when I saw on your palm that you are going to live comfortably, the first place I thought of was Godric's Hollow."
Lily looked triumphant. "So not all of it was a true prediction!" She nodded in approval to her friends, who looked as if they had no interest in the subject at all.
"Believe what you want," James said, trying to look disinterestedly down at his sandwich. "But the fact is: this is the second class in a row that you and I have actually seen something. Have you considered the possibility that those predictions might be true?" James looked sideways at Lily to see her reaction; she looked shocked. "Maybe I've been right all along, and we are meant to be together."
Lily's shocked face immediately turned to one of frustration. "Oh, not this again!"
"I'm not kidding around this time, Evans!" James insisted, putting his sandwich back on his plate. He stabbed the table with his finger when he continued: "In two Divination classes, you and I have had two predictions indicating that we are meant to be together! Why won't you get with the program and go out with me already? Maybe there's more to me than when you see me dangling Snivellus by the foot! Maybe if you got to know me a little better, you might come to realize that you might actually like me!"
Lily looked furious, and James instantly regretted his words. "How can I like you when every time I see you, you're doing something horrible, or asking me out?" she asked, standing up to leave. James grabbed her wrist.
"Remember when we met?" he asked, keeping Lily's wrist captive despite her efforts to break free. "Remember? On the day of the Sorting?"
Lily pulled away and, giving James a disgusted look, ran from the table. James gave a sigh and looked up to see Professor Dumbledore looking from Lily's retreating back to James's sulking figure with an almost knowing expression.
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Lily ran up to the girls' dormitories in Gryffindor tower and flung herself onto her bed to give the pillow a good punch. How dare Potter ask her out, after everything they've seen in Divination class? How dare he take those visions to be real?
Maybe there's more to me…
That's what he had said, but Lily doubted there was more to James Potter than Quidditch and torturing Severus Snape. Every time she'd seen Potter he'd been either flying around on that broomstick of his, or threatening and/or abusing poor Snape. How could she believe that there was more to James? How could he suggest it?
Maybe there's more to me…
He'd tried to remind Lily of the day they met, the day they'd both been Sorted into Gryffindor. Lily did remember how they met, but that memory conflicted so much with the way James had acted since then that Lily did not like to remember it. It was much easier to hate someone you see bullying another student than it is to hate someone you once considered a friend.
The train pulled away from King's Cross Station, pulling Lily away from her parents once and for all. Lily wondered how she was going to get on, never having known about the magical world until she had received her acceptance letter to Hogwarts last month.
The compartment door opened, admitting a boy with messy black hair. "Can I sit in here?" he asked. Lily nodded, and the boy shoved his heavy trunk into the shelf over the seat he sat in when he was done. He smiled at Lily, revealing two rows of very white teeth. "I'm James Potter."
Lily nodded. "My name's Lily Evans," she returned before looking out the window.
James Potter wouldn't leave her alone, though. "So what house do you think you'll be put into?" he asked, leaning forward in interest.
Lily looked back at James, a curious expression on her face. "What do you mean?"
James tilted his head slightly, his eyes widening. "What house do you think you'll be put into?" he repeated. When Lily just looked back at him blankly, James asked, "How can you not know about the houses?"
Lily shrugged. "My parents aren't magical," she explained.
James nodded slowly, leaning back in his seat. "You're a Muggle-born. That explains it." James proceeded to tell her about the four houses and their reputations, explaining that he was probably going to go into Gryffindor house because every generation of his family had been put there. When James next asked Lily which house she thought she was going to be put into, she answered that the one for her sounded like Ravenclaw.
"That's too bad," James said, smiling. "I was hoping you'd be in Gryffindor."
Lily smiled and turned back to the window, but James still wasn't through with her. "What's your favorite color?"
Lily looked back at James with a surprised expression. "I don't think anyone's asked me that since I was in elementary school," she commented. But James's hazel eyes seemed to want an answer, so Lily responded. "I don't know. Orange, I guess."
James smiled. "Mine's green." At that, James had pulled out a game of Exploding Snap, and handed Lily an orange game piece. James used a green game piece, and for the next hour the two of them played Exploding Snap on the floor of the Hogwarts Express.
After an hour, James looked at his watch. He excused himself from the game, saying that a friend had promised to join him but, since he hadn't come yet, James wanted to go look for him. Lily nodded and James took off, running out of the compartment to look for his friend.
Lily waited for what seemed like half an hour, although according to her watch it had only been ten minutes. This trip would have seemed so much longer if I hadn't met James, Lily thought. I'm glad I was able to make a friend on this trip, so I'm not going to be completely alone when we get to school.
After another five minutes, Lily decided to go to the bathroom. She felt like an idiot; the train ride was probably going to take only five more minutes, but Lily wanted an excuse to go looking for James. He had been looking for his friend for fifteen minutes!
Lily slid open the compartment door and began heading towards the bathrooms. About half-way down the train she began to hear the sounds of a fight, and after a few more steps Lily could see James Potter and another boy, their wands drawn on another scared-looking boy. Lily watched as James flicked his wand, sending the poor boy flying into the air by his left ankle.
Lily gasped, getting James's attention. James turned to her and smiled, still levitating the boy by his foot. "Look who I found," James said, amused. "This little prat says he can do dark magic!"
Suddenly the scared boy hanging by his foot uttered an incantation, and a burst of light emitted from his wand towards James. James dodged the spell, exclaiming, "Oh so now you're going to use Unforgivable Curses on me? You'll have to be quicker than that to catch me with the Cruciatus Curse!"
Lily felt her eyes stinging. "Maybe he has the right of it!" she exclaimed, her voice at a high pitch. "Maybe he has the right to curse you into oblivion, James Potter!"
With that, Lily ran back to the compartment and locked the door behind her. She started to cry, wishing that the door wasn't made of clear glass when James Potter came back, trying to calm her down to let him in. But the thing was, James didn't understand how much Lily cared about bullying. He didn't know about the years of physical abuse Lily had endured all throughout her years in Muggle schools. He didn't know that Lily had made a vow to end all signs of hazing at any school she went to, even a magical one. And as Lily sat there crying, she had decided that if keeping her vow meant ending her friendship with James Potter, so be it. James Potter was no longer her friend; he was her enemy.
Lily cried now as she remembered that day. She had ended a friendship so she could fight a battle that she now realized would never succeed. Lily wished she could take it all back, go right back to that first day on the train and make friends with James. She would never condone his actions against Severus, but she would not have ended her friendship if she had known that her fight would be a losing one.
Lily sat up, thinking. Maybe it wasn't too late to change things. Maybe if she went down right now and apologized, she could resurrect their long dead friendship. After all, if the two predictions they'd had together were correct, they could at least be friends, right?
Lily got up out of the bed and began making her way through the corridors of Hogwarts, headed for the Great Hall once again.
