The Elusive Lily Evans

By headupintheclouds

"A joke?" asked Lily. "This is your idea of a JOKE, you prat- you- you- you SCUM!" she exploded.

James looked at her for a moment, and Lily did her utmost to keep her amusement from showing on her face. After thirty or so exceedingly tense seconds, they each burst into laughter. James' laughter was rolling and deep, seeming to fill the entire room. Lily's was polite and tinkling. James tried to tease her about it, but couldn't seem to get the words out, which set them both off again.

They laughed for a good five minutes, mainly because it felt so very good to be able to laugh, in each other's company, at no one's expense.

"Wow," was the first thing Lily said as soon as she found the ability to do so.

James grinned, proud to be the one, finally, to make her smile.

Lily laughed at the look on his face.

The rest of the day was spent in a subliminal haze. The friends of each looked at each other with confused looks, but shrugged. Sirius found the entire thing highly amusing, but no matter how hard he tried to embarrass James, or make a redness appear in his cheeks, James didn't seem to hear a word he said. As he recounted the "blubber story," he got the distinct feeling that he would pay for it later, considering that he'd promised James years ago to never reveal it.

For perhaps the only time in Hogwarts history, Lily Evans was caught unawares in class. On the outside, she just beamed down at her paper. The little elf who was teaching the class got more and more suspicious as the details of that day's topic got grittier and grittier, and finally asked Lily who the leader of the Dumknog tribe was.

It took him three or four tries to even get her attention, and when he finally did, her response was somewhat confusing: "J- I mean, Jambkoggy… nuh… I don't know, Professor."

"See that you pay attention, Miss Evans." Replied the little elf, then turned sharply on his heels and walked back to the front of the room.

Lily was merely glad that he hadn't glanced down at the sheet of parchment she was taking "notes" on. A closer investigation would have brought forth an embarrassing truth: little hearts, some entwined with others, some larger than others, surrounded by smaller ones, and many emblazoned with the initials of a certain unruly, black haired Gryffindor.

However, the prospect of being caught didn't stop her distracted "note taking."

James Potter, two floors down and 7 to the right, was having about as much luck appearing studious. When Professor McGonagall gave him a baby crocodile, assigning him to change it into an umbrella, she was utterly bewildered and somewhat amused when he merely beamed down at it for a little over an hour. At the end of class, she advised him to try using his wand next time.

The second class of the day brought Lily and James together again, unfortunately this class was Potions. Not the most romantic classroom of all, with its' dank atmosphere and damp walls, some with a corroded green goop oozing out of the mortar.

Poor Slughorn had done his best to brighten the walls- hanging colorful banners, each representing a house, on the walls and putting decorative places in between the places the banners didn't cover. It was simply useless.

Previously across the room from each other, James and Lily took adjacent seats at one of the tables near the back. Not only had no one in the class ever seen them so cordial, no one had ever seen Lily Evans sitting in the back of the room.

Severus Snape couldn't help but question their union. And the fact that they were sitting in his work table. It was, in fact, the table where he slaved over each assignment, sometimes putting his head on his desk in a furious attempt to find choice wording (for the essays) or choice consistencies (for the ingredients). This had left the poor table over-oiled. It, in fact, shone from the sparse light which came from the ceiling- magic, of course.

Snape paused pointedly in front of them. James casually slipped his arm around Lily's freckled shoulders, which were covered by her well-fitted cloak. His distraction was telling Snape, "Move along, Sniv- Snape." Lily smiled appreciatively.

Snape passed peacefully (only a few glares exchanged), as Slughorn was jollily entering the room.

Slughorn turned to face the class, booming, "It appears we have a new couple!"

Lily blushed a little, but James swelled with pride. "In honor, then, we'll be making a Cheer Potion today. Easy work, kids- you should've done this two years ago, as well."

The class groaned- easy work was almost worse than no work. Slughorn raised his arms, widening his eyes a little to inform them that they should begin.

The class begrudgingly got to work, gathering the ingredients. As Lily and James were near the supply cabinet, the few Gryffindors who hadn't yet heard congratulated both, some joking about how life would be easier, without them arguing about everything, and maybe now they could get away with things.

Lily felt a little awkward, but James just grinned up at his audience. Lily completed the potion quickly- the intensity of James' eyes was clearly speeding up her shivering hands.

Slughorn ruled that as soon as the Potions were bottled and assembled on his desk, the students may leave and enjoy the weather. Lily and James were nearly first done, and as soon as the heavy, foreboding door of the Potions room had closed behind them, Lily turned on James.

"You could have helped!" she said, only half teasing.

He shrugged. "That'd be no fun!"

Unfortunately, this came out as, "Add eeb oh fuh!" Because as soon as they had exited the room, James had over stuffed his mouth with Jubeesh, the newest line of candy at Honeydukes.

A/N: Hey- it ended up clocking in at 1,005 words, so I hope they were a joy-filled 1,005 words. I'm so sorry I haven't been updating, my friends, it's just that I've been CRAZY CRAZY busy, and sleeping has gained more priority. I'll try to keep up better. Until next time, REVIEW LIKE MAD DRAGONS- NOTHING will make me update more than a review. Especially a flame- they make me all flustered, which is a state that helps my writing. Anyway, check out my new fic, "Sometimes" unless you're opposed to HG/DM. Toodle-Pip!