Lily rose early for breakfast the next morning and pulled on her robes to the sound of Alice's snores from the bed to her left. The only people in the common room were a couple of second years who were lounging in armchairs, eating their way through piles of toast with raspberry jam. When Lily reached the Great Hall, she looked up at the sky above; it was grey and overcast, as though someone had painted a sombre coating over the sky.
Lily wasted no time in tucking into a large bowl of porridge with blueberries and by the time she had finished Alice and Marlene had joined her. The Marauders were sitting a few metres down the table, whispering to each other in hushed tones.
Once their plates had been cleared, the sixth years waited on Professor Minerva McGonagall, the newly appointed Gryffindor head of house to distribute their timetables. Professor McGonagall wasted no time in sending the lower years away to various subjects with their pre-planned timetables. The process of distributing the sixth years' timetables was infinitely more complex, as it required confirming that everyone had achieved the required OWL grades to continue with their chosen NEWT subjects.
Alice and Marlene, who had both chosen the same subjects were cleared to continue with Herbology, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration and Muggle Studies and both left for the dungeons where their Charms class was held.
Lily was next. Professor McGonagall peered down and smiled at her over her spectacles.
'I was very pleased with your Transfiguration results Evans, very pleased indeed. Second only to Potter, but I expect you to give him a run for his money this year.'
Lily smiled back, feeling immensely proud of all the study she had put into her OWL year. James hearing his name thought this the perfect moment to interject.
'I'll tutor you, Evans,' he said loudly over the chatter of the Great Hall.
Lily did not even turn to acknowledge he had spoken, instead asking Professor McGonagall if she could continue with Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. McGonagall confirmed that she saw no problems and Lily quickly shot out of seat and towards the Potions class, which unfortunately she would share with James Potter.
'Isn't this glorious?' Sirius asked James, lounging in the soft red armchairs in the Gryffindor common room during their first free period.
'Yeah,' replied James. 'This is pretty glorious all right. What do you think Remus?'
Remus looked up from the star chart he had been poring over. He had been the only one of the Marauders to continue with Astronomy. James and Sirius had both chosen Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Transfiguration, Herbology and reluctantly Potions, as those were the requirements to enter Auror Training. Remus had dropped Herbology and elected to do Astronomy instead. None of the Marauders had bothered to ask Peter what subjects he was continuing with, and it was only because he had expressly told them not to do anything fun without him, that they knew he was currently attending Divination.
'I don't think you will be able to spend all semester lounging around like this,' Remus replied curtly, turning his attention back to plotting the position of Neptune.
Sirius snorted, 'Ah Moony it's the first day back, don't be such a buzz-kill.'
'How do reckon little Wormy is getting on in Divination without us, Padfoot?' James asked Sirius.
'Probably spilled tea down his robes by now,' joked Sirius.
'Put 3 sickles on it?' said James teasingly.
'Nah mate, I'd rather bet on how long you last on Prefect duties before Evans hexes you.'
'A week,' interjected Remus, his eyes not leaving his star chart.
'Really!' replied Sirius 'I'll bet it's only three days.' 'Tops,' he added as an afterthought.
'You're on, Padfoot,' said Remus reaching up to shake hands with Sirius.
James rolled his eyes as they shook on it. 'Please I only got the gig in the first place because Moony doesn't want to do it this year on account of his fury little problem. Evans won't hex me. In fact, when she sees that we're meant to be patrolling together on Thursday, she'll switch with someone. Any luck and I'll be stuck with that Hufflepuff girl with the huge nose making googely eyes at me all night,' he finished dejectedly.
'Ruby won't flirt with you mate,' said Sirius.
'Why not?' asked James.
Look Prongs mate, I'm not saying you're not a catch because you are. But girls aren't exactly lining up to go out with the boy who's obsessed with Lily Evans, because they know if she even so much as smiles in your direction, you'll drop them like a rotten egg.'
'Well that really cheered me up,' said James sourly.
'All I'm saying is if you tried to look a little bit less, I don't know, desperate. It might just work in your favour,' said Sirius.
'It's time for Potions,' said Remus, packing away his things.
'Great,' moaned Sirius. 'and Slug will no doubt invite us to one of his god awful dinner parties again. What excuse should we use this time?'
'Don't worry. I'll schedule a quidditch practise,' said James.
James and Sirius were always invited to Professor Slughorn's dinner parties, but rarely ever went, claiming quidditch or illness or detention as excuses, the latter, which was most often true. As they made their way down to the dungeons the boys chatted merrily about quidditch, the upcoming season and who would be a good replacement for the beater they had lost at the end of last year.
Lily pulled out her copy of Advanced Potion making as she took her seat on an empty stool in the dungeon. Last year she had sat with Alice and Marlene, but they had not chosen to continue with Potions. Lily suspected neither girl would have received the Exceeds Expectations grade necessary to continue with the subject at NEWT level but it felt very boastful to ask. Severus she had noticed was siting at her old bench, so she had chosen to sit in the middle row at the back of the room. It was the Marauders who usually occupied this particular bench. This thought made Lily uncomfortable, she had no desire to sit with James, she made a vain attempt to push her negativity away and settled into a slouched position on her stool.
At the front of the room Professor Slughorn, the enormously fat Potions Master and head of Slytherin house smoothed over his blond moustache and called the room to attention. At that moment, James, Sirius and Remus strolled through the door of the dungeon.
'Sorry we're late Professor,' said Sirius cheerfully.
'Not at all. Not at all my dear boys,' replied Professor Slughorn. 'There are seats free next to the delightful Ms. Evans. I'm sure she would enjoy some gentlemanly company.'
At the back of the room Lily sank down on the stool and became very interested in her fingernails. James noticing who was seated on their bench, ran his fingers through his hair and hurriedly walked to the back of the room to take the seat beside her.
'Evans, fancy seeing you here,' James greeted her. His voice soft and gentle.
'Hmph,' said Lily before focusing her attention on copying down Slughorn's instructions for brewing polyjuice potion.
James exchanged a shrug with Sirius that seemed to communicate I don't know what her problem is either mate. Remus seeing this rolled his eyes at both of them, before returning to copying the list of ingredients. Sirius and James hastily pulled out their quills, parchment and potion making kits.
As she began adding the fluxweed to her cauldron, Lily silently cursed herself for being stuck with her least favourite person in the year for the rest of the hour. Even Severus with his bigoted ideas about her parentage was preferable over James Potter. Lily bit back the tears of frustration now flooding her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat. Why were the only two available seats in the room next to the two people she despised most? No she told herself firmly, you will not let them ruin Potions for you this is your favourite subject.
Next to her, James was paying very little attention to brewing polyjuice potion and instead was intently focused on the way Lily's small fingers picked up the fluxweed and added it to the bubbling cauldron. 'She had such delicate fingers,' he thought. As she picked up her next ingredient her chanced a quick glance at her face, he was shocked to see the tears brimming in her eyes. 'What was wrong?' he wondered. Swiftly he fished into his pocket for the clean handkerchief his mother insisted he carry with him at all times.
'Lily,' he said softly as he pushed the blue handkerchief towards her side of the bench.
Lily's watery eyes flicked quickly towards James and then widened when she saw the handkerchief. She picked it up gingerly almost expecting that there was some trick involved.
'It's clean, I promise,' said James as though reading her mind.
'Thanks,' said Lily, her voice catching slightly on the word.
'Anytime,' replied James.
'I can't believe that you and James Potter got through an entire Potions lesson sitting next to each other without one of you hexing the other,' said Marlene, flopping down on the bed. Lily had just finished telling Marlene and Alice about the events of the mornings Potions lesson.
'I can't believe that Snivelly stole our bench,' remarked Alice.
'It was worse than that,' replied Lily. 'It was like he expected me to sit there with him. Like his weird version of a peace offering,' she said irritably, putting aside the Ancient Runes essay she had been working on before Marlene and Alice had entered their dormitory.
'Lily, we always said he was a creep. And you were all No! He isn't a creep. He's sensitive and we've been friends since we were kids,' said Alice coming to sit on Lily's bed.
'Now, you've finally seen the light,' said Marlene contently. 'James Potter is not a bullying toe-rag and Snivelly is a …'
Lily cut her off sharply 'I wouldn't say that James Potter isn't an ignorant bullying toe-rag, just an ignorant bullying toe-rag with clean handkerchiefs and I'm sick of you guys constantly hating on Severus. He may not be the best person anymore. But we were friends for a long time and that means something to me.'
Marlene and Alice both saw the hurt and regret on Lily's face as she talked of Severus and neither felt it was prudent to push the matter any further. Lily returned to her Ancient Runes essay and Marlene and Alice left her to work in peace. They barely had time to flop down on the armchairs in the common room before an unhappy James Potter cornered them.
'What was Evans upset about today?' he asked the girls anxiously.
'Lily?' said Marlene surprised at James' abrupt question. 'I don't think it was anything really.'
'Bullshit, she was pretty much in tears in Potions. I want to know what's wrong. Is Snape giving her trouble?'
'Well, that's part of it,' said Alice diplomatically.
'What's the other part?' said James intently.
'It's complicated,' said Marlene.
'Try me,' James challenged.
'Well,' said Alice begin slowly. 'She's mad at Severus for calling her a you-know-what last year. And she's sad because he was her best friend and now well, they can't be friends anymore. And she's confused because she didn't like you very much at the time but now it doesn't seem like you're acting like a complete git anymore. And you're the reason that she's no longer friends with Severus, so she's mad at you too. And I don't think she knows who to be madder at you for being a git or Snivelly for being a jerk.'
'One person can feel all that and not explode?' James asked incredulously.
'Boys,' Marlene said, rolling her eyes.
'Ok,' said James. 'What do I do then?'
'Just try to be her friend,' said Alice kindly. 'I know you're really keen on her and all, but maybe just try being friendly for a bit. Then she'll see you're a good person beneath all the bravado.'
'Ok,' said James thoughtfully running his fingers through his untidy hair. 'Thanks, ladies,' he said with a charming smile before striding away towards the boy's dormitories.
