Summer - end of 1st year
"Lyra pleeeaaaassseee! Come onnnnnn" James was yanking her down to the end of the garden, determined, apparently, to get her to like flying. "For meeeee" he was pouting at her, and, rather unfortunately for her, she gave in. Because of course she would give in to James Potter, her best friend and unfortunately, her major crush now. Because being away from James during first year had allowed her to see him in an entirely different way. And Merlin, was he hot. All the girls fancied him, they all whispered about him, and Sirius Black, and the other Ravenclaws persistently bugged her to get her to introduce them as they all knew they were friends. James had delighted in all the introductions Lyra was making for him and he had begun to swan about with new cockiness which, only made her like him more. But he could never, ever know about this. Only Rosie Stirling, her Ravenclaw best friend, was allowed to know and Lyra had sworn her to secrecy. Well, that and Rosie exchanged her secret crush on Sirius Black so really, the pair were on equal footing.
"Yes! Come on! You're going to love flying by the end of the summer" James insisted, still tugging her down to the small orchard they had; big enough, however, for them to fly in.
"James, you know I hate flying" she tried protesting, but James just scoffed at this. "Besides, this is why you have Sirius and Peter and Remus" she reminded him of his three best Gryffindor friends. It did funny things to her that he referred to her as his Ravenclaw best friend, proudly having stuck by her all year. Even when other people thought it was weird, they were best friends, James ignored them and was always talking to Lyra in corridors, in lessons, at dinner times and sometimes he and his friends even sat with her and Rosie at mealtimes. Rosie was all for more mealtimes with Sirius Black.
"Yes, but I am on a personal mission. Besides, don't you want to help your best friend get on the Gryffindor team next year?" he was pouting, ruffling his hair, and looking dam adorable. She blushed but nodded, hoping he didn't realise, and she was sure he hadn't as next moment he was in the broom cupboard, pulling out a couple of brooms.
"Right, let's do this"
As the summer wore on, Lyra's crush developed way more than she had thought possible. It was possibly due to the sheer amount of time they spent together; the afternoons when it was too hot having water fights, or splashing in the paddling pool, or wandering down Diagon Alley whilst Carol ran errands eating an ice cream from Florean's. But James treated Lyra like normal and she knew somebody like James would never, ever fancy somebody like her. After all, she was a Ravenclaw geek, and the girls James found attractive looked more like Rosie than her. And although it killed a part of her to know this, she still liked being around James too much to distance herself as she lived in the hope that one day, maybe just one day, he would finally realise she was right here and liked him, and that he too would like her back.