Chapter 5: Distractions

The next day, Lily rose with the sun. She always was an early riser, even if she slept late the night before. Memories of last night came rushing into her head as she made her way to the bathroom. Oh God! What if he thinks I like him now! No, he couldn't know, could he? Why did I say that? 'I never hated you James'? Wow, how utterly stupid of me! AHH. She took a hot shower to calm her down. It seemed to work a little. At least she could breathe a bit better now. She changed into her robes, dried her hair, put on a little bit of make-up and pinned her Head Girl badge on the front of her robes.

Lily looked at herself in the mirror. Her wavy hair fell nicely past her shoulders. Her beautiful eyes seemed to pop out with the help of a little bit of eyeliner. She thought she looked acceptable. Little did she know that she was torturing the male population with her looks.

She knew she had to give up her desire to be different in order to have a chance with James. If she didn't, she would always thrive to be different and would never end up with James. Wait, is it worth it? Do I really like James that much? She asked herself. YES.

As this thought entered her head, she panicked and went to wake up Marlene.

…………………………

James woke up groggily to the sound of Remus shuffling through his trunk. He rubbed his eyes and reached for his glasses.

"Moony, what're you doin'?" he asked, sleepily.

"Looking for my Transfiguration text book." Remus answered. He looked at his watch. "It's about time you get up Prongs, breakfast starts in 15 minutes."

James got out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. He noticed Sirius and Peter still fast asleep and Remus attempting to wake them up. Sirius swatted Remus like a fly and James chuckled at Remus' insulted face.

James took a quick shower and by the time he was done, Peter was awake but Sirius was still fast asleep. Remus was sitting is his bed, reading a book; obviously he had given up trying to wake up Sirius. James walked over to his Sirius' bed, going to make an attempt to wake up his best friend.

"OH! HEEEEELLLLOOO VERONICA! MY, ARE YOU LOOKING NICE TODAY!" shouted James in Sirius ear.

Sirius jumped up suddenly, all thoughts of sleeping gone. "Hello Veronica! What are you doing here?" he asked, looking around James, who almost had his glasses knocked off by Sirius.

Peter was on the floor, clutching his sides, laughing violently. Remus was shocked that such a thing could wake up his sleep-loving friend, and was looking disbelievingly at him. James was readjusting his glasses and was laughing lightly.

"Works every time," he said winking at Remus, who still looked shocked.

"How'd you do that, Prongs? I tried everything!" cried Remus, distressed that James got him up so quickly. "I even tried pouring cold water on his face! Do you know what he did? Sat up, dried it with his wand, and went back to sleep!"

James shrugged. "He lives with me remember? Sirius fancied this girl on my street for a while. He would always jump at the mere mention of her. So one morning, I shouted her name and Sirius has never had a good sleep in for the rest of the summer," said James, simply.

Sirius was disgruntled. Jumping out of bed that fast had caused him to become very dizzy and he almost fell to the floor. Peter was still laughing like a maniac and didn't look like he would stop anytime soon.

"SHUT IT, WORMTAIL!" shouted Sirius. Peter stopped laughing abruptly. Turns out he could stop laughing. Who knew?

"Whoa, someone's grumpy in the morning," remarked an amused Remus.

"Tell me about it," said a laughing James.

"Sod off," replied Sirius. He walked to the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

When Sirius was done in the bathroom, he was in a better mood.

"So Prongsie," said Sirius, grinning, "Where'd you go last night? You weren't back by the time I went to bed and that was around, three in the morning?" he asked as they left the dormitory.

"I went to the kitchens like I told you I was," said James, blushing slightly as memories came flooding back to him.

"And…?" asked Remus, curious.

"I ran into Lily," he replied.

"What happened?" asked Peter, "Did you kiss?" Peter sounded a bit too interested.

"No, Wormtail," said James. His three friends looked at him, expecting more.

"Well, aren't you going to tell us what happened, mate?" asked Sirius, one eyebrow rising.

So, James retold the story to the rest of the Marauders on their way down to the Great Hall. He made sure to tell them about how Lily agreed to prank Snape another night, meaning she agreed to meet him another time. And he told them about how she said 'I never hated you' and left.

"Are you sure that even happened, Prongs?" asked Peter.

"Of course it did Wormtail," snapped James, annoyed.

"What does that even mean, 'I never hated you'?" said a confused Sirius.

"I don't know! Why do girls have to talk in riddles all the time?" demanded an exasperated James.

Remus rolled his eyes at his friends' extreme thick-headedness. "Hm. Maybe it means that Lily didn't really hate James," said Remus, talking slowly, making sure they understood.

"But Moony, that doesn't make sense. If she never hated me, then why did she always yell, reject and glare at me?" asked James confusedly.

"Dunno, Prongs" shrugged Remus. "I wouldn't worry about it too much, mate," he said as they entered the Great Hall.

"Okay Moony, if you're…" James trailed off. His eyes were looking in a particular direction, not bothering to finish his sentence.

"Prongs? Prongs…James? JAMES!" said Sirius as he waved a hand in his friend's face. "Jamesie? Jimmy Boy? Jim-Jam? Jamie-kins?" tried Sirius.

"It's useless Padfoot, James is in Lily Land now," said Remus, smirking.

It was true; James was too distracted by Lily to pay attention to silly things like finishing his sentences. He was once again captivated by her beauty. Every time he saw her, he never failed to be amazed. His breath caught in his throat and his heart thumped loudly. He swore the whole Great Hall could hear it, as it was echoing in his head.

Her hair was shining in the sunlight supplied by the Great Hall's enchanted ceiling, bringing out the different shades of red it in. Her eyes sparkled like jewels in a museum, catching the light and glistening as pieces of priceless jewellery. She was laughing at something Melissa had said and simply looked too good to be true.

He kept looking at her as he sat down next to Remus at the Gryffindor table. He desperately wanted to say hello to her, but all his boldness from last night had turned to mush at the sight of her. He sighed contently. James didn't seem to notice the girls swoon as he entered the Great Hall. Frankly, he didn't care.

Sirius, always loving the attention, turned towards Prongs' many admirers and winked. The girls almost fainted right then and there. It's happened before.

Peter was looking at Sirius with admiration and jealousy. Sirius and James could probably get any girl they wanted. Sirius had more, not because he was better looking or anything, but because James was head over heels in love with Lily to pay that much attention to any other girl. He also thought they were extremely dim. All they were interested in was snogging the daylights out of him. They would have been fairly pretty if they didn't have make-up permanently caked on their faces. Sirius knew that these girls were not very good relationship material, but all he wanted was a little fun.

The girls were batting their eyelashes at James, trying to get his attention. With every minute that James didn't notice them, they began batting their eye lashes even harder. Soon, they were looking like a bunch of clowns trying to get dirt out of their eyes by blinking rapidly. Remus tried unsuccessfully to keep his laughter in. Sometimes girls were so thick.

Sirius had enough of this and poked James' hand with his fork.

"James!" said Sirius, snapping in his face, "Stay with us mate. Damnit Prongs, sometimes you act like a girl! Just go and say hi to her for God's sake!"

James blinked repeatedly at Sirius, much like those girls were doing before, although with less force. "What?"

"Just go up to her and say hi, James!" said Remus.

"Er, okay…" James started to rise. At that moment, Lily and her friends started to get up as well. They walked out of the Great Hall before James had fully risen out of his seat. James assumed they were heading to their next class. James sat back down.

"Oh, well. We'll see them in class right?" said James, somewhat disappointed.

"Yeah, don't worry about it James," said Remus.

They received their schedules for the week and headed to their first class; Transfiguration.

As James entered McGonagall's classroom, he saw Lily seated in the front of the class with Marlene as usual. She was talking with her almost urgently and James wondered if she was talking about him.

…………………………

Lily, Marlene, Nicole and Melissa made their way to Transfiguration. Lily didn't have time yet to tell Marlene what had happened the night before for fear of people overhearing; mainly Nicole and Melissa, since she didn't want them to know yet.

On their way to Transfiguration, Lily and Marlene walked slightly behind Melissa and Nicole to talk. She quietly recounted the story back to Marlene. When they entered the Transfiguration classroom, they sat in their usual seats and continued talking.

"So, what do you think?" asked Lily nervously.

"Think about what?" said Marlene.

Lily rolled her eyes. "You know, about James," whispered Lily.

"I think he was really sweet and he's trying to show you who he really is," said Marlene. "I think he really likes you, Hun."

Lily blushed, "But, what do I do?" she asked, still whispering. She noticed from the corner of her eye, the Marauders enter the classroom. She didn't dare look over, for fear of catching James' eye.

"Well wait a little, become his friend. You two will be spending a load of time together now that you'll have Head Duties and everything, and wait till he asked you out," said Marlene wisely. "Plus, I think it would be better if you two got to know one another better before you jump into anything." Marlene fake wiped a tear from her eye. "My baby's growing up so fast."

Lily laughed then looked thoughtfully at her friend and hugged her tightly just as class was starting. Professor McGonagall started to lecture the class about upcoming NEWTs. She hastily scribbled a note of thanks to Marlene as she didn't have a chance to after hugging her. Lily was truly grateful for a friend like Marlene. She then tried to concentrate on McGonagall's words, but found it to be challenging as she felt the eyes of a certain James Potter staring at the back of her head. Not that she minded.