It is widely acknowledged that sometimes, you have to take the good with the bad. In many people's cases, this may involve having to take a pesky little sibling to the beach when you go with your friends, or taking a shower in frigid water (hey, at least you don't smell, right?). Lily Evans, try as hard as she might, found that she could not escape this simple rule of life. You see, she was beginning to realize that this rule dictated her life. The pesky sibling was James, and the beach was anything she tried to do.
Take, for example, breakfast the very next morning. As Lily sidled out of the Gryffindor Common Room at 6:30 AM (not without a "LILY! Do we have to go this early?" from Audrey), she took a deep breath of extreme relief that the Marauders (and most specifically James) were not yet awake.
"You happy now?" whined Audrey. "He's not waiting outside your bedroom door ready to ambush you."
"No," Lily agreed, "but he could be outside the portrait hole."
"Oh, honestly, don't flatter yourself too much."
A classic Lily glare ensued.
Checking the corridor to the left, to the right, and to the left again, Lily bolted down to the Great Hall with her best friend at her heels.
Quite content with her toast, jam, and Earl Grey tea, Lily hummed to herself and flipped through the Head Girl orientation materials she had found under her sheets the night before.
"You think we'll get our schedules at breakfast?" she asked Audrey. When she received no answer after a few seconds, Lily turned to find the girl sprawled out across the breakfast table with her hair in the butter dish. Chuckling to herself, Lily turned back to "Dealing with Homesickness and Other First-Year Woes."
Lily had just barely figured out how to take care of a student becoming sick in the middle of the night when a similar handbook fell onto the table from three feet above and produced a WHACK! that echoed throughout the entire Hall.
She did not even have time to whip out her wand to attack the all-too-obvious assailant before he exclaimed, "Lils, my dear! Avoiding me, are we?"
Realizing that the silent treatment only worked to a certain extent, Lily snapped at him. "Merlin's beard, Potter, it's hardly 7 o'clock and you're already down here."
"That's what I thought when you went down to breakfast nearly half an hour ago," James smiled, sitting down and picking up a blueberry muffin.
"And how the hell do you know that, may I inquire?" Lily fumed.
"Yes, you may inquire," began James pretentiously. "And, for your information, Lils, I was in the Common Room the entire time, in the chair by the fire. I couldn't really sleep."
"Oh." Maybe she hadn't looked there. Realizing she had gone too long without yelling at him, she quickly added, "It's Lily."
Ten minutes elapsed during which they both slowly chewed their food and studied their manuals in silence.
"Moony, come here quickly!" whispered Sirius from the other side of the Great Hall just loudly enough so that James and Lily heard him. Dragging Remus Lupin by the arm, Sirius ran over to the Gryffindor table and plopped into the seat across from the Head Boy and Girl. Audrey awoke with a start.
"Have a look now before it's gone," continued Sirius. "Pass the jam, would you?"
"Padfoot, what are you on about now?" asked Remus.
"Just look at them!" squealed Sirius like a pre-pubescent boy. "Sitting together! Quietly!"
Lily looked up and frowned. "Maybe you've gotten the wrong impression. I'm not putting up with this prick. I've simply decided that my time would be better spent sitting here and reading (nonetheless ignoring him) than trying to find another spot in the school where he couldn't stalk me."
Sirius whistled. "Ah, she's a feisty one, Prongs."
A prompt kick from under the table remedied Sirius' audacity.
"In any case, since you're all here to distract him now, I think I may be leaving," announced Lily.
"But we get our schedules soon." Everyone started at Remus' voice. He hardly ever spoke this early in the morning.
"Yeah, you can't go now!" agreed James. "Plus, you haven't eaten enough yet. You're really quite skinny."
James proceeded to prod Lily's side until she slapped his hand away.
"James Potter, I would like to make one thing very clear," decided Lily in a very stern voice. "If this year is going to be endurable for the both of us, some rules must be decided upon right now. There will be no annoying me, poking me, hugging me, stalking me, and anything else which falls under the category of 'generally obnoxious.' You must also take care of your duties without leaving me all the slack."
James had opened his mouth to protest, but perhaps he thought better of it, for he promptly closed his mouth and nodded.
"Lily, that hardly seems fair." Sirius had come to his best friend's defense. "You can't completely remove him from your life."
"Oh, just watch me."
"Aren't you guys supposed to cooperate and stuff?" piped up Audrey.
"Potter's idea of 'cooperating' is snogging me in the nearest broom closet, so no, thanks," retorted Lily. Turning back to James, she clarified. "You may talk to me as long as it involves anything to do with our duties or classes."
"Good morning to you all," interrupted Professor McGonagall curtly, handing each of them their fall term schedules. "I shouldn't have to remind you that class starts promptly at eight. Don't be late."
"Who shoved a Blast-Ended Skrewt up her ass?" wondered Sirius aloud.
James snorted into his orange juice. Lily couldn't help but crack a smile.
"What have you all got first?" asked Remus, spreading the piece of parchment with his schedule on it across the table.
"Charms," proclaimed Audrey.
"Yes, then free!" exclaimed an excited Sirius.
"Then Defense Against the Dark Arts?" asked James, beginning to realize what this implied.
As the five students threw their schedules out onto the table in disbelief, a disheveled Peter Pettigrew decided it was time to show up to breakfast and tripped over a table leg before sitting down next to Remus.
"Oi! Where have you been?" asked Sirius.
"Sleeping," yawned the mousy boy.
"Well, you should've stayed in bed for all we care," laughed Sirius. "Anyway, listen to this, Wormtail. We've all got the exact same schedule!"
Lily sighed and let her head fall to the table, muttering something that involved the words "arse" and "can't believe this."
"What was that, Lily?" asked Audrey.
"I said, 'I need to go to my room and get my books.'"
"See you girls in class then," waved James.
As Lily and Audrey walked away, they could hear Sirius complaining. "Charms! Why do I have to go to Charms? Aren't I charming enough?"
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"Could we discuss this rationally?" asked Audrey, afraid that Lily would bite her head off. "Let's just think about why you hate him without getting angry!"
"All right," agreed Lily resignedly.
"So."
The two girls were lying on their stomachs, heads propped up on their hands, in the middle of the Common Room during their free period a couple hours later.
Lily thought for a good thirty seconds, making sure she could perfectly articulate every single reason that she wanted to curse James Potter off the face of the planet.
"Well?" Audrey pressed.
"He's stupid," blurted out Lily.
"Excuse me, unless I'm mistaken, he is second in our class rank, only behind you."
"Well exactly!" exclaimed Lily through gritted teeth. "Have you ever, and I mean ever, seen him reading or studying on his own terms? And for that matter, he got an 'Outstanding' on every single one of his O.W.L.s fifth year without cracking open a book!"
"So you're jealous?"
"I- no! It's just that he's so ridiculously ostentatious! He flies around on the pitch like nothing can touch him, and that's not even taking into account how he walks around this school like he owns the damn place. And what ever put the notion into his head that he can boss people around like he does?"
"You just feel bad for Severus."
"And who wouldn't? I mean the poor bloke is hanging upside down half the time."
"Yeah, but James really has toned everything down recently," argued Audrey. "I mean at the end of last year he was being nice to everyone and he hardly ever talked to you!"
"Audrey, why are you so intent on convincing me that he's not so bad?"
"Because, Lils," she smirked. "He really isn't, and you need to figure that out for yourself, I guess."
"Well I don't really feel like taking the time to get to know him anyway. He looks bad enough upon first impression."
"This will all change, of course," said Audrey dismissively. "I have quite the grand idea."
"Not another one of your ideas," groaned Lily.
"It's more like a bet," proposed Audrey. "Let's give it one month. Until the first of October. If he fulfills his side of the agreement, pisses off, and leaves you alone, then you have to agree to go for a drink with him in Hogsmeade."
"And what if he doesn't?" asked Lily excitedly, never one to back off on a bet.
"Well…" Audrey clearly hadn't quite perfected the bet yet. "I'll agree to start dating Pettigrew."
Lily collapsed in a fit of giggles. Everyone knew Peter had fancied Audrey for years now. Lily could not imagine a more mismatched couple. Peter, with his dirty and flattened hair, stout build, grubby hands, and small, watery, blue eyes. Audrey, with her positively gorgeous curly blonde hair, filled out figure, and bright, vivacious, eyes the curious shade of aquamarine. Just the mental image convinced Lily.
"You're on."
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"You're really going to put up with this?" questioned Sirius, hurrying to keep up with James' brisk walk towards the kitchens.
"I'd be an idiot not to," explained James. "If she wants me to shut up and leave her alone, I'll do it. I'd rather her be in a good mood in the rare occasion that I do talk to her instead of have her curse me every time I approach her."
"But she looks so damn tasty when she gets mad!" Sirius protested, dodging a quick blow from James.
"Screw off, Padfoot."
"Why are you taking this so seriously anyway? I miss my old Jamesie-Poo. We need to hang Snape by his skivvies sometime soon."
"Because, Sirius, you do realize this is our last year here at Hogwarts," said a frustrated James, tickling the pear in the portrait to gain access to the kitchens. "If I don't get her now, she'll be gone forever."
Sirius considered his friend sympathetically for a few seconds.
"Hurry up and get in here!" screeched the banana in the picture. "I haven't got all day!"
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That's it for now…Sorry if this seems horribly predictable so far…Don't worry, I've got a few very good ideas for plot twists. But I don't know where to go with this unless you review and tell me what you think so far! Have a favorite part? Please let me know so I can work off of that. Hate something? Don't care if you tell me that, either. I'd hate to write something that you can't stand. So PLEASE review!
Thanks a bunch,
Marina