Change of Heart
By Tempest Break
Disclaimer: Um, let's see. Contrary to popular belief, I don't own Harry Potter. I do own Selena Silver and Colleen O'Brian, Lily's friends, though. Oh, and I own the griffin statue outside the Head Tower! You can see I'm scrambling for things that I actually own... Not coming up with many, am I?
Summary: James obviously likes Lily, but she hates his guts. This is the way it's been for six years. However, in their last year, James finally has a chance, as he and Lily are Head Boy and Girl, and share a tower all to themselves. While James rejoices, Lily would rather kill herself than spend more than a nanosecond with James, who, in her opinion, is a conceited jerk. James has nine months to reverse six years of hatred for him, and will Lily have a change of heart?
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Chapter Five: Screaming Bloody Murder
James and Lily walked in silence to the Head Tower – or rather, Lily walked in silence while James tried to flirt with her. None of his attempts worked, however, as she completely ignored him, although James was nearly certain he'd caught the ghost of a smile after he'd complimented her on her "Charms".
Finally, they reached the griffin statue Dumbledore had told them about. The griffin, as they had learned in Care of Magical Creatures, was a huge lion with the head, wings, and talons of an eagle. This statue looked exactly like the one they had seen in a book, sitting regally with its wings outstretched above its head, nearly touching the ceiling of the hallway.
"Wizard's Chess," James said to the apparent guardian of the Head Tower. After a moment in which James felt very silly talking to a statue, the griffin's wings began to fold slowly. The excruciating sound of rock sliding on rock sliced through the air of the corridor, and James and Lily clamped their hands over their ears.
"Lovely sound, innit?" he shouted to her. "Who needs a guard dog when a burglar'll wake everyone from here to China?"
Lily only looked at him in unfortunate agreement, her hands still on her ears.
Finally, as the griffin's wings completely folded, they revealed two doorways on either side of the statue's body. After looking bemusedly at each other, they each took one, but found themselves in the same place – the Head common room.
The common room was much more elegant than the one in Gryffindor Tower, but that was to be expected. It was colored red and gold, the Gryffindor House colors, for James and Lily. There were two squishy armchairs and one couch in a horseshoe around the fireplace, and three doors on the opposite wall from the entrance. One door read, James Potter, in bold, solid letters – the same handwriting James himself had, in fact
Odd, don't remember writing my name on a door, James thought to himself. Well, at least not that door.
Moving his gaze onward, he found that the other door said, Lily Evans, and James recognized the writing as hers. He went to the last door, this one unlabeled, and opened it, revealing a spotlessly clean bathroom, complete with a toilet, two sinks, a shower, and a separate bath.
"It's gorgeous," Lily breathed, coming up behind him.
"Meh, I've seen better," James lied. When Lily looked at him with a raised eyebrow, he met her gaze for a moment before laughing. "Just kidding. This really is something."
Lily turned back to the common room, and James closed the bathroom door again and went to sit on the couch. Lily had already taken one of the comfortable-looking armchairs.
"This is pretty nice," James commented, taking another look around. "Better than Gryffindor Tower, even."
Lily nodded hesitantly, as if she were realizing this was the third time that she and James had agreed within only a few minutes' time.
"Yep," he continued. "The only problem is that the Owlery and Great Hall are so far away. We'll have to get up early just to get there in time for breakfast."
Lily still said nothing.
"Can't you answer with words like a normal person?" James mimicked, repeating what she had said on the train.
She glared at him. "Well, I'm sorry," she said, though she didn't sound sorry at all. "But I suppose I'm in shock because I have to share this lovely tower with you, of all people. I still can hardly believe it. And Professor Dumbledore wouldn't even give us a reason for appointing you Head Boy."
James nodded thoughtfully, and then said, "Why don't you go out with me? I might stop being such a jerk."
"Well, I'm sorry, Potter, but I'm not quite ready to have a fixer-upper for a first boyfriend."
"First boyfriend, huh?" he repeated thoughtfully. "Intriguing."
Lily rolled her eyes. "If all you're going to do is wonder about my dating record, I'm going to bed. Goodnight, Potter."
"Sweet dreams," James called with a big grin and a waggling eyebrow.
"Goodnight, Potter," Lily said forcefully, shutting her door with a quiet but firm slam.
After a few minutes, James also got up and went to his room. He immediately rummaged through his stuff, and came up with a small, square mirror – so innocuous that it looked like one a girl might keep in her purse.
"Sirius Black," James said to it, and in a moment, James's reflection morphed into Sirius's face.
"Hey, Prongs," greeted Sirius. "It's about time."
"It's nice to see you, too, Sirius," James said wryly.
"So, how's the Head Tower?" Sirius asked.
James shrugged. "Pretty nice, I guess," he said. "Bathroom's a lot nicer than in Gryffindor Tower, gotta tell ya. Evans is still pretty uptight, you know. She got mad at me for just being here."
"Oh, poor Prongs," Sirius said unsympathetically. "Why don't you just hex her until she admits her love for you? That might work – at least as well as your current strategy."
"It's lucky you're in that mirror, Padfoot," James told him. "But fortunately I think I'm wearing her down. She actually agreed with me somewhat tonight."
"Ooh, saucy."
"Not everything can be the same bowl of linguini that was Black's Birthday Bash 1975."
Sirius tried to grin but a yawn cut through it. "Sorry," he said. "I'm so tired. I'm gonna turn in. See ya tomorrow."
"G'night, Padfoot," said James, and then it was his reflection in the mirror again. James put it carefully away and then undressed. He pulled on his pyjamas and slid under the red-and-gold covers on his four-poster bed. The mattress was amazingly comfortable, and James immediately fell asleep.
He was walking down a familiar corridor, the one that led to the Shrieking Shack. He was looking for someone – who, he didn't know. But he heard that person climbing the slope up into the Shack, and he quickened his pace.
Finally he reached the Shack, but the person he was following was nowhere to be seen. There was a creak from the door to the right, the one that led to the staircase, and he turned toward the sound. He rushed up the staircase, turning into Prongs as he went. He finally leapt onto the second floor landing, and he saw Remus, as a werewolf, advancing on the person he had been following. He jumped at Remus just as the person screamed –
"No! Not me, too!!!"
James jolted awake, breathing hard. He was sweating, but it was just a dream. Just a dream, he told himself. "But then why was that scream so – ?"
"No, not Mum! Please, no!!"
James's head jerked up. The screams were real. Someone was in the Head Tower, screaming like a banshee. "It's probably just Peeves," James said to himself, but he was extremely unconvincing, so he got out of bed anyway.
"Stay away from me!!"
He approached the door to the bathroom and turned the knob. He peeked his head inside, but there was no one there. James frowned. He could have sworn the screams were coming from –
"AAAAAAAHHHH!!!"
There it came again, even shriller than before, and it was still coming from beyond the bathroom. "But where?" James muttered. Then he saw the door opposite him. It must lead to Evans's room, he thought. She's the one screaming?
He crossed the cold tile in a few strides and opened the door just as a fresh cry sounded, only this time it was pleading.
"No, no, not Dad, not Petunia," sobbed Lily, tears streaming out of her closed eyes as she lay in bed.
James immediately went to the side of her bed and saw that Lily had obviously been having a nightmare. Her face was streaked with wet trails of tears, and she was murmuring and shivering in a cold sweat.
"N-No," she stammered. "No – no – !"
James grabbed her by the shoulders before she could scream again. "Wake up, Evans! It's just a nightmare!" he shouted.
Lily's green eyes snapped open and met James's. "Potter?"
"Yeah?" asked James, happy to see her return to reality.
"P-Potter…" She seemed disoriented, but then her face turned livid. "Just WHAT are you doing in my room?!" she shrieked.
"It's not what you think!" James defended himself. "Y-You were having a nightmare. I woke you up!"
"GET OUT OF MY ROOM, YOU PERV!" she shouted, whacking James straight in the face with her pillow. It fell to the ground, and James promptly tripped on it.
"W-Whoa!" James exclaimed, backpedaling with his arms to keep his balance. It was no use – he flopped onto the floor, right on Lily's suitcase. The handle dug sharply into the small of his back. "OW!" he shouted, sitting up just as Lily's pillow met his face for a second time.
"GET OUT!!!" she yelled. "GET OUT, GET OUT, GET OUT!"
"I am trying," James insisted, leaping up from the floor and covering his head with his arms. He made a dash for the bathroom door, and Lily hurled the pillow at him again. He closed the door just in time, and he heard a whump! when the pillow hit.
"AND STAY OUT!" Lily shouted after him.
He made it back into his room and sank onto his bed in relief. "That girl is dangerous," he muttered. He rubbed his face. "And a dynamite shot with a pillow."
- - - - -
James woke up with a definite backache, the origin of which it took him more than a moment to remember. Then it all came back to him – his dream, Evans's screaming, Evans's waking up and finding him in her room, and Evans's being a maniac.
He groaned as he got up from his bed. He knocked on the bathroom door just to make sure Lily wasn't in there; he'd already seen what she was like when he was in her room – he shuddered at the thought of walking in on her in the bathroom. Nobody answered, so he walked in. He noticed that the mirror was a little fogged up, so Lily must have already taken her shower. After taking off his pyjamas, he turned on the hot water and hopped in.
After about five minutes he finished and pulled on his regular school robes. He walked out into the common room and still didn't see Lily anywhere. However, he found a piece of paper on the coffee table in front of the fireplace. Hoping against hope that it was a note of apology for all her hysterics and misunderstanding the previous night, he rushed over, but found that it was just his schedule. He looked it over, and found that he had History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration that day. As he was no longer required to take Potions, he had a pretty easy schedule.
James made his way to the Great Hall, which was a long descent from the Head Tower. When he got there, he found the other Marauders immediately – the raucous laughter and wide berth made by the younger years was an easy giveaway – took a seat next to Sirius, and began piling food onto his plate.
"Good morning, James," greeted Remus. Sirius would have done so, but, as usual, his mouth was full of pancakes, waffles, and whatever else he could fit.
"G'morning, Moony," said James.
"You look terrible," said Peter, sparing no pretense. "Did you get enough sleep last night?"
Sirius swallowed an impossibly large bite and said, "Oh-ho! No sleep, eh, Prongsy? Things are going well with Evans, then!" He slapped James on the back.
James arched away from Sirius's hand and grimaced in pain. "Owww," he gasped.
Sirius looked surprised. "What's wrong?" he asked, before opening his mouth in a silent "O" of understanding. "Ah, I see. She likes it rough, huh?"
Remus and Peter grimaced.
"Bad taste, Padfoot," said Remus, shaking his head.
"Literally," Peter added, pushing his plate away from him and pretending to throw up.
"I was up because of Evans, but it's not what you think, Padfoot," said James. "She was – loudly – having a nightmare and woke me up. When I went into her room to wake her up, she yelled at me. I tripped and landed on her luggage, right where you hit me." He tenderly gestured to the spot.
Sirius's eyebrows were raised. "Wow," he said. "Not one of your graceful moments, eh?"
"Definitely not," agreed James, still smarting from the clap on the back.
"What classes do you have, James?" asked Remus, to change the subject.
"History of Magic, then D.A.D.A., a free period, and then Transfigs," he said. "You have the same?" The Marauders took pretty much the same classes – only Remus and Peter still took Potions, and Remus had Ancient Runes.
"Same for me," said Remus, "only Wormtail and I have Potions when you have the free period."
"What about you, Padfoot?" asked James.
Sirius handed him his schedule, as his mouth was full again.
"Just the same, too," said James. "Brilliant."
Sirius nodded, unable to speak around the spectacular amount of food stuffed in his mouth.
"What class do we have History of Magic with?" James wondered, taking a look at his schedule. "Ravenclaw, okay. Not Slytherin."
"Thank God," Sirius muttered before cramming some more food into his mouth.
James stared at him. "How many stomachs do you have?" he asked.
Sirius shrugged and continued eating – more like vacuuming, actually.
They were soon dismissed from the Great Hall, and all the Gryffindors headed to Professor Binns's classroom for History of Magic. The previous year, Binns had shown up one day as a ghost. When Sirius had pointed it out, Binns had replied, "Well, what do you know? Now will you kindly not interrupt my class again, Mr. Black?" and had continued with the lesson.
As the Marauders approached the classroom, James caught sight of three figures in the hallway. Unfortunately, he recognized two of them as the ever-cruel Mathias Avery and his fellow Slytherin, below-average-intelligence Edmond Jugson. He and Sirius simultaneously reached for their wands, and then James saw that the third person was none other than Lily Evans.
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Tempest: Well, there's the end of chapter five. Wow. I've written these so fast... I'm so proud!!! Chapter six will be out soon, don't worry! Probably more about Lily and such, you know. The good stuff. Maybe Quidditch practice. I think James will try to get information out of Colleen (you know, Lily's Chaser friend). James is a sneaky young man. By the way, does anyone know for sure what position James played? I could have sworn he was Seeker, but recently I've been hearing that he was Chaser, and I can't find out for myself because I lost my copy of the first book. Could someone leave the information in a review, please? Even though it would upset me because I've already written a Quidditch chapter in which James is the Seeker... But tell me anyway.
8-01-07: This chapter has been revamped! Hope you enjoy it more than before. Several people are pointing out the non-canon parts later on. I must stress that if a chapter DOESN'T HAVE an italicized note, it has not been changed to fit full canon.