A/N: I originally wrote these two chapters a few years ago, so there may be slight inconsistencies, especially with Snape, which I've tried my best to correct. . . Any reviews would be very helpful and much appreciated!
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Marietta pulled herself away from James, giving him a poisonous glance before sweeping angrily from the room. James sighed, and glanced longing at the heavy wooden door, as if wishing he could see through the mahogany and the stone of the walls to stare at the red-headed girl who was sitting brokenly on the floor, wishing also for something she could not have. Both wanted a simple, clear explanations, but their lives did not come with instructions.
James ran his hands hopelessly though his chestnut hair by habit, as if hoping he could ruffle his hair enough to let the disastrous scene in his head disappear. Why had he kissed her? He had been asking Marietta about Lily, circuitously, but when she had walked in, both had frozen, and then he had kissed her. The scene replayed in his head over and over, making him sigh angrily, feeling hopeless and lost, and foolhardy. His anger was boundless, but this time, it was at himself.
Professor Slughorn entered the room, wondering to himself why such a relaxed and uncaring student such as James Potter was in his first class of the day, of the school year, fifteen minutes early. Looking up, James realized that Slughorn, if faced with the tension between James and Lily, would immediately side with his favorite: Lily.
"I'll be right back, Professor," James told Slughorn. "I've forgotten my Potions book in my dormitory."
"Well, hurry up, boy," Slughorn responded. "I've a lesson planned for today, despite what you may hope." The round teacher added a wink, stroking his mustache with a ringed hand. James ducked his head by farewell, and jogged to the door.
He pulled it open, only to come face to face with Lily. She glanced at him, flicking her green eyes upwards to meet his hazel.
"All. . Alright there, Evans?" he asked, attempting a cocky smile.
"Never better," she responded, with her auburn head cocked on an angle, raising her brows above sharpened emerald eyes. She brushed past him into the classroom.
As if on second thought, she whirled around and added almost viciously, "You?" James turned around slowly, facing the angry girl.
"I feel great," James lied stubbornly, offering another superior grin, spreading his hands in the air with a faked relaxed air. Inside he was sinking. "See you in Potions," was all he said, and left, leaving another angry Lily in the Potions classroom to set up her caldron alone.
---
Potions was the same it was every year to Lily, the praises of Slughorn heaped upon her between directions, as Slughorn waddled his way around the classroom in another gold-buttoned waistcoat. James sat squarely in front of her, with Sirius seated beside him and Remus at his right hand. Every so often they would begin to whisper furiously between themselves, causing Lily to once look up as she chopped the mandrake root, and when she looked down she found to her embarrassment she had been absentmindedly chopping the table.
James was faring much worse, Lily realized. He added the wiggentree bark before the lacewing flies, causing his potion to turn maroon instead of amber. Lily was itching to correct him. Finally, when he was about to add his droxie venom before the powdered firecrab, Lily couldn't stand it anymore. Though she disliked people who mistreated others because they could, Lily frowned upon letting another suffer just as much when she could lend a helping hand or a few words of advice. Doing nothing to help was almost as bad as hurting them in the first place.
"Hey, Potter," she whispered loudly. "Potter!" At his, he swerved in his chair, his hazel eyes unreadable and sharp.
"Yes, Evans?" he inquired blandly. Lily was taken aback. She was used to James being rather over-friendly and amiable, and his sudden blithe appearance surprised her.
"You-You really shouldn't add the. . .the venom before. . ." Lily's voice trailed off as James pressed his lips angrily together.
"I never asked for you help, Evans," he responded indifferently. "Thank you, though." He turned back to his potion, and added, right in front of her horrified stare, the venom, then the firecrab, making his potion turn a nasty burnt color and smoke. Slughorn can hurrying over.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, I suppose that you did not read the instructions closely," he announced, not unkindly. At James's glare, his expression softened.
"It's the first day, so I'll be kind. Half-marks, then. Evanesco." The potion vanished, leaving an empty caldron, as James slumped angrily back into his seat. Lily's eyes flicked from her amber colored potion to the back of James's head. A fine mist was rising from her potion as she stirred it, and the liquid deepened to a pale, spring-green. Glancing over, Slughorn recognized the potion.
"Yes, Miss Evans has correctly brewed a Growth Draft," the professor exclaimed with elation. "10 points to Gryffindor, for the excellent potion, Miss Evans!" A few angry whispers broke out in the room – among the Slytherins in their Potions class, most of them hoping, for once, their Severus would outshine Lily for a Slytherin victory.
Lily could not help smiling proudly from the praise, but for once she an angry part of her mind totally disliked the special attention she received. That sudden thought was only magnified by the disgusted groan that escaped James's lips, as she watched the back of his head sink farther down as he slumped lower into his chair. When Slughorn announced the end of class, James and his friends, Sirius and Remus, were the first out of the potions room, with James's Hogwarts robes billowing behind him like the cape of a defeated hero.
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Disgust: that's all James felt towards Lily. Or rather, all he wished to feel for her. An annoying part of his mind kept replaying her whispering his name, her careful lips forming the words as she – James wrenched the scene from his mind. He wanted to hate her. Wanted to, but couldn't. She had dishonored him, treated him like an idiot – in front of his friends! He felt betrayed. That same, dreamy part of him recognized her kindness, argued that she was simply looking out for his best interests. But he squashed that thought like a defenseless pixie.
"Sirius?" James called, surfacing from his stupor. "Remus?" Both young men came at his summons."I think it's time for a prank," James announced. Sirius, who had been lounging in a cushioned chair by the fire with a look of disinterest on his handsome face, snapped his eyes from the crackling logs to James's hazel eyes.
"But, James. . ." Remus began, hesitating as the focus switched from James to himself. "I thought we agreed that last year ended the pranks." His eyes were steady, and strong, enough so to challenge his friend's wishes. James now drew on a blase appearance that rivaled even Sirius's.
"I changed my mind," he replied simply, with a nonchalant air. He reclined in the chair, putting his feet on the wooden coffee table, atop Remus's homework, which earned him an appalled look from Remus, before the boy fixed his attention on James once more, his gentle features twisted into a scowl.
"Dammit, James! You're so contrary!" Remus exclaimed. "If this is about Lily–"
"This is about fun," James interrupted harshly, blithe manner gone, now almost livid with rage. "Our seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Time to leave my mark – our mark – as the Marauders!"
"Oh, come now, Moony," added Sirius. "Remember Filch's face when we hexed Aubrey to make him Melon-Head?"
"That was you two," demurred Remus.
"Just the same," James continued, "I have a plan."
"Now you're talking sensible, Prongs," Sirius exclaimed, slapping him roughly on the back, causing him to lurch forward, his grinning face thrown into flickering shadow by the fire.
He leaned forward, the other two also, and they began to whisper, occasionally glancing over each other's shoulders at the third-year scratching away with an owl quill, or the group of fifth-year girls who were giggling the far corner. No one seemed to find the sudden conversing of James, Sirius, and Remus at all peculiar.
---
The rest of the first day brought Lily all the classes from her sixth-year, but somehow more difficult. McGonagall, in Transfiguration, expected them to successfully transfigure a tortoise into a flock of canaries. Few children managed to get the tortoise to turn into anything within the first half-hour, and James was the first to successfully create a flock of birds, through they were strangely sparrows. Lily spent her entire class flicking her wand absent-mindedly. Somehow, James seemed in better spirits after their break that was after Potions – perhaps he had chatted with his friends. Somehow Lily wondered if something was brewing in their friendship, another joke from the infamous Marauders, the best pranksters Hogwarts had ever seen, or so they claimed.
James, bored with the flock of newly conjured sparrows, pointed his wand jokingly at Marcovitz, muttering, "oppungo". The flock of birds, suddenly with claws extended, zoomed at the innocent boy, and began to circle, screeching, darting and pecking at the boy's face. Glancing at the birds, Sirius became annoyed with the cawing, and shouted, "silencio!" over the noise. The birds continued to open and close their beaks without a sound escaping, to Sirius's satisfaction.
James shot him a glance of false annoyance, then leaned his wooden chair back on two legs to enjoy the sudden chaos he had created. Students were either sitting with their hands over their heads, afraid of being James's rouge birds' next victims, or sitting and watching the scene, looking entertained as their tortoises roamed around the room. Only Lily was scowling at James, with fiery anger in her emerald eyes. She was furious: Furious that neither he nor Sirius were doing anything, that both were tormenting an innocent classmate because they could.
McGonagall reentered the room. She stopped in her tracks, finding the classroom in complete disarray.
"What's this?" she inquired angrily. "Who is responsible for this chaos?" James grinned widely, as Sirius hastened to change his guffaws into coughs.
"I am, Professor," James replied evenly, still grinning, glancing from Sirius to Remus, a smug look on his handsome face.
"I can't say I'm surprised!" the Professor exclaimed. "Sparrows? I believe we were conjuring canaries!" Now everyone was staring from McGonagall to James, as if they were having a tennis match.
"20 points from Gryffindor," she announced evenly. James still grinned, turning to Sirius and nudged him, as if McGonagall was done. She gave him one last measuring look.
"Now," she said, resuming her station at the front of the room. "The charm. Articulate." The students sat expectantly, waiting for fireworks. "Well, go on," McGonagall urged the students, who unhappily complied.
"Avis?" tried Lily tentatively. Her tortoise shook his head as lilies sprouted off its back. "Avis," Lily tried, more firmly for what seemed like the fiftieth time. The tortoise morphed in a large, green seagull, the exact color it had been as a reptile.
"Finite incantantem," Lily sighed. The tortoise-gull became a simple tortoise again.
"You'd better practice this for homework, Miss Evans," McGonagall remarked sternly, looking over her glasses at Lily, before moving on to Thompson, who was sitting next to Lily, and was attempting to pry his turtle off his hand without success.
Sighing, Lily, tried to look around her room to make her failure less, hoping to find the rest of the class also with green fowl or a flock of small tortoises. Looking over her shoulder, Lily did not feel any better.
James had a flock of yellow canaries perched on his head.
---
Transfiguration was a joke to James, as if had been last year, even at NEWT level. After the class, he was confident with the charm, enough so that he had no extra work. The thought only made him grin more – the lack of Transfiguration work left him plenty of time to plan his prank for the next morning.
"Feeling cocky, are we, Potter?" came a greasy voice from behind James in the hallway. The grin slid off his face, as he whirled, pulling his wand out to point it at the skinny, pale Slytherin who was sneering, his wand also aimed at James's throat. He mistook James's look of surprise as one of fear.
"Afraid now, are we?" asked the boy. "Perhaps Mr. Potter isn't so brave without those friends of his around to save him." The Slytherin gestured at the hallway, which was filled with third- and fifth-years, carrying books to and from classes.
"You are the one who should be afraid, Snivellus," James responded evenly, humor in his bland tone. "I don't see anyone to interrupt our. . .conversation, as she did last time." James was talking about how Lily had interfered, yelling at James to stop the last time he had cornered Snape.
"I don't need her help, I told you," Snape told the seething Gryffindor, his voice calm, but his dark eyes blazing. "That disgusting do-gooder had better stay far away from me, she'll soil my reputation." The effect of his words on James were tremendous. He took a step forward, his wand touching the other boy's throat.
"Don't make this about her," he panted, his hazel eyes dangerous.
"You brought her up," responded the other, just as angrily. "But then again, she did turn you down."
There was a flash of light, and Snape was hanging upside down. But as if remembering something, James muttered, "liberacorpus", and Snape came crashing down.
"Well, you have been softened by her, haven't you," Snape whispered furiously, his greasy hair falling into his pale face, which was twisted frighteningly in anger. He seemed unable to say her name aloud in his apparent anger.
"Expelliarmus!" shouted James, before Snape could even move. His wand went spinning away, leaving him standing defenseless. Somehow, Snape did not look frightened. He glanced evenly at the Gryffindor.
James returned the glance, with fire in his hazel eyes. But, glancing over his shoulder, James noted a group of girls moving his way, and saw the familiar gleam of red hair. He moved closer to Snape.
"I'll get you later," he muttered savagely to the Slytherin, his wand hand shaking in repressed anger. "You wait."
With that said, he turned and stalked off the scene, under the gaze of a pair of green eyes.
---
Sometimes, you can wonder, after witnessing something, if you truly saw what you saw, if it were possible that the specific thing could actually happen. You can begin to doubt the truth, wondering if perhaps it was all some strange hallucination.
Lily had just seen James – James Potter– walk away from a fight. It seemed to wonderful to be true. Yet her eyes had not lied. This was almost as strange, Lily realized, as James's sudden attraction to Marietta. The thought reminded Lily of the kiss she had witnessed. Had her eyes been playing tricks on her then, also?
"Marietta?" called Lily, as she sat in the Gryffindor Common Room, reading a book as the rest of the Gryffindors went to lunch. The girl came at her call, hesitating, as if not quite wanting to leave the bunch of girls she was walking with. The Portrait shut behind all of them, leaving Marietta and Lily alone by the edge of the Common Room.
"Lily, really. . ." Marietta began, "I don't want to come between you and James, and really, I didn't mean for you to. . ." Her voice, frail when she began, shrank to a whisper, then dwindled into nothing. She stood, staring at the auburn head of Lily. The girl turned, facing Marietta with a level glance.
"There isn no 'me and James'," Lily demurred. "I just wanted to make sure that you two are clear with that." Something was hidden in those green eyes, Marietta realized. Regret?
"That's just the thing," Marietta explained simply. "There is no 'me and James' either."
"What do you mean?" demanded Lily, her eyes narrowed. "I saw you two in the Potions room–"
"We were talking," Marietta continued, interrupting Lily. "Then he just leaned forward and kissed me when you came in!" She gave Lily another helpless glance with her brown eyes. Lily was silent.
"I'd better go off to lunch," Marietta muttered, walking to the Portrait, which opened.
"Marietta?" asked Lily, as the girl crossed the threshold. "What was he talking to you about?" The brown-haired girl looked trapped.
"You," she responded. The Portrait closed, leaving Lily sitting alone in the Common Room, confused.