James Who?
A/N: I do not own Harry Potter, though I wouldn't mind if I did.
"Good!" Mrs. Evans beamed, "Now here's the list and the money." She said as she dropped a piece of paper with some pounds folded into it. "And there's a little extra so make sure that James gets something he might like for dessert to go with dinner." The older woman winked at her daughter when she was shot a raised eyebrow and mouthing that said He's staying for dinner?
Chapter Two: He Who Must Not Be Named Who?
Lily Evans was to some an insufferable redhead. To herself though, she was insufferably redheaded and pale. Her fair but freckled skin was smooth and albeit the color of porcelain, but if she were to go out for extended periods without preparation she would end up the color of a red lobster.
Which is how James Potter happened upon Lily in the upstairs bathroom; slathering on an unordinary amount of sunblock. Not that James knew what sunblock was.
"HEY!" James flinched back as if he'd been slapped, well he had, but with sound too. Gobsmacked with a now stinging cheek James gaped at Lily who had withdrawn her sneaky hand and shook it out, grimacing at the excess sunblock grease on it.
"James you don't just walk in on someone in the bathroom!" Lily glared at him, adorning her pony tailed head with a floppy sunhat as she stomped down the hallway to the stair landing.
Eyes wide James trod behind her slowly not wanting to get another very Lily, his Lily he thought, kind of reaction. "But the door was unlocked…" James pleaded quietly as he felt up at his cheek to find it greasy from the sunblock on Lily's hand. All in all the slap didn't have much force behind it, and didn't hurt, it was just a sudden shock.
Lily furrowed her brow in frustration as she clomped down the stairs to the kitchen, her mother and sister had just left for the salon. Lily sighed and reached for the grocery money and list her mother had lain on the counter, scooping up the pounds and quid and shoved it in her pocket.
The girl sighed and shook her head at the black-haired boy following her at an abnormally cautious distance, "James it's okay, I won't hit you again I promise!" She added when she saw his playful hesitance in catching up to her as she walked up the drive.
Shoving his hands into his pockets after jogging to catch up with Lily, James Looked down at the red-head, his hazel eyes and mouth smiling as he watched the red-head's floppy hat bounce with every step she took.
Lily felt a prickle on the back of her neck and knew that James was watching her intently; she walked slightly faster to hide the flush on her cheeks from him.
James thought to himself as he continued watching his crush, "I wonder what else she may have forgotten about..."
"So Lily," Green eyes looked up innocently at him, "Do you remember what...Quidditch is?" A mischievous grin widening on his face.
Lily tilted her head up at him, an eyebrow raised, "Quidditch? Why no I don't believe- Of course I remember what Quidditch is! It just so happened to be what I was attempting to play with Hestia before I fell off the bloody broom. Might as well define it as Quidditch; that of which Lily Evans is rubbish at." James blinked owlishly as he took in the girl's viewpoint of his beloved sport.
"Well we will just have to fix that won't we?" James perked up again as he hooked his arm through Lily's and began to drag her forward, using arm gestures and dramatic voices to explain just how great Quidditch was, as well as how he, James Potter was a Chaser himself.
"Lily Evans I am going to teach you to play Quidditch!" He proclaimed with a flourished half bow to her, "But first, I will teach you how to ride a broom properly! No more falling off broomsticks for you." He waggled his finger good-naturedly at the red-head, ignoring the dubious look growing stronger on her face.
"Yeah I'd like to see you try that Mr. Chaser of the Gryffindor team. I suppose if anyone can it would be an actual Quidditch player...oops..." Lily gained an anxious look on her face, "Don't tell Hestia I said that, please." Her big almond shaped green eyes looked up at James, wide and shiny.
If there was one thing that could make James melt into a fuzzy pile of goo, it would be Lily Evans' eyes.
"O-kay..." James said slowly, melting at Lily's pleading look and drowning in a sea of emerald.
Lily turned her gaze from James' face and saw that they were just at the edge of the market's parking lot. "Alright James, here's the market, it's purely muggle so be careful about what you say." She raised her eyebrow at James' 'duh, of course' look he gave her.
Lily pulled out the grocery list her mother left for her, careful not to let any notes fall from her capris pocket. "Alright, so it looks like we need to get some bell pepp-ACK!" Lily was jerked by the arm to the side when James suddenly stared off at something interesting to him, which ended up being a box of Count Chocula cereal.
"Lily, Lily!" James practically shouted with glee bouncing on his heels, "It's Snape. For sure, I mean I can't even fathom a more perfect resemblance." His hazel eyes bright with mirth, James was far too happy for his own good.
Looking at the box of over sugary cereal Lily was rendered speechless, for a moment at least.
"My...Merlin..." Lily cocked her head to the side, "...I know it's mean, but it kind of does look like him." Severus would probably start hexing the cereal company if he saw this.
James grabbed the box off the shelf and pleaded with the quintessential puppy dog eyes, "Liiiillllllly," She slightly melted, "Can I please have this? I have to show Sirius, but I don't have any Muggle money so pleasecanIhavethisI'llpay you baaaaaaack." James sidled up to her left and wrapped his right arm around the redhead, squeezing her with a right armed hug and leaning in from the side he said like a child, "Pllllllleaaaaaaaaaaaaase?".
Lily, now red from embarrassment rather than the sun, started to push the overly hyper wizard off of her while saying, "Fine, yes we can get it just lower your pitch will you? You sound like Petunia when she was eleven." Lily managed to get away from James after he stumbled back from feigned shock, his hand over his heart, mouth open.
She swatted at him, "Oh cut it out you big baby, come on let's get the rest of the list." Lily promptly turned and went off toward the produce section like she had originally planned.
An hour later she and James were carrying four bags of groceries, two each, one of James filled with Count Chocula and sweets such as Red Vines and White Mice, and in particular, Spanish Gold. "But it looks like Galleons!" James had reasoned with her in the store about thirty minutes prior.
When they arrived at her house there was an owl on the kitchen table next to a Daily Prophet and when it saw James it stuck its leg out expectantly with a little brown bag tied to it. James hastily sat his groceries down before digging into his pocket and fishing out two knuts and put them in the bag, "Lily do you have any owl treats?" James said as he smoothed the feathers on the owl's wing.
"Yeah just a sec." Lily darted back up to her room, nipping the bag of owl treats out of her desk, but not before giving her own owl Lizzy a treat, which gave a soft hoot in response. Taking the stairs two at a time Lily hopped back into the kitchen and handed James a couple of treats. She could not help but be amused and even warmed by the soft look as James fawned over the owl, which was a pretty snowy color with bits of brown and black. Must be an animal person, he did say he had no siblings Lily thought to herself as the owl took off through the kitchen window.
Putting up groceries didn't take too long, James's stash of candy hidden well above the refrigerator so that her father couldn't find it, big sweet tooth that one. As Lily finished James was already at the table reading the Prophet and frowning. She joined him at the table, curious at his frown and scanned the title of the front page when James opened the paper fully to continue reading the front page story.
"You-Know-Who followers rally in small Wizarding village outside of Bristol...You-Know-Who? Well obviously not." Lily furrowed her brow, tiny wrinkles forming as she did so and squinted in thought.
James's eyes widened a fraction as he gaped at her, "Lily, do you not remember You-Know-Who? Seriously?" He shook his head a bit as he realized what a danger this memory loss could be. A benefit to him but a real and tangible danger and disadvantage to Lily. He put the paper down, front page up and spun it so it was facing Lily.
"Okay, so You-Know-Who, and just so you know it's a rather silly way of referring to this guy, Lord Voldemort, which is also stupid, so just Voldemort then. This Voldemort character has gained a...popularity, so to speak among daft imbecile purebloods that are not so friendly to half-bloods and muggleborns...like yourself." James met her eyes briefly as the corners of her mouth consistently turned downwards and more creases appeared on her forehead, her eyes filled with worry.
James continued, "But- not everyone feels this way, most people actually. Just the dumb inbred ones who are all twats anyway." He smiled at her, glad to see that she was at least amused with his point of view when he saw her flash a wobbly grin. "Sadly though this idiot has followers, and that's what this is all about," he put his finger on the moving picture of a group of people in black hooded cloaks with their fists in the air. "Bollocks really, but they're all on about 'bloody purity' and how they want only purebloods to be allowed to attend Hogwarts and be in the Wizarding society," James paused when he saw Lily look down, " Again I say, complete bollocks. So don't worry about it."
James saw Lily swipe at her eyes as she continued to find the table completely fascinating. "Hey," James said softly to her as he reached across the table to lift her chin up to see her face that was faintly welled with tears that threatened to fall. "It's okay, you're bloody fantastic and don't worry about those twats, they don't know anything. They don't know how great you and all the others they are against are."
James got up and went around the table, putting his arms around the redhead he had liked for ages. She was still sitting in her chair, but after a moment she snaked her arms around James' waist, her face in his stomach as she let some tears fall silently, the impact of events that mirrored a war from thirty years prior weigh on her.
Sniffing a bit, Lily spoke quietly, pulling away from James's stomach just a bit, "What is the Ministry going to do? Has anyone even tried to stop them? I mean, if they aren't stopped now...it just wouldn't be safe...I-I don't know what I would do."
James's heart wrenched as he looked down at the girl who was just so innocent and lovely, "It's alright Lily, not just the Ministry will stop him, there are others, and Dumbledore, this Voldemort guy just about wets himself at the idea of facing him."
Lily chuckled a bit at the mental image brought to mind. Bringing herself to her senses with it, she flushed with embarrassment at the position she was currently in with James, and the fact that she had just cried in front of a- Very. Handsome. Boy.
Nearly scooting off her chair, Lily removed herself from James before standing up and excusing herself to wash up. Her mother and sister would be home at any minute and she didn't want to look like she had just been crying.
James puttered about the kitchen aimlessly, more interested in looking at the tear stains on his shirt, he gripped the soft fabric in his hand, contemplating Lily's reaction to Voldemort and wondering how much she had been keeping inside when Snape started to be suspected of- Well, maybe she's better off not knowing that piece of information right away. She must of been keeping most of her fears inside, and it pained him to think that he didn't have that kind of relationship with her where she could have done what she just did; show her emotions to him. He wasn't going to mess it up this time, he was going to be himself, and not some show it off prat.
James was on the couch staring at an odd contraption in the living room when Lily came downstairs, looking refreshed. "Wha's tha' ?" James mouthed around a piece of Red Vine he had quickly stuffed in his mouth when Lily was entering the room. Lily grinned at him, but suddenly got serious, "That's one," she said holding up her pointer finger, "For not sharing with me." She walked over the couch and flopped on it, grinning at James's slightly fearful look, he knew not to mess with women when it came to chocolate..but all candy?
"Eh, alright? This is the television, telly for short." Noticing the baffled look on her guest's face she continued, "Betting you didn't take Muggle studies huh?" She sighed when he shook his head in a negative fashion, "Okay, so basically the television is a device that uses radio waves to display images, or television shows or movies that are being broadcast from a studio." Noticing his increasing eyebrow raise she said, "Think of it like it's a Wizarding photograph, but the moving images have sound. That's what a movie is light. It's actually a bunch of, if not thousands or millions of still pictures put on film and played using a projector, or in this case a television."
James got up from the couch to inspect the TV closer; jumping when he started to press buttons and the high pitched whine erupted from the TV when it turned on.
Laughing at James when he landed on his arse, scared to death of the non-violent object, she explained, " This is the British Broadcasting Channel and right now it's doing an emergency test to make sure it's systems are working as a test run in case there's a storm or earthquake and such." The testing sound shut off and suddenly instead of a blue gray screen there were colorful moving images...alien images.
"What in the bloody hell is that?" James's face morphed into a confused grimace.
Lily peered around him to see one of her favorite programs, "That, my sad and uneducated couch potato," James turned to her with a feigned hurt look, "Is Doctor Who. One of my absolute favorite shows, and I just love Tom Baker as the new Doctor. It's so good!" Lily lay on her stomach, her face in her hands with her elbows propping her up to look at the TV.
"Doctor Who, eh?" James commented as he mimicked Lily's position.
"Yeah" Lily started, "It's a science fiction show where there's this alien, he's a Timelord and he's the only one left, supposedly, and he goes around time fixing things, rifts and invasions from other aliens, bad ones." Lily rambled on for a while about the show while James just listened to her with an awed look on his face.
"And here I thought you just studied things in books at school!" James threw her a lopsided grin that made Lily's nerves twitch for a second.
At that moment Thomas Evans opened the front door to his home where he and his wife and two daughters lived in a somewhat peaceful existence.
"I'm home girls! Gosh it was a bit of a day. Marie? Hey are you in-" Mr. Evans's eyes bugged out as he saw his youngest daughter, his innocent, well mostly, sweet little girl laying on the floor next to a boy in front of the TV. While this sounds worse than it really was, since they weren't laying on top of each other, Mr. Evans decided it would be okay to react as if they were.
"So! Lily! What's going on, eh? Who's this bloke? Is your mother here? Does she know he is here? MARIE?" He started to get more and more hasty in his questioning and Lily was worried he might pop and artery.
Lily got up from the floor, "Dad we were just watching Doctor Who, by the way and episode you haven't seen yet, anyway; this is James Potter, he's a friend from school in my year and also in Gryffindor. Mom did know he was here, she even sent us off to get groceries for dinner. Mom and Petunia are at the salon because Petty's having dinner with Vernie's parents, Oo la la." Ending Lily's rapid succession of answers she did a little hand flutter to emphasis the 'importance' of Petunia's dinner.
"They probably went shopping afterward for an 'appropriately stunning outfit' as they would say. Plus it's only 4 o'clock Dad."
Mr. Evans nodded in acceptance, his temper losing steam until he processed a memory from last summer, "That Potter! I am going to throw him into the lake one day I swear upon my freaking wand! Insufferable prat!"
Thomas Evans was a smart man, and he knew his wife had probably neglected to mention his daughter's intense dislike for this young man. He was going to watch this boy. Oh yes, if he was trying to get to his daughter for any negative reason he would-
"We're home!" His wife called from the entry way, Petunia behind her, looking dolled up and with a garment bag hanging over her arm.
She grinned when she saw Lily and a slightly wary looking James being cornered by her father.
"That's what you get freaks."
Lily pulled James into the kitchen to avoid her father; her mother came in after a little bit to start dinner.
"Oh Lily, did you get everything on the list?" Mrs. Evans said as she started pulling ingredients out of the cabinet.
"Yes Mum, of course" Lily grabbed the infamous bell pepper out of the refrigerator to hand to her mother.
"Oh, James can you come get this? It's a bit out of my reach." Mrs. Evans asked.
James got up from his chair at the table and reached up to the cabinet to get what Mrs. Evans needed. "There you go Ma'am, thanks again for letting me stay for dinner."
Mrs. Evans started boiling water in a pot for the rice when she said, "Not a problem James, my goodness you're tall, how tall are you?" She asked with an amused glint in her eye.
"I'm 6'2 Ma'am. I grew about two inches from last summer..." James said sheepishly, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck.
"My my, and my girls are only 5'7 and 5'8, Lily being the taller of the two." She shook her head, thinking sporadically "Tall, adorable, redheaded grandchildren!" It was to say the least, one of the more frightening things going through Marie Evans's mind.
Around 5:30, after Petunia had been picked up by Vernon for dinner with his parents, which James was banned from meeting Vernon at that time, the Evans and one Potter were called to dinner.
Turning off the telly, Lily lead James into the dining room where they sat to eat dinner.
"Mmm Mrs. Evans this stir fry is delicious, you're a wonderful cook!" James complimented in between inhaling his food.
"Well then you must come back tomorrow and try it again! I'm making rotel chicken tomorrow, you'll just love it." Mrs. Evans clapped her hands together and fawned over the boy who loved her cooking.
Lily rolled her eyes a bit but grinned as she ate her food.
Mr. Evans watched the two adolescents during dinner as they joked back and forth, wondering if this was the same boy Lily had been complaining about to them for years.
After dinner when Lily was doing dishes, and James valiantly offered to help her he took Marie aside and questioned her motives about not telling Lily the truth.
"Thomas, surely you can see why? They like each other. Even when Lily said she hated him I could tell that she didn't. He was so sweet this morning, bringing her flowers and making sure she was alright. You just know he's head over heels for our Lily." Marie smiled and Thomas frowned, "I still don't like this, plus she's called him a prat, says he acts like a spoiled brat. What if she remembers and gets hurt? What if he's trying to play her?"
"It's alright Thomas, James may have acted foolish before, but all young boys do. Trust me," she said giving him a raised eyebrow, "You were for sure."
Thomas still was hesitant, "I still don't trust him and I think it's a mistake, but..." He peered into the kitchen to see his daughter throwing soap bubbles at the black haired boy and he in return dropped some bubbles on her head that slipped down to her nose. "I'll give it a while longer and see how it goes. We'll just see about this James Potter."
A/N: Wow I ended up writing 75% of this in two hours at work just now! Amazing that no one has bothered me to much while writing it.
Please review! They keep me going, and if you sign in or leave me an e-mail address I'll give you a preview of the next chapter!
Sorry about the delay, I'm going to try and update once a week from now one but I am currently on the job hunt for a full time position in my field of graphic design and Illustration.
Hope you like!
~Menolly
(Edit)- is being twitchy and did not want to post this yesterday, or apparently today.