Author: Laurahonest

Chapter 1: Persuasion

Post date: 6-3-06

Edited Post date: 6-16-06

Disclaimer: I do not own anyhting you recognize. That all belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Authors Note: I had to fix the typos. They were irritaing me. Everyone thank Bluejello for editing this from here on out. Chapter 2 Letters is coming soon!

"Lily!"

Lily Evans was abruptly jarred out of her thoughts as her name was called again.

"Lily, wait up Lily." Lily turned around to see James Potter running up behind her. "Jeez Lily, you are hard to catch up with sometimes!" panted an out-of-breath James.

"I wasn't walking that fast, James," Lily said as she rolled her eyes.

"Well, I had to weave my way through the other students, so I had to go twice as far as you did," rationalized James. "But that isn't why I chased you down, Lily."

Lily raised one eyebrow. "Oh, then why were you chasing me down and bowling over innocent first years?" she asked him.

"I knocked over a first year? Really? Who was it? I didn't even notice."

"I had gathered as much. You knocked over Henrietta Edgecomb. You know she has four younger siblings at home and her mother is pregnant again?"

"Yeah, the Edgecomb's are a big family. I don't see her in the hallway now. Did she already get up and leave? ... Wait a minute! I didn't really knock her over did I? You are just trying to distract me, aren't you?"

Lily laughed, "Darn, you saw through my scheme. You caught me; I was trying to distract you. I guess there is no fooling the great James Potter, is there?"

"No, Lily," smirked James, "there is no fooling me. Now quit trying to distract me!" Lily laughed again, but James pressed on to avoid being distracted by Lily's musical laughter and the mesmerizing way she tossed her vibrant red hair when she laughed. "My parents sent me a list of everyone who hasn't given an answer to my invitation. I was hurt to the very core when I saw that you hadn't accepted immediately," he joked. "I thought that our friendship may not have been as sincere as I had hoped. Then I realized that, of course you couldn't accept right away because that would make you look desperate, and we can have the Head-Girl looking desperate now, can we?"

"You guessed it. That is the real reason that I haven't accepted." Lily laughed again as James' jaw dropped. "No, silly, I am not sure that I want to spend Christmas without my parents. I just don't know if they would want to come. That, and Petunia is going to celebrate with her new normal family, so I have my parents all to myself for the whole break."

"Oh, I understand," James mumbled almost under his breath, his mind was racing fast. "Hey, why don't you bring them with you, they were invited too? My parents won't mind and then you can come!"

"James, we wouldn't want-" started Lily.

"Nonsense," James interjected, "my parents would love to have some conversation with people a little nearer to their own ages. That way your parents can see a wizarding home and get to know your friends as well."

"I don't know James… Maybe, let me talk to my parents, and see if they want to come. They might have something planned, especially since it our first Petunia-free Christmas."

"Lily, really, my parents won't mind and my house is large enough. Please consider it. I would really like for you to come," James begged, with his trademark puppy-dog eyes and lopsided grin.

"I'll talk to them, James." promised Lily, "but I can't guarantee anything."

"I guess that is the best I will get for now, isn't it?" asked James resignedly.

"Yes, that is the best I can offer until I talk to my parents," Lily confirmed. "Would it help if I agreed to go owl them about it right now?"

"That would be great, Lily! Shall I escort you the common room so you can write it out?" James asked, as he offered Lily his arm.

Lily decided not to argue with him and took the offered arm. As they walked they talked about everything from quidditch to Voldemort's rising power. Lily realized that this was one of the perks of being James Potter's friend rather than his enemy. She had intelligent conversations with him instead of always being the victim of a prank or constantly being asked out. She thought that she could grow too really like this mature and intelligent side of James Potter.

All too soon they reached the common room, they weren't nearly done bashing the Slytherin Quidditch team yet, and Lily went upstairs to get her nice stationary, ink and a quill. When she came back downstairs she found James waiting by the stairs for her. He followed her to her favorite table by a window that overlooked the lake. When they got there he jumped to pull out her chair. When he had pushed it in for her he sat down across from Lily and waited.

"James, are you going to sit there and watch me write this letter?" Lilly asked hesitantly, wondering why she hadn't just written it in her room if this was going to be the case.

"No," James answered, "I am going to write a letter to my parents to. Accio Parchment, Accio Quill! Lily, can I share your inkwell?" he asked, as his parchment and quill came and floated neatly to the table in front of him. James grinned roguishly at her look of exasperation as he continued, "Sometimes the inkwell hits someone and breaks when I summon it and of course the Head-Girl wouldn't want that, now would she?"

"Here, you can share my ink, James," she sighed as she pushed it to the middle of the table. "Now do you want me to write this letter or not? If you do, you may want to let me write it before I change my mind and give you a firm no!"

"Yes, Ma'am," James said, as he settled down to write his own letter. They wrote in silence for a while. Then James' best friend, Sirius Black, walked in. It didn't take him long to spot James and Lily writing away studiously at their table. When he saw that James was writing and there appeared to be open books on the table, Sirius immediately assumed the worst.

"Oi! Prongs!" he shouted, even though he was only about ten feet away. "You are dishonoring the Marauder name that you wear by studying! Only Remus is allowed to study. We shall have to sacrifice you to the giant squid to reclaim our lost honor," he claimed in a melodramatic manner.

"Padfoot, sit down and shut up! I am deeply offended that you accuse me of dishonoring the Marauder name without proof! I am writing a letter to my parents and I have no idea whose books these are. Maybe I should sacrifice you to the giant squid for making a baseless accusation against a fellow Marauder."

"Dear Prongs, I throw myself at your mercy and humbly beg pardon for my offenses," Sirius shouted as he threw himself prostrate on the floor at James feet. "Fair Maiden, I beshugph" he started to appeal to Lily, until she put her foot on his mouth.

"Hush, Sirius, before I allow James to feed you to the squid simply for interrupting the peace in which I was writing my letter," said Lily petulantly, yet with a wicked grin, probably at the face that he was making. Sirius had interrupted her with his shouting and caused her to lose her train of thought. Lily hated losing her train of thought when she was writing. That is why she usually wrote letters and essays locked in her room alone. Her roommates knew this pet peeve of hers and were very careful not to interrupt her thoughts. That was the best way to avoid any hexes being sent your direction.

Sirius nodded his head and Lily removed her foot. James and Lily went back to their letters. Sirius sat there for a while, but he quickly got bored with the two and wandered off to find Peter Pettigrew to see about doing something to the Slytherins. As he left he announced, "I'm going to find Wormtail, I haven't seen him in a while."

Lily and James finished their letters at the same time and went to the Owlry to mail them together. James again offered Lily his arm, which she again accepted. Lily's owl, Dianna, immediately came to her arm and waited patiently while the letter was tied to her foot. "Ok, Dianna, take this home to Mum and Dad," Lily told her and off she flew.

James was not having such an easy time. His owl Hector didn't want to wake up and carry a letter. Lily walked over to him and offered him an owl treat out of her bag and he immediately came down and let James tie on the letter. "You know where to go, Hector, and when you get back you can have more treats," James promised the now happy looking owl. Hector took off and flew out the window with a great beat of his wings.

James and Lily walked back down out of the owlry and realized that it was time for dinner. They walked off towards the Great Hall arm-in-arm again. It felt so natural that neither one noticed their position until they arrived at the hall and went in. Everyone stared and nudged their neighbors to make sure they weren't hallucinating. Lily stopped next to Alice and Marlene. James kept going until he found Sirius, Remus and Peter.

As soon as Lily sat down Marlene started into her. "Lily, what are you doing? Are you dating Potter?"

"No," Lily responded sounding puzzled, "why would you even ask such a thing?"

"Well" huffed Marlene, "it sure looks like it! You two were sitting all cozy together in the common room and then you both left, arms linked, and you were gone quite a while. Then you come in here arm-in-arm again. It looks funny, Lily!"

"He was hounding me about his invitation, so I agreed to write a letter to my parents. He had one to write as well so we wrote them together. We walked to the Owlry together then came here together. He was just being dramatic when he offered me his arm, so I took it. There is nothing going on! We are just friends, and barely even that," Lily explained.

Marlene sniffed, "Well, it didn't look all that platonic, but if you say so, then fine."

Alice just rolled her eyes and continued eating without comment.