November 2nd, 1977
James was looking through the Marauder's map, searching for Lily's dot in it. No one had seen Lily for these last 2 days. She had not come for classes, missed all of her classes and according to Marlene, who had checked her room, her room was not slept in. All of them were worried and James decided to look in Marauder's map.
After completely searching the map, he found Lily's dot near the Black Lake. Closing the map, he quickly made his way to the Black Lake and looked for Lily. He found her sitting in front of the lake, her back to one of the many trees present there. James slowly went towards her, not wanting to startle her.
To Lily, the Black Lake was not only a scene of natural beauty, it was also a scene of serenity, tranquility and peace. Whatever the state a person was in, being there would undoubtedly make them feel calm and peaceful. And right now, she needed that that peacefulness to calm her mind. There were moments where she felt angry and wanted to destroy things. There were moments were she just cried, trying to cry all her pain out. There were moments were she just felt numb and empty, as if nothing could affect her anymore.
Ever since she had found out that she was a witch, her parents had been her biggest supporters. While the distance between her and Petunia grew every day, she was always close to her parents. But now, with their death and with Petunia outright disowning her, she no longer had any ties to the muggle world. In one day, she had lost it all.
She felt someone sit beside her. She saw it was James. He said nothing, nor did he do anything. He just sat there with her. As if letting her know that he was there for her, to comfort her and help her grieve and mourn if she needed him. She slowly laid her head on his shoulder. His hand slowly rubbed her back. Tears once again left Lily's eyes as she cried once again.
James said nothing and let her cry as he rubbed her back. He let her cry out her grief. When Lily stopped crying, he said, "Feeling bit better Lily?" Lily nodded. James said, "A smart woman once told me that a good cry always made her feel better. She always told me that there was nothing wrong in crying. She always told me that to show fear, to grieve and to mourn for someone we loved is what makes us human, and that was not something we should ever be ashamed of." Lily said, "Who told you that?" James said, "My mum. She is one of the smartest women I know."
Lily had never seen this side of James before. The love he had for his mother was clearly visible to her. The small smile on his lips, the sparkle in his eyes and the way he said those words, they all were signs of just how much his mother meant to him. Never before had she seen this tender, caring and loving side of James Potter before. It just showed her how wrong she was in her opinion of his. What she had seen was just one small part of his. That arrogant, cocky, irritating prankster image was what she had always believed in and saw.
Today, that view of him was changed, for this boy was way different than the one she had always envisioned in her mind. This boy was kind, caring and mature. One who helped others and was a confident leader. That fun-loving prankster was still there. But it was subdued by all these new qualities she had learned about him and seen in him with her own eyes. Afterwards, whenever Lily looked back on this day, she realized that this was the day she realized that she began falling in love with
When James and Lily were having this moment with each other, they didn't notice two others seeing this. Those two were Patricia Smith and Severus Snape, expression of anger and jealousy visible to anyone who could see them. Patricia's feelings of anger and jealousy were towards Lily, while Severus's were towards James.
To Patricia, Lily had everything. She was smart, she was great at magic, despite being a muggleborn and she was beautiful. She was the envy of many witches at Hogwarts because of that and the way many boys pinned after her, biggest of them being James Potter. And James Potter one boy who many witches wanted for themselves. So, seeing him pin after Lily made them jealous of Lily. This year, things looked to be different, with James not asking Lily out. But now, it looked like they both were slowly falling in love with each other and would get together. Patricia was angry because it was because of Lily that James rejected her at the Ball. She wanted to be In Lily's place, wanting his attention to be on her and for him to be with her.
Severus for feeling similar things. No one knew but he loved Lily. He loved her since the moment he had seen her for the first time at Spinner's End. He hated James because James had everything Snape wished to have. Loving parents, a childhood full of happiness and love, nice clothes, loyal and great friends. Not only that, he was also liked by all teachers, even the stoic professor McGonagall, who despite showing annoyance at his pranks and antics secretly liked him. James was one of her favorite pupils. Snape never had any of those things. His mother was dead and his father was a drunkard who always abused him and treated him horribly. Lily had been his first friend, who treated him with kindness, who cared for him in a way no had ever done for him. Despite being in rival houses when they got in Hogwarts, Lily had been his friend.
Lily was one of the biggest reasons he and James never got along and were bitter rivals. Both were vying for Lily's love. With the way things looked, Lily was falling in love with James. This only made Snape's hatred towards James Potter increase to new heights.