Disclaimer: Only Jo owns the wonderful world of Harry Potter. I just borrow her characters to entertain myself with fanfictions.
James and Lily's Everlasting Relationship
Chapter 2
The rest of the weekend went by fairly quickly for the four Marauders. Most of the weekend, Lily sat scratching away on her quill, and James was amazed that anyone could do homework for such a long period of time. However, he did find one opportunity to talk to her when she had finally taken a break to come down to dinner on Sunday afternoon.
Like Remus, Lily had been studying nonstop, even during her meals, but to James’ pleasure and surprise, she decided to take a break, and eat her supper without scribbling away or flipping through her various textbooks. James grinned when he noticed this, and was about to go over to speak to her, but hadn’t acted soon enough. Before he could take a seat on the bench beside her, Alison Spinnet and Maria Thompson, Lily’s two best friends, had sat down on either side of her.
James sighed and took a seat a few places down, next to Peter Pettigrew, instead.
“Hey there, James,” Peter said as he squirmed in his seat.
“Hey, Wormtail,” James replied with a sigh as he moved his corn around in circles on his plate.
“Why aren’t you eating?” Peter asked, and fidgeting a bit more.
“Not hungry,” James lied. The real reason was because he hadn’t spoken to Lily since he’d annoyed her on Saturday morning.
“Evans trouble?” Peter asked.
“Yeah,” James replied, surprised that Peter had figured that out.
“I’d give up on her,” Peter advised.
“I’m not giving up on Evans, Peter. Not ever. She’ll come around eventually. You’ll see,” James insisted, although deep down he was beginning to have doubts.
Peter didn’t seem to think that was true but shrugged and turned his attention back to the plate of hot food in front of him.
James flickered his gaze over to Lily, Alison, and Maria. A smile had appeared on Lily’s face, and Alison said something else to her. Lily laughed. He sighed, wishing he could be the one making Lily grin and laugh. He stared at the three for a long time before turning back to where Peter had been sitting, but he had apparently left. James was about to get up and go find either Sirius or Remus but changed his mind as Maria and Alison walked past him, calling good-bye to Lily. His face brightened, and he looked back to Lily. She was by herself now, eating her meal quietly. This was his chance.
He grinned, and slid over so he was sitting beside her. Lily looked up from her fork.
“Lo Evans,” he said in a suddenly new, deep, mature, voice.
Normally Lily would have found an excuse as to why she had to be off when James began to talk to her, but she wasn’t finished eating and didn’t want to leave just yet. So, she decided it couldn’t hurt to talk to him for just a few minutes.
“Hello, Potter,” she replied. “How are you?”
“I’m all right I guess,” he responded with a shrug. “But enough about me, how are you?”
‘Enough about me?’ Lily thought to herself in a small state of shock. ‘Since when does James say enough about him? It’s always about him!’ Out loud she said, “I’m fine. Exhausted from all this work.”
“Why don’t you take a break then?” he asked her.
“Can’t. I still have my Transfiguration essay to write,” she informed him.
“Oh,” he replied, slightly disappointed. “What’s that?” he suddenly asked curiously, nodding his head in the direction of the envelope tucked under her plate.
Lily swallowed and then followed his gaze.
“Oh that,” she replied, forming her napkin into a ball. “It’s a letter from home. Petunia is getting married.”
From the tone of her voice, James could tell she wasn’t too happy about it.
“So, Petunia’s your sister?” James asked, politely.
Lily nodded. “Sadly, yes. She’s getting married to this horrible boy named Vernon Dursely,” she said with a sigh.
“I’m taking it you don’t much like your sister? Or this Vernon guy?” James questioned.
”Well, I suppose not. Petunia and I sort of went our separate ways after I started going to Hogwarts. And as for Vernon, I definitely don’t like him. I met him at Christmas and he’s positively dreadful. Wait until he finds out about me being a witch. Although, I doubt he will. Petunia’s probably to ashamed to actually admit it,” Lily explained, surprised suddenly that she had just told him all of that.
James noticed a tinge of sadness and disappointment in her tone.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”he responded, doing his best to show Lily that he was being sincere.
“Do you have any siblings?” Lily asked him, glancing over as she lifted a bite of ham to her mouth.
James, surprised, and ecstatic at how well this conversation was going, responded, “No. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.”
“From experience with Petunia, I’d say you were quite lucky, Potter.” Lily told him after swallowing. ”But that’s just me. Not all siblings are horrid. Allison and her brother get along great. After her parents died he and his wife became her guardian.”
“Wow,” James replied thoughtfully, “I’ve never heard her say anything about her parents death.”
“Yeah, well, she was ten when it happened so that was about five years ago. And she doesn’t much like to talk about it,” Lily explained. “And while were on the subject, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell her I told you about it.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” James assured her before deciding to find more out about her family. “So what about your parents? Are they as bad as Petunia?”
“Definitely not,” Lily responded, setting down her fork and pushing away her now empty plate. “They’re excellent.”
“Well, that’s good. So what do they do in the Muggle world? I mean, like, what’s their jobs?” James asked.
“My dad gives music lessons and fixes broken instruments. He’s a retired band teacher. My mom is a high school English teacher,” Lily said, lifting her goblet to her lips and taking the last swallow of her pumpkin juice. “What about your parents? What are their jobs?” she asked.
“They’re both Aurors.” James replied proudly.
Lily nodded. “Yes, I do believe you’ve mentioned them before. They were in the Daily Prophet a few times too, right?” she asked, glancing down at her wristwatch.
James grinned. “Yeah, that was them.”
“Interesting,” Lily replied truthfully before standing up. “Well, I best be getting up to the Common Room. I need to finish my essay,” Lily said as she placed her crumpled napkin on her plate. “Night, Potter.”
“Night,” James said and as Lily began to leave the Great Hall, James watched with a dreamy, half smile and a sigh. As she pushed open the tall doors and exited out into the Entrance Hall, the fact that he had just had a civilized conversation with Lily Evans registered in his mind.
“You are a genius, Moony!” James proclaimed happily the next day as he slid into a seat beside Remus in the library.
Remus chuckled as he glanced up from the parchment in front of him.
“Although I’m not denying that, what makes you remind me of my intelligence all of a sudden?” he asked curiously.
“Because your advice about talking to Evans worked brilliantly last night,” James explained with a cheerful grin.
“Yeah, I knew it would.” Remus replied. “You can try it again right now if you want. She’s over there.” Remus added, waving his quill in the direction of a corner table where Lily sat, staring intently at the book and parchment in front of her.
“Really? Excellent! Thanks, Moony,” James replied hurriedly, his grin widening as he stood up quickly, his chair skidding across the floor with a loud screech. A few students looked up, giving James annoyed, scornful looks. Madam Pince, who glimpsed up from her book she was reading and put her finger to her mouth, signaling for James to shush. Ignoring them all, James nearly skipped his way over to Lily. She now had the end of her quill in her mouth and that cute look of concentration that James loved on her face.
Deciding not to interrupt this concentration too quickly, James peered over her shoulder to see what she was working on. It seemed to be a sequence of questions assigned by some professor or other for homework that James had yet to start. Squinting a little further, James noticed she was having difficulty with question number seven.
In Lily’s perfect cursive handwriting the question read:
7.) Name three of the five signs that identify the werewolf?
A grin slowly formed on James lips as he glanced over the question again to make sure he had read correctly. Excellent. Lily Evans was struggling on probably one of the only questions James knew the answer too.
“I believe it’s the snout shape, the pupil of the eyes, and the tufted tail,” he stated.
“What? Oh!” Lily replied, jotting it down on the paper. “Than-“ she started to say, glancing up to see who had been so kind to help her and her jaw dropped. “Potter?”
“At your service,” James replied with a smirk, slipping into the wooden chair beside her.
“How’d you know that?” she asked with a look of astonishment on her face. “I couldn’t find it anywhere in the book.”
James shrugged. “Just listening during class,” he lied, secretly not even knowing what class the question was assigned for. “Professor was explaining it during class.”
Lily continued to gape at him. “Since when do you listen during class, Potter?” she demanded.
“Since I’ve decided to stop acting like a conceited jerk and try to win your love over by acting decent,” James replied, giving Lily one of his charming smiles and running a hand through his already positively untidy hair.
“Right, well, thanks,” Lily muttered.
“Anytime, Evans,” James replied, continuing to grin and after a few moments of silence in which neither of them knew what to say, he asked, “So are you going to the Quidditch match tomorrow?”
Lily nodded. “Of course.”
“Glad to hear that,” he replied with a smile, ideas about impressing Lily on a broom popping into his head. “We’re playing Slytherin. Hate to admit it, but this is going to be our hardest match yet.”
“Really, so why aren’t you and the team practicing as we speak?” Lily asked.
"Well Ryan - he's our captain, you know, the one with the really blonde hair - has decided that we should rest before the game." James explained, rolling his eyes at the thought. “Sirius and I fully intend on practicing today anyway.”
“I see,” Lily replied, with a nod.
“Wonder where Padfoot is. We were supposed to meet here at four. Any idea what time it is?” James asked, glancing around the room for a clock.
Lily peered down at the silver wristwatch her mother had given her for her birthday the past year. “It’s 4:03,” she informed him, glancing back up.
“Hmmm, well, will you excuse me for a moment, Evans?” James asked.
“Sure,” Lily replied, turning her attention back to her assignment as James thanked her and retreated to the back of the library behind a bookshelf and pulled the Marauders Map from his back pocket.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,” he muttered quietly, looking fervently around to make sure no one was watching as the various dots and outlines of rooms spread over the page. Searching for a few moments for Sirius on the map, James eventually found the dot with his name scrawled under it moving towards the library. “Mischief managed,” James whispered, stuffing the map back into his pocket before heading outside of the library to meet Sirius.
“Oy, mate,” Sirius said as he reached his friend. “I don’t think I’ll be able to practice at the moment.”
“Why not?” James asked.
“Detention,” Sirius replied with a sigh, pulling a slip of paper from his pocket.
“Remember? McGonagall gave it to me in her class for . . .doing something. What was it?” he asked, furrowing his brow trying to remember.
“For bugging the crap out of Allison and attempting to turn her bracelet into a worm instead of the bottle cap you were supposed to be transfiguring.” James supplied with a smirk. “That was rather funny,” he commented at the remembrance.
“Yeah, it was,” Sirius agreed, grinning. “Well, give me the map and I’ll come find you when the old broad lets me out.”
James nodded. “Sure thing, Padfoot,” he replied, pulling out the map and handing it over to his friend.
“Thanks, Prongs. Catch you later!” he shouted with a wave, heading down the hallway to detention.
“Bye,” James replied turning and re-entering the library. “Sorry bout that,” he apologized, sliding back into his seat beside Lily. “Had to go find Sirius. Turns out he has detention and can’t practice.”
“Good. He deserved that detention,” Lily retorted.
“Yeah, but now I don’t have anyone to practice w-,” James began but suddenly stopped. The expression on his face brightened as a wonderful idea popped into his head. “Hey, Evans, you ever played Quidditch?” he asked.
“If you can call hanging terrified on a broom 10 ft in the air Quidditch, then yes. Otherwise no,” Lily replied.
James laughed. “Your afraid . . .” he asked, trying not to smirk at this.
“Yes,” Lily muttered, beginning to wonder to herself why she had told James this or why she was allowing him to interrupt her homework session.
“Wow,” James replied, surprised. “Well, would you like to give it a try?”
“And break my neck? No thanks. I’m going to have to pass on that offer,” she responded, beginning to do her homework again.
“You won’t break your neck! I promise. I won’t let you fall. Come on. It’ll be ffuuuuunnnn!” James begged.
“No,” Lily replied.
“Aw, come on, please, Evans?” James pleaded.
“No, Potter. I don’t want to,” Lily insisted.
“I think you do. Please? Just one hour and a half, and I’ll stop bugging you for the rest of the day and you can be free to work on this homework of yours,” James bargained.
Lily sighed, putting down her quill and considering it. “Fine, but only an hour, and you have to swear you’ll stop pestering me so I can get my work done,” she finally agreed.
“I swear,” James swore, sticking out his hand to make it a deal.
Lily shook on it before standing up and gathering her rather heavy load of books, nearly falling over trying to carry the large amount of weight.
“Now trying to do that you might break your neck,” James said with a laugh, taking quite a large portion of the books out of her arms before she could protest and insist she was able to carry it all.
Shifting all the books to his right arm, James walked over to the door and quickly opened it up. “After you,” he said, allowing Lily to step out into the hallway before he followed after her.
Grinning like mad he led the way to the Gryfindor Common Room where he quickly said the password, “Ecstatic Eggs,” to the Fat Lady before entering after Lily.
“Thank you, Potter,” Lily said, as James placed the large stack of books on top of one of the many tables.
“Anytime, Evans,” James said with a warm smile. “Now, let’s play Quidditch! I’ll be right back. Just need to grab my broom.”
“Kay,” Lily responded with a nod as James sprinted up the staircase to grab his broom. Lily let out a sigh, glancing after him as several thoughts began to spring into her head. Why was she agreeing to do this? And what was it with Potter? Where was all his cockiness? What happened to being conceited? He’d been quite polite to her, she hadn’t caught him torturing anyone or pulling any elaborate pranks lately and she’d had two decent conversations with him in the last to days. Now she was agreeing to play Quidditch with him when heights were her worst fear. What was going on? Maybe Potter was really changing.
Lily allowed her thoughts to wonder elsewhere as James bounded back down the stairs, his broom in one hand.
“Nice broom,” Lily commented, gazing at the broom in wonder.
“Thanks,” James replied with a grin. “My dad bought it for me,” he added, pushing open the door to the Common Room. “After you,” he said, gesturing for her to walk out first.
“Thank you,” Lily replied, slipping through the door.
“You’re welcome,” James said, trying to be as polite as possible, still smiling like crazy as the two started side by side down to the Quidditch Pitch.
For the first couple minutes the two walked down the corridor in silence. Lily was continuing her thoughts again about Potter and the changes he had made in his personality and actions. James however was gazing at Lily’s radiating beauty, almost in a dazed sort of dreamy way as if walking down the hall with her weren’t truly happening.
“That shirt is very pretty, Evans. It brings out the color of your eyes, which too are very pretty,” James thought aloud.
Lily’s cheeks turned a light shade of crimson at this comment. “Thanks,” she said softly, glancing down at the emerald green, v-neck sweater with the cream colored tee beneath it. “My mum got it for me last Christmas.”
“It’s very nice,” James said again, smirking at the sight of Lily blushing about his comment. He pushed open the large oak door, and the two stepped out into the cool, February air.
“Cold?” James asked, noticing Lily shiver slightly.
“No, I’m fine,” Lily lied as James began to lead the way to the pitch.
“Sure?” James asked, raising an eyebrow. “Because I could get you a jacket if you’d like.”
“Positive. I’m okay. Really,” Lily lied again.
“Sure you are. That’s why your teeth are chattering and you’re shivering,” James replied sarcastically, pulling his wand from his pocket and pointing it an open window on the side of the castle, a few floors up. Using the “Accio” charm, he supplied a dark blue sweater and handed it to Lily who put it on. “Better?”
“Yes, much. Thanks,” Lily replied, pulling the sleeves of the sweater, which turned out to be a little big, down to her wrists.
The two arrived at the pitch, and James felt his mood rise a bit more at the sight of it. “So, you just want to fly around a bit, or would you like to play an actual game?”
“I’d rather just fly. Playing a game is too advanced for me,” Lily replied.
“Okay,” James said with a laugh. “So do you want to sit on the front or back?”
“Which one’s safer?” Lily asked hesitantly.
“Hmmm, probably the front. That way if you fall backwards you won’t fall off of the broom,” James replied.
“Fall off?” Lily asked with a tinge of worry in her tone, raising her right eyebrow.
“I’m kidding, Evans. Don’t worry you won’t fall off. I promise,” James assured her.
“You can’t promise that, Potter,” Lily protested.
“Yes I can,” James insisted. “I won’t let anything happen to you. And if something does happen to you, you can blame me and hex me with any spell. Kay?”
“I’m not cruel and cold enough to hex you, but okay,” Lily agreed.
“Great, now climb on,” James responded, mounting the broom and scooting back far enough so there was enough room for Lily.
After Lily had become situated up front, James lightly put his hands around her waist, just enough to protect her but not enough to make her feel uncomfortable, before kicking off of the ground. The two rose into the air and Lily let out a quick, soft, shriek.
“Calm down. You’re all right,” James told her.
“Easy for you to say. You do this everyday,” Lily replied, not daring to look down and squeezing her eyes shut.
“True, but we’re not that far up,” James responded, “See?” he said, gesturing to the ground.
“Yeah right!” Lily protested.
“No, really, open your eyes. It’s not that bad at all,” James insisted. “You’ll love it once you get used to it.”
Very slowly, Lily peeled open one eye, glancing downward towards the ground that seemed miles away. She let the large distance from the safe, soft, ground all the way up to her and James settle in her mind before realizing it really wasn’t that bad. “Hey, your right,” Lily said with a small laugh. “It really isn’t that bad.”
“What’d I tell ya?” James asked. “Now for some real fun. Hold on, Evans, this is going to be a crazy ride!”
“What? Wait, no!” Lily shouted, but her cries were drowned out by the sounds of the roaring wind passing by and James ‘woos’ of joy behind her as he shot the broom forward at a rapid pace and did a few twirls around the goal posts. After circling completely around them, James dipped the broom downward, allowing the two to shoot nearly straight down to the ground before he brought them back up again. After doing a few more curves and spins, he finally slowed down and just did a few swift but slow laps around the pitch before descending down to the ground.
“Wow,” was all Lily could manage to say in between breaths as she climbed off of the broom.
James laughed and ran a hand through his already untidy hair. “Did you like it?”
“Yeah,” Lily replied with a nod, regaining control of her breathing. “I underestimated Quidditch.”
“I knew you’d love it. Everybody loves Quidditch. So, do you think that got rid of your fear of heights?” James asked, glancing over at her as the two started back towards the castle.
Lily thought about it for a moment. “Hmm, yes, slightly,” she replied, trying to flatten her now tousled hair. “My hair’s a mess now though.”
“Ah, your hair looks cute like that,” James told her with a smile, glancing over at her hair.
“Thanks,” Lily said, blushing once again as James pushed open the door, and the two entered the castle.
The two ascended up the marble spiral staircase and to the Gryfindor common room. James supplied the password, and the two walked in, pausing in between the two staircases leading up to the dormitories.
“Eh, James?” Lily started, fiddling with the sleeve of the sweater. “Can I ask you something?” The question she had wanted to ask him since they’d starting spending time together today longing to come out.
“Sure,” James replied, looking at her curiously, wondering what she wanted to ask.
“Why, all of a sudden, have you changed?” she asked, glancing up from her sweater sleeve into his hazel eyes.
“Well, to be honest, for you,” James replied, wondering if maybe he’d gone about it the wrong way.
Lily let out a soft groan inside. That had been the answer she was hoping she wouldn’t hear.
“You shouldn’t change yourself, Potter, just for me,” Lily told him.
“But I want to, Lily. I want to make it up to your standards and stop being the arrogant, conceited, bullying toe-rag you despise,” James responded.
“You can be… well, were in the recent past. . . pretty conceited, Potter, but you shouldn’t change your whole personality for anyone but yourself,” Lily replied with a sigh. “Night, James,” she added before turning and walking up the staircase, leaving James at the bottom of the stairs to ponder what she had said and meant.
Authors Note: Wow, I finally finished. Yeah me. Anyway, I didn’t get a single review on my last chapter so I’m beginning to wonder if this story is at all good. I’m considering posting it elsewhere if I don’t get any feedback on this chapter. So please, please review guys. You know how you want people to R&R your fanfics so please pay me the same kindness. I’d love to hear what you have to say and I’m always up for constructive criticism. So, with that said, REVIEW! I’d also liked to thank Falling Damp and AbnormallyAbnormal for the help they have given me on this fanfiction. Thanks guys!