Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters and other recognizable whatevers are not mine. Period.
“Evans! Hey, Evans!”
Lily turned around to see James Potter running toward her at the train station. She scowled. “Hello, Potter.”
James grinned. “I hear you’re the new Head Girl! Congratulations!”
Lily half-smiled proudly. “Thanks.”
“You hear who the new Head Boy is?”
“No,” Lily answered, “but I’m guessing it’s Remus. He was Prefect, you know.”
James’s grin grew wider. “I know, but it’s not Remus.”
Lily looked shocked. “Well, then, who is it?”
“Care to take a guess?”
Lily shook her head, and James seemed to burst with, “It’s me!”
Lily’s eyes widened. “You? One of the Marauders? One of the greatest troublemakers in the school?”
“Yep!” James said proudly. “We’re on the same side this year!”
Lily turned in frustration and started to walk toward the Express.
“Evans!”
Lily walked back to him and said impatiently, “What? If you’re going to ask me to got out with you, the answer’s ‘no’. I don’t feel like boosting your ego any more than it already has been.”
James held his hands up. “I’m not asking you to go out with me. In fact, I’m not going to ask you at all this year.”
Lily tilted her head. “Is this a joke?”
James grinned. “No, not at all! I mean, if you want to go out with me you’ll know where to find me, but I’m not going to ask you anymore.”
Lily stared at him with skepticism.
“Look, I know you don’t believe me,” James continued, “but I’m really not kidding. I’ve realized that you’re never going to say ‘yes’, so I’m going to stop asking.”
Lily laughed and marveled at James’s new maturity level. “Well, it’s a good thing you got that through your thick head!”
James looked her in the eye. “Lily.”
Lily crossed her arms. “So we’re on first-name terms now, are we? Forgive me, but if you want to call me ‘Lily’ that’s fine, but you are still ‘Potter’ to me.”
James smiled. “That’s fine with me, but Lily, we’re both in Gryffindor House, we’re both seventh-years, and we’re Head Students.”
“And…”
James took a deep breath. “We’re going to be patrolling the halls together. In Professor Dumbledore’s eyes we’re on the same side.” James held out his right hand. “Can we be friends?”
Lily laughed off-handedly. “Friends?”
“Yes, Lily,” James answered. “Just friends. Not boyfriend and girlfriend, just at the stage where we can talk and not hate one another.”
Lily looked down at his hand. He’s offering that the two of us become friends, meaning that we’re no longer enemies. What do I do?
After a long pause Lily took his hand and shook it. “We’ll see what happens.”
James beamed at her and the two walked onto the Hogwarts Express to go into the Prefect Compartment.
Months later, near the end of the year, Lily awoke to see sunshine flowing in through the windows. The sky was bright blue, and there were just enough clouds to cool students as they walked to and from classes.
Perfect, she thought, I’ll have to go outside after lessons today.
She quickly dressed and applied a little lip gloss. She wasn’t much for make-up, but today was an exception. She had something to be cheerful about.
Lily reached down for her wand so she could go to breakfast, but didn't find it.
Where is my wand? she wondered worriedly, and scurried around the room in a panic.
"Lost something?" one of her roommates, Kelly, asked.
"I can't find my wand anywhere!" Lily answered.
"You could try summoning it," Kelly suggested.
Lily grinned. "I would need my wand for that."
Kelly shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe you left it in the Common Room last night."
Lily grew excited. "Maybe I did! Thanks!"
Lily ran gracefully down the winding staircase and entered the Common Room in time to hear…
“Boo!”
She screamed and fell backwards onto one of the sofas. She looked around and saw nothing except”a set of feet.
“James Phillip Potter, you get out from under that Invisibility Cloak this instant!”
James threw it off to reveal a dark tangle of hair and a mischievous grin.
“You like that one, Evans?”
Lily fought to not smile. “Oh, shut up! I bet you have my wand, too, don't you?”
James grinned. "Guilty as charged!"
"Alright then, hand it over and let me to down to breakfast!"
“Yeah, Prongs, you’d better give it to her.”
Another boy with dark hair entered the room. He looked at Lily, then at his friend. “We wouldn’t want to deprive her of her morning meal, would we? It wouldn’t be very polite or kind.”
James glanced over at his friend with an annoyed look, then held out Lily's wand and said to her brightly, “I suppose I could allow the young lady to enter the Great Hall for breakfast. Shall I escort you, my dear?”
Lily took her wand and just as brightly answered, “No thank you, I can manage,” and made her way out of the Common Room and downstairs. She laughed to herself as she joined her friends Alena and Janice at the Gryffindor Table.
“What’s so funny?” Alena inquired, and Janice leaned over with interest.
“Oh, the usual,” she answered casually. “James is trying another strategy to get me to go out with him.”
“What did he do this time?” Janice asked eagerly.
“He was very polite. ‘Shall I escort you, my dear?’” she mimicked, and sent all three of them into giggles.
“You know,” said Janice, still laughing a bit, “you ought to say ‘yes’ sometime and see what happens.”
“Why Janice,” Lily said, “if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you want me to go out with Mr. Potter.”
Janice looked around guiltily, and Alena stared at her.
“Are you serious, Janice?” Alena asked with disbelief. “You want Lily and James to get together?”
“They’d just be such a cute couple!” Janice burst out.
Lily also stared at her friend. “This is amazing,” she said slowly. “How long have you wanted us together?”
“Well, to tell you the truth, ever since I saw James glancing longingly at you from his broomstick.”
Lily laughed. “He does watch me, hoping for a chance, and I know he likes me, but we’re good friends, that’s all.”
Janice nodded. “Yeah, I thought the world was coming to an end when you smiled at him on the Express.”
“I was pretty amazed, actually,” Lily admitted. “He walked up to me and flat out told me he wasn’t going to ask me out any time this year. Since then we’ve been good friends.”
“Will you ever agree to go out with him?” Alena asked.
“Probably not,” Lily answered.
“But he loves you so much! You can tell when he flies and gazes at you that he loves you!”
Lily thought about that for a minute. James did look pretty good when he flew, and he was pretty smart...
“But he’s rude and arrogant!” she said loudly, and a few people glanced at her for a moment, and then turned away to continue eating. She continued softly, “He's a good friend, and I admit that he’s good at Quidditch, but he’s always messing his hair up to look like he just won a game, and he’s always causing trouble and picking on other kids. And when he talks to me he still expects me to like him right off the bat.”
“Maybe that’s what he expects, but what about you?” asked Alena.
“What do you mean?”
“How do you feel about him, truly?”
Lily thought about it. She took a deep breath and said pianissimo, “James is very haughty, feeling all smug because he can play Quidditch and is Head Boy, but I remember when I first met him. He helped me onto Platform 9¾ and introduced me to the two of you. He stood up for me when I most needed it.”
Lily shivered, remembering the countless times she had been called “Mudblood” to her face.
“But he expects me to like him,” she continued. “It’s hard to like a guy like that, even if we are friends.”
Then she paused and took a deep breath. As silent as is possible, she ended with, “But to tell you the truth, I’m in love with James Potter.”
A/N Hi! I know this is a short first chapter, but I would love reviews! It's great to hear reports, even if they're bad.
I'll give you guys a teaser for next chapter: There's a new class, and one of the Marauders (not James) will play a big part! Until then...