Lily stood in the Gryffindor common room, near the bottom of the stairs to the boys' dormitories. Her arms were crossed and she was tapping her foot impatiently. She and James had patrol duties tonight. They were already almost fifteen minutes late.
Suddenly, an angry yell came from up the stairs, followed by a loud crash. A moment later, James came racing down the stairs.
"James, what -"
"No time! Let's go!" he sprinted by her, grabbing her hand and dragging her out the portrait hole.
Once out of the Gryffindor Tower, James and Lily paused just around the corner to catch their breath.
“What,” Lily gasped, “was that all about?”
“Oh, well, uh, I was practicing a spell, and Sirius got in the way, er, sort of,” James grinned at her.
Lily raised her eyebrows. “Would this be a new pranking spell?”
“Mayhaps,” James answered evasively.
Lily giggled and planted a kiss firmly on his lips. “Let’s go. We’re more than ten minutes late already!”
James smiled at her. “Are you always like this? Don’t you ever not do what you’re supposed to?”
Lily grinned mischievously. “Well that usually depends on who I’m with. And what I’m doing. Head duties is not one of those times when I tend to slack off.”
James sighed. “Fine,” he said poutily.
Lily grabbed his hand and pulled him down the hallway.
As they walked down the hall together, James slipped his arm about Lily’s waist and pulled her close. She leaned into him and hugged him.
“I love you,” he whispered into her ear.
“How long have you loved me?” Lily asked him.
“Since Third year. And how long have you loved me?” James joked.
Lily sighed into his chest. “From the beginning.”
James suddenly stopped walking. “Lils, please don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying!” she protested.
“Lily, you didn’t even like me until Fifth year, much less love me!”
“I may not have acted like it, but I have always loved you, James.”
“I think you need to explain that a little better,” James said.
“It’s a really long story, James. Can’t you just believe me?” Lily said and she pulled him down the hallway to keep patrolling.
“We have to walk around the whole school for an hour. I think you have time to explain.”
Lily sighed defeatedly. “Ok.” As they walked down the hall, Lily began to tell James about the first day she saw him, and it was like she was reliving a dream.
The train whistle blew and a tiny, eleven-year old girl with bright red hair and piercing green eyes looked at the platform around her. A large scarlet engine was sitting on the tracks, smoke pouring from the chimney. Students of all ages milled around, meeting old friends, and making new ones. Everybody seemed to know everyone else already, but Lily didn’t know anyone.
She was still half expecting to wake up and find out it was all a dream. Wizards weren’t supposed to exist, except in fairy tales, of course. But that’s exactly what a letter she had received said she was. A wizard, with a real magic wand and everything. What was she going to find out next, unicorns and dragons were real too? She had given up on such imaginings when she was young and naïve. Eleven year olds were too old for that sort of thing. Of course, having an older sister didn’t help much. Petunia had always ruined everything for Lily. The Tooth Fairy, Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny. Petunia had told her they were all lies when she was but nine years old, and she began to think the world was a rather horrid place. But when she got her letter, well, that changed a few things.
Lily drew a shaky breath, grabbed an end of her trunk, and began to drag it towards the train. She had hardly gotten her trunk onto the train when the whistle blew again and the train began to pull away slowly. Lily looked down the long hallway, thinking to herself that all the front compartments would be full. And so she began to heave her trunk towards the back.
Lily had hardly gotten a third of the way down the hall when she heard loud, thudding footsteps quickly coming towards her. She dropped her trunk and turned around to see two boys racing towards her.
Both boys looked to be about her age, and both had their wands drawn. One boy had long, dark hair and grayish-eyes. He was already wearing wizard robes. The other boy, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, also had dark hair, although it was shorter, and he wore glasses and had large hazel eyes.
The boys hardly even spared her a glance as they ran past, the boy with gray eyes pushing past her roughly, spinning her around. Lily lost her balance and fell backwards, flailing her arms trying not fall. She hit her head on her trunk and lie on the floor, her head spinning. She blinked a few times and tried to focus on the boys who had stopped running.
“What do you reckon we should do?” the hazel-eyed boy asked.
The other looked around. “Leave her. Someone else will find her. If we get caught we’re already in trouble.”
“But what if she’s hurt?”
“She’ll live! Come on, do you want a detention before we’ve even gotten to the school?” the gray eyed boy asked.
“I guess you’re right,” the boy with glasses consented and they took off running again. The pounding of their feet made Lily feel as if her head were being trod upon.
A moment later, Lily, still lying on the floor, heard softer footsteps coming down the hallway. An older boy with a shiny badge pinned to his chest leaned over her with concern.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“I think so,” Lily said, sitting up and rubbing the back of her head where she hit the trunk.
“Are you a first year?” the boy questioned.
Lily nodded.
“Here, let’s find you a compartment,” the boy said, and picked up Lily’s trunk. “Follow me.”
Lily stood up and followed the boy down the train as he looked in each compartment and found them all full. Finally they came to one with just a small blonde girl in it.
“Are you a first year?” the boy asked again.
“Yup,” the girl replied.
“Here you are then,” said the boy as he slid Lily’s trunk onto the shelf about the seats. “I’ve got to go. Good luck with your Sorting!” he said, and hurried off.
“I’m Kylie,” the blonde girl offered.
Lily sat down and gingerly felt the back of her head again. “Lily.”
“What’s wrong with your head?” Kylie asked.
“Two boys ran into me and knocked me over.”
“Did they at least say sorry?”
“No,” Lily shook her head. “One of them was nice. He wanted to stay and see if I was ok, but they other wouldn’t let him. Said they were already in trouble for something.”
“Ooh, is the nice one your boy friend?” Kylie giggled.
“No!” Lily said indignantly even as she blushed furiously.
“You’re blushing! You like him!” Kylie teased.
“No I don’t!” Lily said, blushing even more.
“Lily and,” Kylie began to sing, but paused. “What’s this bloke’s name again?”
“Dunno,” Lily shrugged.
“Lily and Mystery guy, sitting in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love! Then comes marriage! Then comes the baby in a baby carriage!” Kylie sang.
Lily smiled. “He is sort of cute.”
“I remember that!” James said once Lily had stopped talking.
Lily smiled. “So what exactly were you two running from?” she asked, poking his arm.
James shrugged before relating he side of the story to her.
Eleven year old James Potter, sporting round-framed glasses and dark, untidy hair, looked around in wonder. He had just stepped onto Platform 9 ¾ for the first time. He looked up at the tall scarlet engine emitting a cloud of smoke and read the shiny gold letters along its side that spelled out “Hogwart’s Express” happily. Crowds of people milled about the small platform saying good-bye to family members and hello to friends.
James quickly dragged his trunk onto the train so he could get an empty compartment. He found one near the back of the train, slid his trunk onto the shelf, and made his way back to a front compartment, where he stuck his head out the window to wave good-bye to his parents.
As the train began to pull away, James stepped out into the hallway to head back to his compartment, when he collided with something, or someone, and fell backwards. He scrambled up quickly and saw he had collided with a boy about his same age. The boy was tall, with long dark hair, and stormy gray eyes.
“You want to watch who you bump into!” the boy said arrogantly.
“Well I wouldn’t have to watch out if you weren’t taking up the whole hallway!” James retorted.
The other boy drew his wand and held it out menacingly, so James drew his wand as well.
“You don’t know who you’re messing with. I could knock you out with one word if I wanted to!” the boy threatened.
“Oh yeah? Well I could turn you into a goldfish like that!” James said, snapping his fingers to demonstrate how easy it would be.
Just then a Prefect came walking down the hallway. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
“We were uh, we were just talking,” James lied.
“Talking, huh? That’s why you’ve both got your wand drawn and were staring at each other, I suppose?” the Prefect asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, exactly. We were just showing each other our new wands,” Sirius said.
“No, I don’t think so. Come with me, both of you. When we get to Hogwarts, you’re going to see Professor McGonagall.”
The boy looked at James and James looked back at him. They nodded to each other, and suddenly both turned and sprinted down the hallway.
“Oy! Come back here!” the Prefect shouted after them, but they were gone.
As James and the boy ran down the hallway, James saw a girl and a large trunk blocking the way. James swerved around them, but he heard the other boy collide with the girl. James spun around to see the girl fall and hit her head on the trunk.
“What do you reckon we should do?” asked James worriedly.
“Leave her. Someone else will find her. If we get caught, we’re already in trouble,” the boy said, looking around for the Prefect they had been running from.
“What if she’s hurt?” James asked. He didn’t like the idea of just leaving her until someone else came along.
The gray-eyed boy looked at him in disbelief. “She’ll live! Come on, do you want to get a detention before we’ve even gotten to school?”
“I guess you’re right,” James said dubiously.
The boy looked down the hallway back the way they had come. “That stupid Prefect’s coming. Let’s go!”
They both took off running again towards the back of the train. They reached James’ compartment first and slid inside, quickly shutting the door. They sat down opposite each other and took a few deep breaths.
“Could you really turn me into a goldfish that easily?” the boy asked him.
James grinned sheepishly. “No. Not even close. Is it easy to knock someone out?”
The boy shrugged. “Couldn’t tell you if I wanted to. I’ve never done it before. I know the right word for the spell, but that’s about it.”
James and they boy looked at each other and a minute later they were laughing uproariously at their own arrogance.
“James Potter,” James said between laughs, holding out his hand.
“Sirius Black,” said the other, taking James’ hand.
“Pretty smooth getaway,” Lily said sarcastically.
James shrugged. “We didn’t get into trouble. That time, anyway.”
“That’s true, I suppose.”
“But hold on. Was Kylie right, that you liked me, I mean?” James asked.
“Well, duh. That’s the point I was trying to get across by this whole story,” Lily said.
“Well then why did you pretend to hate me?” James wondered.
Lily shrugged. “I was eleven. When you were eleven, what did you do to people you liked?”
“I was mean to them,” James answered.
“Right. And then, it just became a habit. I realized how stupid that idea was in Second year, but by then I was really serious about my studies, and couldn’t have any distractions. So I kept it up,” Lily explained.
“So you never hated me?”
“Never,” she said, shaking her head.
“So why did you pretend!?” James asked, exasperated.
“I already told you that! Billywig,” Lily said laughing, as she climbed into the Gryffindor Common Room.
They flopped onto a sofa to relax a bit after such a long day.
“You know, that was a pretty big coincidence,” James thought out loud.
“What was?” Lily asked.
“How me and Sirius were there. How you just happened to be in the corridor. How we just happened to run into you. And how you just happened to start liking me. And now we’re going out. That’s a pretty big coincidence. What I mean is, what if it was some other girl instead of you in the hallway who we ran into. What if you never liked me at all? We wouldn’t be going out right now. It’s a pretty big coincidence.”
Lily smiled. “Well maybe some coincidences are meant to happen.”
James smiled at her. “That’s pretty deep, Lils.”
“Well, you know. I do what I can.”
James laughed and kissed her forehead.
Lily stretched and yawned. “I’m dead tired. I’m off to bed.” They both stood up.
“I love you,” Lily said, talking a step towards the stairs to the Girls’ Dormitories.
James reached our and caught her hand, spinning her back around. He pulled her up against him and pressed his lips against hers. He pulled away after a few seconds. “I love you too.”
Lily smiled warmly at him before climbing the stairs to her dormitory. James lingered for a moment, staring at the top of the stairs where Lily had last been, before going up to his own dormitory.