Over time, their friendship grew. Though Lily was at first unwilling, she began to notice James Potter’s positives. Like how loyal he was. Insult his friends and you’d wish you had never come to Hogwarts by the time James Potter was through with you.
Even a few of his negatives turned out to not really be negatives. Like when he ran his hand through his hair- James told her once it was a nervous habit. He wasn’t being arrogant at all.
Lily found that as time went on, she looked forward to her rounds. James seemed to have a natural gift for telling funny stories, and she had always liked guys who could make her laugh.
But she knew that she shouldn’t be looking forward to her rounds. Her routines, every one of them, had been turned on their ear. And yet, she didn’t mind that all her precious routines had gone down the drain.
Our friendship has grown so much, Lily mused as she laughed hysterically while attempting to relate a story to James. He had gone home over Christmas break while Lily had stayed at Hogwarts, and there was one particular incident that Lily wanted to tell James about.
“And- And then he-” Lily gasped between giggles, “And then he gave her f- feathers! And w- wings! She- She looked like an overgrown ch- chicken!”
James grinned. “You know, Lily, you sure have loosened up a lot since the beginning of the year. The old you would have docked fifty points from Hufflepuff.”
Lily gave him a very gentle push. “I know. You’re a very bad influence.”
Lily smiled. She remembered how she had first thought that James would be impossible to deal with, how she thought he would be asking her out so constantly that he would not perform his duties properly. How wrong she had been!
James swallowed nervously. He and Remus had talked a lot about when it would be a good time for James to start asking Lily out again. This wasn’t quite the time when they had thought would be best- Remus thought he should wait at least another month- but James knew in his heart that the time was now. “Hey, Lily,” he said slowly.
Lily looked at him curiously. “What is it, James?”
“Would you… maybe… want to go to Hogsmeade… with me?” James asked.
A look of joy spread across Lily’s face. “James, I-” But the rest of her answer was cut off by a blood-curdling scream.
James could only watch in horror as Lily tumbled down the staircase that he hadn’t even noticed they had approached.
He immediately began running down the staircase, desperate to find out if Lily was alright. “Lily,” he breathed, seeing her eyes fluttering open.
Her eyes filled with confusion. “Do… Do I know you?”
James stumbled back to his dormitory. His friends saw him when he passed through the common room, and when he did not answer their calls they knew that something must be seriously wrong. The three trooped up the stairs and surrounded James’ bed. Sirius ripped open his curtains.
“What’s wrong?” asked Remus, immediately concerned about his friends’ swollen red eyes.
“Lily… remember…” James mumbled, burying his face into his pillow. Peter gently took the pillow away.
“Again,” demanded Remus, extremely worried.
“Lily doesn’t remember me,” James whispered.
The girl walked slowly up the stairs with a girl with sad grey eyes. “So you really don’t remember me?” she kept asking. “You don’t remember me or Tara or Trista or Devan or all the amazing times we’ve had here?” The girl didn’t want to tell the sad grey-eyed girl that she didn’t eve know where ‘here’ WAS!
The girl showed her a bed in the room that they had just entered. It looked no different from all the other beds in the room. “So… I’m Rebecca. Rebecca Edwards. I’m your best friend,” the girl said. “Madame Pomfrey said you can’t remember anything, but I know something that will help you.” Rebecca leaned over and dug around in the trunk by the bed she saw belonged to her.
“Um… Isn’t that my trunk? I mean, it’s my bed, right? So wouldn’t it be my trunk?”
Rebecca looked up in surprise. “Yeah, it is your trunk. But we always go through each other’s trunks. It’s a girl thing,” she explained.
“Oh, um, okay. So, I feel really stupid asking you this, but what’s my name? How old am I? When’s my birthday? Who are my friends? Where do I go to school? What classes do I take? Who-” The girl abruptly stopped when Rebecca held up her hand.
“Your name is Lily Marie Evans. Your birthday is November 9th. You turned 18 this year. Your friends all live here, in our school, Hogwarts. Myself, Tara, Trista, and Devan, are your friends. You take Charms, Potions, Herbology, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, and Defense Against the Dark Arts.” Rebecca smiled reassuringly, holding up a red notebook. “Don’t worry. I’ll write down everything you could ever need to know about your life in this. This way, if you forget anything, it’ll all be right there.”
Lily nodded, feeling just a little bit better.
The girl stopped outside the large doors of the castle. She couldn’t remember where she was supposed to go! “Um… Wait- Remus?” she called questioningly, remembering the professor in the greenhouse calling on him.
He turned around, smiling. “Yes?”
She blushed. “Um, I don’t know where I’m going…”
“Let me see your book bag,” he asked. Taking the denim bag from her hands, Remus pulled out the red notebook and leafed through it. “You’re going to Potions now. James has Potions with- Oi, James!” A boy with hazel eyes and messy black hair paused, moments away from going back into the castle. “Take Lily to Potions,” he called. The boy nodded, walking back down the steps to stand next to her.
“Ready for Slughorn’s class?” he questioned, seeming happy.
“Who is Slughorn?” the girl questioned.
“Professor Slughorn is our Potions teacher.”
“Oh, I should have remembered- the grey-eyed girl wrote everything down in my notebook. I’m supposed to look in there so I don’t sound stupid in front of everyone else,” the girl admitted, blushing.
“Don’t worry, Lily. I’ll never think you sound stupid,” he replied, smiling tenderly at her.
“I- I’m Lily, right?” She asked anxiously, hoping that she was correct.
“Yes. Yes, you’re Lily.” His eyes grew sad, as if remembering a happier time and wishing now could be happier. He shook his head slightly, his eyes clearing. “Anyway, here we are! You can be my partner- Rebecca isn’t in this class with us, and Sirius is in the Hospital Wing again. I’ll make sure you don’t accidentally cause the potion to go horribly wrong and land yourself in the Hospital Wing like you did last week.”
“I did that?” Lily asked, confused.
“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “Anyway, let’s get started.”