James's Secret

Part 2! :) Extra long one and I worked on it for a really long time! Enjoy! But don't forget to comment on what you think!

James couldn’t stop thinking about Lily Evans. He decided to sneak into the Girls’ dorm just to see her sleeping face up close again. But he wasn’t going to do it alone.

“Hey, Padfoot!” James called across the dorm to his best friend, Sirius Black.

“’Sup, Prongs?” Padfoot replied.

“I got a box of Dungbombs from Zonko’s last week, want to plant it in the girls’ dorm?” James put on a mischievous smile. “I’ll do the honors of stinking up Evans’ bed.” But James really wanted to get closer to Lily Evans.

“On it,” Padfoot grinned back.

“Levicorpus,” whispered James. He steadily raised his wand and floated Padfoot into the air, up the girls’ staircase.

“Let go, Prongs,” came Sirius’s soft reply.

Then it was Padfoot’s turn to cast the spell and they were in front of the door to the girls’ dorm.

“Quietly,” James breathed. He pushed open the door with a soft creak.

“AHHH!!” a high girly voice screamed. “What are you doing here?”

James and Sirius froze in their tracks and were flabbergasted to be showered in streamers and confetti.

“They’re having a midnight party?” Padfoot’s mouth was wide open. Sure enough, the candles were shining brightly, a bunch of Honeydukes junk was piled in the middle of the room and a large group of girls in pyjamas were having an intense pillow fight.

Then a red flash of light came out from nowhere and hit James and Padfoot on their foreheads.

“Argh!” James winced, rubbing his forehead. “Who did that?”

“I did,” Lily Evans had suddenly appeared at his side, wand at the ready. “Now get out before I jinx you again.”

“I’d like to see you try, Evans,” sneered Padfoot, pulling out his wand as well.
“Come on,” James said under his breath, “move it.”

“What? Prongs!” Sirius whined, not budging. “At least throw some Dungbombs in!”

“I said out!” yelled Evans and launched another jinx.

“Woah! How did you do a non-verbal spell?” James asked, amazed.

“Prongs! Let’s go!” Padfoot grabbed his arm and did his best to produce a Shield Charm to protect them from Lily Evans’ jinxes aimed at their forehead.

“Morning guys,” James plunked into his spot at the Gryffindor table the following morning.

“Hey Prongs,” Moony looked up from the Daily Prophet and spat his milk out. “PRONGS!”

“What?” James asked and started to scoop up his oatmeal.

“Your forehead,” Moony replied, his eyes bugging out of their sockets.

James looked into the reflective silver water pitcher and on his forehead were loads and loads of pimples. What!! James Potter had never had pimples, not even a single blemish!

“Evans…” he growled. He rubbed at his forehead and at his touch, the pimples enlarged.

“I see you’ve got the same problem,” Padfoot suddenly appeared behind him. His forehead was also covered with abnormally large spots.

“I’ve got to go to the bathroom,” James hastily dropped his spoon and ran to the nearest bathroom, dodging other people. He scrubbed furiously, applied a blemish remover and splashed water on his skin but when he looked at the mirror again, the pimples had become ridiculously large and now spelled the word “IDIOT”.

Padfoot had doubled over with laughter, “Prongs!”

“Don’t laugh so hard,” James grumbled, he took a glance at Sirius’s forehead. “Yours spell pervert.”

“I’m sorry, boys,” Madam Pomfrey said apologetically. “The spell can only be taken off by the caster.”

“Oh great,” Padfoot muttered as the two boys walked out of the infirmary. “We have to ask Evans to take it off?”

“Trust me, Pad,” James smirked. “We’ll lie low for a while, then we’re going to prank the living daylights out of Lily Evans.” But inside, James was rather amazed that Lily Evans could think of such a spell.

Lily Evans couldn’t feel proud after seeing Potter and Black being laughed at mercilessly for an entire week.

Hiding a smile, she said, “Alright, come here.” She walked across the common room to the two boys and tapped their foreheads. The blemishes disappeared.

“Merlin’s beard, Evans,” Black grumbled. “Couldn’t you just use the Jelly-Legs spell?”

“In your dreams,” Lily retorted and swept up the stairs to the dorm but for the whole time, she felt her ears burning. She was sure that James Potter’s golden hazel eyes were staring at her for the whole time.

Fourth/Fifth year because I couldn’t decide which year to put it in.

“Where’s Potter?” Sev asked through gritted teeth.

“What do you want with him, Snivellius?” Lupin scoffed. Sev glowered at him with every sign of dislike, already choosing which spell to light his sandy colored hair on fire.   

“Yeah? And where are your friends, hmm?” Black joined him, mocking Sev exaggeratedly.

“Shut up and tell me where is he,” Sev growled, he was losing his patience.

“By the lake,” Lupin rolled his eyes, “duh.”

Sev stomped off, he hated the so-called Mauderers. They were a bunch of arrogant, bigheaded, childish gits who got everything by charm and talent. Potter was the worst, he was always bullying and pranking his best friend, Lily Evans, and sometimes he had to comfort a teary Lils for hours.

He found the “superior” James Potter lying on his back on the bank of the Black Lake. He was playing with his Snitch that glinted beautifully in the afternoon sunshine.   

“Potter,” Sev said coldly.

With the lightning-fast reflexes of a Seeker, James snatched the Snitch out of the air and smirked, “Yeah?”

“Stay away from Lily,” Sev spat.

“And why should I stay away from your pretty girlfriend?” James said sarcastically.

“Don’t you know what you’ve done to her? She seems to be always crying and it’s always about you and your childish jokes!” Sev spat.

“And then…?” Potter finally sat up, pocketing his Snitch.

“Just leave her alone!”

“Sure,” Potter threw back his head and exhaled deeply, enjoying the afternoon sunshine.

“Good,” Sev managed, he thought Potter would’ve put up a fight. Sev turned around and started to walk back up to the castle.

“Petrificus Totalus!” Potter had sprung up and drew his wand. Sev had barely enough time to block the jinx.

“Protegro!”

“Expelliarmus!”

“Sectumsempra!”

“Oppugno!”

“Stupefy!”

“Reducto!”

“Rictusempra!”

Sev dodged, “Incendio!”

“Aguamenti!” The columns of fire and water met and the air was full of smoke.

“Expluso!” Sev hissed.

Potter blocked and cried, “Furnunculus!”

“Impendimenta!”

“ENOUGH!” at the corner of his eye, Sev could see a streak of red fire rushing down the slope to where Sev and Potter were dueling.

“AH! Evans! Come to watch the show?” Potter announced smugly. “Tarantallegra!”

“Serpensortia!” growled Sev.

Potter Vanished the snake in a matter of seconds.

“STOP IT!” Lily screamed at the top of her lungs, causing the two boys to freeze.

“What are you doing?” she asked, shaking her head, her question directed at Sev. Potter chose the moment to sneak away. Coward, Sev sneered inside his head.

Sev was unable to meet Lily’s glittering green eyes, “I told him to stay away from you.”

Lily sighed, “That’s really nice, Sev but don’t worry, I’ll sort Potter out myself.”

For the first time in his life, James Potter was absolutely clueless. How do I win Lily Evans over? He paced in his dormitory. He had tried pranks to get Lily to notice him. No, that made her cry, James thought grimly. He had dueled with her best friend to get her to notice him. That probably made her hate me more, James sighed dejectedly. He needed a Plan C, desperately.

“Nice hex you had, Prongs!” Wormtail said softly as he bounded into the dorm with Moony and Padfoot following him.

“Yeah! It was awesome, best dueling I’ve ever seen,” Padfoot praised, leaping onto his four-poster bed and leaning back onto the pillows. “Snivells didn’t stand a chance.”

“It even had Evans up in a twist!” chortled Wormy.

“It did?” James asked immediately. Oh, great. She won’t even be in the same room with me for the rest of my life! James sank into his bed.

“Why the long face, Prongs?” Moony tipped his head to one side.

“I-I-I’ve got to tell you something,” James said, taking deep breaths. Will his friends laugh at him? Or isolate him if he told? “I kind of like Evans.”

“WHOA!” Padfoot had fallen off his bed, Wormy had made some kind of gagging sound and Moony just stared at him with his large blue eyes.

“I think he’s got a temperature,” Padfoot laid his hand on James’s forehead. “He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”

“Prongs, you sure Snivelly didn’t mess up your brain or something?” Moony joked.

“No, I’m serious!” James stood up. “I can’t think of any reason why Lily should like me and how to get to her!”

“Maybe you should try the straight forward way,” suggested Wormtail. “Just tell her.”

“That’ll annoy her,” James buried his head into his hands. “I’ve tried everything since Third Year and nothing… And after hexing her best friend, she positively loathes me.”

“Oh, just do it, Prongs,” Padfoot and Moony were grinning together.

“Hey, um, Evans!” James tapped on Evans’s shoulder that night in the common room. Butterflies were in his stomach right now, what would Evans say?

“Yes, Potter?” Evans’s green eyes bore right into him, full of contempt.

“Tomorrow’s a Hogsmeade weekend,” James forced himself to look into the green pools, appearing as sincere as possible. “Do you want to go together?”

“You asked me the same question in the Third year,” Evans began. “And it’s the same answer, no. And I’m already going with someone.”

“Who?” James said a little too urgently.

“Alex Johnson,” Evans said suspiciously.

“Ew, him?” James said before he could stop himself.

“Problem, Potter?” Evans said, turning hostile.  

“He’s such a loser, he’ll be begging for a snog at the end of the date,” James scoffed.

“Why do you care, Potter?” Evans snapped and in a whirl of crimson, she had flounced up the stairs to the dorms with her robes billowing around her.

“Hi, Alex,” Lily smiled as she walked out the castle gates with Alex.

“Good morning,” he replied and took Lily’s arm. She couldn’t help feel surprised, so there were some boys still left with manners, unlike that James Bloody Potter, Lily snorted silently. Going to Hogsmeade with that toerag? Fat chance!

“You know why I asked you Lily?” Alex had led her to an oak tree. It was nice and cool under the shade. “Because you have no idea what effect you have on me. You’re beautiful and you’re just amazing.” Cheesy words, Lily commented to herself, but sweet. As if Potter could say it out loud. Enough about Potter, Lily chided herself, it’s time to see other guys.

“And just so you know, Lily,” Alex said softly, “I’m going to kiss you now.” Alex leaned down and brushed his lips with hers and slowly pressed it to hers. But Lily didn’t respond, not even when Alex’s tongue was begging for a reaction because Lily had seen, out of the corner of her eyes, James Potter was staring at her. Despite the fact that he was a mile away, standing at the bottom of the slope, Lily could feel his hazel brown eyes with golden flecks looking at her. He was almost glaring.

He’ll be begging for a snog at the end of the date, Potter’s words echoed in her head. Lily was getting mad at herself, why was she thinking of other boys when she was snogging one? And that particular person was James Potter, the bane of her existence! But Lily couldn’t help it; she knew exactly what he would say.

I told you so Evans.        

A million curses ran through James’s mind as he watched Johnson snog Evans. Surely Lily Evans deserved more than that wimp. Charming her with words and a kiss, James could do all of that. Why hadn’t Evans chosen him? The more he thought about it, the angrier he grew. His anger was bubbling and was threatening to overflow. He marched off angrily to Hogsmeade where the other Mauderers were waiting.

“What took you, Prongs?” Moony asked.

“Nothing,” James muttered but Padfoot looked at him knowingly.

“Prroooonnggss. I think I know what’s going on,” Padfoot waggled his eyebrows. “It’s Johnson, isn’t it?”

“She can snog who ever she likes,” James replied hotly.

“Padfoot didn’t say anything about snogging,” Wormy pointed out but Padfoot and James ignored him.

“I saw it with my own eyes,” Padfoot sniggered. “Johnson was leaning in and…” He made a smacking sound. 

“Shut up, Padfoot,” James snarled.

“Leave him alone, guys,” Wormy defended him but James didn’t want to see what happened next. He strode forward and saw a group of Slytherins. Lucius Malfoy and his stupid gang, the Slytherin Mauderers, James thought bitterly. He saw Snivellus with them and following his instinct; James whipped out his wand and shot them with a Jelly-Legs Jinx. Then he saw Lily and Johnson strolling into Hogsmeade, hand in hand. James couldn’t take it anymore. He muttered a Tickling Spell at Johnson and ran into the forest where Padfoot, Moony and Wormtail found a stag with hazel eyes with golden flecks sniffing protectively around a clump of lilies.  

(Note: You can find this part in OoP and most of the convos are from there, I just added in the thoughts and feelings.)

James doodled a Snitch on his OWLs DADA paper that he finished an hour ago. He was still smitten with Lily Evans and added her initials onto the Snitch. He sighed, after seeing Lily getting snogged about a year ago, he had been asking her out for every Hogsmeade weekend and any chance he could get but every time, Lily refused. So James lost his temper and hexed random people in the hallways, he remembered clearly how Lily had commented on him.

(Flashback, as told by Lily.)

“How come Gryffindor’s hourglass has the least points?” Lily wondered disbelievingly. She was right outside the Great Hall where the four giant hourglasses, representing the four houses’ amount of House Points, were embedded in the wall. “I’m sure I earned 50 this week from Professor Flitwick, Sprout and McGonagall!” The Gryffindor hourglass was barely a quarter full with rubies whereas the other houses were well over the half marker.  

“Probably Potter and his stupid friends,” Sev sighed. “He’s been hexing everyone he sees in the corridors, the teachers are taking 20 points for each hex and I’ve lost count of how many times he’s hit me or Lucius with Impendimenta.”

“The brilliant James Potter strikes again,” Lily groaned. “He’d better make it up by getting the Snitch in every Quidditch game.” Suddenly, an arm threw itself around her shoulders.

“Are my ears tricking me? The great Lily Evans calling me brilliant!” a ridiculously annoying voice sounded.

“James Potter,” Lily growled. She fidgeted under his arm, “Let go, Potter.”

“Say you’ll sit next to me at dinner today?” Potter asked again but for once, he actually sounded desperate.

“No! You’ve asked me that at least seven times today,” Lily snapped. “Even if I reject you, you have no right to go jinxing people in the hallways! Now let me go!”

“Potter,” Sev said warningly when the arm still wasn’t lifted. He drew out his wand and pointed it at Potter. Lily, on the other hand, was struggling to pull out hers.

“Oh, please,” Potter replied. “You could’ve said please.” He rolled his eyes and let go of Lily.

“Thank you,” Lily spat and stormed towards the Great Hall for dinner. “Let’s go, Sev.”

No answer. “Sev?” Lily turned around and saw her best friend’s legs were bounded together by a Leg-Locker jinx and he was bouncing around with his mouth sealed shut with Silencio. Potter was, unfortunately, nowhere to be seen.

James sighed. He couldn’t help it! It made his blood boil whenever Lily turned him down and just last week, he found something terrible about Snivellus when he had sneaked into the Slytherin common room under his Invisibility Cloak to prank Snivelly.

Flashback

“Hey, Severus,” Lucius was lounging on one of the jade-colored sofas in the common room; Severus had just walked down from where James guessed was the dorm.

“Hey, Lucius. Going for supper yet?” Snivellus nodded at Malfoy.

“A bit later,” Malfoy answered. “I wanted to ask you something, about Evans.” It caught James’s attention immediately.

“Yeah?” came the wary reply.

“If you want to become a real Death Eater, you’ll have to stop liking her,” Malfoy said seriously.

“What? Why?” Snivelly opposed. “She’s my best friend!”

“The Dark Lord’s rising and you promised to help him, Severus and everybody knows that Mudblood’s going to be against him,” Malfoy explained. “You’ll have to meet her in battle one day.”

“So?”

 “We can’t have that, Severus. Disloyalty is something the Dark Lord won’t forgive lightly. And if you are seen helping Evans’s side in any way because of her, you’ll get Avada Kadavra-ed. I’m just saving your skin, Sev.”

Snivelly didn’t reply, his eyes were clouded and he had an uncertain expression on his face.

“I’d try to get rid of her if I were you,” a wicked grin spread across Lucius’s face. “I’d recommend the Cruciatus Curse but since you’re so in love with her, I guess you’d just have to turn your back on her.”

James nearly threw off his Invisibility Cloak to strangle Lucius Malfoy. Who was he to tell Snivelly to hurt Lily? But Snivelly said calmly, “I’ll think about it.”

James had watched Sev and Lily for the past couple of weeks. Snivellus still greeted Lily every morning in the Great Hall at breakfast and still helped her in classes. Everything was normal except for Lucius Malfoy glaring at Snivelly when he was friendly with Lily and James keeping a close eye on them. Trust me, Snivelly, James vowed. If you hurt Lily Evans in any way, I will personally wring your neck.

“Quills down, please!” squeaked Flitwick. “That means you too, Stebbins! Please remain seated while I collect your parchments! Accio!” James paper slid away and slammed into Flitwick’s face, including a hundred other parchments. Flitwick fell over backwards and a couple of students helped him up.

“Thank you… Thank you,” he panted. “Very well, everybody, you’re free to go!” James hastily crossed out the Snitch, shoved the exam paper into his bag with his quills and met Padfoot at the door of the Great Hall. He passed by Snivelly on the way out, he was still staring at the paper.

“Did you like question ten, Moony?” Padfoot asked.

“Loved it,” Moony smiled easily. “Give five signs that identify a werewolf. Excellent question.”

“D’you think you managed to get all the signs?” James added with mock concern.

“I think I did,” Moony replied as they walked out the castle to the Black Lake. “One: he’s sitting on my chair. Two: he’s wearing my clothes. Three: His name is Remus Lupin.” They all laughed except for Wormtail, “I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes and the tufted tail and I couldn’t think of anything else.”

James snorted, “How thick are you, Wormtail? You run around with a werewolf once a month-,”

“Keep your voice down!” Moony muttered when Snivelly passed, still absorbed in his paper. What a nerd, thought James. The exam’s already over!

“I’m pretty sure I got an Outstanding,” bragged Padfoot as they sat down under a beech tree at the edge of the lake. “The exam was way too easy, I saw Prongs finish his an hour before the finishing time.”

“Mm,” James said absent-mindedly. He had a bad feeling now. His eyes darted from Lily who was coming down with some of her friends and Snivellus sitting not far away. He looked at Snivelly closely, there was nothing wrong but why did he feel some kind of tension in the air. He naturally took out a Golden Snitch from his pocket and started to play with it, letting it fly away for a bit before seizing it. He was still focused on Lily and Snivelly, not bothering with Wormy’s applause beside him.

“Cool, where’d you get it?” Padfoot said.

“Nicked it,” James replied casually. He was still wondering why something tense was hanging in the air.    

“Put that away, will you?” Padfoot grumbled as James made a fine catch. “Before Wormtail wets his pants.” Wormtail grew slightly pink as James shoved the Snitch back into his pocket.

“I’m bored, I wish it was full moon now,” Padfoot leaned back and rested on his elbows.

“It’s Transfiguration next, you could practice with me,” Moony offered.

“Moony, I know everything already…” as Padfoot jabbered on, James turned to look at them bicker. Then his gaze slid behind them to the castle and he saw Lucius Malfoy, Avery and Lestrange lumbering down the slope, the gazes fixed on both Lily Evans and Severus Snape. Something’s bad going to happen! James thought desperately.

Thinking quickly, he said to Padfoot, “This’ll liven you up, Padfoot. Snivellus is over there.” Padfoot became very still, like a dog that had scented a rabbit. “Excellent. Snivellus.” James got up and walked briskly towards Snivelly, “All right, Snivellus?” At the speed of lightning, he drew his wand out from his robe but before he could get it out, James shouted, “Expelliarmus!” The wand flew a couple feet in the air and landed in the grass behind him and Snivelly stumbled to get it. Padfoot roared with laughter. Students had now gathered around to watch, even Malfoy and his gang had turned their attention to them. Good, thought James. Now how do I wrap this up?

“How’d the exam go, Snivelly?” said James.

“I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment,” Padfoot jeered viciously. “It’ll have grease marks all over it, they won’t even be able to read a word!” A ripple of laughter went through the crowd. Snivelly writhed on the ground, still under the effects off the jinx.

“You wait,” Snivelly glowered up at James with the expression of pure loathing. “YOU WAIT!”

“Wait for what?” Padfoot said coolly. “What are you going to do, Snivelly? Wipe your nose on us?” His victim let out a river of swear words and hexes but his wand was still ten feet away and nothing happened.

“Wash out your mouth,” James said coldly. “Scourgify!” Pink soap bubbles appeared at Snivelly’s mouth, choking him.

“LEAVE HIM ALONE!” Lily had stormed up to them. As James looked at her, he saw Malfoy and his gang retreating back to the castle, he breathed a sigh of relief. At least they weren’t going to do any harm to Lily.

“All right, Evans?” James said, his voice sounded more pleased and deeper than he wanted to. But after all, this was the girl he liked.

“Leave him alone, Potter,” Lily repeated. “What has he done to you?” Lily was furious, one moment she was going over the DADA paper with a couple a friends and suddenly, Potter was jinxing her best friend.

“Well,” replied James suavely, “it’s more the fact he exists, if you know what I mean…”

“You think you’re funny,” Lily said harshly, “but you’re just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone!”

“I will if you go out with me, Evans,” said Potter quickly, “Go on… Go out with me and I’ll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again.”

“I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice with the Giant Squid!” hissed Lily.

Watching the fiasco, Sev felt the jinx wearing off. While everyone’s attention was on the two, Sev pulled himself towards his wand.

“Bad luck, Prongs,” Sirius Black said. “OI! Where’d you think you’re going?” But Sev didn’t stop, he lunged for his wand and directed it at the idiot Potter and muttered, “Sectumsempra.” But Potter was too quick and dodged the jinx but still had a gash on a side of his face and the blood stained his robes. Another flash of light and Sev found himself hanging upside down in the air with his robe falling over his face. He could feel a breeze sweeping in between his thighs and he realized that everyone could see his under pants. His face turned a beet red when he saw everyone snickering at him. Even Lily, his crush and best friend, couldn’t keep a straight face. A sudden bolt of dislike for her shot through him.

“Let him down!” Lily commanded.

“Certainly,” Potter said and jerked his wand, smashing Sev onto the ground. Stupid Potter! He got up as quickly as he could and untangled his robes.

“Petrificus Totalus!” Black bellowed and Sev fell face first onto the ground again and couldn’t move a muscle.

“Leave him alone!” Lily screamed, she pulled out her wand now. Why didn’t you do it earlier? Stupid Mudblood! For a moment, Sev was confused. Lily was his best friend! Why was he so angry with her? A person can only take so much bullying and hexing in a day, Sev spat furiously in his head.

“Ah, Evans, don’t make me curse you,” Potter said earnestly. Another bolt of anger burst and realization through Sev. Potter was flirting with Lily all this time! Why didn’t he see it earlier? And who did Potter think he was? Why did that filthy toerag think he was good enough for Lily?

“Take the curse off him, then!” Lily said again.

Potter sighed deeply and muttered something. Soon, Sev stood up again.

“There you go,” Potter sneered in his face, “you’re lucky Evans was here, Snivellus.”

“I don’t need any help from Mudbloods like her!” Sev suddenly let his anger take control of him, spitting out all his anger for Potter and his stupid gang and Lily not helping him earlier.

Lily blinked, “Fine, I won’t bother in the future. I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.” Sev couldn’t help feeling stung. That was the first time she had insulted him.

“Apologize to Evans!” James yelled. He couldn’t believe it. Lily’s own best friend called her you-know-what. Now what had Lily done for that slimy git?

“I don’t want you to make him apologize!” Lily had rounded on him. “You’re as bad as he is!”

“What!” yelped James. “I would never call you a you-know-what!” And for the first time, he really meant that.

“Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just gotten off your broomstick, showing off that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone you like just because you want to. I’m surprised that that Nimbus of yours can get off the ground with your big, fat head on it,” Lily yelled at him with so much hatred, he could feel the air getting warmer. “You make me SICK.” Then she turned on her heel and fled to the castle.

“Evans!” James shouted after her. “EVANS!” No! James thought, more dejectedly than ever. All he had done was to save Lily from Malfoy, now she hated every part of him.

“What is it with her?” James asked. He was terribly afraid he sounded like he wanted to cry.

“Reading between the lines, I think she found you a little conceited, mate,” Padfoot said honestly.

“Right,” James said, a tad bit furious. He had been called arrogant by Lily Evans dozens of time but it had never meant so much to him until that very moment. Levicorpus! He thought and he saw Snivelly hanging upside down again.

“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s trousers?” James said, plastering on a bright smile. He turned to the hanging figure, the grey eyes were glittering with anger.

Instead, he stepped up to Snivelly and said softly in his ear, “I only did that because I knew what Malfoy was going to do. And yes, I do like Lily Evans, more than you can think.” A sign of surprise appeared on Snivelly’s face.

“But it doesn’t mean I still hate you!” James added coldly, he turned to Padfoot, “Padfoot, you can do the honors.” And he walked back slowly to the castle, he was now going to take Lily Evans seriously.

James had paced around the castle until it was way past curfew. He was thinking about how he should get to Lily Evans.

Maybe I should stop with all the pranks. Nah, that’s impossible, pranking is my life! Just don’t prank too harshly then, especially not on Evans but I might make an exception for Snivelly, he deserves it!

Lily says I’m so bigheaded. Is that true? Yeah, it kind of is. How do I deflate my big head then? Stop with the hexing, stop with the flirting with other girls and stop showing off my grades.

And stop asking Lily out every ten minutes. It’s annoying for her and she won’t think you really care. Then when? When she’s cooled down, of course. That’s going to be tricky. Yeah, I know…

James shook his head mentally and entered the Gryffindor common room and was surprised to see Lily Evans still sobbing on the armchairs.

I don’t need any help from Mudbloods like her! Sev--no, Snivellus’s insult still lingered loudly in Lily’s head. She was still dazed by him, it was Severus Snape who introduced her to the world of wizardry. He took care of her, he helped her get used to life at Hogwarts. Most importantly, he had been there when her sister wasn’t. A fresh new wave of tears gushed out from her eyes again. How long had she been crying? Four hours? Maybe more. As she sat in the empty common room, too depressed to go to bed, her tears came even quicker. She knew it was going to be hard settling in, coming from a non-magic family but why did it have to be her ex-best friend? It was so… Unfair? Lily didn’t even know how to feel. She heard the portrait hole open. Through her blurry tears, she saw James Potter coming in.

“Hey, Evans,” he said softly, “still awake?”

“What do you want Potter?” Lily said, trying to regain her composure. The perfect Lily Evans was crying in front of James Potter, the person who had mercilessly teased and pranked her over the past 5 years. “Go on, Potter. Tease me, let it out, and give it your best. Prank me until I won’t even recognize my own mother.” Lily laid herself bare in front of Potter. Well, as much as you could get in Hogwarts school robes.

“I’m sorry for hexing Severus,” Potter said. It was that first time he had said that name, he made it sound weird.

“You can keep calling him Snivellus,” Lily said bitterly. “I hate him. He called me a Mudblood, he called me worthless.” More tears rolled down Lily’s cheek and Potter did a very un-Potter like thing. He squeezed onto the same armchair with Lily and he let Lily rest her head on his shoulder.

“Lily, you’re worth everything and more than anything. You’re perfect. I’m worthless, I’ve been chasing after a girl I’ve liked ever since the start of Third year. I’ve tried everything except for telling her exactly what I mean. I’m a coward. And she hasn’t even gone out with me and she thinks I’m a bigheaded, arrogant and childish git.” Lily was surprised, James Potter confessing? Something was wrong. She looked at him. She watched the glowing embers in the fireplace reflecting in his half-closed hazel eyes, his lips were in a thin line and his jaw was taut. He looked sad and guilty.

“You really mean all of that?” Lily whispered. James nodded and put his arm around Lily Evans, this time, she didn’t complain and sank a bit lower into James’s arms.

“My sister, Petunia, hates me, you know,” Lily didn’t know what made her say that. “When we were younger, I used to follow her everywhere and did everything she did. We were the best of friends, I can still remember the night we slept in the same bed and vowed to be best friends until we died. Together forever, that’s what we said.” Her voice cracked. “Then the Hogwarts letter came and-d-d, she started to call me a freak. She acted like she hated me because I was different but I knew she wanted to be one too. She wanted us to do everything together. My parents were so proud of me and she hated me even more. I was devastated. I had lost my best friend. Then Severus came and he sort of replaced Tuney. That made her even more jealous and she hated me even more.” Lily buried her face into James’s side, noticing that he had a very comforting smell and it calmed her down. “Now I’ve lost both of them! Oh, James, what do I do?” James first thought was to say, “Go out with me.” But he thought better of it.

“It’s okay,” he said comfortingly. “You’ll find someone who won’t turn his back on you, he’ll take care of you forever and you’ll have your own beautiful happily ever after.”

At the sound of his soothingly deep voice, Lily Evans slowly fell asleep.

James listened to Lily’s steady breathing against him. He was sure he scored a point to Lily Evans. He looked down at her. She looked exactly the same as she did during Third Year when James watched her sleep for the first time. Except that her flawless face was stained with tears and her eyebrows were furrowed together. He breathed in her scent, it had hints of wildflower in it. Then, as gently as he could, he carried her, bridal style, to the steps to the girls’ dormitory.

“Finite,” he whispered, fumbling with his wand. When he stepped onto the staircase, it stayed still. He made his way up to the dorm. James made sure no one was awake when he stepped into the bedroom and laid Lily Evans on the only empty bed. He saw a photo frame with a picture of two girls swinging on a swing together. They were laughing and holding hands. One of them was a smaller copy of Lily. The other girl must be Petunia.

He transfigured Lily’s school robes into pyjamas and pulled the covers over her. He stooped down to kiss her lightly on the forehead.

“Good night, Lily,” he murmured.