Second Year:
It was Lily Evans’s first day of the new school year. She headed down the Great Hall for breakfast, sat down at her usual spot at the Gryffindor table and chose a slice of toast and strawberry jam as usual. Lily used her knife to spread the jam over her toast. Once it was covered with red paste, she held it up to her mouth and…bam! The toast exploded right under her nose! It had reduced to nothing but ashes and there was a burning smell in the air.
“Potter,” Lily snarled softly. She glared down the table and sure enough, Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew were all doubling over in laughter.
“Morning Lils,” a familiar voice sounded behind her. Lily spun around and was pleased to see Sev, her best friend smiling down at her.
“Oh, hey Sev,” Lily greeted him and casually reached for a napkin.
“Did you Reducto your toast?” Sev grinned.
“Reducto?” Lily asked. “I’ve never heard of that.”
Well…” Sev shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “I read that somewhere in one of the Fifth Year’s DADA textbooks. It makes stuff reduce to ashes.” That was the strange thing about Sev, Lily thought privately, he had so many secrets and was so attracted to the Dark Arts. It creeped her out.
“Of course not! It was that Potter and his goons,” Lily scowled, wiping her hands on a napkin, “they prank-… What?” She looked at her napkin, it was stuck to her hands. She tried to wriggle her fingers out of the fabric but it seemed to become more entangled in it than ever!
“The Sticky-fingers Charm,” Sev sighed. “Let me help you.” A couple taps of his wand and the napkin untangled itself. Another surprise of his, Lily noted again. She had never learnt about non-verbal spells before.
“Thanks, Sev,” Lily said. “Potter’s so childish and ridiculous! Mark my words, I’m going to get that Potter sooner or later.”
It was Herbology next. The weather was muggy and drizzly and mud puddles were everywhere. Lily usually loathed this kind of weather but now, making her way down to the greenhouses, and she smiled to herself. She glanced over her shoulder, she saw Potter far behind her, slowly making his way down the slope alone since his glasses were caked in mud and blurred by droplets and Sirius, Remus and Peter had already reached the greenhouses.
Perfect, thought Lily Evans.
“Now, class, get a pair of earmuffs,” Professor Sprout ordered as Lily came in. She stepped out of the way to avoid the throng of Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors scrambling to get the pair that wasn’t pink and fluffy. After a while, two were left. One non-pink and one pink and fluffy. She seized both of them.
“One per student, Miss Evans,” Sprout said.
“I was just getting one for James Potter as well,” Lily said sweetly, gesturing to the boy with dark hair sticking all over the places with filthy glasses, just stepping in. “James, here you go,” Lily said, shoving the earmuffs into Potter’s hands before he knew what was going on. Then they sat down next to each other at the tables covered with pots of mandrakes while Potter polished his glasses furiously.
“Now class, we’re going to plant mandrakes today. Who can tell me what are mandrakes?” Professor Sprout asked. James had his hand up.
“Yes, Potter?”
“Can I change my earmuffs?” Potter asked.
“Why?”
“They’re pink!” Potter replied. Lily smirked, you deserved that.
“No, Potter and can you tell me something about mandrakes?” Professor Sprout sighed.
“They’re little plant babies. When pulled out of the ground, they scream and might kill or make you pass out,” James Potter grumbled.
“Excellent…” Professor Sprout’s words faded away and Potter kept on elbowing Lily in the ribs.
“Oi, Evans. Trade?” Potter was clearly asking about his earmuffs.
“After the exploding toast at breakfast? Not a chance,” Lily snorted.
“Put on your earmuffs, class,” Professor Sprout said, both Lily and Potter followed but Potter kept on motioning to trade. Lily shot him an I-don’t-give-a-damned look and pulled out her mandrake. And suddenly, a horrible screaming filled Lily’s ears and the greenhouse faded away.
A mop of long dark hair with grey eyes full of concern filled Lily’s sight.
“Hey, Sev,” Lily smiled weakly.
“You’re awake!” Sev exclaimed.
“I’m in the infirmary?” Lily noticed that she was on a sick bed and the last rays of sunshine were growing weaker, casting faint shadows on the floor. “It’s sunset already? Oh, no! I missed all my classes!”
“Don’t worry, I took down all of your notes,” Sev handed her a wad of paper filled with Sev’s neat handwriting.
“Thanks,” Lily sighed, sinking further into the pillows. Then she sat bolt upright. “Flitwick was supposed to give us back our Charms common test today!”
“Potter topped,” Sev grimaced. Lily groaned, she had spent forever revising for that test and Potter had barely spent half an hour on it. She could already imagine his stupid gloating face and waving the paper proudly in her face.
“But you were a close second!” Sev encouraged. “Besides, he’s in deep trouble for pulling your earmuffs off. Triple detention!” Lily beamed again, that made up dearly for the exploding toast.
Third year.
“Ohmigosh!” Jasmine squealed. “It’s James Potter!” Lily rolled her eyes. What a bunch of losers! It was only the second week of their third year and Potter had already had a whole bunch of admirers. Jasmine, one of the third years and Lily’s least liked roommate, was one of them.
“What do you see in him, Jasmine?” Lily asked irritably. “He’s such a stuck-up and childish git! He’s so arrogant and big-headed that if he had to write Hogwarts: A History again, he’d find some way to put himself in it!” She raised her voice so James Potter and his goons could hear it across the Gryffindor Common Room. “Just look at him! LOOK AT HIM!”
James Potter was across the living room with a whole bunch of simpering girls with hitched up skirts and low-cut tops surrounding him, making him almost invisible. Lily caught glimpses of him flexing his arm. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew were also with him, amazed to have so many girls around them.
“He is not arrogant or childish!” Jasmine retorted. “He’s so good looking! His HAIR!” Lily rolled her eyes. James Potter wasn’t good looking, not even his hair. After being selected to be in the Gryffindor Quidditch Team a year ago, Potter thought he looked good after flying his Nimbus, with his hair sticking up all over the place so it was his new but annoying habit to run his hand through his hair every 10 minutes, making it look “handsomely wind-swept”.
“And he’s tall! And his muscles,” Jasmine squealed dreamily. Yeah, Quidditch does that to every guy, Lily growled in her head. Potter sure was tall and had broad muscular shoulders and arms but it took more than that to attract Lily.
“And he’s cute!” Jasmine added. “He’s got that face that just…attracts me.” Lily snorted and went back to her book, the only part of James Potter that concered Lily was his brain that seemed to be able to ace any test without help, she was not letting James Potter beat her in their Transfiguration test the next day…again.
“He’s such a stuck-up, big-headed, childish and arrogant git! He’s so arrogant and bigheaded that if he had to write Hogwarts: A History again, he’d find some way to put himself in it!” shrieked Evans. James smirked at his best friends. There wasn’t a girl in Hogwarts he hadn’t been able to hypnotize, there were even rumors about senior girls eyeing him.
It was time to break the ice with Lily Evans.
“Hey, Lily,” James sauntered across the common room and approached Lily Evans behind her back.
“Evans,” Lily corrected sharply, not looking up from her book.
James read the first sentence aloud, “The key to changing a beetle to a watch is…”
Evans snapped her head around and said coldly, “Can I help you?”
“I was wondering…” James trailed off for suspense.
“Spit. It. Out. Potter,” Evans hissed.
“If you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me this weekend, it’s our first time,” James said in a slow drawl, putting more meaning into the last three words.
“No, it’s yours,” Evans stood up stoically. “I’m going with Amy.” And she stalked off to the girls’ dormitory. James raised his eyebrows. No girl could resist him. Lily Evans was a more interesting girl than he thought.
“Lily?” a rasped voice woke Lily from her sleep.
“Hmm?” Lily responded sleepily. She recognized the familiar face of Amy staring down at her with a blanket wrapped around her.
“I’ve got a fever,” Amy said. Lily could feel the heat rolling off Amy like waves, her breath was sour and her eyes were glassy. “Can you accompany me to Madam Pomfrey’s?”
“Sure,” Lily draped her cloak over both of them and went out of the bedroom and to the Fat Lady’s portrait.
“Another midnight stroll?” the Fat Lady complained, as she swung open.
“What do you mean by another?” Lily said. “This is the only time we’ve been out!”
“Sorry, dear,” the Fat Lady replied. “I thought you were James Potter. He can’t go through a week without having a walk outside at night. From what I’ve heard, he’s been causing loads of mischief around.”
“James Potter?” Lily echoed.
“Yes, how many James Potters are there in Gryffindor?” the Fat Lady said dryly. “Hurry up, you’r sick friend’s waiting.”
“Potter!” James heard someone call his name in the common room on Saturday night. He turned around and saw Evans striding towards him. What does she want now?
“I know what you’ve been doing outside the dorm at night,” she leaned close to him, narrowing her emerald eyes. “Stop. It.”
“Then why don’t you stop poking your nose into everyone else’s business? And why do you care?” retorted James. Evans was even nosier than Rita Skeeter, the 4th year who thought it was her job to sniff out “juicy gossip”.
“I’m telling you James,” Evans snarled. “I’m going to put a stop to your midnight pranking before you make Gryffindor lose all its points.” James huffed, Evans was such a teachers pet.
“Whatever pleases you, Evans,” James said loftily while strolling up the stairs to the boys’ dorm.
So Lily Evans really wants to catch me, huh? James thought silently as he glided down the steps to the common room at 11pm. Lily Evans was curled up in a armchair reading a novel, poking her head up now and then to make sure James hadn’t sneaked out. James, under his Invisibility Cloak, settled down in an armchair next to hers and waited.
Slowly, Lily Evans dozed off. But James was still staring at her. He was not at all, in fact, tired. He was strangely mesmerized by Lily’s face. A waterfall of crimson ran down her back, rosy cheeks and soft peach colored lips. But James loved her eyes the most, she had long, light brown eyelashes and under her eyelids, he knew he would find startling green eyes. Her face brought back memories of how he and the Mauderers would tease and prank her. How she would scowl and huff and throw insults at them. His most vivid memory was when she had giggled at him when mandrakes bit him in their first year, it was like a peal of silver bells, and he wished they would never stop ringing. Slowly, those memories grew extraordinarily fond to James.
And in that night…
James Potter had; perhaps, fallen in love with Lily Evans.
The next morning, the common room was slowly filled up with students and woke Lily up. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and found out that someone had draped a blanket over her. Then she noticed two letters, J and P, embroidered at a corner of the blanket.
“You made it until 2,” a voice greeted her. She raised her head to find James Potter’s face staring down at her.
“How did you know?”
Potter shrugged, “I was watching you.”
HI RACHELLEEEEE
ReplyDeleteIt's good! :P Well it's so good I can't describe it. Keep writing please :3