PROLOGUE


“Who wants to see me take off Snivelly’s pants?”…

It took all of Lily’s might not to turn around and march straight back up to James Potter and curse him into oblivion. He really was the most arrogant toe rag in the world! He seemed to believe that he was the best thing since chocolate frogs and you know what the worst part was? 95% of Hogwarts students thought he was too.

Lily had no idea why this was the case. Well… she did… but she didn’t think they were valid reasons.

James Potter was handsome, confident and bright. He was also filthy rich and an excellent Quidditch player. He’d had numerous girlfriends, some even being so ridiculous as to go as far as saying that they wanted to marry him.

Lily pitied the poor girl who ended up marrying that conceited git.

Lily had always despised James Potter, since the first day they had arrived at Hogwarts. As soon as they’d met, he’d teased her mercilessly about not knowing one end of a broomstick from the other and for not understanding a lot of the wizarding-lingo himself and many of the other pure and half-blood wizards and witches used.
But the teasing wasn’t the worst part.

A few years ago, Lily had noticed that James had started acting differently towards her. He had tried (tried being the operative word here) to act maturely round her and even offered to help her with her work (something that caused Lily to laugh at no end – James Potter NEVER did his homework EVER). She finally realised that this change in attitude had come around because he had taken a fancy to her.

Far from being thrilled, Lily was furious! She did not want to be another cast-off in a long line of girls that had dated the ‘awesome’ James Potter. So as soon as she cottoned onto this rather unenviable fact she avoided James Potter like the plague. Unfortunately, like any plague, James Potter would not give up easily and Lily was forced to put up with almost daily requests of, “Evans, go out with me!” or “I really fancy you. Will you go out with me?”

Lily, of course, turned him down every time without fail but this did not seem to deter Potter in the slightest. On the contrary, her negative responses seemed to make him even more determined, which caused Lily to think that he no longer genuinely liked her (that is, if he had ever genuinely liked her in the first place) but now regarded her as an ongoing task, one which could only end in victory and she was the prize.

But, Lily knew quite certainly, James Potter would one day have to admit defeat, for she would NEVER accept his offer to make her his girlfriend.

If she ever did, Lily would know that the world had gone quite spectacularly mad…

1 year and 6 months later

“Aargh!”

Lily Evans crashed into the wall of the Room of Requirement. Bouncing off it she landed face down on the floor but no sooner had let out a muffled “Oh!” she rolled onto her back and sprang back to her feet, spinning around just in time to see another hex coming towards her. She ducked it and, aiming her wand at the boy in front of her, screamed “Furnunculus!”

She heard a yell as the boy felt the ugly boils spring up all over his face and knew the spell had hit its mark. She couldn’t resist a satisfied smirk. Whilst he was caught off guard she sent a stream of spells towards him and had to laugh at what he looked like: he had tentacles all over his body as well as the boils on his face, steam coming out of his ears and he was foaming at the mouth.

But in her smugness she had let down her guard too and she suddenly found herself being pulled irresistibly towards her enemy, her wand hanging limply at her side.

The boy caught her roughly in his arms, twisting her arm painfully behind her back as he turned her away from him. She felt the tip of his wand at her throat.

“Give in Evans?” James Potter whispered softly in her ear, pressing the wand harder into her neck, his silky breath tickling her ear.

“Never,” she growled and in one swift movement she thrust her head back, smashing it into his scull, twisted her arm out of his slackened grip and performed a round-house kick that caught him heavily on the side of the head.

James stumbled back, nose bleeding, dazed by the multiple blows he had received.

Whilst he was still reeling from the attack, Lily bent down and in a quick sweeping motion, knocked out James’ feet from beneath him. He landed on his back and gasped as all the wind was knocked out of him. Lily straightened up and hastened to straddle him, pinning his arms and legs against the floor.

“Expelliarmus!” she cried and James felt his wand fly out of his hand and clatter to a stop somewhere out of his reach.

“Do you give in?” she asked James, breathing heavily. James coughed and spluttered as the blood from his nose formed a pool in his mouth.

“Yes!” croaked James. “I give up!”

They were suddenly bathed in flood-lights. Lily looked round to see a beaming Professor Dumbledore coming towards them. Realising she was on top of James she quickly stood up and stepped to the side of him. James, meanwhile, remained on the floor, still trying to recover from the thrashing he had just received. Lily suspected it wasn’t just his body that had been bruised – being beaten by a girl must have dealt a huge blow to his elephant-size ego.

Flushed with her success, Lily grinned as Dumbledore stopped in front of them.

“Well done!” he exclaimed joyously, “You both did VERY well. Miss Evans, excellent memory of the Muggle defence tricks I taught you! And Mr Potter…” He looked down at James who was still trying to catch his breath. Dumbledore laughed and offered him his hand, which James took and he pulled him to his feet.

As James regained his balance and composure, Dumbledore continued, “… brilliant use of the ‘Mirage Charm’. Miss Evans was obviously fooled by it!”

Lily blushed as she realised that none of the spells she had cast after ‘Furnunculus’ and before ‘Expelliarmus’ had even hit James. It was a good job she had remembered the moves Dumbledore had taught her, otherwise she would have been defeated by James Potter – the consequences didn’t bear thinking about!

Dumbledore had not finished however, “Unfortunately you both got too confident – Miss Evans when you thought Mr Potter was being inundated with spells and could not retaliate and Mr Potter when you had Miss Evans caught in your arms and believed she had run out of options. Both of you were wrong and had it been a real duel it could have cost both of you your lives! You must never lose your edge in a fight, no matter if it seems as though you have the upper hand. As you both saw tonight, circumstances can change in an instance. He who believes he is the winner when the battle is not yet through loses the war. Do you both understand what I’m saying?”

Lily and James nodded, although James seemed to regret it instantly, letting out a little yelp as a split in his lip that Lily had not noticed before reopened. Dumbledore, seeing this, said, “Ah! Yes, wounds! Well Mr Potter, I think you’ll be needing a patch up and nights rest in the hospital wing. Miss Evans, could you escort him there?”

“Of course, Sir,” Lily answered immediately, gently linking her arm through James’ as he partially limped towards the door.

Dumbledore watched them go with a most curious expression on his face. He had seen the look of longing on James’ face when he had held Lily so tightly against him.

But all James received from Lily was contempt – contempt, Dumbledore mused, that wasn’t entirely unfounded.

But James had grown up in the last year or so and Dumbledore had taken the rather unadvisable step of putting the two of them together as Head Boy and Girl.

Dumbledore believed that, with a little tweaking of the circumstances, Lily Evans and James Potter would make a rather commendable couple.

The problem would be getting Lily to come round to that way of thinking.

James was very obviously in love with her but Dumbledore knew that Lily certainly wasn’t (or at least didn’t realise she was) in love with him. Dumbledore knew for a fact that at this very moment a huge row was taking place between them just a few hundred metres from this very room.

How did he know this?

Why, they had forgotten to close the door behind them…

Ooh, me likey

Me likey muchos!!

PAMS SOON!

hehehe

Loved it!
.:Adrienne:.

Wow. Your FF is really good so far. It's a really brilliant idea!! I can't wait for more!! PAMS!!

~Meg

o0o0o0o....looks interesting...can't wait for the next chapter!

Katie

Thank you to all you guys/gals who have reviewed

Chapter 2 is below!

Lily and James exited the room of requirement, Lily walking at an odd angle because she was supporting James’ weight. As they edged down the corridor, James turned to Lily with a smirk on his face.

“You know Evans, I could totally have taken you back there. It was my sheer good manners that stopped me from winning that duel!”

Lily stopped dead, threw off the arm James had curled round her shoulders to stop him from falling over, and looked at him with a mixture of surprise and anger on her face.

“How dare you!” she screamed at him as he fell backwards and tried to regain his balance. “I won that duel FAIR AND SQUARE! You did not LET me win!”

James, who had managed to steady himself by grabbing onto a suit of armour merely grinned.

“Aw Evans! Looks like I’ve struck a nerve huh?! Can’t accept my utter brilliance, no?”

Lily glared at him, breathing hard, nostrils flared.

“James Potter you are an arrogant BEAST!”

James winked at her, “Well, the beast part is certainly true…!”

Lily reddened as she realised what he was implying.

James laughed at the look on her face, but instantly regretted it when she pulled out her wand and pointed it towards him.

“Woah, Evans!” he said, hands in the air, backing up against a wall. “No need to involve wands. Come on, the poor man’s already injured, it’s not really fair to take advantage is it? Although, I wouldn’t say no if you tried to take advantage in another way…”

Lily’s lip curled as she lowered her wand, staring at him intently.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

James straightened up and looked her in the eye.

“You know it’s true,” he said sincerely. “Why won’t you just give me a chance?”

Lily laughed humourlessly, but couldn’t help noticing the look of pleading on his face. Deciding that James Potter really deserved a WIZARD, she answered, a look of loathing plastered all over her pretty face.

“Why won’t I go out with you?” she repeated. “You r-eally can’t think why? Ok, I’ll give you a list.”
She cleared her throat for maximum effect and continued, “You are UNBELIEVABLY arrogant, you mess up your hair CONSTANTLY, you jinx ANYBODY you want to just because you can, you think ONLY of yourself, you’re really handsome, and you’re head boy!”

James raised his eyebrows.

“That’s it? That’s why you don’t like me?”

Lily spluttered with indignation.
“‘That’s it’, that’s IT!?!” she repeated incredulously. “What could POSSIBLY be worse than that?!”

“Well,” said James slowly, “I’m sure I could come up with a whole bunch of things that are ‘worse than that’, but first of all, I think I should be able to defend myself, so here goes: You say I’m ‘unbelievably arrogant’. Well yes, I was in fifth year, but perhaps, if you’d actually paid me any unbiased attention, you would have noticed that midway through sixth year, I realised just how conceited I was and sought to change my ways. I now know that I am in no way ‘better’ than anyone else. Except maybe Snape,” he added as an afterthought.

Lily rolled her eyes.

“Two,” James went on, “I mess up my hair – so what? It’s a habit! I know for a fact you bite your nails!”

Lily glared at him, and glanced down at her gnawed-upon nails.

“Three,” James said, “I don’t jinx just ‘anyone’ anymore – that comes with the ‘realising that I am in no way better than anyone else’ part. I will only jinx someone if they have done something to offend, hurt, or embarrass me or anyone that I care about. Four, I am aghast at the thought of you thinking that I care only about myself – that is completely untrue! Whenever Padfoot gets given a detention, I always make sure I get given one too, so that he doesn’t get bored and lonely carrying out whatever punishment he’s been dealt on his own!”

Lily couldn’t help but smile slightly at this, but tried her best to cover it with a look of pure loathing.

“Fifth,” James continued, “It’s a crime to be handsome? Because I personally have never looked on it as being a curse, but please, do enlighten me as to what the problem is there.”

Glowering at him, she said acidly, “I have no problem with good-looking people. It’s just that, because you are good looking, girls fawn all over you and believe that you’re the best thing in the world, when you’re really, really not!”

James’ eyes widened.

“You jealous?” he asked hopefully.

“You wish,” replied Lily coolly.

“Damn,” James said with a wink. “And last but not least, me being head boy is also a bad thing for me to be in the world of Evans– why’s that? Surely being head boy shows maturity, right?”

“It does,” Lily scowled at him, “but it also means I have to spend a lot of time with you, which is not something that I enjoy doing, and likens to having to wash my hands in undiluted Bubotuber pus.”

James sucked in his breath, “So, despite my pretty good come-backs to all the things you don’t like about me, you still despise the ground I walk on?”

“Precisely,” replied Lily sweetly.

“Well then, aren’t you the one being immature this time?”

Lily opened her mouth in surprise.

“W-what?!” she stammered.

“Well,” James said pleasantly, “Surely a girl of your age and ranking should let live and let die old prejudices. I’ve changed Evans – why won’t you let yourself see that?”

“Because,” Lily said with as much conviction as she could muster in her present state of shock, “I don’t want to.”

“But why not?!” asked James earnestly.

“Because…because…well, it’s none of your business why!”

James grinned mischievously.

“It’s because you fancy me, isn’t it Evans?”

“No!”

“It is!”

“Is not!”

“Is too!”

“Is NOT!”

“Is too-oo!” James sang.

“It is n- oh shut up James, this is ridiculous!”

“HA!” James cried triumphantly. “You called me by first name – you so fancy me!”

Lily screamed in frustration.

“I DO NOT!!”

And with that she pushed James, who had been circling her with taunts of ‘you fancy me!’ out of her way and ran to the end of the corridor and all the way back to Gryffindor tower.

“Bye Evans!” called James, from his sprawled position on the floor. “See you at breakfast – I’ll be waiting!”

He heard Lily shriek, “SHUT UP POTTER!” and laughed.

Lily Evans would soon come to realise the error of her ways, and would suddenly find enlightenment in the way of James Potter. And when she did, James would be waiting.

Still.

Aww, I love Jamsie.

He's amazing

Wish he fancied me =)

LOL

Pams!! Great job!
.:Adrienne:.

Lily Evans flopped down on the bench in the great hall, and grabbed a bagel and some cream cheese.
Her friends Alice Summers and Andromeda Black looked at each other with raised eyebrows.
“Uh, Lil,” Alice said uncertainly, “You’re a vegan – you don’t eat cheese remember.”
Lily blinked and stared at the cream she had just spread all over her bagel.
“Oh yeah,” she said slowly, pushing the food away from her.
She picked up an apple oatmeal pancake instead and began to eat it.
“Er, you not gonna cut it up and eat it with a knife and fork like you usually do?”asked Romeda, alarmed at her friend’s complete change of character. Lily was always neat and tidy and really believed in being a vegan, so something huge must’ve happened to bring about this new, cheese loving, messy Lily Evans.
Lily eyed her sticky fingers, her face hardening.
“Oh I hate him!” she spat. “Look what he’s done to me!”
“Who?” chorused Alice and Romeda.
Lily opened her mouth to answer, when the object of her distaste entered the room with a full-on fan-fare in the shape of his fellow Marauders.
“Roll up, roll up!” cried James through a magical megaphone. “Come and get your tickets for the Marauders’ gig, this Saturday at 8pm in the Great Hall. No admission without a ticket! Only seven sickles, all proceeds go to future pranks on the Slytherins!”
“Here here!” yelled Sirius, crashing his cymbals together enthusiastically.
Around twenty girls leapt up from the surrounding house tables and sprinted up to James, all clamouring to buy a ticket from him.
“Now now ladies, no pushing, there’s plenty of me to go around!” he said loudly.
“Urgh,” said Lily, rolling her eyes and turning away from the sickening sight in front of her.
“Oh,” sniggered Romeda. “Him.”
“Why are you laughing?” asked Lily, wide-eyed. “It’s not funny!”
“It is Lil,” replied Alice, also laughing.
Lily’s eyes darted between her friends.
“Oh God, don’t tell me you actually like him!” she said in horror.
Alice and Romeda merely looked at her.
“Oh man!” cried Lily in despair. “Not you two too! What is happening to the world?!”
“Aw come on, Lil!” said Alice earnestly, “You’ve gotta admit he is quite funny, along with the rest of the marauders! My life would be very humourless without them!”
“Yeah,” added Romeda. “Plus, James is damn fine!”
Lily rolled her eyes.
“Please, please let me not have heard you correctly,” she begged, closing her eyes and willing her friends to return to normal.
Romeda grinned.
“But he is Lil! I have seen him getting changed after quidditch, and BOY has he got some good abs!”
“No, no, no!” moaned Lily, covering her ears, whilst firmly keeping her eyes closed.
“Merlin, please relieve us of this alien impersonator, and give us the real Romeda back!”
Romeda laughed.
“Hate to break it to ya Lil, but this is me, non-alien, and very much in envy of you!”
Lily eyes snapped open.
“Pardon?”
Romeda smirked.
“Work it out,” she said snidely.
Lily frowned at her in confusion.
“Why would you be envious of me?”
“Think about it Evans.”
Lily honestly didn’t have a clue what she was talking about.
“Romeda I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Potter,” she replied simply.
Lily gave Romeda a look that suggested that she thought her friend had gone mad.
“What about him?” she asked confusedly.
“Well,” Romeda began, as though explaining to a five year old that two plus two equals four, “If a guy as yummy as Potter gave me half as much attention as you receive from him, then I would die one happy girl!”
“Unh,” was all Lily could say in response to this statement, as her mouth was hanging so far open that you could’ve fit an entire orange in it.
Lily managed to close her mouth with some effort, and stared in disbelief at her friend.
“Ok,” she stammered, “Let me see if I’ve got this right. You’re envious of me, because Potter pays me so much attention. Are you insane?!”
Romeda grinned.
“Quite possibly,” she replied, eyebrows raised, tongue hanging out, giving her the look of someone who’d gone mad.
Lily was about to lecture Romeda when James called to Lily from across the hall.
“You alright there Evans?” he yelled. “Hands not permanently stuck to your ears are they?”
Lily realised embarrassedly that she still had her hands over her ears, and hastily removed them whilst glowering at James.
James put his hands up in mock surrender, stuck his tongue out at her with a wink, and then turned back to the girls in front of him, all vying for his attention.
“Oh, I hate him!” Lily growled for the second time.
“Don’t!” Alice said.
“Why not?!” asked Lily incredulously. “He is so ANNOYING!”
“In a really cute way though,” teased Romeda.
Lily glared at her.
“Aw Lil, don’t look at me like that! I think you two would make a GREAT couple!”
Lily stared at her friend, horrified.
“What?!” she spluttered. “No we wouldn’t!”
“Lil,” said Romeda sternly, “He worships the ground you walk on!”
“No,” replied Lily coldly, “He worships the legs attached to the feet that walk on the ground. It paints a completely different picture of his intentions!”
“He totally loves you girl!” Romeda cried in frustration. “Why won’t you give him a chance?”
Suddenly a girl started squealing, and they all looked round to see James Potter holding a fifth year Hufflepuff above his head.
“That’s why not,” said Lily.

NICE POSTIE!

Sorry it took me so long to get here =( BUT YOU ARE A SPECTACULAR WRITER!

I loved it muches!

.:Adrienne:.

I love your story. You are capturing the Lily/James thing perfectly. Its awesome.

ahhhhh i love lils, she was so funny in that last post
great post
pams pams pams pams pams

oh god. awesome story!
pams asap!!
i love lily and james
<3 may
remember to PAMS PAMS PAMS!

*sighs* I am so jealous. I'm writing a James/Lily fic right now, and it's so bad next to yours!! You capture them so easily... It's perfect, really it is.

Oh that's so sweet and I bet yours is really good!
Thank you for the compliment - have you posted yours yet?

More!!!! I need More!!! this is my new fave!!

heh. Not yet. I'm trying to write quite a bit before i post anything. I'm kind of at a dead spot. I know exactly what i want to write- but i just don't really like the spot i'm in. It's a boring transition point.. and theres nothing to do. I just did the sorting, and they're going to talk about how it's their last year and their all sad but *shrugs* It's just kinda boring. So i'm stuck. : (

i'm sure thats more then you wanted to know.. But pams! I love this story!!

-hannah

Yeah I hate transition bits. Maybe go on and write something else until you can fill it in (I had to do that a few times)

The next day Lily was walking down the Charms corridor, heading for her next lesson, when she heard giggling coming from one of the alcoves. As she approached it, she saw a Hufflepuff 7th Year and James Potter kissing.

“Good afternoon, James,” she said snidely as she passed.

There was a smacking noise as James looked round to see who had spoken to him.

When he realised it was Lily he pushed the Hufflepuff girl off him and hurried after

Lily, who had just rounded the corner, ignoring the disgruntled yells of “Hey!” from the abandoned Hufflepuff.

When he reached Lily he grabbed her arm but immediately regretted it when she swung round and said in a venomous voice, “You have exactly three seconds to let go off my arm. 1…2…”

“Ok!” said James, hastily removing his hand. He had been on the receiving end of one of Lily’s curses many times before and had no desire to repeat the experience. His hand instead jumped unconsciously to his hair, which he ruffled as he said to Lily, “No need for violence, just thought I’d respond to your rather polite greeting with: ‘It’s an even better afternoon now I’ve seen you!’”

Lily rolled her eyes.

“Hey James, you’re not a vegan are you?”

“Er…no,” replied James confusedly.

“Oh good, ‘cause the amount of cheese you just spouted must surely go against all vegan morals!”

James burst out laughing and Lily couldn’t help a small smile. She wasn’t a naturally witty person but she thought that was a pretty good come-back.

Having broken the tension between them, James said, “So, you been busy lately?”

“No, but I know you have been,” replied Lily pointedly.

Surprisingly, James looked quite abashed.

“Yeah,” he said sheepishly. “Well, she said she fancied me and I thought ‘Hey there’s nothing else to do!’ so-”

“James, you’re supposed to be in Transfiguration,” Lily pointed out.

James grinned.

“I already am,” he said with a wink.

Lily looked confused.

James laughed at the expression on her face and proceeded to explain how he was in two places at once.

“… and so because Remus doesn’t have any classes today he can take the Polyjuice potion and take my lessons as me when I’m too busy with-”

“Snogging 7th Year Hufflepuffs in alcoves?” suggested Lily sweetly.

“Amongst other things,” replied James with a wink.

Lily rolled her eyes but let it pass.

As much as she hated to admit it, she was actually quite enjoying talking to James.

Maybe he was growing on her.

Lily suddenly spotted a problem with James’ little arrangement with Remus.

“Uh James, isn’t there a teensy flaw to your oh-so-brilliant double act?”

James considered it for a moment then shook his head.

“Can’t think of one, no. Care to enlighten me as to what it is?”

“Well surely it’d be a dead giveaway having Remus pretend to be you, what with how he’d answer all the questions correctly and actually behave himself!”

James smirked.

“You’d think so wouldn’t you? But ever since Dumbledore made me Head Boy I’ve decided to clean up my act.”

Lily frowned.

“Surely skipping lessons to snog girls is hardly ‘cleaning up your act’?”

“Yeah well, old habits die hard,” James replied with a wink.

Lily rolled her eyes yet again but thought about what he had just said. Her mind flashed to all of the classes that they had shared in the past few months and realised with a jolt of surprise that James had actually behaved himself in every lesson.

“Wow,” said Lily softly. “I never noticed.”

“‘Course you didn’t,” said James, a note of bitterness creeping into his voice. “You don’t ever pay me any attention, unless it’s to yell at me for hexing Snivellus or to inform me of something.”

Lily stopped walking, having noticed his change of tone, and looked at him.

“James,” began Lily. James looked over his shoulder and realised she’d stopped and hastened to imitate her.

“Yeah?”

“I do pay you attention at other times as well you know, but you’re too busy trying to show off to everyone that you just don’t notice!”

James visibly brightened at this news.

“Well that’s good to know.”

Lily smiled at him and they began walking again.

Even though James Potter annoyed her, Lily didn’t like to see him down – it didn’t suit him.

Admittedly he seemed down a lot in her company - generally because she had, once again, rejected his request that she become his girlfriend - but he usually bounced right back to his usual, chirpy self after a few minutes of sulking.

“Why do you pick on Snape so much?” asked Lily heavily.

James opened his mouth to answer, then closed it again as he gave the question some serious thought.

Finally, he opened his mouth again and said slowly, “Well, I guess it’s because I hate who he is and what he believes in.”

“How do you mean?” questioned Lily, looking slightly confused.

“All his dark-arts affiliations – knowing the spells, calling you and other muggle-borns ‘m-blood’ because you’re not pure bloods (which obviously mean you’re lesser than him) and just stuff like that.”

Lily noticed that James had refused to say mudblood and she suddenly found she had new founded respect for him. James Potter may well be arrogant, Lily thought, but he would never stoop as low as to insult someone because of their bloodline.

“Yeah, but James sometimes you pick on him for no reason!” Lily pressed.

“Yeah I know,” said James earnestly. “But me and Sirius just can’t help ourselves! He’s so slimy and everything we despise – he’s one of those idiot Slytherins who actually believes all that crap Voldermort is spouting.”

Lily shuddered.

James noticed this and with raised eyebrows said disappointedly, “Ah Lil, don’t tell me you’re scared of using his name?”

Lily felt her cheeks redden.

“I can’t help it,” she replied quietly. “He… he scares me more than anything in this world. He’s so powerful and ruthless…”

James regarded her frightened face with unease. How he wised he could reach out and hold Lily in his arms and assure her that when she was with him he would do all he could to keep her safe but he knew that she would never permit it, so instead he reached out and took one of her hands in his.

She looked surprised at his actions but didn’t pull away.

“Lily,” he said gently, “There are worse things in life than Voldermort. One day he will be defeated and when that day comes, everyone will be saying his names as though it were nothing because they will no longer feel there is anything to fear. If you can say it now then his power over you will have already lessened. Why don’t you do it Lily? Say his name from now on.”

Lily looked at him then nodded.

“I will. On one condition.”

James raised his eyebrows.

“And what condition is that?” he asked warily.

“Stop hexing/humiliating/bullying Snape.”

James looked like he was in pain.

“Does it have to be that?” he asked pleadingly.

“Yes,” responded Lily firmly.

James shook his head.

“Why do you stand up for that git so much Lily? He treats you like dirt and calls you m-blood on a regular basis!”

“I know,” said Lily. “But I can’t just stand by and watch you humiliate him when he hasn’t provoked you in any way. James, you’re popular enough – you don’t have to prove yourself to anyone.”

James considered her for a moment and then nodded too.

“Deal,” he said. “You say Voldermort from now on and I’ll-” he grimaced. “I’ll leave old Snivelly alone.”

Lily smiled at him but didn’t notice him cross his fingers behind his back.

“Well,” said Lily. “I’d better go. DADA started twenty minutes ago and it doesn’t really look very good if the Head Girl comes in late.”

James laughed and nodded.

“Ok then. I’ll see you later for duties.”

“Sure thing,” smiled Lily. “Oh and James? I really enjoyed talking to you today.”

James felt his heart lift at her words.

“Me too,” he said, returning her smile.

With a grin, Lily turned to go off to her DADA class, leaving an extremely happy James Potter to walk back to Gryffindor tower, an ecstatic grin plastered across his face.

And you know what the best bit was?

Neither of them had noticed that they hadn’t used each other’s surname once.