“Bye Mom! Bye Dad! Bye…Petunia!” I yelled. The train was moving quickly, and my smiling and waving parents (and a frowning Petunia Evans) seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. I sighed. Another year till I saw my family again. I loved Hogwarts, but I loved my family too…even Petunia.







“Hey Evans!”







I turned quickly, and to my disappointment, it was…







“Potter,” I said stiffly.







“Head Boy and Girl are supposed to be in the head’s compartment with the prefects,” he stated, smiling slightly.







“Yes, yes, I know,” I said hurriedly, wanting to get away from him as soon as possible. “Now go and find your friends.” I turned around and started walking away, but before I could take one step, he grabbed my shoulder and spun me around. I glared at him expectantly. If he was going to try to keep me with him as long as he could, could he at least have a reason to stall me so long? And would his reason, for once, not be to ask me out?







He grinned, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a gleaming Head Boy badge. I goggled at him.







“You?” He grinned. “I…but�”” I stuttered, unable to think “…who in there right mind would possibly…but…you?” I was lost for words. James Potter, head boy?







“That’s right!” he said cheerfully, unhurt by my surprise and incredulity. In fact, it seemed to give him more confidence and make him happier. “Shall we go then?” he asked, bowing and grinning. I grimaced, and not wanting to spend any more time than I needed to with him, walked as fast as I could so he couldn’t possibly catch up to me to the heads’ compartment, where several nervous looking prefects were already waiting. I smiled kindly at them. A few of them returned the smile. James came in a minute later. He beamed, and began to lecture them about their prefect duties, responsibilities, and privileges. Their faces lit up when they he told them they could give their

classmates detention, had special bathrooms, and could take house points, but their smiles left as quickly as they came when they were told that they would have more responsibilities, and would have to go to a meeting every Sunday night. He finished five minutes later, waving them off to go sit with their friends.







“Are you sure they’re allowed to just go and sit down?” I said skeptically as the last one hurried out. Aren’t they supposed to patrol the corridors? That’s what I did when I�””







“Nah, they’ll be fine,” James interrupted indifferently, closing the compartment door and slumping on to his seat. He grinned. I glared at him. He frowned.







“Evans, why�””







“Just shut up, Potter,” I said, reaching into my bag for my book. I knew what was coming, and I didn’t want to hear it. “Why won’t you go out with me Evans? Please…just one date? And if it works out after that…” Blah, blah, blah. If I had to share a compartment with him, couldn’t he just keep quiet, and not ask me out? At least for one minute…







“Evans�”” I opened my mouth to interrupt, but he silenced me with a look. “Evans, we’re going to have to patrol every other night together, and it’s not going to work if we’re always jumping down each other’s throats. Since we’re going to be spending so much time together, can’t we at least just truce, and just be nice to each other?”







At least? How much more could he be asking of me? I won’t go out with him if that’s what he wants, I thought bitterly.







He looked at me expectantly.







“Truce?” he said hopefully, extending his arm. I looked him in the eye, and there was no mockery in the way he looked back at me. He meant it.







“Truce,” I said reluctantly, grabbing his outstretched arm and shaking it. He beamed at me, and I couldn’t help but grin back.







“I’m starving, you?” And as if on cue, we heard the squeaking of a cart being rolled down the aisle, then, “Anything off the trolley, dears?” James winked at me, and began grabbing what seemed like all of the sweets off the cart. In the end he paid 7 galleons and 8 sickles for it all.







“Hungry, aren’t you?” I said, smiling at him.







He grinned, and said, “Want one?” tossing me a couple chocolate frogs.







I smiled. It went on like that for the whole train ride, us just talking, laughing, and eating. I was surprised, and pleased. I managed to have a civil conversation with James potter for over 7 hours.







My worst enemy had become one of my best friends.







However, this wasn’t good enough for James Potter.







.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.oO0Oo.







“Come on, Prongs! At least she’ll actually talk to you!”







James lay face up on his bed, staring at the ceiling.







“Oh, she talks to me! She should have been talking to me years ago! Who cares if she talks to me? Now she only likes me as a friend! How am I supposed to get her to go out with me?”







“Just give it time Prongs,” coaxed Remus Lupin, one of his best friends. “In time she’ll come to realize she likes you.”







“It’s not just going to happen, Moony! She won’t just wake up one morning and think, ‘I like James Potter!’ How do I get her to like me?” James glared at his unhelpful friend.







“You could stop calling her Evans,” Peter Pettigrew said timidly, another friend.







“So I can call her by her first name! How’ll that help?”







“You’ve gotta lighten up, Prongs. She won’t like you if you’re always so defensive,” replied Sirius Black, yet another friend.







“How do you know?” retorted James, rolling on to his side.







Remus, Sirius, and Peter, (two of his other friends) all looked at each other and sighed, sharing a look that clearly said, “Doesn’t he sound exactly like a 5 year old?”







They heard James snore and though they could tell easily that it was fake, that was their cue to leave him. Though they tried hard, they were being unhelpful to him, and he was dismissing them for the night. But as they all climbed into bed, they knew that the year would be miserable for them too if James couldn’t get Lily.

I woke after a good long night of sleep…to an alarm clock.

“Sammi,” I groaned sleepily over the continuous ringing of the alarm clock. “Turn it off…please!” She was muggle-born as well, and snuck all kinds of muggle “gadgets,” such as alarm clocks, into Hogwarts. She was also very pretty, and most of the guys at Hogwarts liked her. She was one of my best friends, but waking up to her alarm clock every morning wasn’t fun.

“Sorry,” she said grinning, turning it off. My ears were still ringing.

“Hey,” said Alice Longbottom, another one of my best friends. “You got woken up too?”

“Who didn’t?” said yet another friend, Emily. “You’ve gotta find some other way to wake up.”

We all smiled, and got ready to go down to breakfast.

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James stared in the mirror, trying to make himself look respectable.

What am I doing? he thought. I’m acting like a girl, trying to make my hair look all nice… Apparently Sirius was thinking something along the same lines.

“James! Haha you’re actually trying to look nice? Everyone come over here! James Potter is doing his hair!”

There was a scuttle of feet, and Remus and Peter were standing there, obviously amused, but stifling their laughter and snide remarks. Sirius, however, didn’t feel the need to be polite.

“Haha…you may never live to see this moment again…James Potter, in front of the mirror…combing his hair!” What he didn’t notice was that James had left, and had left him taunting thin air. He was now on his way to breakfast, thoroughly annoyed with Sirius. Remus shook his head at Sirius. “That was a little too much,” he said, glaring at him and walking out after James. Peter scurried out after them. Sirius, bored with no one around, followed suit.

.oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo.

I sat nervously at the Gryffindor table. I was always nervous on the first day of school, and this year would be the hardest, what with N.E.W.T.’s and N.E.W.T classes. I read over my schedule; I was set to take Charms and Potions, my two best and favorite subjects, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Arithmancy. I had Transfiguration first, and I was getting quite nervous.

The clock struck nine, and I knew it was time. As I walked out of the Great Hall, I saw James, and gave him a quick wave. He grinned and waved at me, but there was something about his smile that wasn’t quite right. He seemed rather nervous. Maybe it was just because of the first day of school, like me.

I walked with my friends to Transfiguration, to find Professor McGonagall there waiting for us, with a stern yet kind look on her face. James came in a minute later, plopped down in the seat across the aisle, and gave me a quick smile.

As Professor McGonagall began to lecture us about the important this year would be, as we would be taking our N.E.W.T.’s which would affect what job we would end up having, James tossed me a crumpled up piece of parchment.

Hey Lily

We’ll get in trouble James! No! Pay attention!

He read it, rolled his eyes, scribbled something on the parchment, and tossed it back to me.

Come on, Lily…we won’t get caught. I never get caught 

I sighed, and wrote,

Fine, but if we get caught you better take the blame for it. So…what did you want to talk about?

I gave it to him, and when he read what I said, he looked rather nervous, as if there was something he wanted to write but something was holding him back.

Oh, nothing really…just wanted to talk

Okay, if it isn’t anything, can’t we just talk at break, or at lunch? I really don’t want to start the year off getting caught passing notes. Please?!?

“Miss Evans, what is that you’re writing?”

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Great James, you blew it. You started passing notes with her, and she got caught, and she’s in trouble.

“Oh…it’s nothing, it’s just…”

“Yes, Miss Evans?” Professor McGonagall looked at her coldly. James could have sworn he saw Lily’s wand flick at the paper.

“It’s just my notes, from last year Professor,” she said, gaining confidence. “I thought since we’ll be doing our last year of N.E.W.T. classes, I thought I might need my notes from last year…”

“Then why,” McGonagall said, glaring at her. “Were you about to pass them to Mr. Potter?”

“He…erm…” Lily stuttered. “He said he needed to review for this year, so I was just…um…fixing something and giving it to him.”

McGonagall looked at me, I nodded earnestly.

“Let me see them, Miss Evans.”

Lily slowly handed them to her, not wanting to let go, just in case it wasn’t what she and Professor McGonagall believed it to be. But as she opened it up, it was in fact Lily’s Transfiguration notes, written in perfect handwriting. Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows, apologized to Lily, and handed back her notes. As Lily sat back down, she gave James a look, a look of anger, disappointment, and sadness.

After class ended, James tried to catch up with Lily, but it seemed like she was trying to avoid him. When he finally cornered her with 10 minutes still to spare before his next class, she threw up her arms and said, “What? What do you want? If I hadn’t transfigured that last minute, do you know how much trouble I would have gotten in?”

“Lily, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to get you in trouble, I just…I…”

“What, James? What? Because if you don’t have anything to say, I have to get to class.” She was angry.

“I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.” And James walked away, feeling like an idiot and wishing that he could start this day all over again.

.oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo.

James was glad that the day was finally over. It had been a bad one. First, he had almost gotten Lily in trouble for passing notes, in potions he had accidentally spilled ink in her cauldron, causing her potion to turn lime green and spill all over the classroom, and finally, he had jinxed Severus Snape right in front of her. That was it. She exploded at him, and then stalked off. It was official. She now hated James.

As James crawled into bed, he wished that he had just been happy with being friends with her.

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It was a cool November day. Hogwarts had gotten full into the swing of things. Quidditch had started, Gryffindor was already first in the league, with James, as their chaser, leading them. The homework load had gotten much worse, and tests were starting to come in every week. It was dinner, and people discussing their classes, the homework load, and whether they were going to stay over the Christmas Holidays. Professor Dumbledore stood up, silencing the whole school almost immediately.

“I have an announcement to make: I know you all are aware of the 7th Year Ball at the end of the year, but this year, in addition to that, we have decided to have a Christmas Ball, open to all students fourth year and above.”

There was a shout of protests from the younger students, but this outcry was immediately silenced by Dumbledore.

“So you may want to start thinking about this.” There was a twinkle in his eyes.

“So yes…It will be on Christmas Eve, starting at 7 o’clock. Good Night.”

.oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo.

James was pacing in his dormitory. Should I ask Lily? Should I ask Lily That was all that was going through his mind right now.

But she’s mad at you…

That’s okay…

No it’s not! She’ll reject you and you’ll feel even more stupid!

I’ll ask her.

No don’t! You’ll just embarrass yourself!

SHUT UP!

He was torn in two. Ask Lily, and have a possible chance of going with her…or her hating him even more…Or just leaving the present situation as it was. He decided to sleep on it…he’d decide in the morning.

.oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo. oO0Oo.

“Um…hey Lily.”

I spun around. I groaned. It was James.

“Hi, I was just wondering…if…maybe if you didn’t…if you weren’t…”

“James, just say it.”

“I…I-was-just-wondering-if-you-wanted-to-go-to-the-ball-with-me” he said, all in one breath. It was hardly understandable.

I was taken by surprise. He hadn’t asked me out for almost 5 months. Why now?

“Oh…um…” I wasn’t sure what to say. I wasn’t mad at him anymore, I just didn’t want to admit it. Should I just suck up my pride and say yes? Think, Lily… “Well…sure…!”

James looked happier than he ever had in his whole life. “Really? I mean…well…yeah, okay…so…I’ll meet you in the common room at 6:45?”

I knew I shouldn’t have made the decision so quickly, but I just couldn’t have said no to the look on his face.

“Erm…okay…bye!”

I walked away uncertainly. Maybe he was just asking me as a friend. I bumped into Alice a floor before Gryffindor Tower.

“Hey, Lily? Guess what…Frank asked me to go with him to the Christmas Ball!”

I grinned. “Congrats…Yeah, I’m going with…James.”

Her jaw dropped.

“James? But…aren’t you like still…mad at him?”

“Nah, I’m over it…maybe I shouldn’t have said yes so quickly, but…I don’t know. It could be fun!” I looked at her, smiling hopefully. She returned the smile.

“Come on, let’s get back to the Common Room.”

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“Hey�”Sammi!”

Sirius was striding over to me, with a nervous look on his face.

“Hey, I said, grinning, my stomach twisting into knots.

“Sammi�”listen…could you…erm…like talk to Lily about James? Because I talked to him and…er…he didn’t seem very assured that Lily wanted to go with him when he asked her.”

“James asked Lily out?” I was pleased, but felt a little left out. I still wasn’t going with anyone yet…

“Yeah…and also,” he started looking at his feet. “Do you…D’you want to go with me?”

My stomach did a backflip. “Of course!” I kissed him on the cheek , leaving him there dazed and pleased.

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“Oh my gosh, Lily! I’m going with Sirius!” Everyone seemed to be going with someone already; now, I was glad that James had asked me. Alice was going with Frank, Sammi with Sirius, Emily with Remus…and me with James.

We all sat upstairs in the dormitory, talking about how fun the ball would be, (though it was well over a month away) and decided that, since the weekend coming was a Hogsmeade weekend, they would go shopping for clothes for the ball then.

“Lily, do you like James?” Sammi asked curiously.

“I don’t know…like I know that he likes me, and I don’t really know why I said yes when he asked me to go to the ball with him, I just couldn’t say no and…I don’t know…”

“Because…yeah. He’s hot.” Sammi was smiling strangely.

“Yeah, he is…” I said, realizing this for the first time.

“And funny.”

“Yeah.”

“And smart.”

“Mhm…yeah, I guess I like him.”

Sammi smiled triumphantly at the others, and said, “Okay. That’s all I need to know.” I rolled my eyes.

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We got up early the next morning so we could get an early start at Hogsmeade. There was already someone at the gate to let us out of Hogwarts, so we set off to get started right away. By 10 AM, I had already gotten my dress�”a blue strapless gown, and my shoes�”white heels. We had all gotten dresses that were perfect for us, we all looked stunning.

Since we still had so much time left, we decided to go to Honeydukes, then spend the rest of the afternoon in The Three Broomsticks.

At Honeydukes, we all crammed large bags full of candy, then set off to The Three Broomsticks, happily munching our purchases.

The Three Broomsticks was crowded, but through the crowd, I spotted James. He waved at me, and beckoned for me to come over. Alice had spotted Frank and had already run away to sit with him, and Sammi and Emily were dragging me along to go sit with James, Sirius, and Remus.

When we arrived at their table, James pulled me away and found an empty table for us. I followed uncertainly.

“Hey, Lily…what have you been doing?” He asked quietly.

“Oh…just shopping…we went to Honeydukes…” I wanted my dress to be a surprise to him, so I didn’t show it to him, or even mention it.

He grinned. “Want to head back?” he asked. I knew he just wanted to walk back alone with me, before my friends would leave.

I smiled. “All right.” We left The Three Broomsticks, going out into the snow. It was snowing, and the sun was about to set.

“So…” This was an awkward moment, and as if James wanted to make it even more awkward for me, he snaked his arm around me. We walked in silence for a while.

“Lily?”

“Hm?”

“I was just wondering…if…oh, never mind.”

“No, what?” I had a pretty good idea of what he was about to say, but just in case, I wanted to hear him say it too.

“I’ll tell you at the ball. I promise.”