Monday morning dawned bright and sunny and Lily tiredly swept open her curtains. Surveying the grounds, which were bathed in a golden light, she turned away from the weather, which seemed to mock her surly mood, towards her wardrobe. Tripping over her clothes from the night before, Lily leant down. Her patrol the night before had been anything but uneventful. After a night of innuendos and jokes, Lily had cracked.

“Every time I think you’ve changed, every time I think you’ve matured you go and ruin it by saying something like that. You haven’t changed at all since fifth year! James, why can’t you just be yourself for once?

Why can’t you just be real? I don’t even know who you are behind all the smart Alec comments and sarcasm!” she erupted. “Do you actually like me? Or is this just some game to you?” she had then slammed the door without saying goodnight.


Lily cringed at the things she had said. Something about James Potter made her lose her cool, her sense of self. The result was she often let her rage explode out of her, with disastrous results. It had been a while since she had let him push her buttons. Not since the end of fifth year when the two had had a seemingly irreconcilable fight.

---

It had been during Potions, in the dungeons with Professor Slughorn. They had been brewing a potion called The Simplers Joy, which cured both minor and major wizarding ailments.

“One minute to go!” Slughorn boomed. He was pacing the class, between the desks, observing the Gryffindors progress.

Lily hurriedly powdered her Calopus horn, and added it to her potion, which was an inviting pale pink. The minute she had dissolved the powdered Calopus horn her potion turned a murky green and began to give off a stench, which made her nose curl.

“Time’s up!” Slughorn announced, tapping the blackboard with his wand. Everyone stopped at once. Slughorn then proceeded around the class with a clipboard, taking down notes and muttering.

The waft from Lily’s potion was beginning to fill the classroom and many people were beginning to cough and squeeze their nostrils shut.

“What did you do, Evans?” James Potter accused, stepping over to look at her potion. Lily pursed her lips.

“Nothing, I did everything by the book!”

“Yeah right! That thing looks hideous compared to mine!” James’ motioned to his own cauldron, inside which was a simmering, deep violet liquid.

“Well perhaps you shouldn’t go for looks alone then, Master Potter.” Slughorn said coming up to their table. He took one look in James’ cauldron and grunted. Upon seeing Lily’s his face broke into a smile.

“This potion is perfect.” he filtered the waft over to him. “Perfect. And if I’m not mistaken you’ve added Vervain.”

Lily nodded, “It strengthens the potions healing capabilities, enormously.”

Slughorn turned to James with a disapproving frown.

“That is why, young man, you should never judge a book by its cover. Excellent work, Miss Evans, take 20 points. I’ve said it many times, but I’ll say it again, you should be in Slytherin.”

Lily grinned, “McGonagall’s gain and your loss, Professor.”

Slughorn chuckled at her cheek. “On that note, class dismissed, enjoy lunch, I hear its meatballs.” Slughorn called over his shoulder as he left the dungeon for the Great Hall.

Lily had packed up her things under the intense stare of James. He didn’t like the way she had made him seem a fool in front of Slughorn, still he couldn’t help but be amazed at her nerve.

“Something I can do for you Potter?” she asked pulling her bag over her shoulder.

“After that class? I can think of many things.” Lily turned to him.

“Why do you do it?”

“For the attention.” he said, simply

“What? You don’t get enough attention as Quidditch captain?”

“Not from you.” he said quietly.

“You want my attention? Stop trying to get it. I don’t care if you look like you just came off a broomstick, or how many times you can catch the damn Snitch! I mean honestly, James. Start forgetting so much about what Sirius thinks and stop trying to impress Peter, you’re making him appear to be pathetic. Stop hexing everyone just because you can-half the school knows you can do magic and that is more than enough. Get it into your head; I don’t care about the outside. Show me you have some feelings like a normal human being!”

The two had stared at each other. James was speechless in the wake of her outburst and Lily was beginning to feel prickles of shame at the things she had said. Then without another word the two had turned and gone their opposite ways.

---

Lily took down her school robes; her mind on the way things had changed since then. After that summer, James had changed, really changed. He was kind, helpful, only pulling the odd prank or two with the Marauders. He and Lily had slowly become good friends. So much so, that the first person the two had told of their appointments as Head Boy and Girl had been each other. Hoping their newfound friendship would survive her latest outburst she hurriedly, she dressed for classes, anxious to explain herself.

---

When she was ready, Lily went down to the Common Room to ask him if he wanted to walk down to the Hall for breakfast with her. Surprisingly, both the Marauders and her friends were already down at breakfast. Lily frowned and turned for the girls’ bathroom to find a hair tie.

When she entered the Hall, Lily found her friends were already half way through their breakfasts.

“Morning, Lillikins!” Remus called patting the empty seat beside him. Lily sat down, scooping scrambled eggs onto her plate.

Felicity Randleman poured some pumpkin juice for her. “Did you bring it?” she asked grinning. Lily rolled her eyes and brought out her Arithmacy homework.

“You are the best!” she exclaimed bringing out her own and comparing their answers. A perfectionist by nature, Felicity was always double, triple-checking her work.

Lily noticed James looking at her, and upon raising her eyes to his; she saw he was simply smiling. Biting her lip nervously, she smiled back.

So far so good.

James smiled wider, giving a short laugh at her; he shook his head, and turned away.

Sirius looked between the two confused. Something had changed between the two of them; he just couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“What’s going on with those two?” he asked Hannah Stevenson, Lily’s closest friend. Hannah chewed her food thoughtfully and shrugged.

“Nothing. They’re exactly the same.”

Sirius rolled his eyes. “No, there is definitely something different about them.”

Hannah sighed and turned to him.

“Will you give it a rest? They’re not fighting; they’re not ignoring each other. They’re just being them. If you ruin it…” she threatened, pointing a finger at him.

Sirius slapped her hand away playfully and grasped her other hand, which rose to retaliate. The two eyed each other off.

“Are you coming?” Remus said to them, tiredly. Hannah and Sirius looked away from each other surprised as the others were exiting the Hall. Felicity was nose down in their Arithmacy homework; Lily and the quietest of the group, Carol Kopelman, were rapt in a whispered conversation; and James was telling Peter a detailed joke about a Hippogriff, a vampire and an onion. Looking at each other angrily they pushed each other to get up.

Hannah, Felicity and Lily said goodbye to the others who were proceeding to Care of Magical Creatures, at the Charms corridor.

“See you my sweet,” Sirius joked, putting a cheek out to be kissed by Hannah.

“You’ll be seeing red in a moment.” Hannah threatened out of the corner of her mouth. Lily grasped her arm to steer her in the right direction. James came up behind her as the others walked past.

“Hey,” he whispered.

“About last night-” she began but he cut her off.

“Did you know you called me James last night? For about the…second time in living memory?” he stepped up close to her and pushed a flower into her ponytail. “Here.” he whispered.

“What are you doing?” Sirius asked angrily, waiting for James.

“Smelling a flower,” James said innocently. Lily shivered feeling him brush against her. “See you at lunch,” he whispered, “Lily.”

Lily turned to look at him, but he had walked off, looking back only once, to see her standing there, a look of amazement on her face. When he was out of sight Lily’s face broke into a grin and she followed Hannah and Felicity. She couldn’t believe the effect her merely saying James’ name was having on the decorated Quidditch captain.

---

“Oh come on, Prongs!” Sirius grumbled pulling at James who was still trying to catch a glimpse of Lily. “Would you just let this be?”

James looked pointedly at Sirius. They were the best of mates, knew each other as well as two people could. But, still, Sirius failed to understand his feelings towards Lily.

“Don’t you remember our first transfiguration lesson?” he said reminiscently.

James Potter sat up straight in his chair, in his first Transfiguration lesson. Professor McGonagall was up at the front of the classroom, explaining the two blackboards full of theory. He barely listened; he was too busy grinning at his best friend Sirius Black. The two had met only three days previous after being sorted into Gryffindor, but already it felt like they'd known each other three years. Sirius was leaning back in his chair calmly, with his hands resting behind his head. They had already experimented with spells from their schoolbooks their first night in the dormitory and were yet to find a spell they couldn't master.

James hadn't been surprised. His parents, though old, were extremely powerful wizards who had once been the head of the Auror Department, and had high expectations of their only child. James had come to Hogwarts with the same expectation and was ready to exhibit his talents.

Finally, McGonagall instructed them to attempt transfiguration. James was prepared, wand poised. In front of him lay a match, ready to become a needle. He concentrated hard on the match, imagined in his mind its shape as a needle and flicked his wand. Opening his eyes he saw on his desk in front of him a shiny, needle. Feeling an arrogant pride rise up inside of him he turned to McGonagall only to find her already cheerfully inspecting a needle.

"Wonderful work! 10 points for Gryffindor! Look how sharp the point is!" she commended to a small girl sitting three seats down. James jaw dropped. The girl looked to him and the first thing he noticed about her was how remarkably pretty she was, with thick red hair and emerald green eyes.

"Tough luck, mate." Sirius said clapping him on the back, but the needle was the last thing on James' mind.

"Who I-is th-that?" he stammered, motioning towards the girl.

"Lily Evans. She's Muggle born too, look at those Slytherins lips curl." Sirius chortled, elbowing him.

But James could only pay attention to the way her hair fell about her shoulders as she copied down the theory, the way she smiled to her friends as they attempted to change their own matches into needle, and a fluttering in his heart that he had never felt before.

“I knew then and there she was the one for me-she was the first person to beat me in anything!”

Sirius opened his mouth to retaliate and Remus raised his hand in warning. “Save your breath, Padfoot, we’re late for Care of Magical Creatures by the way.”

---

“What was all that about?” Felicity asked as they took their seats in their Arithmacy class. Lily just looked to her.

Before she could answer Professor Vector entered the room, silencing the class. They picked up their quills and rolled out their parchment.

“If you will recall, last Friday we spoke of vibrations.” Professor Vector began. “Now, according to the celebrated wizard Jacques Balliett, each number has a specific vibration. People, foods, objects and colours also vibrate. In order to produce productive and harmonious magic, wizards need to make sure their environment vibrates in harmony with their own vibrations.”

She tapped the blackboard with her wand, revealing a number ten written in blue chalk.

“The number ten. Ten is a sacred number, largely because it is the sum of the first four digits. The holiness of the number 10 led to Balliet forming a list of 10 fundamental opposites.”

Professor Vector tapped the board once again and a list in red replaced the number ten. “Limited and unlimited, odd and even, one and many, right and left, masculine and feminine, rest and motion, straight and crooked, light and darkness, good and evil, square and oblong.” She read out loud as they hastily copied what was on the board. “Each of these opposites has its own set of calculated vibrations derived from its roots to the number ten. Now, I’d like you to calculate the number ten’s vibrations using last weeks theory.”

“You didn’t answer me.” Felicity whispered above the scratching of quills.

“Yeah, what was that grin for?” Hannah asked elbowing her.

“James called me Lily.” She twirled herself happily.

“You just called him James!” the other two exclaimed.

“Oh Lily,” Felicity moaned. “You named the puppy.”

“I-what?”

“You named the puppy, you’ve become informal with him, and you’re on a first name basis!” Felicity said excitedly. Lily rolled her eyes as they hastily copied down the notes. “I can’t believe you called him James!” Felicity went on.

“I called him it last night, when I was angry at him it sort of slipped out. He was dumbfounded and then just before…” Lily trailed off not knowing whether to go into the part about the flower.

“What?” Hannah asked seriously.

And so Lily told them, about James utter disbelief the night before, the flower, the way he had looked at her that morning. The girls gushed in all the right places.

“See, Lily, what have we been telling you for the past year! James Potter is a changed man in the name of love!” Felicity squealed, receiving an angry stare from Professor Vector. Turning back to their work.

Half way through the lesson Hannah whispered quietly to Lily, “You’ve fallen for him haven’t you.”

Lily tensed up feeling suddenly defensive, “I don’t know, I think so-” she stammered back waiting for Felicity and Hannah to swoon over her. But they simply smiled.

“That’s cool Lils,” they said graciously, “really cool.”

“It is not cool! I knew something like this would happen! I can’t let myself fall for someone like James Potter.”

“Oh, Lily, relax would you.” Hannah sighed, but Lily shook her head.

“Don’t you remember? The Divination lesson in our fourth year.”

“Oh, please, not the cards again Lily”

Their minds all drifted back to their fourth year. They had just begun to study Tarot cards in Divination, which Hannah proclaimed to be a waste of time. Lily had been paired with the Hufflepuff, Sybil Trelawny. Their teacher, Professor Meaveen was reigniting the incense on their tables and encouraging them to branch out from three card predictions to nine card readings.

“The same principles apply.” she said, her voice floating mystically around the room. “The three lines each represent the past, present and future, though in much greater detail.”

Sybil had immediately set out to predict Lily’s life, past present and future. Before she knew it, nine cards were laid in front of her, and had begun muttering excitedly.

“Your past,” she motioned to the three cards in front of her: The Chariot, The Pope and the Empress, “unexpected good news came upon you, you found a capable advisor who both taught but established rules to get by which helped you form firm foundations for future progress. ” Lily smiled, thinking of her Hogwarts letter, the friendships she had found in Gryffindor Tower, and her consequential success in all of her classes at Hogwarts.

Sybil moved onto the second line consisting of the Emperor, Fool and Temperance.
“You have continued those achievements of all your ambitions into your present, but you should expect the unexpected. Someone unconventional will soon begin to enter your life, you are beginning a new chapter. You will need to exercise great self-control and adaptability to reach a successful conclusion.”

Lily felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. She whipped her head around to see that James Potter and Sirius Black were sitting in the back, constructing paper planes out of their cards and sending them magically around them room. James winked at her, and she rolled her eyes in response.

Clearly I’m not the only one who needs to exercise self-control, she thought to herself.

“Go on, Sybil.” she grumbled, rubbing the back of her head.

“Ooh!” Sybil exclaimed, laying out the last line of Lily’s cards; The Lovers, Death and The Star. “Oh my, the lovers.” she purred. “You are in the future going to be made to make an important choice with reference to your true desires, rather than what you feel is your duty. A dramatic change of attitude will lead to happier times of love and physical pleasures.” she blushed furiously, “How exciting! I wonder who-”

“Sybil,” Lily warned, her eyes flashing dangerously, “Move on.”

“Oh yes, sorry.” she said unconvincingly. “Death. Oh, Lily, you poor thing! I see Death in your near future! And then an insight, understanding and hope for the future. Wishes will be filled, just not as you expected, but just as good.”

“Oh for Merlin’s sake!” Hannah had piped up then having listened to the whole prediction. “We’re all going to die quite obviously! Sybil stop trying to scare everyone!”

---

Lily gave Hannah a stern look as Professor Vector dismissed them, interrupting her thoughts.

“But you saw those cards. A new change, someone unexpected. It’s got to be James.”

“Don’t tell me, you think if you have a relationship with James you’ll die.” Hannah groaned. “Because that’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard.” Lily snuffed a laugh, when coming from Hannah, the thought seemed absurd.

“Chances are you wont die, just every girl in the years below us, who’ve had their hearts set on having James’s babies since the Sorting.” Felicity chimed in, as they headed for their Herbology lesson.

---

Inside Greenhouse 7 the temperature was balmy due to the spring sunshine. The girls all tied their sweaters around their waists, while the boys undid their ties and un-tucked their shirts.

When they had arrived from Arithmacy, the Marauders had saved them seats at their table. Lily had slid in next to James quietly.

“Good lesson?” he asked casually. Lily shrugged, giving him the smallest of smiles.

“It was all about vibrations and numbers.”

“Good vibrations?” he joked, lamely which resulted in Sirius rolling his eyes.

“Please, Prongs. If you’re going to flirt, at least have some class. Good vibrations? Seriously?”

Professor Sprout broke up their conversation standing before them holding up a purple, green, yellow and blue leafed plant with patterned leaves. The pattern was of toadstools big and small, with and without dots upon their crowns.

“Can anyone tell me what this plant is?” she asked, smiling.

Lily went to answer, but before she had even opened her mouth another voice chimed in.

“Vervain!” Lily’s head snapped to see who had spoken. James sat beside her grinning, widely. “It acts as a catalyst in healing potions, enhancing the properties of ingredients already present.”

“Precisely,” Professor Sprout said, a little taken back, “Now what I want you to do today is to break up into pairs, and stew the leaves so it is suitable to put into potions.”

The class broke off into pairs and Lily found herself stirring a multi-coloured clump of Vervain leaves with James.

“Think of that all by yourself did you?” she asked, baiting him. James gave her a cheeky grin.

“Memory like an elephant. Plus you chewed my head off that day.”

“What was so special about that particular time that you cared to remember?”

James blushed. “You told me to pull my head in. All this time I thought you were playing hard to get, you know. I never thought you actually hated me.”

Lily too began to blush. “I didn’t really hate you. Despise, maybe, but not hate. You’re not so bad, you know.”

“Ditto.” James whispered, leaning in close to her, apparently studying the stewing leaves. Then his hand found hers under the desk. Lily felt butterflies in her entire body as his hand softly cradled hers. She felt the warmth of his hand spreading up her arm and through her body, and closed her eyes at their closeness.

“Okay, kids! Great work today!” Lily jumped, her eyes flicking open as Professor Spout dismissed them. James had let go of her hand and was packing up their steaming leaves. Throwing her bag of her shoulder disappointed, she trudged out of the greenhouse after her friends.

---

“Where do you think you’re going?” James called out, as they were making their way up the hill to the castle. They all stopped, but James had eyes only for Lily. “I’ve got some questions that need answering.”

“About what?” Lily asked nervously.

James grinned, and whispered in her ear, “everything.”

He grasped her hand once again and pulled her towards him. Taking her away from the group, James led her down to the lake for some time alone.

Hannah, Felicity and Carol stood leaning against each other, the romantic in all of them going weak in the knees at James’ subtly. The Marauders looked at each other speechless and Sirius rounded on Hannah, in mock fury.

“Sure!” he exclaimed. “Nothing’s changed between them! They’re exactly the same! You, young lady are blind to a little thing called love.” Then shoving her playfully, he set off for the castle with Peter and Remus.

---