Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Once a Marauder, Always a Marauder ❯ Marauding...With Lily ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

By: FVH721

Marauding… with Lily

Remus tapped her shoulder. “What is it?” Lily asked brightly.

“You're in a good mood. You must not have seen James today, am I right?”

Lily shook her head, thick red hair bouncing, and said, “No, quite different actually. I saw a little more of him than usual last night.” She remembered the Astronomy tower visit on the first day back to Hogwarts from break. Laughing, she said, “You might want to ask James about it.”

“Did you send him to the hospital wing? I didn't see him this morning and he was late,” asked Remus rather nervously. “What did you jinx him with?” Lily knew curses rather too well for his comfort at the moment.

“Ask James himself. I'm sure that his answer will be… surprising,” she giggled evilly and turned away from him. She'd been pretty confident that James would tell Remus about it.

“Lily, he's not all that bad. He gets nervous around you and acts like a prat. He's even taken to checking Sirius's followers for you. He's not really that bad. Will you just give him a chance?”

Lily couldn't help herself. She started to laugh and the whole Defense Against the Dark Arts class turn to look at her as she stifled it to a cough. “I might've if you asked James, Remus,” she said in a more serious voice.

Remus mumbled something incomprehensible under his breath. “Girls. I really don't know how James likes you.”

Lily kicked Remus under the seat and returned to taking notes. James hadn't told anyone about her saying yes? That was heart stopping. Or, what if he really did like her and didn't care if anyone found out or if anyone never found out? Lily still hadn't told Star what had happened. She'd just said, “Oh, the usual. He begged me to go out with him,” but she hadn't said anything about finally saying yes when he begged. Well, even if she had said that, that would've been a lie. This time, she'd asked James out. Quite expectedly, he said yes. Now—he was looking at her. He winked and Lily did something so small, but it still made James look like a little five year old being given a present. She smiled.

James sat two rows in front of her with Sirius. Remus had been put up next to her for “lack of shutting up” as the teacher, Professor Grendol, said. He'd completely given up with them because even when they were apart, they still enchanted notes to fly back and forth. Anyway, the only other seats were next to girls and would that really punish Sirius? Unfortunately for Lily in these past days, he'd taken to switching Remus's and James's seats when ever he caught them, partly for discipline, partly for his own entertainment. She'd been spending many classes getting asked out every five seconds by the same person.

Lily did something she rarely ever did. She took a piece of parchment and enchanted it to fly. Pulling out her quill, she scrawled,

You didn't tell Remus or Sirius about last night?????

Lily threw the paper as soon as the teacher turned his back. James looked back and grinned from ear to ear. As soon as the teacher turned around, he grabbed it, knowing what was coming.

“Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, would you please refrain from throwing notes? Switch seats with Mr. Lupin and try to control yourself,” Professor Grendol said half-heartedly. Lily gave Remus one last look and shrugged. He'd seen her throw the note, but he really didn't mind switching seats. In fact, James nearly thanked him for every opportunity that he had to ask her out. James grabbed his stuff (nothing much, just about four books and most of them about Quidditch to begin with) and sat next to her. He stuck on his tongue and messed up his already messy black hair. “Nice to see you too, Evans.”

Lily glared at him. “I only admitted that you weren't that bad last night. I can still take it back.” It was quite obvious that she was in no way about to. James seemed overjoyed just to be seated near her.

James shrugged nonchalantly. “I didn't tell Sirius because I didn't think you'd want me to tell them, but if you don't care…” he took the paper out of the pocket of his robes and scribbled out what she wrote and, in his own handwriting, wrote, “Lily and I are going out, Sirius. You owe my five gallons.”

“Is that what this is about?” Lily whispered. She was hurt. She'd actually started to like him. Now that she really looked at him, his messy black hair seemed cute and his arrogance just seemed funny.

“No, I'm just joking. Sirius didn't bet anything. Well, he offered to, but I figured I'd lose. So do you want to go to Hogsmeade this weekend?”

Lily looked at him, “There's no trip planned.”

“Every weekend,” James said, “the Marauders can go to Hogsmeade. They won't mind if I bring you.”

“Has Sirius ever brought his girlfriend?”

James shuffled his feet. “Well no, but they change every week so we never let him. I mean, he once went out with a fifth year Slytherin! You're different. I don't like you because you're pretty, not to say that your not,” he added when he saw the look murderous Lily was giving him, “but you're better than all the other girls. You don't care about looks and stuff, you're smart, you're funny and most importantly, you don't care that I'm popular. Oh, and you don't stalk me like Sirius's girlfriends do. That's always a plus,” he said shaking his head and his incredible messy jet black hair.

“Me stalk you? You stalked me for four years. Since our second year you've been annoying me.”

James kicked her under the table. “So will you go?”

“Why not, James? Is ten o' clock tomorrow good? I'll meet you in the common room.” James Potter nodded his head slightly and started to copy her paper. Lily sighed. Some things never changed and sometimes cheating on tests came back on you. Question thirteen was gender specified, you either did part A or part B. “Should I tell him?” Lily thought. “No, I'll let him get embarrassed. It's more fun,” she chuckled to herself. Professor Grendol would read that aloud to the class later…James could be so stupid at times. Then something in her softened (that was happening a lot) and she touched his arm.

“James, you do the other part,” she whispered.

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Lily slumped over at one of the common room tables. Darn Slughorn's essays were so hard! A boy with red hair was trying to finish his muggle studies assignment and kept asking her about the things muggle humans did for fun. It was nearly twelve in the morning.

James came over and peered over her shoulder. “Monkshood, bezoars, and moon stone,” he said in a loud whisper. “Do you want the rest?”

“No, I'm done. Thanks though.” Lily said. She wasn't sure why she'd asked him out yet. It was kind of one impulse, but half the times she said no it was in impulse. He was funny and he hadn't really made too many pranks for a bit. Still, he was a Marauder and the leader of them at that! But Lily started to look at him differently, see him as more than the arrogant boy that he used to be. James was brave and fearless. He would do anything for a friend and Lily saw that right away. He didn't let Remus and Sirius boss him around and wasn't afraid to stand up to them. When he talked to her, he was nicer, thoughtful person rather than before, when he called her Evans and asked her out at the most random moments. Sirius kept asking her when she'd gotten such extensive brain damage. He offered to take her to the hospital wing and asked her if she was under the imperious curse and at one point had grabbed her and dragged her there. Nothing too annoying yet, but she had James's permission to curse him.

James looked down at her finished essay. He nearly had to squint, he was so tall. Lily was tall for her age, but she hated not being able to look him straight in the eye. She yawned.

“Tired?”

“Kind of. I think I'm going to go bed now,” Lily said, desperate to get away from the awkward silence.

“Could you stay up for a couple minutes longer? I want to talk to you.”

Lily blinked her bright, green eyes sleepily. “Sure. Come on, Tiger.” She pulled a large, orange cat up into her lap and started stroking it. James gave the cat a look of dislike, but led Lily over to the love seat by the fire, but she wasn't for that. She took a spot in one of the one person arm chairs by the fire and James sat in the one next to her. She saw James mumble something under his breath and she instantly felt a lot happier and a little more awake. How sweet, he'd cast a cheering charm on her! When you did that, it usually took some of your own energy with it.

“Why did you hate me?” James asked after he'd sat down. He was looking her straight in the face…and Lily couldn't help but feel awful.

“I made that quite clear to you yesterday. I didn't like you because you were a stupid git that didn't mind his own business and never seemed to get a hint. Wait…” Lily paused and bit her tongue, “then there's the part where you hung my best friend over the edge of a tower where she could've died.” Lily wasn't angry though. Star would've came out on top somehow.

“Look Lily, as much as you hate me and have an extraordinary right to, I'm trusting you with something really important. Tomorrow, you're not going to like how we're getting to Hogsmeade, but you have to stay quiet about it. No matter what. You can't tell anyone or me, Sirius, Peter, and Remus are dead and as good as expelled,” James pleaded. He shot a glance over at the red haired boy, but he had two plugs and was dissecting them. “It's only Peter who's not going. Can you try and put up with Sirius for about three hours? Remus and I'll intervene if anything gets—that bad. I'm not afraid of Sirius and he's been in a right foul git these past days. It isn't his fault, but I'm not afraid to put him in his place if needed.”

“Sure,” she nodded sleepily.

“Thanks a ton,” James started to leave, but Lily grabbed the arm of his robes. She spun him around into facing her.

And for the first time, but not last time in history, she kissed him on the lips.
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Lily stood, waiting for James and Sirius. She felt so stupid. Why hadn't she asked him how they were going to get there? For all she knew, they were going to have to fly there on brooms or, worse, something illegal.

It wasn't that Lily couldn't fly; it was just the opposite actually. She could fly and she loved to, but she didn't want James to make her try out for the Quidditch team or something. He was the one that was going to make it on the Chudley Cannons or something. She flew in on one of the far corners of the grounds near Hogwarts and she doubted that even James had dared follow her there.

Last night had been—or more specifically, the kiss last night—had been amazing. She could still feel it there. What had surprised her most was James. She'd thought that he might rush, take it farther than Lily wanted it at the moment. But he hadn't! He waited for Lily to make every move, every cue, before kissing back.

Lily sighed and sank into the armchair. It would be so like them to expect her fly. It was so unlike him to make her do something she didn't want to do.

Some of the Marauders were talking upstairs and Sirius's voice, the loudest of them all, floated down to her.

“Mate, are you sure? No offense, but the girl hates you and she's probably just trying to get you in trouble. She'll rat us right out,” Sirius's voice came down from the boys dormitory.

“Padfoot, I trust Lily. Anyway, she might actually like me after the talk I had with her last night.” This gave her a satisfied smile. At least James was convinced there was a real attraction or love in the mix, because Lily wasn't.

Sirius said, “Come on Moony! Prongs, I hope you know what you're doing. What was this talk that you had with her last night?”

Her heart skipped a beat. No, more than that. A few beats. James wouldn't tell. He couldn't tell. He couldn't tell Sirius about them. Sirius knew they were together, but James had to keep this part a secret. He couldn't tell his idiotic best friend that she kissed her former worst enemy.

“Nothing. I just made her promise not to tell.”

They came down the stairs. “Hi, Lily,” Remus said.

Sirius just ignored her. James brightened quite a bit when he saw her coming. Sirius nudged James, “I can't wait. Marauding…with Lily, the up tightest, stuck up teachers' pet in the school!” He started to laugh as James elbowed him in the stomach.

“Shut up,” he said between clenched teeth. “Lily, you've got to promise not to tell anyone, or we can't take you. It's not fair for me to put them in trouble.” His hazel eyes shot Sirius a look. “Well, it's not fair to put Remus in trouble. A git might very well deserve it.”

“I solemnly swear that I won't tell anyone you're up to no good.” She started to follow them out the portrait hole before she heard their reaction.

Remus started to laugh and Sirius snickered. James looked crestfallen. “You already told her the password?” Sirius yelped.

James turned red, “No, you prat. I don't know how she knows that. Probably because of you loud mouth.”

Lily gave James a clueless look. "What are you guys talking about? I only said that because you're nearly always up to no good. There's no password about it." They all came to a stop at the statue of the one-eyed witch. She was at least five foot ahead of James and the rest.

Remus laughed, ran ahead, and tapped her shoulder. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good is the only way to use the Marauders Map. Check this out." He pulled a messy piece of parchment out of his robes and tapped it with his wand. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." The parchment unfolded to a full fledged map of Hogwarts. It was moving on the seventh floor; one of the staircases must be changing. Then there were tiny, almost specks of ink scattered around. At first Lily thought there were just a lot of them, but then she realized they were moving! She found the Gryffindor tower and looked at one of them in the girls' dormitory. When her eyes locked on to it, a tiny, scroll like paper started to follow the ant like dot. It read Star Lunis.

"You're spying on people!" Lily exclaimed. "What is this and how come..." she paused. She, James, Remus, and Sirius were standing right near the one eyed witch statue on the map. There was a green mark on the statue, but that wasn't what caught her eye. Certain figures on the map were different shapes. Sirius was a paw print, Remus's was a blue circle, and James was a X. Over in the Slytherin common room, Severus Snape was a red blotch, but his wasn't labeled Severus Snape. Instead, it was Snivilus.

Then Lily saw hers. It was a heart and it was the biggest on the map.

James must've noticed her looking because he snatched it away. "Interesting little piece of magic, isn't it? You called us stupid prats." He turned red when she smirked at him. “Sirius did it,” he whispered. She didn't know whether or not to believe him, but James wasn't the heart kind of person, so she gave him the benefit of the doubt. Anyway, teasing him about it would've just been teasing herself. After all she was the person that was a heart.

"Beyond interesting! This is amazing! How did the kid who fails every class make this?" Lily asked, silently hoping that he wasn't about to say he stole in it from Filch's
office. He couldn't have. James was clever, he pulled off half the pranks he did without getting caught and constantly amazed her in Transfiguration. Of course, no one was better than Lily at charms, but James wasn't a total dunce in that either. Sirius, not so much. Remus was the brains behind them all…what the others lacked was common sense and logic.

"Well, we had Remus to help us and he's a bloody genius. It rather difficult and it took the better part of two years to finish,” Sirius concluded, “Who wants to see me do a magic trick with the map?” Everyone nodded except for James, who cringed. He gave Sirius a dark look, but he pretended not to notice.

Sirius rolled up his sleeves, tapped the map, and muttered, “Future!” Lily's name changed to Lily Potter and James's changed to Guy Who is not Nearly as Hot as Sirius Black.

“Sirius, I'll-” Lily started threateningly.

"Now are you ready to go or are we going to sit and wait to get busted?" Sirius complained. For the first time, Lily saw that there was a sack with several brooms behind the statue. James grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her away from the rest of them.

“I know I did the same thing to you yesterday, but you still have to swear not tell anyone about this. Not for anything. It's our last year at Hogwarts and we've come too close to getting expelled before. You might not have realized this, but I want to be auror and I can't do that after my wand is snapped in half. Do you promise?"

Lily realized he was still holding her hand. Over near the statue, Remus and Sirius snickered at James. "I'm crazy to trust you, but okay. You know, I'm really glad you haven't told everyone that we're going out yet. Thanks." James smiled, but it wasn't the same as one of the smiled he did when he was torturing someone or got away with one of his usual pranks. It meant that he liked her and that she wasn't just the usual chick that he and Sirius always dated. She wasn't going to change or be replaced in a week. Lily was here and if Remus and Sirius didn't like it, then they could deal with James. James wasn't exactly the kind to start fights, but he sure in the hell wouldn't take any crap from anyone, including Sirius.

He gave her the confused look this time, "Do you really like me, or are you just trying to hurt us?" Without waiting for an answer, he kissed Lily right in front of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. "Now the scores tied," he whispered.

"What do you think, James?" she said. Her eyes bore into his…wasn't that what he'd always loved about her? Her bright emerald eyes?

He ran his fingers through her dark red hair. "Evans, I'm ready to expect the worst and the best from you."

Lily laughed. "Let Sirius laugh. You're the only one that's had a girl friend for more than five minutes." She threw them a glance, "Come on, we got to go," Lily laughed again as James trailed after her like a puppy. It wasn't as if he was the same stuck up boy he'd been nearly a week ago. When he was around Lily, he acted like he cared about everything. Well, it wasn't just and act. He didn't feel the need to act tough or cool in front of Lily. She didn't feel the need to be mean to him.

James held out his hand and she shook it. “Thanks, James, a lot.” She blushed a bit for not apparent reason.

"No, thank you. Thanks for giving me a chance…I really needed that. Have I proved that to you yet?” That was icing on the cake…she knew that he'd always had feelings for her. Now she was returning them…she kissed his cheek lightly and James smiled. She smiled back.

“Today—I'm going anti-prefect. All for the benefit of you and Sirius. Well,” Lily added grinning shyly, “Most you.”

“Welcome to the Marauders, Lily.”