you had me at hello - lily

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

The summer had zipped by before his eyes. Everything about it had made it seem faster than usual. It was going to be his last summer at home before getting his own place, his last year of school, his last year playing house quidditch, his last year seeing his friends every day. All of it was a bit depressing really. But there was one thing that made it seem slower once in a while, and that was letters from Lily Evans. It was rather peculiar how it had started, really. After a rather uncomfortable encounter with Severus Snape that had resulted in Lily crying, James had sent a very reserved letter of apology, one he would be happy to never read again. He'd botched it, really. He hadn't exactly apologized, and had more talked about how Severus had really deserved it, and how horrible it was that he'd called Lily that name. So, in all, it wasn't a letter of apology in any way, rather simply a letter that hated on Severus, which was completely opposite of the point. But what had stemmed from it was peculiar, they pair had kept writing. A few more brief letters back and forth got a little more of guilt and remorse out of him, and they started to almost...talk. They weren't very long, but they were more correspondence then James usually got in an entire school year. And each letter made him itch for school to come. Soon enough, his school letter came alongside one from Lily. He responded what he assumed would be a final time, then addressed the school owl and the package it held.

When James opened the small package that an owl had brought him along with his list of school books, he was expecting his captain's badge back. But when he reached in and pulled out two pins, no one was more surprised than he was. He had been made Head Boy? That was absolutely unacceptable! How was he supposed to continue his usual pilfering of the school when he had a prefect-like pin on and was in charge of stopping all the mongrels like himself?! He was sure that his friends were all laughing at him for it. James Potter, golden boy: head boy, quidditch captain, ladies man, genius. Perhaps they thought that he would strike mischief maker from his titles. That, he swore, would never happen.

After a couple days of mourning, James started to see the positives of having a position like this. In his seventh year, being quidditch captain and head boy truly did make him king of the school. He sat pretty on that idea for a long time, rather liking how his self-made title was slowly becoming a reality. It was a complete catalyst for his ego, which had started to swell to above it's usual gigantic size. His mother was beside herself with happiness at the achievement, but his father was wary. He was certain that his son had been given this title for a reason, and he wasn't about to let James Potter loose at Hogwarts without making him aware of his responsibility.

James' father, quite aware of his son's usual behavior at school, could think of only one reason for the headmaster's decision. James was a leader, born and bred to be an alpha male. His band of merry men only confirmed this. His father sat him down and made it clear to him that he was chosen because he had the charisma, brains, and strength to lead the students if something were to happen. Despite holding a dismal loathing towards his father, James couldn't help but understand why he'd chosen to talk to his son. His father didn't need to elaborate- James was well aware of the sorts of things his parents did for the order. This enlightenment made James very stoic and definitely provided new light as to his job. He knew he couldn't abuse it. He could continue to have his fun, but when times were tough, he needed to be there for his school, his peers, his professors- everyone really. James didn't necessarily break under pressure, but this sure was a hell of a lot.

Not that he let anyone see that, though. As soon as he stepped on the train, he was hooting and hollering and gloating about his new position. Younger-yeared girls were cooing in his ear and wanted to touch the head boy badge, positioned just above his captain's badge on the lapel of his robes. He, of course, sat with Sirius, Remus, and Peter, but the hordes of people who came by to say hello, congratulations, and other things were outrageous. Poking at his badge and shining it every few minutes, James was back in his usual place, ego of the world, asshat of the century.

As soon as the train docked, he was bustled up to see his new office by a flustered Minerva McGonagall. She was listing off a great number of things that he would have to do after the feast, assist the prefects with their firsts years, do this, do that, and it was all very confusing. James had never been a prefect, and he never payed attention when any prefect had addressed him. He was completely clueless as to how these things worked, and when Minerva said "as you'll remember from past years" he always drew a blank. He stopped listening halfway in; he expected that the head girl would fill in everything for him. Who was the head girl, anyways?

He was dropped outside of the common area of the prefects' wing. He uttered the password ("Wolfsbane") and entered, completely floored by the majesty of the place. It was comfortable, but much larger than he'd expected. The high ceilings were hung with velvet drapes, and the many places to sit around the perimeter were all lush. Down the center of the room was a long mahogany table lined with high-backed chairs (presumably where prefect meetings were held). On either side of the room were double doors to smaller rooms. The doors were ajar, showing off large desks and windows, the head boy and head girl's offices, respectively. His jaw dropped slightly, and he took a couple steps inside, turning in circles as he walked, unable to take it all in. Across from the entrance was a humongous double story window looking out across the grounds. He could see everything, even Hogsmeade, small in the distance.

Looking to his left, he saw a large lion banner hanging over the entrance to the head boy's office. He grinned, loving that Gryffindor followed him wherever he went. Looking to the right, he was surprised (was he?) to see another lion swaying slightly above the entrance to the head girl's office. Those doors were slightly shut. Was she already in there? James felt a squirming feeling at the bottom of his stomach. It has to be her...who else would it be? As the door started to open, James lurched towards a couch outside his office and sprang into it, propping his feet up and putting his hands behind his head. Just in case it was her, best to remain himself.

[LILY ANNETTE EVANS]

For all the importance Lily had attached to it in her mind prior to boarding the Hogwarts Express, her last train ride to the start of another school year had gone off with remarkably little aplomb. Everything had gone as usual. She’d hugged her parents goodbye, hugged her friends hello and found a compartment near the front of the train like they always did. The girls hadn’t seen each other in months, so they spent almost the entire train ride catching up on each other’s summers and talking excitedly about all the things they planned to do to make their last year special.

The only thing out of the ordinary about the entire train ride had been the nagging question in the back of Lily’s mind: who was Head Boy this year? Her letter hadn’t said anything about her co-Head’s identity, so Lily was left to think over the possibilities in her head. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t hoping it was Carmichael, the Ravenclaw seventh year who was smart, funny and fit. There was no way of knowing, though. For as much gossip as the Prefects always did about who would be named Head students next year, there had never been any clear front runner for the position of Head Boy.

Furthermore, by the time she had left the train at Hogsmeade Station and boarded the carriages for the castle, Lily had heard whispers from no less than three groups of students that James Potter had been named Head Boy this year. For a moment, she considered the possibility of this being true, but it seemed preposterous and therefore she went back to her daydreams about working with the blonde and charming Carmichael all year. Until a brief encounter with Professor McGonagall brought those suspicions to the forefront of her mind again. Lily had passed her Head of House in the entrance hall, looking very frazzled. McGonagall had paused long enough to smile at one of her favorite students and say, “Congratulations Miss Evans. I trust you know where to find your office for the year?” Lily had nodded. Prefects meetings were held in a room just outside the head students’ offices. ”Excellent,” McGonagall had replied. ”You haven’t seen Potter yet, have you?” Lily replied that she had not and then quickly made her way up the stairs to her new office.

She was very relieved to find the whole place empty. Or at least, she assumed the Head Boy’s office was empty, because the door was ajar but the lights were off. For a moment, as she walked into her new office, she forgot her confusion and lingering concern over who was to be her co-Head (after all, why else would McGonagall have wanted Potter? He couldn’t already be in trouble, could he?). Instead, she was filled with a sense of pride as she looked around the small office with its mahogany desk, exceptionally comfy-looking chair and - was that a window seat? Oh she most definitely would be doing all of her homework in here this year. Slowly, she walked forward into the room, taking in her surroundings and allowing herself to daydream about the year ahead. After a minute or two of very pleasant imaginings, Lily realized that there were footsteps in the common room outside, which meant…

Her breath caught in her throat, and suddenly she felt nervous. Whoever was on the other side of her office door was the bloke she’d be spending a lot of time with this year. And, on the chance that it was Carmichael (she hadn’t even noticed the Gryffindor banners over the doors when she first walked in), Lily wanted to start the year off on the right foot. Taking a deep breath, she stepped forward and pushed open her office door, staring intently out into the common room to discern the identity of her co-head. She took a few steps into the room and stopped short when she recognized the figure currently sprawled on the sofa.

”So it is you. The rumors are true.” The words were out of her mouth before she even realized what she was saying. She felt disappointment welling inside of her, accompanied by a strange feeling of… curiosity. It seemed like the past couple of months had been nothing but surprises from Potter. First his bizarre letter of “apology,” then the realization that he was actually a pretty decent correspondent, and now the discovery that he had somehow managed to become Head Boy?

If it hadn’t been for the dozen or so letters they’d exchanged over the summer, Lily would have been feeling something very different right now. But since he for once had shown himself to be a decent person - at least in written form - Lily felt that she ought to at least try to start the year off on good terms. Potter had an uncanny knack for getting under her skin, but the prospect of spend an entire year bickering with him was depressing. If they could just figure out how to be civil to one another… They’d managed it by letters, so surely it was possible in person, right?

So, in the interest of civility and the hopes of making her Head duties this year at least bearable, Lily took a few more steps forward, perched herself gingerly on the edge of the arm chair beside James’ sofa and offered him a very small smile as she said, ”Sorry. I’m just a bit surprised is all. But er… congratulations.”

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

The anxiety started to set in as soon as he saw bright red hair emerge from behind the office door. How could he have thought that they'd give the position to anyone but her? Lily Evans was easily the only choice for the job. Allison Mickle, a smarmy Hufflepuff and goody-two-shoes, had all of the requirements on paper- he'd half convinced himself in his ponderings that it was going to be her. However, a good resume doesn't maker the candidate. Lily was much more approachable and level headed- Mickle was a little more concerned with her resume in the end game. Lily would make decisions that were best for Hogwarts rather than herself.

He felt a little defeated when she made her initial reaction, but, in true James style, allowed a pleasant grin to roll over his features with ease. If it hadn't been for all the letters back and forth that summer, this was the reaction he'd have expected. Disappointment, exasperation. Check, check. But they had written letters. A lot of letters. Nice letters! Was she really this aggravated by the fact that he was sitting in their, now, shared office? Technically, he could understand why. He'd spent the last six years of his Hogwarts career doing everything possible to make himself as terrible a Head Boy candidate as possible, yet he was selected. That was a little more than frustrating for someone who did all the right things.

"The rumors are always true!" he chortled, crossing one ankle over the other and adjusting himself a little farther into the couch. Running a hand back and forth through his unruly waves of hair before twining it with his other hand behind his head, he blinked a couple times and beamed at the redhead. "When I first got the badge, Sirius and I thought it was some sort of joke. But, in all seriousness, it makes sense..." he mused with character, looking up into nothing as if recalling a distant memory. "I am qualified." He doubted that was a valid premise, but he'd allow it.

She seemed to retract her original intention, which confused him. Doubling back and apologizing then congratulating him, James softened a bit, and uncrossed his legs, leaning forward to sit in a natural position. "Yeah, you too" sounded so strange coming out of his mouth in such genuine fashion. Was this how things were going to be now? Were they normal friends? The dynamic of the conversation had gone from one pole to the other in less than a minute...that was enough to stress him out, on top of the quick flashbacks to the drop in his stomach whenever her owl started pecking at his bedroom window.

There was a definitive silence. It was a little too much for him to handle, so he jumped up and started pacing around the room. "Have a good...holiday?" It was beyond awkward for him to make small talk with Lily Evans, but it was happening. Ripping off the band-aid from a summer of pleasant, but not face-to-face interaction, was going to be more like breaking an arm.

[LILY ANNETTE EVANS]

Since she hadn’t meant the first remark out of her mouth to be rude, Lily was relieved to see that James had apparently taken it in stride. And although she could easily have pounced upon the “Sirius and I thought it was some sort of joke” comment and made a snide remark, she was very much intent upon keeping this conversation as pleasant as possible, so she merely nodded in response to his assertion that he was qualified.

Actually, now that she thought about it, this wasn’t the first leadership position he’d ever held. He’d been doing a bang-up job as Captain of the Gryffindor team (they were favored to win the Cup again this year - to her delight), and no one could deny that James was the real ring leader of the “Marauders” as they called themselves. It was an established fact that he was good at being in charge of things, but it remained to be seen whether he could be in charge of something that also required enforcing the same school rules he had spent six years flouting.

James returned her congratulations, which brought a genuine smile to Lily’s face. It was perhaps the first time he’d ever managed to do that, at least in person. Several of his letters this summer had made her chuckle when she read them. ”Thanks!” she replied, her eyes flicking over to meet his for a moment. Then silence fell between the two of them, as Lily struggled to figure out what to say. Should they just… pick up where they left off in their letters? Fortunately, he broke the silence for her.

”It was fine, I suppose,” she responded. ”I probably wrote you about the most excited bits. I told you about Petunia - my older sister - getting engaged and all, right? It’s made her even more difficult to live with. This past week she turned our entire dining room into some sort of wedding planning boutique-“ Here she stopped short, realizing that she was rambling about a topic he probably cared nothing about, being male and all. ”Honestly, I was glad to get away,” she finished, feeling her cheeks grow slightly pink. In hopes of distracting him from the fact that she’d just prattled away at him, Lily turned the question back on him. ”What about yours?”

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

Why did her eyes have to be that startling shade of green? It was the most perplexing thing he’d ever stumbled across. Yeah, there were loads of girls he found pretty, fit, beautiful, and the like, but there were none that could classify as simply vexing the way Lily Evans did. It was preposterous and drove him quite mad, actually. Her smile was just so inviting! Not that he got to see it all that often. Rather, it wasn’t often directed at him. Sure, he’d seen her smile with her friends and other people (that Carmichael was one to keep an eye on…), but he didn’t exactly act in a manner befitting of her rewarding him with something as smile as a smile. Was she smiling now?

As soon as he took the time to decipher whether she was just being pleasant or actually smiling or not smiling at all, she was already on talking about her summer as he had prompted. He nodded when she mentioned her sister. It was weird to learn things about her throughout the summer, like the fact that she had an older sister. Who knew? She stopped short at exactly the moment James was about to feign interest. Weddings? No open bar, no interest. He couldn’t help but shed a small smile himself by imagining that she’d chosen to change topic to humor him rather than out of her own conversational interest. But that was a super stupid thing to even think about, so he quickly responded.

He, although more candid about his home life than ever before, didn’t really like to talk about his family that much. In their letters, he actively avoided all references to his father, who he’d seen a whopping two times during the summer holiday. The head of the Department of Law Enforcement, Mr. Potter was always busy. That, and James considered him a lousy git. If one sleeps with one’s secretary while married to someone as phenomenal as James considered his mother to be, that’s bound to be the perception assigned.

“France for a few months, as usual. Relaxing but bloody boring. No one my age really around.” Lying to Lily almost immediately after seeing her probably wasn’t the best thing he could have done, but he wasn’t about to say that he cured his summer boredom by courting and sleeping with the girl who worked at the ice cream shop. “…people my mother’s age, really.” Other than the ice cream shop girl, there wasn’t really any other teenager of mention so that was passable, wasn’t it? “Sirius came down for a couple weeks, and that was a blast. Remus and Peter too. When we got back from France, Sirius…well he stayed with me for the rest of the summer.” That surely wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t his business to get into.

“I’m just glad to be back,” he said genuinely, probably making it a little obvious that his heightened tone from before was questionable. “Nothing like Hogwarts…”

[LILY ANNETTE EVANS]

The longer their conversation continued, the more Lily relaxed. Just as their first exchange of letters had been a bit awkward and stilted, this first minute or so of conversing in person about everyday, pleasant subjects (as opposed to Lily haranguing him for directing another innuendo at her) had been rather uncomfortable. But their letters had transitioned surprisingly quickly into a friendly, happy rhythm, and Lily, the eternal optimist, was willing to hope that this in-person conversation would fare the same.

Lily actually had two reasons for changing the topic from Petunia’s wedding. Other than knowing that James would be bored to tears if she continued, she was also averse to talking in too great of detail about her relationship with her sister. While she had been open about her home life in their letters - willing to share details about things her family did or some awful joke her father had tried to tell at dinner the night before - Lily was not comfortable discussing a relationship that had wounded her that badly. At least not with someone like James who was currently only a casual acquaintance, possibly bordering on friend. In fact, the only reason she had been willing to discuss Severus - another failed relationship that had hurt her deeply - was because he had been the original topic of conversation. Otherwise, she would prefer not to discuss her former best friend at all, especially not with his longtime arch rival.

So he’d been in France for the entire summer? For just a moment, Lily was shocked. Then she remembered that the Potter family was probably the definition of “loaded.” Of course they spent their summers in France. She would have been jealous if he hadn’t followed that statement by explaining that he’d hardly seen anyone his age all summer. ”Bumming around all summer with a bunch of old women sounds like rubbish,” she said with a sympathetic nod of her head. ”Still… France. I’d love to visit the French Riviera some time. Spend all summer on the beach….” She couldn’t entirely keep the envy out of her voice. She absolutely loved water in all its forms: rain, rivers, lakes, the ocean. She’d finally get some real use out of her bikini…

Nothing like Hogwarts… James said, bringing Lily back from her daydream. She grinned and agreed: ”Yeah. It’s good to be back.” She loved her parents and enjoyed most of her summers home with them, but the Muggle world really couldn’t compare to all the excitement and oddities of Hogwarts. Which reminded her… ”By the way, did you have any questions.. about Head Boy and all? I got the feeling McGonagall was expecting I would explain everything to you, since you hadn't been a Prefect.”

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

“Bloody right,” he quipped to her comment about the old ladies. The beach was full of them. Thankfully, he didn’t attend the beach in the mornings when they were all there. However, the number of breezy afternoons that he and whatsherface had walked along the shoreline well into the evening were countless. That had been what made the summer slightly less than rubbish. Still, she was just a girl. She was cute and fun, surely, but he came to find that he was infinitely more interested in the letter writing game that had popped up than dropping another handful of galleons on dinner and a bottle of elf wine.

“If you’re ever so inclined, I’d take you there sometime,” he said, rather offhandedly. He couldn’t help by spend another five seconds in his own head, imagining that it was Lily walking the beach with him instead. It was sort of hard to imagine fully, because the idea of that ever happening was so foreign. Still, the idea of it was rather pleasant. Even more so when she was framed in a bikini shaded somewhat near the color of her eyes…

He snapped out of it and sat down, looking up at her somewhat quizzically. He didn’t have the time or the energy to address all the daydreaming of her he’d been participating in as of late. It was starting to make him slightly uncomfortable, especially since it had only been five minutes. Trying to push himself out of his own mind, the natural James-Potter-half-smile appeared on his lips, and he smirked audibly, gesturing away at her into the air.

“Please, Evans,” he started, sitting down on the couch opposite her and putting his legs up casually. “I got the feeling McGonagall was expecting that you’d just do everything since I haven’t been a prefect!” He shut his eyes and inhaled deeply, as if settling into that idea nicely. “I mean, honestly, you think she’d give me Head Boy and think that I’d actually accomplish something?” Unfortuantely, he was only half joking.

“Seriously, Red, it can’t be that difficult, especially if some idiot like Carmichael is a prefect. I’ve got it under control.” He most surely didn’t, but he didn’t really care either way. The idea of showing off his shiny prefect badge to a slew of Ravenclaw fifth years right under Carmichael’s nose was starting to appeal to him.

[LILY ANNETTE EVANS]

Her reaction to his offer was natural: she stiffened slightly and her mind instantly raced to come with a suitable retort. Her eyes darted in his direction, and then she relaxed. There was no trademark smirk on his face right now. He wasn’t staring at her and wiggling his eyebrows like he usually did whenever he made suggestions about things they could go and do together. He wasn’t even looking at her at all. And, now that the initial second had passed, Lily realized he’d made the comment offhandedly, not in the usual “suave,” “I’m such a ladies’ man” tone he had traditionally reserved for comments like this.

It was yet another positive sign for the year ahead of them. Maybe he’d finally learned to take “no” for an answer? Somewhere deep inside, a small part of Lily was disappointed at the idea that he could actually have given up on her, but right now, she was not at all inclined to listen to that little part of her. There were much more important things to think about now, which was why she changed the topic of conversation to his duties as the new Head Boy. By the time he sat down on the couch opposite her chair, Lily had completely composed herself again.

And then, in James’ usual style, he said something that managed to irritate her. And the longer he went on about avoiding his Head Boy duties this year, the more he managed to rile her up. She couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, but it didn’t really matter. He was playing right into what Lily had feared since this morning, the first time she’d heard that group of fourth year Hufflepuffs whispering about ”Potter? As Head Boy?” on the train. The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. His comment about her current crush was the final straw.

”Carmichael is not an idiot, Potter. He’s third in our year,” she informed him in scathing tones, her eyes flashing a green fire in his direction. (Third in their year behind Lily and James themselves, but that was not something she wanted to remind him of.) Stupid, obnoxious Potter! Of course he’d just been fooling her, pretending like he had grown up or something over the summer and could act like a normal, responsible almost-adult. ”And if you think for even one second that I’m going to be doing all the work this year, then you’ve another thought coming,” she snapped. ”You’re pulling your fair share even if I have to Imperius you into it.” An idle threat perhaps, but based on the irate gleam in her eyes and the rigid posture of her back as she glared at him from her armchair, it may not have been. And though she’d never cast a dark curse in her life, of all the students at Hogwarts currently (Slytherin nasties excepted), Lily was one of the few who could probably manage it.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

Unable to resist the beautiful bait that Lily Evans just threw casually into his lap, James took on a facial expression of absolute disbelief (faux disbelief of course). He dropped his jaw open and balled up his fists in order to rub at his eyes hard and them blink obviously at Lily, leaning forward. "Third? Third?!" He drew in a mean breath and exhaled loudly. James was more than aware that he and Lily were the two people ahead of Carmichael, and he had expected more of Lily. James had been happy to be ahead of Carmichael as soon as class rank started mattering around the fourth year. "Yeah, no shit, Evans. I wonder who's ahead of him." He didn't spare any sarcasm.

He sort of regretted it after he said it, but it wasn't like he hadn't sworn at her before. He dropped his little game and walked towards the large window, facing it to look out on the grounds below. They had a pretty good view in their office. The lake and the large edge of the forest were both in view, as was the Whomping Willow in the distance. He tilted his head towards the window looking out to a sharp right, spotting a glimmer of Gryffindor Tower illuminated by the setting sun. He couldn't help but perk a small nostalgia-induced half smile. A few quick moments passed through his mind in the blink of an eye- Padfoot charming a fantastic pornographic poster to the top hangings on his bed, Peter trying to convince them all of the pros of selecting 'rat', the morning after he finally hooked up with Alegra Moore and their dorm erupted in cheers and high-fives upon her stealthy exit (as well as Padfoot begrudgingly handing Peter five galleons for losing the bet).

He broke out of his little daydream to the sharp sound of her voice. He involuntarily rolled his eyes. Evans sure knew how to spoil sexy in a moments notice. He remembered all the reasons that he found bothering her so fun- she was such a tight-ass sometimes (though the actual tightness of her ass in questions was something much debated between himself and his friends). That thought delayed his response a moment, but he replied, still facing the window, "Calm down, Evans". It wasn't much of a response, but he but a calm tone of his own on it. He didn't directly respond to her threat- he wasn't about to make promises he couldn't (or simply didn't want to) keep.

He felt a small twinge in his stomach. He was sort of hungry, but he wasn't quite ready to run down to the feast. Despite Lily ruining the fleeting fantasy of their possibly making out in the bliss of their mutual promotion to Heads (a silly but considered impossibility), he didn't want to leave just yet. "But are we really going to talk about this crap right now?" He spun around and walked away from the window in no particular direction, deflecting. "I'm sure arguing at this juncture isn't going to do either of us any good." He had a point, sort of.

[LILY ANNETTE EVANS]

Lily couldn’t keep an expression of surprise from flitting across her face at the realization that James actually paid attention to class rank. He always gave off the impression that anything classwork related was beneath him, so why would he secretly care about his marks? He certainly didn’t run around bragging about them, so he couldn’t just take note of them so that he could rub his marks in people’s faces. Plus, he wasn’t top in every class. There were a few - Potions and Charms especially - where she consistently outranked him. Still, she ignored his first comment, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of getting to brag about himself.

Argh. She hated it when he told her to calm down. He always said it right after he’d done something to infuriate her, as though she shouldn’t react to him hexing a second year Slytherin right in front of her. Or making an off-color comment about the way she looked in her school skirt. Or in this case, declaring he planned to spend the whole year making her do all the work and then taking credit for it (at least that was the way Lily interpreted his comment about not accomplishing anything).

”Yes, we are going to talk about this right now if you’re planning to slack off on this too!” she snapped right back. She opened her mouth once more to continue, but he had already turned his back on her. For some reason, this made Lily pause and think. James was an incredibly stubborn person. Yelling at him had never worked in the past, and it wasn’t working now. So she decided to try the tactic she’d been using since they first started writing to one another over the summer and talk to him like… well like she talked to everyone else.

Heaving a sigh, Lily slumped back in her armchair and said in much calmer tones, ”Look, James. I’m not looking forward to planning meetings and writing patrol schedules any more than you are. That’s not why I wanted to be Head Girl this year. But if we both agree to just get our half of the work done, then we’ll both have more free time for things that are actually fun, okay?” As she spoke, she managed to catch his eye with a pleading gaze. She couldn’t bring herself to actually say please to him (she couldn’t recall a time when she’d ever said “please” to him for anything), but her eyes were most definitely saying it for her.

[JAMES IGNOTUS POTTER]

He wasn't going to do anything like completely slack off...on purpose! Sure, James didn't have the greatest track record with following through on anything (unless it was a competition and he doubted Lily would ever be in the mindset to treat their Head Boy and Girl status as a competition), but he wasn't a complete arse. He wasn't just going to leave her high and dry! Granted, he wasn't exactly preparing or planning on doing a whole lot of work either. He'd put his feelers out and get an idea of what tasks would better suit his preference, and more importantly- his time. He wasn't about to spend his last year at school with Remus, Peter, and Sirius all cooped up in an office or bossing around first and second years. It was his job to torture them!

He rolled his eyes, still facing the window, as she gave her whole spiel about what she wasn't going to enjoy about the job. He resist the urge to laugh out loud, because all of the things she was listing sounded like precisely the sort of things she did love to do. Planning? Organizing? Telling other people what to do? Maybe this was his idea of her that he was projecting onto her. Why did she want to be Head Girl? He turned around to face her, already completely bored with the path their conversation was starting to go down. Holding his hands up and smiling with exasperation. Walking towards her he started making soothing (albeit slightly condescending) shushing noises.

Setting his hands on either of her shoulders, he opened his eyes to look into her with the intention of telling her, in the nicest terms possible, to please shut up about prefect duties so that they could 1. discuss something more interesting, 2. go down to the feast, 3. make out (unlikely, but it crossed his mind). He didn't suggest any of these things though, because he concentrating on the warmth that her body radiated onto his palms, and the mere fact that he was touching her. He hadn't quite done that before. Looking from each hand to her actual eyes, there was a slight pause before he lifted them and brought them back toward his body with intention.

All memory of what they had actually been talking about was gone. He smiled awkwardly, standing in front of her with nowhere to walk and nothing in particular to say. "Think we should be getting down to the feast soon?" he said, gesturing aimlessly in the direction of the door behind her, still standing right in front of her as he was before, not compelled to move just yet.

[LILY ANNETTE EVANS]

At first, when James began walking towards her, Lily was irritated. What, what he shushing her like she was some hysterical first year for? The request she was making of him was perfectly reasonable! What was not reasonable was the fact that Dumbledore had ever appointed him Head Boy, because it was become very clear to Lily that he was entirely unsuited for the job. Here he was again avoiding all responsibility. As usual. The only thing he ever managed to give any amount of dedication to was Quidditch. (Not that Lily entirely minded that. He was largely responsible for the multi-year winning streak the Gryffindor Team was currently enjoying.) But still! How was she supposed to work with him all year when he acted like this?!

These angry thoughts flitted through her mind in a few seconds as James approached her. And came closer and closer until suddenly Lily wasn’t irritated anymore. She was… nervous? Whatever thought she had been about to voice had vanished from her mind at the same time that the irritation disappeared from her eyes. Her expression grew nervous, frozen, like a doe in the headlights. Whaaaaat was he doing? For a split second, she thought he was going to lean down and kiss her, and she was both furious and glad that she remained frozen in her chair. When he leaned down and placed both hands gently on her shoulders, Lily felt herself relax ever so slightly.

Very slightly, actually. Because she was suddenly very conscious of the weight and warmth of his hands on her shoulders. And the fact that she’d never been this close to him before. And her discovery that she’d never noticed how mesmerizing his eyes were, with their ever present roguish gleam. Wait what? No. She was not going down that path in her head. Potter might be unfairly attractive, but that did not mean she was ever going to become one of the many girls of Hogwarts to fall prey to his charms. Or that she was ever going to admit to anyone, not even Mary, that she thought he was nice to look at.

Lily swallowed hard and dropped her gaze from his, hoping against hope that her cheeks were not blushing as red as they felt they were. She was about to snap at him to let go of her when James dropped his hands from her shoulders of his own accord. Only once their physical contact was broken did Lily dare raise her eyes again. He looked like he was about to say something, so she waited. A couple seconds of silence passed, then he finally spoke. Her brow furrowed in confusion at his words. ”I er-… what?” she stammered in reply. The feast?! They were in the middle of a conversation! And he had… well she didn’t know what he’d been about to do.

Before he could say anything else, she jumped hastily to her feet and brushed past him to stand to the side of the armchair. She glanced at her wrist watch and noted that the feast had actually started a few minutes earlier. ”Sure, I guess,” she responded, her voice much firmer now that she was no longer in such dangerous proximity to him. ”But that doesn’t mean this conversation is over. Someone has to patrol the castle tonight, and either we decide on a pair of Prefects to assign it to, or we’ll have to do it ourselves.”