The Romeo and Juliet Dilemma

On The Quidditch Stands

"Moony will obviously be with me because we're the only sane ones here," said Lily, shooting Peter and James a glare; "anyone else?"

Alice lifted up her head and nodded, explaining how she thinks the boys are too naïve to understand the deeper meaning behind the story.  Sirius completely ignored her reasoning and started on about why they didn't just apparate away together.

"They were muggles Padfoot," Remus sighed, "fictional muggles at that."  

Sirius folded his arms and muttered something about muggles being pathetic.  He sat up straight away, realizing how much he sounded like his mother, before looking over at Lily.  "I'm sorry Evans, you know I didn't mean it like that, I would nev-"

"Shut up Sirius," Lily retorted, making him recoil into the corner of the sofa.  She shook her head and stormed out of the common room.  Lily never cried, she never got upset, it was Lily Evans, but James could have sworn he saw a tear fall down her cheek as she walked out of the room.  

"Really Pads?" Marlene sent him an icy glare, and before you knew it, a full-on argument broke out between the two.  James would've loved it, arguments between Sirius and Marlene were always the most entertaining, but he couldn't focus.  Lily Evans, the strongest girl he knew, was crying, he had to find out why.  So, he put his books down and slipped out the door, ignoring all the shouting as best he could.  

James walked through the castle as quietly as he could, his mind racing.  He knew he liked Lily, hell, everyone knew he liked Lily, but why was he so angry at seeing her cry.  He knew it wasn't all Sirius' fault, Lily could handle things like that by herself, she didn't cry or storm off.  It was so out of character, especially since it was past lights out.  She would never break the rules, that wasn't her.  After a good half out of looking, he reached the quidditch pitch, where he found her sat in the Gryffindor seats.

"Evans?" he said softly, so he didn't startle her.

"What do you want Potter?" she replied, trying to sound angry at him, rather than relieved.  Lily craned her neck around and cocked her eyebrow because he hadn't replied.  Instead, he just sat down next to her and said nothing.  They sat there in silence for a few minutes, both wondering what to say.  "I'm not angry at Sirius you know, that's not why I walked out."  

James sat with a puzzled look across his face before replying.  "Then why did you?"

Lily let out a small sigh, "just before summer, the day we finished 5th year to be exact, I was walking to the Great Hall with Severus."  At the mention of Snivellus' name, James rolled his eyes.  "I was telling him about Tunia and how she wrote to me, telling me not to come home, the usual, and he muttered, just loud enough for me to hear him."  She sniffed and James placed his hand on her shoulder hesitantly, "he said that maybe if I wasn't a mudblood I'd find life a bit easier."  It all came out in a load of scrambled words like she hadn't even processed it before she broke down crying.  She turned away from the boy sitting next to her and held her face in her hands.  Desperately trying to hide her tears.  

James understood that she didn't want pity, so instead, he just passed her a tissue silently and told her when she was ready, he'd walk her back to the common room.  Lily was pleasantly surprised about this side of James, it wasn't one she was used to.  She was used to an impulsive, boisterous 16-year-old with no filter.  However right now, she realised she wasn't with Prongs, she was with James.   

As promised, James walked with her back to the common room.  He didn't tell Lily, he didn't even tell Sirius, Remus, or Peter about what he was doing, because Lily would try to stop him, and his friends would go with him, and he wasn't doing this for a laugh.  He was doing this because Snape had hurt Lily.  Once everyone was safely in bed, he slipped out of the common room once more and down to the dungeons.

The Slytherin password wasn't difficult to guess.  James crept up to the door and whispered "pureblood", the door swung open, the cold air making him shiver.  It was so different from the warmth of the Gryffindor room.  The seats were all a deep, green leather, with silver trimmings.  The walls were a stormy grey, narrow windows spaced long them, however, the only view from them was the lake.  Merpeople kept swimming up and pressing their ugly faces against the glass, examining the lanky, Gryffindor boy in front of them.  James could hear them whispering amongst themselves.  Feeling angrier and angrier by the second, he bolted up the stairs to Severus' dormitory and yanked the greasy-haired boy from his bed.  

James held his wand up to the boy's face and whispered "Silencio."  Snape flailed and wriggled to get out of James' grasp but James was holding on as tight as he could.  Once out in the corridor, James released the spell and dropped Severus onto the floor.  Scrambling to his feet, Severus held his wand up to James' face, shivering in his pyjamas because of the draughtiness of the dungeons.

James had never been so angry in his entire life, he had always hated Snivellus, but never as much as he did right now.  All he could see was Lily's eyes welling up as she walked out of the room.  His Lily.  Well, she wasn't really his Lily, she could never belong to anyone, but regardless, he was enraged.  

"You.  Me.  The forbidden forest.  11 o'clock tonight, got it?"  James spat.  Severus glared at him.  They were both tall, above 6 foot tall, but somehow James always felt taller, despite his gangly appearance.  

"Why would I do anything a blood-traitor like you tells me to?"  Snape replied.

James was growing more and more impatient with the Slytherin, "because you don't want to know what the other option is."  James' fist tensed as if he was trying to restrain himself from hitting Severus across the face.  He stepped closer to Snape, and shot him a smirk, "so, 11 o'clock?"  Severus turned his nose up but muttered in agreement before slinking back into the dingy common room.