"Watch this!" The pebble in Mary's hand flew over the Black lake, taking jump each time it touched the water. Circular shapes danced out from all the points where it made contact with the lake's surface.The afternoon's sunlight reflected off the clear surface, glittering in rhythm with the waves.
She turned back with a wide grin, Dorcas, Marlene, and Lily, sitting together by the water's edge. Dorcas' was leaning on Marlene's shoulder, their fingers intertwined, hands resting in the sage grass.
They had just finished the writing portion of their Defence Against the Dark Arts OWL. Lily thought she did alright, a few questions more difficult than others, but overall, she was expecting at least an "Exceed expectations".
A short distance away, four boys had sat down next to each other, one of them had taken out a golden Snitch, and was letting it zoom away, just far enough so he could catch it again.
Show off... Lily thought absently, turning back to chat with her friends.
"Is it Potter again?" Dorcas had followed her gaze.
"Yeah," Lily shrugged, "it's like he doesn't know how to just talk to people."
Mary laughed, "and he keeps doing that hair thing when you're around! Like it's not messy enough already."
It was true, Potter's habit of messing up his hair was apparently not as prominent when she wasn't around. Marlene had been the informer, which made Lily a bit sceptical at first- as nobody would count Marlene as particularly observant- but as she started paying more attention herself, she did find Potter's dark hair to be even more messed up when he knew she was around; he wasn't particularly observant either.
She found it quite funny really, Potter's fancying her. She thought it was a harmless joke he and his friends had cooked up for "Snivellus' best friend"- if their jokes were ever harmless- but when first Marlene, then Remus, and finally even Sev started talking about Potter's crush on her, she had to take it a little more seriously. He didn't make it easy.
It was a few weeks ago when she ran into Potter in the library. She got a quick glance at the corner of his parchment before he could stuff it away. It had "JP+LE" written in small letters, with little hearts doodled all around. She made herself swallow a laugh, this was the kind of behaviour she expected from middle school-aged muggle girls, definitely not James Potter, the strutting prancing wizard boy. Lily never thought about it before, but she wondered now- didn't wizards have a more magical equivalent to this kind of doodling? Something moving perhaps? She had to smile at this.
"What do you think of him anyway?" Mary perked up, "I mean, he can be a bit of a prat but he seems fun enough."
"He's a great quidditch player," Marlene put in. "Helped us win the last game against," she turned to Dorcas, "Slytherin!"
She rolled her eyes, "You're not missing a single chance are you?"
"No."
They all laughed at that.
"Seriously though," Mary caught her breath, "what do you think of Potter?"
"What do I think?" Lily nodded with sarcastic thoughtfulness, "What an intriguing question! Let's see... hummm..." She heard Marlene cracking up,"I think he's an annoying self-centred prick!"
"So average guy." Marlene was grinning as wide as her face would permit.
"What she said." Dorcas gestured at her girlfriend as Mary's glare landed on her.
"I really don't get why he likes me though," Lily shook her head, "If anything I'd think he'd go for you."
"Me??" Mary raised her eyebrows, "Why?"
"It's..." Lily waved her hands around vaguely, "your energy I guess. It's a bit like Potter's, but nicer, Marlene has it too."
Marlene mimed a gaging motion, "Yeah-no, I'm good."
"Okay-" Mary was squinting at her, "Describe this energy."
Lily laughed, "Fine. It's like-"
She was cut off by a shout from where Potter and his friends were.
"All right Snivellus?"
Severus had appeared- never a good thing when those four were around. Sure enough, the first spell was already flying across the air.
"Potter..." she sighed, rolling her eyes and standing up.
"Why do you care what he does to him?" Marlene turned, "he's really quite awful, you do realise that?"
Lily pursed her lips, "Doesn't make it nice..." she murmured, walking towards all the action. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blond shoulders shrug.
