The Toe-Rag and the Lily ✔ (COMPLETED)

Chapter 3

Lily POV

I was quite content with keeping warm, though cuddling up to the person I had hated for almost the whole time I had been at Hogwarts wasn't easy. James, though, was loving it. I was quite sure why, because I had always thought he was teasing me when he was asking me out. Was I wrong? Was James perhaps actually in love with me? It seemed unlikely, he was the most popular boy in our year, and I was just the girl who he had asked out every day for the past two years.

I still wasn't quite sure how he had apologised, and even more confused as to why he did. Snape hadn't talked to me until recently, and I realised I had become happier now that a Death Eater was following my every move. I needed to face it sooner or later, James had possibly made my life a bit better. Although I wasn't going to tell him that.

Suddenly the carriage jerked to a stop and the magnificent oak front doors stop open in front of us, as students all in their new uniforms for the year filed inside. James jumped out of the carriage easily, and helped me down, as we joined the joined group that we usually hung out in at school. Usually the group just consisted of Arthur Weasley and his girlfriend, Molly Prewett, Alice and Frank, Marlene McKinnon and Mary McDonald. But now Marlene had seemed to be making a move. She had had a crush on Sirius Black for many years and now she seemed to be merging our two groups so that the 'Marauders' were now suddenly part of our group. And... I'm not sure whether I like it or not.

"Where were you two?" Arthur questioned.

"Some people left us to our own carriage. And then Xenophilius Lovegood tried to get on, so I had to enchant the wheels, because we didn't really want him there."

"Ooooh, evil Lily."

I shot them all a glare. Luckily there was only this term left. But it was going to be hard, as exams were coming up and all of the teachers were on our cases since the bloody start of the year. Not to mention, I was working extra hard to be head girl, because I wanted my parents to be extra proud of me this summer. Also I felt like rubbing something in to Petunia. Hehe, mean sister, I know.

*

That first week went by quickly and I was bored out of my brain for ages, because I had actually spent the holidays revising instead of talking to anyone. The Quidditch cups was slowly approaching, and I began to wonder how exactly James Potter managed himself. He had started doing Quidditch practice three times a week, and I know this because of Marlene, who was struggling to keep up with her work, and then he spent his free's also on the Quidditch pitch, then he studied late at night. I wondered how on earth he had managed to sleep.

"Lily, you're daydreaming," a voice said.

"Go away, Sirius, unless you have a question, or something...."

"Well, I do have a question. And you'll be glad to know it's not about James asking you out, it's actually legitimate."

"Well..." I asked.

"I have no idea how to do this essay..."

"That's not a question - ,"

"And I wanted to know if you could help me do it?"

"Oooook," I looked at him, scrutinising his every move. I sighed. "Grab your stuff and sit down, then."

He looked over at James, who had his head buried in books that stretched over the tables.

"He can come, too," I said with a sigh.

"Oh, ok good."

He left momentarily, and came back with a pile of books and work, and none other than James Potter. They sat down and both huffed at the same time. It amused me for some strange reason.

"Well," I began, "Maybe you can tell me what exactly you were working on so I can help..."

"Oh, yeah, right. Um... so Prongs and I were a bit stuck on the Care of Magical Creatures assignments that Professor Kettleburn had assigned us for the start of this week."

"Which bit don't ya get?" I asked simply.

"All of it..." Sirius trailed off.

"Both of you don't get all of it?" I said disbelieving that they hadn't though to ask Remus or Peter.

They nodded their heads in shame. I sighed, deeply.

"Wait here for a minute," I told them.

I went to go get my essay, seeing as that could be one way to help them with explaining it. I also grabbed my copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as it would come in handy.

"So, Professor Kettleburn asked us to go through the book and..." I prompted.

"And look at the most dangerous to least dangerous ratings, then pick on animal from each rating, describing what makes them more or less dangerous to the others," James summed up.

"So... why do you need my help?" I asked, eyes narrowed.

"Because," Sirius whined, "We have no idea what animals to pick and how to freakin' write this essay!"

"Sirius, I'd assume that you write like you write the other essays..."

"What essays?"

I slapped a hand to my head dramatically, ignoring his question.

"The point is that you understand the different beasts of the magical world and how they work, and the differences between them!"

"How can we understand how they work, when we don't even know how we work?!" James exclaimed.

I raised my eyebrow at him.

"Well, I'm just suggesting that we don't truly know how we work, considering everyone is different. And it's extremely hard to understand the opposite gender."

I let out a small laugh, then realised I'm supposed to hate James' jokes. I looked over at him and saw a smile tugging at his lips, to which I glared at him. He smirked at me. I felt myself flush a bright pink colour on my cheeks. Since when was I blushing James Potter! That was absurd, unheard of, and yet, I couldn't help but feel that I hadn't jinxed him in ages. Which, was probably true. He probably stopped asking me out to get out of being hexed. The thought made me laugh. I continued to help them with their essays until they finished it, which it appeared, was just in time for dinner.

"Thanks for the help... Emerald," Sirius says.

I look up at him and frown.

"Emerald?"

"Yeah, like your eyes. James came up with it," he shrugged.

"Really?" I directed the question at James.

"No!" he yelled indignantly, slapping Sirius.

"I don't believe you," I said taking a step closer to him.

His eyes lowered and he muttered something along the lines of 'I was looking at your eyes.' I looked up at him and smiled.

"Why on earth were you doing that, James," I said sarcastically.

"Well..."

"He would explain, but it would take some time, and unless you've got that, I have to ask you accompany us down to the great hall for dinner, as we celebrate our two group's matrimony," Sirius said in reply.

James and I laughed in answer. We finally decided to make the long journey down to the hall, where most people sat, waiting for food. Whereas, I noted, our group sat waiting for us.

"Where were you?" Marlene raised her eyebrows suggestively, "Coz I'm gonna assume that Sirius was in detention, leaving you two to your own devices..."

"Marlene!" we both exclaimed.

I turned to look at James, but his face gave away nothing other than a smile. His smile stretched all the way to jaw-line, I was sure of it. I couldn't fault how he always seemed to be happy. Or, as I had just noticed, the incredibly well-defined jaw he seemed to possess.

AN: How's it going everyone who seems to be, well, just me I'd assume. This is probably a pointless update but I have school tomorrow! So updates are going to be less and considering I have a few books at once... well yeah.