James and Lily potter: Fourth Year

Chapter 11: fourth year

He felt a sudden surge of jealousy as he saw Lily's green eyes shine down on his friend. James knew that Remus would never cheat Jennifer, but still...he did look like he was enjoying himself. Not wanting to be left alone, James strolled over toward them, trying to act as cool as possible.

"Hey, Lily, Remus," he greeted enthusiastically, though his tone was rather high.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Hello, Potter. How nice to see that you're not snogging a girl, like you always do."

James sighed. Well, how could he expect something other than a witty and biting remark from Lily? She absolutely abhorred him so, and there was no way to ever earn her respect. He had a sudden fleeting image of himself, ten years older, waving in front of the Knight Bus with his two front teeth missing. He couldn't resist himself to snort loudly, causing Lily to become even more furious.

"Oh! So you think snogging and breaking girls' hearts is fine. Well, let me tell you something, Mr. I'm-So-Wonderful—"

"What?" cried James in alarm. "I never thought of such a thing!"

It was Lily's turn to snort in response. "Oh, gosh, Potter, I never knew a kid could be so pathetic as you are. It's so obvious, the way you mess up your hair and look over girls and show off with those stupid Quidditch reflexes of yours. It's as if you enjoy the attention you get."

"I do—" began James but stopped as he saw Remus shake his head at him, glancing at Lily's angry face. "Well, now that you mention it, I am very ashamed of what I do, and I'll try to deflate my head more."

Remus grinned at his friend, and then at Lily, who was still angry but softened slightly at the remark. Lily is way too soft on my friend, he thought, amused. With a bit of James' Potter charm, Lily will fall head-over-heels for him. I'll just make sure that James really does love her before he proposes.

"Remus Lupin, what are you grinning at?" demanded Lily, glaring at her companion, who looked as if his face was going to crack, since he was forcing his smile all the way through.

"Huh?"

Lily sighed. "Your face looks like it's going to fall off. Seriously, if this is another one of your stupid stunts, then you can count me out."

"I'm not doing anything!" cried Remus defiantly. "James just told me a funny joke," he added, lying pathetically.

"Do you think I'm stupid? I could have heard Potter saying his stupid joke, or whatever, since he doesn't miss an opportunity to show off."

"Evans," said James firmly, his voice sounding more mature and deeper, "don't make me sick. I'm not that pompous and arrogant."

"Oh?" asked Lily, her temper rising up again, "then why do you show off with a stupid Snitch in front of George Brach when you're the Chaser? And why do you always love to ruffle up that stupid hair of yours and look over at the lake?"

James pondered over her words. Yes, he supposed that Lily was right...But wasn't Snape or Diggory just as arrogant and foreboding like he was, maybe even worse? He wondered why Lily hated him more than the other arrogant gits at Hogwarts, and the question came out before he could stop himself...

"Why do you hate me more than the other people who are self-centred? Why me?"

Lily's green eyes were wide just then. Well, she did clearly hate Amos Diggory and Severus Snape just as much as James, but she never did pick on him. She felt angry that James had to ask her such a question. Why did she pick on James Potter more than all the other gits in Hogwarts?

"I don't think I need to answer that for you, Potter," she replied airily. "The answer is quite obvious, so don't use too much of your brain to think about it; you might hurt yourself."

James was starting to get impatient. "How is it obvious, Ms. Oh-So-Perfect? And don't flatter yourself that you're not arrogant, Evans. You always wave your hand around in class, hoping that you can show off your knowledge."

Before Lily could even retort to that, she thought of another thing. Why were the Marauders and herself mentioned in vague names in the prophecy? And how did the Marauders immediately figure out who was who in it?

"Whatever, Potter. I just need to ask you one more thing—in the prophecy, how did you know who you were when it was mentioned?"

James and Remus exchanged anxious looks but said nothing.

"Well?" demanded Lily impatiently. "How? How did you know that you were a stag, Sirius was a dog, and Peter was a rat? Of course, it was obvious that Remus was a wolf and I was the flower."

James took a deep breath and said, as casually as possible, "Oh...lucky guess."

"Really? Well, I do suppose it all fits. I mean, you're a stag, because you're so proud; Sirius is a dog, because he's cuddly and lovable; Remus' a wolf, because, well, he is; and Peter's a rat, because he's not as large or confident as the rest of you, and he's very insignificant to many people, namely, the teachers."

"Yeah, yeah, that's right," said Remus, nodding vigorously.

Lily stared at them suspiciously. "You guys sound like you're hiding some secret. Well, out with it."

James' face was nearly covered with sweat by then, and Remus was having trouble breathing.

"It's nothing," said James, shrugging his shoulders and trying to be cool and casual like Sirius always was. His hazel eyes were extremely worried. "Really, we're—"

"JAMESIE!"

The trio turned around to see Deanna grinning at James stupidly. Lily rolled her eyes and amused herself by looking at Deanna torturing James by hugging him roughly.

"Where were you, baby? I was so worried!"

The redhead snorted loudly, and Deanna looked over to her, smirking.

"Ah, Evans. You were the one who took my boyfriend away from me in your first year, right?"

Lily stiffened. "Your boyfriend? So that's why you and Potter were cuddling away...Shouldn't you be studying for your O.W.L.S.? You do take them this year, after all."

Deanna ignored the last comment completely and dragged James off to her dormitory.

Remus smiled at Lily when they left. "Deanna's a sweet girl, isn't she?" he asked sarcastically.

"Oh, very. Sh—shoot, I forgot to do my Potions homework!" cried Lily in distress, as she rushed over to her bag, where heaps of parchment and books were piled.

"Lily, you still have two weeks. Hurst actually extended it...for once in his life, he was actually decent."

Lily laughed but it turned into a choke as she saw Sirius flirting with the same blonde he was staring at before. Remus looked too and furrowed his brow as he turned back to Lily.

"He's not thinking properly," he said, trying to stick up for his friend. "He—he still likes Arabella, if that's what you're worried about..."

Lily sighed. "The world is falling apart, with Potter in the midst of it."

"Is it that extreme?" asked Jennifer amusedly, walking toward her. Lily grinned and nodded.

"Jenny!" exclaimed Remus.

"Remie!"

The two ended up in a fierce embrace, while Lily watched, entertained.

"If you two would stop snogging, the world will be right once more," she said, trying not to laugh.

Remus and Jennifer smiled at each other, while Jennifer whispered, "The world will never be right, Lily, without James here."

The weather chilled once more as winter approached. The fourth years were busier than ever, since the teachers seemed to be thinking along the lines of Lily and gave them a lot of homework to prepare for the O.W.L.S., which weren't until more than a year later.