In the Cards…

Yawning, James Potter turned the page in his sixth year Charms textbook. He was in his longest feeling class of the day, right before lunch; and to make it worse, it was Tuesday. That's right, Tuesday. The day where you aren't close enough to Thursday to convince yourself its already Friday and slack off for the rest of the week. The day where you've ignored all the things you have to do, simply because after classes on Monday afternoon you feel like you deserved a break. And this dark haired, dark eyed, fit quidditch captain liked to have breaks. Besides, why did he need to take this class? James Potter was stock full of charm.

At least, James thought, he had Transfiguration after lunch so he could finish his Potions essay before class later that afternoon. Transfiguration was his best class, and Potions was his worst, just like his father, who insisted "all Potters fail Potions." He proudly explained this fact to James' angry mother, whenever James' marks arrived at his house, marks that would otherwise be acceptable.

Unlike most of his classes, James couldn't just doze off during Potions and rely on his ability to teach the material to himself later (most likely right before he needed it). No, Potions was the class that James hated because it threw off his perfectly constructed system. If he could help it, James did no work outside of the designated school hours. Of course, some papers and projects required time outside of classes, but for the most part he could do the "everyday" work during his classes. It wasn't perfect, but it kept him from being a low-mark student student. Mid-spectrum marks were just fine with James. If he could do well enough in classes with a small amount of work, why spend all his time trying to do better? Besides, if he never really applied himself, then he could never really fail. He had always been a fan of the "Well, I could've done better on that, I just didn't try" rationale, instead of knowing that he had done his best and still fallen short. Thus, James did a minimum amount of work, and started essays two periods before they were due.

Speaking of which, James yawned once more before taking out a parchment that resembled his Potions essay, proud of himself for getting a head start on it and not just waiting for lunch.

Well, if James didn't spend a lot of time doing homework, what did he do? If you were to ask the girl sitting four rows down (who would normally be taking notes, but as this was History of Magic, was simply twirling a section of her auburn hair and staring off into space with sparkling emerald eyes), she would tell you, "Oh, he's just a slacker. James Potter is so immature, all he does is play games and sit around with is little friends." Now, Lily Evans (the pretty redhead with the dazzling green eyes) would be right – as usual- with her slightly biased answer, but not entirely (sub-par, Lily!). Yes, in his downtime, James Potter "played games" and "sat around with his friends," but what Lily was wrong about was that James had very little downtime. His leisure was limited by three simple reasons:

Marauder Duties (which were strictly done behind the scenes, hence Lily's ignorance of them)

Quidditch Duties (which Lily probably grouped into her "playing games" category, as she didn't realize how hard it really was to be a house team captain and time manage one's life)

And of course, reason 3 (James glanced four rows over and sighed): Lily Evans herself. (a major factor keeping James away from leisure, as all he could do half the time was keep himself from blatantly staring at her and everyone knows how unleisurely it is to have an unrequited crush.)

And James crush on Lily was extremely unrequited. If he smiled in her direction (a smile that he was usually able to get anything he wanted with), all he would get in return was a (hate filled) glare.

Another yawn from James provoked his best friend, Sirius Black, to send a jumping jinx in James' direction. But to no avail, as James still had his "Sirius Sense" even though he was tired. James' counter spell hit Sirius' jinx before it could do any harm, and the two boys grinned at each other.

Twenty minutes and one (terribly written) Potions essay later, James and Sirius were leaving the classroom together.

"I totally thought I was gonna get you with that jinx," Sirius said, slapping James on the back. "You looked like your guard was down."

"None of us have our guards down when you're around, Padfoot" Remus Lupin, another one of the Marauders stated.

"It's the sensible thing to do," James added, laughing.

"Sensible?" Lily broke through their conversation, "I didn't think James Potter knew what sensible meant."

"Oh, good one, Lily!" Sirius quipped, while James simply looked at her. She looked annoyed by Sirius' comment but remained quiet and turned to leave. But Sirius wouldn't leave it, "Hey, Evans, where's your wand? That's right, up your arse!"

Lily turned looking like she was going to smack Sirius, but before she could do or say anything, James said simply, "Sirius, shut up."

Lily looked at James for a moment and then took a step forward saying, "I don't need you to defend me, Potter."

"Then I wasn't Lily." James said evenly.

"Potter, that doesn't even make sense," Lily seethed, "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"No need to get hissy, Evans," James replied.

"Hissy?" Lily asked taking another step forward. "Are you calling me hissy?"

"No, I've all ready called you hissy, or can't you keep up without a text book?" James asked smirking.

"James, Rem and I are leaving, don't be too harsh." Sirius interjected as he and Remus walked around the feuding twosome.

"What are you gonna do with out your back up Potter? I didn't know you could function without your puppet masters"

"You think you're so smart, Evans. But you don't know anything."

"I don't know anything? You're the one who barely passes classes. You don't even try!"

"Why try, I'm doing fine as it is, what's it to you anyways?" James retorted annoyed at her prying.

"Oh, James, you are such an ignorant bighead," Lily sighed, "You have all this potential and you just waste it."

"How do you know I have potential?" James asked causing Lily to blush.

"It doesn't matter, and it doesn't change the fact that your head is too big for your body." Lily said turning on her heel. Before she walked away she added, "To think, a Potter with only a mediocre average, your parents must be so proud."

Lily was surprised when James caught her arm, stood inches away from her face, and whispered, "You don't know a damn thing about me or my family, Lily, so just go back to the library and do your homework, and don't talk about things you don't understand."

With that, James turned and walked off in the direction of the great hall, but Lily was confused when he turned and went through a door she had never seen before. Leaning against the cool stonewall of the hallway, Lily breathed deeply, wondering what chord she hit that could make James lose it like that. For the first time, Lily actually felt sorry for what she said to him. She shrugged off her feelings, not knowing that was only the beginning.

A/N: Well?

Ps- This is a shaky at best, unoriginal set up, I know, but it does get better.