The Lake
In three words I can summon everything I've learned about life: it goes on. -Robert Frost
"Amazing," An eleven year old Lily Evans whispered under her breath. She was seeing Hogwarts for the first time, and it was just as wonderful as she had anticipated it to be. Her best friend, Severus Snape was sitting beside her. But he hadn't heard her remark.
"So what do you think?" Severus asked her, unaware of the fact that she had just said it was wonderful.
"It's amazing," Lily repeated, still in awe. But this time, when she spoke, it was loud enough so that everyone could hear it.
"It's amazing," a voice said mockingly from behind her. Lily turned around so see Sirius Black and James Potter laughing hysterically. She had just met them on the train, and they were just so rude. She didn't like them at all, especially that Potter boy. He was the one that was mocking her.
"No one thinks you're that funny, you know?" Lily said, her voice as cold as ice.
"I think he's funny," Sirius said smugly.
"I was talking about people's opinions that mattered," she replied. Meanwhile, James was pretending to clutch his heart as if he were fainting.
"You wound me so deeply," he said dramatically and fell to the floor of the boat that he and Sirius were currently sharing.
"Can you just stop and leave me alone?" Lily cried. James and Sirius laughed like madmen again.
"How you gonna make me stop?" Sirius cackled, "You're a muggleborn. You don't know anything about magic or the Wizarding World. You've probably never even seen real magic."
"Whatever," Lily said and turned around. Suddenly, a colossal wave came out of nowhere and crashed on the boat that was occupied by the two boys. But it only missed James entirely and only hit Sirius. Sirius turned angrily to Lily.
"You did this!" Sirius yelled. Lily cocked her head to the side.
"How could I do that?" she asked innocently, "I'm muggleborn, remember? I don't know anything about magic yet. Apparently, I don't even know what it looks like." And with that, she turned around. Needless to say, the remaining ride to Hogwarts was rode in silence, Severus confused, James amused, Sirius fuming, and Lily with a smug smile on her face.
-X-
"Lily, Lily, Lily," Mary MacDonald sang, "We're done with Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"I know," she replied, "Isn't it exciting?" The girls turned down the corridor.
"Where do you want to go now?" Mary asked.
"Marlene, Alice, and Dorcas said they would be down by the lake and we could meet them there," Lily responded.
"Okay," Mary replied and then asked, "Can you believe that it is Alice's last year at Hogwarts?"
"It just won't be the same without her," Lily sighed. The two girls reached the lake.
"Hey," Alice said, standing up from by the lake where Marlene and Dorcas were and walking over to them, "How did it go?"
"Fine," Lily replied, "I was concerned about question ten, though." Mary stared into space.
"The one about the werewolves?" she asked, "Yeah, I think I only got three signs instead of five."
"OWLs were hard," Alice admitted, "But not as hard as NEWTs. You just wait until you get there!"
"That bad?" Mary asked worriedly.
"Definitely," Alice replied, "They were, well, are terrible."
"You guys should come put your feet in the water," Marlene called, "It's so nice."
"Definitely," Dorcas added.
"I was doing that before," Alice said, pointing at her bare feet, "It does feel great."
"Let's go then," Lily said and the three girls went over and put their feet in.
"Ooh, that is nice," Mary sighed with pleasure as her feet made contact with the water.
"So how was it?" Dorcas implored.
"What?" Mary asked, confused.
"The Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL," Dorcas said as though it were obvious.
"It was good," Mary replied, shrugging, "Lily and I were just discussing question ten, which is about the five signs that identify the werewolf." Dorcas cocked her head thoughtfully.
"Tufted tail, shape of the snout, pupils of the eyes…tendency to try to eat humans, I suppose…and what's the fifth?" Dorcas asked.
"The fact that there would be a full moon in the sky?" Mary questioned.
"Well that would help," Marlene pointed out, "If there isn't a full moon, how could there be a werewolf." Dorcas splashed water on her friend.
"That's what we were just discussing you ninny," she said, "Weren't you listening?"
"She was probably too busy staring at Michael McKinnon," Mary pointed out.
"Was not!" Marlene replied, defensively. All the girls looked at her skeptically.
"She was," Lily added, "He's right over there." She smiled slyly at Marlene.
"You wanna be that way Lily? Let's talk about James Potter then," Marlene replied, and the grin slide off Lily's face and onto Marlene's.
"Let's not," she replied.
"But he's so dreamy," Mary said dreamily. Lily looked as though someone was making her eat slugs.
"No he's not!" she protested.
"He's better looking than Snape," Mary said, with a look at Lily.
"How many times do I have to tell you Mary, Snape and I aren't going out," she said exasperated.
"You spend enough time with him," Mary protested.
"Um guys," Marlene piped up all of a sudden, "You might want to see this." The other four girls turned around to see the Marauders, a few meters away. James had his wand pointed and Snape, who seemed to be struggling under some jinx.
"Scourgify!" James yelled.
"That foul loathsome cockroach is hurting him," Lily snapped and she stood up and started to walk over.
"Lily! I don't think that's a good idea!" Dorcas yelled.
"Oh dear," Alice said, once she was out of earshot, "Who's going after her?" While the other girls were decided who would calm down Lily, she had reached the boys.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" she yelled and both boys jumped. James' hand went to his hair.
"All right Evans?" came the reply. The two bantered for a minute while Snape was still struggling under the jinx. Lily kept trying to persuade him to take the jinx off of Snape. In the end, he finally consented.
"There you go," James said, "You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus-"
"I don't need help from filthy little mudbloods like her!" Snape interrupted. Lily looked at him. That hurt. This boy, that said he was her friend, no her best friend for years, had just called her one of the nastiest things that someone could call her. But she merely blinked, and acted like it didn't affect her in the slightest.
"Fine," she said, her words like ice, "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus." She used the nickname that Snape had always complained about, in hopes to hurt him a little too. She took a deep breath, blinking back tears.
"Apologize to Evans!" James thundered, while he pointed his wand (once again) at Snape. Though she protested, Lily couldn't help smile at James coming to her defense like that. Though she would never tell him that.
Maybe James wasn't as bad as she thought he was.
-X-
"Lily?" James asked, walking up to her. She was sitting at the edge of the lake, her red hair flowing slightly in the evening breeze. It was spring, in her seventh year, and Lily had come down to the lake to escape from her mad mates and just have some alone time. She had been trying to repress feelings for James for forever, it seemed like now, and with her NEWTs coming up (which were just as hard as Alice promised they were) Lil just wanted to be alone to think things through.
That, of course, wasn't going to happen now that James had come. Lily groaned.
"What are you doing here?" she asked trying to sound as if she was slightly annoyed (which she wasn't).
"Quidditch practice," he replied, "It just finished." He came and sat down next to her.
"Oh," was all Lily replied.
"I could ask you the same thing," he replied.
"Could and will are two very different things," she remarked.
"Never make things easy, do you Evans?" he asked, shaking his head fondly.
"I try," she replied dramatically.
"So, what are you doing here?" he asked.
"I just needed to get away," she replied, "Mad mates and all, and with the stress of NEWTs coming up, I-" she was cut off by James kissing her on the lips. It was perfect. Every part of Lily felt like she was on fire, and it was all coming from her mouth. A minute later, Lily pulled away.
"James, what-" she started.
"Darn!" came from behind them. They both jumped, and Marlene came out of nowhere, "You couldn't have waited another week?"
"What?" they replied in unison.
"If you had waited one week, I would've won!" she complained, "Now I lost five galleons to Dorcas, the prick."
"I thought she was your best friend?" Lily questioned. Marlene rolled her eyes.
"Just because she's my best friend, doesn't mean she's a prick," she replied, as if she was teaching her the ABC's.
"Right," Lily said, "Why were you spying on us?"
"It wasn't just me, it was the whole Quidditch team as well," she replied, shrugging.
"Thanks for giving us away," Michael McKinnon yelled from behind a tree.
"It's what I do best!" she shouted over her shoulder, and then turned to Lily and James, "See you later!" She called and ran back into the castle. Lily sighed.
"Did you have to do that right in front of-" She was interrupted for the third time that night because James kissed her again. And this time, she didn't stop.
A/N- Yay, I finished! This was for Fire the Canon's Fanfiction Tournament, where I could write about whatever I wanted, middleofsomewhere's Quidditch European Cup, where I had to write about the lake at Hogwarts, and ladyoftheknightley's School Subjects Competition, where I'm doing History of Magic (which is Marauders, Founders, or Riddle Eras). Also, some of the dialogue was taking straight from the book, so I don't own that dialogue. You can find it on pages 647-648 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Thanks for reading!